Throm-ka! You probably thought that I’d open up this article with an MC Hammer joke and I just want you to know that you’re wrong. On so many levels. Anywho, the last time we reviewed a decklist I mentioned that there was a pair of weapons in WoW TCG’s final set Reign of Fire that caught my eye. We followed Frostmourne down the rabbit hole and I think we found a nice home for Arthas’ iconic sword. Then recently I referred to the other weapon as a sleeper in Classic just waiting for someone to build around it. Well today I decided that we’d put our money where our mouth was(is)[should be] and make Doomhammer the focal point of our deck!

Doomhammer

Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Warrior

4CC Equipment – 1H Weapon Mace – Melee (1)

Allies you control with restriction tags have +3/+3.

2 (melee) / 4 Strike

Now it’s very likely that Doomhammer could just slot into an established list like Google Shaman by shaving a card or two. You wouldn’t want to play too many copies, but having the one-of show up every couple of games would probably feel great. However, that wouldn’t make for a very good article so let’s start over again from the ground up.

Picking a Class and Faction

Now it might say “HORDE” in giant letters at the bottom of the card but there’s no Red banner at the top meaning as long as we use the appropriate class we’re free to use whatever faction we see fit. But what kind of Unique or Tagged allies does each faction have to offer? Monsters could give us Jasani, Shrine Keeper (Hunter/Druid) and allow us to make a massive Boomer, Ulthok, and Shade of Aran. Horde has a few decent options as well the likes of which include Nathanos Blightcaller, Trade Prince Gallywix, and Mazu’kon (because a 6/6 Mazu’kon isn’t big enough, right). But it’s really in Alliance that we see the types of allies we’re looking for at the right spots in the curve. We want to enable the play of 3-drop into Doomhammer as often as we can with our deckbuilding and Alliance’s Classic staple Adam Eternum and newcomer Lord Kur’talos Ravencrest fit that line perfectly.

As a midrange deck we are going to be somewhat favored in the aggro matchup as we are just playing a slower but more powerful aggro strategy ourselves. So our class should be focused primarily on giving us some game in the control, combo, and other midrange matchups. If we can keep the opponent from doing cheeky stuff and make them play the ally combat game our Doomhammer should let our squad go over the top of the opposition. While Paladin, Druid, Priest, and Warrior are all great, we’re going to try this deck out of Shaman because:

Shaman’s totems are ability-allies with the Totem (1) tag. Shamans have instant-speed ability destruction/interruption. Zaritha’s flip is exceptionally good.

Zaritha

Hero – Alliance – Draenei Shaman

Restoration – Alchemy – Enchanting

2, Flip Zaritha Zaritha heals 5 damage from target hero or ally.

28 health

Yes, even though I said it’d be boring to just put a copy of Doomhammer into Google Shaman we’re still going to use a lot of Google Shaman’s technology – just not the actual Google part or the 1-9 curve. But give me a break! Those just happen to be some of the best Shaman cards in the format! Anyway, let’s move onto the Alliance allies that brought us here in the first place.

The Alliance Snowflakes

“No two snowflakes are exactly alike.” – Anonymous

To make the best use of Doomhammer we need most if not all of our allies to be like a snowflake on the battlefield: one of a kind. Since there are a lot of good neutral options which we’ll get to, we don’t really need too much from our faction but we do need the allies we get to fall into very specific spots on the curce. We want a good ally to play both before and after we drop the hammer and I think we have three of the best options, maybe in the entire game. Adam and Weldon are known Classic “good cards” while Kur’talos and especially Naisha are more speculative includes.

Adam Eternum

3CC – Alliance Ally – Human Warrior – Unique

Pay 2 or remove an honor counter from a card you control Remove Adam from the game.

Put him into play at the start of the next turn.

5 (melee) / 3 health

“Adam E.” is a really sticky threat that eats 1-2/x allies all day and dodges removal alongside Eye of the Storm with his flicker ability. Historically one of his issues has been that he merely trades into allies with 3 or more ATK the likes of which include Dethvir, Jadefire Scout, Grumdak, Warbringer Arix’amal, and many others. Well guess what an 8/6 Adam cares about? Not much. Not only will your opponent struggle to kill him but when he’s not smushing their face for 8 he can kill anything on their side of the board, flicker, and be healed back to full.

Lord Kur’talos Ravencrest

3CC – Alliance Ally – Night Elf Warrior – Kur’talos (1)

Spellshield

Kur’talos has +ATK equal to the combined cost of other allies you control.

1 (melee) / 5 health

Lord Kur’talos Ravencrest was a Core format all-star at the end of the game but hasn’t made a splash in Classic just yet – emphasis on the just yet. In Core he partnered with Fandral, Edwin, and other blue guys in the Hunter deck to win a ton of competitive matches and I think he could do the same in a deck like this. The floor on Kur’talos isn’t the best as he’s just a 1/5 Spellshield nobody. But the mid-level play is following him up with Edwin Vancleef making him a 5/5 or Doomhammer which turns him into a 4/8. And the ceiling is having out a Totem (remember, they’re allies too), Doomhammer, and another ally alongside Kur’talos making him a two-turn Spellshield clock.

Weldon Barov

5CC – Alliance Ally – Human Warrior – Unique

At the end of your turn, put three Peasant ally tokens into play with 1 melee / 1 health and Protector. At the end of the next turn, destroy them.

5 melee / 5 health

Naisha

2CC – Alliance Ally – Night Elf Hunter – Naisha (1)

As this ally enters play, name a card.

Opponents can’t play cards with that name.

1 (ranged) / 4 health

Weldon “don’t Hesriana me” Barov doesn’t need much of an introduction. And sure he’ll take the +3/+3 buff from Doomhammer, but much like I hinted about Maz’ukon, he doesn’t really need it. His main purpose in this deck is letting you dictate combat and keeping your hero alive. Making sure you’re the one choosing which allies smash into each other is important with this deck as is protecting your totems. Naisha is a pretty speculative pick, especially in a deck that doesn’t have a way to peek at the opponent’s hand. If you look at the top 4 from last year’s GenCon event it was three meta decks and a brew that a savvy player could probably guess 60% of the cards in. Naisha could be a very rewarding or punishing card depending on the situation and what you name but I think she’s worth a try.

The Neutral Snowflakes

Blue got us a good way towards meeting our Unique and Tagged allies quota but we still have a lot to fill out. Searching through the applicants on TCGBrowser revealed that we have some really good neutral options and even some next-level technology.

Edwin Vancleef

4CC – Neutral Ally – Human Rogue – Edwin Vancleef (1)

Stealth, Untargetable

When Edwin enters play, put two 1 melee / 1 health Defias Thug ally token into play with “This ally can protect allies with VanCleef in their names.” When Edwin is destroyed, you may put an ally named Vanessa VanCleef from your hand into play.

5 melee / 3 health

Gone are the days when a playset of Edwin rival the cost of a used car but his power hasn’t decreased in the slightest. He is a premier follow-up to Kur’talos, a play which leaves you with two massive allies that can’t be targeted. One of his only weaknesses – one that he shares with Adam Eternum – is shored up by Doomhammer granting him the extra toughness which lets him kill opposing allies without dying himself. At the end of the day there was never a question about whether Edwin would or would not be in this deck. It was just whether to play 3 or 4.

Short John Mithril

3CC – Arena Ally – Goblin – Unique

When John enters play, search your deck for an equipment card and reveal it. If it’s an Arena card, put it into hand. Otherwise, put it on top of your deck.

2 melee / 2 health

This guy is exactly what this deck needs. By offering you additional copies of Doomhammer, Short John reduces the odds of us being stuck with multiple copies of the weapon in our hand. Most importantly, though, Shamans have a ton of great equipment available to them but none of it is really something you want to overload on. Short John lets you play the most impactful equipment you can without having to run additional copies of them to make sure you see them in their respective matchups.

Vanessa Vancleef

5CC – Neutral Ally – Human Rogue – Vanessa Vancleef (1)

Stealth, Untargetable

When Vanessa enters play, she may deal 4 nature damage to target exhausted hero or ally.

4 nature / 5 health

Aggra

5CC – Neutral Ally – Orc Shaman – Aggra (1)

When Aggra enters play, choose two of the following: Assault 4, Elusive, Mend 4, or Untargetable.

Aggra has the chosen keywords until she leaves play.

4 nature / 6 health

Spectral Kitten

3CC – Neutral Ally – Tiger – Pet (1)

[Horde] allies you control have +1 ATK.

[Alliance] allies you control have +1 health.

Non-[Horde], non-[Alliance] allies you control have +1 / +1.

4 melee / 4 health

Lastly, we have a rag-tag group of generally useful allies. Vanessa/Spectral Kitten both play really nicely with Edwin and Aggra/Vanessa are just additional Untargetable threats to take advantage of the massive stat-boost from Doomhammer. In earlier versions of the deck I had more copies of Spectral Kitten but I’ve since come down a bit on the card. It does give tokens, totems, and neutral allies +1/+1 which is great but we have so many three-drops that it has too much competition.

Rounding Things Out

Now we have all these amazing allies and a way to make them all YUGE, but if we’re not interacting with our opponents we are probably too slow to ever actually win a game. But fear not because Shamans are actually quite the disruptive class. They can do a lot of interacting for the price of very few card slots.

Squall Totem

Shaman

1CC – Instant Ability – Elemental – Air Totem (1)

Ongoing: When this ability enters play, exhaust all opposing heroes and allies.

When an opposing hero or ally attacks or protects, you may exhaust a second target hero or ally.

0 nature / 1 health

Wavestorm Totem

Shaman

2CC – Ability – Restoration – Water Totem (1)

Ongoing: When an opposing ability, ally, or equipment readies, put it into its owner’s hand.

0 water/ 1 health

Mikael the Blunt

2CC – Alliance Ally – Dwarf Hunter

When an opposing hero or ally readies, Mikael deals 2 ranged damage to it.

2 ranged / 2 health

Leggings of the Tireless Sentry

Hunter, Shaman

3CC – Equipment – Armor Mail – Legs (1)

Opposing heroes and allies enter play exhausted.

At the end of each opponent’s turn, exhaust all heroes and allies he controls.

2 [armor]

This is the package we straight up debowed from Google Shaman. Ally-filled decks fear this combination of cards and Wavestorm can even bounce equipment and abilities. If you’re not familiar with the synergy I’ll explain it but I have to warn you, it’s super complicated. Okay, here it goes: Squall Totem and Leggings of the Tireless Sentry exhaust opposing allies. Are you following? Mikael the Blunt and Wavestorm Totem punish exhausted allies when they ready. Did you catch that? Do you understand!? Okay, so it’s not actually rocket science but those interactions are a large part of why Google Shaman was killing it back in 2012! In our deck we get some extra value out of the totem package because of our quest base and the fact that Doomhammer gives them meaningful stats – it’s much easier to trade a Cairne token or a Broderick hit into a Squall totem when it’s a 0/1 than it is when Squall totem is a 3/4! The totem package also gets some bonus points by giving us additional interaction against Crabbyfin combo by tapping down all the Murloc-Crabs and either bouncing them or killing them.

Wind Shear

Shaman

2CC – Instant Ability – Elemental

Choose one or both: Interrupt target ability, or exhaust target hero or ally.

Chain Purge

Shaman

2CC – Instant Ability – Elemental

Target up to three abilities. Destroy the first. Destroy the second if it costs less than the first. Destroy the third if it costs less than the second.

Band of the Inevitable

Druid, Paladin, Shaman

2CC – Equipment – Item – Ring (2)

X, Destroy Band of the Inevitable Destroy each equipment with cost X or less. Use only on your turn.

Voice of Reason

Paladin, Shaman

3CC – Equipment – Armor Shield – Off-Hand (1)

Your hero has Mend 2 for each 5 damage on it.

Your hero has Protector while your control no damaged ally.

2 armor

The current Classic environment needs to be very hostile to Ongoing abilities and Chain Purge is one of the absolute top answers to them. If it was just a 2-cost instant destroy target ability it would be fine and playable. But the ceiling on Chain Purge is insane and there will definitely be games where it’s a 2-cost instant destroy target Banish to the Nether and Unholy Power. Or a 2-cost instant destroy target Spell Suppression and PX-238 Winter Wondervolt or Blizzard and Slow. Wind Shear comes in alongside Chain Purge to give us further insurance against unfair effects like Unholy Power, Winter Wondervolt, and board wipes like Utopia and Army of the Dead. These two cards are very important in making sure our opponents play a fair game of WoW TCG – the kind of game that we can actually win.

Band of the Inevitable and Voice of Reason are both just targets for Short John Mithril to find. Band of the Inevitable and Wavestorm Totem give us a ton of game against Deathwish by either destroying or returning all of the Warrior’s equipment. Voice of Reason gives us some breathing room against the aggressive shells and a way to keep our allies topped off sort of like a weird Undercity.

All of the Quests, None of the Kites

Tuskarr Kite

3CC Ability

Ongoing: [exhaust] , Exhaust an ally you control Put the card tenth from the top of your deck in your hand.

Tuskarr Kite is a staple 3-4-of in a lot of Classic decks that run allies. It plays great with Cairne and Magni tokens, Steeds, and incidental allies like Totems. While we do have token producers and Totems, we’re going to opt out of Tuskarr Kite. It’s simply too big of an investment in a deck that is looking to curve out. The reason it was so heavily played in Google Shaman is because they didn’t have much to do on turn 3 and they wanted to consistently get to 9-10 resources so they could get to their Master Hero or expensive allies. While it’s hard to say “no” to extra cards, it’s even harder for us to say “yes” to taking a turn off to get the Kite in play. We’ll just slip our draw into our quest base instead.

The Defias Brotherhood

Alliance Quest

While there are four or more allies in your party, pay 1 to complete this quest.

Reward: Draw two cards.

The Restless Dead

Quest

On your turn: Pay 3 to complete this quest.

Reward: Each player shuffles his graveyard into his deck, and then draw a card.

Eye of the Storm

Location – Battleground

When you play a card, add an honor counter.

[Exhaust], Remove four honor counters Exhaust up to four target heroes and/or allies.

4 Honor Counters Max

We went with The Defias Brotherhood because we have so many allies, several of which make tokens and a lot of our abilities double as allies. Edwin plus a Totem or Weldon on his own can satisfy the requirement of The Defias Brotherhood making it an excellent quest in our deck.

The Restless Dead is a response to all the graveyard decks that showed up in the Top 4 of GenCon last year. Slow Mage and Spider Solitaire are both decks that look to grind the game out by using their graveyard almost like a second deck and the Red Priest from last year was abusing Anub’arak. There’s also decks like Vorix and Death Wish that interact with their graveyard while we don’t, making The Restless Dead an excellent option against these decks.

Eye of the Storm is a requirement if you’re playing Adam Eternum. The two have been joined at the hip since their first printing in Fields of Honor in 2009. Eye also offers some additional value here because of Wavestorm Totem and Mikael the Blunt.

Putting it All Together:

So at the end of the day I think we have a pretty decent smattering of cards here and we managed to not steal too much from the Shamans of old.

Hero

Zaritha

Ability/Ally Cards (7)

4x Squall Totem

3x Wavestorm Totem

Abilities (6)

3x Chain Purge

3x Wind Shear

Allies (25)

3x Adam Eternum

4x Mikael the Blunt

2x Short John Mithril

1x Spectral Kitten

4x Weldon Barov

1x Vanessa VanCleef

4x Edwin VanCleef

1x Aggra

3x Lord Kur’talos Ravencrest

2x Naisha

Armors (2)

1x Leggings of the Tireless Sentry

1x Voice of Reason

Items (1)

1x Band of the Inevitable

Weapons (3)

3x Doomhammer

Quests (13)

4x A Question of Gluttony

3x The Boon of Remulos

4x The Defias Brotherhood

2x The Restless Dead

Locations (3)

3x Eye of the Storm

Total cards in deck: 60

Side deck:

1x Wind Shear

2x Band of the Inevitable

1x Seer’s Signet

1x Mekkatorque, King of the Gnomes

2x Call of Lightning

1x Thrall the Earth-Warder

2x Archdruid Fandral Staghelm

Total cards in sidedeck: 10

I’ve played this deck a fair bit now through multiple iterations including lists that ran Feral Spirit, Tuskarr Kite, Darkness Calling, The Overseer’s Shadow, and various other cards. This is where I’m at right now in its evolution and I’d love to hear your thoughts on other cards that could go in!

Definitely give this list a try if you just like having the best dudes on the board and also them being very hard to remove. There is something to be said for Adam, Kur’talos, Edwin, Vanessa, and Aggra in the same deck. In fact, you might say, “YOU CAN’T TOUCH THIS!” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯