Master Class On Developing Your Deck

Kobayshi Maru On - Twitter | Website | Twitch.TV | Youtube

[two_thirds]The Shaman Control deck was my first love in Hearthstone and even though I’ve gone on to develop other decks and learn other heroes its hard for me to let go of playing Shaman for pure joy. It seemed the right time to revisit my original Shaman Control deck and update it. This is my Master Class on how I developed a new Shaman with my friend and fellow streamer Tarn (Mark G, who you may also know from his Starcraft and Diablo stream). This article will focus on analysis, refinement, and adjustment of my Shaman Control Deck but the process we use to develop the new deck can be applied to any Hero or deck type.

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[tabs] [tab title=”1″]Rockbiter Weapon x2
Lightning Bolt x2
[/tab] [tab title=”2″]Stormforged Axe x2
Acidic Swamp Ooze x1
Bloodmage Thalnos x1
Faerie Dragon x2
Flametongue Totem x2
[/tab] [tab title=”3″]Feral Spirit x1
Hex x2
Lightning Storm x2
Mana Tide Totem x1
Shattered Sun Cleric x1
Unbound Elemental x1
[/tab] [tab title=”5″]Doomhammer x1
Bloodlust x1
Azure Drake x2
Earth Elemental x1
[/tab] [tab title=”6″]Argent Commander x2
Fire Elemental x1
[/tab] [tab title=”7″] Stormwind Champion x1
[/tab][tab title=”8″] Ragnaros The Firelord x1
[/tab][/tabs][/third]

The plan was for Tarn and I to play custom games against each other, discuss our hands from both sides, and identify the best plays in a given situation to find holes in both our play and our decks. Tarn was trying to strengthen his Mage variant of the popular Enrage Mage deck with Leper Gnome and Pyroblast as his finisher. I played my Shaman Control and ran it into the ground!

As I lost to Tarn’s Enrage Mage variant over and over it became obvious that the strength of his deck was its early aggression and late game finishers. We discussed the Azure Drake at length because we both had it in our decks but it wasn’t working for mine. As we examined Tarn’s Mage deck we realized that the 2x Azure Drake were crucial for him, because unlike my deck, his strategy was aggressive from the beginning, burning through cards quickly and doing damage early. His Drakes functioned as a perfect transition from his early aggression to his late game onslaught of 6 damage Fireball and 10 damage Pyroblast. For Tarn’s Mage the Drakes do many things at once: they have +1 Spell Power which helps clear the board, they give an extra card which is crucial for boosting the value of his late game hand, and as a 4/4 minion his opponents are usually forced to spend cards and mana dealing with the Drakes, giving the Mage just enough time to get to his higher mana turns. The Azure Drakes are phenomenal cards for transitioning to late game.

But the Azure Drake wasn’t helping me because my Shaman Control deck was likely to get behind early on. In general my Shaman Control deck was a slow starter, I even tried adding in 2 Faerie Dragon, Sun Shattered Cleric, and other small minions to quicken its pace and balance out the control — but it just wasn’t cutting it. I was especially weak against a Mage who just needs to get you down to 10 health and Pyroblast you for lethal damage. So I faced the choice to either take the Drakes out or completely shift my deck towards a more aggressive stance in the early game. While my Shaman Control deck was still winning on ladder it was clear that over the past month the meta game had shifted tremendously and ultra aggressive decks had become popular in response to the dominance of control decks. My Shaman Control deck just had too much control leaving me weak to a variety of aggressive play styles.

It was time to get aggressive! But while switching the deck to ultra aggression might be strong in the current meta game, without an end game strategy those kind of decks are vulnerable to a player who can weather the storm. So we ended up transforming my Shaman Control deck in a way to give it a more aggressive start with midgame card draw and then allow it to transition into strong late game finishers. First this meant getting rid of cards I was holding onto for too long: 2x Defenders of Argus, 2x Forked Lightning and an Ironbeak Owl - They are more control oriented cards that have good use but ended up sitting in my hand a lot, so they had to go. 2 Novice Engineer, a Youthful Brewmaster and Senjin Shieldmasta also had to go, replaced by 2x Faerie Dragon, a Swamp Ooze, Bloodmage Thalnos and a Sun Shattered Cleric. The Twilight Drake & Gadgetzan Auctioneer were good cards but almost always subject to removal and that was too costly for my deck after a slow start, as Artosis would say “allowing players who were ahead to get more ahead”. I did have other more efficient mid range units like Argent Commander and Fire Elemental, what I was still lacking was the ability to put my opponents in tough situations in the early/mid game. I needed aggressive cards that could give me an advantage mid game but were also strong if I drew them later in the game. My deck was more aggressive now and I had more than enough small minions but something was still missing…

Flametongue Totem— yup, I added TWO. Flametongue Totem made all my small minions capable of taking out anything before Turn # 4 and gave my totems some teeth against early aggression without costing me valuable cards. As a 3 health minion for 2 mana the Totem also solved another early game problem I had where my 2 health minions were being removed through 2 damage AOE without trading. I started to tear up Tarn’s Mage and testing the new deck on ladder had similar results dominating and crushing other decks

Through this process I discovered weakness in my tactics, holes in my deck, and then rebuilt my Shaman deck to be faster, stronger and even more fun to play! I hope it works for you too.

Watch the analysis, refinement, and adjustment of my Shaman Control deck.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63xM7FH9Mdc?rel=0]

The full length videos can be seen here. Check out my stream weeknights at 6PM PST on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/kobayshimaru/

glhf,
][{obayshi ][/][aru