With the new card, academic espionage, I was hoping for there to be some kind of deck focusing on Tess and class stealing.
I've actually faced two, as control warrior, which dominated me as odd controll warrior relies on outcontrolling and fatiguing the opponent, which just doesn't happen when the rogue adds 10 (20 with Valeera) cards to the deck with espionage. However I have yet to face it with other decks so I have no idea how it does against other kinds of decks.
Is there a good Tess deck, or is it still only a meme?
The problem with Rouge stealing is it's a random card from class rather than Priests steal a card from your opponents deck. Stealing a card from their deck is ten times better than a random card from their class and too many class cards can become dead cards in your hand
i play it with cutlass and buffs as your second win condition. tough are mathups against another rogue but i added cards to work even in this case: lich king, lotus agent, and 1 guy from tgt that gives paladin cards + azalina to get rid of cards you dont want : weapons treachery and similar
It will never become meta-defining due to the random nature of the burgles.
A glaring issue I see is that you want to fit it into a control-style deck, but Rogue just has better win conditions than random burgled nonsense (Kingsbane, infinite Spiders, etc.). Try to make it aggressive and it will be weaker than every other aggro deck.
That said, there are certainly some fun things to do with the build. One awesome thing I've seen done is to use Hemet to kill your whole deck then fill it with Spiders and Espionage stuff. Unstable Element can clear your deck too.
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Nature is the Day. Man is the Sun. Woman is the Moon. The Stone is the Sky. The Art is the Way.
It works well against fatigue decks, but unfortunately that’s about it.
its too unreliable otherwise, that being said it can still occasionally be really strong and funny. Just take it for what it is, a less serious way to play
I’ve tried really damn hard to make it work. The one, glaring weakness it has is a lack of card draw.
Some of the burgled stuff is going to be strong. Some not. You need to cycle hard to find the stuff that is good. If there could be something like a passive where you draw two cards if the card drawn were burgled, the deck would be high T2 in my opinion. Unfortunately, the only draw that consistently works is Sprint, and that’s expensive even if you managed to get it.
I am managing to play Tess a bunch, however. Where she shines is in refilling your board much like N’Zoth. Spells are hit and miss. If AE only gave you minions it might be a lot better.
Another issue is lack of synergy. Because of this lack of draw, a Tempo or Miracle package is best to keep your curve low and draw high. But once you introduce burgled cards, you give yourself up to the RNG gods.
I really, really want to make it competitive. I love the archetype and Tess is amazing. But it might take another expansion or two to make it decent.
I made a deck with a ton of draw, Shiv, Acolytes, Loot Hoarder, Sprint etc., to cycle between drawn stolen cards. The premise was ofc: Academic Espionages insane Tempo advantage will outshine it's RNG. I still think the card is op as f***, but the right complementary cards for Rogue are missing to make it work consistently. Also, some classes have better cards to steal and some worse - it is a huge difference if you play versus Druid or versus Hunter.
Nonetheless, if you want to annoy boring people playing boring netdecks at Rank 15-20 and have some fun by the way, this is a great deck. The Bullshit you can pull of with e.g. Prep+A Espionage on Turn 1 is hilarious. Very often, you won't see your beloved card until you are almost dead and just get roflstomped by board-flooding decks. But for me it is the only way to enjoy HS these days without getting durable salty. ^^
So many good targets for both. With cheat death you can garantee an ellek/strider survives so you can run double espionage/spider shuffles. And midgame you can shuffle great battlecries with sonya.
im trying, but struggling to keep up a 50% WR even at rank 15
As others said, draw is the issue. 1 mana class cards are great, but you're more likely to draw crap than something good so you need something to cycle. My current list runs shiv, FoKs, loot hoarders and sprint. It's hardly enough though. Don't have Myra's, but I'm not keen on crafting a card for a meme deck
most fun games I've had are AE -> death knight -> tess, replaying your AE and sprint. Then shadowstop Tess.
Problem is, this is typically a win-more play. If you've already dropped AE into a death knight, chances are high you're already steamrolling your opponent.
I've been playing a homebrew wild version as well the last few days. Coldlight oracle and brann make a huge difference, granting both more card draw and letting you mill combo opponents (although the star aligner druid I faced still managed to combo after I burned 5 of his cards - play coldlight early against combo druid!)
you can steam roll over fatigue decks and high roll but that is about it. Sad fact is, the majority of classes have more shitty cards than good ones and they will rarely help you out of a jam. I think espionage is a strong card but it requires a lot of luck. You can't make a competitive deck based around pure randomness. Even pre nerf Yogg Saron was more consistent than steal rogue.
If you want you can play a Tempo Rogue with a light Burgle Package (2 Hallucination, 2 Blink Foxes and Tess). It s a very good inclusion IMHO. For the rest, go straight with Fungalmancers, Hench, Fal Dorei Striders, Saps, Cold Bloods etc. Dunno if DK is worth it; I wouldn t run her honestly
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"The flow of time is always cruel... its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days..."
If you want you can play a Tempo Rogue with a light Burgle Package (2 Hallucination, 2 Blink Foxes and Tess). It s a very good inclusion IMHO. For the rest, go straight with Fungalmancers, Hench, Fal Dorei Striders, Saps, Cold Bloods etc. Dunno if DK is worth it; I wouldn t run her honestly
This. AE/Valeera the Hollow is just too slow right now imo
With the new card, academic espionage, I was hoping for there to be some kind of deck focusing on Tess and class stealing.
I've actually faced two, as control warrior, which dominated me as odd controll warrior relies on outcontrolling and fatiguing the opponent, which just doesn't happen when the rogue adds 10 (20 with Valeera) cards to the deck with espionage. However I have yet to face it with other decks so I have no idea how it does against other kinds of decks.
Is there a good Tess deck, or is it still only a meme?
I tried to build one yesterday and just got Rekt over and over. Still a meme for now
Ive been looking a lot arond, but as of yet I have not found any deck that is truly competitive
The problem with Rouge stealing is it's a random card from class rather than Priests steal a card from your opponents deck. Stealing a card from their deck is ten times better than a random card from their class and too many class cards can become dead cards in your hand
Check j4ckiechan's videos on YouTube. You can see the whole evolvement of the deck.
i play it with cutlass and buffs as your second win condition. tough are mathups against another rogue but i added cards to work even in this case: lich king, lotus agent, and 1 guy from tgt that gives paladin cards + azalina to get rid of cards you dont want : weapons treachery and similar
It will never become meta-defining due to the random nature of the burgles.
A glaring issue I see is that you want to fit it into a control-style deck, but Rogue just has better win conditions than random burgled nonsense (Kingsbane, infinite Spiders, etc.). Try to make it aggressive and it will be weaker than every other aggro deck.
That said, there are certainly some fun things to do with the build. One awesome thing I've seen done is to use Hemet to kill your whole deck then fill it with Spiders and Espionage stuff. Unstable Element can clear your deck too.
Nature is the Day.
Man is the Sun.
Woman is the Moon.
The Stone is the Sky.
The Art is the Way.
It works well against fatigue decks, but unfortunately that’s about it.
its too unreliable otherwise, that being said it can still occasionally be really strong and funny. Just take it for what it is, a less serious way to play
I’ve tried really damn hard to make it work. The one, glaring weakness it has is a lack of card draw.
Some of the burgled stuff is going to be strong. Some not. You need to cycle hard to find the stuff that is good. If there could be something like a passive where you draw two cards if the card drawn were burgled, the deck would be high T2 in my opinion. Unfortunately, the only draw that consistently works is Sprint, and that’s expensive even if you managed to get it.
I am managing to play Tess a bunch, however. Where she shines is in refilling your board much like N’Zoth. Spells are hit and miss. If AE only gave you minions it might be a lot better.
Another issue is lack of synergy. Because of this lack of draw, a Tempo or Miracle package is best to keep your curve low and draw high. But once you introduce burgled cards, you give yourself up to the RNG gods.
I really, really want to make it competitive. I love the archetype and Tess is amazing. But it might take another expansion or two to make it decent.
I made a deck with a ton of draw, Shiv, Acolytes, Loot Hoarder, Sprint etc., to cycle between drawn stolen cards. The premise was ofc: Academic Espionages insane Tempo advantage will outshine it's RNG. I still think the card is op as f***, but the right complementary cards for Rogue are missing to make it work consistently. Also, some classes have better cards to steal and some worse - it is a huge difference if you play versus Druid or versus Hunter.
Nonetheless, if you want to annoy boring people playing boring netdecks at Rank 15-20 and have some fun by the way, this is a great deck. The Bullshit you can pull of with e.g. Prep+A Espionage on Turn 1 is hilarious. Very often, you won't see your beloved card until you are almost dead and just get roflstomped by board-flooding decks. But for me it is the only way to enjoy HS these days without getting durable salty. ^^
This is the version i am running with Cutless
### Shuffle Rogue
# Class: Rogue
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Raven
#
# 2x (0) Backstab
# 2x (0) Preparation
# 2x (0) Shadowstep
# 2x (1) Deadly Poison
# 1x (1) Glacial Shard
# 2x (2) Cheat Death
# 2x (2) Eviscerate
# 2x (3) Augmented Elekk
# 2x (3) Blink Fox
# 2x (3) SI:7 Agent
# 1x (3) Sonya Shadowdancer
# 2x (4) Academic Espionage
# 2x (4) Elven Minstrel
# 2x (4) Fal'dorei Strider
# 2x (4) Spectral Cutlass
# 2x (7) Sprint
#
AAECAaIHApfBAs/hAg60Ae0CywP2BIgH3QiGCdzRAtDjAtvjAurzAqj3Asf4AvWAAwA=
#
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
So many good targets for both. With cheat death you can garantee an ellek/strider survives so you can run double espionage/spider shuffles. And midgame you can shuffle great battlecries with sonya.
still not close to competative though ;)
im trying, but struggling to keep up a 50% WR even at rank 15
As others said, draw is the issue. 1 mana class cards are great, but you're more likely to draw crap than something good so you need something to cycle. My current list runs shiv, FoKs, loot hoarders and sprint. It's hardly enough though. Don't have Myra's, but I'm not keen on crafting a card for a meme deck
most fun games I've had are AE -> death knight -> tess, replaying your AE and sprint. Then shadowstop Tess.
Problem is, this is typically a win-more play. If you've already dropped AE into a death knight, chances are high you're already steamrolling your opponent.
I feel like its better in wild as long as you doesn't run into combo decks or draw poorly against aggro (healbot is awesome with DK)
can I see your wild list?
I've been playing a homebrew wild version as well the last few days. Coldlight oracle and brann make a huge difference, granting both more card draw and letting you mill combo opponents (although the star aligner druid I faced still managed to combo after I burned 5 of his cards - play coldlight early against combo druid!)
you can steam roll over fatigue decks and high roll but that is about it. Sad fact is, the majority of classes have more shitty cards than good ones and they will rarely help you out of a jam. I think espionage is a strong card but it requires a lot of luck. You can't make a competitive deck based around pure randomness. Even pre nerf Yogg Saron was more consistent than steal rogue.
If you want you can play a Tempo Rogue with a light Burgle Package (2 Hallucination, 2 Blink Foxes and Tess). It s a very good inclusion IMHO. For the rest, go straight with Fungalmancers, Hench, Fal Dorei Striders, Saps, Cold Bloods etc. Dunno if DK is worth it; I wouldn t run her honestly
"The flow of time is always cruel... its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days..."
This. AE/Valeera the Hollow is just too slow right now imo
Unpopular opinion: Rogue is OP
I destroyed a few warriors with this deck, but just concede against other rogues.
https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1185004-thief-mass-draw