New Rogue Minion - Pirate Admiral Hooktusk

Im giving 5 stars to this one, simply because Im 100% sure everyone, pros casual all alike, will be playing this card in some capacity or another. At some point someone will figure out a broken deck out with this card in it.

But if I were to offer my own opinion of the card; its not very good. Or at least Im sure the winrate wont be tier 1 level. The problem with this card is that rogue has little to no defensive options available, and you're likely be playing a very linear pirate deck akin to the current quest pirate warrior. In other words, the deck will be easily beaten by tempo and aggro decks.

Because in what world can we play an 8/8 on turn 8 that has no rush or taunt and expect to survive? Despite having three choices (powerful ones I may add) what will most likely happen is that you'll pick mindcontrol 90% of the time, because if you dont then you're probably dead the next turn.

All this can change if rogue receives a card that summons lots of pirates. Then rogue will have some deck slots for some tempo/defensive cards instead of full on pirates. But Ive a feeling that there would be no such card. Not unless team5 enjoys receiving threatening christmas cards.

Sounds a bit too slow to see play. It's basically Kazakusan for Rogue except you don't start winning the game once you play it, you just mildly inconvenience your opponent.

As long as this is the only payoff for a Pirate deck I don't see it happening. Best case scenario you're in a ressource war and you drop this to yeet 2 of their cards from hand.

So the effect is obviously insane with Take their Gold! being the most broken option but Take their Supplies! will ruin many Quest and combo decks.

But summoning 8 pirates for Rogue... sure we have Azsharan Vessel but we need more pirates in the core set to reliably summon 8

Well , not sure how fast you would have summoned 8 Pirates in Rogue but i guess it`s at least decent to see play - the effect is hella strong and 8/8 for 8 is ok! 

I think this could be very dangerous depending on how fast you can dump 8 pirates!

This is an insanely flavorful card. Everyone knows that the most flavorful cards see plays years from now (look at Unite the Murlocs) and Pirate Admiral Hooktusk is one of those kinda cards. An 8 mana 8/8 pirate is just solid stats, and you wont be happy to see this summoned by The Juggernaut. Also having to play 8 other pirates is not that bad. You have Cutlass Courier to draw pirates, and you have Azsharan Vessel to summon a bunch of pirates. Actually playing 2 Azsharan Vessels could theoretically activate Pirate Admiral Hooktusk, so maybe the "pirate package" might see play in other rogue archetypes in the future? Also Pirate Admiral Hooktusk + Shadowstep seems really strong... If Shadowstep is still in the core set.

As for the effects:

Take their Supplies!: Tickatus but you add their cards to your hand. This can just end combos AND you can steal something important, like draw or burn from an aggro/midrange deck. This option seems really solid, mainly because it's basically a reload. Also this option is really good after your opponent dredged a card, because now you can steal it.

Take their Gold!: This seems solid if you know that your opponent has a important card/combo piece in their hand. Seems like a solid choise after you kill their Taelan Fordring if that card is still in the core set, or after they did some other kind of tutorred draw. AND obviously this is AMAZING against Questline decks, should they finish their questline really late.

Take their Ship!: This seems good against a slow/grindy control deck but that's it. Basically only good for stealing lets say a big taunt. 8 mana Mind Control (with 8/8 body) might seem good, but i'm not sure. The other 2 option just look way stronger in most situations.

I think Pirate Admiral Hooktusk will 100% see play in some kind of aggro/midrange pirate rogue deck. Especially considering rogue also gets some other good midrange cards like Crabatoa that they can slot into the deck. And in wild... This might become the centerpiece of a pirate tempo rogue deck. After all it says SUMMON, and wild has cards like Patches the Pirate and Parachute Brigand. I really hope pirate rogue will be a thing in wild.

Captain Hooktusk workout got excellent results

I mean it is 8 mana 8/8 battlecry: mind control with other flexibilityat its best.

Therefore i believe this card will live or die by whether opponents can be reliable in building tall late game.

Against a token druid this card is absolute garbage in your hand for example

Against greedier Kazakhstan patriot decks yeah its a direct counter. 

Its a tech card in other words. Avoid at all costs in arena.

I guess we're doing this now, sure. I mean, Pirates have kind of always been an almost Rogue thing and, although Hooktusk is pretty expensive for a tempo deck I don't hate it. A little like Tickatus, but with the flexibility to pivot to more defensive maneuvers if called for. Maybe we get a slow meta, and Rogue can do its whole PIrate thing and get some Plunders? I'm sure people will try it. We'll definitely see a lot of it in the theorycrafting streams.

This is better than Tickatus you get the cards from their deck or hand.  Taking control of the highest attack minion is nice, but let's face it... that is the weakest of the bunch.  If there was a way to decrease the cost of this card (cough cough Scabbs Cutterbutter or something better) then this could be really disruptive against any type of control or combo deck.  Vs Aggro though... at least you could confiscate part of their deck arsenal and let them start going into fatigue faster. 

Looks like Pirate Rogue is coming back. This card is entirely dependent on how good that deck will be, so we'll have to see. I'd probably take their supplies most times, but taking their gold could be good against combo decks, and taking their ship could win the game for you next turn.

Ironically the Pirate Rogue minion I'm the most hesitant on, and she's supposed to be the crown jewel! Simply put, a quest-lite condition that isn't always guaranteed to be in hand when you need it or clogs up your hand when you don't seems suspect to me. Sure there's going to be match ups where stealing say Kazakusan's Deck of Treasures is hilarious, I'm just not sure Hooktusk will be as good of a Checkmate move that high-cost cards typically need to be.

This and Zaq'ul are the 2 legendaries this set in my "probably not good but I'm gonna craft them anyway" pile.

This just looks hilarious. I enjoyed Tickatus when he first came out too. He ended up being a bit too easy to copy/corrupt. Hooktusk seems slower but it is "summon" so maybe that Azsharan sunken spell will actually help.

Either way looking forward to plundering my opponents in the future. 

That flavor text got me giggling: You win some, you ransom.

Pirate Rogue is looking pretty good. I don't know if this card will be great or useless, but it sure looks fun!

I initially did not think too much about this card, until in my first match my opponent played Reno+Zola and I immediately plundered the second Reno from his hand (while putting more pressure on the board).

Quite fitting that the option is called “Take their gold!” and that Reno was also golden.

To be fair I was lucky, since my opponent had like 7 cards in his hand, but that’s why you run shadowsteps and such.