Shudderwock Lockdown Control Shaman (April 2018)

My Control Shaman deck list guide for the Witchwood expansion will teach you how to play this board control-centric Shaman list. This Control Shaman guide includes Mulligans, Gameplay Strategy, Card Substitutions, and Combos/Synergies!

Introduction to Control Shaman

In the past, several variants of Control Shaman with different win conditions have seen play, including combo heavy decks such as Ancestral and Crusher Shaman. During the WotOG and MSoG meta, Aggro Shaman was the most predominant deck archetype on ladder, because of it’s strong early game and the midrange Jade package, which offered a lot of value to the mid game. In the year of the mammoth, Evolve Shaman became a tier one deck, however it got overshadowed by Razakus Priest and Jade Druid.

With the new year of the Raven, the staple Jade cards are rotating out of standard, which is why elementals might be the best replacement for the backbone of each Shaman deck list. Cards like Kalimos, Primal Lord and Grumble, Worldshaker have very powerful Battlecries, which allow for high-value turns. The Witchwood expansion gives Shaman a new tool, Shudderwock, which utilizes these strong battlecries, by recasting them. In combination with cards like Saronite Chain Gang and Baleful Banker, an infinite loop of powerful battlecries can be generated through copies of Shudderwock.

UPDATE: CONTROL SHAMAN (APRIL 2018 – THE WITCHWOOD RELEASE)

Work in progress.

Control Shaman Card Choices

CLASS CARDS

• Far Sight – It is debatable, whether or not this card is worth running in this deck. Although being very slow, it provides us with card draw after all, which is an important mechanic for the success of such heavy combo reliant decks. Furthermore, the mana cost reduction has the potential to accelerate our key cards and game plan.
• Hot Spring Guardian – In general, survivability is essential for combo and control decks. The stats are mediocre, however the Taunt keyword, mana cost and battlecry make up for the lack of board presence and with the elemental tag, we have another activator for Kalimos.
• Lightning Storm – This is a great card against aggressive decks and the board clears compensate our lack of high-statted minions, which can fight for board presence.
• Mana Tide Totem – This card provides a solid card draw mechanic in almost any Shaman deck. It has the potential to snowball and draw several cards, if it is not dealt with immediately by the enemy.
• Hex – In my opinion, you can‘t play Shaman without one or two copies of Hex. This deck already lacks single target removal and silences. Against cards like Voidlord, you are going to have an answer, which greatly improves your odds of winning.
• Volcano – Volcano is here for the same reason as Lightning Storm, however you can use it as a single target removal in certain situations, which is why I think it is reasonable to include it in this deck.
• Grumble, Worldshaker – A key card for the success of this deck. It not only has the potential to snowball the game by allowing you to cast several one cost versions of Shudderwock, but it also synergizes with your other battlecry minions, allowing you to play multiple copies of the latter in the same game.
• Kalimos, Primal Lord – This is a tough one. I will give you a thorough insight into my thoughts for this card in the alternative cards section below. Kalimos has a powerful battlecry and the different possible invocations provide some sort of versatility. However, the latter can also be seen as an inconsistency, because Shudderwock randomly casts the invocation. Ideally, you can deal three damage to the board, but you might also end up with a board full of murlocs, which might potentially ruin your infinite loop.
• Shudderwock – Definitely the core of this deck. This card is your win condition and allows you to snowball games, once you have established board control.

Neutral cards

• Fire Fly – Apart from being a solid one drop, Kalimos is the main reason why this is in the deck. You need to ensure that you can consistently activate the battlecry of Kalimos.
• Baleful Banker – This card is more or less your insurance that you can go infinite and never lose to fatigue. However, it shuffles a card into your deck, which delays you drawing your actual keycards. Nevertheless, similarly to Grumble, if you manage to shuffle copies of Saronite Chain Gang or Lifedrinker into your deck, you can even get more value out of Shudderwock, although it isn’t really necessary for you to win.
• Doomsayer – Great card against aggro or just a solid turn two play against control. It can set up an empty board for Mana Tide Totem.
• Loot Hoarder – In my opinion, this is the best option for neutral card draw, since you don’t want a battlecry to draw you a card, because it can easily mill you with Shudderwock. 
• Tar Creeper  – Similar to Hot Spring Guardian, but with much better stats and it has the elemental tag aswell. 
• Lifedrinker – I am aware of there being much better battlecries in the game, however instead of going for a greedy setup, I choose Lifedrinker to be my main damage source. You can compare the effect to the Hero Power of Bloodreaver Gul'dan, which offers you great snowball potential. The main drawback of Lifedrinker are its stats. Four mana 3/3 “do nothing” is more or less what it does in the midgame.
• Saronite Chain Gang – The final piece of the puzzle in order to make the infinite loop work. The battlecry allows you to generate copies of Shudderwock, which are ideally returned back to your hand by Grumble’s battlecry, allowing several Shudderwocks to be played during your next turn.
• Hemet, Jungle Hunter – I think Hemet does actually fit very well into this deck. The only important card and more importantly the battlecry you would lose, is the one of Baleful Banker. However, you can expect to have played or atleast still have a copy of the latter in your hand. Hemet thins out your deck and leaves all the relevant key cards behind, getting you faster to the point, where you can just take over the game.

Work in progress.