Hearthpwn

As soon as I saw Tinker's Sharpsword Oil in the GvG launch notes, I knew I would have to revisit backspace. For those of you unfamiliar with this deck, my old version can be found here

Deck Summary

Maybe it's the shifting meta of early launch, but right now I can confidently say that this deck is not only viable, but scary. Tinker's Sharpsword Oil has breathed fresh life into this deck, and given it way more stopping power without having to rely on shadowstep gimmicks as a finisher. Most games will end around the turn 5/6 range. This deck has the amazing ability to ignore any aggro and punish it directly and efficiently. You will be almost dead nearly every game. But somehow, you will always manage to pull the win out of thin air.

This deck is the ultimate in aggro and "facerush", but don't let the archetype fool you. This deck requires planning, thought, knowledge of both your own deck and your opponents, and a little bit of counting damage on your fingers :] The deck takes practice to hit full stride, but I will outline some of the combos and mulligans you are aiming for below.

Card Choices

I wanted to explain some of the more interesting card choices and why I made them. Most of the cards are obvious, but sometimes the quantities that I run them in are not.

• Preparation x2 - This card seems useless in a deck without gadgetzan, with limited card draw, and with most spells clocking in at under 3 mana. But this card allows you to get insane value out of Tinker's Sharpsword Oil. In a deck where even one mana crystal means the difference between lethal and a loss, this card is insanely useful. Occasionally, prepping an eviscerate is exactly what you need to squeeze out a win.
• Shadowstep x2 - This card seems obvious, but it's not in the deck for the reasons you think. I can't stress this enough: The shadowsteps go on the Murloc. I'll say that again. The shadowsteps are not for your charge cards. Don't ever think that saving them is a good idea. The minute you get a Coldlight Oracle in your hand you should be dropping it and shadowstepping it. Here's the reasoning: this deck is insanely potent. Almost every card in the deck is dumping out 4+ damage for very little mana. At best, shadowstepping a charge card will give you 4 damage (we aren't running Leeroy, after all). But shadowstepping your oracle will give you two cards, the combined damage of which i can promise you will be more than shadowstepping the Arcane Golem. You run out of gas fast with this deck. Coldlight Oracle is your godsend. Treat him right.
• Sap x1 - This is because i'm seeing so much aggro recently, that typically saps aren't useful. They are primarily used to negate taunts on your burst turn. Right now, most decks are cutting all their taunts in favor of playing with the fun new cards. If the meta settles and you start seeing taunts come back, drop the second sap back in.
• Bloodmage Thalnos x1 - This card is meh. This is the open slot you can put the second sap in. BT has a ton of synergy with rogue in general, which is why it's in this deck. But it's not a star performer. Pretty much the nicest use of him is comboing him with eviscerate to kill sludge belchers. Otherwise, he's not a useful card beyond the cycle. If you don't have this legendary, you could probably replace him with a Wolfrider and never miss him. That's how unimpressive he is.
• Goblin Auto-Barber x2 - I'm actually really on the fence about this card. He seems like an obvious choice for this weapon-based deck, but I can't get over the fact that he is somewhat awkward to play. Since turn 2 you won't have a weapon, you're forced to either weapon up turn 2 and then drop him turn 3, or wait till turn 4 and weapon + Goblin in the same turn. Neither is overwhelmingly good, and I'm still debating whether the effect is worth the fact that he's stolen the spot away from Faerie Dragon. If you don't have this card from GvG, don't craft it for the sake of this deck. Just use Faerie Dragon.
• Tinker's Sharpsword Oil x2 - This card is the staple of this deck. This card is amazing. You can't live without this card.
• Assassin's Blade x1 - I only run one of these because it's too slow. You will have more than enough weapon damage to get by in most cases. This guy only really helps the slow control matches where you will need to do more than 30 damage to your enemy. Otherwise two of them will just gum up your hand.
• Faceless Manipulator x1 - He's in here for finisher combos in lieu of Leeroy. Most of the time he won't be useful, but he's really the only dead card in the deck so you won't be too mad.

Combos

Part of this deck is inventing your own free-flow combos. You will need to do a lot of planning, typically two or three turns ahead of time. But here's some of the basics:

Turn 5 - Southsea Deckhand > Tinker's Sharpsword Oil = 9 Damage Burst

Turn 8 - Southsea Deckhand > Cold Blood > Cold Blood > Faceless Manipulator = 20 Damage Burst

Turn 10 - Arcane Golem > Cold Blood > Cold Blood > Faceless Manipulator = 24 Damage Burst

CHECK FOR LETHAL EVERY TURN. YOU WILL HAVE IT IN TIMES WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT, AND USUALLY THE WINDOW WILL CLOSE AND YOU'LL MISS YOUR CHANCE.