Rank 5 Burgle rogue (season 33)

My take on the burgle rogue.

Last iteration took me easily to rank 5 this season which is the rank i aim for. I had a lots of fun playing it. It create a awful lot of rage on the other side of the board due to one of it win condition:

Pull a crazy turn with stolen cards (like 3 mana Archmage Antonidas  coin coin 5 mana Flamestrike  Edwin VanCleef )

It plays a lot like a midrange tempo deck with the added value from the stolen cards.

Card choice

Pirate package : just too strong, left unchecked it wins you the game and it helps you fight off aggro.

One Sprint  one Gadgetzan Auctioneer : Not enough spell to make use for double auctioneer. Drawing two to three card with you auctioneer is fine. It tried double sprint and double auctioneer, most efficient was one of each.

Violet Teacher  : Fight off aggro, make us of cheap useless spell from burgle and I needed a another good turn 4. Shaku into Tomb pillager or violet teacher often lets you draw two cards from Shaku as everyone deal with the menace first.

Leeroy Jenkins : game closer, around turn 10-12 you may lose the board if you didn’t receive late game from burgle cards. Leeroy Jenkins + evisceration  help me close a lots of game. I was running Ragnaros at one time but there is too many shaman and cheap removal for it to be powerful

Lotus Agents  : An aggressive turn 5 and the only discover available to rogue. I find myself often taking  shaman or rogue cards. The meta being so quick it is not possible to run 2 of this but it can save some game (Shaman and druid both run powerful heal and taunt)

Shaku, the Collector  : A nice minion, it can carry a game if left unchecked but I play him mainly because I got a golden one from a pack.

Cards not included

Preparation  : the most disputable of choice, I tried and it is fine but this deck does not have so many useful spell and we are not trying to close the game with a big combo turn. I use double Counterfeit Coin  instead which let me “innerve” a sap or a minion

Bloodmage Thalnos  + Fan of Knives : The only available rogue AOE, we don’t run Azure Drake  meaning the aoe effect is just to weak. against shaman 3 heal minion useless, against Renolock useless, pirate warrior useless, dragon priest useless. It never changed to outcome of a game and after i cut it entirely my win rate improved.

Difficulties to play this deck:

Ethereal Peddler  : Check correctly which cards are reduced by Ethereal peddler, sometime the right play is playing this minion, reducing at lot of burgle cards then doing a big combo one turn later. Be careful, lotus cards are NOT reduced even if you got them from a burgle.

Usage of the coins : Coins have 4 usage in the deck,

1. Make a big Edwin VanCleef  early in the game,
2. “innerve” minions early ex: turn 2 shaku  turn 3 Tomb Pillager  turn 4 Ethereal Peddler  is difficult to deal with for most decks.
3. Big combo turn following one or two Ethereal Peddler. I won many games while playing a ethereal peddler turn 5 or 6 with a hand full of burgle cards and playing most of them in a single turn using the coins the turn later. Or just playing a good turn 3 in the same turn as Ethereal peddler.
4. draw with Gadgetzan Auctioneer. No need to save to much coins for this use but sometimes you won’t get your burgle cards or get useless spell and you auctioneer help you recycle those cards while getting a 4/4 body on the board.

Trading :

Your curve is quite low, lots of 1 2 3 mana cards. It the case for two reasons :

1. Late game is usually provided by burgle cards and we don’t want to have a hand clogged early with both our late game minion AND the one from burgle.
2.  Depending of the cards you get the deck can play either as aggro or mid range : Get some cheap burn from burgle cards ? Play like an aggro deck and forget  trading. Get high value cards ? play like a mid range and do efficient trades until you can trade his face.

Baiting

Due to burgle cards, the opponent has no way to know what you are playing and can be baited to make “mistake”. No one play around a big taunt or big AOE or heal while playing against rogue. Some strategy in this deck revolve about getting one or two broken cards from a burgle and playing you opponent into it.

Recommendations:

DON’T play this deck if you face only pirate warrior and aggro shaman. Both match-up can be won but it is hard. Aggro shaman not playing Doomhammer  being around 50%.

If you face a lots of reno deck you can remove Shaku and replace it by Beneath the Grounds . Shaku carried some games for me but most of the time is kind of a underwhelming minion. One more health or attack could have him less of a tempo loss when played on curve. If you don’t have beneath the ground a lots of time the match-up revolve around your opponent not having Reno Jackson  turn 8-10 or you getting some burn from burgle cards.

Flex point : Sprint  – Violet Teacher  – lotus agent-  and Shaku, the Collector  can all be replaced to adapt to your meta.

If you don’t have Shaku no need to craft him, you can replace him by a Burgle or an anti aggro card or Violet Teacher . As it is the deck suffer sometimes turn 4  a little weak.

What I like with this deck is that it both competitive and fun. The burgle cards being always different all games play differently. And what ever you face you still have a fighting chance to beat him with a good burgle.