Questing for Un’goro: Elemental Rogue

Introduction

Today, we get controversial. We have not been in Un’goro long. However, that has not stopped the masses from decrying the Rogue quest, The Caverns Below, completely broken. In fact, in less than 24 hours people were asking for nerfs. However, just a day or two later, the card basically disappeared from the ladder. Why? Because people figured out that it had one big problem: staying alive. I must admit, I love the Rogue Quest because it is one of the only quests that actually makes you work in a way that is different then “play x minion x times.” That is very refreshing, and something I want to endorse. As such, today we are going to break down the Rogue quest and look at what I believe to be the best way to build it for the current ladder meta.

The Deck

Another week, another stolen list. While I will no doubt get around to my brews, I wanted to cover the Rogue quest while it’s still early in the format. This particular thirty is from a user named Popsychblog who took it to legend amid the never ending mass of Hunters, Warriors and Rogue that have taken over the high ranks of the ladder. How did he do that? By using some good ol’ innovation and tweaking the deck in a very intelligent way.

This list has injected the Quest shell with a bunch of different elementals like Tar Creeper that both help help push your middle game and help you a lot against aggro. While this deck still has a lot of the stuff you need in the classic Rogue Quest build, it also runs a lot of very interesting tech choices that I think make the whole deck better overall. All of the fluff is gone here. There’s no Violet Teachers or Fan of Knives. Rather, this one focuses on minions, which gives it the chance to play in numerous ways. And that versatility is absolutely key.

Key Cards

This section will explain some of the deck’s most important cards.

Preparation

I have seen a few lists cutting Preparation for other cards people think to be more efficient, but I have to say that is completely wrong. This card is one of the most important parts of the deck because prepping out The Caverns Below often instantly leads to a quick victory. In fact, I would say that Prep is probably one of your main win conditions (if not your only real way of beating faster decks). If you take a quick glance at the list you will see that the only non-zero cost spell you can use prep on is the single copy of Mimic Pod. Even so, there is an absolute world of difference between getting to play The Caverns for two and having to spend a whole turn on setting up your win-con. This is not a card that you typically keep in your mulligan, but you do want to reliably have access to it when the time comes. If you see that you are going to race to the quest quickly, then you should always keep one copy. You can still play the quest for five mana, but that usually means you are going to have lose the board and tempo, which is sometimes too much to come back from.

Glacial Shard

This card has massively exceeded my early expectations in so many ways. Glacial Shard hits on every level this deck wants and is so good I am honestly shocked that it hasn’t seen play in this list before. Not only does it hit your elemental triggers, but the 2/1 is a massive tempo play for a deck like this. You can use it early to be aggressive, you can lock down your opponent’s face, or you can simply use it a massive tempo play. There are many cards in this deck that you can play multiple times, but none of them like to be bounced more than the shard. In fact, playing this over and over can outright be a win condition against decks like Hunter and Pirate Warrior who are trying to leverage an early board. Freezing something is very strong, and the chilly elemental is one of the best ways to make up for a tempo loss you get from playing The Caverns Below.

The elemental package is important because, as mentioned, it is key to keeping you alive. There is almost no deck in the game that is going to be able to outlast you once everything in your deck is a 5/5. As a result, all you care about is getting to that point in one piece. Glacial Shard is one of the best ways to make that happen because of how strong freeze is in the current meta. Many lists out there right now are tempo-oriented builds that seek to leverage early board presence into huge mid-game damage. If you can lock down one such threat and then return this card to your hand to make sure you can lock again the next turn it gives you a great way to make sure you don’t unnecessarily fall to far behind. If you ever have this in your opener against any aggro or midrange deck this is what you should spend your time bouncing.

Fire Fly

Another massively important piece to this deck, Fire Fly serves two key purposes here. One, it gets you Flame Elemental. Normally, you are going to spend a lot of time and resources bouncing cards. Sometimes that works and sometimes it is a massive problem because you just don’t have all the pieces you need at the same time. The 1/2 greatly helps with this because it gives you the same tokens created by Igneous Elemental, and that really ups your count. Just having Fire Fly and Igneous Elemental in hand gives you three minions with the same name. From there, you then only need one bounce effect. This is an important read to make during mulligans because if you have the elementals you know that you don’t need to keep multiple things that bring minions back to your hand.

The other reason this card (like its Igneous counterpart) is so key is because it gets you a way to play an elemental the turn before you drop Tol’vir Stoneshaper. While the 3/5 is covered in greater detail below, it is important to hit the trigger in a lot of matchups. Getting that taunt and divine shield often will buy you the time you need to go off. Do not be afraid to save a Flame Elemental for that purpose just in case you draw the 3/5. The only exception to this is if you need the ele to complete the quest. This card also helps you keep up on the early board, which can be very important against other aggro decks. There are many times where you can play turn one Fire Fly and then coin Flame Elemental to shut down something like an Alleycat or the Patches combo. That play does not come up too much, but do not be afraid to fight back against other minions. Every turn that goes by is one step closer to getting to the caverns.

The Bounce

Something that I find very interesting about this deck is how it plays when you don’t draw the nuts. Getting to go off with your quest turn three feels good, but it is not going to be the norm. Rather, you really need to make good use of your bounce. That means trying to get value from cards while also completing your quest at the same time. It is hard to know exactly what cards you are going to have to bring back to your hand, so you typically want to make that decision early on and just roll with it. Flame Elemental is typically a good choice because it is the easiest card to topdeck (you can get both Fire Fly and Igneous Elemental). However, I think it is much better to try and start your chain with cards that actually have an ability that you can abuse.

Swashburglar and Novice Engineer are perhaps your two best targets since they both give you value when you spam them over and over. In fact, engineer helps make up for the inherent tempo loss created by bouncing because it keeps you digging through your deck (often towards that key Preparation). However, if given the option, there are many games where going for Glacial Shard is much better. My general rule for this is you want to try and get value or card draw against slower decks like Paladin and Quest Warrior, but if you’re facing another Rogue, Warlock, Hunter or Pirate you need to immediately try to freeze the board as much as you can so you can get to turn five ahead of your opponent.

Tol’vir Stoneshaper

All of the elementals are strong in their own right. However, Tol’vir Stoneshaper is the real reason you play those cards. A 3/5 with taunt and divine shield for four is always going to be strong, but it is particularly insane here because it helps fill out the matches that give you the biggest problems. Just getting a Pirate Warrior to burn a weapon charge and a minion on one threat is huge. You want to soak up as many resources as you can from your opponent during the early turns, and this is one of the best ways to do that. When the stoneshaper is in your hand you should always count your elementals and then see how you are going to play one the turn before shaper drops.

I would say that Pirate and Hunter are the two hardest decks for Quest Rogue to beat. This is because they both play in a way where they can come blasting out of the gates and then make you answer them. If you don’t, you die. However, not only does this list get to run Tol’vir Stoneshaper, but the four drop also gives you access to Tar Creeper. Each of those puts the ball in your opponent’s court and forces them to respond to you. That is a huge difference that allows you to play to your combo without having to worry about dying. You are looking for one or two extra turns with this deck and Tol’vir Stoneshaper allows you exactly that. Always work hard to get this triggered when going up against those decks, even if it means taking a turn off from your quest to set up an elemental.

Matchups

Some of the most common matchups I see while playing ladder.

Pirate Warrior

The reason for all of the changes to the core, Pirate Warrior is a tough matchup of tempo vs. aggro. Your goal in this game is to be at enough life when you caverns that you can just crush them before they can properly put together their final push with Arcanite Reaper and Mortal Strike. You need to bounce quickly in this game in order to get your four minions down. Even with the new cards, Pirate can really bring the heat. You are never going to be able to truly relax here and you want to only play defensively in a way that enables you to also secure some type of board position. Play pure tempo and try to trade as best you can. You should be able to win as long as you can keep your minions one step ahead of theirs.

You do not always need to push for your taunts right away. It is very easy to get caught up in playing as many taunts as possible to set up a wall for Warrior to break through, but there are several ways you can really stretch them out. This may seem like an odd strategy, but it is important to note that your taunts are going to get better and better as the game goes on. Stopping a Bloodsail Cultist or Fiery War Axe hit is good, but it isn’t going to be as valuable as knocking back a hit form an Upgraded Arcanite Reaper. Your first goal here should be to play on curve and try your best to mitigate the early game before setting up a huge burst finish.

Taunt Warrior

I would say that Taunt Warrior is perhaps the best matchup for your deck because your late-game trumps there’s in a big way. While they just want get as many bodies down in order to become Ragnaros, you can chain an infinite amount of 5/5’s (made possible by Fire Fly and Igneous Elemental) that will just wear them down. They might have a Brawl or Sleep with the Fishes, but those only do so much. This is a game where once you go off you need to work to just keep putting out threats and wear your opponent out of cards. They will succumb to you long before you succumb to them. Just simply race to your quest as fast as possible and keep everything in your hand that gets your to four.

The only card you need to watch out for here is Dirty Rat. Though it is impossible to fully play around the 2/6’s ability due to the RNG, you still can mitigate it in a couple of ways. Know that if the rat ever hits the minion you are bouncing the game is largely going to be over (barring a miracle draw). To play around that, you should try your best to keep junk or low-impact cards in your hand. This goes double if you actually have a way to build into the combo. Losing one bounce piece is not the end of the world (you will have time to recoup) but losing your minion is a huge loss. For that reason, if you ever have a chance to finish your quest you need to take it.

Miracle Rogue

This game is going to be a race. The new version of Miracle Rogue is not the fastest deck in the game, but their mid-game tempo threats are absolutely insane. Some run Arcane Giants, others run Leeroy Jenkins, but they all have Cold Blood and Eviscerate. Those cards can do a lot of damage out of nowhere. As a result, you need to really try to get your opponent to care about your board in any way that you can. Move towards the combo but, similar to when facing Pirate, you should also try to tempo a little bit. The current Miracle Rogue deck has a lot of strong swing plays, but they also only have so much removal because they rely on bodies. Hit them hard starting on turn one and make sure you always have something that they need to kill.

This is a game where you typically want to win by playing a big board before your use The Caverns Below and then instantly taking your opponent down to zero life. The biggest challenge when facing Rogue is that it is nearly impossible to comeback against them because they have so many threats you can’t catch up to like Arcane Giant, Edwin Vancleef and Gadgetzan Auctioneer. It is very important to leverage bodies and try to get anything to stick. In addition, always try to save Glacial Shard for the middle turns if you can. Though it does not do much against auctioneer, shutting down Edwin or a giant for two turns is all you usually need to cobble together lethal.

Midrange Hunter

The other reason for the elemental package, Midrange Hunter is a deck that you have to match early on or you are never going to win. Your elemental package is strong, and most of Rexxar’s minions are going to have a very hard time getting through. This is the deck you need to curve out against, doing your best to keep their early aggression in check. If Rexxar ever gets ahead of you on board you absolutely have to race to your quest (especially if you have Preparation) because their damage just climbs too high too quickly.

The most important thing to remember about Hunter is that they run both Crackling Razormaw and Scavenging Hyena. Each of those cards make their one drops very good so you should always take the time to trade into Alleycat and Jeweled Macaw to limit your opponent’s value. In addition, this is another deck that Glacial Shard is extremely strong against. The one drop wrecks havoc on your opponent because it keeps all of the threats they need to race you in check. Though it does not do too much early on (I would normally would not keep it over elementals or bounce) it is fantastic at shutting out Savannah Highmanes or the like.

Aggro Druid

Another tough matchup, you really need to rely on your elemental package to beat Malfurion. Today’s Druids are extremely fast and usually end the game around four or five. And that’s against decks playing anti-aggro. This is the one match where you really want to take things a little more slowly if possible. Druid makes a living on buffing up big boards of small minions. If you make sure they have no minions to buff you should be fine as the game goes on. Like with so many decks, once you get to your quest the game is going to be over. Druid starts out blindly fast but they also have extremely weak top decks. Trade out early and try to leverage your taunts to make sure they can never build up a good board. It also helps to go wide in this game, playing as many minions as you can. This will weaken Druid and force them to make plays they don’t want to make. This is so important that you should even work to clear once you get your 5/5’s. This will stop your opponent from squeaking out lethal.

Mulligan Guide

The mulligan for this version of the deck is very interesting because it greatly changes based on your matchup as well as what is in your hand. While you are always going to keep the quest (obviously) there are multiple ways you can play each game. In games where you want to fight for the early board you want to try and keep Backstab and a pirate. Southsea Deckhand is especially good against aggro, as is Glacial Shard (which you also want to keep against all forms of Rogue). Tar Creeper and Tol’vir Stoneshaper are also good against fast decks as long as they naturally fit into your curve.

The other rules are that Preparation is always good with the coin and you should always keep one or two bounce activators alongside a strong target. If you don’t have any minions, then just keep one bounce activator (like a single Shadowstep). The only must-keeps are Fire Fly, Novice Engineer and Igneous Elemental because they are individually strong and help end the game extremely quickly. Everything else is subjective.

Conclusion

I know. I do. But Quest Rogue is a very fun deck to play and enables you to interact with the game in a new and interesting way. If you want to try out The Caverns Below I would highly recommend running this list (or at least the elemental package) because it really gives you a good shot at different things on the ladder. While I’m sure there will be more experimentation in the future, for now this is a very good version to run. Until next time, may you always play a minion four times.

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