The Comprehensive The Great Dark Beyond Preview

Data Reaper Report - Shaman

First Contact

First Contact is a Shaman Common Spell for 1 Mana and has text - Summon two random 1-Cost minions. Overload: (1)

Summoning two bodies on turn 1 is a very good way to pressure the opponent, or fight for board to deny them initiative. This is one of the strongest turn 1 plays in the format in terms of stat output. However, when we’re looking at the stats for cost ratio, First Contact isn’t that great. Summoning a random 1-drop is worth less than 1 mana, so we’re paying a total of 2 mana to summon 2. Unless we have another 1-drop to play on turn 2 with the overloaded mana crystal, we might end up falling behind.

This is why we favor this card in an aggressive deck, such as Evolve Shaman, rather than a slower strategy. Late game Shaman strategies have a lot of turn 2 plays, so overloading ourselves on turn 1 could prove to be problematic. In contrast, faster decks have more 1-mana plays, which makes a turn 2 overload less disruptive to their curve.

We’re confident that First Contact will be played by Shaman decks that value early game initiative, such as Evolve or Pirate Shaman. It’s also a good setup card for Wave of Nostalgia.

Score: 3

Ultraviolet Breaker

Ultraviolet Breaker is a Shaman Common Elemental Minion for 3 Mana with 3 Attack, 2 Health and has text - Battlecry: Deal 3 damage to an enemy minion. Shuffle 3 Asteroids into your deck.

This 3-drop seems to offer a lot for its cost. A 3-damage effect on a minion is worth slightly less than 2 mana. A 3/2 is also worth slightly less than 2 mana. Add the shuffle effect and this card is objectively 1 mana cheaper than it could have been. A good comparison is Flanking Strike, which was a strong turn 4 play in the Hunter class.

This is a guaranteed inclusion in Elemental Shaman. It’s an elemental that doesn’t break our chain, while helping us get ahead by answering an early game minion. Whether a greater focus on asteroids will be a successful game plan remains to be seen, but we don’t think Breaker’s competitive prospects are reliant on its asteroid synergies.

Score: 3

Cosmonaut

Cosmonaut is a Shaman Common Draenei Minion for 7 Mana with 5 Attack, 5 Health and has text - Battlecry: Discover a spell from your deck. Reduce its Cost by (5).

An expensive minion, but one that carries a massive potential discount on a spell. The obvious target here is Nebula, while the Draenei tag opens the possibility of a discounted swing turn. Planetary Navigator discounts Cosmonaut to 5 mana. A turn 5 Cosmonaut that discovers Nebula leaves us with 2 overloaded mana crystals on turn 6 and a 4-mana Nebula. The intention here is clear.

Another possible target for Cosmonaut is Frosty Décor, which can be discounted to 0-mana and played on the same turn. However, this doesn’t affect the timing in which we can play Frosty Décor. We can play it on turn 5 without the help of Cosmonaut. The only benefit of the play is a free 5/5. Usually, plays that don’t affect cheat timings aren’t worth building around this aggressively. The powerful thing we want to do is to play Nebula on turn 6.

This means that for Cosmonaut to be effective, our deck needs to accommodate it to always find Nebula. This hints at a Big-Spell Shaman style of deck, running a maximum of 3 spells and a dense minion curve, similarly to the Surfalopod variant of Big-Spell Mage.

Can it work? This direction does have potential, but this doesn’t leave Cosmonaut with other options to compete with, so we consider it to be a fringe card that is exclusive to a very specific style. Its play rate is tied to the success of one archetype.

Score: 2

Planetary Navigator

Planetary Navigator is a Shaman Rare Draenei Minion for 2 Mana with 3 Attack, 2 Health and has text - Battlecry: The next Draenei you play costs (2) less, but has Overload: (2).

Cosmonaut’s enabler should be one of the most important cards in a Nebula Shaman deck, but in contrast to the 7-drop, this card has a couple of other important applications in the deck. One is the ability to discount Farseer Nobundo, allowing us to drop the legendary on turn 3. The other is Lunar Trailblazer, which can also be dropped on turn 3 and discount Nebula to 3 mana.

Navigator could theoretically be included in a more tribal, Draenei Shaman deck, but our impression is that such an archetype has not received much support. The key Draenei minions in the class do not promote aggression.

So, we believe that Navigator’s fate is still tied to the single archetype it promotes, and it’s unlikely that we’ll see the card outside of the context of a Nebula Shaman.

Score: 2

Triangulate

Triangulate is a Shaman Rare Spell for 2 Mana and has text - Discover a different spell from your deck. Shuffle 3 copies of it into your deck.

Remember that 1-mana spells that discover a spell are not good unless they carry important synergies. For a 2-mana spell with such an effect, the synergy needs to be particularly powerful to be worthwhile. We don’t think a normal, resource-focused Shaman deck will run Triangulate, as it has more efficient ways of generating value. The shuffle effect could also prove to be a hindrance to the deck as it approaches the late game and attempts to find its win conditions.

This does hint to where Triangulate’s purpose lies. The spell discovered needs to be the win condition and finding it needs to be consistent. We believe this is the second spell that Nebula Shaman will run, allowing the deck to tutor Nebula for Lunar Trailblazer, while shuffling extra copies for Cosmonaut to find. This also makes Hagatha the Fabled a potential inclusion in the deck.

Another use for Triangulate is in an asteroid deck. In this scenario, Triangulate activates an asteroid, draws a card and shuffles 3 asteroids. For 2-mana, this effect seems a bit weak, especially when we’re limited in the number of spells we can run in the deck. However, this effect could scale thanks to Bolide Behemoth. Furthermore, we could use Triangulate to shuffle additional eruptions from Incindius.

Seems useful enough in two clear pathways that the set directly promotes.

Score: 3

Meteor Storm

Meteor Storm is a Shaman Rare Nature Spell for 6 Mana and has text - Deal 5 damage to all minions. Shuffle 5 Asteroids into your deck.

A 6 mana symmetrical AOE that deals 5 damage is on par with similar effects in the past. Meteor Storm carries the bonus of shuffling 5 asteroids to our deck, which is the highest number of asteroids shuffled by a single card in the set.

Besides acting as a serviceable AOE effect for a defensive minded deck, admittedly one that somewhat competes with the stronger Tumbleweed, we think this spell could potentially enable an OTK style deck centered on asteroids.

The key is Hagatha the Fabled, which can draw and turn the card into a battlecry Slime. Shudderblock/Slime shuffles 15 asteroids to our deck in one go, which can be drawn by a Gaslight Gatekeeper on the same turn with the help of Murmur/Mini-Shudderblock. Meteor Storm deals 15 damage to the board, which means all asteroids will be hitting the opponent’s face. Shudder and Parrot Sanctuary enable this combo further.

Combo 1: Shudderblock on turn 7. Sanctuary in place. Turn 8. Slime/Mini-Block/Gatekeeper.

Combo 2: Sanctuary in place. Turn 10. Murmur/Shudderblock/Slime for 6 mana (Murmur dies, one charge is left on the location) then Mini-Block/Gatekeeper for 4 mana.

This combo deals 45 damage to the opponent’s hero if we played Bolide Behemoth this game. 60 damage if we played both copies. No need to shuffle other asteroids before this turn.

This looks like a serious win condition for Shaman with strong signs of reliability.

Score: 4

Bolide Behemoth

Bolide Behemoth is a Shaman Epic Elemental Minion for 4 Mana with 3 Attack, 6 Health and has text - Battlecry: Your Asteroids deal 1 more damage this game. Spellburst: Shuffle 3 of them into your deck.

Behemoth scales our asteroid’s damage, while carrying a spellburst that shuffles them into the deck. This spellburst makes Behemoth a bit awkward in Elemental Shaman, an archetype that barely runs spells, to the point Magatha is a strong card in the deck. We don’t think adding spells to the deck is a great move either, as the archetype is very reliant on a consistent minion curve to be successful. If we only judge the card by its battlecry, it seems like a very slow card for the deck.

The place of interest for the card may not be Elemental Shaman, with Behemoth’s elemental tag possibly acting as a red herring. The combo-centric asteroid deck we just previously mentioned looks to make one big play that shuffles asteroids and draws them in the same turn, killing the opponent in the process.

For that purpose, Behemoth is a valuable setup tool to ramp up the damage of the asteroids before we execute the kill turn, to the point even armor stacking Warriors will struggle to outlast it. You can think of Behemoth as a spell-damage minion, but one we can play at any stage of the game for it to count in the end.

Score: 3

Nebula

Nebula is a Shaman Epic Arcane Spell for 9 Mana and has text - Discover two 8-Cost minions to summon with Taunt and Elusive.

Half of the Shaman set, we suspect, has been built to utilize this spell. At first glance, Nebula looks like a powerful late game card when we compare it to similar cards of the past, such as Drakefire Amulet or Arcane Defenders. Based on the 8-mana minion pool, we’re almost guaranteed to find 8/8 bodies. Giving those minions taunt and elusive makes them extremely difficult to remove, while turning them into massive defensive roadblocks that an aggressive deck will struggle to get through.

Nebula does require extensive support to become a viable win condition. We don’t think the card can be normally played in any typical late game strategy. By turn 9-10, every slower strategy in the format will typically have an effective answer to the minions we summon (Yogg, Reska, Reno, Aman’Thul etc.). For Nebula to be strong, it needs to be cheated out by Lunar Trailblazer and Cosmonaut or copied by Farseer Nobundo. Otherwise, no deal.

Score: 2

Farseer Nobundo

Farseer Nobundo is a Shaman Legendary Draenei Minion for 5 Mana with 6 Attack, 4 Health and has text - Deathrattle: Open the Galaxy's Lens. It absorbs the power of the next spell you cast.

A 6/4 body for 5 is quite slow, but Nobundo has a powerful deathrattle that summons a legendary location to the board. This location has a spellburst that ‘absorbs’ the power of the spell that triggers it, storing the spell we played inside a location charge.

Getting to play two charges of a spell for “free” sounds like a very powerful ability if it’s activated by a high value spell. Nebula is an obvious example of a spell that can become oppressively powerful inside The Galaxy’s Lens. Meteor Storm is another we can use to repeatedly clear the board while shuffling more damage to our deck. Frosty Décor can help us gain a lot of armor and stabilize against aggression.

The Galaxy’s Lens is a location that’s inherently worth a lot of mana, easily making up for the initial cost of Nobundo. Considering that its usage isn’t heavily restricted by deckbuilding consideration, we suspect Nobundo will find its way to a slower Shaman strategy.

Score: 3

Murmur

Murmur is a Shaman Legendary Elemental Minion for 6 Mana with 6 Attack, 6 Health and has text - Your Battlecry minions cost (1), but immediately die after being played.

Murmur is one of the scariest cards in the expansion. The legendary carries a static aura that reduces the cost of all battlecry minions to 1 mana, with the caveat that they die after entering play.

Murmur is a central enabler card, one that can allow for crazy plays. Essentially, we’re converting minions into 1-mana battlecry effects. Many win conditions in the game are usually tied to a battlecry minion, so to have the effect massively discounted, while opening the possibilities of chaining multiple battlecry minions together, is an enticing deckbuilding direction.

For example, we can play Murmur alongside Shudderblock and Kalimos to deal 18 damage for 8 mana. We can insert Alexstrasza to the combo to OTK the opponent, armor permitting. Murmur enables a possible OTK with asteroids, which we’ve mentioned earlier. It can also combo with Hagatha Slimes that cast Nebula, or any other spell.

The list of possibilities is long and should be updated with every expansion. There is simply no way, no shot, no chance in hell, that Murmur doesn’t become a meta defining late game component for the class. Its combo with Ceaseless Expanse alone is gross. Yes, Murmur/Expanse costs 6 mana. No, Ceaseless Expanse doesn’t die, as it kills Murmur first. 6 mana 15/15 destroy all minions sounds… relevant.

Score: 4

Final Thoughts

The Great Dark Beyond Set Rank: 3rd

Overall Power Ranking:  3rd

Shaman has enjoyed incredible class diversity during its time in Perils in Paradise, to the point it had so many competitive decks that the player base couldn’t even handle them all. This may not change going into the next expansion, as Shaman is receiving another impressive set. We must applaud Team 5 for knocking it out of the park with the class’ design over the last year.

The Asteroid package looks versatile enough to go into different decks. Elemental Shaman, which has fallen to the wayside, could make its return following an injection of power to the tribe. This archetype’s late game is vastly improved, capable of dealing a sizeable amount of burst damage.

Meteor Storm is promising both as a source of AOE and an outright nuke. We see two ways to go about a late game oriented asteroid strategy. We can lean harder into an OTK direction, in which we shuffle a high number of asteroids in one turn thanks to Shudderblock, then instantly draw them. Alternatively, we can run the full package of asteroid shufflers in order to wear down the opponent with Triangulate and Incindius.

We suspect Murmur will be a massive addition to Shaman’s late game strategies. This isn’t just because of its OTK potential, which may prove to be less important, but its combo with The Ceaseless Expanse. For 6 mana, we get to fully clear the board and develop a 15/15? This is a game ending play in so many matchups that we’re a bit surprised it’s allowed!

Our expectations of a Nebula Shaman deck with a Draenei package aren’t too high. The deck may prove to be too gimmicky, but if it works out, or gets more support down the road, we can see it attracting a sizeable audience due to its playstyle.

With a long list of potential competitive options, it’s hard to see Shaman falling flat. This set does not add too much to the faster playstyles available to the class but could turn it into a late game powerhouse. Its most well-known weakness… may turn into its strength.

2 Comments

  1. So Yrel can’t give the Libram of Judgment, 7 mana weapon? Then text on this card is misleading and deceptive.

    • I believe the “timeline” wording is supposed to be what implies it’s only the ashes librams.
      Timeline > set, so she only gives the cards that shared a set.

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