Gallagio Goon
A 1-drop with premium baseline stats and a powerful snowballing ability that can take over the early game. Goon is hard to remove on turn 1 and poses a serious question to opponents very early. Battlecry minions are the most prevalent minions in the game, so it is entirely realistic to build a curve of aggressive minions that can take advantage of Goon’s ability. Witch’s Apprentice is particularly powerful in this context.
Furthermore, Goon scales well in later turns as we can easily chain it alongside other minions to buff them immediately with no counterplay from the opponent. We expect Goon to be one of the strongest 1-drops in the format, one that will greatly encourage Shaman towards an aggressive, minion-centric direction.
Score: 4
Molten Gold
The first of Shaman spells that can turn into minions when activated by other spells. This spell is meant to synergize with Mug’s Magic, as it does not interfere with the activation of Mug’Zee at the start of the game, but offers a minion payoff to discount in a Spell Shaman archetype.
A 3-mana spell that deals 4 damage is not great, as it can only help us clear an early-game minion in times of desperation. The minion is decent, as we get a body on top of the effect. Remember that our entire deck consists of spells, so Molten Gold should transform relatively quickly once it gets drawn.
This is a supportive card that should see play if Spell Shaman successfully emerges, but it cannot be the main reason we run the deck, nor does it entice us to do so.
Score: 1
Hijacked Securitybot
As with all Prepared minions, their cost is 1 mana lower in practice, provided we Prepare them. A 3-mana 3/3 that casts Mark of the Lotus on our other minions is clearly powerful, especially when we can discount it and play it alongside other minions on the same turn. This circumvents the opponent’s ability to deny a buff with AOE.
The drawback of Securitybot is that we must spend mana to Prepare it (or it becomes far less efficient), which risks us falling behind on board, something that aggressive decks often cannot afford to do. But if Shaman can build a minion-dense deck, perhaps one that even activates Zee’s Might, it can feasibly utilize Securitybot as a swing card.
This may offer the board win condition for an aggressive Battlecry Shaman deck with Gallagio Goon as its 1-drop.
Score: 2
Disguised Detective
This looks like a threatening 1-drop if we play it on our side of the board, but its net cost is ultimately not impressive. A 3-mana 4/3 is worse than a Totem Golem, as it can be cleared with 3 damage. Playing it on turn 1 means we skip our turn 2, which is not something we want to do if we are playing an aggressive deck.
As for its disguised use, it seems questionable. Overloading our opponent may seem like a good idea in a hypothetical late-game turn where we deny our opponent from playing a key win condition, but spending a resource to give our opponent free stats seems unwise in most other scenarios.
We think Detective may only see play in an Overload-synergy deck, where it becomes the most efficient way to discount Haywire Hornswong. Otherwise, we are probably not interested.
Score: 1
Frostshatter
The second Spell Shaman payoff. As these cards become more expensive, their baseline effect is worse. But once they turn into minions, they become more powerful as we gain more stats and can utilize the archetype’s hero power for a bigger swing. A 5-mana 5/5 that freezes and draws 2 cards, one that we can even discount to 3 mana, is clearly a strong standalone card.
But just like Molten Gold, Frostshatter is supportive in nature and does not represent a clear win condition for the deck in the late game, one that threatens slow decks to a significant degree. This is important because a Shaman deck without minions cannot be aggressive in nature, so it needs something to build up towards. This is not it.
Score: 1
Hexmarshal
A Mug’Zee Minion Shaman payoff. Hexmarshal generates a random expensive spell and discounts it by 5 mana. When looking at the pool of possible spells, we are not impressed. Spells that cost 5 or more represent a pool of high variance. A Shaman deck with no spells needs to be proactive in nature, as its responsive capabilities are weak. But Hexmarshal is a slow card that, when played on turn 6, is not even 50% likely to provide us with an immediate follow-up via a 5-mana spell that gets discounted to 0.
We could set up our plays to double Hexmarshal’s battlecry through Zee’s Might, but if we are playing a late-game-oriented Minion Shaman deck, there are more powerful battlecry minions that we would want to double and can more consistently win late game-matchups with.
Seems too slow for a fast deck and not consistent enough for a slow one.
Score: 1
Low Security Wing
This looks like a minion generator for a Mug’Zee Spell Shaman deck. For 1 mana, we can generate 3 minions that can be discounted by Mug’s Magic. Not a terrible deal, though the Shaman minion pool is not of high quality and many of them require synergies to best leverage.
The condition is a bit awkward as well, forcing us to spend mana on another card before we can drop the discounted minion. We do not think this location would suddenly become overpowered, or even remarkably strong, if the second sentence in its textbox was omitted. But it was likely done to prevent some unpleasant turn 1 high-rolls, so we understand the intention. A Spell Shaman deck will likely want as many minion generators as it can fit, but this location does not move the needle on what might be the archetype’s biggest weakness.
Score: 1
Stormfury
An AOE that only deals 2 damage to enemy minions is completely unplayable at 7 mana, but the minion version of this card is a different story in a Mug’Zee deck. Potentially, we are playing this minion on turn 5 and creating a big swing in both our lift total and the board.
The major criticism we have is that there is a big difference between 2 and 3 damage, which means Stormfury does not cleanly deal with a significant percentage of early-game threats. Regardless of whether it completely cleans up a board, it heals a bunch against board-flooding decks and develops a lifesteal body that is awkward to remove without topping our health.
With the final dedicated payoff for a Spell Shaman deck revealed, it has some decent tools to swing back against faster decks, but it has no real win condition in slower matchups. This keeps us pessimistic about its ability to compete.
Score: 1
Tiny Pal
Our dislike of 2-attack weapons is well-documented. A 2/3 weapon coming down on turn 2 is not good enough, so turn 4 requires the bonus effects on this weapon to be particularly powerful to convince us. Considering we have full control over the effect; we can judge each one based on scenarios and matchups where they are most useful.
The freeze effect seems weak for the cost. It can target the opponent’s face, which further increases the variance, even though it can be useful against weapon classes at times. Not something we would spend mana on, considering Glacial Shard is a card. Past comparisons with Flurry and Freezing Potion do not reflect well.
The flame effect is the strongest one in terms of responding to an enemy board, as it deals 3 damage to the primary target and 1 damage to the rest. There is a strong incentive to run Tiny Pal strictly for this effect in faster matchups.
The earth effect is even more generous. A random 3-drop is ‘worth’ about 2 mana. The taunt keyword is a little bit extra. The only issue is that we are swinging a 2-attack weapon, so this is a strong option in slow matchups when the opponent is passive and there is no urgency to clear a threat.
The lightning effect does not look great. The 2-mana discount already guarantees some value, but we must remember that the pool quality is low. Has synergy in both types of Mug’Zee decks but does not compare well with other minion generators. A late game option when we are only seeking value.
Shaman’s set encourages some deckbuilding restrictions, so having a playable weapon that can go in either a minion deck or a spell deck is nice. We do not think this card is going to be a top performer for the class, but it is serviceable at all stages of the game. Its main selling point is the value over time if we manage to use up all three charges.
Score: 3
Mug’Zee
A unique legendary that opens a path for Shaman to build two very different kinds of decks. Spell Shaman can take advantage of its hero power to outpace the opponent by generating minions. Minion Shaman has access to a “mini-Brann” effect where it can double the battlecry of a minion, but proper planning is required to leverage it.
Spell Shaman does seem to have strong tools to deny the opponent’s initiative, Mug’s Magic is another nod in that direction. It does not solve Spell Shaman’s potential weakness at closing out games against defensive-minded decks. Since it cannot play aggressively with any consistency, the absence of a closer may prove to be a problem.
Minion Shaman has a different problem. It has almost no card draw whatsoever. We would even say it is extremely reliant on doubling the effect of the neutral Getaway Hogdriver to be competitively viable.
An aggressive deck with a cheap curve will be able to activate the 5th battlecry more often, though it may not have quite the punch on that 5th minion. In this deck, Getaway Hogdriver is a good fit.
A more defensive deck has potential to leverage this hero power towards an intimidating late-game win condition. Battlecry minions represent the most common win conditions for decks, so the ability to double them at no extra mana cost cannot be underestimated. If Chrono-Lord Deios can make an impact at 7 mana, this should as well. However, card draw is a major issue as well as the awkward fit in Herald Shaman due to Deathwing, Muradin and Ritual of Power.
Considering the options Mug’Zee enables, it is reasonable to assume at least one of them will work out, but it may take another expansion or a class set to make it happen, as both directions currently seem flawed.
Score: 2
Final Thoughts
Violet Hold Set Rank: 9th
Overall Power Ranking: 6th
We are probably harsher on the Shaman set than others. After all, Mug’Zee is one of the most exciting rulebreakers in the set. But issues with both Mug and Zee emerge when you start building their decks.
Mug Shaman, or a Spell Shaman deck, is one that looks to outpace opponents through discounted, generated minions. That is good enough to win games in faster matchups, as aggressive decks lose when their pressure is nullified. But Mug Shaman’s late-game prowess is non-existent. It does not impose a “clock” on opponents, which means it needs to be the aggressor against opponents with stronger late-game plans. Successfully pressuring such an opponent, who is more defensively sound, with a deck built around spells, is not an easy goal to meet.
Zee Shaman has a different issue. It lacks card draw, which means it needs to rely on Getaway Hogdriver and other weaker options. If it has late-game ambitions, it is hard to look past Herald Shaman due to some of its powerful battlecry minions. But Herald Shaman without spells is a limited deck that needs to make big sacrifices. We are not sure this is a worthwhile tradeoff. And if we decide to build Zee Shaman aggressively, its battlecry hero power is nowhere near as strong.
Shaman’s other promising card is Gallagio Goon. This 1-drop could help establish new aggressive strategies in the class, so we would look to that direction as well for potential developments.
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