60% WR Tesspionage + Spectral Cutlass!
- Last updated Jul 8, 2019 (Rise of the Mech)
- Edit
- |
Wild
- 11 Minions
- 17 Spells
- 2 Weapons
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Thief Rogue
- Crafting Cost: 7760
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 6/18/2019 (Rise of the Mech)
- Toffi
- Registered User
-
- 2
- 5
- 21
-
Battle Tag:
Toffi#21835
-
Region:
EU
-
Total Deck Rating
22
Hello there!
I'm Toffi and I've loved the Tesspionage decks in the Year of the Raven but I've seen it's popularity radically decline in RoS so I've tried to bring it back in order to bring some fun games that keep on changing for y'all!
This is a control-oriented deck that heavily relies on Spectral Cutlass and it's buffs like Deadly Poison & his buddy Captain Greenskin to save ya butt and even though there is an Aggro-meta right now you can survive and most often than not win if you play your cards right since you mostly play from behind anyway and try to win by sapping away their resources or just bonking their face when the opportunity exists.
The Mulligan
I won't go totally in-depth about it yet. Just keep in mind that Backstab, Blink Fox, EVIL Miscreant and Spectral Cutlass are commonly great cards for your opening hand.
That can change however depending on which class you're facing (For example: keeping Sap against Hunter or Paladin due to mechs or Fan of Knives against Shaman in the case of Murlocs)
Keeping cards that synergize with each other like Preperation +Raiding Party is also not bad. (This again may change depending on class so just use ya brain and weigh the options.)
The Gameplan
As stated before you're gonna get carried by the beauty that is Spectral Cutlass and the weapon buffs that go along with it. There are almost no situations where you use weapon buffs on anything other than your cutlass.
Your job is to get cards from other classes with the help of Blink Fox or Hench-Clan Burglar to keep your Cutlass up to heal yourself as much as you can and always get back to your feet after getting severly beat up!
I'm gonna do my best to explain how you can win against Control and Aggro since these are the most common at the moment and maybe I'll make a guide for every class individually later!
The most important part about this deck though is to have fun while you constantly adapt your gameplay given the random cards you generate
Against Aggro
Survive.
This deck has lots of removal options that will help ya stay afloat during the earlygame and you're gonna need 'em for the abundance of minions being thrown at you. Clear as many as you have to and try to keep the board contested as best as you can.
Pray to Ben Brode you'll get your cutlass and buffs early with the help of Raiding Party for instance and do not play Academic Espionage if you are behind in the game, (Unless you are a maniac that relies on miracle topdecks to save your butt)
Tess Greymane is also a realllllllllly niche card in the aggro matchup so just stick to your Blue Glowing Candy Pop with 6+ Attack to get by.
Using Toggwaggle's Scheme on cards like Zilliax or Captain Greenskin is not a bad idea depending on the state of the game.
Dont expect an easy win against aggro decks. It requires some luck and a lot of thinking ahead to reliably deal with face-goers and even then the matches tend to be pretty close
Against Control
This is where you get to have fun! The earlygame here isn't terribly important but try to keep the board contested like against aggro and get as much value as you can out of your cards.
Tempo plays like Coin + EVIL Miscreant are still valid so don't be too shy!
Be patient with your control tech: Tess Greymane Academic Espionage and don't play them too early. Especially Tess. She'll keep you fighting against even the tankiest of Control Warriors if you use Toggwaggle's Scheme on her and just summon a ridiculous amount of stuff turn after turn after turn.
Just try not to play weapons from other classes or you'll destroy your Cutlass after using Tess. (Speaking from experience)
But despite that your weapon isn't terribly important against Control. It's still nice to have it so try not to spam buffs on your Spectral Cutlass as soon as you have it and try to bait out their weapon removal unless you are in a real pinch. (But if there's a warrior there ain't a way to save your cutlass usually. They usually run 3 weapon removals)
Try burgling big value cards that will synergize well with Tess Greymane and never pick boardclears unless you have to. Big minions are also really nice to have so Tess can spam more and more damage on board.
Conclusion
So yeah, that's my attempt at making Tesspionage work in the current meta! I know that it isn't incredibly powerful but it's super fun to play and also a nice thinking exercise because every game is different from the last!
I also don't claim that I'm 100% right about everything I said here or that this version of the deck is the strongest that can exist.
And as a disclaimer: This deck would be way better in a control meta and currently relies on luck to some extent which doesn't make it incredibly competetive so don't craft all the cards here expecting to break through the ranks easily.
Please leave suggestions or questions in the comments and I'll try to answer/reply to the best of my abilities. (Card substitutions, reasons for cutting/choosing certain cards, general questions etc.)
Please take care and remember to have fun!
-Toffi
By the way here is a 32 round game against a dragon/control warrior which showcases some elements that I've talked about here: https://hsreplay.net/replay/7SCo5rZQ7s84VopTQ6kiDe
Edit: I put in 1 Vanish, 1 Sap and 2 Gadgetzan Auctioneer because of Mechs and Conjurers Mages that fall apart easier due to this new addition. Pilfer and Walk the Plank were replaced due to this. Also the Auctioneers provide better carddraw than Sprint since the deck mostly consists of Spells. It also gives you a better way of drawing through yourAcademic Espionage cards + Preperation doesnt feel that awkward anymore!
Thank you all very very much for your suggestion and critizism that helped me make this deck better! I'll try to keep this deck as fun as possible while trying to make it completely competatively viable!
Edit 2:
Since Vanish is now in the Hall of Fame I decided to put a copy of Pilfer back into the deck because the revised card text allows you to give more durability to your Spectral Cutlass through Rouge matchups, is good for activating Gadgetzan Auctioneer and it's fun to play.
I would reccomend you add Fan of Knives when facing Zoolock, Murlock Shaman or Token Druid a lot though
Thank you very much for your suggestion! I'm currently looking into replacing a copy of Pilfer with Vanish and I'll see how it holds up.
Also I like the direction that you're going into with your deck although I'm afraid that you can reliably play slow cards like Azelina Soulthief or combo your cards with a lack of low-cost cards. I really suggest putting in EVIL Miscreant just because it is such a good card in almost every Rouge deck and it synergizes with your Witch's Cauldron! But good on ya for seeing that Underbelly Fence wasn't good enough to run.
I hope you have fun more than anything with this deck but those were just a few tips to help ya out since you helped me out aswell!
Also, 25% win rate.
Sorry to hear that, man but do you have any suggestions on improving the dack? I'd be happy to know!
Togwaggle's scheme?
Yep, works wonders with Captain Greenskin or Zilliax against aggro or with Tess Greymane if ya are in a control match.
Feel free to replace it though if you don't find it neccessary!
Any replacement for Captain Greenskin ?
Hmm, that's a tough one since he is pretty good in the deck when you need another weapon charge and you can draw it with Raiding Party.
I would suggest Cutthroat Buccaneer since it combos with Raiding Party and your Spectral Cutlass but another approach is putting in another form of Card draw to get to your needed cards earlier ( Fan of Knives / Sprint )or Enemy Class Card draw as in Pick Pocket.
They aren't great substitutions but I think Fan of Knives is your best bet
Had I been facing an aggro deck I would have been screwed. However, the one game I've played with this thus far was against a mech paladin, and I owned him.
As long as you mulligan for your earlygame removals and sacrifice your pet goldfish to C'thulu you can even live through aggro.
Seriously though, removals are your best friends. So just keep trying to keep the board relatively under control until your opponent cant keep up with you dealing 7 damage per turn and healing for the same amount. Smorc is secondary
Was a bit skeptical when i saw this, im a big fan of Tess Rogue and have played it a lot during witchwood.
Been trying to make it work this season but did not work out for me.
I'm very sorry to hear that.
It could be me being lucky of course with my matchups/draws but the deck has held up against most of the meta decks so far for me. (Mech Hunter, Bomb Warrior, Murloc Shaman, Control Shaman, Token Druid, etc.)
And in essence the deck wasn't meant to be a super competetive deck (I'm really sorry if I made it look like that), it's just very fun to play for me and I wanted to share it because I had decent success with it. This decks strength lies in playing the cards you're dealt with as best as you can and reading your opponent while having fun (While The preps are in an awkward spot, correct).
I agree that at some points the deck feels really bad to play though.
No worries man, i knew the risks when i que'd up with this deck. I played 2 mirrors, 2 conjurer mages that had coin with a good curve, and 3 times vs zoolock. Those aren't the best match-ups for this deck.
Think it's just a shame thief rogue is in this state, the prep nerf for tempo rogue hit this so hard imo. Most fun deck to play is rogue with spectrall weapons.
Btw i had a version last season that seemed to do alright that was simliar to this list, but it ran bloodmage thalnos and the 2/3 rush +1/1 cards. No pilfer tough. Also auctioneer instead of sprint, 5 mana sprint seems so painfull now.
Really hope you can make this deck work, maybe at other ranks it can hold its own.
Aww it's so nice that we came to an understanding (but I'm bummed 'bout these matchups for you)
Yep, Thief Rouge is grasping at strows atm (I dont run Underbelly Fence because it is not enough value for me and 3 damage against stuff like conjurers Mage is pretty awkward).
Bloodmage Thalnos and Gadgetzan Auctioneer are 2 cards that I also considered for this deck. Thalnos especially against Token Druid (but I don't have him :P) but I haven't actually tried out auctioneer so I'll try to squeeze him in and see if he's worth running (seeing as this deck has 19 spells it may have been dumb of me to not do it from the start)
Thank you very much for your critique and your suggestions, I'll try my hardest to make this deck succeed in the name of our Faction of Fun!
I actually entered here looking for a Tess deck. Thank you!
Glad to hear there are more followers for our queen.
Hope this deck can help ya out!