Rank 5 Mill Rogue - 73% Winrate
- Last updated Dec 31, 2017 (Kobolds Patch)
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Wild
- 10 Minions
- 18 Spells
- 1 Weapon
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Mill Rogue
- Crafting Cost: 6420
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 12/18/2017 (Kobolds Patch)
- OzzyHS
- Registered User
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- 14
- 39
- 63
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Battle Tag:
Ozzy#1977
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
607
Edit (12/31/2017):
Changed the deck list to what Dog is currently running.
Hello! I have been a Rogue player for around 2 years now, primarily Miracle, Oil, and Mill. I enjoy decks that require some sort of brain power to pilot, and not just "punch face, trade this" etc. This is currently the deck I have been using that has allowed me to reach rank 5 within a few days of play.
This deck may look familiar, as this is the same deck that Dog was able to pilot to rank 1 legend. I felt like this deck hasn't garnered enough attention, so I wanted to give it some!
Here is proof of my stats:
Mill Rogue Guide - by OzzyHS
Hi everyone! You may remember me from not too long ago when I released a deck that reached the front page of Hearthpwn: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/927961-legend-highlander-priest-90-wr. After I made that deck, I took a little bit of a break but now I'm back! So just a little background, I've been playing hearthstone since the release of Naxxramas. To give some perspective, that's 3 and a half years ago! However, I never really touched ranked until around GvG. I originally loved Ramp Druid. Now, back in the day, that deck was actually not awful like it is right now. Keeper of the Grove, Shade of Naxxramas, Ancient of Lore, and old Force of Nature all made this deck really great at the time. I got golden druid in about 3 weeks (grinded 30 wins a day) and proceeded to find another class I enjoyed. I messed around with post-wild Freeze Mage and loved the concept of combo'ing and using your resources to stall the game out so you could get a big finisher. Freeze Mage, however, felt very one dimensional in most situations, and I wanted something a bit more. Well, that's where Rogue came in! I started playing Oil Rogue and instantly fell in love. I knew that this was the right class for me. I played that and reached rank 12. Yeah yeah, not that great, but I was proud! Eventually, Oil Rogue faded and a new deck emerged; Mill Rogue. I've been playing Mill Rogue on and off for the past 2 years, with some Miracle Rogue sprinkled in there. Mill Rogue is my all time favorite deck in Hearthstone, and I think it has some serious potential to be strong this year.
Deck Synopsis
So if you don't really understand Mill Rogue, here's the basic idea; get your opponent into fatigue. Simple as that. Stall out the board with early removals and stalls such as Vanish, Doomsayer, Sap, Blade Flurry, and Kingsbane.
Playing Mill Rogue
Now, playing this deck to perfection is nothing to scoff at - It's a very difficult deck, if not the most difficult deck in Hearthstone (just my opinion). The reason why this deck has such a low winrate on statistic sites, is because many players don't know how to play this deck.
I can't really give you a straight forward answer on how to play this deck, simply because every single situation is going to yield different results. Should you play Coldlight Oracle? Should you play Doomsayer? Should you Vanish? Every single play is going to require a read on the meta. You can't simply read a guide and be perfect at this deck, and that's just the cold hard truth. This deck will take many games to become good with. Now, if you're still reading this far and haven't been turned away by that, then I applaud you! I can give some general tips on how to play this deck, but as I said, these tips won't be 100% accurate simply due to the fact that every game is different.
The basic idea is that you want to survive. Simple as that. Use your clears as you see fit. For example, your opponent is a paladin going into turn 4 with a 2/1 and a 1/1 on the field. Is it a good idea to play Doomsayer? Yes. It is. Reason being is because the current Paladin deck in the meta is aggro. On turn 4, the Paladin has the option of either playing Call to Arms, Blessing of Kings, sometimes Corridor Creeper, or a mix of random cards. So the only answer that he will have for Doomsayer is Blessing of Kings. If he Blessing of Kings'd, then that saves you 7 damage that would have otherwise been going towards your face. As I said earlier, your objective is to survive.
It's really hard to explain how to play this deck simply through text, which is why I plan on making a video explaining every play I make. Only thing I can really say is that playing this deck comes with a lot of trial and error. If you do however, have any specific questions and game play decisions, feel free to leave a comment and I will try to reply to it.
Card Choices
- Kingsbane: This card is what made Mill Rogue viable again, no questions asked. Being able to get a 9 attack (that's on the low side) weapon with life steal and infinite value is just insane. Another thing which makes this card so incredibly powerful in mill, is that you can play the game so you never take a point of fatigue. It's quite simple too - Break Kingsbane with 0 cards in deck -> Draw Kingsbane -> Play it, attack -> Play a second copy of Kingsbane via Valeera the Hollow's passive -> Play the drawn Kingsbane next turn (the original one). This combo alone has won me so many games that I could've lost simply due to the fact that the opponent cannot keep up with this cycle. They will eventually lose to fatigue no matter what.
- Doomerang: Some of you may be confused as to why Doomerang is in this deck. It seems so odd considering you want to keep your weapon in play at all times. Well, Doomerang synergizes with Kingsbane in a really strong way. Firstly, the Doomerang will apply your lifesteal from Kingsbane to it's target. Secondly, Doomerang will not break Kingsbane and put it in your deck like you might suspect, it actually brings it back to your hand. Why is this so good? Well, you can essentially get 2 hits in 1 turn, as well as retain some durability. If you play Doomerang when your Kingsbane is on 1 durability, it will hit the target, possibly healing you, then come back to your hand on 3 durability. You can then play it again the same turn and get a second hit in.
- Valeera the Hollow: Pretty much a staple in any rogue deck now. It works even better in Mill because you can do a multitude of things with her passive. Double Coldlight Oracle, double Deadly Poison, double Doomsayer, double Kingsbane as explained above, double Southsea Squidface, etc.
- Elven Minstrel: With the introduction of this card, you no longer need to play The Curator like old Mill Rogue used to. Not to mention, you can run 2 copies! This just allows you to get your Coldlight Oracles faster, as well as allowing you to find your Cavern Shinyfinders, thus getting your Kingsbane into action earlier.
- Edwin VanCleef: Now, this card isn't SUPER important like all the others, but it is good nonetheless. Basically gives you a 3rd win condition (mill, Kingsbane, and this) if your opponent can't handle it. Generally speaking, you can get a 6/6 or an 8/8 Edwin VanCleef super easily.
- Blade Flurry: This card hasn't really seen play since it's nerf back in early 2016. It does hold a really nice spot in this deck though! Rogue is notorious for not having the greatest of board clears. With this aggro heavy meta, you pretty much need board clears in order to survive. Although this weapon doesn't apply the life steal effect, it is still very powerful. You can very easily make this card a 5-9 damage AoE. If paired with Cavern Shinyfinder, you can get your weapon back after you destroy it.
- Cheat Death & Evasion: The new rogue secrets are still somewhat up in the air in terms of viability. They do work really nicely in this deck though! Firstly, Cheat Death. This card ensures that you can play a Coldlight Oracle without fear of not being able to bounce it back. If they do kill it, you get it for 1 mana! If they don't, you can possibly Preparation into Vanish the following turn (if the board allows for it, naturally). Also, Cheat Death ensures your opponent cannot play an AoE very efficiently. This is exceptionally great vs Control Lock and Dragon Priest, as they sometimes run Abyssal Enforcer and Duskbreaker. As for Evasion, this is basically just a stall card. Let's say you're on turn 8 and your opponent has lethal on board. You don't have an answer. You play Evasion and can live another turn. Turn 9 you can play Valeera the Hollow, stalling for another turn and healing 5. This gives you 2 draws that could save the game for you.
Mulligan
Generally speaking, you really want to mulligan for your early survival cards. Cavern Shinyfinder, Doomsayer, Backstab, Kingsbane, Deadly Poison (only with Cavern Shinyfinder or Kingsbane in mulligan), Leaching Poison (only with Cavern Shinyfinder or Kingsbane in mulligan), Elven Minstrel (if starting with The Coin), Evasion (if fighting a very aggro heavy deck (Paladin, Hunter, Mage)). You almost never want to keep Coldlight Oracle in your starting hand unless you are 100% certain you are fighting control and anticipate them drawing cards in the early game.
Closing Out The Game
So you survived the onslaught of cards from your opponent and are now in fatigue. What now? Well, now you equip your (hopefully) huge Kingsbane with lifesteal, and swing face. Don't forget to duplicate the Kingsbane as I explained earlier. Hopefully you were able to keep some of your clears (Vanish, Sap, Doomerang, Blade Flurry) and can keep your opponent's board squeaky clean. You should just be able to win after you hit the fatigue, simply due to Kingsbane being so incredibly powerful.
Video(s)
Submitted by @kiwiinbacon
Submitted by @daaannnnaaaaaaaa
Submitted by @Kadakk
MORE COMING SOON
So this was my guide! I hope you learned something and if you have any specific questions, drop them in the comments. You may have noticed that I didn't include replacements or matchups in this guide. Reason being is:
1. I don't like limiting players collections, and I want you guys to experiment and figure out what works for you. If you find that certain cards aren't working or you don't own some cards, go ahead and replace them to your own judgement. If you still do have questions about replacements, let me know!
2. The meta is so messy right now and frankly I don't know the statistics at the moment. I'd prefer to not give false information and confuse you guys. If the meta calms down, I might add a matchup guide. Don't count on it though.
I added Vilespine and I'm shocked how good it's been since adding it, I took out the Secret for Vilespine, beacuse in many of my games that Secret has not been all that game-changing for me or not nearly as game changing as I thought it would be. But Vilespine has easily won me more games that the secret in my last 20 games.
"This card is what made Mill Rogue viable again, no questions asked." (1)
"Being able to get a 9 attack (that's on the low side) weapon with life steal and infinite value is just insane." (2)
(1)+(2) = For a deck to be viable it needs an insane mechanic.
and "I enjoy decks that require some sort of brain power to pilot, and not just "punch face, trade this" etc" (3).
(3) is the reason why the meta right now sucks; the strong decks have such an OP win rate (because of OP cards like kingsbane) that doesn't require any sort of brain power.
Sorry. Your deck is kingsbane. Mill rogue is KFT. That was a deck that required thinking and operated within a fair win rate.
Amazing mill guide, I've always wanted to try it, thanks!
Really fun and interesting deck. Definitely very hard to pilot as I've won some extremely close matchups against most of the top meta decks. Not a deck you can reliably play on your phone as you really need to concentrate on your turns. That said, it's very rewarding when you spot a way out of a bad situation, stall your way to Valeera, and pull off some crazy swing turns via leeching, prep/vanish doomsayer or bladeflurry into shinyfinder and swing, etc. Beat tempo prince rogue, big spell priest, aggro druid, jade druid, aggro paladin, zoolock, control Rinlock, cubelock, and beast trap hunter to name a few. Thanks for keeping the list updated.
Deck is fine against hunter assuming hunter doesn't have Charge Minions and you're able to punish. Punish? What do you mean Punish? I mean you trigger his secrets and then vanish those minions back into his hand and then run some cold lights for good measures to force him to mill. Originally I thought this deck would struggle against hunter but so far I'm pleasantly surprised.
Cards like bladefurry and doomerang can really wreck hunter assuming you're able to get your Kingsbane to a high respectable number in general if you have lifesteal and let's say you're able to achieve 12 heal if not more while doing damage to his face he won't be able to keep up.
73%? You mean 42.88%?
It's only positive against Priest, Warrior, and Warlock
https://hsreplay.net/decks/f9vzX3eBhKe6t6nvytYlwg/#tab=overview
You're the second person to not read a single thing I said in my guide, then accuse me of lying. If the deck was as poor as you suggest, then Dog would've never used it to climb to legend, nor would I of been able to get to rank 5.
As poor as "I suggest?"
It's as poor as HSReplay suggests, looking at 8700 games over the last 30 days.
You can try following me to other threads and talking shit, but the simple fact of the matter is that there are decks that have overall positive winrates, and yours isn't one of them.
The reason you can't give a straightforward answer on how to play this deck is because you can't tell people to just get lucky.
I didn't call your mother a whore, I said that available data about this deck doesn't match your anecdotal experience. Maybe don't take it personally.
Or u know R&G is bad on this deck. I can play this deck well but 70% of the time i never draw life steal or a coldlight. Don't know why but it happens a lot.
What do you think about lorewalker cho to fill your opponents hand with junk so you mill cards more often or force them to waste mana?
R&G? Thats actually funny. Tell me what that stands for?
Hahah I was thinking the same thing.
I have a question about Shadowstep, I'm one of those Rogue Players who seems to always Shadowstep Vilespine or for some lethal combination via Leeroy Jenkins or Bonemere. However in this deck when do you shadowstep Coldlight Oracle vs Shinyfinder or do you always do it on Coldlight Oracle? I realize it's very situational but can someone at least tell me what occurs 'most of the time' ? Thanks in Advance.
I'd say about 75% of the time you want to shadow step the oracle for the mill. However, if you're fighting an aggro deck and you know that you'll be fishing for your weapon, then obviously shadow step the shiny finder. It is simply up to how the game is going and if you feel like you'll need the weapon. For example, let's say your weapon is in deck, but you have a blade flurry in hand. Playing the shiny finder to pull the weapon is pretty standard. However, I personally would shadow step the shiny finder because I know i'll be using blade flurry to shuffle it back in.
Love this deck. Difficult to pilot and creates crazy games.
I drew a game yesterday against the combo healbot OTK priest deck. Milled his circle of healings, so when he pulled off combo he had to use Spirit Lash and killed himself too! I had him dead the following turn to my 13 attack Kingsbane, so it was the correct play haha. I thoroughly enjoy the PJSalt and rage quits this deck generates. :)
He should have used Pyromancer
Have you considered the rogue spellstone in this deck? You easily upgrade it with Kingsbane and Squidfaces and you can use it twice with valeera for a full board wipe late game
Too slow.
Played the updated version of this deck and made another video. Still fun!~
I really don't like double Leeching Poison as it is just trying hard to improve the terrible matchups against aggressive decks by adding a completely useless (after you played one) card to the deck. Especially removing a backstab, which is good in fast matches and very often enabling your Elven Minstrel on turn 4 just seems weird to me.
But well, I didn't reach legendary with this yet, so maybe I shouldn't risk a big mouth :D