Shaman Crafting Guide
Table of Contents
On this page, you will find a list of the most useful Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary cards for the Shaman class, in terms of crafting. We separate cards by their rarity; Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary, but each individual card is given a rating of priority. It is important to know that a Rare or Epic card that is given a "High" or "Top" priority rating should be crafted before a Legendary with a "Medium" rating. In fact, if you have 1,600 Arcane Dust to spend, crafting 2 or 3 Epics and a handful of Rares is usually better than spending it all on a single Legendary. If a card is not mentioned, you can safely assume that it is rarely, or never, used in the Constructed meta.
You will also find a guide on how to best allocate your gold or money between the various Card packs and Adventures. This can vary greatly from class to class and has a great effect on how quickly and efficiently you can build a competitive deck.
Class-Specific Cards
In this section, we list the class-specific cards that are important for you as a Shaman.
Commons
- Walking Fountain - Priority = HIGH: Walking Fountain is an excellent late-game defensive card that is an excellent combination of removal and healing.
- Lightning Bolt - Priority = MEDIUM: Lightning Bolt serves as a cheap removal spell and doubles up as a burst finisher for many Shaman decks.
- Rain of Toads - Priority = MEDIUM: Rain of Toads regularly sees play in a range of Shaman decks, for both its offensive ability to create multiple minions and the defensive ability of the minions' Taunt effects.
- Soul of the Murloc - Priority = LOW: Soul of the Murloc is a cheap card that helps provide a layer of resilience for wide boards. It is used it most aggressive Shaman decks as it is an excellent tool for setting up Bloodlust.
Rares
- Sludge Slurper - Priority = TOP: Sludge Slurper is a very powerful minion used in both Aggro and Control decks due to the flexibility of the Lackeys it creates.
- Lightning Storm - Priority = HIGH: Lightning Storm is your key AoE tool for catching up on the board when you fall behind. However, it is less essential for proactive Shaman decks that aim to dominate the board from start to finish.
- Hagatha's Scheme - Priority = HIGH: Hagatha's Scheme is an essential card for slower Shaman decks. When held for long enough, it provides a board clear for larger boards that cannot be reached with Lightning Storm.
- Likkim - Priority = LOW: Likkim is a cheap weapon that pairs well with Overload effects. It can be used both offensively to deal up to 9 damage, or defensively to control the board.
Epics
- Muckmorpher - Priority = LOW: Muckmorpher is a niche minion that is essential for Big Shaman decks. However, it sees no play elsewhere.
Legendaries
- Hagatha the Witch - Priority = TOP: Hagatha is a high-value Legendary providing a mix of board control and value. It can be used as a win condition in slower decks due to the huge value it can offer over time.
- Shudderwock - Priority = LOW: Shudderwock is a key card for certain Shaman decks that aim use it as a finisher after several key Battlecry effects have been used prior. However, it is not used often outside of decks built around the card.
- Al'Akir the Windlord - Priority = LOW: Al'Akir is a flexible card used in many Shaman decks. It is commonly used as a finisher due to having the Charge and Windfury effects and its wide range of attributes makes it a great activator for Corpsetaker.
- Swampqueen Hagatha - Priority = LOW: Swampqueen Hagatha is a high-value card that can be used in slower decks. However, it is considered an optional addition rather than an essential card.
Neutral Cards
In this section, we list neutral cards that are always good to craft if you are playing Shaman. Note that many of these cards will be usable in a wide range of decks across multiple classes. This means that crafting these cards over class specific ones is often a good idea if you plan to play a range of classes.
Commons
There are currently no neutral Commons that are played in common Shaman decks.
Rares
- Murloc Tastyfin - Priority = LOW: Murloc Tastyfin is a strong card draw tool specifically used in Murloc Shaman decks.
Epics
- Magic Carpet - Priority = LOW: Magic Carpet is often used in hyper-aggressive Shaman decks to empower cheap minions, such as Murlocs and Lackeys.
- Sea Giant - Priority = LOW: Sea Giant has great synergy with Shaman's ability to flood the board. It is a solid addition to Shaman decks, but often a stylistic choice.
Legendaries
- Zilliax - Priority = LOW: Zilliax is a widely used defensive tool used in all classes and regularly sees play in Control Shaman decks.
Gold Allocation Guide
Pack Type
The Witchwood expansion was fairly generous towards the Shaman class. It provided many powerful Legendaries such as Shudderwock and Hagatha the Witch. However, it provided very few non-Legendary minions. As a result, it is better to craft these cards with dust and use your gold on other expansions instead.
The Boomsday Project was a very poor expansion for the Shaman class. It provided no new commonly used Shaman cards, with the exception of Giggling Inventor which is used across all classes. You should avoid investing in Boomsday Project card packs if you wish to improve your Shaman collection.
The Rastakhan's Rumble expansion provided a lot of spell support for Shaman, such as Rain of Toads, Spirit of the Frog, Krag'wa, the Frog, Zentimo, and Haunting Visions. However, most of the cards added are not commonly used in Shaman decks.
The Rise of Shadows expansion provided a huge boost for Shaman. It added Control cards like Walking Fountain and Hagatha's Scheme in addition to Aggro tools like Soul of the Murloc and Underbelly Angler, making it one of the best expansions for Shaman to date.
Overall, it is good focus on Classic and Rise of Shadows card packs. Classic packs contain many key Shaman tools, such as Lightning Bolt and Lightning Storm, while Rise of Shadows provides cards like Sludge Slurper and Hagatha's Scheme, all of which are very commonly used Shaman cards.
Changelog
- 05 May 2019: Updated for the Rise of Shadows expansion.
- 20 Sep. 2018: Updated for The Boomsday Project expansion.
- 31 May 2018: Updated for the Witchwood expansion.
- 10 Jan. 2018: Updated for the Kobolds and Catacombs expansion.
- 04 May 2017: Updated for the Journey to Un'Goro expansion.
- 21 Feb. 2017: Updated to reflect the changes in MSG meta.
- 02 Sep. 2015: Updated to include Blackrock Mountain and The Grand Tournament cards.
- 21 Feb. 2015: Complete overhaul in format, and update for the Goblins vs. Gnomes meta.
- 08 Sep. 2014: Removed Tinkmaster Overspark.
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