Galakrond Shaman Deck (Updated!) – Descent of Dragons

Our Heartstone Galakrond Shaman Deck List Guide is an early look at this archetype for the Descent of Dragons! Shaman is another of the classes that has received the Galakrond Hero Card, and will be looking to take advantage of it in the DoD meta. Their version of the card summons a couple of potentially powerful minions on the board with Rush, and the Hero Power is capable of producing a 2/1 Elemental with Rush each turn once you play it! That's a pretty strong package right there for a class that was already dominating the previous meta.

Shaman has been one of the most powerful classes in the recent meta, and it looks like it got a bunch of pretty powerful cards in this new expansion. When the set releases, you'll get all of the Galakrond cards for free, so giving this type a deck a shot is great way to try things out to see if you like what's being played! Galakrond, The Tempest promotes a board-centric strategy due to its Hero Power consistently pumping out minions with Rush that can trade down your opponent's board. While this will certainly be a strategy utilized by players, there's likely other possible ways to build out this type of list.

Nerfs Coming Soon

It looks like this deck is likely going to be nerfed in some way, shape, or form. It was announced on Reddit that nerfs will be announced the week of the 16th:

Just to give a heads up - we’re working on a balance update that will arrive within the next week with card adjustments for Descent of Dragons, including some changes aimed at Shaman. Any cards that are affected will be given full Arcane Dust refunds.

Source

So, if you crafted this deck then make sure to take advantage of it in the next week!

Galakrond Shaman Deck List

Here's a look at the highest performing version of Galakrond Shaman right now:

Galakrond Shaman Mulligan Guide

Always Keep

• Invocation of Frost - This is a pretty strong tempo play. Not only does it freeze something on our enemy's board, we also get a Galakrond Hero Power trigger which summons a 2/1 Elemental with Rush. That's a great deal, and we do really want to upgrade our Galakrond so we can buff Dragon's Pack. Better if you have another 1 or 2-drop, but it's usually worth keeping.
• Sludge Slurper - Solid stats on a 1-drop that generates a Lackey for us. This is just a great card, and the Overload can work to our advantage sometimes.
• EVIL Totem - This might be a 0/2, but it still demands to be dealt with. If you can stick it on the board for multiple turns, then you're in great shape. This is one of the better drops on an empty board.

Possible Keeps

• Mutate - Keep this with Mogu if your opponent is going to be playing a deck that drops enough minions to be worth it.
• Mogu Fleshshaper - With all of your Invoke cards and your opponent playing minions, it's pretty easy to get this card down for cheap. While that's good in itself, this is an obviously great target for Mutuate . If you know you're playing against a deck that's going to be playing a lot of minions, it's pretty safe to keep this.

How Galakrond Works

Galakrond is a Hero Card that will replace your current Hero and Hero Power when played. Galakrond can be powered up by cards with the Invoke keyword. Each time you Invoke Galakrond, it gives you a trigger of Galakrond's Hero Power whether it is in play or not. You can upgrade your Galakrond twice, each upgrade requires you play a card with Invoke twice (4 times in total for a full upgrade). Each upgrade powers up its Battlecry by double. If you can max our your Galakrond, you will equip a 5/2 weapon when you play it.

Play Strategy & Card Combinations

This deck features quite a few Invoke cards due to the power of Galakrond, the Tempest 's Hero Power that produces a 2/1 Elemental with Rush. We can utilize these tokens to trade down our opponent's board, as well as reduce the cost of our Mogu Fleshshaper . Invocation of Frost while appearing to just freeze something, actually also summons a minion. This is why it makes such a great keep in your mulligan.

With all of these Invoke cards in the deck, it makes it really easy to justify Dragon's Pack . We should very easily be able to meet the requirements of it even without playing Corrupt Elementalist which immediately finishes it for us.

Due to all of the tokens we'll be spawning, Faceless Corruptor fits insanely well in this list. It is such a powerful card, but with Shaman's ability to pump out tokens it makes for an even more obvious inlcusion.

This deck has a pile of Battlecry minions, so Barista Lynchen is a natural choice. If we can get a board with some of these down, then we can get some additional resources in hand. This will also pile up more battlecries for the late game Shudderwock . We can also get a fair amount of burst out of Lifedrinker if we can hit them with the Barista.

You have some big ways to take some powerful late game turns. Galakrond is an obvious one, if we can upgrade him fully we get two 8/8 minions with Rush and a 5/2 weapon. This is a huge swing and can spell disaster for our opponent. We're also running Shudderwock with all of the battlecries, so we can have quite a big comeback turn by playing this in the late game.

Card Substitutions

• Corrupt the Waters - There are versions of this deck that run the quest, but it isn't absolutely necessary.
• EVIL Cable Rat - Better in the Quest version, but still a possible inclusion as a solid Battlecry card.
• Sandstorm Elemental - Good for dealing with wide boards full of cheap minions.
• Likkim - Pretty strong Overload based card that could easily find a spot in a deck like this one.
• Bloodlust - This deck can spread the board out pretty wide, so having something that buffs our board pretty crazily is going to be a good way to finish games. The problem with Bloodlust is that it has a tendency to sit in your hand, and can be an absolutely dead draw if we're behind.
• Cumulo-Maximus - If we went more heavy towards Overload synergy then we might want this card in it. It's has a great effect and doesn't have weak stats that usually come with something like this.
• Faceless Corruptor - This card seems like it could be one of the obvious standouts in the set, and if you're producing a lot of tokens then you will easily find a target for the transform effect.