by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Every Friday a legendary member from team DKMR breaks down Don’t Kick My Robot’s “Deck of the Week” . These decks are seeing a lot of play either in constructed ladder or tournaments. Team DKMR explains the deck lists and how to play them. Make sure you check out Don’t Kick My Robot if you want to become a better player or check out their premium services if you would like them to do a 1 on 1 coaching session with you to help you better your game. View past Deck Lists of the Week.

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This week we’re going to be going over a deck that has been one of the top decks in the last several seasons and continues to be a strong component in the meta. Miracle Rogue, one of the decks that can be extremely annoying to play against, so it’s a good idea to put it in your own arsenal. With one of the most powerful draw engines in the game, comparable to Starving Buzzard/Unleash the Hounds combo, Gadgetzan Auctioneer can draw through your deck faster than any other deck in the game with the help of the most powerful and cheap tempo spells in the game. With so much draw in the deck, dead cards aren’t too much of a problem, and add up to an insane amount of damage to finish the game. Let’s take a look at the deck.

The Deck

2x Backstab: One of the most powerful tempo cards in the game. This card is needed in any Rogue deck that that relies on tempo to win the game. Generally speaking, the only Rogue deck that doesn’t play this card is Backspace Rogue which is aggressive. Not only is this card a very powerful tempo card, it combos well with SI:7 Agent and Eviscerate as well.

2x Preparation: Powerful tempo card, combos well with Gadgetzan Auctioneer while being able to cycle and play any other spell in the deck for free as well as draw a card. Even without Gadgetzan Auctioneer on board, prepping a Fan of Knives is essentially just an Arcane Explosion for 0 mana because Fan of Knives also draws a card.

2x Shadowstep: Combos with Leeroy for the finisher of course. This card is also more versatile than just a finisher though. Now that Loatheb is a card, you can also Shadowstep him for huge tempo swings making your opponent not able to cast spells. You can also use this card to deal 2 damage with SI:7 Agents and heal with Earthen Ring Farseers as well, of course.

1x Conceal: This card is pretty situation but is very powerful in the correct situations. Can be used to Conceal a Gadgetzan Auctioneer to set up an incredible next turn by drawing a bunch of cards with cheap spells. It can also be used to conceal a few minions on your side of the field in the sole purpose of setting up for lethal the following turn.

2x Deadly Poison: A great, powerful, and cheap card that helps combo into things like SI:7 Agent and Eviscerate, by both pushing damage and clearing the board at the same time. This is a must include in pretty much every Rogue deck out there, and is especially good in Miracle Rogue.

1x Blade Flurry: An extremely powerful and cheap AOE spell. Of course it comes with a drawback though, you need a big weapon you can blow up to have a significant effect on the board. All in all, this is just another cheap tempo spell card that is very strong in Miracle Rogue.

2x Eviscerate: 4 damage for 2 mana, very powerful tempo spell as well. Of course it comes with a minor downside though, you need to play a card before this one or else you only deal 2 damage with it; this isn’t too much of a problem though because there are so many cheap cards in this deck and usually by the time you want to deal 4 damage, it’s later in the game and you will be able to combo it with any card quite easily.

2x Sap: I know it’s getting pretty repetitive at this point, but this is yet again another cheap tempo card. If your opponent drops a big minion, such as Cairne Bloodhoof, making a play like Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Preparation, Sap will often result in your opponent not having time to play it any other time later in the game. It’s just a very strong card and can help surpass taunts to finish them will Leeroy combo without having to kill the taunts outright.

2x Shiv: This card is useful against Aggro match ups, killing the Harvest Golem and Haunted Creeper spawns, as well as making the deck more consistent. Drawing Gadgetzan Auctioneer is extremely important, and this card helps you cycle through your deck faster to get him. It is also a good card to use while you have an auctioneer on the field because it essentially is a 2 mana Arcane Intellect that deals 1 damage.

1x Bloodmage Thalnos: With so many spells that do damage in the deck, this card is extremely powerful. Only costing 2 mana it can have a huge impact on your cheap spells and like Shiv, it can help cycle through you deck a bit faster to get Gadgetzan Auctioneer.

1x Fan of Knives: This card is in the deck for the same reasons as Shiv is for the most part. It can’t do damage to the face, but it can be very useful to help remove multiple minions with 1 health. This card is especially good vs Zoo and can be a strong card against Shaman as well if played with spell damage.

2x Earthen Ring Farseer: The Rogue hero power forces you to use your life points as a resource to take out your opponents minions. This card helps you clear minions without having to worry as much about it. 3/3 for 3 mana isn’t the worst as well and is often a solid turn 3 play.

1x Edwin Vancleef: This card can get huge for only 3 mana. When you start a game with the coin, this card can be a huge threat if they don’t have a silence or another good way to take care of it. This card can sometimes even single handily win a game.

2x SI:7 Agent: Does a lot more than your standard 3 drop. Not only is it a 3/3 for 3 mana it also deals 2 damage to anything if comboed. Extremely strong when you have the coin and is especially strong when playing against Zoo.

1x Gnomish Inventor: With Miracle Rogue lacking 4 drops, this card fits the deck perfectly. Helps cycle through the deck to draw Gadgetzan Auctioneer, as well as putting out a body that your opponent has to take care of and thus saving damage going to your face.

1x Leeroy Jenkins: Do we really need an explanation to why this card is in the deck? This is the finisher and what the deck revolves around. Leeroy with double Shadowstep is an 18 card combo and if you make it to turn 8 with these 3 cards in your hand, the opponent is going to have a pretty hard time winning the game from this point.

1x Azure Drake: As I mentioned earlier with Bloodmage Thalnos, spell damage is extremely powerful in this deck and it is also a cycle card. This card just fits really well in the deck but with the inclusion of Loatheb and Sludge Belcher, there is no longer room for 2 in the deck anymore.

2x Gadgetzan Auctioneer: The main drawing engine in this deck. Helps cycle through your deck extremely quick to get the Leeroy Jenkins/Shadowstep combo to finish the game. This card makes your opponent go out of their way to kill it which often leads to very lackluster turns after you draw several cards.

1x Loatheb: An extremely powerful tempo card. This card is especially good against Hunter and in the mirror match. You can also Shadowstep it, as I mentioned earlier, to continue to provide huge tempo swings and overtake your opponent by continuing to build a stronger board and slow down your opponents game.

1x Sludge Belcher: This card can be very clutch in Miracle Rogue. It essentially is just a heal for 7 since the first half of the minion has 5 health and the second one has 2. Helps the game go longer, which usually favors Miracle Rogue, and helps establish board control.

Mulligan

For the most part, you want to mulligan for Gadgetzan Auctioneer because it is the main card that pulls the deck together. Generally speaking, you want to keep 1 in your hand if you have 2 in your starting hand and search for 1 if you don’t. When going into a match, you have to just think would this card be good against this class? If you’re playing Zoo, you know that card like Backstab and SI:7 Agent are good. Against Hunter, Earthen Ring Farseer is good, and so on.

The Coin

The coin is very powerful to have if you’re playing this deck, as most of you know, it’s a spell. It lets you draw a card with Gadgetzan Auctioneer, it helps combo very efficiently, and it can also buff your Edwin Vancleef +2/+2. In the mirror match Miracle Rogue vs Miracle Rogue, the player that has the coin automatically has the advantage. Mulliganing with and without the coin is usually quite different. If you have the coin, you can keep your combo cards more easily because you will have an easy way to activate them. If you don’t have coin, however, you can keep combo cards easily as well if you have a Backstab in hand.

Gameplan

Early game, one of the top priorities is to draw Gadgetzan Auctioneer so you can easily cycle through the deck to draw your finishers. Miracle Rogue is a Control deck, not an Aggro deck. You use your cheap spells and minions to slowly take board control and to try to keep your health total at a comfortable level. For example, you want to keep your health above 14 against Druid and Warrior.  You have to think about what your opponent’s class is capable of doing and do your best to play around it. Generally speaking, the longer the game goes, the better chance Rogue has to win.

Final Thoughts

This is still a great deck that should be mainly used in tournaments.  Try it out and let us know what you think!

[DKMR]Brad streams weekdays http://www.twitch.tv/bradhs. You can find all of DKMR’s streamers on their website with the days that they stream!

Written by [DKMR]Brad

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