Rogue Legend Deck

i will try this out thanks ! wow such content about the mathcup cool i hope u write more guide alchmist

everytime i want to play rogue i either have to start first or mulligan in the biggest mana cards i have in the deck :S 
some higher power just doesnt want me to play rogue as it seems …
 
On a serious note: nice deck together with neat explanations, thats how articles should look like, good job. Maybe a screenshot of the decklist could be added, at least I like it more if i get the decklist visually instead of only written down. 

or you could just copy the deck and take a screenshot for yourself to look at

or you could just copy the deck and take a screenshot for yourself to look at

 
i am well aware of that, still, for someone who skims the article its way faster to have the cards visually since that’s what you are used to in HS. It was just a suggestion to improve the already good guide.

What are your thoughts on Leeroy and cold blood? A lot of high ranking rogues in the Asian meta thinks cold blood is amazing and even a must have. I personally think cold blood is good, but I find it sits in my hand for quite a bit when I get it early, but I guess thats with any late game cards.

Great deck. I’m playing something similar.

@Nightmarelia Leeory and Cold blood are just a different style of deck really. I think Leeroy is fine in a more aggressive version even without cold blood. I have occasionally played Leeroy in my other versions of rogue. As for Cold Blood, I have tried it a bit and it is too situational for my tastes. If I wanted to play a deck based around cold blood and Leeroy id rather just play warlock honestly.
 
@Wishr Thanks! Even if you play something close to the list I posted, a lot of the information is still relevant. Also, my list changes daily depending on what I am running into or expecting to face. That is the beauty of Rogue you can either be the control, aggressor, or in-between so it is very flexible

The guide is great, alchemisxt. Explanations on strategy should be included in all guides. Quite often I find decks on various sites but they lack some sort of video or write up on how to play them. My sample size is small - 3/3 wins - but so far it feels like it fits the playstyle I’m looking for with Rogue.

Crazy, just play tested my rogue deck for a while with a friend and settled on almost this exact deck (most recent addition was the argent squires). Really enjoyed the discussion on handling other classes. I am toying with dropping the Defias Ringleaders entirely, in favor of something like an ooze for pally/warrior decks. It often ends up a dead card. Thoughts?

Great post and Deck…I’ve used a variation of this deck and gained about 5 ranks! thank you

@AkibanaZero Thanks! I am glad it seems to be working out for you,
 
@Nimrod I have actually thought about dropping 1 or both Ringleaders entirely I just haven’t figured out what exactly I would want to replace them with yet. It is certainly not crazy to cut them and in fact if I do not have the Coin then I generally mulligan them away.
 
@Nagatron Great Job! One of the great things about this deck is that the more you play it you will find neat ways to slightly improve your play. Keep Climbing!

Been playing something similar minus the legendaries. Really appreciate the detail described in the match ups that’s definitely going to be the most useful area for me, looking forward to building some legendaries of my own and fine tuning the deck some more. 

Hey look another person claiming credit for a version of a deck that kithros started over a month ago. Much original such wow.

@Moose Thanks I really try to go into much detail about each of the matchups
 
@McNealStash I don’t think my list is really even close to his. Yes we play a lot of the same cards but that is because some of the class specific cards for rogue are very good and don’t have many replacements. I just re-looked at his list to make sure but, unless he has a much more updated deck that I am not aware of, we play a lot of different cards. 
 
Lets get one thing straight…. I am not “Claiming” credit I Earned credit. I did not look at any other peoples decks and copy paste them. I looked at ideas from other decks and spent hours and hours trying it out for MYSELF and came to all my conclusion on my OWN. I have even heard many people say that they have arrived at similar lists on their own so just because someones deck looks similar doesn’t mean he “stole” it. Also, I have provided much details in matchups so if you do not like the deck then maybe you can gain some information form that section of the article.
 
I do not intend to come off as rude but, when someone straight up tells me I didn’t do something myself when I clearly put in a lot of effort, I am going to respond accordingly.

lol actually your deck is 3 cards different than kithros’ rogue- black knight instead of a second argent commander, tinkmaster instead of vancleef, and assassinate instead of a second azure drake. So yeah I guess it sounds like you really earned it, bud.

McNealStash I won’t argue with you. However, I will take this time to discuss how 3 cards can actually make a huge difference. What do the 3 cards you mentioned all have in common? Well, they push through “Taunt” creatures. So against decks like druid who will play Caller of the Claw, Ancient of War, and sometimes Senjin Shieldmasta you will have a hard time winning in the late game and pushing through those last bits of damage. I guarantee you that if you take these cards out of the deck you will have a much harder time in the druid matchup. On the flip side though lets say you take out Bloodmage Thalnos, The Black Knight, Assassinate, and Tinkmaster Overspark and replace them with 2 Faerie Dragons, Argent Commander, and a Leeroy Jenkins. Your deck is now weaker to druids but, presumably much better against mages now with the extra agressive charge creatures and the hard to kill Faerie Dragons.
 
When you are only allowed 30 cards in a deck and the card pool is this small, decks are going to have the same basic look with the exception of a few cards. For instance I do not think many rogues are going to leave out Backstab, Deadly Poison, Eviscerate, SI:7 Agent, and Novice Engineer so already you are looking at a base 10 cards that are going to be the same in nearly every high ranked rogue deck. Assuming that this guy is only 3 cards off then clearly we arrived at what we thought to be the best list with the exception that I wanted to gear mine to be able to beat Druid and Paladin deck because that is what I seemed to be facing the most. 

McNeal is just a troll. I settled on a deck that only differed 1 card from yours when I first replied to this thread having no outside influence from this deck or from this Kithros fellow. The deck performs well because it is strong, and deals well with the current meta. Critical thinking and playtesting reveal solutions to competing in the current meta. There are right answers to be found, and you clearly found them as you took this decklist to legend. Additionally, even if you did straight up steal this list (which I am not insinuating), the guidance you provided as a legendary player is invaluable to those of us striving for it. There is no sense in giving this McNeal doofus the time of day.

What do u think about Nat Pagle in a deck like this? I’ve been playing him a lot, and when he works, he’s awesome. When he fails for 3 rounds in a row though, it makes me soooo angggrrrryyyyyyy!
 
Also, I see you don’t have any way to kill Blood Imps - I run 1 fan of knives and 1 Blade Flurry which helps me to clear (+ Thalnos or Azure Drake it can start to be really stronk vs other things too). What is your perspective on rogue’s options to AoE boardclear? Seems that if you have 70% wins vs lock aggro, you wouldn’t care too much about that huh. Thanks for your response
 
Nowadays, I see many taunt-heavy decks, and it seems that taunt-heavy control warlock decks are becoming very popular now. How have you adjusted your deck to accommodate this new deck strategy?

Thank you for the guide. Currently at Mountain giant (rank 4) and still working my way up with this deck. I never thought too much about changing decks just for daily metas and match ups til now. Strategies against certain classes, especially druids, were really helpful. I find assassinate and the black knight to be essential into getting through the last defenses for a druid, and usually a single assassinate suffices for paladins. I also see that the ONLY silences i see come from druids, so i drop a ring leader for vancleef. He often draws out a lot of cards to remove him and prevents the opponent from playing a single sweep because theres still a 4/4 or 6/6 out on the field. Also around rank 5 I actually often play against hunters. They just face rush you and its absurd how you cant stop anything. Any suggestions on facing them? They run small charges, wolfriders and murlocs, and abusive sergeant and rush face with deadly shot spams. hold the board clean with explosives. And misdirection hitting your hero often brings their win condition to turn 5 or 6.

lmao how can you troll with the truth?
 
IMO credit Kithros in the title and suspend accepting articles from the author until such time he learns how to give credit.

@Trashcanmagic: And what evidence do you have to support the substantiation that Alchemisxt did not formulate this list without the outside influence of some player that I haven’t even heard of myself before he was brought up in this conversation? Also please explain how another player who had no clue who this Kithros is, as he stated, come to put together a similar deck to the OP?

Let’s think logically…
> Backstab
> Deadly Poison
> Argent Squire
> Eviscerate
> Defias Ringleader
> Loot Hoarder
> Novice Engineer
> Harvest Golem
> Shattered Sun Cleric
> SI:7 Agent
> Dark Iron Dwarf
> Defender of Argus
> Assassinate
> Azure Drake
> Sylvanas Windrunner
> Argent Commander

All of the above cards, save for the Rogue cards are in everyone else’s decks, they’re staples, they’re the meta, the Rogue cards included are simply the best of what the Rogue has to offer at first, glance, to be quite frank and no disrespect to the OP or this Kithros fellow, this is just simple logic and anyone could have built this deck, many people probably built this deck at the same time yet a select few managed to gain some leverage over the others by rising in rank.

The fact of the matter herein lies: It doesn’t matter the deck you’re playing, it matters who you are as a player, if you suck, you are going to continue to suck until you learn to get better, if you’re not you’ll see some improvement.

So far I’ve modified this decklist to suit my personal tastes and to take on all comers (Acidic Slime x1 to deal with Pally/Warrior aggro, Faerie Dragons in place of Loot Hoarders for anti-Spellcaster, 2x Argent Commanders, etc.) as I cannot predict what opponent the MMR RNGod will give me and so far I’ve gone from 15 to 12 (hovering around 13/12 atm due to a string of unfortunately cheesy losses to Mage/Pally.

Anyways, believe what you want to folks, but just because someone famous/popular/known did it, doesn’t mean it hasn’t been done before or better, that person just didn’t have the spotlight on him at the moment. =)

It would turn out that i also require an opinion against priests. Played 5 today. Lost 4.

i don’t know what all that giving credit hype is all about.
If someone feels that he hasnt been credited and he wants to be HE should contact Alchemisxt to do so. Noone else. Maybe he wasn’t the first one either who came up with this. Maybe on some less known fanpage someone has posted that deck way before him. Noone gave credit to that person.
It’s a difficult question who the “creator” is but as Phaedros said, a big part of the decklist is almost obvious to put in a rogue deck since those cards are just the best ones rogue has to offer.
Nevertheless Alchemisxt offered a good explanation and a guide on how to play against different classes which is the major part of his article and I dislike how that is being overseen by the question if he has gotten his idea from somewhere else without giving credit or came up with it all alone.
Especially in this that question doesn’t have a clear answer because it’s just a straight forward deck. Nothing fancy like Frost Giants where it’s much clearer that there was someone who cam up with the idea and that decks that came out later most probably just swapped cards around.

this is a published article and the kithros list has been around a long time.
 
clearly none of you have ever published a real article, because if this weren’t video games (a population of notoriously idiotic and childish make up) this would be a disaster. ihearthu is one of the most professional and valuable resources for hearthstone and you can argue until you’re blue in the face about literally every irrelevant detail but at the end of the day you give credit and be done with it if you want to maintain that.
 
look at the vitriol on reddit towards curi for his warlock list. this is such ridiculous behavior but if you wanna act like youre a redditor go ahead Ill know who around here has no brain beyond a shadow of a doubt.

@Lowenhigh Nat Pagal could certainly be decent and I wouldn’t fault someone for playing him in a less aggressive version because, even if he doesn’t draw you cards your opponent might have to go out of their way to deal with him especially in the early game. You are right, I do not have any ways to deal with blood and and if my opponent ever gets the dreaded double blood imp I am probably just dead. With that said, I seem to have a good warlock matchup and find it wasn’t necessary to include cards like Blade Flurry and Betrayal so that I could focus a little more on the Druid matchup. Taunt creatures can be pretty annoying but, as with every other strategy the rogue class can adapt quite well. As for Warlock control, I do know what deck you are talking about however, I don’t have much experience playing against it. I would imagine you want to catch them off guard since they purposely go pretty low on life themselves maybe you can play cards like Leeroy Jenkins and Cold Blood to kill them when they think they are safe.
 
@Apathy Van Cleef is absent in my version because, I was facing many druids and it seemed he always got silenced which was frustrating. I even had a warlock use Ironbeak Owl on him. If you are okay with the fact that he can be silenced then go ahead and play him he can definitely be quite good if not dealt with efficiently. As for hunter decks I only played against a couple and I managed to rush them down but, I was trying out a different version than what is posted which is much more aggressive. Other than that I do not normally run into hunters at my rank. I am also sorry to inform you that I do not see any Priests at my rank either (Rank 14 Legend Currently) however, I have played a few and they can definitely be tough. I notcied that Priests can lack early game answers sometimes so the best bet is to run something aggressive and try and crush the early game because, they will no doubt win the late game
 
@Controversey of deckbuilding I really hoped to just continue a good discussion but, it seems people still bring this up. I do not know Kithros or heard of him or seen him before he was mentioned in this thread. I built this deck on my own, I played the games to get to legend on my own, and I wrote my matchup guides on my own. Even if he did come up with a similar list I did everything on my own and worked hard for it and because of that I am not just going to throw all credit to some guy I never heard of before now. Plus, 3 card difference is about as different as your going to get with many decks unless you come up with something crazy like OTK decks, Warlock Control, Frost Mage Giants. When it comes to Straightforward, Basic, Fair, Good card decks, a lot of the cards are going to be the same as shown in Phaedros post. I am sure any of you could have also come up with a very similar list if not the exact list if you were thinking about druids at the time/
 
@Everyone please try and stay on topic and discuss the rogue class in general. I show and give the deck list so you can see what I decided to play. BUT I didn’t write this so you could copy/paste a deck list and call it a day. I wrote explanations, Matchup details, Reasoning’s why I do not play certain cards, and I would still like to answer your questions here as well. 

your ignorance is no excuse.
 
that list is quite old and has been published, played and discussed at great length. what do you want, exactly? for us to feed your ego as you parade around a deck that has won actual tournaments while you ground your way up the ladder?
 
oh, but you worked so hard to come up with a deck that is 3 cards off and a month late. my, we should enshrine your efforts in a glorious text. maybe we’ll call it Bridge on the River Self-Delusion.

You are missing the point. My article wasn’t made to say “O look what I came up with” and to boast about my decklist. I made this article because, I thought it would benefit others who play rogue. I made this article to have much more content than just a decklist. I simply provided the decklist that I used to grind up the rankings. I am not taking credit from anyone or claiming it for myself I am just providing information that I came to on my own and sharing my experience and tips of what I have learned while ranking up.
 
For the record, I do not have a big ego at all. I made this to benefit other people and I just happen to have a lot of experience in other similar card games alongside a good amount of free time. I also find it enjoyable to made these kind of guides and look forward to improving on them.
 
I think I probably already said this once before but, I am going to follow through this time. If there are any more posts that discuss irrelevant material in relation to my article and does not provide any beneficial information to others or a reasonable question towards me then I am simply going to ignore it from now on.

how did you go from “I worked hard on this list” to “I never even said it was my list?”
 
w.ever maybe sympatico can add the proper credit to kithros in the article since you dont seem to have any integrity of your own.

How do you feel about dropping thalnos. Hes a great card, but i find that i usually dont need him to drop minions with backstab and never have the mana to drop him for a finisher with eviscerate+argent.

@ApAtHy I am currently not using Bloodmage Thalnos because, I am trying out a more aggressive version of Rogue. I think if you are going to go that route then it is fine to cut him. However, if you are not going to go the aggressive route I don’t see any reason not to play him over a Loothoarder.

Anyone else have the problem where you’ll maintain board control until around turn 6 with the opponent typically 12-15 health below yours but then you helplessly run out of cards? I don’t think I’m overextending myself, but I’m wondering what I’m doing wrong. Happens most against Shaman and Priests. Any tips?

Priest can be fairly hard and I do not have much experience playing against Priest. Shaman however, you just need to catch them in a bad spot. Like if you can follow up their Earth Elemental with a Black Knight or assassinate they should be pretty far behind from then on. Overall I would just make sure you are getting full value out of every card and make sure to save you trump cards for when they are really needed. For Instance, no need to Black Knight a Feral Spirit Wolf just because you can; save it for the Earth Elemental..

@Lakai Hello! I get asked this question quite a bit in game and on other forums. I think that if you do not have all the legendaries then it might be best to just make a more aggressive version of rogue. For example… the second argent commander instead of Black Knight, second Shatter Sun Cleric instead of Tinkmaster Overspark and Faerie Dragons instead of Bloodmage Thalnos and Sylvanas Windrunner.
 
However, if you are looking for more direct substitutes then I would go something like this…
The Black Knight = Assassinate
Edwin Van Cleef = Shatter Sun Cleric
Tinkmaster Overspark = Ironbeak Owl/Spellbreaker
Bloodmage Thalnos = any Cycle creature (Gnomish Inventor, Novice Engineer, Loothoarder, etc…)
 
As For Sylvanas Windrunner, there really isn’t a direct replacement because the effect is so unique but, I would probably choose from the following… Spiteful Smith, Azure Drake, Argent Commander,or Gadgetzton Auctioneer.

this deck is great and naga guy is dumb lol u act like every deck have to be super different stupid reasoning

@Lakai I tried Spiteful Smith for awhile as well before I had better replacements and I agree most of the time it doesn’t do much. I would always use Argent Squires in the aggressive version of Rogue over any of the other 1 cost creatures. I think that the divine shield works quire well with Dark Iron Dwarf, Defender of Argus, and Shatter Sun Cleric. I used to play 1 Worgen Infiltrator and 1 Argent Squire and the Worgen worked fine but, I evetually changed to 2 Argent Squires for the reasons just stated. If you wanted to play more 1 cost creatures in addition to Argent Squires then I think Leaper Gnome or Worgen Infiltrator would be reasonable. As for which one of those 2 is better I think it is more of a personal preference. They both will very likely guarantee 2 damage. Leaper gnome might be able to trade off with an opponents creature as well as deal 2 damage. The Worgen can hang around and wait for a Cleric, Defender, or Dwarf to pump him.

@Lakai I have also used both Ragnaros and Leeroy at one time or another. Ragnaros is decent vs Druid but, overall I dislike him. Too many matchups and games he just sits in your hand and does nothing. As for Leeroy, I am currently using him and find him quite good in aggressive versions. Especially if you want to go the Cold Blood/Shadowstep route which is quite powerful but, I find a little bit too gimmicky and inconsistent.
 
Sylvanas is probably the safest legendary to craft. Although she is super overrated, she is still  a great card and can always go into any deck. Leeroy might also be a good first legend to craft if you like the aggressive rogue deck and also play decks like Warlock or maybe Warrior.

this deck is great and naga guy is dumb lol u act like every deck have to be super different stupid reasoning

 
such grammar.

First legendary to craft? I’m torn beetwen Sylvanas and Thalnos. I have to consider the usability in other decks too..

First of all thanks for the deck list. I rode a version of this deck to level 5 but I’ve now started to encounter early/mid control/late game druid decks over 50% of the time at this level. I don’t know how to beat this deck right now without running basically the same thing. I have some legendaries like thalnos, pagle, tinkmaster, and sylvanus, but no relevant ones besides those (The lack of Black Knight probably really hurts me in the matchup and my win rate vs that type of druid deck is around 25%).

@St1zzo Sylvana Windrunner is the safest to craft first in my opinion.
 
@KilJoy83 The Druid matchup can be tough if you are not prepared. The Black Knight can help out a lot especially if they are running the Ancient of War. Tinkmaster Overspark is also very key in the Druid match. Sylvanas Windrunner also performs the same function as just being a threat that can break through their big stuff with the added benefit of stealing it. If you lack these cards, the match will be quite hard but, there is still hope! Cards like Sap, or even running Double assassinate can help deal with the big creatures, and don’t forget you also have eviscerates/SI:7 or Backstab combo to remove large threats. 
 
For gameplay against Druids you want to always try and apply pressure and have a board prescence that they can’t keep up with until they drop their taunt. At that point if you have a well-timed answer then it should be game. The biggest thing is just learning what answers to use on what cards. For instance, don’t risk a tinkmaster on a Druid of Claw if you can Backstab/Eviscerate combo it instead. Most of your spells are going to be used to clear their big creatures whereas your creatures can hopefully just go towards their face. As far as Mulliganing goes, Just try to find a good curve. If you can play a creatures on the first 4 turns of the game you will have them under pressure and hopefully you can answer their big taunt when they msot need it.
 
Hope this helps and sorry if I repeated a lot. Just remember even with all that I just said, Druid can still be a rough match up. Also, keep in mind that every assassinate/sap you add to the deck will make your other matchups worse. 

Excellent guide! I’ve been playing a Rogue Cantrip based deck for a while, modifiying it to the meta as best as I can based on tournament winners. I’m still stuck in the 10-8 rank range, as I keep getting hit with losing streaks. However, your guide to how to play each class has really clued me into that I’ve been incorrectly playing everyone like with a control mentality, trading minions all the time. I wasn’t getting it, even though I feel I maximized the values of the cards and really used combos well. Hopefully this will give me the Aha! moment where I can really make a push up the ladder.

Quick question: My current legendaries are Bloodmage, Sylvannas, and Ragnoros and I am about to craft another. So, knowing that I prefer your playstyle, would you do Tinkmaster before The Black Knight? I’m leaning that way since Tink can clear a taunt but also be effective against 8/8 giants or minions with troublesome affects.

Keep up the good work!

@Hellens Thanks! One, of the hardest things with rogue can be knowing when to go aggressive and when you are the control but, that will come as you keep trying out different approaches
 
As for your question, I think The Black Knight straight up steals games and has the most blowout potential. With that said, some people have started to adjust to this by playing less all in taunts such as Ancient of War if they play any at all. Tink and Black Knight both fufill similar roles so I think crafting either is fine but, personally I like the Knight.

Just saw you you in trump’s twitch and you won wp mate.

by the way, huge nerfs incoming for the brotherhood! :

Thanks ya not sure what is next for rogue. I think defender and dwarf are still pretty good but novice engineer now dies to pally active,rogue active, mage active and I am sure there are many others things I am not thinking of right now. I expect the meta game at first to be lots of control warlock, Druid, and maybe some pally. So I think a midrange rogue deck that can gear itself to beating those may be good I will have to try it out.

If we are searching for replacements for the nerfed cards, should we look for similar mana costs?

@Hellens Ya Ideally you would find something similar and around the same mana cost for replacements if you want to keep this deck the same. It may even be better to go a completely different route with rogue now. I would add Nat Pagle for a Novice Engineer and keep Defender of Argus the same. As for Dark Iron Dwarf I am not sure exactly what his replacement would be. Maybe cut them both and add Leeroy and Cold Blood?

I just ran a few with a Crazed Alchemist, Kobold Geomancer to replace the 2 mana costs, and then a Fan of Knives and another Azure drake for the 4 cost replacements. It did pretty well going 5-2 at 14-15 rank, but it didn’t have the same “chemistry” as the pre-nerf build.

The Alchemist was a fun combo, as I was able to use it with a beefed up Eviscerate (Azure Drake was on the board) for a quick takedown of an Ancient of Lore. It also paired well with Backstabs and Agents for other minion control. Still not sure if it balances well with this deck, as even with Fan/Azure for card cycling effects I just didn’t have the card advantage I used to.

This nerf looks like it’s affecting the Mid Range Rogue a lot, losing early control options. Frustrating as this is the class I’ve chosen to invest all dust in, but I guess I can just play around with different options and not worry about rank this season.