Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[sambojin]

Shaman concept deck version 0.2a. A random grab bag of bodies and things. A 0/7/9/6/5/3 mana curve, with nothing over 5 mana.

Worgen Infiltrator × 2    1
Zombie Chow × 2    1
Rockbiter Weapon × 2    1
Earth Shock x 1  1
Wind Fury x 2   2
Stormforged Axe × 1    2
Whirling Zap-o-matic × 2    2
Crackle × 1    2
Sunfury Protector × 1    2
Acidic Swamp Ooze × 1    2
Faerie Dragon × 1  2
Acolyte of Pain × 2    3
Shattered Sun Cleric × 1    3
Feral Spirit × 1    3
Hex × 1    3
Big Game Hunter × 1    3
Unbound Elemental/Hungry Dragon x 2   4
Piloted Shredder × 1    4
Fireguard Destroyer × 2    4
Faceless Manipulator × 1    5
Earth Elemental × 2  5


Newer Shaman zoo deck. I'm not really happy with the Unbound Elementals in place of the Hungry Dragons (even with a fair bit of overload in the deck. Dragons are inherently "better". Pick whichever you want, I'm still fairly sure the dragons work more easily). Windfury got added for a dropped Faerie Dragon. It's a weird form of ramping in of itself, late or early. Dropped Mukkla for an extra Windfury for reliability (could have been an Earthshock or any minion/direct damage/board changer for 1-3 mana. Could even drop a Manatide Totem in, if wanted. Maybe another Sunfury Protector or even a Defender of Argus? Whatever, Mukkla's out, even if he's awesome and can be a win condition with Windfury) for a bit more control and due to the fact that handlocks are an ever present problem at even mid ranks (the early big body tends to kick you worse than it could ever help you).

So, still big bodies that do stuff with a grab bag of things that do stuff. Rolls a bit harder, and sort of quicker, even losing some strong early minions. I'll tell you how it goes. I think I'll keep the dragons though.

edit: changed a hex to a windfury for more burstiness.

[Leafsnail]

Flametongue Totem seems like an obvious inclusion.  In general I'd say the deck doesn't look aggressive enough to justify its low mana curve - I can't see how you're supposed to win before your lack of card draw and lower-impact cards start to bite you.  Zombie Chow seems particularly bad in that kind of deck, and you probably want stickier (eg Haunted Creeper, Harvest Golem) or more aggressive (eg Knife Juggler, Wolfrider, Dire Wolf Alpha) minions to try and create a more focused strategy.

I also think you really want to run Fire Elemental if you're trying to be midrange, it's just an incredibly good card.  Earth Elemental has the problem of being a BGH target that basically makes you skip your next turn.

[frostshotgg]

You've got no card draw. Acolyte is a terrible engine for zoo shaman. You have no way to force proc it and it's too slow to be of use to you. Swap it for Cult Master or Mana Tide totem, depending on how lucky you feel. Also 2x Chow is very questionable.

[sambojin]

In a way, it's hand--shaman. Tap away at face until you get your win conditions set.

Nice against token or hunter rush, not too bad against warriors of any kind/patron.

Give it a burl. It's not fast zoo, just big zoo.

Always hold a Windfury and a Rockbiter in your hand, unless you really need to kill something. Opponents often think it's a Lightning Storm or Hex. They are your win conditions. Keep hitting face while controlling the board if able (zoo thing). Then keep tap, tap, tapping, away at face or board conditions, while dropping the occasional totem so you don't waste mana. Minions are your damage like always in Shaman. Bigger things just keep piling on in from your hand, even without ramp. Then you crack shit with a big minion. But ensure win conditions are kept in hand. Taunt or early game minions just nullifies rush and sets reasonable board state. Win conditions are what you hold. Then place 1 or two bodies per turn after wipes happen.

Most things are potentially a threat in this zoo.

Give it a go some time. Zero legendaries, but heaps of dust for rares. But they're damn good rares anyway.

It Runs.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[sambojin]

Blah. Anything to the face is the Shaman's way. He didn't waste all that mana to not faceroll.

[Leafsnail]

If it's a face deck you really don't want a card that heals your opponent for 5.

You've got no card draw. Acolyte is a terrible engine for zoo shaman. You have no way to force proc it and it's too slow to be of use to you. Swap it for Cult Master or Mana Tide totem, depending on how lucky you feel. Also 2x Chow is very questionable.

To be fair Shaman's card draw is gonna be abysmal no matter what you do.

[frostshotgg]

Food for thought: Why are you playing that deck at all? What makes it unfair?

[sambojin]

Easily achievable winning combo conditions.

Putting a rockbiter and windfury onto virtually any of the higher mana creatures is 18-20 damage out of nowhere. Can also work with the whirling zapomatics if you've got two rockbiters in hand instead.  This can often be done by turn 4-6, which is quite early for that level of damage. There's so many cards to combo off, it's a likelyhood to happen fairly quickly after managing to keep even one decent minion alive. The combo pieces are never truly dead cards either (as bloodlust, firetongues, etc can be). Other than that, it's just normal taunty shaman zoo, with less gubbin than normal (totems, direct damage, etc).

Probably wants a second Windfury in there in place of Mukkla for a bit more reliability. It's not exactly a windfury deck, just zoo with some burst and defense.

[Leafsnail]

That combo isn't reliable at all though - it relies on you drawing a 1/30 card in your deck along with a 2/30, and then also on you sticking a big minion without it dying, and without your opponent playing a taunt to block it (you have no way to get around taunts either).  Windfury can also absolutely be dead if you don't have any creatures that can attack this turn.

[frostshotgg]

If all you want is a large burst, why not play combolock or combo druid?

[Leafsnail]

If you want to try it in Shaman I'd suggest
- earth shock/ironbeak owl to get past taunts
- charging minions so your guys don't just die on their turn (eg Arcane Golem, Wolfrider)
- Abusive Sergeant/Flametongue Totem for more redundancy in the deck
I actually made a gimmick deck like that, it was sortof OK but inconsistent.  It also really needed a Doomhammer that I didn't want to craft.

[frostshotgg]

New brawl is out. When your minions die you get a random banana, constructed.

It's really cool, although pulling nothing but rotten bananas when your opponent gets big bananas constantly feels shitty as hell.

As far as decks go, I think token druid with buff oriented cards splashed in is the way to go, although mage with good draws can't lose. I'm pretty sure Violet Teacher is 100% 2x in every conceivable deck though.

[sambojin]

That combo isn't reliable at all though - it relies on you drawing a 1/30 card in your deck along with a 2/30, and then also on you sticking a big minion without it dying, and without your opponent playing a taunt to block it (you have no way to get around taunts either).  Windfury can also absolutely be dead if you don't have any creatures that can attack this turn.

Meh, edited it to have two Windfury cards (well before you posted ). So it's 2/30 and 2/30. Which isn't any worse than virtually any other combo, except this one can be applied to more things. It would be better with more card draw, but the wide range of targets compensates for this a little.

Some charge would be nice, but I can only really think of Leeroy as an option in place of the Faceless Manipulator, but the manipulator is useful for so many things I'm not sure what is better. FM goes great with stealing legendaries or becoming a dragon or EE (with no downside), and can be another threat very easily if you've windfuried one already. It'd be very easy to take out the Earth Elementals entirely for either Fire's or whichever 1-6 mana card you particularly like. They're not the weak link, but they're not the strongest either. I just like giving them some play (and the opponent does run out of answers eventually. Then, Kapow!). Likewise, the Shattered Sun Cleric can be dropped for any 1-3 mana card you like (flametongue or more removal?).

In the end, it's normal zoo. Your creatures take down their taunts, you must have creatures on board to be effective, and you can stall out due to this. Your creatures tend to be a bit bigger than normal, which helps against some of these things, but it's still just zoo with a "go" button. Which isn't really ever a terrible thing. Crackle can go to face or creatures, one ES/Hex/BGH is a fair bit to take care of the bigger threats, an axe for the smaller, AoP tend to make board sweeping a bit more annoying for the opponent (and can sometimes do wonderous things against token decks if you end up with a healing totem in place). So yeah, there's bits, and they're fairly good bits, but reliability is a concern.

It's not a "Legend" level deck (although it might be fun to test it up at that level), but it'll certainly get you up to rank 10 or so with enough play. Virtually any zoo deck will. I just happen to like this one better than zoolock or hunter. It feels more strategic, while still being able to give some cheap'n'cheesy wins. You don't have to save back a win combo, you can just use them to pip more damage at creatures or face, but at least there's options with it. A good player could take the deck quite a bit higher than rank 10, quite easily.

Anyway, I like it, and that's the main thing

[Criptfeind]

New brawl came out earlier today. I gota say, it seems pretty uninteresting to me. The bananas effects just aren't as interesting as the cards in rag/nefs decks.

What do you guys think?