Introduction

Just a week before we are going to explore the Badlands, I want to share with you a fresh take on shaman! It scratches the same itch as the midrange builds that were popular before this year's rotation, but this list doesn't focus on battlecries. Before we start, I have to give credit to worldeight_hs who built a list based on this tweet from GrayPirateHS. In the VS discord we did some cooking and ended up with a more refined version of the deck. I'm excited to share it!

The deck is probably around low tier 2-ish, so don't expect it to completely crush the meta. I have been exclusively playing the deck this month and am now around #450 legend EU with it. You can check out more of my HS stuff on twitter (link is in my profile)!

In this thread I will go over my current version of the deck, and talk about some alternative card options that could be interesting to try out. I will also explain the mulligan and go over some matchups.

Just give me the list already!

### Crash
# Class: Shaman
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Wolf
#
# 2x (1) Flowrider
# 2x (1) Lightning Bolt
# 2x (1) Lightning Reflexes
# 2x (1) Novice Zapper
# 2x (1) Schooling
# 2x (1) Shock Hopper
# 2x (2) Carving Chisel
# 2x (2) Flash of Lightning
# 2x (2) Jam Session
# 2x (3) Feral Spirit
# 1x (3) Thorim, Stormlord
# 2x (3) Turn the Tides
# 2x (4) Backstage Bouncer
# 2x (5) Crash of Thunder
# 1x (6) Golganneth, the Thunderer
# 2x (6) Horn of the Windlord
#
AAECAYmaBgKN9QXC+QUO6ucD+Z8E+p8E4LUEqtkExNAF5eQF9ugFze4F9PIFyvgFy/gFh/sF7JUGAAA=
#
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

This is the current list I'm playing, but there are still some cards that I'm not 100% sold on. Crash of Thunder is the latest addition, I'll list some decent alternatives below:

(Alternative) card choices

• Crash of Thunder plays really nicely with the nature package and can be used both as burn and as a board clear. I added it because it works well against Enrage warriors.
• Overdraft is tradeable and only costs 1 mana, which makes it very flexible and versatile. It's burn and removal in one, and it allows us to unlock our overloaded mana crystals. This card should probably be in the deck, but I'm having a hard time to fit it somewhere. We could play 1x Overdraft instead of 1x Crash of Thunder.
• Anchored Totem is amazing with the amount of 1 drops we play, and works really well with Chisel. One issue I have with the card is that most of the time it gets cleared when played on 2. Not playing it and keeping it in hand just to go with our 1 drops often means that we don't play your 1 drops on curve, which feels a bit awkward.
• Inzah / Astalor are decent cards to try, but they are a bit slow. If you face a lot of slow stuff, you can consider them.
• Primordial Wave works well against quite some decks in the format at the moment (Paladin, mech rogues, enrage warrior), so if you encounter lots of those, it might be worth it to run one copy. We can also discover this card (semi-reliably) from Lightning Reflexes.

How to play & mulligan

We want to spend our mana and play for board in the early turns. Great keeps are Shock Hopper, Carving Chisel and Schooling. More conditional keeps are Novice Zapper (if you play against an opponent that can't clear 2 hp minions early), Flowrider is great if you know you will get overloaded and Backroom Bouncer is amazing if you have Chisel (especially on the coin). Against classes that will play 1 hp minions (Paladin, Hunter) it's nice to have Jam Session.

In the midgame we use our minions to keep the opponent away from board while chipping the opponent's face. Eventually we turn the corner in the endgame by using Horn of the Windlord to slap the opponent hard (preferable combined with Turn the Tides) and by using our burn spells. If you are going for a big spell damage turn, it's nice to save Zapper and try to discover Bioluminescence.

Matchups / tips & tricks

Enrage warrior is a hard matchup. Trial by fire is really strong against our boards. The 2/2 faceless minion can steal our Titan, so if they haven't played those yet, it's smart to pick the heal / board clear ability instead of draw. This prevents them from using that ability themselves!

Heavy control decks (Control Priest, Odyn Warrior) can be tough if we don't pace ourselves well. However, if we can get some chip damage in by the midgame, we do have a lot of damage from hand to finish them off. Having a strong Flash of Lightning turn is usually what gives us the win here. In this situation, we want to use lightning reflexes to generate as much burn as we can!

Against decks that need a board to win, it's perfectly fine to use burn spells to clear minions. If decks rely on buffing their boards (Mech rogue, Paladins, Enrage warriors), fishing for a Primordial Wave with Lightning Reflexes can shut them down or prevent them from snowballing early. Also be aware that Horn of the Windlord can be a very effective removal tool that turns a giant minion into a 3/3!

The resources from this deck are quite flexible, so it might take some time to find out when to use what. The best advice I have for that is to simply play a few games. The golden rule remains: tempo good!

Thank you!

Thanks for reading this guide! I hope it was useful, and gives you something new to try before the new expansion. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment! Also, don't get too crazy with crafting cards that you don't have, trying this deck is at your own risk! I'll post a separate deck code for the mobile users below.

​

​