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Wall of the Undead - Legend Mill Rogue

  • Last updated Jan 23, 2021 (Darkmoon Races)
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Wild

  • 16 Minions
  • 13 Spells
  • Deck Type: Ranked Deck
  • Deck Archetype: Mill Rogue
  • Crafting Cost: 7220
  • Dust Needed: Loading Collection
  • Created: 8/19/2017 (Frozen Throne)
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  • Battle Tag:

    Ciataccis#2373

  • Region:

    EU

  • Total Deck Rating

    337

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Updated for the Tiller Hysteria madness (until fixed)

Dirty Rat and Evasion are the most effective counters to the broken combo.

I made this other version without the N'Zoth package

Anti-Tiller Mill Rogue - Hearthstone Decks (hearthpwn.com)

Enjoy

_____________________________________

You shall not escape the shadow of fatigue.

Wall of the Undead Mill Rogue Playlist

 

 

Hello everyone! The pleasure is mine, to introduce you my Mill Rogue deck and assist you to pilot it to the glory!

I'm playing Mill Rogue forever, and this N'Zoth version since the release of the Old Gods. This is a remastered version of the guide I wrote some months ago, that you can find here.

The strategy you should follow is extremely variable according to the matchup, and each of them will be discussed in detail in the guide below. For some specific games, you may want to check out the videos I uploaded on youtube that you can find above.

The main aim of the deck is to use the typical spells of the Mill Rogue (Shadowstep, Gang Up that you would usually cast on Coldlight Oracle) on N'Zoth, the Corruptor in those games where the mill strategy is not viable, or when the murloc is playing hide and seek.

I climbed the EU wild ladder from rank 15 to Legend by playing ONLY the older version of this deck in the month of March, April and July 2017. The best result was Legend top 15.

In August, September and October, in the Frozen Throne meta, reaching Legend was easier than before.

Your best matchups will be control decks. Faster matchups will be decided by the chance that you draw the answers you need in the early game.

The overall win rate of the deck is somewhere above 60%. Anyway, in order to avoid misunderstandings (:P), I need to point out that, given the extremely high skill cap of the deck, you should not expect immediate results, but be patient and practice a bit.

 

Strategies

Classic mill strategy

This is the main win condition of this archetype, as it has always been. This pure playstyle can be only adopted against classic control and slower midrange decks. I will discuss about specific matchup strategies below.

By definition, the aim of the deck is to fill the opponent's hand and burn the overdrawn cards, killing him by fatigue later in the game, exploiting the deck size advantage built through Gang Up and Deathlord.

The key card to achieve this is Coldlight Oracle. You are looking for this card in the mulligan, and you are not going to play it until you can ensure to use Shadowstep or, at least, Gang Up on it. Using the oracle hoping to draw these exact spells is a risky play, but in some rare cases, acceptable. If, for some reason, you lose both oracles, your main win condition is gone.

You need to stall the game clearing the board with your taunts and spells. As we will see, Vanish and Sap are particularly important. Use damage dealing spells for this purpose and not in your opponent's face, except as a finisher.

At least one, possibly both Gang Up must be played on Coldlight Oracle. There are very few exceptions to this (in some particular matchups you may want to use it on N'Zoth, the Corruptor or Antique Healbot), but however, never think of using it on another random opponent's minion, for how much strong it may seem.

Brann Bronzebeard can be kept as a finisher to draw up to 12 cards, in combo with the oracle. If necessary, it can be used earlier in the game with no particular drawbacks.

Deathlord should be played very carefully. If you are facing a slow deck, you want to play it only if you are ready to immediately remove/bounce the powercreep it could pull out with Sap or Vanish.

Be careful to not mill your own cards if it's not strictly necessary. You could end up burning key cards and screw up the game. For that reason, be sure to end the turn with less than 10 cards. Be particularly careful in the turns when you are using Vanish, since the bounced minions can fill your hand.

 

Vanish and Sap mechanics

Vanish and Sap are the main removals of this type of deck. To use them efficiently you need to be aware of how do they work.

In a nutshell, when you bounce back a minion in its owner's hand, if the hand is full (10 cards already), the minion will die and activate its deathrattle.

When using Vanish, this mechanics becomes hard to manage: the minions that were played first, will be bounced back, the rest that do not fit in the hand, will be killed. You can manipulate the outcome with Coldlight Oracle: if you want to kill more minions, play the oracle first, and then use Vanish. This mechanics applies also to your hand, so be careful not to kill your own key minions.

Let's understand which kind of your opponent's minion you want to bounce, and which you absolutely need to kill. Obviously, you should try to bounce in hand high cost minions with dangerous deathrattles (Tirion Fordring, Shredders, White Eyes, Savannah Highmane...). Instead, you absolutely need to kill minions with charge (including Ragnaros the Firelord), with dangerous battlecries (Loatheb, Dr. Boom, Drakonid Operative, jade-spawning minions, Old Gods), and minions that can be played next turn for a ridiculously low amount of mana (Thing from Below, Giants...).

 

I want to warn you here that knowing when to use Vanish makes the difference between a win and a crushing loss, and between a skilled player and a novice. The most common misplay I observe from people playing this deck is using Vanish too early on an absolute worthless board, that can be easily be dealt with just a taunt and maybe some other inferior spell. Always remember that, except some cases, this card is the most powerful tool you have to control the game, but you only have two of them, and it's not guaranteed that you will draw both as soon as needed. So play it when your opponent's board gets to be really threatening. 

This argument becomes particularly important with the introduction of Valeera the Hollow: Vanish is the perfect board clear after playing the DK. If you are not in immediate danger, save Vanish for this play.

When possible, play Doomsayer on the empty board following Vanish. It will earn you another turn for your strategy, or force hard removals on such a worthless minion.

 

 

Fatigue mechanics and lethal count

Main win condition of this deck is using fatigue to kill your opponent.

Fatigue is a damage that the players takes incrementally (starting from 1) each time he should draw a card but his deck is empty. Said that, you can easily understand that forcing your opponent to draw 6 cards in one turn, 7 counting the one he draws at beginning of his next turn (1+2+3+4+5+6+7=28), constitutes an OTK.

Note that fatigue does NOT reset if the player shuffle some cards back in his deck, thanks to cards like Gang Up, Jade Idol, Elise Starseeker and so on. So if the player has taken 3 damage before shuffling the card, he will draw that card, then the damage will resume from 4.

 

Virtually, you have the chance to draw a total of 12 cards in only one turn if you have the right combo in your hand (Brann Bronzebeard, 2xColdlight OracleShadowstep). Usually bringing the opponent to fatigue for 7 is enough to kill him. So sometimes you could have a lethal when your opponent has still 4 or 5 cards left in his deck. It's really easy to miss lethal with this deck, let's try to avoid it by learning to count.

The general formula to know how much damage a player will take by fatigue is x*(x+1)/2. However, you could just remember the series 1,3,6,10,15,21,28. These are some threshould values that you may want to take in account: if you bring your opponent at 28 health, you need one less draw to kill him instead of him being at 30.

When you count this, remember that your opponent will take also one more fatigue damage at the start of his next turn.

Of course the same thing applies to you. You need to make sure you won't kill yourself. For example: you have the combo in your hand to kill your opponent. 12 card draws will also kill you, but 10 will let you survive still killing your opponent. Then you play the combo in another order (Coldlight first, then Brann and the other two Coldlights) to draw only 10 cards.

 

Valeera the Hollow mechanics 

Valeera the Hollow's new hero power opens up a world of new possibilities for crazy combos in this deck. In this section I will explain how the card and the new hero power work, and later, which cards better synergize with it.

When playing the card for 9 mana, the hero becomes untargetable and gains 5 armor. It means it can still be hit by Hunter hero power, random target effects, a bunch of aoe spells and hero-targeting spells as Sinister Strike and Mind Blast. Pretty threatening are Ragnaros the Firelord and Sulfuras hero power. That said, it's pretty unlikely that you can be killed that turn, even if you are very low on health. 

When you play the hero card, you need to be prepared to horribly lose the board control. It means, you can safely do that only with a Vanish ready in your hand, or at least, a Betrayal and some Sap and/or Eviscerate. Those last three card become better reliable because you can double-cast them thanks to your new hero power.

 

Your hero power becomes passive, so you it will automatically be played with no mana cost. It adds a Shadow Reflection to your hand at the start of your turn, that dynamically turns into the last card you played before it. It will need the same amount of mana as the original card, ignoring any mana discount effect. So if you play a 1-mana Coldlight Oracle thanks to Shadowstep, its copy will still cost 3 mana.

If it is not played, it disappears at the end of your turn. So, do not expect to play infinite loops of Vanish or N'Zoth, the Corruptor.

Be aware that this card is added to your hand before you draw the topdeck. So, in order to avoid to burn a card, you need to be sure to close your turn with no more than 8 cards. If you end it with 9 cards, a Shadow Reflection is added to your hand and you burn your topdeck.

 

Nearly any card of the deck is a good candidate to be copied, according to the situation. That is particularly true when you are in topdeck mode because, for some unfortunate reasons, you still haven't drawn the Coldlight Oracle, or you don't want to play it because you are facing an aggro deck.

You may want to copy taunts or the healbot against aggro/midrange decks. Copying Gang Up allows you to extend your deck size up to 12 cards. Copying spells like Betrayal, Sap and Eviscerate might give you another board clear option.

Be aware that copying Preparation, just like playing two consecutive ones, is useless because it will not have the effect to discount the spell for 6 mana. The same goes for Brann Bronzebeard, as it will not trigger battlecries 4 times.

 

An interesting combo is given by Shadowcaster. You could use one turn to play it and its copy, starting a very fun chain. Unfortunately, when you use a 1 mana token, Shadow Reflection copies it as its full cost minion, so this combo becomes really expensive in terms of tempo. You could then run Shadowcaster and Emperor Thaurissan to have some fun, but it will drastically change the nature (and decrease the winrate) of the deck.

 

General mulligan tips

Let's see how we face the mulligan for this deck. 

As we know, mulligan is a gamble, because we cannot be 100% sure of what specific archetype our opponent is playing, so I won't bother describing mulligan for each matchup. I will write some general tips that you need to adapt to the meta you are facing.

In general, when we face a particular class, we assume it is the most common archetype played of that class currently. If more archetypes are played, we assume that it is the worst matchup for us, that is aggro.

The card that we always keep is Doomsayer. It's perfect for early game in nearly every case.

Coldlight Oracle is the key card that you should usually keep. In the case you expect an hyper aggressive deck (Pirate Warrior, Token Druid), change it immediately. Even if we end up facing a Control Warrior, we will have time to draw the murloc later.

As I said, when we are assuming an aggro matchup, your first choices in the mulligan are Doomsayer, Deathlord (and Acidic Swamp Ooze and Golakka Crawler for Pirate Warrior). Early game removal like Backstab and Eviscerate are ok. Also Antique Healbot and Sludge Belcher are ok, but they cost too much and together with them you absolutely need something cheaper to be played before.

You basically never keep Gang Up (only exception, mirror match), but you can keep Shadowstep if you also have a Coldlight Oracle, against slower decks.

Vanish is a card that generally you should change, of course because of its cost. Anyway, particularly against midrange decks as Paladin, Shaman and some Priests, you could decide to keep it as plan B if you horribly lose board control in early game, if the rest of starting hand is not complete lame.

 

Aggro matchup strategy

Aggro decks will try to vomit their low cost minions and spell to your face. Your playstyle needs to be changed accordingly.

The perfect combination to win is turn 2 Doomsayer - turn 3 Deathlord. Usually, coining out the hero power is recommended to face some turn 1 threats that risk to snowball, like Patches the Pirate or Living Roots.

Coldlight Oracle will be a dangerous card that draws your opponent burst damage. You don't want to use it unless in desperate situations where you have nothing better to play and you want to look for taunts or healbot. Also Vanish will have no use in this matchup, except rare circumstances.

Shadowstep needs to be saved for the Antique Healbot. It's also good to replay Deathlord when it's at low health, and (for pirate warrior matchup) oozes and Golakka Crawler.

Gang Up can be used when you have some "free" mana to spend, usually on the healbot, above all if you are facing a hunter or an opponent with hunter hero power. 

If you get to the point to play N'Zoth, the Corruptor with a decent amount of health, you have won.

 

Midrange matchup strategy

The match is all about board control. The key card for this purpose is Vanish. Other fundamental cards, for the same reason, are Doomsayer, Betrayal, and the other single target removals. Deathlord is a perfect play if you have Vanish in your hand, otherwise you should be careful.

According to what card you draw first during the game, and how fast your opponent is, your strategy can vary from a pure mill playstyle, to a N'Zoth focused one.

 

Combo matchup strategy

These matches require the maximum attention. The strategy of your opponent is about drawing the pieces of his combo as soon as possible. We don't want to help him in his aim.

The best approach is usually to hide the nature of our deck until your opponent fills his own hand. At that point, we should try to draw him as many cards as possible in one turn. If we are lucky, we will burn immediately some pieces of his combo. At that point, just go on with milling: more cards we burn, more probabilities we have to burn his pieces.

In this matchups Antique Healbot has a critical role. If you are facing a deck that requires a preparatory turn with Alexstrasza (freeze mage), you need to save it to use it immediately your next turn. If you are facing an OTK deck (usually Malygos decks), you should be able to burn at least some part of it: your opponent should have then a "crippled" combo that needs to kill you in more than one turn, and the healbot can ruin this plan.

Valeera the Hollow is a great anti-combo tool. Do not rush it, keep it in your hand until the opponent settles for the combo, and it can save you for one turn and give you 5 armor that might be enough to deny the OTK.

If the combo deck you are facing is not based on spells that can directly go to your face (Anyfin Paladin, Combo Priest, Leeroy shenanigans), your strategy needs to revolve around N'Zoth, the Corruptor, as your opponent's combo is nullified in front of our taunt wall.

 

Indefatigable decks matchup strategy

In this section I will discuss how to face apparently unwinnable matchups against decks that cannot be fatigued out. This list includes Druid, Priest and Warrior decks that include respectively Jade Idol, Archbishop Benedictus and Dead Man's Hand. Those last two cards are pretty rare, and for that reason, pretty hard to predict during a game. You absolutely need to use a deck tracker to better study your moves.

Except the very rare case in which we succeed to burn the cards in question, the strategy revolve around N'Zoth, the Corruptor and the ability to replay it quite endlessly thanks to Gang Up.

For that reason, the first advice is being VERY careful to preserve N'Zoth if you still haven't used a Gang Up. Do not play it and leave it unprotected on the board, if it is removed (and it will most likely be), it's game over.

 

Jade Idol strategy: In the case you run Skulking Geist as tech card, this match is auto-win. Otherwise, follow this strategy.

We need to try to mulligan as many as taunts as possible. Remove jade spawning minions as soon as possible (you don't want to use vanish on them later). Also remove immediately Fandral Staghelm and, above all, Gadgetzan Auctioneer.

Stall the game with taunts and spells (Betrayal will be a very useful card) until you get N'Zoth. Save a Shadowstep and a Gang Up to use on it. Do not use both Vanish before this point, as you absolutely need one in late game. 

If you get to the point to play N'Zoth and you didn't waste both Vanish, you have very good chances now. At this point the druid will realize what is going on and will use the idols to spawn minions and remove your taunts. Keep replaying N'Zoth when he manages to clear your board. Meanwhile, remove his lower level jade golems. 

When the board is filled with 10 mana fatties, use Vanish. Your opponents hand will be filled with 10 mana minions that can't be played together with another Jade idol. Next turn you will play N'Zoth and refill your board, that your opponent won't be able to clear anymore. At this point you should go face. If, for some reason, he can rebuild a decent board before you win, always be careful that he won't be able to kill you next turn. If he could, crash some of your deathlords and replay N'Zoth, while you go face exploiting the wall of taunts.

 

Dead Man's Hand strategy: If only one copy of this card is played by the opponent, we can still win the fatigue game. This card can become a problem if two of them are played by the opponent and he starts an infinite cycle. A deck running this card will also probably be a N'Zoth deck that can compete with us on the same strategy of ours. Anyway, The fact that Gang Up is focused on a single target, allows us to have a more consistent chance to play N'Zoth every turn. Use the deck tracker to know how many Brawl he might still have, as it is a pretty good party pooper for us.

 

Archbishop Benedictus strategy: This card is really hard to predict, as it is usually played in Reno priests that give us no informations about the card before it's played. The worst situation happens when the priest can steal Coldlight Oracle and Gang Up because, if he is smart enough, he can follow the mill strategy and kill us with our weapon. Also he may steal N'Zoth, the Corruptor and a couple taunts to perform that strategy as well. Anyway, his deck becomes very inconsistent and he might need a lot of draws to get the cards he needs to setup his counterattack, so we need to be fast and kill him with the N'Zoth wall as soon as possible.

You might as well go for using Gang Up on Archbishop Benedictus, preferably if the priest couldn't copy your own Gang Up: otherwise, your opponent could do the same, and a copy-deck loop could start. This move will give you the same issue addressed before: also your deck becomes inconsistent, and you might end up in a bad spot, being unable to finish your opponent off before he kills you with the DK power. Anyway, if you go for this, you may expect the match to go on for a while (more than you may want).

 

Mirror match strategy

Mirror matches are very peculiar. Obviously, the key to win is being able to mantain a bigger deck size than your opponent. This is achieved by playing more Gang Up and killing more of your own Deathlord than the opponent. Valeera the Hollow allows you to copy those cards and gives you a huge advantage. So the best strategy is trying to save both Gang Up to be used only with the DK power.

You can easily understand how it's important not to burn these cards. The match is usually won by the player who mills his opponent's Gang Up. If you have both of them in your hand (and Valeera the Hollow), you can breathe a sigh of relief.

For this reason, you want to drop as many cards as possible to avoid to fill your hand. Vanish can be used to refill the opponent's hand with this bunch of minions, so you want to kill your own minions as soon as possible to avoid this effect.

Sap should usually be used on the opponent's Deathlord, especially when it is low on health. You really want to avoid killing it. In alternative, if you have the chance, you may fill your board (usually with N'Zoth) before killing your opponent's Deathlord so that his deathrattle cannot trigger.

What minions do we play Gang Up on? Many people may say Deathlord, obviously because they reduce only your opponent's deck size. Anyway, usually the mirror matches end up in fatigue so fast that probably you won't even have time to play and kill them. You might have better luck using Gang Up on Coldlight Oracle and mantain the control of the milling action. 

If you and your opponent have similar deck size, the result of the match is decided by who is able to bring the killing blow. For this reason, when the decks are approaching the fatigue, keep counting for lethal and do not blindly play the murloc: you might serve your opponent lethal instead. For this purpose, take a look at the "threshold values" I pointed out in the "Counting lethal" section.

Try to save Brann Bronzebeard and Shadowstep for this moment. You might finish off your opponent when he still has 6 cards in his deck by drawing 12 cards (+1 his next turn). Shadowblade can be decisive in this situation, because it allows you to kill your opponent also if you are at disadvantage with fatigue, but its mana cost reduces the number of card that you can draw that turn.

 

Card alternatives

Let's see what cards you can decide to replace in order to be prepared for meta shifts, or just because you don't own them. The cards listed in the deck that I won't include below are staple cards that should not be removed. In this section I will also discuss about some "false friends" that I strongly discourage choosing.

  • Preparation has an insane tempo value, but in a fast meta it's the card you never want to see as your topdeck.
  • Betrayal is very good against midrange decks. Still useful against aggro. Fundamental against any jade deck. While jade will still be a thing, absolutely run 2 copies of it.
  • Backstab is commonly used, but in the current meta I have found it a little underwhelming to face aggro decks.
  • Shadow Strike is preferred over 1 Eviscerate because it can directly deal with widely used minions like Emperor ThaurissanThing from BelowJade Chieftain, AvianaAuchenai Soulpriest and so on.
  • Fan of Knives is useful for its double effect. The draw is always good if we are in some bad spot, but if we don't run Spell damage minions, dealing one damage is a bit underwhelming and rarely really useful.
  • Deadly Poison and Blade Flurry were a commonly used combo in this deck. Not really viable anymore because of the nerf.
  • Conceal's only purpose in this deck is to hide Doomsayer. It's a great move to clear the board, but you will take tons of face damage. It cannot be possibly used to hide Coldlight Oracle, because every aoe spell can easily kill a 2 health minion.
  • Sabotage is not a terrible card, above all in this weapon-filled meta. Still, the high cost to kill a random minion is a big drawback. 
  • Beneath the Grounds is terrible against any deck of which you should be able to burn some card. In fact, you could burn Ambush!, losing its effect and saving other opponent's cards. Against the other decks (mostly aggro), it's just a huge waste of tempo. 
  • Sprint is a dead card in most matchups, as it destroys your own win condition. In aggro matchups it could theoretically be useful if you get late game, but its cost is such a tempo waste that you will probably lose either way. 
  • The Caverns Below is a card I do not recommend. You don't expect having any board to take advantage of it until you play N'Zoth, and even then, the effect won't change the outcome of the match. It only steals a slot for mulligan.
  • Shadowblade could be a good card for the mulligan against aggro, 3 damage can remove many of early game threats. It's basically the same play as Hero power-Deadly Poison, except you save yourself some face damage. Plus, it may have a "Violet Illusionist"-like usage to avoid fatigue damage, good for mirror matches.

 

  • Brann Bronzebeard gives a huge boost. It can work as finisher with the coldlights, or heal booster with the healbot. The new DK hero power can allow a similar effect, but i still recommend using it.
  • The Curator gives the deck more consistency. Drawing the oracle early enough is your win condition in most matchups. With this card you basically have 3 oracles instead of 2. It's a taunt, so not completely useless in aggro matchups. Beware that, if you run a beast (crabs) and/or dragons in the deck, they will be drawn before the murlocs, so be careful not to burn the oracle if your hand is too full. For a replacement, see Azure Drake.
  • Skulking Geist is the ultimate tech card against Jade Druid, Secret Paladin, Evolve Shaman and a lot of combo decks (Malygos, Combo Priest...). Its only existence can be a deterrent to play any deck that relies on 1-mana spell cards, so there could be some moments in the meta when you can decide to remove it, because none will be playing the card that it is supposed to burn.
  • Acidic Swamp Ooze is the tech card to counter pirate and aggro decks. If, as we all hope, the meta will drastically change, you could choose to remove one or both.
  • Gluttonous Ooze is the new, better version of the previous one. I use one of both because, sometimes, the 1 mana difference can be decisive.
  • Golakka Crawler is a must have in the pirate meta. It increases your winrate against pirate warrior by A LOT. Just a random vanilla 2 drop in other matches.
  • Hungry Crab for a guaranteed ownage of paladins and co. in a "murlocs everywhere" meta.
  • Bloodmage Thalnos is a classic mill rogue card, but it has a very bad synergy with N'Zoth, the Corruptor. If you decide to run it, be careful to NEVER use it in some matchups (jade druid, mirror matches, other fatigue decks).
  • SI:7 Agent is, in general, a very strong card. Unfortunately the 3 mana slot is overwhelmed in this deck, and the combo effect is not always easy to pull out in early game. 
  • Shadowcaster has a very interesting concept for this deck. Its combo with Brann Bronzebeard and N'Zoth, the Corruptor (and any other battlecry minion useful for the matchup) would be awesome, but in this moment it is just too slow.
  • Youthful Brewmaster is basically a Shadowstep with a body. The 2 drop body can be useful, but the missing mana reduction is a big drawback.
  • Refreshment Vendor is recommended over Earthen Ring Farseer for its bigger body and better heal. Also the 4 mana slot of this deck is empty, so it can be a good 4th turn play.
  • Prince Valanar can cover the same role of 4 mana filler, with the advantage of the taunt. Nevertheless, differently from Refreshment Vendor, if it gets removed by a spell you lose the heal.
  • Dark Iron Skulker is a very good card against zoo. Unfortunately it's pretty slow and completely useless in all other matchups. It will be a nice addition if ever zoo will see a rebirth.
  • Azure Drake is another classic mill rogue card. Its properties can be helpful, but digging it out with The Curator can have the important drawbacks to reduce your deck size and fill too much your hand. So avoid running them together.
  • Xaril, Poisoned Mind's Toxins are pretty interesting, but I don't feel there are cards worth to be removed to make space for this. As a deathrattle minion, interferes with the Jade Druid strategy (see above).
  • Unstable Ghoul is a good card against aggro, and I definitely recommend it. But If you revive it multiple times with N'Zoth, it's going to be a weak spot in our taunt wall.
  • Plague Scientist. 1. Play Unstable Ghoul. 2. Use Plague Scientist's effect on it. 3. Profit. A funny board clear combo, but weak to silence effects. As standalone card, it can be used as single target removal if you have a minion on board, but in that case, it's just strictly worse than Vilespine Slayer.
  • Mistress of Mixtures is a very good 1 drop in aggro matchup. As a deathrattle minion, interferes with the Indefatigable deck strategy (see above).
  • Dancing Swords could be good against control and fatigue decks, but those are already our best matchups. Drawing a card for other type of decks is not advised. As a deathrattle minion, interferes with the Indefatigable deck strategy (see above).
  • Loatheb is a life saver against spell based aggro decks (like tempo mage) or combo decks (Malygos decks, freeze mage). Also, in general, it's the perfect card that you want to play the turn before using Vanish.
  • Saboteur takes his place in this deck because of the overwhelming presence of Highlander Priest in ladder. It also destroys the rare OTK DK Paladin. In these matches you want to use Gang Up on it and play it every turn, to avoid bad surprises. Its body is not terrible in other matchups.
  • Dirty Rat can be considered if the meta switch towards those combo decks that are hard countered by it. Against aggro should be ok, particularly if you use it when you can deal with the pulled minion (for example with Betrayal). However it's not synergistic with the mill strategy, since our aim is to fill opponent's hand, not to slim it down.
  • Emperor Thaurissan could theoretically enable some crazy combos, but it's useless in aggro matchups and, in general, its high cost-body ratio puts in danger your board control.
  • Big Game Hunter is another card that lost his role after its nerf. It is usually useful in those matchups where you are already favored, and it is terrible in the worst matchups (aggro).
  • Vilespine Slayer is the new card that can replace Big Game Hunter, removing the 7-attack limitation. It's definitely a good card, in the right meta.
  • King Mukla can enable some burning card combo by filling opponent's hand with Bananas. Just as other cards in this list, it's very good in already favored matchups (control), and bad against worst matchups (aggro).
  • Nat, the Darkfisher is more like a meme card. It shares the issue of Dancing Swords: you don't want to draw cards to aggro decks.
  • Reno Jackson has no point in this deck. It's useless against aggro, and can be active only in late game against control decks, at some point of the match when you should have already won. 
  • Barnes. Meh. In combo with Shadowstep, 80% of minions it can summon are great targets to bounce to your hand.

 

Tech card guide

This is a general spotlight on which are the best card to tech your deck according to the decks you are facing more often. 

 

Aggro counters: Acidic Swamp OozeGluttonous Ooze and Golakka Crawler for Pirate Warriors. Betrayal is good against Token Druid. Shadowblade works as good early game removal. Dark Iron Skulker is good against Zoo, but the most common aggro decks atm all have minions with 3 health. Prince Valanar is pretty good for survivability.

Midrange counters: Betrayal is a life saver in most situations. Unstable Ghoul-Plague Scientist combo gives you an additional board clear option. Prince Valanar is also good here.

Combo counters: Loatheb is the perfect choice to stop almost every OTK combo deck. You may save Shadowstep and Gang Up to use on it repeatedly. Skulking Geist can mess up many combo decks.

Fatigue counters: Shadowblade is the only card i can recommend if you want to tech for mirror matches. In other matchups it might not be that impactful, because you are too much ahead in terms of deck size, or too much behind (against indefatigable decks).

 

I can assure you it is one of the funniest deck you can ever try, I hope you will try it and enjoy.

May the Shadow be with you!