Hydration Totem
An early-game totem with some snowballing potential. In theory, we can see it being utilized in any type of board-centric aggressive deck. In practice, we’re not convinced it makes the cut in a deck like Pirate Shaman, which is stacked with powerful options. Death Knight should also have better things to do.
The best synergy it has is with Murloc Growfin and Pop-Up Book. We’re also not fans of how useless it is when we’re behind though, as totems tend to be. Perhaps, in the far distant future, Totem Shaman will come back, and players will want to play it. Until then, we expect it to sit in our collections.
Score: 1
Icecrown Brochure (Blackrock Brochure)
Dealing 3 damage to a minion for 2 mana is weak. The freeze bonus sweetens the pill, but the effect is not guaranteed to matter. When we compare Icecrown/Blackrock Brochure to a simple spell such as Drain Soul, it doesn’t seem to come out well for this Brochure.
Blackrock Brochure is sort of a mini-Swipe. Once again, effects that target adjacent minions are hard to perfectly leverage. The switch between Brochures also makes the effect less reliable.
We are only guaranteed to be able to deal 3 damage to a minion. This spell has cute synergy with spell schools, but we think both Shaman and Death Knight already have better options in these pools. We’re not that desperate for more options to fuel Razzle-Dazzler.
Score: 1
Turbulus
It’s important to remember that a deck cannot run two Tourists, so Shaman decks need to make a choice between Turbulus and Cookie. For any faster Shaman deck, it’s an easy decision: Cookie is mandatory.
Where Turbulus could become relevant is in slower Shaman decks, where the Demon Hunter set is not an important pool of cards to tap into. Just last week, Reno Shaman started to cut the Demon Hunter Tourist package.
Reno Shaman has great interest in battlecry minions. The Hunter set provides access to some synergies with battlecries, such as Sasquawk, Chatty Macaw and Parrot Sanctuary. Furious Fowls and Death Roll could be interesting options to run with Hagatha.
Turbulus itself isn’t a particularly powerful standalone card. The stats could matter over a long, drawn-out game, but it clearly isn’t at the level of Skyla when it comes to immediate, potentially game-winning impact.
We expect to see this card heavily experimented with in Reno Shaman, or in other slower strategies in the future, where Cookie’s inclusion is not important.
Score: 3
Final Thoughts: This should be a quiet mini-set for Shaman, which is fortunately blessed with tons of competitive strategies already. Reno Shaman with Turbulus could be interesting as the archetype is desperate for more late game power. Death Knight is unlikely to care about the two Shaman cards available to it.
