Hearthpwn

Hey guys,

After much fiddling I've finally arrived at a list for totem Shaman that is working so well for me that I thought I'd share it. I mean I really think I must just be getting lucky because 30 games played and the win rate is currently just over 65% - the moment I hit 20 wins to only 10 losses I figured maybe there was something to this.

[TGT] Burst Totem Shaman Unknown Deck by Serology - Aug 25, 2015 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
Minion (21) 1x Al'Akir the Windlord 1x Loatheb 1x Big Game Hunter 1x Garrison Commander 2x Azure Drake 2x Thunder Bluff Valiant 2x Fire Elemental 2x Flametongue Totem 1x Haunted Creeper 2x Piloted Shredder 2x Totem Golem 2x Tuskarr Totemic 2x Zombie Chow	Ability (8) 2x Lightning Storm 1x Earth Shock 1x Ancestral Knowledge 1x Bloodlust 1x Hex 2x Rockbiter Weapon	Weapon (1) 1x Doomhammer
Loading Collection

I'd appreciate it if you guys could try it out yourself and let me know how it works for you. probably it's not too dissimilar from some other totem decks but I'm finding three cards to be particularly strong: The Mistcaller, Al'Akir and Healing Wave.

Quote from Codosbuya jump

Has Mistcaller and Garrison Commander been useful for you? Im interested by this deck, seems like your TGT standard midrange Shaman with very solid minions. How do you use Ancestral Knowledge? At the late game only to keep tempo or do you use it in the early game to have card advantage?

Mistcaller and Garrison Commander are absolutely great and totally worth their spot. I would only run one of the latter though as it's usually not a 2 drop.

Ancestral Knowledge is 100% for the late game! Mana Tide wasn't good before TGT and making it a 1/4 with Mistcaller doesn't really change that imo.

Mistcaller has so far exceeded my expectations, I thought it was a joke card but it's a win condition vs control

What makes it "totem" shaman. Seems like any shaman deck is going to have these cards except for garrison commander. I don't understand? Maybe I'm just blind.

This is not Totem Shaman :)

Quote from Arsisz jump

What makes it "totem" shaman. Seems like any shaman deck is going to have these cards except for garrison commander. I don't understand? Maybe I'm just blind.

The deck does a lot with Totems, more so than your average Midrange Shaman. A lot of plays come down to simply running out Thunder Bluff Valiant and spamming totems with your Hero Power and Tuskarr Totemic.

It is not really about how different the totem cards are so much as how the deck plays in comparison. 

Quote from EscapeArtistEU jump

This is not Totem Shaman :)

It probably says a lot about the prior non-viability of totem Shaman if you think so..

The entire deck revolves around them, it is the early game, mid game and late game.

Totemic Might does not a totem deck make.

Something I have noticed though, is that against fast decks like Face Hunter and Warlock Zoo, the deck can easily fold if your mulligan is into a slow hand. The deck is heavy on mid game creatures that are not especially good against aggro without a good number of early game interaction cards.

I do not run Zombie Chow anymore, so maybe that would help - but I feel like only adding 2 cards is not enough to really shore up the number of bad opening hands the deck has against hyper aggressive decks.

The deck is also pretty soft to Dragon Priest decks that are very capable of making any of their midgame threats large. 2 Hex only goes so far when their mid game creatures are all Battlecry value creatures that they can make super sticky with just a spell or two. 1 Earth Shock seems loose despite still only being marginal against the Dragon Priest decks.

My current list is at about 70% and is as follows:

[TGT] Midrange Shaman Unknown Deck by Th3D1rtSt4R - Aug 26, 2015 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
Minion (21) 1x Al'Akir the Windlord 1x Dr. Boom 1x Gormok the Impaler 1x The Mistcaller 1x Big Game Hunter 2x Azure Drake 1x Mana Tide Totem 1x Sludge Belcher 2x Thunder Bluff Valiant 2x Fire Elemental 2x Flametongue Totem 2x Piloted Shredder 2x Totem Golem 2x Tuskarr Totemic	Ability (9) 1x Healing Wave 2x Lightning Storm 2x Earth Shock 1x Ancestral Knowledge 1x Crackle 2x Hex
Loading Collection

I still like Mana Tide Totem, you can land it in a board that is on the verge of stabilizing and get some added value out of it by getting a replacement card and saving 3+ damage, and even at it's worst I think that is decent value for 3 mana assuming you are unable to drop it onto the board in an optimal situation - which should be most of the time.

Whether or not Dragon Priest (or even Midrange Shaman) will stick around, remains to be seen. But that is so far my experience with the deck. The deck has been solid so far though.

I haven't had too much trouble vs face decks, if you can't have early game board control then just try to keep the board free. Rockbiter, earth shock, lightning storm etc. It's relatively easy to quickly build board presence in the midgame and stabilise with taunts etc.

Healing Wave is pretty disgusting vs aggro ofc, I think it has a place in pretty much every Shaman deck as a one of.

I would rather a second Ancestral Knowledge than Mana Tide, but even with just one, I have no yet in 50+ games had an issue with lack of cards, thanks also to the Drakes.