Author’s note: This guide isn’t a substitute for the real deal. The best way to improve at anything is just actually doing it and Zam is no exception. But you can’t learn to fly a plane without someone showing you the controls first, unless you’re a genius. Or you’re ok with crashing a lot of planes.
Oh and though the guide is 3 parts, only 1 and 2 are required. That’s all for now folks, thanks for reading and have a great day <3

Patch #66 Update: Hax’s attachment is now barrier instead of research and the meta is too fast to justify Uno. As a result, Hax will be retired from the list in favour of Think Twice. I’ll leave its section in the guide though in case the meta slows down and you want to try running it in your list, as it’s still fairly viable, especially in longer matchups. 

Introduction

After winning the All Stars tournament with Zam, I noticed a lot of people asking for my Zam list and even got to watch Prof Icicle playing it on stream, which was an honour~
However, the deck didn’t really gain any traction and I feel like this is mostly due to the fact that, well, it’s just not that easy to play. So I decided I’d  make a guide for anyone interested in learning the ropes or just seeing what the hell is going on in my brain.
To preface, this is the current decklist: https://skyweaverdecks.com/decks/124  

So without further ado, let’s get into the guide

Part One: The Combo

Step one to playing the deck is knowing which cards you need in order to perform the combo. Obviously Zam is a must. However, unlike most combos, the rest of the combo is entirely variable depending on how much damage you need to push. In aggro games you’ll generally have to pull the trigger early and just throw out the combo asap. Meanwhile on the opposite side of the spectrum, in a control matchup, your opponent’s health may seem nigh insurmountable and you’re going to need every single combo piece available in order to chunk down their ridiculously high hp. 

The optimal combo turn is as follows:
Zam – Electron – Illusion (targeting Electron) – Salvage – Century Key – Victory 

Adding two Electrons alongside your salvage almost doubles the amount of spells you can output in a single turn, so the above combo is what you need to do if you’re going for the maximum amount of damage. However, as I mentioned earlier, you aren’t always able to pull off the ideal combo and you often won’t even need to. Thus, I’ve comprised a table of what kind of damage output you can generally expect to see based on the ingredients you have. This isn’t factoring in for any other random spells you’re likely to have at this point, but rather a general estimation  based on my experience playing the deck

As you can see, if your opponent isn’t playing a control deck that’s stacking a major amount of health, the deck is pretty capable of bursting opponent’s who are at anywhere from 10-25 health without employing the full combo. And this isn’t even accounting for all the other random crappy spells you’ll have lying around in your back pocket.

Part Two: The Game Plan AKA How do we actually get there?

Now obviously 50 damage in one turn is pretty damn attractive, but it’s going to take a bit of work getting there . Depending on luck of the draw and your opponent’s list, you can pop your Zam anywhere from turn 7 to 12. The exact timeframe mostly depends on your opponent’s list; with aggro decks generally forcing you to pull the trigger by turn 10 or sooner while many control lists will make you stall for as long as possible in order to draw every piece of the puzzle for maximum damage.

• Choosing the optimal starting hand

What looks like a good starting hand can vary wildly between matchups, so step one to picking your cards is always looking at what hero your opponent is playing. Aggressive matchups will require significantly more crowd control and removal, while a control deck will let you play a lot more greedily (though beware of overdrawing!)

Generally speaking though, you’re looking for cards that will enable you to draw and play Magnanimous. The deck functions at 200% power when you get his -1 cost to literally every spell in your deck, so getting this bad boy out is a number one priority. In regards to picking your opening hand, this could include:

• Keeping units in your hand alongside Tempest Brew in order to maximise your chance of pulling Magnanimous with it.
• Keeping every possible card draw in order to thin your deck as much as possible. 
• Keeping Giza for the 50/50 of pulling Mag or Zam.
• Keeping Rosewater Charm or Take Root in order to boost your mana for an earlier Mag granted you feel confident you’ll have him in hand by turn 4-5

Prioritising

Now that we’ve picked the perfect opening hand, it’s time to actually start the damn game. Playing Zam is 80% managing resources, 10% losing to hero armor, 10% wishing you were playing an easier deck and 100% missing lethal. So this means you need to know how to prioritize what cards you can and can’t afford to dump out of your hand at any given moment in order to manage your resources. Against aggro you’re going to be constantly expending resources to keep yourself alive while vs control you need to know which cards you can safely dump to avoid overdrawing. You can never afford to play Salvage or Zam because without them, you lose. Electron as well is almost always a keeper. But the 14 one cost cards in your deck? Frick em. Contrary to what you may believe, the combo doesn’t actually rely on playing a ton of spells. Its key component is mostly just Salvage, alongside whatever other garbage happens to be around. This means that all your one cost spells are fairly expendable and you’re free to use them at your leisure in order to not die and not overdraw.

(a brief note on experience: A lot of the deck concepts may be unfamiliar at first and it can be a lot to take in at once. However, playing this list is a lot like learning an instrument. With time and practice, 90% of the techniques here will become muscle memory and you’ll be able to breeze through games without breaking your brain. Just remember, except for geniuses, everyone sucks starting out. You’ll get better as long as you keep trying, I believe in you 💜)

Playing the Game

Ok now you (potentially) understand a few of the deck’s basic principles, so how do you play it? Well, a lot of the game is just sitting on your ass throwing spells at whatever minions your opponent tries to smack you with, until you can eventually shoot them directly in the head. Prioritising mana efficiency is a total non-factor and all you need to do is stay alive, draw cards, play Magnanimous and then draw your combo. That’s really all there is to it. No big fancy set up.
No bells, no whistles. Just play Mag, draw zam, play spells. If you’re feeling fancy you can reduce the cost of Salvage and illusion using Orchid and Tragic Poet, or even make Electron a 0 cost using Fish. But really, those are all decisions that you make from game to game and aren’t a complete necessity.
Overall once you understand the basic fundamentals of the deck, like what cards to prioritize and what steps you need to complete in order to do the combo, playing the deck becomes a lot simpler. 

Optional Variant: Running Hax

If the Zam doesn’t get em, then Uno will. That’s all it’s there for. Plus it goes through armor so it gives you a better chance vs Dracomantium. Unophobia will naturally accumulate damage as you play an ungodly number of one cost spells throughout the game so there’s no need to focus on it. In some games, especially against control, you might want to guarantee getting Unophobia by killing Hax yourself (the Zaps off Tempest Brew help with this.) But in an aggro matchup you probably don’t care enough. It’s also worth mentioning that pulling Hax off of Dual Boot is pretty sad, because nobody wants two Unophobias.

Part Three: Extra for Experts

And now for a list of the synergy potential of every card in the deck with the other cards in the deck. No, seriously, I’m just going to infodump all the relevant scenarios that often come up with each of the cards in the list. This bit isn’t at all necessary so if you’re not a total nerd, feel free to stop here. And hey, if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! Hit me up on discord at Shpungo#5518 with any feedback or whatever and good luck Zamming <3

Ordered based on their order in the deck builder

(Dump worthy means you can throw away this card if you’re in danger of overdrawing)