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Mulligans
General Mulligans
Your mulligans are essentially used for card draw and/or to deal with anticipated early threat, as detailed in the following sections. The above-listed mulligans are the best "neutral" choices when facing decks you just aren't certain of, and allow you to quickly gain cards to deal with whatever it is you may actually be facing.
As stated in the description, the entire point of this deck is to provide you the ability to remove specific threats, keep the board clear, heal up, and then deliver the lethal combo. Thus, keep in mind that once you have played Raza The Chained and Shadowreaper Anduin, all you need to do is get your opponent to 20 health and start your turn with Prophet Velen and Mind Blast in your hand to win.
Aggro Mulligans
Different aggro decks require different mulligans. The cards listed above work well with most aggressive decks, and should be used when facing hunters, murloc paladins and pirate warriors. For aggro druids, because of the ability to Innervate into a Bittertide Hydra, you would replace Gluttonous Ooze with Shadow Word: Death. Moreover, Holy Nova, Shadow Word: Horror and Kazakus 5 mana spells with aoe damage can clear Living Mana and/or the board set up by Evolve Shaman.
Combo Mulligans
After playing Raza and Shadowreaper Anduin, you just need to get your opponent to 20 or less health with Velen and Mind Blast in your hand, and at the start of your next turn perform the following combo:
Hero Power --> play Prophet Velen --> Hero Power --> play Mind Blast --> Hero Power = 20 damage
If your opponent is at 24 health or less and you are lucky enough to have a 1 mana card in your hand, you can increase the damage output of the combo to 24 by playing the 1 mana card at the end of the above-detailed combo and then using your Hero Power again for 24 total damage.
Control Mulligans
Because you have time to set up your ultimate victory when facing control decks, you are looking for draw, and to get the most value out of Raza. Moreover, you want to play Elise as early as you can so that you are able to use your Shadow Visions to obtain a second Un'Goro Pack. Un'Goro Packs and the cheap cards they provide are used as fuel for Shadowreaper Anduin, or as a Hail Mary insurance policy for survival if things turn bad.
The Geist is intended for jade druids and evolve shaman and should be played ASAP - turn 5 with the coin if at all possible. It is also useful against rogues (destroys Hallucination) and in mirror games (destroys Pint-Size Potion and Potion of Madness).
INTRODUCTION
This deck is intended to combat the aggro decks prevalent in the meta right now, and still have the staying power to deal with control decks. It uses direct and AOE damage in combination with healing to deal with and survive early and mid-game threats, which allows a smooth transition to damage dealing with Shadowreaper Anduin. The deck is set up to be able to get your opponent to 20 health, at which point you can deliver the lethal combo with Prophet Velen and Mind Blast in your hand.
EARLY GAME
Most of the early-game cards are intended to either draw your deck, e.g. Novice Engineer, Loot Hoarder, Acolyte of Pain, or remove specific threats/board clear, e.g. Potion of Madness, Pint-Size Potion in combination with Shadow Word: Pain or Shadow Word: Horror, Doomsayer.
MID-GAME
The mid-game cards provide heals, board clears and set up your endgame, e.g. Greater Healing Potion, Priest of the Feast, Holy Nova, Shadow Word: Horror, Raza the Chained, Dragonfire Potion. Additionally, using Bloodmage Thalnos in combination with Spirit Lash can provide a much needed heal and clear a board of small minions at the same time (obviously, the heal gets bigger with each minion on the board, so make sure to use this combo when you can maximize your results).
TECH CARDS
Several cards are included to address specific situations, e.g. Mass Dispel can save you when facing multiple opposing minions with taunts and/or buffs, Holy Fire can either remove a big threat or be applied to your opponent’s face with a nice heal for you. Skulking Geist is included primarily to deal with Jade Idol, but is also very effective against Evolve Shaman (destroys Evolve), Miracle Rogues (destroys Hallucination), and in mirror matches (destroys Pint-Size Potion and Potion of Madness). Finally, although Skulking Geist also destroys your 1 mana spells, at the point in the game it is played you should have already used them or no longer need them, so plan accordingly.
KAZAKUS SPELL CHOICE
Kazakus is used to either deal with an immediate threat or an anticipated threat, so whether to choose a 1, 5 or 10 mana spell card depends on the situation. 1 and 5 mana spell cards should be obtained to deal with immediate threats, e.g. a Bittertide Hydra, buffed Living Mana or board full of obnoxious pirates. For immediate threats, 2/4 damage to all paired with 4/7 armor or 3/5 direct damage would be your optimal choices, although a sheep random minion or freezes can buy you time to heal or find another way to deal with the threat(s).
10 mana spell cards are reserved for anticipated threats, e.g. the future big jades that’re going to be coming, the board of deathrattle minions that will be res’d by N'Zoth, The Corruptor, or the turn after Alexstrasza has reduced you to 15 health. If your anticipated threat is a board of big minions, your first choice should always be sheep all minions paired with either gain 10 armor or do 8 damage, with the next best choice being do 6 damage to all minions. For the Alexstrasza situation, ideally you should choose gain 10 armor paired with do 8 damage, but sheep all minions paired with gain 10 armor works just as well.
Obviously, Kazakus spells are a crap shoot, because you never know what your spell choices will be. Based on this reality, remember the Golden Rule: “better safe than sorry.” With the Golden Rule firmly in mind, if your desired choice is not offered in the first set of spells, ALWAYS choose whatever available spell there is that will at least partly address the immediate/anticipated threats, and hope you can upgrade it on the second set of spells offered. If you gamble and crap out on both sets of offered spells without obtaining anything to deal with your immediate/ anticipated threat, you’re more than likely going to end up dead when your threat’s potential comes to fruition. So don’t gamble, play it safe. Take what will at least partially work first, and hope for an upgrade with your second choice.
CLOSING COMBO
Finally, the closer combo does 20 damage and can be carried out after you’ve played Raza the Chained and Shadowreaper Anduin and have Prophet Velen and Mind Blast in your hand when your opponent is at 20 or less health at the start of your turn. If your opponent is at 24 health or less and you are lucky enough to have a 1 mana card in your hand, you can increase the damage output of the combo to 24 by simply playing the 1 mana card at the end of the normal combo and then using your Hero Power again for 24 total damage.
BAD MATCH-UPS
The bad news: There are two decks this package has almost zero chance of beating: Exodia Mage and N’Zoth Warrior, so as painful as it may be, you should simply concede against those decks.
