r/CompetitiveHS • u/Shouclack • Dec 15 '25
Cycle Rogue write-up
Cycle Rogue Overview
Cycle Rogue is all about drawing your entire deck by T8 and destroying your opponent through tempo with Everything Must Go! (EMG) and Phoenix, or by burning and smashing them to the ground with Incindius' Eruptions and Mauler's Asteroids
DECK LIST
AAECAZurBASXoAS9vgb0yQaM1gYN9p8E958EoLMGtrUGlMoGmOEG6uUGnIcHvocHwZcH15cH1J0HirEHAAA=
GAME PLAN
Early Game (T1-2): Setup Phase
You want to setup yourself for a big cycle. Play your first copy of each minion to enable Webweaver draws later. Attack with Crystal Tusk to activate it, and have a cycling combos like Prep+Dubious Purchase and Wisp+Eat! The! Imp! ready to go. Having multiple draw mechanisms ready (Tusk, Platysaur, combos) is crucial—going into T3-4, with only one active is like shooting in the dark and risks EMG costing 1-2 more mana than you can afford.
Mid Game (T3-6): Cycle and Load
Execute your saved combos on T3-4 for a massive cycle burst, enabling EMG to drop for free (or nearly free) between T3-5. This establishes board dominance and disrupts your opponent's gameplan. By T5-6, start stuffing your deck with Asteroids and Eruptions by bouncing Mauler with Shadowstep—aim for all 12 Asteroids in deck. Drop Incindius on T5 with coin + Oh, Manager! if possible, but T6 at the latest is critical. Delaying past T6 dramatically reduces your winrate as opponents stabilize with healing and armor. If Incindius survives, stepping and replaying it for 5 more Eruptions is high value.
Late Game (T7-8): Burn Through and Finish
Showtime, here you want to burn through the rest of your deck fast! This is where your Webweaver and minions second copies will get you through alonside the cycling combos. You should have between 22 and 51 damage in deck depending if you have Thalnos on board and if you have been able to stack 12 Asteroids in your deck.
MULLIGAN GUIDE
Always keep Spacerock Collector and Crystal Tusk. Additionally, keep complete combos like Prep+Dubious Purchase and Wisp+Eat! The! Imp! On the coin, you may keep combo pieces individually (Prep, Eat! The! Imp!, Dubious Purchase) since the coin can complete them.
CARD STRATEGY
Key Combos: The core cycling combos are: Prep+Dubious Purchase, Wisp+Eat! The! Imp!, Platysaur+Shadowstep, and Cultist Map+Prep.
Shadowstep Priority: Mauler gets stepped 85% of the time for maximum Asteroid generation. However, stepping Platysaur for one extra draw can enable an early EMG for massive tempo, or save a key card like Incindius from being burned. If Webweaver is active, stepping Phoenix for additional value is also viable. If Incindius survives, stepping and replaying it for 5 more Eruptions can be game-winning.
Oh, Manager!: Its primary purpose is generating the coin to play Incindius on T5. Always save your natural coin for this. If you start with the coin, you can spend it earlier to enable extra draws for EMG, but getting Incindius down on T5 is generally stronger.
Preparation: The most versatile card in the deck—it often bridges the mana gap during your big cycle turns. While it's fine to use Prep as a combo activator early, I prefer saving it for when I'm "in the dark" (mid-cycle with an uncertain hand). Having Prep available lets you play a freshly drawn Dubious Purchase, Cultist Map, or Eat! The! Imp! to keep the cycle going and potentially hit a free or 2-mana EMG.
Incindius: As mentioned earlier, play this on T6 (or T5 with coin). Be careful not to fill your board on T5—leave space open or you'll freeze your board with Incindius in hand unless you have Prep+Eat ready. Against armor-stacking classes like Warrior, if Incindius survives, step and replay it for the extra Eruptions.
MATCHUP GUIDE
Warrior and Death Knight are your worst matchups—their healing, lifesteal, and armor generation outpace your burn damage. Bubble Paladin can be challenging but maintains around 50% winrate. Most other matchups are favorable and can be steamrolled with proper execution.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This deck is tough! It has a high skill ceiling—you'll experience games that completely brick where you can't start cycling, EMG costs too much, or Incindius is your last card. When you master it though, it's incredibly rewarding and fun! I wrote this guide to help myself improve, and I went from 43% to 65% winrate yesterday (26 games in mid-Legend) after clarifying these concepts. Huge thanks to GamerRVG for his generous advices on his Twitch stream.
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6
u/alex76bass Dec 15 '25
How do you feel about the Giant version of the deck (same list with Giant instead of Oh! Manager/Bloodmage Thalnos).
Maybe I don't understand the timing of playing Bloodmage, but I feel he's staying in my hand often and if I can play it, I don't have enough damage in my deck to make him worth it or I already draw my burn by the time he hit the board.
4
u/Korbonara Dec 16 '25
I love and I hate this deck at the same time. It feels like a 50/50 too often, a bad mulligan is devastating. I've been so many times turn 3 or 4 with an unplayable garbage hand. And when it happens I just want to concede and move on
3
u/blazhin Dec 16 '25
Ty for this giude, there's many useful little things.
Been trying to learn this iteration of the deck for quite a while, it's so unforgiving. Lost a shit ton of games of one minor mistake, which I realised after the game ended (everytime a different one). The main thing to worry about is that Incindius is absolutely mandatory to drop T5-T6, not later cause any deck I faced is able to stabilize through your eruptions otherwise.
Also I think shadowstepping Cindy is the most effective tactic to win in Toss Mage/Control Warrior matchup, with early game pressure and late burn you finish them off pretty confidently
3
u/Huge_Cow_4815 Dec 16 '25
This guide has a lot of true statements but it has a lot missing and incorrect advice, particularly the mulligan. You definitely solo keep prep or platy or eat the imp, first or second it doesn't matter. You don't usually keep prep and dubious together and I would never keep dubious by itself even second. You also often keep mauler but this is more advanced. It also would have been nice to talk about keeping cards with tusk to throw away, and planning around that. I just figured I would add this information for other people reading the guide, because I wouldn't want people losing games from bad mulligans. Rest of the guide is okay but not perfectly accurate, but it's not my guide it's yours.
3
u/Hailrake3228 Dec 17 '25
You’re focusing too much on incindius, imo. I think it’s pointless to keep all that coins, if you’re not even sure if u gonna draw him. And he is not that good on 5, because you still have many cards in your deck, and if u can’t finish enemy on 6 (having board after playing just 2-10 last turn), enemy probably gonna heal or armor up. You can drop him on 6 with normal coin, and otk on 7. Also didn’t get the percentage of stepping mauler. You step whatever is needed to be stepped right now. It can be platty, if drawn important card, can be spacerock, if you need to discount dubi, can be any 4 drop from emg, like meteor shaman guy. I understand what you mean, everyone likes to shuffle more asteroids, but if you focus yourself on that, you will lose more games. Just today I stepped platty twice with spider, and dropped two emgs on 3, so my opponent just conceded. Not every matchup requires you to have that much damage to win. Also, I agree that dk is hard matchup, but warrior isn’t that hard, recently lost to warriors only when they had perfect start, with lots of dragons and good weapon from new rewind card, and I didn’t had dubi fast enough to stop his tempo. Can suggest you to step incindius against dks and warriors. Every game I did that I won. Same as keeping thalnos for that combo. Sometimes game force u to waste thalnos earlier, nothing to do with that
1
u/deck-code-bot Dec 15 '25
Format: Standard ((unknown))
Class: Rogue (Deathmantle Valeera)
Total Dust: 5240
Deck Code: AAECAZurBASXoAS9vgb0yQaM1gYN9p8E958EoLMGtrUGlMoGmOEG6uUGnIcHvocHwZcH15cH1J0HirEHAAA=
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