Swarming the board to Legend 601!

Multiplayer Discussion
1

What?! It’s that time of the month already! That’s right ladies, gentlemen, and gentlethems. I am doing my write up for my grind to legend! As always, I am doing this in hopes some people learn something and it helps them hit legend as well!

Note - I am writing this when I have been awake for almost 24 hours and some of this is getting low effort. If you have a question I will answer it when I get the chance!

What did I use this time? Pirate/Swarm Shaman. I used my own brew which appears to be pretty different from the top lists being used. I will get into why I chose this deck and list by talking about the meta.

The Meta:

The meta is currently being hyper-warped by a very simple fact. Turn 4-5 Dungar/Ziliax/etc. are a threat. While turn 4-5 may be outliers, turn 6 is exceedingly easy to achieve. That means your deck needs to be able to do 1 of 2 things. End the game before them or deal with the board druid makes. The 1st option is a much easier proposition. This has given rise to decks some old friends making a return. Bloody Prates.

Shaman by far and away has the best chance of KO’ing a druid before they can get their gameplan going. I had multiple games where the Druid plays 2 ramp spells, Oaken Summons, and promptly died. The same thing kinda kept happening with warrior as well. They would ramp, draw, then fall over to Bloodlust.

Mana ramp and mana reduction continue to cause a ripple effect that is hard to quantify.

Classes:

Death Knight - The class keeps doing what it has been doing since I came back from my break. Slowly grind down the opponent through relentless value. I saw mostly aggressive Horizon’s Edge variants. I have a feeling that the hyper-control version might struggle against Druid. Triple blood may be able to. Slight favor goes to Shaman.

Demon Hunter - I was incredibly surprised how few Demon Hunters I saw. They were all pirate and all just slightly too slow. Bloodlust and good spot removal always seemed to give me a slight edge. Slight edge to Shaman.

Druid - Every single one was Dungar Ramp. 99% of the time they were a free win. Watching a many druids go Wild Growth, New Heights, Crystal Cluster, and then die was always funny. Sometimes replace 1 ramp spell with an Oaken Summons/Gloomstone/ADC and then they go down anyway. Massive favor to Shaman.

Hunter - GOOD LORD people love the new discover hunter! The amount of times I saw Exarch Naielle on turn 3 was mind boggling. This was a very polarizing match up. It seems like I either just stomped them or they stomped me. There was no in-between. I give the slight advantage to Shaman. But man, that deck is a value train.

Mage - I only saw a few Elemental mage. The only losses I took to them was when they had double Solar Flair. There is just nothing you can do when the opposing agro deck gets to play minions AND wipe your board. I had the slight advantage over the long run.

Paladin - The two decks should be obvious. Libram and Hand Buff. If the Libram Paladin did not have Prismatic Beam they basically just got ran over. I feel like so many Libram Paladins try to hold their Libram of Divinity till it is free rather than letting it rip for tempo. The buffed weapon is doing some insane heavy lifting for the deck. If they don’t see it or Instrument Tech they have an awful time. Hand Buff suffers from having trouble dealing with a wide board. Numerous games ended because they could not clear the board and Sigil/Cliffside into Bloodlust just ends it. It is in slight favor to Shaman.

Priest - I ran against a few Reno Priest. They got ran over. I played against a few Zarimi priest. They did a bit better. They just get out valued and out agroed before Zarimi ever gets a chance to be online. Favor to Shaman.

Rogue - I would say 90% of the Rogues were weapon Rogue. If they do not see Fan of Knives they got out raced every time. Tar Slick, Prep, Fan is devastating if you haven’t had the chance to buff up your minions. Favor to Shaman.

Shaman - I saw a decent amount of Asteroids. You get to rush them down before they get the chance to get enough asteroids rolling. Malted Magma and Baking Soda Volcano can be very rough when played at the right time. I almost always tried to go for Sigil/Cliffside into Bloodlust plays. They play no taunts and have nothing to stop it. The swarm vs swarm vs pirates is a trip. Draws play such an incredibly heavy roll. If one person gets Ziliax or some sort of buffing online first, it is normally insurmountable. Swarm has the edge over Asteroids.

Warlock - I only ever saw the Handlock with a ton of healing. Trying to get through that many board wipes and healing is near impossible. I stole a game here and there, but the favor is to the Warlock.

Warrior - I THINK I saw only Odyn/Hydration warrior. The vast majority of games ended on turn 6 and I never got to see what they were playing. The only times they got games on me is when they dropped a turn 4-5 Ziliax into mass armor gain. In Shaman’s favor.

My Deck List:

Custom Shaman

Class: Shaman

Format: Standard

2x (1) Lightning Bolt

It went face. It cleared minions. It did its job superbly.

2x (1) Miracle Salesman

1 mana 2/2 that gives draw or activates Oracle go BBRRRR.

2x (1) Murloc Growfin

Me make two 1/1s. Me never play 8/8s.

1x (1) Patches the Pilot

Patches makes pirates go BBRRRR.

2x (1) Pop-Up Book

Goes face. Kills minions. Frogs get +3 attack and go face!

1x (1) Spirit Claws

Activates Cliffside. Goes face. Sometimes kills minions.

2x (1) Thrall’s Gift

Board wipe. Hex. Bloodlust. All good.

2x (1) Treasure Distributor

Very mediocre turn 1 if I am being honest. Using it alongside Cliffside can win games.

2x (2) Adrenaline Fiend

Do you like swinging 5+ damage to face? I sure do. Can also do combat tricks with Cliffside.

2x (2) Cult Neophyte

Sets back ramp 1 turn. Kinda GOATed if I am being honest.

2x (2) Sigil of Skydiving

Makes charge pirates go BBBRRRR.

1x (3) Carefree Cookie

Turns pirates, frogs, and murlocks into (sometimes) bigger and (sometimes) better minions!

2x (3) Ethereal Oracle

Draws Thrall’s Gift and makes spells going face go BBRRR!

2x (3) Hozen Roughhouser

Makes attacking prates go BBRRR!

2x (3) Southsea Captain

Make other pirates strong!

2x (4) Dangerous Cliffside

Makes charge pirates that go BBRRR!

1x (0) Zilliax Deluxe 3000

1x (0) Zilliax Deluxe 3000

1x (3) Pylon Module

1x (4) Ticking Module

Ziliax does Ziliax things!

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7 Likes
2

I definitely dont think this is the fastest version of shaman you can play but you definitely got the pirate thing going on.

Pretty interesting how many variants of aggro shaman there are right now.

3

Lightning Bolt is worth it in this deck? Isn’t the overload a hindrance in this fast deck?

There is the Oil and the Oracle but there isn’t any other draw in this deck. This deck seems to be very depended on the mulligan and the following cards.

4

The meta is different at all ranks, this meta only applies to your mmr bracket. I barely see Dungar Druid at all so it is not hyper warping the meta for me.

5

What is your favorite food?

1 Like
6

I want to play the blur game!

How many skittles can you fit in your mouth at once?

1 Like
7

> Bragging for a rank, after playing for 24 hours the 1st day.

Come again with your rank on the 31st Dec.

8

His rank of 601 at the time of the post was only about 20 ranks higher than the last person in legend it’s not even a brag, it is like finishing 8th in a race of 8 people. I still don’t understand his monthly legend placement posts because they are so pointless which I explained why last time but whatever idc anymore.

2 Likes
9

Blizzard shouldn’t even give ranks until the month rolls over. Give some kind of plain rating points only. It makes people ride the high horse.

I’ve lost count of the times someone demeans everyone here as some kind of “god of knowledge”,

because they don’t get playing for 24 hours the first 3 days isn’t that impressive for ranking.

10

You are THE most guilty of this, especially with the way you manipulate data to suit your agenda.

Pot meet kettle!

2 Likes
11

Saying “no you!” sounds satisfying, but you make no sense. I never pulled rank here.

There’s a reason, I know it’s a very dumb “argument” to pull rank.

12

I love these forums. It shows how incapable people are of any deep thought. I did not stay up playing for 24 hours. I never said I stayed up playing for 24 hours. You ASSUMED that because you are incapable of any actual thought beyond being cynical.

I was up for 24 hours because my GF started a new job that overlaps with her old for 2 weeks so I was 1) doing a double shift myself working from home in solidarity 2) getting stuff done around the house for the week. I played for about 4 hours. I normally play meme decks from Bronze-D5, take a break, and then play a serious deck from D5-L.

I have no interest in grinding rank till the end of the month. I have a life and other games I would rather play. I have been world class at a card game before. I have no interest in doing it for this one.

Qwark once again loses what little respect I still had left for him. I am not bragging. I do not think getting into legend is something to brag about. I do these titles as obvious click bait. If you can’t figure that out that is on you. I post them to be educational. Every month the same people come in pissing themselves like I kicked their dog.

2 Likes
13

Not running titan is a mistake this card is so good in every single shaman deck.

Guys honestly this guy posts a worse version of swarm shaman that you can just copy from d0nkey xD

14

None of my games went long enough for Titan to ever matter. I considered him. But, every turn 6 i was either Bloodlusting or throwing 11 damage to face with spells. Is my version worse? Don’t know and don’t care. I tailored my build to the decks I was seeing and the length of games I was experiencing. If 99% of my games were ending by turn 6 why would I ever run a Titan?

15

The real power of the shaman deck is burst potential, only because bloodlust is a thing. So literally every board you have to count meticulously as the opponent for lethal, factoring in lucky parachute drops out of the blue.

So the deck can literally do 28 damage from an empty board because Blizzard thinks it’s fun that every card shaman runs should have charge/go face.

Once you realize this, this deck is trivial to beat consistently, but it’s a pain in the butt as the opponent as your sitting there meticulously counting while the shaman player is playing their green card and passing.

I’d expect nothing else of the game with today’s design team.

2 Likes
16

OMG I never got parachutes! It was infuriating lol.

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Because it’s a massive tempo shift, great against many decks. Amazing in the mirror. Your list is garbage and anyone trying to play swarm shaman should just take a list from the internet.

18

Can you give any reasoning as to why my list is bad other than “it isn’t a list from the internet.”? I never needed a tempo shift. I was ending games on turn 6. In the mirror I never needed it either.

I also love that people will constantly complain about net decks, but brewing your own build just gets people complaining about it not being good enough, even though you got into legend with ease. I am starting to be convinced that people on here just hate play the game at this point.

19

This is self-explanable

When you make your own deck, you’re not really sure if it works or not, so you’re not committed to it fully

It’s a lot easier to commit when you see that some rank #2 Legend plays the exact same deck to get where he is

That being said, it looks to me like you’re overly generalizing from a few negative replies you had, ignoring the specifics of the context

For example, I got nothing against THIS thread of yours, as it doesn’t contain a single empty statistic or a promise - it’s not misleading at all. Astro shaman one, though, was.

Anyway. Thx for the post.

20

I will never make promises on what a deck will do. I will only report on what my experience was. When I posted that deck I was seeing control deck after control deck. I say so in it.