Prior to the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion, Rogue was without a doubt, my least-touched class. I wasn’t around when Miracle Rogue was one of the most crushing decks in the meta game, and with Oil Rogue going into Wild, I wasn’t sure I was going to hop aboard. I built this deck from scratch, utilizing the best of what three out of the four titular Old Gods have to offer, and the result is a very slow, but sticky deck that will infuriate your opponents who are trying to stall you out.
This is a Reno deck, meaning Reno Jackson is a big part of what makes this deck work. Between Shadowstep, Xaril’s poisons, and Shadowcaster, you should be using Reno Jackson quite a few times. Speaking of Xaril, he’s definitely a necessity in this deck. Similar to Spare Parts from Goblins vs. Gnomes, Xaril’s poisons can deal damage, draw a card, or even put a minion back in your hand, all for very cheap. These also activate Rogue combos very well. Those three previously mentioned cards work synergistically with many different cards in the deck, including the Old Gods.
The deck takes bits and pieces from other archetypes – C’Thun and Deathrattle, with Yogg-Saron thrown in for good measure since the deck has plenty of spells. Notice there aren’t a lot of C’Thun cards. That’s because Blade of C’Thun by itself can be all the buffing C’Thun needs. Think about it, if a Freeze Mage throws down Alexstrasza, you can destroy it and add its stats to your C’Thun. Should you have a spare Shadowstep in your hand, you can bring him back again. It’s the best removal I’ve seen in the expansion, just at the cost of 9 mana. Disciple of C’Thun is there because he’s awesome, and his damage can finish off minions you’ve already damaged.
N’Zoth works well with spells that put him back in your hand, since he should effectively be filling the board any time he drops. Other spells like Journey Below can help you discover another Deathrattle minion, should you want N’Zoth to add some spice to your side of the board. Sylvanas, Xaril, these are mandatory legendaries for a lot of this deck’s synergies. So it isn’t exactly the cheapest deck to make. It’s just been the most fun Reno deck I’ve played with.
This deck has some bad match ups against purely aggro decks, mainly because tools to deal with them are usually 3-5 cost, and can’t wipe them all out. Sure, if a Zoolock’s getting cocky and tossing a bunch of 1-health minions out, Fan of Blades will do the trick, but in the case of Aggro Shaman, that’s not the case. Their bigger minions, like Flamewreathed Faceless, can be dealt with using Sap, though. It *can* work in Reno Rogue’s favor, but it’s difficult. This deck tends to do well against more Control-centric builds, just because it can outlast a lot of them.