DECKLIST
ORIGINAL POST
As the title says, hit the Legend rank (#24 EU currently) today playing almost exclusively rogue from Rank 5 to L.
The deck is fairly standard, but it’s slightly more aggressive than the average rogue deck. The gameplan is to start fast, board control for a few turns and then go all in to the face.
Matchups-wise, Mage aggro and Warrior OTK decks are very easy matchups. I unfortunately don’t have stats for constructed, but I have not lost to Warrior OTK once out of 5+ matches, and against Mage I have around 80-90% winrate. Warlock is also a favorable match-up as long as you mulligan aggressively to find Backstab. Druid is so far the only unfavorable match-up, but it’s not completely hopeless.
General tips for playing the deck:
Mulligan VERY aggressively. This deck needs a fast start because it has very little late game. Throw away that Harvest Golem against Warlock if you don’t have a very strong T1 and T2 to go with it. It’s just too slow.
Learn when to go for the face. Even if you don’t have the kill next turn in hand, you have 5 outs in the deck for surprise 4+ damage. Playing the board control game for too long will cost you games, as most of my wins come when opponent still has 6+ cards in hand but doesn’t have time to play them before dying.
Cards that almost made the cut:
Ragnaros: Very strong finisher, but can clog up your hand early and prevent the snowball start that the deck does very well if it has relevant cards in hand.
Sap: Good answer to Sylvanas and Druid taunters. Problematic to play because playing 1 means you’ll rarely draw it when you need it and playing 2 is just asking for the instant vomit when you draw them at the same time.
Black Knight: Good against Druids, but dilutes your gameplan against favorable match-ups and clogs your hand early like Ragnaros.
Edwin Van Cleef: Had it in for a long time, but it is a bit clunky and can cause you to get greedy and lose. Was never truly impressive and the worst matchup (Druid) has plenty of ways to deal with it.
Cards that should never go into this deck:
Thalnos: Good card, but doesn’t fit the gameplan. You need aggressive 2 drops and Thalnos is pretty much never a good T2 play.
Azure Drake, Gnomish Inventor: Pretty much the same as Thalnos. Good cards for a more controlling Rogue approach but not aggressive enough for this deck.
Blade Flurry, Fan of Knives: Completely unnecessary. Other aggro decks get overpowered by the sheer efficiency of this deck’s early game. Backstab, SI7, Deadly Poison and Ringleader are just very powerful against aggro, because they allow strong board development while keeping your opponent’s board down.
If there is interest, I can post specific match-up primers.
Credit: Source
Published: Dec 27, 2013 01:20 pm