Articles

Corey Burkhart

Aggro decks have always been my passion. Since taking down the NACC back in 2009, I've loved playing my aggro decks when they've been good enough, and with Crown of the Heavens there are so many good ones. Even when I think I've found the end of the aggro decks I discover a new possibility and begin building new decks around other aggressive cards! This week that pride for beating down my opponents took me back to my Shaman roots.

Shaman was not on my radar of decks to be playing as an aggro deck after seeing the preview cards. I'm a fan of Earthquake, but it kills my allies along with my opponent's allies, which is where you do not want to be when trying to smashing your opponent with allies. Despite that, I believe Shaman has some huge potential as an aggro deck for a few reasons, the first of which is the hero flip from Akumo of Thunder Bluff. Akumo of Thunder Bluff allows your allies a second attempt at an attack, and in the deck I'm going to share with everyone today, has some other nifty tools.

Those other nifty tools include my favorite ally from Twilight of the Dragons, Gerwixicks. With the addition of Akumo of Thunder Bluff's hero flip, any fire ally with Gerwixicks in play leads to Assault 2 for the hero, more than enough to finish off most opposing early game threats. This leads to huge tempo advantages for the deck where it can run away with the game against almost every deck out there. Before I go too much further talking about awesome combos this deck has, here's the Akumo of Thunder Bluff aggro deck.

Hero: Akumo of Thunder Bluff

Allies: 34
4 Waz'luk
4 Rosalyne von Erantor
4 Jadefire Scout
4 Gerwixicks
4 Dagax the Butcher
2 Thespius Bloodblaze
4 Kalam'ti
4 Sava'gin the Reckless
4 Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen

Abilities: 14
3 Ancestral Purge
4 Rolling Thunder
3 Ancestral Recovery
4 Essence of Focus

Locations: 4
4 Kor'kron Vanguard

Quests: 8
4 Seeds of Their Demise
4 If You're Not Against Us . . .

I built this deck not because the idea of Akumo of Thunder Bluff and Gerwixicks is awesome, but because of Essence of Focus. I was looking around at the decks from the Metamart 3k in Phoenix and at decks that writers were talking about on various websites, and almost every deck shared one thing in common, they were soft to Elusive allies. Since Heroes of Azeroth, Elusive has been one of if not the best keyword an ally can have to ensure it survives a turn. Especially in this current format, where most decks revolve around numerous allies, Essence of Focus really shines, and it keeps all your aggressive allies alive long enough to finish the opponent off. The card protects your Gerwixicks from possible harm, and can turn your Rosalyne von Erantor into a Commander Ulthok sized threat as early as turn 2! However, to create a position where we can play Essence of Focus on turn 2, we need some cheap Mage allies in the deck that also deal fire damage to combo with Gerwixicks!

Thankfully, one of the elements Mages use is fire! There are plenty of awesome Mage allies that deal fire damage, the most obvious one for this deck being Waz'luk. When I initially made the deck I was not pleased to be playing Waz'luk instead of something like Onnekra Bloodfang, but after a bunch of games Waz'luk has been awesome even when the deck doesn't draw Essence of Focus. Even when the opponent has protectors like Telor Sunsurge or Lordann the Bloodreaver in the way, Waz'luk like Rosaylne von Erantor have the ability when they enter play to trigger your Gerwixicks for Assault 1 on your hero. The other common Mage ally, Thespius Bloodblaze is something I've been looking to replace. I like the fact that Thespius has Elusive, which helps against decks that are already short on abilities or allies that can target and deal damage, but he's not powerful enough for his cost. Also the fact that the Thespius costs two also prevents the turn 2 Essence of Focus draws which are extremely powerful, and lead to numerous, effortless wins with the deck. Despite that, I still do like Thespius Bloodblaze, but I could see replacing him for a different fire ally, possibly something as simple as Ian Lanstrick that punishes opponents with lots of quests.

Despite how those two Mages get the ball rolling, the real powerhouse is the one that costs three. Kalam'ti is possibly the best ally in the deck. With the help of effects from Gerwixicks, Kor'kron Vanguard, and occasionally Ancestral Purge among many other cards, Kalam'ti is generally a one sided Engulfing Blaze. This deck is not full of abilities to kill allies, but Kalam'ti does it all on his own. I've been very impressed by Kalam'ti, and have been testing him out recently in many of my other decks that could use an effect like his, but in this deck he is also great as a simple Blistering Fire to the opponent. In testing I feel like this is the most important card in the deck to take out opposing aggressive draws while also leaving yourself enough allies to finish off the opposing hero. This card really does it all, and I'm super excited that Kalam'ti deals fire damage.

There were three reasons I built this deck, and while one of those was fire damage allies, the second was actually Rolling Thunder. The card has not had a lot of love since it was printed in Worldbreaker, but it is a card I've been really fond of lately to fight the Devout Aurastone Hammer and Etched Dragonbone Girdle decks. While the ability starts out as a poor man's Lighting Bolt, it quickly turns into a giant burn ability. Nearly every deck has some sort of equipment in it right now, and those decks are punished for playing their powerful equipment thanks to Rolling Thunder. In combination with Dagax the Butcher and Akumo's hero flip, I've found Rolling Thunder to be the perfect way to finish off a game, while also being a perfectly fine way to kill opposing allies when you have a slow draw which come few and far between in this deck.

The biggest reason to play this deck is the resources. Count them, since there are really 20 once you include Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen and Sava'gin the Reckless as resources. Of late, I've had very few draws in all of my decks where I'm contemplating which one of my face-up resources to play on turn 4 and turn 5. In this deck you spend most of your time thinking about which one of your resources to place face-up! It wasn't until I started playing matches with the deck after building it did I realize how difficult it was to choose which turn to resource my Seeds of Their Demise because in other decks I was so used to using them on turn 2 to set up my next couple of turns! In this deck though, each quest, Stash effect, and location is essential to the deck's victory.

Even a quest with a simple effect like If You're Not Against Us . . . has a game of planning and timing built into it that I never knew about before. Early on in the game, the opponent will generally just take the three points of damage because you are spending time completing the quest rather than applying pressure with more allies. Likewise, later on in the game, the opponent will generally allow you to draw a card because they need to preserve what little health their hero has remaining. The middle of the game is where If You're Not Against Us . . . really shines and brings out its true power because you can manage it into using your Kor'kron Vanguards and playing your additional Waz'luks to push through, or draw cards to your liking.

For example, when you want to draw a card off of If You're Not Against Us . . . you generally want to add as much damage to the opponent's hero as possible. This lets them believe they are under increasing duress, and taking three points of damage off of a quest will generally spell doom for them, and they'd rather take their chances against a random card off the top of your deck. On the other side, if you want the opponent to take three points of damage from the quest, I recommend doing it before you attack or play any cards because it makes your turn look less threatening.

I've been so excited to play this deck, and even though the deck looks like it has some silly cards in it, I recommend you play some games with it before you simply bash the deck. I've been crushing Devout Aurastone Hammer decks and Demon aggro decks with it consistently, and it still has game against the Harmonize decks I've come across. Give Shaman a shot at a Battleground or Realm Championship Qualifier this week and let me know what you think of the deck in the forums!

-Corey

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