Deckbuilding with the Final Wing of LoE – Miracle Rogue and Control Priest

Introduction

Hello everyone! Todays article will be about some of the deckbuilding possibilities of the fourth wing and I will give you, the readers, two cool decks you can start playing as soon as the last wing is released. Last season I finished at Legend Rank 77 with my very own take on Deathrattle Rogue. In addition to that I predicted that the Warsong Commander nerf will not be the death sentence for Patron Warrior. Therefore I’m very confident in my deckbuilding and evaluations skills in Hearthstone, which makes me a competent writer for this theory article.

Miracle Rogue

When I started playing card games, I never thought that they would actually make me kind of sad, but in fact every card game I played had some moments were I was sad. I’m never sad when I lose a game, because that is part of any game. In fact the only time when I got sad in Hearthstone is when Blizzard nerfed a deck I loved. Miracle Rogue and Patron Warrior are both decks, where I was actually sad when they were nerfed. Patron Warrior with Warsong Commander was my most favorite deck, it was skill intensive and very fun to play and the old Miracle Rogue with Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Leeroy Jenkins  is my second most favorite deck.

Power level wise prenerf- Miracle Rogue is stronger than prenerf- Patron Warrior, although it had less potential burst. The reason for that is that the draw engine was much more powerful, many decks just lost on the spot against Conceal with Gadgetzan Auctioneer. The draw engine is the core of every good combo deck and the better the engine is, the more powerful and consistent the deck is. Even after the Leeroy Jenkins– nerf Miracle Rogue was still a Tier 1 deck, it had way less burst and was more a Midrange deck than a Combo deck, but Auctioneer still made the deck very powerful.

And with the release of Goblins versus Gnomes Gadgetzan Auctioneer was nerfed, because a 5 mana Auctioneer with Spare Parts would be pretty ridiculous. The difference between five or six mana is huge, especially if the minion is the centerpiece of the deck. So the deck is kind of dead, until now.

Let me introduce Tomb Pillager, a card that will be a staple in Oil Rogue. Tomb Pillager has a decent body (although a 4/5 would have been better), but the Deathrattle is very good in Rogue. The Coin is very valuable for Rogue and getting a free coin can make a huge difference in a lot of games. Being able to play  Sprint on Turn 6 and all the other utility you get from the Coin like being able to combo Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil is very good, so in spell heavy Rogue decks Tomb Pillager will be better than Piloted Shredder.

I could have just made an Oil Rogue and put in two Tomb Pillagers, and voilà I have built a better deck, but I want to be a little bit creative. So I have built a new take on Miracle Rogue. The core of the deck is Gadgetzan Auctioneer, which has very good  synergy with Tomb Pillager and Clockwork Gnome. Auctioneer turns the Coin and Spare Parts into free cards that help you drawing into the combo finish:

Southsea Deckhand + 2 Cold Blood+ Faceless Manipulator = 20 Damage

So the game plan of this deck is to stifle the opponent’ s board development in the early game, while you deal a little bit of damage to your opponent. Then play an Auctioneer and draw into your combo and win. Like the old Miracle Rogue. Tomb Pillager  helps negating the drawback that Auctioneer now costs 6 mana.

Quick Breakdown of the Deck:

• Lots of spells, Clockwork Gnome and Tomb Pillager for Gadgetzan Auctioneer
• Violet Teacher is in the deck as an alternative win condition. Teacher combined with some spells is very good in multiple stages of the game, even in the late game.
• Antique Healbot acts as a tech card against aggressive decks
• The combo pieces are all very flexible. Cold Blood can be used on a smaller minion like a 1/1 token from Violet Teacher to trade up or to get some damage in. Southsea Deckhand can trade with smaller minions like Knife Juggler and is very good at triggering Secrets like Freezing Trap. Faceless Manipulator can also be used on big opposing minions. Flexibility is very important, therefore I have chosen this version over a Malygos version, where Sinister Strike is one-dimensional.

Control Priest

Unlike my take on Miracle Rogue this deck is in a fantastic spot in the metagame. It is good against every Aggro, Druid and Paladin deck. If you want to get quickly to Legend, build this deck, play it well (I recommend checking out my Control Priest  guide) and it will be very easy if you dodge the bad matchups: Control Warlock, Freeze Mage and Oil Rogue.

Both Entomb and Museum Curator greatly improve Control Priest. Entomb helps dealing with all the nightmares Control Priests previously had like Ysera, Sylvanas Windrunner and Tirion Fordring. Mind Control is a potential answer, but ten mana is just too much. Therefore Entomb is just better in a metagame where people play Aggro, and Aggro will always be played, even if it is not good.

A lot of people evaluate Entomb wrong, against faster decks like Secret Paladin, Midrange Hunter and Midrange Druid it is just a little bit better than Recycle, which is fine. Against slower matchups, you can expect the majority of the time to draw into the minion you removed and get a lot of value. So it is a removal spell, attached with a win condition against slower decks. That is something I like a lot from a theoretical point of view. Win conditions in Control decks like big legendary minions are all very expensive and slow. Ysera is a trash tier card against aggro decks, it is only good when you are already winning. So having a removal spell that can act as a win condition is very good and makes Control Priest much more consistent. The best decks are all decks where every card is very flexible. Take Freeze Mage or the old Patron Warrior as an example, a lot of the spells like Fireball or Whirlwind can act as a removal spell and later as a win condition and from a theoretical point that makes a deck not only more consistent but also more powerful.

Museum Curator is a fantastic card. My most favorite card of the set. I immediately fell in love when I saw it. Control Priest completely lacks a minion for two mana you can just play on curve. If you don’t have a lot of experience with Priest, Museum Curator may seem underwhelming to you, because it has a poor body. That is true, but you have to look at Museum Curator in a different way. Without Museum Curator Priest has no minion to just play on Turn 2. Museum Curator has poor stats for a reason. It draws you a card. The pool of cards you can get is very good, you have 44 % to get something that is good against aggressive decks like Deathlord or Explosive Sheep. And against slower decks, you can get cards like Sylvanas Windrunner and Sneed’s Old Shredder.

That sounds very good to me for a two drop, because you can get a lot of good cards, you don’t have to put in your deck and depending on the matchup you can choose to draw them. Would I put Cairne Bloodhoof in my deck? Hell no! Would I want to put it in my deck when I face Control Warrior! Absolutely! Same concept applies to Explosive Sheep against Aggro. So the flexibility of being able to choose what card you get depending on the matchup is great. Although Museum Curator will be sometimes inconsistent because you get three bad options, but the majority of time you will get to choose from good cards.

In addition to these points, Museum Curator makes the already very good card Velen’s Chosen much better. Museum Curator replaces himself, so if you play Velen’s Chosen on it and the opponent kills the buffed minion with a spell, unlike other minions you traded one for one and your opponent did not make any card advantage.

Quick Breakdown of the Deck:

• The early game minions like Zombie Chow, Deathlord and smaller minions like Museum Curator buffed with Velen’s Chosen help you gain early board control.
• If you don’t have a good start, it is not a big problem. You have Lightbomb, Wild Pyromancer and Auchenai Soulpriest with Circle of Healing to clear the opponent’s board and catch up.
• Against faster decks you win by removing their board and grinding them out of resources, and against slower decks, you win with the value cards like Museum Curator, Entomb etc.
• I think Control Priest is superior to Dragon Priest. Dragon Priest is very reliant on a good curve and has way less comeback mechanisms in the form of board clears. For example against Paladin, Control Priest can just milk Northshire Cleric to draw into the abundance of board clears. With Dragon Priest, you can’t just spent two turns using your hero power against Secret Paladin, you will lose so much tempo and then the game.
• I have chosen to cut Injured Blademaster. With the new cards entering the card pool, I don’t think it is a staple anymore. It is rather slow and trades awkward with Piloted Shredder and Sludge Belcher the majority of time and Priest now has better options. Circle of Healing is still very good without Blademaster.

Conclusion

I hope you liked my article and will try one of the two decks out. Miracle Rogue has a lot of potential and Control Priest is just an excellent deck in tournaments and on the ladder. Together with Freeze Mage it is the best deck against Secret Paladin and both new cards make it much more consistent and better overall. I will also try out a Desert Camel and Injured Kvaldir– Midrange Hunter, but due to the abundance of one mana minions in a lot of decks, I have my doubts about the viability of such a deck.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments!

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