'Hearthstone' Elemental Deck Guide: How To Play Shaman In 'Journey To Un'Goro'

kalimos — Kalimos, The Primal Lord gives Elemental Shaman whatever they need, whenever they need it. Blizzard

Hearthstone’s Journey To Un’Goro has unleashed a massive wave of magical energy onto the card game’s meta. Now that Reno Jackson and the Blackwing crew are no longer with us, new decks are forming just as quickly as people can play them. Players are desperately trying to figure out which cards are the absolute best, vying to be the first to create an amazing -- or even broken -- strategy. The Rogue Quest, Caverns Below, has already proven to be quite popular (and broken), but there’s one other deck that players are latching onto: Elemental Shaman.

Thrall’s been guided by the elements since Hearthstone was still in beta, but with the new expansion, he’s finally wielding the power properly. Un’Goro gave those monsters made of rock, fire, water and air an actual archetype along with a unified ability. Elementals gain power depending on if you played one of their brethren the turn before, allowing you to buff minions, Discover cards or deal insane damage.

I’ve been play testing Elemental Shaman builds, trying everything from Doomhammer -focused builds to ones that play Magma Rager. The best -- or at least my favorite to play -- has to be Jade Shaman with an Elemental flair. Cards like Jade Lightning and Jade Claws are just too powerful not to use and combined with the added early game strength of Elementals like Igneous Elemental and Hot Spring Guardian, this deck is hard to beat. Tar Creeper is the stickiest three-mana card in the game, and if you combine it with a Tol’vir Stoneshaper the next turn, there isn’t a lot your enemy can do.

Jade Elemental Shaman does suffer some consistency problems, especially if you don’t draw what you need. If your hand after your mulligan doesn’t have any Jade cards, only late game powerhouses like Kalimos, The Primal Lord, you are going to have a bad time.

Mulligans: In your opening hand, you want early game clears like Jade Claws or Maelstrom Portals, or sticky minions like Tar Creeper or Igneous Elemental.

Deck List: This build was created by Hearthstone pro player, Trump:

Jade Claws × 2

Maelstrom Portal × 2

Hex × 2

Hot Spring Guardian × 1

Lightning Storm × 2

Jade Lightning × 2

Fire Elemental × 2

Jade Chieftain × 2

Kalimos, Primal Lord × 1

Bloodmage Thalnos × 1

Igneous Elemental × 2