Happy New Year Everyone! And welcome back to Pezman's "Let's Play Reno, Lone Ranger in Standard" series! I've already explored Priest, Demon Hunter and Hunter, so today we're turning to Shaman and a Highlander Legendary so good they already nerfed it: Doctor Holli'dae!
Gotta Summon ‘Em All!
Doctor Holli'dae gets props from me right away for being named after that lovable curmudgeonly dentist from the Wyatt Earp story, Doc Holliday (played most memorably by Val Kilmer in Tombstone). Namesake aside, this card's effect is quite powerful: as long as you meet the no-duplicates condition, you get a 1/9 weapon that summons a bigger Frog every time you swing it. Unless your opponent finds a Rustrot Viper, you'll get 45/45 worth of stats spread over 9 Taunt minions, which isn't too shabby. And if the weapon does get viper'd, you've got a couple other equipment options to follow up with.
(1) Used to have 2 attack. --- (2) Turn the Tides? --- (3) The 10 drop, every time.
Here's my current list:
E.T.C., Band Manager's band contians Rustrot Viper, Steamcleaner and Theotar, the Mad Duke.
In this deck, Doctor Holli'dae plays nice with Reno, Lone Ranger, as they both interrupt your opponent's ability to build a board and mash your face with it. Throw in a few other versatile Legendaries, like Golganneth, the Thunderer, Flint Firearm and Yogg-Saron, Unleashed, and you may very well run your opponent out of options.
Discover This, Discover That
Highlander decks love to Discover cards. It's a great way to get extra copies of your high value pieces, as well as just finding answers to various situations.
Lightning Reflexes is a nice, cheap Discover option with a somewhat limited pool (a good thing) and the possibility of repeating its effect.
Amphibious Elixir, School Teacher, and Mechagnome Guide all get you other spells with either healing or a discount thrown in.
Sketchy Stranger gives you access to Secrets, something Shamans don't have, and while Paparazzi can be really hit or miss, you can get something great.
Will It Blend?
Now here's the kicker: I've only played this deck a handful of games, but so far, it's not doing great. I have won a few, and I've definitely had some fun (the whole point, right? right?). I even summoned the 9th Frog for the in-game achievement, which was pretty cool. While the deck has a lot of tools for doing cool stuff, it may not be the most viable list for Standard right now. That said, I'm excited to see what the upcoming mini-set does for it. Not only will you get additional Highlander support from Maruut Stonebinder (maybe enough to pivot the deck toward Elementals?), but Shamans will be joining the Excavate classes, too. I'm not sure if Excavate and Highlander will work too well together, since you'd probably want to run doubles of every Excavate card. Sir Finley, the Intrepid looks pretty sweet, too.
So, have you been running Doctor Holli'dae and Reno, Lone Ranger? Do you have other ideas for how to go Highlander with Shaman? What new cards from the mini-set do you think will help this archetype to thrive? Tell us in the comments below!
Comments
Before the mini-set, the deck was good. It even was one of the few soft counters to Excavate Rogue and could win against Treant Druid and Dude Paladin. It was hard winning against more greeedy decks.
With the new Finley and some Excavate cards to enable it (skip the 4th treasure), it should only get better. But will the meta let it?
Maybe my sample size was too small. How similar was your list to mine? Glad to hear you had more luck with it than I did!