Jade Shaman

This week, we are going to cover a deck that benefited greatly from the recent miniset's Brilliant Macaw. It's a deck that's greatly improved by the Macaw's battlecry repeating effect in multiple ways: Jade Shaman! Jade Shaman uses multiple battlecry synergies to be able to increase the speed at which its jade summoning cards summon battlecries, while having a powerful Shudderwock finisher where he will make a full board of Jade Golems, protect them with the Loatheb effect, and even add more Jade generators to your hand. With the Brilliant Macaw, you can repeat Shudderwock's effect 2 more times as well as flexibly use it in the early game to summon Jades or draw cards. Overall, Jade Shaman is a deck that starts off slowly but ramps up in power and summons huge Jades in the mid and lategame.

Now, let's get into a guide on playing the deck. It's going to go through major overarching strategies to keep in mind, how to mulligan, gameplay tips on key synergies, and card choices.

Strategies

Jade Shaman is going to summon a lot of Jade Golems, trying to get them to be big enough to fight for the board and then push face. While doing so, it will use some supporting spells and minions to help clear, heal, and draw. Later, if this has not been enough to win, it will use Shudderwock as a finisher.

Jade Ramp - Use your Jade summoners along with cards that double or repeat battlecries to summon Jade Golems. Primal Dungeoneer is your key draw card, so try to save a battlecry doubler for it. If you are falling behind on the board early in the game while your Jade Golems are still small, you can use Toxfin and Firemancer Flurgl to clear the opponent's board. By the midgame, your Jade Golems should be big enough to dominate the board.

Shudderwock Finisher - If you are against a control deck and the game goes on to turn 9, you can use Shudderwock to summon a full board of Jades while adding multiple Jade Claws to your hand. Try to play Loatheb beforehand to further protect the Shudderwock board. If this board is removed, Brilliant Macaws can be used for 2 more full Jade boards.

This deck is too slow at ramping up to beat fast combo decks and struggles against hyper aggro unless it gets the Toxfin Flurgl combo off, but it has a very powerful endgame against slower decks that, unlike Jade Druid, is not susceptible to Skulking Geist.

Mulligans

Keep Ice Fishing or Toxfin and Firemancer Flurgl if you have both.

Keep Primal Dungeoneers.

Keep Cagematch Custodian.

This deck can struggle with card draw and removal early game before your Jades ramp up, which is why the mulligan is so focused on this. You will get Jade generators anyway most of the time or can draw into them.

Gameplay

The key to playing the deck well is comboing your double battlecry cards well. For example, you have to sense if the opposing deck is aggressive enough that you should use Brilliant Macaw early to summon a Jade Golem or draw more cards or if you should save it to play after Shudderwock. Making Bolner Hammerbeak chains at the right moments and perhaps saving some cheap battlecries for him is another consideration.

Below are gameplay tips regarding many of the synergies in this deck and how to use them effectively.

Battlecry Synergies

Brann Bronzebeard will double all battlecries including ones from weapons. You can combine him with other cards in the deck to draw cards and summon Jades.

Bolner Hammerbeak can also double battlecries and his effect can activate them multiple times, but something to watch out for is Jade Claws won't activate his effect.

Murmuring Elemental can also double battlecries.

Brilliant Macaw is another battlecry synergy card, which can be used after you play a battlecry minion on another turn and so can even repeat battlecries of high cost minions like Shudderwock.

Some combination of these battlecry synergy cards can be played at the same time to get a tripling or even quadrupling effect on your battlecries. For example, you can play Brann Bronzebeard, Bolner Hammerbeak, and then Brilliant Macaw after a Jade summoning card had been played the previous turn. 

Removal and Card Draw Synergies

Toxfin and Firemancer Flurgl is usually a full one sided board clear for only 3 mana, and it can be tutored by Ice Fishing.

Instructor Fireheart is a flexible card that can be used to discover both removal and card draw.

Cagematch Custodian will draw Jade Claws.

Tidal Surge is good for both healing and removal.

Jade Lightning can be used for both Jade summoning and removal.

Electra Stormsurge will double your spells. Keep in mind that Jade Lightning can go face, along with Electra Stormsurge this can be 8 burst damage.

Primal Dungeoneer is your key card draw card, unless you have 2 of them in hand or multiple high cost cards, you should try to combo it with at least one battlecry synergy card to be able to draw more from it. The elementals it can draw are Cagematch Custodian, Electra Stormsurge, and Jade Spirit.

Taelan Fordring can tutor Shudderwock for you.

Finisher Synergies

Loatheb will help a board survive by making removal more expensive.

Shudderwock will summon multiple Jade Golems (including taunted ones if you've played Jade Chieftains), add Jade Claws to your hand (if you've played Rummaging Kobolds), and have the Loatheb effect to protect the board. He is a great finisher, and with Brilliant Macaw, you can repeat this finisher effect twice.

Card Choices

This section is going to go through the main packages of cards in the deck. Each package has cards that help the deck with a specific goal. When playing the deck, it's useful to know what purposes each card serves and what other cards in the deck have synergy with it or help achieve the same purpose. This section might also be useful if you're interested in the reasoning for why each card was included in the deck.

Battlecry Synergy

These cards synergize with battlecries, including card draw and Jade summoners.

Card Draw

These cards draw cards, many tutor out specific types of cards or even a specific card.

Jade Package

These cards help you summon Jade Golems.

Removal Package

These cards are used for removal.

Finisher Package

These cards help you finish games.

Jade Shaman starts off slowly, but has one of the most powerful endgames of any deck. If you like decks that ramp up in power as the game goes on, give this one a try. If you have a question or comment, or are wondering about a card substitution, post below.