Hearthpwn

This aims to be a concise guide on how to play Caverns rogue. Although I have included some cards from the latest expansions, this list is mostly the same as it has always been. This is a surprisingly competitive list below D5, which I use every season to climb quickly to D5 and make the most of the 10 star bonus. This is possible due to the somewhat unexpected nature of the deck and the fast games.

I recommend that this deck is played as a list for climbing to D5, either for players who are just looking to get back to legend fast at the start of the season or for ones that are hitting higher ranks for the first time.

How the deck works

The plan is quite simple.

Complete The Caverns Below by turn 4, play Crystal Core on turn 5, then cheese the opponent by going face with all your charge minions.

The quest is most efficiently completed by bouncing Bloodsail Flybooter or Ram Commander using Shadowstep, Daring Escape or Youthful Brewmaster. Daring Escape can also be used to bounce two of the same minion if you are unable to get either of the aforementioned minions.

Mulligan

Keep quest (obviously).

Always keep Bloodsail Flybooter or Ram Commander. Don't keep any other minion.

Shadowstep and Daring Escape are also very important so I would keep one only. Keep Youthful Brewmaster if you have one of the minions above.

After that, Secret Passage or Raiding Party if you don't have any of the cards above. Both of these significantly increase your chances of pulling a card you need early on.

Anything else is sub-optimal.

Card selection

I find Shadow of Demise to be a very useful inclusion in this deck, but it could easily be replaced by more card draw (e.g. Swindle) or by a cheeky Conceal (which is what I used to run with some success before the latest expansion).

Door of Shadows has been chosen over other cheap card draw because it allows you to tutor into follow-up card draw like Secret Passage or Raiding Party, as well as spells that allow you to bounce cards back to hand when needed. The infuse on Door of Shadows can also be really good in this list. 

Helpful tips

The key to piloting this deck efficiently is bouncing your charge minions after you play the quest reward, especially with Daring Escape. If you have Daring Escape and three 1-cost charge minions in hand on turn 6, you can do 25 damage from hand by playing all three, bouncing them and playing two of them again on the same turn. This also leaves you with one charge minion in hand to finish the game next turn if needed.

If you can, try to equip a weapon before turn 5 and keep at least 1 durability on it. This will allow you to have charge on Southsea Deckhand on turn 6.

It is almost never a good idea to trade your minions into enemy minions, unless it's an especially-problematic minion like Explosive Sheep. Let the enemy waste their turn by trading, you just go face. You want to have as many minions on board when you play Crystal Core on turn 5, as these will all become 5/5s that will allow you to finish the game on turn 6.

You can use Preparation on the quest reward to discount it, allowing you to play up to two extra 5/5s on turn 5.

Matchups

Below D5, most decks are not optimised and players tend to have less game knowledge, especially if you are playing after the initial climb at the start of the season. From experience, this means that almost all decks are good matchups into this below D5. Remember, most people do not expect you to be running Caverns rogue and will instead mulligan expecting pirate, pillager or Edwin rogue. Use that to your advantage.

That said, res priest can be annoying to play against, especially if they get down their Blood of G'huun on turn 6. Taunt minions are generally your enemy.

Watch out for Objection! and Explosive Runes against secret mage. Pop these secrets using cards which you are not using to complete the quest.

Above D5, you might find some success but it is much less likely with people running optimised hyper-aggro decks, such as even shaman or pirate rogue. These decks typically finish games faster than you can capitalise on your quest and are very frustrating to play against. This deck gets destroyed in dumpster legend, even by jank lists.