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Mulligans
General Mulligans
GENERAL DRAW MULLIGAN
- I feel that with the inclusion of Rotten Rodent and it's mana reducing properties on almost the entire deck you want to aim for this as soon as possible to reduce the cost of comboing cards.
- Sketchy Information, is an obvious one since you want to draw that before any of your 4 primary deathrattle minions.
- Roll the Bones just for some additional early draw which will almost always draw two cards.
- Shatter Shambler just to add some board presence against early minions and to speed up the mine lobbing.
Aggro Mulligans
There are practically no board clear options here so it's simply a race to the finish and without prep or serrated blades it might prove problematic. Of course you could always land on a swiftscale + smokescreen draw but that would shape itself to be rather lucky.
Control Mulligans
Scourge Illusionist is something you should aim for against control just to start speeding up your copies and then send them back into your deck with finley to have some big smokescreen swing turns. However the problem with smokescreening your minions back is that they may not return with the life and cost adjustment made by the Scourge Illusionist so it might just be wiser to play the transformed cards when you get them.
I’m interested in playing this Deathrattle rogue deck not because I played the Naval Mine to legend a few times but rather that I just love to see these quick games where you just double / triple bomb finish your opponent from near full life to death. With the meta now expanding to the 40 HP decks with tons of value the Naval Mine has fallen off significantly and most variations added stalling cards like the Burning Blade Acolyte. What March of the Lich King does to the Mine Rogue is the inclusion of the Scourge Illusionist which will help narrow the gap on those 40 HP control decks and possibly make the Mine Rogue relevant again.
By multiplying the existence of Naval Mine through the Scourge Illusionist not only does it turn the mine into a 4/4 rather then a 0/2 and reducing it’s mana to 0 it additionally becomes a significant onboard threat.
Apart from this additional other cards which now synergize with the deck would be the likes of the Rotten Rodent and Shadow of Demise which allow you to both reduce the cost of all your deathrattle cards (22 out of the 30 cards) by 1 and also allow you to replay spells like Shadowstep, Sketchy Information or even Snowfall Graveyard for more damage on the follow up turn if the right draw came late. The inclusion over shadowstep over say Preperation or Gone Fishin’ is more a situational choice similar to how Vanndar plays a role in the Secret Rogue decks and all the cards spent in trying to activate him. Because of the significant altering effects of Rotten Rodent having the chance to replay him twice as early as 2 mana would reduce a significant portion of your deck by 2 mana making cards like Sketchy Information & Snowfall Graveyard only 1 mana and cards which sometimes make you swallow hard before playing them (Counterfeit Blade) become an easy 2 mana play while others become free of charge (Roll the Bones, Naval Mine, Forsaken Lieutenant, Sir Finley, Sea Guide, Shattershambler, etc.)
Also, because 22 out of the 30 cards are deathrattle it makes Roll the Bones far more efficient with a higher success rate for drawing two cards with two mana without the necessity to combo (Gone fishin’)
- GONE ARE OTHER GREAT CARDS THAT WOULD SYNERGIZE WITH THIS DECK LIKE GONE FISHIN’ AND PREPERATION BOTH OF WHICH I AM STILL SKEPTICAL ABOUT HAVING REMOVED. I FEEL AN ALTERNATIVE VARIATION OF THIS DECK COULD BE MADE IF YOU WERE TO REMOVE BURNING BLADE ACOLYTE AND SWAP THE SWIFTSCALE TRICKSTER AND SMOKESCREEN FOR GONE FISHIN’ AND PREPERATION HOWEVER THEN YOU MAY NOT BENEFIT FROM THE COMBOING POTENTIAL OF SMOKESCREEN AND THE STALLING POTENTIALS OF THE BURNING BLADE ACOLYTE. IT’S REALLY A GIVE OR TAKE, YOU COULD EVEN TRY BRINGING IN THE OWL FOR THE ACOLYTE BUT THE ACOLYTE HAS PROVEN TO WORK QUIET WELL WITH THE SMOKESCREEN DEATHRATTLE COMBOS.
- FOR THOSE WANTING TO TRY THE MORE AGGRO HEAVY VARIATION OF THIS DECK —
- REMOVE — Smokescreen x2, Burning Blade Acolyte x2, Swiftscale Trickster x2, Shadowstep x2 & Sir Finley, Sea Guide
- ADD — “Preparation” x2, “Gone fishin’” x2, “Ghostly Strike” x2, “Touch of Nefarion” x2, “Shadowcraft Scabbs” x1 (or instead just throw in a “Wicked stab” since drawing Scabbs early would be a hamper on the tempo)
Only 20% of the deck has deathrattle, pretty bad roll the bones odds.