Hearthstone’s Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion card reveal season has started! We can expect to see multiple cards revealed on daily basis for the next couple of weeks leading up to the expansion itself.

In this post, I will take an in-depth look at Plague Scientist.

Plague Scientist

Plague Scientist is a common Rogue class card from Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion. It is a three-mana 2/3 minion with a Combo effect that gives a friendly minion Poisonous.

This is a very interesting card!

Poisonous is a powerful effect that destroys any minions damaged by the Poisonous minion. In addition to acting as single-target removal through regular combat, Poisonous has been put to good use before with Wild Pyromancer (casting a spell with a Poisonous Wild Pyromancer on the board destroys all minions that are damaged) and Knife Juggler (each knife thrown by a Poisonous Knife Juggler is Poisonous).

Currently, Deathrattles of Poisonous minions are not Poisonous, but Blizzard has indicated that this may be changed in a future patch – how about a Poisonous Sergeant Sally?

Rogue has been lacking board clears, and Plague Scientist can potentially give Rogue a board-clear mechanic. It will not be easy to utilize, as Plague Scientist itself is a Combo card, so you need to play multiple cards to make it happen. Wild Pyromancer + Plague Scientist + any spell is the simplest three-card combo that would have the desired effect. If the interaction between Deathrattle and Poisonous is changed, Sergeant Sally + Plague Scientist + Backstab/Shiv/Razorpetal would be another way to do it.

However, even if it is not used as a full board clear, Plague Scientist can still be a strong single-target removal. It requires you to have a minion on the board ready to attack, but as we have seen with the Adapt mechanic, it is much more powerful and in the end easier to have a minion on the board ready to carry out the task than it is to play a new minion and hope it survives.

You can also use Charge minions to carry out the task. Perhaps not quite Stonetusk Boar, but many Rogue decks are interested in Southsea Deckhand and Patches, two perfect sacrificial lambs to take out big threats.

Yet, is Plague Scientist better than Vilespine Slayer? Both require a combo to activate, and Plague Scientist also requires a minion to target. It has one less attack and health while costing two less mana. The cards are pretty close, but for a traditional Miracle Rogue archetype, Vilespine Slayer is probably still better, as the deck has a limited number of minions available to use as cannon fodder.

Control Rogue

Board clears are one of the things control decks generally need. Can Plague Scientist bring us closer to a Control Rogue? Possibly, but it is still a tricky proposition to rely on it for board clears, and Control Rogue has its fair share of other issues, especially lack of healing.

Jade Rogue

We get a bit closer to the mark when looking at Jade Rogue. The smaller Jades are of quite low value, and Jade Swarmer is a perfect target: as a Stealthed minion that the opponent does not want to kill, it has a good chance to survive and wait for its glorious attack. Some interesting potential there!

Tempo Rogue

Plague Scientist could also play a big role in Tempo Rogue. It can even find a place alongside Knife Juggler in such a deck! Not that many spells, more minion-oriented with small and fast minions and good synergies, one of which could be the Plague Scientist that either buffs up one of the small minions for single-target removal or a Knife Juggler for a bit wider clean-up.

Conclusions

It is too early to say whether Plague Scientist will see play. Vilespine Slayer is a strong contender, and while the two cards could fit in the same deck, there might not be enough room for both. Nonetheless, the possibilities offered by Plague Scientist for multiple Rogue archetypes are worth exploring.