Legend Control Shaman Nov20

Hi everyone,

This is my first deck ever posted online. Why now? I'm just happy about reaching legend with a homebrew off-meta deck: Control Shaman!

The deck went through a few iterations, but the final version basically cruised to legend, winning 10 out of its 13 matches towards legend (77%). The core strategy is pure control i.e. Remove everything!  You can build a modest board of your own when the chance arises, but don't over-extend. We are playing the long game and want to out-value or fatigue our opponent. Taking some damage is okay, as we are packing loads of heal as well. The meta is very aggro atm, so it's normal to be behind after the first turns, but stay calm: We will recover!

The deck generates a lot of value by using dual effect cards: Some examples are Marshspawn (Body and spell generation), Serpentshrine Portal(Removal and a body), Groundskeeper and Walking Fountain (bodies with healing), and ofcourse The Fist of Ra-den which delivers a free body with the next 4 spells.

Some tips versus common decks:

Versus the meta infesting libram paladin: Use Devolving Missiles, Hex and Plague of Murlocs to remove their librams and other buffed minions. Torrent does exactly the 8 damage needed to remove the big Libram of Hope guys. It's important to duplicate these spells using Diligent Notetaker, you'll need the extra copies. Also note Cobalt Spellkin very often generates additional copies of Devolving Missiles or the also useful silence card Earth Shock. 

Versus Aggro decks: Ideal hand is the combo of Serpentshrine Portal Marshspawn. Devolving Missiles and Groundskeeper are also keepers. Hagatha's Scheme is your cheapest boardclear at 5 mana, so keep it if you also have cheaper cards in hand. Put down some totems to bait them.

Versus control decks:  

- Warrior:  We have more clears and more healing so we win the long game. Rattlegore is usually one of their winconditions, so we always save a morph like Devolving Missiles or Hex for him and he's easily dealt with. The thing to be mindful of is the E.T.C. OTK. In fact, I won my last match to legend by clearing my own board using Tidal Wave, to deny them any rush targets. He drew a lot using Battle rage, so I just watched him die of fatigue.

- Priest:  Control priest is a hard matchup. They draw more than we do, so you can win the fatigue game, unless they have Archivist Elysiana. Unfortunately they do out-value us because of their Galakrond HP. Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate is a potential win condition for us. Note: Playing this deck you are always hoping to meet Res Priests. It feels so good to morph their big minions down to useless trash. You can't lose :)

- Warlock: You should beat warlock on removal, value and fatigue. They can get lucky with  an early discounted Tickatus but to be honest they draw so much more that if we lose 5 cards they usually still fatigue first.

Finally some generic tips:

- From turn 3 onwards use Diligent Notetaker with the 1 cost spells Devolving Missilesor discounted Torrent

- Dunk Tank also works well with Diligent Notetaker. You get the corrupted version back when you play it. At 10 mana, this combo can sometimes act as a surprise finisher, by aiming the corrupted Dunk Tank at opponents face....twice! This is 8 damage from hand, and even more if you have any +spelldamage totems or minions on board.

- When at 10 mana, play a hero power totem before using Tidal Wave. It's an extra 3 hp at least. If you're in luck you'll get the +1 spelldamage totem and every target heals for 4.

- Don't over extend on the board. Keep options in hand.

- Keeping Hagatha's Scheme in mulligan is often good as the longer you have it in hand, the bigger minions you can remove. (boards of clowns, Libram pala dudes, etc.) It also activates the Groundskeeper

- Playing 1 mana spells while you have The Fist of Ra-den equipped, always gives you Reliquary of Souls, which is a good card ifor us, as it adds a (very controlly) prime to your deck, which also helps when a control matchup goes to fatigue. This has excellent synergy with Cobalt Spellkin, who's 1 mana spells are often very useful

- Yogg Saron is a potential win condition, but usually a more reliable play is the better choice.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy the deck as much as I did.

Piedah