Budget Secret Galakrond Rogue Deck List Guide (Ashes of Outland)

Our Secret Galakrond Rogue deck list guide for the Ashes of Outland expansion will teach you how to play this budget list. This guide includes Mulligans, Gameplay Strategy, Card Substitutions, and Combos/Synergies!

Introduction to Budget Secret Galakrond Rogue

While I (obviously) don’t put any Legendaries into budget builds – Galakronds are an exception, because they are all free. I feel like between that and the fact that a lot of players own Kronx Dragonhoof anyway (because it’s a staple), Galakrond Rogue is a solid choice. I could probably go for some kind of Aggro Rogue, which MIGHT be slightly more powerful immediately, but it would have a terrible upgrade path, so I’ve decided to stick with Secret Galakrond Rogue.

I have underestimated the Secret package – I thought that Galakrond builds will drop it quickly and run Stealth one instead, but as it seems, both are doing quite well winrate-wise, and Secret is by far the more popular one. Galakrond Rogue itself was suspected to be one of the stronger decks in Ashes of Outland, simply because it was Tier 1 in Descent of Dragons and it didn’t really lose any key cards. While the early meta was overwhelmed by Demon Hunter & Warlock, Rogue is looking to be the 3rd strongest class, and things might change after the upcoming nerf patch.

All in all, while the budget version had to cut some important cards (sadly), it should still be good enough in lower ranks. And after that, you will be able to create a powerful meta deck by adding a few Legendaries once you gather enough Dust.

Check out Hearthstone Budget Decks & Guides for All 10 Classes!

Budget Secret Galakrond Rogue Mulligan Guide

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Backstab – Just an all-around solid card – you can use it to remove a small threat or activate a combo of Miscreant.
• Pharaoh Cat or Secretkeeper – Your 1-drops, you really want to open with one of them. In general, Cat is better if you don’t start with a Secret and Secretkeeper is better if you have one in your hand.
• EVIL Miscreant – Great 3-drop as long as you can activate it – which is easier with Coin, but you run enough 0-1 mana stuff to activate it going first too.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

• Any Secret – Keep with Secretkeeper. Wihout Secretkeeper, they’re only okay – with it, they also give +1/+1 and make it harder to kill.
• Seal Fate – Keep against decks with early game targets. Playing it on T3 to kill something is not bad, but if you play against a slower decks you might not have any good target and it will just sit there for a while.

Budget Secret Galakrond Rogue Play Strategy

Galakrond Rogue’s gameplay in general is pretty interesting. While the deck’s strategy is pretty aggressive and once it starts going it will be hard to stop, but interestingly enough, the deck’s early game is rather slow. Unless you have a Secretkeeper opener and then a perfect curve, you won’t likely do much during the first few turns. Dropping a 1/2, then Hero Powering, then dropping a 1/4 is an example of your 1-2-3 curve. It doesn’t put much pressure, but importantly it builds your hand and future tempo swings. The deck starts taking off in the mid game and then really shines even later, after playing Galakrond. Drawing up to 4 free cards + getting a 5/2 weapon is an insane swing. Sadly, the full build has even more of those swing turns, and that’s why you will want to add those few Legendaries as quickly as possible.

Like I’ve said, your early-mid game is pretty slow, so don’t sweat it. When you play against slower decks, your goal is to start gaining Galakrond Invokes to get to 4 as soon as you can. Galakrond will come in clutch in most of your games, trust me. While sometimes you will win by simply playing on curve (especially if you manage to snowball the Secretkeeper early), the tempo swings are most important. In faster matchups, you can’t really afford a VERY slow start, but luckily you have some early game removals + you can always swing at stuff with your Hero Power.

Things start getting more interesting around Turn 4-5, because that’s when you can really put your Lackeys into use. When playing deck so full of Lackeys, given that you always get random ones, you will need to get used to adapting to whatever options you have. For example, if you keep getting 2 damage Lackeys, maybe you want to play more aggressively, since you have a lot of burn in your hand. Discover ones can give you more value, Titanic can push you towards a more board-oriented gameplay etc. Lackeys are also a good way to activate combo (although you don’t have many Combo cards in this budget build), and of course an amazing Faceless Corruptor target. The card is very strong – if you play it on curve and get 2x 4/4 with Rush at a very small sacrifice of a 1/1, possibly removing something immediately and swinging the board in your favor.

The card you’re relying on, however, is Galakrond, the Nightmare. Ideally you want to upgrade it fully before you play it (the difference between 2nd and 3rd stage is huge – 2 more free cards + 5/2 weapon), but if you’re pretty desperate or you have really nothing better to do, you can play it earlier. For example, if you have it at 2/4, you have no Invoke cards in your hand and it’s Turn 7, you will still want to play it. It’s not optimal, but waiting to get the last two Invokes might take multiple turns. Then you want to drop whatever you drew and make on big board swing. However, while Battlecry is important, your new Hero Power is also pretty cool. 2 mana to get a Lackey is not very efficient, but Lackeys are pretty solid. They will give you more damage, more tempo, more value etc. Since most of your deck is low cost, you should easily be able to play HP + drop a Lackey every turn, which is better than your regular Hero Power.

And let’s talk a bit about the Secret package. I’ve already mentioned Secretkeeper, which is obviously a great 1-drop, but throughout the mid game and late game another card starts to shine – Blackjack Stunner. It’s a targeted Freezing Trap on a 1/2 minion for just 1 mana. It’s a way better and cheaper Sap. The card is simply insane. In lots of games, whatever you bounce with it can be considered dead – it’s rare that your opponent can afford to play it back again for 2 more mana. Of course, ideally you want to bounce more expensive cards, like 4+ mana, but if necessary you can also get rid of a pesky 2-drop or 3-drop.

Now onto the Secrets themselves. Dirty Tricks is the simplest one – you just draw cards after your opponent plays a spell. Since basically every deck plays some spells, it will activate sooner or later (usually sooner), giving you some value. You play it at any time, you don’t have to think about strategy. Ambush triggers just as easy, after your opponent drops a minion. It should also happen on the very next turn, or maybe the turn after. If the dropped minion is big, you can use your 2/3 Poisonous to just kill it. If it’s not, you can kill it with something else and keep your minion around – smack the face and threaten another big minion. And finally, Bamboozle is the most interesting one. It can really win you the game in some cases. Evolving into a minion 3 mana more expensive on attack is great against many decks – if your opponent attacked with his Hero, he will likely take much more damage and probably not kill the new minion. If he trades with a minion – same story, most of the time you will get something much bigger and his trade will fail. Ideally, when you play Bamboozle, you want to set up board with more expensive minions. Evolving a Lackey into a 4-drop is not terrible, but it’s much better to turn Miscreant into a 6-drop or Maniac into a 7-drop. And if your opponent decides to play around it and not attack any of your minions, that’s also fine – he will have much harder time removing your board, which means that you will gain an advantage.

Future Card Replacements for Secret Galakrond Rogue

Here’s the thing – full version of Galakrond Rogue is pretty expensive. While it doesn’t run many Epics (Bamboozle is the only one, actually), it plays many Legendaries. Legendaries that make it much, much better. That’s why the budget version is pretty weak, but it gets stronger with every new Legendary you add. And here are the Legendaries I’m talking about:

• Shadowjeweler Hanar – The new Legendary, which synergizes with Secrets. It’s interesting for two reasons. First – stats. If you drop it on curve, it will most likely survive against most of the decks. And then you can start getting value out of it right after. But you can also keep it until the late game and play 4-5 Secrets in a single turn, making your opponent’s life incredibly difficult. Good card in the build.
• Edwin VanCleef – A staple Rogue Legendary – if you’re playing the class often, you should just craft it, because it has seen plays for years and it will most likely see play going forward. It’s perfect in the current Galakrond builds because you have a lot of cheap cards (including the ones you discount to 0 with Galakrond) and Lackeys to really pump it up.
• Flik Skyshiv – While Flik doesn’t play a key role in the deck and doesn’t synergize too well with anything, it’s just a good Legendary. 6 mana 4/4 with an Assassinate built into it is already worth playing, but it gets even better because of its extra effect. Sometimes you will discard a card from your opponent’s hand, sometimes you will remove an important card from their deck, and sometimes it will be an AoE board clear (like against Druid’s Treants or Glowflies).
• Heistbaron Togwaggle – You have so many Lackeys that it’s very easy to activate it. Most of the time you will be able to get it on Turn 7 or even on curve. And then you most likely want to pick 3 mana treasure that draws 3 cards and makes them cost 0. It’s like a mini-Galakrond, but what’s great is that it CAN draw you Galakrond. If it does, then you’re going to have an absolutely insane turn.
• Kronx Dragonhoof – Kronx is just a staple in any Galakrond deck, including this one. It’s a great craft, because I can’t imagine Galakrond decks completely disappearing from the meta – I would bet that they will see play over the next year in some form or the other. It lets you either draw Galakrond if you still don’t have it, or have a nice swing turn after it’s already played.

And now cards that you want to cut in order to fit those in. Here are some flex slots in the deck:

• 2x Secretkeeper – The budget build has to lean towards more aggressive role because it does’t have too many insane late game swings. However, if you add some of the Legendaries, you can easily cut those and focus on mid/late game instead.
• A Secret – I think that 5 Secrets is optimal and you don’t need to run all 6. Which one you cut really depends on the decks you face. Overall I think that they’re similar in power level so it doesn’t make a big difference which one you cut (although I would probalby cut Dirty Tricks from the full version, since between Hanar, Tog and Kronx you have a lot more value anyway).
• 1-2x Eviscerate – You still need some slots to fit the Legendaries, and while Eviscerate is a good card, the Legendaries above are just better and the deck can work without double Evis.
• 1-2x Faceless Corruptor – Similarly to Eviscerate, Corruptor is also a good card, but you just need to fit the Legendaries somewhere.