Weekly Legends: (My) Tempo Rogue!

Introduction

Sometimes you hit legend by taking a net deck or popular list and using it to grind up the ladder. And sometimes, you find your own way. As all of you know, I am a deck builder at heart and creating new lists is the reason I love card games. While I have had success with many, many different and unique builds over the past three years, almost all of them start with inspiration from somewhere else. It is very rare that I do not have a muse for at least part of anything I make, and that is most definitely the case for the Tempo Rogue list we are going to look at today.

This week’s deck is the list that I used to get to legend this month. I have always loved Tempo Rogue and ever since the early spoilers for Un’goro first dropped I have been excited about the potential applications for Vilespine Slayer. However, after many unsuccessful attempts at making a cohesive tempo deck, I was all about ready to give up on the build. That is, until I came across someone discussing the potential of Bittertide Hydra in the deck. That one change completely altered my frame of mind and allowed me to see things from a new perspective. From there, I spent some time puttering around rank 4 before I made the final changes that allowed me to climb to the top.

Key Cards

Cold Blood

While there are a ton of new and interesting cards in this deck, we need to begin this article with Cold Blood because knowing how to play the one mana spell is extremely important. Cold Blood has been long labeled as a finisher. While there is some truth to that, it is not always the case. In this deck you are primarily going to be using the card as lethal, but there is a good chunk of the time where you also want to use it as a (you guessed it) tempo play. Most people think of tempo as killing your opponent’s threats while adding your own to the board. That is one form, but most of the time it is actually forcing your opponent into situations that they cannot hope to escape from. For example, playing a wide board early alongside a 6/6 Edwin Vancleef against a Paladin. This puts them in a lose-lose where they either use Consecration to get rid of your small minions and take six from Edwin, or use something like Aldor Peacekeeper and get hit by the board.

Cold Blood is one of the best ways to put your opponent’s into tight scenarios because it makes anything a threat. Rogue has a lot of burst damage, and any player is going to try and make sure they don’t take an extra four a turn. Even something as simple as a 6/2 Undercity Huckster can quickly end a game. The best play you can make with this card is dropping Bittertide Hydra on turn six and then Cold Blooding anything else and going face. This gives you two gigantic minions that need to be dealt with and if your opponent does kill the buffed minion they will quickly take eight from the hydra. Always look for those set ups and never buff an already big minion unless you absolutely need to push for lethal.

Edwin Vancleef

Using Edwin Vancleef is never easy, and that gets compounded in a tempo deck. Like Cold Blood, this is a card that you often want for value rather than some big swing turn. Edwin is probably the best tempo card because he is so easy to fit into your curve as you push for damage. There have been many games where I have simply added two smaller minions to the board, pushed for face, and then dropped a 6/6 Edwin down. That type of move does not seem crazy powerful, but it is just more threats that stretch your opponent thin. Many popular classes right now, including Paladin, Hunter and Quest Rogue, lack basic removal options. Rather, they depend on their minions to mitigate their opponent’s plays. As a result, if you are able to stay ahead of them on the board and then follow up with Edwin you should just overtake them. I would say that the three mana pirate is almost always going to be a 6/6 in this build, but there are some games where you can go really big (especially if you can make it happen on turn three or four). There are also going to be some games (such as when facing Priest) where you simply coin him out as a two mana 4/4. Not the craziest play ever, but that is a very good option if you want to get ahead of decks like Murloc Paladin or Midrange Hunter.

Obsidian Shard/Undercity Huckster

Another piece of the puzzle I picked up along the way, Obsidian Shard is a card I never took seriously until a friend of mine suggested the idea when looking at interesting tempo cards. Originally, I had a pair of Razorpetal Lashers in the two drop slot. While they were good, I never felt like they did enough. Yes, the one mana deal one damage was good in various situations, but this deck does not have any real ways to abuse them like Gadgetzan Auctioneer or Sherizan, Corpse Flower. As a result, I decided to go back to an old favorite in Undercity Huckster.

As strong as I thought Razorpetal Lasher would be, Huckster was just so much better. The two mana card basically says “draw a card” but you get a much wider range of options, which helps in many different situations. Not only that, but a 2/2 body for two is pretty solid early on to help fight with all of the murlocs, pirates, and beasts running around. This card is just a bigger Swashburglar, and that style of card is much better for this list than getting the extra one damage from lasher. This inclusion also allowed me to run Obsidian Shard, which has had some very good results. A 3/3 weapon for four is pretty poor, but when that 3/3 weapon costs two or one it is extremely strong. Nine damage is nine damage, and you can really get it to climb with Deadly Poison. This deck naturally plays other classes’ cards, and those get even stronger when they discount your weapon free of charge. In fact, I originally had two of these but switched one out for Stampeding Kodo. You could probably find a way to get the second back in.

Vilespine Slayer

Yes. Oh. My. God. Yes. While it has not been out long, Vilespine Slayer has become one of my favorite cards of all time. I am not sure where it is on the list, but it is most definitely in my top ten. The five mana 3/4 seems very unassuming when you first look at it, but it is extremely easy to trigger combo these days. That means it is very easy to kill minions. This is the best tempo card I’ve ever played with and it always feels like a blow out. I have used the plant to kill everything from Kor’kron Elite and Tirion Fordring to Sherizan, Corpse Flower and Murloc Warleader. You do not need to hit some gigantic threat for this to be good, you just need to get control of the board. However, if your opponent has a bomb you want to easily clean up you should save this when possible.

This card makes the entire deck work and creates some of the most unfair swing turns I have ever seen. In fact, during my climb there were many games where my opponent’s would concede to the plant on the spot. One of the most important parts of piloting this build is making sure you will have access to combo at some point in the game. For example, it is very rare that I ever play Hallucination on turn one because it is such a good way to sneak in a turn four SI:7 Agent or turn six Vilespine Slayer combo. Always do your best to have some cheap spell ready if the 3/4 is in hand. This may mean even keeping Backstab or the like a few turns longer than you normally would. Planning ahead is extremely important. So much so that I have also considered running Xaril, Poisoned Mind just to get more cheap spells.

Stampeding Kodo/The Black Knight

As noted, one definition of tempo is killing a minion while playing one at the same time. There are quite a lot of ways to do this in Hearthstone, but these two do it quite well. Something I quickly found out about this build is that, no matter what I did, I could not seem to break through against Taunt Warrior. While I stole some games if I had a very fast start and curved into Bittertide Hydra, most of the time I just couldn’t muster enough of a push. As a result, I slipped in The Black Knight as my tech card of choice. I found it to be very strong because, not only did it help with my worst matchup, but it also seemed to be good against a wide range of classes. Though it doesn’t do much against Rogue, it hits Paladin hard, generates value against Silence Priest, and can even be used against Hunter or random Tar Creepers. That is enough value for me.

Stampeding Kodo is also very strong in the current meta. Like The Black Knight, I first added in to give me more ways to take down Taunt Warrior (it hits both Bloodhoof Brave and Alley Armorsmith). However, the more I played with it, the more I liked it. There are a lot of small minions currently running around the ladder, and many of them have a pretty high impact. Not only does the 3/5 beast crush things like Wickerflame Burnbristle, Dirty Rat and Finja, the Flying Star, but it also hits Doomsayer, which has risen with the resurgence of Freeze Mage. There is never going to be a matchup where this is dead, and that is a very good feeling to have when slipping in a card. In fact, depending on how much Taunt Warrior you’re seeing, you could easily make a case for running a second Kodo over The Black Knight.

Matchups

The five decks I have seen the most on the early ladder.

Pirate Warrior

There are a ton of decks on the ladder right now, and it is very hard to narrow down just five. However, no matter what brews I find myself faced against, Pirate Warrior is always there. The deck is very solid at doing thirty damage and has a lot of good matchups. I would say this game is about 60/40 in your favor for two reasons. One, you have Golakka Crawler. The crab may seem odd as a two of, but there are so many decks running Patches the Pirate that it is an easy inclusion for a tempo build right now. Hitting any early Pirate with your crab is going to instantly put you ahead of the board, and from there you can overwhelm your opponent. The other reason this matchup falls in your favor is because you can push through a lot of damage that Pirate cannot properly interact with.

The most important part of playing Pirate is knowing when to crank up the gas and hit your opponent in the face. Pirate’s only real form of removal is minions and weapons. As such, if you manage to hit them with a Cold Blood they are either going to have to lose board position or take more damage to kill it. That then keeps you in control and allows you push. You should also try very hard to curve into Bittertide Hydra. It is very easy to shy away from the 8/8 because you don’t want to take damage, but at turn five almost all of Pirate’s damage sources are going to be doing at least three anyway. This means they will often ignore it, opening the door for you to put them on an extremely fast clock.

Midrange Paladin

I am not sure when this happened, but I am ecstatic that Midrange Paladin has rushed back into the limelight. Uther was gone much too long, and this new version has some real teeth. However, as strong as they are against most of the field, they are rather weak against what we’re trying to do. Midrange Paly is a deck that depends on being able to leverage the game with gigantic threats and powerful cards. However, you have so many answers (from Sap to The Black Knight to Vilespine Slayer) to individual bodies that pushing through won’t be a problem. You want to pace this game from turn one and never give up the board. Use all of your resources to make sure Paladin is always playing from behind. If they depend on one big taunt to save them you should have no problem bursting them down around turn seven or eight.

The biggest part of facing down Paladin is understanding their swing turns. The new builds all have a string of extremely powerful cards that they use to dominate the later stages of the game. These include things like Sunkeeper Tarim, Primordial Drake, Tirion Fordring and Spikeridged Steed. Save your removal (and Vilespines) for those threats and use your other resources to get efficient trades early on. I would say one of the most important rules here is to try and clear your opponent’s board to prevent them from playing steed on six. However, if you have several big threats and a Sap in hand you can also bait out the buff. Forcing your opponent to spend their turn six playing a card that is instantly negated is very powerful.

Note: Be careful about playing Bittertide Hydra into an Aldor Peacekeeper.

Miracle Rogue

While I fully believe that Quest Rogue is very powerful (check my last Questing for Un’goro article) Miracle is much more popular. This game is going to be the closest thing you have to a mirror match, with you and your opponent both doing your best to control the early board in anyway that you can. Though some Miracle builds run Leeroy Jenkins as their finisher, Arcane Giants are still very popular. This means, like you, they want to have priority moving into turns six or later. To win this game you need to fight hard for the board during the first four turns and then switch into the aggressor once you get beyond that. Miracle can out value if the game goes long, so you want to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Miracle Rogue has no healing and they have no taunt, but they do have Gadgetzan Auctioneer. As usual, it is going to be almost impossible to fight through the goblin. That means you want to pressure your opponent very hard going into turn six. Yes, they may have some Preparation nonsense, but most of the time this will keep them off of their combo for a turn or two, which is really all the time you need. This is another game where Cold Blood is very valuable at forcing your opponent’s hand. Bittertide Hydra is strong for similar reasons because the only clean way Valeera can clear the beast is withSap. If you play the card while ahead it will keep you in control of priority for at least two turns. One last note is to always take either damage or removal with Hallucination and do not be afraid to stack on pressure like Deadly Poison/hit their face on turn six just to keep them focused on the board.

Freeze Mage

Once gone, but never dead, Freeze Mage is another deck that has exploded (back) onto the scene. Even without Ice Lance, the combo deck has enough tools to stall forever before burning its opponent to zero. This is a very hard game where you absolutely need to focus on your damage. In fact, you just want to be as aggressive as possible here. Popping your opponent’s block through their freeze is absolutely essential, and you can never let them breathe. Allocate all of your resources into pressure and do whatever it takes to to strike hard. Just be careful about playing Bittertide Hydra. The 8/8 can be very strong, but it usually only comes in handy during the later turns. You never want to just run it out on turn five and make Blizzard (plus their pings) do three to your face.

The pace of this game is going to be you pushing and Mage fighting back against with their usual stall. You have a big advantage there because the current Freeze lists all depend on Doomsayer to do a lot of work. If you can use Sap,Stampeding Kodo or Vilespine Slayer to easily take down the 0/7 it is going to give your opponent problems. Always work to have minions on the board (even if you can’t get use out of their ability) and try to have a threatening board by the time Alexstrasza drops. If you can’t instantly take out an Ice Block when the dragon comes down you are going to lose. Period.

Taunt Warrior

Time for the hardest matchup. Taunt Warrior’s stock has significantly dropped over the past week, but that does not mean it is gone. This is a very grindy game where you have to dare your opponent to have answers. It is very easy to play carefully and try to dodge certain cards, but you are never going to be able to get a foot hold in the game playing that way. You need to be aggressive here. And that does not mean that you need to actually get damage in, but you have to always be pushing threats onto the board. Yes, you do not want to overextend into an obvious Brawl or play a board full of 1/1’s into Ravaging Ghoul, but it is important to try to always have something that makes Warrior react. Sometimes they are going to have the Execute or Shield Slam, but many times they are going to rely on their minions to stop the bleeding. When that happens, you need to crush them with things like The Black Knight, Stampeding Kodo, or Vilespine Slayer. If you take too long to put on pressure they will just Sulfurus you out of the game.

Mulligan Guide

There are many early cards in this deck, and they all have a wide range of uses in different matchups. Backstab, Swashburglar and Undercity Huckster are all your must keeps. Deadly Poison is very strong against other board-centric decks when you have a good opening, and you should keep Hallucination alongside any early minions. Eviscerate is good against Hunter, while Golakka Crawler is a great keep against Druid, Zoo, Warrior and Rogue. The crab can be kept against slower decks just to have a on-curve two drop as well. Sap can be kept in some fringe cases against Paladin if you have a very quick start, while Edwin Vancleef and SI:7 Agent are both auto-keeps with the coin. SI should also be kept with a strong opening.

Conclusion

Legend! I always love brewing, and it is one of the best feelings in this game when you can make something that actually works. Rogue is very popular on the ladder right now, but I believe that this build really differentiates from the other lists and puts a fresh spin on the class. I have long loved Valeera (Maiev), and this is one of the main reasons why. I hope this list brings you success, and I hope you are still enjoying this new crazy meta as much as I am. Until next time, may you always combo Vilespine.

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