Basic + Adventures Bloodlust Shaman (LoE Edition)

Editor’s Note: With the new Standard Format in 2016 for Hearthstone, we highly recommend going for cards in the Classic set and Whispers of the Old Gods (Standard Format). Here are budget guides, also from Sheng, to get you started!

• Budget Standard Standard C’Thun Druid
• Budget Standard Midrange Hunter
• Budget Standard C’Thun Mage
• Budget Standard  Aggro Paladin
• Budget Standard C’Thun Priest
• Budget Standard C’Thun Rogue
• Budget Standard Midrange Shaman
• Budget Standard Zoo Warlock 
• Budget Standard Combo Warrior

Introduction

Greetings, I’m Sheng, a Legend rank constructed and 7.5 win-average arena player. I run HearthstoneCoaching.com where our coaches have helped students around the world reach many of these same achievements.

If you’re new to Hearthstone, or just have a limited collection of cards—I feel your pain. It is often difficult to find cheap but viable decks to play on the Hearthstone ladder. Given this dilemma, I’ve set out to help those of you with a limited collection by creating budget decks for each class.

Requirements

1. Reach Level 10 to unlock all of the Basic cards for this class.
2. Complete the Naxxramas, Blackrock Mountain, and League of Explorers expansions.

Deck Playstyle

• Bloodlust Shaman is a token deck that focuses on putting as many minions on the board as cheaply as possible. Its primary win conditions are bloodlust and frostwolf-warlord, both cards that benefit from a large minion count.

Minions – 24

1x sir-finley-mrrgglton — New!

• While Sir Finley might not seem like much. 1 mana for a 1/3 is mana efficient and can trade against 2/1s and 2/2 quite effectively. However, this isn’t the reason why we include him into our deck. Primarily, Sir Finley is used to provide us with a more tempo-oriented or aggressive Hero Power, which we can use to our advantage. With more aggressive decks, selecting a Hero Power like Hunter’s Steady Shot can win us games on its own.

2x stonetusk-boar

• A cheap token minion with charge to buff frostwolf-warlord or to become a target for our buff spells or minions on the same turn. Stonetusk Boar is a card best kept in your hand until you can benefit from its synergy with other cards in our deck, as it’s usually not worth it to play just to deal 1 damage to your opponent.

2x flametongue-totem

• This is a great card that will let your lesser minions trade up to kill larger ones. Allows a 3 attack minion to trade with a chillwind-yeti, and a 1/1 to trade with most 3 mana minions.
• You’ll want to use him only when you have minions on the board, otherwise he’s an easy target for removal.
• It’s important to remember that the Totems you generate with your Hero Power always spawn from the right of your board. If you only have one minion on the board, you should always play your flametongue-totem to its right so you can get a buffed Totem.

2x haunted-creeper

• This spider is our counter to aggressive decks that like to drop multitudes of 1 health minions. He’s a mini harvest-golem that spawns two 1/1 tokens instead of a single 2/1 token. The spawned tokens become nice targets for buffs.

2x jeweled-scarab — New!

• Jeweled Scarab is a good way for our deck to discover cards that are outside of the adventure card sets. This class has many good 3 mana minions and spells so it’s a good inclusion to our limited deck.

1x brann-bronzebeard — New!

• Brann is a card that is best used in decks that have many Battlecry minions. Don’t be afraid to play him on turn 3. Many players tend to hold onto him for too long, and try to play him on the same turn as a Battlecry minion to ensure they gain value from his passive, but sometimes tempo is just more important.

2x razorfen-hunter

• 3 mana for a 2/3 and a 1/1 is fair, but the fact that the razorfen-hunter spawns two minions is important — it’s perfect for squeezing a flametongue-totem in between.

2x shattered-sun-cleric

• 3 mana for 3/2 isn’t mana efficient, but the battlecry more than makes up for it. The downside is that if you don’t have a minion on the board, this card suffers.
• The ideal scenario is to play this on the same turn a minion you control can trade with something equal in value and survive, or can trade up to kill something more expensive.

2x dragonling-mechanic

• razorfen-hunter‘s bigger cousin. For one more mana, we get a 2/4 instead of a 2/3 and a 2/1 instead of a 1/1. An extra 1/1 worth of stats for 1 mana isn’t really worth it, but the fact that this card spawns two minions is useful in our deck.

2x fireguard-destroyer

• A great replacement for chillwind-yeti. While the 1 mana overload is a bit of a drawback, this card usually easily pass the Vanilla Test and provide you with 5 mana worth of stats or more on turn 4.

2x frostwolf-warlord

• A primary win condition for our deck. Playing him with one minion on the board on turn 5 is fine, but you’ll want to avoid throwing him onto an empty board alone. Remember to play him last after all your other minions on the same turn.

1x loatheb

• Loatheb is an amazing card… when played correctly. 5 mana for a 5/5 is fair, but it’s Loatheb’s ability to shutdown opponent’s spells that makes him so valuable. Play Loatheb on turn 6 before a mage can cast flamestrike on turn 7 and he’ll win you the game.

2x fire-elemental

• 6 mana for a 6/5 isn’t great stats-wise, but he gives us a free lightning-bolt ability when he comes into play which can swing the tempo in our favor. We’ll gladly trade the two extra health that we’d get with boulderfist-ogre for 3 damage to any target we choose.

1x kelthuzad

• Kel’Thuzad is probably the best win condition in our deck. If you have any semblance of a board going into turn 8, he has a good chance of winning the game for you. His value only goes up when you have deathrattle minions on the board that spawn more minions.

Spells – 6

2x rockbiter-weapon

• This card compares favorably to claw. Instead of 2 armor, we’re given an extra point of damage and a choice of which target (either yourself or minions) to buff, which is fair. This is a card that allows you to gain control over the board early, and eliminates most 3 mana minions.

2x hex

• Awesome unconditional removal. It’ll get rid of that pesky sylvanas-windrunner or cairne-bloodhoof and won’t trigger any deathrattles. A key card.

2x bloodlust

• Our second primary win condition. Use this card to clear your opponent’s board with your buffed tokens, or to finish your opponent off. Be sure to count how much damage you can do each turn. You’d be surprised. Even 0/2 Totems become dangerous.

Mulligan Guide

In general, you want to mulligan to setup your first three or four turns. Please note that there is a distinction between going first and going second in Hearthstone, and this should factor into your mulligan choices.

When going first, your advantage is the ability to play first. In addition, you gain mana crystals before your opponent. To take advantage of this, you want to be aggressive in your mulligan to put minions on the board.

When going second, your advantage is mainly the-coin, which gives you tempo over your opponent for a single turn, and also an extra card. Depending on the nature of your deck, whether it’s Aggro, Midrange, or Control, you’ll be looking for different things.

• When playing an aggro deck, you’ll be looking for the same cards going second as you would going first. The objective is to quickly populate the board and bring down your opponent’s life total.
• When playing a midrange deck, you’ll also be looking to get onto the board early, with the caveat that you can keep a single copy of a situational minion or spell that you think may be useful to counter an opponent. This spell might be something like a kezan-mystic to counter classes with Secrets or removal like frostbolt.
• When playing a control deck, you’re looking to save the coin until much later in the game, generally when you can bring out a large late-game threat earlier than usual.

While I won’t make an exhaustive list, these are some of the cards you should consider keeping in your opening hand when playing this deck. In general, your goal with this deck is to get onto the board as soon as possible. It’s important to dig for an early 1 or 2 mana minion to play so you can begin to pressure your opponent’s life total.

Minions

• 1 Mana: sir-finley-mrrgglton
• 2 Mana: haunted-creeper, jeweled-scarab
• 3 Mana: brann-bronzebeard, razorfen-hunter, shattered-sun-cleric

Gameplay Video

Upgrades

Here are some substitutions that will improve this budget deck. If you’re looking to craft cards to play this class, it’s best to start with the “Key Substitutions” first before working your way to the “Nice-to-Have” Substitutions. Unless stated otherwise, you can substitute a single copy of an upgrade card instead of two if you don’t have both.

Key Substitutions

• 2x jeweled-scarab ? 2x totem-golem

Nice-to-Have Substitutions

• 2x fireguard-destroyer ? 2x piloted-shredder
• 1x frostwolf-warlord ? 1x doomhammer
• 1x kelthuzad ? 1x dr-boom

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this guide! If you have questions, feel free to use the comment sections below. Our team at HearthstonePlayers would be happy to answer them.

Coaching Lessons

If you’re interested in reaching Legend rank, or earning unlimited gold from arena, my team at HearthstoneCoaching.com would love to help! We’ve provided over a thousand hours of excellent coaching to students around the world. 

Want to Become Better at Other Games?

I also run RankOneCoaching.com, where our top coaches will develop a personal plan for you to achieve your dreams in other games. Personal lessons are an in-depth experience and most students improve significantly after just one full session!

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