Hagatha & Shudderwock Control Shaman Deck List Guide – The Witchwood – April 2018

Our Hagatha & Shudderwock Control Shaman deck list guide will go through the ins-and-outs of the potentially viable deck from the The Witchwood Expansion! This guide will teach you how to mulligan, pilot, and substitute cards for this archetype! For now the deck guide is theorycraft, but as soon as the expansion goes live we will start updating it right away!

Introduction to Hagatha & Shudderwock Control Shaman

With Cubelock likely staying as the axis of the Witchwood meta, there are very few archetypes that could reasonably expect to beat it in the late-game. Shaman is one of them, provided the much-hyped Shudderwock is capable to live up to the lofty expectations. This deck will easily cheat fatigue and gain obscene amounts of value when the chips are down – the real challenge will be getting there against more aggressive archetypes.

Shaman has lost a lot of powerful tools in the rotation, many of which would have been excellent for a more control-oriented deck that never really materialized. I’d kill for Jinyu Waterspeaker and Hallazeal the Ascended, and a shocking amount of board clear-goodies are going to be banished to Wild as well: say goodbye to Jade Claws, Devolve and Maelstrom Portal, too.

Therefore the major question is whether or not a Control Shaman deck can perform well against the aggressive archetypes in the new metagame – thankfully the Paladins will lose a bit of consistency and explosiveness while something like a Secret Mage will simply just cease to exist in its current form.

Hagatha & Shudderwock Control Shaman Card Choices

This particular list is fairly conservatively built in order to improve the anti-aggro matchups. It features double Doomsayers to shut down the initial aggression – while Silence is going to remain a prevalent part of the metagame, they are still way too useful not to include. Two Zap!-s are here to clear up the critters left behind by the premium board clears.

Tar Creepers are sacrificed for Hot Spring Guardians in order to make sure that playing Shudderwock is 1) not absolutely horrendous against aggressive decks 2) to counteract the damage of Bloodreaver Gul'dan’s hero power in the later stages of the match once you start cycling the legendary thanks to Baleful Banker’s shenanigans. It also allows for some mild Elemental synergy for Kalimos, Primal Lord, a card which can also play a part in pumping up the showpiece minion – which is why Fire Elemental s are also included in the deck. Weapon removal seems like a must-have tool as its very important against Cubelocks and can also help you against the more aggressive archetypes.

Hagatha & Shudderwock Control Shaman Mulligan Strategy & Guide

VS Fast Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Doomsayer – You are advised to aggressively mulligan for them as it is currently very hard to kill them when they are played on curve: they can be the key to shut down the Paladins.
• Volcano – This is going to be the card that lets you get on the board in the mid-game, therefore making sure you have it has to be one of your top priorities: even if you take a lot of damage in the early turns, this deck is capable of coming back from that.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

• Zap! – When paired with Bloodmage Thalnos or Spellshifter, this card can be your saviour against a buffed Murloc Tidecaller or any other three-health early-game minion. Otherwise, the overload may just be too punishing.
• Lightning Storm – As good as this card can be under the right circumstances, I’d advise against keeping it without having a spell damage minion to back it up or you don’t have any other kind of board clear in your hand – you have better options in the deck and a bad 50-50 roll could easily lose you the game early on.

VS Slow Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Mana Tide Totem – If you know that your opponent is playing a slower deck, it’s imperative that you try to get through your deck as fast as possible in order to get Hex – The transformation effect is invaluable against Cubelock or anything that is going to play an oversized minion in the mid-game.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

• Doomsayer – With the potential “Handdruid” decks and Cubelocks running around, Doomsayers are also going to be very useful in delaying the Mountain Giant turn, but trying to secure the card draw and the transformation effect should take priority.
• Hagatha the Witch If you are absolutely sure that you’re playing against a deck that won’t be putting on much pressure, you might want to keep Hagatha in order to ensure that you can start the value generation as early as turn 8.

Hagatha & Shudderwock Control Shaman Play Strategy

VS Aggro Decks

You’ll often be on the back foot by nature, which is why admittedly mediocre cards like Healing Rain and Tidal Surge need to make an appearance in the deck. Don’t be afraid to take a lot of damage in the early turns: the idea is to take over the board after a Volcano clear, then going on a Control Warrior-style clearing-and-healing rampage until you can get out of sight with Hagatha or The Lich King. Five unconditional board clears and the two Doomsayers should be good enough to shore up the anti-aggro matchups: the most important part is to budget these resources carefully, and be willing to take a turn of pain in order to clear off an extra minion or two with your spells the following turn.

VS Control Decks

This deck will outvalue literally everything in the late game, especially with Elise the Trailblazer’s infinite supply of goodies. Slower metas have often been predicted, and never really came to pass – but if The Witchwood bucks that trend, Shaman could be right back at the top despite losing so many powerful tools with this deck. Try to delay your opponent’s explosive turns with your Hexes, and don’t be afraid to use multiple board clears in one turn once they try to flip the board on you.

Eventually, you will both save yourself from fatigue and generate an endless amount of value with Shudderwock, provided you played Baleful Banker and Elise first. In some cases, it might be right to not play the card until the very end of the game in order to make sure you have a higher chance to draw your remaining removals: Shaman doesn’t have a lot of card draw options, so make sure you don’t flood your deck with more things than you can use efficiently. Watch out for Gnomeratu and Azari as well – the optimal strategy is similar to Jade Idol’s: wait with the shuffle until the deck destruction effect is out of the way, and you should be safe.

Hagatha & Shudderwock Control Shaman Card Substitutions

• Fire Elemental – It’s quite possible that the Elemental package is overkill, but the potential upside with Shudderwock is insane: if you’re being swamped by aggro, you might want to replace them with Tar Creepers.
• The Lich King – In terms of value generation, this may very well turn out to be surplus to requirements against Control: still, a large Taunt with upside is always a good thing, but something more reactive like a second Tidal Surge could work as well.
• Zap! It’s possible that Stormforged Axe could be a better fit, but I like the flexibility of the card and the fact that it scales with spell power bonuses.