It’s Rogue reveal day at vS. Thanks to Blizzard, we can give you a rundown on what you can expect from Valeera at TITANS.
Blizzholic has already revealed three Rogue cards earlier today, which can be considered one-offs. They’re not part of a bigger package of cards in the set. Let’s go over them before we get to the main course.
Tar Slick is a cheap spell that imitates Enchanter’s effect, but does it on all minions in play. Since the effect is applied before the damage is dealt, Tar Slick basically deals 2 damage to a minion. You can use it as early game removal, pairing it with your dagger to clear up an opponent’s early aggression. Alternatively, you can use it in combination with an AOE effect, like Fan of Knives or Explosive Sheep, to clear an enemy board. It’s quite an interesting effect to introduce in Rogue, since it encourages the class to find ways to incorporate AOE into its toolkit. Just watch out for minion trades after playing Tar Slick, since your minions are also taking double the damage!
Kaja’mite Creation looks like a classic Thief Rogue card. A discover effect on vanilla stats for a 2-drop is quite playable. The narrowed cost range means the spell you discover is guaranteed to be playable on turn 3 and should work nicely with Preparation. This is a solid minion that goes into Thief Rogue but has a chance of making it in other Rogue decks.
On the surface, Gear Shift doesn’t give you card advantage. You’re paying one card and shuffle two others in order to draw three. That’s a neutral exchange equivalent to a 1-mana cycle spell. However, this card can be leveraged to become an incredible source of card draw for fast paced decks. If you empty your hand aggressively to the point Gear Shift is the last card in your hand, you’ll simply draw three cards.
What’s more is that cards that end up on the left side of your hand are more likely to be ones you haven’t been able to use, so they should be weaker in theory than cards you’re about to draw in a specific matchup or scenario. Gear Shift could be a cornerstone card for an aggressive Rogue deck that resembles an Aggro Demon Hunter running Magnifying Glaive and is encouraged to vomit its hand. Alternatively, it’s just a flexible cycle card you could run in other Rogue decks, such as Miracle.
On to “the package”. You likely have already been given a couple of clues about the main theme of the Rogue class for TITANS. Guess the title of this article is also an obvious enough clue! The Rogue class is getting a mech themed set. Its TITAN, V-07-TR-0N Prime, is a mech. The first Rogue card revealed for the expansion was also a mech, SP-3Y3-D3R.
SP-3Y3-D3R is not the only magnetizing mech in the Rogue class. In fact, it’s not the only 3-cost magnetizing mech in the class. Mech Rogue will have a heavy focus on magnetizing that differentiates its playstyle from other mech decks.
This cute, mechanical squirrel is not a great standalone play, but it is a strong buff on-curve, making it quite important for Mech Rogue to establish magnetizing targets for turn 3. If you can land this buff, not only are you pressuring your opponent with immediate damage, you’re also getting a coin for your trouble. That should help you accelerate your pressure further.
Mech Rogue can split its pressure, quite literally, with a mech that also carries the forge ability.
Lab Constructor develops a couple of mech Bloodfen Raptors for 4 mana. Note that Lab Constructors will keep summoning copies in subsequent turns as long as they’re in play. They basically work like Malignant Horror, but require no resources to keep spawning. That could get out of control if the opponent doesn’t keep them in check, but they’re not too difficult to clear.
However, if you forge your Lab Constructor, you can magnetize one of your mechs and copy it along with the buffed stats. That sounds much more intimidating, since these bigger bodies are stickier and threaten to keep spawning unless they’re dealt with immediately. For example, you can forge Lab Constructor on turn 2, drop a stealthy SP-3Y3-D3R on turn 3 and then magnetize it with Lab Constructor on turn 4. You’ve got a couple of 6/6 mechs that have to be cleared as soon as turn 4 or the game could be over.
Some consistency could be added with Pit Stop offering you a tutor for mechs that also buffs them, which works well with magnetic mechs, especially Lab Constructor. However, Pit Stop could also be played in other Rogue decks. If you’re running a small mech package and want to tutor specific cards, you can find them with Pit Stop. One example is Menagerie Rogue being able to find One-Amalgam Band with this spell.
You might have seen this innocuous neutral 1-drop a couple of days ago. Drone Deconstructor gives you one of eight different Sparkbots, all having one of the keywords available to the One-Amalgam Band.
Why stop at one Sparkbot when Rogue can generate three with one card?
Your hand could be filled with these adorable little buddies, giving you more magnetizing mechs to fill your curve with. From the Scrapheap resembles Schooling, but generates a higher quality of 1-drops and can be discounted with Preparation. Every Sparkbot roll is an independent roll, so the three you generate are not guaranteed to be different. One interaction that could be quite powerful is attaching a stealth Sparkbot on a Lab Constructor, which means your opponent will have a very difficult time preventing them from spawning further copies in additional turns.
But there’s a little more than meets the eye. You know who loves to use Sparkbots for their grand machinations? It’s none other than the Rogue legendary, Mimiron, the Mastermind!
Mimiron generates a gadget whenever you play a mech. That includes mechs that magnetize, so if you play Mimiron and attach Sparkbots to it, it’s going to spit out those gadgets.
You’re probably a bit familiar with these gadgets’ effects. They resemble the gizmos from Find the Imposter, Rogue’s questline from United in Stormwind. There are some differences though. A highlight gadget is Mimiron’s Coolant. If you manage to generate it, you can proceed to play more mechs in the Mimiron turn and snowball further. Mimiron’s Switch is an interesting gadget that can be utilized both offensively and defensively for a big potential swing.
So Mimiron is a solid value generator that is most likely to be played in a Mech Rogue deck, due to its high mech density. It has 5 health, so you can drop it on curve and force your opponent to deal with it, much like Hawkstrider Rancher is utilized. Alternatively, you save it for a later stage of the game, when you have more mana to go off in a ‘Miracle Rogue’ style. We also can’t completely rule Mimiron out from finding its way to other Rogue decks thanks to From the Scrapheap and Pit Stop.
Here’s a video of Mimiron doing its thing:
Reveal season is only at its beginning, but remember that we’ll be here at the end with a comprehensive preview of the entire TITANS set. There will also be your favorite theorycrafting article, with all kinds of decks from every class to try out, just before the expansion’s launch. It will be TITANIC.
So stay tuned for more, on this website, as we get ready for TITANS’ launch in August 1st.
Have a mech-tastic weekend,
The Vicious Syndicate team.