Let’s Build Control Shaman!

Hey everybody! It’s been awhile but I’m back in action and ready to help you shake off the current meta. With the upcoming nerfs to Pirates, a lot of players are looking for new decks to play and that’s why I wanted to present to you my guide on building a Control Shaman deck! We’ll go over the basic structure of Control Shaman with 20 cards that make up the “bones” of the deck, then we’ll add one of the many “skins” to make your Control Shaman unique which adds about 5-10 more cards, and then we’ll finish it off by adding some “accessories” in the form of legendaries or budget replacements to finish the deck off. Let’s not waste any time and get right into it!

What is Control Shaman?

Control Shaman is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Unlike Aggro Shaman where you’re trying to tempo out with Totem Golem and Tunnel Trogg, Control Shaman takes a much slower pace but has a lot of answers to the current meta. Stacking your deck with multiple board wipe spells such as Lightning Storm and Elemental Destruction is great for the current meta since it fights off Pirates really well and the big taunt minions like Earth Elemental and White Eyes help as well. This deck also lacks any of the weapons that Aggro Shaman is used to playing such as Spirit Claws and Jade Claws which is also nice because you’re no longer countered by things such as Acidic Swamp Ooze.

You will spend a lot of turns just dropping totems and waiting for the right moments to wipe the field, so be patient with this deck and let it curve out into its late game where it can dominate with some big minions. The main benefit of this deck is that you will have answers! Earth Shock and Hex do a great job of crushing Miracle Rogue while hallazeal the ascended[card] and [card]healing wave can keep you alive through Freeze Mage or Pirate Aggro.

The downside to the deck is that when it’s Control vs Control, it’s a tough matchup. But hey, at least it’s something different to play other than just Pirates, Dragon Priest or Reno Warlock/Mage, right?! So let’s get to it.

Step 1: The Bones

This is the basic structure of most Control Shaman decks, 20 cards that make up the “bones”. Let’s take a look at them.

1 Earth Shock: This was a new one for me when testing this deck out and I love this addition. The best targets for this card is in Miracle Rogue with either Edwin VanCleef or Questing Adventurer but there are so many situations when a silence is just great to have. I’ve thought about adding another and increasing it to two in the deck but I think one is actually enough since we have plenty of other answers such as Hex. Test this card out yourself and if you find that the silence is really handy, add an extra one in and maybe swap it out for a Lava Shock.

2 Lightning Bolt: This is a no brainer. Great in the early game for removal of things like Tunnel Trogg and Northshire Cleric but also great in the late game as a finisher or to help with removal when you’re using a board wipe. MUST have since it’s one of the best cheap and effective removal spells in the game.

2 Lava Shock: I mentioned in the Earth Shock section above that you can maybe drop this down to one if you really want to and that’s because it’s very situational. The two damage you deal isn’t TOO substantial, even though it’s good against Small-Time Buccaneer, and you’ll usually end up using this just to avoid Overload from Elemental Destruction and Earth Elemental. Avoiding the Overload is nice but it’s not actually too necessary, except for maybe Elemental Destruction which is a LOT. I just happen to run into a lot of situations where I’m fine with the Overload and this card is just a weak 2 damage spell, basically an Arcane Shot that costs more. I still think it fits in the “bones” of Control Shaman since it is nice to have one to skip a turn of Overload if you want to use a lot of them at once but if you’re looking to make some space, consider taking one out if this card doesn’t work for you.

2 Maelstrom Portal: First in the long, ok maybe short, list of board wipe spells. If you play Aggro Shaman you’re probably already used to Maelstrom Portal. This card is GREAT to use against Pirates and even against decks like Jade Golems or Dragons, when combined with Lightning Storm and some Spell Damage, you get a nice board wipe with an extra minion left over. Unlike Aggro Shaman though, the main bones of Control Shaman doesn’t run Bloodmage Thalnos or Azure Drake so the spell damage will be hard to come by unless you get lucky with your totems. If you feel like you need the spell damage, consider finding a place for those cards, but I’ll mention that in the Accessories section below.

2 Elemental Destruction: Next in the board wipe list, the biggest board wipe with the biggest downside. You will heavily rely on Lava Shock in order to avoid the Overload which will almost always leave you with a turn where you do nothing. I love combining this with Hallazeal the Ascended so you get a Reno Jackson-type heal effect which can heal you for over 20+ health and really bring you back into the game.

2 Hex: One of the best control spells in the game. I love Polymorph-type effects so much that I wrote a whole article about it. With decks like Miracle Rogue (Edwin VanCleef and Questing Adventurer) and Jade Golems (Aya Blackpaw) there are just lots of good targets for Hex to hit. The key thing to remember is to save them for the most important minions, if you’re just worried about a 7/7 or an 8/8 Jade Golem, let your board wipe spells handle them and hold on to your Hex for as long as you can.

2 Far Sight: This was another new card for me to mess around with and I actually like it a lot! It gives you something to do during Turns 1-4 where you’re usually just dropping totems and maybe killing one minion with a good ability, while waiting for your opponent to build up a field so you can board wipe them. It can draw you into one of your legendaries or just cheapen the cost of a board wipe so you can combo them together easily. I’m definitely a huge fan of this card.

2 Lightning Storm: The last of the three board wipe spells. Not much to say that I haven’t said already about board wipes. Let your opponent build up their field, and combine your board wipe spells along with spell damage to hit the perfect number and clear your opponent’s minions. Watch out for the Overload but I wouldn’t waste a Lava Shock on this, save it for the really annoying Overloads like elemental destruction or Earth elemental.

1 Mana Tide Totem: One of my favorite card draw cards that loses a little bit of flexibility in Control Shaman which is why I would only ever run one of them. In Aggro Shaman you have Flametongue Totem and Thunder bluff valiant which can give this guy damage and make better use of him than just an Arcane Intellect that your opponent can attack into since it has 0 attack. In Control Shaman you’re not going to be pumping this guy up so at best, it’s just going to draw you a few cards while you control the field and hopefully won’t die to a spell. I highly recommend not to add another one into the deck, one is enough.

2 Earth Elemental: This is another card that is new to me in Control Shaman. Basically a giant wall that protects you from aggro. At first I was worried about things like hex or siphon soul but it turns out this guy survives a lot of things and does a good job of staying in play. There are definitely moments where a Sap makes me want to kill myself but a majority of the time he comes out and gives your opponent a big threat.

2 Thing from Below: Love this card. Love using it in Aggro Shaman and I love it more in Control Shaman. I like to use the early turns to drop lots of totems and cheapen this cost to around 0-2 mana which allows you to cast it after you’ve board wiped with things like Elemental Destruction or Lightning Storm. Very effective Taunt minion, good amount of Health to survive most things like Flamestrike, and even has a decent attack to put a hurt on your opponent or to attack their minions. All around powerful card.

Step 2: Pick your Skin

Now that we have the main bones of the Control Shaman built, we need to pick what kind of extra flavor our version is going to be. For this, there are 4 main builds that I’ve seen: Barnes, Half Jade, Full Jade, and my own personal creation, Yogg-Saron.

Barnes Skin

This was the version that I found on Tempostorm’s website under their Control Shaman build. It uses Barnes along with some powerful legendary minions in order to get some interesting synergy going. This is very legendary-heavy so if you’re a free to play player or if you’re missing some of these, I would move along to one of the more budget skins like the Jade skins. However if you’re a fan of Barnes and like using him to combo with some big legendary minions, here’s the ones Tempostorm recommends along with some recommendations of my own.

Barnes: This is the main focus of this skin, using Barnes to cheat out some nasty legendaries that can give you a big advantage right away. Not much to say about him, except that I like to mulligan aggressively for him and use my coin on him when I can to get him out as soon as possible. He helps with early game aggro and if you’re lucky to get one of the good minions, you’re set.

Al’Akir the windlord: This one isn’t one of the best to get with Barnes but it does give you a 1/1 Divine Shield, Taunt, Charge, Windfury. This gives you a tiny wall to protect yourself with while you control the game.

Ysera: One of the good ones to Barnes into. You’ll get a 1/1 that probably dies next turn but at least you’ll get a free Ysera Dream card off of it which makes it worth it.

Y’Shaarj, rage unbound: One of the best ones to get with Barnes. This will fetch another minion from your deck at the end of the turn and since almost all the minions in the deck are super powerful, you’re guaranteed to get something nasty. I love comboing this card with barnes but it’s very luck-based since if you don’t Barnes into him, you’re stuck drawing into him and having a 10-cost minion in your hand.

White Eyes: I recommend this legendary for any Control Shaman deck anyways but it also combos well with Barnes since you get a 1/1 Taunt that puts a 10/10 Taunt into your deck.

Emperor Thaurissan: Another legendary that I would recommend putting in whether you choose to go Barnes or not, but with Barnes you can combo into him early and start reducing the cost of your control spells which can give you a powerful advantage in a game.

Sylvanas Windrunner: Another great legendary that works well in control already but does an even better job when combo’d with barnes.

This skin puts about 4-6 cards into your deck which leaves you with 4-6 spots left for extra legendaries or other stuff.

Half Jade Skin

The Half Jade skin is the most common one being run right now as it adds the power of the Jade Golems without going too far into it. It adds the most essential pieces that give you the best control aspect such as the weapon and the spell and leaves out the minions like jade Spirit and Jade chieftain.

2 Jade Lightning: Great removal spell that can also deal damage to the face if you’re trying to finish the game, basically a stronger Lightning Bolt that also gives you a minion.

2 Jade Claws: Free minion and also a weapon that can be used to remove your opponent’s early game minions. I personally don’t like running weapons because there are a lot of weapon counters going around right now like Acidic Swamp Ooze but even if you just cast it and use it to remove something like a Small-Time Buccaneer you’ve basically already got its worth and it can be destroyed without feeling like you lost anything.

Aya Blackpaw: One of the best legendaries right now. Gives you a Jade Golem and if you get board wiped, it leaves you a Jade Golem. In my opinion it’s a great control card since you get two minions for the price of one, and even if it’s killed by a spell or something it leaves you another minion to threaten with. Love this card, just be careful for Hex.

The benefit of the Half Jade skin over the Full Jade skin is that it leaves you with 5 cards for more legendaries or other accessories to add. Sure you don’t get the full benefit of GIANT Jade Golems but you make them big enough to control the game and leave extra spots to focus on better cards. BUT, if you’re a fan of Jade Golems or just don’t have the dust for all the legendaries that I recommend, there’s always…..

Full Jade Skin

The Full Jade skin is just what you think it is, it has all of the Jade Golem pieces. This is probably the cheapest skin you can add that has the biggest punch since right now Jade Golems are making a huge comeback with the Pirate nerfs. I guarantee this deck will become at least twice as strong once the Pirates take the nerf hit, but even now it’s hard to fight against a deck that can make 8/8s with Taunt.

2 Jade Lightning, 2 Jade Claws, Aya Blackpaw: These are the 5 cards in the Half Jade package, read above if you need any advice about them.

2 Jade Spirit: A decent minion that gives you a Jade Golem. Not much to say except that sometimes it’s smart to save these guys for when you have Brann Bronzebeard cause you can play them at the same time for pretty cheap. I usually go ahead and cast one by itself but if I draw into another I wait for Brann. Not much else to say about it except that it’s pretty much only in here because it will give you bigger Jade Golems.

2 Jade Chieftain: I actually like this card in Jade Golem because it’s the reverse of the Druid’s version, it gives you Taunting Golems. This is extra nice because of Brann Bronzebeard. If you can combo them together you’ll get two big Taunt minions, and if your opponent has no other way of dealing with your Brann bronzebeard except by attacking, you’ll have a nice wall to protect him while he keeps giving you more Jade Golems.

Brann Bronzebeard: The king of Jade Golems, especially in Jade Golem Shaman. He works with ALL Battlecry effects which means yes, he works with Jade Claws. If you can keep him alive in Jade Golem Shaman he will give you so many Jade Golems it’s not even funny. Combine him with Jade Chieftain and you’ve got double huge Taunt golems. He’s nuts. If you enjoy Jade Golems then you’ll definitely enjoy Brann Bronzebeard in the deck. Make sure you don’t cast him without also casting a Jade Golem minion in the same turn.

The main issue with the Full Jade skin is that you don’t have ANY extra room. After you add all the main Jade pieces you’re at 30 cards. You could possibly drop the Lava Shock I mentioned earlier and maybe something like Far Sight if you REALLY want to make room, but it’s difficult since those cards are all so useful to have. It’s tempting to go Full Jade especially if you like Jade Golems but if you want the deck to be competitive more than for fun, I would recommend the Half Jade. You won’t get the huge Jade Golems that make the Jade Golem decks so fun but you’ll be much more effective with your control when you focus on the control aspect of the deck more than the Jade Golem synergy.

Yogg Skin

The skins mentioned above are all being used in the current Control Shaman decks but during my playtesting of Control Shaman I saw the potential to add one of my favorite cards into the deck, Yogg-saron, hope’s end. The main reason for me wanting to add this in was because I was playtesting Devolve and Ancestral Spirit and I found that most of the deck was composed of spells. This deck is definitely not as effective as the Jade packages or Barnes synergy so play it only if you’re into Yogg-saron, hope’s end and want to have a little Yogg fun at the end of this month.

Yogg-Saron, hope’s end: This is basically the only card “necessary” for this skin. In the bones of Control Shaman, we’re running 16 spells of the 20 cards which means we have a ton of fuel for Yogg already. Control the game, build up to him, and then cast him and pray Yogg does some work.

I add a few more spells, Devolve and Ancestral Spirit but we don’t need to have a deck completely of spells just for Yogg. The best thing about this skin is that it leaves the most room for customization with the accessories. The other builds above are heavily focused on adding some important legendaries like White Eyes and Emperor Thaurissan so the Yogg skin gives you more flexibility by letting you add those legendaries and also having room for stuff like Healing Wave or Devolve which are hard to squeeze into Barnes or Jade skins.

Step 3: Legendary Accessories

Now that we’ve developed the bones and you’ve picked your skin, we have a few slots left for some important power cards. Although there are cards like Feral Spirit or Devolve that fit well into Control Shaman, these legendaries are your best strength-per-card to run if you own them already or have the dust to craft them. I would recommend trying to add these into your deck first before you look at the next section.

White Eyes: Probably the best Control Shaman card, in my opinion. It’s an effective 5/5 Taunt for 5 mana that gives you a 10/10 Taunt for 5 mana. After playing with Earth Elemental a bit, I found out just how strong big Taunt minions are in the current meta and I love it. I’m currently running the Yogg skin with Ancestral Spirit so I can get multiple effects off of this guy. He’s a lot of fun and really strong.

Emperor Thaurissan: A strong 5/5 that cheapens the cost of stuff in your hand. This helps with the Overload and is also useful if you’re running Malygos in the deck, since you can drop him along with a Lightning Storm with just one Thaurissan effect. Even if you just drop him into play for one turn, the single cheapen effect and your opponent either wasting a minion or a spell to kill him makes him completely worth it. Powerful solo card.

Hallazeal the Ascended: A strong card that fits specifically into Control Shaman really well with all the spells you have. I LOVE comboing him with Elemental Destruction or even just Lightning Storm since you heal for like a Reno Jackson amount of HP. A freeze mage used a Fireball on me to put me to 12 health, I used my hero power, dropped Hallazeal the ascended and hit just my own field of 4 minions with an Elemental Destruction to heal back to full health. Fun card for this deck.

Harrison Jones: A great card for the current meta. Super effective against pirates since it destroys a weapon and lets you draw cards. It sucks against control but even in worst case scenario, he’s still a strong 5/4 minion that can kill something or start dealing damage. Mainly just great because of the current meta though, he will win you games against weapons.

Sylvanas Windrunner: Not a super essential card for Control Shaman but still just a powerful card by herself. Just like Emperor Thaurissan, even just coming into play and killing something, then stealing something after is worth playing this card. I wouldn’t recommend it for most Control Shaman builds but if you’re running Barnes then her value skyrockets.

Malygos: This is the card that I took out for Yogg-saron, hope’s end when I was altering Control Shaman around. It’s very effective when you can use it with Emperor Thaurissan ticks and some cheap spells but I just couldn’t get it to work that well. But that’s mostly because I’m not used to Malygos since I didn’t play much Malygos Druid or Rogue back when it was popular. If you’re a fan of this card I would recommend putting it in, there are a lot of spells in the deck and you can easily burn someone to death with him.

Step 4: Budget Accessories

Some of these cards are good replacements for legendaries if you don’t have them or can’t afford them, and some of these cards are just good filler as extra ways to battle the current meta. Try to fit the legendaries first if you can since they are much stronger solo cards and then fill the gaps with some of these useful non-legendaries.

Azure Drake: Decent spell damage and a free draw. If you’re REALLY low on legendaries, this is an okay replacement for White Eyes or Hallazeal the ascended since it takes the same mana cost slot. All around effective card that doesn’t have much weakness, except that it’s being moved out of standard soon so play it while you can!

Acidic Swamp Ooze: Cheap replacement for Harrison Jones if you feel like you’re facing way too many weapons in the current meta. Most players, around 60% of them or so, are running Pirates so you’re more than likely going to be seeing weapons in your matches. If you feel like weapons are the cause of your losses, throw some of these in, even if you have Harrison Jones.

Healing Wave: I saw a lot of Control Shaman decks running this right now and I ended up taking them out to fit in devolve so I don’t know how effective they are but I can assume that they do well against all the aggro decks. If you’re having trouble dying really early in the game, throw these in. With all the high cost legendaries and lack of low cost minions, you have a good chance of getting a huge heal off of it.

Jinyu Waterspeaker: Awesome heal effect with a minion attached to it. Also the minion has a lot of health so it sticks around and takes care of other small minions. I’m running one in my deck right now and he does a good job since I don’t have the Healing Waves in the deck.

Feral Spirit: I haven’t seen this in any Control builds but it works real well in Aggro Shaman as a way of preventing other aggro decks so I think it would fit nicely if you’re a fan of this card.

Devolve: The main reason I wanted to playtest Control Shaman was to try out this card and I have to say, it’s pretty great. It works great against Conceal + Gadgetzan Auctioneer, works great against Aggro, even works great against Dragon Priest by turning their cheap 2/3 and 2/4 Taunts into useless 1 mana minions. I personally love this card right now and feel like it works really well EXCEPT against Jade Golems. You will have a rough time with them.

Ancestral Spirit: This card is actually used quite common in Control Shaman with White Eyes and Earth Elemental in order to create some big anti-Aggro walls. I’ve been using it and it works about half the time. Sometimes you’ll create a giant wall that they can’t overcome and you win, other times it will get Hex‘d and you just end up wasting cards. It’s risky but the payoff is great when it works, especially double Ancestral Spirit on White Eyes.

Conclusion!

That’s all I’ve got for Control Shaman! Hope you enjoyed the guide and basic outline to a Control Shaman build.

I will be returning back to my regular scheduled “Reddit Clips” video this week so look out for that in two days. I will also be moving into my new home in about 2 weeks so when that happens I’ll be back on Twitch streaming Arenas so come visit and hang out! You can follow me on Twitter @HS_Fireflyer to keep up with when I’ll be coming back to streaming and if you want, you can follow me on Twitch at Twitch.tv/ItsFireflyer for when I return.

Let me know in the comments below if I missed any good Control Shaman cards and I will see you next time!

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