Hearthstone Myracle Rogue Guide

by Popsychblog

Hey all, J_Alexander_HS back again today to talk about my latest (and favorite) deck in the game, Myracle Rogue. This guide has been a long time coming, but before we get into that, I want to tell you a bit about why you might enjoy playing the deck, aside from its power level. That’s not to say the power level is low (I think it’s high and can rival Odd Rogue), but rather that there are other reasons to enjoy the deck as well.

By way of metaphor, I used to play a wide variety of video games on my consoles. Then, one day, I played Dark Souls. If you’ve frequented the communities for that game, you’ll notice a common thread: many players state that after playing a game from that series (or Bloodborne), they find that they simply don’t enjoy other video games as much because they aren’t Dark Souls. Well, Myracle is very much the Dark Souls of Rogue decks to me. This deck functions in a fun and interesting way, involves lots of meaningful, non-linear decisions, variety, and, conversely, contains very few of those “feels bad” moments, as compared with other decks.

To use two examples, Odd Rogue is powerful because of its upgraded hero power, so a lot of the game involves pressing the hero power button. While that’s all well and good, it doesn’t yield many “Hero moments,” as my friend recently put it. The deck doesn’t really “go off” or have that large, exciting moment. And, of course, there’s that “feels bad” moment of ever drawing Baku; one of the most useless cards to ever be seen in a hand.

The other example comes from the other extreme: Keleseth/Hooktusk Tempo Rogue. This deck has those big moments, but they aren’t exciting. That is, you just draw and play Keleseth or Hooktook. Those are powerful things, but they don’t excite me and don’t feel like “earned” victories. The deck also contains many “feels bad” moments as you play both a Hooktusk and a Corpsetaker package. The result is that your deck contains somewhere around 8 cards you often don’t want to draw or play naturally. While the deck is still powerful in spite of having lots of cards included it doesn’t want to play (which says something interesting about some card designs in Hearthstone), it just doesn’t excite my emotions for very long.

Myracle, by contrast, has both those big moments and avoids the “Feels Bad” ones. It’s a 30-card deck built around card synergies, meaningful interactions and, most importantly power. It also doesn’t feel particularly polarized (except Odd Warrior). You should have a reasonable amount of game versus just about anything, and can even feel quite favored sometimes. I won’t tell you this deck is the easiest to pilot, but I can tell you it feels really good to make it work. I’ve played the deck exclusively to Legend this month and nothing else feels like it compares in terms of fun and power.

As a nice bonus, the deck is performing well in the current meta full of all that powerful garbage from Year of the Mammoth. This is important, as Myracle will remain generally untouched by rotation, in stark contrast to what most others will lose. I think there’s a real probability this deck ends up being a good long-term investment.

With that said, let’s get into the deck list and guide:

Myracle

Class: Rogue

Format: Standard

Year of the Raven

2x (0) Backstab

2x (0) Preparation

2x (1) Cold Blood

2x (1) Fire Fly

2x (1) Southsea Deckhand

2x (2) Eviscerate

2x (2) Sap

1x (3) Edwin VanCleef

2x (3) Fan of Knives

2x (3) Hench-Clan Thug

2x (3) Raiding Party

2x (3) Shadowblade

2x (4) Dread Corsair

2x (4) Fal’dorei Strider

1x (5) Captain Greenskin

1x (5) Leeroy Jenkins

1x (5) Myra’s Unstable Element

Deck Code: AAECAaIHBLICyAOvBOf6Ag20AYwCzQObBdQF7gaIB4YJ68IC3NECmuICpu8C1YwDAA==

The Core: What makes this deck powerful is its incredible ability to push tempo utilizing the synergy between Raiding Party, Shadowblade, Captain Greenskin, and Dread Corsair. Getting to draw lots of cards that act as tempo tools gives you the ability to get ahead on board, recover a lost one, or develop enough burst to finish off an opponent.

The second thing that makes the deck go is Myra’s Unstable Element. The card is simply nuts in the deck, allowing you instant refills and usually enough gas to finish the job. Sometimes it gives you free 4/4 spiders in the process, or sets you up with an empty deck to pull more on the following turn or 2. The main purpose of the card, however, is simply lots of gas. The spiders are a nice bonus.

The Mulligan: This is the hardest part of the deck to spell out, as your mulligan will have a lot of decision points to it. What you want in one match isn’t necessarily what you want in another. As such, I’ll provide some general guidance here, card by card.

• Backstab: Keep in aggressive/tempo matches. This means against decks like Midhunter, Odd Rogue, Even Shaman, and Paladin. As an added bonus, you might want to think about keeping Backstab when going first if you have a Raiding Party, as it will offer good combo potential with the card that makes your deck go.
• Preparation: Usually keep. Preparation is one of the hardest cards to nail down for me. According to the HSReplay stats it is generally a positive WR card in the mulligan, but that comes with some important warnings, especially given it’s 50% kept rate. If you have a Raiding Party or Myra’s keep it. If you can make a big Edwin with it, keep it. If you’re against another tempo class – as above – you’ll likely want to keep it as well, as it helps you gain tempo. In the slower matches (Control Mage, Warrior, Priest), you’ll likely prefer to find early-game pressure, which Prep is not, and that’s the risk. The card does nothing on its own, but can also supercharge your deck. It’s likely better to keep it going first, given how well it will activate Raiding Party, but it can also be plenty good second. Basically, think about what game plan you need to execute versus your opponent. If you need tempo, Prep is good. If you need threats, it might be more of a conditional keep. I still don’t know if I mulligan correctly with that card.
• Cold Blood: Usually mulligan. I will keep Coldblood under the following conditions. (A) I have a Firefly in my hand, as that gives you the body and activation to start shoving face damage quick and early. However, (B) that plan looks a lot better going first, especially against classes with pings, like Rogue, Mage, and Hunter (Candleshot). If I have the sense that early Firefly can be easily dealt with, I will throw the Cold Bloods back.
• Fire Fly: Almost always keep. Fireflies give you early pressure, combo activation, Cold Blood targets, and since you’re a tempo deck, all of that sounds appealing. It’s your one drop of choice and it’s never getting better than turn one. That said, you should again be thinking of the matchup. Against some flavors of decks, the body may simply not be impactful enough to really help you win and you’d rather go hunting for your bigger sources of power. That said, I will almost always keep Firefly.
• Southsea Deckhand: Usually mulligan. Deckhand’s body dies to too many sources of early damage to really give you much in the way of tempo and damage when you want it. There are a few cases you want to think about keeping Deckhand. First, (A) if you already have a good hand. In that case, you can think of it as another Backstab/combo activator. (B) Against Warlock if you’re going first, as they usually can’t remove it particularly effectively so you can push the damage/tempo you want with it. (C) If you already have a Raiding Party. The general logic on that last one is that by holding onto a Pirate, you increase the change of Raiding Party drawing you a Dread Corsair or two, which amps up your tempo in a big way.
• Eviscerate: Keep against Rogue and Hunter. Evis is a great tempo tool when you’re anticipating dealing with mid-sized, single-target threats. This makes it good against cards like Animal Companion and Henchclan Thug, while making it bad against face in the early game and small, wide boards (like Paladin). You can also think about keeping it in combination with Prep in those matches.
• Sap: Usually keep against Even/Control Warlock and Priest. Sap excels against decks with a game plan of “play one, big, stupid threat.” This means Mountain Giants, Resurrected/Cheated out minions from Priest or Possessed Lackey. Unfortunately, it sucks against Skull. That said, you might consider Sap more of a Luxury keep. It feels much better when your hand already has action otherwise so you can capitalize on that tempo gain more readily.
• Edwin VanCleef: Keep when you can make it big. If your hand looks like it makes a big Edwin, keep Edwin. Also better to keep going second for obvious reasons. That said, there are interesting interactions to bear in mind regarding Raiding Party. Specifically, it can often be better to combo Raiding Party with Coin early, rather than Edwin. As such, I will usually throw Edwin back when I have a Raiding Party, as my mana will generally be spoken for.
• Fan of Knives: Keep against Paladin. This card is good for killing Paladin dudes and gives you game against Odd Paladin. Otherwise it’s kind of lackluster.
• Hench-Clan Thug: Almost always keep. It’s a rare hand that makes me not want to keep Thug. It’s generally safe enough to just snap keep it.
• Raiding Party: Always keep. This is the heart of the deck. Keep it against everything. It’s also worth mentioning an interesting interaction in the deck here, as it’s relevant for the next card as well. If you have a Prep/Raiding Party in your hand, you can always do it for free, meaning there is often no rush to Prep the Raiding Party out, so you’re often better holding it until you plan to play the minions anyway, as you might draw Edwin, allowing you to Prep/Raiding Party/Edwin. There are two exceptions: (A) if you’re going first and really want to find a Deckhand for turn one (see the Deckhand section) or (B) you have already drawn 1 copy of Shadowblade or 3 different pirates. When there’s a risk of Raiding Party not drawing three cards, I take the early Prep play, as it reduces a 4-5% chance of, effectively, not drawing a card for the turn.
• Shadowblade: Almost never keep. Unless you have a Shadowblade and two Corsairs, I toss these back
• Dread Corsair: Keep with Raiding Party. If you’re going to get your weapon with Raiding Party, you want these in your hand for the massive tempo push. Keeping them guarantees this.
• Fal’dorei Strider: Keep against slower decks/if you have a curve/with Myra’s. Against decks like Priest, Control Mage, and Odd Warrior – where you want to develop threats, the sooner you have these the better. However, this deck does not drip card draw, so you won’t be cycling towards those Spiders super quickly. Except when you have Myra’s that is. Also, if you’re doing Raiding Party plays, you might not be able to sneak the Striders into your curve effectively. Think of Striders as luxury keeps in many matches. They aren’t bad, but they aren’t what makes your deck go. Keep them when they fit the plan, but don’t overkeep them just because. Keep them when they fit your game plan and when you have the right cards to make them work, but remember you have better cards in your deck.
• Captain Greenskin: Never keep. I’ve never wanted him in my mulligan unless my hand screamed perfect use. It rarely does.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Never keep. This is a finisher and you don’t want it in the mulligan.
• Myra’s Unstable Element: Always keep. There is almost never a game where I said, “I really wish I didn’t have this Myra’s” and many where I said, “The way I win is Myra’s”. This card is good against just about everything with how quickly you can burn your tempo tools, especially if you’re trying, and can easily high roll burst finishes, Spiders, key removal, and just about everything you could want.

A few other quick points to discuss:

First, I’m commonly asked what people can replace Greenskin with if they don’t have it. While I think Greenskin is the better card, I could easily see replacing it with Zilliax as just another good card. If you don’t have that, something like a Tar Creeper, Blink Fox, or SI might do. Just a generic “good card”.

Second, No; Fan of Knives is not core either. It has it’s role within the deck (Paladins, making Prep better, adding a little bit of cycle, which you do want), but it could also be replaced in theory. Again, something like an SI or Blink Fox might work.

Finally, about rotation in April. This deck loses the following cards: Firefly, Shadowblade, and Strider. That’s it. Shadowblade can easily be replaced by Necrium Blade, as you’re just looking for that 3-attack weapon to reduce your Corsairs and combo Raiding Party. As for the other two slots, it’s hard to say. Plenty of options exist (Violet Teacher, SI, Blink Fox, Thalnos, Shiv, a Deathrattle for the Necrium Blades, Squire, new cards, etc) and what will best fill that role will be determine at the time. It’s just worth noting that none of what is rotating is core to the deck in anyway, even if it might currently be good.