Hearthpwn

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Kurgan Rogue

Version 2 - ready for Mean Streets of Gadgedzan
Difficulty: medium
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Leolph
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/leolph
Blog: http://hearthstone.leolph.com
About me and my decks

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About this deck:

"There can be only one" was one of the main themes of the movie "Highlander". The Kabal (Mage, Priest, Warlock) got in this expansion class legendaries that have this theme as Battlecry requirements. Formerly known as "Reno-Decks" (because Reno Jackson was the only card with that ability before Meen Streets of Gadgedzan was out) they are now known as Highlander decks. There are a lot of other cards with the Highlander-requirement.

Kurgan was the guy who decapitated Ramirez, the mentor of Connor MacLeod (they all were  Highlanders, but in the end there can only be one). This is why this deck was born - especially targeting 3 of the 9 classes. You want the prize! ;)

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The deck containts the usual Rogue package: Backstab, Eviscerate, Fan of Knives, Bloodmage Thalnos. Not that common but also often used are Swashburglar, Undercity Huckster

So if you are playing Rogue you should be familiar with those cards and how to use them (the difficulty is set to medium, so I assume that you know how to Rogue ;)

 

The card Beneath the Grounds is the main card to counter Highlander decks, playing only one of these cards early can deny a lot of cards their battlecries such as Manic Soulcaster, Inkmaster Solia, Raza the Chained, Krul the Unshackled, Kazakus (!). This card very good against Highlander Warlocks since they want to Life Tap a lot. You should keep track of the number of cards your Warlock opponent mulliganed to find out if he is a Zoovariant or really a Highlander deck. In most cases a turn 1 Argent Squire or Possessed Villager will give you the answer. Otherwise you can also choose to play more patient, it depends on what opponents you faced before and which are the decks the current meta played. Also against aggro decks it's very important to gamble on that early Nerubian as soon as possible.

 

The complete Jade package that is available for Rogue is also included in this deck:
Jade Shuriken (a removal and minion summoning card in one!), Jade Swarmer (with Stealth, meaning that you are the one choosing who he attacks the first time), Jade Spirit (the Multiclass card summoning 2 minions with 1 card) and finally Aya Blackpaw, also a card that spawns 2 minions when played and 1 extra after dying.
With this package you already have a good board presence, growing over time. Brann Bronzebeard can be used to speed up the Jade Golem power.

 

The third package are the ressource generating cards including the possibility to double most of the card's value with Brann Bronzebeard: Swashburglar Unearthed Raptor, also a Defender Argus can be pumped. The N'Zoth, the Corruptor is for that final swing to close out the game. Undercity Huckster and Shaku, the Collector are also cards that generate you more ressources.
As you can see, there are only Bloodmage Thalnos and Fan of Knives that provide you card draw, so you need to consider that gaining these ressources replaces your card draw somehow. Having said that, please DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT RNG in the comments when getting those ressources, there are a lot of reddit posts where you can release your rant.

 

Special cards in this deck:

Street Trickster instead of Azure Drake

Street Trickster:
The main reason you run Azure Drake in rogue is the spell damage and Azure Drake also cycles itself. The card is so powerful and good, why change the card draw and the 4/4 body with a 0/7 body which is a Demon, that does not help rogue in any case? The answer is pretty simple: tempo. The difference between 3 mana and 5 mana is huge. On turn 5 you can play Street Trickster and Jade Shuriken for 3 damage + develop/empower a Jade Golem. The 7 health are not easy to kill, while the Azure Drake is easyly traded or killed with a single spell. To kill the Street Trickster your opponent has to invest at least 1 hard removal, 2 damage spells and/or 1-2 attacks from minions, which is a lot. In some way you can count this 0/7 as a pseudo-7-health-heal. On top of that your spell damage is way more sticky than with Azure Drake, and when you get extra ressources from other classes (see ressource section above) this spell damage can be very, very powerful too - not only with your own Rogue spells. Oh, and he does not get damaged by Demonwrath, a card which is included in almost every Highlander Warlock - not that big deal, but nice to know.
Against those pirate aggro decks you can play Street Trickster on 3 and Defender of Argus on 4 to get a 1/8 taunt which clears the most 1 health minions and it also might soak a huge tempo burst (Heroic Strike, Arcanite Reaper, Fireball etc).

Get the prize:
For games that last until turn 10 this is your final answer to swing the game. 

 

Shaku, the Collector:
This guy replaced Edwin VanCleef. In most of my games I could not get good value out of him and the cases were you can make a huge Edwin VanCleef in the early game are pretty low. In most cases he was killed the turn after he was played and never had a chance for a second attack. Also taunts where a big problem for him, so I was not satisfied with this card slot.
Shaku, the Collector instead gives you at least 1 ressource card (even if he attacks a taunt minion) and sometimes this card was game changing, sometimes it was useless but most of the times I got a second attack because some opponents still underestimate that card (what can a tiny 2/3 do?). If not, your opponent will at least spend a small removal spell on him or a minion attack, which means that the attacking minion is damaged and can be finished off with a Jade Shuriken.
If you don't have Shaku, the Collector you can still stick to Edwin VanCleef.