So, over the course of the weekend I managed to drop from Rank 9 to Rank 12 by using my Shaman deck.
I'm pretty much frustrated to no end by now, as you might imagine by me creating this account only to have you guys take a look at it.
I can't seem to get a hold, against any type of deck. Control decks are just removing all of my stuff until they reach lategame when I stand exactly no chance anymore, most aggro decks, mostly Mech variants are to fast and my taunters and the two Lightning Storms can hardly stop them (bad card draw in the deck doesn't help either, most of the time I just can't draw into the cards I need).
The lack of drawing power is actually one of my greatest concerns, but with the tools that Shaman has, which is just Manatide, which I'm not very fond of, I can't think of anything that would improve my situation. Gnomish Inventors are bad (seriously, no class except Shaman is even forced to consider playing such a card), Manatide is useless if I can't hide it behind my taunts and even then it's vulnerable to any form of removal or AoE.
Basically the only class this deck is good against is (ironically) Hunter.
I already tried some kind of things with it, but that's the form I'm currently running.
Older versions included Bloodlust instead of Doomhammer, had a variation of Arguses and/ or a Dark Iron Dwarf in it instead of Sen'jin and the Mystic, ran two copies of Earthshock instead of just one and for a very brief time I only had one copy of Feral Spirit before I realized how much I needed them to stop the aggro-onslaught and to protect Vitaility Totem/ Zap-o-matic.
I'd be glad for any suggestions or ideas. I really want to keep playing Shaman, but at this point I seriously ask myself why I'm not just disenchanting all that stuff to create a proper Priest deck.
I haven't experimented too much with Violet teacher so I can't comment too much on it.
Maybe it'll help if you clarify what is your win condition.
I'm not surprised you're losing the control matchup since you only have 1 hex to deal with their big minion and lack any lategame minions.
My initial thought is to ditch the Kezan Mystic and maybe 1 Zombie Chow and get another hex + earth shock.
Kezan is only good vs Hunter/Mage/Paladin (if anyone is still running secret paladin). Against others it's just a 4 mana 4/3 which is pretty underwhelming.
I'm not fond of Whirling Zap-o-matic but if you really want to run it maybe you can consider investing into Powermace and replace the unbound elementals for harvest golems and use Antique Healbot in place of Vitality Totem for synergy.
Also I'd like to ask, how many turns does Vitality totem usually survive? I find it curious you don't like mana tide because it needs protection when Vitality totem has pretty much the same issue.
I prefer antique healbot to the vitality totem gives health and leaves behind a 3/3 body which can help finish off minions that the spells couldn't. I would cut a crackle and definitely add another hex. I think if you use ayasim's which I think are right on the money you will see a big improvement. I would get rid of the violet teacher's especially with no bloodlust I think they are weak
I agree with the above threads, silence via earthshock gives you a huge advantage over most classes (it also cures ICE... F U MAGES) and hex is just to powerful these days.
The problem i had with shaman (and i love shaman) is that they dont have as many ways to finish the game as other classes do, yeah you can Crackle some one to death but if you dont get that whirley/flame out early then your kinda in a rough spot come midgame without a bloodlust.
i play midrange shaman, and you are lacking some pretty important cards! I too tried to play without defender of argus, but sadly that card is a must have in all midrange shaman decks, when i put 2 copies in my deck, i got a nice win streak and all improved!
I am also running only one Crackle, and replaced the second one with a lightining bolt; the RNG for 1 Crakle is just enough tbh, you dont need the extra damage that bad, so 1 of each is enough.
Im also having success having some mech synergy in the deck. I'm using 2x Powermaces (its sooo much better than it seems) and the arcane nullifier (mech taunt), antique healbot instead of vitality totem (serves same purpose, only with sinergy and faster) ,the nice 3x2 windfury guys and 2x anoy -o- trons instead of the typical spectral spiders. All of them are really good minions, and some of them are stickier than they look, even more so with the mace!
Finnally, you are lacking some lategame cards, namely Hex, and lategame minions!. I luckily opened Dr. Boom in one of my 3 free packs and it justs fists right in my deck; the doom bots get powered by my mace and just wreck everything.
Top that with Cairne, a bomb lobber, -1 feral spirit and -1 fire elemental and +1 earthsock too, and you got yourself a winner!
I guess I'll keep this deck a bit more like the 'standard' Shaman I guess, even tough I certainly can't incorporate everything you suggested.
For example, I'm pretty starved on legendaries, for example no Al'akir (I certainly would put that one into the deck), no Thalnos, no Cairne, basically nothing of note.
Still, I want to justify my reasoning, so you guys at least don't think I'm a complete moron with no clue what I'm doing.
Only one Hex - As I'm certainly not on top of the ladder, I'm facing a very high amount of Aggro decks. Mech mage, mech rogue, hunter and many more. Hex tends to be a pretty dead card in this matchups and things I certainly don't need with that low card draw are dead cards on my hand.
Only one Earthshock - There were times where I loved this card like no tomorrow but the times have changed. Again, this card is not very good in aggro matchups, I just can't justify having a card in my deck that ends up silencing a Leper Gnome or something else shitty. Against Control decks, the card sits in hand, waiting to be played on turn 10+ when FINALLY they play something worth silencing and I'm still not satisfied, because most legendaries have an immediate effect and therefore already did (at least a part of) their job. It's still fine against cards like Harvest Golem, Piloted Shredder, Ancient of War and Twilight Drake, that's for certain. But the question is, do I really need two Earthshocks for those?
Violet Teacher - My absolute favourite card. It's basically a Yeti with one less attack but an effect that makes it, at least in Shaman, in my opinion way better. You can play it on turn 4 and not mourn if it dies because it's only 4 mana, but most of the time it trades at least 2-1 with the additional benefit of summoning little tokens for your Flametounge or Bloodlust (I did run it quite a long time) to be buffed. The tokens are exactly what Shaman lacks, a way to deal one damage (get lost, Searing Totem, nobody wants you).
Kezan Mystic - I guess there's not much to say, running it due to Hunters and Mages. It's pretty handy there and I thought I can get over the weak body but I guess it's time to part ways.
I think those are the most important points. Some other are questionable, too, of course but I guess most things are up to debate when it comes to deckbuilding.
Edit:
Current iteration, after taking all your suggestions into consideration, for those who are interested:
You said it yourself in the original post. You lack card draw, target for shaman is 3 - 4 sources of it. 2 azure drakes, thalnos, gnomish engineer, mana tide totem, pick 4, or 3 if you choose mana tide and only play mana tide if you think you can get two draws from it.
I haven't played shaman since GvG, quite simply no decent deck exists that lets me play the cards from GvG. Next you have a very bad curve. You are clogged around 4 and tbh thats a drop that most shamans go light on or pick tech cards, since feral spirit will frequently be cast on 3 and you will go to 2 mana next turn then to 5 the following.
Following cards i would remove from your deck and add either late game or burst cards. Violet Teacher, Kezan Mystic (meta call), Sen'jin, and vitality totem. Add a hex and earth shock at minimum. The look for al'alakir if going for late game. Swap out your unbounds for harvest golems and add a power mace. Look at getting at least one defender of argus. Loatheb is great in shaman look at adding him in place of a belcher. Sylvanas and ragnaros are always good adds as well.
If you want I will throw a deck together with the caveat that I haven't played shaman since GvG and I have no idea if what i will build would be viable or competitive.
You're thinking about earth shock totally wrong. Using it on a leper gnome is so amazing. You're saving at least 4 health and severely slowing down an aggro opponent for 1 mana and no overload. It is also great in control matchups vs belchers/cairne and sylvanas. I can't imagine not running two,
I really like the improvements you did to your deck! Powermace and all those mechs are going to give you a nice boost; though I still think you need more lategame. You need a win condition, being more late game minions to control the board while dealing damage, or maybe one bloodlust to seal the deal... according to you, whats your win condition? what makes your opponent lose?
I think removing one mechanical yeti for a Bloodlust (4 slot is not that critical for shaman) or maybe loosing the yeti and maybe 1 harvest golem and replacing them for some late game threats ( Dr. Boom/ Neptulon/ Ragnaros/ even some boulderfist ogres would do) would make the tempo you gained in the previous games actually matter and win you the game.
Another thing...Violet teacher is awesome, but if you are going to run that card in a shaman deck, you MUST run bloodlust, it makes that card a real threat and not some pyromancer fodder!
I cringed involuntarily as I saw violet teacher, sorry bro. I main shaman and have played him almost exclusively since I started 5 months ago. so here we go with some card suggestions, Ill do removals first and then replacements.
Removal: Kezan mystic, 2x violet teacher, 2x unbound elemental, shield masta, 2x zombie chow, doomhammer, and vitality totem. 9 total
Replacements: 2x Harvest Golem for early game control really good. 2nd Earth Shock and 2nd Hex. take away enemy tempo. Loatheb for midgame tempo swing. he is a key card for most Shaman decks. protecting your board from AOE like flamestrike. 2x Piloted Shredder, can usually remove whatever is on the board and you get a random 2 cost minion, this card is awesome. 1x Bloodlust, this is what can provide lethal or massive board clear. I say for the last card Al' Akir the Wind Lord if you have him. otherwise I would find another big minion who can beat that face. thats 9 replacements.
Also always try to play your zapos behind a nice taunt like sludge belcher or feral. hope this helps man. I tried to stay true to the midrange feel but I know it may be a little on the control side. Really midrange is about keeping tempo, I think with the changes you can do that. good luck and keep us all posted.
So, over the course of the weekend I managed to drop from Rank 9 to Rank 12 by using my Shaman deck.
I'm pretty much frustrated to no end by now, as you might imagine by me creating this account only to have you guys take a look at it.
I can't seem to get a hold, against any type of deck. Control decks are just removing all of my stuff until they reach lategame when I stand exactly no chance anymore, most aggro decks, mostly Mech variants are to fast and my taunters and the two Lightning Storms can hardly stop them (bad card draw in the deck doesn't help either, most of the time I just can't draw into the cards I need).
The lack of drawing power is actually one of my greatest concerns, but with the tools that Shaman has, which is just Manatide, which I'm not very fond of, I can't think of anything that would improve my situation. Gnomish Inventors are bad (seriously, no class except Shaman is even forced to consider playing such a card), Manatide is useless if I can't hide it behind my taunts and even then it's vulnerable to any form of removal or AoE.
Basically the only class this deck is good against is (ironically) Hunter.
Anyway, here's the deck.
I already tried some kind of things with it, but that's the form I'm currently running.
Older versions included Bloodlust instead of Doomhammer, had a variation of Arguses and/ or a Dark Iron Dwarf in it instead of Sen'jin and the Mystic, ran two copies of Earthshock instead of just one and for a very brief time I only had one copy of Feral Spirit before I realized how much I needed them to stop the aggro-onslaught and to protect Vitaility Totem/ Zap-o-matic.
I'd be glad for any suggestions or ideas. I really want to keep playing Shaman, but at this point I seriously ask myself why I'm not just disenchanting all that stuff to create a proper Priest deck.
I haven't experimented too much with Violet teacher so I can't comment too much on it.
Maybe it'll help if you clarify what is your win condition.
I'm not surprised you're losing the control matchup since you only have 1 hex to deal with their big minion and lack any lategame minions.
My initial thought is to ditch the Kezan Mystic and maybe 1 Zombie Chow and get another hex + earth shock.
Kezan is only good vs Hunter/Mage/Paladin (if anyone is still running secret paladin). Against others it's just a 4 mana 4/3 which is pretty underwhelming.
I'm not fond of Whirling Zap-o-matic but if you really want to run it maybe you can consider investing into Powermace and replace the unbound elementals for harvest golems and use Antique Healbot in place of Vitality Totem for synergy.
Also I'd like to ask, how many turns does Vitality totem usually survive? I find it curious you don't like mana tide because it needs protection when Vitality totem has pretty much the same issue.
"Not every hard-working person is successful. But every successful person is hard-working."
zombie chow and zapomatic counter themselves. Run either or, not both.
I prefer antique healbot to the vitality totem gives health and leaves behind a 3/3 body which can help finish off minions that the spells couldn't. I would cut a crackle and definitely add another hex. I think if you use ayasim's which I think are right on the money you will see a big improvement. I would get rid of the violet teacher's especially with no bloodlust I think they are weak
I agree with the above threads, silence via earthshock gives you a huge advantage over most classes (it also cures ICE... F U MAGES) and hex is just to powerful these days.
The problem i had with shaman (and i love shaman) is that they dont have as many ways to finish the game as other classes do, yeah you can Crackle some one to death but if you dont get that whirley/flame out early then your kinda in a rough spot come midgame without a bloodlust.
i play midrange shaman, and you are lacking some pretty important cards! I too tried to play without defender of argus, but sadly that card is a must have in all midrange shaman decks, when i put 2 copies in my deck, i got a nice win streak and all improved!
I am also running only one Crackle, and replaced the second one with a lightining bolt; the RNG for 1 Crakle is just enough tbh, you dont need the extra damage that bad, so 1 of each is enough.
Im also having success having some mech synergy in the deck. I'm using 2x Powermaces (its sooo much better than it seems) and the arcane nullifier (mech taunt), antique healbot instead of vitality totem (serves same purpose, only with sinergy and faster) ,the nice 3x2 windfury guys and 2x anoy -o- trons instead of the typical spectral spiders. All of them are really good minions, and some of them are stickier than they look, even more so with the mace!
Finnally, you are lacking some lategame cards, namely Hex, and lategame minions!. I luckily opened Dr. Boom in one of my 3 free packs and it justs fists right in my deck; the doom bots get powered by my mace and just wreck everything.
Top that with Cairne, a bomb lobber, -1 feral spirit and -1 fire elemental and +1 earthsock too, and you got yourself a winner!
Mrd11 pretty much said what I was going to say.
So I pretty much hide behind a ton of taunts. I have 2x Annoyotrons, 1x Feral Spirit, 1x Defender of Argus, 1x Arcane Nullifier, 2x Sludge Belcher
Plenty of spells and removal: 2x Powermace, 2x Crackle, 2x Lightning Storm, 2x Hex, and 2x Earthshock
Sticky minions: 2x Harvest Golem, 2x Piloted Shredder
Card draw: 2x Azure Drake (+1 spell dmg), 1x Manatide Totem
For my Legend, I run Leeroy, because he hits fast can hide behind the taunts, TBK to break through heavy taunts.
I recommend some sticky minions (Haunted Creeper, Harvest Golem or Piloted Shredder) and a spell proof card (Loatheb or Troggzor the Earthinator). Maybe Bloodlust as a finisher, depending if you can burst them down or not. I hope this helps.
This is statement is false.
Thank you guys for all the answers.
I guess I'll keep this deck a bit more like the 'standard' Shaman I guess, even tough I certainly can't incorporate everything you suggested.
For example, I'm pretty starved on legendaries, for example no Al'akir (I certainly would put that one into the deck), no Thalnos, no Cairne, basically nothing of note.
Still, I want to justify my reasoning, so you guys at least don't think I'm a complete moron with no clue what I'm doing.
Only one Hex - As I'm certainly not on top of the ladder, I'm facing a very high amount of Aggro decks. Mech mage, mech rogue, hunter and many more. Hex tends to be a pretty dead card in this matchups and things I certainly don't need with that low card draw are dead cards on my hand.
Only one Earthshock - There were times where I loved this card like no tomorrow but the times have changed. Again, this card is not very good in aggro matchups, I just can't justify having a card in my deck that ends up silencing a Leper Gnome or something else shitty. Against Control decks, the card sits in hand, waiting to be played on turn 10+ when FINALLY they play something worth silencing and I'm still not satisfied, because most legendaries have an immediate effect and therefore already did (at least a part of) their job. It's still fine against cards like Harvest Golem, Piloted Shredder, Ancient of War and Twilight Drake, that's for certain. But the question is, do I really need two Earthshocks for those?
Violet Teacher - My absolute favourite card. It's basically a Yeti with one less attack but an effect that makes it, at least in Shaman, in my opinion way better. You can play it on turn 4 and not mourn if it dies because it's only 4 mana, but most of the time it trades at least 2-1 with the additional benefit of summoning little tokens for your Flametounge or Bloodlust (I did run it quite a long time) to be buffed. The tokens are exactly what Shaman lacks, a way to deal one damage (get lost, Searing Totem, nobody wants you).
Kezan Mystic - I guess there's not much to say, running it due to Hunters and Mages. It's pretty handy there and I thought I can get over the weak body but I guess it's time to part ways.
I think those are the most important points. Some other are questionable, too, of course but I guess most things are up to debate when it comes to deckbuilding.
Edit:
Current iteration, after taking all your suggestions into consideration, for those who are interested:
You said it yourself in the original post. You lack card draw, target for shaman is 3 - 4 sources of it. 2 azure drakes, thalnos, gnomish engineer, mana tide totem, pick 4, or 3 if you choose mana tide and only play mana tide if you think you can get two draws from it.
I haven't played shaman since GvG, quite simply no decent deck exists that lets me play the cards from GvG. Next you have a very bad curve. You are clogged around 4 and tbh thats a drop that most shamans go light on or pick tech cards, since feral spirit will frequently be cast on 3 and you will go to 2 mana next turn then to 5 the following.
Following cards i would remove from your deck and add either late game or burst cards. Violet Teacher, Kezan Mystic (meta call), Sen'jin, and vitality totem. Add a hex and earth shock at minimum. The look for al'alakir if going for late game. Swap out your unbounds for harvest golems and add a power mace. Look at getting at least one defender of argus. Loatheb is great in shaman look at adding him in place of a belcher. Sylvanas and ragnaros are always good adds as well.
If you want I will throw a deck together with the caveat that I haven't played shaman since GvG and I have no idea if what i will build would be viable or competitive.
You're thinking about earth shock totally wrong. Using it on a leper gnome is so amazing. You're saving at least 4 health and severely slowing down an aggro opponent for 1 mana and no overload. It is also great in control matchups vs belchers/cairne and sylvanas. I can't imagine not running two,
I really like the improvements you did to your deck! Powermace and all those mechs are going to give you a nice boost; though I still think you need more lategame. You need a win condition, being more late game minions to control the board while dealing damage, or maybe one bloodlust to seal the deal... according to you, whats your win condition? what makes your opponent lose?
I think removing one mechanical yeti for a Bloodlust (4 slot is not that critical for shaman) or maybe loosing the yeti and maybe 1 harvest golem and replacing them for some late game threats ( Dr. Boom/ Neptulon/ Ragnaros/ even some boulderfist ogres would do) would make the tempo you gained in the previous games actually matter and win you the game.
Another thing...Violet teacher is awesome, but if you are going to run that card in a shaman deck, you MUST run bloodlust, it makes that card a real threat and not some pyromancer fodder!
I cringed involuntarily as I saw violet teacher, sorry bro. I main shaman and have played him almost exclusively since I started 5 months ago. so here we go with some card suggestions, Ill do removals first and then replacements.
Removal: Kezan mystic, 2x violet teacher, 2x unbound elemental, shield masta, 2x zombie chow, doomhammer, and vitality totem. 9 total
Replacements: 2x Harvest Golem for early game control really good. 2nd Earth Shock and 2nd Hex. take away enemy tempo. Loatheb for midgame tempo swing. he is a key card for most Shaman decks. protecting your board from AOE like flamestrike. 2x Piloted Shredder, can usually remove whatever is on the board and you get a random 2 cost minion, this card is awesome. 1x Bloodlust, this is what can provide lethal or massive board clear. I say for the last card Al' Akir the Wind Lord if you have him. otherwise I would find another big minion who can beat that face. thats 9 replacements.
Also always try to play your zapos behind a nice taunt like sludge belcher or feral. hope this helps man. I tried to stay true to the midrange feel but I know it may be a little on the control side. Really midrange is about keeping tempo, I think with the changes you can do that. good luck and keep us all posted.
Humperdink Humperdink Humperdink!!!