Burn/Miracle Shaman

Last updated 4 years, 9 months ago by
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I've been having a lot of success with this deck on ladder lately, took it from rank 15 all the way to legend. It really punishes slow decks without decent plays in the early turns. It plays similarly to miracle rogue in that it comboes cheap spells to cycle through the deck and deliver ridiculous amounts of burst damage to face. However, unlike Miracle rogue this deck is somewhat less feast or famine in terms of proactive plays. Sometimes your cards won't come together, sure, but unlike say Preparation, most cards here still do something even if you can't get full value from them. The idea is to get in as much chip damage early on  while controlling the board with efficient minions and synergy, and then to send everything to face.

For mulligans, always toss Rockbiter Weapon, Lava Burst, Doomhammer and Electra Stormsurge. Priority keeps are Southsea Deckhand, Sludge Slurper, Menacing Nimbus, Likkim, Spirit of the Frog and Thunderhead. If you expect to be facing Zoo, Murlocs or Token druid, early minions are essential, but you won't win without sticking a Thunderhead either. You'll just bleed out killing off individual minions while your opponent pummels you. Zap! is that much more important in these matchups because you need to land thunderhead on 4 alongside overloading for tokens. Against token druid keep clearing the board until you can actually kill them. Oftentimes to win you'll have to use Doomhammer on treants for a number of turns before hitting face with it.

On turn 1 it's often better to hang on to Sludge Slurper and certainly Voltaic Burst, so that leaves Southsea Deckhand as the only one drop you want to play on that turn. The reason for this is that being overloaded on turn 2 is abysmal, especially if you have a Likkim in hand. Menacing Nimbus on 2 is usually your strongest play. At the moment there aren't  lot of decks that reliably curve out with minions on the board other than zoo, so even this weakish start is usually enough to get ahead on board. However, if your opponent builds up a lead, the way you can still win (if at all) usually involves a swing turn with Thunderhead and/or Spirit of the Frog and a bunch of spells. If you waste your Zap!s and Voltaic Bursts to stem the bleeding before you set up that big turn you will just overload yourself and die anyway, so try to play to win rather than playing to avoid a loss in these situations.

With only 0-3 cost spells you can reliably use Spirit of the Frog to fish for your finishers, Rockbiter Weapon and Lava Burst. Try to conserve your spells for a frog turn to make sure you don't run out of gas. The coin is especially valuable because it can chain into three other spells with Spirit of the Frog. Likewise, Zap! is surprisingly essential to this deck by jump-starting the frog chain for free as well as procing overload for your Thunderhead. Try to set up a power turn on turn 4-6 with both a Spirit of the Frog and a Thunderhead in play and go nuts. Ideally you will clear the enemy board while setting up your own and filling your hand with your burst damage. Furthermore this will thin out your deck leaving only weapons and minions.

The reason I choose to run Menacing Nimbus over, say, Knife Juggler is that you need proactive plays to win certain matchups, mainly Warrior, but if you commit your more valuable cards like Thunderhead or Spirit of the Frog to an empty board you can just lose on the spot to Dyn-o-matic, Warpath or Militia Commander. The Menacing Nimbus represents an expendable threat that generates more expendable threats, not to mention being an excellent target for Earthen Might for even more fuel. Random elementals are surprisingly decent right now; most of them at least have good stats but there's also Electra Stormsurge, Thunderhead, Walking Fountain, Mountain Giant and even Al'Akir the Windlord, all of which can outright win you the game. Forcing out removal with janky trash cards like Quartz Elemental, Lightspawn and Soldier of Fortune feels good, as does beating your opponents with these cards.

 

Regarding weapon removal, you'd think it'd be crazy to run Doomhammer in the current meta, but I hardly ever get destroyed by Acidic Swamp Ooze or Harrison Jones with this deck. Firstly since no one is playing this, opponents don't know what to expect and often just drop their tech cards on curve rather than saving them. Secondly, since the deck also runs Likkim, you will often draw out their removal well before you play your Doomhammer.

If you suspect your opponent is holding back removal, especially if the game goes a bit longish, wait for a nine mana turn and get in maximum value with Doomhammer + double Rockbiter Weapon. Even if they destroy it afterwards it has done its job.

In a similar vein, if you've reached the point where you have more burst in hand than mana, it's usually best to get in attack damage before direct damage because of the risk of taunts, and especially Zilliax.

If you lose the board it is still possible to beat decks, especially slower ones like warrior, by aggressively going face. If you add it all up there's 50 damage worth of weapon attacks, 12 rockbiter damage, and 16 in direct burn, not to mention electra and possible spell totems.

 

 

Useful break points to remember: 

Doomhammer + Rockbiter Weapon + Rockbiter Weapon/Electra Stormsurge = 16 Damage

2* Lava BurstElectra Stormsurge = 15 Damage

Nothing beats killing some unsuspecting smug netdecker from hand. Nobody seems to be playing anything like this deck which means no one is playing around 16+ burst damage either. I've won a surprising number of games I should by rights have lost simply because my opponent underestimated my burst potential and left up some 1/1 token.

 

 

Edit 18/05: Replaced Unbound Elemental with Earth Shock. It's often a dead card, sure, but there are games that become unwinnable without a silence (mech paladin comes to mind) and it's often the only way to close out the game through a big taunt minion. It's also a spell so at least you can cycle for/with it.

Edit 13/12: -2 Southsea Deckhand, -2 Dire Wolf Alpha, -1 Earth Shock. +2 Surging Tempest, +2 Storm's Wrath, +1 Vessina

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Comments

  • Erodos's Avatar
    Crossroads Historian 945 1019 Posts Joined 05/29/2019
    Posted 4 years, 2 months ago

    What would you replace Vessina with? Bloodlust? Also, is Sludge Slurper still worth it after the nerf?

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    • AliRadicali's Avatar
      465 713 Posts Joined 06/06/2019
      Posted 4 years, 2 months ago

      Vessina isn't essential to the deck, I played it without her for ages. She definitely makes the deck a bit better, but you can add a dire wolf alpha and still feel fine about life. Bloodlust is great when you happen to have a full board, but this isn't really a dedicated token deck, so it'll often be a dead card.

      Sludge slurper definitely got a bit worse, but the card does a lot of small things that this deck likes: it's a way to get overloaded for Likkim/thunderhead/vessina and it's a cheap minion that generates stuff, which matters a lot in the first few turns if you don't draw a curve. You can consider Sandstorm Elemental as an alternate cheap overload minion.

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  • Oshaleon's Avatar
    Bulbasaur 45 1 Posts Joined 07/28/2019
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago

    I had a blast playing this deck, really. 

    I started playing miracle rogue since the great tournament (with a peak at Journey to Un'goro, whit Sherazin in the deck as my favourite legendary of all times, when i earned the golden portrait for rogue) and then i moved on and tried some other playstyles.

    This deck really reminds me of that good times.

    It takes a while to master this deck, but when you do you have  some really unexpected good result against matchups I thought was just lost from the start.

    Very cool deck .

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  • Ibbinx's Avatar
    35 8 Posts Joined 03/18/2019
    Posted 4 years, 8 months ago

    Interesting take on the list, but here are some thoughts.

    Nimbus is too weak a card. It’s ok for midrange, but this isn’t a midrange deck. I’d swap it out for feral spirit. Let’s you draw more with your 2 mana spells, activate overload, and protect you/your minions so you go face.

    Southsea is fine. It works as a 1 drop into earthen might, but I’ve found Wartbringer to be a more consistent “deal 2” effect. Also doesn’t die on dealing 2 to a minion.

    Electra has stand out moments to win games, but it’s not worth running. It’s usually just a 3 mana burn spell. It requires another card and will often overload you more than you want. Second earth shock to deal with taunts and mechs is much better.

    Dire wolf doesn’t fit this burn plan. It’s meant to snowball board control, but that becomes less important by turn 4-7. You want a better 2 drop that doesn’t require board to be good. One choice is the 2/3 murloc that adds murlocs to your hand whenever you play one. Good for a board flood vs warrior, but not much else. I prefer Spellzerker, a 2 mana 2/3 that has spell damage +2 when damaged. Often will give you 2-4 damage on your spells, and has given me a couple of lethal setups by zapping it myself.

    If you’re wondering why you should listen to me, I’m currently at rank 75 legend by only refining and playing aggro overload shaman. Been doing this for the last 2 seasons. Check the leaderboard if you want proof, my battle tag is the same as my username

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  • Cakeman's Avatar
    85 9 Posts Joined 06/04/2019
    Posted 4 years, 9 months ago

    Well written advice on piloting this deck, and I'm always up for some shaman. Was thinking of crafting Thunderhead anyway.

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