Everyone’s going on about nerfing Shaman, but can we talk about the buffs needed?
Shaman only has the one viable archetype, there is almost no other alternative aside from the evolve deck that’s currently ravaging standard. That really shouldn’t be the case if the class were working as intended.
We need to move away from thinking of classes as black or white. Yes evolve needs a nerf, however everything else needs heavy buffs to make them work in this meta.
What Shaman cards do you think need a buff? I’d start with the Galakrond package and totem buff package.
Whilst you aren’t wrong, this doesn’t just apply to Shaman. A lot of the time there are many classes that have only 1 or sometimes no viable decks. I think the problem is that certain archetypes only get half supported, so they end up not being that good and so that means classes are often left with a bunch of junk cards.
Oh, and I have been having some success with Control Shaman still I think it is more than a viable strategy, just seems no one has given it much chance yet.
Shaman doesn’t need a buff. The devs need to fix/balance their game. Every braindead player using evolve shaman is ranking up because it’s literally an idiot-proof deck.
I don’t know that it would be worth to buff the Galakrond package since it’s rotating soon. Unless you’re suggesting buffing it to be competitive in Wild, which I hope they don’t do until rotation happens (if they do it at all).
Will be rotating next expansion. Not worth the effort. Rotation will hit evolve in a few places too too so I’m still on the fence about nerfing it.
(and galakrond shaman had their day in the sun when it was first released, before they nerf almost every card involved)
As mentioned by someone else, plenty of classes have to deal with having only one competitive deck type throughout HS’s history. An expansion (maybe even the mini set) may shake up the meta enough that an existing off meta deck type rises up. Off the top of my head here are some current off meta shaman deck types
You may even be able to mix and match two or more of the above into a single deck. Then there are possibility of throwing in neutrals like highlander or the old gods.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a healing buff. All effective healing is late game and usually its too late by then. 8 mana fountain, 8 mana tidal wave, witches brew has echo but it requires more mana to spend and get any healing for it.
Also maybe aoe. Hagathas scheme needs to be in hand from the start of game if you want a good turn 5 clear. tidal wave is 8 mana, earthquake is 7. Lightning storm is good but the overload kills your next turn.
It’s really not strange for a class to have only one viable archetype. Often, several classes don’t have a single viable archetype. I don’t think Shaman is the class to fix first.
It’s a highroll deck with two tutoring cards in its deck to get it going. When it happens that for some reason both elementals and weapons are buried at the end of the deck, then people will say its “inconsistent”.
Based on all my games against that deck, dozens and dozens of them, if they failed to have the weapon equipped once or twice before turn 5 it was too many times… LOL… seriously, you will get no sympathy from me. It is what it is - a broken, idiot-proof deck.
BTW, you lost 9 out of 12 games playing evolve shaman. Let me see… you played mostly against decks that can contest the board/snowball early game or somehow you had the worst luck highrolling/drawing in all of these games.
I would be ok with Galakrond buffs, also with control tools buffs. But not totems, the curent form of “totem shaman’s” is toxic for the game (in my opinion) it being viable would be even worst than evolve shaman.
Shaman has a lot of cool control cards; I think it may actually compete with priest in the long control game: it just needs a good value generator (like priest galak).
I think the totem package is fine and it is already powerful enough (weapon, double the totem with a spell, legendary totem).
Maybe add a card that add to your hand two random totems (like first day of school for paladin) is needed, but the buff package is already very strong
Unlike Guardian Druid, instead of only having 2 cards in your deck to draw, you have 4. And if you get one of the weapons, they have 4/2 pirates to regain them. While it was inconsistent in the past, It is no longer.
In the scholomance meta i played fatigue shaman. I even got legend with it. Priest was a good matchup against this deck but now its not playable because of all the tickatus and the ctun decks.
In the right meta though fatigue shaman is extremly strong.
But no fatigue deck can ever play in this game again as long as ctun and tickatus + 2 otk decks is in the meta.
I think it is more than a viable strategy, just seems no one has given it much chance yet.