On the other side of the Shaman totem is Aggro Shaman. This deck feels much closer to a Face Hunter deck than a Secret Paladin or Zoo and has burst many decks can only dream of. We may lack sticky minions, but the stats for every creature are as good or better than you can get in any other class. You also have the highest quantity of cheap removal outside of Mage and, possibly, Rogue.

What people hate about this deck is how often the deck makes you feel like you fell into a quagmire and there’s nothing you can do about it. Every time you answer a card in their deck, it feels one turn too late. Killing all of their minions isn’t a win condition like it is against Midrange Shaman. You have to actively try and clock the opponent or have a huge burst heal, or you will just die to hoarded burn spells or the Doomhammer – Rockbiter Weapon take 10 special.

As an Aggro Shaman player, your goal should always be figuring out how to best setup a future lethal. If you treat the deck like Face Hunter you’ll do fine but that’s more the deck bailing you out than anything special. You need to be able to figure out when you can’t win a race or when the opponent is actively clocking you back in such a way you could just lose. Against Zoo, this is the hardest skill because Life Tap makes face always look like the place. However the amount of easy trades they can get and damage they can assemble means you have to think carefully about attacking a Flame Imp or casting Lava Burst on a Darkshire Councilman. I took out plenty of Shaman on my legend climb who left me with a board at a lower life total, I then traded and simply killed them in two turns while they knocked me down to 1-3 life.

Against decks with burst healing like Reno Jackson or Forbidden Healing, it is massively important to figure out how much you want to commit to a two-turn lethal. Sometimes you want to commit those burn spells to force a heal instead of a board clear, because you know you’ll net 10-12 of the damage back on your following turn. If your opponent has eight cards in hand though, you might just throw down every minion you have to entice the clear and hope to draw the last burn spell or Doomhammer you need to burst the opponent from 10+.

How to beat Aggro Shaman?

Play a board control deck with hard removal and heals. N’Zoth Paladin and Control Warrior are both excellent at healing out of range of burn and forcing the opponent to start off strong. Aggro Shaman leans heavily on that opening burst of damage and if the control opponent gets past turn six with double digit life and a reasonable hand you aren’t going to win.

Zoo and Midrange Shaman can also play board control better than you and both have some burst potential, though Zoo has far more than the latter. Against Zoo, you often want to rack up the early damage, but Power Overwhelming, Abusive Sergeant, Dire Wolf Alpha and Crazed Alchemist make trading really easy if you leave Zoo with any real board. One of the easiest ways for Zoo to win is keeping a minion heavy-hand and overestimating just how much damage those minions can do. Totem Golem may have some survivability, but everything else is easy for Zoo to beat. You also have no good answer to Forbidden Ritual in the midgame, which gives them the initiative on how to trade and makes Defender of Argus a serious concern.

Midrange Shaman is a case study in traditional CCG roles compared to how aggro vs. midrange usually plays out in Hearthstone. Normally in the mirror for HS, the faster deck has the advantage. Midrange Shaman is fast enough and has enough removal that it can blunt most of the good Shaman hands and then cards like Thing from Below and Feral Spirit can make life miserable for the aggro player. God forbid they run Earth Elemental or some other ridiculous taunt threat.

Aggro Shaman Gameplay Videos

Featured Deck

Amaz’s Aggro Shaman – Hearthstone Americas Spring Prelims 2016

Recent Aggro Shaman Deck Variations