[Legend] Skulker Rogue - Full Guide
- Last updated May 20, 2015 (Blackrock Launch)
- Edit
- |
Wild
- 12 Minions
- 18 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 3480
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 4/27/2015 (Blackrock Launch)
- Bernibolden
- Registered User
-
- 11
- 19
- 35
-
Battle Tag:
Bernibolden#1906
-
Region:
US
-
Total Deck Rating
180
Hi there,
I just hit legend with this rogue deck in NA server. (Season 13)
It's a pretty standard rogue list, but the addition of Dark Iron Skulker raised the win rate against Warlock matchup to over 80%, and the deck's overall win rate went from 47%, since I started playing rogue last month, to 63% in the last five ranks, which was enough edge to push to legend.
This season's climb was weird, since it took me longer to reach rank 5 than legend. It was 424 games till the Sea Giant, during which I meekly achieved a 52% w/rate while playing with 12 different decks, 3-4 per day (now that I look back, switching decks so much wasn't quite the greatest move).
So when Dark Iron Skulker arrived I just sticked to Rogue and made from rank 5 to Legend in 105 games, at 62% overall w/rate. Here is what I faced:
25% Warlocks --> 68% w/r (after the Skulker was released it went up to 81% EDIT: but I guess it was a luck strike coz 81% is not realistic)
19% Hunters --> 45% w/r
14% Paladins --> 73% w/r
13% Druids --> 64% w/r
11% Warriors --> 33% w/r
9% Mages --> 60% w/r
4% Rogues --> 75% w/r
3% Priests --> 100% w/r
2% Shaman --> 100% w/r
-----------------------------------------
Mulligan and strategy guide:
Generally, you should start by playing control-like, removing every threat in the beginning. Then drop some minions, do some combos to deal with more threats and refill with Sprint. In the end you usually finish off with with combinations of weapon buffs, Blade Flurry and/or an attacking dude.
It is important to have something on the board so you can get a few attacks and target with the Oil. That's why Violet Teacher fits in this deck. For the same reason it's usually better to kill a minion by playing SI:7 Agent, and thus leaving a body on the board, than killing with weapon/spell. Another card that fulfils this role nicely is the newly added blackrock dwarf Dark Iron Skulker. His power can range from a mere Si:7 effect to a full board-swipe, while leaving behind a dude who can add up to tons of damage.
Avoid trading minions because you don't have many. Clear with weapons and spells and preserve your folk to attack the opponent.
In the end, the Violet Teacher can screw with your Tinker's Sharpsword Oil by creating a token that can't attack. Try to get her killed before this time comes, after she's left some students. By the way, a great defensive move when playing against Rogue is killing the tokens while leaving the Teacher alive.
Sometimes you have to be the aggressor. Paying a SI:7 Agent flat on turn 3 against a Druid for example can escalate in your favour if not answered. Against a Warrior, stab him from the very beginning because every damage counts (but will rarely be enough).
About some cards:
- Preparation combos nicely both with Sprint and Tinker's Sharpsword Oil, but don't be afraid to burn it to activate an Eviscerate or other removal, or even to Deadly Poison your dagger if you really, really need it. It is a card usually kept in the opening hand against faster decks, to gain Tempo.
- Eviscerate is mainly a removal that eventually is used to reach lethal, don't hesitate to kill that Knife Juggler!
- Deadly Poison your weapon to clear minions, reach lethal or feed your Blade Flurry.
- Blade Flurry is amazing! What can I say, it clears huge boards AND deals face damage. Although it feels awesome to cast the biggest blade possible and destroy everything, sometimes bursting your 1/2 Wicked Blade can also help clearing a board and gain you Tempo. Just remember you only have 2 and try to use one in a combo, because after you've attacked a few times with your minions, your main victory condition in the majority of games involves Tinker's Sharpsword Oil your 2 durability dagger and a dude, attack with both then play Blade Flurry.
- Fan of Knives for clearing tokens and using in combination with spell power Bloodmage Thalnos and Azure Drake.
- Bloodmage Thalnos is best at buffing AoE spells, but Eviscerate an Innervated 5/5 monster at early turns can be disruptive as well. It also combos nicely with Backstab.
- Sap Can be either used at killing time, by lifting that last taunt standing before your deadly assault, or it can be used to gain Tempo by Sapping costly targets like Sylvanas Windrunner, Druid of the Claw, Savannah Highmane. When the Voidcaller pulls Mal'Ganis, that's a good target! If it pulls Doomguard early while there is still a hand, he can go back as well. The best target of them all is surely Tirion Fordring, and Just forget about sapping stuff like Loatheb or Harrison Jones.
- Southsea Deckhand is great for activating Tinker's Sharpsword Oil, especially when you have no board. Sometimes he laughs as your last move, but occasionally you'll have the opportunity to oil him up early and score a hit, go for it! Against early-game decks such as Zoo, FaceHunter, or MidPaladin it's mostly used to kill some impertinent minion.
- Antique Healbot is here as a Meta tech solely because of FaceHunter, as I've been facing almost one of them in every 5 games. When not many Tards, I'll swap it for another Earthen Ring Farseer or a Shredder Dude.
- Emperor Thaurissan is a card that I've been testing in the deck and so far I'm convinced he performs well. He enables bigger and deadlier combos in the same way it does for Druid, but as you are constantly wiping the board, he frequently survives for more than a turn and wrecks havoc. He is best played after Sprint.
MULLIGANS
Warriors - your toughest challenge
Sprint
Violet
Drake
Sap
Eviscerate
SI:7
Play aggressively, kill the Armorsmith, hope he doesn't draw much armor. In case of a Grim Patron Warrior it'll be much easier, always eliminate the Warsong Commander and have some answer for the Frothing Berserker.
Hunters - your second worst nightmare
Backstab
Prep
SI:7
Evis
FoK
Haha Deckhand
If it happens to be a Midrange Hunter you're in advantage, but against Facers kill everything quickly or die soon. Pray for the Antique Healbot or, if feeling greedy, keep it in your mulligan.
Warlocks - they help you by killing themselves!
Backstab
Prep
Poison
Flurry
Evis
SI:7
Haha Deckhand
You are built to smash them!
Druids - fast, but slow start
Poison
Sap
Evis
Violet
Drake
SI:7
Kill him steadily. Play a minion early, then some big health minion he struggles to remove. Blade Flurry shines in this match as big threats mass removal. Sap can also gain enormous Tempo when bouncing Innervated minions or any creature that cost a lot to play (early on, even a Piloted Shredder may be a valid target).
Mages - any of them but freeze
Mulligan as if for Mech/Tempo Mage:
Backstab
Prep
Poison
Flurry
Evis
SI:7
Vs FreezeMage we're in disadvantage so gotta be quick. Against TempoMage, deal with her early threats and she'll run out of steam (always kill the Flamewaker). In case of a MechMage you're favoured as well, but will be reliant on a good Blade Flurry clear.
Paladins - better have dragons
Backstab
Poison
Flurry
FoK
SI:7
Violet
Evis
Against a standard Paladin, just frustrate his gameplan by doing what this deck does best: clearing his precious little minions, it should be kid's play. Even if is the trendy Drag-o-din you are still favoured, it will just fell more like a Druid game, except his combo will be lacking.
Shamans - endangered species
Backstab
Poison
Flurry
SI:7
FoK
Violet
Drake
Skulker
Easy one. They suffer gravely from your AoE effects.
Priests - poor priests
Poison
Sap
Evis
SI:7
Violet
Drake
Sprint
They're in a bad position here since there's not much they can do about our combo. They can heal up but it won't be enough. If they play Velen's Chosen on someone or heal an Injured Blademaster up, it might be a good idea to Sap. It's important to save a Blade Flurry for the end.
Rogues - where are they hiding?
Prep
Poison
Evis
Violet
Drake
Sprint
In the mirror match, whoever Sprints ahead has the upper hand. Leaving an enemy minion on board can be very dangerous because of Tinker's Sharpsword Oil. Beware of overextending your board into Blade Flurry.
That's all, enjoy! glhf
The Holy Gem!
I say its a "Trap" because a Good % of people on this website and others netdeck decks that on the front card for card. Im just pointing out that this deck is nothing Special compared to alot of the oil rogues out there.
As anyone can instantly notice.
The thing is: we're all here to share our opinions on a common interest, it's not about deceiving anybody.
Mech mage is a very hard match up for this as you just can not get any value and they will continuously pump minions
It really shouldn't be that hard. Imagine we're the controller here. Don't worry about saving cards for a combo, just remove his stuff, coz after we've taken control of the board, we should be able to win with whatever we've got left. They often overextend the board and we can exploit that. If we manage a nice board-clear with Blade Flurry, the Mage is usually done, since she has no draw mechanics to catch up. Just beware of the reach they threaten with their Fireballs and Frostbolts. If need be, trade with ur minions to stay out of their reach.
Dont have thalnos, can i swap it with Edwin or cobolt?
Most common replacements are Kobold Geomancer or Loot Hoarder. But Its not the same.
Yes u can. The kobold is more in line with Thalnos' abilities, but Edwin fits in the deck as well.
17-5 so far with this deck, good times... thx
Seems interesting, I'll try it when I get home -- currently just missing Bloodmage Thalnos.
Same. I want a Bloodmage, but so many other cards show up in my crafting list that I never get around to it
I've been playing this for about 2 weeks. Tried many different oil rouge builds but cant get past rank 17. I'm not the best player, but I just dont know if its my skill or the deck or the meta, but i just cant have success with it. I see just so man Hunters and mages, which i feel is very hard for us. Even the Paladin matchup, which should be easy, is hard since they are running dragons, and they just keep filling the board non stop. There isnt many Warrior's at my rank thankfully.
Should I stop playing this deck? Its my favorite but i feel to get to teh lower ranks i just have to start playing my Tempo Mage or Face Hunter decks
Sounds like you still have some practicing to do. Oil decks are really fun, so keep at it. The more you play, the better you get at realizing when to play certain cards, even if it seems odd for those who don't have a good handle with the deck. For example, sap isn't necessarily saved for taunts. It can be an amazing card for you to use to get a huge turn advantage, and it can waste someone's coin, innervate, or a dragon played after consort. It's also sometimes the right play to use fan of knives on an empty board, as you have (much) more than enough to kill your opponent if you've cycled through your deck. Also, there are different oil decks, such as Orange's which I think is pretty inconsistent even though it has a lot more legendaries than the typical oil deck. I also typically find Violet Teacher unreliable with the tinker's combo and cards like sludge belcher and piloted shredder better because you're often guaranteed a creature for the next turn. I'd also watch streams so that you can consider what plays you'd make and note the differences and try to figure out why a certain play/mulligan was made. I was also really frustrated at first because it's pretty difficult to pinpoint the wrong plays, but after playing a bunch of unranked games, I really started to get a hang of it. You'll start to realize which cards you value vs a specific matchup and begin to see plays that only make sense once you get a hang of things. Good luck and I hope you stick with it! It's an amazing feeling when someone says well played a little too soon and you bust out a big blade flurry combo.
Oil Rogue is a difficult deck to play but you'll get the hang of it eventually, don't give up just yet
VS face hunter VanCleef is great. Swap a sprint for an auctioneer. Teacher for shredder. And skulker for belcher. Make the face hunters cry and start playing a real deck.
I feel like Sulker is good in the Zoo matchup, which is a very popular deck, so its worth keeping him. While Teacher is important in turning the tides mid game, sometimes she isnt enough, and def a nombo with Oil, which can literally lose you the game. Def going to try out shredder and belcher
Rogue is a class that rewards persistent playing, coz we actually get better and better.
By making misplays is how we improve. Just make sure u make each misplay only once.
In the beginning I couldn't even climb the ladder properly with this, so it's worth the effort!
Cool, love Skulker in the deck and I was in desperate need for a more up to date mulligan guide, I've done -1 Farseer -1Sharpdsword Oil for 1+ Shredder 1+ Dr. Boom, thanks for posting!
Those are reasonable changes. Both the Doc and the Oil are cards that can stay in our hands for some time. Besides they usually compete for the same turns. So swapping one for the other makes sense and keeps the deck flowing.
I like the Shredder as well, but I value Earthen Ring Farseer more than Antique Healbot, coz he heightens our chance of drawing a 3-drop early on.
Thanks, I'm glad u like it!
Dr. Boom is actually fine here. This decklist isn't so rigid and I really encourage people to try things out in order to adapt to the meta and to their play style. And since I haven't tried every card combination in HS (as if anyone could) there's always sth new just waiting to be discovered.
Well, I did certainly not create Oil Rogue. The only thing I've done is to write this guide as a way to incentivize players who may be unfamiliar with the class to start playing more Rogue, since it's so much fun!
I just assume it's some aggro/tempo mage and mulligan accordingly, searching for some removal. Coz against these decks we really need a way to deal with their early minions, or else we fall behind. Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice and Flamewaker easily escalate out of control if left alive.
Against Mech u usually win after clearing his board with Blade Flurry. Prioritise clearing all mechs to deny Tinkertown Technician or Goblin Blastmage.
When there is a secret, play a minion u can kill, in case of Mirror Entity, or a spell u don't need much, in case of Counterspell. Sometimes it's a Duplicate so u can test it by killing a weaker minion first (or using Sap if they only have a Belcher on board). We can usually guess whats the secret by the style of the deck.
Unfortunately Freeze Mage is favoured against us coz the armor they get from Ice Barrier can put them out of our range, similar to warrior. Ice Block can be another problem if it counters our Blade Flurry, so try to lower his life as close as possible to 1 before popping the secret. You have to play aggressively, but sometimes keep a minion in hand in case of a board clear.