Hearthpwn

Hello, my name is Zyz. I am not a professional player or a streamer, but as of this writing, I have approximately 2,453 ranked wins on Rogue on my current account. I've been playing almost exclusively Rogue for the last two years, and I absolutely love this deck, originally made by Tempo Storm's Eloise, which she then used to reach Legend Rank 1 on the Asia servers. 

Ever since I started playing this deck, I've had many people on my friends list, along with recent opponents, asking me what I think of the deck and how to play it properly. I will be covering those two topics, along with possible replacements for cards, and class match-ups.

Is this deck good for climbing?

In short, yes. In my experience climbing from rank 15 to Legend this season, the decks that you get paired against the most are Pirate Warrior, Quest Rogue, Quest Warrior, and Midrange Hunter. This decklist is incredibly strong against these decks as its strength lies in large tempo plays such as making a big Edwin VanCleef, playing hugely discounted Arcane Giants, and efficient removal using Eviscerate and Vilespine Slayers.

How does it play compared to traditional Miracle Rogue? Why is there no combo? What is the win condition?

The way to win with this deck is simply take board control as aggressively as you can without overextending your board or resources. What makes a skilled Rogue player different from the rest is the ability to assess and infer what cards your opponent may have and play next, and knowing when to hold on to a resource such as Eviscerate and Arcane Giant. As you may have noticed, this deck runs no typical Rogue win conditions. While this may seem like a weakness at first, keep in mind this is a tempo deck that wins simply by controlling the board. Combo pieces like Questing Adventurer and Cold Blood are dead draws more often than not and don't contribute any notable amount to the deck. 

Possible Replacements

Depending on how often you get put versus Aggro decks, Replacing one copy of Sap or Fan of Knives in favor of an extra SI:7 Agent or possibly an Earthen Ring Farseer may be more helpful for you and your play style.

Gluttonous Ooze also has potential as a replacement, while more situational than SI:7 Agent and Earthen Ring Farseer, Ooze has the potential to stop Pirate Warrior in its tracks and slow down Hunter by destroying his Eaglehorn Bow. I haven't tried this card myself yet but the concept is one to consider.

Most of the cards in this deck can be replaced to fit your play style, with the exception of Rogue auto-includes (Swashburglar, Patches, Eviscerate, Backstab, Prep, Auctioneer, Thalnos, Edwin.)

I personally wouldn't recommend ever taking out the Arcane Giants or Sherazin, Corpse Flower. The tempo you can get from these two cards insane. Using the Razorpetals you generate to discount your giants and continuously revive Sherazin along with your other spells and then slamming down an 8/8 or two for very cheap at around turn 6 can seal out the game against most opponents. 

Match-ups and Mulligan

Make sure you pay attention to what your opponent hovers during Mulligan, as it can help you determine what deck they're playing! If they hover the leftmost card, they're typically not going to be playing a quest deck.

In All Match-ups:

Always try to keep Edwin, with the Razorpetals and coins you can usually make him at least an 8/8 very early into the game. 

Sherazin is also a good card to keep, because you get more value the earlier you play it. Sherazin may be too slow to play against faster decks like Pirate Warrior however. 

Always send back Arcane Giants as you don't want to have those in your hand until they have a big discount on them.

Never keep Patches the Pirate, he's only a powerful card when you don't have to draw and play him from hand.

Pirate Warrior:

Early board control is what matters the most in this match-up. Swashburglar can be used to get Patches out as soon as possible and contest the early pirates, Eviscerate used for early strong removal of Frothing Berserker and Kor'kron Elite, and Edwin can be used to seal out the game as early as turn 1 if you have coins and Preparation. SI:7 Agent is also worth keeping if you can combo him. This deck runs no removal so as soon as you establish a respectable presence on the board, their chance of catching up is non-existent and the only chance for them to win is to burn you down with direct damage. Be sure not to play into double Mortal Strike if you can help it.

Quest Rogue:

Quest Rogue is another match-up thats very vulnerable to a huge Edwin, as they do not run Sap. Some Quest Rogues have been running Vanish, but this is relatively slow, unless they manage to use Preparation to play it on earlier turns. If this happens, attempt to re-establish board presence as quickly as possible. You win this match-up by playing aggressively and not giving them a chance to complete The Caverns Below, instead forcing them to use their turns on removing minions. Other powerful cards to keep here are Razorpetal Lasher for immediate pressure and Swashburglars once again to get Patches out, and Sherazin, as they do not have any way to permanently remove it from play. SI:7 Agent's combo doesn't do much in this matchup, so playing him for tempo and/or 2 face damage is fine if you have no better play.

Midrange Hunter:

The only thing you need to do win this match-up is keeping the board clear of Beasts until you can get a good board presence. Denying him beast synergy makes Crackling Razormaw and Houndmaster nearly useless. Fan of Knives, Backstab, and SI:7 Agent are particularly good at this because they allow you to clear Alleycat and Rat Pack very easily. While most Hunters don't run Deadly Shot anymore, it still appears occasionally and is something to keep in mind before committing your whole hand to an Edwin. 

Plant Rogue:

The mirror of this match-up plays very similarly to Quest Rogue, with the exception that you have to be very mindful of getting your Edwin removed by Vilespine Slayer or Sap. Keeping Gadgetzan Auctioneer has some merit but only if you already have plays to do before then. You should always keep one Sap otherwise their own Edwin can be problematic if they choose to commit it.

Token Paladin:

This is one of the hardest match-ups for Plant Rogue as its a relatively fast deck while also having strong removal options in the form of Equality and Aldor Peacekeeper. Committing Arcane Giants and Edwin to the board is also very risky as Sunkeeper Tarim negates them almost entirely. No card really decides this match-up but Razorpetal Lasher provides good early tempo without having to commit anything. Paying attention to your opponents plays and determining when to move in for the kill based on what resources they have left is the only way to win.

Quest/Control Warrior:

The control warrior match-up is similar to Paladin in that you need to be careful when commiting your big threats as Warrior has plenty of easy ways to deal with them. You should play fairly aggressively anyways, using Vilespine Slayer and Sap to remove their big minions and try to force them to play removal instead of developing any sort of board state. If you can play aggressively enough, finishing him using Eviscerate or Giants shouldn't be hard. Sherazin is a must keep in this match-up, as Warrior has a very hard time dealing with it. Other good cards to keep are the typical aggressive start keeps, like Swashburglar and Razorpetal Lasher. The later turns in the game you should also be very mindful of brawl and avoid flooding your board.

Mage:

Sadly the current iterations of Mage pretty much automatically win versus this deck as Rogue has always had difficulty with Iceblock and burn, and mage's new cards give her a guaranteed Iceblock and allow her to generate even more burn cards. Adding anti-secret techs make the deck a LOT worse against every other deck. Its still worth playing through because they can lose if they have the worst possible draw. Cards you should want to keep are the standard aggressive starts, Razorpetal Lasher, Edwin, Swashburglar.

Elemental Shaman:

Elemental Shaman does pretty well against the deck because they're the only class to run a Polymorph spell anymore, which makes getting earlygame presence with Edwin/Sherazin difficult. If you can bait their removal with Giants and Sherazin they won't be able to deal with a huge Edwin though. Keep the board clear and try to cycle as much as you can is your best bet.

Conclusion

That is all I have for this guide at the moment. I will update the guide with better replacements, more in-depth match-ups, and other information as I become more familiar with the deck. Comments and criticism is very appreciated, feel free to add Zyz#1573 on NA if you have anything you'd like to say to me. Thank you for reading.