[Rank 1 LEGEND] Malygos Rogue
- Last updated Nov 19, 2016 (Yogg Nerf)
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Wild
- 15 Minions
- 15 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Malygos Rogue
- Crafting Cost: 9720
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 11/17/2016 (Yogg Nerf)
- ieatchildren123
- Registered User
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Total Deck Rating
205
Hi, I'm iEatChildren, and I reached rank 1 legend on NA today with this Malygos rogue deck. I had a 85% win rate against shaman (11-2) and 82% win rate overall (23-5). I am posting this deck here for a few reasons (mostly to brag), but also to offer a solution against the shaman scourge that has infected the meta for quite a while now. If enough people show interest, I will write a quick guide on how to play this deck for those who are unfamiliar with it.
Update: I have now posted a guide below.
Proof:
Stats:
Mulligans:
(Aggressive decks) Mage, Hunter, Beast Druid, Zoolock, Dragon/Face Warrior, and Shaman:
Always keep Backstab, SI:7 Agent, and Swashburglar.
Against Shaman, always keep Shadow Strike to deal with Totem Golem.
With coin or Preparation in hand, keep Edwin VanCleef.
If the rest of your hand is pretty good, keep Tomb Pillager.
(Control decks) Renolock, Control Warrior, Priest and Paladin:
Always keep Swashburglar, Tomb Pillager, and Azure Drake.
If the rest of your hand is pretty good, keep Gadgetzan Auctioneer.
(Slow decks) Rogue and Malygos Druid:
Always keep Tomb Pillager and Swashburglar.
With coin or Preparation in hand, keep Edwin VanCleef.
If the rest of your hand is good, keep Azure Drake, Backstab, and Shadow Strike.
Guide
Deck Introduction:
Malygos Rogue is a combo deck that utilizes tempo-heavy spells and minions to take board control, draw through the deck with Gadgetzan Auctioneer, and ultimately finish the opponent with Malygos. The One Night in Karazhan expansion has boosted the strength of the deck with the addition of Swashburglar and Barnes. Rogue in general is not an easy class to play, and this deck requires lots of practice to get the hang of, especially if you are not familiar with the class.
Managing The Hero Power:
The Rogue hero power is unique in that it can be used to make two separate 1 damage attacks, offering the most tempo out of all 9 hero powers. For example, if are playing against a Paladin, a single dagger deals with 2 recruits, meaning one Rogue hero power traded with two Paladin hero powers. The cost, of course, is that you take face damage in the process. Additionally, since the dagger is a weapon, unlike with other hero powers you invest mana on a single turn and reap the benefits in the following turns. All other hero powers have immediate, single effects that don't require the player to think many turns ahead. This is why using your hero power on turn 2 as Rogue is usually a fine play, while in other classes it is usually a bad one. It's also why managing the hero power optimally is not easy.
The trick is to know when you should attack your opponent's face with the dagger and when you should hold it for future turns. If you simply hold onto the dagger and never attack with it until you have a minion to kill, you will often find yourself over-riding a charge of the dagger when you hero power again, wasting damage that could have been dealt to your opponent. The basic rule is to ask yourself if you will have 2 mana remaining the following turn to re-dagger. If you think you do, make sure your dagger doesn't have 2 durability going into the next turn. Since you can attack only once a turn, you need to have only 1 durability so you can attack and use up the dagger, then equip a new one.
However, there are exceptions that depend on the situation and the match-up. For example, if you are in a position where your health is really low and you can't afford to take damage, go face with any remaining charge(s) of the dagger to kill the opponent as quickly as possible. If you suspect your opponent is running Harrison Jones, never leave your dagger at 2 charges. This means that if you predict you will hero power next turn, use up the dagger completely this turn so that you can equip a new one next turn and attack again, setting it down to 1 charge. If you are close to killing your opponent within the next few turns, go face often as possible to maximize your chance of having lethal damage. There are too many different situations to list, but the main idea is to think ahead a few turns ahead when managing the hero power. This will become much easier and instinctive after playing many games.
Card Explanations:
Backstab: removes an annoying minion for 0 mana, activates combo for 0 mana, draws a card with auctioneer for 0 mana.
Preparation: play any spell in the deck for free, best used with auctioneer and edwin.
Sinister Strike: 8 damage for 1 mana with Malygos. Gives you the burst to win against control decks.
Swashburglar: Gives the deck a turn 1 play, can be used with turn 2 dagger to kill 2 health enemy minions. Also not a terrible draw in the late-game unlike other 1 drops since it gives you another (possibly late-game) card.
Eviscerate: 2 mana deal 4 damage is very good for tempo. It can be used as removal or face damage with Malygos.
Sap: Removing an opposing a minion and playing your own in the same turn; the ultimate tempo gain card.
Shiv: Can be used as removal or face damage with Malygos. Helps cycle through the deck to find the cards you need.
Edwin VanCleef: Game-winning against decks without hard-removal, as you can easily make a huge Edwin by combining coin and preps. A simple turn like prep+eviscerate+edwin removes a Totem Golem and plays a 6/6 for 3 mana.
Fan of Knives: The only AOE remaining in the deck after the nerf to Blade Flurry. Can be underwhelming by itself, but great with spell power. Thalnos+fan or drake+fan can clear a board of totems. It also draws you a card, so in match-ups where it's unnecessary, you can simply cycle it.
Shadow Strike: Removes Totem Golem, Thing From Below, Azure Drake, Fire Elemental, Emperor Thaurissan, and many other popular cards very efficiently. Can be played for free with prep.
SI:7 Agent: Key to handling your opponent's early game minions. The combo effect can be easily activated with coin or backstab. Backstab+SI is a great way to kill that pesky Totem Golem or any other 4 health minion, while also developing a 3/3.
Tomb Pillager: One of the best 4 drops in the game. The coin is best used to activate combos, draw more cards with auctioneer, and fit in more spells with Malygos.
Thalnos: An auto-include in every deck that desires cheap spell damage. Thalnos+fan of knives is effectively a consecrate that draws you a card for 5 mana or 2 mana with prep.
Barnes: Has a lot of good outcomes in this deck, including Malygos, Auctioneer, Thalnos, Drake, Emperor, and Tomb Pillager. Sometimes when you are completely behind on board, you can roll Malygos and clear the board with fan or kill your opponent with burn spells.
Azure Drake: Spell damage+card draw.
Emperor Thaurissan: Helps you fit in more spells with Malygos or Auctioneer. Just a great card in general when you have a large hand, which you often do with this deck.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer: The primary draw engine of the deck. When used alongside coins and preps, you can clear the opponent's board, develop a 4/4 that must be killed, and draw a bunch of cards.
Malygos: Your primary win condition, especially against control decks that have a lot of heal. It can also be used to perform some insane board clears with backstab and fan of knives.
Basic Strategy:
The key to playing any deck is identifying your win condition based on a specific match-up.
Against control decks with heal, like priest and murloc paladin, your win condition is to discount malygos and burn spells with emperor thaurissan so that you can kill your opponent in one turn, not giving them a chance to heal. Knowing some of the basic damage combos is important in accomplishing this. Malygos+sinister+sinister+evis+evis is 34 damage, which is more than enough to beat most decks in a single turn. Malygos+sinister+sinister+evis+shiv is 31 damage, which is also enough to OTK most decks. Since this deck plays 2 copies of all these spells, you can afford to use a few of them for board control rather than face damage even against control decks.
Against aggro decks, you need to simply prioritize surviving until you can close out the game yourself. Use whatever method necessary to take board control and avoid taking damage. Malygos is basically a dead card, since you will never have time to play it, but your other minions should be big enough to give you the game should you make it to the late stage.
Against midrange decks, your win condition is to take board control, beat up your opponent with your minions, and eventually finish him off with spells, often with Malygos but not always. Your cards like backstab, SI, prep, eviscerate, etc. all give you a good tempo advantage that helps you take the board. The trade-off for massive tempo is using a lot of cards. For example, prep+evis+edwin is a great turn tempo-wise, but you just used 3 cards on turn 3. Unless you can maintain sufficient card draw, you will simply run out of steam. This is why it's important to save your coins and preps for Gadgetzan Auctioneer if possible. Don't be afraid to drop Emperor Thaurissan whenever you can. Your win condition isn't the full OTK, so just discounting your hand and being able to play more cards the next turn is good enough.
Additional Notes:
Backstab + SI removes a 4 health minion, such as Totem Golem, and develops a 3/3 minion, all for 3 mana. Since backstab is so key to activating the SI agent's combo in the early game, if you have backstab and SI in your opening hand, you should save the backstab until turn 3 to combo with the SI. For example, if your opponent plays a Mana Wyrm on turn 1, instead of backstabbing it and hitting with dagger on your turn 2, simply dagger up and pass. The next turn, if your opponent plays Sorcerer's Apprentice you can backstab the apprentice, deal 2 damage to the mana wyrm with the SI combo, then finish it off with your dagger. If you had used the backstab on turn 2, then your SI would just be a 3/3 on turn 3 since its combo cannot be activated.
In midrange and control match-ups, tomb pillager is an incredible asset. If you are on the coin, you can coin out tomb pillager on turn 3. When it is killed, you get a coin, which you can use to coin out an azure drake on turn 4. In this way tomb pillager makes your curve very flexible and provides great tempo. However, the coin is at its best with Gadgetzan Auctioneer; just playing the coin draws you a card since it's a spell, and the extra mana it gives you can be used to fit another spell, drawing you yet another card and pushing the board state further in your favor.
Would it better to save my gold up and eventually get barnes or emporer? and what can i replace each with
Thanks
Emperor Thaurissan is very important to this deck, but Barnes is repleacable with Dark Iron Skulker, so i recommend you BRM, if u want to play this deck.
Emperor Thausrissan is rotating out soon keep that in mind :)
Realy realy enjoying this deck, just removed a swashburglar for another sap, it give a pretty good tempo and gives a better value for barnes. rank10 to 5 going legend with it if i've enough time :)
Any way i can replace Edwin VanCleef for another card?
You could try a second Sap or maybe some tech cards like Harrison Jones or Dark Iron Skulker. I highly recommend you craft Edwin though if you want to play this deck or any other Rogue deck to its full potential. Edwin single-handedly wins you games against decks without hard removal, especially aggro decks. By combining Preparation and coin(s), you can easily play a 8/8 or 10/10 minion by turn 3 or 4 while removing your opponent's board.
Thanks,I just got dust for VanCleef
Any chance questing adventure would be a good replacement Edwin Vancleef?
He does not synergize that well, since he gets only half the value from played cards. He is good in mill rogue in combination with Conceal. In this deck his potentional gets wasted, since he can be removed easier. Edwin Van Cleef is as well as Bloodmage Thalnos irreplaceble in rogue decks.
Hi! I would like to ask one question. Against shaman, how to deal with feral spirit? Or even the worse, shaman have the coin, plays tunnel trogg in turn 1 then in turn 2 he coins and plays the feral spirit... Please help me!:)
The best answer to turn 1 trogg into turn 2 coin feral spirit is to SI+backstab the trogg on your turn 3. The 3/3 body of the SI Agent trades well with the 2/3 wolves, and unless your opponent has lightning bolt, they won't be able to answer the SI with 1 mana remaining their following turn.
For me, it's usually a two turn fix. Try to spellpower Fan of Knives, and hero power one of them. you take damage, but the shaman is overloaded so he wont have many threats immediately after
I really love Rogue class and this deck in particular, read your guide to knew how to play it, BUT i really cant reach at least rank 9 'cause of all aggro decks(doing mulligans like author said to do it vs. Aggro decks). Most of the time i just have nothing to answer to their ambush-cards. May be i'm doing something wrong, i really think i am. By the way, i dont have Bloodmage Thalnos, is that a big problem in this deck?(replaced him to Cobold geomancer). Can author advice some more pro-tips on "how to live"? Will be really thankful.
Against aggro, It's important to know when to trade and when to race. Given enough time, aggro decks will find the damage to kill you, especially since this deck doesn't have any heal. This is why you have to know when you should actually go face with your minions rather than trade. For example, if you are ahead on board against a Hunter and he plays Infested Wolf, sometimes it is correct to ignore it and go face with your minions. Sticky deathrattle minions like Infested Wolf are hard to kill, and usually requires you to spend 5+ damage that could better be used to kill your opponent quicker. This deck has a lot of burst spells, so if you can get some face damage in with your minions, it is possible to kill aggro decks first since they also don't run heal. The key is to calculate in how many turns you will die if you don't trade and in how many turns you can kill your opponent. For example if your Hunter opponent has 7 mana the next turn, you know the maximum damage he can deal is Kill Command+Quick Shot+Quick Shot, which is 11 damage. If you are above 11 health and think you can kill your opponent the following turn if you go all face now, then do it.
In the end, aggro decks are the worst match-up for this deck, so if you are running into a lot of them, my advice is to play a different deck. As for Thalnos, your Kobold Geomancer replacement is fine; the spell damage is more valuable to this deck than the card draw, but of course it is better to have both. Thalnos is in a lot of the top tier decks and always will be because of how useful it is (and it's a Classic card so it will always be playable in Standard), so I highly recommend you get around to crafting it eventually.
It's all you broseph. This deck is favored against faggro. I myself have good winrate against faggro, though not as good as the author. But sometimes they can curve out too well and your curve can be sh*t so you get wrecked. In the long run, just stick to the guide.
Regarding Bloodmage Thalnos, I guess it's very important but not critical like Malygos for instance... I'd try Kobold, maybe even the evolved one, until I had enough dust to craft him (which you should, seeing how valuable it has been for a while).
Thanks for the imformation! 1 more question: what if i will replace cobold-geomancer with Ragnaros? is that a weak card in this deck?
I have a similar deck but I am not sure which version is better. I run -1 Swashburgler -1 fan +1 conceal +1 sap. Gives me better Barnes and Conceal has won a high percent of games. The sap for the fan I am not so sure about. I lose some cycle and in this meta maybe sap isn't so good, but it helps me push temp and it's cheaper to play than fan.
I wondered about Dark Iron Skulker as well against shaman but I have not tried it.
I think the Shaman craze is wearing off and things are leveling back out. But yeah, that Skulker has had opponents (shaman) quit after I wipe their board with him and a fan of knives. XD
And I agree, I always run 2 sap as well. I haven't really played around with conceal but I think I'll give it a go.
Had a fun game against a Mage yesterday at the start of the stream. Antonidas time :D
VOD Rogue Antonidas
Youtube-Player:
It's all you. I had about 80% winrate until I hit a sh*tty draw phase and high ranks (5-ish), but overall I'm still at ~60% against shaman.