Hearthpwn

Hey guys Orochi here. I'm a long time player that reaches Legend rank with ease any season.

I had two gold classes to finish up, rogue and hunter so I took the challenge upon myself to get Legendary this season with this Peddler N'Zoth Rogue deck. I call it Unicorn rogue because every time someone would watch me play with a full hand of cards people would ask me "What is this Rogue man?" and "How do you have so much value?" Anyway I had a blast playing this deck it's pretty fun and super random.

GUIDE:

First of all, let me start by saying that Rogue is one of the more technical classes in the game. A lot of its cards are tempo oriented, and it’s often not easy to tell what play is best at any specific time. Unlike other classes that are simpler and you just play your cards on curve, you will be faced with many decisions where the best play is not clear.

Burgle Rogue is not an easy deck to play though it is accessible to everyone if you have the cards for it. If you have not played Rogue much at all be prepared to take some losses in the learning process. Though not required, deep knowledge of other classes will make your odds of winning with the deck much higher. Cards will be given to you and it is up to you to puzzle out their best use of them, combo them with your other cards and find the winning solution to your specific game.

In return your understanding of cards becomes increased and there can be a greater satisfaction when you pull off a big mix class combo.

So without further ado, let’s start the guide.

Winning Condition

N’Zoth is your simple win condition for the deck. You don’t need big Deathrattle minions for it to work, two tomb pillagers, two hucksters + your journey below minions will do the job against any control deck that has spent their removal.

However this is not always what you’re playing for and you will rarely win this way, the win condition will often come in the form of board and card advantage, and using other classes cards to either heal up and outlast your opponent or find the damage to beat them, or entirely something else.

The power of this deck comes in the form of refilling your hand with almost every card you play. Swashburglar, Undercity Huckster, Fan of Knives, Tomb Pillager, Burgle, Azure Drake, Thalnos, etc. You are putting things on the board and getting cards for it and this is to no surprise incredibly powerful.

Mulligans:

You’re looking for Backstab, Swashburglar, Undercity Huckster, SI:7 Agent. Keep Tomb Pillager if you have coin or one of these early drops. Keep VanCleef if you have the coin. Against Control Warrior keep Harrison Jones.

Match-Ups:

Vs. Midrange Shaman: Their totems won’t be so hard to deal with, a lot of your minions and spells do 2+ damage. Try to take control of the board early and using your minions for efficient trades. It is correct to Eviscerate or Shadowstrike Totem Golem if no easy trade is available. Control the board as much as possible and make the push when there’s an opening. Don’t waste your fan of knives so freely, spell damage + fan of knives could win you the game. Usually if you have a decent start and they  don’t get their weapon you’ll win.

Vs. Hunter: Pretty even match up, hunter can be overwhelming but if you play your cards right it’s pretty even. Hunter has trouble removing and putting out minions on the first turns so as long as you keep playing minions you’ll have better odds of winning. Secret Hunter is annoying to deal with but with your minions you should be able to trigger the secrets. Try to overwhelm the hunter with your bigger minions and their cards before call of the wild comes out.

Vs. Druid: Feel free to make a big VanCleef if you have the chance, Not many druids are running mulch nowadays. Keep putting things on the board as druid can’t deal with the board and play minions most of the time. This match-up is pretty favored as druid has many quality minions and spells you can steal. Usually the only times druid took games from me was with Yogg-Saron

Vs. Control Warrior: I’ll be honest I thought this was going to be a bad MU because of how much armor a warrior can get and how little burst the deck has. However it turns out that warrior cannot deal with all your threats. These are some strong midrange minions the deck has, Tomb Pillager, Azure Drake, Harrison 4 and 5 damage every turn is not something to be taken lightly and can bring the warrior down quite fast. Try to keep your minions from two to three and don’t play a small extra minion like Swashburglar into a brawl. Warrior will be forced to make inefficient brawls which after they’ve played their removals you can finish them off with N’Zoth. Also if you play Journey below later in the game vs. Warrior. Anub’arak will usually win you the game as they cannot deal with him except through Sylvanas.

Vs. Dragon Warrior: Let’s be honest this is a toin coss. If they don’t have axe you can easily take a win, if they have axe then you’re in trouble. Fiery Dragon is a tough minion to deal with and can do a lot of damage to you, try to look for SI: Agent to deal with it. Use your eviscerates and shadow strikes on their midrange minions (Blackwing Corruptor, Azure Drake)

Vs. Tempo Mage: Mage has really good cards you can steal. Stealing Antonidas or Flamewalker will often win you the game. Be ready to deal with Flamewalker, as the biggest threat. Let it live one or two turns and you’ll find yourself in fireball range for the rest of the game. Feel free to make a big Van Cleef vs. Mage as they usually don’t run polymorph and can only stall with a frostbolt. A lot of the times this MU comes down to who can play Yogg better.

 

How to play:

I feel like a lot of people don’t know some of these Rogue strategies, and misplaying one turn in the game especially early on will lose you the game and without realizing it you will blame the class or the deck before yourself.

Preparation: Yes the card. You are using this to gain tempo a lot of the time this is what you want it for. Don’t keep prep and burgle and prep burgle on turn one, this is not a good play. An example on how to use this: Turn 4 – opponent has a Totem Golem on board, You play Tomb Pillager Prep Eviscerate the Golem. You have turned the board state around and now have a big threat that they have to deal with, they can waste their turn 4 hexing it or playing something. If they hex it good for you now you can play your Drake on an empty board with a 0/1 taunt on your side. Prep Fan of knives with spell damage is another good example. Prep Burgle VanCleef on turn 3 is fine as well. Prep Burgle Etheral Peddler on turn 5 is a great play. You can also prep your enemy spells if they are worth it.

SI Agent: If you can’t combo him it’s not always right to play it on turn 3. Say you have backstab and SI as your only source of removal and you play it on an empty board vs Mage, your opponent plays flamewaker into arcane blast and gets rid of your 3/3. You draw your N’zoth turn 4. You lost the game because you have no way to deal with flamewaker now. A rule of thumb is vs. Aggro you want to combo him vs control it’s okay to play him on an empty board.

Journey Below: Choose wisely. If you play this turn one vs. agro and your choices are, Rune Egg, Leper Gnome, Sylvanas what do you pick? The answer is the Gnome. Sylvanas is a great card but vs. agro it’s not going to do anything and we don’t have a reliable way to activate the Rune Egg.

Swash Burglar: This is a good turn 1 play, not so much a turn 3 play. If you don’t have an activator for Si Agent or Van Cleef, consider playing this on turn 4 along with either card. This is actually a good activator for eviscerate as well. On later turns you are going to have many options and one card can change your decision. Always play Swash Burglar first if you’re looking for options. Example: Turn 9 vs. warrior they have taken board vs you and you only have a few points of damage however they are low on health, you have fan of knives, azure drake, gadgetzan, preps and other options along with SwashBurglar. Play it first and see what you get, you could just get Gromash to go with your inner rage for exact lethal (this happened in an actual game)

Ethearal Peddler: Don’t be too greedy with him. He is a solid 5-6 stat minion that comes with a great cost deduction for your other class cards. But if you have the option to play huckster and a burglar on turn 5 vs him with already two cards from other classes, he is the best play. Prep burgle and Ethearal on turn 5 is really good. Get good class cards from your opponent and you pretty much just win on the spot however don’t try to pull this or wait for this combo every time, this is a rare instance that will come by itself and you are not holding cards to pull this off.

N’Zoth: Don’t be greedy with him either, often bringing back a tomb pillager and a huckster is enough value for him, a 10 mana card is not easy to play, if you have the time to play it then play it. N’Zoth can come out as early as turn 7 with three Tomb pillager coins to bring back three tomb pillagers (Assuming you got one from journey below). Remember N’Zoth brings back thalnos, so if you have prep eviscerate or backstab, use it after playing him to get the spell damage.

** N’Zoth is going to bring a lot of minions that will give you cards or coins, if you have extra coins or cards you can use them  in order to not burn cards as a board wipe will often refill your hand.**

Yogg Saron: We know who he is and we know what he does, Use this card only when you’re losing, it combos with coins to come out early as well. This is a card that will win games you were not supposed to win. A good tactic with Yogg is to use a Prep before playing him, he could draw you lethal with a reduced 3 mana spell.

Tomb Pillager: Sure you play him on turn 4 and hope your opponent can’t deal with him, but when you it’s later in the game and you have new minions from other classes and your other own minions is he the right play? Consider Yogg and N’Zoth. If you find yourself in a losing situation where Yogg is your only hope then play Tomb Pillager to get that coin to bring out Yogg early, if you’re winning then your other minions might be the best choice to keep that advantage.

This is all for now I will update the guide with time but this should get you going for now. Keep in mind that these are standard things and because of the possibilities of the deck with the cards you get your options and strategy will change that's what's so fun about it. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to it as soon as I can. Enjoy!