With Aggro Shaman, you basically mulligan for the early minions and hope you get them. If you wind up with a hand full of burn spells you probably just lose unless you can get a doomhammer with double rockbiter.
The deck is so damn draw-reliant that I feel awful and terrible every time I play it. I can play Face Hunter just fine but when I play Aggro Shaman i alternate between "well I just won on Turn 5" and "!@#$!@#". Makes me feel terrible and gross. I'll be a much happier man whenever some non-aggro Shaman deck actually becomes viable again.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this before: Lightning Bolt is just one of my favorite cards. In MtG, my main deck was counterburn, and obviously Lightning Bolt is a core card in that deck. While this game's Lightning Bolt is weaker, there's so much nostalgia around the name that I just feel the need to use it. Even in a slower meta, I would have to find a way to make it work. I showed Dahbomb my Control Shaman deck I want to make when Standard hits, and I'm hoping it works.
Your Aggro Shaman thoughts 100% mirror mine, except I don't feel bad when I win. I never feel bad for playing to win in a game; it's the fault of developers if anything is in a poor state.
I did have a turn 4 win with the deck once, and I appreciate that. I don't feel bad about the 1200 dust I spent on the deck, though, because I assume Doomhammer, Wolves and the other miscellaneous stuff I bought will be useful in a month still.
I cut one Ancestral Knowledge for Bloodmage Thalnos, but it actually weakened the deck. The reason you keep the two copies in there is so that you can fish for lethal. Just follow your game plan, make good trades where you can but generally just try to force the other player to act or else they die. Sometimes they have an answer for every turn and you can still blow them away by saving your reach tools like Crackle for when you have a good chance of ending the game.
My win % really was ~50%. I wasn't doing poorly with the deck, I just wasn't making progress. I tried a minion-based version with Flametongue Totem, and that was terrible.
I really feel like the Shaman Hero Power holds everything back. It really was nice being able to pop out 2 face damage with my Hybrid Hunter when the cards weren't flowing like you would want, and that 2 damage made a significant difference in the outcome of the match. It's SO much better than Shaman, where I seem to get Healing Totem half the time, Wrath of Air 30% of the time (yay), and then 10% of the time I get the other two.
I think my #1 want for Hearthstone in the future is for Hero Powers to trigger a "Choose One" screen like Discover, and you have multiple options to choose from. Simple ideas for each class:
Rogue:
Equip a 1/1 weapon.
Give your weapon +1 attack.
Your character does not take damage when attacking this turn.
Warrior:
Gain 2 armor.
Give a minion +1 health.
The next minion you attack with a weapon takes an additional 2 damage.
Hunter:
Deal 2 damage to the enemy hero.
Give a minion +1 attack.
Summon a 1/1 Beast.
Mage:
Deal 1 damage to a character.
Gain +2 spell damage until your next turn.
Freeze the next single character that you deal damage to this turn.
Priest:
Heal a character for 2.
Look at the top card of your deck. You may shuffle it to the bottom of your deck.
Deal 1 damage to a minion at the start of the next 3 turns.
Paladin:
Summon a 1/1 Soldier.
Reduce a minion's attack by 1 this turn.
The next minion that attacks you takes 2 damage.
Shaman:
Healing Totem (0/2 heals all friendly characters for 1; yes, a small buff)
Stoneclaw Totem (0/2 taunt)
Wrath of Air Totem (0/2 +1 spell damage)
Remake Searing Totem into a 0/2 for 1 that cannot attack and deals 1 damage to a random enemy character at the end of your turn. This is more in-line with its WoW parallel.
Druid:
Gain 1 armor, and 1 attack this turn.
Heal a minion for 1 at the start of the next 3 turns.
Next turn only, gain 1 mana crystal.
Warlock:
Draw a card and take 2 damage.
Deal 2 damage to a friendly minion, and heal 2 life.
The next minion you play from your hand this turn gains +1 attack and health.
I think these are all in line with the "0 mana" spells we currently have for each class.
