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Tempo Rogue has been a decent deck in the Un’goro meta with a lot of aggressive early game and the deck’s ability to keep drawing cards from outside the pool of 30 cards you start with makes it a really fun. Today we’ll take a look at a Knights of The Frozen Throne version of the deck with N’zoth thrown in as a lategame win condition. Unlike most N’zoth decks, we run only a select few Deathrattle minions and resurrecting Sherazin a couple times can boost your N’zoth value by a lot.
Frozen Throne Tempo N’Zoth Rogue Card Choices
Backstab: Rogue’s bread-and-butter early game removal that is just so efficient at dealing with your opponent’s early game since it costs no mana.
Preparation: While we do not have that many high cost spells in the deck, it works great with Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Sherazin and of course spells that you might draw outside your deck.
Hallucination: While Journey Below might be the better card in a Deathrattle deck, Hallucination is better in Standard because the quality of Deathrattles is not as great as it used to be and Journey Below is way more powerful in Wild. Hallucination also lets you pull out removals and spells that can bail you out of sticky situations which makes it a very powerful tool.
Patches the Pirate: Patches is included in the deck only for deck thinning using your Swashburglars and it gives you an extra ping to work with. If you do not have him in your collection, you can replace him with anything you see fit and he’s not a must have card in the deck.
Swashburglar: Swashburglar is the strongest 1 drop you can add in any Rogue deck and being able to draw cards that your opponent is not ready to play around is where the card’s strength lies.
Bloodmage Thalnos: The Swiss Army Knife of Hearthstone cards, Bloodmage Thalnos allows you pack in card draw and spell damage into one card slot. He’s heavily picked in Rogue decks because of how well he works with cheap spells like Backstab, Eviscerate and Fan of Knives.
Eviscerate: A highly flexible spell that can help you control the board efficiently thanks to its low mana cost. Chaining it with things like Backstab or Bloodmage Thalnos can help you take out big minions very easily.
Razorpetal Lasher: A decent 2 drop that draws you a 1-cost 1 damage spell which can help you resurrect your Sherazin, get draws with Gadgetazan Auctioneer or enable combos.
Undercity Huckster: Undercity Huckster is one of the many cards in your deck that allow you to draw cards from your opponent’s class. While it is not as powerful as Swashburglar since it’s not a battlecry effect you do get N’zoth synergy which makes Huckster a must-have in the deck.
Fan of Knives: Fan of Knives ends up being a cycling tool in most games but it is quite strong against decks that try to flood the board, specially if you combo it with Bloodmage Thalnos to get a 2 damage AOE effect. You can consider taking the card out if it doesn’t fetch you much value and add in a second Mimic Pod instead.
Mimic Pod: Mimic Pod is a solid card draw tool that works like Arcane Intellect except you draw a copy of the first card you draw instead of 2 cards out of your deck. If you are facing a lot of aggro/token decks you can cut the copy of Mimic Pod for an additional Fan of Knives.
SI:7 Agent: One of the strongest 3 drops in the entire game, SI:7 is a solid early game removal tool against aggressive decks and also allows you to establish a 3/3 on board to help contest the board.
Barnes: Barnes has a total of 10 good targets in the deck, that are not vanilla 1/1s. Being able to pull out one of your Deathrattle minions or The Lich King can offer immense value while other draws that are just 1/1s still means you get a total of 4/5 stats for 4 mana anyway.
Sherazin, Corpse Flower: One of the core Deathrattle minions in the deck and you also have a bunch of supporting cheap cards in the deck to help you revive your Sherazin. What’s cool about this card is that N’zoth can revive multiple copies of Sherazin if you manage to keep reviving the minion.
Arfus: Arfus might not be the highest tempo play for 4 mana but it draws you extremely powerful Death Knight cards that can turn the tides of any match and N’zoth can potentially revive Arfus for an extra draw.
Xaril, Poisoned Mind: Xaril has amazing synergy with Sherazin and N’zoth and it can also help you setup combos thanks to the 1 mana utility toxins that are quite good.
Ethereal Peddler: Ethereal Peddler has solid stats for a 5 drop and also helps you reduce the cost of cards you draw from your opponent’s class. You have a total of 6 cards that draw you non-Rogue class cards and hitting even 1 or 2 high value cards and making them cheaper is good enough for the card. Even if you do not manage to get discounts off Ethereal Peddler, it is still a beefy 5 mana 5/6 which is great!
Vilespine Slayer: Vilespine Slayer is amazing when it comes to dealing with high value minions and it can also hit targets that cannot be targeted by spells which makes the card extremely potent. You should always save it for your opponent’s biggest threats as the card can allow for some game changing turns.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer: Gadgetzan is quite powerful in the deck thanks to the massive amount of cheap spells we run as well as other cards in the deck that can draw spells like Xaril, Swashburglar and many others.
The Lich King: A solid turn 8 taunt that can keep generating value and potentially win you the game if it sticks around for multiple turns. The eight death knight cards are extremely powerful and can turn games around if you are falling behind.
N'Zoth, The Corruptor: N’zoth brings back all of your deathrattle minions and with Sherazin being one of your core Deathrattle cards you can potentially bring back multiple copies of Sherazin when you play your N’zoth.
Frozen Throne Tempo N’Zoth Rogue General Playstyle
While N’zoth is your biggest threat in the deck, it is not your only win condition – with enough early game and removals, you can go toe to toe against any deck. Tempo Rogue has worked out great in the Un’goro meta and this is only a slightly slower list with some of the new Frozen Throne cards. It has the potential to punish greedy decks that you are likely to face in the initial weeks until the meta settles.
With a massive amount of card draw tools that help you not only draw from your own deck but also outside your deck, you will have plenty of options to choose from each turn. The deck has a nice mix of randomness through its card draws from your opponent’s class and consistency through tried and tested cards that provide you great value. You can always make the deck faster by adding things like Cold Blood and Arcane Giant by cutting out some of the lategame for a faster build.
Frozen Throne Tempo N’Zoth Rogue Mulligans
Against Aggro
Against aggro you have a lot of cheap spells and removals to work with in the early game and can easily beat them with the deck if you manage to keep your health pool reasonably high during the first few turns of the game.
Backstab: Backstab is a solid early game board control tool and works great with your hero power or spell damage.
Swashburglar: Good for early game board presence and contesting the board and the first Swashburglar pulls out Patches the Pirate, which gives you an extra ping to work with.
SI:7 Agent: A great early game removal and tempo minion that can develop your board while also possibly taking out an enemy minion.
Undercity Huckster: A great early game minion for contesting the board that gets the Deathrattle chain going for your N’zoth while also providing you card draw outside your deck.
Fan of Knives: You want to keep Fan only if you are facing a deck that has a lot of 1 HP minions that flood the board. It is also a must keep if you draw a Preparation in your mulligan against such decks.
Bloodmage Thalnos: It is a situational keep and should be kept in hand only when you have Backstab or Eviscerate in hand to use as removal and no minions to contest the board with.
Against Control
Swashburglar and Undercity Huckster are great in not only aggro matchups but also against control decks for establishing early game board presence. You should definitely keep them in your starting hand and they remain must picks regardless of matchup.
Sherazin, Corpse Flower: Getting your Sherazin out early is a must in control matchups as you have more time to resurrect the card and eventually make your N’zoth stronger.
Barnes: Barnes is a solid turn 4 play against control and if you land something like Arfus or The Lich King, you’ll get a ton of value out of the card.
Hallucination: Hallucination, Hallucination is a decent card to keep in control game as it allows you to search for removals for their potential threats and of course look for powerful minions you can play against them.
Other Cards
Here are some other cards you can consider adding to the mix:
Shadowblade: A solid weapon that’s better against aggro decks that have less minions and more burst damage and can potentially be very powerful against decks like Pirate Warrior that run a lot of 3 HP minions in the early game.
Arcane Giant and Cold Blood: You can cut out The Lich King, Arfus, Xaril and N’zoth altogether and go for an alternate build with double Arcane Giant and double Cold Blood that’s much faster but can potentially fizzle out against extremely slow decks while being more consistent against aggro.
Conclusion
We hope you try out the deck and have fun with it, N’zoth Rogue has a lot of potential in Wild as well with many powerful deathrattle minions being exclusive to Wild while the Standard meta lacks in that department. It is a fun deck to try out in the coming weeks and should work well against greedy decks that most people will be trying out in ranked play until the meta settles.
