+139
Favorite this Deck

[S28 Top 50 Legend] Shadowcaster Yogg Rogue (Fu...

  • Last updated Aug 29, 2016 (Karazhan)
  • Edit
  • |

Wild

  • 19 Minions
  • 11 Spells
  • Deck Type: Ranked Deck
  • Deck Archetype: Reno Rogue
  • Crafting Cost: 13500
  • Dust Needed: Loading Collection
  • Created: 7/19/2016 (Old Gods)
View Similar Decks View in Deck Builder
  • kitsel
  • Registered User
    • 2
    • 8
    • 19

  • Battle Tag:

    N/A

  • Region:

    N/A

  • Total Deck Rating

    152

View 2 other Decks by kitsel
Link:
BBCode:
Export to

Edit:  With Karazhan out, this deck is now officially back under construction!

For now, I've decided to remove the two hucksters for Swashburglars and Teacher for Barnes.  Swashburglars are great - having a 1 drop is extremely nice and has already set me up nicely a few times.  It's great to not have to pass turn 1 every time.  Getting the card right away instead of having to suicide is also nice, and makes it less vulnerable to stuff like Cabal Shadow Priest while still being just as good of a Shadowcaster target.  It's also a better late-game topdeck as you don't need to wait a turn to use the stolen card.  

Barnes, on the other hand, I'm not sure about.  If he's a whiff, then worst case you just get a 3/4 and a 1/1 which isn't that bad.  Stuff like Azure Drake is decent (spell damage), Thalnos, Pillager, and Xar'il are good, and Sylvanas or Rag can be flat out game-winning.  He'd be even better if I took the Swashburglars back out for Hucksters.  However, Teacher is also very strong and I'm not sure if Barnes is consistent enough in this deck.

Added Defender of Argus due to a suggestion by @Hueuebi. 

Hi, I'm Kitsel!  I'm an NA legend player that decided to try to get legend with a deck that almost noone else is playing.  This is a tempo-focused Rogue deck that I used to reach legend in Season 27 (June 2016) and 28 (July 2016).  It toes the line between tempo and midrange (and has a relatively weak start for a "tempo" deck) but since it has to be identified as one, that's the one I've picked.  It's a deck that I've never met anyone else playing and that I haven't shared with many people, and it ended up being my favorite grind to legend ever.  It is a heavily modified/tweaked version (~10 different cards at this point) of a deck that I saw Orange running on stream just a day or two after the WoG release, but he quickly stopped playing it.  However, I feel the need to credit him as the basic idea came from his stream.

I posted this deck early last season but I had it as private for a long time and never seemed to show up on the public list no matter what I did, so I'm reposting it!

Proof of Legend:

Top 50 Legend S28 (July):

Top 200 Legend S27 (June):

The deck is extremely versatile and decision-heavy, which makes it a really fun playing experience.  It has no truly terrible matchups and is able to go toe to toe with both control and aggro.  I don't believe it's tier 1 or even tier 2 in power, but it is an effective deck that is a lot of fun and has no "hopeless" matchups.

General Strategy

The general idea of this deck is to use your weapons and removal early to try to contest the board until you can generate a swing turn.  This deck has only a few large threats so they must be played carefully - tossing a Rag onto an empty board against a warrior is usually not the best decision, and often the goal is to bait out removal before throwing down the real threats.  This deck looks a lot like both N'zoth and Miracle rogue, depending on the hand you're dealt.  This may change if the deck becomes popular but at this point almost everyone mistakenly assumes it's one of them and makes bad plays.  I get my Tomb Pillagers sapped all the time because they assume that's my big threat, for example.

The deck shines mid-game and the plays you choose to make here are what is going to decide the game.  Use your shadowcaster wisely and get ready to adapt.  You never know what you're going to get from Huckster or what duplicates you're going to end up with. 

Shadowcaster!

This is the core of your deck.  Knowing how and when to use her will decide many of your games.  Knowing when to copy a huckster for fatigue games, bloodmage for draw/spell damage, or hold on for a bigger cash in (duplicating rag or yogg is hilarious, and duplicating rag can often lead to a surprise lethal) is important.  Shadowcaster can even be used to duplicate herself, and I recommend that whenever possible.  Not only can you make infinite 1/1s with any left-over mana as long as one shadowcaster lives (which can lead to a GIGANTIC Edwin turn), it also leaves you with a 1 mana copy, allowing you to copy Rag or Sylvanas same turn, or even Yogg if you have a coin and he doesn't destroy himself. 

Feel free to get creative with Shadowcaster.  Occasionally, copying that 0/1 that the midrange shaman just hexed instead of copying an SI:7 and spitting out the 1/1 taunt will save you.  Sometimes copying something you wouldn't ordinarily think about can win you the game, including huckster cards:

Shadowcaster is extremely flexible - she plays well with Xaril toxins and there are tons of good copy targets.  Huckster generates a card, Edwin becomes even better as a 1/1 for 1, Xaril poisons are great and can fuel Yogg, and a 1 mana draw + spell damage from drake comes in handy.  Skulker is just a solid card that's ALWAYS a great copy target.  The key here is judgement.  You don't want to hold onto your shadowcaster so long that you have nothing to clone, but you also don't want to give up and clone something like a violet teacher unless you have to.

Mulligans and Matchups

Druid

Mulligans - Backstab, SI:7 Agent, Edwin, Preparation, Eviscerate, Huckster

C'thun druid tends to have strong plays early so you want to have an answer to an early innervate play.  Druids are especially vulnerable to a huge Edwin as most run no removal at all.  If you can get your hands on Prep, a spell, coin, and Edwin, it's usually worth it to keep all of them and use that spell (whatever it is) just to make that 8/8 Edwin.  Druids have a lot of big, high value taunts that are perfect sap targets.  A sap on an Arakkoa or Ancient can seal the win for you.  There are no specific copy targets you're looking for, although Huckster and Thalnos/Drake are both great options.

Warrior:

Control/C'thun Mulligans - Backstab, SI:7, Prep, Shadow Strike, Huckster, Thalnos

This is a pretty tough matchup.  You need to bait removals and make your rag or Sylvanas stick long enough to copy it or pray to Yogg that he saves you.  Typically you're going to have to feed the War Axe minions anyway, so Hucksters make nice targets.  I really like to keep Shadow Strike here as a way to deal with Bloodhoof Brave, Elise, etc. 

Tempo: Backstab, SI:7, Prep, Evis, Teacher

Board control is key here.  Try not to leave them with convenient Ghoul or Ichor turns.  Shadow Strike deals with Bloodhoof pretty well.  Keep yourself at safe health, as this deck plays both Rag and Grommash.

Dragon:

SI:7 plus a combo generator are EXTREMELY important.  An early Faerie dragon can literally end the game for you right there!  Early Alexstraza's Champions can be tough too.  You need to deal with their incredibly strong 2 drops and then take initiative back.  Don't be afraid to get aggressive and sap something like a Blackwing Corrupter if you're behind!  Saving sap for the Drakonid Crusher while you're losing does you no good.  Obviously, you'd prefer to save it for the big drop, but sapping away his 6 drop does nothing when you've got no taunts and few heals and you're behind on board control.

Shaman;

Aggro - Backstab, SI:7, Prep, Evis, Sap

This is a tough matchup as well.  Most of Shaman's early minions have 3+ health, diminishing SI:7's usefulness early game.  Our deck also runs zero taunts, so if they get you low there's often nothing you can do even if you establish board control.  You need a good opener and some luck.  Skulker can help clean totems, though it won't kill Totem Golem, Wolves, or Troggs.  Sap works great against the decks running Flamewreathed.

Midrange - Backstab, SI:7, Prep, Shadow Strike, Tomb Pillager

This matchup is slightly better than Aggro.  Skulker makes quick work of totems, Shadow Strike takes care of Thing from Below, Sap deals with Flamewreathed.  However, They can build a board from nothing and often you'll just run out of removal and get overwhelmed. 

Warlock:

Mulligans - Backstab, SI:7, Fan, Huckster, Skulker, Evis

Zoo is a pretty good matchup.  Skulker absolutely demolishes a Zoo board, and you have FOUR different AoEs to work with (up to 6 if you count shadowcaster copies of Skulker).  Often Zoo will feel quite confident if you use an early Fan or Skulker and will fill the board, only to get shadowcaster -> Skulkered, or another Skulker/Fan.  Copy Skulker if you can.  Try to maintain the board as much as possible here and grind them down.  Don't leave them with a board presence to PO or Argus up. 

Renolock is one of the hardest matchups, but it's an infrequent one.  Try your best to make your Rag/Edwin stick, because they're your only real threat.  If you allow them to Reno and Jaraxxus, you're probably in trouble.

Hunter

Mulligans: Backstab, SI:7, Huckster, Shadow Strike/Evis

This is a really tough matchup.  Often you'll feel like you're winning on board, only to get outvalued later in the game by Highmane, Call of the Wild, and Houndmaster.  Try to keep their board clean and just grind them down.  Sap on Highmane wins games.  Keep necessary removal for Call of the Wild as well, you need to be able to deal with it.  Skulker, SI:7 and Thalnos/Drake are your copy targets here.  You need targeted damage or amplified removal to stay ahead.  Your health can drop in the blink of an eye.

Mage:

Mulligans - Backstab, SI:7, prep, Shadow Strike, Evis, Thalnos

This is a very hit or miss matchup.  You want to keep their board clean of Water Elementals, Flamewakers, and Mana Wyrms.  Thalnos is your friend here, as he'll make a backstab kill a Wyrm, a backstab + dagger poke kill a Flamewaker, and a Shadow Strike kill a water elemental.  Establish tempo and don't let up.  Huckster is a great copy target here as Mage cards are in general pretty good.

Priest:

Mulligans - SI:7, Backstab, Edwin, Prep, Evis

The main thing to focus on here is be careful with your copies!!  They are vulnerable to both Cabal and Shadow Madness.  Try to suicide Huckster or any copies away before turn 6.  This is a relatively good matchup, but it's going to come down to hand size, so you really don't want them grabbing a huckster or a 1/1 Rag from you.  Try to get them to waste removal on your smaller stuff, as they probably don't know you have Rag, Yogg, and Sylvanas waiting to drop.  You have a lot of 4 attack minions that they can't do much about, so try to use them and protect them if you can.  Often, you'll want to make your Edwin 4/4 just to avoid pain and death, although he can also be used as bait for removal so you can drop a Rag.

Paladin:

Mulligans - Huckster, SI;7, Backstab, Tomb Pillager, Drake

You want to take control of this matchup early.  If you can force them to use one of their equality combos on an early board or to Forbidden healing when they don't have board control, you can snowball that lead to victory.  However, early aggression is dangerous because you lack a great way to deal with Doomsayer.  Be cognizant of Doomsayer while trying to apply early pressure.  Copy Sylvanas or Rag if you can.  Stealing Tirion is critical to this matchup.

Replacements

I've tinkered around with many variations of this deck.  If Zoo and Midrange Shaman are less prevalent, Dark Iron Skulker can be removed for an extra Tomb Pillager or Violet Teacher.  The deck is a bit top heavy and ends up with no early plays occasionally with that second skulker in there, so as soon as the swarm goes away (totems, zoo) I would highly recommend throwing that 4 drop back in there.  Skulker is a pretty weak card that I'd just run as a one-of normally.  However, he singlehandedly beats zoo (especially if you can then shadowcaster him or use him after you've fanned and they think they're safe to spam the board) and can clear a board full of totems all at once as well.  Teacher is probably replaceable as well - the deck started out more as a token/spell/yogg deck and slowly changed, but the Teacher was never removed.

Sylvanas can be replaced by Cairne Bloodhoof.  Cairne is great against the control matchup as he really messes with brawl (especially if you can shadowcaster him) but he is extremely weak against Aggro.  Sylvanas still poses a threat, and if she can be shadowcastered, she presents a huge threat as an instant low mana steal with the damage toxin or backstab.  The deck originally had Cairne, and I was even able to hit top 100 with Cairne, but it became clear that Sylvanas was better pretty quickly.  Thanks to ZBOZZ for the suggesting that I replace Cairne with Sylvanas!

Why Not N'zoth?

All of the deathrattle minions played in this deck are slow, and there are only 2 deathrattle taunts right now, both of which are mediocre and big tempo losses.  Therefore, N'zoth does nothing the turn he's dropped.  If you're staring down lethal or a big board, it's not going to help you.  Yogg, on the other hand, is able to turn games around singlehandedly and can still win you the control matchup.  Often, by turn 10 you're sitting at VERY low health and can't afford to just build a board presence without clearing or healing.  He's clearly a very strong card against control, but I don't believe it's worth an include in THIS particular deck.  It certainly merits testing though, as it could turn out better than I expect.  

Go have fun with the deck!  And feel free to PM me with questions or let me know in the comments how the deck works for you.  Thanks!!