After trying different versions of shaman, I came to this one which is the best option for low ranks aggression. It doesn't contain any legendary so I thought it could be a nice budget option for players who want to climb the ladder with a deck that is very strong against legendaries. Before this, i have tried the Leeroy Windfury combo and a more control version with Chillwind Yetis but I didn't like them, they are too slow and you end up with too many big minions in your hand but without board control, also turn 4 is a bit akward. This deck brought me directly from rank 10 (I play mostly arena, only sometimes constructed, so I still had to climb) to rank 5 this evening. It is very solid and fun to play.
They serve two different proposes. With Stormforged Axe you want to kill minions and dominate the early game, while Doomhammer is basically the big damager of the deck. You can see it as a 5 mana card that deals 16 damage, and with only one Rockbiter Weapon the damage becomes 22 (12 damage on its own with 6 attacks, and the last 2 attacks are 10 damage). That's why I can afford not to play Jenkins or Bloodlust, which are more situational and not so solid. With Doomhammer you want mainly to pressure your opponent's hp, and sometimes kill some creatures.
@FillOrFeedNa: I don't like Forked Lightning that much, it's too expensive for its value. Compare it with another card with the same effect like Cleave and you'll see that Forked costs 1 more, although spread over 2 turns. When your opponent has little minions, you want to Lightning Storm him for sure instead. Rockbiter Weapon is an amazing card, i would never cut it. You can kill minions on turn 1 like Flame Imp, you can play it on a totem and kill a 3 toughness or 5 toughness if you have Flametongue Totem. Played on Argent Squire instant kills any 4 toughness (Nat Pagle?). And it also synergies with your weapons, there is just too much you can do with this card.
I ran a very very similar deck which also took me from rank 11 to 5, but I have since had an absolutely horrid run and dropped back to rank 9...now looking at options for changes
I ran a very very similar deck which also took me from rank 11 to 5, but I have since had an absolutely horrid run and dropped back to rank 9...now looking at options for changes
That's actually very weird. How long have you been playing Shaman? Maybe the deck doesn't need much fix (you went to rank 5 already) but you need to fix your match ups approach. Shaman has so many good cards you wanna see in your opening hand that is hard to mulligan, but against certain decks you need to because you need to fish those 2-3 key cards.
I have been playing shaman for a long time, have been level 60 for a while.
Do you keep or mulligan feral spirit vs rogue/warrior? I feel 90% of the time they die to fiery war axe / deadly poison and I feel behind from the start.
Also how do you go vs hunters? I have an abysmal rate vs them
I think you should definitely give Doomhammer a try, I am so happy about that card. It's just an amazingly strong card. When you are ahead you basically close the game with its insane amount of damage, while when you are behind it helps you catching up the tempo and it is the first card I hope to draw to comeback. I have had some insane comebacks with Doomhammer, where I basically took board control back and then start swinging everything to their face very aggressively.
If you run Ragnaros the Firelord and Cairne Bloodhoof instead of two Argent Squire i think it actually changes a lot. It makes your deck heavier and more control-oriented. I use them to get early board control and with buffs from Flametongue Totem and Defender of Argus i take a lot of value out of it. If you don't use them I would consider taking out one Argus because they are one of the best targets in my opinion. A 2/2 divine shield is very strong.
I do keep Feral Spirit against Rogue and Warriors, both aggro and control, it forces them do deal with the Wolves and many times the trades are not unfavourable for you, since you use 1 card to create 2 minions. I am a player who likes to take the initiative so Feral Spirit is the perfect card for it, and if you have the Healing Totem it's such a pain.
Against Hunter there is not much to do, just hope they don't have Starving Buzzard with Unleash the Hounds and play very damn aggressively. Use your Lightning bolts to his face to make your Unbound Elemental bigger and so as much damage as you can.
This is an awesome deck, my original was pretty close but had to make 5 card changes and I feel it has made a huge difference. I'm curious as to what is your ideal cards to have in your initial hand. I know this varies from class to class but I'm curious what your general opinions about this are. Thanks for sharing this deck!
This is an awesome deck, my original was pretty close but had to make 5 card changes and I feel it has made a huge difference. I'm curious as to what is your ideal cards to have in your initial hand. I know this varies from class to class but I'm curious what your general opinions about this are. Thanks for sharing this deck!
Thank you The8biteng, hope this list helps you obtain good results. It's doing very well for me, sitting at rank 3 atm and I do not play much constructed, just about 2 hours in the evening after my daily arena run. For the starting hand Argent Squire, Stormforged Axe, Lightning Bolt and Flametongue Totem are very good. Against control or druids I keep Hex, otherwise I pitch it. Other good cards are Unbound Elemental, Feral Spirit and Rockbiter Weapon which i do keep quite often. The only class I do mulligan very aggressively against is Hunter aggro, where I search for Feral Spirit, Earth Shock, Flametongue Totem. Against midrange decks I feel Shaman has a very wide range of good openings, so I just pitch cards over 4 mana cost along with Lightning Stormwhich is better later on in the game where you can use it with Spellpower.
I'm taking this deck for a spin now, and I was just wondering, if you had Cairne or Tink, how would you try to fit them in?
Edit: Was also thinking about subbing in Leeroy for one of the Commanders, thoughts?
Tinkmaster Overspark (to be used on one of your totems or a de-shielded Argent Squire early on against aggro, since there is no valid target in their decks) over one Defender of Argus and I wouldn't play Cairne Bloodhoof, I much prefer double Argent Commander right now due to the new flow of warlock aggros at higher ranks. In a control match-up Shaman is ahead because of the Hex so I fear more the aggro decks. As for Leeroy Jenkins, I wouldn't play him alone but with Windfury for sure. You can try to find space, but I think you have to cut Argent Squire which is one of the best way this deck has to deal with aggro.
After trying different versions of shaman, I came to this one which is the best option for low ranks aggression. It doesn't contain any legendary so I thought it could be a nice budget option for players who want to climb the ladder with a deck that is very strong against legendaries. Before this, i have tried the Leeroy Windfury combo and a more control version with Chillwind Yetis but I didn't like them, they are too slow and you end up with too many big minions in your hand but without board control, also turn 4 is a bit akward. This deck brought me directly from rank 10 (I play mostly arena, only sometimes constructed, so I still had to climb) to rank 5 this evening. It is very solid and fun to play.
Just a question, why would you take 1 doomhammer 1 stormforged axe instead of 2 storm forged axes?
Thanks FOO(The Banner God)!
They serve two different proposes. With Stormforged Axe you want to kill minions and dominate the early game, while Doomhammer is basically the big damager of the deck. You can see it as a 5 mana card that deals 16 damage, and with only one Rockbiter Weapon the damage becomes 22 (12 damage on its own with 6 attacks, and the last 2 attacks are 10 damage). That's why I can afford not to play Jenkins or Bloodlust, which are more situational and not so solid. With Doomhammer you want mainly to pressure your opponent's hp, and sometimes kill some creatures.
Just a quick question. Why didn't your opponent play any Acidic Swamp Ooze?
What is your opinion on taking 2 forked lightening VS taking 2 rockbiter weps?
Thanks FOO(The Banner God)!
@flexr: Acidic Swamp Ooze is a 2-drop, so it's very likely that your opponent plays it before Doomhammer comes into play. Altough it costs 5 mana, it usually comes later on. On turn 5 you usually want Azure Drake, on turn 6 Argent Commander or Fire Elemental, so it comes turn 7 or 8 (maybe with Unbound Elemental). Also, the Stormforged Axe calls the Ooze.
@FillOrFeedNa: I don't like Forked Lightning that much, it's too expensive for its value. Compare it with another card with the same effect like Cleave and you'll see that Forked costs 1 more, although spread over 2 turns. When your opponent has little minions, you want to Lightning Storm him for sure instead. Rockbiter Weapon is an amazing card, i would never cut it. You can kill minions on turn 1 like Flame Imp, you can play it on a totem and kill a 3 toughness or 5 toughness if you have Flametongue Totem. Played on Argent Squire instant kills any 4 toughness (Nat Pagle?). And it also synergies with your weapons, there is just too much you can do with this card.
I ran a very very similar deck which also took me from rank 11 to 5, but I have since had an absolutely horrid run and dropped back to rank 9...now looking at options for changes
That's actually very weird. How long have you been playing Shaman? Maybe the deck doesn't need much fix (you went to rank 5 already) but you need to fix your match ups approach. Shaman has so many good cards you wanna see in your opening hand that is hard to mulligan, but against certain decks you need to because you need to fish those 2-3 key cards.
I have been playing shaman for a long time, have been level 60 for a while.
Do you keep or mulligan feral spirit vs rogue/warrior? I feel 90% of the time they die to fiery war axe / deadly poison and I feel behind from the start.
Also how do you go vs hunters? I have an abysmal rate vs them
I run:
-2 argent squire
-1 doomhammer
+1 rag
+1 cairne
+1 bloodmage
I think you should definitely give Doomhammer a try, I am so happy about that card. It's just an amazingly strong card. When you are ahead you basically close the game with its insane amount of damage, while when you are behind it helps you catching up the tempo and it is the first card I hope to draw to comeback. I have had some insane comebacks with Doomhammer, where I basically took board control back and then start swinging everything to their face very aggressively.
If you run Ragnaros the Firelord and Cairne Bloodhoof instead of two Argent Squire i think it actually changes a lot. It makes your deck heavier and more control-oriented. I use them to get early board control and with buffs from Flametongue Totem and Defender of Argus i take a lot of value out of it. If you don't use them I would consider taking out one Argus because they are one of the best targets in my opinion. A 2/2 divine shield is very strong.
I do keep Feral Spirit against Rogue and Warriors, both aggro and control, it forces them do deal with the Wolves and many times the trades are not unfavourable for you, since you use 1 card to create 2 minions. I am a player who likes to take the initiative so Feral Spirit is the perfect card for it, and if you have the Healing Totem it's such a pain.
Against Hunter there is not much to do, just hope they don't have Starving Buzzard with Unleash the Hounds and play very damn aggressively. Use your Lightning bolts to his face to make your Unbound Elemental bigger and so as much damage as you can.
This is an awesome deck, my original was pretty close but had to make 5 card changes and I feel it has made a huge difference. I'm curious as to what is your ideal cards to have in your initial hand. I know this varies from class to class but I'm curious what your general opinions about this are. Thanks for sharing this deck!
Thank you The8biteng, hope this list helps you obtain good results. It's doing very well for me, sitting at rank 3 atm and I do not play much constructed, just about 2 hours in the evening after my daily arena run. For the starting hand Argent Squire, Stormforged Axe, Lightning Bolt and Flametongue Totem are very good. Against control or druids I keep Hex, otherwise I pitch it. Other good cards are Unbound Elemental, Feral Spirit and Rockbiter Weapon which i do keep quite often. The only class I do mulligan very aggressively against is Hunter aggro, where I search for Feral Spirit, Earth Shock, Flametongue Totem. Against midrange decks I feel Shaman has a very wide range of good openings, so I just pitch cards over 4 mana cost along with Lightning Stormwhich is better later on in the game where you can use it with Spellpower.
every damn shaman deck i play i cant hit their hero this is getting annoying...
If you had access to every card would you add some e.g. Rag / Thalnos / Pagle / other?
i meant every shaman deck i try to play as*
I would play Nat Pagle instead of Mana Tide Totem and Bloodmage Thalnos instead of one Defender of Argus. I don't like Ragnaros the Firelord in this deck, it's too slow. If I had Al'Akir the Windlord I would try it maybe instead of the Doomhammer, although I really like the weapon.
I'm taking this deck for a spin now, and I was just wondering, if you had Cairne or Tink, how would you try to fit them in?
Edit: Was also thinking about subbing in Leeroy for one of the Commanders, thoughts?
Please check out my submission for this week's Card Design Competition here, and vote for it if you like it! Thanks!
Tinkmaster Overspark (to be used on one of your totems or a de-shielded Argent Squire early on against aggro, since there is no valid target in their decks) over one Defender of Argus and I wouldn't play Cairne Bloodhoof, I much prefer double Argent Commander right now due to the new flow of warlock aggros at higher ranks. In a control match-up Shaman is ahead because of the Hex so I fear more the aggro decks. As for Leeroy Jenkins, I wouldn't play him alone but with Windfury for sure. You can try to find space, but I think you have to cut Argent Squire which is one of the best way this deck has to deal with aggro.