Coming into Hearthstone I decided to play shaman, as shaman was my main from WOW. I have mostly been playing a murloc deck and had success against most decks. Now with the wipe I was originally planning on recreating the murloc deck but I was lucky to grab Al'Akir the Windlord in a pack. I did not see him much before the wipe, as my games were short (Murlocs...). A quick look at him and I think "wow, so many abilities!", until I see the cost... 8!! Really!?! 8 cost has so many disadvantages... especially for a 3/5... The biggest disadvatage is not being able to use it and bloodlust in the same turn, as I do not imagine him living past one turn. So for 8 cost you are guanteed to do 6 damage... single spells are better than that. The only way to make him worth it is play him along with a Rockbitter Weapon, guaranteeing 12 damage for 9 cost. Still not great. Off topic, but I think Rockbitter Weapon should be permanent like Blessing of Might.
So to you other shamans, how do you use Al'Akir the Windlord? Or does it need to be changed to be useful?
I think it's an amazing card, and I wish that I had enough to craft one for my control deck. I could see him not fitting well in a murloc deck at all though. Just an FYI for you, I wouldn't waste dust on making a murloc deck, while they can be good, you can create a pretty much exact copy of it with basic minions without crafting a thing. Murloc decks (or aggro in general) just isn't that great once you hit a certain point in the ladder. (Of course if you enjoy it by all means enjoy away.)
With that said. If you are using alakir correctly, you should at least get a 2 for 1 out of him. You don't want to play him just to have him out on the field at turn 8. You want to wait until you can play him then use the charge and divine shield to pick off a creature, and with the windfury either swing to the face or take out another one. I got him in an Arena once, and had gone like half aggro half control and it was a star in the deck.
Seems like the advice is to use him in a control shaman deck. I researched alot of control decks and came up with the following. Would like your thoughts. The only thing I am thinking of replacing is Dust Devil for either Mana Tide Totem or Sen'jin Shieldmaster.
I just hit masters with my control shaman deck, and your deck is pretty close to what I was using but still a bit off.
Get rid of dust devil, and get yourself two fairy dragons. Dust devil is a noob trap, you'll almost never get to attack with it, and then you don't get a turn 2 of any kind. Fairy Dragon will literally win you games against rogues, mages, and druids.
From what I noticed you don't really need as much control either. I don't necessarily think it's bad, but I'd drop the rockbiter weapons, and put in two flame tongue totems. As a control shaman there will be LOTS of time where you have a few totems on the field, or a few minions and they have nothing, getting that extra 4 damage out is amazing.
I don't really think that doomhammer is worth it. While it is essentially 16 damage, you want to be using weapons to kill minions off and save your own. However, by turn 5 the minions are hitting much harder at that point, and you're likely to be taking a bunch of unnecessary damage. Instead I would go with an earth elemental. It's amazing.
And instead of the two Azure drakes I'm using two yeti's. It's so great having those 4/5's. I can see why you have them in there for the spell power and that they replace themselves. But you'll find that you will often end up getting really close to running out of cards as is if you are using your Auctioneer properly. I'm also not using forked lightning, and instead I'm using 2 sunwalkers. I found that I need a bit of late game power, and trade at times to deal with aggro decks that didn't drop their load til a bit later in the game.
All in all though your deck is probably fine, it will just play a lot differently than the one that I'm using, I tend to win straight out by turn 8-9, but can easily maintain myself through 15-16 turns without worrying. You'll have a lot more control with your deck, but way less kill potential, since you have a lot less minions and less total damage if all your minions are dealt with.
I was thinking about how Al'Akir the Windlord fits with shaman and the winfury and charge make sense and I do not mind a divine shield on top of that, but what I think this card really needs is Overload to fit even better. Now here me out. I, along with other players, see the cost of this Legendary and think,"Pretty lackluster Legendary for the cost when compared to others." My thought is make it a 6 cost with Overload (2). Still the same mana cost, but the card is a 6 drop 3/5, which makes a ton of sense to me. Remove the taunt if need be, I could care less.
Is on par with the Paladin Legendary. Scales better with buffs due to Windfury and punches to the face immediately with Haste. Not broke. Doesnt need a fix.
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Nozdormu wins you every game where you opponent has to go to the bathroom on turn 9.
Is on par with the Paladin Legendary. Scales better with buffs due to Windfury and punches to the face immediately with Haste. Not broke. Doesnt need a fix.
I would agree that they are on par if Tirion Fordring did not have a deathrattle. Otherwise, I would take the paly legendary any day. Al'Akir is a win-more card the more I play him. He finishes the game when I am ahead, giving the final blow with his charge, but if I am behind, he does not get me back into the game. He can kill 2 minions with 3 health on turn 8. So I would spend 8 mana to kill 2 ~3 mana creatures or do 6 dmg to opponent, which a mage fireball can do for cheaper. If you spend the mana to buff him or happen to have a flametongue totem, he would be worth it, but as a 8 turn drop alone, not worth.
Is on par with the Paladin Legendary. Scales better with buffs due to Windfury and punches to the face immediately with Haste. Not broke. Doesnt need a fix.
Tirion is without a doubt, leagues better, no question in my eyes. Alk needs to cost less to have a bit more utility with other cards. You might get better value out of it with board control/flametongues/rock biter, but requiring that utility for an 8 drop with those stats? No thanks.
Would be fun if he was 5(3) mana to combo with bloodlust, dark irondwarf, flametongues, etc. to give him the comeback factor. Right now, he only serves to push a lead, something that shaman doesn't need.
If he had one more Text(keyword), he'd be good, but as it is, he sucks.
I think "Cannot be targeted by enemy Spells or Hero Powers" (I figure they'll just simplify this to something like 'Elusive' as a keyword) would be best.
If he had one more Text(keyword), he'd be good, but as it is, he sucks.
I think "Cannot be targeted by enemy Spells or Hero Powers" (I figure they'll just simplify this to something like 'Elusive' as a keyword) would be best.
If he had one more Text(keyword), he'd be good, but as it is, he sucks.
I think "Cannot be targeted by enemy Spells or Hero Powers" (I figure they'll just simplify this to something like 'Elusive' as a keyword) would be best.
Wouldn't Stealth do basically that?
Yes, but it's removed upon attack and essentially is non-factor
If he had one more Text(keyword), he'd be good, but as it is, he sucks.
I think "Cannot be targeted by enemy Spells or Hero Powers" (I figure they'll just simplify this to something like 'Elusive' as a keyword) would be best.
Wouldn't Stealth do basically that?
Yes, but it's removed upon attack and essentially is non-factor
Ya, a charge minion with stealth...LOL. Having the same thing as Faerie Dragon may help though.
To be fair to almost every legendary except the best of the best, Tirion almost feels like cheating if they don't have a pocket silence :P. But I agree, while Al'Akir looks good on paper, I feel that he's just slightly off. He needs support to put in work late game, be it flametounge/rockbiter/Ancestral Spirit and comparing that to something that always puts in work like Rag/Ysera/Tirion he's a little lackluster. I'd either make him 4/5 or that "Cannot be targeted by-" jazz.
With the latter buff, he'd still get destroyed by silence (who doesn't really?), but he'd have alot less answers. Mages can't ping his shield off, he can't be polymorphed/hexed/assassinated the turn he hits the board; he'd be a real PITA for your enemy to handle if their board control is less than stellar.
Making him a 4/5 would make him a Argent Commander/Sunwalker fusion with Windfury built in, which is kinda insane if you think about it. At worse, with Divine Shield and Windfury, he could trade into 8/8's and break even. With 4 attack he can also 2 for 1 anything up to 4/4s while living, making him valuable transitional cleanup. With a flametounge he can beat a 4/12 and live with 1. Using him for face is an 8 for 8 while leaving a Sunwalker on the table, which is pretty solid all things considered.
Edit: The 6 Mana Overload (2) idea isn't bad either, since he'd get out earlier and be potentially turn the tides in midgame/combo with support cards easier. 5(3) might be to similar to Earth Ele, but it could be a pro/con thing.
Too many useless stats, either you are defensive or offensive, having charge + windfury and divine shield + taunt seems like it tries to be too much.
Pretty much this. Al'Akir is good at nothing and bad at everything.
He's worse than Argent Commander if you're going to hit a minion, and he's a pay 8 -> deal 6 if you're hitting the hero (which is terrible). Therefore, he does nothing.
Control decks need a solid end-game win condition. You may need to look into alternatives such as Ragnaros or Ysera which, both, if not removed instantly, will win you the game.
"Jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind. I'd take pretty much every legendary except King Krush than this guy.
Psh, what's wrong with King Krush >:
Hunters need to have a contingency plan once their cheese deck fails! Very rarely will a Hunter not be able to break down 22 health between turns 1~9. The only issue is surviving and keeping the board clear of taunts for the last hit. I find the legendary is incredibly well-suited for the limited builds of the class.
It's suited but it's still just a 8/8 with Charge. Not at all a bad card.
But have you seen the other class legendaries? It's "remove them now or get wrecked" status all day. Antonidas, Velen, Jaraxxus, jesus those guys can win games by themselves.
Coming into Hearthstone I decided to play shaman, as shaman was my main from WOW. I have mostly been playing a murloc deck and had success against most decks. Now with the wipe I was originally planning on recreating the murloc deck but I was lucky to grab Al'Akir the Windlord in a pack. I did not see him much before the wipe, as my games were short (Murlocs...). A quick look at him and I think "wow, so many abilities!", until I see the cost... 8!! Really!?! 8 cost has so many disadvantages... especially for a 3/5... The biggest disadvatage is not being able to use it and bloodlust in the same turn, as I do not imagine him living past one turn. So for 8 cost you are guanteed to do 6 damage... single spells are better than that. The only way to make him worth it is play him along with a Rockbitter Weapon, guaranteeing 12 damage for 9 cost. Still not great. Off topic, but I think Rockbitter Weapon should be permanent like Blessing of Might.
So to you other shamans, how do you use Al'Akir the Windlord? Or does it need to be changed to be useful?
It's awesome in a Shaman control deck. Rush deck like Murlocs I probably wouldn't bother.
I think it's an amazing card, and I wish that I had enough to craft one for my control deck. I could see him not fitting well in a murloc deck at all though. Just an FYI for you, I wouldn't waste dust on making a murloc deck, while they can be good, you can create a pretty much exact copy of it with basic minions without crafting a thing. Murloc decks (or aggro in general) just isn't that great once you hit a certain point in the ladder. (Of course if you enjoy it by all means enjoy away.)
With that said. If you are using alakir correctly, you should at least get a 2 for 1 out of him. You don't want to play him just to have him out on the field at turn 8. You want to wait until you can play him then use the charge and divine shield to pick off a creature, and with the windfury either swing to the face or take out another one. I got him in an Arena once, and had gone like half aggro half control and it was a star in the deck.
Seems like the advice is to use him in a control shaman deck. I researched alot of control decks and came up with the following. Would like your thoughts. The only thing I am thinking of replacing is Dust Devil for either Mana Tide Totem or Sen'jin Shieldmaster.
I just hit masters with my control shaman deck, and your deck is pretty close to what I was using but still a bit off.
Get rid of dust devil, and get yourself two fairy dragons. Dust devil is a noob trap, you'll almost never get to attack with it, and then you don't get a turn 2 of any kind. Fairy Dragon will literally win you games against rogues, mages, and druids.
From what I noticed you don't really need as much control either. I don't necessarily think it's bad, but I'd drop the rockbiter weapons, and put in two flame tongue totems. As a control shaman there will be LOTS of time where you have a few totems on the field, or a few minions and they have nothing, getting that extra 4 damage out is amazing.
I don't really think that doomhammer is worth it. While it is essentially 16 damage, you want to be using weapons to kill minions off and save your own. However, by turn 5 the minions are hitting much harder at that point, and you're likely to be taking a bunch of unnecessary damage. Instead I would go with an earth elemental. It's amazing.
And instead of the two Azure drakes I'm using two yeti's. It's so great having those 4/5's. I can see why you have them in there for the spell power and that they replace themselves. But you'll find that you will often end up getting really close to running out of cards as is if you are using your Auctioneer properly. I'm also not using forked lightning, and instead I'm using 2 sunwalkers. I found that I need a bit of late game power, and trade at times to deal with aggro decks that didn't drop their load til a bit later in the game.
All in all though your deck is probably fine, it will just play a lot differently than the one that I'm using, I tend to win straight out by turn 8-9, but can easily maintain myself through 15-16 turns without worrying. You'll have a lot more control with your deck, but way less kill potential, since you have a lot less minions and less total damage if all your minions are dealt with.
I was thinking about how Al'Akir the Windlord fits with shaman and the winfury and charge make sense and I do not mind a divine shield on top of that, but what I think this card really needs is Overload to fit even better. Now here me out. I, along with other players, see the cost of this Legendary and think,"Pretty lackluster Legendary for the cost when compared to others." My thought is make it a 6 cost with Overload (2). Still the same mana cost, but the card is a 6 drop 3/5, which makes a ton of sense to me. Remove the taunt if need be, I could care less.
Thoughts?
Is on par with the Paladin Legendary. Scales better with buffs due to Windfury and punches to the face immediately with Haste.
Not broke. Doesnt need a fix.
Nozdormu wins you every game where you opponent has to go to the bathroom on turn 9.
I would agree that they are on par if Tirion Fordring did not have a deathrattle. Otherwise, I would take the paly legendary any day. Al'Akir is a win-more card the more I play him. He finishes the game when I am ahead, giving the final blow with his charge, but if I am behind, he does not get me back into the game. He can kill 2 minions with 3 health on turn 8. So I would spend 8 mana to kill 2 ~3 mana creatures or do 6 dmg to opponent, which a mage fireball can do for cheaper. If you spend the mana to buff him or happen to have a flametongue totem, he would be worth it, but as a 8 turn drop alone, not worth.
Just my thoughts.
Tirion is without a doubt, leagues better, no question in my eyes. Alk needs to cost less to have a bit more utility with other cards. You might get better value out of it with board control/flametongues/rock biter, but requiring that utility for an 8 drop with those stats? No thanks.
Would be fun if he was 5(3) mana to combo with bloodlust, dark irondwarf, flametongues, etc. to give him the comeback factor. Right now, he only serves to push a lead, something that shaman doesn't need.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
If he had one more Text(keyword), he'd be good, but as it is, he sucks.
I think "Cannot be targeted by enemy Spells or Hero Powers" (I figure they'll just simplify this to something like 'Elusive' as a keyword) would be best.
Wouldn't Stealth do basically that?
Yes, but it's removed upon attack and essentially is non-factor
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
Ya, a charge minion with stealth...LOL. Having the same thing as Faerie Dragon may help though.
To be fair to almost every legendary except the best of the best, Tirion almost feels like cheating if they don't have a pocket silence :P. But I agree, while Al'Akir looks good on paper, I feel that he's just slightly off. He needs support to put in work late game, be it flametounge/rockbiter/Ancestral Spirit and comparing that to something that always puts in work like Rag/Ysera/Tirion he's a little lackluster. I'd either make him 4/5 or that "Cannot be targeted by-" jazz.
With the latter buff, he'd still get destroyed by silence (who doesn't really?), but he'd have alot less answers. Mages can't ping his shield off, he can't be polymorphed/hexed/assassinated the turn he hits the board; he'd be a real PITA for your enemy to handle if their board control is less than stellar.
Making him a 4/5 would make him a Argent Commander/Sunwalker fusion with Windfury built in, which is kinda insane if you think about it. At worse, with Divine Shield and Windfury, he could trade into 8/8's and break even. With 4 attack he can also 2 for 1 anything up to 4/4s while living, making him valuable transitional cleanup. With a flametounge he can beat a 4/12 and live with 1. Using him for face is an 8 for 8 while leaving a Sunwalker on the table, which is pretty solid all things considered.
Edit: The 6 Mana Overload (2) idea isn't bad either, since he'd get out earlier and be potentially turn the tides in midgame/combo with support cards easier. 5(3) might be to similar to Earth Ele, but it could be a pro/con thing.
Too many useless stats, either you are defensive or offensive, having charge + windfury and divine shield + taunt seems like it tries to be too much.
"Jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind. I'd take pretty much every legendary except King Krush than this guy.
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Achieve Legendary rank with F2P Shaman Deck by Trump
Pretty much this. Al'Akir is good at nothing and bad at everything.
He's worse than Argent Commander if you're going to hit a minion, and he's a pay 8 -> deal 6 if you're hitting the hero (which is terrible). Therefore, he does nothing.
Control decks need a solid end-game win condition. You may need to look into alternatives such as Ragnaros or Ysera which, both, if not removed instantly, will win you the game.
http://www.twitch.tv/szsoulzek
Psh, what's wrong with King Krush >:
Hunters need to have a contingency plan once their cheese deck fails! Very rarely will a Hunter not be able to break down 22 health between turns 1~9. The only issue is surviving and keeping the board clear of taunts for the last hit. I find the legendary is incredibly well-suited for the limited builds of the class.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post
It's suited but it's still just a 8/8 with Charge. Not at all a bad card.
But have you seen the other class legendaries? It's "remove them now or get wrecked" status all day. Antonidas, Velen, Jaraxxus, jesus those guys can win games by themselves.
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If that's the case,King Krush is just a "you lose" card, lol.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vtxaishi
You're not going crazy, I edit 2~3 times each post