Shaman Deck 10 to 20

I had the honor of dueling my co-host Cold for about 2 hours the other evening. I say it with as much sarcasm as I can muster…

All kidding aside, Cold is really a great resource for a card game, he played Magic competitively for a long time and did it at the top levels of competition so a lot of the dynamics in this game he sees with a different degree of clarity than newer players to Hearthstone can hope to. For me, just starting, I didn’t have a lot of experience other than some Pokémon and a little bit of the World of Warcraft TCG with my son.

One of the things that Cold helped me with is that you have to look at the big picture of the match; you can’t focus on your opponent’s next move, you have to focus on the match as a single puzzle if you will. Not to say the next move your opponent make isn’t important, it is just one piece of the puzzle.

The second thing he taught me was that you don’t have to spend all the mana you have every turn just because you can. If it doesn’t benefit you in the fight or it doesn’t give you the most bang for the buck when it comes to mana usage end the turn.

Third, my favorite because it sounded like a fortune cookie was, "He who controls the board controls the match…" I am going to let you figure that out in your own time but he was right about it, guaranteed.

Lastly, he taught me that, like mana you don’t have to hit with every minion that can hit every round. This one was a bit harder for me to grasp but after thinking before I completed every turn I noticed that if I just “suicide smashed” my taunt minions into the opponents minions I was doing their job for them. They had to he me to get through to my hero so why was my hit helping the opponent out.

After about 6-8 lost matches to Cold, we went through my Shaman deck and added cards complemented the 4 fundamentals he taught me and got rid of the cards that were there just to have cards to play. We compared cards for their mana cost verses their utility in a match and made good changes.

I added a brief note by each choice highlighting why I like the card and what situation you use each in, but here is the deck Cold and I ended up with:

Shaman Cards

• 2 x Forked Lightning (1 mana) - Great for clearing out a 2 random lower health minions with, it’s even better if you have a Flesheating Ghoul on your front too. This is a card that can be buffed with spell power so plan for that to get the most out of it. The 2 Overload can be a downer but it’s still a useful card.

• 2 x Frost Shock (1 mana) – Zaps a target for 2 damage un-buffed  and freezes it for 1 round, great for control and this is a card that can be buffed with spell power so plan for that to get the most out of it.

• 2 x Lightning Bolt (1 mana) – This is a cheap single target attack that does 3 damage un-buffed for low cost. This is a card that can be buffed with spell power so plan for that to get the most out of it. This card comes with a 2 overload so plan accordingly.

• 2 x Flametongue Totem (2 mana) – Placement is most important, plan for these and never put them down at the end of a round, budget the mana to drop them before your minions attack at the beginning of a round.

• 2 x Feral Spirit (3 mana) – Gives you 2 x 2/3 spirit wolves with taunt but the 2 overload can limit you in the next round.

• 2 x Hex (3 mana) – Great counters for when you opponent drops a minion you can’t kill in the next round.

• 2 x Windspeaker (4 mana) – This is what I replaced the card the just gives Windfury to a minion with. Because for one mana more you get a 3/3 minion to add to the fight.

• 1 x Doomhammer (5 mana) – It gives you Windfury which will let you hit 2 times per round for 2 damage each time, the durability is 8 so you have 4 rounds of this to spend. This weapon comes with a 2 overload.

• 2 x Bloodlust (5 mana) – This is my favorite card, especially when you opponent hasn’t bothered to keep the totems you have been building up on the frontline cleaned off. The will add +3 attack to the whole line, even totems that previously had 0 attack.

• 1 x Earth Elemental (5 mana) – Drops a solid taunt minion, 7/8, so he can hit hard and take a punch. He also has a 3 overload so plan accordingly.

• 2 x Fire Elemental (6 mana) – This card is pretty straight forward, a 6/5 minion that is perfect to put Windfury on or a Flametongue Totem down beside. He opens with a 3 damage battle cry to boot; everything is a nail to this hammer.

Common Cards

• 2 x Acidic Swamp Ooze (2 mana) – Great against any opponent with a weapon and adds a 3/2 minion to your front line.

• 2 x Flesheating Ghoul (3 mana) - Every time a minion is killed, yours or your opponents, you increase you attack by 1. Make sure if you have a lot of minions you plan to kill before you attack your opponent’s hero that you put him out first so you get the most out of him. I see this card come out from a lot of people after they kill 2-3 minions. This minion only has to health but you are less likely to hit him if it’s going to cost you 7 health just to kill him. 

• 2 x Jungle Panther (3 mana) – this minion is nice because he is a 4/2 that comes out stealth so he is less likely to be killed before you have him buffed up and ready with a Flametongue Totem, Windfury or the round before Bloodlust goes down.

• 2 x Silver Hand Knight (5 mana) – This 4/4 will drop a 2/2 squire when he hits the front line, which oddly enough will take the focus off him more times than not against lesser skilled opponents.

Depending on what you play against you can substitute some of the common cards with 1 or 2 Ironbeak Owls or 1 or 2 Leper Gnomes both will bring the same usefulness to this deck as the ones I suggested above. I have had success either way so the switch depends on your play style.

Here is the cost summary of this deck, it gives you a lot of options for early in the match and then some solid choices to close with later on in the match. This deck takes into account that you are putting out totems on a regular basis.

I have used this deck since we put it together and have been keeping track of my win/lose record on a notepad and so far I am 26 wins and 6 loses. That puts me at a solid 77% win chance with this deck. Keep in mind that until you learn how to use this deck the way it was intended you will suffer a learning curve but after that you should be able to knock out more opponents once you get the hang of it.

The next post will be a post about one of my favorite Hunter Deck builds I have been fine tuning over the last week, Hunter Deck Level 10-20.