Maidenless Motherless Croneless

[[Waveshaper]] has been seen as a mid tier avatar for quite a while but with the release of gothic I believe it's able to not only hang with the cool kids at the meta table but also come out ahead of most of the meta with the right cards.

This deck maxes out at 6 cost spells and is low enough to the ground to keep up with the faster aggro strategies. Controlling the game and pressuring the opponent is the gameplan and surprising your opponent with a 10-20 damage turn is a real possibility. A healthy smattering of removal and an absolute boatload of movement effects make this a fun deck to pilot.

Opening the Game ###########

Sites are extremely important for this deck to perform well and there is a lot of site disruption out there. The decision to cut out as many non essential elite and unique sites is completely valid with cards like [[peasant revolt]] and [[heirloom lost]] running loose in the meta, but even with a decision like this we have so many powerful options in the ordinary and exceptional slots. [[autumn river]], [[river rapids]], [[maelstrom]], or [[kelp cavern]] tend to be my favorite turn 1 plays.

[[overflow]] is such a powerful card that it can often times be one of the best openings in our game plan to get to 5/6 mana as soon as possible. We run 3 main deck overflow and 3 [[toolbox]] with 6 possible overflow draws.

Some notable overflow options to cast while you have them in hand are [[babbling brook]] to get you to a 5 mana turn often times without needing to worry about anything pressuring you early.

[[bog]] is a new include in my deck specifically to slow down a [[persecutor]] or [[battlemage]] and to completely stop a [[pathfinder]] or [[imposter]] from developing early with pathfinder by forcing them to take a turn to get back to an edge of their sites.

If no overflow combination is in hand my other favorite options would be [[troll bridge]] and [[thin ice]] being a classic turn two sites to play but if you have a [[coy nixie]] in hand it can be the perfect combination to start holding down your side of the board from enemies entering your water. [[mudflow]] makes coy nixie even more annoying than it already is for your opponent by constantly dipping underneath your thin ice each turn and popping up for free on your turn.

[[tufted turtles]], [[shellycoat]], [[aino]], [[lugbog cat]], and [[order of the sacred oak]] are also great opening hand minions to begin pressuring early or defensively developing your own board presence without being pressured yourself.

Mid Game ###########

Setting up card advantage if possible is almost always best in this turn 4 or 5. [[algor omphalos]], [[dank omphalos]], [[maiden, mother, crone]], [[lilith]], and [[captain baldassare]] are the types of cards that can open up that greater advantage for us. Playing these on a home row [[river rapids]] can give you the opportunity to safely cast them and use them to attack from your back row.

if you managed to ramp into a turn 4 fifth site drop you have some very interesting plays that can completely shut off your opponent.

[[atlantean fate]] is an aura that can just flat out win you the game on turn 4 by shutting off an opponents sites and leaving them with no threshold.

[[archangel raphael]] being cast right next to them after you ramp into their side can be overwhelming.

[[giant shark]] can just come down underneath your body of water and wreak havoc on anything being cast or moving in this body of water.

At 34 minions we have plenty of strong options to come down during these turns.

I tend to hold onto [[abaddon succubus]], [[ruler of thul]] and [[assimilator snail]] until I have a good reason to play them for removal or massive damage.

End Game ###########

Once we get to 5 mana I will typically stop playing sites and begin flooding their sites with specific minions on them. If we draw [[lord of lies]], [[mester stoor worm]], [[the green knight]], or [[call of the sea]] we would typically draw that mana if we don't already have it and spend the turn to impact the board in such a more impactful way whether it be by dealing a massive hit to our opponent or wiping out all of their minions in one turn. This is when we look at how we can finish our opponent off and try to deal the maximum amount of damage possible.

[[mester stoor worm]] is a huge threat with 7 power, [[mudflow]] can make this minion a much harder to deal with threat by giving it the ability to be safely summoned submerged to come out and attack next turn or better yet just use a [[meat hook]] to pull our opponent into our body of water.

[[lord of lies]] even with his recent nerf is another massive threat especially with so many ways to pull or force our opponent into another location. [[undertow]], [[riptide]], [[coy nixie]], [[nelly longarms]] and [[meat hook]] are all excellent ways to achieve this. It hits big and it can be used as removal for multiple minions at once or just be used to get an extra hit from another minion onto our opponent.

[[giant shark]] is the final big finisher in the deck rounding it out to 7 major threats total. This minion is so special in fact that I have an entire section later on explaining how to use it properly.

Using Sharks ###########

Movement effects are the sharks best friend, the shark will most likely not survive very long because the first thing out of our opponents mouth when they read it for the first time is "oh shit you mean every water site?" There is a two card combo with the shark and [[the rack]] which is very funny to use but it's too cute to have it be used competitively.

DO NOT place a shark down into a full board unless you want it to die and kill some of our opponents minions. All they need to do is chump any minion into a water site nearby to have our pet swim right to any water site of their choice to then take care of it with some nearby or adjacent removal effect.

ONLY place a shark for the following reasons.

We fully intend to be able to use it the turn it comes down by having movement effects ready to be used that turn, [[coy nixie]] or [[nelly longarms]] on the board already, [[riptide]] ready in hand with the mana to cast it, a [[meat hook]] already on a minion in position, or an [[undertow]] ready to move our opponent.
We can turn off its ability for a turn cycle to set up a massive attack the following turn. [[bog]] and [[babbling brook]] are able to put a leash on our pet for a turn.
We have a sparse enough board state that the shark can safely survive a turn in play. This is usually a gamble
We have an [[assimilator snail]] in hand ready to come down and become a previously murdered shark. What's better than 3 sharks? How about 5 of them.

The more sites we can move our opponent through the more damage we can do, [[meat hook]] is particularly brutal since it can usually pull them through at least 2 water sites and sometimes 3, each of those water sites they enter is 5 damage, if you are able to also attack then that is a 20 point damage turn and deaths door from one single minion.

[[giant shark]] is a double edged sword, if our opponent moves us in our own body of water the shark will bite us and if we summon any minions into it's body of water the shark will travel to that minion to fight it. There are a few notable minions and one site that are able to survive being summoned into the sharks tank and also allow the shark to live as well.

[[order of the sacred oak]] - ward breaks
[[tufted turtles]] - tanks the first hit
[[sacred stag]] - ward breaks
[[archangel raphael]] - ward breaks
[[the green knight]] - big defense stat tanks the hit
[[mudflow]] - acts as a safe place to summon new minions since it is land.

One last note for the shark is that our ability allows us to perform a "tank change". Since the shark has waterbound it becomes disabled while on land, once we summon what we need to summon we are able to flood the position that the shark is on to effectively turn it back on and pass the turn.

When to Flood ###########

Our ability is powerful on [[waveshaper]] and it almost always takes the opponent by surprise when they learn that the site we choose to flood is not only NEARBY but it remains flooded UNTIL WE DO IT AGAIN. This give us amazing reach into our opponents side of the board.

There are only two reasons to use our ability. Sometimes we care about both but most of the time it boils down to one reason or the other.

Flooding to create a water site where there was not one before.
Tapping down minions without submerge.

Aggro strategies may require us to tap down a site earlier than we would normally want to. [[mazuj ifrit]] is an early threat that is very good to tap down since it will slowly sap the life from your opponent. One other situation where it’s fine to use our ability early is if we have an overflow in hand to tap down a minion or two and still develop our sites.

Our ability can be used for more than just tapping things nearby down. If we have a shark on board and a pull effect or two we can potentially create an extra water site for the opponent to stumble into for an extra 5 damage.

That flooded site of an opponent may also be the perfect jumping in point for a waterbound minion to attack or if we are afraid the opponent has an earthquake or bury in hand, we can simply flood the site for any minion to attack into and feel a sense of safety that it cannot be buried.

If none of these options are available then we can instead draw an extra site for the turn.

Toolbox ###########

There are 3 [[toolbox]] in the deck and I will never be upset to draw one because they are so very useful. I chose to go with 7 toolbox choices and will go over each choice here.

[[overflow]] : This is self explanatory, 5 copies in the deck now. Sites are powerful and ramp is so important.
[[drown]] : This acts as the standard removal slot in the toolbox collection but it also acts as the artifact removal which is sometimes more important.
[[ice lance]] : This is the standard death's door finisher of the toolbox side of the collection, it can also be used as removal or mask breaking against [[imposter]].
[[riptide]] : If I had to choose one magic in the waveshaper's arsenal that is it's bread and butter, this would be that spell. I would run 10 of this spell if I could.
It can move yourself out of harms way.
It can move your opponent into harms way.
It can trigger a [[giant shark]] attack.
It can disrupt a [[pathfinder]]'s way.
It can force warded minions into unsafe water locations.
It can force stealthed minions into unsafe water locations.
It can be used as a psuedo death's door finisher.
It replaces itself with another card after you use it.
[[return to nature]] : This is another utility spell that other waveshapers have utilized much better than I ever have by using it on themselves in conjunction with [[deep sea mermaids]] or [[kelp cavern]] to reuse a powerful spell that was put into your cemetery. But it is very useful against [[archimago]], [[deathspeaker]], [[flamecaller]], and any cards that want to use things in a cemetery.
[[extinguish]] : A recent addition to my collection due to the amount of fire minions are in the meta currently and the only real way to deal with [[jihad]] or the dreaded [[drought]].
[[makeshift barricade]] : If you find yourself on deaths door against an aggro deck very quickly this might be the solution. It has saved me more than once by nullifying deaths door finishers like [[zap]] or [[firebolt]]. It also protects us from the inevitable [[craterize]] that [[archimago]] is so fond of.

Silver Bullet ###########

There is a single [[silver bullet]] in my list and it gives me the option for 3 very powerful exceptional spells.

[[swap]] : This is such an incredible utility spell, being able to trigger a shark for removal or using this to steal a powerful artifact right out of your opponents hands and replacing it with one of your own minions is just so satisfying. This can also shut off something like an omphalos by placing it on your site where your opponent cannot cast minions to, this does not protect you from the magics or auras cast from there.
[[snowball]] : This spell is removal and finisher wrapped into one. Great to use your own minions like [[tufted turtles]], [[order of the sacred oak]], [[sacred stag]], [[archangel raphael]], and [[the green knight]] since none of these will likely die from this due to ward or just great defensive abilities. Make sure you roll as many of your opponents minions in the ball as well directly into them and dealing a massive blow, bonus points if you cast [[plague of frogs]] right before this goes off.
[[meat hook]] : This is a powerful effect to be given to any minion on your team, it can pull your opponent into your location and trigger a [[giant shark]] attack that can sometimes just put our opponent on death's door. It can also be used to pull our avatar out of harm's way or back into a body of water. It is a bit awkward to tap for [[silver bullet]] and tap to use this ability so it might be removed for [[wave of eviction]].

Top 8 Pittsburgh Excalibur - Maidenless Motherless Croneless

@vitaminyon