Sword Thief

[Twio]

I'm pretty sure there's already a thread complaining about Sword Thief's nerf somewhere, oh well here's a new one.

I've been playing around with Garth, who is a good hero. His downside is that he has a very weak early game, because he has difficulty getting his weenies (except maybe Nightshade) to survive more than a turn. To help Garth have a slightly stronger early game, I would like to see Sword Thief become a 2/4.

Countless times I have cast Sword Thief on an opposing ally (knowing that I can kill it next turn if Sword Thief survives) then broke down in tears because my opponent pulled a Lightning Strike or a Death Mage out of their ass. This basically makes him a complete waste. HE'S JUST SO DAMN SQUISHY.

I'm going to go back to the old Sword Thief vs Layarian Seductress argument to refresh your memories:

Seductress is a 2/4 which disables an ally for one turn, if you have resources equal to or less than your opponent.
Sword Thief is a 2/3 which prevents an ally from attacking and defending for one turn.

I think that Seductress is better, because she is tougher and because she stops allies activating abilities. The added chance that she will stay around for your next turn is SO valuable. Unfortunately, Rogues can't make good use of Seductress because they generally get a lot of resources pretty quickly. It's almost as if designers said "Well Rogues can't really use Seductress, here, you can have this guy who's worse in every way except you can actually use him." I don't know about you guys, but I would say that a class-specific card should always be better than a faction-specific card.

What if Special Delivery was better than Fireball or Smite?
What if Sever Ties was better than Spectral Sabre?
What if Puwen was better than Yari Bladedancer?

We're still in beta, let's at least try it out. Increasing his health by 1 isn't going to break the game. It will give Rogues a push, and to be honest they kinda need it.

[Gondorian]

Is Sword Thief's effect being cancelled when he is killed? If so, that's incorrect. Negative effects persist beyond their source.

[jcbow]

Even if the effect persists its hard to use garths ability when your allies dead...I think that was the point any ways...if not I'll gladly claim it for me...I do agree a slight bit of survivability on st would be awesome

[Twio]

Is Sword Thief's effect being cancelled when he is killed? If so, that's incorrect. Negative effects persist beyond their source.

No sorry I meant that he dies, therefore I no longer have enough damage on the board to take full advantage of his effect. So on my turn the targeted ally recovers, and I really haven't profited at all from using Sword Thief (except perhaps spending a card to protect myself from 2-3 damage and putting myself a turn behind my opponent).

Yeah, what jcbow said lol.

Basically his main purpose in theory is to help you take board control from your opponent right? Yeah nah he can't do that. The only real situation where he has done something useful for me is if I have board control late game (Turn 8-9), and he helps to stop my opponent retaking control. I.e. he only works well if you're already winning.

[Shadow Mann]

Sword Thief is very squishy now...his ability is still very good, but the low health sucks (he's also pretty much an autosac vs zal at 3 health...and zal already has so many ways to crush Garth)

[trevorJacobs]

Another comparison is to Mugged! 3cc: disable for a turn and draw a card. Sword Thief seems on a par with this (no attack/defend and an ally out). He's very good with Vozetian and/or Road Less Traveled.

4hp would make him (her?) very good rather than just "at the right level"

[Slaggathor]

The thing that confuses me the most about the SF expansion is the argument that some cards like sword thief, rapacious vermin, or spitfire hound cant be buffed because then that would make them better than another card from a past set; yet there are cards like yari bladedancer, skilled ironmonger, and fatebreak familiar who all replace Puwen. And I'm not saying these cards should be nerfed to be weaker than Puwen, instead, the other cards should be considered to be as strong or possibly slightly stronger. Seductress will still be played, just not by rogues just like how Puwen will still be played just not by warriors.

+1 for 2/4 Sword Theif
Either that or Id be happy with giving Garth his old ability back

[lightandarkness]

I agreed in general rogue item feel weak in sf. I feel elemental and archer are better at controlled then rogue. They could make it if he use his ability on an ally 4 or less resource he could gain one 1 attack and 1 health.

[Super Grover]

Seductress will still be played, just not by rogues just like how Puwen will still be played just not by warriors.

This statement is not entirely true. I know in my Garth Deck I use both Seductress and Sword Thief, so by giving Rogue and Rogue only access to a very similar ally seems too strong. Yes Sword Thief is more squishy than Seductress now and each has their benefits, so making them too similar would be wrong too.

Maybe Sword Thief could be stealth until beginning of next turn, that way he could still be targeted by direct damage, but that could help him stick around for a turn. But then again that might be too strong too...

[stray cat]

I'm all for buffing rogue.

sword thief with 2/3 is a puwen at 3cc. His ability is not all that useful early game if he can't survive even one turn. Right now I don't know how to use him in my deck. 2/4 would be much better.
Rogue has trouble against direct damage heroes like Zal or mages, so I need allies to be able to survive.
Having a rogue ally that can get killed so easily doesn't help at all. In fact, most rogue allies are not great at surviving direct damage (Nightshade and night owl with 2 health).
I just want any card that will help against these heroes.