Ownerism’s Midrange Shaman – #1 NA Legend (September 2016, Season 30) Deck List Guide

Thanks to Ownerism for allowing us to re-host this Midrange Shaman deck list guide!

Well met! I’m Ownerism, a casual Hearthstone scrub who is currently at #1 legend NA with the deck I am about to present to you. First of all, all credit goes to Cerasi for actually making the deck. Also credit to Hotform’s Tempo Mage guide for a basic outline of how to write this guide.

• Proof: http://imgur.com/a/ORTje
• Stats from Rank 2 to legend: http://imgur.com/a/DCmco

Introduction

This deck is focused on building an early board while taking favorable trades with the help of spirit claws to snowball into a strong mid-game advantage. Once you develop a strong board, try to play around board clears and whittle your opponents health down until they are in burst range.

Pros and Cons

Pros

This deck has a great early game and will almost always be winning on the board by turn 4 with the help of Spirit Claws and Totem Golem. Even if you fall behind on board you have great comeback potential with Lightning Storm/Maelstrom Portal accompanied by spell damage and a discounted Thing from Below. It can also definitely hold its own late game with Thunder Bluff Valiant and Al'Akir the Windlord.

Cons

Being a minion-based deck, it takes a lot of thought as to how to push damage while not playing into board clears. Sometimes, you will get bad mulligans and be forced to totem on turn 2/3, which really isn’t that bad considering how much comeback potential this deck has. Match-ups Honestly, this deck performs very well to every meta deck except for Arcane Giant Druid and Freeze Mage. Control warrior is hit or miss depending on if you draw well early on and can whittle their HP down to set up the Al’Akir Rockbiter Weapon/Flametongue Totem combo. Versus all other decks as long as you play around AOE well you should be favored.

Mulligans

Before we talk about mulligans one thing to keep in mind is that we always want to mulligan for a good curve before all else. For example if we already have a Spirit Claws in our hand and a Totem Golem then we shouldn’t keep Rockbiter Weapon, even though otherwise we would keep it. Cards that are marked with an asterisk (*) are conditional and we only keep if we have synergy with them in our hand or if it helps us curve out.

• Druid: Argent Squire, Spirit Claws, Tunnel Trogg, Totem Golem, Hex, Tuskarr Totemic
• Hunter: Argent Squire, Spirit Claws, Rockbiter Weapon, Tunnel Trogg, Totem Golem, Tuskarr Totemic*
• Mage: Argent Squire, Spirit Claws, Rockbiter Weapon, Tunnel Trogg, Totem Golem, Tuskarr Totemic*
• Paladin: Argent Squire, Tunnel Trogg, Totem Golem, Tuskarr Totemic
• Priest: Argent Squire, Tunnel Trogg, Totem Golem, Tuskarr Totemic, Hex
• Rogue: Argent Squire, Spirit Claws, Tunnel Trogg, Rockbiter Weapon, Spirit Claws, Totem Golem
• Shaman: Argent Squire, Spirit Claws, Tunnel Trogg, Rockbiter Weapon, Totem Golem, Tuskarr Totemic*
• Warlock: Argent Squire, Rockbiter Weapon, Spirit Claws, Tunnel Trogg, Maelstrom Portal, Totem Golem, Lightning Storm*
• Warrior: Argent Squire, Rockbiter Weapon, Spirit Claws, Tunnel Trogg, Totem Golem, Tuskarr Totemic

Extra Tips

If you have a great curve already like a 1-drop into Totem Golem into coin Tuskarr Totemic, then you can keep Thing from Below in your opening hand since it will cost 4 mana. Also, if you have both Spirit Claws and Bloodmage Thalnos in your opener then you obviously keep both. Also, positioning is key in this deck. Play your hardest to kill minions (highest health, Argent Squire, Mana Tide Totem) on the farthest left because your totems spawn on the far right side. This makes it so that you can position your Flametongue Totem between two weak minions so that when they die off you will get another 2 extra damage.

Matchup Strategies

Druid

Clear your opponents T1 Living Roots with Spirit Claws/Tunnel Trogg/Argent Squire and develop a strong board while your opponent ramps. If you have a Totem Golem and something else on board by turn 4 you should have a good advantage going into the midgame. Try to save your hexes for Arcane Giants but if you need to use it on their Violet Teacher/Fandral Staghelm that’s okay too, but you’ll need to end the game before they Yogg.

Hunter

Use Spirit Claws, Tunnel Trogg, or Argent Squire to kill their Fiery Bat and then try to develop a board advantage with the help of Rockbiter Weapon.

Mage

Versus tempo mage, force the opponent to play defensively and develop tempo by clearing their minions with Rockbiter. Since your minions are very good stat-wise when compared to their mana cost, the mage won’t be able to keep up their removal with how quick you are developing the board. Play around Flamestrike and try to kill them before Yogg, or at least save your cards in hand if you’re ahead and your opponent is going into turn 10. Versus Freeze mage just try to play as aggressively as possible and hex their doomsayer and set up to pop their block with an Al’Akir.

Paladin

Late-game Paladin decks will often be forced to hero power on turn 2 and Aldor/Hero power again on turn 3, so just expect those plays and play your hand out accordingly. On turn 4, play around Consecration and Truesilver Champion and develop a board that’s enough to pressure him, but don’t overextend into Wild Pyromancer/Equality combo.

Priest

Develop a strong board early and hex their Injured Blademaster/Priest of the Feast so that they will Resurrect a Frog. Going into turn 5 make trades so that some minions go down to 1 HP while others stay out of range of Excavated Evil/Holy Nova. Without Lightbomb, Priest has a very hard time dealing with your board when your minions are above 4 HP.

Rogue

Versus Tempo Rogue our matchup should be extremely favored with Spirit Claws and Maelstrom Portals. Versus Miracle Rogue play around Backstab SI and keep developing your board. Hex their Tomb Pillager on turn 4 if you have no very good way to trade into it, otherwise save your hexes for their Edwins. Rogue will have a very hard time dealing with our board so keep whittling them down. Feel free to play a Flametongue Totem on just one minion or a mana tide when you already have board control as they will need to spend their turn removing those minions even though they have already gotten their value.

Shaman

Expect a good opener from the opponent and if we fall behind, stall by hero powering/playing Mana Tide Totem until we get a good board clear with Spirit Claws/Rockbiter Weapon+Lightning Storm and a cheap Thing from Below. This huge swing will often get you enough tempo to turn the game.

Warlock

This deck is now extremely favored vs Zoo with the new addition of Spirit Claws. As with the shaman matchup, we will often fall behind early on board but we can easily come back with an AOE and a Spirit Claws or Rockbiter Weapon. If you are ahead on board, use your AOE sparingly to play around forbidden ritual.

Warrior

Versus Dragon Warrior, if we draw Spirit Claws/Rockbiter Weapon/Totem Golem then we are in great shape. If not, then as with the Warlock and Shaman Matchups, stall until you can clear the board. Even if we get down to 10 HP we are relatively safe as long as we have a taunt up as Dragon Warrior has no burn cards. Versus Control Warrior, Play around Brawl and play your Mana Tide Totems to force your opponent to brawl and then reload the board with Thing from Belows and Thunder Bluff Valiant. Your opponent should not be above 20 or so HP if we are putting enough pressure on the board so keep playing until you draw Al’Akir/Rockbiter combo and burst them down.

Card Discussion

Argent Squire: A solid one-drop that couples extremely well with Flametongue Totem or another damage source such as Spirit Claws in order to gain board advantage. Rockbiter Weapon: Lets you have board advantage early by clearing their 2 drop with 1 mana and developing a minion at the same time. Versus control decks, try to save it to combo with Al-Akir.

Spirit Claws: I can not stress how good this card is. This is probably the sole reason this deck does so well against tempo decks. Even if you don’t get a spell damage totem you can use it as a ping or just save it until you play azure drake or roll spell damage.

Tunnel Trogg: I only run one because we are not running many overload cards like Feral Spirits. Although a 1/3 body is okay, it is easily countered by Fiery War Axe, Alexstraszas Champion, and any 3/2 really. Also, we already have 2 extra 1-drops in our deck so we don’t need too many. Bloodmage Thalnos: Synergizes very well with Spirit Claws and our AOE spells. Also allows us to develop the board without playing into board clears.

Flametongue Totem: A great card, especially in the mid-late game. The thing with Flametongue is that you already get 4 damage OR MORE out of the card the turn that you play it, and then you opponent has to clear it or else they will take even more damage. They will usually prioritize killing Flametongue Totem over your Tuskarr or Totem Golem allowing you to further pressure the board without overextending.

Maelstrom Portal: A great card overall, not only versus zoo. We usually will want to roll spell power or couple this with Thalnos/Drake to get lots of value out of it but it’s fine to use it as a ping. This card is great because it allows us to not trade into the enemy minions when we are ahead on board and instead push for more damage.

Totem Golem: Even though this card will often force us to hero power on turn 3, it is amazing as it can trade into the opponents 1/3 or 3/2 and then we can roll a healing totem or at least force your opponent to spend another 2 mana pinging it. Also, it often takes two cards to remove like Slam Execute.

Hex: Card is amazing. If you can help it, try to save it until the lategame instead of using it reactively while you have no board.

Lightning Storm: With two Maelstrom Portals, we only need to run one copy of this card. A lightning storm with a Thing From Below and a Rockbiter on the same turn can completely turn a losing game.

Mana Tide Totem: Since we are often ahead on the board, this is an amazing card given that it forces our opponent to use a spell kill it instead of one of our other cards and we already drew a card from it.

Tuskarr Totemic: 4/7 Chance to get an amazing totem, 3/7 chance to get a good totem. This is best used when we already have a board and we want to further develop it instead of playing this on an empty board because if we don’t roll high, then we will fall behind and if we do roll high then our opponent will often just straight up lose. This card is great for making Thing From Below Cheaper and we often play a turn 3 Tuskarr into a turn 4 Thing From Below.

Master of Evolution: Honestly, I haven’t found that much use for this card but since we are usually ahead on board we can trade into the opponent’s minions and then evolve our damaged minion to solidify our board.

Azure Drake: Spell Power goes well with our AOE and Spirit Claws, and we aren’t afraid to play this card into AOE.

Thunder Bluff Valiant: Often we want to save this card until our opponent uses their board clears. Try to save Thunderbluff until you have at least 2-3 totems to buff, but this card can definitely be played as a 5 mana 3/6 on turn 5 if we have no other plays. This card will often seal the game and it lets us get value out of our otherwise mediocre totems.

Fire Elemental: Overall solid card because it puts a lot of pressure on the board while clearing a card at the same time. Thing From Below: This is probably the hardest part about this deck to play correctly. If we have another good play, then we want to save TFB in our hand as long as possible so we can either reload the board after a board clear or we can develop a very strong turn later on with a lightning storm clear+ Thing from Below. Versus classes that you have to put pressure on, you can keep this card in your hand if it looks like you will curve out perfectly into it.

Al'Akir the Windlord: Originally I didn’t think this was a very good card as it only puts six points of pressure on the board but I’ve grown to love it. Versus control decks we save it in our hand to combo with Rockbiters or Flametongue totems that we already have on board and our opponent won’t expect to face this much burst damage. Versus faster decks we can just play this on turn 8 in order to trade into a strong minion while developing a taunt on the board so we don’t die.

Card Replacements

Bloodmage Thalnos: Thalnos is a pretty key card in this deck but if need be you can replace it with a Kobold Geomancer. People often say that Geomancer isn’t a proper replacement to Thalnos but in this deck I think it’s completely fine.

Al'Akir the Windlord: This card is also a key card but if you don’t have it a Ragnaros the Firelord can be good too.

Conclusion

Although this seems like a very straightforward deck to play and curve out with, it actually requires quite a bit of thinking to know how far we can play into AOE and what turn we should swing the board on. There is a lot of RNG involved with totem-rolling but if played correctly, you can easily win the game with low rolls all game. Thanks for reading my guide and good luck on the climb 🙂 I welcome any constructive criticism or questions in the comments as this if my first time writing a guide. -Ownerism