The Witchwood introduced two great cards, namely Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane, which open great deck building possibilities. Only a few of these decks ended being viable competitively, but still the community is having a lot of fun experimenting with these two cards. Here I present Even Tempo Rogue. The deck is clearly not too strong, and the Aggro Odd Rogue is objectively better, but this deck is fun and makes certain obscure cards shine. So if I caught your interest, read on!

Now what is the advantage of running Even Rogue? Obviously, the 1 mana hero power which equips a weapon. Most even decks tend to hero power every odd turn to use that spare mana crystal. Since the weapon conveniently has two charges, this means you can attack with your hero EVERY turn. This is actually great because you can constantly ping the opponent’s minions for board control, or chip damage the opponent’s face. Many Rogue archetypes have to be careful as to when they use their weapon charges, since wasting 2 mana to hero power a new dagger to deal with an immediate threat can make very inefficient future turns. This deck will prevent this headache because you can attack freely all the time.

Most early theorycrafting and experiments of Even Rogue have tended to a Miracle style. Since you have Faldorei Strider, Gadgetzan Auctioneer and all those sweet 0-mana spells, it surely should work, right? Well, in my opinion dropping Hench-Clan Thug, SI:7 Agent, Questing Adventurer, Edwin VanCleef, Leeroy Jenkins and Cold Blood is not compensated by getting a discounted hero power. Being able to drop a big Edwin or the lurking threat of Leeroy + Cold Blood + Shadowstep is what wins you many games as Miracle. And there’s no snowball without Hench-Clan Thug or Questing Adventurer. You do have spiders that can win games, but it’s a very inconsistent win condition. Other people have experimented with Spell Damage Even Rogue, with cards like Ancient Mage, Tuskarr Fisherman, Spellshifter and Cheap Shot. That’s definitely interesting and makes more sense than a watered-down Miracle deck. That deck has actually become somewhat popular after the May 2018 nerfs!

This deck foregoes the Miracle and Spell Damage styles and tries to maximize the advantage of the discounted hero power by being as aggressive as possible. The idea is to gain board control and chip away face damage the first turns, then drop overstatted minions in the midgame which will close the game.

CARD CHOICES:

– Acidic Swamp Ooze: mandatory weapon hate card for this meta. Otherwise a 3/2 2-drop, which is not bad. Only worth running one of.

– Amani Berserker: this card has seen a big resurgence since the last rotation. It’s a great aggressive 2-drop that will trade well with smaller minions and then force an answer from the opponent, since it means 5 damage to the face otherwise.

– Bloodmage Thalnos: very flexible card that synergizes well with Backstab, Eviscerate and the Razor Petals. It shines more when finishing games, but even in the early game it can give you a much needed 3-damage Backstab and then recycle itself when it dies with a new card.

– Bloodsail Raider: one of the main reasons to run Even Rogue, since in this deck it’s always a 2-mana 3/3, and that’s pretty strong on Turn 2. It will trade efficiently with almost any early game minions, and starts pushing substantial damage from the beginning.

– Mad Bomber: to be honest, I really dislike this card, because I usually low-roll with it. However, I can’t deny it is useful in this deck. In the early game, it can help you ping other small minions from your opponent and gain board control. Also, it’s actually good to play Amani Berserker on 2 and Mad Bomber on 3. You have to be unlucky that one of the barrels doesn’t hit Amani, and if it does, you get a 5-attack minion off the bat that the opponent has to answer immediately. In an empty board it’s normally extra damage to the opponents face, which is good after an AOE clear. Of course, this card has backfired me sometimes, like all barrels hitting my Berserker, or no barrels hitting the 1-health minions from my opponent. It’s a high risk, very high reward card. I would cut it for another aggressive 2-drop that could go well in this deck, but so far no other card convinces me. Cruel Taskmaster would be amazing, if it weren’t a Warrior exclusive card…

– Razorpetal Lasher: not the best 2-drop when playing for tempo, which means it can be the best play when anticipating an AOE (instead of Bloodsail Raider or Amani Berserker). The generated Razorpetal is actually useful to activate an Elven Minstrel, for board control or even reaching the opponent’s face. Thalnos powers it up.

– Elven Minstrel: if you’re running out of minions, comboing a card with Elven Minstrel will replenish your hand. It keeps you from running out of gas, but remember that it is a slow tempo play.

– Grave Shambler: an obscure and normally terrible card. However, in this deck, you drop it on 4 and it consistently becomes a 5/5, because on Turn 4 you break your second dagger. Vanilla 4 mana 5/5 on curve is quite good! And it has potential to snowball. No other deck can dagger every turn as this one, so you can give it +1/+1 every turn if the game goes long.

– Hoarding Dragon: 4 mana 5/6 to ramp the pressure in the midgame. The downside is obvious, but they still need to kill the overstatted minion first. Also, using the coins is not that easy. Aggro decks can vomit cards more easily, but they don’t have that much premium removal; whereas control decks tend to stack many cards in hand and those two coins can be uncomfortable to get value from. If they go for a large Taunt, they risk getting it sapped. And if they keep the coins, they can get milled.

– Saronite Chain Gang: great Taunts against Aggro decks, and they can also protect your other minions so they can go face. Weak to common AOEs like Duskbreaker or Hellfire, so be careful with those.

– Spellbreaker: great tool vs opposing Taunts so your minions can push face damage. Also works great with Frozen Crusher.

– Twilight Drake: this card is especially good when going second, since you have the Coin and an extra card than usual. The 4-attack makes it uncomfortable for Priest, and it should have good health for surviving AOEs. I think it’s only worth it to run one of them, though, since you’re not always going second, and it gets worse in the late game, since you’ll have less cards in hand by then.

– Frozen Crusher: the card you’re looking to close games with. 8/8 on Turn 6 is not easy to deal with, especially if they’ve been using their premium removal on Grave Shamblers and Hoarding Dragons. Also, it comboes great with Spellbreaker for cheeky plays. After hitting face, the Crusher will freeze and the opponent will think they’re safe the next turn, so they don’t always prioritize removing it that turn. Then, you silence your Crusher with the Spellbreaker for a surprise extra 8 damage to face! This card justifies running two Spellbreakers, since these can still get good value even when there are no other good silence targets on board.

– Genn Greymane: makes the deck. Duh.

– Backstab, Eviscerate and Sap: premium Classic Rogue spells that we get to enjoy in Even Rogue. You probably already know the perks. Backstab helps getting board control and even activating Minstrel. Sap is AMAZING for tempo, especially against Voidlords that have been cheated out too soon. Try to save Eviscerate for face damage to close games, but if there’s a pesky Taunt that would prevent a lot of minion damage (or another huge threat on board) then of course play it.

MULLIGANS:

You’re generally looking for your 2-drops, especially Bloodsail Raider, and ideally you should have two 2-drops in your opening hand. The deck loses quite a lot of power if you don’t drop a minion on Turn 2 or Turn 3. You normally mulligan Thalnos away because it’s a slow tempo play in the early game. If you already have two 2-drops, you can also keep a 4-drop (that does NOT include Elven Minstrel or Spellbreaker!). Against Aggro always keep one Saronite Chain Gang, also Backstab if you already have 2-drops. Against Warlock always keep one Sap, because it will ruin their Possessed Lackey pull.

STRATEGY:

VS AGGRO:

The deck is not super aggressive, so you’re normally the beatdown vs Aggro. Good news: the discounted Hero Power allows you to fight for the board very early, along with your 2-drops and Backstab. Saronite Chain Gang helps a lot in these matchups by ensuring better trades for you, and also by blocking opposing Rush and Charge minions. Once you reach Turns 4 and 5 you should have board control and should start dropping the overstatted minions, which will continue to keep board control and put your opponent on a clock. Be very careful with your health starting the midgame, especially if the opponent could have burn and reach damage in hand. Hunter for example can finish you with the hero power and Kill Command, and Mage has burn spells. This means that it could be better to kill a 1-health minion with a smaller, damaged minion, than with your face, since extra damage to your face could be fatal to you.

VS CONTROL:

You’re clearly the aggressor here. Play on curve, attack face as much as you can, play around AOEs. Kill them before they reach their win condition. The common AOEs in this meta are really annoying for the deck, since Duskbreaker and Hellfire for example clear all of your 2-drops. That’s why it might be better for example to drop a Razorpetal Lasher on Turn 3 if you expect an AOE on Turn 4. Elven Minstrel helps replenish your hand when they keep eliminating your minions, and can even be used when your opponent drops a Doomsayer that you can’t contest. Druid and Priest are difficult to deal with because they have healing and Armor, annoying Taunts, and also good removal tools. Warrior has armor gain, but his tools feel less powerful than Druid or Priest. Warlock has great tools but does not get that much extra health, and Sap is killer for him, it’s definitely easier to win against Warlock.

SHOWCASE VIDEO (RANKS 17-18 in ASIA SERVER):

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYSZEcYtjvc

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xla50N7xPLk 

POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE CARDS:

– Defias Ringleader: Solid card, but the problem is that it’s difficult to activate the combo early in the game without the Coin. Also, because of Paladin, everyone has ping cards, so the 2/1 normally goes down immediately to things like Arcane Missiles.

– Ravasaur Runt: Nice if it activates, however the soonest you can activate it is Turn 4, and by then you want to play a 4-drop, not two 2-drops (because of AOE). Still, worth experimenting with.

– Faerie Dragon: Better than Acidic Swamp Ooze if you don’t need weapon tech, or if you run a Dragon package. Otherwise meh.

– Loot Hoarder: Solid card that recycles, but with all the pings in the meta, it’s probably only going to be recycled. You’d rather have a less volatile 2-drop in an aggressive deck.

– Cursed Disciple: I had it in a previous version. It’s a good sticky minion with high-attack, but I found out that on average it lasts less on the board than Hoarding Dragon or Grave Shambler, even with the resummoning Deathrattle.

– Dark Iron Dwarf: provides more tempo, would also be a solid card.

– Cult Master: replenish your hand after trades. You already have Elven Minstrel and you don’t want to sacrifice more value for tempo, though. 2-health means it will not stick after you drop it.

– Dread Corsair: VERY interesting because it will always be a 3-mana card in this even deck. However I normally never play Ironfur Grizzly because it doesn’t cut it, so why would I play this?

– Fire Plume Phoenix: great vs Aggro and great tempo, however the 3-health means it dies to AOEs. I do better vs Aggro than vs Control, so I don’t include it, however if you face a lot of Aggro you can include it to boost your winrate against them.

– Lifedrinker: same problem as Fire Plume Phoenix, 4-drop that dies to AOEs because of its health. Better face reach than Fire Plume, though, and the healing COULD help. However, I’d rather play Fire Plume Phoenix vs Aggro because killing a 2-health minion is usually better than healing in this Tempo Deck.

– Scaleworm: great card in this meta and great tempo play that would fit well with this deck. However this would mean including a Dragon package. We already have 3 dragons in our deck, so we would probably need to include Faerie Dragons, another Twilight Drake or Bone Drakes, which are not optimal cards for this deck.

– Sherazin, Corpse Flower: this is not Miracle, you won’t be able to resurrect it most of the time.

– Swift Messenger: can provide good tempo to contest the board, but the deck already contests the board well enough. On Turn 4 you want to start dropping big boys.

– Cairne Bloodhoof: sticky minion, but low tempo when compared to Frozen Crusher.

– The Black Knight: very solid choice to kill those Taunts. However you already have 2x Sap and 2x Spellbreaker, and those cards can still get good value even if they don’t target Taunts… Consider it only in a Taunt-heavy meta.

– Bone Drake: Consider it only if you want to run a Dragon Package. Low tempo, high value, not what you usually want to do in this deck.

– The Lich King: one of our favorite cards that can save lost games, and against Control they probably have used all their premium removals once you drop the King. However the 8 cost means it’s a dead card in a proactive deck until Turn 8. Definitely worth considering if you’re facing a lot of Control.

– Bonemare: great tempo that can close out games. However, like the Lich King, dead card until Turn 8.

FINAL REMARKS:

Tempo Even Rogue definitely has potential, is very fun to play and makes certain obscure cards shine (Razorpetal Lasher, Grave Shambler, Frozen Crusher…). Right now it lacks a bit of a punch to get to the status of off-meta deck. It’s missing a card like Shaman’s Murkspark Eel, which would definitely make it T4 or T3, I believe. Let’s keep an eye on this archetype when new expansions are released, we could get extra toys that push the power level of this deck. All feedback is welcome and have fun with the deck!