Hello everyone. Today I will be posting a deck check on my current favorite deck to play and it is also very straightforward, inspired mainly by Trump and his view that every play must be a value play. Now I got this concept of a this Rogue on Hearthpwn from a player called Flood, and although this deck may be very similar, I have been trying out many variations of this midrange styled Rogue especially after the nerf of Leeroy and the start of the new season in October. For those of you who are not updated on the Heathstone scene, recently about a week ago Leeroy Jenkins, yes the one we have a love/hate relationship with, has finally been nerfed. Now at first I didn't give up on him yet, I tried to make the leeroy miracle work its magic but alas the burst potential was no longer there. Not to say that it wasn't any good, but firstly I lost my matches due to the fact that leeroy was one of the outs I had to deal 20+ damage for a shock win, and was the winning image of the deck.
Another reason why I stopped playing miracle rogue was that I wasn't interested in trying to make malygos miracle work, it was just that malygos was more of a gimmicky card to me and I didn't like the style of play the new miracle was shifting towards. But I was reluctant to put down rogue altogether so I tried something different. Tempo rogue. While I haven't played much hearthstone, so far I have gone in about something like 10-3 with this deck, and winning with this deck is all the more rewarding due to the nature of this deck- you have to make every turn count, and tempo build up and board control is the mainstay of this deck. Now onto some of the card choices and my explanation for them.
Now firstly we have the standard lineup of rogue removal cards and buffs such as cold blood, backstab, deadly poison and eviscerate. Now why only one Cold blood? Most of the time you generally use cold blood on maybe turn 4 onwards as part of a combo, you can use it on argent squire if people leave it on the board (many people underestimate argent squire and haunted creeper) which you can use to your advantage, by cold blooding them to deal early damage and pressure your opponent into make inefficient trades and wasting removal on your early drops, so that your mid game minions become more sticky. Blade flurry is good AOE and can prove to be a zoo deck's undoing. But we only play one, so use it wisely, preferably with a deadly poisoned wicked knife. But blade flurry stacks with spell power, so be mindful of that. A thalnos powered blade flurry deals 2 across the board and can mess up with aggro decks. Bloodmage thalnos is the MVP of this deck, you may think: meh, what can a 1/1 do? But it combos so well with your spells like backstab, eviscerate, to help you push for damage to the face or remove creatures. And when playing against hand lock Giants, a thalnos powered backstab plus eviscerate can kill the 8 health minions they place on the board. Fan of knives is there for the AOE board clear and in some cases, cycling potential to grab the minions you need to smooth out the curve. Be wary of using it too freely though, unlike miracle which cycles through your whole deck this is a one shot one kill kind of thing. So only use it for the card draw if absolutely needed. More often than not, it helps to remove 2 health creatures be fanning and attacking with the knife on turn 3. The early game is important, it is CRITCAL that you have a smooth mana curve for this deck, if not your game will be pretty rough. Hence the early drops to help build up the tempo.
Now assuming you establish some form of board control in the early game and it's now turn 4-8. Now is the time where Tempo Rogue really shines. With 4 drops like Chillwind Yeti (why Yeti you may ask), you can't go wrong with a value minion. It has 4 attack which is the sweet spot for Priests and 5 health, which places it out of Direct flamestrike, swipe and the like. And although some may want to place gnomish inventor (nothing wrong with that), a minion like Yeti tends to be quite sticky especially if you get it out early e.g. Turn 3 coin into yeti or turn 4 drop. Most players also don't expect to see yeti in constructed, so there is the surprise factor initially. Overall it's just a solid minion to have. Defender of argus is there mainly to taunt up tokens from the haunted creeper and argent squire so that your early game minions don't become obsolete in the mid game and can trade favourably. But it's situational and you might not always have a solid board so 1 argus is enough. Now sap although a 2 mana card is NOT an early game play. Rather, you want to hold it in your hand until you want to disrupt your opponent's tempo on turn 5 onwards. Loatheb is there for a similar purpose but to screw around with your opponent's spell casting ability. Assuming you need one turn to kill him but am vulnerable to a turn 7 flamestrike or a possible board clear, you plop down Loatheb and make them cry tears of sorrow as you seal the victory the next turn with a cold blood.
Azure drake is there as a card draw mechanic as well as a useful spell power to buff your spells up to kill high health minions. Many times I find myself with azure drake and/ thalnos on the board which makes my eviscerates to the face deck deal damage like kill command or even more. Sludge belcher is there as a solid taunt body to delay and protect your smaller minions so that you can continue to chip away at your opponents health. Argent commander is real value, it can contribute immediately to the board by removing 4 health minions while just popping the divine shield, you can make it your turn 6 play to push for damage and pressure your opponent into removing it somehow. Another card which annoys taunt heavy decks or decks which run sludge belcher, Druid of the claw etc. is the Black Knight. While it may sit dead in your hand against aggro typed decks, in control typed decks this card shines. I have won games just by destroying taunted up mountain Giants and messing with my opponent's strategy. This card just contributes to the board immediately, much like argent commander but to a different extent.
Now that I have explained the rationale behind the card choice, I will now move on to explanation on how to play this deck and the match ups it may face in this meta. Stay tuned to this post, I will be writing up on it soon.
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