BIG Deathrattle Quest Rogue

Deck Idea

This deck has 3 main goals:

1. Use Rogue's burgle package to generate resources and complete Bazaar Burglary.
2. Use the Quest to benefit from early game Quest Minions, mid game combo tools, and Mirage Blade.
3. Cheat out strong deathrattles via Necrium Apothecary, and play big deathrattle minions to finish the game.

(1) Wanderous Thieving

Scholamance Academy brought Rogue some great cards--one in particular is Wand Thief. This card provides an early game body that generates a card while helping out the burgle package. While this card isn't enough to make burgle Rogue viable in standard, it is a nice addition to Rogue's available tools.

When combined with the past few expansions, burgle Rogue finally has the ability to generate a lot of resources from other classes without sacrificing consistency or tempo. Clever Disguise is an amazing card even without the burgle synergy, so when it is combined with other early game burgle cards like Dragon's Hoard and Pilfer, burgle [card[Rogue has a lot of tools to work with. Most importantly, Ancient Blades becomes a stronger and more viable tempo tool with each passing expansion thanks to Rogue's ability to generate so many cards from other classes so quickly.

(2) Licensed Quest'r

I really love that quests were given neutral support to help them benefit from strong tools they may be lacking. Although Rogue isn't necessarily lacking in any of the tools provided by the neutral quest support cards, burgle Rogue is. Card draw, mana cheating/combo enabling, and board stats are all things missing from the burgle Rogue package, but not if you combine it with the neutral quest cards. Since burgle Rogue benefits from running the Quest, the neutral quest minions are a perfect addition to this list.

(3) Dangerous Deathrattles

Necrium Apothecary is a card idea that I really enjoyed; unfortunately, it was nerfed to the ground due to some degenerate combos. However, since there has been a decent amount of big deathrattle support the past few expansions, I wanted to see if I could bring Necrium Apothecary back. Because the available deathrattles to Rogue are fairly strong, Necrium Apothecary puts in a lot of work for this deck. Moreover, because of the mana cost, this card curves into the deathrattle minions drawn fairly well (so the drawn minions don't sit in our hand for too long).

Combos & Synergies

This list doesn't have any crazy combos, but the cards do seem to hit a sweetspot of synergy with each other. The quest and burgle cards work wonders in the early game to generate value and keep up on board while the big deathrattle minions give us the late game finishing power to defeat our opponent. Necrium Apothecary and Secret Passage are the glue that link these two archetypes together so beautifully. And, even if Secret Passage gets nerfed, I don't think this deck will take that much of hit.

Secret Apothecary

As anticipated, this card is one of the strongest cards of Scholomance Academy. Just like pretty much every other Rogue deck, this deck finds a lot of use out of Secret Passage; however, even if Secret Passage gets nerfed, I think it will still be a strong card for this deck! The best use of Secret Passage is on turn 6 when we don't have a Necrium Apothecary in hand; if drawn, we can combo the Necrium Apothecary to not only get it out of our deck early, but also draw one of our big deathrattle minions!

In addition to being a combo enabler, Secret Passage works very well to pull our burgle cards both in the mid and late game. If you really need to complete the Quest quickly or draw all of our big deathrattle minions, it is possible to play Secret Passage on turn 3 or 4 (especially after playing The Coin) and find one or more of our burgle cards to give us something to do.

Licensed Apothecary

As we all know, Rogue can do some scary things when given an extra coin, and this deck looks to do some of those scary things. Because Necrium Apothecary is a combo card, having the ability to generate The Coin is extremely valuable. Fortunately, Licensed Adventurer has synergy with our Quest, allows us to put a body on board, and, most importantly, it adds The Coin to our hand. Not only does it provide an early game threat, but when we start with The Coin, Licensed Adventurer also enables us to play Necrium Apothecary on curve on turn 3! 

Final Notes

I theory crafted multiple ways to make big deathrattle Rogue that utilizes Necrium Apothecary a fun and playable deck, and this list was the list that provided the most potential.

Although there are other deathrattle minions that have strong deathrattles, I found that the current minions used seemed to provide an equilibrium of strength and density. For example, Infiltrator Lilian, Waxadred, Cairne Bloodhoof, and even Akama all provide powerful deathrattles; however, I found that their bodies/deathrattle either made the deck too weak or too clunky if included in the current list.

On a similar note, there a handful of strong deathrattle-synergy cards that seem promising for this deck, but I found they either got no use, were too slow, or did not have great synergy with the big deathrattle minions. For example, Anka, the Buried has been a staple for big deathrattle Rogue (especially with Magic Carpet), but I found she either never got played or forced anti-synergy with the big bodies of the deathrattle minions I was playing. Additionally, Vectus seems like a great addition, but he isn't usually playable until after turn 8 or 9 if you want to get the full effect of his Whelps--which is exactly around when your big deathrattle minions are better choices.

Good luck with this deck, and have fun trying out the combined Rogue archetype!