Hearthpwn

Description and decklist has been updated 28/5/2019

The nerf to preparation did impact this deck as expected. This resulted in alot of trial and error to fix the leaks and the updated list is what I personally feel plays the best for now. I'm currently 50 games in with this refined version and the winrate is around 65% which I'm fairly happy with. We still beat the same classes we did before the nerfs. Sadly the rise of mages aswell as the nerf to prep has impacted the overall winrate. 

A bit about myself. I'm a huge rogue fan (played since closed beta) and I'm closing in on almost 10k wins with Valeera and Maiev. Imo rogue is by far the most versatile class out there with so many options when it comes to deck building, not all decks are equally good but still.

I've played them all and my personal preference is the value oriented board centric playstyle. 

And that ladies and gentlemen is pretty much the reason I'm always looking to make cards work that nobody expects to see in play and make my own creations and see how far I can go. Normally I would play 100 games and then make judgement however this went way to well this time. 

Since RoS I've tried giant rogue, demon rogue (yes that really did happen), thief rogue and decks build around the witch cauldron and a whole lot more. I believe the rogue cards fit in a lot of different decks and sadly most players don't utilize them to well.

Anyways I had some rough days where I was bouncing back and forth with a Thief centric deck and ended up at the point of either quit the game again for a long period or give it a last go with what ended up taking me to legend without any trouble whatsoever.

Deck description UPDATED.

The deck comes with a mech/deathrattle package, thief package and the lakey/Togwaggle package. This might at first seem like complete overkill but it really isn't as they all synergize very well together and gives you more than one way to win It's also surprisingly fluid more than I expected it to be, rarely will you end up with dead draws or nothing to play. Another thing worth noticing is that there's also some cards that are very easy to switch in and out to suit your local meta or personal playstyle better. 

This deck plays for board control and either win by pure pressure or going into the lategame and win by infinite Undertakah's (last part is especially true vs control warrior) which doesn't stand a chance either way. 

If you are used to rogue this deck shouldn't be to hard to get the hang of as it has so many options in how you want to play it out. For non experienced players this can be quite tricky.

After the nerfs the deck plays the following: 

Hunter. all variations: highly favored. However some lists have become more agressive and we need to take a bit more care of our life total and not take to much face damage if we can avoid it. Key cards: Backstab Necrium blade, Blink fox, Vendetta, Hench-clan burglar, blightnozzle. Miscreant and Eviscerate are fine on the coin.

Druid. Sligtly favored. The nerf to prep impacted this a bit but we're still in good shape when we curve well and have FoK for the swing turn vs Wispering woods. Your minions don't roll over and just die and this is key. Once you get on board you should never lose it. Take favorable trades all the way and cruise to victory. Key cards: Backstab, FoK (most important card), Miscreant, Blink fox and Necrium blade.

Paladin. Slightly favored. Vs Otk you just have to go for it and apply as much pressure as possible and hope you get there.

Vs Mech you are in good shape when you curve well. Paladin isn't in the best spot to deny you board aswell as building their own at the same time. Deny them any big mechs by being smart with your tempo cards and setup for blightnozzle if things get out of control.            Key cards: Blink fox, Necrium blade, Miscreant, Hench-clan burglar, Vendetta and Blightnozzle vs mech. 

Priest. Slighly unfavored. Nomi aswell as resurrect priest. One of those matchups where you either get way ahead and just win or all your plays gets shut down one way or another. Gameplan is fairly straight forward. Apply pressure and play around hysteria and other removals as best you can. Key cards: Backstab, Blink fox, Necrium blade, Vendetta and Hench-clan burglar. Miscreant and Eviscerate are fine on the coin. Blightnozzle is very good to remove big taunts in both matchups save your necrium vials to remove big taunts. 

Warlock. unfavored. Zoo is painful when they have the nuts. This matchup is all about tempo and board control and most games you play from behind. You need some early tempo going and some strong swing turns in order to achieve victory. Keycards: Backstab, Necrium blade, Blink fox, Hench-clan burglar, Vendetta, on the coin or if you have backstab already Eviscerate and Miscreant. 

Shaman. Highly favored against all variations. Games will go to the late game, vs ctrl and morpher shaman. You have the upper hand in any late game scenario so don't worry to much. Put on pressure and play around hex and earthshock. Popping your own deathrattles with backstab, lakeys or Vendetta is a very viable strategy to deny hex or earthshock value. Togwaggle's scheme (Can sometimes be used on a Walking fountain or Al'akir) just to rub it in their face. Either way your late game is so much stronger and resilient than whatever shaman can come up with. 

Murlocs: Easy win unless the opponent have the nuts. Deny them any board and kill every murloc. This deck can't get anything done without a board. Most games end with the shaman gives up and concede by turn 6-7 sometimes they will try the Hagata nonsense which gives us a free turn to do whatever as vs all shamans we have the supperior lategame. Key cards: Backstab, Miscreant, Blink fox, Hench-clan burglar, Vendetta, Necrium blade and Eviscerate. 

Mage. LUCK based most of the time Even? unfavored? favored? it all depense. Personally I'm not too happy about facing mages as it's all about dumb rng and how the early turns play out. If you can answer the fat minions without spending way to many resources then you're setup for victory if not you lose, however mages handle wide boards poorly and you have access to all the tools to shut down any fancy plays with giants or sorcerer's apprentice.

Cyclone mage. Complete nonsense. The only matchup that can really tilt me. Hope for better draws and some highroll discovers. This is a clown fiesta at best.  

Dragon mage. Vs the dragon version be careful of playing more than 3 minions when you get to the point of having big fat stuff out there as some versions run MC-tech. The list is greedy so manage your removals carefully. Key cards vs all mage variations: Blink fox, Hench-clan burglar. Blightnozzle Vendetta, Necrium blade and Backstab. 

Warrior. Slightly Favored against all variations due to Togwaggle scheme and the mech/deathrattle package, Warriors can't handle all of this too well. It's pretty simple if you have scheme early on and can land it on Da Undertakah you win. They simply can't compete or keep up. 

Key cards. Hard muligan for Togwaggle's Scheme. This card alone is the reason we can go toe to toe with control warrior. Vs bomb it's all about tempo and thus Blink fox, Hench-clan burglar, Vendetta, Miscreant and Necrium blades are all keeps. No. 1 rule though is to NEVER overcommit into brawls. Once brawls are out of the way feel free to go crazy and force them to have an answer every time. 

Rogue. Favored. Most rogue decks you'll encounter now are the shark/Togwaggle deck and as always in the mirror its all about tempo and getting board control, fight for it agressively and try and deny any Togwaggle setup. Key cards: Backstab, Miscreant, Blink fox, Necrium blade, Eviscerate, Vendetta, Hench-clan burglar and Blightnozzle. 

Included/excluded cards and reasoning: 

Removed: Acidic swamp ooze: Tempo rogue is no longer a threat. Very few hunter lists run weapons and vs bomb warrior we are not winning or losing by denying one swing with wrenchcalibur. 

Removed: Heistbaron Togwaggle. As fun and interesting this card is the nerf to prep impacted how Togwaggle interacted with this deck it's now just not good enough. 

Removed 2x Preparation. Prep feels so bad to play now as we dont have the option for some big swing turns or a turn ten Undatakah prep Necrium vial. I tried for a long time but ended up cutting it all together, Running one or two copies feels equally bad and a dead card most of the time. This ofcourse was a much needed nerf to the card but for now its just bad in this deck. 

Added: 2x Novice engineers. Decent card, fills the two cost slot and give us some much needed card draw. Works well with Barista and Jepetto for some extra draws. Cable rat was tried, felt bad aswell as too rng dependant, after Togwaggle left the deck Cable rats did the same. 

Added: Cairne Bloodhoof. Works well with our deathrattle plan, will often be ignored and thus a good target for Necrium vial. 

Added: Giggling Inventor. Tech vs the aggressive hunter lists as this buy us one extra turn when things are getting a bit to heated up. Works well with Barista and Jepetto. 

Necrium vial: good. Can be a one of in favor of a second FoK it all depense on your local meta. I personally run two all the time unless I for whatever reason run into a pocket meta filled with Token druids or mech hunters. 

Barista Lynchen: Decent but replaceable you pretty much got a free spot here to add whatever you may think works the best for you. Captain Greenskin was tried out and felt bad most of the time. Myra Rotspring is to incosistent and the updated list doesn't really need a faceless. which where the cards suggested in the previous version. Overall a great value card, Don't be greedy if you can get one or two cards back in your hand its fine. Good synergy with shrinked minions pulled of Jepetto and lakeys.

Jepetto Joybuzz: Decent but replaceable: The main reason I build this deck, but not crucial at all. Possible replacements can be any tech card, shadowstep, sap or some other decent card that you personally think this deck could benefit from. However none of the minions in this deck suffers from being shrinked to a 1/1 as they are mainly in the deck for their effect and as a part of a bigger puzzle. Personally the more I play this card the more I like it. It has so many uses and not a card I would ever cut. 

Vs mostly aggro cut on necrium vial, Cairne Bloodhoof and Barista for more early game and or healing. 

Vs mostly ctrl and midrange decks this list is the go to. 

Anyways I hope this will suit some of you that are searching for a not so straight forward rogue deck that have a lot of options and different win conditions without going either to greedy or to aggro. Proof of concept. 

[img]https://imgur.com/whZJUQ9[/img]

[img]https://imgur.com/Aqw5cgg[/img]

Have fun.