Hearthpwn

So I do run flame tongue totem and i don't think that it is uncommon (or that this is a new topic) but I find that more often then not it is pretty immediately neutered silenced/destroyed that next turn. While i more often then not get one sometimes two turns with its effect on the field I was wondering what or  when people play the totem to increase its longevity. Often if the totem stays on the field 3+ turns I've won the game because of the trades it allows. 

Quote from Mhantra »

 

I think that's what the "banter" is about, "high level play," is being considered a pretentious statement.  Ultimately, though, all cards are always relative to all other cards in a deck.  If, for example, a super face agro shaman ever came around, then Al'Akir just might be too a high mana card for it. 

 

I am curious, though, does that mech shaman have Al'Akir in it?  I believe it does not.  It doesn't fit the rest of the cards. (there, can we put this high level play statement crap to bed now, that deck is considered highly competitive)

Thats kinda what i was getting at that I don't think "high level play" is very much a thing and is being inaccurately used also if luck is more important then it would no matter as much the skill of the player.
I should have put a conclusion ><. 

Regardless well said I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. 

So as I've been chugging along fooling with my decks I've noticed that I keep adding little specialized cards what you lot call techs and it kinda occurred to me that it might and probably is possible to tech against to many classes and then your deck may very well be useless against all of them. So i was wondering if there is a good amount of techs to have in your deck. 

Thank you kindly

I haven't had many games where i get the chance to do this but one time I was playing a control druid and i had lots of healing for myself and i was laughably ahead of my opponent and it was clear the guys deck was bad or he had a really bad mulligan and sequence of draws. He was basically dead but instead of killing him i put 2 healing touches on him and he thanked me and we continued playing he still lost but I didn't mind giving him a leg with which to stand on and give him some more turns to play. 

Second if I'm up against an original deck I don't get upset losing and if it is something really clever i do say well played. Often its just mech and I'm silent or i taunt them mercilessly if I'm crushing them. 

Quote from nd_ohnoes »

Doomhammer is good for board control and burst, but not an absolute necessity with Shaman. 

A lot of Shaman players are using 2 zombie chow, 2 haunted creeper, 2 piloted shredder for a strong early game and to keep board control without the need for doomhammer. 

You could substitute bloodlust for doomhammer if you want a deck with burst or if you want more control put a 2^nd belcher or argus.

I'll start throwing some things in and out. To see what i like double bloodlust is hilarious and a belcher certainly wouldn't hurt.

Just reading these responses especially the banter between MK and others it kinda bugs me and makes me think of questions. Like what exactly is high level play ? 
If Marine King is correct that Shaman can't be played at high level without Al'Akir then do cards separate high level play from not high level play ? Or that the cards in the deck have the most value.
To me that kind of sounds like an oversimplification but it seems like there are three inputs to a win or loss in a game of hearthstone. 

1. The cards/class
2. The player
3. luck(rng)

The cards its rather obvious if the same player is somehow playing himself or someone totally equal to him and lets say they both got the best or worst draws (take your pick) but had different cards in their decks.The class I'm not that educated in hearthstone but to me I'm sure some classes counter others and some classes are even to each other.

The player I don't particularly see this as a game of skill, one of more experience as the objective on a turn basis is to make the most efficient decision/move(s) every time. Is that a skill to be learned or experience that is gained over time.

Luck if the players were the same and the decks were the same and the only difference was the mulligan and cards drawn after and any number that is generated at random that determined who won. 

Im liable to be wrong  but to me 

luck and cards/class seem to hold the highest value and player being the  lesser important input in a game. 

Also I'm aware this isn't exactly discussing shaman here but its just me thinking and apologies if this is out of bounds so to speak and if someone disagrees well explain. Im not saying the person is not import I'm just saying the cards and luck are more so.

Okay I'm gonna try to respond to everyone here.
I would like to take this more seriously and do ranked i mean casual is fun but its casual. I'd like to see where i stack up granted I'm sure it won't be that high. I will never play mech of any class or archetype of deck, I might just loathe it.

A double doom hammer sounds interesting but I'm already saving up for two AOL for druid. Which brings me to my next point. It's not that i don't want to play Ala'kir and with druid its not that i don't want to play AOL, its that I don't have them and don't currently have the dust to create them I'm sure everyone here understands the math of making these cards. I get basically one pack a day from arena and I'm looking to improve in arena so i don't get basically nothing for the effort i put into it.

To say that you don't have X card means you can't play X class. I like these classes I want to play them they interest me If i can't play them because i don't have x card I don't really want to play anything else. I understand its not as efficient but its what I have and I'm trying to the the best with what i have.  When i get the 2400 cumulative dust for Ala'kir and two AOL I'll get them no questions asked. 

I play a lot of casual just to get the gold to play arena and I am so very tired of mech. I played probably 30 games today so far and at least 25 were mech of "pick your class" Also I've only seen harrison jones three times out of well over 1000 games which I mean I didn't see every card in my opponents deck but I mean thats still not a large percentage. Of that I actually lost my hammer to harrison once of those three occurrences so  <.1% is a minuscule amount of loses to one card. To me thats not a significant amount but I can be wrong of course.

While Marine King probably is right that "harrison has never been more popular" and at your level thats probably true but where I am. I see way more (not counting naxx) Sneeds, Dr. Boring and, Alexstrasa, I've seen 2 Tirions. Harrison would probably rank as third least in legendaries I've seen that i have actually seen. I lose probably half my games maybe more and most of them are to mech and face with priest thrown in there too. Currently I am much more concerned with beating those decks then concerned about a harrison jones appearing. When and if i reach that point I will evolve to meet it but for now I'm just fighting the cancer. :/

I'm card poor i don't have alakir. 

I use doom like that often that ten damage really hurts, sometimes i don't though and i just smack other things for trades or what have you. 

When i used it and was museumed. I was in a bad spot and didn't see much else to do it wasn't the smartest play but i just saw it as my best option. To be fair though my favorite deck doesn't have anything above a 6 attack but i never considered BGH which is why i face palm whenever i have a flame elemental with 8 attack from flame tongue get shot by him. Mostly how i feel is I HATE PRIESTS so i run Ysera and she is just about all i have minus naxx and rag and cenarius

I run two storms and ferals already so i guess another bloodlust then thats always fun. Simply to confuse people i would run harrison that is a worth it reason in my casual games. That is if i had it. 
Thank you kindly I find him to be a very interesting character.

So I was reading a thread on here yesterday about doom hammer and harrison jones and out of all my shaman games with it and never seeing a harrison jones i did the "it'll never happen to me" and carried on. Then it did and i promptly lost the game. Don't get me wrong i really like it the wind fury and rock biter and its utility a weapon gives i really like. But if i happened to be seeing more harrison jones in the future and I get sick of my hammers going into a museum what would i switch it out with ?

I run sera in my druid. I love its 4 attack. I was against a priest and he was making really crisp quick turns over and over again like his train of thought was just chugging along. I drop down Ysera and literally he stops and almost runs out of time to make a play. She won me that game. 

I shall wait and save up for AOL. 

Thank you kindly

Ill look into the software and thank you.

Until pretty much yesterday I really had very little knowledge on how to make a deck in constructed. much less arena which is a toss up. The archetypes for decks i knew of them but didn't really know how to make them. Most games i do understand why i lost if i overextend or don't extend early enough. Often its just like "yay flame strike" or Dark wispers into frost wolf warlord O.O . Something crazy gets me to lose but yeah individual matches can't really teach me to much about arena as they can be pretty randomized. 

I will work up to them 800 dust isn't exactly easy to come by but ill stock up.

I run a nourish but yeah nothing else quite fills in the gap i see

So after looking at a whole lot of druid decks a lot seem to really favor ancient of lore and I don't currently have one of those. Is there anything that i can jerry rig together to get at least a similar effect. 

Mage and priest.

The flame strike, the holy nova, the secrets, the heals. MY TOTEMS CANT TAKE IT 

So I've got around 1000 games played here and a dozen or so arena runs. I feel I've got a decent amount of experience but i could be wrong. I enjoy druid and shaman and warlock in arena and constructed. I've had a mage and paladin as well. I only seem to get 2-3 wins every time i arena run. I'm not sure if I'm just unlucky or I'm just bad at it. I really only get to do a run every one or two days depending on if i win gold and quests. That makes arena painful I feel like I'm getting nowhere and in terms of winnings I'm getting nowhere. 

If someone has the time to help I mean I've looked at youtube videos, read guide after guide I don't know what else to do to improve besides grind and If i just sit at 3 wins the whole time I'm not really getting anywhere. 

Thank you kindly.