Budget Raptor Rogue (LoE Edition)

Introduction

Greetings, I’m Sheng, a Legend rank constructed and 7.5 win-average arena player. I run HearthstoneCoaching.com where our coaches have helped students around the world reach many of these same achievements.

If you’re new to Hearthstone, or just have a limited collection of cards—I feel your pain. It is often difficult to find cheap but viable decks to play on the Hearthstone ladder. Given this dilemma, I’ve set out to help those of you with a limited collection by creating budget decks for each class.

Requirements

Reach Level 10 to unlock all of the Basic cards for this class.
Complete the Naxxramas, Blackrock Mountain, and League of Explorers expansions.
Have 820 Dust for crafting cards.

Deck Playstyle

Raptor Rogue is a deck focused around the Deathrattle mechanic. Most of the cards in this deck are designed to synergize with a new card from League of Explorers called Unearthed Raptor, which has the ability to clone Deathrattles from friendly minions.

Minions – 20

2x Leper Gnome

An excellent minion that allows us to establish a presence on the board early. His deathrattle also puts our opponent on a clock, and isn’t a bad target to clone with Unearthed Raptor

2x Haunted Creeper

This spider is our counter to aggressive decks that like to drop multitudes of 1 health minions. He’s a mini Harvest Golem that spawns two 1/1 tokens instead of a single 2/1 token. The spawned tokens become nice targets for buffs.

2x Loot Hoarder

Loot Hoarder is here primarily for his deathrattle. He cycles after he dies, and is a perfect target for Unearthed Raptor on turn 3.

2x SI:7 Agent

SI7-Agent is the best 3 mana minion for Rogue. You’ll generally want to save him for a turn when you can pay a cheap spell or minion to combo him with. If you start with The Coin, you can play him out on turn 2 to kill an opponent’s 3/2 for an early tempo lead.

2x Unearthed Raptor — New!

3 mana for a 3/4 is already incredibly good as far as stats, but the ability to clone Deathrattles of friendly minions puts this card over the top.

2x Piloted Shredder

The best 4 mana neutral minion in the game. He provides incredible value due to his deathrattle that summons a random 2 mana minion. You’ll generally want to play the Piloted Shredder in between two of your other minions if you can, as there’s a possibility of spawning Flametongue Totem or Dire Wolf Alpha.

2x Tomb Pillager — New!

Lauded by Kolento as one of the best cards in League of Explorers, Tomb Pillager is in many ways like paying 3 mana for a 5/4, which is incredible value. One sneaky play I like to do when I get the chance is to kill off my own Tomb Pillager on turn 7 to get The Coin while Kel'Thuzad is in my hand. Opponents never expect me to coin out to resurrect my Tomb Pillager on that turn.

2x Azure Drake

The Azure Drake provides us with both Card Draw and a Spell Power bonus, both of which are incredibly useful for our deck.

1x Loatheb

A mana-efficient minion that allows us to shut down our opponent’s spells the next turn. You generally want to play Loatheb when you’re a turn before lethal, or to shut down a board clear spell on the following turn.

2x Sludge Belcher

If you thought the Sen'jin Shieldmasta was good, well just wait until you see his bigger brother, the Sludge Belcher. Sludge Belcher is an extremely annoying card to deal with, because when he dies, he leaves behind a smaller taunt. This effectively shuts down very aggressive decks, that are generally forced to use silence to get around him. Another benefit to the Sludge Belcher’s deathrattle is his synergy with Kel'Thuzad. Good luck getting past that wall of taunts when both are on the board at the same time!

1x Kel'Thuzad

Kel’Thuzad is probably the best win condition in our deck. If you have any semblance of a board going into turn 8, he has a good chance of winning the game for you. His value only goes up when you have deathrattle minions on the board that spawn more minions.

Spells – 10

2x Backstab

Amazing tempo card. Can often kill a 2 mana minion by itself.

2x Deadly Poison

Either use this on your Assassin's Blade to deal 5 damage (which can finish games), or on your hero power to deal 3 damage to enemy minions.

1x Blade Flurry

A situational board-clear that’s affected by Spell Power. If you have Azure Drake on the board, it’ll do an additional point of damage to all enemies. Quite useful for clearing a board full of Patrons, or for a bit of extra reach for lethal.

2x Eviscerate

While the Combo can sometimes be tricky to pull off, 4 damage for 2 mana is extremely efficient, and can provide the reach to kill off more expensive minions or to kill your opponent outright.

1x Sap

Because this card is fairly situational, I only run one copy. Its cheap casting cost means you can play Sap and a few other minions on the same turn. I keep this card in my starting hand against Druid to bounce back big taunts.

2x Fan of Knives

Our tool against decks that like to play many 1 health minions (Hunter, Zoo Warlock, Aggro Paladin). Substitutes for Blade Flurry in more expensive Rogue decks.

Mulligan Guide

In general, you want to mulligan to setup your first three or four turns. Please note that there is a distinction between going first and going second in Hearthstone, and this should factor into your mulligan choices.

When going first, your advantage is the ability to play first. In addition, you gain mana crystals before your opponent. To take advantage of this, you want to be aggressive in your mulligan to put minions on the board.

When going second, your advantage is mainly The Coin, which gives you tempo over your opponent for a single turn, and also an extra card. Depending on the nature of your deck, whether it’s Aggro, Midrange, or Control, you’ll be looking for different things.

When playing an aggro deck, you’ll be looking for the same cards going second as you would going first. The objective is to quickly populate the board and bring down your opponent’s life total.
When playing a midrange deck, you’ll also be looking to get onto the board early, with the caveat that you can keep a single copy of a situational minion or spell that you think may be useful to counter an opponent. This spell might be something like a Kezan Mystic to counter classes with Secrets or removal like Frostbolt.
When playing a control deck, you’re looking to save the coin until much later in the game, generally when you can bring out a large late-game threat earlier than usual.

While I won’t make an exhaustive list, these are some of the cards you should consider keeping in your opening hand when playing this deck. In general, your goal with this deck is to get onto the board as soon as possible. It’s important to dig for an early 1 or 2 mana minion to play so you can begin to pressure your opponent’s life total.

Minions

1 Mana: Leper Gnome
2 Mana: Haunted Creeper, Loot Hoarder
3 Mana: Unearthed Raptor, SI:7 Agent with Backstab or The Coin

Spells

0 Mana: Backstab
1 Mana: Deadly Poison
3 Mana: Fan of Knives against Hunter or Paladin.

Gameplay Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unOmgi42zRY

Upgrades

Here are some substitutions that will improve this budget deck. If you’re looking to craft cards to play this class, it’s best to start with the “Key Substitutions” first before working your way to the “Nice-to-Have” Substitutions. Unless stated otherwise, you can substitute a single copy of an upgrade card instead of two if you don’t have both.

Nice-to-Have Substitutions

2x Deadly Poison + 1x Blade Flurry → 1x Big Game Hunter + 1x Sylvanas Windrunner + 1x Dr. Boom

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this guide! If you have questions, feel free to use the comment sections below. Our team at HearthstonePlayers would be happy to answer them.

Coaching Lessons

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