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Scott Landis

Welcome back to another exciting preview for Crown of the Heavens. Today’s preview is certainly one of the best and most unique cards I have ever previewed in the WoW TCG:

Rogues have a sub-theme of using your opponent’s resources against them, so far highlighted by Steal Steel and Vendetta. Boundless Thievery is a built in win condition for your deck, even if you are not running any of your own. For the low cost of one resource you get to see the top X cards of your opponents deck, where X is basically “what turn is it” and then you can play any of their equipment or allies immediately. That is incredibly strong, especially in the current Core environment.

You see, today’s Core is dominated by specific allies and equipment, which in turn creates a format dominated by Delve. A very subtle effect of Boundless Thievery is that no matter what turn you play it on, you are canceling out your opponent's main phase delving. Granted, most of the popular Delve effects happen at your end of turn, mostly with Seeds of their Demise, but other sources like Alethia Brightsong are effectively countered (if they keep any card on top). Assuming the trend of powerful main phase Delve effects are printed in Crown of the Heavens and beyond, this is a great secondary effect of this already dominant ability.

There is also the fact that Boundless Thievery is Eternal. This is key in Classic, where Rogues want to fill their own graveyards as fuel for various Finishing Moves (including Overkill). By reshuffling Boundless Thievery into your deck after playing something like Seal Fate or The Ring of Blood: Warmaul Champion, you are only increasing your odds of redrawing it. You can also hope to draw it later in the game after its first use, making it a true win condition at each stage of the game. On the play, assuming you are maximizing the number of Boundless Thievery you are playing, you can afford to play one as early as turn 2 against aggro decks, hoping to spike a one drop in response to theirs, and play additional copies later. You may even replay that early copy thanks to Eternal!

Clearly Boundless Thievery is at its best on the play, since you are negating the extra one resource cost of the ability itself. Core is full of key cards at all parts of the curve that have a lasting effect on the game, even if they are played early on. Here is a short list of incredibly powerful effects you can expect from Boundless Thievery in Core:

-Stealing an Etched Dragonbone Girdle as early as turn 3. You can play your own Dragonkin, or Twilight Citadel, combining with Skinned Whelp Shoulders as a one man army. Steal Steel can already perform this function, but Boundless Thievery simply opens up more options.

-Taking an aggressive ally against decks like Grand Crusader (either version). Lordann the Bloodreaver is a great target for this card since he is already undercosted if you manage to supersize him. The fact that Eternal will shuffle Boundless Thievery into your deck will allow you to “waste” it early.

-On turn 7, taking a opposing Mazu’kon. Currently Mazu’kon is a game winner no matter when you play him, and few decks that run him run less than a playset. This means digging down seven cards has a great chance of finding one.

-On turn 6, take a Commander Ulthok and use it against them. This is a particularly devastating play if they were unable to play their own Ulthok on turn 5. Looking at the top six cards of their deck combined with Rogue cards like Daze will give you a great chance of stripping a key card from their hand. Against Monster decks, which I anticipate will be on the rise with Crown, this is going to be a key play for Rogues.

In Classic, Boundless Thievery will be even more powerful. The win condition cards in Classic tend to be cheaper in Classic so drawing them from the opposing decks will be quicker and easier. The amount of hand destruction available to Rogues in Classic give you a more information as to the best time to play this Eternal card. Decks like Overkill tend to rely on ability damage to finish off their opponents, but now Boundless Thievery gives those decks another potential victory condition.

Options like these are really only the icing on the cake for this powerful Rogue ability that is sure to see a lot of play in all Constructed formats. I feel this is the first card in WoW’s history that allows you to play your opponent’s deck as the win condition. It's a very skill intensive card that is sure to be a hit!

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