Image: Blizzard via HGG / Jeffrey Hsu
I have loved video games before I even knew what they were. I also love writing (am working on becoming a successful fantasy author), anime, tablet... Read more
Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu
The Shaman class has always been an interesting one in Hearthstone, as its design is centered around having an underwhelming hero power but with access to overpowered cards to compensate. This often leads to decks with strong explosive plays, which can be quite fun. It also means you can get away with some competitive decks that don’t need to be comprised almost entirely of legendary and epic cards. With that in mind, we’ll be going over a couple of the best budget Shaman decks to run in Standard Hearthstone.
Budget Elemental Shaman Deck
Elementals are to Shaman what Demons are to Warlock. Sure, other classes have access to some, and Mage has had some strong Elemental decks in the past, but no one uses them quite like Shaman. This budget Shaman deck makes use of some strong neutral and some potent Shaman-only Elementals to tempo your opponent out of existence.
Deck Code: AAEBAaoIBJTwA9b1A4CgBOOgBA3buAOq3gOr3gOM4QPg7APh7AOt7gOv7gPj7gPA9gPB9gOMnwT5nwQA
Deck List:
- x2 Kindling Elemental
- x2 Lightning Bolt
- x1 Auction House Gavel
- x2 Cagematch Custodian
- x1 Menacing Nimbus
- x2 Arid Stormer
- x2 Gyreworm
- x2 Primordial Dungeoneer
- x2 Serpentshrine Portal
- x2 Whack-A-Gnoll Hammer
- x2 Canal Slogger
- x1 Earth Revenant
- x2 Granite Forgeborn
- x2 Lilypad Lurker
- x2 Fire Elemental
- x1 Al’Akir the Windlord
The first thing to note about this budget Shaman deck is that it runs only one legendary card and two epics, making it quite affordable as far as Hearthstone decks go. Plus, the legendary in question is a core card, so you don’t even have to craft it.
Elementals & Early Game
This is strong tempo deck with lots of cost reduction and card advantage. The deck makes use of the unique mechanic that Elementals have where they often give you benefits if you played another Elemental the turn before (notably, no other tribe in Hearthstone does this). To fully utilize this mechanic, the deck will include plenty of 1 to 3-cost Elementals, ensuring you can always trigger those abilities.
These low-cost Elementals are either highly aggressive, like Wailing Vapor (gain +1 attack each time you play an Elemental), or they have an immediate impact when played, such as Kindling Elemental (Battlecry that reduces the cost of your next Elemental by 1). Combining these Elementals with other cards, such as Lightning Bolt or Auction House Gavel (which can serve either as aggro or early control as needed), gives us a strong start.
Value & Mid-Game
Luckily, while this deck does have a very strong early game, it does not come at the cost of its mid/late game. Decks that get too aggressive can sometimes run out of gas early, but we have a lot of solid value generation to help with that.
Cagematch Custodian draws us a weapon on Battlecry, and both our weapons are quite good. Menacing Nimbus adds a random Elemental to our hand on Battlecry, keeping our Elemental train going.
Then there’s Primordial Dungeoneer. On Battlecry, they draw a spell, and if it is a nature spell, we get to draw an Elemental as well. Since all our spells in this deck are nature spells, it’s a 3-mana draw two cards that triggers our Elemental procs and is a 2/3. This makes Primordial Dungeoneer one of the best cards in our entire deck.
Heavy Hitters & Late Game
Moving on to the higher end of our mana curve, we have some heavy hitters and strong control pieces as well. Both Canal Slogger and Earth Revenant are great tools for slowing down our opponent’s and getting us out of tight spots.
Earth Revenant being a 2/6 taunt that deals 1 damage to all enemy minions can absolutely crush certain decks, but it is a bit situational, which is why this deck only runs one copy. Canal Slogger as a 6/4 with lifesteal and rush is amazing. Sure, it has Overload (1), but that’s a small price to pay for being able to trade with a big threat and heal six in the process. That will turn many losing situations into winning situations right quick.
Then there’s Lilypad Lurker, which just turns an enemy minion into a 0/1 frog with taunt if we played an Elemental last turn. We play Elementals almost every turn, so this is barely a restriction. This ability also gets around Deathrattles and can deal with even the toughest of statlines. We even get a 5/6 out of the bargain, so we start attacking with a heavy hitter of our own.
Finally, we have our biggest heave hitters in Fire Elemental and Al’Akir the Windlord. Fire Elemental gives us a 6/5 body and a Battlecry that deals 4 damage to anything we want. This can either go face to push lethal or deal with a nasty minion.
Al’Akir is in a similar position with Charge and Windfury, so we can either just blitz our opponent for six or deal with enemy minions if needed. These cards really help us close out games and put our deck over the top.
Budget Totem Shaman Deck
Up next, we’re going to go wide and more aggressive with a budget Totem Shaman deck. If you want explosive power, look no further than this deck.
Deck Code: AAECAaoIBLHZBLbcBPSgBcKeBg36tATgtQSywQSG1ASq2QTy3QS95QS27QS88ASVqgXBngbmngbXogYA
Deck List:
- x2 Mistake
- x2 Schooling
- x2 Totemic Evidence
- x2 Tour Guide
- x2 Amalgam of the Deep
- x2 Ancestral Knowledge
- x2 Anchored Totem
- x2 Carving Chisel
- x2 Flametongue Totem
- x1 Grand Totem Eys’or
- x1 Party Favor Totem
- x1 The Stonewright
- x2 Bloodlust
- x2 Famished Fool
- x1 Rogill
- x2 Thing from Below
- x2 Gigantotem
This deck is a bit pricier than our last one, as it runs three legendary cards. However, Grand Totem Eys’or is a core card, which means you get it for free, so you’ll only need to craft two legendaries for this deck.
Thing from Below is also a core (free) card, so a bit more value there. If you want to make the deck even cheaper, you can always swap out the Gigantotem cards for Sea Giant cards. Sea Giant is only slightly worse in this deck, but they are core cards, so you’ll save 800 dust.
Value & Early Game
This budget Shaman deck follows a straightforward strategy: go wide and go face. It’s a simple approach, but it can be devastatingly effective when done correctly. Additionally, this deck holds the potential for some surprise wins, so its simplicity doesn’t necessarily make it predictable.
The totem deck runs some card draw in Ancestral Knowledge and Famished Fool. While both are solid cards, most of the deck’s value is in generating minions directly. Amalgam of the Deep can also give our hand a totem upon being played. This is just the start of the early-game value train.
Totemic Evidence provides us with a basic totem for 1-mana, but it can be upgraded to grant all four basic totems if we trigger Infuse (3). Having three minions die is easily achieved in this deck, making Totemic Evidence extremely valuable.
Carving Chisel can target the opponent’s face and awards us a random basic totem when it attacks. Lastly, Party Favor Totem offers a random basic totem at the end of each of our turns, and this can be upgraded to two random basic totems if we trigger Infuse (2), which (once again) is very easy to accomplish in this deck.
Lethal Totems & Mid-Game
You’ve probably noticed that this deck encourages us to summon a bunch of basic totem, which don’t seem that useful at first. You might think it’s a case of quantity over quality, but we have enough buffs in this deck for it to be both.
Remember when I said this deck can get some surprise wins? Say you have a full board of 0/2 basic totems. Your opponent might leave them alone thinking they’re safe, but one Bloodlust later and that’s 21 damage to face right there.
You can also use Eys’or to buff them over time, and the Stonewright to simply make them into threats. Flametongue Totem boosts the attack of your basic totems as well.
Then we have Rotgill to top it off. Rotgill makes it very punishing for our opponents to kill our totems unless they can eliminate them all at once. If we play six totems and then play Rotgill, every time one of them dies, it buffs all the others.
The best part is that we don’t have to rely on our opponent to trigger this Deathrattle. If we play Rotgill and then attack an enemy with just one totem, we immediately gain an additional five damage to the opponent’s face that turn. If we do this with two totems, that’s eight extra damage to the face on a full board, and this can often lead to a victory right then and there.
Full Aggro (Avoid Late Game)
Remember, we’re playing aggro here. Our deck wins through speed. Most of our minions might not be the strongest, but we’re aiming to overwhelm our opponents with weaklings before they can gather enough mana to play their more powerful ones. With the aforementioned buffs, our weaklings can become an actual threat.
Half of our deck costs 3 mana or less, and our top-end cards can be deceptively inexpensive as well. Both Thing from Below and Gigantotem are practically free to play. In this deck, it’s quite easy to get a Thing from Below out on turn three, and a 5/5 on the board by turn three certainly applies significant pressure.
Although they aren’t totems, both Schooling and Tour Guide serve as unsung heroes in deck. Schooling provides you with three 1/1s that enhance each other, while Tour Guide is a 1/1 for 1 mana that grants us a free basic totem.
Both of these cards assist in flooding the board to take full advantage of the buffs mentioned earlier and let us trigger our Infuse abilities early on. As a result, they empower us to attack our opponents quickly and consistently, which aligns perfectly with the strategy of this deck.
Join the High Ground!
These two budget Shaman decks should serve you well in climbing the Standard ladder in Hearthstone. Let us know how these decks work out for you in the comments below, and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for more gaming content!
May you always top deck!
You must sign in to comment.
Don't have an account? Sign up here!