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Deck of the Week #21: Grindstone Shaman

by - 10 years ago

Every Friday a legendary member from team DKMR breaks down Don’t Kick My Robot’s “Deck of the Week” . These decks are seeing a lot of play either in constructed ladder or tournaments. Team DKMR explains the deck lists and how to play them. Make sure you check out Don’t Kick My Robot if you want to become a better player or check out their premium services if you would like them to do a 1 on 1 coaching session with you to help you better your game. View past Deck Lists of the Week.

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[DKMR]Kisstafer here bringing you the deck of the week! Shaman is a class that never seems to be in the limelight, but it is a strong counter-deck that is a valuable weapon in any player’s arsenal. With powerful removal tools like Hex, Shaman is great at countering decks that use expensive creatures like Hand Lock or Control Warrior.  The unique thing about Shaman is both it’s greatest strength and greatest weakness.  The overload mechanic is both an advantage and a drawback, it allows more explosive turns because the cards cost less up front, but future turns are inhibited by overload.  It is for this reason that Shaman is a class with one of the highest skill caps in the game.  The best way to play around overload is to design a deck that takes overload into account while choosing which cards to put in.  Grindstone’s Shaman deck has done a particularly good job of this – you will notice the Mana Wraith and the fact that the only 3 costing minion is actually a spell.  He has designed a deck that plays cards that work well while overloaded, a venture that has still not been fully explored to-date.  His deck making skill is probably what kept him at #1 in NA for the majority of Ladder Season 3.

Deck List

grindstone shaman2x Earth Shock:  Earth shock is a versatile spell that can take care of pesky minions like Harvest golem Cairne, Leper Gnome, and Twilight Drake.  It also doubles as a draw denial spell when the opponent plays cards like Loot Hoarder, Acolyte of Pain, and Ysera.

2x Lightning Bolt:  Standard small removal, it has the advantage of costing 1 mana but has an overload of one, which means mana expenditures must be planned out turns in advance.

2x Rockbiter Weapon:  This card doubles as an early removal tool in a pinch and an extremely powerful finisher late game when combined with cards like Doomhammer and Al’Akir, due to their windfury.  I would suggest to try to save it for a finisher unless you absolutely need to use it for removal.

2x Argent Squire:  Argent squire works well to ward off aggressive burn decks like Hunter and Aggro Rogue, because it kills their 1 HP minions and survives.  The squire also works very well with flametongue totem, because it’s shield acts as a 3 damage spell.

1x Acidic Swamp Ooze:  Shaman relies on board control, so having the ooze to destroy things like Deadly Poison before a rogue can Blade Flurry your entire board is important.  Being able to ooze any weapon in general is helpful, because it’s one of the best ways for other classes to wrestle board control back (Fiery War Axe, Gorehowl, Truesilver, etc.).

1x Bloodmage Thalnos:  There are too many cheap spells that benefit from spell power to not run this card.  Lightning storm becomes godlike when coupled with Thalnos and another Wrath of Air totem or Azure Drake.  Spellpower Lightning storm is one of the only ways Shaman can deal with a concealed Gadgetzan Auctioneer, and sometimes it can stop the Rogue in their tracks.

2x Flametongue Totem:  This card is great when you have the early initiative (which is usually the case).  It allows you to pressure the opponent’s life tremendously hard, and can also allow you to trade your totems into their minions for value trades.  The primary weakness of this card is when they have initiative or are able to clear your board, as playing it on an empty board is incredibly vulnerable.  As a result, this deck shines against control decks and is almost a dead card against Aggro decks as long as they clear your totems.

1x Mana Wraith:  This card is a neat addition Grindstone put into his iteration of Shaman. It serves two purposes;  It can be played quite easily on turns where you are overloaded (for example on turn 4 after playing Feral Spirits with 2 mana left over, and having it protected by the taunts), and it favors Shaman as their hands can often be quite spell-heavy.  Mana Wraith shines against Druid decks who are trying to drop minion on curve every turn, it almost forces them to play a removal spell or else get severely behind on board.  Shaman can simply hero power and drop flametongue totem so they aren’t nearly as affected by the Mana Wraith as other classes will be.

2x Feral Spirit:  Feral Spirit is a very interesting card, it has the same mana cost as a Druid of the Claw and the same stats, but spread out in two smaller packets.  This can either be a boon or a hindrance depending on what type of deck you are playing.  Against decks that play extremely large creatures, two small taunts can often be better than one medium sized one, and against decks that play a lot of single-target removal it can often be better to have two small minions than one large minion.  On the backswing, decks that play more small-minion removal and AoE will be better suited to deal with Feral Spirits.  The fact that it can be played on turn 3 however, makes it incredibly powerful.

2x Hex:  This card is the reason people play Shaman, 3 mana hard removal is incredibly powerful.

1x Lava Burst:  Kind of a metagame call, lava burst is good at destroying the midrange creatures in most Rogue/Druid decks, and can double as a finisher come lategame.  The biggest argument against lava burst is it’s clunky overload making it cost 5 mana for 5 damage.  However, the fact that it can be played for only 3 allows for explosive turns that make up for some of the inefficiency of the card (similar to innervate).

2x Lightning Storm:  This is probably one of the best AOE cards in the game, dealing 2.5 damage on average for 5 mana, but playable for only 3 mana.  The fact that Lightning Storm only costs 3 to play is significant because many decks can be over run before they have access to their AoE options, whereas shaman can easily survive long enough to get off a lightning storm. The fact that it is playable for 3 mana also let’s it be comboed with spellpower much earlier in the game than other forms of AoE.

1x Mana Tide Totem:  When played behind a couple of Feral Spirits or a Defender of Argus taunt line, a Mana Tide Totem that survives for more than one turn can simply draw enough cards to win the game on it’s own.  In desperate times, it can simply be played as a life gain/cycle card, because the opponent is forced to use damage to kill it and it will always draw at least one card.

2x Defender of Argus:  Argus complements Shaman very well due to their hero power totemic call, and the tendency to buff many small minions rather than have a few large ones.  Other than Fire Elemental and Azure Drake, most of the time Shaman is taking the beatdown role with mainly weenie creatures like Argent Squire and Feral Spirits.  Argus works will with this style because Shaman tends to get the full value out of him more often than other decks.

1x Gnomish Inventor:  The beauty of Gnomish Inventor in a Shaman deck is that the threat of it being buffed is so real that players often blow removal on it, and can simply run out over the course of a long game.  His attack can simply be buffed, and shamans mostly use spells to remove creatures so his low attack is not that big of a drawback, and the fact that he refills the Shamans hand is quite a large advantage.  In the end what we’re trying to say is that Shaman is able to utilize having a body on the board, regardless of it’s size, so cyclers like Gnomish fit the deck very well.

1x Sen’jin Shieldmasta:  Shaman tends to be weak to Aggro decks like Hunter, so having a solid taunt shores up the Aggro matchups significantly.  For example, a face deck has to spend damage getting through the taunt, and a taunt buys enough time against a zoo deck to transition into a lightning storm turn.

1x Doomhammer:  Doomhammer is an anti-control deck, anti-combo deck card.  It comes out fast enough to pressure combo deck’s life total to threaten killing them before they draw their combos, or get enough mana to pull them off.  For example, Doomhammer puts out so much damage that it can pop a freeze mage’s ice block before they can play Alex.  Similarly, it can finish off a Rogue before they draw into their Leeroy combos.  Against control decks like Warrior, it does an amazing job at pressuring their life and fulfilling the beatdown role, and knocking all of their armor off.  The hard counter to Doomhammer is Harrison Jones, but this is a metagame risk that should be taken into account before putting Doomhammer in the deck.

1x Azure Drake:  Similar to Gnomish Inventor, Azure Drake provides a solid board presence that has to be removed due to the threat of spellpower and minion-buffing abilities that Shaman has.  Coupled with the fact that Azure Drake draws a card, it keeps the Shamans hand full while the opponent’s diminishes.

2x Fire Elemental:  This card is extremely strong due to it’s ability to kill a minion while also developing a minion at the same time.  Clearing the opponent’s board on turn 6 and developing your own large threat gives you a huge tempo boost, and initiative going into the late-game.

1x Al’Akir The Windlord:  Al’akir is a great value card, and is not uncommon to go 3 for 1.  He comes down like an Argent Commander and kills two minions, and then takes a third to finish him off.  He provides an extra taunt, and also doubles as a finisher when coupled with Rockbiter Weapon, able to deal up to 18 damage in one turn.

Game Plan

The goal with Shaman is to develop an early board spawning totems and playing sticky minions like Argent Squire and Feral Spirits, and then to pressure the opponent by removing their minions with spells.  By developing board advantage and removing their creatures each turn, your own minions will then be free to pressure the opponent’s life total.   By doing this, board advantage can be snowballed turn after turn and if not dealt with in an efficient way the opponents life will simply be whittled down far enough to burst the rest of the way through the remaining burn spells in hand. The strength of Shaman is in their ability to remove creatures extremely efficiently, and trade it’s hero power for actual cards.  It is vital that you look for ways to abuse Flametongue Totem, and set up ways for it to gain a lot of value.  This is usually done by maximizing the amount of times you use Totemic Call.  Also, it is important to save Hex for key targets like Ragnaros and Cairne, while saving Lightning Storm for situations where it will get the most value possible in each matchup. Mana Wraith can be dropped on turns where the opponent will be hitting key mana breakpoints, eg. on turn 4 for druid where they would normally want to drop a Yeti.

Shaman is almost always the beatdown aggressor except against very early Aggro decks like zoo, Aggro rogue, and Aggro hunter.  Against Handlock, Control Warrior, Miracle Rogue, Druid, Control Paladins, Priests, Freeze Mage, other Shamans etc. you are the one doing the beatdown.  It is important to note, however, that in the Aggro matchups you are only the control player until you can regain board control.  Once you have seized control of the board, it is time to start retaking the role of the beatdown player so that you can race their life down (this is most important in matchups like Hunter where it’s a race against the clock because of their hero power and direct damage spells).  Against zoo, once you have board control you usually just win unless you’re in soulfire range and they topdeck it.

Mulligans

What you search for in your opening hand largely depends on what the matchup is.  Against Handlock for example, you would want to search for Hex, Flametongue, and Earthshock.  Whereas against Hunter you would want to search for Earth Shock, Feral Spirits, and Argent Squire.  The rule of thumb is this – In matchups where you are the Aggressor you want flametongue and your early minions, and in matchups where you are the control player you want your removal spells (lightning bolt, lightning storm, feral spirits).

We hope you enjoyed this deck and get a chance to play it! Keep track of this deck and how well it is doing at http://www.hearthstats.net and let us know if you like it! This is a really fun deck and should be used on the ladder and can be used in tournaments too!

Written by: [DKMR]Kisstafer

[DKMR]Kisstafer streams and can be found at http://www.twitch.tv/kisstafer.

You can find all of DKMR’s streamers on their website with times and the days they stream!

Discussions about this topic brought to you by Team [DKMR]


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


0 responses to “Deck of the Week #21: Grindstone Shaman”

  1. DrEvil says:

    Nice shaman build – I’ve been running a deck very similar to this for a while. I swapped 3 cards to match yours and it’s amazing the difference it makes. The Mana Wraith is quite the game changer…two thumbs up!

    • [DKMR]Kisstafer says:

      I’m glad you are having success with the deck! The Mana Wraith really was a genius addition to Shaman. (I didn’t personally make the deck so I’m allowed to say that 😛 )

  2. jakdripr says:

    At first glance this deck looked like your standard shaman with a man wraith. But there’re a lot of little additions(and subtractions, no unbounds, 1 drake) that make it quite different.

    Gonna give it a shot, been playing the same mid-range shaman for far too long. Although I have to ask, are the Argent squires vital? Without a blood knight they seem like they lose their value past turn 4.

    • [DKMR]Kisstafer says:

      The thing about Shaman is that even though the stats on the squire aren’t amazing going into the lategame, Shaman benefits very well from just having any body on the board ( regardless of size). Things like Argus and Flametongue Totem increase the value the squire will have, so it actually is relevant late game believe it or not.

      • jakdripr says:

        Makes sense, I was considering dropping them for earthen rings(really trying to make them work on Shaman), but I guess since the squires are stickier than the earthen rings they work better for this decks purpose.

        Still though, how do you feel about tossing in some farseers?

        • [DKMR]Kisstafer says:

          I don’t mind it, Shaman DOES lack healing. It could be a neat metagame call when there are a lot of hunters/aggro rogues/mages floating around. I’ve thought about it before but they really don’t have the type of sticky body that Shaman benefits the most from. You’d have to tinker with it and try to find a mixture that works.

  3. Monsoy says:

    Kisstafer, i have all the cards, exept for bloodmage and al’akir. Will this be a problem? If not, which cards can replace them?

    • Some Shaman builds run Leeroy and Windfury over Al’akir. I don’t think I’d recommend that with this build. Argent Commander, Windfury, and maybe even Windspeaker are reasonable replacements, but it’s difficult to directly replace a card as unique as Al’akir.

    • [DKMR]Kisstafer says:

      I think Argent commander is the closest card in the game to being al’akir. You ~CAN~ run ragnaros over al’akir if you have him, but argent commander should also be fine until you can get him.

      • Muhammad Lord Faisal says:

        i dont have the the legendary card, cuz, im new in this game…
        but add 1 bloodstone, and bam… autowin…
        and i got rank 12 without any legendary card… is it great or common??? hehe

  4. Muhammad Lord Faisal says:

    me too… similar… but i didn’t think mana wraith… now u open my mind… thx… ^^

  5. atomic says:

    Would you mind sharing 4-5 typical situations where using the mana wraith produces the most value?

    I am a new HS player, I tried this deck and had relative success with it (went from 9 – 6 fast). I love how easily it beats zoo locks. I am struggling a bit with priests (!!) and mirracle rogues and aggro hunter variations. The only change I made to the deck is replacing lava burst with blood lust because of the countless times I was standing with 5-6 minions on the board.

    • [DKMR]Kisstafer says:

      If you play feral spirits on turn 3, on turn 4 you will only have 2 mana left over. Mana wraith is a good way to spend that mana on an overloaded turn. The way overload is punished is by the opponent having a strong follow up turn while you have a weak one, mana wraith makes it so their following turn can’t be as strong because their minions cost one more. One neat way to use it is to deny the opponent from playing a heavy hitting minion on-curve, for example Ragnaros now costs8 so they have to spend mana removing the mana wraith instead of slamming their creatures, same thing with Alextrasza. If you can Mana Wraith the turn before a freeze mage wants to drop Alextrasza, you can give yourself an extra turn to pop their ice block. Dropping it as a Hand-Lock goes on to 4 mana is extremely stron because now their Drake or Giant costs 5 to play. Similarly, dropping it as a druid goes on to 4 mana is strong as well because now they can not drop yeti. It is just a matter of being creative with the card, hope I helped 🙂

      • atomic says:

        Yeah thanks a lot for taking the time to help 🙂 . I actually got it right in regards to early turns, but I didn’t consider rangaros and alexrtasza thanks.

        I started getting the deck. I also started getting the hole mana wrath thing, I stopped gadgetzan auctioneers, I played it after feral spirits like you suggested, I stopped chillwing yetis, hidden the wrath behind taunts and spawned totems and spells and forced removals…

        I also started getting the different aggressor / controll playstyle and the correct mulligan.

        As a result I went from rank high rank 7 to rank 4 without loosing a single match! (seriously), then I lost to a zoo lock (!) and quit for the night.

        • [DKMR]Kisstafer says:

          That’s amazing man, I feel genuinely happy to have played a (small) part in your success.

          • atomic says:

            Keep up the good work dude & team [DKMR]. I will try for legend with this deck but I will still continue trying out your “decks of the week” as they come out

  6. KillaCali says:

    This is an amazing deck. At first glance it seems like the regular midrange shaman. However it’s consistency and tempo are much better, just by making these small changes. I’ve been struggling with the meta recently and this deck helped me climb down 6 ranks extremely quick. I find that knowing what to mulligan for with this deck makes the difference. Do you want to be aggressive early or do you want to play a bit defensively? Sometimes it’s harder to know the answer to that question, but other times it’s a very simple answer. I’ve actually been spanking zoo with this deck and let me tell you that feels good!

  7. DNI says:

    Really interesting deck. I would like to give it a try. But i would like to ask. How much having no usual 3-drops like Harvest Golems or Unbound Elementals affects early game in general or for example matchups with aggressive warlocks, rogues, mages and etc?
    And what could be good temporary replacement for Thalnos if i don’t have it: additional card draw like Loot Hoarder, additional spellpower like kobold geomancer or maybe something like second Ooze?

    • KillaCali says:

      1. I’ve found that Unbound elementals are pretty much dead cards for shamans. People are scared of them so most cases you’re lucky if they live a turn. Additionally they take a bit too long to get going. The best thing to do is rely heavily on your totems, spirit wolves and argent squires early in the game. Make sure to abuse the crap out of flametongue totems to pressure your opponents board, especially against aggressive decks. That should be enough to get you to turn 4+ where you can start working your magic.
      2. Thalos is a great card often because of the 2 for 1 effect so it’s hard to replace. However Kobold Geomancer is a suitable replacement for SP. Personally I run a Windfury in it’s place and it’s often won be the matchup when played with fire elemental, azure drake or even the senjin.