Swelic’s Shaman Deck

Hello guys, I have been “grinding” the ladder that is ranked lately, and I wanted to share the deck I’ve been using. The deck is a controlling shaman deck which is just over all really strong. I will also go into the details of the deck and my thought process for the cards I selected.

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1x - Ancestral Healing
1x - Forked Lightning
2x - Lightning Bolt
2x - Rockbiter Weapon
1x - Stormforged Axe
1x - Ancestral Spirit
2x - Novice Engineer
2x - Wild Pyromancer
2x - Hex
2x - Earthen Ring Farseer
2x - Harvest Golem
2x - Injured Blademaster
1x - Mana Tide Totem
2x - Defender of Argus
1x - Earth Elemental
1x - Sylvanas Windrunner
1x - Cairne Bloodhoof
2x - Fire Elemental
1x — Al’Akir the Windlord
1x - Alexstrasza[/su_spoiler]

Explanation of Cards:

Ancestral Healing - Well this is probably the most niche card in the deck, but I think when you use it correctly it can be very strong. Taunt is a necessity for Shaman as they have no form of life gain from class cards. Ancestral Healing can be used at the least as a taunt provider which is helpful especially against Murlocks. The “dream” for this card is for you to go second and turn two Coin > Injured Blademaster > Ancestral Healing. At that point it is pretty hard to lose the game for drawing out a hex or other hard removal allows you to play the bigger creatures.

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1x Stormforged Axe - A lot of people consider the Stormforged Axe as one of the most powerful Shaman cards, but in the current meta can be a liability. With the very fast-paced meta health is actually a major statistic, and since the Stormforged Axe is used to clear creatures you will take a lot of damage. I one is the right amount because you also have 2x Rockbiter Weapon which is a sudo weapon in my eyes.

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Ancestral Spirit - Maybe, no IS my favorite card in the deck. Probably one of the most under-utilized cards in the entire game. Though it is a situational card, the amount of situations to use it in this deck is worth it. I’m considering taking out Ancestral Healing and replacing it with another Ancestral Spirit. Your opponent must have a silence or silence-type removal (Hex, Polymorph, Tinkmaster Overspark or Mindcontrol) or else they become SUPER far behind. Here are some of the amazing combo’s you can use it for:

• Ancestral Spirit on Cairne Bloodhoof - When Cairne Bloodhoof dies you get a new Cairne Bloodhoof and the Baine Bloodhoof from the original Cairne Bloodhoof. That’s 16/20 effective attack/health from 8 mana. Similarly it can be used on a Harvest Golem with a similar effect.
• Ancestral Spirit on Injured Blademaster - I do this when I have a Injured Blademaster on board that I want to run into a minion to clear board, such as a Dark Iron Dwarf. I use Ancestral Spirit on the Injured Blademaster run it in and get a 4/7 Injured Blademaster back. Again 4/7 for 2 mana is a highly efficient use of a card.
• Ancestral Spirit on Slyvanas - Gives you the ability to take two cards from your opponent. Again THE VALUE is immense.
• Ancestral Spirit on Earth Elemental - Double’s your value of Earth Elemental. Turn 5 Earth Elemental into turn 6 Ancestral Spirit is super strong if your opponent doesn’t have any answer to it.
• Ancestral Spirit on Al’Akir Windlord - Hardest to explain how to use, but you can kill some strong creatures with it and also damage to the face.
• Ancestral Spirit on Alexstrasza - Who doesn’t love an 8/8 who dies and comes back as an 8/8.

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Novice Engineer - Card draw is important, the more cards you have the more options you have which means the more likely you are to have a good option.

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Wild Pyromancer - I think Wild Pyromancer is a good subsitutre for Lightning Storm. I’m not a huge fan of Lightning Storm, when you can have a Pyromance with a lot of spells to trigger it. I mean Wild Pyromaner plus Lightning Bolt is basically a 3 mana swipe. It also gives you a minion on board that the opponent has to deal with.

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Earthen Ring Farseer - The new meta of rushing down opponents quickly, makes this card a must for shaman decks. It’s already a good card and the ability for the card to heal your hero or a minion makes it worth having. You can always Injured Blademaster > Earthen Ring Farseer which provides 7/9 in stats for 6 mana. Earthen Ring Farseer can also be used in trading minions effectively, though if I see I am going against a rush deck I will try to save Earthen Ring Farseer to heal myself.

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Injured Blademaster - This card is exceptionally strong in this deck and class. Ancestral Healing, Ancestral Spirit, Earthen Ring Farseer, and Healing Totem all synergies with this card extremely well. A 4/3 for 3 mana isn’t bad by itself but the added benefit of these cards makes it worth having as a strong 3 mana minion.

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Mana Tide Totem - This card, when used properly, can usually almost always give you a card advantage. Never use this card when the opponent has 3+ damage on the board and you have nothing to protect it with, unless its a lock-rush deck and you have no other options. Otherwise this card usually draws you at least one card and will force your opponent to use one card. I could see running Nat Pagle in it’s place but I am undecided on which is better at the moment.

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1x Earth Elemental - I don’t feel the Earth Elemental is as strong as everyone says it is. It’s almost always instantly draws a Polymorph, Hex, The Black Knight, or some other sort of hard removal and causes your next turn to be very weak. Having two in your hand makes one of them a dead card pretty much so I only run one.

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Sylvanas Windrunner - Really do I need to explain this one?

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Cairne Bloodhoof - Extremely strong 6 mana card. One of the hardest to deal with in the game in my opinion, and plus the Caine Bloodhoof plus Ancestral Spirit Dream is just too good to ignore.

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Al’Akir the Windlord - As showcased in fight night, this card has a very high potential when combined with Rockbiter Weapon. When I didn’t run it in the deck I had a hard time finishing and this card helped to solve that issue.

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Alexstrasza - Wait what? Your running Alexstrasza in a Shaman? Yes, yes I am. This card has two purposes. If your playing board control and have neglected to hit face a lot, when it comes to late game it may be hard to finish your opponent off, and that’s where Alexstrasza comes into play. Setting your opponent immediately to 15 health can be a surprise lethal at turn 9 if you have board control. Also, as i noted before, Shaman has no great healing spell like other classes do, but Alexstrasza can be used to gain that health back very quickly. It has saved me more than once and won me the game using it at < 10 health. Also using Ancestral Healing on Alexstrasza gives you 15 hp and a 8/8 taunt, which should give you some time to stall out against rush decks.

Sidedeck Options:

Nat Pagle - Can replace Mana Tide Totem. Don’t really know which one is better.

Loot Hoarder - Can replace Novice Engineer. Both are really good, really depends on match-up. I like Novice Engineer against Warlocks, Mages, Paladin, Druids, and Rogue’s, and Loot Hoarder against Shaman, Hunter, Priest and Warrior.

Lightning Storm - I would probably replace Wild Pyromancer with this if I really needed the aoe.

Bloodmage Thalnos - I don’t think its good in this deck because their are only three spells that it works on, but if you use lightning storm I would run it.

Acidic Swamp Ooze - I would use if the weapon classes become more prevalent, instead of Wild Pyromancer.

Mad Bomber - I would replace it with Wild Pyromacer if RNGesus is on your side. Though I would probably run 1x Wild Pyromancer and 1x Mad Bomber.

Tinkmaster Overspark - You have hex which is a much better version of this card but if you really feel two hex’s aren’t enough you may run this.

Spellbreaker - Again hex is superior but if you really need silence this would be the card.

Faceless Manipulator - If you don’t have the good legendaries, you can always fun this and steal someone elses’ :P.

Argent Commander - Again I would use this if you don’t have one of the high end legendaries.

The Black Knight - If taunters become a problem in the meta, like they did with the druids, I would consider running this.

Sunwalker - Good alternative to high mana legendaries.

Ysera - I would consider running this if you feel the late game is lacking in this deck and you don’t like/have Alexstrasza

Thanks a lot for taking a look at my deck. I look forward to hearing back from the community, what your thoughts are of my card choices. Hopefully this deck will spark some creativity so we can all stop going against the same Murlock, OTK, Frost Mage decks that plague the ladder.