Analysis of Oil rogue as of 15/02/15

Analysis of Oil rogue as of 15/02/15 

The introduction of the new card tinker's sharpsword oil in the goblin vs gnomes expansion has breathed new life into the rogue class after many thought it would be rendered unplayable since nerfs to gadgetzan auctioneer .Bringing it from 5 mana to 6 mana preventing rogues from digging through their decks on turn 6 by coining a gadgetzan conceal on turn 5 which usually spelled death for the opponent as the rogue would cycle trough their entire deck with little counter play. In order to compensate for the loss in draw engine many rogues turned to prep + sprint in order to draw 4 cards for 4 mana, this deck runs a single sprint and gadgetzan but it is not really meant to win the game but to refill your hand later in the game letting you run many tempo cards like sap to maintain control of the pace of the game. 

 The key theme of this deck is using oils and poisons to pump up your dagger for an attack into blade flurry dealing upwards of 14 damage a turn from your weapon alone meanwhile using other cards to keep up tempo and draw into your game finishing combo.

Cards choices

2x Backstab- You'd be hard pressed to find a rogue deck that doesn't run two of these, they are extremely powerful, grabbing tempo through free removal allowing you to clear board and develop it at the same time.It also scales into the late game with spell power, overall a very powerful card.

2x Preparation- Comparable to innervate ,which is seen as one of the more broken cards in the game, and it allows combos that shouldn't be possible while constrained by 10 mana allowing for 1 mana oils and 4 mana sprints either way it's extremely powerful.

2x Deadly poison- Very powerful, allows you to trade with piloted shredders etc... and it allows for turn 2 dagger up turn three poison flurry against aggro which should outright win you the game through the pure tempo it affords you in terms of efficiency of card economy.

2x Blade Flurry- very important card for use as aoe with tinkers and deadly poison .When closing out the game it can be used to "attack" twice with a weapon for devastating amounts of damage in one turn.

2x Eviscerate- overall solid removal and burn, 4 damage for 2 mana and scales with the spell power you already have in deck what else could you ask for.

2x sap- really grabs tempo there's nothing like having your opponent spend their entire turn dropping something slow like a sneed's or highmane with no immediate impact then forcing them to have to replay it next turn.

1x Shiv- nice for cycling a draw and scales well with spell power.

1x Bloodmage Thalnos- excellent in most rogue decks because they love spell power and card draw and thalnos offers both even at the crowded 2 drop spot it will always find its way into most rogue iterations.

2x Fan of Knives- very nice against hunters with their leper gnomes, webspinners, wolfriders, and in control match ups a lot of the time its a 3 mana cycle and chip damage which inst terrible, it also scales very well with spell power.

1x Earthen ring Farseer- a heal is nice when you need to use weapons to trade often and it helps to establish board which rogue often struggles with.



1x Edwin van Cleef- Controversial choice since we have only one gadgetzan to pump it up but with preps  even with just a few cards played prior a 3 mana 6/6 is already extremely good and anything upwards is just great although its your only BGH target and with that cropping up everywhere perhaps 6/6 is the best stat distribution.

2x Si:7 Agent- a 3 mana 3/3 isn't the worst to begin with but dealing two damage from the combo grants it extreme value and that isn't even that hard with low cost or free spells like deadly poison, back stab etc... since it grab's tempo while establishing board which is a key advantage of rogue as a class

2x Tinkers sharpsword Oil- The MVP of  this deck it allows you to pump up your weapon to allow for massive blade flurries to either push for lethal or to clear board and the attack buff on minions is very nice as it allows them to put in serious damage or to trade up.

1x Piloted Shredder- This is a very sticky  minion very nice for claiming the board and means that there will always be a minion to get the sharp sword buff 

2x Violet teacher- a remnant of the old style miracle and its still generally good because of all the low cost spells and prep allowing you to flood the board with 1/1's which shouldn't be underestimated.

2x Azure drake- Like thalnos this has two things rogues love card draw and spell power and it doesn't lose card economy as its played unlike thalnos and its nice for developing board as 4/4's are reasonably sticky .

1x Loatheb- In  a deck that usually burst's the opponent in one turn cards that allow you to survive a another turn are severely important in order for you to close out the game and a 5 mana 5/5 is reasonable anyway.  

1x gadgetzan- This goblin now costs another mana so he can't come out early enough to seal the game himself but he assists in match ups where you run out of cards and he can refill your hand particularly fast using the myriad of low cost spells available.

1x Sprint- paired with prep it allows you to spend 4 mana on turn 4 to draw 4 cards which just accelerates you card advantage to a point many other classes simply cant keep up with.

Possible tech cards:

Assassin Blade: allows you to make your buffs go father and gives you a chance to take down Armour stacking warriors with many attacks from a buffed weapon, generally assists in control match-ups where you don't care as much about your life total.

Big Game Hunter: Lets you deal with all these DR.Boom's flooding the ladder and it helps to beat the hand lock match ups although i never had trouble beating hand-locks without it as well.

Antique Heal bot: lets you heal out of the range of freeze mage's burn spells post alexstraza and the body and heal lets you fight off the mech mages and face hunters who try and race you down. Overall useful in a aggro meta or if freeze mage sees a resurgence on the ladder.

Dr. Boom: we all know how powerful this card is and its good to put in, in a control meta where we need another threat to keep playing into the late game.

Mulligan and match-up guide coming later