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67% winrate to Legendary Barnes Lich King Tempo...

  • Last updated Nov 26, 2017 (Marin's Treasure)
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Wild

  • 25 Minions
  • 5 Spells
  • Deck Type: Ranked Deck
  • Deck Archetype: Tempo Rogue
  • Crafting Cost: 15160
  • Dust Needed: Loading Collection
  • Created: 11/19/2017 (Marin's Treasure)
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  • Battle Tag:

    N/A

  • Region:

    US

  • Total Deck Rating

    175

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Deck Overview

I just hit legend with this deck, going on a 10-2 streak to climb from low rank 2 to legendary. Overall my winrate with this version of the deck is 67%, going 28-14 including games at rank 2, rank 1, and legendary . This deck performs very well against Rogue, going 9-1 against Rogue in that span. Since Rogue makes up ~25% of the metagame at rank 5 and above, this deck is a solid choice to climb with.

Hearthstone Lich King Barnes Rogue Status

Card Choices

Check the video for more info on the core cards / cards you can swap in. Really, though, IMO the list as presented is best for climbing from rank 5 onwards. 

Let's talk about some of the non-standard cards in the list:

1: Cairne Bloodhoof is pretty standard by now, but he is a tough-to-remove 6 drop that is likely to stick around to get Bonemare'd turn 7. Also, the 4 power means he is difficult for priest to deal with outside of Dragonfire Potion or the Pint-Size Potion / Shadow Word: Horror combo, and each of those leaves Baine Bloodhoof behind to be Bonemare'd up.

2: Barnes is a guaranteed 4/5 of stats, and sometimes you roll high and get The Lich King or Cobalt Scalebane or Cairne Bloodhoof off of him.  Sometimes you roll medium and get a charging Leeroy Jenkins or Southsea Deckhand or Patches the Pirate, or your Tar Creeper, or even a Southsea Captain to buff your board. The rest of the time, yeah he's "just" a 4/5, but even then you can quite often Shadowstep the 1/1 to powerful effect (think SI:7 Agent, Vilespine Slayer, Edwin VanCleef)

3: The Lich King is a strong Barnes pull and just a strong 8 drop. My original version of this deck pulled the king in favor of Xaril, Poisoned Mind, but the version I played tonight ran the king.  I honestly think both cards are good and have pros and cons.  The King is a better pull off of Barnes, but a lot of games are over turn 7 and Xaril is actually castable in that time.. LK has a  bigger body, Xaril's 3/2 frame kinda sucks. The toxins Xaril gives you are better combo enablers and give you small meaningful effects vs the King's big, expensive effects. It's too big to solve, run the one you like. Tonight, I liked the King and he did well for me.

The Coin

The Coin is powerful in this deck. When I watch people play this deck in the lower ranks of the ladder (5-15), I think people tend to throw the Coin away too frivolously. Many times Coin -> Prince Keleseth -> Shadowstep is the right play, but more often I think it's better to hang on to the coin as a combo enabler and just wait until turn 2 to play your Keleseth. You only sacrifice one unbuffed draw and get to hang on to the coin to enable your SI:7 Agent or do powerful things like turn 4 Coin -> Vilespine Slayer into turn 5 Cobalt Scalebane.  This isn't to say that coining out Keleseth turn 1 is a bad play, there are some games where it is absolutely correct. But, it's not the slam-dunk no-brainer play that most people think it is. Stop to consider whether the coin can be put to better use on future turns before playing your Prince.

Beatdown vs Control

What am I talking about?  Read this (almost 20 year old, my gosh I remember when this was written) article by Mike Flores.  Who's the Beatdown?

Although the article is old and is written about Magic: the Gathering, the core concept 100% matters today and applies to Hearthstone, and understanding it is crucial to winning with this deck. The majority of people seem to consider this an "Aggro" deck, and think the goal is to attack face as much as you can. While some matchups are super clear (against Priest or Big Druid you are the obviously the beatdown deck), in many matchups (vs Zoolock, Murloc Paladin, and most 'mirror' matches), you are actually the control deck. Your goal is to use your minions, hero power, and combo abilities / battlecries (SI:7 Agent, Vilespine Slayer, Bonemare) not to beat your opponents face, but instead to clear your opponents board.  This is vital against any deck that runs Bonemare, and doubly so against Murloc Paladins, who also have Blessing of Kings and Spikeridged Steed.

The trick to winning games (with any deck, but especially with this deck) is correctly identifying whether you are the beatdown or the control, and acting accordingly. If you've never seen that article before, or just need a refresher, read it. It's a core concept of understanding how to win any collectible card game, and applies to every game of Hearthstone you will ever play. 

Mulligan Guide

Here's the basic mulligan guide, you can see live data on hsreplay.net here https://hsreplay.net/decks/vqVeNmlw86u061VV0g76Nf/

Mulligan info for Barnes Tempo Rogue deck

The above info is general mulligan data for this deck against all ranks vs all opponents.  I agree with the information above, with the following quick and dirty guidelines: Always keep Prince Keleseth (and along with Keleseth, Shadowstep), Fire Fly, Swashburglar, Southsea Captain.  Keep Tar Creeper if you think your opponent is aggro / tempo. Keep SI:7 Agent if you are on The Coin (or have Backstab) and think your opponent is not control. Keep Backstab unless you think your opponent is control. Keep Edwin VanCleef on the coin against Rogue, Priest, and Druid, and if you are keeping him, you will consider keeping Backstab and Shadowstep as well. Everything else always goes back IMO.