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Welcome to my new regular series on Daily Metagame. Shockingly, my focus will be on Constructed. Maybe one day I'll submit a Limited article just to spite my editor, but for now I'm going stick to my speciality: building decks.
This week we are going to look at Hammer Shaman, the deck that got me a Top 8 finish at DMF Madrid and the deck that got Russell Lindberg a Top 16 finish at the NACC.
Hero: [Samaku, Hand of the Tempest]
Allies: 26
4 [Erunak Stonespeaker]
3 [Gnash]
4 [Farseer Nobundo]
4 [Mazu'kon]
4 [Sava'gin the Reckless]
4 [Edwin Vancleef]
3 [Zudzo, Herald of the Elements]
Abilities: 18
4 [Frost Arc]
4 [Cleanse Spirit]
2 [Spiritual Return]
4 [Blazing Elemental Totem]
4 [Tidal Totem]
Equipment: 10
4 [Venerable Mass of McGowan]
4 [Devout Aurastone Hammer]
2 [Abomination Knuckles]
Locations: 3
3 [Throne of the Tides]
Quests: 3
3 [Seeds of their Demise]
While new cards are very tempting to dive into, I'm going to look at changes I'd make right now based on play experience. This is an important part of deck building. Once you've played a deck at an event, you can see which cards are good and which aren't worth the card slots.
In this case I found that [Edwin VanCleef] was rather underpowered. While in theory you can play him quickly as a threat, in practice I played him in the resource row most of the time and when I did play him as an ally, he was underwhelming. This is because against aggressive decks he takes a turn to have any effect, and often he's just trading with an opposing Edwin after you've already taken 7 damage. [Devout Aurastone Hammer] rewards us for playing four drops, so we'd like to replace Edwin with another four cost ally.
After some searching, I decided on [Gispax the Mixologist]. He can search up powerful late game plays or just more Stash cards for resources if you already have enough [Mazu'kon]s. He also makes [Spiritual Return] better and generally makes the deck flow better. He can be a bit awkward against [Grumdak, Herald of the Hunt] but even in that case you can still search up [Zudzo, Herald of the Elements] to keep pace with their cards, and you can afford to lose some card advantage in order to get to the late game where you have the more powerful cards. I also added an [Al'Akir the Windlord] so that you have the option of playing a seven drop.
While it is useful to consider old cards, it is far more interesting to look at all the crazy new Tomb of the Forgotten cards we could play. The one that caught my eye first is [Lor'themar Theron, Regent Lord]. He is another very powerful six drop and will take over the game very rapidly. He also provides direct card advantage, letting us replace [Farseer Nobundo] with something that will always work. On an equal board. He is very difficult to deal with too. Either they have an answer in hand or they will never be able to remove him, as you can play any answer they would draw off the top of their deck.
It is important to not go overboard when adding new cards as you could utterly change the focus of the deck by doing so. You want to try out new cards one at a time, if possible, so you can directly compare them. While there are a number of other powerful big allies in Tomb, we need to consider what the deck as a whole needs. You gain a large amount of advantage by powering out an expensive ally faster then you would otherwise be able to. Lor'themar then gives you an endless stream of extra cards for you to play, meaning your hammer will always be useful. There is a real danger with this type of deck that you will draw a small number of real threats, so one that creates more threats is very valuable.Drawing more cards also increases the chances of you assembling the combo of [Blazing Elemental Totem] and [Erunak Stonespeaker].
That said, there are a few other powerful allies that have caught my eye and if they aren't quite right for this deck, then maybe they are for other decks. [Galvano the Beast Lord] is a very large ally and gives you a lot of different options. He can generate card advantage by creating two allies and has the option of netting you more cards with the cunning monkey option. I also like [Lockmaw] as this deck is lacking in direct removal. You have [Sava'gin the Reckless] and fire elementals from [Blazing Elemental Totem] to do small amounts of damage to enable Lockmaw's effect.
Overall this is what I'd play right now in the new format, but of course it is possible there are other new cards that are worth testing.
Hero: [Samaku, Hand of the Tempest]
Allies: 26
4 [Erunak Stonespeaker]
3 [Gnash]
1 [Farseer Nobundo]
4 [Mazu'kon]
4 [Sava'gin the Reckless]
3 [Gispax the Mixologist]
3 [Lor'themar Theron, Regent Lord]
1 [Al'Akir the Windlord]
3 [Zudzo, Herald of the Elements]
Abilities: 18
4 [Frost Arc]
4 [Cleanse Spirit]
2 [Spiritual Return]
4 [Blazing Elemental Totem]
4 [Tidal Totem]
Equipment: 10
4 [Venerable Mass of McGowan]
4 [Devout Aurastone Hammer]
2 [Abomination Knuckles]
Locations: 3
3 [Throne of the Tides]
Quests: 3
3 [Seeds of their Demise]
Lastly, here is some advice on how to play the deck in general. You want to mulligan for the hammer in pretty much every matchup. The deck is very good at playing it on turn 2 if you focus on digging for it. You see 17/18 cards by turn 2 this way, plus you have more chances to find it with any copies of [Seeds of Their Demise] that you draw. The only real exception to this rule is when you have very good defensive hands against aggressive decks. For example, [Venerable Mass of McGowan] plus [Tidal Totem] is pretty good on the play when backed up by other cards.
Don't focus too heavily on trying to combo people out with [Erunak Stonespeaker] and [Blazing Elemental Totem], but be aware that you can play one, have it die, then use [Spiritual Return] to play both halves in the same turn. Also if you draw a large number of Stash cards, you can sometimes use hammer to play both out in the same turn as well.
Against any aggressive deck, you have the superior late game, so in the early game your priority should be survival. This means trading off your allies with theirs rather than trying to race. Using Erunak as a 5/5 Protector is fine, as you can easily win by just having more high cost allies. Against more controlling decks, it is more complicated. You have an advantage in the mid game from your cheap large allies but you need to capitalize on this. It depends a lot if they are out-drawing you with something. If Death Knight has [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] online, then you need to finish the game before you get buried, but if they haven't drawn it or you destroyed it, then you can play more for the late game.
That is all for this week. Next week I'm going to look at a totally new deck from Tomb of the Forgotten. If anyone has any questions about this deck, I'll be happy to answer them in the forums.
-Stuart
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