Let me just start with with the disclaimer that I am a stealth member of the "No Beta Club", and thus can't test this deck myself. This is all just me using my best thinking cap.
The main goal of this deck is to use the power of Doomhammer combined with weapon buffs, weapon-centric minion aggression thanks to pirates, and minion buffs to simply overwhelm the opponent with many potential/high damage sources. A Shaman's high durability on their weapons (3 and 8, respectively) means you can be aggressive with weapons early on without worrying about breaking them before your pirates show up.
The Cards:
Lightning Bolt: This card is in here primarily to breathe some spell versatility into an otherwise almost full minion/weapon centric deck. It can be used for spot removal, to bypass a taunt to hit a more troublesome minion, as a 3 damage finisher, or to soften a taunt before going in with a minion/weapon. (replaced with Lightning Storm, see Changelog for reasoning)
Rockbiter Weapon: This is one of the bread and butter cards for the deck. It can be used on either weapon for a 5 (10 with Doom) damage weapon on a turn. You can also place this on minions in conjunction with Windfury for minion burst as well.
Edit: Rockbiter doesn't count towards Weapon Damage due to being a temporary effect, so it doesn't synergize with weapon cards.
Southsea Deckhand: With a weapon equipped, he is a cheap charge minion that can squeak in extra damage or be used as a buffable removal bullet that can take out trouble targets.
Ancestral Spirit: You can use this spell to treat a minion as a removal spell for the turn, since they will come back by the end of it. All minions are fair game, but especially charge minions, as they respawn with charge; Allowing you to treat it as a pseudo Windfury if they're running into minions.
Windfury: The game-ender card, put this on a high damage minion or combo it with a Rockbiter (or both). Given it's game ending nature, I've decided to only put one in the deck; It's not entirely necessary to win, but when you do get it you will win that much faster.
Bloodsail Raider: Synergizes well with weapon decks in general, but is also a decent 2 drop even if you have no weapons to combo her with. She's still a 2/3 body that can be buffed up by all the various sources of minion buff.
Flametongue Totem: A shaman aggression staple. It's 0 attack and + attack only buffs are the reason I only went with one, It's a good card when you have some board presence, but utterly useless without it.
Stormforged Axe: These are your early game weapons for the potential early game aggression. 2 attack lets it handle the constant 3/2s thrown around, and its 3 durability can coax an opponent into using their Acidic Swamp Ooze against it.
Southsea Captain: He's both a nice command aura to beef up your pirates, while also being a decent buff candidate himself due to his independent nature (you can drop him down whenever).
Mana Tide Totem: The only card draw engine this deck has.Between Dread Corsair and Defender of Argus, this card can usually come in under a taunt blanket of some nature; forcing either silence, removal, or overcommitment on minions to get to it.
Shattered Sun Cleric: A solid 3 drop by her own merit, she really shines when she can come in and buff a minion with a solid +1/+1 buff. Fortunately, between the pirates and totems she'll almost always come in with a minion to buff.
Leeroy Jenkins: Ahh Leeroy, you're stupid as hell, but man are you good. A 6 damage Charge for 4 is very strong, especially given the cheap cost of our buff cards. He also combos well with Ancestral Spirit for a potential 12 damage removal spell for 6. Yserawho?
Defender of Argus: An incredible utility card that has both offensive and defensive practicalities. He can buff up your minions while forcing the enemy to go through them. They are very strong with Molten Giants, as 2 9/9 taunts and a 3/3 for can be very hard to deal with.
(continued because Hearthpwn character limit is screwing things up)
Dread Corsair: With a weapon equipped he's a 3/3 taunt for 2, which is pretty good. He combo with Spiteful Smith's Enrage for 0cost 3/3s later on in the game, which can help in flooding the board.
Edit: Dread Corsair does not have synergy with Rockbiter on a weapon, making him a little less viable for the deck.
Spellbreaker: It's always nice to have a pocket silence to make the removal of problem targets easier. Very useful in circumventing powerful taunt minions that could otherwise wreck your field or your health.
Doomhammer: Doomhammer's real potential lies in its ability to grant a Hero Windfury, the only weapon in the game currently that does this. Any and all buffs to the weapon's damage are technically doubled for the turn(s) they exist on it. Doomhammer also has power in its ability to distribute 2 instances of damage anyway you like to the board. Having two might seem overkill, but its insurance against Oozes, and with 2 Doomhammers in the deck the only reason you shouldn't be attacking either the Hero or weak minions every turn is when they put a high damage taunt minion in your way.
Spiteful Smith: His main selling point is enrage, which buffs a weapon by 2 damage. He's a solid minion to drop before and even after a Doomhammer, as the 4 damage from the Smith and two instances of now 4 damage from Doomhammer can clean up a board nicely. Smith enrage + Doomhammer also works well with the pirates, letting you drop Corsairs for 0mana and drop 6/3 raiders. Also has hidden synergy with Leeroy, who spawns 1/1 whelps the Smith can ram into for a quick enrage.
Molten Giant: Getting yourself to low health even in a winning position isn't hard in this deck, as you can constantly run into minions to lower your own health during a game to establish board control. This can turn a penalty into an advantage as you drop 8/8s along with whatever is on the board to really nail it home to your opponent.
Conclusion:
I hope you enjoyed reading this guide. I'm not sure this deck will be entirely competitive or even viable, but at least you might take something away from this. I tried to mesh as much synergy as possible while still having cards that can be independent of each other, and I feel that a balance of synergy and minions are what make a solid deck.
(future modifcations/suggestions will go here)
Changelog (10/20/2013):
-1 Shattered Sun Cleric +1 Captain Greenskin: I might be overvaluing the Southsea Captains, but I like his concept as a solid neutral 3 drop with a command aura. So I replaced a cleric instead for Greenskin, who is a solid legendary for this deck. He provides a permanent buff to your weapons and should have been a literal no-brainer for this deck, he just slipped my mind. You can also replace a Spiteful Smith, for him, given their similar concepts and mana cost.
-2Lightning Bolt +2 Lightning Storm: Lightning Bolt was kind of an undecided card in this deck anyhow, and between solid 3 drops and potential early game control with Rockbiter and Stormforged Axe, having a board clear option is arguably superior.
Suggestion List (as of recommendations up to 10/20/2013):
Earthen Ring Farseer: A solid replacement for either of your 3 drops (Captain or Cleric) if you find yourself using weapons more for board control than for hero aggression. He's a solid 3/3 body that can give your health a much needed boost after running into minions.
Sen'jin Shieldmasta: Given the similar stats and initial cost to Dread Corsair, it was inevitable the two would be compared. In a less pirate heavy/pirateless version of this deck he is the superior option each time. If you've replaced the Southsea Captains for something else, I'd look into these over Dread Corsairs potentially.
Feral Spirit: A shaman staple, it's hard to find a deck this doesn't fit into. A weapon deck in particular can handle overload much better than most other decks. Given their similar stats and cost to Dread Corsair (and the fact you get 2 instead of 1 per use), a deck without Southsea Captain might find these much more useful replacement to stem early aggression. You can also replace the Southsea Captains themselves to load up on taunt.
Captain's Parrot: An alternative draw engine that specifically targets the pirates in your deck. Also works really well in variations of the deck that have Captain Greenskin as the only pirate, as having 1 Parrot specifically to fish him can increase your odds of having him for Doomhammer plays.
I tried editing and saving your 2nd post to see if mod intervention would make the links show up, but it apparently didn't help. I'll try to get this to the tech people to see if they can figure out what's up. :)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you see a bad post on the forum use the report function under it, so I or someone else of the moderation team can take care of it!
using rockbiter weapon while u have doomhammer equipped buffing ur attack to 5 DOES NOT make dread corsair cost 0, it still costs 2.
after this happened i rage quitted. not a good deck
It's literally attack on weapon, not attack for hero.
Spiteful Smith and Greenskin will buff it up, Rockbiter won't, akin to Heroic Strike for warrior.
Hmm, well I'm really sorry for the misinformation, guess that makes the deck as a whole alot less viable then. I edit prior posts for clarification. I thought about Captain Greenskin, and I guess in lieu of my stupidity, having him in here for another weapon buff would be a good idea. He's also a pirate so he would be buffed by the Southsea Command auras. Apologies again.
also spiteful smiths buff on ur weapon only lasts if its alive. if it dies the weapon buff goes away, which is stupid. the opponent is always gonna kill it so i dont think this card is good either
Spiteful's alright in my opinion, it's a pretty beefy card and with Doomhammer out, they're forced to burn down his entire 6 health rather than leave him damaged, forcing your opponent to play differently and allows for better burst/combos if they cannot deal with him.
As for Dread Corsairs, last I checked, a 2 for 3/3 is pretty darn good! It's a bit costly in a hand without weapons, but it's not a dead card by far. I would suggest two things: First, I believe Feral Spirits should be in a large majority of Shaman decks, they're amazing by themselves and a weapon deck does not suffer as badly from overload costs. Secondly, I think you need a bit more board clear or some form of health restore. Doomhammer takes a huge toll on your health. Sadly, I don't like full Pirate decks and I disenchanted the epic 3/3. I do have Greenskin and he's pretty darn fun with Doomhammer.
No need to apologize! Deck threads are to learn and test to improve a deck, simply missing out on some "obvious" cards are exactly why deck threads should be made, players experience a deck idea, poster learn a bit more and gathers more opinions from them to analyze and improve the deck ^_^ The only problem I would find is if you comment on things outside your area of knowledge and express strong opinions towards deck choices, that is far worse than anything you can do as you may mislead players who are seeking advice with out testable evidence or gameplay experience. Watching streams and playing are a world of difference. Everything feels and looks easier on stream when the streamer, who is assumed to be good at the game, puts the opponent in such limiting situations where the next step is obvious.
yeah, I'm going through editing hell and breaking things again to try and make my list more formal.
Feral Spirits are good, but I'm not sure where I'd squeeze them in, and between Argus and Corsairs there should be a decent amount of taunt throughout the game. I'd understand subbing the Corsairs out for Feral Spirits if you don't have Southsea Captain though, since they very similar in stats (2/3s vs 3/3) without the aura buff, and you get more of them (2 spirits vs 1 Corsair). Subbing out the Captains to really load up on taunt could work too.
As for board clear, I figure the aggressive nature of this deck might lean towards the minions and weapons alternating roles for board control as the game goes on. That being said, Lightning Bolt could be replaced with Lightning Storm for a backup plan when the board isn't in your favor. Could also experiment with Earthen Ring Farseers (the only real good healing neutral imo) in place of Shattered Sun. I'll put those in the OP tomorrow.
Let me just start with with the disclaimer that I am a stealth member of the "No Beta Club", and thus can't test this deck myself. This is all just me using my best thinking cap.
Deck Goal:
The main goal of this deck is to use the power of Doomhammer combined with weapon buffs, weapon-centric minion aggression thanks to pirates, and minion buffs to simply overwhelm the opponent with many potential/high damage sources. A Shaman's high durability on their weapons (3 and 8, respectively) means you can be aggressive with weapons early on without worrying about breaking them before your pirates show up.
The Cards:
Lightning Bolt:
This card is in here primarily to breathe some spell versatility into an otherwise almost full minion/weapon centric deck. It can be used for spot removal, to bypass a taunt to hit a more troublesome minion, as a 3 damage finisher, or to soften a taunt before going in with a minion/weapon.(replaced with Lightning Storm, see Changelog for reasoning)Rockbiter Weapon: This is one of the bread and butter cards for the deck. It can be used on either weapon for a 5 (10 with Doom) damage weapon on a turn. You can also place this on minions in conjunction with Windfury for minion burst as well.
Edit: Rockbiter doesn't count towards Weapon Damage due to being a temporary effect, so it doesn't synergize with weapon cards.
Southsea Deckhand: With a weapon equipped, he is a cheap charge minion that can squeak in extra damage or be used as a buffable removal bullet that can take out trouble targets.
Ancestral Spirit: You can use this spell to treat a minion as a removal spell for the turn, since they will come back by the end of it. All minions are fair game, but especially charge minions, as they respawn with charge; Allowing you to treat it as a pseudo Windfury if they're running into minions.
Windfury: The game-ender card, put this on a high damage minion or combo it with a Rockbiter (or both). Given it's game ending nature, I've decided to only put one in the deck; It's not entirely necessary to win, but when you do get it you will win that much faster.
Bloodsail Raider: Synergizes well with weapon decks in general, but is also a decent 2 drop even if you have no weapons to combo her with. She's still a 2/3 body that can be buffed up by all the various sources of minion buff.
Flametongue Totem: A shaman aggression staple. It's 0 attack and + attack only buffs are the reason I only went with one, It's a good card when you have some board presence, but utterly useless without it.
Stormforged Axe: These are your early game weapons for the potential early game aggression. 2 attack lets it handle the constant 3/2s thrown around, and its 3 durability can coax an opponent into using their Acidic Swamp Ooze against it.
Southsea Captain: He's both a nice command aura to beef up your pirates, while also being a decent buff candidate himself due to his independent nature (you can drop him down whenever).
Mana Tide Totem: The only card draw engine this deck has.Between Dread Corsair and Defender of Argus, this card can usually come in under a taunt blanket of some nature; forcing either silence, removal, or overcommitment on minions to get to it.
Shattered Sun Cleric: A solid 3 drop by her own merit, she really shines when she can come in and buff a minion with a solid +1/+1 buff. Fortunately, between the pirates and totems she'll almost always come in with a minion to buff.
Leeroy Jenkins: Ahh Leeroy, you're stupid as hell, but man are you good. A 6 damage Charge for 4 is very strong, especially given the cheap cost of our buff cards. He also combos well with Ancestral Spirit for a potential 12 damage removal spell for 6. Ysera who?
Defender of Argus: An incredible utility card that has both offensive and defensive practicalities. He can buff up your minions while forcing the enemy to go through them. They are very strong with Molten Giants, as 2 9/9 taunts and a 3/3 for can be very hard to deal with.
(continued because Hearthpwn character limit is screwing things up)
Dread Corsair: With a weapon equipped he's a 3/3 taunt for 2, which is pretty good. He combo with Spiteful Smith's Enrage for 0cost 3/3s later on in the game, which can help in flooding the board.
Edit: Dread Corsair does not have synergy with Rockbiter on a weapon, making him a little less viable for the deck.
Spellbreaker: It's always nice to have a pocket silence to make the removal of problem targets easier. Very useful in circumventing powerful taunt minions that could otherwise wreck your field or your health.
Doomhammer: Doomhammer's real potential lies in its ability to grant a Hero Windfury, the only weapon in the game currently that does this. Any and all buffs to the weapon's damage are technically doubled for the turn(s) they exist on it. Doomhammer also has power in its ability to distribute 2 instances of damage anyway you like to the board. Having two might seem overkill, but its insurance against Oozes, and with 2 Doomhammers in the deck the only reason you shouldn't be attacking either the Hero or weak minions every turn is when they put a high damage taunt minion in your way.
Spiteful Smith: His main selling point is enrage, which buffs a weapon by 2 damage. He's a solid minion to drop before and even after a Doomhammer, as the 4 damage from the Smith and two instances of now 4 damage from Doomhammer can clean up a board nicely. Smith enrage + Doomhammer also works well with the pirates, letting you drop Corsairs for 0mana and drop 6/3 raiders. Also has hidden synergy with Leeroy, who spawns 1/1 whelps the Smith can ram into for a quick enrage.
Molten Giant: Getting yourself to low health even in a winning position isn't hard in this deck, as you can constantly run into minions to lower your own health during a game to establish board control. This can turn a penalty into an advantage as you drop 8/8s along with whatever is on the board to really nail it home to your opponent.
Conclusion:
I hope you enjoyed reading this guide. I'm not sure this deck will be entirely competitive or even viable, but at least you might take something away from this. I tried to mesh as much synergy as possible while still having cards that can be independent of each other, and I feel that a balance of synergy and minions are what make a solid deck.
(future modifcations/suggestions will go here)
Changelog (10/20/2013):
-1 Shattered Sun Cleric +1 Captain Greenskin: I might be overvaluing the Southsea Captains, but I like his concept as a solid neutral 3 drop with a command aura. So I replaced a cleric instead for Greenskin, who is a solid legendary for this deck. He provides a permanent buff to your weapons and should have been a literal no-brainer for this deck, he just slipped my mind. You can also replace a Spiteful Smith, for him, given their similar concepts and mana cost.
-2Lightning Bolt +2 Lightning Storm: Lightning Bolt was kind of an undecided card in this deck anyhow, and between solid 3 drops and potential early game control with Rockbiter and Stormforged Axe, having a board clear option is arguably superior.
Suggestion List (as of recommendations up to 10/20/2013):
Earthen Ring Farseer: A solid replacement for either of your 3 drops (Captain or Cleric) if you find yourself using weapons more for board control than for hero aggression. He's a solid 3/3 body that can give your health a much needed boost after running into minions.
Sen'jin Shieldmasta: Given the similar stats and initial cost to Dread Corsair, it was inevitable the two would be compared. In a less pirate heavy/pirateless version of this deck he is the superior option each time. If you've replaced the Southsea Captains for something else, I'd look into these over Dread Corsairs potentially.
Feral Spirit: A shaman staple, it's hard to find a deck this doesn't fit into. A weapon deck in particular can handle overload much better than most other decks. Given their similar stats and cost to Dread Corsair (and the fact you get 2 instead of 1 per use), a deck without Southsea Captain might find these much more useful replacement to stem early aggression. You can also replace the Southsea Captains themselves to load up on taunt.
Captain's Parrot: An alternative draw engine that specifically targets the pirates in your deck. Also works really well in variations of the deck that have Captain Greenskin as the only pirate, as having 1 Parrot specifically to fish him can increase your odds of having him for Doomhammer plays.
Where's Captain Greenskin?!
That + Doomhammer = hilariously fun times.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
I tried editing and saving your 2nd post to see if mod intervention would make the links show up, but it apparently didn't help. I'll try to get this to the tech people to see if they can figure out what's up. :)
If you see a bad post on the forum use the report function under it, so I or someone else of the moderation team can take care of it!
using rockbiter weapon while u have doomhammer equipped buffing ur attack to 5 DOES NOT make dread corsair cost 0, it still costs 2.
after this happened i rage quitted. not a good deck
(rockbiter weapon doesnt increase ur weapon dmg, it increases ur hero atk dmg, so i bet bloodsail raider wont work either for 7atk)
It's literally attack on weapon, not attack for hero.
Spiteful Smith and Greenskin will buff it up, Rockbiter won't, akin to Heroic Strike for warrior.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
Hmm, well I'm really sorry for the misinformation, guess that makes the deck as a whole alot less viable then. I edit prior posts for clarification. I thought about Captain Greenskin, and I guess in lieu of my stupidity, having him in here for another weapon buff would be a good idea. He's also a pirate so he would be buffed by the Southsea Command auras. Apologies again.
also spiteful smiths buff on ur weapon only lasts if its alive. if it dies the weapon buff goes away, which is stupid. the opponent is always gonna kill it so i dont think this card is good either
Spiteful's alright in my opinion, it's a pretty beefy card and with Doomhammer out, they're forced to burn down his entire 6 health rather than leave him damaged, forcing your opponent to play differently and allows for better burst/combos if they cannot deal with him.
As for Dread Corsairs, last I checked, a 2 for 3/3 is pretty darn good! It's a bit costly in a hand without weapons, but it's not a dead card by far. I would suggest two things: First, I believe Feral Spirits should be in a large majority of Shaman decks, they're amazing by themselves and a weapon deck does not suffer as badly from overload costs. Secondly, I think you need a bit more board clear or some form of health restore. Doomhammer takes a huge toll on your health. Sadly, I don't like full Pirate decks and I disenchanted the epic 3/3. I do have Greenskin and he's pretty darn fun with Doomhammer.
No need to apologize! Deck threads are to learn and test to improve a deck, simply missing out on some "obvious" cards are exactly why deck threads should be made, players experience a deck idea, poster learn a bit more and gathers more opinions from them to analyze and improve the deck ^_^ The only problem I would find is if you comment on things outside your area of knowledge and express strong opinions towards deck choices, that is far worse than anything you can do as you may mislead players who are seeking advice with out testable evidence or gameplay experience. Watching streams and playing are a world of difference. Everything feels and looks easier on stream when the streamer, who is assumed to be good at the game, puts the opponent in such limiting situations where the next step is obvious.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
yeah, I'm going through editing hell and breaking things again to try and make my list more formal.
Feral Spirits are good, but I'm not sure where I'd squeeze them in, and between Argus and Corsairs there should be a decent amount of taunt throughout the game. I'd understand subbing the Corsairs out for Feral Spirits if you don't have Southsea Captain though, since they very similar in stats (2/3s vs 3/3) without the aura buff, and you get more of them (2 spirits vs 1 Corsair). Subbing out the Captains to really load up on taunt could work too.
As for board clear, I figure the aggressive nature of this deck might lean towards the minions and weapons alternating roles for board control as the game goes on. That being said, Lightning Bolt could be replaced with Lightning Storm for a backup plan when the board isn't in your favor. Could also experiment with Earthen Ring Farseers (the only real good healing neutral imo) in place of Shattered Sun. I'll put those in the OP tomorrow.
I'd def run Captain Greenskin and 1 Parot. Would also drop the other pirates and run other minions in their place like Fire Elemental and Senjin's.
NEED PEOPLE TO PLAY THIS DECK
need more input to make it better
its a fun deck when it works
Spiteful smith most under rated card