So I had great success with Aggro Spell Damage Shaman before the Barrens rotation of cards ... and I think some of the new Alterac Frost stuff can bring the deck back to being good (particularly more card draw).
I got a (new) theorycrafting friend to go over the deck in detail with me. He liked it except for the Guild Traders. Suggested I cut those for maybe Landslides.
I would argue that Guild Trader is too much mana for the spell damage you get. An replace could be Novice Zapper which is more flexible as it is only 1 mana it would also make Landslide better if you fit that in the deck.
I think the deck is missing some kind of board clear or comeback card if the board gets overwhelmed. Landslide is properly not a bad idea. The new Snowball Fight! is also an interesting choice if you want to try out the new cards. Bru'kan of the Elements is also interesting, but I imagine that you fight for ending the game before turn 8.
I would argue that Guild Trader is too much mana for the spell damage you get. An replace could be Novice Zapper which is more flexible as it is only 1 mana it would also make Landslide better if you fit that in the deck.
I do worry that 4 mana is a lot, yes. I put Guild Trader in with the idea that I would mostly just use it as 1-mana cycle. But it's entirely possible that that's just not good enough to warrant 2 deck slots.
Don't like Novice Zapper, it feels like the Overload always gets in the way on that card specifically for some reason.
Only reason I'm leaning towards Primal Dungeoneer over Multicaster is 3 mana vs 4. But I'm considering doing what you say, yes. I could even drop the Primals for 2nd Multicaster and one copy of Molten Blast, so I have a native Fire spell.
I think the deck is missing some kind of board clear or comeback card if the board gets overwhelmed. Landslide is properly not a bad idea. The new Snowball Fight! is also an interesting choice if you want to try out the new cards. Bru'kan of the Elements is also interesting, but I imagine that you fight for ending the game before turn 8.
Landslide was amazing in the pre-Barrens run of the deck. I'm only considering cutting it because the meta has more no-minion decks now than it did back then.
If anyone's curious for an update on this deck, I can proudly say it's above 50% on ladder! ... barely. Like, my first 100 games went 51-49.
I made some changes after that (and went 10-9 so far). I dropped Guidance, Bloodmage Thalnos, and Imprisoned Phoenixes for 2x Novice Zapper and 2x Guild Trader. I found the games were going long enough to do GT combos, and in early turns they can just function as more card draw. NZs I just found I was always picking from Primordial Studies, largely because they have Overload to trigger Landslide doubling -- there wasn't enough Overload in the deck otherwise.
At First sight, I dont like Ras and both primal. Seems to situational and to slow to me
Understandable! Ras is kind of a pet card for me -- I WANT him to be good enough that I probably won't experiment with cutting him, even though he's one of the weaker cards remaining on the list. If I cut Primal I would want more card draw in its place, though, and Shaman doesn't have an abundance of options for that.
Try it and let me know how it goes! I'm at 11-4 with the current list!
So I had great success with Aggro Spell Damage Shaman before the Barrens rotation of cards ... and I think some of the new Alterac Frost stuff can bring the deck back to being good (particularly more card draw).
Here's my rough draft list:
But here are cards I'm considering trying to squeeze into the list:
What cuts and additions would you make to refine my deck concept?
I got a (new) theorycrafting friend to go over the deck in detail with me. He liked it except for the Guild Traders. Suggested I cut those for maybe Landslides.
I would argue that Guild Trader is too much mana for the spell damage you get. An replace could be Novice Zapper which is more flexible as it is only 1 mana it would also make Landslide better if you fit that in the deck.
I would also cut both Primal Dungeoneer. I think considering that is has 4/11 of a chance to draw two cards then Multicaster would be better considering you are already running 3 schools with a chance of finding a fire spell.
I also think you would have enough draw with Bloodmage Thalnos, Multicaster, Cagematch Custodian, Windchill.
I think the deck is missing some kind of board clear or comeback card if the board gets overwhelmed. Landslide is properly not a bad idea. The new Snowball Fight! is also an interesting choice if you want to try out the new cards. Bru'kan of the Elements is also interesting, but I imagine that you fight for ending the game before turn 8.
I do worry that 4 mana is a lot, yes. I put Guild Trader in with the idea that I would mostly just use it as 1-mana cycle. But it's entirely possible that that's just not good enough to warrant 2 deck slots.
Don't like Novice Zapper, it feels like the Overload always gets in the way on that card specifically for some reason.
Only reason I'm leaning towards Primal Dungeoneer over Multicaster is 3 mana vs 4. But I'm considering doing what you say, yes. I could even drop the Primals for 2nd Multicaster and one copy of Molten Blast, so I have a native Fire spell.
Yes, trying to end the game before Bru'kan of the Elements would become good.
Landslide was amazing in the pre-Barrens run of the deck. I'm only considering cutting it because the meta has more no-minion decks now than it did back then.
Updated the decklist with Landslides instead of Guild Traders.
Four-hour countdown to test time!
If anyone's curious for an update on this deck, I can proudly say it's above 50% on ladder! ... barely. Like, my first 100 games went 51-49.
I made some changes after that (and went 10-9 so far). I dropped Guidance, Bloodmage Thalnos, and Imprisoned Phoenixes for 2x Novice Zapper and 2x Guild Trader. I found the games were going long enough to do GT combos, and in early turns they can just function as more card draw. NZs I just found I was always picking from Primordial Studies, largely because they have Overload to trigger Landslide doubling -- there wasn't enough Overload in the deck otherwise.
23-23 since the changes, can't seem to get far away from 50% in either direction!
I'm thinking of cutting the Guild Traders again, their winrate has not been exemplary.
Trying out Ethereal Augmerchants instead of Guild Traders. 6-1 so far! Probably mostly just luck.
Tbh I rly like that list, maybe I gonna try it.
At First sight, I dont like Ras and both primal. Seems to situational and to slow to me
Understandable! Ras is kind of a pet card for me -- I WANT him to be good enough that I probably won't experiment with cutting him, even though he's one of the weaker cards remaining on the list. If I cut Primal I would want more card draw in its place, though, and Shaman doesn't have an abundance of options for that.
Try it and let me know how it goes! I'm at 11-4 with the current list!
Climbed to Diamond 4 with 36-25 record with the latest list! I think this is actually good, folks!