Tempo

The past few expansions have been very kind to Rogue, each offering a Legendary card powerful enough to build a deck around as well as additional packages to fill things out. This list tries to combine two of these powerful Legendaries into one deck.

Gameplan

We are a tempo deck. As Rogue, we have a lot of ways of standard ways to do that. Many games will end because we do Rogue things and out tempo our opponent.

If this doesn’t happen, our primary trump card is Captain Hooktusk, which gives us so much tempo it is usually a mulligan keep even though it’s an 8-drop. Rise of Shadows has given us another tempo bomb to try in Heistbaron Togwaggle. His fantastic treasures also offer a lot of tempo, especially Wondrous Wand and Zarog's Crown.

This deck is powerful at all phases of the game, and it isn’t too reliant on the new burgle Rogue synergies, meaning it has a lot of potential in Rogue mirrors. Should be quite strong

Card choices

Hooktusk Package:

Captain Hooktusk needs you to run a certain number of as-big-as-you’re-willing-to-run pirates. That number seems to be about 5 to be consistent, and 6 all but guarantees you’ll have 3 left for her on curve.

• x2 Hench-Clan Burglar – A pirate we actually don’t mind playing! Similarly strong compared to Blink Fox, which is so playable that we’re also playing it in this list. 3 health on a 4-drop is not great, but much better now that Flanking Strike is out of the meta. The fact that it activates Vendetta even in Rogue mirrors, is pretty huge, too. 
• x2 Ticket Scalper – Generally a bummer when you draw it, but incredible off of Captain Hooktusk, which is why it’s here. Kill something, draw 2 for 0 mana mmmmmm.
• x2 Cursed Castaway – This is not a card you’re super happy about putting in your deck, and we could probably get away with only running 1 – so why x2? My hope is that it will improve the consistency of drawing EVIL Miscreant, which improves Heistbaron Togwaggle. Definitely an experiment.
• Captain Hooktusk – The lass herself.

Togwaggle Package:

Heistbaron Togwaggle demands Lackeys to do his thing, so here they are

• EVIL Cable Rat – I am hoping that this is playable turn 3 with the Lackey it generates. Otherwise it’s just fuel for The Tummy.
• EVIL Miscreant – I have some faith that this will actually just be a new Rogue staple. The Lackey battlecries mostly give pretty good tempo, and also help you activate your other combo cards. And of course, it also feeds His Great Belly.

Tempo Good:

Tempo good.

• Backstab – Tempo good.
• Eviscerate – Tempo good.
• Edwin VanCleef – Tempo good.
• Hench-Clan Thug – Tempo good.
• SI:7 Agent – Tempo good.
• Vendetta– Tempo good.

Tempo good.

Miscellaneous:

• Mecharoo – Fire Fly and its consistent combo activation will be missed. Hopefully the Lackeys will take over this role. Serves as serviceable bottom end that sometimes lets your Zilliax be a 4/3.
• Togwaggle's Scheme – A bit cheeky. I’m going to enjoy trying this out on day 1, but it’s unlikely that this is the correct card for this slot. However, it enables some cute things: you can add more pirates to your deck if you are at < 3 for Captain Hooktusk; you can shuffle Captain Hooktusk herself in order to play her again (she can pull herself from her own effect!); you can shuffle Zilliax in a fatigue matchup; or Heistbaron Togwaggle in a value late game. Imagine drawing 0-cost Heistbaron Togwaggles off of Wondrous Wand and getting even more free treasure! It’s all a lot of fun, but the reality is that usually it will be a dead card.
• Blink Fox – Reasonable play on 3, extremely powerful if it activates Vendetta.
• Zilliax – You really don’t need much of a reason to play this card. If your list has any wiggle room you usually play this, and even if it doesn’t, you think about it.
• Leeroy Jenkins – If you kill your opponent, they are dead. If they are dead, you win.

Other Options:

• Underbelly Fence – Really nice card when it’s live. I decided to only run 2 burgle payoff cards because I think we will be playing against a lot of Rogue, and I like Vendetta better.
• Shadowstep – Pretty reasonable replacement for Togwaggle's Scheme. has a lot of pretty reasonable combo targets, and of course it’s also good with Heistbaron Togwaggle or Leeroy Jenkins. The true memer, plays this AND Togwaggle's Scheme, so they can scheme a Ticket Scalper and step back Captain Hooktusk: 6 mana, kill 3 minions, draw 6 cards <3

Closing thoughts:

Some version of this deck may be the best Rogue deck, or even the best deck period in the format. It largely comes down to if Heistbaron Togwaggle has enough Lackeys to make that blubber bounce. If he’s consistently active, I think Rogue’s natural early to mid game tempo with these 2 top end threats will make this a fearsome deck.