Aggro Shaman Deck List Guide (March 2017, Standard) – Season 36

Aggro Shaman is a deck list that the ladder has known well since the release of the League of Explorers. This was when the deck gained one of its most important cards which was the fearsome Tunnel Trogg. The deck was very powerful, but took a back seat to Midrange Shaman with the nerf to Rockbiter Weapon. We’re in a similar situation now due to the nerfs to Small-Time Buccaneer and Spirit Claws. Aggro Shaman isn’t as strong as Midrange Jade, but this time it feels like the deck is still pretty powerful.

Update – Aggro Shaman in March 2017, Season 36

Big changes for Aggro Shaman due to the nerfs to Small-Time Buccaneer and Spirit Claws. The deck is still evolving so I won’t say this is the final version of the list, but I think this version is pretty consistent and well-rounded.

This list is based off of Freakeh’s version of the deck.

Check out our List of the Best Standard Decks for Hearthstone Ladder

Standard Aggro Shaman Mulligan Guide and Strategy

Always send back Patches the Pirate, you only want him if he’s coming out for free generally.

Sir Finley Mrrgglton, Tunnel Trogg, Jade Claws, Southsea Deckhand, and Totem Golem are your general keeps. Lightning Bolt can be a good keep if you already have a Tunnel Trogg as it will buff the card and take out your opponent’s 2-drop. Feral Spirit is an okay keep especially if you have a Tunnel Trogg, but you really want your 1 and 2-drops.

Maelstrom Portal and Bloodsail Corsair are kept against Aggro Pirate Warrior. Maelstrom will take down N'Zoth's First Mate and Patches while increasing your board state.

Aggro Shaman Matchup Win Percentages

Here’s a look at how Aggro Jade Shaman stacks up against other decks in the meta. Thanks to Metastats for allowing us to provide these statistics!

Winrate stats are currently unavailable for this deck at the moment!

Aggro Jade Shaman Game Play Strategy

Your hero power is pretty weak in this version of the deck, so Sir Finley Mrrgglton will make up for this fact. You are mostly targeting the Warlock and Hunter hero powers, but Mage and Druid can be useful in some situations.

Getting an aggressive start is one of the most important things with this deck. You need to start getting minions on board, and potentially protecting them with spells or cards like Feral Spirit. This is an Aggro deck, but protecting your minions which allows you to get extra face damage each turn is extremely valuable. Jade Claws is best used for taking down minions in the early game, this allows you to get more damage from your minions and keeps them on the board.

Against Aggro you are wanting to dictate the trades so you can outvalue your opponent. Decks like these don’t have great comeback mechanics, so once they are out of resources they are generally dead on board. When you’re playing Control is when you really want to be aggressive and trade very infrequently. You can’t outvalue them, so you have to beat them before they get to the later turns to stabilize.

One of the questions you should be asking yourself every turn is how you are going to play the next turn. The deck has a lot of cards that have Overload, so you need to keep track of which cards will be playable next turn if you’re playing a card with Overload. You need to be playing minions and dealing damage every turn, so if you’re on turn three and you have Feral Spirit, it might be better to play something else that will allow you to play Flamewreathed Faceless on curve (then follow it up with Feral Spirit). This sort of thing isn’t always going to be possible, but it’s important to think this way on a turn by turn basis.

Why not Doomhammer?

Doomhammer can be a very strong finisher, but now that Rockbiter Weapon is 2-mana it’s much slower and painful to run in your deck. The other problem is weapon hate is pretty popular do to Aggro Pirate Warrior, and if Doomhammer eats an Acidic Swamp Ooze you will be in a pretty poor position.

Standard Aggro Jade Shaman Card Substitutions (Replacements)

• Patches the Pirate: He’s the main reason for the Pirate package in this deck. If you don’t have Patches you’ll just want to cut it entirely, and potentially run the Water package (2x Bluegill Warrior, 2x Murloc Warleader, and Finja, the Flying Star – you’d have to make one more cut, probably Azure Drake). You can also run a more standard aggro package with 2x Argent Squire and 2x Mana Tide Totem.
• Sir Finley Mrrgglton: Argent Horserider is a possible replacement, or you could just run Argent Squire.
• Aya Blackpaw: Aya is very strong, you get two extra minions generally and your opponent will be hesitant to remove it from the board. I would probably run a second Azure Drake in her place.
• Bloodmage Thalnos: This is less important now that you don’t have Spirit Claws in the deck. It’s still a solid cards that helps Maelstrom Portal become more impactful. I’d just run a second Azure Drake or an Argent Squire.

Standard Aggro Jade Shaman Combos and Synergies

Bloodmage Thalnos can be used just as a cycle if you are desperate for cards, but pairs great with Maelstrom Portal. Also, Bloodmage can help get you lethal in certain situations, so make sure to factor him if you are close.

You could potentially play another weapon over your Hammer of Twilight if you really wanted the minion on board. It’s likely a very fringe scenario, but it does work.