Hearthpwn

Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemurlocs.

After having an bad time playing mill rogue recently with aggro running amok, I am happy to announce that Mill Rogue is back and ready for action, thanks to Shadowcrafter Scabbs as well as a meta with a large amount of minion-based decks. Scabbs acting as an extra vanish lessens the need for spot removal, which opens up the deck for some other card options.

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Why this list?

With a decent amount of testing on ranked ladder (30-10, proof below), I am ready to post my most successful list (12-3), which even has a high win rate against the likes of Pirate Warrior. There are still a few match ups that are tough to deal with, like odd questline hunter and otk mage (flamewaker/ignite), but I will do my best to try out different options for what might give higher win rates in those match ups. I have a few ideas, but none that have been tested yet. If you have any suggestions that are not listed below, or if you have success with one of my listed possible inclusions, I would be happy to know.

Current Version Record

All Versions Record

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Scabbs' Mill Rogue Guide

Introduction

Just as I created a guide for my previously popular mill rogue list from last year, I will include a guide for this list as well, in case you want to hop aboard the mill train.  Be warned, there is a very high learning curve, but it is very satisfying and fun to play once you get the hang of it. HSReplay and other such sites rank mill rogue so low because the average win rate is ~40% or lower most of the time due to people not playing the deck properly, which is why I am adding a guide. Although it is difficult, through the following guide, I will try to teach everything you need to know in order to be successful with the deck in the current meta. Of course, if there is anything not covered in the guide, I am available for private messages on this site or you can add my Battletag. I also highly recommend using this deck tracker plug-in to help you with lethal calculations: https://github.com/realchriscasey/TroubleAtTheMill

Card Choices

Core Cards

These are the cards that make the archetype possible, and I don't think you should ever cut them unless a better version of the card comes along.

Coldlight Oracle: Wouldn't be Mill Rogue without this card.

Lab Recruiter: Necessary for getting more Coldlight Oracles.

Shadowstep: Essential for bouncing your Coldlight Oracles back to hand so you can draw more, mill more, and win faster.

Preparation: It is important to be able to play a lot of cards from your hand in one turn, and preparation does a good job helping with that as well as allowing you to play Vanish sooner if necessary.

Cloak of Shadows: This card is what allows mill rogue to have a chance against most decks in the meta. Without this card, the deck would be much more susceptible to dying before fatigue.

Vanish: Not only is this an important spell for beating minion based decks, it can also be a useful tool for getting your minions back to hand if needed, especially Armor Vendor since it is easy to play alongside Vanish.

Shadowcrafter Scabbs: This card is everything mill rogue could want. It is a vanish, armor, cost reduction and even a bit of board presence all thrown into one. I can't imagine mill rogue ever not running this card.

Secondary Cards

These cards are very good in the deck currently, but in certain metas, or if better cards which fill the same role come along, it is possible they could be cut.

Swindle: This is a very good draw option for mill rogue since it can find you a minion you want as well as the potential to get a stall card you desperately need. If you have shuffled Coldlight Oracles into your deck already, it can be especially good for filtering through to your spells, and you can also use it just to cycle one card if you need hand space. It can sometimes be excessive if you are running other card draw options in the deck like Prize Vendor.

Evasion: In some metas, it is possible you can cut Evasion from mill rogue, but it is almost always better to have Evasion in the deck for the same reason as Cloak of Shadows. In many cases, it can stop almost as much damage. The only decks evasion is bad against are decks which have a giant weapon or one big minion, which aren't very common in the current meta. if those become common, then Glacial Shard would be a better option.

Murloc Tastyfin: This card is great against any deck that plays minions. Getting your Coldlight Oracles in hand is super important and this card makes it a lot easier. In spell heavy metas, this minion would feel bad to play though.

Armor Vendor: This is a great defensive tool against aggro, or even otks, as it can put you out of range of lethal damage.  This card is sometimes worth shuffling into your deck and can be bounced back easily with vanish or played with a spare mana on Brann Bronzebeard turns. Though very good now, it is possible Armor Vendor gets outshined by other defensive tools in the future, which would be reason to cut it, or if by some miracle, the meta is dominated by control decks.

Gang Up: Though this card is technically not secondary as it could be cut fairly easily, the replacement would be Togwaggle's Scheme, which is a similar card. I don't like Togwaggle's Scheme in the current meta because one, it is bad if you shuffle when drawn right away, two, it can sometimes shuffle too many Coldlights into your deck, preventing you from finding your stall cards, and three, it will get deleted by Skulking Geist, either your own or the opponent's.

Brann Bronzebeard: Though not required for winning, Brann can cut the turn count needed to win by 1,2 or even 3 turns. This lets you have a much greater chance of surviving to the end, since your stalls are limited. On top of doubling your Coldlight Oracles, Brann can help you restore a lot of health or gain a lot of armor if necessary through Spice Bread Baker or Armor Vendor. There is some argument for Spirit of the Shark being better than Brann, but I feel that Spirit of the Shark can be overkill and draw me too many cards, or not be good enough. There are also many cards that can hit stealth minions in the current meta, so I prefer the cheaper cost and better stats of Brann. If you do not have Brann in your collection, however, it is a suitable replacement.

Chopping Block

These cards are pretty good in the deck at the moment, but easily interchangeable with other cards should the meta change or if you find that another card performs better.

Golakka Crawler: The most obvious tech choice in the list is this card, which allows a high win rate against pirate warriors. It is even worthwhile to shuffle this card in your deck in that matchup, as this card can destroy their tempo.

Secret Passage: This card can be great for finding the stall card you need, Murloc Tastyfin, or a Coldlight Oracle. The only problem is that it can sometimes draw you too many cards and it will delete your existing hand, and it can be hard to find the right time to play it, sometimes being better to just waste it when you have a spare mana.

Scabbs Cutterbutter: I like this card for its ability to give some early game tempo as well as free up hand space by giving you 2 bonus mana. It can be great in Combination with Brann Bronzebeard since it can allow you to get another battlecry in for free. This card can be a bit awkward to play sometimes though and does not play a super important role, and could be replaced by a Counterfeit Coin or another defensive tool or draw option should it come along.

Spice Bread Baker: This card can be great in matchups which rely on doing constant face damage directly, since you will often be left with little spare health and this card can give you some breathing room to further stall the game. It is often a dead card in slower matchups though, so if the meta is lacking aggro, this card can be cut. This can also be easily replaced by another defensive tool should you find it performs better. I may end up keeping one but cutting the other.

Skulking Geist: This is probably the card I am least sure about in the deck, but it has won me a few games. While Odd Hunter is normally pretty unwinnable, it runs so many 1 cost spells, that if you can play this card, you can sometimes delete their hand and a lot of their deck. It is also your win condition against Jade Druid and can be good against slower decks in general which run 1 cost spells, like Raza Priest. Heavily meta dependent card though, and it is likely another card could outperform it.

Valeera the Hollow: The hero power from Shadowcrafter Scabbs is usually better than this one, but I believe it is worthwhile to run both. If one hero is toward the bottom, having a second makes it more likely you'll have one. The stealth from Valeera is still very good, and the hero power allows you to go infinite with a single Lab Recruiter, while Scabbs requires you to use another shuffle card on the Lab Recruiter. In some cases, the double armor or healing from Armor Vendor or Spice Bread Baker can be nice as well. In some cases, it is just a 9 mana stealth, but that can also be just enough to buy you that turn you need to find lethal. It is possible you just run a different defensive tool instead though.

Possible Inclusions

Tenwu of the Red Smoke: This can be great to bounce back your Coldlight Oracle, Spice Bread Baker, Scabbs Cutterbutter, or one of the possible inclusions listed below for some more value out of them. Haven't tested the deck with him, so I could be potentially adding him to the list soon.

Prize Vendor: This can be a good card to help get your opponent to fatigue faster, but sometimes playing it on turn 2 can actually help your opponent and it can feel awkward to play. It also dillutes your Murloc Tastyfin draw, and it can be terrible if you draw both prize vendors from it. At most I would include one for that reason, but haven't tested it yet in this list.

Glacial Shard: This is a cheap card to dump from hand and can be an effective tool for freezing big minions or the enemy's face if they want to attack directly. I don't currently have this card in my list because I don't see many imporatnt weapons to freeze in the current meta, and all of the big minion decks are already favored matchups, so Glacial Shard would be redundant.

Sap: Similar to Glacial Shard in that it acts as spot removal, but again, redundant since this deck is already favored against decks with big minions.

Togwaggle's Scheme: If I cut both Valeera the Hollow and Skulking Geist from the list, I would probably run this so I have enough steam to beat decks without much draw or decks which shuffle other cards in their deck.

Antique Healbot: In rare cases, Spice Bread Baker might not heal enough and you would want to run this instead. It is also better in combination with Tenwu of the Red Smoke. However, I find that the 1 mana discount is better than the potential for a more consistent heal.

Deathlord: This could be an interesting option for metas which are combo heavy, but I find that it doesn't help me much against aggro and sometimes can even help the opponent. If I run this, I would probably need some kind of spot removal like Glacial Shard or Sap in case it pulls out something big on death.

Loatheb: I will be testing this card soon, because I think it may be an important tech for beating mage and it could also significantly slow down Questline Hunter. If you can bounce this and play multiple, it can win the game on it's own. Could also be good in combination with Tenwu of the Red Smoke.

SI:7 Extortion: The nice thing about this card is that if you don't need to use it as removal, you can trade it away for something better. I would say that it is more useful than Brain Freeze because of that, even though brain freeze can be more useful for big targets.

Backstab: If small, early game minions become an issue for the deck, backstab can be a nice removal tool, but so far, I would put in SI:7 Extortion before I put in backstab to help deal with Pirate Cannons or other 3-4 health minions.

Counterfeit Coin: If mana cost is an issue and I feel myself being a turn late on being able to stall, a coin could come in handy. However, I don't like that it basically removes a card from your hand for just 1 mana gained.

Blackwater Cutlass: This card is basically free cycle in the deck. It is pretty common to float mana playing this archetype, and this allows you to save mana for future turns, which can be good for big combo turns, allowing you to more easily fit in a Vanish, Evasion, Cloak of Shadows, Gang Up, or Swindle.

More possible card inclusions to come...

Mill Rogue Primary Objectives

Regardless of the match up, you should always keep in mind several different objectives and consider the best way to accomplish those objectives.

1. Find Coldlight Oracle
   • Mulligan for it or Murloc Tastyfin.
   • Keep Swindle in opening hand as a way to get to it faster.
   • Keep Secret Passage in opening hand in slower matchups.
2. Shuffle more Coldlight Oracles into your deck
   • Once you have a Coldlight Oracle in hand, you should not play it unless you can play it in combination with one of the following:
     1. Shadowstep
     2. Lab Recruiter
     3. Gang Up
     4. Vanish
     5. Shadowcrafter Scabbs
   • You can also play the Coldlight Oracle if you have Murloc Tastyfin or the other Oracle already in hand.
   • The only time you should go against these principles is if you fear you will lose the game the following turn due to board presence or direct damage and you want to find Evasion, Cloak of Shadows, or Vanish.
   • Once you have shuffled Coldlight Oracles into your deck, you can freely play the following Oracles until you have 1 remaining.
3. Mill the opponent's win condition
   • Many decks require specific cards in order to win, so if you can fill their hand and make them draw extra cards, it can sometimes win you the game by deleting their card(s) needed to win.
   • Remember that otk decks often run a lot of draw, so it can be a good idea to wait for them to draw a good amount on their own before going in. That way you can burn more cards.
   • Brann Bronzebeard is a good card for accomplishing this objective. You can consider keeping it in your opening hand if you come across classes which are often running otk decks, like priest, druid, and mage.
   • If the opponent's win condition involves 1 mana spells, it can be a good idea to play Skulking Geist as soon as possible. Decks in the current meta include Odd Quest Hunter, Jade Idol Druid, and Raza Priest. There are also just a lot of annoying spells it can get rid of and can thin the opponent's deck.
4. Stall to fatigue
   • There are many ways to stall in this deck, but they are not infinite, so you need to be careful about when to use your stall cards.
     1. Evasion should usually be used first, since you will be at a higher life total and won't risk taking a big first hit. There are a few exceptions to this which I will get to later. A good general guideline for when to use evasion is if you believe it will prevent taking 25%+ of your remaining hp. 
     2. Cloak of Shadows is your ultimate stall card, so use it wisely and if you have health to spare, consider using Evasion before this card. A good general guideline for when to use cloak is if it will prevent taking 30%+ of your remaining hp.
     3. Vanish is a great way to stall minion-based decks. It is usually good to play vanish after Evasion or Cloak of Shadows so they can fully commit to the board before you send the minions back to the opponent's hand.
     4. Shadowcrafter Scabbs can be used to stall similarly to Vanish while also applying pressure and giving you a nice hero power. The armor can also help if you are about to die.
     5. Valeera the Hollow can be used to stall like Cloak of Shadows, but it should usually be followed by a Vanish or lethal combo, since it is a high mana cost if you are just using it to stall and will set you behind in tempo.
     6. Armor Vendor can be used to stall through early game board presence as well as the potential to gain a massive amount of armor. Armor Vendor is easy to play alongside Vanish, so you should often consider bouncing Armor Vendor back to hand with it if you can afford to wait. Getting multiple copies with Valeera the Hollow can be good for stalling, and sometimes even shuffling Armor Vendor with Lab Recruiter is a good way to survive longer. Be careful not to shuffle too many or too early, because it can cripple your draw if you don't have access to a Coldlight Oracle. 
     7. Spice Bread Baker is a pretty good way to heal for at least 7hp, and if you play alongside Brann Bronzebeard, you can get up to 18hp, which can sometimes be just as, if not more effective than stalling for a turn.
5. Win through fatigue damage
   • In the end, you should be able to play enough Coldlight Oracles to do a whole bunch of damage to the opponent through fatigue.
   • It can be good to save Brann Bronzebeard until you can spend the full 10 mana on comboing with Coldlight Oracles. This way you can make them draw 12, 16, or even 20 times (though likely unnecessary). 
   • Scabbs Cutterbutter can help get to fatigue even faster since he allows you to play multiple Coldlight Oracles in one turn, or give you an opportunity to have some early game tempo by getting a free 3/3 and 2 extra mana. He is especially good when comboed with Brann Bronzebeard, since it lets you play more battlecries in one turn than you normally would have mana for. It can also be Shadowstepped to save even more mana (net +4 mana).
   • To play optimally, you would normally need to be able to do math quickly in order to know how many draws are needed to kill the opponent. However, with Deck Tracker, you can get a plug in specifically designed for mill decks which tells you how many draws are left until both you and your opponent die. I left a link to it in the introduction.

Matchup Tips

Demon Hunter

This is a rare match up in wild, but not too difficult. Only have faced one demon hunter with this list and it was a deathrattle demon hunter. It was a pretty easy match up, and as long as you can accomplish the core objectives, you'll win.

Druid

This matchup can vary in how to play against it. I mulligan as if the druid were a token druid, so I do not fall behind and can stall long enough to stabilize. In the case of otk druids, you'll want to try and mill as many cards as possible so you can potentially burn a combo piece. Skulking Geist can also destroy combo pieces in some cases, as well as win the matchup against Jade Druid. If you think it might be a Togwaggle druid, you will want to find Valeera the Hollow, Gang Up, and a Lab Recruiter, use the gang up and transform into Valeera while keeping a Lab Recruiter in hand. You will be able to shuffle infinite Lab Recruiters and they will not. 

Hunter

This is the second most difficult matchup, since most of hunter's damage comes directly from spells or hero power and cannot be stopped with Vanish or Shadowcrafter Scabbs. I have been able to beat Questline Hunter by playing Skulking Geist, but I have had little luck beating them otherwise. My best advice is to mulligan for Geist, Evasion and Cloak of Shadows, since those cards can be essential for minimizing damage once the hunter gets a 0 mana hero power. Keep in mind that many lists run Auctionmaster Beardo, so you should have Evasion/Cloak up as soon as they get a 0 mana hero power.

Mage

The most difficult matchup for this deck. Although not in deck tracker records, I was able to beat a mage once by milling a bunch of cards including an ignite, it is very difficult to do since Mage has a lot of ways to empty their hand, and playing Coldlight Oracle can often just help the opponent win faster. One possible tech option I will try out to beat them is Loatheb, but I haven't tested it enough to see if it is worth the deck slot or even really helps much in this matchup.

Paladin

Though Odd paladin is a bit trickier matchup to navigate, Handbuff Paladin is one of the best matchups for this deck. They start off very slow and play low threat minions until the midgame, which is when minions are very susceptible to Vanish. The only cards you need to be worried about are there charging minions, but as long as you stay above 15 health, you should be okay, as it is one of the more common matchups in wild at the moment and I haven't lost to it.

Priest

One of the reasons mill rogue was bad last expansion was due to aggro priest, but it seems that deck has died since the release of Alterac. I have only run into a few priests, one Questline and a couple Raza Priests. Questline is pretty easy because you should have lethal long before they get a chance to play their kill card, and you can sometimes mill cards to prevent them from even completing their quest. Raza Priest can be a bit tricky, but if you save your Evasions and Cloak of Shadows until after they play their  Death Knight, you should have enough time to kill them before they can burst you down. If you are lucky, you can even mill a combo piece, which can prevent them from winning altogether.

Rogue

It is quite hard to guess what type of Rogue deck you will go against in the meta, as in the few games I have gone against them, I have gone against one big rogue, one mill rogue, one dragon rogue, one egg rogue, and one pirate rogue. It shouldn't be too difficult to win those matchups since they are all minion based and slower than other minion decks usually. You are favored in mirror mill matchups because they usually run Togwaggle's Scheme, which you can destroy with Skulking Geist. I think the one matchup which this deck would be unfavored against is Pillager Rogue, but hand space can be an issue for that list, so it is possible to mill combo pieces to win. I haven't come across that deck in Ranked this month though.

Shaman

Probably the easeist matchup, regardless of what deck they are running. Shudderwock/Quest Shaman is too slow and their minions are low threat, so you can just mill them without hesitation. Big Shaman is slow and gives you a lot of time to find your Coldlight Oracles as well as your stall cards. The only way you can lose is Ancestor's Call pulling your Coldlight Oracle or Lab Recruiter, so just be aware and save some unneeded minions in hand to stop it.

Warlock

Another pretty easy matchup.  Warlocks usually have a lot of card draw naturally and are almost all minion based. If you are careful about any direct damage they might have access to and stay out of range of it, you should be fine.

Warrior

Control Warrior is basically an autowin, so let's talk about Pirate Warrior. Pirate Warrior can be one of the more difficult matches for mill rogue, but since adding Golakka Crawlers to the list, I have not had too much difficulty with them.  Evasions completely shut down the Juggernaut questline reward, since you can force the cannon to hit face by only playing one minion. Cloak of Shadows can be used before Evasion in this matchup, since it can help stop minion damage from board, but not stop the cannon fires. Though it might take a bit of practice getting the stall timing right, once you have it down, you should see success against Pirate Warrior with this list.

Mulligan and Combo Guide

Though the cards are a bit different, the principles are similar, and my previous guide should help with this, so I don't want to rewrite it all. You can find my previous guide here: https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1368123-cloaked-mill-rogue-guide