Filletfighter
Decent stats for a 1 drop and the damage goes face. The most important thing about Filletfighter is that it’s a playable 1-drop with the pirate tag, which makes it an instant inclusion in a potential Hooktusk Rogue deck. It also works very well with Mr. Smite. This ain’t no Prize Plunderer but it will do. (Don’t go check how we, or pretty much anyone else in the scene, rated Plunderer back in the day).
Score: 3
Cutlass Courier
This 3-drop is guaranteed to draw you a pirate if you hero power on 2, and with 5 health, it’s a big threat to draw again the next turn. Should become a staple in Pirate Rogue, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see it sneak into other decks as well. It’s just a very strong standalone minion that can potentially tutor some of the most powerful cards available to the class.
Score: 3
Blood in the Water
Unleash the Beast was a pretty good Hunter spell that had a similar effect, but Blood in the Water is even better with 3 damage attached to it and the potential to cheat it out on turn 4 thanks to Preparation or Trickster. You can deal with two minions on the same turn and develop a threat yourself, something that Rogue usually doesn’t get to do often with one card. A bit restrictive and slow but possible.
Score: 2
Gone Fishin’
This card could go into many Rogue decks for the next two years, but at the very least, this is a staple for Pirate Rogue. It’s Tracking with sunken synergies, which means we can very cheaply and reliably dredge out Sunken Vessel. Activating combo for a 1 mana card is very easy, as can be seen with the service Wand Thief has provided the class over a long period of time.
Score: 4
Swordfish
A 3-mana 4/3 weapon for Pirate Rogue that also dredges. The only awkward part of this card is that you often want to dredge Sunken Vessel and forgo the extra attack on the weapon. But this is hardly a dealbreaker–you will play this weapon and you will like it. 3 mana for 12 damage is better than a Self-Sharpening Sword without weapon buffs. Super strong.
Score: 4
Swiftscale Trickster
This is one of the craziest cards of the set. Trickster instantly makes cards such as Sprint and Smokescreen look like constructed material. It’s an unconditional, 4-mana Dragoncaster and the only reason it’s not ultra-broken is that Rogue doesn’t have the kind of expensive spells Mage has. Still, we’re pretty sure this card will find its way into constructed eventually and cheat large amounts of mana to do gross things. Even Pirate Rogue will strongly consider running it with Azsharan Vessel and Blood in the Water. More likely to be an instant hit in Wild. Warps deck building.
Score: 4
Azsharan Vessel
Vessel offers 4 pirate ticks to activate Hooktusk and is a reasonable deal for 5 mana in terms of board impact, as you can’t disrespect 6 attack coming from stealth minions. What’s more is that Rogue will find it ridiculously easy to dredge Sunken Vessel out which can be game winning on the spot. A turn 4 Preparation/Vessel into Gone Fishin’ sounds ridiculous. Good card.
Score: 3
Bootstrap Sunkeneer
Vilespine Slayer was one of the strongest and most impactful Rogue cards of all time and Sunkeneer is arguably better. Its removal ability doesn’t activate deathrattles, so it is essentially a silence effect. While it’s true that the opponent can potentially dredge the threat back, you’re very often going to remove a big idiot that’s not necessarily a desirable dredge target. It’s also a pirate, so it can be drawn by Courier and has an extra attack over Vilespine Slayer. Nuts.
Score: 4
Crabatoa
Let’s think about the immediate board impact of this card upon entrance. It has two Crabatoa claws, which have extra attack from the main body as 4/1 rushers. One claw runs into something, dies, and gives you a claw in weapon form, which you swing elsewhere before rushing with the other minion claw, which dies and gives another weapon to use next turn. Overall, this card gives you 8 immediate damage in rush minions, 4 immediate damage from a weapon, and another 2 or 4 damage from a weapon next turn. All of this on top of a 6 mana 6/5. This is basically an AOE tool for Rogue. Insane comeback and removal potential. The biggest potential drawback we see is the awkward sequencing with Swordfish. Do we care? No, we’re running the giga Faceless Corruptor/Kurtrus hybrid.
Score: 4
Pirate Admiral Hooktusk
There are some doubts over a Pirate Rogue deck. It might have a predictable play pattern; an issue Questline Warrior has run into. Hooktusk isn’t super easy to activate on turn 8 either. But what Pirate Rogue has over its Warrior counterpart is stronger removal tools and mana cheating potential. All the plunder options for Hooktusk can be game changers, but what’s particularly gross is that when we “Take their Supplies”, we get the 5 cards into our HAND. That’s a stronger Tickatus with built-in reload. We can “Take their Gold” for combo disruption and turn Hooktusk into a stronger Mutanus. We can “Take their Ship” and immediately swing the board. Unlike the Juggernaut, which is likely a more powerful piece, Hooktusk is flexible and carries more agency. If your opponent plans to sit back and play defensively, you can Shadowstep Hooktusk and empty their deck. What’s more is that this card hard counters Kazakusan. She’s slow, but we believe.
Score: 3
Final Thoughts
Voyage to the Sunken City Set Rank: 1st
Overall Power Ranking: 2nd
Rogue’s set feels like Shaman’s set in Alterac Valley, in which a big package of cards supported one main direction and boosted the hell out of it to create a mammoth of a shell. Pirate Rogue shares some similarities with Quest Warrior but might be a bit more dynamic in its gameplay, especially when it comes to its win condition and removal options. At the top end of it, Pirate Admiral Hooktusk is basically a questline reward. Funnily enough, it requires the same number of pirates to be played as Raid the Docks. Her power is obvious in slower matchups.
But here’s the thing about Pirate Rogue. It will often win without playing Hooktusk because Swordfish is ridiculous. This card deals 12 damage for 3 mana. It’s going to kill people.
Crabatoa and Sunkeneer provide very strong removal and swing turns, something Warrior doesn’t really have. Azsharan Vessel is worth a lot of guaranteed damage through stealth. Filletfighter is a bit disgusting with Mr. Smite while Cutlass Courier and Gone Fishin’ boost consistency across the board. This deck looks scary.
Perhaps one criticism is that there’s not much else coming from this set. The once popular Thief archetype isn’t getting much support, other than Tess Greymane and Hench-Clan Burglar through the core set, and they aren’t particularly great cards. However, Trickster is one hell of a card that’s probably going to be busted at some point, if not break Wild immediately. It can birth new archetypes by making Sprint and Smokescreen look like constructed material.
Taking all these factors into consideration, Valeera should be close to the top.
