Shaman Evolution versatile – Top 500 legends EU – darkmoon faire

Welcome to my version of the low-cost shaman evolution.

First I will explain a basic gameplay, then the presence of key/odd cards, after that what modification can be done if you don’t own some of the most expansive cards, and how it will impact the gameplay, and finally I will describe some specific gameplay for some match-up.

Basic gameplay

Like other evolve shaman, it tries to get maximum value of its minions with the use of Boggspine Knuckles. This means that during mulligan, you need either a Cagematch Custodian or a Boggspine Knuckles, if you don’t have any, you can replace all of your cards. If you have just one weapon (or a cagematch) you can keep it, if you get more than one weapon, then it depends, keep in mind that for your weapon to be effective, you need to control minions. So it might be useful to replace a weapon.

in early turns there isn’t much to do, place your Cagematch Custodian if you have it, limit your opponent’s board with Lightning Storm and equip your weapon as soon as possible (turn 3 with lightning bloom, turn 4 with coin if you can). But you should not use your weapon if your board is too weak. it is not worth for only a Novice Engineer or a Cagematch Custodian + totem. Every charge of your weapon is valuable, don’t waste them (exception is if your weapon is renewable at a cheap price, eg. Hoard Pillager in hand).

Then as soon as you have your weapon, you’ll want to develop a board every turn, and upgrade it every turn. Some ideal situations are turn 4 with 2 mana and a coin (overload for equipping weapon turn 3) use the coin and put Desert Hare or Pit Master and then trade an enemy minion with your weapon. Turn five (weapon and coin used t4) use Derailed Coaster or Novice Engineer and Desert Hare or Pit Master.

Some of the most powerful turns will include the Mogu Fleshshaper, it can be played very cheap, trade a low attack minion, and then be upgraded to a 10-cost minion, often devastating in early game.

Most of the time, you’ll want to trade the opponent’s board before upgrading yours, minions at 1HP will be “fully healed” as they evolve! But don’t hesitate to put damage face when it gives you lethal next turn with weapon or Stormstrike and you have a revolution in hand! 

Don’t be greedy! Random is sometimes awesome, but often reckless. If you have a strong board for the cost of your minions, there is no need to evolve them again. Sometimes keeping your assets is your best way to insure your win!

Card description

With a lot of decks using weapons, I decided to include this one to have a cheap way to reduce damage taken by agro deck as demon hunter’s marrow slicer or Dreadlord's Bite , and break some combos against other decks (shaman, warrior Wrenchcalibur or Ancharrr . 

Useful against rogue and boosted Edwin VanCleef or Questing Adventurer. Same goes for paladin, clearing a minion boosted with Blessing of Authority or just removing his libram of widsom. Basically everytime that your opponent has an overboosted minion, this is a very cheap way to lower the menace. It has also proven itself useful when a taunt minion needs to be bypassed for lethal, or against warrior Rattlegore.

A card that can be used for the same purpose as the devolving missile, but also as an escape if you don’t have drawn your weapon. an ideal example would be against DH agro eg. T3: use Stormstrike to clean some minions; T4: Desert Hare + Revolve. You get a powerful board, and may debuff the opponent’s minion at the same time.

You can also use it to “re-shuffle” minions you’re unhappy with. eg. your Mogu Fleshshaper turned into a Darkmoon Rabbit; or you really need a taunt and didn’t get any.

Same as Revolve, it helps overcome tough situation when you don’t have any weapon. Desert Hare+ Bogstrok Clacker makes a powerful turn 6, despite not having drawn your weapon. Once again, same as Revolve, you can re-shuffle minions you’re unhappy with, except that this time you get to select which minions need to be re-shuffled.

Probaby the least expected card in this decklist. Well it is a bad card in most matchups, however you’ll be grateful to have it against DH agro which is one of the worst matchup for this deck, without being too impactful against other matchups. You can perfectly replace it with a Bogstrok Clacker if it would seem more effective to you.

One of the most undervalued card in other evolve shaman. decent against DH agro, great against every other class, and awesome against warrior. There is 3 ways you can use this card:

– as is if you need to clean some board

– to reduce cost of mogu fleshshaper if you have a lot of minions in hand

– to put a big board with only one card and one durability of your weapon

Card replacement / lower dust cost

This is not a must-have card in this deck, but it fits in very nicely especially when you’re lacking that bit of extra damage. You can replace it with another Bogstrok Clacker, a Serpentshrine Portal or any other card that is in most evolve shaman. If you want a bit of novelty you could even trade it with a Bloodlust! (I do not guarantee that it is a good idea, but if you do try it, let me know).

removing this will make a less efficient deck against paladin and rogue, but it is not a key card. Just pick a card that is in most of other shaman deck, and it will do the trick.

if you really want to try this deck, but don’t have enough dust, then you could remove one Boggspine Knuckles, but this is probably the most impactful decision of this section, if you have a choice you should not do it.

Specific matchups

Incoming.