I agree with your comments! I’ve had difficult getting value from earthshock and Hallazeal. They seem too situational. I’ve been trying to work a similar deck usig Mumuring Elemental, Grumble and Kalimos to deal 4x the damage from invocation of fire. Moreover if you are lucky enough to get a seccond Grumble from Servant of Kalimos you get an sort of exodia effect.

I feel in general that this aggro meta and lack of creativity have pushed Elemental Shaman aside, but is a concept that could work very well. No necessary need for jades.

What about Grumble, Worldshaker? It could interact very well with Blazecaller, Fire Elemental and Specially Kalimos (12 face damage or any combination of 2 invocations), in case you don’t have Bloodlust in your hand and/or need to clear the board from taunts first.

Removing Antonidas would also make Mage the only class without a classic legendary. Nerfing or removing Sorcerer’s Apprentice does sound like a better take on the balancing issue.

Also, budget players (myself included) and FTP players will never have a chance to experience all kinds of meta decks. So not everyone will know how to handle all decks correctly.

That said, this is exactly what makes this brawl so awesome. I always wanted to play many of these deck archetypes but lacked the legendary or epic cards.

Happened once for me too. I could feel my opponent laughing at my disappointment.

Tainted Zealot provides the Spell Damage for the same cost. Divine shield may not be as useful as card draw, but it allows the minion to survive the damage from spirit lash and dragonfire potion.