#1 Wild Legend Reno Shaman (Wild S92)

work in progress! 

Last update: 2021-11-14 (mage, and 'deck improvements' section)

List Origin

Original list from from stream of 异灵术:
AAEBAfe5AhyyBvoOwxaEF6C2At/EApfHAvPnAsPqAu/3Apn7Aq2RA7WYA/yjA7mtA9CvA+O0A6e1A9u4A9PAA+HMA5zOA/zoA6juA+PuA6bvA4b6A9OABAGLzgIA

The cores of the deck come from the above list – playing this list has lead me to make a few adjustments that I think makes the deck more consistent – total of 7 card changes lead to the list that lead me to legend 1. Namely, removing Finley, Grizzled Wizard, Mutanus, Far Sight, Electra Stormsurge, and 1 of the two Ice fishings in favor of more nature removal spells.

Climb notes

This list was used to climb from Bronze 10 to #1 Legend with 11 star bonus. Legend placement was ~45, reached around four days into the season.

Disclaimer: #1 legend may be slightly misleading on how good the deck is in the context of the general meta, considering my experience with high legend meta seemed to differ a lot from my ladder experience outside of legend.

To be specific, my experience with non-legend ladder had a more pirate warriors and quest hunters, and I felt somewhat reliant on the star bonus to reach legend. Whereas high legend seems to have slower board based decks – namely variants of even or giants warlock.

Unfortunately I did not track on the way up so I don’t have specific stats, but as far as proof goes these two screenshots of rank with win counts will have to do.

Overview

This plays like a traditional control deck –
make sure to make the most of your full clears and survive to late game.
You tend to win by having enough clears to match their threats and
eventually out valuing the opponent.

You have no draw cards, so for a lot of slower matchups making full use out of Zephyrs and the Murloc Combo is imperative. This means going for Spirit Echo, Bolner + Zephs, Zola + Zephyrs, etc..

Against faster decks, there are plenty of removal options to deal with small minions or heal to deal with burn until you draw the build around value cards.

A note on consistency

I didn’t think consistency can come from a reno deck without draw cards or a tap hero power, but I think experience has told me otherwise. I believe part of it comes from having a lot of card combinations and lines of play that accomplish the same tasks of clearing board and generating value, and another part comes from Primal Dungeoneer. This card is often a tutor for Zephyrs or stall in Glacial Shard given the amount of nature spells in the deck. If a non-nature spell is drawn, it will either be a decent stall card Invocation of Frost or the best card in the deck Ice Fishing and imo has just as important a role as Zephyrs and the Murloc combo does in the deck.

Mulligan

WIP

Card Choices/Deck Core

WIP

Matchups

Warlock

Class specific mulligan: Glacial Shard, Invocation of Frost , Hagatha's Scheme

Assuming a giant based deck (even warlock, even reno, darkglare esq decks), a win typically involves the opponent going into fatigue and completely running out of resources. If played correctly, this can happen quite consistently even with turn 3 and turn 4 8/8s coming down, and you should find yourself having more full board clears than they have 8/8s.

A game typically should look like this

Turns 1-5+

hero power, freeze opponent 8/8s, stall to get into turns 6. Get as much chip damage into 8/8s with whatever board sticks as possible so that one might be cleared with the weaker removal cards (chain lightning, Tidal surge, Lightning storm, Instructor Fireheart, etc.).

Kazakus on 4 into a 5 cost golem is typically very strong as well. Do not be afraid to Kazakus on 4 into an 8/8.

Turns 6+

your most important cards are Zephyrs and the murloc clear combo, as both can be manipulated to have their effects go off multiple times as long as you have enough mana as listed below:

For Zephyrs, Bolner Hammerbeak, Brilliant Macaw, Spirit Echo, Zola the Gorgon, Diligent Notetaker

For Murlocs, Spirit Echo

Play Galakrond if you don’t die, usually regardless of invoked level – the hero power can be a difference maker and Kronx becomes a possible board clear or game ender.

Brilliant Macaw’s best targets tend to be Corrupt Elementalist , Galakrond, the Tempest and often times Primal Dungeoneer

General Tips

• Do not use a zephyrs/murloc board clear unless Battlgrounds Battlemaster threatens lethal or lethal is directly threatened. I.e. use at last possible moment to maximize chances of combing it with a bounce back or repeat effect.
• If possible, make sure to always have a big clear in hand (Zephyrs generated card, Murlocs, Hagatha Scheme, Earthquake + Maelstrom, etc.) for potential Gul’dan.
• If they run rat, I like holding ice fishing until I need the clear to avoid telegraphing that there are two good rat targets in hand, especially if spirit echo is not in hand.
• Never hit face for fear of Molten Giant.

Hunter

Class specific mulligan: Healing Rain , Armor Vendor , Reno Jackson, Loatheb, Maelstrom Portal*, Dirty Rat**

note*: Maelstrom has been good enough for dealing with the 1/1 beasts, and seems worth it in case they go for a t1 Toxic Reinforcements line.

note**: I’ve been keeping rat, but I’ve not seen a single hunter play into rat, so it’s likely correct to not keep.

General tip
Most important is being able to kill the 7/7 while having a high life total on that same turn. Examples of ways this can be accomplished is : 2x Murlocs + Healing Rain on turn 6 , Healing effects prior

• Prioritize maintaining a high life total before they get the 7/7 down.   
• Hunter almost always leave 1/2 done on quest to play around Dirty Rat. This makes them vulnerable to Loatheb and Loatheb should have its best use here (denying the 7/7 for another turn).

General life gain combos to look for

• Bolner + armor vendor + battlecries
• Diligent Notetaker + Healing Rain
• Kazakus -> Lifesteal 5 is usually viable and even good, as slow as it might seem.
   

Druid

Aggro mulligan: Golakka Crawler, Chain Lightning (Rank 1), Invocation of Frost, Lightning Storm

Celestial mulligan: Loatheb

General tips

• Save potential answers for Panther (Murloc combo, Zephyrs, Hagatha’s scheme)
• If panther can be cleared, Loatheb should be much better post alignment than pre alignment.
• Bouncing Loatheb and re playing the effect multiple times has been the winning line I’ve found so far against celestial.

Warrior

Class specific mulligan: Golakka Crawler, Chain Lightning (Rank 1),
Invocation of Frost, Lightning Storm

Haven’t had much experience with the matchup since I faced barely any once I reached legend, but it does feel like a difficult matchup, though also a very winnable one.

Fighting for board should be crucial to winning, especially after the quest reward comes down. Many times it’s very possible for their quest reward to get enough value to lethal you without you having played big cards if you don’t have a board presence. This means using cards like Zephyrs, Macaw for tempo and finding spell + minion turns to swing the board in your favor.

Edit: a few more insights have been gained. WIP section.

It is important to note you do not win by default if you have cards in hand and they exhausted their hand but are in post quest stage.

Paladin

Have not played enough to have any useful insights, but some random thoughts:

Assuming handbuff, early rat and zephyrs for earth shock on the 3/1 draw seem like good plays. Otherwise just remove minions.

MAGE

Class specific mulligan: Loatheb, Dirty Rat

Very unfavored matchup. Conditions to win are very few.

Mount whatever pressure you can early, don’t be greedy with battlecries, Zephyrs coin Edwin on 4, Kazakus on 4 for a pressure 5 minion and hope they don’t have the combo or that Loathebs and Dirty Rat delays enough for lethaling them.

If they have the combo, some combination of Loatheb, Brilliant Macaw, Zola, Shudderwock should win games in a manner that’s not just hoping they don’t have the combo (but you also have to hope that you draw those cards).

Edit: Watchpost > Neophyte probably.

Watchpost is probably good addition if ignite mages are common, though I might recommend switching to a different deck if ignite mages are common enough to warrant adding watchpost, considering there’s no draw in the deck to draw the good cards against mage consistently.

Small note:

There are situations where ‘draw 2 cards’ is possibly the better option over ‘summon a copy of this’ for 5 cost golems, especially if you already have Loatheb to hope you draw cards that allow you to repeat Loatheb’s effect.

Edit2 (2021-12-05):

Would not recommend this deck for climbing if mage is meta period. The above are ways to win but they come by extremely rarely (about 1 in 10 ish games).

Rogue

Assuming pillager rogue, see Mage.

Deck Improvements

The list posted is what I have been using for the post part for the climb, but there are a few changes that could possibly improve the deck.

Portal can be great against Pirate Warrior, but becomes less useful against high legend meta. Earthquake can be better as a higher impact value card to offset lack of draw.

The deck’s turn 3 has often felt weak as far as board presence goes, and it could always use more mid game value as a way to offset lack of draw. In that vein, scorpid seems to make a lot sense in the deck, though I don’t have any great ideas as to what it could replace. It should also be great to play on 3 into even warlock to deny their early development.

Edit: 2021-11-14

Looking at other lists it is obvious there are many other possible ways to improve the deck – some of the generic nature removal spells here (namely Maelstrom Portal and  Tidal Surge) are good candidates for slotting in something more impactful while still being decent in matchups against aggressive decks.

Taelan Fordring as a way to tutor out Shudderwock can be quite relevant in the matchup against pirate warrior, as actually sticking a board post quest completion to bring your opponent to 0 is the only way to win against post quest warrior, and Shudderwock is often times the only way generate enough value to accomplish that.

One more invoke card is also a direction the deck can take to more consistently get a half invoked or fully invoked galakrond. My concerns with this are that neutral invoke cards don’t seem like good enough cards to include considering the absence of payoff cards that are not Galakrond. Also half/fully invoked Galakrond is often achievable anyways despite only having two invoke cards with Bolner Hammerbeak,  Brilliant Macaw, Diligent Notetaker sometimes acting as pseudo invoke cards. Though it is probably worth trying one since most if not all games where a fully invoked galakrond have been played are winning games, and also because the current iteration struggles with putting pressure against post quest completion pirate warrior.