The Comprehensive Across the Timeways Preview

 

Fast Forward

Drawing 2 cards for 4 mana sounds rough at first, but we get to discount one of the cards by 2 mana, making Fast Forward cost a net 2 mana.

But it is a bit better than that. Banking a discount can be more powerful than simply drawing 2 cards for 2 mana. Since we have a choice on which card to discount, we can use it to cheat a card early or set up a combo we would otherwise find difficult to execute. Alternatively, we can discount a 2 mana card and play it on the turn we play Fast Forward, making up for the initial 4 mana investment.

This spell is flexible and can be strong in a variety of decks. Rogue decks with a cheap curve will want it because it allows them to consistently discount cards to 0 mana. High curve decks such as Fyrakk Rogue can use it to scam opponents harder on turn 5. We found it impossible to pass on this card in any Rogue theorycraft for the next expansion, so we believe it will become a class staple going forward.

Score: 4

Troubled Double

We would never play this minion in a normal constructed deck. While Troubled Double offers a soft guarantee of 6 damage for 4 mana, the combo requirement makes it painful to play on curve. We are not sure this is a better card than Saronite Chain Gang, which makes it a deal-breaker.

This minion does have a powerful interaction with Shaffar and can be tripled with Lucky Comet, much like Bargain Bin Buccaneer. Even though Shaffar has been nerfed, we wonder whether a couple, even three 6/6’s with stealth can represent a serious win condition for the currently dead archetype.

Worth exploring, but otherwise completely homeless.

Score: 1

Dethrone

This spell is only remotely playable with Preparation, and even then, it is not something we want to play on turn 5. Rogue already has better tools to cheat out large threats in the mid-game, while Dubious Purchase sits on the same niche and looks superior every way. When we want to remove an enemy minion from play, we would prefer to do it for a lower cost. The counter-development of a large threat sounds nice in theory but lowers our flexibility.

We would prefer to spend 2 mana on Prep/Purchase and then have 3 mana left over, than commit 5 mana for Dethrone, especially when we might need the extra mana to control the outcome of the effect by clearing smaller bodies.

The 8-cost minion pool is not even that amazing. About half of the pool can be considered undersized and/or lacking immediate impact. Pass.

Score: 1

Deja Vu

A 1 mana discover effect that pays for itself via a 1 mana discount on the card we find. There are two things that make this card amazing. The first is that it is a value turn 1 play in Rogue, a cheap combo enabler that can potentially allow us to cheat out a powerful card or contest opponents in the late game by copying a high value card. This is the card’s main attraction at every stage of the game and why we want to put it in our decks.

The other upside of the card is that it allows us to see a large portion of the opponent’s hand, as we are presented with three of the cards in their hand. On turn 1, that is basically their whole hand. We can even take a copy of their coin if we are on the play.

Information tends to be an overrated advantage of cards. But in the case of Deja vu, it is incredibly cheap and can be played on the first turn of the game to provide the greatest amount of information possible relative to what the opponent knows about their own resources. Playing Deja vu in the late game at the start of the turn may also help us make better decisions with the rest of our mana. For that reason, it is far superior to Madame Lazul.

We have no doubt that nearly every Rogue deck will play this card, regardless of its synergy demands. 16 months in competitive decks, guaranteed.

Score: 4

Flashback

Our rule of thumb is that summoned random minions are worth less than minions we intentionally put in our decks, so a baseline Flashback is a weak card for 2 mana, as we summon two random 1-drops, which have a massive potential pool. The upside of Flashback is an attack buff on each minion, which should improve the average outcome, as we are adding a mana’s worth of stat points on paper.

However, we are buffing the attack value rather than the health of the minions, which does not change how vulnerable they might be to removal. For this card to see play, we need to play an aggressive deck that looks to frontload power as much as possible, utilizing this spell in combination with Preparation to develop threatening early bodies for no mana cost and outpace the opposition.

Otherwise, it will be a difficult spell to justify in slower Rogue decks. We do not see an aggressive Rogue deck emerging anytime soon. Even then, it may decide on cards that are stronger by themselves and not conditional on finding Preparation.

Score: 1

Chrono Daggers

6 damage for 3 mana is not a bad deal. This spell is both a board control tool and can be used to nuke the opponent’s face, as multiple knives can hit the same target. The Rewind ability provides some added consistency to hitting the desired targets, though we cannot rely on it.

We do not think Chrono Daggers can be counted on as a reliable AOE or a card we put in every Rogue deck. Its greatest synergy comes with spell damage (+1 SD turns it into 9 damage), and its greatest use will be as a nuke, when the opponent’s board is empty. It would have been a great card to run in Cycle Rogue during The Great Dark Beyond, when it was centered on Ethereal Oracle.

Currently, Rogue does not utilize spell damage as a core identity to its strategies. Our expectation for this expansion is that this will not drastically change. However, if a minion-light Rogue deck appears that wants to tutor pieces with Dig for Treasure, there will be a need to fill that deck with a higher number of spells. Chrono Dagger is a playable spell that can help the Rogue fend off early aggression while remaining useful in the late game.

Score: 2

Shapeshifter

Priest was given a legendary with this effect in the Witchwood expansion. Chameleos could transform into any type of card in the opponent’s hand. It was completely and utterly unplayable. Shapeshifter is not a legendary and can only transform into minions in the opponent’s hand.

Regardless of the small possible upgrade, we expect this card to be just as unplayable. We have no control over what Shapeshifter transforms into and no way to plan for it. Chameleos was the original legendary that taught us not to overrate “hand information” cards.

If we are looking to yoink cards from the opponent’s hand, Deja vu does a far better job at it, while also providing better information. The idea that we would keep Shapeshifter in hand and use it to shuffle an opponent’s minion into their deck with Shadowcloaked Assailant is pure fantasy and elite coping. Never happening in a competitive Rogue deck, surely.

Score: 1

Royal Informant

Half disruption, half value. Informant gives us the option to either copy the opponent’s right-most card or increase its cost by 2. Increasing a card’s cost will often be akin to discarding it from hand, as it will become exceptionally weak with a 2 mana ‘nerf’.

In addition, Informant can be considered a value 3-drop, which might make it a decent enough fit for Fyrakk Rogue, as it values 3 mana cards to play alongside the first Sandbox Scoundrel on turn 5. Admittedly, there might not be much space for this luxury.

Score: 2

Garona Halforcen

Garona’s fabled package is unique, as one of the cards ends up jumping into the opponent’s deck, leaving us with 29 cards to play with and two fabled cards.

King Llane is completely dead weight, pun intended. Ignoring its effect with Garona, it is a card the opponent will never want to draw and, most importantly, never want to play. Spending 3 mana to “trade” it back into the deck is backbreaking at every stage of the game. It is akin to drawing the old maid.

The Kingslayers is a Fiery War Axe that draws two legendary cards for each player, one for every swing. This is a symmetrical effect, but one that makes it a bit more likely that the opponent will draw King Llane.

Garona is a 4 mana 5/4, therefore unplayable at its baseline. But if we play her when Llane is in the opponent’s hand, the King is destroyed, and the opponent’s hero loses half their health.

We think this fabled package is completely unreliable if we intend it to be a “finisher”. We are required to hold Garona until Llane is “likely” drawn by the opponent. Even if we guess right by luck or through “information” cards, Garona does not even win us the game. She can deal a lot of damage, but she does not win. Add the possibility that we might have had Garona sitting in our hand and acting completely useless for a long period of time, and if we ever play her at the wrong time, it was all for nothing.

The fact we have 29 cards in our deck while our opponent has 31, with a bad old maid draw, should have minimal impact on the average Hearthstone game. For that pleasure, we put a 4 mana 5/4 into our deck as well as a weapon that might help the opponent more than hurt it by drawing them their legendary cards. This package seems unnecessary.

Score: 1

Time Adm’ral Hooktail

This is a 5 mana 4/6 with no immediate impact on the board and requires us to sink 8 damage into a treasure that gives us coins. Why would we do this? Rogue has enough ways to power spike in the mid game. It has better ways to generate coins, which do not require playing a 5 mana 4/6, while impacting the board in the early game (Metal Detector, ‘Oh, Manager!’).

We have a better idea. If we have 8 damage to sink into a treasure chest, we suggest sinking that damage into the opponent’s face. That is probably more likely to win us a Hearthstone game. Hooktail looks like a complete waste of time.

Score: 1

Final Thoughts

Across the Timeways Set Rank: 7^th

Overall Power Ranking: 2^nd

This Rogue set can be considered underwhelming, with many cards that we believe will prove to be a waste of time. However, this should not be a massive setback for the class. It will not be skipping an expansion. In fact, it is expected to evolve and get significantly stronger in a vacuum.

This is because the best Rogue card in the set is a neutral, Chrono-Lord Deios. This one card, alongside a couple of extremely useful class cards (Deja Vu, Fast Forward), is enough for us to consider Rogue as one of the most influential classes of Across the Timeways.

The reason is that Deios’ combo with Sandbox Scoundrel and Incindius, represents a flex tape win condition that can be inserted into any late game-oriented Rogue deck. It gives Fyrakk Rogue a massive boost in its late game lethality, turning it into a strategy that is increasingly difficult to outlast. It makes Protoss Rogue’s late game scarier.

Of course, there is the prospect that Deios births an entirely new Incindius Rogue deck, one that looks to run a curated minion package with Sonya/Scoundrel/Deios/Incindius and execute a 100 damage Incindius combo as quickly as possible.

The prospect of Rogue’s increasingly scary late game is slightly tempered by the possibility it will get its face kicked in by a new generation of aggressive decks. Fyrakk Rogue, for example, is an extremely greedy deck that has gone unpunished because of a low play rate of aggressive decks throughout Un’Goro. Should these decks surge in play and become faster, the archetype could be forced to cut some of the greed and play more defensively. An Incindius Rogue should be even more vulnerable to aggression and does not have the capability to adjust much.

Therefore, Rogue is expected to thrive if the format does not produce a significantly higher share of aggressive decks. Considering the reluctance of players to queue aggressive decks unless they are obscenely powerful, Valeera likes those odds.