DrakeD0g's Elemental Shaman

Greetings!

This is a short guide for those who might want to try elemental shaman or played against them and was interested in that deck. Feel free to ask questions.

Stats: https://imgur.com/a/yDzkdBH

1. Deck type/style of play

2. Card choices

3. Mulligan guide

DECK TYPE/STYLE OF PLAY

Elemental Shaman is a combination of Aggro/Midrange deck and very tempoish at that. It's actually very hard to build it to be only a midrange deck with the amount of Elementals with Battlecries which can deal face damage. The gameplay is rather straight forward - establish on the board as early as possible, then deal spikes of damage to the face  andat the same time make favorable trades on board. Games don't take long: it usually takes around 9/10 turns  to finish off your opponents, depending on the matchup.

CARD CHOICES

With the mini set Shaman got exactly what was missing - good 1 drop Elemental (not just good but amazing, snow-balling type) and card draw. This deck uses only three spells as there is very little room to fit more: Hex, Dunk Tank and Serpentshrine Portal.

• They all belong to the Nature school so Primal Dungeoneer will always draw two cards
• Two of them can deal face damage, which is important for this deck.
• Hex is mostly there against paladins and priests: your typical targets are Carousel Gryphon and Lightshower Elemental.
• Serpentshrine Portal is in here firstly to remove threats like Kolkar Pack Runner - with no Overload difference between Lightning Bolt and Serpentshrine Portal I gladly take the latter.

Depending on the matchups you are encountering - Hex is subject for replacement, either for some minion which provides pressure on your opponent/opponent board or for a spell like Rockbiter Weapon or Stormstrike, which both belong to the Nature school and besides removal provide huge dunks for 10 damage with Inara Stormcrash.

It is worth noting though that if you end up with only two spells in your deck - the consistency of Primal Dungeoneers drawing elementals for you will start to fall off. There will be more cases when you simply draw your spells at the start of your turn and Primal Dungeoneers will become a plain dead cards. The sweet spot of number of spells for Primal Dungeoneers to stay effective in drawing you an elemental - is about 3-4 spells.

Only one copy of Arid Stormer - as I mentioned earlier it's rather hard to fit all cards, so i cut one copy. More often then not Arid Stormer fulfils the role of early board control - remove opponents early minions/tokens. Prior to the release of miniset i played two copies with 5 mana Mistrunner which gives +3/+3 to a friendly minion. These two in combination with each other are really strong, BUT - Mistrunner does not have Elemental tag and very often you would already play both Arid Stormers before you get to play Mistrunner.

Inara Stormcrash - amazing card, with [Hearthstone Card (Wack-a-Gnoll Hammer) Not Found] equipped it's 10 damage to the face plus 2 damage from buff from the weapon after both strikes, so remember to hit with the wepon first. If opponent does not manage to remove her it's pretty much GG.

[Hearthstone Card (Taelan Frodring) Not Found] - obviously for tutoring Alex/Ysera/Al'Akir

Alexstrasza the Life-Binder - to deal 8 damage to the face or sometimes to heal for 8, for example in Hunter matchup when you established the board but still might lack health. But in my experience Games against Hunter are decided a bit earlier than turn 9. There is a pont have to be made here about the fact that Taelan Fordring will draw you either Ysera or Alex so from a certain perspective Alex decreases the probability of accomplishing your Ysera/Al'Akir combo. That is true. But as i already mentioned this deck does not need that combo every game or in most of it's games. It's just a pleasnt cherry on top of the cake. If Taelan draws you Alex then her 8 damage to the face probably will be last thing that your opponent sees before exploding anyway.

Ysera the Dreamer - to deal 22 damage to the face with 2x Nightmare on Al'Akir thanks to [Hearthstone Card (Dilligent Notetaker) Not Found].

I have to make a point here that this Ysera-Al'Akir combo is not primary way of winning with this deck. The damage output of elementals like Fire elemental and Gyreworm plus your weapon plus Inara Stormcrash is so dominant and prominent that you in most of your games don't even need this combo. But it's good it's there if you might need it against Priest for example.

Diligent Notetaker - just to prove statement above that you don't need that Ysera combo - you want and need to use him with Dunk Tank to retain board control. It's especially true against Rogue which plays mostly 1 and 2 health minions and Dunk Tank clears whole board plus helps against Jandice Barov.

Certain 100% card exclusions:

I do not like Instructor Fireheart in this deck due to several reasons. Firstly, her effect is random and i always try to minimise randomness in my decks. Secondly, she is not elemental so can break your ele chain. Thirdly, she requires you to have 4 mana at least or more realistically 5+ mana. And last but not least - more often than not in a control type decks she is used to regain board presence and deal some AOE - so i would rather put that AOE in my deck instead of her in a first place which costs cheaper, is guaranteed and not random one AND can be drawn with Primal Dungeoneer.

I saw several posts here and decks on ladder having Torrent in them. Well, for me it's very easy to justify not to include it here. First of all it costs 4 mana when you haven't played a spell previous turn and considering that this deck has only three spells - you almost always won't chain them between two turns so cost of Torrent will be always 4. At 4 mana we have Hex which is superb removal as it removes Deathrattle effects and what's even more importantly - in a meta full of N'Zoth resurrection and priest res spells - it removes whole minion from being resurrected. Torrent should be played for 1 mana in a deck with much higher number of spells.

MULLIGAN

This deck is very reliant on tempo and you want to come on board as soon as possible, especially against other agressive decks. Your top priority during muligan is to get Wailing Vapor + Cagematch Custodian. Always deny weapon and spells in search for other cards. Your second priority after Wailing Vapor + Cagematch Custodian is Kindling Elemental - it's 100% keep against aggro decks. Third priority is Gyreworm and Primal Dungeoneer. These base muligan tips are true for most matchups except ones below:

Vs Hunter, Rogue and DH I like keeping 4 mana Earth Revenant for the 1 damage AoE. Hunter going wide on board is very common and DH often plays Sneaky Delinquent and [Hearthstone Card (Renowed Performer) Not Found] - Earth Revenant helps with clearing this stuff.

Vs Priest or Paladin you might want to keep Hex but only if you are offered elementals to come on board starting from turn 2. If you are offered Hex but there are no cheap Elementals to establish board presence - deny Hex. Same rule applies for Lilypad Lurker.

On the matter of keeping Whack-A-Gnoll Hammer against Aggro decks to establish board control - the rule of thumb here: if you get your weapon and 1 and 2 mana Elementals then you can keep it against Aggro decks. Also it is better to keep weapon against aggro decks when you have coin - coining out that hammer and proccing it's buff on 1-3 Wailing Vapor is super good. But this applies only for games against aggro decks! Against Priest or Warlock you are better to deny weapon and try to find Primal Dungeoneer or Cagematch Custodian.

Also, you do not keep 3 mana Elementals if you are not offered 1-2 mana ones. Hoping to draw 1-2 mana Elementals at the start of the game is not gonna work, just change whole mulligan hand.

I thought on adding a separate matchup section, but overall the style of playing this deck in different matchups is mostly the same - enter the board on turn 1-2, then steamroll with amazingly efficient Battlecries, dealing face damage at the same time.