Hearthpwn

Surviving with Rogue in a Post Naxxramas Hearthstone

This is for both new and experienced Rogue players.  For newer players, this is a great treasure trove of strategies and information that will help you out in both ladder and tournament play.  For the more experienced players, a lot of this information may seem like common sense, though you might get some fresh idea's or new perspectives to incorporate into your matches.  Please enjoy : )

Its no secret rogue is struggling in the current meta, with miracle dropping to a 50% win-rate which is basically like flipping a coin every time you hit the play button on ladder.  So back to the basics, tempo rogue.  Actually a counter to mid-range hunter, though it always seems like people forget this deck type counters mid-range hunter and zoo.  With mid-range hunter being so popular, its a great time to be playing tempo rogue.  Priest and Warrior can be a pain, but you can give them hell to so its all good.

I will be going through strategies to deal with the varying classes and their deck types out there.  I may not hit every one of them, but I will get to most of them and at least hit up all the popular ones.

Play Style

What you do is use your cheap removals and efficiently trading minions early game to set up tempo for a strong mid-game where you deal major damage and have your opponent about dead or already dead by the time you enter late game.

Tempo rogue basically takes advantage of its low cost removals and good trading minions to stay ahead of their opponent through out the game, thus keeping tempo over your opponent.  There are many ways to do this and understanding what to do, when to do it, and who to do it against can take lots of time and experience.  Without a solid understanding of other classes it is very difficult to keep tempo if you can't even imagine what is coming.

Well lets get into the deck, and then I will go into further detail.

Cards

Spells

Backstab- Staple Rogue card that should be used in every tempo rogue deck

Eviscerate - 2 mana for 4 damage, of course you will be running this card as a rogue

Deadly Poison - With your dagger you pay a total of 3 mana for 6 damage, cheaper then a fire ball.

Cold Blood - This card has 2 possible uses, 1, to power up yours minions to clear larger ones, and 2 for lethal damage.  Deciding which ones to use them for can be crucial, and a lot of the time ambiguous.  I will work up a guide for helping you decide what to use it for, but for now I will focus on the rest of this post.

Sap - great low cost removal, can be used to clear taunts remove buffed minion for the board, and even to just buy you some time to prepare to deal with something that you need another turn to deal with.

 Sprint - the rogue's combo ability is a double edge sword, you can get great value out of low cost minions like no other class but in return it promotes you to burn down your hand.  In longer games this can be lethal for you, especially if you find yourself top decking into combo cards.  Having a card that allows you to fill up your hand can be just what you need.  Be very careful about using this one though, it will most likely take up your entire turn which can cost you a lot of tempo.  Making sure to use it when you have board control or when you have enough on the board to keep you from getting to far behind.  Sometimes I even use this when I am far enough ahead but a little low on cards just so that I can use it when I know it is safe rather than needed to use it later if I start to get behind.

Weapons

Assassin's Blade- One of the best weapons in the game, it out puts 12 damage for only 5 mana, and with deadly poison it does 20 damage for just 6 mana.  Combining deadly poison and Blade Flurry with this weapon is a great way to knock out a horde of large minions.

Minions

The Black Knight - Great card, when you reach middle-end game and your opponent puts up and huge taunt you destroy it and put a 4/5 minion of your own in its place.  Even though some decks do not run taunts most run Defender of Argus or sludge belcher.

Bloodmage Thalnos - One of the best cards in your deck, do not let his low cost, health and attack fool you, this guy is one of the most important cards in your deck whether you notice it or not. This card does 3 things in one Very nice card, it boost the spell damage on all your spells, and its low cost also gives you the ability to easily combo your other cards with it (great with eviscerate, blades flurry and even backstab or fan of knives), the card draw is the icing on the cake. Combo, Card draw and spell damage boost perfect card for a rogue deck.

Edwin VanCleef - Yes he is weak to silence but he is amazing in the priest and warrior match ups.  The fact is if priest is not running silence, you can easily make this guy a 4/4 for cheap, which priest has a real problem dealing with.  Vancleef can provide a lot of early pressure on the warrior helping to keep his armor down, a lot of the time you can ever force them to use an early shield slam or execute with it.  In the strategy guide I will go into more uses on vancleef.

Argent Commander - Great tempo card, if you opponent doesn't have spell damage or hard removal it is 8+ damage for 6 mana.  In most cases this card will take 2 of your opponents cards to deal with, which is great for your tempo.  There are a lot of great card out there right now, and I see a lot of rogues removing this guy from their tempo decks.  I am personally keeping him because I think that having a charge is very important.  Sometimes you need a bigger minion who can quickly run out and get things done the moment they come out.

Sludge Belcher - debatably one of the best if not the best card in the game right now.  Great value, 5 mana for a 4/6 that cannot even be taken out in one strike.  regardless it will make your opponent throw two resources at it,. whether it be silence then kill or double kill.  Its just great value all around.

Defender of Argus - One of the best 4 drops in the game, give two of your minions taunt and +1/+1, great value and versatility here.  Great against Zoo and hunter as well.

SI:7 Agent - One of the best 3 drops in the game, some would argue the best but I wouldn't go that far definitely the top 3 though. Basically you have a 5/3 for 3 mana, you get to deal 2 damage to anything then put up a 3/3.  Any class in the game would love having this card, to bad the Agent is in love with Valeera.

Haunted Creeper - Great low cost value card that helps your maintain tempo and is a great target for your buffing cards.  This little bugger often finds himself the target of my Cold Blood and Defender of Argus.

Undertaker - with the large amount of death rattles in this deck undertaker is great card to have.  The fact is all your 2 drop minions have death rattles.  That means most likely you will be able to buff this minion the turn after he comes out or on the turn he comes out.  If given the opportunity this guy can become a sturdy body on your board.

 Harvest Golem -  Harvest Golem offers unique utility and board presence that is necessary to help control the board.  Against board flooding decks and Aggro decks he can be used to clear 2 minions.  Harvest Golem will almost always result in a 2 for 1 card trade in your favor.  Making more trades like this is what wins games.

Loot Hoarder - Great 2 drop, he is card draw and 2 damage early game.  When looking at 2 drops this greedy guy stands out.

Side Board and Card Replacements

Side Board (refers to cards that are good for use in this deck depending on the meta that you should have in mind)

Ragnaros the Firelord - definitely a card to consider.  With tempo it fairly easy to set up a great rag play on an empty board, or knock down the minions to the one big one your having trouble killing and letting rag decide whether to kill your opponent or the minion who looked at him wrong.  Though, he is a common target for faceless manipulator as well as the hard removal your opponent has been saving all game.  So if you do run him, make sure your getting a ton of value off him when you play him because he will not last long in most cases.  I will sometimes run this card myself, even with the risks, it usually works out.  When the meta is slower and control heavy Ragnaros the Firelord is a go to card for your tempo rogue deck.

Blade Flurry and Fan of Knives - can always be used as an AOE option.

Azure Drake - Basically a tougher thalnos, though make sure not to crowd your 5 drops to much.

Spiteful Smith - can be a very strong card.  Its a solid body and also can give your weapon some extra bang with can be very useful against control decks.  If priest continues to be on the rise this card may be a great addition.  The fact is with 4 attack and 6 health the priest has no way to hard remove it, and with the weapon buff it will be great in dealing with all that heal.  KEEP YOUR EYE ON THIS GUY

Assassinate, Ironbeak Owl, Sap and Big Game Hunter - these can be shuffled around with each other.  Its really about what you want, sap is anti-buff and taunt.  Owl is silence.  Assassinate is a sure fire way to take out larger minions or low attack legendaries that BGH cannot.  BGH takes out those hard hitters.  Really it is what ever the meta calls for.  One thing to remember is that Ysera cannot be dealt with efficiently if you do not run owl or assassinate.  Though that is just one card, but with warrior on the rise it may be something to consider.

 Shadowstep and Cold Blood - these can be shuffled around with each other.  Shadowstep is more of a card for battle cry heavy rogue decks, its also works well if you run leeroy.  Though with a leeroy nerf imminent I don't see myself running him in the near future in tempo rogue.

Leeroy Jenkins - can be used in this deck, though with a nerf imminent I don't think he will be as valuable.

Perdition's Blade - a great card in an aggro heavy meta.  Though right now with the abundance of great taunts aggro is not as popular.

Card replacements

If you don't have The Black Knight then use one of the removal cards mentioned above like Assassinate or Big Game Hunter.  Bloodmage Thalnos is hard to replace because there is nothing like him, Azure Drake or Fan of Knives could be used in return for him, but there is really nothing like him, he is kind of irreplaceable. (No I would not use Kolbold to replace him, just to weak)  Edwin VanCleef can be replaced with a solid body or a big minion like Spiteful Smith or Ragnaros the Firelord.

 

 

Strategy and Match Ups

Strategy

Mulligan

Mulligan strategy may change from match up to match up but this is the one that will be used in most cases so instead of repeating over and over I am just going to give it a name so you can do less reading and I can do less typing.

Tempo Mulligan: For most match-ups you will be looking for a tempo starting hand.  Basically you want to get a hand that will let you get board control with cheap minions and removal.  The ideal starting for going first would be Backstab, Argent Squire, eviscerate, loot hoarder, deadly poison.  For going second, SI:7 Agent is great choice because you can coin him out second turn and do have have to wait until turn 4 or later to use him with the combo.

I tend to throw away SI:7 Agent from my starting hand if I am going first and don't already have a backstab, and against classes like Priest, Druid, and Warrior I tend to throw him away anyways if I go first even with backstab.  Its just going to be so hard to get the value out of him early game without coin that your better off trying to get your hands on a stronger early game minion or a cheap removal.

 

Knowing when to trigger your death Rattles

Its nice that you can trade up Harvest Golem, Haunted Creeper, and Sludge Belcher and still have minions on the board, but that doesn't mean you should always seek this out.  These cards are an awesome AOE deterrent or safety belt.  Against classes like priest, Warrior, Druid and Paladin that use tones of AOE, these guys can protect you from a board wipe.  In these match ups make sure to protect their death rattles as much as possible so that your opponent does not get the best possible value off of their AOE's.

 

Match ups

 

When using this deck it comes down to skill, knowledge of your opponents deck style and planing accordingly.  I will go through a list of every class and how to play the various deck styles.

Warlock

This rogue deck can handle Warlock fairly well.  Use the Temp Mulligan for this match up since you will not know exactly what your up against at first.  If you run AOE it can be a nice thing to have, Zoo decks and hyper aggro tend to board flood, so being able to bait out their entire hand just to wipe their field with Blade Flurry+Deadly Poison is fun.

How to know the difference between the 2? this is fairly easy.  If they play a murloc, a low cost minion like Flame Imp, Leper Gnome, Argent Squire ect.. they are running Murloc/Zoo.  If by turn two they have not played a minion, and drew cards they are Giants/Handlock. The only exception to this is if they played Ancient Watcher, because it is only run in Giants/Handlock.

Strategy

Murloc/Zoo: Removes are for Buffing minions such as Dire Wolf Alpha, Murloc Warleader, ect...  Back stab can also be used on Flame Imp, they basically just took 3 damage for nothing, great play.  Basically you want to keep there minions to a minimum and prevent board floods unless you have a reliable AOE set up ready.  Once you hit mid-late game you can pump out way more damage than they can.  Your struggle in this match is surviving to turn 5-6 with a decent amount of health.  Watch out for Doomguard and Soulfire in this match up.  being between 5-9 life with no taunts up could mean instant death mid game from chargers+Soulfire.  At 4 life all they need is a Soulfire.   The fact is with all your early game removals its fairly easy match up, rogue is set up to handle these two decks very well.

Handlock/Giants:  This can be hard match up, and the match will usually be decided by turn 5-7.  That does not mean you need to kill them by that turn you just have to get them low enough.  You really want to kill this one before they can get out Alexstrasza or Lord Jaraxxus, these two cards can spell death for you.  Once you know they are playing this style it is time to go all face, yes they will get out there molten Giants quicker, but if your planning on beating them their health will be low enough to summon them anyways.  You want to prevent them from being able to get out two cheap molten giants and still having tons of Mana to spare.  If you can get them to between 10-14 health by turn 5-7 you can start combing your cards for damage.  Make sure to save removal for the taunts here, the last thing you want is to have lethal in your hand but wasted all your spell damage and removal earlier in the game and now your looking at 2 9/9 Giants with taunt.

Druid

Druid has recieved a lot of flavor in the past months, though some things remain the same.  If you get Sap in your starting hand do not throw it away in this match up, always keep it to help deal with innervate BS.  Another thing to keep in mind is that cards like SI:7 agent are most likely not going to be killing minions off with his combo ability alone, so when you use him make sure your getting good value when you use it.

Strategy

Ramp Druid:  This deck can be a real struggle, you have to play carefully.  The fact is Rogue is not well suited for dealing with huge taunts, but if you can get tempo even the massive taunts of the ramp druid can be worked around.  THE MOST IMPORTANT thing in this match is being as efficient as possible when trading with there minions.   The fact is this deck can be hard to trade efficiently with when you having to plow through 5+ health minions all the time.  Do your best to trade as effectively as possible, that will be the biggest factor in deciding whether or not you win or lose.  The great thing about ramp druid is that it almost never runs Force of Nature, which is great news since you don't have to worry about instant death at 14 health.  This allows you to be much more liberal with your Dagger and running your face into those huge taunts in order to finish them.  do not use spell damage just to chip away health, only and only if that spell damage will give you the win that turn.  Ragnaros the Firelord is one of my favorite cards for this match up, Druids Rarely run removal (since the Tink Nerf even less so) So unless they can damage out rag or have their Big Game Hunter he can out put 16 damage.  Even if they can damage out rag, he still can wipe out one of their huge minions, or hit them for 8 damage in the face which can be huge.

Token Druid:  One thing you need to watch out for is Savage Roar+Force of Nature.  Always remember that on turn 7 Innervate+Savage Roar+Force of Nature is 14 damage and turn 9 Savage Roar+Force of Nature is 14 damage.  So if you are ever at 14 life with no taunts in front of you turn 7+ could mean instant death. so always be wary of this.  Try to stay above 14 life as much as possible in this match up.  The druid is going to try to use its minions to out tempo you, but do not let them trade efficiently !  Save Blade Flurry for token board floods with violent teacher.  I have even let them flood the board with Violet Teacher just so I can get them to cut down there hand and force them to over extend themselves.  Next thing you know they have an empty board and no hand, and your on the road to victory : D

Fast Druid: Same thing as above with Force of Nature.  The one big difference with this deck is that it is mid-range, which tempo rogue is excellent at dealing with.  The fact is no class is better at setting up for mid-game than rogue, period.  Just make sure to stay on top of that tempo and you will handle this deck.  Unlike the other variants of druid this one does not carry a plethora of large minions, so your biggest concern with druid goes out the window.

Paladin

Go with the tempo Mulligan here, could be control/outlast pally or Aggro Pally.  This can actually be a hard one to tell, look for cards like Leper Gnome, Abusive Sergeant, Arcane Golem and then going all face, if you see this it is aggro.  Cards like Wild Pyromancer, Ancient Watcher and Sen'jin Shieldmasta usually mean they are running control.  One thing about this match up you always need to watch out for is equality, no matter what always make sure to keep at least 1 minion in your hand unless you are going to lose other wise.  If you have no minions in your hand in they equality pyromancer or consecrate your screwed and could risk losing all tempo.

Strategy

Aggro/zoo Pally:  Use the anti-aggro Strategy here.  Watch out for Board floods with Sword of Justice,  if you can bait out a board flood just to wipe everything with AOE that is great.   Though once sword of justice is played, I tend to go hard control because it can get out of hand so quick.  Also remeber on turn 4 they can give any of their minions +4/+4 with Blessing of Kings, so make sure to clear as much as you can and instantly kill larger minions to prevent them from being kings'd.  Also be aware of Blessing of Might, +3 attack out of no where can be devastating.  Always remeber, if they have +6 mana they can send out a charger then kings it for massive damage to your face.

Control/Outlast Pally:  Outlast Pally can be a hand full, but at the same time you can wipe the floor with it.  Also you want to hyper aggressive here, get the paladin as low as possible before they have to much mana and can heal themselves for 6+ every turn. Guardian of Kings, Truesilver Champion, Equality+Wild Pyromancer or +Consecration will be the biggest and best weapons they have so always be ready for them.  Also without Tinkmaster Paladin no longer has a true hard removal so Ragnaros the Firelord is awesome for this match up.  Also SAVE The Black Knight  for Tirion Fordring, unless you run silence, then save that for him.

Divine Shield Pally:  God I hate this match up.   Its so hard because it is almost imposable to trade effectively with all those divine shields running around.  This match up is so difficult for tempo rogue, just try your best to trade effectively and watch out for Blood Knights, they can steal your divine shields to.  Its funny, because this deck is actually horrible, its has bad match ups against all other decks but tempo rogue.  Its almost like it was built just to counter tempo rogue, because it literally sucks against everything else.  Luckily because of its terrible match ups against everything else, this deck is very rare to see so you don't have to worry about it running into it.  If your unlucky enough to find the one guy running this deck, just try your best.

Hunter

Tempo Mulligan is hard, also regardless of deck style they are running you cannot keep up with damage done by there hero power without a minion to help you out so try to get your hands on a low costing minion.  Also always keep some spell damage to deal with animal companion, all of them can really hurt you, having a quick fix for it game be the difference between a win and a loss.  Here is some rules that can help you in your hunter match up.

1.  Try to restrict yourself to a maximum of 3 minions and 1 taunt minion on your side of the board(obviously the more of them that are taunted the better).  Also you need to make sure to think carefully and ahead about what minions you want on the board.  Say its turn 3 you have a Loot Hoarder on the board and Chillwind yeti, Harvest Golem and Sen'jin in your hand.  Though harvest Golem is great tempo he may be very difficult to remove from the board which will restrict the minions you can play for longer and he also only has 2 attack.  Rather then playing him it it better to just dagger up and wait until next to turn drop your Yeti or Sen'jin.  Now this is not always the case if you are going to trade up your Loot hoarder that turn it is more important to have an active minion on the board so I would play the Harvest Golem.  The goal is to also make sure you can get the best possable value from the 3 minions you have on the board at all times.

2.  Save Eviscerate and Backstab for Animal Companion if you can.  The charger companion and taunt companion can be devastating to a rogue, taunt for obvious reasons, and that charger will out put a ton of damage to your face quickly.  Backstab and Eviscerate can really help deal with these minions quick and easy.

3.  Also count and check for traps, the Dagger minion strategy will help you out a lot in dealing with these.  The fact is you should never lay down another minion if the hunter as a trap up.  Misdirection and Explosive Trap can just end up killing the minion you just played or weaken it making it easier for the hunter to clear.  Also make sure to be careful about what you test the trap with, your dagger is great for testing to see if it is Misdirection or Explosive Trap.  If you hit them in the face with your dagger and the trap does not trigger than it is obviously Freezing Trap or Snake Trap.  Also make sure you use the right minion to test the trap as well, you do not want to send an argent commander into a Freezing Trap or Misdirection, send in your smaller guys.  Using your dagger and minions together to test traps is a great strategy to help you foil all those hunters.

 Mid-range Hunter: the tips above are for all hunters regardless of the type, mid-range hunter is currently the standard one that you see running around every where right now.  The fact Tempo rogue handles this deck very well.  As long as you follow the rules above you will be fine.  The one thing you really need to be careful of is the Savannah Highmane, this guy is a strong tempo card that can be a pain to deal with.  Make sure you deal with him as efficiently as possible.  Once you have board and control mid-game it is not a bad idea to start rushing them down hard, because mid-game you can output a ton of damage and force them to play control against you.  The fact is mid-range hunter has trouble controlling tempo rogue.

Trap Hunter:  with trap hunter is that you need to watch out for the traps.  Now trap hunter is rarest of the hunter variants, but sees a lot more play than Divine shield Pally.  You are almost guaranteed to run into this deck at least once or twice during a ladder season, maybe even more.  The reason why this deck sucks is because the traps make it very difficult for you to do damage, this deck actually punishes you for having tempo.  Blowing up your board with Explosive Trap, Causing your minions to hurt you or kill each other with Misdirection, which is made even worse by the fact you have a dagger so when they hit you, your minions take damage as well.  Last but not least Freezing Trap,  Taking away your tempo and making a card cost a huge amount making it harder to combo with.

This match up may seem impossible at first but it is winnable.  You just have to make sure to count the traps that are being used so you know what it won't be if they have used 2 of a trap.  Also make sure to always be very careful about which minion is attacking.  if you have a 5/5 a 2/1 and a 1/1 with divine shield.  Attack with the 2/1 just incase its Misdirection or Freezing Trap, you want to make sure if the minion hits your minions it doesn't kill them or hit you for massive damage, you also don't want one of your bigger minions getting Freezing Trapped back into your own hand.  This will be the key to winning the match, just be careful.

 

Mage

Use the tempo mulligan Strategy here. Mages usually run control but aggro mage has been rising in popularity lately.  If they are sacrificing spells on your face rather then your minions they are aggro.  Once you realize what they are use the appropriate strategy.

Strategy

Freeze Mage: just make sure to kill them before they can chain spell you to death, and use your removals on their tauntsor larger minions, and save AOE for the taunt twins, Mirror Image.  Save Backstab for Sorcerer's Apprentice, the last thing you want is for them to be able to play there mass amount of spells for cheap.  Always remeber to count Fireballs, it is 6 damage, double fire ball turn 8 is 12 damage.  Make sure to keep track of Fireballs.  Also remember turn 6 is Blizzard AOE for freeze and 2 damage to all and turn 7 is Flamestrike 4 damage AOE.  So if your going to board flood do it early otherwise be careful about putting to many minions on the board.  Also remember if you make it to turn 10 they can Pyroblast you at any time for 10 damage.

Giants Mage:  One of the 2 control variants of mage, giants mage uses its card draw and removal to control the board until it have what it needs to lay down its huge minions.  Similar to Handlock, once you think they are playing this deck go all face and kill them asap.  A lot of the rules are the same as handlock, save removals for those big minions, and be careful not to over extend.

 

Secrets Mage:  An iffy mage deck that tries to take advantage of the secret spells and minions that the mage has.  More popular now than before with the increase in secrets and mad scientist.  Just make sure your checking for secrets, like not playing a huge minion into Mirror Entity or something.  Also make sure that Counterspell doesn't stop something vital, so just check the secrets and you will steam roll this deck.  The one big thing you need to watch out for is Duplicate on Water Elementals.  Water elemetals have lots of health and freeze your face not allowing you to use your dagger. They can be very annoying, just make sure that if they could possibly have duplicate on the board you kill something before you take out the water elemental.

Warrior

Warrior can be a real handful, against warrior you will be going all face, make it a face race.  Choose low cost minions so you can pump out damage early for your hand.  Keep the armor low and do let them get to many minions on the board at once.  With bad draw this deck can kill you by turn 6 no problem, so be very careful with the use of your Dagger, your life count is very important here.  Look for common aggro cards like Leper Gnome, Argent Squire if you see them they are aggro.  Also a good way to tell if they are Control is how conservative they are with their weapon, if they use it right away on your face they are probably aggro if they save it they are most likely control.  Also control decks tend to armor up a lot, so look for that to.

Strategy

Aggro Warrior: Always be ready for them to out put massive damage into your face every turn, 14 life is not safe turn 5.  Defender of Argus, and Sen'jin Shieldmasta can be your best friends in this match up.  This match up can be a struggle if you don't get the right cards and they do, just make sure your always putting damage out and keeping control of their board.  Puts taunts up when every you can to slow them down.

Control Warrior: Run them down before they have an opportunity to OTK you, and make sure to keep there armor from building up to much.  You can kill him quick, just remember with his weapons and removal your minions will not last long, so make sure you can get full use out of them before you play them.  One huge advantage you have in this match up is that they need that one huge minion to finish you most times, so even in a drawn out match you can have a lot of time to find ways to finish them.  Still this match up can be a pain if you get some bad card draw.  Make sure to be careful with your death rattles as mentioned in the strategy above.

Priest

The priest match up is a fairly even one, they priest can both handle you while you can also handle it.  Eviscerate and Deadly Poison are great for this match up.  Deadly Poison helps an easy kill on their Northshire Cleric.

Strategy

The Auchenai Soulpriest strategy: There is actually a very nice strategy when fighting the priest, and that is to let their Auchenai Soulpriest live under certian circumstances.  Yes there damage output will go up, but your damage out put is still higher, also they can no longer use Holy Fire or Holy Nova without hurting themselves and their minions, plus they lose all healing ability.  If you are approaching lethal, and believe you can maintain board presnce or just don't want them to heal this strategy can win you the game.  Though be careful when using it, the priest can easily clear up your board with their hero power or trade up Auchenai Soulpriest and throw out some massive heal.  Even so this strategy can win you a fair amount of games.  Just be careful about using it.

Standard Priest - This is the one you see running around every where right now.  This can be a tough match up.  The priest has plenty of removal and board wipes that can keep you from gaining and maintaining tempo.  That being said the priest does not have as many minions as you do and will rely on using Cabal Shadow Priest and Thoughtsteal to compensate for it.  If you make mistakes this match can take a turn for the worst very quickly.  THE BIGGEST THING IN THIS MATCH UP IS TO NEVER OVER EXTEND.  With a plethora of removals, your board can always be wiped, if you throw to much onto the board at once you can find yourself with no minions left in your hand to keep tempo.  If you can, always try to keep some extra minions in your hand during this match up so that when the board wipe comes you have some quick board presence to lay down right away.

Control Priest - Now if your not careful control priest can get out of control.  Make sure to clear Northshire Clerics and Lightwells quickly before they can be abused.  One of the biggest annoyances in this fight can be healing, if you let the priest healing get out of control you will lose.  With the Auchenai Soulpriest  strategy, you can leave Lightwell as a dead card in their hand.  Basically you can cut off all there healing and out put way more damage then they can before they are forced to kill their own Auchenai Soulpriest but by that time they are to far behind and you are way ahead.

 

 Shaman

Say hello to your mid-range buddy, your mulligan for this match will be a little different.  Eviscerate/Deadly Poison Backstab SI:7 Agent.  3 health sucks because your low-cost spells are 1 damage dagger, 2 damage Backstab and SI:7 Agent, and then Eviscerate for 4 which you usually want to save for bigger things, so AOE can really help with this match up if you run it.

Strategy

So this is actually a really fun match, Mid-range vs Mid-range.  The way to win this match up is to use your early game removal and control to set up for a stronger mid-game than your opponent.  Note that the biggest difference between these two mid-range decks is that rogue is slightly better early game while Shaman is Slightly better late game, so you need to make sure to be making strong plays early game so that you can have tempo mid-game.  Having the upper hand mid-game is very important in this match up since both decks are mid-game deck styles who ever does the best mid-game is usually going to win.  The rogue's biggest advantage is that its early game is stronger, so it can set up for mid-game better than the Shaman.  The first 4-5 turns you will be fighting for board control and tempo against the shaman.

Things to watch out for early game in this match up are Unbound Elementals, Feral Spirits(The Wolves) Flametongue Totems and Mana Tide Totems, Earth Shock, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Storm, and his axe.  As you can see the Shaman has plenty of early game options, though most of them are removal and some short of buff.  You need to kill Mana Tide Totems and Unbound Elementals fast, those unbounds can get out of hand and force you to use sap or assassinate on them which you will most likely need later in the game.  Mana Tide Totems will give them to much card advantage over you so kill it asap, do not let them have to much card advantage.  Once you get mid-game start setting up plays like Argent Commander, your Azure Drakes+Spell Damage, your Assassin's Blade, SI:7 Agents, Defender of Argus, The Black Knight Ect... Remember end game the Shaman is better than you are, Buffed minions with Wind fury and Bloodlust a board full of totems and low cost minions spells a quick and pain full death.  Late game make sure all Flametongue Totems are removed from play as quickly as possible, Al'Akir the Windlord and Wind Fury Leeroy Jenkins are devastating enough without them.

 

Rogue

The mirror match, your going to want to go with the tempo mulligan here.

Strategy

Miracle Rogue:  It is a face race, run all over them before they can get out a crazy combo.

Nice mirror match here, good example of how to play against a miracle rogue.

Mid-range: Just like the shaman match up, early board control to beat em up mid-game.

Aggro rogue:  After reading this I am sure you know how to handle aggro by now, control then run their face in

Molly Rogue:  Like miracle go all face and try to kill them before they set up some crazy Malygos spell power all over your face.