Hearthpwn

Our Elemental Jade Shaman deck list guide will teach you how to pilot this newly popular deck from the Journey to Un’Goro expansion!

Introduction

In the last Standard year, Shaman was consistently dominating the meta. The class was nerfed twice and it still stayed on top. While it has lost some power in Standard (Tunnel Trogg and Totem Golem rotating out hurt most), it still has a lot of tools. It seems that the Jades from MSOG and Elementals from Un’Goro have joined forces to create this new archetype. So far it proves to be stronger than full Jade or full Elemental – it has the Elemental survival tools and early game + the Jade snowball mechanic combined with tempo (late game Jade Lightning is still one of the strongest tempo plays).

Mind you that this is an anti-Aggro list. It runs little to no late game value, as it was the answer to a surge of decks like Pirate Warrior, Aggro Druid, Hunter or Zoo Warlock. It’s not meant to consistently win the slow, Control matchups – it targets the decks that want to rush you down.

The list I’ll be writing about is the one Machamp used to hit Rank #1 Legend on Asia server. It’s also very similar to the Firebat’s list – the only difference is Devolve added instead of Bloodsail Corsair. If the list gets a significant update, I’ll update this guide too!

Jade Elemental Shaman Mulligan Strategy & Guide

I’ll divide the mulligan section into two – against fast decks and against slow decks. Fast decks are generally the Aggro decks (e.g. Pirate Warrior) or high tempo Midrange decks (e.g. Midrange Hunter). Slow decks are slower Midrange and Control decks.

VS FAST DECKS

Higher Priority (keep every time):

• Fire Fly – Solid 1-drop, 1/2 trades nicely into a lot of 1-drops, synergizes with Flametongue Totem, gives you another 1-drop to either fill the curve or activate Elemental synergy.
• Southsea Deckhand – Your only way to summon Patches, it’s best if you have a weapon equipped, but dropping it on turn 1 is also not that bad. The two bodies can trade quite well.
• Lightning Bolt – Generally, since you want to control the board early, a 1 mana removal is really solid. It’s a high tempo play and it’s easy to squeeze into your turn.
• Jade Claws – Early weapon = early board control. You also start your Jade train, however this one isn’t as important against Aggro.
• Maelstrom Portal – Probably the best early game AoE, great against decks that flood the board with small minions early, like Pirate Warrior. Even killing 2x 1/1 and spawning a 1-drop is really worth it for 2 mana.
• Tar Creeper – 3/5 Taunt for 3, one of the best anti-Aggro cards.
• Hot Spring Guardian – While a bit weaker than Tar Creeper on curve, it also heals you and is better at doing the trades on your turn.

Lower Priority (keep only if certain conditions are met):

• Flametongue Totem – With 1-drops. It helps with trading up, sticking Flametongue to the board and getting value for a few turns should win you the game.
• Lightning Storm – Against decks that flood the board with 2-3 health minions. For example, it’s a nice keep against Zoo. It’s better to keep it than to hope to draw it when you really need.
• Tol'vir Stoneshaper – With an Elemental activator, especially with an Elemental 3-drop. Tar Creeper into Tol’vir Stoneshaper is the best anti-Aggro curve you can have, it’s really hard for them to pass through.

VS SLOW DECKS

Higher Priority (keep every time):

• Fire Fly & Southsea Deckhand – You generally aren’t favored in most of the slow matchups, but one way you can win it is by being pretty aggressive. Opening with 1-drop can give you a lot of early chip damage if your opponent has no minions. It also makes your Flametongue much better.
• Flametongue Totem – Best early game card in the slow matchups. You can easily stack multiple minions & Totems and then when the right time comes play Flamtongue and get a lot of value.
• Tar Creeper or Hot Spring Guardian – While they’re not that amazing in slow matchups, they have nice synergy with Flametongue and you can hide your small minions behind them against weapons or minion trades.
• Tol'vir Stoneshaper – Another sticky minion, it has similar purpose to the last two. It should be quite easy to activate it, even if not on the curve.

Lower Priority (keep only if certain conditions are met):

• Hex – Against decks that can drop a huge minion early. E.g. you can keep it against Handlock (it’s a terrible matchup anyway, but having Hex for their Giant increases the odds).
• Jade Lightning – If you have some early drops already.  It’s a solid Jade card that can be used as removal and you spawn a Jade on top of that.
• Servant of Kalimos – In the really slow matchups like Taunt Warrior, especially if you already have some solid early game. You’ll start running out of steam quite quickly, so Servant can help.

Jade Elemental Shaman Play Strategy

Like I’ve mentioned at the beginning, this specific build is very good against Aggro. It was built to counter the constant onslaught of those decks, so if you’re facing a more slow meta (if you do, let me know where and I’ll play there too) it might not work too well for you. A lot of the Elemental Shamans I’ve seen on the ladder run a very end-heavy list with Fire Elementals, Stone Sentinels and Blazecallers. Sure, this list is great if you meet a slow deck like a Taunt Warrior, but if you play against Pirate Warrior all those expensive cards are completely useless.

This, on the other hand, focuses on the early game removals & Taunts. So far I’m 14-7 with the list, but I’m 12-2 if you only count the fast matchups. It’s not auto-loss in the slow matchups, but it’s definitely an uphill battle.

Vs Aggro

Games against Aggro are relatively simple. You want to control the board, remove EVERYTHING they play in the early game. You don’t have to hurry up too much, if you take some early game damage it’s not a problem. You should have enough Taunts & healing to stabilize. If you get a fast hand, you still want to use your cards as efficiently as possible, because you don’t want to run out of cards. You don’t want to use a Lightning Bolt on a 2/1 minion if you know that your opponent might play let’s say a 3/3 next turn. 

If you have Flametongue Totem in your hand, you want to try to flood the board. Aggro decks generally don’t run AoEs, so if you play e.g. Fire Fly + Southsea Deckhand, you put 3 minions on the board, which might be hard to remove. Then next turn you can utilize your Flametongue for a greater value.

When it comes to the order of Tar Creeper vs Hot Spring Guardian, you prefer to open with Tar Creeper most of the time. If your opponent doesn’t have a way to remove it, you can kill a 1/1 or 2/1 minion with it and heal it back to full.

When you have Tol'vir Stoneshaper in your hand, try to set up an Elemental on a previous turn and not Overload.

Devolve can be a good way to deal with a huge minion if you have no Hex. It can also soften a board before AoE – e.g. if you have Lightning Storm in your hand and your opponent has mostly 3-4 health minions, Devolving them has a solid chance to decrease that health.

Vs Control

Games against slower decks are much more complicated. And it’s not even that they’re hard to play, they’re just hard to win. The deck has limited late game and not too much value. It also has almost no card draw, so it runs out of cards really quickly. 

The first way to win in the slower matchups is getting crazy Flametongue Totem value. It’s one of those cards that can snowball the game really well – if your opponent doesn’t have a way to deal with it, with all the small minions like Fire Flies/Flame Elementals, Southsea, Patches, Totems and your early Jade Golems, you can not only trade up, but also push for a lot of damage. Remember that you can NEVER take a Control deck in a value game, you just won’t win it.

If the early rush with Flametongue plan fails, then your other option is to curve out well with the Elementals and try to out tempo your opponent that way. Tempo is your only way to win. Try curving out with Elementals and picking some bigger drops from Servant of Kalimos – another Servant of Kalimos, Fire Elemental, Earth Elemental, Blazecaller or Kalimos, Primal Lord himself are some of the best choices. If you got the enemy pretty low early, Kalimos or Blazecaller are best, because they can be used to deal the final points of damage. Between Jade Claws, Lightning Bolts and Jade Lightnings, you can get some burn damage from your hand and this might be your win condition. 

Jades are pretty powerful, but you can’t get them too high in this deck – they go only up to 6/6. I mean, Aya when you have Jades at 5/5 is amazing – It’s a 5/3 + 5/5 + 6/6, it’s a great tempo move, but it’s still not enough to outvalue the opponent.

If your opponent is out of AoE or you’re in a pretty desperate spot, Kalimos into a board full of 1/1’s can be an out. While you don’t run Bloodlust, a Flametongue on such a board can do wonders.

P.S. If you face a lot of slower decks, you can tech in Bloodlust. While it’s a dead card against Aggro, it gives you a quite solid win condition in slower matchups. You often have 4-5 minions on the board that would push for a lot of damage with Bloodlust. It can also combo well with the Kalimos after he floods the board with 1/1’s.

General Tips

• If you plan to use Hero Power on a given turn, you generally should START by summoning the basic Totem. Then you can position your minions and make the plays accordingly. Knowing which totem you roll might change your plan – e.g. rolling Healing might make you take a different trade, rolling Taunt might make you play Flametongue instead of something else or rolling Spell Damage might make you play Maelstrom Portal instead of Jade Claws (for example).
• Try to hide your Flametongue Totem behind Taunts. This way your opponent needs a spell removal to get rid of it – it’s protected from weapons and Charge minions, which are common ways to remove it.
• Remember that you need to play an Elemental a turn BEFORE playing a card with Elemental synergy. The card that is activated will glow and “spark”, but I’ve still seen that mistake a few times already.
• Also remember that Tol'vir Stoneshaper has an Elemental synergy, but it’s not an Elemental itself. So you can’t curve with e.g. Tar Creeper -> Stoneshaper -> Servant of Kalimos.
• If your opponent is threatening lethal you can’t prevent (e.g. they have a weapon and you didn’t roll a Taunt), you can try using Hex on your own minion to create a 0/1 Taunt. It might actually save you if your opponent has no way to clear it.
• If you’re in a bad situation and a Kalimos draw might be your only out, try to set up an Elemental the turn before you’ll most likely lose the game. Since you need to play an Elemental a turn BEFORE, dropping an Elemental after you topdeck Kalimos might be too late. I won some games by blindly playing an Elemental while still having Kalimos in my deck to topdeck him for clutch lethal or heal.

Elemental Jade Shaman Card Substitutions

Unlike other Elemental Shaman lists, this deck isn’t really too heavy on expensive cards. All the Legendaries, however, are pretty key to the deck. Still, if you don’t have some, you can try these substitutes:

• Patches the Pirate – Patches is really good in this list, as it makes your early game much more powerful. If you don’t have Patches, you probably want to get rid of Southsea Deckhands too. You most likely want to play other early game Elementals instead – Glacial Shards are solid, another card you might play instead is a weapon destruction.
• Aya Blackpaw – Since the deck runs only 4 Jade cards not counting +2 from Aya, it’s just not worth it to run the Jade package without her. If you don’t own her, you probably should get rid of all the Jade cards and go for more Elemental synergies instead. Some cards you might consider running are Glacial Shard, Bloodmage Thalnos, Igneous Elemental, Jinyu Waterspeaker or Blazecaller.
• Kalimos, Primal Lord – Kalimos is the main reason why you run the Elemental Shaman in the first place. While it’s very powerful, it’s not 100% required. I’d probably sub it with another big Elemental. Blazecaller can be solid, but Al'Akir the Windlord is another alternative.

I would like to remind you, like always, that Legendaries are pretty important in most of the decks and replacing them might reduce the given deck’s quality/performance significantly, so keep that in mind.

Closing

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below. If you want to be up to date with my articles, you can follow me on Twitter.

Good luck on the ladder and until next time!