Hearthstone: Midrange Dragon Rogue. Deck Guide

Presenting your attention new BRM deck - Midrange Dragon Rogue.

The Dragon Package

The idea here is to consistently enable the two Blackwing cards. While this is obviously not anything groundbreaking, I've noticed that a lot of other theorycraft decks use a miniature dragon package that only includes 1 Blackwing Corruptor and sometimes doesn't even play Blackwing Technician.

I feel that both of these cards are so strong that its worth committing to them fully. Plus, rogue already wants to play Azure Drake for the draw/spell damage and the hero power lends itself nicely to dealing with the drawback of Hungry Dragon.

We want to have 6-8 dragons to enable the Blackwings and this is a midrange value deck, so we can't just load up on the 9-mana finishers. Thus, we add Volcanic Drake. This is another card that I feel has been underutilized in a lot of the theorycraft decks I've seen.

This should almost always be a 4-mana 6/4, which is already slightly above average for the cost, and any time you get the cost under 4 is just icing. Ysera is just the current choice for the finisher dragon slot. It dodges Big Game Hunter, gets value the turn it's played, and is capable of taking over a game by itself if left unchecked.

Rogue Staples

There shouldn't be much to explain here. Backstab, Deadly Poison, Eviscerate, and SI:7 Agent represent the core of almost any Rogue deck and provide a huge amount of tempo in the early game which should allow this deck to easily transition into its powerful midgame.

Blade Flurry is Rogue's standard sweeper, but I have kept it to a one-of since we only have Deadly Poison and the spell damage from Azure Drake as ways to get this to hit for more than 1. This is definitely a card that I could see replacing once BRM is fully released and I'm able to begin testing.

Legendaries, Tech Cards, and Others

Dark Iron Skulker: This is a card that I have high hopes for but it is less easy to tell how good it will be without testing. With this in mind, as well as the fact that the 5-drop part of the curve is already on the heavy side, I kept it to a one-of. This should be excellent against Zoolock and Demonlock which will often flood the board with 1/1's between Haunted Creeper, Imp Gang Boss, and Imp-losion.

Sprint: Just like in other non-miracle Rogues this just helps shore up the late game by making sure we don't run out of gas.

Big Game Hunter: As a one-of, this should probably make the cut in any midrange deck as long as Dr. Boom is a staple in everything. The fact that it hits some of the other popular finishers like Ragnaros the Firelord and the various 8/8 Giants just serves to solidify its place in the deck.

Piloted Shredder: Many people seem to assume that this will automatically be replaced by Hungry Dragon in midrange decks, but I feel like this deck really needs a second 4-drop and Shredder fits the bill. Just like the dragon it will often take two cards or a card and a hero power from your opponent to deal with it and it trades well with most of the staple 5-drops.

Sludge Belcher: I feel like this will lose some of its power with the impending rise of Hungry Dragon. However, I don't think there's any other neutral taunt that comes close to Belcher's value so I still kept one copy in the deck.

Loatheb: This should be good against control in this type of deck since you can play it around turns 5-7 to push your board position while staving off their board clears for a turn. However, this is definitely a flex spot that I could easily see being filled by a second Sludge Belcher if aggro is popular in the post-BRM metagame or even Harrison Jones against the weapon classes.

Emperor Thaurissan: As everyone under the sun has pointed out, this is the staple neutral legendary of BRM and for good reason. On curve, even if your opponent kills it immediately, it still enables absurd plays like a 5-drop and a 4-drop on turn 7. It is also a silence and/or removal lightning rod.

Sylvanas Windrunner: Just like Emperor, this is a lightning rod for silence effects. If it goes unsilenced, it often forces your opponent to make inefficient and/or awkward plays like running 6 or 7 power worth of minion(s) into it in order to prevent you from stealing anything or to make sure they can handle whatever you do end up stealing.

Dr. Boom: Not much to say here. Like most other staple legendaries, it provides value the turn it is played, and, even if your opponent has the Big Game Hunter, they are often forced into an intricate tap dance when trading with the Boom Bots to try to work around the odds of having their board position wrecked by RNG from the bombs.

Possible Changes and Substitutions

I discussed some other card choices to consider in the explanations above, but I'll use this section as a place to consolidate all of those options and any others that come up.

Antique Healbot/Sludge Belcher #2: I could see either of these options replacing Loatheb, which is far better at pushing board advantage in control matchups. Against aggressive decks, we could use either another solid taunt or some life gain to help stabilize. The two main aggressive strategies to have in mind are Zoolock and Face Hunter.

If you're having trouble against Zoo, then the second Belcher is probably where you want to be at as it does a good job of eating up opposing minions and getting value. If hunter is the primary concern, then Healbot is more likely to keep you alive long enough to pull out the win.

On paper, I feel like we have more existing tools to keep us in the game against Zoo (especially Blade Flurry and Dark Iron Skulker), so I would lean towards Antique Healbot to give the deck a chance against Face Hunter.

Harrison Jones: This is obviously a tech card against the weapon classes and could replace either Loatheb or potentially even the Sludge Belcher if aggro takes a nosedive in popularity.

Zombie Chow: Aggressive decks often see a distinct rise in popularity just after the release of a new set as the sharks attempt to prey on the more open and experimental metagame. With that in mind, it may end up being worthwhile to add in 1-2 Zombie Chow in place of cards like Sprint or Lotheb that are aimed more at beating control decks. This is an appealing answer to an aggro-heavy metagame as a turn-1 Chow still leaves turn 2 open for Dagger Mastery, which is important to have up since almost half of the possible Hungry Dragon spawns are able to be killed by a single dagger hit.

Source: hearthpwn.com