Rogues got a pretty good couple of years. They had reasonably viable tempo, aggro and combo decks with a wide spread of playstyles. From Quest and Miracle to Odd and Tempo, there’s been plenty of options. But how does the future look for one of Hearthstone’s trickiest classes? Will Rogues survive the card rotation?
Un’goro was all about Quests, and no Quest compares to what Rogue got. The Rogue Quest is the only card in Hearthstone’s post-beta history to be nerfed not once, but twice. Each time the Quest was proclaimed dead, but each time it rose again. There’s not much that can be said about Quest Rogue that hasn’t been said already, but the archetype finally leaving standard for good will undoubtedly save the deck from the inevitable third nerf.
Meanwhile, Rogue got a whole bunch of versatile tools in Un’goro outside of the Quest. Alongside some interesting Malygos enablers in Razorpetal Volley and Lasher, Rogue got arguably the most efficient midrange minion in the game: Vilespine Slayer. Without Vilespine Slayer, Rogue removal will be that much less dominating (especially for the ever-present Odd archetype that cannot utilise the likes of Walk the Plank).
It’s also worth mentioning the powerful neutrals that especially benefit Rogue, like Fire Fly and Tar Creeper. Although I doubt many people will miss Vicious Fledgling’s RNG-based snowball.
Rogue didn’t get the best of Frozen Throne
Knights of the Frozen Throne gave almost every class massive power spikes. For Rogue, this didn’t come from their class cards. Half of these cards are barely even worth remembering. Does anyone remember the cost, effect and statline of Runeforge Haunter or Bone Baron? Unlikely, unless you’re a big fan of Arena. There were a couple of niche tools; Doomerang was a core piece of later Kingsbane Rogue, and Valeera was a versatile anti-control tool in a variety of decks. But besides that, the true power came from the Neutrals.
Prince Keleseth was a massively impactful tool in certain Rogue decks, with its perfect synergy with cards like Shadowstep. Pre-nerf Bonemare and the Lich King also were extremely useful in Rogue. However, with the rise of Odd, its unlikely that Keleseth’s rotation will be the end of the world for aggressive Rogues.
Elven Minstrel was a key component in all sorts of Rogue decks
Rogue got a ton of tools in Kobolds for almost all of its archetypes. It got the eponymous card of Kingsbane Rogue, Sonya for Quest, Fal’dorei Strider for Miracle, the neutral Dire Mole for the later Odd Rogue and Elven Minstrel for virtually all archetypes.
Although Kingsbane was largely buried by the Leeching poison change, the loss of Strider and Minstrel will be a really big deal. As two solid mid-range value-focused 4 drops, it’ll be harder for Rogues not to run out of gas. Hopefully Rogue gets more options to give it a reason to play Miracle rather than simply SMOrcing with Odd Rogue.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via hearthstone.gamepedia.com.
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