Basic + Naxxramas + Blackrock Mountain Starter Shaman Hearthstone Deck

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 many students achieve the same.

Whether you’re a newer player, or an experienced one who just wants to find the most efficient way to spend your cash or in-game gold, you can never go wrong by investing in Hearthstone’s single player expansions. Both The Curse of Naxxramas and Blackrock Mountain have provide unique and useful cards that cannot be unlocked anywhere else. This is the Shaman Hearthstone Deck.

My Blackrock Mountain decks are a new series of guides where I try to construct the most  effective Hearthstone decks I can for each class, with only one contraint — that I only use cards from the Basic, Naxxramas, and Blackrock Mountain card sets.

These 0 dust decks are meant to help newer players kickstart their Hearthstone journey, by providing unique and viable decks that can be used against friends and foe on casual or ladder (though you may want to check out the upgrade section at the end of each guide to get further on the ladder).

Deck Playstyle

After reviewing feedback from my Naxxramas Shaman deck, I’ve come to realize that much of what was enjoyed from the Basic version of my Shaman deck was lost after I transitioned the deck into more of a midrange playstyle instead of relying on the synergy between tokens, bloodlust, and frostwolf-warlord.

Little else is more satisfying than playing a 9/9 frostwolf-warlord on turn 5, or doing 20+ damage on a single turn with bloodlust. Thus, I’ve gone back to a more combo-heavy synergistic build, which has similar drawbacks to the original Basic Shaman deck. So long as you can survive early game removal and don’t encounter too much board clear, this deck is certain to overwhelm opponents.

Minions – 24

2x acidic-swamp-ooze

• The best 2 mana minion in the Basic card set. Not only does he destroy weapons, but with 3 attack he’ll also trade evenly with most 3 mana minions.

2x flametongue-totem

• This is a great card that will let your lesser minions trade up to kill larger ones. Allows a acidic-swamp-ooze 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 raid-leader

• 3 mana for a 2/2 is a terrible stat-line. This is a card that doesn’t do well when he’s thrown onto an empty board. However, he’s extremely valuable once you have two or more minions on the board, and will have impact on the turn he’s played.
• raid-leader is primarily used to buff our totems and other tokens to trade up against more valuable minions.

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 senjin-shieldmasta

• Taz’dingo! The Sen’jin Shieldmasta trades one point of attack in exchange for taunt, but it’s generally a fair trade. While a Sen’jin won’t 1 hit kill a 4/4 or 3/4 minion, he’ll be able to protect your lower health minions from dying to favorable trades from your opponent, and can be the key to slowing down the game against aggressive rush-down decks.

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 most 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.

Blackrock Mountain Improvements

fireguard-destroyer

• Fireguard Destroyer is a great replacement for chillwind-yeti and usually provides an insane amount of tempo on turn 4. He’ll generally be the largest minion on the board early, and can be used to inflict a lot of damage directly to your opponent, or to help you establish control of the board if you’re behind.

Mulligan Guide

In general, you want to mulligan so that you can put out minions on your first three turns. If you’re going second, feel free to keep a single 4 mana minion so that you can coin it out on turn 3. Coining out a minion on turn 3 is actually a significant tempo boost, as a card like chillwind-yeti can be used to trade against at least two lower cost minions.

Cards to Keep

• 1 Mana: rockbiter-weapon
• 2 Mana: acidic-swamp-ooze, haunted-creeper, flametongue-totem (with haunted-creeper)
• 3 Mana: razorfen-hunter, shattered-sun-cleric

Remember, you want to plan out your first three turns with your opening hand, so if you already have a 1 mana and 2 mana minion, you should mulligan away your remaining card or two to dig for a play on turn 3.

Here are a few cards that will improve your deck.

• Minions: harvest-golem, mana-tide-totem, defender-of-argus
• Spells: earth-shock, lightning-bolt, feral-spirit, lightning-storm
• Weapons: doomhammer

Upgrades

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed the guide to our Blackrock Mountain Bloodlust Shaman deck. As always I’d be happy to answer questions from you in the comments section. 🙂

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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