Hearthpwn

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Hello and welcome to my fourth deck guide on Hearthpwn! I am a long-time Hearthstone player that has achieved a personal best of rank 6 in constructed, and I consistently get to rank 10 whenever I choose to play in the ladder. My decks are typically home-grown versions of the meta decks that still make excellent runs in ranked play. I even got Secrets Mage to rank 10 (Ethereal Arcanist <3!!!) which is a major achievement in itself because that deck is normally too gimmicky and inconsistent to be competitive in constructed, especially with Face Hunter falling out of favour. 

Rogue as a class has historically been the "I'm going to kill you in one turn" class, with old Miracle Rogue and Oil Rogue being the predominant Rogue decks seen in constructed in the past. This has changed with the addition of many powerful cards to the Rogue class (a la Vilespine Slayer) affording other variants of Rogue some much needed power and consistency. This deck is a completely different take on Rogue that is built around card advantage and making tempo plays.

Mulligan: You'll typically want to start with Backstab, Undercity Huckster, Swashburglar, SI:7 Agent (Especially if you start with The Coin), Bloodmage Thalnos, Razorpetal Lasher and/or Eviscerate. Keep Xaril, Poisoned Mind and Tomb Pillager only if you have minions or spells to play earlier.

1x Backstab: A truly excellent card that deals with all but three 2 mana minions in the game alongside your hero power. I run one because it is a garbage draw later in the game. That being said, Backstab provides an easy way to trigger Combo abilities without using mana or requiring The Coin to do so.

2x Swashburglar: This pirate fits the theme of this deck with its burgling ability and it is a strong minion in its own right because of its effect alone, so use it!

2x Eviscerate: The most efficient 2 mana removal spell in the game (other than Quick Shot when it draws a card) if the Combo effect is activated. This spell is a must-have in every Rogue deck in existence because of its ability to burst and because of how easily it trades up with the extra 1 damage that it has over the other common 2 mana removal spells.

2x Undercity Huckster" This minion is an auto-include in this deck because of its powerful deathrattle. Being half a Burgle, it provides you with options not normally available to you and the class cards have been useful more often than not.

2x Razorpetal Lasher: Getting Razorpetal as a battlecry is very useful, and the cheap spell can be used to discount Arcane Giant! I count this minion as an auto-include.

1x SI:7 Agent: If the combo effect goes off, SI:7 Agent is usually a huge tempo swing in your favor when you play it. A properly used SI:7 Agent is almost always a 2 for 1 card early on in the game, especially against aggro decks. Interesting tip for Wild: If you kill Mad Scientist with SI:7 Agent's Combo damage and a Mirror Entity comes out of your opponent's deck, it will immediately summon an SI:7 Agent for your opponent. If you have no Swashburglar to pop the potential Mirror Entity with, then giving your opponent a 3/3 is not that bad.

2x Fan of Knives: Fan of Knives is wonderful in aggro match-ups because it clears masses of 1 health minions. The important card in this deck that make Fan of Knives a valuable combo-based board clear later in the game is Bloodmage Thalnos.

Shaku, the Collector: This card isn't needed, but his effects make for a great combination. Plus, Burgle theme!

2x Burgle: Burgle is basically Rogue's version of Thoughtsteal. It provides you with valuable options that you would not normally have available to you unless you were up against another Rogue. The cards that I receive from Burgle are, I've found, quite valuable most of the time. Class legendaries like Tirion Fordring are amazing cards to get in the control match-up, snowballing the game in your favour. I've even received useful combinations such as Inner Fire + Shadow Word: Death from Priest.

Xaril, Poisoned Mind: This minion was a fantastic addition to Rogue's arsenal and provides very useful effects through its toxins!

Sherazin, Corpse Flower: This minion can be resurrected many times in this deck using the cheap spells, The Coin, Swashburglar and Burgle

2x Vilespine Slayer: An amazing hard removal option!! I use one of these to deal with big threats that can't be destroyed with Shadow Strike or Eviscerate, an example being Ragnaros the Firelord.

1x Shadowcaster: A personal tech card of mine and my favourite card from WotOG. =) She makes some very fancy combos happen, especially with Vilespine Slayer!

Bloodmage Thalnos: Rogue is without a doubt one of the best classes to use Spell Power minions in. Thalnos is a staple card in any Rogue deck that uses many of the damaging spells available to the class. In this deck he buffs Fan of Knives, Eviscerate and Backstab as well as any damaging spells acquired from Burgle

Brann Bronzebeard: This minion has amazing synergy with Swashburglar and many other minions in the deck. Use him for wacky combos!

2x Tomb Pillager: The Coin was so powerful for Rogue that many games were decided based on the Rogue being given The Coin or not. The easier activation of combo effects is worth running this minion for and the extra coins may be used to reduce the cost of Arcane Giant too.

1x Ethereal Peddler: This minion boasts a premium 5/6 stat line for 5 mana in addition to a very powerful Emperor Thaurissan-esque effect for your burgled cards! I really like this minion but it can get cloggy at 2. Do you know what you can do with a 3 mana Prophet Velen in Rogue!?

Trade Prince Gallywix: I love this card's effect. 5/8 with Lorewalker Cho's effect? Yes please! This card can be substituted but I think it's very strong in the deck.

2x Arcane Giant: The amount of spells cast during the game by this deck is staggering. Arcane Giant offers a big minion that you can drop cheaply in the mid game if you spent most of the early game removing minions with spells. Every burgling effect also stands a fair chance at giving you even more spells to bring this minion's cost down with. I've been testing out Arcane Giant and it's very fun as a finisher!

Honourable Mentions:

1x Acidic Swamp Ooze/Gluttonous Ooze: The Oozes preserve card advantage and face health for you if you destroy a weapon with it, even if they have used 1 durability already. Weapons get a lot of value in Hearthstone so it is important to minimize this in a class with few health recovery options without sacrificing tempo against the classes that don't utilize weapons. Swamp Ooze is still a 3/2 for 2 mana against the weaponless classes and I find that it is a better weapon removal than Harrison Jones because it costs less (allowing you to do more in one turn), it gives you an early game minion drop and you can run two Swamp Ooze while you can only run one Harrison. Gluttonous Ooze is advantageous particularly against decks that use weapons for extra face damage because of the armour gain.

1x Crazed Alchemist: The battlecry of this minion is extremely powerful for Rogues for a couple of reasons. First, it makes minions undamaged for the purposes of Backstab and Dark Iron Skulker. Second, it brings a lot more flexibility to all of your removal spells by increasing the number of minions that your spells can remove! I.E. Eviscerate > Ysera when you run Crazed Alchemist. Unfortunately this is a combo-based card. Use him if you like doing fun combos!

2x Beneath the Grounds: If you are playing against a control deck, This card will go a LONG way in helping you win. The chances of your opponent immediately drawing a Nerubian for you (and therefore making the card immediately worth the 3 mana that you paid) are always greater than 10% because there are 3 Nerubians and a maximum of 31 cards initially in your opponent's deck (via Prince Malchezar). These chances constantly improve as the game goes on. If you manage to get all six Nerubians in one game, your opponent either had two Flamestrike or he/she completely lost board control and surrendered. This card allows Control Rogue to compete with the slowest and greediest of the control decks. Unfortunately, this card is very slow against aggro decks.

1x Spellbreaker: I run Spellbreaker over Ironbeak Owl because it is a larger minion and the mana curve is pushed a bit towards the late game which is when you want to be using your silence in the first place. Save a Spellbreaker for a troublesome minion if you have no other options to deal with it.

1x Dark Iron Skulker: This tech card is a great tool for clearing boards of weak minions. Dark Iron Skulker really shines against Hunter, Warlock and Paladin decks. There really isn't much more to say about this card. It is very good. Two are not run because their effects cannot be combined with themselves to clear bigger minions and Brann Bronzebeard does not synergize with this card (the minions are counted as damaged after the first battle cry resolves).

2x Azure Drake: Traditionally an excellent minion in Rogue decks, the spell damage and card draw are very much welcomed in this deck.

1x Shadow Strike: This is a great removal spell because of how easily it trades up with freshly played minions. Spell damage helps this spell clear larger threats.

2x Sludge Belcher: For a sticky taunt to play a more defensive game.

Loatheb: Great anti-combo piece!

Golakka Crawler: To deal with Pirate Warrior.