Deck of the Week #13: DKMR Angry Shaman

by Team [IHU] - 6 years ago

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Every Friday legendary players from Don’t Kick My Robot share with you the “Deck of the Week”. These decks are seeing a lot of play either in constructed ladder or tournaments. Team DKMR explain 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.

[DKMR]Atlanta here from team Don’t Kick My Robot to bring you this week’s Deck of the Week; DKMR’s Angry Shaman. With the recent nerfs to Unleash the Hounds, Shaman has become relatively stronger in the current meta. Miracle rogues have also became relatively stronger. In the apparent absence of a strong Miracle Rogue check that also has great coverage elsewhere, we designed this aggressive Shaman deck with Miracle Rogues in mind. This deck utilizes various charge minions with a focus on synergy with Flametongue Totem, Windfury, and Rockbiter. This deck has very little issue powering through taunts; we added an additional silence, Ironbeak Owl, to go along with the Earth Shocks. This deck lacks some of the more common options that Shamans like to use, such as Mana Tide and Hex. These cards are good, but are fairly useless in the match-ups that we want the deck to excel at, such as Miracle Rogue, Handlock and Ramp Druid.

Earth Shock x2 – One of our ways to crack taunts and large threats. It instantly kills Twilight Drakes, making it excellent for the Handlock match-up.

This can be combined with our charge creatures to create opportunities for lethal through large boards for an extremely cheap mana cost.

Lightning Bolt x2 – A cheap and effective removal for creatures with 3 hp or less. We need Lightning Bolt as a way to smoothly transition to our midgame for a fairly low drawback. Overload doesn’t bog this deck down much, as we have ample ways to utilize lower amounts of mana. Later in the game we can use our bolts to hit face for lethal damage, especially with spell power.

Rockbiter Weapon x2 – At first glance, this card seems fairly similar to Lightning Bolt in its usage. However, Rockbiter Weapon’s damage output is doubled by Windfury and Doom Hammer. Combining this with the base values of the cards you buff with Rockbiter, you can put out incredible burst damage from your hand.

Abusive Sergeant x2 – Another cheap option for additional damage, especially with Windfury. For 1 mana, we can add up to 4 damage to a minion with Windfury. The damage buff can also be used effectively on totems to trade with minions on the board. Because this card costs 1 mana, we can use it on turns when we are overloaded. This is especially helpful when going second and coining out Feral Spirits.

Argent Squire x2 – A quintessential Shaman 1-drop, but especially key in an aggressive deck. We can combine this card with our Abusive Sergeants and Flametongue Totems to trade efficiently with larger minions. Argent Squire becomes increasingly irrelevant as the game goes on, so be careful when choosing to use this later in the game over something with more utility such as a totem.

Windfury x1 – Windfury allows us to double the damage output of our creatures and the buffs we use on them, such as Rockbiter Weapon or Flametongue Totem. With full mana, we can deal up to 32 damage from our hand! (Leeroy+Rockbiter+Rockbiter+Abusive+Abusive+Windfury) (6+3+3+2+2)(x2)

Bloodmage Thalnos x1 – One of the few cards that allows us to cycle through our deck while also adding value to our moves. Thalnos is a necessity in most Shaman decks, as it acts as an on-demand spell damage totem to allow us to deal damage more efficiently. Cycling through the deck is very important to our endgame, as in some match-ups we really need combo pieces to finish the game.

Bluegill Warrior x1 – A cheap and effective charge minion to combine with Flametongue Totem, Abusive Sergeant, and occasionally Windfury. This is the cheapest way to combine Rockbiter into Windfury to double its damage output immediately. This contributes greatly to games where we need to finish our opponent off quickly, such as in Miracle Rogue or any aggro mirror.

Flametongue Totem x2 – The most important card in this deck by far. This combines well with every charge minion in the deck, allowing normally small creatures such as Bluegill Warrior or Argent Squire to trade efficiently with larger creatures or to deal large amounts of face damage. When Flametongue is allowed to survive, we often want to use the damage from existing adjacent minions first, then place a charge minion next to Flametongue to utilize its damage buff again in the same turn. This is the most important mechanic of Flametongue that must be mastered in order to use this deck effectively.

Ironbeak Owl x1 – This is an additional surprise silence with a body attached to it. This card can be most readily cut according to the current field of classes you’re against, but this especially helps against Handlocks and Ramp Druids. Cramming 3 silences into a turn can occasionally allow normally impossible lethal configurations, especially against Handlock.

Loot Hoarder x2 – A very important cycle card and turn 2 play for the deck. Loot Hoarder is a huge stall card to some classes, such as Druid and Shaman, who have to interrupt their mana curve to stop Loot Hoarder from dealing free damage, allowing you to retain initiative. Initiative is a huge deal to aggressive classes, as you always want to force your opponent to react.

Feral Spirit x2 – Probably the most imbalanced 3 drop in the game. If you’re going first and you have a Flametongue to go with this by turn 3, you have a huge advantage. Protecting your charge minions is one main function of Feral Spirit, while another is utilizing 2 effective bodies for Flametongue to deal damage. At least one Spirit Wolf is likely to survive the next turn, and dealing with the overload cost is not a problem with such a wide variety of 1/2 mana options to buff the wolf or retain the field.

Lightning Storm x1 – Two Lightning Storms has always been the standard of Shaman decks, and one of the cards that can turn a game. That being said, AoE is very important to beating some of your weaker matchups. Generally while playing this deck you will ignore your opponent’s board enough that you can get a very valuable Lightning Storm to continue your aggression. Despite all this, Lightning Storm can be a dead card in a lot of the match-ups we want the deck to win.

Arcane Golem x1 – A cheap charge with great damage. Generally we save this for finishers, as the drawback can allow our opponents to react more effectively to our aggression.

Coldlight Oracle x1 – A very controversial card draw option, but one that this deck needs. While we generally want to avoid cards like these in most decks, Coldlight Oracle allows us to draw towards our win conditions faster. Since our deck relies on certain card combos to deal burst damage, we want to collect as many of those pieces as we can. The Oracle’s 2/2 body also takes a card to get rid of. While our opponent can use more statistically likely responses to our plays, our non-Rogue/Druid opponents are limited by mana, so they will often have cards they cannot possibly use. Most of our cards are very cheap. Another important thing to note is that when we get Coldlight later in the game, we can often use the cards that we draw IMMEDIATELY to push lethal or swing the board in our favor while dealing damage.

Wolfrider x2 – Another cheap charge which forces your opponent to react. This is usually not a bad turn 3 play, as we always get to utilize our damage in some way. Our goal is to kill our opponent, this allows us to chip our opponent down into burst range, especially with Flametongue Totem.

Leeroy Jenkins x1 – A great finisher card, and the biggest charge unit we can buff. Windfury causes this unit to deal 12 damage, combine it with rockbiter and you get 18, 2 rockbiters is 24, and Abusive Sergeants add 4 each for a total of 32 damage for 10 mana in the endgame if we somehow have all those pieces. This is not our primary way of finishing the game, but it is additional damage that we need to finish our opponents off. This can also be used in conjunction with Lightning Storm against opponents that may have less ways to deal with the 6/2 body in the later phases of the game.

Doomhammer x1 – Given enough turns, this card allows us to deal up to 16 damage by itself. Occasionally we use this to clear the board, but generally we want to hit face as often as possible. Additionally, this card provides a great way to double Rockbiter’s base damage output, dealing 10 damage in one turn when used in conjunction with one Rockbiter, and 16 damage in one turn with two Rockbiters. This is countered hard by Harrison Jones, so be very careful when using this against Warriors who most often run the card.

Argent Commander x1 – One of our “value units” and our backup plan to the later game. If for whatever reason we have stalled out against our opponent, the remainder of our endgame curve is 2 for 1 cards. Argent Commander is also an excellent buff target, allowing for free trades on very large creatures while retaining a 4/2 body afterwards.

Fire Elemental x2 – Our second “value unit”, with a great 6/5 body that allows us to kill 3 hp units or less for free & can be used for lethal for 3 damage to the face. This unit often lives to the next turn as well, giving an excellent target for buffs on the following turn. Be careful of using this near Flametongue Totem, however, as it can become an unwilling 8/5 BGH target.

Mulligans

Against most decks, we will throw out anything that is not an argent squire, Flametongue totem, or Feral Spirits. Earth Shock/Lightning Bolt/Rockbiter is great against Warlocks and hunters but we generally want our Squires and Spirits the most, as they will often survive long enough to be buffed. In match-ups where we need to burn our opponent down, we will keep Doomhammer in our opening hand for the large damage output.

The Coin

The coin significantly changes our game plan. While we will use Argent Squires universally at turn 1, sometimes we’ll want more board presence out of our turn 1 and coin out a totem. Against Druids or Rogues, coining a totem is a very effective way to assert board presence when our hand otherwise doesn’t allow for it. If the totem survives, it can be buffed or we can add another totem to the board on the following turn. Once we have healing totem+taunt totem, the Rogue and Druid hero powers cannot clear the taunt totem due to the healing effect. Our other useful play when going second is coin+Feral Spirit on turn 2. Usually we’ll also have a follow up play to Feral Spirits with the numerous 1 mana cards we have in our deck.

The Game Plan

Our ideal early game involves asserting board presence, then throwing chargers at our opponent which can be buffed in numerous ways. If we can sandwich a Flametongue between two Feral Spirits, the combination of damage output and board presence is often very difficult for our opponents to handle. By the later game we’re setting up our opponents for lethal with Doomhammer or charge pressure while utilizing our numerous silences to clear taunts for the final push. If our game plan is stalled out, we can fall back on our 2 for 1 minions: Argent Commander and Fire Elemental.

Alternate Card Choices

+1 Lightning Storm – This deck can function well with 1 or 2 lightning storms. When facing more mirror matches or minion heavy decks, you might find yourself wishing you had more AoE.

Crazed Alchemist – Alchemist can be used in conjunction with the Flametongue Totem’s buff to grant your minions permanent health(the buff from Flametongue counts towards the Alchemist switch, but still gives bonus damage after the switch is done) and sometimes permanent bonus damage as well. This is a very difficult card to use properly, but it might give you some interesting results.

+1 Coldlight Oracle – If you are playing against more control decks, you might find yourself running low on cards. We can’t afford to use Mana Tide, as it is a huge tempo sink for 3 mana. This card is significantly worse against aggro, as they can use many of the cards you give them in the same turn. Against control, however, the cost of their cards restricts them greatly.

Stormforged Axe – This card can at least deal up to 6 damage for 2 mana. It’s a welcome addition to the deck, just a bit awkward when you have Doomhammer already.

Bloodlust – Honestly, most of the time this card is dead, but against matchups where your board is largely ignored, such as against Hunter, you can see success.

Cards that didn’t make the cut

Hex – Most of the time when you want to hex a minion, silencing it and ignoring it is a cheaper and more mana efficient use of a turn. Your goal is to kill your opponent quickly.

Unbound Elemental – Every removal in your opponent’s deck will be saved for this, since they don’t need it for any other card in the deck. Unbound Elemental also does nothing on the turn you play it, which is not something this deck likes to do.

Mana Tide Totem – Although we like card draw, it is very difficult to justify having a 0/3 which doesn’t deal us any damage on that turn.

Lava Burst – 5 damage is nice. Very nice. But it also overloads you a TON for what it is. You slow yourself down a lot using this card.

Azure Drake – Slow card. We don’t like slow cards. The value unit slots in this deck are taken up by creatures that have an immediate effect on the board.

So try this deck out guys and keep track of your stats with it on Hearthstats.net. Let us know if you love it or if you hate and it and why. This deck is super fast and a lot of fun!

[DKMR]Atlanta streams weekdays and you can find him at http://www.twitch.tv/atlantard. You can find all of DKMR’s streamers at www.dontkickmyrobot.com with the days they stream!

Guide written by [DKMR]Atlanta

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