For a game as tempo-focused as Hearthstone, it’s interesting how Rush hasn’t yet had a serious impact on the metagame. While a few utility cards with the keyword are featured in decks that don’t otherwise take advantage of its tempo-friendly attributes, the more aggressive kind of Rush-based archetypes we’ve originally envisioned are still waiting to materialize. This is partly due to a hostile metagame plus a surprisingly small and oddly distributed pool of Rush cards – nothing that can’t be fixed in the future but a bad sign for the rest of the Year of the Raven in this particular department.
Defend Gilneas
Rush wasn’t really a new mechanic at all despite what The Witchwood’s announcement said. Much like Poisonous, it was already present in the game before it was turned into its own keyword and it merely marked a conscious step away from the often meta-warping properties of a certain other mechanic. Rush is essentially a neutered Charge after all: the pure tempo alternative to a keyword that would regularly get out of hand, allowing for an edge in the battle for board control without providing the opportunity to completely fall away from it and go straight for the face.
It’s a part of an ongoing process by Team 5 as they slowly nerf the problematic Charge cards over and over again, hardly printing any of them whatsoever – the current Standard rotation only features Chillblade Champion and Charged Devilsaur (which essentially has Rush with some summon-specific shenanigans) that are from the newer sets – and cards like, well, Charge were also adjusted over time to a Rush effect to take away even more deckbuilding options of this kind. The main issue with Charge as a keyword isn’t its capability in aggressive decks: it mostly functions as minion-based burn there and the only real risk is to provide way too many such tools to a specific class at a given time – their usefulness as combo finishers from hand is the main reason why the mechanic has been reined in so heavily.
The whole “fun and interactive” thing stems from Leeroy Jenkins’ old 26-damage combo from hand – almost a guaranteed OTK back in the day where obscene Armor gain was not a viable option for multiple classes –: be it buffs, bounce effects or other tools, Charge cards almost always found a way to enable finicky finishers with limited interactivity from the opponents’ side. Rush would remove this capability without affecting the cards’ strength as tempo tools – or so we’ve thought.
A Rushed Job
It’s not like the mechanic is hopeless; however, the perfect storm of a hostile metagame and odd decisions about its inclusion in the card pool has led to very limited play on their part so far. Apart from Warrior’s dedicated synergy cards, the rest of the class-specific Rush minions from The Witchwood are meekly sprinkled around the place. It only gave a single minion of its kind to Paladin, Warlock, Rogue and Druid – with Priest, Shaman and Mage missing out on the fun entirely, mostly focusing on Garrosh and Rexxar.
Hunter also only got two Rush cards in the set – Houndmaster Shaw notwithstanding – in the form of Hunting Mastiff and Vilebrood Skitterer, neither of which see play. The class would only receive Goblin Prank in The Boomsday Project featuring the keyword, a continuation of the aforementioned trend as three other classes also only picked up a single Rush tool with Warrior once again being the exception. This makes it fairly difficult to build any sort of a dedicated tempo deck with these cards in mind unless you play that one particular class – which happens to be the one with the worst possible hero power for such a strategy.
The neutral Rush cards from the set are also almost all conditional: two of them feature the Worgen stat-swapping mechanic that renders them useless in Constructed while Scaleworm requires a dedicated deck for a limited upside. Muck Hunter is nothing more than the world’s worst Leeroy Jenkins. Vicious Scalehide is, of course, the notable exception thanks to its presence in Quest Rogue, but even that card fails to see any play elsewhere as its normal stats are nowhere near good enough to justify its inclusion. The Boomsday Project also doesn’t help with this issue as the neutral Rush cards in the set are all understatted Mechs, once again limiting their use as a tempo tool. Zilliax is the only one that sees play and it’s evidently not a part of aggressive strategies.
One for the future?
To be fair, it isn’t just Rush cards that struggle in this role: dedicated tempo decks in general are hard to come by nowadays thanks to the very strong stall and control tools available in the game right now. Between holding off Zoo and Odd Rogue at the start and chewing through the piles of armor available to Odd Warrior or Druid, any strategy that revolves around throwing away card advantage to gain board control is tenuous to say the least. Unfortunately, this is an issue that likely won’t be fixed until the Death Knights’ eventual rotation.
It’s also incredibly hard to peg the correct stat distribution on these cards from a developers’ point of view – if you want to make the card competitive, that is. While it can’t go beyond vanilla stats for obvious reasons, the keyword’s conditional nature (since it effectively doesn’t trigger when you’re ahead on the board) means they also can’t really go below it if you want to make sure they see play. Without the Worgen stat-swapping mechanic, something like Swift Messenger could actually have a chance – though it would likely be more in the mold of a neutral Flame Lance instead of an aggressive tempo tool.
All in all, Rush still has potential, though its future application likely won’t stem from synergistic cards: with a less hostile metagame and the eventual rotation of the current potent stalling tools, minions with the keyword can easily become the sort of sterling tempo option we’ve expected them to be. For now, they are sorely lacking a home and the requisite power level required to see play – and unless Team 5 really pushes the envelope in the next set, this will likely remain the same for a long time to come, even if the keyword is here to stay.
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I think I fundamentally disagree that the Rush keyword is underperforming.
As other commenters have noted, Vicious Scalehide sees play in a number of decks, including Rogue, Paladin and Shaman decks.
Shaman and Rogue also make use of Rush tokens in competitive play, although not at the top tiers.
DK Rexxar’s ability to access Rush through 3 different beasts paired with lifesteal, poison, echo and/or exploding bats fundamentally changed the DK and the viability of hunter.
Although, as an archetype, Rush Warrior failed to emerge, the Warrior rush cards including Town Crier and the Axe still see some play. Dr. Boom’s ability to give mechs Rush is somewhat secondary but still has an significant impact in a T1 deck.
And Houndmaster Shaw has emerged as one of the top performing legendaries from the Witchwood. While Zilliax is the second most played legendary from Boomsday, even outside of mech decks, and Rush paired with lifesteal and divine shield is what makes it so powerful.
There’s every reason to think this archetype continues to hold a significant place in the game design. It’s balanced, replaces the classic, problematic keyword Charge and it is especially powerful when combined with a second keyword either by design or when added to a minion by another card.
Rush is a perfect keyword. It’s something we’re likely to see a LOT of outside of the set it was introduced in because it is simply a function that had been missing in the game for a long time.
In a game where Tempo is everything, having access to MINIONS that can function from hand as removal like spells is a huge boon — one that this article seriously undervalues.
P.S. Viscious Scalehide is the primary reason Rexxar became a Tier 1 DK.
We need articles about Aggro which ruins Hearthstones and how we can reach to Blizzard on how to nerf them.
you just need to learn how to play
Vicious Scalehide doesn’t just see play in Quest Rogue, it’s also present in many Even Paladin decks. It’s a core card for example in my Even Buff Paladin, because a 10 mana 10/10 rush lifesteal (with dinosize) and a 6 mana 5/7 rush lifesteal (with Blessing of Kings) are nothing to laugh at.
Vicious Scalehide does see play in question rogue against aground and a way to regain back some hp. I would say it sees more play in question Rouge than even pally.
Nvm read your comment wrong srry
hail ye!
The problem with Rush is that the keyword is useless on an empty board. This is a huge drawback if you’re the aggressor and the opponent is the control, since many, MANY times you have minions on board, but they don’t. The obvious conclusion is that Rush is nothing more than removal on a stick, that sometimes leaves a body behind. Otherwise, the card is an understatted minion, which is hard to justify in an aggressive deck. I believe they need to print Rush cards that don’t become useless when the opponent doesn’t have a minion on the board. For example, a 4 mana 4/3 with Rush and Battlecry: if your opponent doesn’t have any minions, gain Stealth until your next turn. Or Divine Shield. You have to be careful, obviously, not to give a powerful battlecry for Shudderwock. But make Rush not suck when the opponent has no minions, and we will THEN see the keword in tempo-aggressive strategies.
or just make sure that the battlecrys are class-rushminions -shaman, I mean they pushed the rushtheme mainly on hunter and warrior you might aswell stick with the plan.