[Spark] Gazlowe & Friends (S9)
- Last updated Sep 20, 2016 (Karazhan)
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Wild
- 23 Minions
- 7 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Mech Rogue
- Crafting Cost: 7160
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 12/12/2014 (GvG Launch)
- Sparkaz
- Pro Player
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Tournament Decks:
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Ladder Decks:
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Introduction
Hello everyone I'm Spark, Legend player from Hearthstone and today I'm sharing with you my Mech Tempo Rogue which helped me hitting Legend with the release of GvG.
I have quite some background with Tempo Rogue since I've always enjoyed this kind of playstyle and the class is well suited for that, here are my Tempo Rogue from Season 1 and Legendeath adaption from Naxxramas (which has been updated since GvG, don't hesitate to check this out).
This one is an Aggressive Tempo Deck that revolves around Mech synergies and makes great use of Spare parts to control the board efficiently, enable combos and refill your hand with Gazlowe.
Core Tempo Tools
Backstab, Deadly Poison, Blade Flurry, Eviscerate, SI:7 Agent are all core Rogue cards that I've always used in Tempo Rogue since they allow for some efficient board control while developping your own threats.
Azure Drake and Bloodmage Thalnos complements perfectly this set of removals as they empower them while developping your board and drawing a card to keep up on that, I've tried something without those first but I felt like I was lacking something and they came back as the icing on the cake.
Mechs & Spare Parts
The neutral set from GvG provided some really strong interactions around Mechs so before explaining them more in depth, it's pretty interesting to look at some good class specific Mechs and how they fit a playstyle or not.
Goblin Auto-Barber may seem like a very small contribution at first glance but then you realize that it's everything a Tempo Rogue would love : an early body to play that can have an immediate impact on the board like SI:7 Agent.
Sometimes increasing your weapon from 1 to 2 damage or from 3 to 4 can totally change the nature of your turn by killing an opponent's threat efficiently while developping a 3/2 body.
Contrary to Deadly Poison, don't hesitate to use it on the last charge of your weapon if it can make your turn efficient, this is all Tempo Rogue is about : gaining momentum ;)
I won't write walls of text to explain why this card is good, Mechwarper gives an amazing mechanic while being on a well costed 2/3 body, that's just amazing and Affinity Decks already proved it in Magic: The Gathering !
This is especially true for Decks that are trying to achieve Tempo like this one or Zoolock since it increases the pace at which you develop your board. Also note that it helps enabling combos for Rogue.
Spare Parts Generators
The other interesting card that encourages us to use Mechs is Tinkertown Technician. A 4/4 for 3 mana is already very good but then the Battlecry comes in as the icing on the cake as it gives a Spare part.
I ended up excluding them for tech cards such as Big Game Hunter and Iron Sensei ;)
Clockwork Gnome and Mechanical Yeti are also giving you some Spare parts while being pretty good on curve Mech minions so they are perfectly suited for the Deck.
Toshley has made an appearance in the Deck since I opened it in a pack because of its great body and the fact that it provides you 2 spare parts which obviously synergizes pretty well with the Deck.
Spare Parts
Spare parts are really useful spells for Decks that try to achieve board control through minions and a few spells and even though you get them at random, all of them can find their utility later on and some of them are even pretty good as stealthing one of your big you or freezing an ennemy threat can be game changing.
Bouncing back Loatheb, Azure Drake or SI:7 Agent after trading them to heal them and re-use the Battlecry effect is also pretty strong, especially considering the fact that you're not using a slot of your Deck for that purpose (I'm looking at you Shadowstep).
In the end, those little spells are already good on their own and Valeera must feel pretty happy about having efficient combo starters and Gazlowe is probably the most excited as he will be able to call some friends to join him for the battle !
More Mechs
The final mechs are Harvest Golem, for its stickiness which can fight aggressive Decks pretty well, and 2 amazing cards that have been added to the game : Piloted Shredder and Piloted Sky Golem.
The fact that they have already pretty good offensive stats makes them perfect for these slots and their Deathrattle effect are just too valuable as it will force bad trade from your opponent and you'll be amazed by the amount of how your Deck can actually use some decent but niche minions ;)
Iron Sensei completes this set of Mech interaction by powering up your other Mechs, which kinda protects him as threat despite its weak body.
I wouldn't commit more on him since it competes with pretty important cards for this slot and its effect is somewhat situational. I feel like this strategy would suit better an Aggro Mech Rogue using Jeeves.
Gazlowe Calls Friends
Finally comes in the very awesome Gazlowe, I already talked about Spare parts a lot so I think you got it, if you can have some of them or deadly poinson in hand before summoning him you will be able te refill your hand pretty efficiently.
Don't hesitate to dump the less useful ones for no real value when doing so since the Mechs Gazlowe will provide are pretty much all pretty awesome and you can actually steal Mech interactions from other classes, which is pretty cool !
Honestly, I first thought that it wasn't necessary for the Deck to work and indeed when you are drawing on a pretty good curve you will win without it.
But then will come some harder games, where the Tempo advantage is switching between you and your opponent and you can't quite finish off the game, beginning to run out of steam and yes sometimes he will come and save your ass. Sometimes he won't but, I mean, you can't win every game obviously ;)
Moreover, he is a hell lot of fun and I may underestimate the impact that he had in my wins so far.
An example of Gazlowe rewarding me for playing him ! And a Druid conceding ... not today Foe Reaper 4000 >.<
Replacement : I didn't really thought about it since I simply obtained my Gazlowe during Pack busting but I understand it's not necessarly a high priority craft. If you don't have it, I would suggest you to try out one of your most beloved win condition available in your collection or more simply a Sprint.
Let me know in the comment section how the replacement is going for you ;)
Considerations
Undertaker & Deathrattles
When I first built the Deck, I kept a solid basis from my Legendeath using Undertaker and his friends to mix it up with Mechs similarly to my Mechanical Zoo.
But then I realized it forced me to get rid of some very important cards and the Deck tended to be less consistent since I either crushed my opponents in a very snowbally way or just ended up running out of steam.
Since I still feel like GvG can improve my older build, I updated it so I'd recommand checking it if you're more interested ;)
Here is the initial list for those of you interested in the starting point : I was using 2x Harvest Golem instead of 2x Spider Tank, 2x Sludge Belcher instead of 2x Azure Drake and the biggest issue was 2x Undertaker instead of 2x Tinkertown Technician which was making the curve more aggressive and less sustaining.
As you can see, I was still pretty close to my final list already but I feel like the current one is more optimal.
Compared to Harvest Golem, Both are sticky in their way so they are definitely good to justify Tinkertown Technician and Iron Sensei.
I feel like Harvest Golem suits better the Rogue gameplan as it allows to split your damage efficiently to control the board, especially against aggressive Decks.
Loatheb is still a really strong tool to use after the new expansion as it prevents board wipes, can set up lethal or stop your opponent from finding it.
It's both good to increase your momentum or coming back from slightly behind so you should definitely use it if you're lack a card from the Deck.
He was initially in the Deck but I decided to replace him with Toshley when I opened it in a pack.
Taunts
One last thing, rarely but sometimes the lack of taunt will hurt you because you won't be able to save your ass for one more turn with Defender of Argus or Sludge Belcher. Yes it is true, so just accept this fact as finding room for other cards is near impossible (explanation at the top of this section) but feel free to try it if you really want to.
The Deck tend to not really need that anyway and the load of Spare parts producers in the Deck can also give you something you are looking for ;)
Gameplay Videos
I've uploaded some basic recordings of interesting games ! Beside the results, it shows some of the Deck's interactions through funny and challenging games ;)
Check out the entire playlist containing the following match ups : Mech Mage, Control Priest, Control Warrior, Midrange Hunter, Freeze Mage.
Closing
I feel like the Deck is really strong for ladder play since Tempo Rogue has always been good at dealing with semi-aggressive Decks which generally pollute the ladder and it has an easy time beating some inconsistent Decks that some people may be running in this playtesting period.
I think that the main strenght of the Deck is being able to beat other similar Midrange Decks pretty consistently thanks to the nice Rogue's Tempo tools.
As I already evoked, it can run out of steam against heavy Control Decks so sometimes you'll have to sneak your way to find lethal or just accept the loss which kinda remind me of my Midrange Hunter actually. The playstyle is pretty similar since you want to control the board while developping your threats and pressure the opponent's life with what is remaining, it is just slightly more focused on board control.
Here are my winrates so far including Casual and Ranked games :
This is one of the Decks that I used to hit Legend since GvG is released along with my Explosive Snipe Control Hunter and my Beasty Zoo Midrange Hunter. Don't hesitate to Check those out ;)
That's it for the guide guys, I hope you'll enjoy the Deck as much as I do !
Don't forget to show your support by upvoting the Deck if you liked and don't hesitate to discuss about it or ask any question in the comment section below ;)Follow me for more content and updates !
- Twitter : SparkazHS
- Youtube : Spark Hearthstone
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Already shared a few words on that in the write up, see considerations section (Undertaker & Deathrattle, Taunts) ;)
Fitting a taunt somewhere could help if you feel like it but Azure Drake seems to important to me ^^
Nice deck, i enjoy it :)
Since it's based on Gazlow and we get a heap of spare parts, wouldn't it be viable to run a cold blood or 2 in it aswell for combo?
Not only does it give early game pressure, it can be used on gazlow for some function too when fishing for cards ^^
I think one cold blood is fine but 2 feels too much, you want to have minions on the board ;)
Moreover, Spare parts and deadly poison are already more than enough honestly ^^
Hey Spark, thanks for the deck. I've tried a few of your other creations and they've all been very solid.
A question, I lack a 2nd Piloted Sky Golem and Bloodmage Thalnos. I'm unsure what to replace them with.. so far I've added a FoK and Tinker's, but I'm not sure that's right. I considered Sneed's but I feel like that's too big a drop for this type of deck. Maybe add Sprint?
FoK is a fine replacement for Bloodmage ;)
The second golem can be replaced with any solid late game threat so you can try Sneed's Old but yeah it may be a bit slow, Sprint is also decent, else you can simply go the Sylvanas, Boom or Ragnaros route ;)
Thanks for replying back! I'll give them all a go and try to see what fits best. Best of luck!
You're welcome =)
Sparkaz, great deck, I'm having a great time with it. I did have to make a Legendary change because I currently do not have Toshley so I use Dr. Boom instead.
To make up the difference with spare part card draws I also -1 [card]Goblin Auto-Barber[/card] +1 [card]Tinkertown Technician[/card]. Reasonable change? If not, what would you change instead?
Yep that's perfectly fine ;)
You're right about including back one or Technician and I think that 1 Goblin is okay, so you're fine with that set up imo ^^
I grabbed Toshley today and I've played 5 matches with him and I love it! Great card, loads of fun to play. I went 4-1 in Ranked mode at rank 12.
Yeah I was also very satisfied including him in the Deck =D
Generally always trading with face until it gets too dangerous (obvious Druid combo, quickly against Hunter, etc..). Obviously when you have a perfect spot for a removal that saves you some painful hits on the face you should go for it, trading with minion (and I mean killing them) comes later when really necessary.
Your primary resource is Tempo ! Running low on life is pretty normal, just be ware of the most common burst ;)
It's hard to fully answer the question but the simple rule is : always chose the option that makes your turn the most effective and give the most value out of your cards. Generally face/removal > minions since you want them to stick on the board ^^
Thanks =D
Backstab, SI:7 Agent, Deadly Poison, Clockwork Gnome, Mechwarper, Goblin Auto-barber, Harvest Golem are all good cards to keep
Can go a bit slower against Control Decks and dig for early removals against Aggro ^^
Great deck! Having loads of fun with it! The only problem I run into with inconsistency is sometimes I have a hand full of cards, and other times I'm starved for cards <.<
Yeah that can happen sometimes and completely screw your gameplan, but that's still a minority of game as the Deck is designed to optimize variance ^^
Edwin doesn't really fit here, the rest is perfectly fine although less centered around Mech, which is maybe a mistake since you're running mechwarper also ^^ Besides that, TBK would probably be better than Loatheb or Assassin's Blade.
Gallywix seems good in Tempo Rogue in general ;)
As long as Sludge Belcher keeps being played, it's definitely worth playing it, considering Handlock and Druids besides that ...
Ok, this deck was the one I was thinking of when mentioning the need for Taunts. This deck is great, but I think I need to practice it more before going live in ranked play. It just seems that against aggro decks it can snowball out of control. Not always (having something like Backstab in the opening hand helps with Zoo-type decks) but it does seem to happen. Mages, Hunters, Paladins and Priests can pose problems. Not tracking results just yet, but it is time to see how it performs for me.
There are lots of soft taunts that the opponent cannot really afford to leave out there in many cases depending on game state. As you note, by replacing some cards with a Taunt can harm this deck. Sure there are possibilities to swap, but they need to fit.
you can try to replace iron sensei with a defender of argus