[NERFED] How do I play this Pirate Rogue deck?

Multiplayer Discussion
1

EDIT: Now nerfed, don’t play it.

Everyone in Europe runs clears so my board gets cleared by round ~8 and my hand gets empty.

https://i.redd.it/4yyve35j8b6f1.png

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Class: Rogue

Format: Standard

Year of the Raptor

2x (0) Backstab

2x (0) Preparation

2x (0) Shadowstep

2x (1) Dig for Treasure

2x (1) Spacerock Collector

2x (2) Lucky Comet

2x (2) Toy Boat

2x (3) Bargain Bin Buccaneer

2x (3) Hozen Roughhouser

1x (3) Raiding Party

1x (3) Sailboat Captain

2x (3) The Crystal Cove

2x (4) Dubious Purchase

2x (4) Watercannon

2x (5) Sandbox Scoundrel

1x (8) Shaladrassil

1x (9) Fyrakk the Blazing

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To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

2

Mulligan for any draws you can get especially against slower classes (1-mana spell for pirates, Raiding Party, Dubious)

Always keep if you got prep and lucky comet, that’s the combination you wanna see early, especially with the location. The location you wanna draw into as soon as possible, and put it on 2 with a coin or 3, hoping you’ll be able to prep + lucky + one of the staple picks you get from lucky (either Buccaneer, which you also have 2 copies in deck, which shows how important that combo is to the deck, or the 3-mana legendary that gives you backstabs or the 3-mana that deals 3, because when it casts twice, it’s 6 dmg to face)

So basically the deck revolves around putting insane amount of pressure as early as possible (turn 3 into 3x 5/5 with a rush, for example) while also hitting face or controlling the board while you’re preparing your combos

Watercannon can also be comboed with the location if you don’t have any of the Buccaneers to use it on. Just activate the location, swing the weapon, and the 1/1 pirate will become 5/5 one

Use windfury pirate as you see fit. The dream is to put it on a 5/5 pirate with the other pirate buffing pirate that gives +1/+1 when attacking, so it deals 6+7 = 13 dmg, but if you don’t see any other way to use it to maximize your dmg, you can play it for pressure anyhow you see fit

Be creative

Shalagdrassil will be your most common win condition a lot of the times. 0-mana +5/+5 when put on a pirate with windfury, is technically an OTK, and the other 0-mana card also saves lost games in the last moment helping you remove a taunt to finish

Do not be afraid to play Fyrakk when you don’t see an option which guarantees you better line of play, which is often if you have the mana to play it, as it usually means you’re up against a midrange deck that is slowly but surely taking over the game. Two most often scenarios include dropping it as a Hail Mary hoping it will clear the enemy board, or dropping it on an empty board because it’s the highest pressure line. It will also draw a lot of cards on average.

EDIT: Use the first Toy Boat, if you get it early, for tempo, and save the other for card draw when in dire need. If you don’t need to draw any more cards, keep using it as a filler. It’s basically a taunt without taunt.

3

The problem isn’t that I don’t get the combos that give stats like the three 5/5s, but that I run out of hand and the opponents remove a lot, so I guess - after looking at it from other angles too - I have to use more the boat or the card that draws the weapon (generally more draw).

Then again my meta/MMR might be bad for the deck, because I did see a ludicrous amount of reliable removal to the point of being too unreasonably oppressive for this deck (eg 3 removals in a row relatively early).

4

Yes. As I said, apart from ready combos in mulligan, you wanna hard-mulligan for draws, as drawing early increases the chance you’ll have all the combo tools you need, x2, or even x3

By applying consistent, but moderate or weak pressure, you’re just wasting your resources. Consider this deck a combination of a tempo and a combo deck, if it helps. You’re not active every turn, more like, you move in cycles of preparation and execution

Meta is excellent for the deck, which is why both you and me found it in this exact version as 2nd or 3rd best deck on the ladder.

5

Draw definitely cracked it for me. I went in today with the singular thought “I WILL ONLY DRAW”(for the mulligan/early rounds only obviously), and aside from 1 game where I milled myself for 2 cards I won several games in a row (including the one that milled!).

Apparently rogue cards are extremely powerful if you have a spam of them in hand, because about half of them discount the other cards so you keep getting free mana …until you go fatigue but that’s often enough.

6

Could be, but as usual, you just needed someone to convince you the deck is working because you can’t force yourself to attempt something which you don’t know is doable for sure

It’s a problem I can easily recognize in others because I used to be that way, as well

Yeah, dw about milling a card or two, it’s almost unavoidable these days

7

Something very interesting and related to this topic, is that I went today (after the nerf that killed this deck sadly) with another deck that was kinda slower than even this and I was like “let’s draw more for a few rounds first” and I think it improved even that deck.

So I think that while this rogue deck had a SPECIAL sensitivity to needing strong draw at the start: it’s something very easily overlooked on most decks.

It’s very hard to figure that out theoretically without seeing it in practice, because it’s an easy instinct to assume “I just mulligan the enablers”.

8

This has been my experience how to mulligan such aggressive decks based on mulligan data from premium Firestone for 2k:

  • against faster decks, aim to play aggro-control game where it’s all about the board, unless you’re playing against an OTK, in that case, good luck, have fun, so that means mulligan for pressure, anything playable works
  • against slower decks, keep the card draw

Now, two things which impacted my advice to you that you should keep draws in spite of that rule:

  • it’s not an exact science, so if it feels like you’re constantly lacking draw, then you need draw, it’s that simple, and
  • the whole meta is slow, so most of the decks belong to the “slower” category, so keeping the draw is technically correct.

There ya go. Now you know as much as I do

9

I think there is a systemic need in this game to get a lot of value from draw in the first few rounds, because there’s simply way too low mana to do anything in those rounds. So unless you have a very weird deck that spam-plays cards inside the first 4 rounds (now mostly in Wild) you get the most value by just making a good hand in those rounds and to make a good hand you might need 9 cards at end of round.

Say for example you need removal as a slow Shaman against an aggro deck. Even in that case: why panic to mulligan for AOE if I could mulligan for draw that might give both the AOE by round ~6 and the Enablers on top which would be 2 birds with one stone or at least the probability to do something all-rounded increases.

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