Hearthpwn

Big Rogue Mulligan Guide

Big Rogue is a combo-oriented deck and is heavily reliant on specific cards to be able to excel, which greatly affects the mulligan decisions in the deck.

In all matchups, you should look for Cavern Shinyfinder in your opening hand to aid in drawing Necrium Blade. If you do not have a Shinyfinder in hand, you can alternatively keep a Necrium Blade directly.

In addition to finding a way to access Necrium Blade, the other key cards you should always look to keep is Kobold Illusionist.

Against Aggro, you should additionally keep a copy of Backstab to help in the early game and against Token decks, like Odd Paladin, Fan of Knives can also be kept.

Against Control, if you already have a Kobold Illusionist, you can also keep a copy of Silver Vanguard.

Big Rogue Strategy

The opening turns for Big Rogue are fairly passive overall. Initially, you should try to board clear against Aggro, using Backstab and Dagger Mastery as necessary. As a follow up, you should try to equip a Necrium Blade, drawing it with Cavern Shinyfinder on Turn 2 if necessary, and then equipping your weapon on Turn 3. Once the weapon is equipped, you should attack with it directly, even if there is no enemy minion to attack, so that it is down to 1 durability and ready for you to trigger the Deathrattle effect on demand on future turns.

Turn 4 is when Big Rogue finally starts to hit its stride. The main aim of the deck's mid-game turns is to play Kobold Illusionist and then trigger its Deathrattle to summon powerful Deathrattle minions. If you managed to play Necrium Blade in the early game, this task is easy to complete, but it is important to also mange your hand accordingly. If you are able to use your Kobold Illusionist to summon a Mechanical Whelp or Silver Vanguard, you can potentially win the game on the spot, however, there are many lacklustre options the deck can potentially pull. For this reason, you should try to manipulate your hand in such a way to maximise the potential of the Kobold Illusionist Deathrattle. The biggest liability is to play out first Cavern Shinyfinder as it will only ever be a 1/1. While Carnivorous Cube can also be a liability, it can be played from hand on any minion summoned by your illusionist to resummon 2 copies with their full stats.

From Turn 5 onward, the range of plays available broaden greatly and the choices you make will be very situational. Firstly, the minion your summon from Kobold Illusionist, if any, will greatly affect your choices. For example, if you summon Silver Vanguard or Mechanical Whelp, you should prioritise triggering its Deathrattle further with Necrium Vial [/card] and even killing them off with [card]Backstab or Carnivorous Cube to summon a large board of big minions. Alternatively, if you summon an 8-drop like Charged Devilsaur, The Lich King, or Deranged Doctor, you should should then prioritise using Carnivorous Cube to allow you to get at least 2 copies of the minion at full stats, and as many as 6 if you are able to use Necrium Vial on your Cube. If you are under a lot of pressure and have none of the aforementioned plays for Turn 5, Zilliax is a very solid anti-Aggro play to help you reach your powerful Turn 8 plays.

While the deck is capable of making very big boards very quickly, it is is still important to represent boards clears your opponent is capable of. For example, if your opponent may use Brawl of Reckless Flurry, it can be better to focus on having a Carnivorous Cube on the board and prioritising having multiple minions with strong Deathrattles like Mechanical Whelp to prevent your board from being cleared. Conversely, if you are playing against a Priest where Psychic Scream is a very real threat to clearly answer all of your Deathrattle minions, it is important to hold back enough resources to repopulate the board once again should Psychic Scream get played.

When in comes to ending the game, the pressure the deck naturally creates is usually enough. However, the deck also has late-game burst and value combinations available. For burst damage, Carnivorous Cube can be used on Charged Devilsaur and then immediately be triggered with either Necrium Blade or Necrium Vial for 21+ burst damage. Alternatively, if burst damage is not available, or simply not enough, The Lich King is also an excellent target to Cube to create a huge wall of 8/8 taunt minions and create a near-endless supply of Deathknight cards.

Big Rogue Card Swaps

Additional copies of Sap or Preparation can be added to deal with Aggro and Control decks respectively.

Other strong Deathrattle minions like Violet Wurm or Cairne Bloodhoof can also be considered for the deck.

While it is not advisable to add any non-Deathrattle minions to the deck due to their interactions with Kobold Illusionist, any Rogue spells can be added to the deck for additional removal. Consider options like Eviscerate and Walk the Plank.

Quick Tips and Tricks

• Try to always keep your Necrium Blade at 1 durability so that you can readily trigger Deathrattles on demand.
• Use Carnivorous Cube on minions copied by Kobold Illusionist to resummon them at full Health.
• Cube Charged Devilsaur for large amounts of burst damage.