by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

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Rogue has changed a lot over the course of Hearthstone. Tempo Rogue was once considered one of the top decks in the game back in beta, and was actually the first deck I got to #1 EU before it got nerfed. Now Rouge has evolved into a combo deck aiming to maintain board control with its cheap removal and finish the opponent not with large minions, but with huge combos from Oil and Blade Flurry. Let’s have a look at how the modern Oil Rogue is built.

Core Cards

Minions (6)

• Bloodmage Thalnos x1
• SI:7 Agent x2
• Azure Drake x2
• Loatheb x1

Spells (13)

• Backstab x2
• Preparation x2
• Deadly Poison x2
• Blade Flurry x2
• Eviscerate x2
• Sap x1
• Fan of Knives x1
• Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil x1
• Sprint x2

19 core cards might make you feel that you have some room to play around. But as soon as you start building your deck in one direction, it seems many cards fall into place. I’ll give you some examples so you can see.

The minion heavy list was what I was running 2 months ago, and might be a little outdated: it relies less on large combo turns and more on maintaining board control throughout the game and keeping your pressure up with minions. It suffers in the meta now since it’s weaker to patron: as often you want less minion on board in the late game to reduce their lethal range with berserkers. This list is probably the most comfortable list to play if you’re not used to combo decks, but no Oil Rogue is easy to play. This list has a Boom and just 1 Oil, simply for the power spike boom lets you have turn 7. If you are ahead on board when you play Boom, there is almost no way to lose.

The weapon pump list was popularized by Mr. Yagut, and it functions exactly as it sounds. This Oil Rogue list was made to be more favored vs patron by giving up board control early in the game, and using your Assassin’s Blade as your finisher in the late game. This list includes a Deckhand, so you have something to land your Oils on in the late game as you often won’t have active minions on the board. It also includes a Healbot to let you race vs aggro, as you often take more damage early game due to having less minions. The huge drawback of this style is that you are very vulnerable to weapon removal, which most players are running to counter Patron Warrior.

That is why I currently use this ladder list. Instead of having an Assassin’s Blade as a finisher, I also included a Harrison Jones to try and disrupt a patron combo turn: by eliminating a turn 4 Death’s Bite by playing Harrison on curve. The rest of the list includes all the cookie-cutter Rogue cards, and not trying anything too inventive. You should stick to what works.

Tech cards

Shade of Naxxramas vs Edwin VanCleef- I have seen people use shade as an effective card in Oil Rogue. It seems very tempting since it almost always guarantees an oil target and is immune to hard removal, unlike Edwin. However, I find it a bit too slow and it doesn’t have the power that Edwin has. He sometimes wins games on his own, which is why I don’t run shade in my decks. It’s still a card to be considered.

Piloted Shredder vs Violet Teacher- I run 2 Violet Teachers in each of my decks, but the power level with Shredder is very close. Violet Teacher gives you somewhat of a disadvantage since the card doesn’t guarantee you an oil target. If unchecked the Violet Teacher can lock out a lot of games vs decks, like Zoo and Shaman, that don’t have effective ways to clear the tokens. I feel the pro outweighs the con. There’s no stopping you from running 2 copies of each as long as you’re willing to part with one of tech cards.

Healbot- Nothing much to say here, but Huck Funter.

Harrison Jones- 100% meta dependent. Since the meta at the moment is almost all weapon classes, it’s a must have especially when you are at your legend rank. I would probable cut it for a Healbot at lower ranks though.

1 Sap for Sabotage- I’ve seen this tried often but it never seems to work out as well as expected. Sabotage is just a bit too situational and overpriced, but you are free to try it out.

Mulligan

Oil rouge might be the hardest deck to mulligan for in the whole game. Professional players have very mixed opinions on what to keep, so I’m only going to point you in right direction here and leave the rest to you. Against slow decks like control warrior and control paladin, you have to be sure that you don’t run out of cards. Keeping Azure Drake or Sprint is perfectly viable but most of the time you’re looking for Backstabs, Si-7 Agents, and a Poison to keep your opponent’s early game from getting out of control. Preps, Eviscerates and 4 drops are often in a grey area on whether they are worth keeping or not. Just try to image what cards your opponent will play in the early game and what cards you’re going to need. Don’t be afraid to be greedy sometimes and keep a prep with violate teacher to try and have swing turn on three or four.

I’m hoping that this guide won’t end up as my eulogy to Rogue, as all the announced Rogue cards for the next expansion seem to be unviable. I hope this guide helps you find success on ladder. It is one of the few decks that are able to go head-to-head with the dominating decks like Patron Warrior and Midrange Hunter.

I am Cipher, currently rated as one of the Top 10 players in the world and a professional player for Fade2Karma. Support us by following us on Twitter @F2K_Cipher, @Fade2Karma, and check out my recent write-up of my last tournament win.

Good Luck on the Ladder!