Concoctor
Before we discuss the specific card, we must talk about what Concoctions are. There are five different concoctions that you can generate, and they all cost 3 mana. Whenever two of them are added to your hand, they merge to become a 3-mana spell that has both effects combined. Two identical concoctions can still merge, and the spell would have the same effect doubled.
So, let’s look at the potential concoctions and evaluate them as if they cost half of a 3-mana card.
Bubbling Concoction: Good source of damage that can go face or remove a minion. A baseline 3-damage spell usually costs around 2 mana, so we get a small discount on it.
Dreadful Concoction: Deadly Shot. When it costs 3 mana, it’s not very good, but we get it at half the cost so it’s quite nice.
Gleaming Concoction: Arcane Intellect at half the cost. Insanely good, probably the best concoction available.
Hazy Concoction: The most volatile concoction. Can be absolutely insane if you get a 3-mana discount on an impactful card, but you can also randomly generate a cheap card that doesn’t fully benefit from the discount or something useless. Has synergy in both Thief Rogue and Miracle Rogue.
Slimy Concoction: Our rule of thumb is that summoning a random X-cost drop is usually worth X-1 mana, so Slimy Concoction is most certainly good. This is the one direct way to develop board with concoctions.
So overall, any combination of two concoctions is likely going to be very powerful. Rogue is going to highly value generating them since they’re stronger cards than the average constructed card.
Concoctor is a 1 mana 1/2 minion that generates a concoction, which is an absolute no brainer. It’s a value 1-drop in the class that likes them more than any other class, and that value is guaranteed to be very strong. When you compare it to similar cards such as Wand Thief and Pharoah Cat, both of which were cornerstone staples back in the day, it’s clearly stronger. Strong on turn 1. Strong with Shadowstep. Strong combo enabler. Strong in every way.
Score: 4
Ghostly Strike
This spell is very possibly going to be run in every single Rogue deck until it rotates out. Ghostly Strike could be stronger than Gone Fishin’ because the additional 1 damage for board control absolutely matters, though a deck like Miracle Rogue will likely run both. The ability to cycle so cheaply, on top of having some way to impact the board, increases the consistency of the entire Rogue class.
Score: 4
Rotten Rodent
Team 5 has made another attempt to make Deathrattle Rogue work, but this is not the card that the archetype needed. Deathrattle Rogue desperately needed stronger deathrattles that could be activated with Smokescreen and develop threats like Burning Blade Acolyte and Stoneborn General. This little rat doesn’t accomplish much in the grand scheme of things since Deathrattle Rogue doesn’t stack a curve of deathrattle minions. Even with an Incanter’s Flow, a dense curve of clunky and mediocre deathrattle minions is unlikely to get the job done.
Score: 1
Ghoulish Alchemist
As it turns out, we can avoid spending mana on casting concoctions because Rogue is receiving a better Foxy Fraud, one of the strongest Rogue cards in Hearthstone’s history, to work with them. Not only does Alchemist discount by 3 mana, but the concoction also doesn’t even need to be played on the same turn. This is an Anonymous Informant for concoctions in a class with Shadowstep. There is huge potential for mana manipulation here.
Score: 4
Potion Belt
As if random concoctions weren’t strong enough, our biggest source for concoctions allows us to discover them. You have an 84% chance of finding a single copy of a specific concoction, and a 36% chance of finding the same effect twice. So, you have a 36% chance of finding a 3-mana Sprint, for example.
What’s more is that Potion Belt by itself generates a complete concoction of your choice. You don’t need to find another concoction generator. You can play Potion Belt on 2 and have a concoction ready for turn 3. You can Prep Potion Belt for no mana cost. You can play the concoction for cheap too, with either Preparation or Alchemist. This is good Hearthstone stuff.
Score: 4
Noxious Inflitrator
Infiltrator basically offers a hard removal effect for Rogue, but it’s conditional on running an undead package. It is true that the concoction minions are undead, so Inflitrator theoretically goes into those decks and works well with Shadowstep. The problem is that Rogue has no need for a conditional hard removal of this kind, especially when it’s hard to control when it can activate. Thief Rogue is happy to generate random removal out of thin air while Miracle Rogue can’t play a reactive minion that’s so expensive. We don’t think this makes the cut anywhere.
Score: 1
Vile Apothecary
This could be the ‘weakest’ card in the concoction package, as it doesn’t provide you with an immediate concoction and is the most expensive of the concocting crew. A 3 mana 2/4 can be an underwhelming body. However, concoctions are so powerful that you really want to maximize the chances of finding them as early as possible, and Vile Apothecary does have its upsides.
While its ability isn’t immediate, it does persist through multiple turns, making it a threat that your opponent must remove, so it essentially has taunt. If it’s left alone, it can give you a complete concoction by itself. Rogue also lacks proactive turn 3 plays, and in slow matchups, this can be quite annoying to remove. So, we think this is still a card you want to run in every concoction deck.
Score: 4
Scourge Illusionist
This card is thought provoking. At first you think “Oh, this is a way to cheat out big deathrattles”. Sure, it can work that way. You play Sketchy Information, draw Illusionist, and get a discounted 4/4 version of a Flesh Behemoth.
But Illusionist might be a better card for small minions, ones whose initial body is smaller than a 4/4, because in that situation, Illusionist not only discounts them but also ‘buffs’ them. If you draw Illusionist off Sketchy Information and it copies a Naval Mine, you get a 0 mana 4/4 Naval Mine in your hand that you can immediately play this turn.
If the Illusionist copies Burning Blade Acolyte, you get a 1 mana 4/4 Burning Blade Acolyte! You quickly realize that Illusionist is simply an insanely good card in current Bomb Rogue and a boost in consistency for that archetype. Very good card and might give a chance for a bigger Deathrattle Rogue deck to appear too.
Score: 3
Shadow of Demise
Talk about a boost in consistency. Shadow of Demise can be any spell you want it to be. It can be the simplest cycle card such as Ghostly Strike to quickly churn through your deck. It can be a strong value card such as Contraband Stash. It can be additional burst damage by copying Wicked Stab. Most importantly and quite relevant for this set, it can be another concoction.
Basically, Shadow of Demise is a weaker version of Azshara’s Ring of Tides in a collectible card. But considering that to get Ring of Tides, you need to pay mana for spells to activate Azshara and then pay 5 mana for Azshara, it’s safe to say that Shadow of Demise has a cheaper opportunity cost. Insanely good card that goes into every Rogue deck we can think of.
Score: 4
Potionmaster Putricide
It will quickly dawn on you how insane this card is once you realize that Putricide triggers off any minion death, including enemy minions. So, you can play this for 2 mana, proceed to remove a minion or two, generate a concoction and force your opponent to deal with it or have every minion they develop potentially thrown into your pot of potion mixtures. Even on curve, this card represents an extremely dangerous threat at the level that possibly eclipses Hanar.
Putricide has the highest ceiling of any concoction generator, at times with no counterplay from the opponent whatsoever. You can use it for a turn, Shadowstep it, play it for 0-mana alongside Crabatoa and generate an obscene number of concoctions. It is extremely powerful in Thief Rogue because it is likely to generate AOE effects that can be utilized with it, or in Miracle Rogue due to its highly efficient and cheap removal combined with mana manipulation, such as Serrated Bone Spike.
The crown jewel of arguably the most powerful package of this set.
Score: 4
Final Thoughts
March of the Lich King Set Rank: 2nd
Overall Power Ranking: 2nd
The popularity and success of Rogue towards the end of Castle Nathria might imply that the class didn’t need much help. A looming rotation around the corner and an erratic couple of sets this year meant that long term, Rogue needed a good March of the Lich King set to help bridge it into April without falling off a cliff. Shaman was in a similar position last year and got their incredible set in Alterac Valley. Rogue’s MLK is comparable.
Concoctions are just everything that Rogue wants to do, both in complementing its strategies as well as providing a perfect flavor to the class. They present powerful discounted effects that make for a well-rounded assortment of tools. There’s card draw, card generation, damage, board development and removal. While Rogue generates these randomly, it also has the option to discover a specific combination to its liking with Potion Belt, which is arguably the best card in the package.
What’s more is that these concoctions are not tied to weak cards as a “penalty”. These concoctions are tied to decent bodies. A 2 mana 1/4 legendary that must be killed or gets out of control gives us vibes of Hanar. You can play Concoctions for free thanks to having their own version of Anonymous Informant, or for 1 mana with Preparation. You can replay a Concoction with Shadow of Demise. You can spend very little mana casting cards that are already very generously costed.
So, what do we do with Concoctions? We play them in everything we can fit them into! Both Miracle and Thief Rogue are currently running underwhelming draw options such as Shroud of Concealment, Double Cross, and Sprint. The Concoction package should outperform these options, offering card advantage and draw on top of other effects that synergize with their game plan.
Miracle Rogue looks delicious with Concoctions since it can abuse them along with Ghoulish Alchemist and Shadowstep to fuel a big Sinstone Graveyard or Draka turn, much like it currently does with Mailbox Dancers. Thief Rogue has synergy with Hazy Concoction specifically but is generally happy to run strong value cards.
There’s more to Rogue with Scourge Illusionist too, giving Deathrattle Rogues a further boost. Bomb Rogue’s deathrattle package is looking increasingly consistent with its addition, and there could be higher curved Deathrattle decks attempting to compete too.
Valeera is looking hot. As hot as a smoking concoction.
