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C'thun  Galakrond Rogue

Update 11/24: Added replays! No major list changes at this time. Hoping the meta slows so the deck can shine.  

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Madness at the Darkmoon Faire has just been released and as a Rogue main I've mostly been focused on playing C'thun Rogue since release.  I'm playing at 1000-2000 Legend and in casual matches with a 58% WR right now.  The price for C'thun spells is too damn high, which is why I think a Galakrond package is the best way to get cheap cards and use them for tempo swings.  In addition to Galakrond, Heistbaron Togwaggle gets us a Wondrous Wand and even if we do draw the C'thun spells at 5-mana we also have Preparation to make them more playable.

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WIN CONDITIONS

A) Assemble and play C'Thun, the Shattered. It's often enough to kill the opponent, but more often than not, the opponent loses without you playing C'thun. Observing that C'thun isn't required to win means that if you burn one of the 4 spells, it's not necessarily auto-concede.  Critical win condition against control decks.

B) Use cheapened cards, summoned Plush Bears (from Ticket Master), and the strength of lackeys to out-value/tempo the opponent in the mid game, though we can get things rolling by turn 2 with the right hand. We have a ton of draw and lackey generation with Galakrond, not to mention the 5/2 Claw and Kronx Dragonhoof.  

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Shuffle/C'thun & Galakrond Draw Synergies

Firstly, in the mulligan we start with a deck of 29 since C'thun cannot be drawn and will be shuffled in as the above spells.  These 4 spells make our Malevolent Strike 1-mana and will often be 0-mana after Tickets are shuffled into the deck from Ticket Master.  I found that having the hard removal from multiple sources can be very helpful for pushing damage or taking out insane buffed minions without any trading.

Each spell can be useful in different circumstances.  Rogue has poor AOE and C'thun's Heart gives us that 1-time 3-damage AOE against board flooding opponents but can also be hard to cast when you control the board.  C'thun's Body feels like the easiest one to just play without a discount.  C'thun's Maw is yet another hard removal tool so we can survive into our big draw turns and C'thun's Eye can be used to try to clear up a low health wide board or for face damage.  These spells do not cheapen Vendetta to 0-mana, by the way, should you be offered it off of Ethereal Lackey.

One of the best uses for Foxy Fraud is to get a free Swindle off and continue to draw resources.

Stowaway can be tricky since in the ideal game, we'd like to draw cheapened C'thun spells rather than just to tutor them with this card.  It's usually best to drop this card after Tickets are in your deck so you get some tempo out of it from the 3/3 bears. Just drawing 2 C'thun spells feels bad unless you're really looking for something in particular or are very close to assembling him.

After completing C'thun Stowaway can also draw him so you can play it on the next turn.  I've also seen people use Lorekeeper Polkelt for this and it could also be used to get Galakrond if we don't have Kronx.

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The biggest swing turns will come from playing invoked Galakrond or through Wondrous Wand.  We have a lot of higher cost cards and you just hope that you don't draw Shadowstep or Prep!

We have 6 invoke cards that are pretty standard for a Galakrond deck (Praise Galakrond!, Seal Fate, and Shield of Galakrond) and I don't feel the need to elaborate more on them since Galakrond was a thoroughly played out deck several months ago.  Be sure to keep a lackey back or shadowstepped so you can play Togwaggle as early as you can.  Preparation is good not only on the C'thun spells but also on the Wand!  

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Value & Removal

Prep is great in this deck and can be used to activate Swindle when you don't have a Foxy Fraud, to cheapen C'thun spells, or for a 1-cost Wand or other spell.  

Shadowstep is an all around winner but I felt that I was getting too many 0 and 1 cost cards in my swing draw turns and that my hand was always quite full, sometimes without any really good use of shadowstep, so I switched it down to 1.  Great on Jandice or to buff up an Edwin.  It's basically an auto-win in most cases if you can, on Turn 2, Coin > Foxy > Shadowstep > Foxy > 10/10 Edwin.

Pharaoh Cat is the best 1 drop here and I chose it over Wand Thief because we can just play it on 1 if we can get it in the mulligan and it gives us options for other early turns in most cases except for the seemingly 50% chance you have to get Generous Mummy.

EVIL Miscreant is good to coin on 2 to get the lackey pressure going.  You can usually spend lackeys freely since you almost always have a source of more from the invoke cards.  You should never be out of things to do unless you've drawn poorly.  Distract the opponent with your minions and tempo swings (instead of hitting you in the face) until you can either close the deal with your own pressure or until you can drop C'thun.  Using these cards to keep our hands stocked with plays is key.  Dump down when you are ready to Galakrond, though!  

Flik is great at removing a pesky card and it's copy from your opponent's deck.  Goodbye Carnival Clown or a board full of divine shielded Silver Hand Knights, Power of Creation.  You have this + Maw + 2x Strike for 4 hard removals (could discover more Strikes) and 2 AOE from Heart and Kronx if necessary.  

Jandice is just great for applying pressure or fighting back on board.  Shadowstep if you can or evolve with Witchy Lackey for a 6 drop.  

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General Mulligan

ALWAYS KEEP:  Pharaoh Cat, Ticket Master, Seal Fate, EVIL Miscreant on coin.

SOMETIMES KEEP: Praise Galakrond! if you can play it by Turn 3.  Foxy Fraud with any combo card.  Preparation with Swindle or Seal Fate. 

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Thanks for reading and I hope you give my version a try.  What did I miss? What is working/not working for you? What suggestions do you have? The deck can be slow and you will likely lose to very aggressive decks but I think there's not too much we can do there except use the tools we have to keep the damage at bay until we can recover. It's not that we can't win against aggro, but it is challenging.  

Please leave a +1 if you found the writeup useful/enjoy playing this version so I can get more feedback to make this deck as optimized as it can be.  I'll add replays at +10 if we get there.  :D   I'll go in and add class/major archetype matchup guides at +30.

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REPLAYS 

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