The Comprehensive Descent of Dragons Preview

Invocation of Frost

Very strong tempo card when taking into consideration that the battlecry of Shaman’s Galakrond is a strong tempo effect (2/1 rush). Invocation of Frost allows us to significantly stall an opponent’s early game, while offering invaluable utility at freezing big threats later.

Score: 3

Surging Tempest

Aggro Shaman is a very good deck today despite having only a single playable 1-drop in the format. Surging Tempest provides another 1-drop, and it’s a very good one. It might not be Tunnel Trogg level, but it’s still one of the strongest bodies a 1-drop can offer in Standard.

Score: 3

Squallhunter

Bit of a boring card. Considering that Dragon Shaman feels like a potentially slower control deck, we’re not excited by a card that’s mostly a big body of stats. The spell damage might be useful in enabling removal spells, but this feels backward. We might as well run the cheaper and more flexible Bloodmage Thalnos if we’re desperate for such an effect.

Score: 2

Storm’s Wrath

So Aggro Overload Shaman, one of the best decks in the game today (remember?), is getting a Mark of Lotus with overload synergy that can be tutored with Spirit of the Frog? Yes, this is as scary as it sounds. This card’s combo with Thunderhead is nothing short of disgusting. What an incredible addition to an already powerful deck.

Score: 4

Lightning Breath

We were very excited about this card initially, because it is essentially a turn 3 Flamestrike when activated. However, dragons in Shaman just don’t look to be an exciting proposition, so we’ve cooled off on the idea. If Control Dragon Shaman sees play, this will be a relevant card to consider, but otherwise it’s a struggle to justify.

Score: 2

Corrupt Elementalist

A double invoke card. This would be very effective if Shaman’s Galakrond offered a powerful tempo swing. Oh, it does. Well, guess this is the best Invoke card in the game. Not only does it accelerate progress into a fully upgraded Galakron, but this is also a fantastic board control tool since it summons two 2/1 rushers ready to pick off the opponent’s board.

Score: 4

Cumulo-Maximus

Another aggressive overload card that looks completely absurd, but it’s important to remember that this isn’t a “true” 5 drop. It will rarely come down on 5, unless you play Zap on the same turn. In practice, this is a stronger Fireland’s Portal for overload decks, which is still very good.

Score: 3

Dragon’s Pack

This is an Oasis Surger level card. Two massive 5/6 taunts that can come down on turn 5 is game-winning in faster matchups and a big threat against slower decks. Taking Corrupt Elementalist into consideration, it’s so easy to activate too. At least it can’t be done on curve without the coin.

Score: 4

Bandersmosh

This card is nothing but a meme. An inconsistent threat that’s likely going to be stuck in your hand often. There are a lot of bad legendary minions in the card pool, which wouldn’t be better than a vanilla 5/5 when imitated by Bandersmosh. Even if you do randomly hit one of the “good ones”, it’s hardly going to be game winning since it does little to further your own deck’s game plan.

Score: 1

Nithogg

This legendary is one of the main reasons we’re not excited about a Dragon Shaman deck. It’s a powerful play when you’re ahead, but quite weak if you’ve fallen behind and the opponent can easily pick off the eggs before they hatch. Sure, the eggs can soak some damage and force your opponent into awkward trades, but they’ll be happy to do that if you’ve only developed a 5/5 for 6 mana. It’s somewhat of a win more card, in an archetype we don’t expect to be aggressive, which is a bad sign for its prospects.

Score: 1

Galakrond, the Tempest

We think Shaman’s Galakrond is the strongest of the five hero cards. The reason is simple, its power is completely front-loaded. It holds nothing back for the late game, instead focusing completely on the here and now. It has the best Invoke card in Corrupt Elementalist, making it the easiest to fully upgrade. It has the best hero power for board control. It’s got the strongest and fastest payoff card in Dragon’s Pack. It’s the only hero card with a battlecry that’s guaranteed to both develop the board and remove the opponent’s board. Two 8/8 rushers on top of the weapon are just crazy for 7 mana.

Of course, the fact that Galakrond doesn’t draw cards or utilize a value hero power means that its power fades after its tremendous entrance, but Shaman could finish games shortly after its played. Or just play Shudderwock and repeat that nonsense one more time.

Score: 4

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Final Thoughts

Descent of Dragons Set Rank: 1^st

Overall Power Ranking: 1^st

What can we say about Shaman other than “the rich just got richer”? One of the strongest classes in the game today ended up receiving the strongest set of cards in one of the strongest expansions ever.

First, it got the best Galakrond, a hero card that’s completely and utterly fixated on winning board. Shaman will be salivating at the prospect of building a deck around the powerful tools surrounding this bad boy.

Then we have Aggro Shaman, which might be the best deck in the game today (even without Hare/Evolve, by the way), finally getting a strong 1-drop as well as a board buff with Overload synergy. Every single hole that this deck had is getting plugged by a top-quality card.

Finally, we have Quest Shaman. Yes, losing Hare/Evolve should be a big blow and unlike Aggro Shaman, it didn’t look exceptionally strong before the Doom in the Tomb event. However, the addition of Faceless Corruptor means it has the potential to chain multiple Shudderwocks during a game. This small, yet meaningful upgrade, means that its late-game could get even better.

Without even considering other avenues, we see multiple Shaman archetypes with the potential of sitting at the top of the meta. No other class does that for us. Are we entering Shamanstone, chapter 4?