Hey guys! It’s getting close to the release of Un’Goro and the meta is going to change a ton when it comes out but I saw a post on Reddit and had to make an update after I tested out this new method of Control Shaman using Madam Goya. Reddit user SerasVilgaudas claims a 62% win rate and reached Top 5 Legend on EU with this deck! He also credits user NowanIlfideme with helping him construct it so I’ll throw his name out there too. For those that don’t follow me, I wrote an article called “Let’s Build Control Shaman” a few weeks ago and it highlighted a few of the options that Control Shaman can make when deck constructing. This Madam Goya version is kind of like the Barnes skin that I mentioned and abuses that “Get a minion from your deck” mechanic really well with both of the legendaries. Let’s take a quick look at what this version has to offer.
Why Madam Goya?
Madam Goya fits really well with this type of shaman deck because it relies on a lot of powerful shaman spells to control the game while abusing Barnes and Madam Goya to get huge overpowered minions that can win a game easily if they come out early enough. While Barnes is only useful with things that have abilities it can also be combined with Ancestral Spirit to get a full copy of the minion for example, if Ysera comes into play you can Ancestral Spirit that way when it dies it will come back as the full 4/12 minion. Madam Goya however is much better since you get the full copy right away, which is deadly for things like Ysera and Y’shaarj, rage unbound but also really good for the big taunt minions like Earth Elemental and even Thing from Below since they provide a wall for you to attack through.
One major benefit from using Madam Goya in shaman is that you always have a minion you can shuffle into your deck (same with paladin) because of our awesome hero power. While you’re using your early turns spamming totems to cheapen Thing from below, you’re also filling up your board with a minion or two that will survive until Madam Goya can come in and basically upgrade that totem into a better minion.
Another benefit from the Barnes/Madam Goya package is that Healing Wave becomes extra powerful when your minion costs are 4/5/5/5/6/6/6/7/8/10. You have a really high chance of winning most of your clashes and that extra 7 health goes a long way against any of the current aggro decks.
Another thing I like about this package is streamlining your minions. All of your minions are super powerful and used precisely for Barnes/Madam Goya so it frees up a lot of minion slots where you’d have things like Mana Tide Totem or Flametongue Totem and can instead put all of the fun control shaman spells like Devolve, Ancestral Spirit and Healing Wave without having to cut other cards. This build gives you a lot of freedom to mess around with different spell combinations to find what works best for you.
Lastly, Far Sight. This deck really knows how to abuse Far Sight by either getting into Madam Goya with it or even into one of the bigger minions. The first time I got Ragnaros the Firelord off of a Turn 3 Far Sight for 5 mana, I thought it was kind of stupid but once you play a Ragnaros the firelord on Turn 5 you kind of see how powerful it can be. Don’t sleep on Far Sight, that card is a lot of fun already in control shaman and in this build it gets pretty crazy. 2 mana White Eyes and 6 mana Ysera are also quite dangerous.
Madam Goya Skin
For those that haven’t checked out my full control shaman article, I would advise you to go find it and check it out before you go over this section but even if you don’t want to, you should be able to get the general idea of this “theme”. Basically in my guide I went over the “bones” of control shaman, spells such as Lightning Bolt, maelstrom portal, Lightning storm, Earth Elemental, etc. which are used in pretty much every control shaman build. One correction I do want to make, for this build you’ll have to take out Mana tide totem since it kind of messes with the high mana cost minion abusiveness. It’s still not bad to get out with Barnes but I would advise taking it out and focusing on the really powerful minions.
+1 Madam Goya: The queen herself. I’ll admit I had to craft a Madam Goya just to try this build out and I was not disappointed. She seems expensive to use normally and most decks have overlooked this card but I’m not ashamed to admit that she works REALLY well in shaman. With the ability to target your hero power totems, she’s almost always usable unlike in other decks where if your minions get controlled you’re forced to drop something small just so you can Madam Goya it into your deck. Worst case scenario, you’re playing her on Turn 8 after you hero power and then target your totem, and even then she is still pretty effective since you’ll get a 4/3 as well as something big. She is definitely a better Barnes that works REALLY well with control shaman’s big taunt minions.
+1 Barnes: If Madam Goya is the queen, then Barnes is the king. This guy is used in a ton of decks because of his ability to abuse triggers such as Ragnaros the Firelord, Ysera and most importantly Y’shaarj, rage unbound. Although he doesn’t work with EVERY minion in this deck like Madam Goya does, since he makes Earth Elementals into 1/1 Taunts, he’s still really powerful and for 4 mana, worst case scenario you’re getting a 3/4 and a 1/1. Like I mentioned earlier, he also works really well with Ancestral Spirit. Say on Turn 6 you play Barnes and get White Eyes. It’s only a 1/1 Taunt and sure you’ll get the Deathrattle ability, but why not put Ancestral Spirit on it that way it’ll die, give you the 10/10 Taunt into your deck, then return as a 5/5 Taunt which will give you ANOTHER 10/10 Taunt. Watch out for Polymorph type effects like Hex or cards like Entomb but if you can play around them, like against Druid which has no real way of getting around Ancestral Spirit, you can definitely abuse Ancestral spirit.
+1 White Eyes: One of my favorite control shaman cards, I recommend this anyways in control shaman decks but in Barnes/Madam Goya this card can be abused so much and you end up getting tons of 10/10 Taunts into your deck. It’s good enough to get it into play and just get it killed to trigger the Deathrattle but combine it with Ancestral Spirit and you’ll have so many 10/10 Taunts to deal with, your opponent is going to run into an impenetrable wall.
+1 Ragnaros the Firelord: A classic card to abuse with Barnes for the 8 damage trigger but also not bad to get off of madam Goya. Not much to say other than it’s a free 8 damage the turn you get him out and the longer you can keep him alive, the more he’ll destroy your opponent. Great target for Ancestral Spirit if you don’t think they are running Polymorph/Hex effects since if they try to Silence him somehow, he turns into a 8/8 beatstick.
+1 Ysera: 2nd best target for Madam Goya or Barnes to hit. Barnes basically gives you a free Dream card and madam Goya gives you a hard to kill 4/12 and a Dream card. ysera just gives you amazing card advantage with the free cards you can get and the longer you can keep her alive, the more cards you receive and the more control you have over the match.
+1 Y’shaarj, rage unbound: My FAVORITE barnes target. Basically if you can get Y’shaarj, rage unbound off of Barnes or Madam Goya there’s a good chance you’re going to get the upper hand unless your opponent has a board removal such as Twisting Nether. His ability trigger is so nasty and as long as you can get one of the major minions in your deck, either Ysera, Ragnaros the firelord, Earth elemental or White eyes, you’re in control. Your number of minions is very limited so it’s actually pretty easy to get him to Barnes into him, and then trigger into himself, giving you a 10/10 that is dropping free dudes every turn. Even just a 1/1 from Barnes has been able to flip over Earth Elemental which ended up keeping him alive for another turn and got me White eyes, which died and then shuffled a 10/10 Taunt which got pulled into play the next turn. He is a game winner in a Barnes deck, craft him if you must.
Conclusion
Well that’s all I had for this update! I just wanted to throw out something really quick to give you guys more ideas for your control shaman decks if you’re messing around with deckbuilding one of them right now. If you read my other article, you’ll see I’m a big fan of Jade Control but this new skin totally changed my mind. I loved playing with Barnes and Y’shaarj, rage unbound back when Karazhan first came out in a Hunter combo deck and I’ve enjoyed playing with him again in this new deck.
I am fully moved into my new house now so I will be streaming again this week! Catch me on Twitter @HS_Fireflyer for when I update my schedule or if you want to see my funny Arena screenshots and follow my streaming on Twitch at Twitch.tv/ItsFireflyer for a lot of Arena madness.
Leave me some comments below, let me know if you’ve messed around with any madam goya decks and tell me if this deck works out for you! Also catch my other article today, “Fireflyer’s Best of Reddit Clips Vol. 4” which has a ton of Youtube clips from Reddit with commentary about what’s going on. A great article for a quick laugh. 🙂
I will see you all soon and thanks for reading!
