Miracle Rogue — The Best Deals Anywhere

 

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Valeera Sanguinar has been shopping around lately. Ebay, Amazon, Walmart… But what she’s found is that Gadgetzan Auctioneer has the best deals anywhere! Just check it out for yourself here! (click on the sound buttons!)

It’s no mystery that Gadgetzan Auctioneer is one of the most powerful cards in the game.

There are two major keywords I look for when building new decks: cards that contain the word ‘Whenever’ and cards that contain the word ‘Draw’. Mr. Gadgetzan happens to meet not one, but both criteria!

Once you have the card you’d like to begin building your deck around, it’s time to start brewing! Fortunately for you, The Internet is at your fingertips! One quick Google search should do the trick.

It seems that Rogue combos are everywhere! Excellent! People have already done a lot of the hard work for you — myself included. After playing countless hours on the ladder with this deck, here’s the build that I’m comfortable playing:

The first time I looked at a list like this, my thought was, ‘…WHAT?’ So for those of you who aren’t familiar with how Miracle Rogue works, here’s a quick breakdown of how you win:

Stay safe by sparingly using removal spells until you can play Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Conceal to keep him safe. Play all of your Cold Blood, Preparation, and Eviscerate spells to decimate your opponent’s side of the board and their life total while drawing your entire deck in the process. Tah-dah! Miracle Rogue! Sounds easy enough, right?

Unfortunately, not every game works that way. Sometimes you’ll have to make due with Edwin VanCleef, which leaves you vulnerable to Big Game Hunter or a Silence effect. Sometimes you’ll have chip away at your opponent’s life, while letting your own fall dangerously low, in hopes that a Leeroy Jenkins and a Shadowstep or two can finish the job. Sometimes you’ll just flat out draw the worst section of your deck possible and not be able to effectively interact or have Gadgetzan Auctioneer do his dirty work. As anyone who plays cards will know, sometimes you’ve just got to lose. Don’t sweat those losses! Combo decks like this one can be extremely powerful (though volatile), and you shouldn’t be afraid of the ‘automatic’ losses if you’re comfortable playing the deck when you think the time is right.

So what makes the time right? I’m glad you’ve asked! Here are some matchups that I think Miracle Rogue is favored against:

FAVORED AGAINST:

Murlocs:

Miracle Rogue does a fantastic job at dismantling Murlocs. Between Backstab, Blade Flurry, Shiv, Fan of Knives, and SI:7 Agent, the deck packs a powerful punch with minions that rely on each other to become more powerful.

Most of your cards that interact in this matchup provide the potential to replace themselves or to sweep out multiple minions. You should be looking to mulligan to the aforementioned cards in this section and rely on your decks natural strength to win. ‘Comboing off’ is not as important in this matchup as simply preserving your life total and pressing that advantage.

Hunter Aggro

Despite the trouble you’ll feel you have against this deck at times, I have found that you have a strong potential to race against this deck. You’ll often win by the skin of your teeth, but the advantage is there nonetheless. Backstab, Bloodmage Thalnos, Shiv, and Fan of Knives are powerful cards in this matchup. SI:7 Agent and Blade Flurry are good, but they aren’t necessary and I would often mulligan them if I didn’t have The Coin.

As far as gameplay is concerned, you need to keep in mind how your opponent’s traps will interact. If you have a weapon equipped, Misdirection will cause your hero to deal damage to your minion, even if the minion is the one attacking. Misdirection will also cause you to have lots of headaches in conjunction with Cold Blood. Explosive Trap will give you trouble when trying to make use of Leeroy Jenkins and Shadowstep. Try to use your hero passive to disrupt these traps prior to making one of these big plays. If you’re having trouble and are facing this matchup an exceptionally large amount of the time, try adding in two copies of Earthen Ring Farseer and a single Acolyte of Pain in exchange for a Sap, a Blade Flurry, and the Assassin’s Blade.

Minion-Heavy Rogues

Non-miracle Rogues are in a unique position when facing your deck. They rely on being able to pick apart your more vulnerable early-game minions to develop board presence, and then leverage their mana-efficient cards to push for the win. Fortunately for you, you don’t have vulnerable early minions! Your goal in this matchup is to chip away at a few points of life while preserving your life total, get a huge Edwin VanCleef or Gadgetzan Auctioneer under a Conceal and look to finish the game in one or two turns. The presence of Shiv and Assassin’s Blade give you a large advantage in the damage race (Assassin’s Blade and Deadly Poison will account for 20 damage alone!), while your opponent is a bit more reluctant to use their spells for the sake of damage until they discover what you’re doing. In this matchup, I would always mulligan in search of a Gadgetzan Auctioneer.

Shaman

Traditional Shaman decks run a large suite of removal spells such as Earth Shock, Hex, Rockbiter Weapon, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Storm… Their decks often lack ways to pressure your life total early, giving you more time to find Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Conceal! Your goal is to sweep their Spell Damage effects off the board the turn prior to using your combo so that Lightning Storm isn’t a threat to your stealthed minion. Blade Flurry and Assassin’s Blade do a wonderful job in this regard. Making sure you wipe taunt minions from the board from cards like Feral Spirit is something that comes along with this plan as well. If you draw Auctioneer, you’re usually a large favorite. Mulligan for Gadgetzan Auctioneer.

Priest and Paladin

In my opinion, Priest and Paladin are currently the weakest classes, as decks are often looking to press their advantage via mid-sized minions or via combos such as Force of Nature and Savage Roar, or in your case, Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Conceal! Both of these decks are often reactive decks, and while they have ways to sweep your Auctioneer (Priest can use Auchenai Soulpriest and Circle of Healing, while Paladin can use Equality and Consecration or Wild Pyromancer), the damage can usually already be done.

These decks often rely on high-value scenarios with cards like Cabal Shadow Priest, Mind Control, or the effective damage from Equality to gain their advantage. Since decks are becoming more refined and more concerned with pressing the early to mid-game advantage, these decks have to hone their strategies to deal with specific kinds of scenarios, allowing you to take advantage of how their deck must be built in order to succeed. Mulligan for Gadgetzan Auctioneer.

So I have quite a few good matchups — what about one’s that aren’t so good?

Ahh, the ugly side of the coin. Every deck has them. Thankfully, Miracle Rogue has an easy way out — the miracle! That being said, these are matchups that I believe are closer to 50/50, or even a bad matchup.

WEAKER MATCHUPS

Warrior (Aggro or Control)

Both of Warrior’s mechanics are bad news for you. Almost every minion in the aggressive versions are resilient to your removal suite, in addition to having Charge. Weapons are bad news that provide maximum damage value. Their excess mana puts them further out of reach of your damage cap. Certainly a matchup you want to avoid.

On the control side, there are two major factors that add up: Armor total and the presence of Brawl. This deck will look to get 10+ armor before you’re able to put together a winning combination of cards, and Brawl can sweep out Gadgetzan Auctioneer or Edwin VanCleef despite being stealthed.

Despite these matchups being poor, they aren’t un-winnable. Aggro can stumble on its opener, and control can simply draw the wrong portion of their deck while you have a miraculous opener with turn 5 Auctioneer / Prep / Conceal. I would expect you to lose the majority of the time, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying! Mulligan for Gadgetzan Auctioneer.

Druid

Druid is a tricky beast. Sometimes this matchup feels utterly miserable, and sometimes it feels like a walk on Breezy Street. Different kinds of builds create different obstacles. More Ancient Watchers often present a problem, while the Token versions can sometimes run you down before you can effectively combo. The most common versions, in my opinion, run cards like Cairne Bloodhoof and look to grind their opponent out of the game with a heavy curve that will sometimes be accelerated by Innervate. In all of these matchups, Sap is one of your best friends. The ability to buy more time against an Innervate / Chillwind Yeti or the potential to push through taunt minions made by Sunfury Protector and Defender of Argus is extremely important. Though the rest of the game is relatively simple itself (play Auctioneer and draw your entire deck), I would, yet again, mulligan for Gadgetzan Auctioneer, except for keeping Sap.

Mage

Speaking of tricky decks, Mage is an ever-evolving build. I’ve seen decks play Frost-Giants style, Kirin-Tor Mage with Mirror Entity, Harvest Golem backed by simple minions like Water Elemental and Acolyte of Pain — regardless of the Mage build I’ve played against, they have ways to stop you from doing what you’re trying to do. Frost Nova and Ice Block, copy your Auctioneer and Flamestrike your Concealed one away, play efficient minions and give them taunt, backed by burn spells and, again, the ability to Flamestrike your Auctioneer… I don’t think I’ve ever felt I was in a favorable matchup when playing against a Mage. I’ve had my share of wins, but it’s not only difficult to predict what cards they’ll be playing until it’s a bit too late, they also have difficult-to-play-around answers for you, usually regardless of their build. You have to get lucky, but you mulligan for, yup, you guessed it, Gadgetzan Auctioneer!

So it seems like I mulligan for Gadgetzan Auctioneer — what else do I need to know?

Prior to heading into ladder with this deck, practice it! You have a limited amount of time to take your turn, and the turns can be long and convoluted, so make sure you get the hang of things! I’ve certainly lost games by literally not having enough time to think through the entire turn and then attack with Leeroy and Shadowstep him twice. Time efficiency is something you have to keep in mind.

Don’t disregard the deck if your first few games result in not drawing Gadgetzan Auctioneer! It’s named Miracle Rogue for a reason, and at the end of the day, you have to ‘get lucky’, but not quite as lucky as you might think. Variance, in my opinion, is certainly a bit heavier with a combo deck like this, but it makes for a fresh new experience, at least from our perspective. Keep your head up!

At times, playing Miracle Rogue just isn’t correct. It’s like any other deck on ladder — if your matchups aren’t favorable, queue with a different deck! Don’t swap off one loss unless you just don’t feel like playing the deck. This bit of advice applies across the board, not just to Miracle Rogue! Many people have a love/hate relationship with this kind of build. Don’t sweat the small stuff! Just sit back, relax, and remember to have fun!

“Miracles happen everyday. Change your perception of what a miracle is and you’ll see them all around you.”

-Jon Bon Jovi