Climbing the ladder with May's Mech Shaman.
The Mech Shaman’s enjoying a return to the top of the metagame right now, thanks to early-game options that put a sticky fighting force onto the board, and enough power boosts to catch even the wiliest of players by surprise. If you’re new to playing with this sort of deck, here’s everything you need to know about getting started with it.
Mech Shaman – May 2015 strategy guide
One look at the decklist will make it clear to you that there’s nothing too complicated about playing this deck out. You’ve got a huge number of low-cost minions to play with, which means you should have no trouble building a solid, snowballing presence on the board in the early game.
You’ve also got control options available in the form of silencing effects and weapons. Use these at the expense of your health to hold back the opponent’s board development, while also protecting the health of your minions. As you move into the mid-game, you have beefy minions and a deadly area-of-effect spell to play with if you had a less than optimal start.
Be careful about when you play Fel Reaver. When you bring him into play, you want to have a strong curve of cards in your hand that you can push through into the end-game with, and your opponent will ideally only have one or two themselves. Fortunately, Fel Reaver will often encourage your opposite number to aggressively empty their hand in order to punish you – if you’re lucky, you can wreck their greed with a well-timed Lightning Storm afterwards!
Mech Shaman – May 2015 Mulligan guide
You’ve no shortage of low-cost minions to build a powerful early-game with here. Because of this, it’s important to think about how the cards you have in your hand might synergise with those you’re likely to draw if you Mulligan something out, and the type of card you’re likely to see in the first couple of match draws.
Mechwarper, for example, is one of the most powerful cards you have in this deck, so look for complimentary minions if you’re lucky enough to have one in your hand. If you’ve got a decent couple of early turns planned out, consider hanging on to that Rockbiter weapon too, as it can be great for pushing back your opponent’s board development from the very start.
Mech Shaman – May 2015 card combinations
Here are the most important cards synergies you need to keep in mind as you progress through every match:
– Tinkertown Technician gets a nice boost if there are any Mechs in play, but just make sure you get your Mech out before this little guy!
– Likewise, Cogmaster can be made considerably more powerful than its base stats allow for by getting a Mech out on the board. Just be aware that the effect is lost if your Mech minions are destroyed.
– Always make sure you have a Mech minion out on the board before playing the final charge of your Powermace. It’s vital that those extra stats land on a body that’s out in play. Do your maths carefully before trading as well – spending the second weapon charge may let your powerful Mech do a better trade afterwards.
– Mechwarper‘s the star of your early-game show here, and can be used to get powerful minions out on the board, much earlier on in the match. Just be aware that everyone is conditioned now to remove the warper immediately, so make sure you get value from it.
– Want to play Fel Reaver but don’t fancy that card-killing effect? Use Earth Shock on it to create an incredibly powerful minion with no downsides.
– Doomhammer combined with Rockbiter Weapon can grant you a ten damage turn. You can also use the latter spell on one of your very weak minions to create an early-game powerhouse.
– Flametongue Totem boosts the damage output of the minions on either side of it. Position it carefully so that if you trade off minions, the next ones in line that you want to sacrifice as well get the benefit of the boosting effect.
