So I heard you guys were thinking Shaman should get some cards, huh? I think so too. I'm not a big Shaman player myself, but I think that this class is one of the most overlooked in Hearthstone at the moment - it doesn't have as much relevance in the meta as the other classes, and it's class-specific card text (Overload) is a hindrance in many situations! So like my Call of the Void warlock class expansion (which you can see Here!), I decided to make a class expansion for the Shaman class as well. Many of the cards presented here won't be final, but I'm hoping I can get your feedback to make them better. So here it is:
Might of Elements
"Totally Totem-y!"
Yes, the banner looks a bit like the Warlock expansion banner. Yes that's intentional. Yes that is a theme with these. Yes I will continue to do that with all the other classes.
New Mechanic: Spell Tribes! Specifically: Element!
This mechanic will be introduced in further detail in due course: Suffice to say, Air, Water, Fire, and Earth are the four elemental 'tribes' that will be added. As you would expect, cards like Lava Shock are Element: Fire spells, cards like Forked Lightning and Windfury are Element: Air, cards like Earth Shock are Element: Earth, and Frost Shock is Element: Water! There will be lots of cards that interact with this mechanic, but for now, stay tuned! I have to do some photoshopping.
For now, here are some cards that don't rely on the new Element: x mechanic, and are instead more useful Shaman cards that Blizzard hasn't introduced yet!
(+basics)
Card/Mechanic Discussion will be in the below posts.
Card/Mechanic Discussion will be in the below posts.
Card/Mechanic Discussion will be in the below posts.
More Legendary! cards to come, soon.
CHANGED CARDS:
New Deck Types will also be in the below posts.
ART CREDITS:
Will be done! Takes time to track down some of the art sources. For the most part, I made use of aiDen's spectacular Hearthstone Art Gallery, which you can find in this subforum. A few of these artworks were discovered through Google Images and DeviantArt (Prince Thunderaan from DeviantArt)
So there you have it. As of now, you may notice that there are a lot of Epic cards and not so many Rares and Commons. This may change as I fiddle with the cards, seeing as some of them need to be rebalanced (or possibly reworked altogether). As mentioned above, I will periodically add Legendary cards to this list. Please leave feedback on the cards that I have for now included, but do remember that soon these cards will make more sense as they will be complemented by a new majority of cards that make use of the Element: x mechanic. :) As with my previous expansion, Call of the Void, I'm not necessarily aiming for all these cards to be included, but for Blizzard to take notice of its community and take heed to the contributions it makes. To the next expansion! (after TGT)
Thanks for reading!
~ Teknician
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My apologies to Garth. I didn't mean to hijack your thread man. Just wanted to offer a deck list that has been working well for me and it kind of snowballed from there.
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Shaman has a few problems. Tempo and Card advantage. Overload puts us behind and our card draw mechanics are kind of terrible. Overload is a hard mechanic to play with, it takes several turns of fore site to play Shaman properly. That's why I like the list that I am running. Reincarnate addresses the tempo problem and used with the death rattle minions address the card draw issues (sort of). I'll use Mad Scientist as an example. Reynad said this is probably one of the strongest cards in the game because it is a 2/2 for 2 mana that not only draws a card (about 2 mana value) but plays it as well (1-3 mana value based on class) and it helps buff Undertaker. Reincarnate played on Nerubian Egg for example Draws and Plays a 4/4 minion (5 mana value) and doesn't pull from your deck it's just a free minion as if you where playing a 31 card deck. When used on more powerful cards like Sneeds it could be up to 10 mana value.
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This is a deck I have worked on from last March. With GvG and some recent changes it has absolutely taken off and has done amazing in ladder. It has been easily 65-70% winrate vs everything except hunter which it has struggled against(45%ish winrate here), but who hasn’t really. I can’t post a pic from work computer but here is the list.
2- Earth Shock
2- Rockbiter
1- Zombie Chow
2- Reincarnate
2- Flametongue Totem
1- Haunted Creeper
2- Nerubian Eggs
2- Feral Spirit
2- Hex
2- Lightning Storm
1- Defender of Argus
1- Gnomish Inventor
1- Antique Healbot
1- Harrison Jones OR Azure Drake
2- Sludge Belchers
1- Fire Elemental
1- Piloted Sky Golem
1- Slyvanas Windrunner
1- Al’Akir the Windlord
1- Kel’Thuzad
1- Sneed’s Old Shredder
Here is a copy and paste from my original post (on HH) for strategy.
Voodoo *GvG Updated*
by Sheverash21 on 2014/04/08 – last edited on 2015/01/23(Patch 2.0.0.7234)
Shaman control utilizing Reincarnate for deathrattle exploits. Even after GvG this deck is very strong in the ladder.
Starting Hand
Mulligans should always be for either Nerubian Egg, Feral Spirit, or counters like Rockbiter Weapon, Earth Shock, or Lightning Storm (if it’s rush). The only early game this deck has is Nerubian Egg and Feral Spirit ( Updated with Zombie Chow and Haunted Creeper ) so you will always be looking to counter and stall your opponent until your mid game. Don’t keep Reincarnate unless you have Nerubian Egg. The one exception to this may be if you know your opponent is playing Handlock since it is a good counter to a turn 4 Twilight Drake if you don’t have an Earth Shock.
Strategy
Reincarnate is magic in this deck and is SUPER underrated it is one of the few tempo cards Shaman gets and helps offset the Overload tempo loss- Draw and Play a 4/4 when used on Nerubian Egg, Draw and Play a 4 drop from Piloted Sky Golem, Draw and Play a Legendary with Sneed’s Old Shredder, 2 mana Mind Control when used with Sylvanas Windrunner, 2 mana “infinite” Kel’Thuzad. Gives “Mega- Windfury” on Al’Akir the Windlord. It can be used as a full heal on low hp targets. It can also be used offensively as a mini Earthshock which gets rid of battlecrys on minions like Twilight Drake and Ancient of War or other buffs which may have been applied-eg. Houndmaster.
Nerubian Egg outplays Haunted Creeper (which is more traditionally used in Shaman) because of Reincarnate and the 5 other cards that activate it. (x2 Rockbiter Weapon, x2 Flametongue Totem, or Defender of Argus). Un-activated eggs act as a soft counter to AoE and can draw early silences away from late game cards like Sylvanas Windrunner and Kel’Thuzad.
Kel’Thuzad has a ton of synergy with the deathrattle cards and has the benefit of helping in some losing positions, unlike many legendaries which are only “win more” cards. Acts as “card draw” as long as you can take advantage of the effect.
Why is turn 4 so light? Shamans are many times overloaded on 4 from Feral Spirit or Lightning Storm which where played on 3. I chose to ignore this turn in favor of better cards elsewhere in the curve.
***Updated with GvG and added Sneed’s Old Shredder for more end game synergy with Kel’Thuzad and Reincarnate. Also added Antique Healbot to overcome rush and stabilize. I did add one Zombie Chow and Haunted Creeper to help with early game. This was more of a meta call with all the rush.***