Mulligans
Introduction
Big rogue is one of those older builds that doesn’t seem to be a frequently played deck anymore. With the recent witchwood expansion it seemed to me that it deserved a rebuild using a fun factor: Dollmaster Dorian !
Higher priority (keep every time)
Kobold Illusionist
Mad Scientist
Barnes
The fight for board control starts on turn 1, and you really should be gunning hard for one of those early-game minions in order to get involved as fast as possible. In fact, itโs not unreasonable to hard-mulligan for them in order to keep the pressure on and get maximum value out of your deck mechanics. Best case scenario is having mad scientist to play on turn 2, kill it on turn 3 (if needed: backstab it after dealing damage) to get cheat death on the board and have maximum value out of either barnes or kobold illusionist by turn 4. Make sure you have 1 or 2 bigger creatures in hand for kobold illusionist to trigger properly.
Lower priority
Roll the Bones
Keep it when your lacking bigger minions in your hand. Due to the amount of deathrattle creatures in your deck it shouldn’t be to difficult to get at least 2 extra cards out of it. You do want to keep at least 1 in your deck to combine with Dollmaster Dorian.
Silver VanguardPossible to keep this if you also have kobold illusionist. Gives some good options for early game board pressence if you are able to get this on the board early on.
Play strategy
With Big Rogue, the game-winning decisions usually come down to finding the right moment to start a chain reaction using the different mechanics in your deck. While a guide like this cannot comprehensively go through every single potential break point, here are a few general guidelines.
Barnes
Seems clear enough. Play barnes, get a high value minion and make sure you have cheat death on the board to get maximum results by either returning barnes or your other minion into your hand.
Kobold Illusionist
Great card in this particular build. Try combining it with either spiritsinger umbra or cheat death.
Mad Scientist
Just included this to trigger cheat death
Backstab
Versatile card in this build. Either get rid of your opponents minions or use it for triggering mad scientist or 1 of your 1/1 copies out of either barnes or kobold illusionist. Especially fun if Kel'Thuzad is on the board as well.
Spiritsinger Umbra
Seems obvious why this is included. Try combining it with kobold illusionist or sonya shadowdancer. With Sonya you kill your minions first, replay them and trigger their deathrattle’s at the same time! Choo choo! All aboard the value train!
Dollmaster Dorian
The so called fun factor. Do you absolutely need this card? No. Does it have alot of synergy with this deck and does it add to the fun while playing it? Hell yeah!
I could make a very long guide with other obvious plays, but it’s simple! Play on curve, abuse your mechanics as much as possible and try starting off a crazy chain reaction!
GLHF playing and please share your opinions and possible adjustments!
I love this deck and have a lot of fun, Kobold Illusionist and Dorian are some of my favorite cards. However, I keep seeing Splitting Festeroot in these Big Rogue lists, and after trying it in both Wild and Standard, I can firmly say: it sucks. Especially when it’s outclassed by Violet Wurm. The Wurm is not unplayable from hand, and has a similar Deathrattle, so to me it makes ALL the difference. That 3/3 difference in stats is HUGE.
Tried both options and i choose festeroot because of spiritsinger umbra and sonya shadowdancer. By trying to combo it and trigger its deathrattle right away i find it better because of the deathrattle of the 2/2’s as well.
U got ten by the way so do it!!
Here you go ๐