Hey again! It is I, Fuskee, bringing you a fun deck that is actually quite competitive right now, EVOLVE SHAMAN. With the addition of Shaman’s awesome Death Knight, Thrall, Deathseer, Evolve Shaman got the boost it needed to go from a mid-tier deck to top-tier. The decklist below got me from Rank 17 to Rank 10 pretty quickly and I even have a special surprise for you guys, some actual gameplay footage! That’s right, now that I’ve started streaming regularly I have a few hours of footage of me grinding in ranked with this deck so if you’re bored and like watching Twitch streams you can check me out while I go from excitement to rage as the RNG from Evolve drives me crazy. 🙂
Link to my Twitch Videos, look for Evolve Shaman RANKED
First let me explain that the decklist below is a slight alternative to the regular decklists being run in the Hearthstone Championship Tour going on right now. These are the minor changes I made from the decklist I pulled from Tempostorm. And it turns out as I’m writing this, they posted up an even newer version with some weird changes so I’ll just toss those changes below and if you enjoy them, by all means try them out, but my article will cover the deck that I used in my stream.
New Tempostorm Version: +1 Sea Giant, +1 Barnes
Old Tempostorm Version: +1 Saronite Chain Gang, +1 Bloodlust
My Version: +2 Nerubian Prophet
Decklist: Evolve Shaman
Evolvers
This is the basis of the deck, being able to make your minions into random minions that cost 1 more and usually make them much bigger and deadlier than usual. Change 2/2s and 4/4s into crazy 6-mana or 8-mana minions and stomp your opponent with them.
Evolve: This is your bread and butter evolve card. Your best priority is to combo this with Doppelgangster on Turn 6 for 3 6-mana minions. There are some times where it’s okay to drop this on a field of 1 or 2 mana minions but be warned, there is so much area removal right now with Priest’s Dragonfire Potion or Warlock’s Defile/Abyssal Enforcer that I usually don’t like to evolve small minions, just the main Evolve targets like your 5-6 mana minions. It’s up to you to test it out but I personally like to wait for the big drops.
Thrall, Deathseer: The KING of Evolve effects. Not only do you get to double evolve which is great for the 6-drop minions such as Thing from Below and Nerubian Prophet which become insanely powerful 8-mana minions, you also get to change your hero power into an Evolve machine! Eat minions with your big minions and then use your hero power to make them even bigger. He is NECESSARY for your deck so if you don’t have the dust to craft him yet then I advise you either disenchant some stuff you don’t need and get him or start opening some packs because this deck is useless without him. I spent a week farming Arena just to craft this legendary and it was WORTH IT. He makes this deck so much fun.
Evolve Targets
These are the main targets for your evolve effects. They are either minions that create multiple minions so you can evolve a bunch at once or they’re minions that get cheaper so that you can play them cheap and then evolve them into HUGE high cost minions. I like to save my evolve effects for pretty much these guys only but if you’re an aggressive player, sometimes it’s okay to use it early on an army of small minions but these are your best bet for victory.
Doppelgangster: Probably the best target for Evolve since you can combo with it on turn 6 for 3 6-mana minions at once. 6-mana cost is a pretty good spot since there are no minions that actually hurt you like 5-mana costs are (I’m looking at you Bomb Squad and Abomination) so if you can get this combo off you’re usually in a good spot. There are some okay 7-mana minions but it’s not super necessary to combo this with Thrall, deathseer, just focus on Evolve and you’ll be okay.
Nerubian Prophet: My version of the deck runs this guy because he goes GREAT with Thrall, deathseer just like the next card does. If you’re familiar with Forbidden Shaping then you know how strong the 8-mana minions are. The old evolve Shaman deck used to run these but this new version doesn’t run any however I think they still have a good spot in the deck. You might be tempted to keep them in your opening hand but DON’T actually. It’s okay to draw into them later when you have Thrall, Deathseer and wait 1-3 turns so you can combo them together along with some Thing from Belows. Getting a bunch of 8-mana drops can totally flip a game and if you watch my videos you’ll see I do it quite a few times. Getting minions like Tirion Fordring and Ragnaros, Lightlord has saved me so many games it’s crazy. Most people aren’t running these but I love them.
Thing from Below: These are being run in most of the evolve Shaman decks right now and they pretty much do the same thing as Nerubian Prophet. Combo them with Thrall, Deathseer to make some huge 8-mana minions and you’ll pretty much win the game with them. The decks runs a ton of totems but don’t forget to abuse your hero power so you can make these guys super cheap so you can combo around Turn 7 with Thrall for some crazy 8-mana minion fun.
Pirates and Friends
These are your early game minions that fight off Pirates and aggro while also providing you with some free evolve targets that grow into some dangerous 2-3 mana minions. BE WARNED, evolving 1-mana minions can get you Doomsayer so try to avoid them if you can. Don’t be afraid to trade minions since this deck seems aggressive, but it does a great job of filling the board back up.
Fire Fly: Awesome 1-drop that does a good job of killing Pirates and when combined with Flametongue Totem can pretty much take anything. There isn’t much synergy with this guy but he’s just a good early game minion that helps you control the game early. Not an evolve target so don’t be afraid to let them die. If you can keep them around and Bloodlust that’s great but don’t worry about focusing on your small minions.
Bloodsail Corsair: Your basic Pirate that pulls out Patches the Pirate. Also works well in the current meta against all the Rogues going around but the main ability is to just get Patches into play. Be warned, there are A LOT of Golakka Crawlers right now and down below I discuss an alternative decklist where I take out the Pirates and replace them with Crawlers myself. I think I recorded about 50% of my streamed games going up against Golakka Crawler so if you play against a Druid or a Hunter, maybe don’t drop these guys on Turn 1.
Patches the Pirate: Patches. Fun to combo with Flametongue Totem sometimes but other than that, just a good free card basically. It’s Patches.
Aya Blackpaw: Free Jade Golems. Combined with Jade Claws and Jade Lightning you can actually get some pretty big Jade Golems in this deck but I also like to sneak her into play and use her like a Thing from Below/Nerubian Prophet with Thrall, deathseer to get an 8-mana minion. If you can double evolve her, don’t worry about losing her deathrattle, it’s worth it to make her an 8-drop. If you’re just going to evolve once like with Evolve or Thrall, deathseer‘s hero power, I would rather trade and get the extra Jade Golem.
Totems
Here are your handy toolbox of totems that will help reduce the cost of Thing from below. Play them early so you can make him super cheap and drop your hero power when you can.
Flametongue Totem: Awesome early game advantage that can kill high toughness minions like Dirty Rat or Voidwalker with your small cheap minions. You will use this a lot with Fire Fly to own the field early and it soaks up attacks because people are always afraid of it. Sometimes combo-able with Patches the Pirate, remember that Patches will always be the LAST card on the RIGHT side, so if you want to combo him together make sure the totem is in the right place.
Primalfin Totem: Another awesome early card to play since you’ll drop out an army of murlocs to trade or to sometimes win with Bloodlust. I just like it because it will make Thing from below cheaper but people seem to freak out when you play it down and it gets targeted A LOT. That is okay to me, let people target it with Backstab or Shadow Word: Pain because that is it doing its job.
Mana Tide Totem: Best draw mechanic ever. If you can keep this alive, great. If you can’t, that’s fine too. Play it, make Thing from below cheaper, get a free card and see if it lives. Force your opponent to deal with it immediately or you’ll get too many cards from it. Love this totem. <3
Control/Removal
Mostly early game removal spells to deal with the aggro/zoo decks but also some good finishers like Jade Lightning and Bloodlust to surprise your opponent.
Devolve: AWESOME spell! You can use it on stuff like Paladin Murlocs that pump each other up, or against Bonemare targets to make them lose their buffs and become just normal minions. Sometimes it will backfire and give your opponent something good but you just have to go with the flow. Also great against Hunters because they will lose the deathrattle effects from Kindly Grandmother and Savannah Highmane or lose the buffs/adapts from Houndmaster and Crackling Razormaw. Also good against Druid’s Spreading Plague since the 1/5 Taunts are 2-mana (or maybe 3) and they will lose their Taunts and become tiny. It takes a while to get used to Devolve but once you get the hang of it, this card is SO useful.
Jade Claws: Another great early game control card that helps you kill off minions while also working on your Jade Golem army. Don’t be afraid to combine this with your Pirates or Fire Fly to kill things with 3 health. It’s better to keep the board clean and work towards your Evolve combos. Not much to say, except watch out for Bloodsail Corsair but honestly, it doesn’t hurt that much.
Maelstrom Portal: Just a great area damage spell that gives you free minions. BE CAREFUL, you can get Emerald Hive Queen from it and it will mess up your math so if you are planning on playing a minion in the same turn, play it first, then use this. Also great combined with spell damage totem but let’s be honest, you already knew that. 😉
Jade Lightning: Big damage and free Jade Golem. Also works great as a finisher if your opponent is getting low. Pretty straight-forward card.
Bloodlust: I have very mixed feelings about this card. Some people play this deck much more aggressively and like to build up a small army and swing big. I’ll admit, I’ve won a few games doing that, casting Bloodlust on 5-6 minions for +15-18 damage and then finishing them with jade Lightning next turn. But then there are games where you have it and it just doesn’t help AT ALL. Your opponent will know that you are playing Evolve shaman and they will keep your board small so it’s pretty hard to get this to work. BUT, it does work! On stream I won plenty of games with Bloodlust but there are also plenty of games where I complain about it, so I don’t know. I don’t love it but it still won me games so it’s still here.
Alternate Decklist: Midrange Evolve Shaman
The alternate decklist I came up with is focused on taking out the Pirates which are being overwhelmed by all the Golakka Crawlers in decks right now and putting in some tech cards to fight the current meta such as our own Golakka Crawlers.
-2 Bloodsail Corsair +2 Golakka Crawler: Rogue decks are running rampant right now and with the HCT going on, last I checked Rogues were at a 65% win ratio and they all run Pirates. On top of that, Hunters, Shamans and Druids are also running Pirates/Patches. So to battle that meta I threw in Crawlers while also taking out our Pirates so that people who are teching Crawlers won’t be able to use them on us and we can surprise Pirates by using our own Crawlers. In my time testing this deck around 50% of my games were against decks that had Pirates in them but when I went to test out my Crawlers I couldn’t get ANY Crawlers when I fought Pirates. Test-wise, they failed, but I think deep down they are still the tech choice and I’m going to continue to try and use them in this meta.
-1 Patches the Pirate +1 Volcano: Patches was another Pirate that had to come out and instead of going with 2 Bloodlust (which I might take out as well) I threw in Volcano. This card helps against situations where Hunters are starting to overwhelm you or if Rogue starts to tempo out and get their Bonemares in play. I found that a lot of the time Volcano helps reset the board and allows you to Evolve combo with Doppelgangster for a fresh field. On top of that, Volcano is a free win against Hunters running Bittertide Hydra since you can hit it 8 times for 24 damage or more if they decide to increase the Hydra’s health.
I tested this deck out on my stream but I didn’t have much good footage to share. Every time I ran into Pirates I couldn’t get Golakka Crawlers, and when I wasn’t fighting Pirates I would get them and they would be kind of useless. I do have a great game at https://go.twitch.tv/videos/182016189 on the 1:39:00 mark against a Hunter where I totally abuse Volcano and rip apart his Bittertide Hydras but honestly that was probably the only good game. You’re welcome to watch but be warned, there’s a lot of me being frustrated, haha.
Evolve Shaman Deck Code
AAECAfe5AgSTCZG8ApS9AuvPAg2BBOUH8Af6qgL7qgL1rAKgtgKHvALRvAL2vQL5vwKRwQLrwgIA
To use this code, highlight that string of letters/numbers and then right-click and Copy or press Ctrl+C to copy it to your clipboard. Then go to create a new deck and Hearthstone will ask you if you want to create a deck using your clipboard and it will autofill the deck for you!
Conclusion: Top-tier and fun, but RANDOM as hell!
This deck is currently considered in the upper tiers of competitive decks and a lot of people are running it at the Hearthstone Championship Tour going on right now. The problem is, it is very luck-based. If you can combo out your minions and get some big dudes it’s an easy win but sometimes your combos backfire and you’ll end up losing because of your own cards. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a 1-mana cost turn into Doomsayer and ruin everything. But at the same time it definitely has its great moments like this wonderful screenshot I got where my minions turned into 2x Archmage Antonidas, Prophet Velen, Grommash Hellscream and Tirion Fordring! (Doppelgangster, 2x Nerubian Prophets, Thrall, deathseer) Playing this deck is living for those moments and you really have to enjoy those moments when you get them because there will be a lot of frustration when you can’t draw Thrall, or you can’t get a spell damage totem when you need it, or you draw into Patches the Pirate. Fight through the bad luck and enjoy the good luck, you have to ride this deck out!
That’s all I have for you guys today, if you’re curious about mulligans I would suggest checking out my channel and watching a few matches. I try to talk the entire time even though I literally have 0 viewers and I explain most of my thought process as to why I keep/drop cards and what I’m expecting from my opponents. Like I said I went from Rank 17 to Rank 12 pretty quickly and then went stagnant from 12-10 but still had a decently fun time. I get a little frustrated but that happens a bit when it’s just me by myself so come by and keep me company so I can try to keep a smile on my face for you guys!
As always you can follow me on Twitter @whoisfuskee or check out my stream at twitch.tv/whoisfuskee. I’m trying to stream every day now and I’m doing a pretty good job of it so come by and say hello and give me the motivation to keep going and dump more time into this! I try to keep a positive attitude when I play and I always talk to people who want to chat in my channel.
I hope you guys have the cards to make this deck because it’s a lot of fun and drop a comment below of what changes you would make to your own version, or if you have any luck with this deck yourself. Look out on October 19th for my next article which is a “Best of Reddit” series where I highlight clips from popular streamers on Twitch and their funny/awful moments! It’s a fun article to check out with lots of Youtube/Twitch videos to laugh at.
I will see you all soon and GOOD LUCK OUT THERE! 🙂
