The Comprehensive Rise of Shadows Preview

Daring Escape

This card would be amazing in Quest Rogue. Is Wild format about to the feel the pain from this deck for the very first time? In other Rogue decks, it’s hard to see a good use for Daring Escape, as it will usually be a weak Shadowstep. It’s almost like Team 5 wanted to give us one last Quest Rogue spook as the archetype rotates to Wild.

Score: 1

Evil Miscreant

Lackeys are very powerful, especially in Rogue. 1-mana cards fuel this class’ combo plays and Heistbaron Togwaggle needs his Lackey to activate. Considering that Fire Fly is gone, and Miscreant has a reasonable statline for a value 3-drop, this card is a no-brainer inclusion for any Rogue deck that runs Heistbaron Togwaggle. We suspect that most of them will.

Score: 4

Hench-Clan Burglar

4 mana 4/3 with a draw effect is pretty good. Casting spells in Rogue is pretty good. The pirate tag is pretty good when taking Raiding Party as well as Captain Hooktusk to consideration. It’s very likely that Hench-Clan Burglar will find itself in every Rogue deck just for that reason. Playable pirates are hard to come by, and this is a strong one.

Score: 3

Togwaggle’s Scheme

Gang Up that costs 1 less mana and has a potentially unlimited ceiling. It’s important to remember that shuffling cards doesn’t give you card advantage, so we need a good reason to run Togwaggle’s Scheme. Do we have a good reason? There are several Rogue archetypes that might be interested in a 1 mana card that can almost automatically beat late game strategies by itself. We think it’s likely that Togwaggle’s Scheme becomes a meta dependent card on ladder. We also think Togwaggle’s Scheme will be a meta-defining, perhaps even an oppressive card in Specialist format. And yes, there are certain things it can do that Lab Recruiter just cannot (5 Leeroys in one turn, anyone? How about 6 Togwaggles in one turn?).

Score: 2

Underbelly Fence

This is a very powerful card, though it isn’t as crazy as it looks. With the current card pool, we cannot realistically activate it on curve unless we play Pilfer, and we really don’t want to play Pilfer. Even so, having a rushing Totem Golem in the mid-game is strong and may help Burger Rogue survive better. Burgle may have long rotated to Wild, but the Burger will remain with us forever. Is it finally time for the thieving archetype to step out of meme territory? For now, this is a very strong card in what has historically been a very weak archetype.

Score: 3

Vendetta

Yet another powerful card, adding another juicy and tempting steak to the Burger. Do we bite this time? This card might be so strong that it pushes other Rogue archetypes to run a modest Burger package, but it will be difficult to do so with the class card quality being so high. Blink Fox or Hench-Clan Burglar into a 4 damage 0 mana swing turn is pretty nuts.

Score: 3

Waggle Pick

A 4-mana weapon with a built in Shadowstep. We’ll be frank, we’re not too concerned with the ability, as there are scenarios in which it can be very strong (Leeroy, Edwin, Miscreant), and scenarios in which it might interfere with the flow of our board development. What’s most important is that it’s a high value weapon that can be drawn off Raiding Party, and it’s better than running Necrium Blade without synergies or Serrated Tooth. It gives us 0 mana Dread Corsairs on curve and synergizes with Deadly Poison and Captain Greeskin. This is potentially a lot of damage, so we’re confident that this will become the weapon of choice for Myracle Rogue running Raiding Party.

Score: 3

Unidentified Contract

Rogue generally wants to play cheap spells, and an expensive spell needs a very good reason to see play. We don’t think this card can be justified in a Rogue deck considering there are cheaper and stronger removal options available with Sap and Walk the Plank. Perhaps this card would be relevant in another class, but we highly question its chances of seeing play in Valeera’s hands.

Score: 1

Heistbaron Togwaggle

This could well be the strongest late game card in the set. Heistbaron Togwaggle is just absurd. Being able to always pick the treasure you want makes it so consistent and allows Rogue to be flexible in its game plan. The fact that treasures can be cheated out with Preparation adds more gasoline to the fire of hype and concern the card already generates. Heistbaron Togwaggle allows Rogue to blow out faster decks with Zarok’s Crown and overwhelm slower decks with either an onslaught of threats or an onslaught of damage, and this can be done relatively easily through potentially different archetypes. This is the card that could get Preparation nerfed in May.

Score: 4

Tak Nozwhisker

This card has a cool effect, but it’s a little too expensive. Realistically we’re looking at a turn 10 play in which we play this, a Pogo Hopper and Togwaggle’s Scheme. Another option is to play Tak alongside Preparation and Academic Espionage. These combos are just too slow to realistically be successful in a class that needs to get going early since it lacks defensive tools. Seems fun, but not very strong. Where this card might be most relevant is that it’s a good body to discover from Zarok’s Crown (you’re more likely to get a Rogue legendary as an option to summon, and Rogue legendary minions tend to be small), so it improves the average outcome from this treasure.

Score: 1


Final Thoughts

Year of the Raven Sets Rank: 1st

Rise of Shadows Set Rank: 4th

Overall Power Ranking: 1st

Rogue got a good mix of dreams and memes. It has also likely received the best late game card from this set in Heistbaron Togwaggle. With the best Year of the Raven sets in its hands, and meta defining cards such as Captain Hooktusk, Raiding Party and Myra’s Unstable Element, Valeera looks to dominate the Hearthstone meta once again, starting the race for the top in pole position. Burger or no Burger, Rogue will be good.

 

 

16 Comments

  1. How long do we have to wait before we can make fun of them for whiffing on all the Bomb/Mech/Alysiana cards?

  2. I have a few disagreements
    – Jepetto is completely overhyped and I’m surprised you too fell for it. Everybody seems to forget that one must draw AND PLAY Jepetto BEFORE drawing the minions required for an OTK, otherwise it just falls flat. Tog’s Schema can make Jepetto more consistent. You can cast Tog Scheme on Malygos and then draw two 1-mana Malygoses with Jepetto, which sounds good in theory but is actually worse than Kobold Illusionist + Necrium stuff (not to mention Rogue loses the petals…). If 2018 Maly Rogue wasn’t competitive, 2019 Jepetto Maly Rogue won’t be either.

    – Implock is bad, but imo not totally unplayable. It could fill Odd Paladin’s niche as the hyperswarmy deck. It won’t break the meta but can carve a spot into tier 3 imo.

    – Fiery War Axe and Totem Golem are good cards, but they require you to play a Secret on turn 1…but a true aggro deck want to play a minion on turn 1, not a defensive card! Totem Golem is bused when it follows a Tunnel Trogg, not so much when it follows a Never Surrender. Also, Paladin has no way to refill its hand.

    Besides that, I agree with most of your analysis. Very nice job, and very funny to read too. I too would like to marry Waifu Innkeeper 🙂

  3. Yeah you are pulling a caverns below reveal with the Portal demons, a.k.a massively understimating them

  4. Always fun to see predictions that turn out really bad. There is some lack of vision on some of this predictions but overall they seem spot on

  5. “Barista Lynchen” seems like a great card. Until you watch her reveal video. She actually copies “other battlecry minions you control”. So you need to have minion survive for this to be relevant, so fuck this, this seems 2 at best mostly for the steampunk espresso machine.

    Another one is “Exotic Mountseller”. Compare it to auctioneer, for instance. Greedy goblin friend provides card advantage to win the game. This provides board advantage (for 1 more mana and 5 more stats). Violet teacher is reasonable comparisson, but board of 1/1s does not win games without buffs. Board of 3/3 (on average) just might. It is at least 2 for me in the right class and deck, maybe even 3.

  6. Kudos on a fantastic piece of work! I particularly like the fact that you prepared it without previously having seen other set reviews. I’ve seen several, now, and value your unique perspective. It’s thorough and thoughtful, and I appreciate your focus on each card’s relevancy with respect to ladder-play, as opposed to stream & meme or pro-tournaments. Much appreciated!

  7. I really like the choice y’all made to do ratings out of 4, and how you’re very straightforward with your reasoning/explanations. Definitely the best comprehensive set review I’ve seen.
    I’m skeptical as to whether Waggle Pick really is better than Necrium Blade (even without synergies) in a Raiding Party deck. If you play Pick + Corsair on 4 and attack, then when you attack the next turn and return Corsair to your hand, you lose all the tempo you got playing it for free last turn. I think the deathrattle is really bad when it hits most of that deck and you’d rather just play a 3 mana 3/2 weapon that doesn’t mess up your gameplan. Now if the best Rogue deck winds up being a Lackey/Heistbaron Toggwaggle deck that just runs Raiding Party for consistency/thinning, then maybe you have enough targets that don’t make you sad for this to be better.
    Can’t wait to see what you have to say as we get into the upcoming meta. Cheers

  8. Thank you for all the hard work you put into your content guys! I haven’t played hearthstone competetively for a few months now, but I still enjoy everything you put out, it always gets me hyped to try new things in the game

  9. Plot twist can enable a mechathun otk but it doesnt seem like there will be enough good controlock cards until future expansions.

    Evil genius might be underrated. 2 mana add two random lackeys to your hand seems good so as long as you hit a 2/2 (maybe even a 2/3) or worse it might be worth it.

    Darkest hour might be for a wild deck with voidcaller, lackey, and eggs? Maybe they’re trying to push a deck with spells that summon small minions like scheme (lol) to sac and recruit the big ones from your deck?

  10. Will you do a pre-release poll? It’s a nice tradition, and it would be a shame to have it stopped.

  11. Man this article is a dream come true coming from you guys. And excellent read, I can’t wait for the next article! I certainly hope this become tradition, because this is some seriously quality content!

  12. Archivist can counter bombs, probably a decent pick in specialist alternative decks.

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