The Great Dark Beyond: Top 3 Shaman Decks!

The Great Dark Beyond is the last set in Hearthstone's Year of the Pegasus (2024). It included 145 new cards. Now that we got a few balance patches, the meta is a lot more stable, and a few decks in particular have been standing out.

Shaman became the most popular class in the meta. In fact, 3 Shaman lists have over 55% win rate, according to HSReplay on December 3rd, 2024.

So, we, at Cards Realm, decided to play these Shaman lists and bring you a fast, objective article to show you all the ways you can explore this class!

Asteroid Shaman is simple, and, as its name suggests, uses a new mechanic from this set, Asteroids. Your goal will be to put as many of them as you can in your deck and draw them bit by bit. An Asteroid is a spell that, when drawn, deals 2 damage to a random enemy. This list is really similar to peak Bomb Warrior in its time.

There are many cards that put Asteroids in your deck, such as Moonstone Mauler, Ultraviolet Breaker, and Bolide Behemoth. Note that, besides putting them in your deck, some of these minions also have extra effects, like dealing damage to a minion, or making your Asteroids even more powerful.

As they're your main win condition, this list also includes support cards so you can draw more Asteroids and deal more spell damage with them. Ethereal Oracle, Cactus Cutter, Needlerock Totem, and Magatha, Bane of Music are great examples of that.

A great spell in this list is Triangulate, which Discovers another spell in your deck and adds more copies of it to it. Initially, we only bring two other spells, so, after we add Asteroids to our list, they'll always show up when we play this spell. This spell will draw you Asteroids nearly always, and is another way to add them to your deck.

Considering we need to draw these spells, a great addition is Incindius. It gives you Eruptions, which also activate when drawn. They deal less damage, but affect all enemies, including the enemy hero.

This list is quite strong; it has a 55% win rate, according to HSReplay. Its only bad matchups are against big minions, as it doesn't play many removals.

If you face any zoo deck - an aggressive list that fills the board with small minions - I recommend you keep Malted Magma in your opening hand. This spell is your main AoE removal, after all.

Otherwise, the standard mulligan includes Murloc Growfin with Moonstone Mauler, as well as Ultraviolet Breaker and other 2-cost minions.

As its name suggests, this list wants to swarm the board with minions. The idea is to take advantage of cheap cards that put several small minions in play, and buff them with Carefree Cookie and Wave of Nostalgia.

Carefree Cookie also has a great keyword, called Demon Hunter Tourist. It lets you add cards from this other class to your list, regardless of which class you're actually playing. This is extremely important because there are many simple Demon Hunter tools that fill the board, like Patches the Pilot and Sigil of Skydiving.

If there are many minions in play, Zilliax Deluxe 3000's Pylon and Ticking modules will be very efficient, as, with them, it will be cheaper and buff many minions at once.

Another strong AoE buff that you'll even use as a win condition is Bloodlust, a spell Thrall's Gift will give you.

Your opening hand will nearly always be the same. Focus on 1-cost cards (except Thrall's Gift), some card draw, and Gorgonzormu. The sooner you have this card, the better. Here's a great opening hand for this deck:

Finally, we have the best list of the current format! Pirate Shaman, which has over 61.40% win rate, remains the only tier 1 meta deck in HSReplay.

Its base is similar to Swarm Shaman, as it also uses Carefree Cookie so you can add Demon Hunter cards to it. Once again, it also plays tools that fill the board, like Patches the Pilot, Gorgonzormu, and Sigil of Skydiving.

However, instead of trying to evolve your minions or turn them into other minions, you'll buff them with Hozen Roughhouser and Zilliax Deluxe 3000 with the same modules as Swarm Shaman.

Another great feature in Pirate Shaman is its interaction with Spell Damage - Spirit Claws and Ethereal Oracle let you use this resource, so you'll be able to win the game with burn spells like Pop-Up Book or Lightning (from Thrall's Gift).

What makes this deck so strong is how diverse its game style is. Swarm Shaman relies on a big board, buffed by Bloodlust and Zilliax, but Pirate Shaman can also use Spell Damage to finish the matches besides its board, so you'll be able to finish matches more consistently.

Look for your 1-cost minions, and preferably, Sigil of Skydiving or Trusty Companion for turn 2 to buff your board as much as you can.

These are the best Shaman lists around if you want to explore this class and win ranked matches during The Great Dark Beyond format!

What did you think of these lists? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!