As an avid Shaman player, I'm always interested in learning about new deck archetypes for my favourite class. I know there's a ton of criticism toward the viability of Shaman in ladder right now but my point in creating this thread is not for finding ladder-destroying decks but more for gathering together a large number of interesting yet still viable shaman decks so that anyone who is interested in trying out a new deck for the class can know where to look. The decks listed in the Shaman Information Hub thread are generally outdated so I want to give some updated decks or ones that are still relevant.
I generally play around rank 5-7 so I like to have decks that can get some wins at that level of play, but I'd be interested in even gathering decks that don't quite have 50% win rate. Any decks that you find that promote a new style of play, feel free to post and I'll add it to the general list. I will be posting sample decklists of highly-rated and/or unique decks as spoilers so click on the spoilers if you want to see some samples.
Mech Shaman
Mech shammy is more aggro based but often has some good midrange cards to fill out your endgame. It can have some good early tempo and nice reach to close out games. The following deck I have used to reach Rank 5 the past three seasons fairly easily.
A super interesting deck popularized by Crusher. It involves getting tons of Earth Elementals on the board to close out games. Although this deck hasn't been updated for TGT (Healing Wave and Elemental Destruction seem like some good additions), Crusher plans to make some updates so we'll have to wait on that or experiment for yourself!
New totem additions have resulted in a number of new Shaman decks in TGT. Some of them have a lot of totem synergy, some have very little. There's a lot of room to swap cards in and out and these decks are often fairly consistent. The idea behind this style of deck is to get early board presence and keep the enemy's board clean while you drop threat after threat. I've added two decks to show some slight variations in deckbuilding.
This is one of my favourite decks of all time. The idea is to stall until you can draw Malygos and Ancestor's Call. This allows for a 4 mana Malygos followed by a ton of burn spells to burst down your opponent. I've played this deck effectively in ranks 5-8 and have gone toe-to-toe with face hunters and control warriors, demonstrating the versatility of the deck. There are a ton of Malygos OTK decks out there, but I've posted one that I created because of my huge personal interest in the archetype. There's nothing more satisfying than dropping 30-45 damage in one turn (possible with Emperor Thaurissan).
This isn't an archetype that I have experience with, but the addition of TGT has allowed some interesting new combinations for Shamans to use with dragons.
Shamans are known for having fairly decent activators (Rockbiter Weapon and Flametongue Totem). Because of this and the fact that their hero power spawns tokens, they'll often run other token generators and synergy cards (deathrattles, defender of argus). Egg Shaman is an excellent example of a very sticky deck that keeps board presence up easily.
How could anyone forget this archetype? With GvG, Blizz tried to make shamans the official murloc class. It didn't work out too well (warlocks still seem to be better), but that doesn't mean you can't run murlocs. I've posted an aggro deck that got very popular (unsure of how effective it actually was) and my version of a midrange murloc that I found moderate success with at lower ranks. Both are fun to take for a whirl and I've found that murlocs can pull off a quick and easy win sometimes if you get a good start. Neither have been updated recently so keep that in mind.
This type of deck focuses on getting huge benefits off of your overload through Unbound Elementals and then removing said overload through Lava Shocks. Most overload decks are midrange, focusing on getting big tempo for a small cost.
For those of you just starting out, sometimes all the legendaries and epics can be overwhelming. Trump made a Shaman deck just out of basic cards that he did well with early on in Hearthstone. At this point it probably doesn't compete with other decks but with a few adjustments based on what you pull from packs, you can make it stronger. The second deck is only commons and basic cards so it's a bit of a step up. I know I posted this earlier, but the mech shaman deck I used to hit rank 5 can be slightly modified to cost very little dust. It has mostly commons and rares from GvG and the base set so the core of the deck is craftable by newer players.
Fun for getting out huge threats early on in the game. It's also satisfying when you Hex someone's win condition that you pulled with Ancestor's Call (Alex for Freeze Mage, Grom for CW).
Please post any decks in a spoiler format so that it doesn't take up the whole page. As well, the idea behind this isn't promotion of your own deck variation on an archetype (although I admit I did put in two of my decklists as demos for archetypes) but more to demonstrate new archetypes that people may not know about.
Maybe include a basic, no Naxx, no BRM guide for starters?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Or of course, because you are 'a strong, independent deck builder, who needs no blizzard to tell them what to include', you make your deck deliberately weaker." - Skaduush1
"Or of course, because you are 'a strong, independent deck builder, who needs no blizzard to tell them what to include', you make your deck deliberately weaker." - Skaduush1
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As an avid Shaman player, I'm always interested in learning about new deck archetypes for my favourite class. I know there's a ton of criticism toward the viability of Shaman in ladder right now but my point in creating this thread is not for finding ladder-destroying decks but more for gathering together a large number of interesting yet still viable shaman decks so that anyone who is interested in trying out a new deck for the class can know where to look. The decks listed in the Shaman Information Hub thread are generally outdated so I want to give some updated decks or ones that are still relevant.
I generally play around rank 5-7 so I like to have decks that can get some wins at that level of play, but I'd be interested in even gathering decks that don't quite have 50% win rate. Any decks that you find that promote a new style of play, feel free to post and I'll add it to the general list. I will be posting sample decklists of highly-rated and/or unique decks as spoilers so click on the spoilers if you want to see some samples.
Mech Shaman
Mech shammy is more aggro based but often has some good midrange cards to fill out your endgame. It can have some good early tempo and nice reach to close out games. The following deck I have used to reach Rank 5 the past three seasons fairly easily.
Crusher Shaman
A super interesting deck popularized by Crusher. It involves getting tons of Earth Elementals on the board to close out games. Although this deck hasn't been updated for TGT (Healing Wave and Elemental Destruction seem like some good additions), Crusher plans to make some updates so we'll have to wait on that or experiment for yourself!
Midrange/Totem Shaman
New totem additions have resulted in a number of new Shaman decks in TGT. Some of them have a lot of totem synergy, some have very little. There's a lot of room to swap cards in and out and these decks are often fairly consistent. The idea behind this style of deck is to get early board presence and keep the enemy's board clean while you drop threat after threat. I've added two decks to show some slight variations in deckbuilding.
Malygos OTK
This is one of my favourite decks of all time. The idea is to stall until you can draw Malygos and Ancestor's Call. This allows for a 4 mana Malygos followed by a ton of burn spells to burst down your opponent. I've played this deck effectively in ranks 5-8 and have gone toe-to-toe with face hunters and control warriors, demonstrating the versatility of the deck. There are a ton of Malygos OTK decks out there, but I've posted one that I created because of my huge personal interest in the archetype. There's nothing more satisfying than dropping 30-45 damage in one turn (possible with Emperor Thaurissan).
Dragon Shaman
This isn't an archetype that I have experience with, but the addition of TGT has allowed some interesting new combinations for Shamans to use with dragons.
Egg Shaman
Shamans are known for having fairly decent activators (Rockbiter Weapon and Flametongue Totem). Because of this and the fact that their hero power spawns tokens, they'll often run other token generators and synergy cards (deathrattles, defender of argus). Egg Shaman is an excellent example of a very sticky deck that keeps board presence up easily.
Murloc Shaman
How could anyone forget this archetype? With GvG, Blizz tried to make shamans the official murloc class. It didn't work out too well (warlocks still seem to be better), but that doesn't mean you can't run murlocs. I've posted an aggro deck that got very popular (unsure of how effective it actually was) and my version of a midrange murloc that I found moderate success with at lower ranks. Both are fun to take for a whirl and I've found that murlocs can pull off a quick and easy win sometimes if you get a good start. Neither have been updated recently so keep that in mind.
Overload Shaman
This type of deck focuses on getting huge benefits off of your overload through Unbound Elementals and then removing said overload through Lava Shocks. Most overload decks are midrange, focusing on getting big tempo for a small cost.
Cheap/Non-Expansion Decks
For those of you just starting out, sometimes all the legendaries and epics can be overwhelming. Trump made a Shaman deck just out of basic cards that he did well with early on in Hearthstone. At this point it probably doesn't compete with other decks but with a few adjustments based on what you pull from packs, you can make it stronger. The second deck is only commons and basic cards so it's a bit of a step up. I know I posted this earlier, but the mech shaman deck I used to hit rank 5 can be slightly modified to cost very little dust. It has mostly commons and rares from GvG and the base set so the core of the deck is craftable by newer players.
Ancestor's Call/Alarm-O-Bot Shaman
Fun for getting out huge threats early on in the game. It's also satisfying when you Hex someone's win condition that you pulled with Ancestor's Call (Alex for Freeze Mage, Grom for CW).
Please post any decks in a spoiler format so that it doesn't take up the whole page. As well, the idea behind this isn't promotion of your own deck variation on an archetype (although I admit I did put in two of my decklists as demos for archetypes) but more to demonstrate new archetypes that people may not know about.
Don't forget about Simplexity's Overload Shaman:
Maybe include a basic, no Naxx, no BRM guide for starters?
"Or of course, because you are 'a strong, independent deck builder, who needs no blizzard to tell them what to include', you make your deck deliberately weaker." - Skaduush1
Updated!
I have a charged hammer inspire deck that was able to win games at rank 18 :P
This was my definety OPOPOPOP deck that brought me around rank 10 if I remember some time ago. Not updated to last expansions
Ancestor's call and Alarm-O-Bot Deck !
Nothing wrong with inconsistency. If the deck doesn't win at all then maybe don't post it but if you can still get wins with it, I'd love to see it.
I should update it to the new cards, at the time it was not inconsistent, otherwise it would have not reached rank 9.
Of course it is not a deck that could take you to legend but it was funny as hell and kind of working ^^
Ps Mogor the Ogre was there on purpose, not by mistake !
Well Mogor the Ogre is the 2nd best legendary out there, behind maybeHogger but only 50% of the time
No Totem Shaman represented? D:
Get with it.
It's there. How would it not be there?
Missed it under Midrange.
It's not strictly midrange though, it has control capabilities is the deck is tuned properly.
Get with it.
Zoo/banana shaman. Don't have deck list right now (on mobile phone too lazy to make). Search banana shaman and you'll find it.
It's like egg shaman without dragon eggs and with Mukla's. I got it to rank 5 before stalling.
Banana shaman:
Strifecro's Burst Shaman:
Very good against Handlock and all Warriors, decent win rate against Priest and Druid as well.
forsenC
dog is my favorite openly gay Hearthstone streamer, please join me in supporting his bravery in defying societal conventions
Well, that is the purpose of Midrange, it can play the control game and it can play the pressure game.
There's also a crusher lite shaman build on Tempostorm, which I've used with success.
https://tempostorm.com/hearthstone/decks/crusher-lite
"Or of course, because you are 'a strong, independent deck builder, who needs no blizzard to tell them what to include', you make your deck deliberately weaker." - Skaduush1