Budget Legend Odd Rogue (July 2018)

Introduction

This is the budget-friendly Odd-Rogue deck that I used to climb to legend this season. It relies on early aggression, tempo generated by the 2/2 weapon, and burst damage to close out games. There are two broad “styles” of playing this deck, depending on whether you’re facing control or aggro decks.

Against Druid, you need to pressure their life-total before they can ramp up to their big late-game finishers, as there is no way to answer plays such as Malygos, a board of buffed tokens, or Hadronox into Naturalize. Prioritize playing and protecting your powerful 3-drops Vicious Fledgling and Hench-Clan Thug to close out the game as early as possible. Try not to fill the board with tokens around Turn 6 otherwise Spreading Plague can shut you down completely. Cold Blood on a 1-drop can be very powerful as druid has few ways to answer early buffed minions.

Prioritize gaining board control with a 1-drop and dagger. Use your other minions to snowball from there and close out the game before they get their recruit synergies or Egg/Cube combos online.

Against Tempo mage, use your minions and hero power to gain board control and race them. You are very favored against this deck so try not to drop your life-total too low in the midgame, or it may open up lethal opportunities for the mage.

Against Control Mage, try to put as much pressure on the board before Dragon's Fury on Turn 5. As Frostbolt is not available, sticking a Vicious Fledgling or Hench Clan-Thug is often game-winning if it can survive for a couple of turns.

Fan of Knives, Tar Creeper and Dire Mole are the key cards against Odd Paladin as they can kill several tokens by themselves, allowing you to swing the board against them and develop your own threats. Try and remove as many of their tokens as possible going into Turn 5 due to the threat of Fungalmancer and Level Up!. Once you have established board control, switch gears from trading and try and kill them as fast as possible before they out-value you with the upgraded hero power.

Priest has several early game board clears in the form of Wild Pyromancer and Duskbreaker so you should try and snowball your Vicious Fledgling and Hench-Clan Thug as early as possible as they have very limited single target removal.

Against Miracle Rogue, going wide and playing out your tokens plus your hero power can be devastating due to their lack of mass removal and your superior hero power. This is a favorable matchup, but keep in mind their ability to swing the board Sap or Vilespine Slayer.

In the Odd Rogue mirror, whoever sticks a minion first usually wins. Try and curve out as well as you can, make value trades and prioritize your Hench-Clan Thug. 

Keep in mind Rogue’s burst damage from hand with Leeroy Jenkins Southsea Deckhand and Cold Blood, and try to play around it if you have board control.

Against Shudderwock, you need to pressure them as much as possible with Fledgling and Vicious Fledgling and Hench-Clan Thug before they can Volcano on Turn 5 and shut you down. Try and set their life-total as low as possible before their removal comes online, then focus on burst damage with Deadly Poison, Cold Blood  and Southsea Deckhand.

Against Even Shaman, leverage your hero power to take out their early threats while developing your own minions. SI:7 Agent is particularly good at answering their 2-drops.

This is the class you want to face most, as they are very susceptible to your early, high-health minions and burst damage.

Against Even Warlock and Cubelock, play around Defile if you can and look to pressure their health as much as possible with direct damage in order to prevent them from being able to hero power or Hellfire comfortably. An unanswered Vicious Fledglingor Hench-Clan Thug , backed up by your dagger, can also win games by itself.

Against Zoo, prioritize using your Hero power to clear off their early Flame Imp or Lightwarden and make value trades to gain board control. From there, it should be easy to burst them down over the course of a few turns before they can regain board control. Try and account for their ability to heal with Voodoo Doctor and Fungal Enchanter in the mid-game, and calculate your burst damage and lethal setups accordingly. 

Taunt Warrior is a difficult matchup, but fortunately the deck sees little play currently. Hard-Mulligan for your 3-drops and try and close out the game before you get shut down by Brawl and Warpath .

TL;DR Guide:

Against Aggro: Gain early board control with your 1-drops and hero power, and use that tempo advantage to close out the game.

Against Control: Pressure their life-total as much as possible with Hench Clan-Thug,  Fledgling and Cold Blood on early drops before they clear your board. Keep in mind the key removal cards each control deck has access to, and play around it accordingly.

Card Substitutions:

Tar Creeper:  Switch one or both of these out for Blink Fox if you aren’t facing a lot of aggressive decks. Void Ripper is also a fantastic, albeit expensive addition that can heavily punishSpreading Plague and Doomsayer.

Vicious Fledgling: Consider swapping it out for Deathspeaker, which pairs particularly well with Cold Blood