Hearthpwn

Tempo Kingsbane is an archetype somewhat new to the metagame, although those of you who have been playing before the creation of the Standard might find it familiar as it is very similar to an Oil Rogue deck. In the same way as Kingsbane Miracle, this deck is able to pull out very strong Tempo plays and card draws effects, although this time the playstyle is much more proactive, meaning that instead of playing defensively and stacking answer cards in your hand before throwing them with Gadgetzan Auctioneer and recycling them, you will be playing a lot more of your cards early to dominate the board and build up pressure, before playing your Elven Minstrel and Sprint to refill your hand with threats and answers and aim for the lethal play. Since you'll not be forced to play some of your spells in a sub-optimal way anymore, to activate the card draw effect of Gadgetzan Auctioneer (Backstab on your own minions; Eviscerate face early when the board is cleared, etc.), you are completely free to use your cards in the most efficient ways possible. That said, playing everything efficiently is also going to augment the level of decision-making needed to play the deck correctly. Planning multiple turns ahead, analizing your options and understanding the tides of the game to create windows of opportunity for you to do your weakest tempo plays (mainly playing Elven Minstrel Sprint) when it's not going to cost you too much will be very important. So in the end, just like Miracle Rogue, the skill ceiling is very high and the deck rewards extemely well its best players.

Compared to Kingsbane Miracle, we'll be using Kingsbane to dominate the board in the early game first, then quickly start dishing out tons of damages unpreventable with removals to lower our opponent's health pool and allow our Eviscerate and Leeroy Jenkins to be used for the lethal play. In certain ways, our tools are pretty comparable to those of a Pirate Warrior : Kingsbane 1/3,3/3 and 5/3 statlines make up for N'Zoth's First Mate weapon, Fiery War Axe and Arcanite Reaper, and Eviscerate can be compared to Heroic Strike. The main differences being that we're focusing less on the proactive build up of threats and more on the interactivity of controlling the board, and that we have some value and tempo tools to slighly change our playstyle against control decks and regularly refill our hand with threats before going back into the fray with some huge tempo swings, which in term will most likely send your opponent to his demise unless he finds a way to out-tempo you with a combo kill.

Managing our draw tools is another important aspect of the deck, that will require lots of practice to be perfect. We have access to two types of draw : "raw draws" (every case of "Draw X Cards" : drawing at the beginning of your turn; playing Fan of Knives, Sprint, etc.) and "fetch draws" (every case of "Draw X of a certain type of cards" : Cavern Shinyfinder and Elven Minstrel). Apart from the fact that fetch draws give you a certain capacity to predict what they'll bring you (the easiest being Cavern Shinyfinderthat'll always draw your Kingsbane), they also reduce the amount of certain types of cards in your deck; something that we also call "deck thinning". Considering the potential of Fal'dorei Strider's free Leyline Spider and the diversity of effects present in the deck, thinning your deck properly before using raw card draw effects will have a very important impact on your RNG. The general rule of thumb being that you'll always want to use your fetch draw effects first, then use your raw draw effects to have more chances not only to bring one or more Leyline Spider, but also to draw your high-tempo spells.

This management can make Sprint excessively strong; as an example : with good management, you'll very regularly be able to assemble a Preparationand a Sprint in your hand on turn 6+, having played most of your other cards in hand to put pressure on your opponent, and then use Preparation + Sprint, bringing 1-2 Leyline Spider, and use the rest of your mana to play an Eviscerate or a Sap, which in total is comparable to a 6 mana Ultimate Infestation ! Obviously not 100% similar in term of raw numbers, but absolutely simlar in term of impact and tempo push during a game.

Miracle Rogue is an archetype pretty dependent on RNG but somewhat consistend as the game progresses, capable of pulling very strong Tempo plays and generate a lot of Card Advantage, which allows it to shape it's gameplan depending on the opponent's deck and remarkably have some ways to win against any deck. Because of that, it's an archetype based on decision-making and skills to mitigate the impact of RNG, which gives it a very high skill ceiling and makes it extremely rewarding as you master it.

Kingsbane Miracle is a deck that follows the same principles as every Tempo-Oriented Miracle Rogue deck, which are using a lot of efficient Tempo tools and cheap spells to fight against faster deck's early game or dominate it against slower decks, and then use Gadgetzan Auctioneer along with those very cheap spells to cycle through the deck in the mid-game, and either smother fast decks by having more ressources than they do, or continuously develop threats against slow decks and overrun their defensive kit.

Kobolds and Catacombs added some very refined tools to the archetype that we're using in our deck.

Fal'dorei Strider acts as decent 4-drop that transforms into a win condition as the game progresses by pulling out free 4/4 from the deck, turning him into a minion worth 16/16 points of stats. Gadgetzan Auctioneer allows us to accelerate the process of Leyline Spidercreation, which gives us some form of control on the development of the pack of 4/4, and an extremly strong Tempo tool against fast decks that allows us to dominate the board.

Kingsbane, along with Deadly Poison, Cavern Shinyfinder and Leeching Poison, makes up for a very potent weapon that can both serve as multiples cheap removals to help us fight faster deck's minions in the early game and get out of range of burst cards by gaining some HP back and an infinite source of board domination and face damage against slower decks, thanks to the card's ability to permanently keep enchantments and come back in the deck once it's destroyed by Oozes or runs out of stacks.

Generally, she has such a strong impact in the late game that can turn an almost lost game into our favor with the many fun and powerful combos she allows us to do. The problem with her is that in the expansion's first week's meta aggro and tempo decks are very strong and present on ladder, and thus a lot of times it is going to be hard to reach a moment where you can exploit her utility to win, so it is going to be a dead card in your hand a lot of times.

Anyway, Valeera the Hollow can be a really strong card combined with Vanish and Arcane Giant to fight against some control decks.

08/dec/2017: -1 Mimic Pod, +1 Elven Minstrel; definitely drawing 2 minions, especially getting Auctioneer soon is more valuable than getting a random extra resource while also having another decent body on the board. Mimic Pod may have worked better in the past generating threats for a more reactive playstyle, but as our deck is more threatening, Elven Minstrel serves better for a proactive playstyle.

08/dec/2017: -1 Vilespine Slayer, +1 SI:7 Agent: right now Vilespine Slayer has very few good targets during an overall game because the proactive game right now is more designed around very small minions and face damage cards. For example, you can see that Bonemare, compared to previous metagame, is completely absent at the moment. SI:7 Agent helps eliminating those small minions while also giving a good body for its mana cost.

09/dec/2017: -1 Hallucination, +1 Shiv: it's very important to get the own cards of the deck (minions as Auctioneer, weapon tools and generating spiders) instead of looking outside.

14/dec/2017: -2 Swashburglar, -1 Patches the Pirate, +1 SI:7 Agent, +1 Sap, + Cold Blood: too many control decks from rank 5 to 1, Taunt Warlocks and Highlander Priests mainly, and the pirate kit isn't doing much on those matches, so a Sap alongside Cold Blood make for good finishers or very impactful plays; aggro decks are still hard but pirate kit isn't doing enough of a difference while the second SI:7 Agent can keep control of the board and Sap and Cold Blood also make big plays on the mid-game that can often turn the game on our favour or even finish it.

30/jan/2018: -1 Vilespine Slayer, -2 SI:7 Agent, -1 Counterfeit Coin, -1 Gadgetzan Auctioneer, -1 Shiv, +2 Southsea Squidface, +1 Doomerang, +1 Blade Flurry, +1 Sprint, +1 Leeching Poison: after a lot of testing with several Kingsbane variants I've found Kingsbane working better on a more controlish style deck with which start pushing the game on mid-game, and the it is so consistent that playing some weapon-bases utility spells is very effective. Then, the deck now focus much more on getting the spiders and a buffed Kingsbane than trying hard to survive on the early game, although this means aggro will still be hard, but stronger against control decks; and also considering the incoming nerfs aggro will decrease a bit for sure, the deck is going to show a better performance. x2 Leeching Poison because this is a determinant for many games, or to get back after a hard early game vs aggro decks, so it's better to secure this buff; x2 Southsea Squidface because it brings much more power for Kingsbane and it's a decent 4-drop; x1 Doomerang and x1 Blade Flurry, both are great cards to control the board once you get a decent Kingsbane, Blade Flurry can sometimes get the game back entirely to you or secure if against decks that play many taunts when you are about to win the game, like Spreading Plague and Voidlord's deathraddle, and Doomerang works for many situations, giving you extra lifesteal in a key turn, more control for board and renew your weapon, and only costs 1-mana. x1 Sprint and x1 Gadgetzan Auctioneer, more like a style decision, both work perfectly, each one has a different draw mechanic that doesn't exclude the other in this deck, there are more than enough cheap spells for Gadgetzan Auctioneer and x2 Preparation for Sprint.

17/feb/2018: -1 Gadgetzan Auctioneer, -1 Counterfeit Coin, +1 Sprint, +1 Captain Greenskin: both Sprint and Gadgetzan Auctioneer are excelent draw tools, each one with its pros and cons that make neither of them better than the other but just good and interchangeable in this kind of deck which have many spells and some minions. However, Captain Greenskin is a highly valuable card for Kingsbane thanks to the point of durability it adds, so, in order to make him fit in the deck, we remove Counterfeit Coin and replace Gadgetzan Auctioneer with Sprint as there's a 0-mana spell less in the deck for him to work out well, while also, indirectly getting a bit more draw consistency with Elven Minstrel.