Love this card, very good for mill / fatigue decks with Coldlight Oracle :-)
46
Love this card, very good for mill / fatigue decks with Coldlight Oracle :-)
3
Ah, the Deck of Many Things. You had an 80% chance to effectively kill your character, a 15% chance to gain a huge benefit, and a 5% chance to do nothing too great. I remember when my friend drew one card and it managed to be the Moon. He then immediately threw the deck in a pit. Good times....
Oh wait, this is Hearthstone.
7
Spirit Echo puts them into your hand. This summons the Totems on board, which can help set up a Bloodlust next turn.
3
No it is bad against control... it is very good against Aggro though, you just wait for them to empty their hand, play this and put any taunt in play and you won. "Key" cards against aggro don't matter because they might as well be at the bottom of your deck and you still won't draw it. Get this from Arfus and you have a way to stabilize against aggro decks, if you got this from The Lich King then it doesn't even matter, aggro deck usually cannot deal with 8/8 taunt without losing anyway...
3
Malygos Shaman is calling to me... I haven't played it since before Whispers of The Old Gods so I'll have to craft Hallazeal, but I love control so maybe I can make other control Shaman decks around it also...
7
Congratulations on hitting Legend with Malygos Shaman! I played Malygos Shaman to Legend as well last season. My decklist is in fact the first entry on the Similar Decks tab; as you can see, our decks are almost identical, differing by only 3 cards. The meta is probably a bit more difficult for Malygos Shaman this season, as there are a lot more Reno Mages and Control Warriors compared to last season. In any case, I would argue that Malygos Shaman is still the strongest combo deck in the current Wild meta.
I appreciate the effort you took to write your detailed guide on this deck. I'll link to it in my deck, as you did a great job in presenting an overview on the fundamentals of the deck.
I do have a few notes to add regarding the matchups section of the guide:
Freeze Mage:
Freeze Mages aren't particularly common in the current meta, but I am familiar with the matchup, having played a few games on both sides of the matchup. It is slightly favored for the Malygos Shaman, but not for the reasons you mentioned above. Freeze Mages pack far more card draw than you can as a Malygos Shaman, including Mad Scientist, and it's almost impossible to assemble your combo before they have Ice Block up and are ready to burst you down. The main drawback of Freeze Mage, though, is that their burst come over several turns. Your main win condition in this matchup is to outheal the Freeze Mage and to win through fatigue, as the Freeze Mage will inevitably draw more cards. As a result, it's important to keep track of deck size and to avoid drawing once you have both Healing Wave and Hallazeal the Ascended.
For the mulligans, if you know it's Freeze Mage, keep any of the 3 healing cards in the deck. Card draw should also be kept, as it helps you dig through your deck to find your healing. The Malygos combo can be played whenever you assemble it to pop Ice Block, as it forces them to use their some of their burn to remove it. In addition, using Ancestor's Call to eliminate combo pieces is often another win condition.
Reno Mage:
Reno Mage is an unfavorable matchup, since the combination of Ice Block, Reno Jackson, and Polymorph completely nullifies your win condition. As you mentioned above, the best chance is the simply hope that they don't draw the Ice Block before you assemble your combo. Because this is Wild and they have access to Mad Scientist along with their other spell generation tools, though, this is unlikely.
I would like to add, however, that there is a certain method to defeat a Reno Mage after they have their Ice Block up. Again, it involves fatigue. Your goal is to survive until their deck runs out of cards. Once that happens, you summon Malygos and hit the Reno Mage with exactly 2x Lightning Bolt + 1x Lava Shock + 1x Frost Shock. Assuming no additional spell damage, this combination does exactly 29 damage. At the start of the Mage's turn, they will take 1 fatigue damage for exact lethal, since damage taken on your own turn ignores Ice Block.
Secret Paladin:
You listed this as a very unfavorable matchup, which I disagree with. I would say it's about even. One thing to note about Secret Paladin is that can't much burst from hand. The most damage they can typically do is 6 damage more than what's on board, from Truesilver Champion + Consecration. This lack of burst makes them predictable, and you can use that to your advantage by being greedy with your board clears. In addition, Secret Paladins don't typically run healing (outside of the negligible 4 health from Truesilver), and also don't have much hard removal outside of Keeper of Uldaman. This allows you to safely summon Malygos early with Ancestor's Call, if needed, to combo with Maelstrom Portal or Lightning Storm to clear their board. Unload any burn spells you have left at face. It's nearly impossible for a Secret Paladin to come back after that, as they lack removal and don't function well without board advantage.
8
Guys, let me introduce myself, my nick is sens1g, I'm playing at EU server an I was multiple time legend before gadgetzan update, but struggled in reno / pirate Argo meta, since I do like combo decks.
I really need to draw your attention to this deck! Let's start with the fact that I've reached legend with it from rank 4 to leg in 1,5 days. Actually, I faced this guy - Chillinon (guid author) 5 times climbing to the legend: two times on agroburst shaman (lost 0-2), two times with RenoLeeroyWarlock (1-1) and one time on classic dragon priest (lost 0-1). Then I've decided to build that deck (thanks Chillinon for sharing it in game!) and rushed to legend with around 80% win rate (less 5 practicing matches).
It's really satisfacting to see cancer agro pirates conceding at 7-8 turn after hallazeal+ED combo (which might be use with other spells and also barnes doubled this combo). Priests/warlocks can't do anything against 30+ damage combo off with ancestors' call+maly in one turn (its achievable even without taurissan baff).
In conclusion, after struggling with ~60% win rate with mainstream decks, it's nice to see your opponent playing with you as with agrosham while you're setting up your combo.
Few tips for the followers - keep pretending being standard totem sham as long as possible. Try to avoid dirty rats. Try to kill renomage before it played icewall. Try to bite off ~10 health from Renowarlock - it will ease your combo crucially, and maintain 20+ Health in this match up. Against priests do not hurry, build your combo carefully, but remember about damage/armor from Kazakus potions. Never be greedy with your spells in agro match ups - it will help you to live and then play your high health minions (usually, wars/shams concede after loosing their presence at board and run out of cards in hand). GL HF
PS: gratz with legend, Chillinon, I haven't chance to tell you in game :) I was a bit nervous when you published this guide here, but I managed to reach legend before malyshams invaded ladder :DD
PSS: legend proof will follow. Ask questions should you have any, I'll try to accommodate. Sorry for my english - it's not my native.
3
This specific card is my favorite card in the game!
11
golden animation looks like the pokemon Torkoal
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15
"try tongue, but hole"
6
Album- not really necessary, I just felt like it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Novel - I'm not making a video and it's a weird deck to play well so I tried to be thorough. I've still had to coach like 6-7 people on my friends list so I might just be a really bad writer.
3
Oh damn, congratulations yourself on doing the same last season! I'd just like to add a my own reasoning why I listed those matchups the way I did.
Freeze Mage - I'd argue the most important difference in our deck compositions here is that I'm running Mana Tide Totem which the few Freezes I did fight were very reluctant to kill unless it was included in a Blizzard or Flamestrike, this meant that I was drawing a lot more than they were. As in most of my matches, I was further ahead in the deck, I often happened to get my combo before them. The blocks weren't particularly relevant as Malygos was down and it's difficult for them to both kill Maly and get up another block and then Alex themselves next turn to stabilise (assuming she wasn't already taken out by Ancestor's and disposed of). The only freeze Mage I lost to when playing like this is one where I over drew a crackle and fell just short of being able to finish them off after that exact stabilisation scenario occurred, most of the time it looked like http://imgur.com/a/zJjpY
Reno Mage - It's going to sound dumb, especially because I've written this lengthy guide, but I never actually considered waiting till fatigue xD That does seem to make perfect sense though, I've just been very lucky whilst playing wrong/aggressively that they've either 1) not gotten a block up (sometimes because a Mad Scientist has drawn Duplicate instead) 2) had Reno drgged out by the Ancestor's Call 3) Not had Reno in hand at all. So when you're playing do you just hold off on your draw unless they're ahead then?
Secret Paladin - I've definitely had games which have played out like you've listed but I think your inclusion of the 2nd Maelstrom Portal and Feral Spirits strengthens you significantly here. There have been a many times where I've had to drastically overkill junk with a larger AoE and have suffered because of the overload. I'd say my version, if played optimally is still unfavoured but after reading your comments I realise "very unfavoured" is an overstatement + I have encountered a few more since making this and won some games.
Thanks for your feedback, I do appreciate your criticism. With your permission and full credit, if it's ok, can I write up your amendments in a bit? I'll probably keep the Freeze write up the same for the most part but your insight into Reno Mage and Secret Paladin do the deck more justice than I did. I'll also link to your deck at the end of the guide as up you've kindly done for me :)
2
Sorry for the late reply, been busy. Never really considered finder's keepers at all, really hard to evaluate given it's range of outcome.
Don't think I'd run as although it can get more reach or AoE, it's also fairly likely to just give you a minion you don't really want. Still, if you see some potential, don't let me stop you from trying it :)
2
great stats for a pseudo cantrip, more tempo than Thoughtsteal but there's the delay on the dig
Really solid, more cards to help priest fight for board, now we just need decently statted 1 or 2 drop not reliant on dragons.
3
What I love most about It is that it definitely feels like my discover decisions have a huge impact on how I'll act next.
Earlier I had a tough choice between Flame Imp Mortal Coil and Voidwalker in a Zoo mirror match and I ended up roping my opponent turn 2 whilst going through all the possible counterplay scenarios in my head before ultimately choosing walker and being rewarded a few turns later when I was able to protect my Knife Juggler and buff it with Wolf.
I thought it would be strong but damn has it gone above and beyond in practice.
2
Also bear in mind that many Zoos only run Imp Gang Boss as their only 3 drops in the deck and often float mana after playing another 2 drop on 3 or tapping, this card can keep some tempo going.
7
Being a Warlock class card does mean you can potentially select some best 1 mana cards in the game however:
Flame Imp
Voidwalker
Power Overwhelming
Soulfire
All amazing cards in the right situation, even things like Corruption can be the right pick sometimes even if you wouldn't put it in your deck normally.
5
Could be pretty good for Mech Rogue and Priest in particular (which have a tendency to burn out without consistent finishers like Antonidas or Rockbiter+Doomhammer.)
5
It's probably the weakest because it seems to be designed to minimise your opponent's board and get back into the game; whilst costing 10 mana and therefore losing any tempo you may have gotten from using it when they play more shit next turn.
I think they could have gotten away with "deal 12 damage randomly split" and it'd still be fair (probably more flavourful too as it's a literal clock) but whatever, it's an alright option to have, I guess.