Murloc Shaman

Murloc Shaman is getting three powerful new tools with the new expansion: Cactus Cutter, Trusty Companion, and Howdyfin. All three give us additional cards in hand, which enables us to play a lower, more aggressive curve.

In particular, Howdyfin pushes us to dump our hand as quickly as possible so we can use him for maximum reload. So I tried to focus on murlocs that cost 2 or less to get the most hand-dump potential possible out of Clownfish. Plus Murlocula, since he can discount himself to 0.

Notably, both of the other two new cards allow us to tutor our finishers. Trusty Companion pulls based on minion type, so if we play it on Foul Egg or Murmy it can pull Rotgill. Those are also both great turn 1 plays to curve into the buff, since they are sticky minions. Other than that, you can play it on any murloc to always draw a card, since the only untyped minion in the deck is Hawkstrider Rancher.

Similarly, Cactus Cutter grabs spells, so this lets us run just a single copy of Bloodlust, since we can tutor for it. The only other spell is Schooling because it’s so good with the Rancher. 

One card I didn’t add but am curious to try is Tidelost Burrower. Both Murloc Warleader and Howdyfin are really good hits for the dredge. If you hit Howdyfin with it on an empty hand, you will immediately generate 3 murlocs. But it costs 4, which is expensive for a hand-dumping strategy. Still, it is worth testing.

Overall, I think this has potential to be a very strong deck. The new cards all seem very powerful and specifically help with two of Murloc Shaman’s weaknesses: refilling your hand and drawing your finishers. We no longer have to run Gorloc Ravager for refill, which lets us keep our curve very low and gives us a better chance of curving into a game ending Rotgill or Bloodlust on turn 5.