Murloc Shaman Deck List Guide – Rise of Shadows (RoS)

Our Hearthstone Murloc Shaman Deck List Guide goes over the ins-and-outs of this potentially viable deck in the new Rise of Shadows expansion! Shaman is getting a bunch of new cards to support this likely aggressive archetype, and we'll be taking a look at the best possible list for these fishy guys! We're featuring information on mulligans, play strategy, card choices, and substitutions for the deck if you are missing any of the cards.

Blizzard has dabbled with Murloc Shaman in the past. We've had cards like Brrrloc , Siltfin Spiritwalker , Everyfin is Awesome , and even the quest card Unite the Murlocs ! The archetype never really took off, and has mostly been disappointing. In Rise of Shadows, it looks like Blizzard is giving it another attempt! The new options look pretty solid, so it should be interesting how it all shapes up.

Murloc Shaman Deck List

Here's the current most popular version of Murloc Shaman being played in the Rise of Shadows expansion!

Murloc Shaman Mulligan Guide

We're an aggressive deck so we want to keep a lot of very low drops so we're playing stuff on every turn.

Always Keep

• Murloc Raider - Pretty much a vanilla Murloc, but it's got 2-attack and can trade or get some chip damage on our opponent.
• Murloc Tidecaller - One of the best Murlocs available in the game, if you can get this one going and keep it alive you might be able to snowball to a win.
• Sludge Slurper - The Lackeys you can get from this card are pretty powerful and have a lot of good effects. However, the overload part of the card isn't so great!
• Murloc Tidehunter - Two Murlocs for the price of one! Not a great card, but we need as many Murlocs on the board as possible.
• Underbelly Angler - Now this is a great card, we get decent stats for the cost and we can feel comfortable dumping our hand because we'll be getting cards back for the ones we play. You will almost always want to play this when you can at least get one or two cards back from it.

Situational Keeps

• Coldlight Seer - Only should be kept if you have a couple of 1-drops or you have a 1 and a 2-drop. This one works particularly well if you have Tidehunter because you can get the double buff on them.
• Murloc Warleader - One of the best Murloc cards in the game. It used to be even better because it gave health as well, but it was nerfed. Should only be kept if you have earlier drops to fill the curve.
• Nightmare Amalgam - The best stats of your 3-drops, only keep it if you have other cards to fill your curve.

Murloc Shaman Play Strategy

We'll need to be aggressive to win the game with this deck, although we do have some tricky ways to stick around in the late game. This deck has a way to protect its board, as well as refill its hand. Mostly though, the game plan is to overrun our unsuspecting opponent with angry fishies.

Early game we're trying to get on board and widen it out. We do make some trades here that benefit us, we don't have to fully all in right away. In terms of what to play first, try to only play Murlocs that get buffed or give buffs when you can take advantage of those. If you don't have control of the board, it's probably not a good idea just to feed Murloc Tidecaller into an easy trade. If we don't have at least a couple of 1-drops to play with Underbelly Angler , it's probably best to hold off on playing it. Try to avoid wasting your more valuable Murlocs, and use the ones that have less value.

If you get a decent sized board, be sure to play Soul of the Murloc . There will be times where you get a pretty nice board going by turn four, and it's absolutely worth protecting it as we go into AOE turns. This will allow us to gather more resources, and force our opponent to have multiple answers for our board.

If you have Bloodlust in hand be sure to always be counting your damage. You'll be surprised how often you are either close or have lethal when you have a wide board. Bloodlust adds a ton of damage, and you can get some really good damage in if your opponent allows you to have a lot of Murlocs on the board for too long.

Underbelly Angler and Scargil are our ways to comeback into a game if we're running out of resources. These two can combine to make quite a team, or you can just get kind of lucky with Underbelly Angler and hit some of the cheaper Murlocs which allow you to get even more Murlocs.

Murloc Shaman Rise of Shadows Card Choices

We're likely just going to be an aggressive deck, but it's possible to throw in some Overload synergy.

• Grimscale Oracle - Weak stats but gives you a big buff to your board that could put you over the top for lethal.
• Murloc Raider - 2/1 gets traded into by anything, but it also trades pretty well into 1s and 2s.
• Murloc Tidecaller - One of the better Murlocs that can get out of hand quite quickly if we can get it to stick to the board.
• Sludge Slurper - New in Rise of Shadows, this is a solid
• Toxfin - Great for taking down problematic taunt minions. Stick this on one of your weaker Murlocs and send it into a big minion.
• Bluegill Warrior - Good for a quick trade, receiving a buff from Toxfin, or getting damage in for lethal.
• Ghost Light Angler - Better in the late game when you can get multiple casts of it, but it does pair pretty well with Scargil which should reduce the cost of each one to 1-mana.
• Murloc Tidehunter - Bad stats on the base card, but it spreads more stats across the board. This can make it more difficult for our opponent to completely clear.
• Soul of the Murloc - Great card for protecting our board, but can be a pretty bad top deck if we're behind. Sometimes you'll just have to use it on a small board just to maintain something.
• Underbelly Angler - Maybe the best card in the deck, this card single-handedly can keep you in the game by giving you more fuel for future turns or allowing you to fill up the board.
• Coldlight Seer - One of the core Murlocs that will make this deck survive the cheaper cost AOEs. Giving your Murlocs +2 Health is a big deal, and could put them just out of range for your opponent to deal with.
• Murloc Warleader - Maybe the best Murloc in the game, but imagine if it hadn't been nerfed (it used to give +2/+1 instead of just +2 attack)! A great card to get a finish, and also works for getting some important trades to preserve the rest of our board.
• Nightmare Amalgam - Good stats for the cost and can be buffed with any Murloc synergy.
• Murloc Tastyfin - Kind of a slow card with weak stats, but as has been said we're going to go through cards quickly. We will need cards like this to help continue to give us stuff to play.
• Scargil - Another powerful Murloc for the deck, we can fill up the board if we play our cards right.
• Bloodlust - And now for the big finish! Bloodlust is a big boost to attack and can get us some early lethals if our opponent lets us hold onto a board for too long. Not a great card to draw in the early game though if we're struggling to maintain the board.

Murloc Shaman Card Substitutions

• Zap! - Cheap removal that can help us preserve our board. While it's not great to get overloaded, this could protect our Murlocs which we need for just about everything in the deck.
• Lightning Bolt - Same as Zap!, just solid removal potential but also can help us get lethal if we're knocking on the door.
• Flametongue Totem - One of the core Shaman cards, this allows us to trade up efficiently or really push some damage.
• Hench-Clan Hag - Not a Murloc herself, but she drops two Amalgams that can accept Murloc buffs.
• Likkim - This is a possible addition, but fits into the deck more if you are running the burn spells with Overload.
• Cult Master - A possible option for the deck. When you're dropping a lot of cards on the board it's easy to go through your hand quickly. This should help us replenish our hand when we need to make some trades.