Hello everyone I’m Spark, Legend player from Hearthstone and today I’m back with another Mid Range Deck. After Naxxramas content was released, I decided to revisit my older Tempo Rogue by introducing some more deathrattle synergies in it.
It helped me climbing to Legend last season and I think that with the incoming Hunter nerf, the meta shift will be favorable to that deck again because of all the early tools that it has at its disposal to deal with the resurgence of other Tempo Decks.
In addition to its strengths, I think that Tempo Rogue is one of the best way to learn about the game, because it revolves so much around the basic mechanics of Hearthstone : trading minions efficiently.
Unfortunately, this version has a lot of Legendaries in it, so it’s not really affordable for a new player but the good news is that those cards are also pretty useful for other decks.
Gameplay
A lot of decks are currently focused around early tempo by abusing the power of undertaker and this deck actually has the ability to do the same while preventing the opponent from developping thanks to the very few but important Rogue cards that are in the deck :
backstab, deadly poison, si:7 agent, eviscerate and blade flurry.
Those cheap and efficient removals combined with the early deathrattle engine will allow you to take control of the board early to mid game and prepare for your mid to late game threats while pressuring the opponent.
The addition of sludge-belcher and defender of argus having more targets thanks to some sticky minions like haunted creeper and harvest golem also improved the mid game consistency of the deck and its ability to prevent the aggression from Aggro Decks. Therefore, you are more likely to get safely to the late game where your win conditions will close the game.
I was invited by TheChiv to his show called Deck Talk to present the deck, I have to say that it was a lot of fun and I really think that the video is the best support for this guide. It covers the Deck breakdown, especially focused on the Legendaries uses (so you should probably watch this part to understand their utility), and shows the Deck in action where I explain the thought process behind the decisions so I hope it can help you understanding the mechanics of the deck. To view the Deck Talk, please check out the video above.
Match Ups
In this section I’ll go over the most popular Match Ups, the rest of the metagame will generally be some form of Mid Rangy decks (Control Paladin, Secret Mage, Tempo Rogue or Warrior) so they are usually played the same way and you should probably be looking for the Tempo Priest, Mid Range Druid and Shaman sections for that 😉
Handlock is probably to be mentionned also but when facing Warlock you’ll have to mulligan for Zoo so it’s not really relevant, the match up is a bit hard because of that and because of the fact that you lacks hard removal but it’s not unwinnable. If the meta happens to be filled with those, including a big game hunter in the build will definitely be a consideration as the black knight is already doing a great job against those taunted Giants.
Miracle Rogue and Hunter are not mentionned here because we don’t really know yet how those builds will evolve with the upcoming nerfs.
Tempo Priest
Key cards to keep : deadly poison, undertaker, harvest golem
Good cards to have : backstab, eviscerate, haunted creeper, loot hoarder, si:7 agent
This match up is probably one of the most common and entirely revolves around which Deck can get the tempo advantage first.
Having a strong undertaker start with haunted creeper and harvest golem is definitely good. deadly poison is really key to prevent their early attempt at taking board advantage with northshire cleric, undertaker and zombie chow. backstab can be really helpful to find the damage needed on an early drop or combined with si:7 agent to split your damage as needed, eviscerate is also great at answering dark cultist.
After establishing board control you should do really fine as your late game is better than their, especially since cairne bloodhoof and azure drake will give them a really hard time. Be careful about the Turn 6 cabal shadow priest, try to avoid playing harvest golem at this stage of the game and also try to not overextend because it can give huge value to their auchenai soulpriest into circle of healing combo. Baiting shadow word: death before playing ragnaros the firelord is great but you can also use it as a finisher or hope for a removal on a big creature.
Zoolock
Key cards to keep : backstab, deadly poison, blade flurry, undertaker, haunted creeper, si:7 agent (only with the coin or backstab)
Good cards to have : loot hoarder, bloodmage thalnos, harvest golem
This match up is heavily favored for the deck if you can find the start needed to fight their early attempt at rushing you.
backstab is definitely amazing early in the game and si:7 agent is perfect at taking the tempo lead but you should only keep it with the coin or backstab otherwise it is a little bit too slow. Those cards are perfect answers to flame imp and knife juggler.
deadly poison is also really good to kill their early voidwalker and combining it with blade flurry will be key to reset their board in the mid game if you weren’t able to draw into your early removals. The spellpower can also help increasing the damage of your spells to kill off more resilient minions.
After that it will be a slow death for them as your cards will begin to bring more value, especially sludge belcher which will create a huge tempo in your favor. They will generally be forced to use doomguard to regain board control and eviscerate will be really useful to finish them off or kill nerubian or dark iron dwarf.
Mid Range Druid
Key cards to keep : undertaker, haunted creeper, harvest golem, eviscerate
Good cards to have : loot hoarder, bloodmage thalnos, backstab, deadly poison, si:7 agent
This match up depends on their exact build as the Token variant is favorable to the deck while Ramp Druid is a lot harder to defeat.
Generally, they won’t be too aggressive early in the game so you’re looking for a strong undertaker start. eviscerate will negate an Innervate play, especially when combined with spellpower, and you’ll have to play on curve to keep the tempo in your favor. si:7 agent will be a good tool during the mid game to finish off big targets which traded with your minions.
Later in the game, the black knight will be a really strong ally as Druid generally runs many forms of taunt. Be careful about their potential force of nature into savage roar combo when you are running low, loatheb will be very useful to prevent them from pulling it off and it can also be key when you have board control to prevent any swipe play. defender of argus and sludge belcher are also good way to power up your board while preventing them from closing the game.
Mid Range Shaman
Key cards to keep : deadly poison, undertaker, haunted creeper, harvest golem, blade flurry (only with deadly poison)
Good cards to have : backstab, eviscerate, bloodmage thalnos, loot hoarder, si:7 agent
This match up is slightly favorable but generally close to a coin flip because they are running a similar playstyle.
You want to pressure them early on with undertaker and some minor deathrattle threats so they have to use their removals or you just kill their totems turn after turn.
deadly poison is really key to fight a feral spirit play and blade flurry will be very useful in the mid game after they filled the board. Any combination of backstab with spellpower or si:7 agent will also be key to split the damage as you need and eviscerate will either kill an early unbound elemental or fire elemental later on combined with spellpower or a spectral spider.
Be really careful not to overextend because of lightning storm and try to bait their hex out before playing your late game threats.
Control Warrior
Key cards to keep : deadly poison, undertaker, loot hoarder, harvest golem, si:7 agent
Good cards to have : backstab, eviscerate, haunted creeper
Last but not least, this match up is definitely the most difficult one and here is why and how to still sneak a decent winrate against them.
Their early enrage engine is really painful, acolyte of pain should be dealt with deadly poison and armorsmith will generally benefits them at least one time before being finished off the same way. cruel taskmaster is perfectly handled by backstab or si:7 agent.
undertaker starts are still great but will generally be dealt with a fiery war axe. The real issue is that your deathrattles minions aren’t really that sticky against Warrior because of unstable ghoul which will deal with haunted creeper very well and mostly death’s bite which will generally kill off mid game threats while clearing up some spectral spider, loot hoarder or damaged golem.
Fortunately sludge belcher, cairne bloodhoof and sylvanas windrunner will be strong allies to annoy the Warrior in his attempt to board control, but he’ll generally have the same tools and stall the game until he can brawl the whole board, heal up with alexstrasza and play other win conditions that you can’t really answer. ragnaros the firelord will be key to close the game or kill his own in this match up, remember to bait out those execute before doing so if possible.
I highly recommand to check out the Gameplay Video above as we played a pretty standard game against Warrior Control and it will show you how to approach this match up properly, the game could have been won easily with more luck on the “Ragnaros dance” or by simply drawing a clutch backstab or eviscerate to finish the game before Alexstrasza came in.
Closing
I’m really happy to bring back my Tempo Rogue in the meta as I think it’s really revelant right now due to most deck being focused around Tempo plays. The harder Match Ups, Control Warrior and Handlock, are still winnable and the rest of the metagame should be really favorable to the Deck after the upcoming changes, especially to climb the lower Ranks consistently where you’ll face a wide diversity of Decks.
I hope you guys will enjoy it as much as I do and that it can help you climb to Legend. Don’t hesitate to discuss about it in the comment section below, be sure to check out more of my work on Hearthpwn or here on HSP and follow me on Twitter to keep track of my updates 😉
