This build has NO Deathrattle synergies because I think that in a deck that isn't designed around Deathrattle, that synergy is too hit or miss to put in a deck. The deathrattle package to me just felt really inconsistent with little support in the deck and only 1 apothecary. There were several times I drew it late or drew the deathrattles before it or got the Deathrattle I didn't want. I liked teching in cards to help into matchups that I knew were popular or bad in order to get an edge. I mean the deathrattle version may be better, it just felt inconsistent to me. Also, the highlander package can win games on its own, so why force another win condition like deathrattle, when you can tech for suitability and get to your main win condition more often? Also, this deck will be a good version after the nerfs come out for deathrattle rogue.
November Season I was Legend 669, I have proof on my twitter.
https://twitter.com/elementalcore1
Overview: This deck relies on the sam main win conditions as many other Highlander decks, Mainly being Zephrys and Dragonqueen Alexstraza. While you have those win conditions, you also have Galakrond and Togwaggle who can get you free cards and be huge tempo swings (as long as you don't draw cards that ALREADY COST 0 (this can be tilting but it will probably happen at least a few times so be ready). On top of these win conditions, you also have cards like Siamat and Flik that are just huge survivability tools late game.
This version of the deck is actually designed for increased survivability into the popular matchups and aggro (where this deck either went even or struggled). This deck has cheap removal like Backstab, Sealed Fate, Si7: Agent, Sap, Eviserate, and Vendeta. This deck has solid 1 drops so get you tempo on turn 1, your hero power is the best as a turn 2 play, Turn 3 is ok, and you really start ramping up turn 4. Turns 5/6 have a few solid options and by the time you get to those turns you will probably draw one of them, but if you don't you can easily just play a cheap card and activate a Combo card in your hand too. Then by turns 6 and 7 you hit late game and you start winning hard.
Typically with this deck you want your first several turns to go something like this.
- Turn 1, play a 1 drop. Literally any of them will do, other than playing Praise Galakrond on an enemy minion, because the only time you would EVER do that is to upgrade Galakrond the turn you play him.
- Turn 2, You can play Acidic Swamp Ooze if you are playing against an opponent with no weapons if you want tempo (or if you are against Galakrond Warrior because killing his 1/1 weapon is kinda pointless after he gets Invoke). You can play the Underbelly Fence against an aggro matchup for some tempo. If you have the Coin you can coin out Evil Miscreant or Si7: Agent for the Combo and Tempo. Or, and this is the most common play, you can just hero power to get a dagger and maybe ping off an enemy minion.
- Turn 3, Without the coint this is a turn you can try to play combos if you have Backstab in your hand. If not you have other cards like Blink Fox or Seal Fate. With the Coin, you can sometimes play the coin, a 1-drop, and edwin for a turn 3 6/6 for Tempo which is pretty decent and you don't have other combo cards.
- Turn 4, This is your first big turn with options. Play a 1 drop with a 3 drop Combo card for extra value, play a 4 drop for Tempo, get ready to play silence on the OPPONENTS turn 4 power play, play Devoted Maniac for board control and get you a lackey to set up for Togwaggle turn 6 or 7.
- Turn 5, you wanna play either Zilliax if you need life against a hard aggro matchup, or Shield of Galakrond against a slower matchup to apply more pressure. If you are against a matchup without an easy removal for a Lackey, play a Lackey this turn if you have board control so you can play Togwaggle on curve (turn 6) for a huge power play.
Mulligans: You always want to keep the 1 drops, they are so important against a lot of matchups whether it be aggro matchups you need defense against or a slower matchup and you need a little bit of extra board presence. Also into aggro matchups you wanna keep cheap removal like Backstab and Seal Fate, Zephrys for some extra tempo (because if you don't die early you have other late game cards that can win you the game), and Underbelly Fence which you might just want to play for tempo. Generally into most matchups you wanna keep the same cards, you just don't want to immediately play the removal or Zephrys ASAP, you want to get more value out of these cards whether it be a combo starter or just use the effects on higher value minions. Agains really slow matchups like Priest you can keep Shield of Galakrond or Edwin, and against Aggro Matchups you can also keep Zilliax for a turn 5 removal and Heal play. Lastly, pretty much all of the 3 drops you want to keep, even if you don't have a combo starter because you will probably draw one, ESPECIALLY if you have the coming because coining out a Combo card turn 2 is a huge amount of tempo.
Keep in mind that the matchup guides that are a little further down will talk about some special cards you wanna keep into certain matchups.
Interesting Cards to Note + Continued Mulligan Guide:
(Mulligan Tips) Spellbreaker: This card is used primarily to stop Rogue and is generally kept in the opening hand against this matchup in order to stop the Handbuff combo. It can also be used against priest to silence a Khartut Defender so you don't have to kill it 2 times AND give the opponent 6 more Health. Into Rogue always keep, also keep into Priest too.
(Mulligan Trips) Flik Skyshiv: Keep this card into Warrior (to beat the Scion of Ruin combo), Druid (kill ALL the treants), and Shaman (Dragon's Pack). In most cases you can play this card to kill anything, but into these matchups you HAVE to save it for these targets or you will lose. You also should use this card on Faceless Corrupters if you have the chance.
(Mulligan Tips) Acidic Swamp Ooze: This is simply to help into Rogue, Warrior, and Hunter which means you should keep it in these matchups. You know what Weapons need to be killed, but just to clarify you want to kill the Necrium Blade, Ancharr/Archonite Reaper mainly, and Eaglehorn Bow respectively. If you aren't playing into any of these 3 matchups, you can just play it on turn 2 if it ends up in your hand for tempo.
Togwaggle: Play him turn 7 most of the time so you can play him AND a Lackey on the same turn. But if you are into a class with no way of pinging a 1/1 without board control (like druid or Hunter) you can play a lackey turn 5 and Togwaggle turn 6, just know its a LITTLE risky. Other than all this, you want to play Togwaggle ASAP whenever you can so you have the option and a tempo increase (especially into an aggro matchup if you make it that far). You pretty much should go for the wand every single time and you should play it the very next turn in order to apply board pressure which will either win you the game, save you against aggro, or bait out removal for when you play Alexstraza or maybe Zephrys later.
Galakrond: Play this card as soon as you can after you upgrade it 1 time. You can play it without upgrading too, I just like drawing 2 cards for free cause I am greedy. If you have no other turn 7 play drawing 1 free card is totally fine though so don't be afraid to play him if you have no other options.
Siamat: This guy can be used 4 ways:
- You have total board control so you play him with WINDFURY + DIVINE SHIELD and use him as a win condition to close out games.
- Your opponent has 1 big minion you need to kill so you go RUSH + DIVINE SHIELD in order to kill it and leave your dude alive.
- Your opponent has 2 medium sized minions play him with WINDFURY + RUSH in order to deal with both threats while keeping the rest of your board alive.
- Your opponent has 1 minion that is too big for you to kill, play him with TAUNT + DIVINE SHIELD and hope its enough to stall.
Zephrys: I already talked about this a little bit but mainly what you want to do with this guy is against aggro play him early to gain a tempo play turn 3 OR play him reactively in order to deal with your opponents board/stay alive. Into aggro he is NOT a win condition, he is there to buy you time to get to your other win conditions. Into Midrange and Control you want to save him to help you get the perfect card to close out a game. Most of the time in this case he WILL be a win condition for you. If you have Shadowstep you can play him whenever you want just use Shadowstep on him so you can play him for free later.
Dragonqueen Alexstraza: This card is your PROACTIVE win condition. While Zephrys is a card you might want to save to deal with a board or close out a game, Alexstraza you want to play to immediately to refill a board (If you already have board control don't play it because that means you can get punished by board wipe into most classes).
Decklist:
### Highlander Galakrond Rog
# Class: Rogue
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Dragon
#
# 1x (0) Backstab
# 1x (0) Shadowstep
# 1x (1) Bloodsail Flybooter
# 1x (1) Dragon's Hoard
# 1x (1) Pharaoh Cat
# 1x (1) Praise Galakrond!
# 1x (2) Acidic Swamp Ooze
# 1x (2) Eviscerate
# 1x (2) Sap
# 1x (2) Underbelly Fence
# 1x (2) Zephrys the Great
# 1x (3) Blink Fox
# 1x (3) Edwin VanCleef
# 1x (3) EVIL Miscreant
# 1x (3) Seal Fate
# 1x (3) SI:7 Agent
# 1x (4) Devoted Maniac
# 1x (4) Hench-Clan Burglar
# 1x (4) Spellbreaker
# 1x (4) Vendetta
# 1x (5) Faceless Corruptor
# 1x (5) Leeroy Jenkins
# 1x (5) Shield of Galakrond
# 1x (5) Zilliax
# 1x (6) Flik Skyshiv
# 1x (6) Heistbaron Togwaggle
# 1x (6) Kronx Dragonhoof
# 1x (7) Galakrond, the Nightmare
# 1x (7) Siamat
# 1x (9) Dragonqueen Alexstrasza
#
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Stats: Highlander NO DEATHRATTLE Rogue
(This started off as just me, but this doc is open for anyone to add to in order to help get more precise statistics cause my 59 games is a small sample size). Original Stats were:
https://preview.redd.it/aqjg3rbzei941.png?width=510&format=png&auto=webp&s=01740f9e92aa2f7f21f04cc88fb0df51251b12bc
Video Gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw677CJy8xE
Matchups (Only the Important Ones)
Druid: I have 3 games of data with this class and all 3 were token. It was into this matchup that I learned HOW GOOD Flik could be and something about the animation where she slashes basically the ENTIRE enemy board is super satisfying. Other than that play which you won't always have, the main goal of this deck is to keep the opponent from getting board control. Use as much cheap removal as you can and pump out as many minions as you can to keep your opponent from developing a board. Save Flik for turn 8 if you can counter the Forest's Aid play, but if you have to use it early or use it after you opponent played soul of the forest that can be a good play as well. Zephrys is good into this matchup and you wanna play him around turn 6ish in order to get board wipe options like blizzard, Shadowflame, or hellfire to deal with the minions. This is also a matchup you can play the Acid Swamp Ooze into on turn 2 for tempo because Druids have no weapons. If you can, play Togwaggle ASAP.
Face Hunter: Into this matchup you want to have Zephyrs, but you actually want to save him for heal spells later on into the matchup. Also into this matchup I actually keep Zilliax a lot of the time because it is the only source of healing this deck has and since Face Hunter doesn't rely on minions to do damage (more spells and weapons and Hero power) controlling the board won't help you has much as healing will. Acidic Swamp Ooze you want to keep in this matchup and save it for Eaglehorn bow, and its a preggy safe keep because all the Hunter decks right now have at least 1 weapon in there deck so even if the matchup ISN'T Face Hunter you will probably still kill a weapon. Use your weapon to kill off minions, kill the Phase Stalker ASAP, hopefully get the Underbelly Fence's ability to activate so it gains rush (but if it doesn't still play it on curve for extra tempo), and hope the Hunter doesn't have the nuts (cause sometimes there is just nothing you can do). If you can, play Togwaggle ASAP.
Secret Highlander Hunter: This matchup is kind of rough because they have an extra card that gets them value from Highlander (Brann + King Krush for 7 mana). That being said, I was 3-1 into this matchup so I will try my best to explain my thought process.
- If you force him to play Zephrys first by flooding the board and making him worry, you are in the driver's seat (or if you play Zephrys first BUT you can shadowstep him you are still in control).
- You want to play your Siamat AFTER his by applying pressure on the board, cause if you use your to kill his, you are left with a 6/6 and he is not.
- Use your weapon to test out secrets before playing or attacking with minions to minimize how much you get punished by the Secrets which are a huge part of Highlander Secret Hunter.
- You want to play aggro, but not with the intention of rushing him down, just to bait out important cards. This means you want to trade when value trades present themselves and not always go face, but still make him nervous with pressure.
- Play Alexstraza first because it provides board pressure. Zephrys is different because it can be used in a way that is more flexible and removal based, but Alexstrazy is a PROACTIVE win condition which you want to force your opponent to have a response or they will lose. Only do this if they recently wiped your board because it is a great way to refill your board and its a safe play cause you just baited out some removal.
- Acidic Swamp Ooze can hit 1 of 2 things in this matchup, the Eaglehorn bow OR the Desert Spear, so using the Ooze to deal with 1 of these 2 weapons is extra value.
The way you win this matchup out valuing your opponent because your playstyles are similar while also understanding that if you use your important removal cards first (like Zephrys) or play the Ooze without a weapon target, that value loss could decide the match. If you can, play Togwaggle ASAP.
Quest Hunter: This deck is pretty bad for you because this deck goes wide, which is the main weakness of Rogue due to literally no board wipe other than like Fan of Knives (which you don't even run in this deck. The way you win this matchup is keeping cheap cards in your hand (not paying them immediately) and using 1 drops and Backstab to activate guaranteed combos turns 3 or 4 and pay slow and for value. Quest Hunter has a lot of rush so you won't have a lot of board presence, so playing your minions for value as opposed to tempo is a key strategy here. You have Zephrys if the board gets out of control 1 time, but other than that use your dagger whenever you can to keep from getting overrun. I only played against this 1 time and I lost, but from my loss this is what I gathered. Play for value cause you PROBABLY won't be able to rush them down before their quest is finished, play Togwaggle and Galakrond ASAP to try to get free big minions to control the board, and hope he doesn't have the Leeroy and Unleash the Hounds Combo. If you can, play Togwaggle ASAP.
Highlander Mage: This matchup is not that bad. They don't have heal so into this matchup you want to try to be aggressive and hit them hard and fast. You want to have Sap (or better Silence) to deal with the Khartut Defend to limit the Mage's heal, you want to play Acidic Swamp Ooze early if you have it to apply tempo, and you want to bait out the big removal (Flamestrike, Frost Nova + Doomsayer, Blizzard) BEFORE you play Alexstraza or overcommit to the board after drawing a ton of minions for free (Galakrond or Togwaggle ability). Save Shadowstep for Zephrys or Alexstraza in this matchup so if the opponent DOES have board wipe you can still regain board control or draw an alternative win condition. Similar to the Highlander Hunter, baiting out his highlander cards before yours is a good way to win this matchup. Also if they play Luna's Pocket Galaxy turn 7, commit to the board a little bit more because they might snowball with cheap powerful minions if the game goes on much longer, which means you need to try to end the game fast. If you can, play Togwaggle ASAP.
Paladin: Into Paladin I like to keep Spellbreaker or a Sap because if you are against a Mech paladin and you sap or silence a buffed minion, you basically can win the game off that. Other than that try to keep his minions from getting too big by using removal on them sooner rather than later (UNLESS you have a sap or Silence and you are trying to bait him into buffing his minion too much). Try to play aggressively as well into this matchup to trade into his mechs before they get too big as well. Acidic Swamp ooze into Paladin will PROBABLY be able to kill a Tresilver Champion so you don't want to play it turn 2, just use your hero power. Into OTK Paladin you want to bait out removal by committing to the board a bunch but NOT playing your bigger minions until after he has dealt with your first board. After he uses some of his removal on that, then you commit to the board and try to end the game quickly before he gets to his OTK and hope he doesn have removal. If you don't kill him fast and he gets to his OTK you lose anyway, so overcommitting after baiting out some removal is your best strategy. If you have shadowstep AGAIN use it on Zephrys or Alexstraza if you have the chance, OR save it for Leeroy which you can use to burst him down if he doesn't play Time Out and you can cheese a lethal. If you can, play Togwaggle ASAP. However, despite all of what I said about OTK, if you save Flik for his Tiger, you win so play aggro until you get to that point and if it looks like he is going to OTK you, save your flik or use as much draw as you can to find it.
Resurrect Priest: Save Silence and sap for his Khartut Defender first of all. Second, don't do damage to your opponent until you can like 10+ damage in a turn in order to keep him from completing his quest. Third, try to bait out removal AGAIN like in many other matchups, but also try to play around Mass Hysteria by having minions on the board that are unlikely (or unable) to kill eachother. Then after a Plague of Death OR Mass Resurrection play, play Alexstraza as a big way to regain board control ad try to burst him down. Shadowstep can go on Zephrys or Alexstraza as a win condition OR can be good with Leeroy as surprise burst (Turn 10 Sap taunt minion, 8 mana Leeroy + Shadowstep + Leeroy for 12 damage). If you can, play Togwaggle ASAP.
Highlander/Deathrattle Rogue: This matchup is what I had in mind when I put in my tech cards so this matchup is kinda good for you. You want to keep Acidic Swamp Ooze for the Necrium Blade, keep the Spellbreaker for the Necrium Apothecary, and utilize the Devoted Maniac in order to more reliably get an upgraded Galakrond which will give you an edge into the mirror matchup. Play Alexstraza ASAP in the matchup because rogue has no board wipe, and if you are playing against Deathrattle Rogue its your only way to get a big enough board to match a board of cheap handbuffed minions. Similar to other Highlander matchups you want to play in a way that baits out Zephrys so you have an edge in late game win conditions or removals. Into Deathrattle if you don't have silence or Acidic Swamp Ooze, kill the Necrium Apothecary AS SOON AS POSSIBLE so they can't get extra deathrattle triggers and buff their hand past the point of what you can deal with. If you can, play Togwaggle ASAP.
Galakrond Shaman: Keep Flik into this matchup so you can deal with the Dragon's pack play, even though it is slow being able to deal with probably the best turn 5 play in the game is REALLY helpful and will allow you to maintain board control (or at least not totally lose it). Shaman is little in terms of massive board wipe so flooding the board is a decent strategy especially because Galakrond Shaman is slower since the nerfs (which means if you use Flik on the turn they play the Dragon's pack you can actually do a LOT of damage because that's like the first strong play Shaman can make). Since the matchup is slow save your removal options for either combos or later game minions that you need help dealing with, because there is NO WAY this deck will rush you down so there is no reason to force removal. The only card that you SHOULD use removal on and prioritize killing early is the Mana Tide Totem to limit the opponent's card draw. Play Alexstraza ASAP because if he doesn't have Galakrond to deal with your play you will probably win, and also if you need to play it to deal with his Galakrond play later on. This matchup is hard because if they play smart and save Galakrond to deal with their play or have Shudderwock to reactivate Galakrond AND the Strong Dragon's Pack play on turn 5 all make this matchup a little rough. Just try to learn your limits of how much damage you can take before you need to play Zephrys, so that way you can get the most value out of a board wipe play, and keep Flik so that way you don't lose the game turn 5. Using Sap on a buffed minions (like one of the Dragon's Pack wolves or a buffed Elemental rush minion) or a minion that could potentially kill you that turn. If you can, play Togwaggle ASAP.
Zoolock/Pirate Warrior: SI:7 Agent and Devoted Maniac are key techs into both of these matchups for extra removal and Acidic Swamp Ooze is an amazing tech to deal with Pirate Warrior Weapons. The thing with these matchups is, they goth go wide and do a lot of burst damage while this deck is one without life gain or board wipe. Into this matchup you can't use Zephrys to gain tempo, you have to save him for removal or heal because he is your only source of either of those things other than Zilliax. SPEAKING of Zilliax, you want to keep him in your opening hand if you can in order to remove threats and heal you. This matchup you are going to have to play reactively and eventually hopefully get to your late game win conditions/bomb cards like Siamat, Alexstraza, Galakrond + Kronx, and Togwaggle which will all help you swing the game into your favore and probably win you the game if you made it to this point. If you can, play Togwaggle ASAP.
Galakrond Warrior: You might think Acidic Swamp Ooze is really good into this match up because Warrior has weapons, but its honestly SUPER low impact compared to most other matchups so you can play the Ooze for tempo into this matchup without much of a problem. LITERALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING!!! Keep Flik, use Flik on the Scion of Ruin to disrupt their entire combo, and use the value to win the late game because they don't have an endless amount of 3 mana 9/6 rush plays. Other than that you want to keep silence and sap to limit damage done by minions he buffs with Galakrond or things like Inner Rage. Most versions of this deck only run 1 form of removal (A Plague of Wrath with Awaken!) so if you can bait it out you can worry less about board wipe punishes later in the game and start playing more aggressive. Try to keep track of what cards he has drawn from Galakrond and how many buffed minions he played. Keep track of the cards on the far left of his hand (because if he had it in his hand since the start of the game it is probably Leeroy which means his burst potential is a little less and you can play less scared. If you can survive the 4 Galakrond Buff cards you should win the game so just bait out removal, develop a board after, use your board and cheap removal cards to deal with his threats, once you deal with them try to make some taunt minions with lackies so you can't be bursted down, and just win over time.
If you want to support me so I do more guides like this, please check out these other links and/or upvote them and this post. Thanks for reading to this point.
Hearthpwn: https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1327147-no-deathrattle-61-36-23-highlander-rogue-in-depth
Also, here are links to various subreddits for each class if you want to get info, discuss, or find deck ideas for any specific class. I realized that there were no subreddits for these topics and I think they would be helpful and I am only going to bring this up this 1 time unless people seem to like it.
Subreddits:
Druid: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hearthstone_Druid/
Hunter: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hearthstone_Hunter/
Mage: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hearthstone_Mage/
Paladin: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hearthstone_Paladin/
Priest: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hearthstone_Priest/
Rogue: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hearthstone_Rogue/
Shaman: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hearthstone_Shaman/
Warlock: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hearthstone_Warlock/
Warrior: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hearthstone_Warrior/
If you have any Tips on how I can make better guides, please tell me cause I would love to do better.
![What, you egg? [he stabs him]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/NLbGIkrR7Hnj9nB1lwTBYgfRlHekg-BxWOm3pZPvWNE.jpg "What, you egg? [he stabs him]")
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