Dagger Mastery

Dagger Mastery is the rogue's basic Hero Power.

Strategy

 * The rogue's Hero Power may seem weak at first glance, but is key to the tactical strengths of the rogue. This allows a rogue to tackle and potentially destroy a low-health minion each turn. This can allow the rogue to directly and very affordably remove low-level minions from the board during the early game, while still having enough mana to summon minions of their own. Unlike the druid's Shapeshift power, it only needs to be used once to gain two uses.


 * The main downside with this power is the same as with any other weapon - attacking a minion using it will cause that minion to deal its damage to the rogue. This is a critical tactical choice for rogues. This power can allow them to maintain strong board control through the early game, but that control comes at the price of substantial self-inflicted damage. The rogue may choose to take the damage themselves in order to protect their minions, allowing them to build an imposing army; but if their health dips too low, or their army is suddenly removed with a well-timed AoE, they may leave themselves open to a swift defeat.


 * This, its upgrade, and Ancient Blades, are the only Hero Power that allows a hero to equip a weapon on demand. The weapon, while fairly weak, can be improved by effects such as Deadly Poison, Tinker's Sharpsword Oil and Goblin Auto-Barber's Battlecry to offer something far more powerful, and can be used with cards such as Southsea Deckhand and Bloodsail Raider.


 * Unlike the druid's Shapeshift power, this power's effects do not expire at the end of the turn. This means that a rogue can use this power to equip a knife in advance, ready to be used whenever it is needed. This makes this power an excellent dump for spare mana.

Trivia

 * Until mid-2013, players with a weapon already equipped could choose to instead use Dagger Mastery to give the weapon +1 Attack - permanently. It became a common strategy to equip a Wicked Knife or other weapon, then use Dagger Mastery to slowly increase its damage turn by turn. Once an Attack of 7 or so was reached, the player could use the since removed card Envenom to increase it to 14 Attack, then a second Envenom to increase it to 28, by which point the rogue could simply one-shot the enemy hero. Ben Brode describes this version as "the most powerful Hero Power in the game by a wide margin" and "the most frustrating thing possible", on one occasion causing a team member to rip their mouse from their computer and throw it against the wall.
 * The artwork for this card comes from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game "Scourgewar" series, for the card Putrefying Poison.

Patch changes

 * No longer has the ability to buff a currently equipped weapon. Now reads: Equip a 1/2 Dagger.
 * Changed from "Equip a 1/2 Dagger; or Give your weapon +1 Attack." to ''Equip a 1/2 Dagger; or Give your weapon +1 Attack this turn."