Hemet's OTK Shaman
- Last updated Jun 12, 2017 (Un'Goro Launch)
- Edit
- |
Wild
- 4 Minions
- 26 Spells
- Deck Type: Theorycraft
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 8740
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 3/28/2017 (Aggro Downfall)

- WhatAChamp
- Registered User
-
- 16
- 39
- 130
-
Battle Tag:
WhatAChamp
-
Region:
US
-
Total Deck Rating
514
With the new Hemet announced, I instantly thought to put it in my favourite wild deck of all time, Ancestor's Call Malygos OTK. For those of you who don't know the archetype, you basically amass spells, clear your hand of the few minions you have, and in one turn play Ancestor's Call + as many burn spells as you can to kill your opponent from 30 to 0.
Hemet, Jungle Hunter helps the deck with consistency. There's enough burn spells to guarantee you can kill your opponent, but you're reliant on drawing Ancestor's Call and Malygos. By playing Hemet, you remove all the cards from your deck except Ancestor's Call, The Curator and Emperor Thaurissan. You can now guarantee you'll draw your combo within 4 turns (3 if you remove The Curator from the deck).
Before doing this, make sure you can burn for at least 30 damage. You will need more against warriors and possibly druids or mages. I generally attempt to save at least two one cost spells but you can reduce the cost of your spells with Emperor too. DO NOT PLAY HEMET UNTIL YOU HAVE 30 DAMAGE WORTH OF BURN IN HAND. If you do this, you will lose your win condition.
Some variations will include things like Barnes, a second Ancestor's Call or Hallazeal the Ascended. These are all good cards but have potential to clog up your deck. Test out whatever you find to be the most consistent. I'm not even sure if I'll be keeping The Curator in the deck.
Essentially you want to mulligan for AOE removal and make your other decisions based on what type of a deck you're against. Heal is nice against aggro while Far Sight and Hemet are good keeps against very slow decks. You can win games as early as T7 if you get the right cards but we aim to win around T10 if possible. Stall the board as long as you can and make your opponent commit fully to the board before you wipe it. If you have four or more burn spells, feel free to use them for board control but try to save Crackle and Lightning Bolt for the combo as they are the strongest in terms of mana cost to damage ratio. I will often keep Ancestral Knowledge so that I can cycle as fast as possible.
Anyway. Have fun with this new variation!
Potential Substitutions
As I can't test the deck out right now and have no idea what the meta will look like, here are some potential cards that might make the cut. I'm not sold on The Curator, Feral Spirit, or Frost Shock so that could potentially be dropped for some of these choices.
The issue when adding new cards is you have to weigh consistency, burn and survivability to make the best choice. Adding more minions makes it take longer to draw the combo with Hemet. However, cards like Barnes, The Curator, and a second AC give more chances to pull off the combo earlier and without Hemet. More testing will have to be done to determine the best combination.
Hallazeal the Ascended: Nice healing when combined with our copious amount of AOE. 7/30 chance you draw either this or an AOE with Far Sight so it could come out as early as T4 or 5 if you're lucky. If you don't draw this with Far Sight, it's often pretty slow and get in the way of Maly with AC so I'm unsure about its inclusion.
Barnes: Additional way to pull Malygos for an OTK without having either AC or Maly in your hand. It's also not too bad when it pulls Emperor and it gives you some proactive plays instead of just being reactive. Downside is it lowers your curve for Healing Wave and can be a dead draw once Maly is pulled.
Alexstrasza: Traditionally used in some OTK's. Provides extra burn and allows some flexibility in how many burn spells you need to keep before using Hemet. Downside is that it can't combo with spells and if it's stuck in your hand, it can throw your AC on Maly.
Ancestor's Call: We already run one of these but running a second can give us more opportunities to play Maly. The downside is that it's a dead card aside from Maly or maybe an Emperor play with Hex in case of emergencies. It might be worth testing nonetheless.
I would sub Elemental Destruction with either Doomsayer or Volcano, Volcano is just a better card in every way, the only reason not to is because it doesn't get destroyed by Hemet, Jungle Hunter, but honestly, that's not a big deal because it's powerful enough that I wouldn't mind drawing it anyways. Although Volcano is strong against control and midrange, Doomsayer would be better for anti aggro.
I have definitely contemplated running Volcano but like you said it gets in the way of Hemet draws. It's great if you draw it before but if you don't, it can be another two turns of sitting and waiting to pull off the combo. It's definitely still something I think about using though so I encourage you to try it out. I feel like we have a ton of AOEs so perhaps Doomsayer isn't needed (although the stall aspect is nice). I don't like how it throws off Healing Wave though.
I don't mind it getting in the way of Hemet draws all too much, It would actually help to some end, since if you need to stall a little longer, then Volcano is a great way to clear the board for just that.
Edit: Just realized that Doomsayer Interferes with Healing wave, so I wont be running that.
Brilliant and fun! I might give it a try! (still have to play Hemet Paladin with the 2 Giants)
I've wanted to play that deck for so long but I refuse to recraft the Moltens so I guess I can't =(
Thanks for taking the time to give detailed criticism of the deck. There's things I'm willing to toy around with and others that are potential non-negotiables.
In all OTK shaman decks you need to balance a number of things:
1. Having a minimal number of minions so nothing blocks AC on the turn you want it.
2. Having high cost minions for a better roll on Healing Wave.
3. Having the right number of burn spells of appropriate strength to kill your opponent.
4. Having consistency in speeding up/guaranteeing win condition (extra AC, Barnes, Curator, Hemet).
5. Having proper removal for single target and AOE situations.
6. Having stall in the form of taunts and healing.
7. Having sufficient card draw.
Some of these are more important than others and some of these are going to be focused on more by certain decks. Keep in mind as I go through this that my intention in this deck is to make it as Hemet-focused as possible. With a full Hemet focus, cards like Tidal Surge, Jade Lightning, Volcano and AOE Murloc clog up your last few draws. This deck prides itself in being able to get to your win condition faster and more reliably than other OTK decks (hence second AC in case of no Hemet). I've been toying with The Curator as a potential way to speed up getting to the win con, as well as including Barnes.
Hemet won't always be in your starting hand/first 10 cards. Sometimes he's buried at the bottom, along with AC. The second AC is for situations like this and The Curator is for when Hemet and Malygos are at the bottom. I feel bad running both so I made a choice to stick with the second AC. Here's why:
1. We want AC reduced by Emperor. If we get him early on and we have our AC already, that helps us out on our burn turn. A reduced The Curator is far less effective as that doesn't help us pile in more burst on a turn, only gets us Maly earlier.
2. AC can be used to put Emperor Thaurissan out, or even Hemet if we no longer want to burn our deck but we have Malygos in hand already. A cheaper Emp or one combined with removal is fantastic. A second AC in case we pull Hemet over Malygos is nice as insurance as well.
3. AC can kill opponents' win conditions or throw another minion on the board for Elemental Destruction to eat up. If you don't have any minions in your hand, you can use it to pull out things like Archmage Antonidas, Tirion, Rag Lightlord or Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Hex them. Or you can snag important minions like Leeroy, Edwin, Rhino, Hyena or Kirin Tor mage into a mass AOE.
The Curator has its benefits in that it's a taunt, but it's quite expensive as well. And Azure Drakes will often just get in the way of you pulling Maly. I like the drakes as the spell damage is nice, but it's absolutely miserable when you're about to play your Malygos turn and you draw your Azure Drake instead of just a random spell or second AC because now you have to wait another turn (which you might not have).
All in all, I don't claim to be running the most efficient/best version of AC shaman. However, my version is heavily geared toward making the most use out of Hemet. I disagree with your point about Hemet being a crap draw early on though. If you have 4 burn spells already then you can play Hemet as a good body and push for a win within the next four turns. I run so much removal for that exact reason. If I were not including Hemet, I would be adding Volcano x2 and Tidal Surge x2 in a heartbeat. I don't know if I would include the drakes but it's a definite possibility. I hope that cleared up some things regarding this deck.
Probably needs to be put in the description that this is a wild deck only. This deck won't be possible in standard.
OTK Shaman hasn't been possible in standard since last year but it does say at the top of the deck screen that it is wild. I think it clutters up the name too much to add wild in as well. My bad if people come here hoping for a standard one.
If only the site had a way to identify wild only decks, oh wait, they do!
I don't get why I'm getting downvotes for this... I've given a guide and have an original idea. If you're downvoting, please at least leave a reason why you don't like this deck first.
why not :D
This seems like it could be really cool