MemyselfandI’s Tempo N’Zoth Rogue (Season 28)

Tempo Rogue is a deck that has evolved throughout Hearthstone’s lifespan. It started out as a deck that took advantage of Rogue’s cheap and powerful tempo cards like Backstab and SI:7 Agent. With the introduction of Tinker's Sharpsword Oil, the Miracle Rogue archetype was abandoned for the more powerful combo-oriented rogue. When Tomb Pillager was released, Miracle Rogue became more prominent and Oil Rogue’s popularity decreased. But now that Oil has rotated out of the Standard format, Tempo Rogue as an archetype has been pretty much killed off. Most viable Rogue decks either run Gadgetzan Auctioneer (as opposed to the Sprint draw engine of Tempo Rogue) or Reno Jackson, which turns rogue into more of a control class lots of tech cards and large minions. However, the slew of fantastic Rogue spells and Deathrattle minions make way for a new Tempo Rogue: N’Zoth Rogue. N'Zoth, The Corruptor is sometimes used in Miracle variants as a more backloaded win condition that doesn’t require a special combo. But I think the Rogue class can be pushed even further away from combo decks. This list doesn’t differ much from the traditional N’Zoth Rogue, but there are some differences which make the deck considerably more consistent. By dropping Gadgetzan Auctioneer in favor of Sprint, the deck can more consistently draw cards and pump out minions without being swamped by a bad hand, and removing Conceal allows for both 2 Violet Teachers and 1 copy of Xaril, Poisoned Mind which increase the deck’s consistency in early turns.

The deck should be played pretty similarly to Miracle Rogue: Make sure to get as much value out of your cards as possible so you can keep up the tempo against aggro and midrange decks. Slow down the pace too far and you’ll find yourself trying to remove their minions every turn without much progress on the board. Against control decks, your playstyle differs: Try to  maintain a large hand while using midrange minions like Tomb Pillager and Azure Drake to put pressure on your opponent’s life total. Xaril allows for some decently sized burst finishers, while N’Zoth serves as a late-game bomb that can leave your opponent helpless. Journey Below is also a life-saver against control, as it can often net you powerful Deathrattle minions like Cairne Bloodhoof, Sylvanas Windrunner , Deathwing, Dragonlord , and the extremely powerful Anub’Arak. In control matchups, it’s best to play 2 or 3 mid-size minions in the same turn to try and bait out a board clear like Brawl or Equality. N’Zoth  is your ultimate win condition, and if your opponent is unable to answer it, you’ll win.

Notable Exclusions:

Unearthed Raptor  – This deck is all about consistency, and Unearthed Raptor is too often a vanilla 3/4 to warrant a slot in the deck. 

Sylvanas Windrunner  – This decklist has aggro in mind, and I would only consider  and  actually bad against aggressive decks. While Sylvanas isn’t actually terrible in aggro matchups, it would still add another situational card to that list, and that’s not something this deck can afford. If you are facing a lot of control decks, a can be taken out to make space for Sylvanas.

Dark Iron Skulker  – This card is a fantastic tech choice in an aggro meta. While the card isn’t quite good enough to get in a middle of the road, well-rounded decklist, the card is great in a heavily aggressive metagame. I’d take out a  or  in favor of one if the meta requires it.

Tip:

Against Warrior, try not to play Journey Below on turn 1. Wait until you find out which Warrior deck your opponent is playing before using it. Currently, Warrior is the only class with varied enough archetypes for this, but if you’re facing a lot of Beast Druid, Renolock, or Aggro Paladin, it might be a good idea to hold off on a T1 Journey Below as well.

Please leave any feedback about the deck below, and let me know how you guys performed with it! Thanks for reading.