Our Pirate Kingsbane Rogue deck list guide for The Rastakhan’s Rumble expansion features one of the top lists for this archetype. This Rogue guide includes Mulligan Strategy, Gameplay Tips, Card Substitutions, and Combos/Synergies!
Introduction
One of the most challenging Rogue archetypes is back on the menu with Rastakhan’s Rumble – Kingsbane Rogue! After the deck went down in the tier lists throughout the Boomsday meta, it now rises back up thanks to nothing less than everybody’s favorite minions: Pirates – you heard it right.
After a dominating reign of both Odd and Tempo Rogue over the last months, this deck chooses a very special and control-focused approach – just to go face at the right moments with a buffed up Kingsbane.
Let’s take a look at what cards have changed and how you should play Kingsbane Rogue in the Rastakhan meta-game!
Kingsbane Rogue Deck List
This is one of the best decks for Kingsbane Rogue in Rastakhan’s Rumble. The deck list might still get changed or refined – if it happens we’ll update it here!
Find more versions of this deck type on our Kingsbane Rogue archetype page!
Mulligan Guide and Strategy
Higher Priority (Keep every time)
- Kingsbane or Cavern Shinyfinder – You want to keep those two cards in every matchup. Equipping your Kingsbane as early as possible is important to set up your buffs over multiple turns. However, thanks to Raiding Party, you have much more opportunities to draw your weapon early, so if you don’t draw Kingsbane or Shinyfinder in your mulligan, you can still have high hopes to get it in the early stages of the game.
Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)
- Deadly Poison – This is still a good keep as you can contest early high-health board states, but keep in mind: This card is worth its weight in gold after you have played your Death Knight Hero card.
- Toxicologist – The greatest keep in every minion-based matchup. 4 stat points on turn 2 with a unconditioned weapon buff is great during early game, even if you don’t have Kingsbane equipped.
- Leeching Poison should only be a keep if you already have Kingsbane in your mulligan. We try to draw it “when we need it”, and against aggro the time can’t been any sooner than the start of the game!
- Sap – Against Warlocks, this card has been a great keep. However, we see less and less decks with early big threats like Edwin VanCleefor Mountain Giant, so Sap declines in priority.
- Fan of Knives – Facing a Paladin or Warlock? Keep it. Against everything else you may want to get rid of it early.
- Elven Minstrel is a great keep if you start with the Coin.
- Raiding Party can be a good starter in control matchups.
General Playstyle and Strategy
Vs Aggro
In comparison to older lists, this version of Kingsbane Rogue can perform way better against aggro opponents. The addition of Raiding Party provides early game minion draw, and more guaranteed Kingsbane draws when you need it.
Both Cutthroat Buccaneer and Toxicologist perform fairly weak but can soften up dangerous board states to finish it off with Fan of Knives. As mentioned in the Mulligan guide, keeping Leeching Poison when you either have Kingsbane or Cavern Shinyfinder is a must against aggro opponents. Using your Kingsbane durability charges every turn is vital so you can leech as much HP as possible.
Blade Flurry made it back into the list as well, serving as a very flexible health insurance against both low and high health minion board states depending on your weapon attack. Always keep in mind that this spell will NOT benefit off Lifesteal. Doomerang on the other hand can Lifesteal, and that is something to keep in mind when you want to double-use your weapon in one turn.
The key to success against aggro is to be not too greedy in the early game. Once you’ve established a properly buffed up Kingsbane, many aggro decks will find it hard to kill you in one turn. That is why you need to get out of the early game as healthy as possible.
Vs Control
Kingsbane Rogue thrives against a lot of current control archetypes. Especially those who can’t reliably gain HP or armor will eventually fall to our buffed-up weapon in combination with numerous hard board removals.
The playstyle versus control could not be any more different compared to playing against aggro. One of the main tools to reliably beat control decks is Valeera the Hollow. If you can, try to keep most of your weapon buffs so you can double-dip once Valeera has been played. This strategy is especially vital against archetypes like Taunt Druid or Shudderwock Shaman.
Two copies of Sprint help to draw into weapon buffs and removal as soon as possible. Your main goal should be to cycle through your deck as quickly as you can so you can “go infinite” with Kingsbane as early as possible.
Raiding Party helps with draw as well, and combined with Preparation it can be used as another source for guaranteed weapon buffs in the early game. In fact, it is the card that single-handedly brings back Kingsbane Rogue as a very viable combo archetype pick. Drawing only with Sprint and Fan of Knives felt clunky in the past, and if you didn’t draw into your Cavern Shinyfinder early enough you’d sit on your hand for multiple eternities.
As already said, try to keep the more powerful weapon buffs like Captain Greenskin and Deadly Poison once you played Valeera for even more juicy weapon attack! You will need to learn and master the way to maximize your resources, especially in unfavored matchups like Shudderwock Shaman. That combined with well-timed board removal will let you get in with two or three Kingsbane hits eventually to close out the game.
Card Replacements
Compared to other archetypes, Kingsbane Rogue has a relatively inflexible deck core. That is mostly due to the limited sources of board removal and draw, but also because the archetype needs particular cards to be able to reliably set up those huge weapon buffs. However, there are at least some cards that you could replace (or should not at all!):
- Kingsbane – The deck is named Kingsbane Rogue for a reason.
- Captain Greenskin – In the days of more and more control decks in comparison to aggro archetypes, this card became a staple in Kingsbane Rogue. Especially the turn 10 play after Valeera adds so much kill potential, and this deck needs a minion with a bigger stat-size.
- Zilliax – If the meta-game turns towards Aggro, this card could easily replace Greenskin. Zilliax is great value and can turn into a life-saving play thanks to Vanish.
- Valeera the Hollow – Somehow, players think that they can run Kingsbane Rogue without this pretty Death Knight card, and they are so wrong. Now more than ever do you need Valeera’s help to buff up your weapon and to stay flexible in the later stages of the game.
- Preparation – In older lists, Preparation wasn’t always needed, but Raiding Party makes not only Kingsbane Rogue as a whole, but also Preparation way better. It has always been a safe craft, and in this list there really is no replacement for it.
- Doomerang – You need this card for bouncing back your weapon. You could make a case for only one copy in an aggro-dominated meta, but as of now you’d run three of those if you could!
- Gluttonous Ooze – This fellow is our only tech inclusion, and it’s not very needed right now. Malygos and Togwaggle Druid don’t see a lot of play, and Odd Paladin doesn’t care about weapon removal because they have another one sitting in hand every time (at least that how it feels like, right?). However, there are still some archetypes around like Cubelock and Spell Hunter where you can play Ooze to reset tempo. You could run other tech choices like Doomsayer or Mind Control Tech if you don’t have this card.
- Doomsayer – Doomsayer has been a staple in the early iterations of this archetype. As already said, the meta became less and less aggro-focussed, and that is why it feels like you don’t need Doomsayer to make it out of the early stages of the game.
