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Mulligans
I was one of the high elo players innovating with Aggro Shaman last year, particularly with the Wave of Nostalgia variant. I want to go over some cards Aggro Shaman has lost since then, and what this variant can do to replaced them:
- Golganneth is a big loss with no substitute replacement.
- Wave of Nostalgia -> Menagerie Jug. Jug is the better 5-drop win-con on avg; both require being built around.
- 2 drops: Cactus Cutter, Trusty Companion, Greedy Partner -> Missile Pod, Cinderfin, Rockskipper. Overall this looks like a clear downgrade, but Missile Pod is a strong card and there is decent synergy for sneaking in face damage.
- Backstage Bouncer -> Slagclaw? Bouncer was a great card, but with a consistently low drawn wr in most aggro variants. Slagclaw might not be up to snuff, but we’ll see.
- Sigil of Skydiving -> Flight of the Firehawk. Comparing two very strong cards here, Sigil being the pre-nerfed version. Flight is an absurd card though. Unsure.
- Thrall’s Gift doesn’t have a comparable substitute, but it was never doing well in terms of drawn wr at any elo. I also made a point a couple times to get to top 50 without running Thrall’s Gift, as people said it was a “must” when it was not. I think the general new entries in Aggro Shaman like Zephrys and Xavius are similar in power but serve a different purpose.
- Terrible Chef was always a slightly below par card, just needs an excuse to be played and serviceable (Jug for the Undead tribe). Fire Fly is always solid with Jug, but this deck also runs an Elemental Kindred. Cryopractor is generally an on-par 3-drop when playing a sticky early board—although since the card has never been meta, the majority of players simply misplay Cryopractor to an extreme, assume it’s bad after, then stop playing it. It’s good.
Summary
- Generally, Jug Shaman is going to be extremely synergistic, with a lot of new cards filling in the blanks with what was missing for this archetype. However, I am doubtful that there is enough of a gap closed between last years’ aggro Shamans and this new build for Jug Shaman to be top tier. Alternative aggro lists in other classes, and even Elemental Shaman, appear to be slightly stronger for now.
Deck Rating: C
