Hello everyone and welcome to my humble guide about shaman. I'm pretty new to the game and I've tried a few different classes so far, but shaman is the one I choose. Why? Multiple benefits:
- Insane starter deck
- Free creature (totem) each turn
- Very powerful 0 MP cards
That being said, here's my current deck:
2x Ancestral Healing
2x Elven Archer
2x Grimscale Oracle
2x Murloc Raider
2x Bluegill Warrior
2x Flametongue Totem
2x Novice Engineer
2x Raid Leader
2x Wolfrider
1x Sen'jin Shieldmasta
1x Stormwind Knight
2x Bloodlust
2x Booty Bay Bodyguard
2x Frostwolf Warlord
2x Gurubashi Berserker
Or for those who prefer the deckbuilder: Fisher's "pwn me fast" deck
As you see, the deck may seem to be all over the place, but trust me, it's not. You have a few murlocs and raid leaders you wanna play early, while benefiting from high MP cards later on. Be careful: this deck needs practice. More often than not, you'll start to do some serious damage when you get down to about 15 hp. So be careful and save some cards for later. Here are some of the "keep in mind" facts:
1) You want to unload your murlocs soon, but not too soon
Unload them all at around 2/3 MP when you can drop more than 1. You'll either force enemy to use aoe cards, which is good, or they will ignore your 1/1 murlocs and do damage to you, which is even better. The point of this murlocs is exactly that, if ignored, they start doing sick damage later on. Make sure to save your Grimscale Oracle cards for later, to combine with raid leader before you attack. Also be careful not to play that card when enemy has murlocs, as they will get the bonus as well.
2) You want to keep your Flametongue Totem safe
The totem is sick and alows for a lot of maneuverability. For instance, if you have 3 cards, one in the middle being the totem, you can attack with those two cards and drop a charge next to the totem for that extra damage. I tend to use this when I want to suicide my charge but don't want my cards to lose attack bonus. Drop charge, it gets +dmg, suicide it, the card that got moved moves back to the totem and gets bonus damage back.
3) Bonus damage works on everyone
Yeah, 0/3 totems get +1 damage from raid leader as well. By the time you get raid leader, you'll most likely have 3/4 cards deployed, so you'll be able to do some serious damage. Oh and bloodlust works on totems as well. If you have a 0/3 totem that was deployed last turn, and you apply bonus damage to it, it can attack this turn, so keep that in mind when enemy ignores your 3 totems and you happen to have bloodlust. Comes very handy.
4) Be very careful with ancestral spirit
This one is tricky. Sometimes, if you end up with only two cards, one of which is raid leader, you want to taunt up your other card in order to save leader from direct attack. Other times, you certainly want to apply it to bersker, especially if you have healing and damage totems out.Serves for a good laugh.
5) Do not concede unless you have empty hand
Most of the guides out there will tell you to concede when you think you've lost, but trust me, one card here can change everything, so wait for that card and if it's 1/1 or something, concede. Otherwise, play and it will pay off.
6) Drop taunts as you get them
Most of the time during this game style, you'll have 3-5 cards out, 2 of which are totems. You want to keep them safe, even though players tend to ignore them, so drop those taunts as you get them. If you have a damage totem out, play other cards and drop the taunt next to the damage totem. They have to attack it, why not get punished proper for it.
7) In doubt? Drop a totem
Whenever you're unsure what you should do next or you have a bunch of high MP cards, drop a totem. They come in extremely handy, especially to enemies who ignore them.
8) Keep clearing out enemy creatures
Do not ignore creatures on deck. Even if you have a huge advantage, make sure to destroy enemy creatures as they appear, no matter the cost. The fact that damage totem gives damage to minions next to it can be extremely useful for charge suicide, or simply for using a card next to it to destroy enemy minion. Be cool about enemy hero, they will suffer, just make sure you drop those minions first (especially if you are fighting priest/hunter).
9) Save most of your low MP cards for later turns
Do not unload them one by one as they will get cleared one by one. Save for instance murlocs till 2 mp, drop all 3, and drop raid leader next turn. Most of the time, those 3 will end up ignored so you will deal a lot of damage next turn.
And there you have it! It's a basic deck, all cards are starter and it shouldn't take you long to get used to it. Here's how the game usually looks like with this deck:
I do plan to update this deck soon, with Rockbitter instead of something, so stay tuned for v2 =)
Peace!