Hearthpwn

I was infuriated by the popular opinion on the Rogue set and it being deemed worthless or underpowered, especially the dismissive attitude to the razorleaf petal introduction, especially with cards like Sherazin and Biteweed. So I took it upon myself to see how viable such a deck could be, where the main focus is on generating cards.

After my mandatory 30 wins in ranked I will now place some of my observations. I'm not gonna go much into detail about specific matchups, since decklists are in a process of refinement right now, and such things can't be said with certainty, I'm merely going to express my opinion on the power level of certain cards.

First off - what does the deck do?

In case it wasn't clear, you basically just play your stuff, get the discovery and card generation effects and, when you feel comfortable, you drop your Biteweeds and Edvin. Once you are in control, cards like Shadowcaster and Vilespine Slayer will get you the efficiency/value you need to close out games. At the top of it all stands Sherazin, that will make sure you never lose that board. The dream is to get 2 of these on the field either thanks to Shadowcaster or The Journey Below and keeping them alive and trading. The deck is like a control/tempo hybrid, though beware, bar huge early Edvin's you lack the ability to close games out early and control should be the top priority.

The Deck

It's still early stages and I'm doing a lot of tinkering, thankfully, I've realised some important things. For instance, the plant part of the deck are not just there for cosmetics or as filler to complement the deck, they have real power to them and are worth building towards, therefore what must be understood is the ability to generate cards is key, so is anything that increases usability of said plants - if you would like to run a second Shadowcaster, that is a-okey, I cut one in favour of making the deck more defensive, because pirate warriors are hanging on to dear life, thinking their deck is still relevant, so I put in 2 Tar Creepers. Things you can try are making the deck more miracle like - add cycle, add Counterfeit Coins for bigger power plays, don't be afraid to try things out, the deck has A LOT of flex slots right now.

UPDATE 08/04

So far the deck has remained unchanged and I just hit the mandatory rank 5 of the season, so now I feel comfortable with making some changes and see how they pan out, I'll monitor the effects and try various things, important things I notice I will record here.

Things regarding the current list:

Tar Creeper is doing massive work, originally I just stuck him in so I have a fighting chance against Pirate Warrior, but even in the other matchups the card is an absolute pleasure to have, not too relevant, but it's elemental tag can help with some elemental effects depending on your burgle effects, so I think I will be solidifying his position in the deck for now.

Journey Below is primarily a means to get additional Sherazin, Corpse Flower but the reliability of this is surprisingly lackluster, I don't have hard stats on this, but I would gauge the hit rate at around 15%. Sure, there are a lot of class specific deathrattles, but I seem to be getting all the other ones more often than Sherazin, might be a coincidence, but it might mean I have to trade 1 copy of Journey Below for another Shadowcaster for a more reliable 2nd copy of Sherazin.

Some common matchups:

Pirate Warrior - Tar Creeper is your best friend, but even with both you are not really in a position where you are likely to win, you can't stop their tempo early and if they curve into an upgrade effect it's really grim. Discovers can net you a lot of defensive options, but it's obviously unreliable, the matchup is winnable, but I usually approach it without too much expectation.

Fire Plume Warrior - You are pretty golden if you get a Sherazin on the board within the first 15 cards of the deck, because the other case is usually when it gets problematic, not much to say, it's just a slugfest of killing his taunts over and over until he runs out, I'd call myself favored overall

Crystal Core Rogue - Bar the nuts draw of the Rogue which is something like 2x bounces and a Mimic Pod into either bounce targets or Shadowstep I'd say the matchup is highly favored. You have so many opportunities to win - discover effects can net you a lot of ramp options for your Edwin andBiteweeds which just kill the Rogue so fast, Sherazin is big pressure, your opponent can draw bricky... short story - I win a lot.

Shaman unite the murlocs and elemental - There's not much difference between these matchups, the core cards remain the same - Vilespine Slayer and Sherazin, I also like holding on to Bloodmage Thalnos, but aoe can often be burgled though Fan of Knives is helpful. Just keep a handle on his board and you are in decent shape.

Not really facing much of other classes or decks, so will withhold further observations.

UPDATE 11/04

As the decks became more refined I had to switch gears myself and relieve some of the focus from card generation to card draw in order to get that Sherazin out more consistently, as well as the combo cards that grew based on your cards played, because frankly, you had a timer on you in an increasing amount of matchups. So enter Novice Engineer aswell as an additional pirate, along with Patches for extra consistency. I completely ditched the Razorpetal Lashers as well as Journey Below. Since we now rely exclusively on Shadowcaster for the extra Sherazin, we added another copy at the expense of Vilespine Slayer.

Frankly I've hit a wall, and while this version is finally performing satisfactory, and it might need some major overhauling to really make it shine. So feel free to rework this deck at leisure, but take the current set as a well working base.

I will be expanding this writeup as I go, do give the deck a try and share your thoughts in the comments, Thank You!