Team IHearthU Deck Guide: Faramir Shaman

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Introduction:

Hey guys, [IHU]Faramir here, bringing you another deck guide! This week i want to show you a Shaman list i discovered at Dreamhack Masters Bucharest. [MYM]Skip played this list, trying to shut down the Hunters and Zoos early in the game by letting them taste their own medicine, Undertakers!

Key Cards:

This version of the Shaman was created to be able to shut down the early board control of aggro decks like Hunter and Zoo while being able to race them and kill them before they kill you since it is hard for Shaman to get lost life points back espacially against a Hunter.

The cards you are looking for to do that are Zombie Chow, Haunted Creeper and to some extent Harvest Golem and Feral Spirit and Undertaker. All of those cards control the early board state really well because they are able to trade efficiently and stay on the board while doing it.
That means most of the time they get a 2 for 1 trade.

Combined with spells like Rockbiter Weapon and Earth Shock, it is rather easy to keep your opponents board clear of any annoying minions like Undertaker, Haunted Creeper or Mad Scientist.
Bloodlust and Doomhammer are your way to finish the game and burst your opponent to 0 HP from a deceivingly comfortable life total.

Mulligan Guide:

As I touched on earlier, the cards you are looking for in the early game are Undertaker, Zombie Chow, Earth Shock, Harvest Golem, Feral Spirit and Haunted Creeper. Against Control Matchups, Nerubian Egg also fills the 2-drop slot but against aggro decks it can be too slow sometimes because you might not an activator right away.
If you have the Coin you should also keep Feral Spirit and Harvest Golems because coined out they are really hard to deal with.
As for spells, the only ones you ever really want in your hand early are Rockbiter Weapon and Earth Shock since you don’t want to overload yourself in the early game with an early Lightning Storm.

How to Play:

As a Shaman player, having board control is paramount. You always want to be in control of the board and the best way of achieving that, is seizing board control as early as possible. With your early minions and your cheap spells you want to get efficient trades and always have a superior board.

After you got board control early, you try to transition into the mid game without overloading too much. Always be sure to have a followup-play when you play cards like Lightning Storm, Feral Spirit and Doomhammer. Use Flametongue Totem to make your small minions and totems trade efficiently with whatever your opponent throws onto the board.

Different from other Shaman decks, this list isn’t very great in the late game, you still play Azure Drake and Fire Elemental but sometimes it isn’t enough to win you every control matchup.
So if you are playing a control matchup you might have to adjust your line of play to a more aggressive route.

Specific Matchups:

This deck was built to crush aggro decks by stopping them in their tracks early on in the game, so we will take a look at those matchups in particular.

Hunter: Hunter commonly plays 6 1-drops which include Undertaker, Webspinner and Leper Gnome aswell as a variation of 2-drops including Haunted Creeper, Mad Scientist and Knife Juggler. You want to shut down their first wave of minions with your own first wave. Zombie Chow is a key card here cause it trades with Undertaker, Leper Gnome, Webspinner and Mad Scientist advantageously. You always want to Earth Shock to deny a valuable Deathrattle, so do not waste it on a Webspinner or a Leper Gnome. You can take some damage early and most beasts are not that great that it justifies using an Earth Shock. Save it for cards like Haunted Creeper and Mad Scientist cause those can really be a pain in the ass to deal with otherwise. Try to play around Eaglehorn Bow as much as possible, Feral Spirit and Defender of Argus are great ways to protect your board from the Bow aswell as from Unleash the Hounds. Try to burst him with Bloodlust and Doomhammer before the game moves too far into the late game. Hex is always a great answer for things like Savannah Highmane or Loatheb. Don’t be afraid to use it in the early game though if you can gain a significant tempo advantage off of it or have to protect your life total.

Warlock Zoo: Zoo is very much a board control deck like the Shaman and traditonally had an advantage in the matchups because of it’s strong minions and overwhelming board pressure. With Soulfire it has a cheap spell to gain a lot of tempo and Warlocks hero power allows the Zoo to never truly run out of cards. While Shaman doesn’t have the same source of card draw, with this build it can challenge the Warlocks early drops with strong drops of its own plus spells like Rockbiter Weapon. Nerubian Egg, Haunted Creeper and Feral Spirit are keys in this matchup. Each of those cards can get great value when combined with a Flametongue Totem or just played against the right board. Try to kill off the Creepers on Leper Gnomes or similar to get the trade potential with the Spectral Spiders. The Nerubian Egg can give you a big tempo advantage early when you can activate it with the help of a Rockbiter, Defender of Argus or Flametongue Totem. Try to not run out of cards since you can’t refill your hand as easily as the Zoo and try to get as much value as you can out of your cards because against Zoo you have to to balance your hand total with your board state.

Important Combinations of Cards:

Doomhammer + Rockbiter Weapon:

10 damage burst that can threaten your opponents life total quite a bit, can also be used to kill off 2 big threats of your opponent at the same time.

Nerubian Egg + Rockbiter Weapon/Flametongue Totem:

Try to activate your Nerubian Egg and get the 4/4 Nerubian in the early game while still getting value out of the front body to gain a big tempo advantage.

Undertaker + Deathrattle minions:

Try to buff your Undertaker as much as possible to gain a possibility to snowball the game and win fast or at least get great trades in.

Azure Drake/Wrath of Air Totem + Lightning Storm:

Spellpower always benefits the Shaman and can allow you to clear a threatening board with one clear sweep. Try to exploit that as much as possible.

Budget Replacements of Legendary Cards:

No Legendary Cards in this deck!