I know a lot of players out there focus on one class or a few different classes, and thus trade away classes that they may not favor. A teammate of mine where recently flipping threw his new Servants binder, looking for trades. He told me what classes he liked and also what classes he’d be willing to trade away. This is a great idea for a lot of people. It helps you to build up decks you’re strong in and trade away cards that would otherwise be stuck in a binder. I’m just not that sensible.
I carry around with me the UltraPro Metal Gaming case (plug there for UltraPro-the thing is awesome). Aside from the fact it makes me look like some sort of assassin with a gun case (ala The Professional) it affords me the space to travel with multiple decks. I pretty well gutted the inside of the thing and now it holds 10 decks boxes. So that’s become my goal, to carry with me 10 good decks. Obviously it’s going to be multiple classes, so much to my wife’s chagrin, that entails buying a lot of cards. I consider myself somewhat of a bargain hunter when it comes to WoW cards, but that’s neither here nor there.
Playing so many classes does give me certain advantages in that when I face opponents. The best way to exploit and find a weakness of a deck is to play it. I’ve found that to be especially true.
I began pouring over my new Servants cards recently, hoping that some new strategy would just pop out at me. Nothing did, alas, as things like that just don’t happen to me. What did hit me is plenty of new cards to revitalize old ideas.
If you’ve kept up on my blogs, I posted a deck list that I had had some success with, a Grennan Elemental deck. I really liked the deck but it had two huge problems, card draw and a finisher. Servants of the Betrayer solved both of those problems nicely.
To start things off, let me present my current build of Solo Shaman.
HERO(1)
Grennan Stormspeaker
ABILITIES(37)
1XTotemic Recovery
3XMana Spring Totem
3XFrost Shock
4XSearing Totem
4XChain Lightning
3XElemental Precision
4XElemental Focus
3XStoneclaw Totem
4XLightning Bolt
4XStorm Shock
4XEarth Shock
ALLIES(4)
2XSilea Dawnwalker
2XShadala
EQUIPMENT(4)
4XAegis of the Vindicator
QUESTS(15)
4XZapped Giants
3XInformation Gathering
4XForces of Jaedenar
4XOrders from Lady Vashj
SIDEBOARD(10)
1XShadala
1XFrost Shock
1XTotemic Recovery
1XMana Spring Totem
1XSilea Dawnwalker
1XPurge
4XGurzuk
Déjà vu, right? It’s not that dissimilar from an old build but it’s got plenty of fancy new tricks. Where the main focus of the deck before was to slow your opponent down with burn spells until you could lock the game down with a Greench, this deck is straight burn. It’s extremely hard to lock an opponent down with Greench, especially with the Shaman class. The casters have a much easier time, and the strategy proved pretty futile for me.
My old shaman lost a great deal of matches from that lack of end game. I’d get out the Stone Guards and try to get damage across where I could. I couldn’t tell you how many games I had had sealed up, but the fact I can’t top deck any finisher, I’d lost those games.
Servants gave Elemental Shaman the shot in the arm it needed, namely a finisher. Elemental Precision can be beastly. Anything that double damage can be beastly. The fact that it’s an elemental ability, and thus subject to the discounted cost of Elemental Focus, only makes it easier to get out sooner. It’s entirely possible to get out at least 1 Elemental Focus, for a turn 6 Precision.
Once Elemental Precision is out, your opponent is forced to destroy it or it’s going to be a very quick game over for them. All of your burn spells are now huge. To add insult to injury, getting out double Elemental Precisions ends a game with something as small as a Lightning Bolt(which would hit for 16).
Alright, well the end game is set, right? What about the other shortcoming, the draw? As I said earlier, the other great hurdle the deck had was it ran itself out of steam pretty quickly. I was very often top decking as soon as turn 5 or 6 in some cases. Orders from Lady Vashj help out a great deal. With 4 of these in the deck, along with the Mana Spring Totem, one should be able to keep a decent hand. Orders has been hailed as the new Corki’s Ransom by some, and I’d almost have to agree. It’s a pretty consistent draw engine when playing a deck that runs itself out of cards.
Totemic Recovery is another new addition. It’s a strong card and as we play with so many Totems, it’s a natural inclusion. I only run 1 main deck just because it’s a situational card, depending largely on me drawing Totems, playing them, and then my opponent killing them. It has no real strength by itself. The fact that they made the card Elemental spec is great as well, though I argue it’s more a Resto talent. For a measly cost of 4, the ability to bring back 3 Totems is pretty huge and I like the fact they go straight into play. The cost can be brought down via Elemental Focus so it’s an all around good card. I side in the second copy vs. rush because of the tendency for rush to clear my totems from the board pretty quickly.
WEAKNESSES
I tried the deck at our local Saturday WoW sessions and it seemed to do well. The biggest threat that I found is an Untargetable rush. The only thing Shaman has to combat the Untargetables is Chain Lightning, which is good, but can be slow. The Stoneclaw Totem can slow the rush, but you’d really need to dig and find an Aegis of Vindication or it’s going to be a quick one. Game 2 is considerably easier once you side in Gurzuk. I was a bit torn on using him or using the new Vexmaster, but in testing I found Gurzuk to be slightly better and I was often attacking exhausted allies, the Vexmaster wasn’t able to kill them.
Another deck that would give this trouble would be anything with heals. The new Eclipse decks out there are basically what it keeping this deck from being a contender. I hate to be so critical of a deck of my own making, but I’m being honest. Heals hurt any burn deck. The fact that you would do so much work to put damage on an opposing hero only to have it all undone with a single card(Greater Heal), it’s devastating. There really isn’t anyway to play around the Heals, but the ability to get out dual copies of Elemental Precision should be enough to put enough damage on the opponent for the kill. Also, don’t’ underestimate Earth Shock. The ability to counter any ability while doing damage is pretty huge. Please feel free to Shock that Greater Heal and put your opponent in a worse position.
STRENGTHS
Alright, so the deck has short comings, but what deck doesn’t? It also has a great deal of strength. For the same reason Mage Burn hurt control, this deck does as well. A control deck really doesn’t have a great deal of plays in the early turns, waiting till the end game to drop big allies and end things. The constant big of damage from your abilities can wear the opponent down pretty quick. I’ve seen a new Rogue Control out there, using the power of Evasion on turn 6. The great thing about Shaman is my goal isn’t to combat damage to my opponent, it’s to burn him with Nature damage so Evasion is moot.
Traditional Rogue also has trouble, as between the Frost Shocks and the StoneClaw Totems, I can stop attacks pretty effectively for awhile. The Aegis helps as it heals on each of his attacks.
Twigbelly doesn’t pose a huge threat as his allies are all subject to my burn and I can Earth Shock his Mortal Strikes. The Silea’s can go a long way to keep a weapon out of his hands.
Survival Hunter can be problematic but only if you can’t find your Earth Shocks and Shadalas. You’ve going to want to keep Survival Instincts off the board. I wouldn’t drop a Searing Totem this game, as a Searing Totem ping at the start of your turn is only going to end your turn to a Feign Death(hell ping yourself with the Totem at the start of your turn if you need too). Without a Survival Instincts, you can pile on damage pretty easy. Again Earth Shock is your friend this game, especially as a counter to Feign Death.
There are other matches out there that I’m forgetting, but the strategy of this deck doesn’t vary much. It’s a nice little deck, and not that expensive to construct for new players. Most of the rares in the deck are in the $2-$4 range. It can also be a very quick deck with the right draw of Elemental Focus and Elemental Precision. I’d like some feedback on what everyone else thinks or what they’re using in their Elemental builds. Feel free to post any comments or shoot me an email at Borbwab@gmail.com. Next week, Big Red the Traitor Warrior!
Related to:
World of Warcraft TCG
