[Destroy Rogue] Prince Keleseth & Valeera the Hollow

Hello everyone,

This is a deck that utilizes cheap or efficient ways to destroy enemy minions. That said, this deck also runs Prince Keleseth, involving extreme deckbuilding and so please expect results to vary drastically from game to game. I will be adding on card replacements for a deck with stable win-rates in my next edit.

Pros: Fun deck that can be strong, using mix-and-match to get the effects you want such as Deathspeaker + Plague Scientist for immunity + poisonous.

Cons: Likely will suffer a low win-rate until you are used to planning a few turns ahead.

Mulligan: Starting off with Prince + Shadowstep is always the best, especially if you go second and have The Coin. Dropping Prince twice in the early game can almost guarantees you a win with this deck with strong trades.

Strategy:

• Keep your board alive. Anything that your minions cannot kill and still stay alive should be dealt with a destroy mechanic like Envenom Weapon, Vilespine Slayer, The Black Knight, and Plague Scientist’s Battlecry on a token minion. 
• This is a tempo deck that involves playing reactively to win the game so there are some turns that you hold onto cards and mana because your opponent has played no minion that turn for you to destroy. 

Please note that this deck requires a lot of forethought to pilot:

• You can use your health aggressively to protect your minions. A low-attack, high-health enemy minion generally should be dealt with using Plague Scientist’s Battlecry on a minion that will survive the trade damage (e.g. Stonehill Defender).
• Envenom Weapon should be reserved for when none of your minion can deal with the enemy and still stay alive.
• Charrrge: Pirates are your Charrrge minions and should not be used just because you can, but because you should. Best combo’d with Plague Scientist to bring down high-attack minions that you do not want your hero to take trade damage from. Tar Creeper, Jade Behemoth are generally not good examples of when you should use your pirates.

Bigger-cost tactics:

• Silence: A big Twilight Drake can often be silenced and hit by your dagger or Tar Creeper if you can use Deathspeaker on it. A big Edwin VanCleef can be silenced and hit by a Southsea Deckhand. A Tirion Fordring is better to be silenced and dealt with than using The Black Knight on it.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Good with Deathspeaker’s Battlecry to kill a big enemy or Shadowstep to recover him.
• Deathspeaker + Plague Scientist: Kills any minion damaged by this combo and your minion stays alive.

Here are the ways you will want to chain your cards to counter most early-game scenarios:

*Turn 3/4*

Use Deathspeaker on Turn 3 for immunity-trading.

Use Envenom Weapon on Turn 3 to kill an enemy minion, then Runeforge Haunter on Turn 4 to save durability. Usually your opponent will not expect this. 

Use Tar Creeper on Turn 3 to stop aggro, then Plague Scientist on Turn 4 with Battlecry on either Tar Creeper or Patches the Pirate if you want Tar Creeper alive.

 *Turn 6*

Deathspeaker + Plague Scientist for immunity-trading + poisonous.

Combo activator + Vilespine Slayer for destroy.

The Black Knight for destroying Taunt.

Vanish to return all Living Mana / Spreading Plague to Druid.

Shadowstep / Shadowcaster on:

– Plague Scientist / Vilespine Slayer for destroy

– Spellbreaker for silence 

– Deathspeaker for immunity

– Prince Keleseth for more +1/+1

Your board will usually be quite decent by Turn 4 unless you face Warlock’s board wipe every turn, but you will also experience a lot of draw issues so you can try replacing Gnomish Inventor for Cult Master to make use of those minions.  Backstab is a good choice here, I would take away Gnomish Inventor for them and that would mean that this deck will not have any draw mechanics.

Valeera is amazing if your opponent did nothing much to affect your board on the turn it’s played. Next turn, you can use Leeroy Jenkins twice, or use second Shadowcaster on first Shadowcaster, or if Vilespine Slayer is the only card in hand, your first Vilespine Slayer will be combo activator for second Vilespine to destroy. If  you have Shadowstep in hand, you can use on the above minions (two destroys via Vilespine Slayer this time since Shadowstep activated combo).

I will stop here for now. Have fun with the deck!