Thief Rogue Archetype Guide
Thief Rogue was no more than a fringe deck before the release of The Witchwood expansion. With The Witchwood, however, came Tess Greymane which single-handedly added a much-needed power card to the deck. Tess functions in much the same way as N'Zoth, the Corruptor in that she gets much more powerful as the game goes on, to the point of being a win condition by herself.
The key to making such decks work is to not rely solely on Tess. The idea is to use the regular tempo and board control options that Rogue has available to it and use the power of Tess for extra win percentage. This means that in many variants, the deck is not jammed full of cards that synergise with Tess, and only the best ones are chosen. This lowers the impact of Tess somewhat, but raises the consistency of the deck.
It should be noted that the cards generated by The Lich King are classed as Death Knight cards. This means that they get re-cast by Tess when she is played.
Below, you will find link to our deck lists for Thief Rogue, starting with our featured deck, which we consider the most common variant.
Dog's Rank 2 Legend Thief Rogue Deck
- Guide written by L0rinda and last updated on Apr 13, 2018 (WW meta)
- Costs 7.9k (4 basic, 16 common, 5 rare, 1 epic, and 4 legendaries)
- Mana curve:
- Card breakdown: 12 Spells • 18 Minions
Rogue Cards | Neutral Cards |
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Dog's Rank 2 Legend Thief Rogue Deck is an aggressive build of Thief Rogue. It plays many of the usual Rogue tempo cards, but adds in double Cold Blood and Leeroy Jenkins for burst damage. Dog took this deck to Rank 2 Legend on the opening day of The Year of the Raven.
Aim of Thief Rogue
Thief Rogue uses a combination of powerful board minions, removal, and the late-game power of Tess Greymane to create ongoing pressure on the opponent through tempo. The extra cards picked up along the way help to counter one of the weaknesses of Rogue, which is that it sometimes depletes its hand size rapidly.
Thief Rogue Strengths and Weaknesses
Thief Rogue is strong against decks which contain many minions. The board control and card draw elements mean that it is very hard to stop once it begins to get in front. The archetype generally does not include any healing, and as the Rogue often needs to use its weapon to secure the early board, it can be weak against direct damage spells.
Thief Rogue Key Cards and Crafting
There are multiple Legendary cards that are used in variants of Thief Rogue. The most important of these is Tess Greymane, and without her available you will probably want to play more traditional Tempo Rogue decks.
Edwin VanCleef is a staple in Rogue, and should be crafted if you intend to play a lot of Rogue decks. The Lich King is very powerful with Tess Greymane, and also provides a much-needed late-game threat. The deck can function without it if you are thinking of trying the deck without spending a lot of dust.
Leeroy Jenkins can be replaced by Reckless Rocketeer if needed, while Arfus is non-essential. In the versions that include Prince Keleseth, the deck has made concessions to the 2-slot to include the Prince. If you want to play those variants without Keleseth, you should include Eviscerate.
Changelog
- 13 Apr. 2018: Thief Rogue archetype added.
L0rinda has extensive experience with Hearthstone. After starting out with Arena and becoming one of the most prominent streamers in that format, he moved over to Constructed and now primarily spends his time as a caster for Blizzard, Starladder, and Dreamhack.
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