Tempo Thief Rogue Theorycraft Deck List – Rise of Shadows – April 2019

I’ll start by talking about the new cards that might make this archetype viable this time around. First one is Underbelly Fence – a 2 mana 2/3 that can turn into a Totem Golem with Rush instead of Overload. Crazy, right? Yes, it is indeed. The downside is that this effect will nearly never be active on Turn 2. Technically you CAN Preparation out Academic Espionage and draw a card from another class… but that’s a huge stretch. You could also run Pilfer, but it’s a bad card. If not for that downside, the card would be absolutely busted and could carry the archetype easily. But still, even assuming that the effect will be only active in the mid/late game, it’s still an amazing tempo card. 2 mana 3/4 with Rush can come handy even later in the game.

Another new card is Hench-Clan Burglar, which is the main fuel for your synergies. While Blink Fox is similar, the fact that Burglar a) Discovers and b) adds cards from another class and not your opponent’s class (which is big in the mirrors) makes it even better. It’s also a Pirate, so you can draw it with Raiding Party – a card that I suspect will be a backbone of every Tempo Rogue in the upcoming year (because let’s be honest – tutoring 3 cards for 3 mana is very powerful). While the stats are on the low side, it’s still worth it. You pay 1 mana extra for a card, synergy activation and a Pirate tag.

And finally, Vendetta. This card is absolutely busted in Thief Rogue. Given that holding a card from another class is not that difficult (except in Rogue mirrors, where it’s a bit harder, since only Burglar gives you those), you have a 0 mana 4 damage minion removal. Yes, I know that Wing Blast was overrated, but there are two reasons why this is better. First of all – 0 mana is SO MUCH better than 1 mana. I’ve played around with Wing Blast and it turned out that it wasn’t always easy to fit it in. E.g. when I was on 4 mana and played Flanking Strike to remove something and activate it, I could no longer play it. And second reason is that once it’s active, it will remain active until you play the card from another class from your hand, but you probably won’t do that before dropping this for 0 mana. It’s a great tempo tool and the reason why I’ve decided to cut Backstab – it might be a mistake, but we’ll see.

Other than that, the deck is mostly built upon the Pirate Tempo package. Raiding Party is a key card – with 7 Pirates and 2 weapons, your first one will almost always draw 3, while the second one might not draw you a weapon if you already have two copies (it will probably happen quite regularly), but it doesn’t matter that much. Southsea Deckhand act as a 1-drop, or a 2/1 with Charge later in the game (since you will have a weapon up most of the time in the mid/late game). Dread Corsair will ideally be a 0 mana 3/3 once you buff your weapon, but even without any buffs (with just your basic dagger), it’s a 3 mana 3/3 Taunt, so not great, but not the worst thing ever. Burglar I’ve already talked above. And Captain Greenskin acts like a solid body and a weapon buff in one.

Talking about weapons, one of the main reasons to play Thief package in a slower build is Spectral Cutlass. Will it work just as well in a Tempo version? Hard to say, but I sure hope it will. The idea is that you play it, buff it with Deadly Poison / Greenskin and then play some cards from another class to get extra durability. Let’s say that you get it to 5 Attack (one Poison and Greenskin). If you play against a slow deck, that will be A LOT of damage. Given the +1 Durability buff of Greenskin, if you just play 2 more cards from another class, that’s a 5/5 weapon, so if everything goes face, you can deal 25 damage to the opponent. While Lifesteal is not very useful vs slow decks, it will be amazing in faster matchups. It will let you keep board control with weapon while not running into a danger of killing yourself while doing it.

And finally, the ultimate refill – Myra's Unstable Element. The card is just great. While getting to fatigue is never pleasant, topdecking it after running out of steam is often going to win you the game. Drawing a full hand for just 5 mana means that you will have plays for the next few turns. If your opponent is low, it has a high chance of drawing cards you can use to close out the game – Southsea Deckhand, Eviscerate, Leeroy Jenkins. And the best thing is that this deck can also prevent fatigue quite easily. All you need to do is play Academic Espionage after Myra’s to shuffle 10 more cards into your deck. So instead of probably dying to fatigue after 4-5 turns, you will keep drawing potentially powerful cards. Of course, you might get a bunch of useless stuff, but you might also get a 1 mana Tirion Fordring or Archmage Antonidas.

I’m nearly sure that at least one Tempo Rogue variant will be a high tier meta deck, but it’s hard to say which one it will be yet. Maybe this one, maybe Heistbaron Togwaggle version with Lackeys, or maybe a Captain Hooktusk build. But even if it won’t be the #1 Tempo Rogue list, I believe that it has a lot of potential.