Miracle Pirate Rogue Guide: Welcome to Gadgetzan!

When the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan cards came out for the Rogue class, people were quite disappointed to say the very least. If someone told me that Rogue would actually be in a great spot before the release of the expansion I would not buy it one bit, but it seems like that is exactly what has happened ladies and gentlemen! While the class cards have been underwhelming, the neutral options that came out in the expansion have been exceptional for the Rogue class. The pirate package that everyone is complaining about fits in not only Shaman and Warrior but also Rogue and the deck performs admirably in the current meta. I managed to hit legend in 11 days this season and have been having a ton of fun with the deck. This list was taken from Callisto, a player who hit Rank 7 legend very early in the season and it stood out to me because of shaku-the-collector.

Shaku was one of my first MSOG legendaries and I unpacked him in golden, I wasn’t too pleased but after reading up on Callisto’s comments on the card and how good he is in the deck I decided to give it a shot and Shaku has not disappointed me at all. It is not the best card in the deck but the fun factor and crazy games he can lead to makes the inclusion worth it, however, it is not a compulsion to have him in the deck. The list is very similar to Miracle Rogue decks we have had in the past but with some aggressive early game and the inclusion of a few new cards. Let’s break down the deck building aspect of the deck and see what’s inside this amazing deck.

Card Choices

The core of the deck is the same as always with focus on massive burst damage turns and high tempo plays with slight twists from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan.

Backstab: One of the most commonly picked cards in any Rogue deck, it is just too efficient to not add. It not only allows you to take out small minions but also enables combo essentially for free and lets you get more value out of your combo effect cards or initiate other synergies like spell damage or card draw.

Counterfeit Coin: We all know how much Gadgetzan Auctioneer loves cheap spells and the Counterfeit Coin is one of the better additions to the Rogue class in the latest expansion. However, adding two copies of the card would be going too overboard since you have so many potential dead draws in the deck and it’s one of the worst cards you can topdeck when you are dry on cards in hand. We only want to include just one copy of the card and it allows you to ramp up to play bigger minions or simply work as a tool for card draw or enabling combo pieces.

Preparation: It is one of the most iconic 0 mana cards in the game and it is a class defining card. Cheating out your mana curve and playing spells for cheap can enable some high tempo plays and it is definitely one of the core cards of the deck that you must include.

Cold Blood: One of the tools to enable burst damage in the deck and it’s a great way to get very swingy trades or simply works as a tool for going face and bursting your opponent down. One of the mistakes people often make is to save the card for lethal damage. Even if there is a small chance that a buffed minion can’t get removed on your opponent’s turn you should apply pressure with the card if you have free mana and sufficient board control.

Patches the Pirate: One of the cards that has been dominating the meta right now. Rogue is one of the classes that is heavily reliant on consistent card draw and cycling through the deck, and Patches is essentially a free minion and card draw when you play a pirate from you deck. It enables you to have more consistent draws once Patches is out of your deck and helps you get to your burst damage easier even if it is by the smallest of percentages.

Small-Time Buccaneer: One of the best pirates in the game right now and it seems like there will never be an end to extremely powerful 1 drops in the game. Since your hero power enables you to equip a weapon, you do not have to run any weapons in the deck at all like other classes have to do and you get the effect of the card off very easily simply by using your hero  power.

Swashburglar: One of most fun and RNG-induced salt producing cards in the game that can win you games through the draws it can hand you for just 1 mana. The extremely low cost of the card makes it a perfect tool for getting your Combo cards to get their effects off and it also serves as a tool to bring out Patches the Pirate. Class cards in general are quite stronger than neutrals and you should be able to good cards off very consistently.

Bloodmage Thalnos: One of the most flexible legendaries in the game and his widespread usage in the past year in both competitive play and ladder is finally changing people’s notions of him being too weak to be a legendary. It is very easy for people new to the game to feel that he doesn’t do much but when you see how much he brings to the table in the decks he is run in, the notions fade away. It does the job of drawing you a card and also buffing up your spells for just 2 mana just spells out value for the player.

Eviscerate: One of the more flexible cards in the deck and you can use it for a variety of uses. It can serve as minion removal in both the early and mid game while also being a card that can readily be used for burst damage and closing out the game. Do not shy away from using it without the combo activation to remove small minions if you see you don’t have tools to contest the opponent’s early game.

Sap: One of the most high tempo cards in the game that allows you to shut down your opponent’s big threats quite easily and you will be able to swing entire games on the back of this card. It is also a great tool to pick out taunts to enable you to burst down your opponent and they will have to spend mana to replay their card all over again spending the same amount of mana.

Edwin VanCleef: One of the coolest legendaries in the game and undoubtedly one of the strongest as well. Edwin was not as good as he is right now in the past due to the abundance of silence effects in the game but with nerfs to silence cards and the reduction of silence effects in general, Edwin VanCleef has been flourishing since mid 2016. Getting a large Edwin early in the game can instantly win you games off the bat if your opponent is unable to deal with it. Hard removal is not entirely common in the current meta or happen to be cheap enough to consistently wipe out early giant Edwins.

You can often go all in against specific decks that are known to not have any form of hard removal. Druid and aggressive decks like Pirate Warrior and Aggro Shaman can fall prey to a wall of stats and it’s not uncommon to finish the game in 2-3 turns after playing a giant Edwin. Even if most decks in the current meta are able to deal with him, they will need to trade off a lot of minions or spend a ton of resources from hand.

Fan of Knives: With so many 1 and 2 HP minions flooding the meta, Fan of Knives is very powerful right now and using spell damage minions you have in the deck can allow you to get a great board clear against aggro decks. It can also serve as a tool for just cycling through your deck as well when you are facing slower decks where the AoE effect might not have any value at all.

Shaku, the Collector: Shaku is definitely not the best legendary to have been released in the expansion but the fun games he can bring to the table and crazy draws he can pull out with his effect makes games a lot more fun. This is a very niche addition to the deck and if you do not happen to own the card then you are not missing anything at all to be fair. You can simply add a Undercity Huckster or Acidic Swamp Ooze and you are good to go.

SI:7 Agent: A great tool to turn the tide against aggressive early game from your opponent and taking out a 2 HP minion or bigger minions by using Backstab makes for a great play. It is one of the strongest 3 drops in the whole game and is definitely a great minion to include in your deck.

Tomb Pillager: The one card that brought back the Miracle Rogue deck on its own thanks to the great synergy it brought in with Gadgetzan Auctioneer when it released. It not only has standard stats for a 4 drop but the deathrattle effect makes it really powerful. It enables you to pull off combos or have great miracle turns with Gadgetzan Auctioneer. It is unlikely the Miracle Rogue archetype can live on if we do not get a card that is on par with what Tomb Pillager has to offer when the next rotation hits in a few months.

Azure Drake: Azure Drake is one of the most consistent value cards in the game and both the spell damage and card draw are relevant to the deck. With no good 5 drop option for Rogue, we have to rely on Azure Drake to deliver.

Leeroy Jenkins: Your finisher in the deck that can also serve as an emergency removal in cases as well. Using Leeroy with 2x Cold Blood is one of the signature ways to finish off the game for a 14 damage combo for 7 mana. Leeroy is one of the best cards in both aggro decks as well as combo style decks like Miracle Rogue.

Gadgetzan Auctioneer: The strongest card draw tool in the deck. With so many 0 cost spells in the deck that you can combo with, you will be able to cycle through your deck quite quickly and get to your burst damage easily to close out the game. Since you do not want your games to last too long you want to draw out your deck and close games out by turn 8 or 9 at best.

Playstyle and Mulligan

With so much aggressive early game and the ability to get very early damage in before your mid game minions pop up, you will be able to win a lot more consistently with Leeroy and Cold Blood. One of the reasons Pirates have been a success in Rogue is due to the fact that Swashburglar is a great activator for Patches the Pirate and Swashburglar has been seeing play in almost every Rogue deck. Small-Time Buccaneer is also a great addition to the deck for not only getting the aggressive start Rogues have always lacked but also to combat other decks and contest their early game. Your hero power is enough to activate the new Buccaneer and you won’t need to run additional weapons to get the effect off on the card. Do note that this particular deck is designed to combat Shamans and not Pirate Warrior. If you want to do better against Pirate Warrior then you should run even more aggression that allows you to race them for wins while this particular variant seeks to develop stable board states and get to the ‘miracle’ turns to close out games.

During the mulligan phase you want to keep the following cards:

• Swashburglar
• Backstab
• SI:7 Agent
• Small-Time Buccaneer
• Edwin VanCleef (with cheap spells to combo with)
• If you have a very good start then you can keep Tomb Pillager and Azure Drake against very slow decks.

Matchups

I will not go over through matchups that have less than 10% popularity during my climb to legend this season since it’s just not enough stats to provide a fairly accurate assertion on the particular matchups.

• Aggro/Jade Shaman: You are favored in this matchup if you manage to get your early game. Since they do not have powerful catchup mechanics and most Shaman decks do not even run hard removals for things like Edwin VanCleef, you can be the aggressor and take wins in style.

• Pirate Warrior: Unless your start is better than theirs, you are unfavored in this one by a long shot. While you might be able to handily deal with their minion you won’t be able to stop incoming damage from weapons and spells and if they get a good start and put you to around half health by turn 4 then you are doomed.

• Dragon Warrior: This matchup has been fairly even for me and if you get ahead on board with your pirates then you will be able to get some really favorable trades in.

• Jade Druid: You are heavily favored in this matchup because your tempo style of play is something Druid as a class can’t quite handle efficiently and things like big Edwins or flooded board stats in the early game can spiral to victory quite easily.

• Dragon Priest: It is an even matchup and if they have a very good curve then you will get into trouble due to how massive the health pools on some of the minions are. You want to keep them on the backseat if you want to win and if they manage to put up a wall of stats each turn and have perfect draws then you don’t have much to do about.

• Miracle Rogue: This matchup boils down to draws and the skill level of the players and the better you handle your cards and play out your turns carefully, the better your odds of winning this matchup are.

• Renolock: This is a favorable matchup as long as you do not over-commit on the board and have enough fuel to keep pushing in damage and maintain a healthy board state. You want to save up your burst damage to catch them off guard, because going all in and allowing them to heal back up can lead to instant losses.

Conclusion

If you enjoy playing Rogue and want a solid deck to climb with in the current meta, then this is one of the best lists to try out right now. I’ve had massive success with the deck and I’d definitely recommend others to give it a shot. Let me know how the deck works out for you in the comments below and I’ll gladly help you out with your queries!

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