Hearthstone
Quest Jade Shaman - a wild sleeper deck.
Hi, all.
I'm creating this thread, in order to start a discussion about Quest Jade Shaman. I browsed through hsreplay, tempostorm and our beloved site, but I didn't see any posts regarding it. I feel like it doesn't attract the attention it deserves, so I came here to showcase it.
Based on my experience so far, I can safely say that this archtype is a sleeper and will become extremely popular some day. There is something extremely broken in doubling the jade and lackey generation, that I can't quite put my finger on it. I have been playing a lot of games with this deck-type (I've started from rank 6) and I've managed to reach Legend. My decklist looks like so:
Despite my success, I don't really recommend you to ladder with this version, because it gets countered by the infamous Burn Mage. Even though I run some tech cards (1x Eater of Secrets, 2x Antique Healbots), it still loses badly, if the mage has a godlike starting hand. But other than that, the deck has the potential to beat the rest of the competition.
Versus Control
You just win, because the opponents can't deal with the evergrowing jades.
Versus Combo
The MVPs are:
Versus Aggro and Mid-Range
Now, since the deck has a fairly weak early-game, aggro players can easily obtain the upper hand and beat us. But those MUs are still winnable. The MVPs are:
Plague of Murlocs is extremely useful against Big Priests.
Alternative Builds
When I started playing with my Thief Priest in the first few days of the expansion, I stumbled upon 3 different quest jade shamen on the ladder. I've noticed, that my opponents ran some mid- or late-game defensive tools - Omega Mind, Lightning Storm, Hex, Hagatha's Scheme, Walking Fountain, Siamat, Earthquake. So they've decided to take a more control-ish approach for their decks. Imho those cards aren't bad per se, in a more minion-heavy meta they could prove to be useful. But as long as Burn Mage stays dominant, this won't be the case. You don't have time to play any of those cards right now and your spells would easily get cancelled by Counterspell. Your deck needs to consist of cheaper things.
Speaking of which, some of those builds also ran the typical lackey package we see in standard (including EVIL Totem and Weaponized Wasp). I have tried the latter cards myself, but I don't really feel like those are all that useful. I always have the feeling, that EVIL Totem is just a 2-health taunt, which can be easily dealt with. And it doesn't speed the quest completion process that much. The wasp could be useful, but if you are facing loads of swarm decks like Odd Pala or sticky minions, the 3 damage doesn't really matter imho and it can make your Shudderwock worse. You would be better off running Maelstrom Portal instead.
I tested the Mogu Fleshshaper-Evolve combo, but I'm not really impressed by it. For me it's too inconsistent. Although Jade Shaman utilizes a lot of understatted battlecry minions and adding evolve spells in the deck could be good on theory, I personally think that those high-roll turns aren't needed.
That's all from me. What are your thoughts on this archtype? Have you tried it yourself? What builds did you use and how far did you go on the ladder?
Leave a Comment
You must be signed in to leave a comment. Sign in here.
Hi, all.
I'm creating this thread, in order to start a discussion about Quest Jade Shaman. I browsed through hsreplay, tempostorm and our beloved site, but I didn't see any posts regarding it. I feel like it doesn't attract the attention it deserves, so I came here to showcase it.
Based on my experience so far, I can safely say that this archtype is a sleeper and will become extremely popular some day. There is something extremely broken in doubling the jade and lackey generation, that I can't quite put my finger on it. I have been playing a lot of games with this deck-type (I've started from rank 6) and I've managed to reach Legend. My decklist looks like so:
Despite my success, I don't really recommend you to ladder with this version, because it gets countered by the infamous Burn Mage. Even though I run some tech cards (1x Eater of Secrets, 2x Antique Healbots), it still loses badly, if the mage has a godlike starting hand. But other than that, the deck has the potential to beat the rest of the competition.
Versus Control
You just win, because the opponents can't deal with the evergrowing jades.
Versus Combo
The MVPs are:
Versus Aggro and Mid-Range
Now, since the deck has a fairly weak early-game, aggro players can easily obtain the upper hand and beat us. But those MUs are still winnable. The MVPs are:
Plague of Murlocs is extremely useful against Big Priests.
Alternative Builds
When I started playing with my Thief Priest in the first few days of the expansion, I stumbled upon 3 different quest jade shamen on the ladder. I've noticed, that my opponents ran some mid- or late-game defensive tools - Omega Mind, Lightning Storm, Hex, Hagatha's Scheme, Walking Fountain, Siamat, Earthquake. So they've decided to take a more control-ish approach for their decks. Imho those cards aren't bad per se, in a more minion-heavy meta they could prove to be useful. But as long as Burn Mage stays dominant, this won't be the case. You don't have time to play any of those cards right now and your spells would easily get cancelled by Counterspell. Your deck needs to consist of cheaper things.
Speaking of which, some of those builds also ran the typical lackey package we see in standard (including EVIL Totem and Weaponized Wasp). I have tried the latter cards myself, but I don't really feel like those are all that useful. I always have the feeling, that EVIL Totem is just a 2-health taunt, which can be easily dealt with. And it doesn't speed the quest completion process that much. The wasp could be useful, but if you are facing loads of swarm decks like Odd Pala or sticky minions, the 3 damage doesn't really matter imho and it can make your Shudderwock worse. You would be better off running Maelstrom Portal instead.
I tested the Mogu Fleshshaper-Evolve combo, but I'm not really impressed by it. For me it's too inconsistent. Although Jade Shaman utilizes a lot of understatted battlecry minions and adding evolve spells in the deck could be good on theory, I personally think that those high-roll turns aren't needed.
That's all from me. What are your thoughts on this archtype? Have you tried it yourself? What builds did you use and how far did you go on the ladder?
I found in terms of healing, Antique Healbot is more reliable and capable of burst heals in the lategame. Also, for a bit of a greedier approach: Using Rummaging Kobold to burst-produce jade golems
Ya, I also think that Antique Healbot would be better as a defensive card, Shudderwock's battlecry will make sure the healing goes to the right place, but I prefer to run Jinyu Waterspeaker only because he is one mana cheaper (if we ignore the overload drawback) and has a better body in the mid-game. If someone adds the Evolve package, the healbot will immediately replace the jinyu.
My first decklist contained both copies of Rummaging Kobold and I recommend all users to add them, if they want to have more fun with summoning jades. I cut them once I reached rank 3, because those felt way too slow and unnecessary. The control MUs were already favourable and I wanted to improve my win-rate against aggro.
It's a pre quest deck, but I have my own list that I think it's very good:
Glad to see I'm not the only one trying Quest Jade Shaman. I initially tried it with C'thun cards but eventually cut them to double down on the Jades. I put Hagatha's Scheme in my deck and it has done very well dealing with boards.
Interesting. You probably run the Storm Chaser as well, right? What kind of decks do you face more often?
I have also met similar decks, some going full-blown battlecry, others using strong AoE and Fountain too.
In my limited experience against it, the Quest Jade concept is definitely strong, and i feel the lists with some extra Control package could be the most consistent ones, because they include both solid survival and lategame value.
Mages are turning into a real bane in Wild against virtually any deck. I'm not sure what to say about that matchup.
Mainly Midrange and tempo decks of all shapes and sizes, some meta, but mainly off meta. But I have faced quite a bit of Renolocks and Reno Priests lately. Also, I don't run Storm Chaser for two reasons. 1. No room in the deck. 2. If I have Hagatha's Scheme in my opening hand (which I normally do), I want to keep it. Even when I don't, I normally wish I did.
At first I also ran some AoEs like Lightning Storm, because I faced a lot of murloc shamen and paladins, odd paladins, mech hunters etc, but right now most of my matches are against burn mage. That's why I run two copies of Eater of Secrets. In the cases, when I face aggro, I just rely on Devolve, Sandstorm Elemental, Jade Claws, Vulpera Scoundrel and the lackey package to save my ass. But yeah, having the ability to regain board control after having such a weak start, would be really valuable.
If you say, that you are satisfied with Hagatha's Scheme, then I guess the spell is worth testing out. Tomorrow I will play some games in casual and see how the scheme does. So thanks for sharing this info.
I've been playing a Quest Jade-C'Thun Shaman deck since I pulled Corrupt the Waters, and it has been entertaining so far. I think I might eventually drop the C'Thun package and start running more control-y stuff like you're doin'; it pains me to admit it, but C'Thun just can't keep up.
This deck looks like a lot of fun. I was thinking on crafting the shaman quest with some of my nerf dust and I think this convinced me.
Ok, so after having played a couple of games with Mogu Fleshshaper and Evolve in casual I can say the following:
Those cards have the potential to create some busted, high-roll turns:
but I now am sceptical, if those are needed at all. From the 10-12 games I've played, I've managed to evolve Mogu Fleshshaper only twice. So since the 2-card combo isn't consistent enough, it's not really ladderworthy imho. The cards, which I cut in order to make room for the 1-mana spells (MCT and EoS), are more valuable on the ladder. That said, the 3/4 can be good on his own and we can still evolve him by generating Witchy Lackeys, so I might consider removing the Jade Chieftains in favour for the prior card.
[edit] If someone is wondering, I actually lost the game you see above. The rogue found the needed burst to finish me off, which shows that the Evolve combo is too slow.
[edit 2] Tomorrow I will try running an AoE like Hagatha's Scheme and see how this would compete. I personally prefer minion combat and transform spells (like Devolve, Plague of Murlocs), in order to remove buffs and internal synergies.
Give it a try, the deck is really fun to play. And in case you aim to play more casually than seriously, I highly recommend adding both Rummaging Kobolds just like ArchSpike said. You will witness the gross things this deck can pull off against control.
Other than that, Corrupt the Waters offers many other interesting builds - I have seen some Meme Shudderyogg decks, some C'thun ones (check linkblade91's creation) and other Shudder combos, so the quest is definitely worth the craft.
Honestly, I've been planning on playing C'thun Quest Shaman (w/o the jade package), because going for the big boi was always very satisfying. If you are considering laddering in wild, then yeah, the jades are the way to go.
Burn mage is the bane of wild atm. Eater of secrets is the only tech for it, and yet I never draw an eater vs it. I always end up drawing the eater vs any class that doesn’t have secrets.
I’m playing at rank 4 in wild atm just farming shaman wins (110 away from golden hero!) so I’ll try out your deck for sure. I could use some more variety in my grind!
Good luck. I hope you have a lot of success with it, though be warned that Burn Mage isn't a favourable matchup.
Won't be any different than any shaman deck I've been playing at these ranks haha. Burn Mage isn't a favourable matchup for much atm. Their new tools they got in SoU has made them disgusting...
I've been playing a more tempo oriented list with slightly less jades/value and having great success with it as well. I haven't tried your list but mine does fine against burn mage with only 1x kezan and 1x laotheb. Getting on board early and preventing the chip damage is generally how you beat tempo mages since they run few minions and fewer board control tools
I'm not running evolve packages anymore since the release of the quest due to lack of space but pre-SoU, I was running Krag'wa, unstable evolutions and corridor creepers. Krag'wa + unstable is insane value that can last entire control games and most battlecry minons are good targets even if you don't have your creeper. It's also tons of fun
By the way, why are you running devolve over hex? For slower decks like yours, isn't 2 more mana not a big deal? Even though Big Priest is super rare right now, devolve still gives them a big drop if you use it on their pulls (I gave my opponent a walking fountain once). I can't imagine what match devolve would be better for. Druid maybe? I personally haven't seen a single one in the longest time though
Do you mind sharing your list? I am curious to see how it looks. And gratz for your success.
Surprisingly enough, Big Priest is a rare matchup for me once I left rank 4 and my deck deals with it rather nicely (as long as they don't hit me with turn 4 bs Y'shaarj turns). Against them and other big decks I recommend people to run Plague of Murlocs (I use MCT, because I don't want to invest 400 dust in case I open both copies). The following might be off-topic, but you won't believe what kind of big priest opponents I faced the previous two days. On rank 3 and yesterday on rank 2 I've met two different priests running Eater of Secrets and I'm not joking. One of them also ran Deathlord and both of them had Convincing Infiltrator and Zilliax, but the secret tech was the most surprising inclusion.
Regarding Devolve - I like it a lot despite not facing not that many aggro decks as I did before. The card just shut downs buffed minions (magnetized mechs, pirates) and internal synergies (such in Anyfin paladins, Murloc Shamen, Odd paladins, N'zoth, SN1P-SN4P warlocks etc). It can also deal with taunts nicely (Spreading Plague). Against Big Priest I mainly use the spell to kill Archmage Vargoth. I don't see a reason to run Hex, since I'm mostly facing Burn mages and swarm decks.
Sadly that is my experience with C'thun aswell.. I wish they could print some more support for the Old God in the future.. C'thun decks were always among my favourites.
The Jade/Control style seems to work quite well though!
Definitely have to agree with this. I used to run Jinyu as well when i used to play Jade Shaman for exactly the same reason, better body, and even some overload synergy (i had Tunnel Troggs), but at the end of the day, you put that card in to heal yourself and if you cant guarantee that out of Shudderwock, you might as well put a completely different card in the deck that will help prevent the damage taken in a first place better. Healbot is imho a vast superior option, since it is guaranteed.
~ Have an idea? Found a bug? Let us know! ~
~ Join us on Discord ~
I imported my jade version. I made it for fun but it feels serious. I don´t have Aja and don´t want to craft her. Most propably a sandbinder replacement but i would keep at least one sandbinder. Those are key cards.
Legend bois
So, I made a few changes - I removed both Vulpera Scoundrels, 1 Eater of Secrets and 1 Devolve for 2 Questing Explorers (I wasn't sure if I wanted a River Crocolisk after quest completion, but those proved to be strong) and 2 Bog Sloshers. I also followed people's advice and put Antique Healbot. Dunno if this is anywhere near how the refined list should look like, but it felt somewhat consistent.
Looking at my decklist now, it appears that I may have lied lol. It's not "slightly" less jades/value, it may as well be a different archetype of shaman that happens to also run quest. WR vs mage is still not bad, but it's probably because of archetype changes rather than specific cards
### Quest jade
# Class: Shaman
# Format: Wild
# Year of the Dragon
#
# 2x (0) Zap!
# 1x (1) Corrupt the Waters
# 2x (1) Sludge Slurper
# 2x (1) Tunnel Trogg
# 1x (2) Devolve
# 2x (2) EVIL Cable Rat
# 2x (2) Jade Claws
# 2x (2) Novice Engineer
# 2x (2) Questing Explorer
# 2x (2) Sandstorm Elemental
# 1x (3) Zola the Gorgon
# 2x (4) Jade Lightning
# 1x (4) Kezan Mystic
# 2x (4) Lifedrinker
# 2x (4) Thunderhead
# 1x (5) Loatheb
# 1x (5) Zilliax
# 1x (6) Aya Blackpaw
# 1x (9) Shudderwock
#
AAEBAaoICPoO+g+UvQL2vQLD6gLv9wKggAPhqAMLnALKFoe8AtG8AvbwAu/xAo/7ArSRA8aZA7ulA8+lAwA=
Congratulations on reaching legend too. If you're still interested in developing your deck, I've found that Zilliax may be a good fit in the current meta. Mage plays a lot of 3 health things, so it lines up wonderfully and it's good for disarming explosive runes. It's also not as useless as secret techs against other things
Well, may I say the following? Running Antique Healbot in a Shudderwock deck wasn't something unusual for me. In the past I created various decklists featuring C'Thun and Yogg and the bot was useful there. But those utilized a defensive playstyle, so running the 5-mana minion made sense. My current deck tries to be somewhat proactive and I think the jinyu is better against board-centered decks like Odd Rogue and Zoolock, which don't aim to burn you on the spot, but to slowly gain board control and overwhelm you from there. And I liked the prior minion far more than the mech, as it contests the opponent's minions and I can play it a turn earlier. If I can't survive until turn 9, then the healbot wouldn't be all that useful.
I included it, because Burn Mage is a thing and oftentimes I stumble upon Reno decks, where the guaranteed heal is needed as all of you said.
Like what? What do you have in mind?
I dont know, Tar Creeper? Lone Champion? Mind Control Tech? Could be anything to help with early game and/or combat the board, since that was your argument. But if you like Jinyu and it is working out for you, then keep it :)
~ Have an idea? Found a bug? Let us know! ~
~ Join us on Discord ~
If I have to be honest with you, I also thought about using Tar Creeper, since it offers the best cheap taunt in the game, but I wasn't really sure if I wanted to include non-battlecry minions and delay quest completion. NightCrawler advised me to run Zilliax, so I might consider him. I am certain, that healing is needed, since the deck doesn't have that many defensive tools.
Regarding MCT - I tried him and I was really disappointed in him in wild (in standard the gnome was doing fine). The reason for that lies in the fact, that either the opponents have 3 big minions on the board and I can't use his battlecry or, if I hold him in my hand in order to gain value, I risk taking a lot of damage and I just dig my own grave. And there are other cases, when I just low-roll and take the worst minion. That's why I decided to use Plague of Murlocs and this is doing extremely well for me.
Like I said, I will stick with Antique Healbot for now, since Burn Mages are extremely popular. If the meta somehow changes, I might include Jinyu again.
Thanks for sharing your decklist, it looks really solid. But I think, that in terms of the jade package we mostly use the same cards. Your deck utilizes only the good jade summoners, but at the end Shudderwock does all the work and summons massive green men for both of us. I really like the overload package you've included, since it allows you to gain board control in the early game and overwhelm your enemies with whatever cards you throw at them.
Thanks for the advice. I will definitely consider him.
Congrats on Legend, dude!
I have just caught this thread so I'm a bit confused. In your last post you said you removed the Eater but it is listed (as far as I can see now).
About secret mage, I think if you can heal in mid game, you can stabilize, so the Healbot is really important. Also sometimes you can magnetize Zilliax on him, have you tried this one? At least he can heal you for 3 in the worst case scenario...
If someday I get this quest, I'll definitely try your deck!!
Thanks for your kind words and the tips.
I used to run 2 Eater of Secrets, but I removed the second copy.
I've been playing a similar list for about a week. Not the greatest but very fun.
Hi
I adapted the deck and it plays great. No lackey storm. Usually only very bad draws loose me games like i lost by not drawing devolve, plague or loatheb till somethign like T9 againt a big priest. Main weakness is board clear if your opponent gets too wide fast and you don´t draw good. Double plague seems better then double devolve and playing four is a bit too much. The kobold is a killer card. Your don´t need to rush the quest. I usually complete it T6-8 annyway. Lackey versions are usually a turn faster.
A lighning storm seem to be a good card to fit in but the two overload make me worry.
I used to run LS in my original build, because in the very first days of the expansion I faced a lot of swarm decks (odd pala, murloc pala and shamen, mech hunters). But once I climbed to rank 3 and people jumped on the secret mage bandwagon, most of the aforementioned decklists ceased to exist. I also think, that this AOE would be a great addition to the deck in general, but I'm really sceptical it will be any useful in this meta if things don't change. Against burn mages a 2/3-damage board clear is not what I typically want, especially when it overloads me like you said.
I followed Snapshot426's advice and tried out Hagatha's Scheme. I found the card to be useful against burn mages, which put a lot of pressure on the board (Kabal Crystal Runners, Kirin Tor Mages), but I don't like how slowly it upgrades itself, if I top-deck it in the mid- or lategame. That's why I put so many lackey generators in my deck, so that I could use them to fight for board control.