Hearthpwn

Introduction

First of all, I'll preface this by saying that I am not a particularly good player - my highest rank is 15 - so this deck might not be amazing. What it aims to do, however, is provide a decent deck that uses Jade cards for new players. The aim of this and potentially future decks like this are to allow new players to cheaply try out different archetypes and get the feel for them. I know that as a new player, you often end up playing 'a deck' with no particular synergies, and it is loads of fun to finally get to play a synergistic deck. This deck and guide aims to allow you to do this.

The Deck

There are three parts to this deck:

Synergistic cards

These cards are the 'engine' of the deck. They provide the synergies which allow the deck to come together, rather than just being a collection of good cards. They are:

Jade Swarmer, Jade Shuriken, Jade Spirit - These are your jade cards. One thing which makes jade rogue a bit easier to build as a budget deck is that all of its jade cards (besides Aya Blackpaw) are common. Jade Shuriken is a particulary interesting card for value. Compare it to a rogue staple, SI:7 Agent. In a normal deck, Jade Shuriken is worse than SI:7, but in a jade deck it can easily be better. Both deal 2 damage and produce a body when comboed, and once you've already summoned 2 Jade Golems, Shuriken will be 1 mana cheaper for the same effect as SI:7 (or better).

Shadowstep - Rogue has one fewer jade card than Shaman and Druid, and one reason for this is because of rogue's ability to bounce minions. Cards like shadowstep mean that rogues can replay battlecries, and cards like Unearthed Raptor (not included in this deck, as it's an adventure card) mean that rogues can duplicate deathrattles. This allows rogues to quickly grow really big jade golems over the course of a game.

Staple Cards

These cards are just generally good cards in any rogue deck. If you don't necessarily want to play a deck like this, but want to play a rogue deck and are missing these cards, they are worth crafting.

Eviscerate and Backstab - Both of these allow rogues to cheaply clear minions, allowing then to keep their own minions alive and grow their board at the same time. This is particularly useful in this deck, which relies on having a fairly full board. Your hero power, and indeed Deadly Poison also helps you do this, as does Jade Shuriken, and in a non-jade deck SI:7 Agent has a similar role.

Sap - Sap is kind of like a soft version of 'destroy a minion'. It removes the minion this turn, which isn't great for battlecries but is really useful in many other cases. Played against expensive minions, or minions with overload, this forces your opponent to effectively skip their turn. Played against buffed minions, this acts as both a silence and a 'spend mana to get this minion back'. It stalls the game. In this deck, where we are aiming to flood the board and kill your opponent in the mid game, sap is particularly powerful. It prevents your opponent catching up with you, and is a handy way of removing a taunt in time to win the game.

Fan of Knives and Kobold Geomancer- Fan of Knives is useful both as a weak board clear and a way of drawing cards. Using this spell alongside cheap spell damage is very useful. More expensive decks will probably use Bloodmage Thalnos instead of Kobold Geomancer and Loot Hoarder.

Basic Cards

These are the remaining cards I've added to the deck, which brief explanations for why.

Razorfen Hunter - Like Jade cards, this allows us to flood our board and maintain a presence, which is key for our finishers.

Frostwolf Warlord - Takes advantage of our aim to fill the board, allowing for more damage later into the game.

Stormwind Champion - This is our main finisher. Stormwind Champion ups the damage of the minions on the board. Often you will be aiming to finish the game on the turn on which you play stormwind champion, but even if not this gives your minions more survivability and acts as a sizeable threat itself, making it better than Raid Leader for our purposes.

Replacement Cards

Synergistic Cards

Aya Blackpaw - The final missing jade card. Summoning two jades is a huge deal, and deathrattle and battlecry synergy makes her even better.

Unearthed Raptor - Allows us to do with deathrattles what shadowstep lets us do with battlecries. Being a turn 3 play after the (stealthed!) Jade Swarmer makes it even better.

Brann Bronzebeard - Duplicates battlecries, which is again extremely valuable in producing golems.

N'Zoth, the Corruptor - A bit more of an investment, and the deck might require a lot of change to accomodate N'Zoth, but bringing back even more jade golems is lots of fun.

Other Cards

Bloodmage Thalnos - as mentioned before this nicely replaces a kobold geomancer and loot hoarder. People call it a Swiss Army Knife.

Azure Drake - Again, does the same thing as Kobold Geomancer and Loot Hoarder. It's such a good card that it's being rotated into the Hall of Fame with the next expansion. I recommend you craft it if you can and want to play wild, as you will be given the dust for the card once it rotates (without having to dust the card yourself).