Galakrond Rogue Deck (Updated!) – Descent of Dragons

Our Heartstone Galakrond Rogue Deck List Guide is an early look at this archetype for the Descent of Dragons! Rogue is another of the lucky classes that gets to build around the enormous Dragon that is Galakrond. Their version of the card has a strong Battlecry in that it draws one or more cards that will be reduced in cost to zero. Not only that, when you play Galakrond you will get a Hero Power that allows you to add a Lackey to your hand! Both of these effects work in Rogue's favor, it just now needs to be determined if there's enough cards to build around it.

Rogue has mostly been using a tempo based deck recently to earn victories on the ladder. In Descent of Dragons, some potential new strategies might be employed. One of those is centering a deck around the powerful Galakrond. There are many possibilities on how you can build this type of deck. You could center it around Dragons, Tempo, Malygos, or just go with a more traditional Miracle Rogue shell. It remains to be seen which of these bases will end up being the strongest.

Galakrond Rogue Deck List

Here's a first look at the top performing Galakrond Rogue deck in Descent of Dragons:

Galakrond Rogue Mulligan Guide

Always Keep

• Backstab - One of Rogues most enduring cards, it is usually a solid tempo play that can remove a minion and allow us to play something else. It's also great for combo enabling, which works well with SI:7 Agent or Edwin VanCleef.
• Bloodsail Flybooter - Cheap drop that gets us additional resources to work with in following turns.
• Pharaoh Cat - Another early drop that replaces itself with another card.
• Necrium Apothecary - This card enables one of the big combos in the deck with the only Deathrattle minion. It's a strong combination, so if you've got another cheap drop it's worth holding onto this.

Possible Keeps

• EVIL Miscreant - Stats aren't the best for the cost, but getting two Lackeys into your hand is very strong. Keep this when you have a 1-drop already.
• Edwin VanCleef - Did you receive the dream opening for a big VanCleef play? This is generally The Coin, Backstab, and Shadowstep. If you did then you should keep VanCleef and go for the easy win. This will sometimes blow up in your face, but it's worth giving it a try!
• Seal Fate - Good for clearing minions off the board and gets us an Invoke onto Galakrond. We also end up with a Lackey because of it, so we get a resource to replace it.

How Galakrond Works

Galakrond is a Hero Card that will replace your current Hero and Hero Power when played. Galakrond can be powered up by cards with the Invoke keyword. Each time you Invoke Galakrond, it gives you a trigger of Galakrond's Hero Power whether it is in play or not. You can upgrade your Galakrond twice, each upgrade requires you play a card with Invoke twice (4 times in total for a full upgrade). Each upgrade powers up its Battlecry by double. If you can max our your Galakrond, you will equip a 5/2 weapon when you play it.

Play Strategy & Card Combinations

This deck will play out pretty similarly to a standard Tempo Rogue deck, it's just more focused around what Galakrond, the Nightmare is bringing to the table. We still have some combo potential with stuff like Edwin VanCleef and Necrium Apothecary. We can also just overrun our opponent with cheap minions and generating Lackeys.

The big question on most people's mind is probably... what's with the Wisp ? Well, it makes for a great enabler for Faceless Corruptor which is a pretty bonkers card and guarantees that we get value out of it. It also acts as a combo enabler, if we want to land our Necrium Apothecary on the board and get value out of it then we need to be able to trigger it.

Necrium Blade and Necrium Apothecary are the big combo pieces of this deck that can gain you a really strong board very quickly. If you can play the blade early and get it down to 1 durability, you can drop the Apothecary and get the Mechanical Whelp Deathrattle onto it. Now you attack with the blade, and we get a 7/7 Mechanical Dragon. You trade the Apothecary next turn or soon after and you get another big Dragon. You've also now drawn the Whelp which you can play in a following turn.

Kronx Dragonhoof can draw you your Galakrond which could possibly allow you to play it on curve. If you have already transformed into Galakrond, you'll be able to unleash a devastation! Here's a look at what those options look like:

Galakrond can get you some late game power with the multiple draws and conversion of those cards to 0-mana. Being able to pump out a Lackey turn after turn is also very strong due to their power level.

Card Substitutions

• Eviscerate - Strong versatile direct damage card that can be used for clearing a minion or finishing off the opponent.
• Leeroy Jenkins - A strong finisher for Tempo and Aggro based decks.
• Cairne Bloodhoof - Versions that aren't running Galakrond can utilize an additional Deathrattle card.
• Flik Skyshiv - Strong removal with an extra bonus that could remove a particularly annoying set of minions.
• Waxadred - There's some possible shenanigans we can get up to with this card, but I'm not sure it's worth it just yet.
• Malygos - If you went the more Miracle route, there is a world where you stick in Malygos and Sinister Strike and go for big combo turns.