Deckbuilding 103: Xithian Shambler Deck

My first Legendary! 

Back when I was only playing Hard computers and was getting into Solforge, I drew this guy from my first Premium Pack. I was excited to get a Legendary card, but like the rest of the community I realized he's got some serious flaws that other Legendaries like Echowisp or Zimus don't have. But I wanted to play with my new toy.

My first response was to make a simple beatdown deck. I put all my big creatures and flexible spells into one deck, and more often than not draws were workable. My opponents, both computer and human, were nice enough to kill Shardplate Mutant more often than not, since a 9/9 is not particularly ignorable. This deck is still possible, with things like Leafkin Progenitor and Rootforged Avatar in the most aggressive Mono-Uterra deck ever, but Shardplate very much isn't necessary.

And then some asshole Energy Prisoned my Shardplate Mutant, I wasn't lucky enough to draw creatures for a few turns to put one over Shardplate, and when I did it was only a Level 1 guy. Shardplate hasn't found a place in any of my decks since, until now.

Meet Xithian Shambler:

 For anyone who doesn't understand the absolutely amazing synergy here is how this combo works:

T1- Xithian Shambler in Lane 3.
T2- Shardplate Mutant in Lane 2/4, Activate Shambler, have a 12/13 with conditional mobility.
T3- Draw 5 cards!

Here are other cards that work well with Xithian Shambler:

• Talisin, Bard of Abundance. A 6/8 body is impressively large, and you avoid giving your opponent 3 drops. Scales incredibly well into late game, if that's not obvious.
• Zimus, the Undying. Zimus is important to level, but being able to gobble a guy and have him come back in another lane is very powerful. 
• Corpse Crawler. Since Avatars aren't really possible, a 7/8 that continues scaling well will have to do.

  And to round off the deck:

• Soul Harvest. Works well with Zimus, gives us another sac option if our board is broken, and is amazing late game. If you have leveled Soul Harvest, Zimus, and Talisin to Level 3 and find a way to lose something has gone seriously awry.
• Death Seeker. Gives Corpse Crawler good targets, doesn't need leveling to clog up a lane, and Shambler doesn't feel bad eating vanilla Spirit Warriors.
• 2 Grimgaunt Devourer. With all this death it's very easy to pump GGD just by doing our combos. Not to mention the destruction our huge creatures do to our opponents side of the board. Make sure to drop him against Sapling or Robot decks.
• 1 Feral Instinct. In a deck that has Shambler easily getting to 30/31 or Grimgaunt Devourer getting +12/+12 a turn having Feral Instinct wins games.
• 6 spots for removal. Our preferred removal is killing, particularly with strong level 1 drops like Shardplate and Corpse Crawler. Grave Pact can be considered, but Botanimate, Epidemic, Dreadbolt, and Cull the Weak are all standard and probably work better.

Level Shambler and Zimus at any opportunity. Only play Talisin and Shardplate Mutant to trade with opponents creatures or to feed to a Shambler (or both!). Soul Harvest and Corpse Crawler only get played if you also happen to have Death Seeker in hand or on board, and otherwise Death Seeker isn't priority. Avoid at all costs the Talisin/Shardplate nonbo (anti-combo) where you get to play 2 random cards and your opponent gets to play 3 cards!

My IGN is pwndnoob, I will continue to make these posts whether people read them or not, but I will appreciate advice or constructive criticism on formatting, and please feel free to comment. Thanks for reading, till next time!