Feature Dodgers - Rogue by Mike Rosenberg

Warriors, Mages, Blizzards, Guardian's Plate Bracers, Death Wishes, Blizzards, occasionally Mortal Strikes, Blizzards, Greaves of Ancient Evil, Blizzards, Kel'thuzads, Blizzards, Vindicator's Brands, Blizzards, Blizzards, Blizzards.

That's a pretty apt description, I feel, of what most players thought the World Championship was going to look like. Maybe I'm overemphasizing Blizzard, and should be emphasizing Eye of the Storm instead (I frankly find playing with and against that card to be more annoying than most Mage cards). However, most players expected to see lots of Mage and Warrior, and in retaliation to this, a lot of pro players showed up with...Gyro of the Ring and Zorak'tul, among other potential Rogue heroes.

Rogue, huh? Why Rogue? Wouldn't it be better to simply play Mage and know how to navigate other Mages and Warriors? For some players, that didn't appeal to them. They instead chose a different class, and for some, their deck choice rewarded them with entry into Saturday's draft portion. While the Rogue evaded the 7-1 bracket, there were a number of interesting strategies involving the leather-wearing class, with different teams going in very different directions.

Two of these Rogue strategies received deck features during the Friday coverage. Both worked very differently from each other, with Andy Hoang sporting a Combat Rogue deck with a small ally suite and Boots of Utter Darkness. The other deck, Zorks with Zorak'tul, was piloted by Chris “Jedion” Reilkoff and two other members of Team East Coast.

First up is Andy Hoang's Combat Rogue deck: Will did a feature on it already, which you can read here. The deck list is below, courtesy of Andy who posted this in the comments of his deck feature:

Hero: Ressa Shadeshine

Allies: 13
3 Lowdown Luppo Shadefizzle
3 Mikael the Blunt
4 Angelista
3 Marundal the Kindred


Abilities: 11
4 Surprise Attacks
4 Purloin
3 Sinister Strike


Equipment: 20
2 Eye of Rend
3 Retainer's Blade
4 Dagger of Betrayal
3 Black Amnesty
4 Sinister Revenge
4 Boots of Utter Darkness


Quests: 16
4 Junkboxes Needed
4 Concerted Efforts
4 One Draenei's Junk
4 Corki's Ransom

Side Deck: 10
4 Pick Pocket
3 Boundless Agony
3 Yoink!

The idea is pretty sound: Attack the opponent from the primary angle (your hero) with a few twists. The Boots/Luppo combo can be an absolute fit for some decks, such as Ringleader Kuma. The Boots also serve an important role in allowing Andy's hero to gain stealth, making protectors a moot-point when it comes to attacking the opposing hero. 
 

The real unique combo in this deck is Angelista with Dagger of Betrayal. The dagger is already a solid piece of weaponry, with the same efficient stats as most other Rogue weapons. The dagger's effect is also a cheap way to gain control of opposing allies. The balancing factor to this is that your opponent gets the Dagger of Betrayal, allowing them to gain a weapon to attack with or a way to get their ally back. Angelista, however, takes the weapon and turns it into one of the most efficient methods of destroying opposing ally decks. Each turn, you'll gain control of an opposing ally, and then you will get your dagger back at the end of your turn when Angelista returns it to your hand!

The Angelista/Dagger combo is obviously a great way to deal with troublesome mid-range allies such as Weldon Barov and Dethvir the Malignant, and can help nullify the strengths of cards like Feral Spirit. For cards like Nathanos Blightcaller, Andy has Marundal the Kindred to help keep the token-generator at bay (it's also insane against Ringleader Kuma in general).

Angelista offers some great leeway in the deck-building phase should you want to play this at an event. If you want to hate on opposing solo strategies, Angelista with Blackout Truncheon can serve as a way to keep your opponent completely locked down until they draw an answer to the 2-cost ally. She can also return your daggers to your hand, which has some sick synergy with two Sinister Revenges (you can keep returning the smallest one and replaying it in order to get your daggers to be really huge). The latter would work excellently if you expect your hero to be locked down a lot, as you can then run something like Sinister Strike to take out your opponent once you get your daggers big enough to threaten a lethal burn ability.

Andy Hoang finished 5-3 for the day, getting him into Saturday's drafts. The deck concept is very interesting, and there's a lot of room for growth.

The other deck, which earned itself a deck feature from myself when I saw the hero choice in round 1, was Zorak'tul. You can find the original article here. For reference, here is the list as posted on Cryptozoic's coverage:

Hero: Zorak'tul

Master Hero: 2
2 Kel'thuzad

Allies: 17
4 Swift Raptor
4 Broderick Langforth
3 Vuz'din
3 Lord Jorach Ravenholdt
3 Zalan Ragewind

Abilities: 17
4 Purloin
4 Tuskarr Kite
4 Deadliness
3 Carnage
2 Victimize

Equipment: 10
4 Boots of Utter Darknes
3 Blackout Truncheon
3 Band of Vile Aggression

Locations: 3
3 Eye of the Storm

Quests: 11
4 Junkboxes Needed
4 Darkness Calling
3 Rise and Be Recognized

Side Deck: 10
4 Enveloping Shadows
3 Detect Traps
1 Vuz'din
1 Carnage
1 Band of Vile Aggression

Unfortunately, while the core version of this deck fared very well for him at the North American Continental Championship this year, it did not serve him as well at Worlds. Chris finished 4-4 for the day, getting some money for his troubles but being unable to play in the Saturday drafts. His big complaint with the deck as is? There's no real way to defeat the opposing hero.

This take on the Rogue features tons of powerful hate cards, but outside of Kel'thuzad, it has very few ways to efficiently beat the opponent without taking a ridiculous number of turns. These problems can be identified in a few cards: Band of Vile Aggression, for example, is an excellent threat against control, but it leaves few resources available in which which to actually kill the opponent. Kel'thuzad is similar in that, while it can end the game quickly against ally decks, the master hero does not add anything interesting or fast in terms of defeating decks without allies. This was emphasized when I asked how one of his opponents did in an earlier round: He stated that he won game one, and he ended up winning the match because this deck couldn't actually finish the game even though Chris was clearly ahead throughout most of game two. 
 

What does this mean for Zorks? Can it be tweaked in the Classic Constructed format? Possibly. I feel that this strategy is best suited for the Core Constructed format, where being ahead can typically mean you just win the game. Locking down Mages with Band of Vile Aggression and Vuz'din is really all you need to do in order to win there, as your hero will have less damage on it than the theirs. However, in the Classic format, one win on their part makes the match harder to win at all, since this deck doesn't have a lot of solid ways to stave off damage early on, forgoing that in order to have early disruption instead. It makes winning on time very difficult, and it's an absolute nightmare to win the match if you lost the first game in the best two-out-of-three format.

Will this archetype see more play? I'd bet on it, especially in Core. However, I wouldn't be surprised if this event damaged the deck's shot of seeing play in Classic Constructed. It would require heavy modifications to work under the Classic format's best two-out-of-three game-play.
 

The one Rogue deck that managed to evade deck features from Friday was the RIW Hobbies Gyro of the Ring deck, piloted by many of the store's players including WoW TCG writer and pro Phil Cape and Magic: The Gathering pro Ari Lax. Their deck used a combination of strategies from the two previous Rogues, featuring the disruption in Zorks alongside the Angelista/Dagger combo. It also sports the same problems as the previous two decks, lacking a solid win condition and having to rely on actually finishing off the opposing hero over the course of many turns. While Ari squeaked into Saturday's drafts with his 64^th place finish at 4-4, Phil was not as fortunate. 
 

The Rogue has plenty of sweet tools at its disposal, and while it did not get anyone any solid finishes on Friday, it can be consistent with its disruption. The class is really good, and has access to one of the best class quests with Junkboxes Needed. It will most definitely be a common sight for tournament play, especially in the Core Constructed format as March of the Legion block leaves the format later in the year. 
 

Check back Friday for a breather from constructed Worlds talk. Some of the stories to come out of the draft portion on Saturday were ridiculous. I'll go into what players favored going into an already-featured draft format, along with some insane tales of bombs and multiple Dark Penances!