Deck Of The Week #22: Backspace Rogue

by Team [IHU] - 6 years ago

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[DKMR] Kisstafer presenting you with “the other rogue deck ” in today’s deck of the week. Known as “Backspace Rogue” due to it being popularized by the high legend player ‘backspace’, it is an aggressive take on rogue which tries to burn the opponent’s life out. While also using the Leeroy Shadowstep combo, backspace rogue shares almost nothing else in common with miracle rogue. Rather than play a war of attrition or tempo like standard rogue decks, backspace rogue is all about the face damage; it’s all in, all the time.

Decklist:

2x Shadowstep: Shadowstep works really well with either the Arcane Golem or Leeroy Jenkins for cheap yet significant burst damage, while also working well with Coldlight Oracle to fuel your hand.

2x Cold Blood: Cold Blood is particularly strong when put on the Argent Squire early on in the game, and against classes like warrior that use weapons to remove creatures. It is powerful in this deck because there are so many cheap creatures that it is realistic that the opponent may simply run out of removal spells, at which time it acts as a 4 damage burn that can possibly repeat every turn as a minion continues to attack. Cold Blood can also be used to deny the opponent from playing their minions on curve – if you create a 5-1 divine shield the druid will be forced to react to it instead of playing their druid of the claw.

2x Deadly Poison: It’s good to board control with deadly poison early on so that you don’t get overrun on board, but late game you want to start ignoring his creatures and just hit face with your daggers. One of the better uses for deadly poison is to attack a big taunt, and then blade flurry to kill the big taunt as well as the rest of the opponents minions in one blow.

2x Argent Squire: The Squire is a cheap yet durable body that takes buffs extremely well, and can usually get in for a bit of damage before he is taken out.

2x Leper Gnome: In a deck like this that is solely focused on the enemies face, Leper Gnome has a lot of value due to it’s death rattle. It comes down early enough that people often have to hero power it, which means they’ve spent their entire turn 2 to kill him and take 4 damage in the process.

2x Southsea Deckhand: Deckhand is almost like a second leper gnome, it comes down and deals 2 damage to the face and then 2 more in most cases when eliminated (or if you get a second attack). It has the nice utility being able to be comboed with cold blood or Shadowstep.

1x Blade Flurry: Oftentimes in the mid-late stages, since you are aiming almost all of your attacks at their face, the opponent will have a good chance to build up a strong board. Blade flurry is an extremely powerful way to eliminate the board advantage that they have accrued over the course of the game while also providing extra reach that goes past taunt.

2x Eviscerate: Eviscerate is an extremely powerful tool for getting past large taunt minions, or for providing extra reach to finish the opponent off. 4 damage for 2 mana is an even better deal than mage’s fireball!

2x Sap: This card is one of the better cards in the deck, because similar to blade flurry it allows you to negate the opponents board advantage that they have built up while also pushing all of your damage to their face.

1x Defias Ringleader: 4/3 stats for 2 mana, in 2 separate packets means it is harder to deal with using single-target attacks and spells, and AOE is often too mana-expensive for them to do anything else on their turn which keeps tempo in the rogue’s hands.

1x Faerie Drago: Faerie Dragon is powerful in this deck because it often requires the opponent to have either played their own minion, or a weapon to remove it (which means they are taking face damage). It can usually get in for 3 damage, and sometimes gets in for even more to the point where it wins the game on its own.

2x Loot Hoarder: Loot hoarder was put in the deck to draw into the rest of the damage spells, it also has a lot of utility in that you can spend your mana efficiently without worrying about overextending to AOE.

2x Arcane Golem: Arcane golem is just an insanely powerful tool that can deal 4 damage for 3 mana while also leaving a body on the board that must be dealt with. The extra mana that it gives the enemy is a drawback but they often have to spend even more mana up front to deal with it which partially counter-acts the effect. In the short term, the opponent does not benefit from the extra mana which means it is usually best to play this card when you are going for checkmate.

2x Coldlight Oracle: Coldlight is best played in the late-game to search for the final few pieces of damage needed to finish off the opponent; if played early on it usually just supplies the opponent with the necessary tools to beat you. The best way to use this card is to play it and then have mana left over to use whatever card it draws for you.

1x King Mukla: Best played on an open board, King Mukla can carry games on his back by providing the extremely hard to deal with body. For most classes he is simply unremovable, or he takes their entire turn (and usually multiple cards) to deal with him which puts initiative right back into your hands.

2x SI:7 Agent: Simply one of the best 3 drops in the game, the 2 damage battlecry is often enough to seal board control in the early game which allows Backspace rogue to develop early pressure.

1x Leeroy Jenkins: Comboing with Shadowstep, Coldblood, or just used as a vanilla 6 damage nuke Leeroy Jenkins is a staple in any burn deck. 6 damage for 4 mana that also leaves behind a 6-2 body is too strong to pass up. Used in combination with blade flurry, it clears the field of all whelps.

1x Assassins Blade: 12 damage for 5 mana, needless to say this card fits in the deck. If buffed up by deadly poison and the other player doesn’t have ooze, this card can simply win the game by itself.

Mulligans:

With this deck you want to be looking for early minions; argent squire, leper gnome, defias ringleader, faerie dragon, si7 agent, king mukla. Cold blood is also fine to keep in the opening hand if you have a reasonable way to use it effectively (if you have squire, for example). You generally want to draw into your chargers in the late-game, and have all of your non-hasted minions in the early game.

Game Plan:

The best way to win with this deck is to play all of your non-hasted minions early on, develop early board control, and then draw into all of your burn and push for damage while going into the late-game. One tip is to board control betweens turn 1-3, and then usually it is best to just push for damage from there on out, only spending damage to kill minions if they have taunt. It is important while playing this deck to maximize the damage output available to you, and look for opportunities to set up next-turn game. Doing things like playing Leeroy and shadowstepping him just to play him again for 2 mana the following turn can devastate the opponent, because it makes it so that there is enough mana left over to go for the kill.

Final Thoughts:

We hope you enjoyed this deck and get a chance to play it! Keep track of this deck and how well it is doing at http://www.hearthstats.net and let us know if you like it! This is a really fun deck and should be used on the ladder and can be used in tournaments too!

Written by: [DKMR]Kisstafer

[DKMR]Kisstafer streams and can be found at http://www.twitch.tv/kisstafer.

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