[Top 5 Legend] Malygos Shaman
- Last updated Mar 17, 2017 (Aggro Downfall)
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Wild
- 6 Minions
- 24 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Control Shaman
- Crafting Cost: 7940
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 12/20/2016 (Gadgetzan)
- MetricTrout
- Registered User
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Battle Tag:
MetricTrout#1723
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
206
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In the December 2016 season, I played exclusively Malygos Shaman from Rank 8 to Legend in Wild. This is the current iteration of the deck I'm using. I have a 63% winrate with the deck currently.
I hope you enjoy the deck! It's definitely effective in the current Wild meta, with favorable matchups against Pirate Warrior, Renolock, and Priest.
Chillinon has hit Legend rank with a similar Malygos Shaman deck in the January 2017 season. Check out his comprehensive guide here:
http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/719672-rank-1-wild-legend-malygos-shaman-basic-guide
Would you add anything from ungoro, like volcano?
I have been using Volvano and Hemet to good effect. I didn't include the twighlight drakes. I also included jade claws and jade lightning. Hemet makes it very easy to pull Maylgos and the jade lightnings survive Hemet as well. The jade cards in general give early board presence and do not interfere with Barnes or healing wave.
Quest Rogue is not a good matchup for this deck, or any slow deck heavily reliant on board clears. Counterqueue with Pirate Warrior. As for combo decks, Freeze Mage has a far better matchup against Quest Rogue than Malygos Shaman.
It's a decent card, and has appeared in several lists, including Chillinon's. I don't include it in my list because its mana cost of 3 interferes with Healing Wave, and on rare occasions can force you to burn cards unnecessarily to avoid overdraw. However, it's definitely worth considering if you feel like you need more card draw.
i piloted a similar deck with few card changes to asia server legend, this guide and chillinon's guide both helps a lot!
(asia server seems not to have understood the power of this deck, as i only encountered one maly shaman and he was actually playing control shaman w/ maly as big threat)
To be fair, Chillinon is the only one with a guide. I really only have a decklist; any useful information I might be provided comes from the comments section of this deck and Chillinon's deck. Unfortunately I couldn't find the time to write a guide for this deck when it was released, and a month later, Chillinon did a far better job at providing comprehensive information on this deck than I could have possibly done.
you two are as good as each other since you both climbed with malyshaman to top legend, no matter you write guides or not.
really enjoy the climb experience, pirate warrior stood no chance against this deck, so as aggro shaman.
by the way with the new un'goro expansion, what do you think about malyshaman's future? will it be as good as it is reight now?
I think Malygos Shaman will remain a viable alternative to Freeze Mage in Wild for the foreseeable future. That is, unless Blizzard decides to nerf it, like so many other combo decks in the past. Fortunately for Malygos Shaman, it didn't become a highly competitive deck until after the introduction of the Standard format, and Blizzard hasn't shown any interest in Wild balance so far.
The strength of Malygos Shaman, like any other deck, is dependent on the meta. The main advantage it has over Freeze Mage is that it's significantly better against aggro, particularly Pirate Warrior. Mage doesn't have access to one of the best heals in the game in Healing Wave, and has limited resources to deal with weapon damage, as Frost Nova doesn't hit face and you have limited amounts of Frostbolts and Ice Lances. Also, the fact that Malygos Shaman does all of it's burst in a single turn renders Reno Jackson completely useless except against Reno Mage, which is an equally bad matchup for Freeze Mage as well.
Freeze Mage has the advantage of being far less susceptible to Dirty Rat and Deathlord. More importantly, Freeze Mage is less draw dependent, as you generally don't have to wait to draw Alexstrasza the way Shaman does in order to draw Malygos, Ancestor's Call, or Emperor Thaurissan. In general, I would say that Freeze Mage excels in a midrange meta as a counter to decks like Secret Paladin, while Malygos Shaman is the combo deck of choice in an aggro meta. Regardless of the meta, though, both of these decks will remain highly competitive, especially at Legend and high ranks, as they have been heavily optimized already.
It's too early to determine how the new expansion will affect Malygos Shaman as we haven't seen all the cards yet. Based on what has been revealed, though, it seems the Priest matchup may become far less favorable, as the new Quest that sets the Priest's health to 40 means that it will require far more burst in hand before 40 damage can be assembled. The new card Volcano seems like it could have potential as another massive board clear, similar to Elemental Destruction. It doesn't really combo well with Hallazeal the Ascended the way ED does, but it does have the advantage of being able to be played earlier, without needing Lava Shock to offset the steep Overload cost.
Yes. Why wouldn't it be? Not much has changed since I first posted it, except it's more popular now so people know what to expect.
Sup MetricTrout, thanks for the deck! Really excited to test this out in Wild after facing so much Shaman in Standard :P
But as a F2P noob, only have enough gold to buy first wing of BRM to get Thaurissan. So any replacements for Lava Shock? :)
Lava Shock isn't replaceable in this deck. It's ability to unlock overload is essential considering how much overload this deck runs, especially by eliminating the steep overload cost of Elemental Destruction. The only other card with its effect, Eternal Sentinel, isn't a suitable replacement since it doesn't function as burst or removal and also interferes with Healing Wave.
I'm surprised the rest of the deck isn't cost prohibitive for you, as it runs 2 legendaries and quite a few epics. The good news is that Lava Shock is unlocked in the second wing of Blackrock Mountain, which means it will only take 700 more gold to get it. The second wing of BRM is well worth unlocking anyway, as you also get Imp Gang Boss from that wing, which is a staple in the majority of Warlock decks.
top rng..
What about Arcane Giants?
I do recall that Arcane Giant was a common card in the Karazhan-era Malygos Druid deck. That deck isn't really a pure combo deck, though, but more of a standard Ramp Druid with Malygos as one of the win conditions.
This really isn't that type of deck. Because it runs so few other minions, Arcane Giants merely give midrange and control decks a target to use their removal on. Furthermore, you would have to use spells to lower to cost of the Arcane Giants, and most of the direct damage spells are ideally saved for burst with Malygos. The Arcane Giants are also useless with Barnes, and can interfere with an early Ancestor's Call combo if you haven't cast enough spells by that point.
Anyone else finding more card draw is needed?
Gadgetzan Auctioneer is common in Maly Shaman.
In a different meta, a single copy of Gadgetzan Auctioneer could indeed be a worthwhile addition to this deck. It isn't going to be as effective as it is in Rogue or Druid, since Shaman doesn't have any 0-cost spells that give you the mana to cast more spells. However, it is a card draw option that doesn't interefere with Healing Wave, and Far Sight is likely to draw a spell that now cost 0-mana.
The Auctioneer could replace Feral Spirit in a control or midrange meta. However, given that the most commonly encountered matchup currently is Pirate Warrior, I don't think there's room for it right now.
Curator
Don't you think Finley could work in this deck ? Warrior or priest hero powers would help surviving, and warlock's help finding all the combo pieces.
But at the same time, popping spell damage totems is also a great help, and your opponent often loses times dealing with totems instead of going face. And it doesn't synergize well with Barnes and healing wave...
The problem with Sir Finley Mrrgglton is that he's a 1-cost minion, which means that he will lose every Healing Wave joust he shows up for. This deck is designed around winning these Healing Wave jousts, at least against aggro where having a reliable 3-mana heal for 14 is crucial. It's the same reason why Bloodmage Thalnos isn't in this deck.
Interestingly enough, I did have Finley in an alternate, experimental version of this deck at one point. That version didn't run Barnes, Healing Wave, or Azure Drake, and was based around drawing Malygos using The Curator instead. I ran Finley and Jeweled Scarab for my beasts, and used Jinyu Waterspeaker as my Healing Wave replacement. I did manage to have some amount of success with that version, climbing from Rank 8 to Rank 5, but I was stuck at Rank 5 for a while until I switched back to the classic version of deck listed here. Ultimately, I think my current list is the most consistent version of Malygos Shaman I've tried.