I had always kept a eye on Elemental shaman since i was bored of aggro, but the deck can be built dirt cheap and seems to always perform well.
You can build the entire deck off like 27 commons and rares and a Free al’akir. I had tons of builds i could complete for 200-1000 Dust!
I settled to share this one however, as it seemed a solid list that’s cheap for anyone. If you have 2 lurkers and fireheart, feel free to add them!!
1 Epic Ele Shaman
Class: Shaman
Format: Standard
Year of the Gryphon
2x (1) Wailing Vapor
2x (1) Lightning Bolt
2x (1) Kindling Elemental
2x (2) Menacing Nimbus
2x (2) Cagematch Custodian
1x (2) Auctionhouse Gavel
2x (3) Whack-A-Gnoll Hammer
2x (3) Serpentshrine Portal
2x (3) Primal Dungeoneer
1x (3) Marshspawn
2x (3) Gyreworm
2x (3) Arid Stormer
2x (4) Granite Forgeborn
2x (4) Canal Slogger
1x (5) Lilypad Lurker
2x (6) Fire Elemental
1x (8) Al’Akir the Windlord
AAECAaoIBJi5A6/uA9b1A4CgBA3buAOq3gOr3gOM4QPg7APh7AOt7gPj7gPA9gPB9gOMnwT5nwTjoAQA
To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
== HSreplay Winrate data ==
( 68% hsreplay winrate in bronze-gold, which is pretty good actually! Gold wr needs more data, but it has diamond and legend data!
Ele sham leans towards 55-62% gold wr on many lists, so that might be a good approximation!)
== Uber cheap and solid! ==
Since so many cards are common and rares, you can already have most of the deck without even knowing and that can make it uber cheap! Most of the cost comes from only 1-2 epics (The lilypad lurkers) and 2 forgeborn.
Since of dupe protection, you might already have most if not all the cards already.
== It’s counters were nerfed, good sign? ==
The data might be a bit out of date with the quest shaman and quest warlock nerfs. But those matchups were funnily enough, both of Elemental shaman’s worser matchups with 35% vs quest shaman and 45% vs old quest warlock.
With the nerfs, warlock might even be a 50:50 or in your favor now. Nerfed Quest shaman might even be a 40:60 or 50 50 now.
If a deck’s bad matchups got worse, a deck has a good chance to only get better. Plus they can make the deck too! Adapt to survive, right?
== Good matchups, not polarized, good vs other aggro? ==
After trying it seems to have good tempo and feel good. Matches are rarely polarized, it has decent tempo, reach with fire elementals, and it can kill quest mage fine and it seems to have good leans with face hunter.
It might not be guarenteed to be the #1 winrate but when you ban quest shaman from the hsreplay meta list, it actually shows up right up there with Pally and Aggro druid at the top of the list.
== Reasons to try it out.==
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It’s cheap and solid. I was able to find versions i could complete for 200-400 dust. You might not lose much making it, and it’s really solid for a budget deck!
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Quest shaman was it’s only really bad matchup. But now it’s nerfed but they can make the deck cheaply too. Win-win!
- Just like handlock got stronger after SOS lock got nerfed, elemental shaman might be the same.
- It has strong matchups vs aggro, and goes 50 50 with q lock and q mage. It can sometimes overtake q shaman now too!
- You don’t have bad warlock or quest mage matchups. That alone is worth it. Many matchups are 50 50 or in your favor!
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If you actually filter Quest shaman out of Hsreplay’s gold wr charts. Elemental shaman actually shows up on top with Aggro taunt druid, pally, and itself for gold laddering.
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Those decks are 5-10k dust, ele shaman can be 1k-2k dust or less.
- The miniset is going to like be out in a month, do you really want to spend like 5-10k dust on a deck that might only have a half life?
== Summary ==
All in all, elemental shaman looks like a solid budget deck with a good spread. We don’t know how the meta will settle yet, but it’s counters [Q sham, Q lock] got weaker and it got no hits.
Matchup data shows quest shaman was it’s own worst matchup at 35% winrate pre nerf, now it might be like 40-45% winrate. Q lock also got less hp, but was already 45% winrate.
Now ele shaman can also hex or push lethal, maybe making it better. It can also Kill quest mage too before quest, which is a plus! Everything seems solid and it’s dirt cheap.
When life gives you lemons, adapt with the nerf dust, right? Anyone who needs a new cheap deck can make it too!
== Other cheap ways to find decks you may already have! ==
You can also craft around your collection by looking at what you can complete for cheap, sorted by winrate.
Here’s a link to sort decks by winrate and cost, Just type in your budget and see what you can get! https://hsreplay.net/decks/?#sortBy=winrate&maxDustCost=4000
Feel free to share whatever you want on some good, solid or post nerf decks you found good or your experience trying it. How are you guys finding the post nerf meta?
Getting nerfed was a bit of a hit, but the deck seems solid and i got 2k-3k dust back and made ele shaman for 600 dust. So i guess im ahead.
(Edit: Did some minor tests in legend, so far won 4 out of 6. It’s still day 1 but it seems to have solid teeth. So far 1 loss were a quest shaman who had 9 hp left before getting a brukan guidance into charged calls, but it also beat the other Quest shaman who just died before getting there.
Here’s just a example Ele shaman vs Quest shaman matchup in casual legend where i got turn 7 lethal against the q shaman despite 2 flames and two cloned Guidances being beat with ele shaman postnerf.
https://hsreplay.net/replay/6mMStbjDjdiaUh34epi3pV
I tried to go after 4-5 hp minions and counting his overloaded mana to build sticky health totals whenever he overloaded, and do the stuff that screwed me over when i played the deck.
Seemed to work. Despite his hand he died on turn 7 and never lived to brukan. Other sham cleared me though. )