Standard Deck Tech: Terran Shaman - Create Huge Starships and Win the Game!

In January, Blizzard released the biggest mini-set in the history of Hearthstone. Heroes of StarCraft brought a few iconic figures to the game, besides new mechanics.

It also inspired many new decks, which, in turn, found their space in the meta. One of them is Terran Shaman, who uses, as the name suggests, several Terran cards. Currently, it is one of the five best lists in Hearthstone according to HSReplay, and its win rate right now is above 56%.

We, at Cards Realm, tested this mini-set and decided to write a deck tech specifically for this deck. Check it out!

Most tier 1 decks are slower and reward patience: Terran Shaman is no different. The goal is to defend yourself with removals as you get stronger with Battlecries and create giant Starships with giant effects. These are the two main mechanics in this deck.

If you still don't know how Starships work, here's a brief explanation: some cards have the Starship Piece keyword. When these minions die, they become Starship pieces that you can combine to build a full Starship and launch for five mana. This Starship has the effects and stats of all Starship Pieces that are destroyed before you launch it. This means, at the end of the match, you can summon a gigantic minion full of abilities for just five mana.

You can see how it works in practice in the image above. Initially, you'll only have one Starship Piece that doesn't have a lot of stats and only has one effect. The idea behind this list is to add as much stats and abilities to it as you can, and make it your win condition!

Next, we'll go through each card in this deck and see how they interact with this strategy!

Cards

SCV is perfect for the first few rounds because it is cheap and discounts the cost of your next Starship launch. Missile Pod, Starport, and Lift Off are also great options, as they fill your board with Starship Pieces.

As such, Trusty Companion is essential: besides buffing these early game minions, it also draws a minion with the same type as them, so, in this case, it will draw another Mech.

Other great cards for the early game are all the low-cost minions with Battlecry that you play: Murloc Growfin and Cactus Cutter are quite cheap and add even more resources to your hand.

For turn 3, you can play Turbulus or Gorgonzormu. Turbulus gives all your Battlecries +1/+1 (and you play lots of them), and Gorgonzormu gives you Cheese, which upgrades every turn. Try to use it as early as possible.

Some minions might not buff your Starship, but they're better with it. Ghost literally destroys one of your opponent's cards if you're building a Starship, and Siege Tank gets better if you've already launched a Starship.

We already mentioned a card that discounts the cost of your next Starship launch, but there's another way to do that: Lock On. You can also use this spell to remove big minions.

At first, your main focus is to stay alive, so you'll play a few tools like Pop-Up Book, Horn of the Windlord, and Backstage Bouncer. They'll remove enemy minions and also create a tougher board with Taunt for you. Golganneth, the Thunderer is also useful as a removal, and discounts the first spell you cast each turn.

Finally, this list includes Shudderblock, which triggers your next Battlecry three times. I strongly recommend you use it with Jim Raynor, and create three Starships for each Starship you launched before.

Shudderblock also has Miniaturize, which creates a 1/1 1-cost copy of this minion in your hand. This means you can use it twice in the same match, and triple a Battlecry an extra time.

Your main way to finish matches is with the three Starships Jim Raynor and Shudderblock create together. Depending on the effects your Starship Pieces have, you'll be able to clear the entire enemy board, gain a lot of armor, and deal a lot of damage to the enemy hero directly.

However, if you can't find Jim Raynor, you can play Shudderblock with another minion, like Turbulus or Gorgonzormu. Just remember to save its miniature for Jim Raynor.

Your ideal mulligan is SCV on turn 1, Starport on turn 2, and Turbulus or Gorgonzormu on turn 3. If you follow this sequence, you won't have any issues building your Starship early on, and will create a decent board already on turn 3.

However, you can also keep Murloc Growfin or Missile Pod if you draw them.

Aggro

Aggressive decks are your main weakness. Try to look for low-cost minions to kill enemy minions as fast as possible, particularly Missile Pod, as its effect affects the entire enemy board.

Pop-Up Book is also a great option to defend your hero. Golganneth might be expensive, but, if you can survive until turn 6, it will be excellent!

Control

Stick to your initial plan against control decks. Control lists won't really threaten you early on while you build your Starship, so you can keep your ideal mulligan and try to win the game with Shudderblock and Jim Raynor later on.

Terran Shaman is incredibly strong and relatively simple to pilot. I highly recommend it if you just bought Heroes of StarCraft and want to have fun with the new mechanics!

What did you think of this list? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below!

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!