Hearthpwn

Introduction:

I have a great deal of fondness for the Rogue class but have never enjoyed the "miracle" playstyle.  As such I am always on the lookout for decks which do not fit this mold.

This is a deck designed to take advantage of both the pirate and "thief" synergy in Rogues.  The pirates serve as a platform for your early game, either as the aggressor or to help you compete with face decks.  After the early stages the "thief" element takes over, providing you with value and sustain against slower decks.

Ultimately, the purpose of this deck isn't to be #1.  It is to give the player a great deal of enjoyment and variety while being more than a gimmick.  This to me is what Hearthstone should be about, a balance between deadly serious effectiveness and crazy scenarios that you could never have predicted.  I hope you enjoy playing this deck as much as I do.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths:

1) A powerful early-mid game.  You can often steal wins purely off of tempo alone with a good opener.  Pirates are perfect for contesting the board early on, and in classic Rogue style you can protect them with your spells to push significant amounts of damage on the opposing hero.

2) Unpredictability.  It is virtually impossible for your opponent to know what cards you are holding after a few heists.  As such they cannot properly play around what you can do.  Traditional Rogue weaknesses such as large minion removal, board clears, and healing can be overcome with your eclectic collection of stolen cards and surprise the most savvy of players.

Weaknesses:

1) Unpredictability.  The very randomness that is an asset in fooling your opponents can also work against you.  Sometimes you get Tirion Fordring and sometimes you get Totemic Might.  It happens.

2) Decks with numerous board clears (a.k.a. Renolock).  This deck does not naturally have any dangerous or must-kill minions that allow you to snowball a board.  You often have to make up for quality with quantity, exposing you to being cleared repeatedly and eventually running you out of minions.

Match-Ups:

Under construction.

Card Choices:

• Defender of Argus: This is actually in here as an anti-aggro tech.  I have found it a more effective and well-rounded answer compared with Acidic Swamp Ooze, since usually in the final push your opponents ignore your minions and you can punish them heavily with two medium taunts.  Compared to ooze, it is never useless in any match up.
  
  
• Drakonid Crusher: These are your reliable threads, especially against decks such as Reno Mage and Reno Warlock which can can reliably get below 15 health.  They are also good removal bait to save your Ragnaros the Firelord.  Finally, they are dragons which is a distinct advantage against Priest.
  
  
• Ragnaros the Firelord: Just a really good finishing card, a last card I added to have some built-in threats beyond what I could steal.  Along with your pair of Crushers most decks struggle to come up with enough good answers for all three.  
  
  
• No Lotus Agents: I love these cards, I really do.  I had them in the original version of the deck.  The issue was that for me, personally, their reliability was too low.  I needed something to help me consistently finish off the game, and three health is exceptionally vulnerable to Lightning Bolt, Wrath, Frostbolt/Forgotten Torch, and Blackwing Corruptor.

Card Replacements:

• Bloodmage Thalnos: While this card needs no justification for being in a Rogue deck, I want to note that he isn't an auto-include.  This is not a miracle deck so cycle is not as important.  If you don't own him, rather than replacing with the usual suggestions (Loot Hoarder, Kobold Geomancer) I would think that Journey Below would be better, giving you yet more flexibility in dealing with different decks.
  
  
• Edwin VanCleef: There is no good replacement for this card.  He is unique in his effect.  Like Bloodmage Thalnos above, I would possibly consider another Journey Below in his place.  It doesn't replicate his role, but it would give you potential access to another threatening minion, which is what Edwin VanCleef often does.
  
  
• Shaku, the Collector: Unearthed Raptor is the most natural replacement, especially if your followed the substitutions for Bloodmage Thalnos and Edwin VanCleef above.
  
  
• Ragnaros the Firelord: Not that suggesting one legendary for another is very helpful, but Sylvanas Windrunner has been a close follow-up for me in many situations.  Again, made better if you're doing the replacements suggested above.

Conclusions:

Under construction.