Rogue aggro mill revisited, top 100 legend rank
- Last updated Jun 29, 2014 (Live Patch 5506)
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Wild
- 16 Minions
- 13 Spells
- 1 Weapon
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 7460
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 5/23/2014 (Live Patch 5435)
- user-9231873
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Total Deck Rating
1522
Introduction
Three months ago I made a post about an aggro mill deck I made. Since then I moved on and started playing different decks and some of the cards in the old deck even got nerfed. A few days ago I decided to take a look at my old deck to try and update it and make it work again. I was legend rank 450 when I started playing the new version of the aggro mill. I decided I would post an update on the aggro mill deck here if I got to top 100 I reached it, so here we go.
Milling talk
First things first, the deck is more aggro than it is mill. Think of it as an extremely aggressive deck that sometimes have great mill opportunities. Say the enemy has 9 cards, then you play mukla, now he only gains 1 banana and the card he would have drawn next turn get burned. Of course this works even better when you can sap in the same turn to make it work like assassinate.
What you should not attempt to do with this deck is see the other guy with 5 cards in his hand and then try to fill it up with the oracle plus 2 shadowsteps. Sure you burn 2 cards, but you also gave him 4 new ones he would not have had and you used 2 shadowsteps to accomplish it. There are many ways to be creative with milling, just be smart about it.
Mulliganing
This deck relies heavily on early pressure, so mulligan aggressively for 1 drops. If you don't have a 1 drop in your hand and you go first I would mulligan it all trying to get it. If I go second I would keep an SI:7/Edwin even if I had no 1 drops just because it works so well with the coin. If I do have a 1 drops I will not keep a second 1 drop instead I will mulligan it looking for 2 and 3 drops to fill out my curve.
Gameplan
Go for early board control, it is usually not hard to achieve with all the tempo cards in a rogue's arsenal.
Whenever you have a clear board and are about to attack face with one of your minions give it cold blood if you can. At worst it is 4 damage to the enemy for 1 mana, at best he will not be able to remove it and it can snowball into a quick victory.
While playing your normal game keep an eye on the amount of cards in the other player's hand, if it is close to full you should look for opportunies to play your oracles to both fill up your own hand and to burn his cards at the same time. If that never happens and you start to run out of strong plays it is ok to just play the coldlight oracle without burning any cards beause at that point 2 cards will likely help you more than him.
Sap, save it for a big creatue 5+ mana, a taunt in the way of your leeroy or if you can burn a decent minion because his hand is already full when you sap.
The goal of the early gave is take off the top of his health, get him down below 20 hp while playing a lot of card draw minions like loot hoarders and acolytes to cycle through your deck. If he ever spends removal cards to kill a cantrip minion that is a huge gain for you.
Now late game you are looking for combos to finish him off, the classic leeroy->shadowstep->shadowstep for 18 damage. Often times though you can kill them without even needing leeroy. If you get out a strong Edwin and Mukla early on together with a cold blood you can sometimes win before a miracle rogue can even get an auctioneer out.
Thanks for reading this far!
By the way, I still don't understand why did you put to acolytes here.
Very nice deck idea. Due to budget I replaced Leeroy with an Arcane Golem and Mukkla with a Bloodknight. Works well so far. However, its very hard to play. Many mistakes can be made in every turn.
I just beat Lifecoach playing with Shaman with this deck. It was really funny to watch his delayed stream after that and listen to his commentary :)
Colma,
You said somehwere iirc that you did well against Zoo Warlocks. I'm not facing them often, but I feel really clueless against them. My tempo rogue tactic was getting out decent minions like Golem, Yeti, but I don't have them in this deck. Acolyte is very weak obviously, the Oracle is usually a bad idea. Maybe I'm unlucky, I don't face them so often anymore, but I don't really have a strategy.
Can you explain your strategy please?
Since you're already favored in the Handlock match up, you can mulligan for Zoo. I'll usually prioritize 1 drops, Blood Knight, SI:Agent, Blade Flurry or other damaging spells. Wrestling for board control is wicked important and thankfully we have a lot of tools for that! Here's a few ideas that took me a bit to get used to.
- Use Shadowstep liberally on your SI:Agent, even better if you're able to attack first. You don't always live to see a T6/7 Leeroy Combo.
- Cold Blood your Argent Squire (even if you can't combo it) to deal with their taunters. I'm not seeing a ton of Elven Archers so its really just Mortal Coil that ruins your day.
- Hold onto Thalnos and pray for your Blade Flurry. Starfall is soo good here.
- Don't be afraid to Coldlight! Our curve is low enough to play quite fast. Occasionally you'll also force both Doomguards into their hand ;)
Would you say Questing Adventurer or Blood Knight would be better for this deck? Questing Adventurer's stats can be adjusted to dodge priest kill spells for a turn and it functions as a half-Van Cleef, but can also be a set up a turn before being pumped into a lethal beatstick if you can make sure it will live with either board control or conceal. (I realize conceal does not guarantee the minions on your side of the field will live. I also realize it's possible for the opponent to have a minion with charge. I am speaking in a hypothetical scenario.) Whereas the Blood Knight can come out on turn 3 (at the earliest. -not counting the coin) as a 9/9 or, more likely, on turn 4 as a 6/6 which is very good stats for how early in the game it is. I'm curious what you think is the better replacement for Van. Also, out of the 4 legendaries in the deck, which one would you suggest crafting first? (my guess would be mukla as Van, Leeroy, and Thalnos can be easily replaced, mukla is harder as no other creature has his stats AND the ability to add 2 cards to the opponent's hand, thus adding to the mill.
I hope you can answer my question, but if not, that's ok too. I'm only asking for your opinion. A long explanation about whether BK or Questing is not necessary but would be appreciated. Thank you, and have a nice day.
Before someone asks, Leeroy can be replaced with Arcane Golem, and Thalnos can be replaced with Kobold Geomancer (if you want spell power) or Novice Engineer (if you want draws) In this deck I would think you'd want more draws, but it's up to you which one you think will work better.
EDIT: I didn't realize how long this was so...
TL;DR @OP, Is Questing Adventurer or Blood Knight a better replacement for Van? What would be a good replacement for Mukla (if any) and which legendary would you suggest crafting first out of the 4?
Came here to ask the exactly same questions.
I´m not sure which legendary to craft. But I can say you, the best out of the 4 is Leeroy. But what is the second most valueable card?
Edwin VanCleef: I replaced him with Questin Adventurer
Bloodmage Thalnos: Replaced by Kobold Geomancer
Mukla: Replaced by Harvest Golem. Maybe there is a better replacement? Maybe yeti?
I would say I should craft Thalnos because of the one more card I would get from his deathrattle but Im not sure. What do you think?
I've lost count of the number of games I've fallen short by TWO damage. It's definitely worth crafting that OP Leeroy (4=6) as I'm betting Arcane Golems will fall short (Leeroy's drawback is also less punishing in a pinch.)
Not sure what Colma thinks about it but I wanna say Arcane Golem is a better replacement for Mukla, or deserves a spot somehow. Occasionally your midgame Coldlights will pick up a Cold Blood on an empty board and with only one charger in the deck, sometimes you never get an opportunity to CB for face damage. Thoughts?
This deck can win on Turn 6, just thinking Arcane Golem makes it easier ;D
5 Mana
Arcane Golem + Shadowstep + Arcane Golem + Cold Blood = 12
Leeroy Jenkins + Cold Blood = 10
6 Mana
Arcane Golem + Shadowstep + Arcane Golem + Cold Blood + Cold Blood = 16
Leeroy Jenkins + Cold Blood + Cold Blood = 14
OMG Another Miracle Rogue Rip Offf!!! Just Kidding, people bust our balls about our deck trying to compare it to tempo which is BS.
playin thisdeck minus king mukla and bloodmage thalnos..
mid game if they have enough taunts and we got no saps. gg
This deck is the perfect rogue deck if you find Tempo boring and Miracle too complicated. Like me ;)
Played against this deck a few times today and crushed it...While its great on paper a aggro Pally build just nukes it then again pally's in general mess up a lot of things.
I can only craft a Van Cleef or a Mukla which one should I choose and why?
Neither seem that important, Mana Addict or Questing Adventurer are great replacements for Van Cleef and Mukla isn't that insane.
You could also go by what other classes you might want to play? Mukla can work his way into other aggro class decks like Divine Favor Paladins and possibly Zoolock (I'm just guessing). Where as VC adds a lot of value in the miracle Rogue deck when you're able to Stealth 'em.
For this deck, though, if you wanna win matches I'd use VC or a Blood Knight. If you wanna have more fun Assassinating cards with Sap, use Mukla (results may vary).
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I'm at level 5 and seeing a ton of zoo (half or more of my games). I replaced one Acolyte of Pain with a Fan of Knives, but I'm also thinking about finding a spot for Blood Knight. What do you think? I'm thinking it goes in Edwin's slot, but I'm not sure.
Thanks, it's working well. I removed the FoK idea since Blood Knight is more than enough.
Maybe in your next video you could talk about Mukla a bit. I just crafted him for this deck so I'm not too sure when I need to avoid playing him. Seems that Druids love bananas...also I feel strange playing it turns 4-5 against the zoo, even on an empty board.
I'm currently using Blood Knights with a decent success rate (floating around rank 2 now) since there's a ton of classes out there using Argent Squires. Just be careful not to go overboard if you feel like they have BGH's.
My two cents: Mukla and Coldlight are probably the hardest decisions to make in this deck, but sometimes you just have to go for it. Against Druid I already assume I've lost so there's no additional banana risk there! Occasionally I'll wait until I have a Sap as my backup plan, but yeah he's somewhat of a dead card (like Leeroy) until you get the right board presence / setup. Warlocks also have a slight edge with being able to discard bananas (Soulfire/Doomguard) but the 5/5 body often gets some work done.
Against control, be on the look out for an 8 card hand. It took me a few matches to realize you're trading 2 bananas for their next draw which is a form of card advantage. The revealed discard can also play a huge part in your gameplay, e.g., Miracle discarding Leeroy, Priest / Circle of Healing, Shaman / Lightning Storm, Warlock / Giants, Warrior / Brawl.
Btw, right now my favorite setup with this deck is Coldlight, Shadowstep, Coldlight against a 7 card hand (7 just seems to be the norm). They draw 3 cards, but net only 2 while also revealing 2 discards. It's often hilarious.