Hearthstone Rogue Basics Guide

Hearthstone Rogue Basics Guide by Specialist

Overview

Welcome! I have been playing a lot of rogue lately and I want to make a very simple guide that you guys can refer to in a journey to Legend rank. The rogue’s strength lies in their unique class specific cards, such as backstab and deadly poison. These cards enable rogue to have a strong presence in the early game. Basically it has to be all-or-nothing : win early or die trying. Specialist#1585 for any questions.

Key: you have to get insane advantage early game so that you can finish opponents in the late game

Combos: Rogue’s distinct advantage

Ideal Initiators (5): these are ideal cards that turn on the combo card’s effect.

Backstab – 0 mana
Coin – 0 mana
Deadly poison – 1 mana
Argent squire – 1 mana
Loot hoarder/novice engineers – 2 mana

Resultants: utilize these combo effects to the maximal extent!

SI agent – free 2 damage
Defias – free 2/1 creature
Eviscerate – 2 extra damage

Absolute essentials – these are absolute musts! I’ll say a brief comment on each

Backstab – vital for your early game success. This is the best combo initiator.

Eviscerate – crazy damage for just 2 mana, when combo’ed. It’s a great finisher also.

Defias – it enables you to have a “dream” opening with the coin on first turn. Not bad of a card itself without the coin as it can be combo’ed with backstab.

SI agent – the best 3 mana drop creature? I would think so. Combo is the key!

Deadly poison – this card is enables you to basically kill a minion up to 3 health and it only costs 1 mana. Did I mention it is a great comxbo initiator?

Defender of argus – you are going to have a lot of minions on the board. Sometimes you need defender to save your face. Sometimes you need it to protect from ungodly AOE spells like holy nova. Overall an absolute must.

Argent commander – even if it’s nerfed, it is still essential in all aggro decks.

Sylvanas – the best legendary!! You need this to sustain yourself in the late game while dealing with monstrous minions that your enemy will charge at you!

Harvest golem – best neutral mana 3 drop after shattered sun got nerfed. Tanky and useful to use ur buff battle cry on.

The openings – 4 possibilities that I can think of atm

Coin + defias – This is by far the greatest opening hand that you can have. It is pretty wise to hard mulligan for defias if you have a second turn with a coin. For example, if you have something like argent squire, azure drake, SI agent, and backstab,Some people deem defias as too situational because only useful purpose of having them is when you have second turn opener.

Turn 1 argent squire – just a solid way to begin the game

Turn 2 novice engineer or loot hoarder – What will most likely to happen. Don’t get discouraged. This is around the average opening.

Turn 2 ping – absolute worst opening =(… happens sometimes. But you should have some combo cards to make up for the early game deficit.

Tips on mulliganing

It is always nice to have some kind of “guideline” when you are mulliganing. Here are my suggestions:

1. Always save backstab
2. Always save defias when you have a coin
a. Mulligan it out if you don’t have a coin
3. Always save argent squire (best 1 drop)
a. However, if you have coin-into defias first turn, do that instead
4. If you have a coin & don’t have defias, mulligan out everything except backstab and argent squire.
a. This is to get defias
5. If you don’t have either argent squire, defias, or backstab, save a 2 drop such as novice or
looter and mulligan out the rest.
6. You should probably keep a hand that’s chrologically sound. Ex) defias, SI agent, defender of argus//2, 3, and 4 manas respectively

Tips on board control early game

1. Know when to go for face vs clear the board, it usually follows this trend:
a. Early game, (turns 1-5) you must clear all enemy’s minions before hitting hero’s face
b. Mid-late game (turn 5<) you must decide wisely whether it is best to clear or go for the kill. This is all situation based.
i. If you are leading enormously, for instance, you have 1-2 minions on board by
ii. If you on the edge or enemy’s hit points are low enough – you can take a risk urself at turn 5 – play safe and clear the board at all times and semi all in by not clearing and just going for the face

2. Mind set & notes

a. Never be afraid to kill any minion with 1 health with your hero power. Taking some damage is almost always worth it!!

b. In early game, ping with deadly poison pretty much guarantees 2 minion kills

c. You might want to save SI agent until you can combo it. Ideally, you have a coin and you want to coin combo into faerie dragon or any 2 drop with 2 health!

d. You can get reluctant using backstab when you cannot utilize it for combo. But board clear comes first! Never be hesitant to use it even without combo.

e. Backstab + SI agent is 4 damage to a minion with 3/3 on the board for just 3 mana!

f. Backstab + eviscerate can kill a minion of 6 HP!! For 2 mana!

g. Be aware of AOE spells of other classes. For instance, expect holy nova to hit your minions at turn 5. Expect consecrate at turn 4. Expect swipe at turn 4. Expect blizzard at turn 6, etc.

i. Don’t just expect it, do something about it. You can buff them with defender of argus/shattered sun cleric. Or you can trade ur doomed minions with enemy’s for board clear.

Hard match ups Q.Q

1. Murloc warlock
a. They are usually gay

2. Droods
a. They are usually slow …. and gay?!