Hearthpwn

Honestly saying any Card Game is "P2W" is like saying the sky is blue, it's kind of obvious. You need to pay money to buy cards in the physical card games unless you have a friend that just hands you their decks to mess around with. At least most CCGs (Hearthstone included here obviously) give you enough cards to make a deck for literally nothing. As mentioned in prior posts, it's actually more of a pay to play than it is to win. You don't get anything special (except for Golden Gelbin, but he's a gimmicky card at best) for buying cards with money, it just makes the process faster.

Going top to bottom, my personal rating for these 1 drops are:

3: Mirror Images just to protect yourself is alright if you feel you're going to get rushed, but vanilla Images without anything meaningful to protect is eh, thus the middle road.

5: Faerie Dragon is an insane card early game. It forces them to commit a minion to the board and it can get in 3 early damage, possibly more if left unchecked.

4: getting any minion out on the field before the opponent is good for momentum, making most 3/2 drops turn 1 pretty solid.

2(4): by herself without any follow up plays, a turn 1 Northshire Cleric is fairly mediocre as it dies to commonly played 3/2 minions. With a follow up play like Power Word: Shield (to buff out of common kill ranges that early) or Holy smite (to take out 3/2s), it is a very solid drop to force overcommitment by the opponent.

4: A Leper Gnome almost always gets at least 2 damage in, when dropped turn 1 against certain classes it can get in 4 or even more damage. Even the classes that can answer it usually "waste" their turn 2 momentum to do it,. A great 1 drop and minion in general for aggro decks.

5(3): A turn 1 Fiery War Axe can win games, period. Either the enemy is left feeding minions to the axe while you drop your own, or they forego early minions and switch to the defensive while you play the aggressor. Of course, the turn 2 Ooze counterplay can ruin this momentum, but even then it can benefit some weapon heavy decks by sparing the stronger weapons from Oozes.

1: Wasting your Coin to get a Novice Engineer usually makes no sense to me. Not only is she herself very weak, at 1/2, but she's basically a "free" minion already, since she replaces herself when placed on the field thanks to her battlecry. You might as well just wait till turn 2 to place her down and save your coin for a stronger minion.

Now these are my personal opinions, so take them with a grain of salt, but this is how I rate these 1 drops.

Can't go wrong with Cairne, he's pretty solid. Leeroy Jenkins is also an option if you kind yourself leaning towards more aggressive decks (which hunters and mages can do), as 6 damage charge for 4 is pretty good.

yeah, I'm going through editing hell and breaking things again to try and make my list more formal.

Feral Spirits are good, but I'm not sure where I'd squeeze them in, and between Argus and Corsairs there should be a decent amount of taunt throughout the game. I'd understand subbing the Corsairs out for Feral Spirits if you don't have Southsea Captain though, since they very similar in stats (2/3s vs 3/3) without the aura buff, and you get more of them (2 spirits vs 1 Corsair). Subbing out the Captains to really load up on taunt could work too.

As for board clear, I figure the aggressive nature of this deck might lean towards the minions and weapons alternating roles for board control as the game goes on. That being said, Lightning Bolt could be replaced with Lightning Storm for a backup plan when the board isn't in your favor. Could also experiment with Earthen Ring Farseers (the only real good healing neutral imo) in place of Shattered Sun. I'll put those in the OP tomorrow.

Quote from vtxAishi »

Quote from chingchongwingwong »

using rockbiter weapon while u have doomhammer equipped buffing ur attack to 5 DOES NOT make dread corsair cost 0, it still costs 2.

after this happened i rage quitted. not a good deck

It's literally attack on weapon, not attack for hero.

Spiteful Smith and Greenskin will buff it up, Rockbiter won't, akin to Heroic Strike for warrior.

Hmm, well I'm really sorry for the misinformation, guess that makes the deck as a whole alot less viable then. I edit prior posts for clarification. I thought about Captain Greenskin, and I guess in lieu of my stupidity, having him in here for another weapon buff would be a good idea. He's also a pirate so he would be buffed by the Southsea Command auras. Apologies again.

Dread Corsair: With a weapon equipped he's a 3/3 taunt for 2, which is pretty good. He combo with Spiteful Smith's Enrage for 0cost 3/3s later on in the game, which can help in flooding the board.

Edit: Dread Corsair does not have synergy with Rockbiter on a weapon, making him a little less viable for the deck.

Spellbreaker: It's always nice to have a pocket silence to make the removal of problem targets easier. Very useful in circumventing powerful taunt minions that could otherwise wreck your field or your health.

Doomhammer: Doomhammer's real potential lies in its ability to grant a Hero Windfury, the only weapon in the game currently that does this. Any and all buffs to the weapon's damage are technically doubled for the turn(s) they exist on it. Doomhammer also has power in its ability to distribute 2 instances of damage anyway you like to the board. Having two might seem overkill, but its insurance against Oozes, and with 2 Doomhammers in the deck the only reason you shouldn't be attacking either the Hero or weak minions every turn is when they put a high damage taunt minion in your way.

Spiteful Smith: His main selling point is enrage, which buffs a weapon by 2 damage. He's a solid minion to drop before and even after a Doomhammer, as the 4 damage from the Smith and two instances of now 4 damage from Doomhammer can clean up a board nicely. Smith enrage + Doomhammer also works well with the pirates, letting you drop Corsairs for 0mana and drop 6/3 raiders. Also has hidden synergy with Leeroy, who spawns 1/1 whelps the Smith can ram into for a quick enrage.

Molten Giant: Getting yourself to low health even in a winning position isn't hard in this deck, as you can constantly run into minions to lower your own health during a game to establish board control. This can turn a penalty into an advantage as you drop 8/8s along with whatever is on the board to really nail it home to your opponent.

Conclusion:

I hope you enjoyed reading this guide. I'm not sure this deck will be entirely competitive or even viable, but at least you might take something away from this. I tried to mesh as much synergy as possible while still having cards that can be independent of each other, and I feel that a balance of synergy and minions are what make a solid deck.

(future modifcations/suggestions will go here)

Changelog (10/20/2013):

-1 Shattered Sun Cleric +1 Captain Greenskin: I might be overvaluing the Southsea Captains, but I like his concept as a solid neutral 3 drop with a command aura. So I replaced a cleric instead for Greenskin, who is a solid legendary for this deck. He provides a permanent buff to your weapons and should have been a literal no-brainer for this deck, he just slipped my mind. You can also replace a Spiteful Smith, for him, given their similar concepts and mana cost.

-2Lightning Bolt +2 Lightning Storm: Lightning Bolt was kind of an undecided card in this deck anyhow, and between solid 3 drops and potential early game control with Rockbiter and Stormforged Axe, having a board clear option is arguably superior.

Suggestion List (as of recommendations up to 10/20/2013):

Earthen Ring Farseer: A solid replacement for either of your 3 drops (Captain or Cleric) if you find yourself using weapons more for board control than for hero aggression. He's a solid 3/3 body that can give your health a much needed boost after running into minions.

Sen'jin Shieldmasta: Given the similar stats and initial cost to Dread Corsair, it was inevitable the two would be compared. In a less pirate heavy/pirateless version of this deck he is the superior option each time. If you've replaced the Southsea Captains for something else, I'd look into these over Dread Corsairs potentially.

Feral Spirit: A shaman staple, it's hard to find a deck this doesn't fit into. A weapon deck in particular can handle overload much better than most other decks. Given their similar stats and cost to Dread Corsair (and the fact you get 2 instead of 1 per use), a deck without Southsea Captain might find these much more useful replacement to stem early aggression. You can also replace the Southsea Captains themselves to load up on taunt.

Captain's Parrot: An alternative draw engine that specifically targets the pirates in your deck. Also works really well in variations of the deck that have Captain Greenskin as the only pirate, as having 1 Parrot specifically to fish him can increase your odds of having him for Doomhammer plays.

Let me just start with with the disclaimer that I am a stealth member of the "No Beta Club", and thus can't test this deck myself. This is all just me using my best thinking cap.

Deck Goal:

The main goal of this deck is to use the power of Doomhammer combined with weapon buffs, weapon-centric minion aggression thanks to pirates, and minion buffs to simply overwhelm the opponent with many potential/high damage sources. A Shaman's high durability on their weapons (3 and 8, respectively) means you can be aggressive with weapons early on without worrying about breaking them before your pirates show up.

The Cards:

Lightning Bolt: This card is in here primarily to breathe some spell versatility into an otherwise almost full minion/weapon centric deck. It can be used for spot removal, to bypass a taunt to hit a more troublesome minion, as a 3 damage finisher, or to soften a taunt before going in with a minion/weapon. (replaced with Lightning Storm, see Changelog for reasoning)

Rockbiter Weapon: This is one of the bread and butter cards for the deck. It can be used on either weapon for a 5 (10 with Doom) damage weapon on a turn. You can also place this on minions in conjunction with Windfury for minion burst as well.

Edit: Rockbiter doesn't count towards Weapon Damage due to being a temporary effect, so it doesn't synergize with weapon cards.

Southsea Deckhand: With a weapon equipped, he is a cheap charge minion that can squeak in extra damage or be used as a buffable removal bullet that can take out trouble targets.

Ancestral Spirit: You can use this spell to treat a minion as a removal spell for the turn, since they will come back by the end of it. All minions are fair game, but especially charge minions, as they respawn with charge; Allowing you to treat it as a pseudo Windfury if they're running into minions.

Windfury: The game-ender card, put this on a high damage minion or combo it with a Rockbiter (or both). Given it's game ending nature, I've decided to only put one in the deck; It's not entirely necessary to win, but when you do get it you will win that much faster.

Bloodsail Raider: Synergizes well with weapon decks in general, but is also a decent 2 drop even if you have no weapons to combo her with. She's still a 2/3 body that can be buffed up by all the various sources of minion buff.

Flametongue Totem: A shaman aggression staple. It's 0 attack and + attack only buffs are the reason I only went with one, It's a good card when you have some board presence, but utterly useless without it.

Stormforged Axe: These are your early game weapons for the potential early game aggression. 2 attack lets it handle the constant 3/2s thrown around, and its 3 durability can coax an opponent into using their Acidic Swamp Ooze against it.

Southsea Captain: He's both a nice command aura to beef up your pirates, while also being a decent buff candidate himself due to his independent nature (you can drop him down whenever).

Mana Tide Totem: The only card draw engine this deck has.Between Dread Corsair and Defender of Argus, this card can usually come in under a taunt blanket of some nature; forcing either silence, removal, or overcommitment on minions to get to it.

Shattered Sun Cleric: A solid 3 drop by her own merit, she really shines when she can come in and buff a minion with a solid +1/+1 buff. Fortunately, between the pirates and totems she'll almost always come in with a minion to buff.

Leeroy Jenkins: Ahh Leeroy, you're stupid as hell, but man are you good. A 6 damage Charge for 4 is very strong, especially given the cheap cost of our buff cards. He also combos well with Ancestral Spirit for a potential 12 damage removal spell for 6. Ysera who?

Defender of Argus: An incredible utility card that has both offensive and defensive practicalities. He can buff up your minions while forcing the enemy to go through them. They are very strong with Molten Giants, as 2 9/9 taunts and a 3/3 for can be very hard to deal with.

(continued because Hearthpwn character limit is screwing things up)

Quote from savjz »

Quote from Acederp »

most people can silence it

no it cannot get silenced. You play this card before "trading". Don't put it in your deck if the way you play is passing turn with it up.

You could actually place it on a minion without trading, it's an interesting (and risky, mind you) way to coax silence as it were. If they kill the minion, it comes back. if they silence it, well that's one less silence for things I care about. Rag + Ancestral is diabolical against anything not named Polymorph or Hex (or Mind Control, but if you do Rag + Ancestral on a Priest without a backup plan you kinda deserve what's coming).

Stampeding Kodo is the guy your looking for, and he does have his uses, especially in certain matchups like Warlock (blood Imp snipe ftw) and Shaman (no flametongue/Mana Tide for you). I figure between Emperor Cobra + Unleash/Beastial and his spell removals, having a Kodo might be overkill, but he could be useful.

Fellow former shaman main huh? Guess we stick to what we know best :P. Well, Hijack inc-

The basic premise is using powerful 2 for 1 minions along with board control staples in a pseudo hybrid of styles. Ancestral Spirit is arguably the only oddball, but I treat it as a "X damage removal spell that you cast on minions", with X being the minions damage.

Injured Blademaster + Ancestral Spirit next turn is a 4/7 (since it doesn't trigger his "Battlecry") for 5 mana that is also a 4 damage removal spell. Faceless + Ancestral is a neat combo to steal two "copies" of an enemies minion, while Ancestral + Faceless your own minion gives you 2 copies that respawn when killed. Argent Commander is a pretty mean target to Ancestral if he lives to the end of a turn, since he'll respawn with Charge AND Divine Shield, ready to 2 for 1 all over again. I want to test Al'Akir with all this support (potential Faceless copy, Ancestral Spirit, Flametongue) before I rule him out completely.

Reading this thread has inspired me to look into certain aspects of my deck (it didn't have flametongue before, the debate of Al'Akir, looking into Mana Tide over Auctioneer, etc). I think it's nice that a discussion and refinement of one man's deck can help others notice things about theirs, while still allowing them to do something different.

Quote from Huckit »

I am looking for some help on 1 things: What card to remove for a 2nd Flametongue Totem?

To Jordawes question on Faerie Dragon: They are amazing right now. With high popularity of contol decks (priest mostly), they are a terror for my opponents. Not a better (2) drop that I can think of. Also Jordawes, please link your shaman deck. I love looking at shaman deck builds.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes looking at others shaman decks, it's the class I intend to main for constructed in Hearthstone :P. I'd debate Al'Akir for your 2nd flametongue if you find that all his tools aren't clutching games and is only really there to finish them; might as well run the totem for surprise up trading/damage or Leeroy if you want a 6 damage finisher since hes 4 mana. I might link my own aggressive/control hybrid which also tries Al'Akir support, but last thing I want to do is hijack a thread with my builds.

Quote from Lickerz »

+ 2 attack isn't really a waste... it's an upgraded divine shield version haha. Bestial Wrath is a great removal tool.

that was worded awfully on my part, I meant its a waste for Emperor Cobra, you know with him instagibbing anything and what not. The +2 itself combined with Immune is what makes this card pretty "beastly" *shot* for any minion not named Cobra as well.

Quote from Zederok »

If your using weapons to smash the face how are you killing their minions?

I'm assuming he's talking about using dead turns when they have no minions on the board to be aggressive and attack the hero, instead of saving the durability for minions only. Warriors tend to have so many weapons they can get away with this quite easily, and with 2 upgrades a wasted durability on hero attack can be patched up by upgrade to mantain board pressure.

Onyxia + Bloodlust is powerful certainly for midrange aggression/aggro decks as a win condition, but its not a fit for all decks.

I agree that Drakes and Auctioneers can conflict for board space, being similar cost and stats, so I'd experiment with either Drakes/Mana Tide or just Auctioneers/Replacement for Drake.

I also agree that flametongue can be pretty strong in any shaman deck, letting your mana sink totems trade up with 3/2's, soften targets, or get 2 damage in on the hero for basically free. It also lets your other minions do potential trade ups as well and supports Al'Akir.

I'm honestly a fan of 2 Lightning Bolt/ 1 Rockbiter if there has to be three 1mana removals. Lightning Bolt can scale off Spell Damage. When you have an axe equipped, Rockbiter + Attack and Lightning Bolt + Attack are almost identical; except that if need be you can redirect that 3 from Lightning Bolt to another target, where Rockbiter + Axe is all on one target without the ability to redirect it. They both have their pros and cons though, and I might be biased because I'll be experimenting with Unbound Elemental in Control/Hybrid decks (for an early game snowball minion they have/want to answer).

I'm on the fence about Al'Akir myself, on one hand all the card text makes him versatile, one the other hand, his stats are kinda garbage and he needs support to shine against late game minions. I feel with proper support, he can be a monster; but do you want a legendary who wants support, or one who can support? I'd experiment with Ysera in his place if you have her, she's so insane that some people literally have counter cards in their decks just to beat her.

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.