Hi guys, I'm Spark and Rogue is one of the first classes that I used, and I've been working on this deck since a really long time. I finaly found the tweaks that I like for this deck and definitely recommand you to check it for its niche choices.
April 6th, 2014 : I made 3rd place in the EU Managrind Open 24 Tournament using this deck, see details in a post below
The advantage of this one is that you have the edge over other midrange decks that focuses more on early/mid game thanks to your mid/late game threats, so you'll often win the mirror match if the opponent is playing a standard list ;) It is really good against aggro rushdown decks thanks to our early control plus board presence, but can find some issues against big controls decks if they make it to very late game dealing with all of your threats, however, you'll generally beat them before that happen. It is really versatile and I often find myself playing it when I don't really know about what i'll be facing in the day's meta ;)
Out of curiosity, did you actually get to legends with this deck or are you trying to? Not trolling just want to know if this is a legendary rogue deck or not : )
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Yes I do up vote everyone who post in my threads as a thanx for taking the time to look at and comment on my post.
Yeah your question totally makes sense since the topic name is kinda confusing ;) I played a bunch last test season and was getting around rank 3 but had to stop laddering because of lack of time. I'm actually trying to reach legend this season and this deck is part of the set that i'm using. I'm rank 5 already after just one day of laddering so i guess i should do fine ^^ I'm totally sure this deck can bring to legend if played properly ;)
Yeah your question totally makes sense since the topic name is kinda confusing ;) I played a bunch last test season and was getting around rank 3 but had to stop laddering because of lack of time. I'm actually trying to reach legend this season and this deck is part of the set that i'm using. I'm rank 5 already after just one day of laddering so i guess i should do fine ^^ I'm totally sure this deck can bring to legend if played properly ;)
That is why a thought : D You variant of mid-range tempo rogue is very interesting. Clearly you know what your doing, I just have a few questions. One thing that all rogue's have been struggling with since the Nat nerf is card draw mid-late game due to the amount of cards it can take to remove large taunts and other minions. My guess is that you use tempo plays and the 5 card draws you have in your deck to keep your hard up, even with that do you still run into problems late game when it comes to your hand? and if so how often?
Also Perdition's Blade is a great weapon, personally I find it to be less ineffective against control decks and also tends to get oozed all the time in current meta. I do not run perdition's Blade myself. I was finally able to start grinding today and am at level 8, and even without any weapons I see a lot of oozes and control decks. Have you had any problems with Perdition's Blade as mentioned above? and if you do how often?
Yeah I work on this deck since a very long time ^^
Concerning the draws, I find the few cantrip minions enough to battle with many match ups. The thing about this variation is that I improved mid and late game power through the use of Spiteful Smith and some big legendaries, so there is less need in drawing that much (as your cards improve quality you obviously need less of them to win the game). I would also mention that Cold Blood can sometimes provide a really strong Card Advantage : play it on a divine shield minion, trade, see the opponent wasting one more card to deal with it or taking some more damage by fighting it, so it ends up being even better than eviscerate sometimes ^^ It's still hurting when you draws the 2, because it kinda struggle in your hand =/ The only concern that sometimes happen is when the draws doesn't happen in a good order (starting hand with late game minions and not getting your early power), the deck is still pretty well rounded in that regard and often avoid this effect. Lastly, I would say that against some big warriors control, you sometimes simply can't win because they answer to every of your play and my addition of late game power doesn't make up for all their win conditions. But that is all depending on the draws from both you and your opponent, and you generally do well against every match up but preferably Aggro and Mid Range. To sum it up, I don't often find myself saying "oh god my hand is empty and I can't keep tempo of this game or kill my opponent in the next few turns" ;) It can still happen from times to times against rough match up, I've seen some more early game oriented Tempo Rogue running Sprint for late game draw but I'm not really a big fan of it since your not going to battle really well against late game legendaries with your 1 and 2 drops =S
Concerning the Perdition's Blade, I played it in an older version and finally switched it out last season. I recently tried it again because of the resurgence of aggro rushdown decks with many fragile minions, and god I have to say it helps a lot ! As i explained in the write up, this is mainly used to add another SI:7 Agent effect, moreover the 2 power sometimes help with clearing and to make your Blade Flurry a bit more hurting ^^ About the Acidic Swamp Ooze, you really don't mind that much as that weapon already applied battlecry and used one of its durability so basically they don't remove that much by doing so, the card already did his job ;) I would even say that Acidic is better used on your deadly poison than on this weapon ( which only have one more power than your hero ability ) ^^ To sum it up, this is a card that can change depending on the meta, mainly used to fight against Aggro Decks and that really doesn't care about Acidic Swamp Ooze runned in some Control Decks. In many cases, you just kill 2 minions straight away with it so that's really a big swing in the early game !
I hope this explanation helped ;) Thanks for your feedback
Yeah I work on this deck since a very long time ^^
Concerning the draws, I find the few cantrip minions enough to battle with many match ups. The thing about this variation is that I improved mid and late game power through the use of Spiteful Smith and some big legendaries, so there is less need in drawing that much (as your cards improve quality you obviously need less of them to win the game). I would also mention that Cold Blood can sometimes provide a really strong Card Advantage : play it on a divine shield minion, trade, see the opponent wasting one more card to deal with it or taking some more damage by fighting it, so it ends up being even better than eviscerate sometimes ^^ It's still hurting when you draws the 2, because it kinda struggle in your hand =/ The only concern that sometimes happen is when the draws doesn't happen in a good order (starting hand with late game minions and not getting your early power), the deck is still pretty well rounded in that regard and often avoid this effect. Lastly, I would say that against some big warriors control, you sometimes simply can't win because they answer to every of your play and my addition of late game power doesn't make up for all their win conditions. But that is all depending on the draws from both you and your opponent, and you generally do well against every match up but preferably Aggro and Mid Range. To sum it up, I don't often find myself saying "oh god my hand is empty and I can't keep tempo of this game or kill my opponent in the next few turns" ;) It can still happen from times to times against rough match up, I've seen some more early game oriented Tempo Rogue running Sprint for late game draw but I'm not really a big fan of it since your not going to battle really well against late game legendaries with your 1 and 2 drops =S
Concerning the Perdition's Blade, I played it in an older version and finally switched it out last season. I recently tried it again because of the resurgence of aggro rushdown decks with many fragile minions, and god I have to say it helps a lot ! As i explained in the write up, this is mainly used to add another SI:7 Agent effect, moreover the 2 power sometimes help with clearing and to make your Blade Flurry a bit more hurting ^^ About the Acidic Swamp Ooze, you really don't mind that much as that weapon already applied battlecry and used one of its durability so basically they don't remove that much by doing so, the card already did his job ;) I would even say that Acidic is better used on your deadly poison than on this weapon ( which only have one more power than your hero ability ) ^^ To sum it up, this is a card that can change depending on the meta, mainly used to fight against Aggro Decks and that really doesn't care about Acidic Swamp Ooze runned in some Control Decks. In many cases, you just kill 2 minions straight away with it so that's really a big swing in the early game !
I hope this explanation helped ;) Thanks for your feedback
Awesome, that is how I assumed you played it, I was curious to know how well it was working out for you and also how you dealt with the possible issues. Very good deck, I wish you luck on your way to legends : D
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Yes I do up vote everyone who post in my threads as a thanx for taking the time to look at and comment on my post.
Very similar deck to mine , though I do not run Cold Blood, Spiteful Smith, and only 1 Argent Commander. That said, it looks like a solid deck list OP. You have a neat take on Tempo-Rogue.
* I like to run 1 Sylvanas in place of Argent Commander. Have you tried that?
* Do you ever lose board control because of lack of AOE?
* With no Saps how are you dealing with large creatures if you can't TBK them?
I don't own Sylvanas so I couldn't try that but I think that should work although i'd prefer putting her in place of Cairne or Ragnaros because Argent Commander are pretty much what saves you in the late game (as you'll see below)
I rarely lose board control due to lack of AoE, because the deck handle opponents minions turn by turn so they can't really fill the board and the one of Blade Flurry is enough for some more difficult situations ^^ ( I feel that running 2 would be too much and could make your hand kinda bad in many cases ). It is really the point of the deck, getting the board under control so you are not overaggro'd
In general I either use some combo around eviscerate ( plus a creature if needed, and some spell power also helps a lot sometimes with 3-damage backstab to begin with for example ) or a cold blooded argent commander to kill those big 8/8 or things like that. The other situation is that you just need to close out the game fast and not actually try to kill that, it really depends on the situation. If i controlled the board well enough to that point, i could just put in Rag and see what it does ( if it kills the big threat i'm happy, if it goes for their face, i probably have to kill the opponent in the next few turns ). But yeah I guess the Tinkmaster nerf hurt a bit in that concern, i still do really fine without him ;)
The thing with this deck is that you really have to take out the most value of your cards and make your actions more optimized than your opponent's one, if you're beginning to lose that action efficiency turn after turn, the game is probably getting out of control for you ^^
Honestly, he saves a lot of games for me, i tried to play without him and the result was just that I lost more versus Druid for example xD He is also a solid finisher, as the deck is really controlish you can often make him hit the opponent's face ^^ Remember that the deck itself plays a bit more slowly than others Rogue I'll still admit that I win many games without having to use him, he's more here for certain matchups ;)
I wrote a little bittle about Ringleaders in the write up. I used to play them, don't get me wrong, I find them great, but in the current meta they just help Hunters getting crazy UTH. Shaman, Druid and Warriors are just to happy to AoE this etc... Not to mention the hero powers that deals one damage =( They are only useful against some aggro decks (and even still, Warlocks often run Mortal coil). Moreover, they add to the list of cards that need to be combo'd and doesn't acutally help to pull off the combos =S But i guess if the meta shifts a bit more you could find some spot for them ^^ As I said they were battling versus Cold Blood in my mind ;)
Rag may be a late drop but he is not slow, he acts immediately at the end of your turn and synergies very well with tempo rogue. With tempo rogue it is fairly easy to maintain board presence and annihilate smaller minions. So when rag comes out most of the time all the smaller minions have been removed, the only thing that is left is either huge minions or your opponents face, which is exactly what rag is for. Now with the nerf of tinkmaster some classes really struggle when it comes to dealing with him as well. Even if your opponent hard removes rag right after you played him, it does not matter because he still got off 8 damage some where on your opponents board.
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Yes I do up vote everyone who post in my threads as a thanx for taking the time to look at and comment on my post.
Hi guys, today I was participating to the EU Managrind Open 24 Tournament using this deck. After making it to the 3rd place, I wanted to share you the experience =P
Round 1 : 2-0 Vs Ramp Druid
I started against a Mid Range/Ramp Druid, so I was a bit concern as this match up is often really close. It ended up that the key turns for the two games were when he throwed his Sen'jin Shieldmasta on turn 4 and I just answered with Backstab and Deadly Poison to deal with it, keeping my board and adding a Harvest Golem on the board. Nothing much to say about this round, Argent Commander helped a lot in securing victory.
Round 2 : 2-0 Vs Miracle Rogue
Poor Miracle Rogue, those match were basically huge stomp due to the fact that I just loaded up the board constantly and he couldn't deal with it, I always had the opportunity to throw in some good Defender of Argus on turn 4 so I guess they are the MVP of this round =P
Round 3 : 2-0 Vs Warlock Zoo
How happy I was, when I saw him starting to play some minions early on as it was not a Handlock. As I explained the deck is pretty well designed to fight against those aggro decks so it was really fine to match up against him. The games were pretty close tho as Zoo also fight for early board control, but our tools are just better and our mid/late game is really more threatening. The first game was really back and forth and I think my opponent made some mistakes by going too often to the face instead of trading. The second game was pretty much decided on turn 3, I kinda struggled with his early taunts plus aggro minions and was planning to use Deadly Poison to kill the Voidwalker and slowly regain control of the board. However, I just drew my Blade Flurry on turn 2 so my plan changed, I used it to make his Shieldbearer low on life and just kept the divine shield on my Argent Squire by going for it too. After that, he just filled the board with a bunch of 2-health minions so I was pretty happy to just Blade Flurry for crazy and clean board swipe =D The game was pretty much sealed at that point =P
Round 4 : 2-1 Vs Warrior Control
Oh boy, That match up is really hard ! The first game still went pretty well tho as I had some good draws and my Ragnaros the Firelord just sniped his Alexstrasza when needed. Cairne Bloodhoof helped me fight against his and Cold Blood helped me clearing some of his large threat and finaly securing the victory. For the second game, I sided out Blade Flurry, Perdition's Blade and The Black Knight right away, as they were not useful at all in that match up. I replaced them by two Acidic Swamp Ooze to deal with the Gorehowl and even an early Fiery War Axe and also added an Assassinate to deal with a late game win conditions (although I didn't draw it at all, it was a better card to have than Black Knight as he wasnt running any taunt). This one just went bad because bad draws for me and some Acolyte of Pain for him that just kept me making inefficient turns, so I basically ran slowly out of cards/burst, the game was still pretty close tho and Ragnaros sniped again his Alexstrasza (we had some fun about it on chat xD). Finally, for the third game, I switched out the 2x Spiteful Smith for 2x Chillwind Yeti as the Warrior would always deal with my creatures with some Execute or things like that so the 6 toughness instead of 5 didnt mattered that much and the enrage effect was pointless, plus they helped more with tempo by being a 4 drop instead of 5 one ^^ I also put in a Faceless Manipulator instead of one of the Loot Hoarder to maybe copy one of his late game threat (or my Cairne/Ragnaros) and maybe even following with Assassinate if turn 10 or more. Moreover, the Loot Hoarder were just some meat for Acolyte of Pain and Armorsmith. The game went pretty well and the draws were good as I had often the correct answer to his plays. It seems like my siding finally paid of, destroying his Gorehowl especially felt great. Cold Blood again helped me many times with bursting through his armor and cleaning some threats. I was pretty surprised about the result as I feel that this is the hardest match up for me and was pretty happy to win it after some close games.
Although the end of the story was a bit sad, I was pretty happy about the deck making it to Top 4 for my first participation in a tournament and it confirmed for me that the deck is pretty solid and more importantly very flexible for a lot of match ups. Thanks for reading =)
Honestly, I find him a pretty effective mid game body. Either the opponent have to use a hard removal on him (because of the 6 toughness and the fact they don't want him to be enraged), which will allow Cairne and Ragnaros to do the job, or they just can't deal with it so I generally use it to trade something and power up my weapon. The other possibilty for them is using their 4-damage spell + trading a minion (unlike a Yeti that they could ping with some hero power or Argent Squire to help the spell finish the job), so I'm pretty happy about this 2 for 1. Taunting him with Argus is quite painful for them too (think of taunt Doomguard that has an enrage effect xD). Like i said in the write up, he allows me to fight really well against common 4 drops, so that is basically is purpose. However, as you can see in my little description of the tournament, in certain match up you'd rather just have a Yeti (but that's generally not the case). In general, turn 4 is often just Argus my minions if i'm ahead or comboing something to come back, so I don't really feel the need of a simple 4 drop, on the other hand, I really appreciate to have that solid 5 drop coming on the board after all those early minion fights.
Glad you enjoyed and thanks for the positive feedback ;)
Concerning the Blade Flurry, I feel that 2 would be too much (unless sometimes vs some zoo decks if I don't draw my backstabs/SI7 Agents but it's rare), as generally having 2 in hands would make me really sad (against some control match up, I don't even want to see this card at all xD even tho that's an insane card because it deals to the board AND the opponent). But I saw some kind of tempo rogue running two (very rare tho), that could work, doesnt really fit my playstyle i guess. And you may also need an additional weapon to ensure good use of it (like an Assassin's Blade or a second Perdition's Blade)
Kobold is fine for bloodmage although you may simply want to run an early pressure minion like Defias Ringleader / Bloodsail Raider (i honestly would prefer that choice in the current meta). TBK can be replaced by Assassinate or Sap depending or your need (Assassinate is bit slow but a bit more reliable for long and controly games), or just simply Leeroy for great finishing burst (but the taunts are gonna be a problem for you i guess). You may as well just want to add a solid mid game minion like Yeti, Sen'jin or Spellbreaker ;)
Thanks for the positive feedback on my decks, I spent some long time working on those so it's always lovely to see that it pay off ^^ I don't stream atm, maybe i will be wondering about that later on, who knows =P
Ok thanks for the support then =P I'll obviously keep everybody informed if it happens ;) I won't have many time for the next few months tho, so I don't think that's for now unfortunately =/
Hi guys, I'm Spark and Rogue is one of the first classes that I used, and I've been working on this deck since a really long time. I finaly found the tweaks that I like for this deck and definitely recommand you to check it for its niche choices.
The advantage of this one is that you have the edge over other midrange decks that focuses more on early/mid game thanks to your mid/late game threats, so you'll often win the mirror match if the opponent is playing a standard list ;) It is really good against aggro rushdown decks thanks to our early control plus board presence, but can find some issues against big controls decks if they make it to very late game dealing with all of your threats, however, you'll generally beat them before that happen. It is really versatile and I often find myself playing it when I don't really know about what i'll be facing in the day's meta ;)
The replacements that I would suggest for the legendaries would revolve around more mid game presene : Chillwind Yeti, Sen'jin Shieldmasta, Spellbreaker, Sap, Defias Ringleader or Bloodsail Raider are some of your options.
I highly recommand checking the write up that I made for the deck to help understand my choices.
Don't forget to rate it up if you liked and don't hesitate to post on this thread or in the comment section of the deck if you have any question ;)
Thread about my decks : http://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/general-deck-building/8726-sparks-road-to-legend-decks-dissection
My other decks : http://www.hearthpwn.com/members/Sparkaz/decks
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Out of curiosity, did you actually get to legends with this deck or are you trying to? Not trolling just want to know if this is a legendary rogue deck or not : )
Yes I do up vote everyone who post in my threads as a thanx for taking the time to look at and comment on my post.
Yeah your question totally makes sense since the topic name is kinda confusing ;)
I played a bunch last test season and was getting around rank 3 but had to stop laddering because of lack of time. I'm actually trying to reach legend this season and this deck is part of the set that i'm using. I'm rank 5 already after just one day of laddering so i guess i should do fine ^^
I'm totally sure this deck can bring to legend if played properly ;)
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That is why a thought : D You variant of mid-range tempo rogue is very interesting. Clearly you know what your doing, I just have a few questions. One thing that all rogue's have been struggling with since the Nat nerf is card draw mid-late game due to the amount of cards it can take to remove large taunts and other minions. My guess is that you use tempo plays and the 5 card draws you have in your deck to keep your hard up, even with that do you still run into problems late game when it comes to your hand? and if so how often?
Also Perdition's Blade is a great weapon, personally I find it to be less ineffective against control decks and also tends to get oozed all the time in current meta. I do not run perdition's Blade myself. I was finally able to start grinding today and am at level 8, and even without any weapons I see a lot of oozes and control decks. Have you had any problems with Perdition's Blade as mentioned above? and if you do how often?
Yes I do up vote everyone who post in my threads as a thanx for taking the time to look at and comment on my post.
Yeah I work on this deck since a very long time ^^
Concerning the draws, I find the few cantrip minions enough to battle with many match ups. The thing about this variation is that I improved mid and late game power through the use of Spiteful Smith and some big legendaries, so there is less need in drawing that much (as your cards improve quality you obviously need less of them to win the game). I would also mention that Cold Blood can sometimes provide a really strong Card Advantage : play it on a divine shield minion, trade, see the opponent wasting one more card to deal with it or taking some more damage by fighting it, so it ends up being even better than eviscerate sometimes ^^ It's still hurting when you draws the 2, because it kinda struggle in your hand =/
The only concern that sometimes happen is when the draws doesn't happen in a good order (starting hand with late game minions and not getting your early power), the deck is still pretty well rounded in that regard and often avoid this effect. Lastly, I would say that against some big warriors control, you sometimes simply can't win because they answer to every of your play and my addition of late game power doesn't make up for all their win conditions. But that is all depending on the draws from both you and your opponent, and you generally do well against every match up but preferably Aggro and Mid Range.
To sum it up, I don't often find myself saying "oh god my hand is empty and I can't keep tempo of this game or kill my opponent in the next few turns" ;) It can still happen from times to times against rough match up, I've seen some more early game oriented Tempo Rogue running Sprint for late game draw but I'm not really a big fan of it since your not going to battle really well against late game legendaries with your 1 and 2 drops =S
Concerning the Perdition's Blade, I played it in an older version and finally switched it out last season. I recently tried it again because of the resurgence of aggro rushdown decks with many fragile minions, and god I have to say it helps a lot ! As i explained in the write up, this is mainly used to add another SI:7 Agent effect, moreover the 2 power sometimes help with clearing and to make your Blade Flurry a bit more hurting ^^
About the Acidic Swamp Ooze, you really don't mind that much as that weapon already applied battlecry and used one of its durability so basically they don't remove that much by doing so, the card already did his job ;) I would even say that Acidic is better used on your deadly poison than on this weapon ( which only have one more power than your hero ability ) ^^
To sum it up, this is a card that can change depending on the meta, mainly used to fight against Aggro Decks and that really doesn't care about Acidic Swamp Ooze runned in some Control Decks. In many cases, you just kill 2 minions straight away with it so that's really a big swing in the early game !
I hope this explanation helped ;)
Thanks for your feedback
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Awesome, that is how I assumed you played it, I was curious to know how well it was working out for you and also how you dealt with the possible issues. Very good deck, I wish you luck on your way to legends : D
Yes I do up vote everyone who post in my threads as a thanx for taking the time to look at and comment on my post.
Very similar deck to mine , though I do not run Cold Blood, Spiteful Smith, and only 1 Argent Commander. That said, it looks like a solid deck list OP. You have a neat take on Tempo-Rogue.
* I like to run 1 Sylvanas in place of Argent Commander. Have you tried that?
* Do you ever lose board control because of lack of AOE?
* With no Saps how are you dealing with large creatures if you can't TBK them?
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I don't own Sylvanas so I couldn't try that but I think that should work although i'd prefer putting her in place of Cairne or Ragnaros because Argent Commander are pretty much what saves you in the late game (as you'll see below)
I rarely lose board control due to lack of AoE, because the deck handle opponents minions turn by turn so they can't really fill the board and the one of Blade Flurry is enough for some more difficult situations ^^ ( I feel that running 2 would be too much and could make your hand kinda bad in many cases ). It is really the point of the deck, getting the board under control so you are not overaggro'd
In general I either use some combo around eviscerate ( plus a creature if needed, and some spell power also helps a lot sometimes with 3-damage backstab to begin with for example ) or a cold blooded argent commander to kill those big 8/8 or things like that. The other situation is that you just need to close out the game fast and not actually try to kill that, it really depends on the situation. If i controlled the board well enough to that point, i could just put in Rag and see what it does ( if it kills the big threat i'm happy, if it goes for their face, i probably have to kill the opponent in the next few turns ). But yeah I guess the Tinkmaster nerf hurt a bit in that concern, i still do really fine without him ;)
The thing with this deck is that you really have to take out the most value of your cards and make your actions more optimized than your opponent's one, if you're beginning to lose that action efficiency turn after turn, the game is probably getting out of control for you ^^
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Don't you feel that Rag is too slow?
Why don't you run Ringleaders?
Honestly, he saves a lot of games for me, i tried to play without him and the result was just that I lost more versus Druid for example xD
He is also a solid finisher, as the deck is really controlish you can often make him hit the opponent's face ^^ Remember that the deck itself plays a bit more slowly than others Rogue
I'll still admit that I win many games without having to use him, he's more here for certain matchups ;)
I wrote a little bittle about Ringleaders in the write up. I used to play them, don't get me wrong, I find them great, but in the current meta they just help Hunters getting crazy UTH. Shaman, Druid and Warriors are just to happy to AoE this etc... Not to mention the hero powers that deals one damage =( They are only useful against some aggro decks (and even still, Warlocks often run Mortal coil). Moreover, they add to the list of cards that need to be combo'd and doesn't acutally help to pull off the combos =S But i guess if the meta shifts a bit more you could find some spot for them ^^ As I said they were battling versus Cold Blood in my mind ;)
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Rag may be a late drop but he is not slow, he acts immediately at the end of your turn and synergies very well with tempo rogue. With tempo rogue it is fairly easy to maintain board presence and annihilate smaller minions. So when rag comes out most of the time all the smaller minions have been removed, the only thing that is left is either huge minions or your opponents face, which is exactly what rag is for. Now with the nerf of tinkmaster some classes really struggle when it comes to dealing with him as well. Even if your opponent hard removes rag right after you played him, it does not matter because he still got off 8 damage some where on your opponents board.
Yes I do up vote everyone who post in my threads as a thanx for taking the time to look at and comment on my post.
Hi guys, today I was participating to the EU Managrind Open 24 Tournament using this deck. After making it to the 3rd place, I wanted to share you the experience =P
Round 1 : 2-0 Vs Ramp Druid
I started against a Mid Range/Ramp Druid, so I was a bit concern as this match up is often really close. It ended up that the key turns for the two games were when he throwed his Sen'jin Shieldmasta on turn 4 and I just answered with Backstab and Deadly Poison to deal with it, keeping my board and adding a Harvest Golem on the board. Nothing much to say about this round, Argent Commander helped a lot in securing victory.
Round 2 : 2-0 Vs Miracle Rogue
Poor Miracle Rogue, those match were basically huge stomp due to the fact that I just loaded up the board constantly and he couldn't deal with it, I always had the opportunity to throw in some good Defender of Argus on turn 4 so I guess they are the MVP of this round =P
Round 3 : 2-0 Vs Warlock Zoo
How happy I was, when I saw him starting to play some minions early on as it was not a Handlock. As I explained the deck is pretty well designed to fight against those aggro decks so it was really fine to match up against him.
The games were pretty close tho as Zoo also fight for early board control, but our tools are just better and our mid/late game is really more threatening. The first game was really back and forth and I think my opponent made some mistakes by going too often to the face instead of trading.
The second game was pretty much decided on turn 3, I kinda struggled with his early taunts plus aggro minions and was planning to use Deadly Poison to kill the Voidwalker and slowly regain control of the board. However, I just drew my Blade Flurry on turn 2 so my plan changed, I used it to make his Shieldbearer low on life and just kept the divine shield on my Argent Squire by going for it too. After that, he just filled the board with a bunch of 2-health minions so I was pretty happy to just Blade Flurry for crazy and clean board swipe =D The game was pretty much sealed at that point =P
Round 4 : 2-1 Vs Warrior Control
Oh boy, That match up is really hard ! The first game still went pretty well tho as I had some good draws and my Ragnaros the Firelord just sniped his Alexstrasza when needed. Cairne Bloodhoof helped me fight against his and Cold Blood helped me clearing some of his large threat and finaly securing the victory.
For the second game, I sided out Blade Flurry, Perdition's Blade and The Black Knight right away, as they were not useful at all in that match up.
I replaced them by two Acidic Swamp Ooze to deal with the Gorehowl and even an early Fiery War Axe and also added an Assassinate to deal with a late game win conditions (although I didn't draw it at all, it was a better card to have than Black Knight as he wasnt running any taunt). This one just went bad because bad draws for me and some Acolyte of Pain for him that just kept me making inefficient turns, so I basically ran slowly out of cards/burst, the game was still pretty close tho and Ragnaros sniped again his Alexstrasza (we had some fun about it on chat xD).
Finally, for the third game, I switched out the 2x Spiteful Smith for 2x Chillwind Yeti as the Warrior would always deal with my creatures with some Execute or things like that so the 6 toughness instead of 5 didnt mattered that much and the enrage effect was pointless, plus they helped more with tempo by being a 4 drop instead of 5 one ^^
I also put in a Faceless Manipulator instead of one of the Loot Hoarder to maybe copy one of his late game threat (or my Cairne/Ragnaros) and maybe even following with Assassinate if turn 10 or more. Moreover, the Loot Hoarder were just some meat for Acolyte of Pain and Armorsmith. The game went pretty well and the draws were good as I had often the correct answer to his plays. It seems like my siding finally paid of, destroying his Gorehowl especially felt great. Cold Blood again helped me many times with bursting through his armor and cleaning some threats.
I was pretty surprised about the result as I feel that this is the hardest match up for me and was pretty happy to win it after some close games.
Semi-Final : 0-2 Vs Miracle Rogue
This one was more of a sad story unfortunately. First game, I couldn't apply too much pressure early on and he just went Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Preparation and Conceal on turn 5, so the game was pretty much over at this point. Even tho i was able to bring him low life, the game was one turn short for me as it is often the case with Miracle Rogue.
After that, I sided out The Black Knight, Blade Flurry, Perdition's Blade, 2x Loot Hoarder, 1x Spiteful Smith to add 2x Acidic Swamp Ooze, 2x Chillwind Yeti and 2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta to deal with the Assassin's Blade or Deadly Poison, apply more pressure and keep some taunts for his final combo. Unfortunately, this time he wents turn 5 Gadgetzan Auctioneer, The Coin and Conceal so I was pretty pissed off, the match was still pretty close tho as I bring him to 2 Life and he admitted top decking Sap and then Leeroy Jenkins for the finishing blow.
In conclusion, this match up really depends on ennemy's Gadgetzan Auctioneer and your ability to draw and make good use of Defender of Argus while applying a strong pressure.
Closing
Although the end of the story was a bit sad, I was pretty happy about the deck making it to Top 4 for my first participation in a tournament and it confirmed for me that the deck is pretty solid and more importantly very flexible for a lot of match ups.
Thanks for reading =)
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Glad to hear you did well overall at the tourny :D
So about Spiteful Smith, the times I've run him, he has exceeded my expectations.
Though, I am still not dead-set on him for a few reasons.
What is your overall opinion of Spiteful Smith ?
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Honestly, I find him a pretty effective mid game body. Either the opponent have to use a hard removal on him (because of the 6 toughness and the fact they don't want him to be enraged), which will allow Cairne and Ragnaros to do the job, or they just can't deal with it so I generally use it to trade something and power up my weapon. The other possibilty for them is using their 4-damage spell + trading a minion (unlike a Yeti that they could ping with some hero power or Argent Squire to help the spell finish the job), so I'm pretty happy about this 2 for 1. Taunting him with Argus is quite painful for them too (think of taunt Doomguard that has an enrage effect xD).
Like i said in the write up, he allows me to fight really well against common 4 drops, so that is basically is purpose.
However, as you can see in my little description of the tournament, in certain match up you'd rather just have a Yeti (but that's generally not the case).
In general, turn 4 is often just Argus my minions if i'm ahead or comboing something to come back, so I don't really feel the need of a simple 4 drop, on the other hand, I really appreciate to have that solid 5 drop coming on the board after all those early minion fights.
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Thanks for all the info and congrats on the Tourney!
Im starting to play this kind of deck, I was concern about the smiths too, but you have cleared very well.
Sorry my english :- )
I will be playing this deck on the ladder as well.
I found Blade Flurry a GREAT card, and I usually want 2. You never get this feeling?
Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed and thanks for the positive feedback ;)
Concerning the Blade Flurry, I feel that 2 would be too much (unless sometimes vs some zoo decks if I don't draw my backstabs/SI7 Agents but it's rare), as generally having 2 in hands would make me really sad (against some control match up, I don't even want to see this card at all xD even tho that's an insane card because it deals to the board AND the opponent). But I saw some kind of tempo rogue running two (very rare tho), that could work, doesnt really fit my playstyle i guess. And you may also need an additional weapon to ensure good use of it (like an Assassin's Blade or a second Perdition's Blade)
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Cool!! Thank you for your reply.
I have almost all of the cards. I lack The Black Night and Bloodmage... But I love the simple Kovold
and I guess I can replace TBK with Assasinate... I have Rag, and Leeroy too.
What would be your call? In the actual meta for climbing the Ladder, Im on rank 10 right now.
Thank you very much, I enjoy reading all your deck posts.
btw, do you twich? (whats your channel if so) Thanks!
Kobold is fine for bloodmage although you may simply want to run an early pressure minion like Defias Ringleader / Bloodsail Raider (i honestly would prefer that choice in the current meta).
TBK can be replaced by Assassinate or Sap depending or your need (Assassinate is bit slow but a bit more reliable for long and controly games), or just simply Leeroy for great finishing burst (but the taunts are gonna be a problem for you i guess). You may as well just want to add a solid mid game minion like Yeti, Sen'jin or Spellbreaker ;)
Thanks for the positive feedback on my decks, I spent some long time working on those so it's always lovely to see that it pay off ^^
I don't stream atm, maybe i will be wondering about that later on, who knows =P
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Thank you!! I will be trying all the combinations, at the end... I think you MUST enjoy the game. :- )
If you decide to stream, I will be a glad follower! Good Luck!
Ok thanks for the support then =P I'll obviously keep everybody informed if it happens ;)
I won't have many time for the next few months tho, so I don't think that's for now unfortunately =/
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