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ROGUE PLAY
Right or Wrong, I'm Goin' Rogue
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| by Nafiz Erman |
Hello dear readers, especially rogue deck builders, and welcome to another installment of Rogue Play. This week we have a lot to talk about. The first results of Standard tournaments have started to appear on the internet and very soon we will have their impact on MTGO too. And in this article we will first take a brief look at those decks of the new post Rise of the Eldrazi meta and then we will start brewing rogue deck ideas for the format. But before we do those things, we must first know what actually a rogue deck is and how to build one.
WHAT IS A ROGUE DECK ANYWAY?
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A rogue deck basically is a deck that is "different". Rogue deck designers first examine the meta, see what kinds of decks are winning and then they try to find the weaknesses of those decks and try to find ways to use those weaknesses to their advantage.
An example: Last November when the Standard meta was nothing but Jund, a new rogue deck called Spread'Em has emerged. It was designed to exploit the one and only weakness of Jund; its mana base. This rogue deck was using Cascade cards specifically to get its Spreading Seas and Convincing Mirage out. The Jund player's lands were turning into Islands very fast and this fact was making it impossible for the Jund player to cast spells with three different colors in their casting cost such as Sprouting Thrinax or Broodmate Dragon.
So as you can also see from this example, to have success with a rogue deck one must first examine the meta very closely. No deck is perfect and there are always little black holes in them. It surely needs skill and careful eyes and a good amount of knowledge to see those little black holes but once you find them, you can be the builder of something like Spread'Em above and have success with your rogue deck.
And let's see why one should bother to build a rogue deck.
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No, by "rogue" I don't mean building a tribal Rogues deck. |
SERIOUSLY, WHY BOTHER?
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Just above I said that rogue decks are different. Well, playing a different deck in a tournament is not good because it looks cooler. It's not good because it makes you look smarter. Playing a deck that is different is good because different wins.
There is also one other thing: All the Tier-1 decks -the so called netdecks- are predictable. When you see a Savage Lands on turn one, you know what's going to happen. And if you are a good player playing a good deck, this information alone can win you the game.
If you are facing a   Control, you know what your opponent is up to, you know how he is trying to win, late game you can even predict the cards he holds in his hand. This is like cheating! This is like having a Telepathy on table without actually having it on table.
But none of those are true for rogue decks. Rogue decks are different because they are not the decks your opponents expect to show up. They are ready to battle Jund or Control but they have no idea what to do against rogue decks. They will have no idea about your archetype, about your strategy; they will not know what hit'em. And that is dear readers what we call "the element of surprise".
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ARE ROGUE DECKS BAD DECKS?
This is what most people think of rogue decks and of course it is not true. Bad decks use bad cards. Runeclaw Bear is a bad card for constructed tournament level Magic. Don't add four of it to your deck and call it a rogue deck.
But just because rogue decks are born from a certain meta, they may have some cards which may look bad at first. Such as that Convincing Mirage in the Spread'Em deck. When M10 first came out and when you first saw Convincing Mirage, what was your reaction? You most probably said "meh" and moved on. It looked like a bad card to you. And this is exactly why most people think rogue decks are bad decks. A deck playing a full playset of Convincing Mirage should be bad right?
No, it's not right.
MOVING FORWARD
First Step: Analyzing the Meta
So now we all know what a rogue deck is and why one should bother to build one. But I did also say another thing: A rogue deck is born from a certain meta; in our case the new Standard meta. Before we build a rogue deck, we must first examine the meta and try to find those "little black holes" I mentioned above. Otherwise we might end up with a deck that has four Runeclaw Bears in it; aka a bad deck.
ENEMY #1 - Polymorph Decks and its variants
Apparently people finally found a way and a deck to cheat big monsters into play with the good old Polymorph. Awakening Zone from the new set gives this deck the tokens it needs and then it's either a Progenitus or an Iona, Shield of Emeria or something even more scary; it's an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
To cheat that big body into play, some other players use another brilliant(!) card; they use Brilliant Ultimatum. And of course Summoning Trap is still out there.
ENEMY #2 - Jund
Jund is going nowhere and apparently the addition of Sarkhan the Mad to the deck made it even stronger. This below list, which was also shown on the dailymtg.com last Friday, seems to be the next generation of "traditional" Jund.
So what has changed? The competition to be the card at the "five cost" spot was very high and it seems that Bituminous Blast lost the competition to the new mad planeswalker. Other than that, the list is just the same old Jund we know and love hate.
ENEMY #3 - Mythic Conscription / Traditional Mythic Bant
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When Eldrazi Conscription was first spoiled, people immediately started posting deck ideas on various forums and most of those decks had Sovereigns of Lost Alara in it. I only smiled; after all it seemed like a very nice casual deck idea and nothing more.
Apparently I was wrong. Terribly wrong even.
People already started using Eldrazi Conscription together with Sovereigns of Lost Alara and those decks even win very serious and high level tournaments. From what I read, turning a 0/1 Birds of Paradise into a 10/11 flying monster with trample and annihilator 2, is something we should take very seriously in the coming days.
Of course some other players are still fond to their traditional Mythic Bant decks. Thirty creatures plus four Finest Hours worked before the new set and it seems that it will continue working after it too. There are differences in each version I saw but the general idea is the same in all of them; mana ramp fast into an early threat and keep bashing. I also noticed that Dauntless Escort is becoming slowly a part of this plan too. Some play only one copy but some has a full playset in the maindeck.
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ENEMY #4 - Control / 
Control / 
Control
There are many different variants of Control out there; some play nine creatures and four to six counterspells and some play only four Wall of Omens' and play almost no counters. But the thing they have in common is their planeswalkers. Jace and Elspeth fight side by side in all variants of Control and sometimes Gideon Jura joins them for glory.
The other version adds Red to the mix for mainly Ajani Vengeant.
Ajani Vengeant is very important in a Control vs. Control match-up; it's not easy for a Control to deal with this planeswalker. Also he has synergy with Gideon Jura. He leaves a creature tapped and then Gideon comes in and immediately Assassinates it.
And finally we have the Esper version. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a staple in all versions as is Gideon Jura but this one also uses the services Liliana Vess provides. Also using Black means having access to cards like Esper Charm, Malakir Bloodwitch but more importantly Duress.
And that's seems to be all of the big names. Four categories and eight decks. If one wishes to build a successful rogue deck, he must first analyze these decks and find their weaknesses.
TO THE LAB
Second Step: Examining Their Strengths & Weaknesses
Now we know what we are up against and now we should seek for those little black holes. There are several areas we should attack and below is a list of those.
Problem #1 - Their (fragile) Manabase
It's easy to see that all of those decks use a lot of nonbasics. Some in the form of normal duals or tri-lands and some manlands. If we want to slow them down, we should first attack this area.
Solution: Playing main deck Goblin Ruinblasters is a good idea if you're in Red. Blue has Spreading Seas and Green has Acidic Slime and Mold Shambler. Every color by the way has access to Tectonic Edge; never leave it outside of your main deck. And Black just received its own Spreading Seas in the form of Contaminated Ground.
Manlands can be dealt with the same cards but sometimes we just have to "spend" our LD cards on others and these manlands can pose a threat. Therefore do not forget to add instant speed removal to your decks. Burst Lightning can deal with Celestial Colonnade. Any manland can be killed with a single Smother or a Path to Exile. Even Consume the Meek offers a good solution; after all manlands are creatures with a casting cost less than three!
Problem #2 - Their Planeswalkers
The card type planeswalker is getting more important with each new set. Once upon a time Garruk Wildspeaker and Jace Beleren were the most important ones but they look like complete newbies next to what we have today. There is almost no deck around that doesn't play planeswalkers. Some even build their whole strategy upon them. Be ready to deal with them!
Solution: Of course you can just deal enough damage and kill them. But things aren't that easy anymore. Players play decks that can play AND protect their planeswalkers. But still burn spells are a good way of getting rid of them. Blightning for example is still a very useful card for that reason. It kills the opponent's hand and his planeswalker at the same time.
If you aren't in Red, you should consider Oblivion Ring, Maelstrom Pulse and Mold Shambler. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is an expensive way to deal with the planeswalkers but he also gets the job done. Of course something as simple as Vampire Hexmage will also do the trick. Or you can kill all of them with a single All is Dust.
Problem #3 - Problematic Creatures
Big decks play big creatures. The gigantic Eldrazi are out there and people are cheating them into play this way or another. Then there are those creatures with shroud. Sphinx of Jwar Isle is still the prime choice of many Control decks.
Also do not forget Iona, Shield of Emeria. She alone can shut down many decks.
Solution: For the Eldrazi you should play removal that don't "destroy" but exile instead. Also removal that targets a creature has no effect on Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. And also don't forget that Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre is indestructible. Use cards like Oblivion Ring and Journey to Nowhere on them. Oh them, and you should also start using this one too:
Executioner's Capsule kills Emrakul, it kills an attacking Gideon and it also is your way out of an Iona lock. And an Executioner's Capsule on table will dramatically change the outcome of a game. Decks that rely only on a few big monsters should find a way to deal with it before playing their threats. And this will buy huge amounts of time for you.
And to deal with those shroud creatures we have several ways. Mass removal as in Day of Judgment is a good way for starters. Vampire Nighthawk is another one. Even a deck that has access to flyers should consider Basilisk Collar at least in its sideboard.
Alternatively you can add Gatekeeper of Malakir and/or the new Consuming Vapors to your deck.
Problem #4 - Aggro decks
Aggro decks are out there and unless you're one of them, you have to find ways to deal with them. Expect to play against decks like Allies or Mythic Bant with thirty creatures and no removal.
Solution: Mass removal as in Day of Judgment is still very viable. There's a reason why some of those Control decks play six mass removal spells. You can alternatively slow them down by killing their mana creatures. Volcanic Fallout would take out all of them at once. Earthquake kills all but leaves only the birds alive. This way they will be forced to play their Baneslayer Angel on their turn five and not sooner.
Problem #5 - Some Troublesome Cards
Polymorph is one. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is another one. And Iona, Shield of Emeria is yet another one. If we don't want to be killed by them, we should do something about them.
Solution: One of these two below is a good solution for starters:
Removing all their Jace, the Mind Sculptor with a Thought Hemorrhage is just cruel. But stealing their lone Iona, Shield of Emeria with a Telemin Performance is even worse!
You can alternatively try Haunting Echoes. Counter their troublesome card and then get rid of it with your Haunting Echoes.
Problem #6 - Big Opposing Hands
I don't like those. The best opponent is the one with zero cards in hand. Even if this won't happen in every game unless you play a dedicated discard deck, you should at least have some control over his hand.
Solution: Unfortunately this is a "Black-Only" area and cards like Duress, Mind Shatter, Mind Rot or even the new Inquisition of Kozilek belong to Black. You can splash Black to your Red deck for Blightning or splash Black to your White deck for Identity Crisis.
And these are the main problems we must solve with our rogue decks. So many things and only seventy five cards!
TO THE DRAWING BOARD
Third Step: Building Decks
Okay now we will build a few decks. But we know what kind of decks we have to build.
1- We have to have ways to attack the opponent's mana base. We also have to have ways to deal with manlands.
2- We know that we will face planeswalkers. We must be ready to deal with them outside of combat.
3- Our opponents will play creatures that are not easy to deal with. We must be prepared.
4- There will be Aggro decks. We must be able to deal with them too.
5- Some decks rely on a few specific cards. We should play some other specific cards to punish them.
6- If possible, we should have a way to control the opponent's hand.
Now looking at the options, I see that almost all colors offer solutions to those six problems. Unfortunately we can't play a five color deck so we should limit ourselves with three colors maximum.
Option #1 - 
Big BUG
So why should we combine these three colors? What do they offer us? I will actually just name you two cards: Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Maelstrom Pulse.
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So these are our main reasons why we will play a deck. Jace is pure card advantage. There is no way we can ignore him; he's just that good. Then Maelstrom Pulse is the best weapon to deal with planeswalkers. Oblivion Ring sure is nice but it isn't a permanent solution. Maelstrom Pulse is.
We will then of course add a full playset of Spreading Seas to our deck. But that's not enough! We will also play Tectonic Edge. These cards will buy us the time we need against Jund and they will kill opponent's Celestial Colonnades too.
Of course these are all nice but we should also have a way to end games, right? For that we will use the good old Sphinx of Jwar Isle. It's nothing fancy but it gets the job done. Some of you might also try Abyssal Persecutor as a fast way of ending games, but I prefer the shroud sphinx over it.
Card drawing is another very important aspect of a deck. For that we will have Jace who is nice but we should have alternatives of course. Therefore I am thinking of Ponder for early game and Sphinx of Lost Truths for late game as mentioned above. I will also have Explore which I will use for both card drawing and mana ramping.
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For removal I have a lot of good options to choose from: Smother, Agony Warp, Executioner's Capsule, Consuming Vapors, Consume the Meek, Doom Blade and Vendetta are all good candidates.
Okay we did enough talking, let's see all those cards in an actual decklist.
This isn't tested yet but I hope you can see the potential in here. Heavy testing might reveal a few problems but I think that those problems can be fixed quickly.
Actually this is mainly a deck that splashes Green for a few cards only. I did play a few test games and the result were actually okay. I saw that my main deck was a piece of cake for Aggro decks but after sideboarding I also saw that things were changing dramatically. Essence Scatter and Consume the Meek from the sideboard were very efficient against them.
Here's a screenshot which may help you understand:
I know that White Weenie isn't the best deck in Standard but my games against it were very helpful to understand the deck's power. White Weenie ended game one on turn five easily but then after sideboarding things changed. I started countering his creatures and/or destroying them all with one single spell (Maelstrom Pulse and Consume the Meek). And after I got Jace online, things were very easy.
Of course this is only one way of going rogue in Standard. There are several others and let's discuss them quickly.
Option #2 - Midrange
This color combination actually offers us a lot of great cards. Even though we don't have Jace anymore with us, we will not be missing him. Because right now we have both Oblivion Ring and Maelstrom Pulse to deal with planewalkers. Oblivion Ring is also good against problematic creatures such as Sprouting Thrinax and Maelstrom Pulse is the perfect weapon against those 1/1 Soldier tokens of Martial Coup.
While those defensive cards protect us, we will be bashing the opponent with extra powerful creatures such as Baneslayer Angel and Knight of the Reliquary. Grim Discovery will help us to resurrect dead creatures and Dauntless Escort will protect us from mass destruction spells.
Actually I have several different versions of a Midrange deck in mind and the first one is this:
This version plays some of the best cards in the current Standard. Six anti-planeswalker cards in the maindeck should be enough to deal with those decks that rely mainly on their planeswalkers to win. The sideboard has four Executioner's Capsules and they should be enough against Polymorph decks.
One other version I have in mind is a more defensive one. This version also plays the Oblivion Ring / Maelstrom Pulse duo to deal with opposing planeswalkers but it also relies on it own planeswalkers to win.
I'm talking about something like this:
This is actually a deck that fits my play style very well. First of all the deck has tons of mass removal and they make sure that no living thing could exist on table. I already talked about my anti-planeswalker package and then I also have main deck Executioner's Capsule to be able to deal with any Polymorph and/or Brilliant Ultimatum decks. Then my Captured Sunlight will always cascade into an answer (hopefully not Martial Coup though) while giving me four life. And the rest is planeswalkers, planeswalkers and planeswalkers.
Option #3 - Grixis Control
Another way of going rogue is to play the good old Grixis Control. Cruel Ultimatum lost none of its potency yet and Grixis offers many other great tools to fight today's Standard's Tier-1 decks.
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The only downside of playing Grixis is that we don't have access to neither Oblivion Ring nor to Maelstrom Pulse anymore. But that is okay because now we have Red with us and Red is offering us tons of great burn spells.
Speaking of burn spells, I must say that I tested Staggershock and yes, it is as fantastic as it first seemed in theory.
This color combination is also offering us a lot of great cards to attack opponent's hand. Duress is a must but we also have now Sedraxis Specter. Oh that, and we also have the dreadful Blightning in our armory now.
And finally we have a very rich removal package at our disposal. Cruel Ultimatum is already in deck and we also have Staggershock. But of course we will add Lightning Bolt and Terminate to our deck too. Even Chandra Nalaar will be with us.
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We also have lots of great options for our sideboard. First of all we have Thought Hemorrhage. Then we have Goblin Ruinblaster too. Remember what I told you above; nonbasic destruction will be very important in the next generation of Standard. And finally we will use Telemin Performance too. I just can't wait to cast it against a Polymorph deck to steal their Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
And let's see the decklist:
So as you see, Grixis has it all. Just above I said that a good deck should be able to the following things:
1- It should be able to deal with the opponent's nonbasic lands. Grixis has Spreading Seas and Goblin Ruinblaster.
2- It should be able to deal with the opposing planeswalkers. Grixis has a lot of burn spells.
3- The deck should be able to deal with those problematic creatures. After the rest has been killed via burn and/or other removal spells, Cruel Ultimatum kills that lone shroud creature.
4- It should be able to deal with Aggro decks. Grixis has lots of removal and burn, and if testing will show that they're not enough, there is always the possibility to add a few Earthquakes or Consume the Meeks to the sideboard.
5- The deck should be able to deal with those Polymorph decks and other decks that rely on a few key cards. Grixis has Thought Hemorrhage and Telemin Performance. And the possibility to counter those spells with a Countersquall is also there.
6- It should have control over the opponent's hand. This is what Grixis does best. Blightning, Cruel Ultimatum, Duress, Sedraxis Specter are all there for this reason.
I think that you now agree that Grixis is the best possibility for going rogue in Standard. Actually a Cruel Ultimatum deck can hardly be considered as a rogue deck but as you know dear readers, times are changing. There was once a time when five color Cruel Control deck was one of the most dominant decks in Standard but that's not so true anymore.
Option #4 - Use the graveyard
Looking at the Tier-1 decks, I see that none is prepared to play against a deck that manipulates the graveyard. We can of course take advantage of this fact. Open the Vaults is therefore a very good possibility. But that's not all. A deck playing Sphinx of Lost Truths and Marshal's Anthem could also be a very good deck. Sending an Iona, Shield of Emeria to the graveyard only to resurrect her the next turn is a very efficient play. One may even consider It That Betrays as a juicy resurrection target.
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How to resurrect |
This will play as a regular Control deck during the first few turns and therefore it will be very misleading for the opponent. Even the fifth turn Sphinx of Lost Truths may not ring a bell. But then he will understand what you are really up to but it will be too late for him.
And the best part is that sideboarding won't change too much. People don't expect too many Open the Vaults decks and therefore don't add cards to their sideboards to deal with graveyards. And that is exactly why one should consider this deck as a rogue deck alternative.
Option #5 - If all of the above fails, netdeck a rogue deck
I know that this is a very weird suggestion to make. But don't forget one thing: Successful decks, rogue or not, require time to build and even more time to fine-tune. Finding the correct numbers always takes a lot of time. But there are those that simply don't have that time (including me for example). What then should those players do?
Well, those people should use the internet of course! There are tons of great rogue deck builders around the world and their decks aren't that hard to find if you only know where to look. Even the mothership site has useful information (tons of even!). I saw this below deck there last Friday:
This is such an excellent deck! It is designed to cascade into an answer every time; especially after sideboarding. Does your opponent play a Polymorph deck? Cool, cascade into a Meddling Mage and stop him. Is he boring you with his Spreading Seas' or other enchantments and artifacts? Okay, then cascade into a Qasali Pridemage and solve that problem.
This is by far the best rogue deck I've seen recently. If I would fail in my attempt to build that perfect rogue deck for Standard, then I know what I will play!
SUMMARY
Okay dear readers, I think we talked about everything there is to talk. We examined the meta, we talked about the common problems and went though the possible solutions. Then we built a few example decklists using that knowledge.
Of course I know that rogue decks are not for everyone. Most of us trust the professional players and simply copy their deck choices. This is of course very acceptable. After all those professional Magic players spend hours and days and even weeks to build just a single deck. Why just not simply use them? Why bother playing something different?
There is actually one simple reason which I mentioned at the beginning of the article. By playing something different, we will raise our chances of winning. Don't forget: Different wins.
NEXT WEEK ON ROGUE PLAY
Wrapping Up the BYOS Season
The first BYOS (Build Your Own Standard) season has ended and we now have a champion. Next week I will talk about the season from my own perspective, give you a detailed report from the final invitation-only tournament and wrap up the season. It was definately fun and who knows, maybe I will convince you to take part in the second season!
Thanks for reading.
See you online,
Nafiz Erman, aka Lord Erman
5 Comments
Excellent decks LE. Some of them almost make me wish I owned the cards.
Indeed.
I might try the Grixis version without Jace. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that the good decks have 2-6 $50+ cards but it's certainly a barrier to entry.
Edit: Nice job Wizards on making mythics "non-staples". Didn't they make some whole big announcement about how the mythic rarity wouldn't be aimed at staples?
Thanks for the comments guys.
A few things: Any deck that plays Blue these days and doesn't/can't play Jace v.2 (due to budget concerns mainly), should have Jace v.1 at least in its sideboard. It's already a decent card on its own but remember that it's also your best way of killing Jace v.2!!! And considering the current meta, you will definately face him more than a few times. So don't forget to add Jace v.1 to your decks.
The decks in the article are all at testing stages and I also don't have lots of the new cards yet (Gideon for starters). I will especially try hard to make that Big BUG deck work because I like a lot. I mean Jace v.2 + Pulse are really solving a lot of problems on their own. I'm even thinking of adding Lorescale Coatl to the mix because it has a lot of synergy with Jace v.2; each time you Brainstorm with him, the snake gets +3/+3... permanently! Sphinx of Lost Truths also gives it +3/+3 when you play it. I'm now also working on that version. If I can make it into something powerful, I will most definately mention it in a future article.
Finally: I know that not many people find rogue decks appealing but I hope that this one was useful at least for a few players out there.
Thanks all for reading.
LE
Some people love rogue decks. Keep 'em coming! I've been brewing on my own, so it's cool to see what others are coming up with.
I really dislike current Standard, but the Big BUG deck (almost) tempts me into playing a bit. A bit more playtesting would be welcome, but it seems you'll get to that in future "episodes".
Keem 'em coming.