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Cheat Death

Cheat Death

Cheat Death is a 2 Mana Cost Common Rogue Spell card from the Kobolds & Catacombs set!

Card Text

Secret: When a friendly minion dies, return it to your hand.
It costs (2) less.

Flavor Text

Reported.

Type
Spell
Rarity
Common
Set
Kobolds & Catacombs
Class
Rogue
Cost
2
Minion Type
Mechanics
Secret
Artist
Alex Horley Orlandelli
Collectible
Yes

Card Review & Interactions

Card Interactions

This is the first time we are seeing Rogue Secrets in Hearthstone. Kobolds and Catacombs will feature three of them, however, in the next set there are new future plans to add more.

Rogue Secret Trigger Art

Each class has unique art when a secret is triggered, this is how Rogue's will look:

rogue-secret-animation

Review

And suddenly - Rogue secrets! That has it's own implications for what it could mean about where the game is headed and how Team 5 has gotten a bit more open to breaking some of their ground rules, but we are here to talk about Cheat Death specifically. So, obviously, looking at the effect itself, we immediately draw the parallel with Shadowstep, which is an excellent card in today's meta, one of the MVPs of the infamous Keleseth Rogue deck. Now, despite how good it is currently, just because there are plenty of good targets to bounce, we have to keep in mind that historically, Shadowstep has not seen too much play in Rogue since Leeroy Jenkins got nerfed and Rogue decks didn't rely as much on Shadowstepping him as a primary win condition. In fact, ever since the early days of the game the card has been slightly out of favour, from Oil to Jade and the new builds of Miracle Rogue. That said, it is a staple of the class and for good reason, since Rogue love their 0-cost spells, especially when that can buyback a powerful Battlecry effect.

Enter Cheat Death and the context around the effect changes completely. Although it negates the downside of Shadowstep, as in you can play it preemptively without your target having to already be on the battlefield, you are paying a lot more mana for essentially the same effect. However, I would argue that it is worth it. Not in tempo-centric decks, of course, which can't afford to play a card that is essentially anti-tempo, but it might make it's way into the classic Miracle Rogue as a safety net for your valuable minions, only to power up even more later in the game when they have the discount. Whether or not that's something those decks will be looking to do is a different thing, but the ability to set up plays for the future and have reliable consistency is very valuable.

One critical fact to take into consideration is that there are only going to be three Rogue secrets this expansion and more are unlikely to come. This means that unlike other classes, they won't actually be... secret. Now, of course, in Constructed formats, most often secrets are already fairly well known, because only a few are better than the rest and decklists tend to be common knowledge, especially if you go higher up the ladder. In Rogue this exact effect will be exacerbated even further, so the real question to ask is this: Is the effect something you need at a price point you are willing to pay, given that the opponent is very likely to know exactly what your secret is? I think the answer in the case of Cheat Death is a Yes, given that you want this effect.

Card Review by Chimbarozo

32 Comments

  1. shadow

    So rogue has secrets now...

    This is a reaaaaaaly big change.

  2. Clavier

    Sherazin interaction?

  3. D00mnoodle

    So this card is pretty good, but not as a card slot in your deck, perhaps in some super aggressive rogue that tries to prep this out with good early minions. But why would you play that over keleseth tempo rogue? This card costs 2 so it can't be included in those decks. Won't see play but if rogue one day gets a card like hydrologist, expect this one to pop up very often (as a discovery that is)

    2/5

    1. Blimey

      It's not an aggro card at all, so why would you evaluate it from that point of view.

      Potentially very strong in miracle decks. For stuff like Auctioneer, Arcane Giants, VanCleef, Malygos...

      1. D00mnoodle

        There are some really strong aggro cards you would like to see with this, like leeroy, cobalt scalebane or southsea captain. its kind of a refill and resilience towards boardclears, and aggro decks could run this with prep though you are probably right it would fit control more. My bad.

  4. Gomolon

    Would've been better if they were 1 mana and slightly worse effect for Gadget/Prince 2 interactions

  5. elRingo

    Mill rogue anyone?

    1. CD001

      This on 2 - Coldlight on 3 ... works for me :)

      The secret would be fairly obvious and your opponent could just then ignore the Coldlight - since secrets trigger on your opponent's turn you couldn't just run your Coldlight into something to kill it and get it back in your hand... however, you _could_ play Ancient Brewmaster instead...

      I still play Wild Mill Rogue occasionally - I think I might have to try a Standard version once K&C is released.

  6. Face

    Flare lol

  7. mitpaul

    Haha yes, thoug its a bit costly, more bounce cards for me! :^)

  8. Xander Raidon

    This is actually really scary in Prince decks. I can already see someone activating prince effect 5 times, giving all cards in deck +5/+5.

    1. Cerpss

      Can't run this in prince deck, costs 2 mana.

      1. Roberto

        Why not?
        You just have to wait to draw prince + 2x of this card. That's game!
        AWSOME :D:D

        1. phantom

          except you want to play prince as soon as you can so you get the benefit...

  9. Joseph

    my guess for what the 3rd rogue secret will be "when your hero takes damage, gain stealth for a turn"

    1. Redpixel

      Really doubt a 3rd secret makes game a little confusing and usually blizzard does maybe 1 or 2 per expansion per class

      1. phantom

        they mentioned there was a 3rd secret... the also said each secret borrow (steals) an element from another classes secret.. so this is get away kodo tweaked.. the other is misdirection tweaked.. so i am guessing the next one will borrow from from mage....

      2. joseph

        I WAS ACTUALLY ALMOST RIGHT

  10. Thunderbone

    Potential for quest rogue?

  11. aaron

    Need a lot more secrets for this to be good, right now, super easy to play around. This takes up a lot of cards slots for rogue this expac. I don't think it'll be good now, but in the future, need a few in classic to really make a difference

  12. Ben

    This art is awesome !!

  13. Odin

    ROGUE HAS SECRETS NOW YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT

  14. crapcrack

    Will never see pro play

  15. EPOCH

    Blizzard now we need Mysterious Challenger like card but something like 4/4 cost 4 mana, for more tempo and to avoid pesky priests!!! Ofc Epic rarity! And rogue great again. No need for this trashy keleseth!

  16. to

    Yeah cuz rogues are to weak they need more tools..

    1. to

      Prince is top meta and this will make rouge over the top...jade druid 2.0 only way worse..

      1. Fealnort

        You DO realise prince can't be played anymore if this is in the deck ?

    2. shamanking

      I think blizzard is trying to discourage rogue prince use but I don't think it'll happen

  17. shamanking

    you think anyone is going to give up prince / shadowstep for this BS?!....

    1. Luke Somsel

      I predict that shadowstep will rotate to the hall of fame soon, so this card may see some play

  18. Bonker

    I LOVE this card! More of these please, bring back quest mage!!!!! Bring back Mill Rogue!!! Kill the f****** prince Rogue.
    Rogue was my favorite class but now everyone is playing it just because it's broken, sad :(

  19. Chocobo

    Win more card.
    If you re losing its absolute garbage.
    Also giving up tempo as a rogue for value seems weird.
    Not gonna happen 1/5

Comments are closed.