Oil Rogue
Similar to last week’s Deck of the Week, we are going to look at a deck that has stabilized over time to become the top deck of the rogue class, Oil Rogue. This deck has been the strongest version of rogue since its creation shortly after the Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion launched.
When Viagame had it’s House Cup tournament about a month ago, it used a format that required each player to bring one deck from each class in the game. According to the analysis at hearthhead.com, Oil Rogue was the only deck the pros thought was competitive for the class. While that is a pretty strong endorsement of the deck, rogue is not a very strong deck on the ladder right now.
The Basics
First, I need to mention Sottle over at icy-veins.com, who came up with this deck list. Oil Rogue is primarily a combo deck, looking chip away at the opponent’s health until they can find the cards they need to burst the opponent down. The reason that Oil Rogue has fallen out of favor is because there is another deck on the ladder that works the same way, only better. That deck is of course the Patron Warrior. Sometimes though, you do just want to play some rogue.
The two ways this deck tends to lose are being killed before you can find your combo pieces and when your opponent can taunt up or heal through your damage. To combat this, the deck does run some healing, but not a lot. It also has several kinds of card draw like Azure Drake and the rogue class card Sprint. Finally, Sap is available to reset a troublesome minion, letting you get through a taunt for one turn or making your opponent spend mana on the card twice.
The Combo
There are several pieces that you are looking to draw to finish off your opponent. Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil (where the deck gets its name) is the big piece. When you activate its combo portion, by playing another card first, not only does your weapon get 3 damage, but a minion does as well. That’s 9 possible damage from one card and the deck runs two of them.
Blade Flurry is another big part of the burst combo. This destroys your weapon but does its damage to all enemies on the board, your opponent and their minions. There are several ways to use this, including board clear, but the burst potential is strong too. With your hero power dagger at 2 charges, you can oil up, attack the enemy’s face for 4 damage, then Blade Flurry that same turn for another 4 damage. Oh, and the damage is also buffed if you have any spell power.
Eviscerate is the other big combo piece. When the combo ability is activated, this deals 4 damage anywhere on the board. At only 2 mana, this card is excellent for finishing off your opponent late game or clearing a stubborn taunt. Just remember, if you use too much of your damage potential against your opponent’s minions, you might not have enough damage to kill them.
Playing the Deck
When playing this deck, you need to constantly count your damage. While you can’t simply let your opponent run away with the board, your focus is killing them before they kill you. Consider each turn how much damage you can take, including using your health as a resource to keep board control early on. By attacking with your hero power dagger, you can save your minions at the cost of your HP.
Preparation is another important card in this deck. Reducing one spell by 3 mana can often let you combo spells together that would normally be impossible. Another excellent use of Prep is to use it plus Sprint on turn 4 for a big card advantage. While you don’t usually need 2 Preps in your hand, keeping a Prep in your starting hand is usually a good idea.
Finally, spell power is amazing in this deck since almost all of your damage comes from spells. Azure Drake is a strong card because it gives you spell power and draws you another card. If you have him, Bloodmage Thalnos is excellent in this deck as well (part of the original deck list). Since I don’t, I simply use the free Kobalt Geomancer.
That’s it for this week’s Deck of the Week. This can be a very fun deck to play, but remember, Patron Warrior functions virtually the same way as this deck but with bigger combo potential and free armor for survivability. The other thing to watch out for is since this is the only real rogue deck around, your opponent will usually know what to expect when they see you playing rogue.
If you want to challenge me to a game, look for AGRitterific in game. Or if you have any comments, leave them below or find me on Twitter @AGRitterific.
