Home The Quarry: Casual Corner It’s Al...

It’s All About The Synergy: My First Rogue Deck

The Quarry: Casual Corner

Sep 18, 2013

Welcome rookies and newbs! I will be contributing a wealth of information for and from the beginner perspective. With little more than rugged good looks, a passion for eSports, and love of card games I will be sharing with you really great info that the seasoned pro’s don’t even have access to. Things that are critical for the noob to know, such as how to unscrew the right arrow on the playhearthstone.com web site home page (hint: click the screw). See we are off and running! So as you have hopefully noticed my content contribution will be less “serious competition” and more “casual fun and improvement”. So lets get started with a “Basic Deck Build” shall we?

The deck I have built in this exampled is titled “It’s not weather you win or lose but how you play the cards Rogue Deck” or INWYWOLBHYPTHRD for short. Many of the cards in the deck build can be combined for a powerful effect, thus lending actual relevance to the deck name So this deck is about getting a feel for how to play and how the cards can be used together. We aren’t worried about winning or losing with this deck, we merely want to get used to how the cards can work together. This will allow you to create some inventive strategies while learning the cards. This deck allows for a lot of imagination and when played correctly can actually dominate in the lower leagues, however remember, the actual goal off the bat is to understand and get a feel for the card synergy. Most of the cards can be found or crafted rather easily.

This is actually an Aggro deck not a Control style despite having cards such as Sap, Assassinate, and various Taunts. To understand more about deck “Archetypes” check out Doa’s fantastic article focusing on “Control” here. If you are new to CCG’s (like I am) then you may want to check out a glossary of terms in order to familiarize yourself found here.

This deck will be comprised of Minions designed to be combined with spells in order to rapidly improve their stats. The two cards with the greatest potential to improve and inflict damage quickly are Mana addict and Questing Adventurer. We will be taking a look at each of those in a second, but first let go over some of the other minions we will be using in combination with spells and their own native abilities. Cards like Shieldbearer, Defias Ringleader, Novice Engineer, Wolfrider, and Nightblade can all be used in conjunction with spells like Cold Blood, The Coin, and Shadowstep.

Lets examine how we can use the aforementioned cards together. Starting with Shiedlbearer in conjunction with Cold Blood. With only 2 mana you can summon the Shieldbearer and combo Cold Blood adding +4 attack to the 1 mana cost 4 health taunt card! So for 2 mana you have a 4/4 in play very early in the game. If you are Turn2 you can accomplish this on your first play! Lets look at another play that is possible early on. This play can be beneficial at any stage of the game (early, mid, or late). You start by summoning your Novice Engineer for 2 mana which allows you to draw another card, then you play your Shadowstep card to effectively remove Novice Engineer from the board, and allowing you to play it again for -2 it’s original cost which is 0 or FREE. Well, considering the original cost was 2 mana you can replay the card immediately for 0 mana AND have the added benefit of drawing an additional card! Total cost to pull this off? Again 2 mana and can be done on your 1st turn from Turn2 when used in conjunction with The Coin!

Still looking for some early game fun? Ok, lets look at the controversial Defias Ringleader. So the trick with this card is activating it’s combo which will spawn a 2/1 Defias Bandit too. A combo is activated when you play a card before the combo card. So considering The Coin is a card you can play the coin on Turn2, thus activating the Defias Ringleader combo and summon a 2/3 and 2/1 Defias Bandit simultaneously. GREAT! Can’t get much better than that! Or can it? Now considering that Shadowstep is a 0 cost spell card you can now cast that onto Defias Ringleader to bring him back to your deck and resummon him for 0 mana cost in the same fashion you did with Novice Engineer! And guess what, it’s combo’d so once again you get the added 2/1 Defias Bandit for a grand total of 4 cards consisting of 8 damage and 8 health between them (2/3DR 2/3DR 2/1DB 2/1DB)! And that was all done on Turn2 for 2 mana

Ok, now for the really powerful combinations! With a little luck and some creativity you can pull off some really powerful combinations with the Mana Addict, Quest Adventurer, or BOTH! So utilizing some of the same concepts of using cards synergies you can really get some mileage out of these two cards. Lets look at the Mana Addict first:

Mana Addict is a 1/3 Minon with a mana cost of 2. In the turn after the card is played the Mana Addict can effectively add +2 to it’s attack for every spell cast in that turn, for that turn. So as an example you summon the Mana Addict and on your next turn you cast the coin 0 mana (yes it is a spell) then you cast Backstab for 0 mana, Shiv for 1 mana, another Shiv for 1 mana, then Cold Blood for 1 mana. NOTE on Cold Blood, you are not only getting the +4 attack (permanent) from the spell itself, but you are also gaining another +2 as the card is a spell for a total of +6 from just that one card. So the grand total with all spells and bonuses results in a Mana Addict that can do +15 damage in turn 3 as you can see from the screen shot below it looks mean and scary but keep in mind it only lasts for one turn. Remember to wait to stack spells until after the Mana Addicts summoning sickness has worn off or in other words in the turn AFTER you played it.

Click Image to Enlarge

So truth be told, while I was able to inflict 17 damage in one turn (using Shiv on Hero for another +2) I ran out of cards early and was forced to top deck to a loss. But it’s was still fun to pull off. I can only imagine if I drew 2x Cold Blood instead of Shiv! That would have been a +19 to Mana addict and with the addition of the Shiv dmg it was a total of +20 dmg! Now that I think about it if you play Sinister Strike instead of Shiv it’s actually +22…

Ok so now onto another card that can easily get out of hand the Questing Adventurer! Unlike the Mana Addict, the bonuses that are applied to this Minon are effective immediately and permanent. So using the same concepts as with Mana Addict you may start to play multiple cards right away and reap the benefit. The jist of the way this card works is simple. For every card you play (spell, minion, whatever) you will get +1/+1. So again you can rattle off some nasty combo’s to get your Questing Adventurer out of hand by the mid to late game. With the addition of taunt cards you can also keep your Questing Adventurer semi safe from attack. Example image below:

Click image to enlarge

And finally you can apply the same concept in order to double the threat with both cards AT THE SAAAME TIME! As you can see in the image below by turn 3 I have a 0/1 Taunt, 7/3 Mana Addict and a 5/5 Quest Adventurer.

Click Image to Enlarge

Ok onto the spells section, which we sorta combined with the Minions section, however we have some more that we can take a look at! For this deck we have Backstab, Conceal, Shadowstep, Cold Blood, Sinister Strike, Sap, Assassinate, Headcrack and Shiv. Lets go over each shall we.

Sap - return a minion to it’s owners hand. This spell card really comes in handy when you need to get around a taunt or avoid damage to get a taunt into place. Also of course another bonus to Mana Addict and Questing Adventurer.

Assassinate - Destroy an enemy minion. This card can really frustrate opponents. Especially, considering players can significantly invest many spells into one card just to have it removed before it can be effective.

Cold Blood - Give a minion +2 Attack. Combo: +4 Attack instead. Works great with any card in the deck really, I only play this combo’d.

Headcrack- Deal 2 damage to the enemy hero. Combo: Return this to your hand next turn. A great card that deals consistent damage. Also considering it’s combo returns the card to your hand it can be great for boosting Questing Adventurer over and over.

Shadowstep - Return a friendly minion to your hand. It costs (2) less. Oh this card is pure joy. You can use it with Novice Engineer to draw another free card, with Wolfrider for multiple attacks with Charge, or with Nightblade for multiple x3 attacks to the enemy hero. Of course also with Defias Ringleader for multiple Defias Bandits.

Sinister Strike - Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. Low cost, high damage.

Shiv - Deal 1 damage. Draw a card. Simple and cost effective. Remember works on enemy hero’s too not only minions.

Conceal - give your minions stealth until your next turn. This card is great to use to protect AND buff Mana addict and Questing Adventurer as well as your other minions. Also you can use the conceal to grant a bonus to your Mana Addict and then attack thus removing the stealth.

Backstab - with it’s 0 cost and 2 dmg to any minion is a solid card start to finish, and also great to combine for bonuses to Mana Addict and Questing Adventurer.