Nevermind genetics. Lionar has a brother and he's a troll shaman. Why do I say he's Lionar's little brother? Because the Blood Cursed control deck was the inspiration for this shaman counterpart. Especially in the ally base. But this traitor-flavor, Kil'zin shaman deck has a bit more of the aggro to its name and has a better early answer to Myriam Starcaller. It packs redundancy like the Lionar version does, but of a different kind. So what am I talking about? Take a look:
HERO(1)
Kil'zin of the Bloodscalp
ALLIES (25)
3x Voss Treebender
4x Xanata the Lightsworn
3x Vexmaster Nar'jo
3x Sha'kar
4x Tatulla the Reclaimer
2x Doshura Risestrider
4x Ras'fari Bloodfrenzy
2x Ishanah, High Priestess of the Aldor
ABILITIES (23)
4x Storm Shock
3x Purge
3x Death Shock
4x Element's Fury
3x Mana Spring Totem
3x Earth Shock
3x Totem of Decay
QUESTS (13)
3x Thwarting Kolkar Aggression
3x Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service
4x Chasing A-Me 01
3x Forces of Jaedenar
SIDEBOARD (10)
4x Chill
3x Healing Wave
2x Shadala
1x Doshura Risestrider
First things, first. The obvious question. Why Kil'zin over Lionar? To that, I'd say: bad question. Kil'zin isn't necessarily significantly better than its warrior counterpart. What he is, is a viable alternative, one who offers different tech and strategy for a perhaps different meta environment than the warrior version. It's all in the cards, so to speak.
Though they're sideboarded, Chill beats out Intercept in any context except synergy with Doshura (it makes up for this in synergy Sha'kar) and Healing Wave turns the tables in a close/mirror match where often the winner's decided by who went first. Element's Fury puts extra damage onto the hero while taking out a plethora of 3 health allies, including common protectors like Xanata, and Death Shock does the targeted ally destruction job of Sudden Death at instant speed in the later game without the drawback of being interruptable by a single point of damage. Plus going troll allows you to run Thwarting Kolkar Aggression, which has surprising effectiveness in the longer match-ups that this deck tends to bring.
Card for card, how does this build work specifically?
Voss Treebender gets around Xanata and other troublesome protectors in the early turns to start putting on damage until you can play an Element's Fury or Doshura to brush their allies out of the way. He's especially useful against Xanatas who the Vexmaster just can't deal with.
Sha'kar is the prize anti-Myriam tech. If you've played your cards right, come turn 4 or 5 a Starcaller deck will only have the 4-cost untargetable out along with a protector to keep her alive. Flip Kil'zin on the protector and, having dealt nature damage, send in Sha'kar to eat up the troublesome untargetable. He also synergizes with Storm Shock, Element's Fury, Death Shock, Chill and Earth Shock for 3-cost ferocity, but his inclusion is practically contingent upon having nature damage through Kil'zin's flip.
Storm Shock is all about putting on damage. Originally, I had it sideboarded with Chill in its place, but Chill only seemed to play better in match-ups where the hero was doing a part of the attacking, like a Serpent deck, solo Rogue or Warrior, or Feral Druid. Like Chill, rarely will you take out an ally with it, but it deals 4 times the damage onto their hero for the same bargain-rate cost.
Death Shock is almost worth playing just to have your opponent scratch his head in wonderment when you run your hero into an opposing ally just to get the damage on to Death Shock the little bugger away. This will take out bigger protectors like Kulvo when Element's Fury just won't win the day, plus it's one of the better techs a shaman has against big control drops late in the game. Which is also why I included...
Totem of Decay. I went back and forth on this one for a while. Generally, you'll only see it out for one turn. Or two at most while you opponent holds back his hand until he draws an answer for it. But for a shaman class with no direct ally destruction, it's often at least the 4 cost Vanquish you would have included anyway. Plus it has the added utility of being able to destroy abilities and equipment as well, though it's opponent's choice. Totem of Decay is always an EoT play.
Mana Spring Totem is an always EoT as well. It's this deck's Bloodrage. A little cheaper and easier to destroy but as close as shammies can get. At worst it's pay three to and draw one. But if it stays out it's supreme card advantage without the bloody drawback.
Earth Shock is removal and interruption, plus its a hefty four to the dome when the match is running close. Granting that no Lionar's I've seen run shields, Earth Shock's a better card all-around then Shield Bash, despite it's additional cost of one more resource.
***
Ras'fari is one of the roads to victory (not quite a win-condition, but close). The real win-condition is attrition, so you play aggro when you can and control when you need to do make sure you have answers to whatever they might be playing. Chasing A-Me 01 brings your Ras'faris back when you need them.
Shadalas are boarded in for ability heavy match-ups, like Feral Druid or Combat Rogue, or situations where dangerous abilities get placed directly on your hero, like Shadow Weaving.
Mirror matches with Lionar are just that, mirror matches, with the exception that Smash is a dead card and you have Purges to turn their Bloodrages into an damaging Gahz'ridian. Watch out for Felsteel Reapers, Deafening Shouts and big health control allies, but the answers are pretty much all there for all of these kind of cards if you prepare yourself in advance to handle them. Serpent decks may be a bit of the luck of the draw pre-sideboard, but post-boarding you should be able to shut one down.
So as we wind toward Realm Championships in a matter of a week, take a second to test out Kil'zin against the meta that you think you might face. And regardless, get a couple wins for me while I sit home grumbling that Qualifiers were on the same day as graduation...
Tags: Warcraft
Related to:
World of Warcraft TCG
