Hearthpwn

want to know why I left HS (before this article)?

Read this.

I am running my own version, used a 6/9 and 6/11 healing totem to destroy hunter's Highmane and two Call of the Wilds...

Do not underestimate having a board of totems and other stuff that were Totemic Mighted with two healing totems.  Healing your board for two each turn is something some classes will never overcome.

I may actually start playing with Justicar.

I forgot how to spells his name, but the Korean pro (Kranitch?) played a totem shaman using Wicked Witchdoctor from rank 3 to top 100 legend...

It wasn't Merciless Raider's deck, but honestly, he isn't too far off.

Let me quotew the guy above who put it so aptly:

"Just got wrecked by two 5/7 healing totems and a Lightning Storm with +3 Spell Damage..  o.O"   VivekG6063

It isn't perfect, but it can win.  People commonly have no answer two 5/7 healing totems with a superpowered lightning storm, because there is also all the rest of the shaman midrange package in there.

Check out his VOD, search Kranitch and it is from maybe 8/19?  It is called New Decks.  It is the newer of the two labeled "New Decks, and he starts shaman after druid, maybe 1/6 of the way into the vod.  It is eye opening.

I have to be honest, playing HS nowadays has been excruciating. I simply detest playing it, but in some twisted way feel obligated because of the money I put into it.  For two releases now (Old Gods and Kara), I have scaled back to playing only enough to complete quests to keep earning gold so I can have gold for next release.  Because at each release I keep hoping they change enough to stop the bullcrap.

Well, once I played Legends, it occurred to me, Blizzard would need to completely and utterly destroy the current class system, in particular, plus reconsider their stance on changing basics (need more health, or ability to raise health above 30..SOMETHING) or the game will stay the same.  And it has. 

I honestly don't expect them to change their game to make me happy, that would be developer suicide.  The game they made is popular and makes money and is seen as the standard of card games.  Waiting for it to change so I can enjoy it again is silly as hell.

So meanwhile, I have played Eternal (meh), HEX (FABULOUS but SO time consuming and expensive!), SpellWeaver (very underrated, but they got too creative so some way Op crap and only 500 players or less active, so you see same people who payed $$$$$ and they wipe you, then you play them again...) and finally Legends.

Legends was almost immediately perfect for me.  It wasn't HEX level of complexity (if I was younger and single without family...oh wow, great game), but it wasn't HS smash face on keyboard, still maintain 50% win rate because you play agro/tempo simpleton style. 

It had me with runes that give cards as your life is taken (this might actually solve a lot of HS problems), it had me with its style (I do like both styles, I like that this is different though) and it had me with its solo arena and a decent AI to practice against. 

It had me when over one week I watched an out of control archer (red/green) deck get countered by scout (green/purple), and am now watching a mage control deck (blue purple) gaining prominence, possibly setting up to smack them both around...which will probably get countered by a buffing token deck (Yellow/Purple), which is made using the same colors (Yellow/Purple) as my custom control deck, which gets better with each card I craft or earn (Just got my FREE legendary at character level 24, and it is a quality one).

Speaking of free legendaries and cards, make sure to check which legendaries you can get at level 24 and 32.  Your character's race portrait dictates which pool of 2-4 legendaries your free one is taken from.

Speaking of race, the racial tribes, so to say, are a fabulous addition, and there is a lot of relational symmetry and exclusion based on each color.  Certain colors can have certain races, and all have 3 races that will not be in that color.  The depth is way more than it initially appears.

Anyway, HS is a fine game, but Legends is simply what I was hoping the devs would do to HS to make it a better fit for me.

I am playing with the PtK + Bolster combo in multiple deck styles. 

In my huge, king kong slow but with huge whollops Y'Saarj deck, I have lots of taunts (including SogGOD, I mean Soggoth), all the normal control tools, then added this PtK + Bolster.  I don't have final results yet, but it can close out a game, straight up.  And it is because of all the other taunts.  If I have a brawl (I do actually use both), then I will generally try to bait out their board without using too many of my resources, and of course, no way I PtK + Bolster until I brawl him.  The brings it down to ground zero, even steven.  After that starts what, really, the whole basis for the deck is: work to get a minion or two on the board (they are big, surviving guys, like the 2/6 4 drop and Soggoth and Bogboy).  Usually only one is necessary, and when they "bulk up" their board to try to get through the minions, I use PtG and Bolster, hopefully pulling 3ish 3/3s (or amazingly often late game double Bolseters for 3ish 5/5s) then clear their board with my pre-existing minion (which is commonly bolstered and then survive when he wouldn't have).

The other deck is that tempo one, but that is tough for one reason:  Card Draw.  If have lots of cards, you can really go crazy and dominate.  But if you are trying to use two copies of PtK and Bolster and the create-a-force combo, you are closer to a combo deck and need card draw.  But all that card draw weakens the deck.

So the jury is out, and in no way is this some crazy meta-setting goliath of a combo, but it can be effective, strangely, more as a concede-style finisher haha.  BAM BAM BAM BAM - Concede

I stopped agro dead, he dumped whole hand by turn 4, losts of low Hp fellas....I dropped priest of the feast...

he waited, looked at his lack of cards..

conceded. 

Turn 4

it is purely anti zoo.

Joust synergy is extremely important in Healing Wave though, so whether you feel it is important or not, it is.  Because of healing wave.

I have played many control shaman for a long time (currently N'zoth control shaman with skeleton knight), and the minute you only gain 7 HP instead of 14 pulling that doomsayer, you will see why a deep control deck needs to stay minion free under 5 mana.  With no Healbot, you NEED those extra HP.  There are three healing sources in this deck, one (Hellahealz) requires not only another card in AOE, but a board to wipe while you are low HP.  The whole goal of the dontrol shaman deck is to survive until you can take over.  Many decks have at least two "build board and do damage to your face" phases before turn 9 or 10.  You MUST survive them.  It is my opinion that when the healing wave rotates out, so does control shaman unless they give another specific heal to shaman.

Dog sure cleaned up with it using his combo BWW deck ("bung whole wrecker") combo deck.  Windfury was integral to the  combos:

Leeroy + rock biter (or another rock biter, or another rock biter and flametongue, you get the gist)

or

Leeyory + Faceless Manipulator (that's weak sauce...sooooo)

or

Emperor Thorazine with any combo of Leeroy + Faceless M + rock biter, another rock biter and/or flametongue.

Sure, it is a combo deck and that has been around forever, but I just needed the excuse to type out BWW.  Thanks

fair point on yogg, I have since removed him from my deck too lol. ;)

Quote from Darkis >>

Here's my list. Kudos to Mhantra for The Skeleton Knight idea.

Immortal Control Shaman Control Shaman Deck by Essavias - Jun 6, 2016 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
Minion (14) 1x Cairne Bloodhoof 1x Chillmaw 1x Emperor Thaurissan 1x Hallazeal the Ascended 1x N'Zoth, the Corruptor 1x Ragnaros the Firelord 1x Soggoth the Slitherer 1x Sylvanas Windrunner 1x The Skeleton Knight 1x Ysera 2x Azure Drake 2x Thing from Below	Ability (16) 2x Elemental Destruction 2x Far Sight 2x Healing Wave 2x Lava Burst 2x Lava Shock 2x Lightning Storm 2x Hex 2x Stormcrack
Loading Collection

Come on, you know you want to try it.

You know you want to watch them attempt to permanently remove skeleton knight until they finally do, only to have to remove it again once N'Zoth resurrects it, with no guarantee of not putting it back into your hand to have to remove again.  And possibly again.

 AbusingKel and I have been both testing what started as a Yogg Skellie Knight control deck and has evolved into a Yogg-Skellie-N'zoth deck, and it looks pretty similar to yours in fact. 

First of all, to address the elephant in the room, yes, Skeleton Knight.  He's great.  But only in a shaman control deck.  Look at your shaman spells and early minions.  You have tons of early spells, but only one 2 mana minon or lower, the ooze, which could possibly be removed to make you have one 5 drop and the rest 6 drops and higher to win jousts with skelllie. 

Here's the theory behind him, the dirty secret nobody knows about:  He is a removal remover.  They will use removal, starting with removal spell, then executes, SW:D etc, but then he can come back, and they will use another.  Then another.   And if they don't remove him, they pay dearly with 7 to the face!  He is brilliant, really, but again, think of all the classes.  How many classes have tons of spell based early game that is enough to actually survive in a control deck.  Only Shaman (Warrior used to, but lost too much of it with move to standard).  Again, look at your early game in the shaman section of your deck.  none of those will wreck your joust.

And, slow as we were to realize it, you have a second chance mechanism should you lose that joust.  It's called N'zoth.   Yes, not only pull a second Cairne, Sylvanas and Chillmaw, but also a 7/4 Skeleton Knight that you just may get back in your hand after he has removed it once, then removed it again after N'Zoth...only to have to remove it again.  It is a removal remover.

now, follow me here...imagine it hidden behind your Soggoth...lol!  (the theory behind him, incidentally, is an Board Clear eater, because many decks that is all they have, or trader their whole board, which is a great consolation prize...I have seen a warrior drop a single minion and brawl a single Soggoth because he didn't know what else to do, just hoped to get lucky).

And this all leads to my next thought on your deck.  You have lots and lots of spells.  Yogg will always make sense in a deck like this.

Like Abusing-Kel says, he is extremely slow.  you need to get to late mid to late game to really use him.  It is then that any leftover smaller minions can be combined to great effect.  I also run Mistcaller in my Battlecry builds, as it can help him survive. 

So ultimately, you need some long playing slow controlish deck to make use of him.  While you would think C'Thun would be a good fit, the goal of C'Thun is to use those battlecry minions as soon as possible for your early game, thus using them up where they won't be used with Rumbling E.

The oddball approach like in the Reno deck above makes the most sense, but so many of those cards are now gone.   While it seems it would be good in midrange, I can't even see it competing with totem synergy, and even just for fun, I think it  needs to be a heavy midrange or even control type deck to work because you need to stay alive and gather resources.

I run a few in a control shaman, and there is a real benefit to how they are played.

Basically, if you are a true control whose aim is to go late game and have the ability to do it, these are able to be dropped for literally nothing.  both of them.  And still have 10 mana. 

Some shaman combos are:

Elemental Destruction (3)  + Frost Giant (0) + Frost Giant (0) +  Faceless Shambler (4) {1/1 that gains target's ATK/HP with taunt} + Mana Tide totem (3) + Thing from Below x2 (0) = Concede

Ok Ok, that's the dream, obviously that many cards rarely happens, but that gets the point across and brings it to warrior.  What type of cards can you include to, when situation permits, use such low cost behemoths to full benefit?  Preferably cards that also have synergy with other cards in control warrior. 

Faceless Shambler  seems like a great card for control warrior.  You could go the route of Handlock and drop a 4 mana argus or taunt. 

Maybe a simple faceless manipulator would be good, or some taunt minions to protect them.  Maybe you do one of my favorites:

Frost Giant + Frost Giant + Soggoth (untargetable 5/9 Taunt).  Unless they have some type of huge AOE or minions already on board, good luck taking Soggoth out.  Then Frost Giants wreak havoc.

Justicar seems like a no brainer in this deck too.