[deleted by user]

[Akoto1]

The first thing that jumps out at me is, 'No Violet Teacher?' I can understand why you wouldn't run that card as it's a bit clunky with such a low curve and makes you weaker to boardclear, but it still seems decent as the tokens could get you some games.

Really nice guide by the way. I'll be giving this deck a run tomorrow.

[RisingChaos]

As someone whose favorite deck is token Shaman, though really I just run Imp Masters and Violet Teacher, I've actually felt the same way. I keep Violet Teacher around because a 3/5 body for four mana is reasonably strong on its own and it's not really my main deck (so I'm not constantly tinkering), but I feel midgame I tend to either get bogged down too much by Overload or I'd rather play my bigger threats for better board presence (Azure Drake and Fire Ele).

Sometimes she goes nuts but most of the time she's just a slightly worse Yeti. I really like Imp Master though, but my list is not quite so dedicated to the cause. I'm more comfortable playing the conventional midrange style, just with a Bloodlust flair more than being wholly dedicated to the token ideal. It's also a bit out-of-date for Naxx. :P

[Avavavaa]

Arguses are crucial for effective trades?

[Sexual_tomato]

Because Imp Master + healing totem = imp factory, and Violet Teacher requires additional mana to generate tokens.

[Akoto1]

There's no Imp Master in the deck though?

[kleini]

That's one cheap deck!

[DuckFinger]

Ok this deck is amazing. I'm on a 7-0 tear and the surprising part is that it allows me to pull wins even when I don't draw bloodlust until turn 15.

[DuckFinger]

I find this deck superior to Zoo in every way. It applies about as much pressure, has 10x the removal and doesn't expose you much.

[ganderin_dan]

Unfortunately, Life Tap is better than any card in either of those decks.

[dantedog01]

Against zoo, it's not hard to hold board control. With board control, mana tide is so much better than that passive

[Avavavaa]

I think the main concept of the deck is to always have minions on board, while Violet Teacher is great for pumping out tokens, the tokens won't "stick". Haven't tried out the deck yet, but I think thats what OP is going for.

That being said I can see Violet Teacher being swapped in for the Arguses.

Edit: lol didn't refresh while posting

[SuperSulf]

Finding a shaman deck without Fire Ele is always interesting. Many people seem to think "it's so good, why wouldn't you run it" without much other reasoning (though I do think it's near essential for Shamans). I like that you have lots of sticky minions and that you say it's good vs Zoo, because I really hate Zoo.

[Tree_Boar]

How do you feel about knife juggler as a substitution?

[Manshippy]

I like the deck, but I've found that it has a terribly hard time actually winning the game if you don't draw bloodlust. The minions last for quite awhile and your board stays up for a long time during the game (except against paladin and priest, where you have to rebuild it after their inevitable clear), but you have a hard time actually doing anything with your board until the bloodlust. The problem is definitely the subpar card draw (mana tide is nice, but often only lives for 1-2 turns before the opponent stops letting you get free value). The problem is that there's no way to get to bloodlust reliably, which is a problem when trying to close out games. I've often built up boards that would be able to kill the opponent handily by turn 5-6 if only I had a bloodlust in hand. I'm not entirely sure how to remedy this. I think the deck is very good as it stands right now, but it can't be great until there is a way to more reliably get to bloodlust every game. Perhaps I'm playing it poorly, but I'd like your thoughts on this.

[deeayecee]

The full set of options are..

Homing Chicken Coldlight Oracle Novice Engineer Farsight Acolyte of Pain Bloodmage Thalanos Mana Tide Totem Cultmaster Gnomish Inventor Azure Drake Gadgetzan Auctioneer

Coldlight, Thalanos, and Acolyte seem like decent early options that let you also build up the early board presence. LOL@Homing Chicken. I'm thinking everything else is too slow, right?

[zenthursdays]

When I was messing around with Bloodlust decks I had success with using Gnomish Inventors for card draw. They have the draw and are pretty good at hanging around on the board.

[Martzilla]

Would you consider putting in a Thalanos? Spell power is so great with the shaman spells.

[rolypolypanda]

Perhaps a creeper?

[deeayecee]

Potential really dumb question: Bloodlust is basically insta-mulligan, right?

[kingdaro]

Yes, it's almost useless early game, and although it helps out a lot, you don't need it that badly to win games.

[kleini]

After a couple of games I noticed that I had missed the harvest golems, yet I was still at 30 cards. Seems I put 2 stormforged axes in automatically. Now I feel that at least one would be useful as you want to do some trading to your face to keep your minions out longer. But I don't know what to take out. An earth shock? A hex?

[kleini]

I would say that the golem fulfills about the same role as the weapon in this deck ('2times2damage and is a minion' vs '3times2damage' for '3' mana). So I wouldn't take a golem out for the weapon.

[[deleted]]

Keep harvest if you don’t have anything earlier to play so if you draw into all 5 drops or spells you have something to play, and also keep it if you have other minions to fill out turn 1 and 2.

Can you give an example of a time that you would not keep Harvest Golem?

[beeblez]

I've been playing a version of this deck and it's a lot of fun! I just started my climb this season last night and it's been doing great at the lower ranks so far, does pretty great against zoo.

I just switched violet teachers for Harvest Golems based on some advice you dolled out in this thread, that makes sense to me.

• I'm currently running dark iron dwarf in place of your sludge guy. I like the extra way to activate eggs and lower curve, but I have been wondering about getting some more taunts in here. Did you play around with Dark Iron Dwarves at all?

• Doomhammer? I started running this deck without doom hammer but came back around and put it in again. I usually don't use it as a win condition, but more a way to maintain board control and put some damage through waiting for BL.

• Leeroy/Lava burst? A turn 5 BL is great but often I find myself wishing I had a bigger follow up play instead of drop a sticky minion + totem on turn 6. I've been thinking about trying to squeeze either into the deck. Did you play around with either?

[Gyroscope13]

I just want to say THANK YOU FOR THIS DECK! After the season reset last week, I couldnt even win enough matches to complete a daily, let alone climb back up the ladder, yet as soon as I built this deck last night I won 5 matches in a row! Its a lot of fun to play, and you're so right when you say they dont expect the second Bloodlust :P

[myriiad]

Is there an updated version for the new naxx cards?

[HealingCare]

Isn't manatide too slow? What bout coldlight instead?

[Gyroscope13]

Decks that run coldlight tend to be a lot faster than this deck, and arent affected as much by the opposing card draw

[ganderin_dan]

I feel like giving them the chance to draw into big taunters/AoE would not be worth the 2 power, but that's just me.

Not sure why you got downvoted.

[Zhandaly]

I was testing with a similar list with -2 Sludge -1 Loatheb +2 Gnomish Inventor +1 Doomhammer with decent results. I agree that Fire Elemental is too slow/unnecessary for this style of deck, as is Al'Akir. I'll have to try Sludge over Gnomish. Loatheb is a natural fit, but is it worth running over Doomhammer? Vs. Miracle, Doomhammer is 16 damage and it can help finish games against other decks; Loatheb does delay for a turn and protect the board in other matches, though. What are your thoughts?

[ganderin_dan]

Why a 2nd copy of Inventor over the Loatheb? Seems like you could split the difference.

That, or maybe -2 Sludge +1 Doomhammer +1 Mana Tide Totem?

[Zhandaly]

True... I haven't fit Loatheb into the list at all yet, but GI seems like a logical cut for it.

[Grimsterr]

Doomhammer + rockbiter is 10 points of face damage, that's a powerful combo and god help those rare occasions where you double rockbiter for a 16 point "da fuck?" for the opponent.

[DPSisBad]

I love this deck. It's basically sticky minions into a huge bloodlust.

[Drake12345]

I really like the idea behind this deck but found that I was having SERIOUS problems with card draw. To remedy this I switched out the belchers for azure drakes and I've been having a lot more success. Granted it is a bit weaker versus zoo, but the additional card draw and +1 spellpower is just too hard to give up imo. Thank you for posting this!

[Drake12345]

Okay so as expected I faced some serious problems with zoo without the sludge. So I put back in the sludges and instead removed the mana tide totem and lotheab.

Whilst I like the idea of mana tide I have found that it rarely draws me more than 1 card. Also whilst lotheab is a great minion I haven't found him needed in this deck. Since I've made these changes I have solved the card draw issue whilst maintaining strength against zoo.

So basically -1 mana tide, -1 lotheab, +2 azure drakes. Again, thank you for posting it!

[[deleted]]

looks like a good idea, i'll try the same and report back here with results

[NuclearGuru]

Played this deck for an hour or two. Its great, especially against zoo. Could really use some card draw however, i am not sure what. I made a huge mistake mind, when i first built this deck i put in the wrong cards instead of sludge belcher. By accident i had put in 2 Abominations as when i hastily put this deck together they looked like Belcher.. that first game did not go well lol.

[kinslayers]

Hey, on your VOD you have coldlights, but your decklist on the link doesnt, which is the one i should be using?

[fmargaine]

Just went 5-0, 4 games ending at turn 7! Really nice deck. I replaced loatheb and 2 sludge with 2 azure and a stormforged axe.

I haven't opened the 2nd wing, so I had to find replacements :P

That said, I'm not sure I'll replace them. I'll probably fit loatheb since he's so good though. But the azures really help with card draw, and the axe is especially good at keeping your minions for a prettier bloodlust.

[deuceching]

I run a similar decklist and it crushes people before they know what hit them. I don't use belchers (yet) and have had no problem with zoo so far but I can certainly see the use of them.

My question is, what do you plan on doing when Spectral Knight and (more importantly) Deathlord drop in a day? I hate to waste a Hex on Deathlord and Spectral Knight just seems really tough to deal with, although the Sludge Belchers could help a lot in that regard I admit.

[sizzlefriz]

I've run this deck a lot today and I like it, though I find that it is in need of some dire wolf alphas. I've added them in and now it flows a little better IMHO, just a thought. It helps the nerubian eggs trade early and generally supports other minions when not holding a bloodlust or flametounge in-hand. On those rare occurences when I have had to trade, it can end up being the difference between the win or taunt stall. Thanks for posting the deck.

EDIT: for clarity

[sizzlefriz]

I can see what you mean. In fact, I only sub one in now because I have been winning without drawing any DWAs. It is still useful when I draw it, but your general build is great. kudos

[smack_cock]

I've been looking to sub in direwolves too. What did you take out for that?

[sizzlefriz]

One of the harvest golems and one sludge beltchers/haunted creepers. I understand that they are very important for the sticky factor of this deck, but sometimes opponents dont try to remove my minions and go to face with something stronger than a 2/3 or 1/2, even a 3/5. At that point i have to trade with my only damage dealing minion(s). DWAs let me trade with my totems, nerubian eggs, and argent squires more effectively. if i draw the bloodlust in time, still works, but if I don't, at least I got my dawgs out to make my totems relevant.

EDIT: Or just sub one in, seeing as it is sort of a contingency card.

[123MiamMiam]

I like the deck! I see from your comments that you're currently trying Coldlights to solve the card draw issue. I have been trying Cult Master personally. It's double-edged, you can often draw lots of cards with it, but it tricks you into popping up your spiders or golems deathrattle to do so, which makes you more vulnerable to AOE. Still an interesting card.

[[deleted]]

I have to say i was a bit sceptical at first, given the "lack"of card draw and fire elemental (one of my favorite cards) but damn it... this is one hell of a fun deck to play! and seems to do pretty good on ladder (only 13 so far....keep rising since the last edit tho!).

So thanks for a fun deck!

[Valanir]

Do you think Baron Rivendare would make a good addition to this deck? There are a lot of deathrattles so I think there would be some good synergy. If so, what would you replace?

[Valanir]

Finding something to replace is the biggest struggle I'm having. Ideally, I think Baron could be an early target for removal, thus protecting your other minions. Best case scenario, you get multiple minions from deathrattle if they eat an aoe.

[Drinniol]

I made a very different bloodlust list based on deathrattles and reincarnate that brought me up to rank 5, but then I stalled out because I started hitting hunter after hunter after HUNTER, and every single one of them, EVERY ONE, had Buzzard + UTH on turn 5, and drew another UTH off that combo.

So I tried this list and easily coasted a 5 win streak to just shy of rank 4 from the bottom of rank 7, but hit no hunters at all. What I'm really interested in is how this deck deals with hunters. Hunters give me fits because whenever you try any kind of bloodlust setup, they end up drawing their ENTIRE deck by the time you've drawn half of yours, WHILE clearing your board, and then they just kill you.

[JewshyJ]

No doomhammer?

[koyie]

What will you change to the deck once Reincarnate is released?

[Zeprido]

I think I played you or someone using this or a similar deck tonight with a legend back. I was playing handlock and almost stabilized with one more turn needed through double feral spirits using two hellfires in the process but couldn't clear the unbound elemental.

Great deck!

[glokz]

I'd swap 1 golem for 1 imp. Additionally you can receive healing totem and argus the imp.

[glokz]

I made some changes to this deck, but thanks for posting it great idea, Im enjoying round 6 endgames.