Hearthpwn

Hello everyone, this is a new deck built around Unearthed Raptor, the new rogue card for LOE. I really feel this deck shows a lot of potential and with more refinement could be THE oil rogue moving forward. This is my first post so do excuse me and correct me if I make any mistakes. That said I am a long time lurker of this site and have been playing rogue since the advent of miracle so I think I should be alright :) I may make a guide in the future as i feel that rogue has a lot of intricacies that wont be immediately obvious to new players (self lethal, when to go face/trade etc etc) but im swamped with studies right now :(  Maybe if i find the time and if this deck gets more popular

Differences with traditional oil rogue

Proactive: This deck is much more proactive than its predecessor, running 2 creeper and the 2 raptors offers rogue something in the early game it never had before, an option to curve out with minions. While the deck only runs 2 creepers, just having the option to curve out where before rogue’s only plays were reactive (BS,Evis,Dagger up Poison, Sap) makes a big difference in the way the deck can play out. Many rogues know the struggle of going first without the coin, well often times creeper into Raptor when going first is just such a strong play that can just snowball into a win when combined with the cheap removal rogue has. This has improved its chances against both aggro and control, being able to either pressure earlier or play minions coupled with removal to stay ahead on board.

Stickier: An obvious advantage of running deathrattle rogue is that you will quite often have a minion to play oil on, a weakness that rogues suffered from in the past. The minions played are just so good at providing some board presence and some control decks in particular have a lot of trouble efficiently handling them.

No heals: To make room for the deathrattle synergy I had to cut out farseers and healbot, and as such the deck runs zero heals with the only taunt in the form of belcher. This sort of changes some more aggro matchups to more of a race than before, as it is much harder to stabilise. I don’t really see this as a weakness as much as a change of style, as I said the deck is more proactive and aims get ahead early and stay ahead long enough to push for lethal.

Card Inclusions

Unearthed Raptor: The star of the deck, a surprisingly versatile card that can be played on curve as a 3 4 body (against aggro mostly) and gets insane value when it picks up a deathrattle (sylvanas, creeper, shredder, belcher, and thalnos). It can be played at just about any point of the game and be pretty good if it grabs a deathrattle. Its versatility is in which deathrattle to copy, need more cycle to combo down a heavy control deck? Copy your thalnos. Need to turtle up when potential lethal is coming? Copy a belcher (I must note that this doesn’t work as well as I thought as the raptor itself doesn’t have taunt, but its still saved me a couple of times) Or maybe you just need to make sure to have something on board to play oil for lethal next turn, the card is so versatile, a great and solid addition to rogue.

Sylvanas: Insane value with the raptor and one of the decks comeback mechanics if behind on board, having 2 sylvanas effects against control is often a nightmare for them to handle

Belcher: I chose this over Healbot for the synergy with raptor. Great solid taunt that often prevents lethal long enough for us to burst them down

Haunted Creeper: A great board control minion that is strong against aggro decks while being hard for control decks to deal with efficiently, as mentioned earlier it offers rogue with a proactive play on 2, and makes for a great curve with raptor especially going first.

Card Exclusions

Nerubian Egg: I know many people are running rattle rogue with this card for the insane value it has with Raptor. However having run it in a version before this deck, I found that having to run the activators to make the card work (Cold blood, Dire wolf, Argus, Abusive) Dilutes Oil rogues original strength in its draw mechanic and oil combo and seems to make it a worse zoo. The card will probably find more play in more aggressive variants of this deck but I personally found this deck which keeps the core of Oil rogue while playing a more midrange minion based style is more consistent for laddering.

Violet teacher: Cut in preference to the great synergy shredder provides with raptor in the 4 drop slot. Havent missed it very much either.

General Mulligan Guide

Going first you will generally want to look for the creeper raptor curve if possible and going second against aggro I value looking for SI7 more. General rule of thumb do not keep raptor unless you have creeper already, its better to look for creeper or other cards.

Hunter: Fan, Backstab, creeper, SI7, Raptor (only if you have creeper) I value SI7 agent more in this matchup and will often toss the raptor when I have a creeper going second to search for SI7

Warrior: Creeper, Raptor (only if you have creeper), shredder, Deadly Poison, Prep, Sprint (only if you have prep)

Druid: Deadly Poison, Backstab, Creeper, SI7, Sap

Priest: Sap, Deadly poison, Backstab, Creeper, Raptor (only if you have creeper) I often also keep Drake and shredder if I already have answers to Northshire Cleric

Mage: Deadly Poison, Backstab, SI7, Creeper, Raptor (only if you have creeper)    

Rogue: Prep, Sprint (only if you have prep), Deadly Poison, Creeper, Raptor (only if you have creeper), SI7

Warlock: Deadly Poison, Backstab, Flurry, Fan, SI7, Prep, Creeper, Raptor (only if you have creeper) This is the hardest mulligan, even im not sure what is the optimal mulligan due to the number of different variants. Used to be you would wait for your opponent to mulligan and if they mulliganed all/ most of their cards you would assume handlock and mulligan for sap, prep and the like and otherwise mulligan assuming zoo. However with the number of different variants these days (renolock also throws its whole hand a lot) I prefer assuming the deck is zoo as handlock is a harder match to win anyway and zoo tends to be more unforgiving if you didn’t mulligan preparing for an aggressive start.

Paladin: Creeper, Raptor (only if you have creeper), Backstab, Flurry, SI7, Fan

Shaman: Creeper, Raptor (only if you have creeper), Backstab, SI7, Deadly Poison

All credit goes to Avoraz for creating this deck, which you can check out here at  http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/370350-s20-oilrattle-guide#c3

Do try the deck, have fun and let me know what you guys think!