Good Stuff Control Shaman

Hey there, it's Donnie, with a long overdue special and a guide to boot. I've seen a lot of shaman decks in DoD, but none that have quite been like mine, so I thought id share the shaman deck that I have had most success and enjoyment with in an appropriate ratio. Most control shamans have the problem of not being able to close out games, and rely more on a fatigue plan, and while the introduction of Galakrond certainly helped in that area, by being able to chain huge tempo turns back to back, if the opponent could check these boards, you would eventually fizzle out. That's why I run both Zephrys and Dragonqueen alexstrasza, as well as my fairly recent additions since the january balance changes - Bandersmosh and Kragwa. I'll cover some cards roles in the deck as follows:

The Galakrond package:

This one is fairly light for a galakrond deck - only 2 invocations of frost, a single maniac and elementalist. While these cards are certainly good for controling the board, they are somewhat light in value and can hamper the decks ability to grind longterm. It's certainly enough invoke cards to get your Galakrond to it's final stage on their own, though I heavily encourage to use at least one invocation of frost in conjunction with Zentimo to make it easier, that way you will only need one extra invoke card for Galakronds last form. This is a control deck, there is no need to rush out a Galakrond super early and the tools are there to be able to wait.

The control package:

Shaman as a control deck is in a premium spot right now, because it has it all, healing, board clears, and an abundance of silence type effects, whether it be in the form of hex or earth shock. This package would include 2 earth shocks, 2 hexes, 2 schemes, 2 walking fountains and a witches brew, as well as the 1 acidic swamp ooze as a tech card, the one frost shock could also be included in this category. What's important is how you use any of these given tools, because each of these options are very appealing to play at any given point, but are mutually relatively exclusive, so understanding matchups and what are "must play" and "can play" scenarios is vital.

The good stuff package:

Thanks to cuts in the Galakrond package, this is where the magic happens and the most differences in my deck, compared to other shaman builds going around right now. This is where much needed value is generated to really come out on top in the control matchups and extending these high tempo turns for longer than Galakrond-Shudderwock-2xspell+dragon's pack. This package includes Zephrys, Dragonqueen Alexstrasza, Bandersmosh, Kragwa, Siamat. Each of these are veritable threats on their own, with the exception of Kragwa, which simply offers some liberties with the removal we have on hand. And after playing Shudderwock can amount to roughly 2 more turns of tempo generation, which generally can beat any control decks clearing capacity, including our owns, so I guess I'm pretty happy that I'm not facing this deck on ladder right now, because I'd be pretty hard pressed to figure out the matchup.

This deck is quite hard to get used to. I've been playing homebrew control shaman builds for roughly 3 years now and, whenever I come up with a new list, new challenges present themselves. That's why I'll go over most cards in shorter or longer detail, depending how I value the importance of that information. I'll also explain why notable "staples" are excluded from list post description.

[Hearthstone Card (Zap) Not Found] - Super useful due to it's low cost, can really help with your spirit turns, and cover gaps for walking fountain or a scheme that is barely not large enough.

Earth Shock - Huge, versatile card that has a target in most matchups.

Frost Shock - One mana freezes are good, period.

Zephrys the Great - Highly matchup dependant. The reason for including Zephrys, same as Alexstrasza, is that there are only 2 non-spell duplicates in this deck: Spirit of the Frog and Walking Fountain, one of which when we draw it, will promptly draw 1 of each of our duplicate spells from our deck.

Haunting Visions - Key to making use of Spirit of the Frog. Ordering is quite important when you want to draw specific spells from your deck with it, as well as considering hand space, so think about those things in advance. Also pretty good with Kragwa.

Spirit of the Frog - Without a doubt the core of this deck. Drawing as many cards is more important than making effective use of the spells mostly. If you can do both, that's a bonus. The cost of spells and their occurence is as follows - 1x0 mana, 3x1 mana, 3x2 mana, 2x3 mana, 2x4 mana, 2x5 mana. Using decktracker is obviously very useful, I prefer to train my mind, and do without, so I constantly take mental notes of the flow of spells to make sure I'm not using stuff needlessly, this also includes the rare occurence of getting spells shuffled into my deck, like Corrupted Bloods or Bombs.

Zentimo - A total beast that can enable your galakrond, act as a board clear and buffer

Bandersmosh - Hard to use but with a huge payoff. You on average stall enough to eventually get a good outcome or even raise the potential value of Shudderwock if a good battlecry occurs.

Krag'wa, the Frog - It's easy to get into the mindset of getting mad value off of Kragwa, but I would advise to just recycle one or two of the most valuable spells in the corresponding matchup. Because Kragwa is a 6 cost card, there's not much doing besides playing it on the next turn, so it's best if you never make Kragwa your only possible play for the following turn and have contingency plans if your opponent anticipates it and creates a troublesome situation for you. Also keep in mind - Shudderwock will also copy Kragwa's battlecry, so if you go too hard with spells before that turn, you might miss out on Zephrys or Alex value from Shudder due to handspace issues.

Siamat - Super versatile, can force removal, can be removal, and can even be a taunt when needed.

But what about these cards?

Shield of Galakrond - I prefer 2 fast attack over 5 slow health. A lot of decks are playing large amounts of rush, making a somewhat medium taunt liable to being removed easily. Maniac lines up very nicely in the current meta with 2 attack being a good breakpoint, or in some cases 4, thanks to the additional rush elemental. The drawback of rarely surviving the play, compared to Shield is nullified in a control deck, since it's better to keep a clear board, so you can actually use your cards on your opponents, that's what you are supposed to do anyway.

Dragon's Pack - Even before the nerf I wasn't a fan of the card in this deck. The reason being is somewhat related to Shield - even though the stats are very premium, they suddenly become very lackluster when you consider, that this deck will literally never have board until you hit mana 8-10. As such playing dragon's pack on a board where you are behind and giving initiative to your opponent to deal with your play will have a rather mediocre effect. Since this card was nerfed and now also dies to Kronx's devastation, it has lost even more appeal in my eyes.

Feel free to AMA about this deck, and I will do my best to provide an answer in the comments.