Best Version of Murloc Shaman?

I hope you all enjoy and I would be more than happy to answer basically any questions you may have, from “What’s your favorite color?” to “What would you take out if I don’t have ___ or ___?”

Guide: This deck is a solid choice in general ESPECIALLY the overload version which I am showing you. It has so many options, it can have late game with Bloodlust and The Storm Bringer and can have early game with the murloc package. Not only that but it has a lot of cheap removal that can keep heavy aggro decks at bay so you can build up your board AND has card draw with the Spirit of the Frog. The main goal is to fill up a board and get to Bloodlust to close out the game, but sometimes you don’t even need that because with enough murloc synergy,card advantage, and early removal you can beat an aggro deck just by making sure they never get a board to stick and using buffed Murlocs (or just a wide board of Murlocs) to run them over.

Gameplay:

Mulligans: The main mulligans for this version of the deck are the 1 drop murlocs, the Underbelly Angler, and Murloc Warlord if you have a good curve. Into Aggro keeping your early removal spells are solid along with Likkim and maybe Feral Spirits. Into control keeping your late game spells and your draw engines are pretty are solid keeps as well, but you should still have minions to put on the board to apply pressure, so try to throw in like 1 way of drawing cards or 1 big late game spell is what I try to do.

Matchups (Mulligans and Strategies)

Druid: This matchup is going to be the same EVERY time so if you have read my other guides you will hear the same basic thing. CONTROL THE BOARD!!!! You have the cheap removal and overload synergy to do it and it if you can get the Murlocs to stick on the board you will end up losing the game. This matchup is not great for you though because they have a lot of options to flood the board and all they need to do is get it to stick for 1 turn and buff their minions once or twice and you lose. Playing Underbelly Angler early into this matchup is risky because of Wrath, but unless they keep that (and a lot of lower skilled people won’t into this matchup) you should be fine to play it early. It is worse into Rogue because the ALL keep Backstab for combos.

Hunter: This matchup focuses on trying to kill the enemy mechs so they can’t snowball (Same actually goes for beast). Once you gain some control you actually then need to kill the enemy extremely fast because you are on a very short timetable, Zul’Jin into midrange and secret (both of which you lose by the way because of Unleash the Hounds + Timberwolf Combo a lot of the time) and the Venomizer and Missile Launcher combo in Mech Hunter. Once those cards are played you are lose all board pressure and if they play it on curve (10 for Zul’Jin and 8 for the combo) you are in trouble so you have to play your late game spells before then and pressure the game rather than holding onto it and getting your board wiped which makes them dead cards in your hand. It is better to try to do as much damage as you can and close it out with a weapon and spells than hold it and get wiped and just lose...

Mage: This matchup is SO EASY. They have no board wipe so you just go wide and burst them down super hard. If you find that you can’t quite finish them off then you have The Storm Bringer and that creates a giant board to rival theirs if they get their Giants out. Basically just rush the heck out of them and if they don’t have a TON of freeze to stall you AND have Giants in hand AND have ways of cheesing out a ton by having Conjurer’s Calling then you are in the clear, if they have all of that stuff you STILL could win if you have The Storm Bringer  or Bloodlust if they low roll on taunts.

Paladin: This matchup is pretty bad for you because unlike other versions of this deck you don’t have the silence in the deck to counter GIANT MECH TAUNTS WITH LIFESTEAL standing between you and the 10 HP Paladin. The goal is rush them down and don’t overload on turn 4 so you can Bloodlust turn 5 before he gets a chance to buff his hand because after he does that you lose if you don’t kill him literally on that turn. Then he just lifesteals it all back up and you are left with no option other than MAYBE the luckiest The Storm Bringer of your life XD. You DO have the Toxfin which is your saving grace into this matchup and if they DON’T have Divine Shield on the taunt minion you actually still have a chance to win despite your opponent ultimately gaining around 12 health off of that minion (1 from its attack after it is given rush and 1 from your trade into it). After that if they used enough resources on it you still have a chance to close out the game assuming they don’t have ANOTHER lifesteal waiting.

Priest: This class is still around? XD

Rogue: This matchup is decent because they have limited removal and if you play around the early removal by playing your Underbelly Angler at a time when you can play other murlocs for extra value (even if that means hero powering turn 2 assuming you have no other cards in your hand you would like to play). The matchup is actually pretty bad for you if they play like pirate rogue because they have rush minions and more removal, but Pogo Rogue you should be able to rush down in time. The main goal into this deck is go wide and just hope they don’t have removal because if they don’t early then you win because they have no responses to a wide board. Again though, because the rogue can fairly reliably kill your Underbelly Angler on turn 2 with Backstab and the dagger so play it at your own risk and if it DOESN’T get killed you can snowball but if you can afford to wait a little bit (literally like a turn or 2 so you can play another murloc with it) then do that.

Shaman: This version of murloc, in my opinion, beats the other ones because you can deal with their murlocs with removal that the opponent doesn’t have. They either have no removal and you take over the game because you have responses to them and they don’t to you, or they are too slow like the midrange version of the deck because their power plays come from late-game legendary cards that you can potentially play around by using one of your good spells to close out the game before they get to late game.

Warlock: TERRIBLE!!! Their constant minions and board pressure and the rush they get keeps you from building a wide enough board to play a strong Bloodlust. Even the overload synergy can’t keep up because of how much draw the Warlock has and the fact that you can’t punish them for having lowered HP to draw because you need minions on the goard to do that.

Warrior: This matchup you want to focus on getting minions on the board and on turn before the opponent might brawl, play Soul of the Murloc and hope they brawl instead of warpath and try to close out the game after that. That is really your only play. You can focus more on card draw for this matchup so you at least have options in your hand (even if they are only weak overload spell options because they are better than nothing and thin your deck out to draw better things).