Aggro Even Rogue

Deck Idea

The goal of this deck is to take advantage of the strong burn damage and card draw of even-cost cards in Rogue's toolkit since the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire release. In particular, Foxy Fraud, Swindle, Tenwu of the Red Smoke, and Knife Vendor are all cards from Madness at the Darkmoon Faire that support the Aggro Even Rogue archetype. In addition to these tools, Fogsail Freebooter and Oil Rig Ambusher have been added with the Core Set and Forged in the Barrons, respectively. To top it all off, Frenzied Felwing has been reverted, making it a nice addition to a burn heavy deck.

Deck Overview

This deck is relatively straightforward, but learning when to punch with Dagger Mastery and when to hold is probably the most challenging aspect of the deck. Otherwise, the deck fells like many other Combo-heavy Rogue decks that like to play a bunch of low cost cards in a single turn.

In general, we want to use our discounted hero power to ensure we always have a weapon equipped which guarantees we can land weapon buffs or play cards with weapon synergies on demand. In fact, because we have so many weapon buffs, it is often better to hold weapon swings for a turn just to ensure we land the extra damage over the next 2+ turns--especially since this deck has no shortage of weapons to equip.

The deck has a lot of burn damage in the form of Eviscerate, Fogsail Freebooter, Knife Vendor, and Oil Rig Ambusher; additionally 3 out of 4 of these cards are fairly statted minions which put a lot of pressure on our opponent. In general, we want these cards to go at our opponent's face, but they work to control the board against other aggro opponents.

This deck also runs a decent amount of Combo cards, hence the inclusion of Foxy Fraud and Preparation. Both of these cards are extremely important in enabling explosive early game openers. For example, if we have one or more Frenzied Felwing in our mulligan along with an Eviscerate, we can summon two 3/3's and deal 4 damage to face on turn 1!

The final key card of the deck is Tenwu of the Red Smoke; because this deck has so many strong Battlecry and Combo cards, Tenwu works wonders as a finisher or as a card draw engine. Tenwu has amazing synergy with Oil Rig Ambusher because adding Oil Rig Ambusher back to your hand with Tenwu makes its Battlecry deal 4 damage. Knife Vendor has a similar, equally devastating synergy with Tenwu. If we are short on card draw, Tenwu gives us extra draw with Elven Minstrel or Manafeeder Panthara.

Card Replacements

I think aggro even Rogue is probably a pretty tight list; however, there are 3 cards that definitely fit into the deck, but they are more dependent on the meta you are facing. The 3 cards that are not included but certainly could be are Shadowstep, Wicked Stab (Rank 1), and Sap. Shadowstep and Wicked Stab (Rank 1) effectively give the deck a ton more burst potential, so including these 2 cards might bring the deck more success than the current list. If I were to cut 2 cards, I would likely remove Cult Neophyte and Frenzied Felwing. In fact, it might be worth removing Tinker's Sharpsword Oil at that point as the deck would have fewer minions to hit with Oil. As for Sap, it is definitely the least important, but definitely incredibly strong in certain metas (particularly against decks like Big Priest). Cult Neophyte is probably the most flexible card in the current list, so I would start there if you want to replace any cards.

Conclusion

If you are a fan of weapon Rogue decks, Aggro Even Rogue might just be your new favorite. I have had solid preliminary success with the deck, so give it a try if you want to try something a little different.

Good luck, and have fun!