[TOP 5 LEGEND] Raptor Rogue
- Last updated Nov 30, 2015 (Explorers)
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Wild
- 21 Minions
- 9 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 3880
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 11/22/2015 (Explorers)
- user-20401616
- Registered User
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- 61
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Battle Tag:
N/A
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Region:
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Total Deck Rating
1132
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INTRODUCTION
The creator of this deck is the Russian player doktorrrr. He easily reached TOP 5 Legend with this deck. You can check his stream out on www.twitch.tv/doktorrrr_, where you'll also hopefully find the VOD's.
LEGEND PROOF: http://i.imgur.com/NAc1YUH.jpg
DECKLIST: http://i.imgur.com/sxo6zUU.jpg
It has been a long time, since Rogues got something new to play with. To be exact, it has been since GVG due to the inclusion of Tinker's Sharpsword Oil.
Now with LOE we've gotten the Unearthed Raptor, which is an incredibly broken card in the right deck... And I believe this deck to be the right deck.
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GAMEPLAN
It's a Midrange deck, that is full of sticky minions. You obviously want to curve out well with 2 drop like Haunted Creeper, Nerubian Egg or Loot Hoarder >> into Unearthed Raptor >> into Piloted Shredder or Defender of Argus... and then continue following the curve.
You want to keep your opponents board clear. When you don't have good value trades, then hit face. This deck has quite a bit of burst, so sometimes you'll able to do a lot of damage out of nowhere... But usually you win by getting more and more sticky minions out and simply gaining more tempo and value than your opponent.
The best targets for Unearthed Raptor are obviously cards, that provide you a lot of value... So always pick Nerubian Egg and Piloted Shredder over Loot Hoarder and Sludge Belcher, if you can.
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CARD REPLACEMENTS
This deck is fairly cheap, as long as you have the first two Naxxramas wings and so far the first two LOE wings. What pushes the cost of this deck up, are Sylvanas Windrunner and Dr. Boom, which are great cards in pretty much any Midrange deck.
If you don't have Sylvanas Windrunner, then you can try out Cairne Bloodhoof instead. If you don't have Cairne Bloodhoof, then craft Piloted Sky Golem.
If you don't have Dr. Boom, then why are you even playing Hearthstone? Run yet another Piloted Sky Golem instead, or maybe Ragnaros the Firelord.
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MULLIGANS
This deck is a Midrange deck. The general gameplan of a Midrange deck is to play fast against Control decks and to control the board against Aggro decks.
Against Control decks you generally really want power on the board: A good curve consisting out of Nerubian Egg, into Unearthed Raptor into Piloted Shredder is devastating for the opponent. That board is so sticky to a point, where all of their board clears become absolutely useless and even if they push the match to the late game, you out-value them so hard with all the stickyness on your board.
Against Aggro decks you want your cheaper minions like Leper Gnome, Loot Hoarder and some removal in order to stop their aggression and then hopefully taunt up some big minions and start being the aggressor.
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FAQ
1. Why no Bloodmage Thalnos?
Bloodmage Thalnos picks up in value, when you also run Preparation and overall more spells in your deck. In this deck Bloodmage Thalnos simply doesn't do enough.
On top of that we're at a point in Hearthstone, where dropping a 1/1 on turn 2, or using your hero power feels really bad. You rather play a 2/1 in Loot Hoarder on turn 2, since it trades up / does more damage / is a bigger threat.
2. Can I replace Cold Blood with SI:7 Agent?
You can do whatever you want. Maybe it ends up working better for you.
I personally would not do it, since in my opinion SI:7 Agent is a great card in Oil Rogue, which is a deck, that is all about tempo swings. The tempo swings in Raptor Rogue come in the form of building a sticky board, that becomes more and more powerful on its own.
Now you might say that Cold Blood doesn't do much for the development of the board either, but that is not the role of that card in this deck. Cold Blood shines, when you put it on Nerubian Egg and use it for great trades. Cold Blood is also amazing, when you have it on a minion, that is hidden behind a taunt and gets to hit face multiple times.
3. Is there anything besides the recommended minions, I can replace Sylvanas Windrunner with?
In my opinion you have the choice between two minions: Dark Iron Skulker if you feel like you struggle to swing the tempo back in your favor (which however has more to do with your mulligan / bad draw)... and Argent Commander, which is also a sticky minion in a way and also has an obvious synergy with Cold Blood.
Just always keep in mind that replacing Sylvanas Windrunner is often a very hard thing to do, since that minion has a very specific purpose... and that is to create absolutely awkward turns for your opponent.
4. Is there any room for Anub'arak in the deck?
In this deck not so much. At 9 mana Anub'arak is very, very slow. Sure, it has potential to win you games on its own, if they go long enough... But in a deck like this, where your main goal is to curve out well and finish the game by turns 7-9, drawing Anub'arak right at the beginning of a match, is going to hurt you a lot. It would be a dead card for 8 turns, while Dr. Boom is a dead card for only 6 turns.
I personally believe that we might see the rise of Anub'arak once Tomb Pillager gets released.
Imagine the concept of a "Coin Collector" Rogue, where you play Tomb Pillager and Unearthed Raptor and then get 2x The Coin, with which you play Dr. Boom on turn 5 (!!!), or Kel'Thuzad on turn 6, or Anub'arak on turn 7.
5. Can I replace Leper Gnome with Clockwork Gnome?
You can watch My Little Pony, if you feel like it. Maybe you end up liking it. What I mean, is that you can try it out of course.
I personally would advise against taking out Leper Gnome and putting in Clockwork Gnome, since this deck is rather fast and it has to be fast in order to win against other fast decks like Facehunter and Tempo Mage. You don't run any heals in this deck, so your goal against fast decks is to lower their life total faster than they can lower yours.
Besides that, in the first 5 turns you really want to play on curve, since that increases your chances of winning dramatically. Getting the right spare part at the right time (which ends up being better than an on curve play)... That's probably not going to happen frequently.
6. What about Baron Rivendare?
High Risk / High Reward. It can win you games on its own, but it can also be a dead card. Plus it requires some setting up. I'm not a fan of it.
But on the bright side, in this deck it is not as bad as it would be in other decks, since together with Cold Blood you can get a 5/7 for 5 mana. If that's hidden behind a taunt... with its effect... Oh my god.
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VIDEOS
2 minute deck guide by FailCraft:
Few games on Rank 5 by Kristophesaurus Dinosaurus Youtubesaurus Channelsaurus:
I have Boom, but I replaced Sylvanas and the Argus' for Stallag, Feugen and Baron Rivendare.
Seems to work fine at my level. I may miss the taunt when I climb higher.
Yeah, I was thinking about Rivendare, is it fine?
Thanks btw :D
Do not use RIvendare. Just add a BGH, DO not use sprint either.
I run BGH as well and find it way better than Loatheb
Спасибо бро!
Is there any merit to replacing boom to avoid BGH? Maybe throw in something like a piloted sky golem.
Sky golem is often ran in Raptor Rogue, but Boom is a staple in most midrange/control decks. You can try golem if you want though.
Good lord! I ran this deck for a daily and that was the most concessions I've ever received. Really fun deck!
This deck really feels weird. Feels like playing zoo.
I had changed one loot hoarder for a Thanlos, because the spell damage is great with fan of knives when it´s necassary.
At the moment i have won 9 out of 10, with this change where the combo have saved me.
Why no Baron Rivendare?
you re right man
Umm, It was a serious question. Can I get an actual response? Why no Baron Rivendare?
i think because it's too slow
Can i replace loot hoarderx2 by the Prep+Sprint combo ?
Raptor is a stealth buff to Shadow Madness.
Great deck though. I love the break from Oil into something that you've clearly demonstrated as viable.
Congratulations.
I just did the most awesome lethal of all time. I needed two damage, so I backstabbed my own leper gnome. Didn't know backstab can do face damage.
Great deck went from rank 15 to 9 in about an hour and a half. This deck isn' a tear one deck, but is still fun to see rouge in the spotlight for once.
Great write up and nice deck.
I think I faced this quite a few times around ranks 5-6. I beat it most of the time with Secret Paladin cancer... but, it stole a win or two.Seems like when more people play it and get the feel and tweak it even more, it will be even better and it seems to make rogue competetive now, doesn't it?
I'm honestly surprised with your secret paladin success against this. While i feel that this struggles with control matchups that simply out-advantage it, or hyper-aggressive decks that keep you from developing an argus on 2 minions, it seems to do surprisingly well against paladin. I got to rank 4 with a variation on it so far, and it has a 100% winrate against secret paladin for me. the midrange reno-jackson version however did steal a win against me once, since a reno is basically an auto-win, reseting the life total but with the paladin player able to drop tirion.