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By: Lord Erman, Nafiz Erman
Apr 21 2014 12:00pm
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Hello dear readers and welcome to Rogue Play. Let me start this week's fun by saying that I blame this below card for this week's article:

Chromanticore

Yes, everything is its fault!! 

From the moment I saw this card in Born of the Gods spoilers, I knew I was going to do something with it. A five color deck with all kinds of juicy things in it always sounds fun to me, and recently I decided that it was time to work on it.

But as always, the thing with a five colored deck is mana and not getting color screwed. This has always been an issue with such decks. Dual lands are cool and all that, but when you're holding a spell in hand that maybe even says "you win the game", and all you have is lands that produce in front of you, you're pretty much screwed. So how was I going to avoid that?

The answer was simple actually:

1- I was going to stick to Green. Green was going to be my main color as it is THE color for color fixing, and I was going to build the rest of the deck around my Green spells.

2- There wasn't going to be any spells in deck without in their casting cost. 

3- There wasn't going to be any spell in deck with a double non-Green mana cost (here I made a small exception though).

So why? Why all these rules?

I did build lots of five colored decks in the past so I knew that playing a card, say, with a mana cost of was going to be easy, whereas playing a card that costs was going to be almost impossible. Having Red out together with Green can be arranged but having also Blue out at the same time? Not so much.

Fanatic of Xenagos Nivix Cyclops
Possible third turn play. Almost never a third turn play.

And the same was true for double non-Green mana costs by the way.

Master Biomancer Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Possible fourth turn play. Almost never a fourth turn play.

So these were the rules basically for a consistent five colored deck. Green at the center of it, no non-Green spells and no non-Green double mana costs. And once I had these rules set, I immediately started working on a very nice deck that was going to be able to cast Chromanticore without any problems. 

 

DECK #1
Not So Budget Friendly Version

I built two five colored decks. The first one I'm now going to show you is definitely not very budget friendly. But it's tons of fun. If you have the cards for the deck you'll see in a moment, please give it a try and see how much fun the deck is. If you don't, don't worry, an incredibly nice budget version will follow after this one.

So yes, Chromanticore and my five colored deck. The first thing I worked on of course was color fixing and mana ramping. For that I had many options but I chose these four cards:

Sylvan Caryatid Voyaging Satyr Courser of Kruphix Karametra, God of Harvests

Plain simple and straightforward choices.

From here I could have taken the deck to any direction. Aggro, Midrange, Control... anything was possible. But I decided to build a deck in which I could play as many planeswalkers as possible. Ever since those planeswalkers entered our Magic'al lives, I'm a big fan of them. And I thought that this could have been the perfect opportunity to use as many of them as possible.

So without further ado, I'm presenting you the final five colored deck I came up with:

 

Alright, let's see what I have here. First and foremost, I have the mana fixing creatures I mentioned above of course and the mana base to support the deck. All the shocklands that produce Green plus something else, as well as the Green scrylands. And as you can imagine, Golgari Guildgate is just a placeholder for the Golgari scryland.

Then I have the planeswalkers. I have five of them. Domri Rade, Xenagos, the Reveler, Garruk, Caller of Beasts, Kiora, the Crashing Wave and Vraska the Unseen. As you see, all are Green planeswalkers. I don't care about their second color; as long as they have the symbol, it's fine. Meaning no Jace or Elspeth sadly.

The rest then should be clear I think. Abrupt Decay is my removal as is Sylvan Primordial. Fathom Mage, Prime Speaker Zegana (the only card with double non-Green mana symbol in the deck) and Urban Evolution are there to draw cards obviously and finally Primeval Bounty and Progenitor Mimic are my "Jack of all trade" cards; meaning cards that can do many interesting things for me.

Oh and I have Chromanticore of course. The card that caused me to build this deck.

Okay, as usual, now it's time for test games. In theory, all decks are invincible. Only practice shows what they can really do. 

 

GAME 1:
Against Angelfire

I kill his Guttersnipe with Abrupt Decay, bring in two of my mana creatures and then Domri Rade, and get rid of his Young Pyromancer with Domri's middle ability.

I don't "unload" all my creatures because I fear a Supreme Verdict, so I play Garruk, Caller of Beasts and finally my harmless looking Fathom Mage. Both Domri Rade and Garruk, Caller of Beasts eventually get Detention Sphered, but that means my Primeval Bounty, which I play a few turns later, stays alive!

A Supreme Verdict then clears the board (as expected), another attempt to get Young Pyromancer "online" gets Abrupt Decayed, Jace, Architect of Thought comes down and dies immediately to my Sylvan Primordial, and my 6/8 Avatar creature together with my Primeval Bounty tokens seal the deal pretty quickly.

Overall: 1-0

 

GAME  2:
Against Selesnya Aggro

Sometimes words are good to make you understand what happens in a game. But sometimes, as in this time, words are a waste. Because a screenshot is sometimes worth ten thousand words.

I don't have anything else to say... 

... Oh wait, I do have one thing to say though. If you play a non-creature spell while Primeval Bounty is on table, and decide to put its +1/+1 counters on Fathom Mage, you draw cards like crazy. So crazy, that you can even deck yourself! So be careful with that. When this game ended, I had like six or seven cards left in my library.

So yeah, be careful with that Fathom Mage!

Overall: 2-0

 

GAME 3:
Against Another Selesnya Aggro

Well, it's another one of those, but this game ends more quicker.

He attacks with all three of his creatures to Xenagos, the Reveler so that he triggers his flyer's flying ability(!), but that creature meets its doom with my Abrupt Decay and he also loses his other creature as well, leaving him with just that Fleecemane Lion. Next turn Sylvan Primordial comes down and destroys his Spear of Heliod, he then untaps and concedes.

Overall: 3-0

 

GAME 4:
Against Mono Green

Thankfully I get down my Courser of Kruphix quickly and block one of his Kalonian Tuskers. Then Xenagos, the Reveler comes down as well and the token keeps blocking the other Kalonian Tusker. He then brings in a few more creatures, big enough to evade Abrupt Decay, but nothing Vraska the Unseen can't handle.

He then brings in Garruk, Caller of Beasts and a very big Reverent Hunter, but first I kill his Garruk with my Sylvan Primordial and then bring in Progenitor Mimic targeting my Sylvan Primordial

Next turn Kiora, the Crashing Wave comes down and shuts down his disturbingly big Reverent Hunter and it turns out that a Sylvan Primordial every turn via Progenitor Mimic is too much for him to handle. Of  course that, and Xenagos, the Reveler AND Vraska the Unseen AND Kiora, the Crashing Wave

Overall: 4-0

 

GAME 5: 
Against Red/Green Ramp

Hey, ramping into Sylvan Primordial is MY trick!! Ah well...

So until I get everything under control, I lose many good stuff including Xenagos, the Reveler, Vraska the Unseen, Domri Rade and a few more creatures. But at the end I keep my Sylvan Primordial alive and manage to enchant it with Chromanticore as well.

A 16/18 flyer with reach, first strike, lifelink, trample and vigilance must be hard to deal with.

The rest is "easy peasy".

Overall: 5-0

Alright dear readers, that was the first and not-so-budget-friendly version of this deck. As expected, it's performance was awesome and I can even say that it was a bit too much for the Casual Room. And now let's move onto the more budget friendly version and see what it can do.

 

DECK #2
The Budget Friendly Version

Right here at the beginning I have to say that "budget friendly" simply means for most people "bad". This is of course absolutely not true. Because no matter how budget friendly this one is, it still is capable of doing some absurd things. As in this:

See? Budget doesn't have to be bad. You can still do some stupid stuff even though you're deck doesn't play the most expensive cards in the game.

So anyway, the first thing I did to turn this deck into a more budget friendly deck, was to change the mana base entirely. Oh the mana base AND the creatures for ramping as well.

I Want It All... But Can't Pay Much
Under Construction
Creatures
4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Voyaging Satyr
6 cards

Other Spells
4 Darksteel Ingot
4 cards
Lands
4 Golgari Guildgate
4 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
23 cards
 
Darksteel Ingot

 

No more dual lands or those expensive Courser of Kruphixes. What I have here is totally fine for all kinds of budgets. I could have had Temple of Plenty instead of Selesnya Guildgate but of course that wasn't an option due to its price. So that's how I fixed mana and ramping.

And I also removed Karametra, God of Harvests not because of her price, but because there weren't any dual lands in the deck anymore. She was very useful in the first deck fetching me all my dual lands whenever needed, but here all she could have done for me was to give me a basic Forest. So she stayed out.

Next I decided what to do with my planeswalkers from the first list. All but Xenagos, the Reveler were expensive cards. So I only kept the Satyr planeswalker, also added his godly(!) version as well and moved on to the rest of the deck.

I Want It All... As Long As I Can Afford It
Under Construction
Creatures
4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Voyaging Satyr
2 Xenagos, God of Revels
8 cards

Other Spells
4 Darksteel Ingot
3 Xenagos, the Reveler
7 cards
Lands
4 Golgari Guildgate
4 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
23 cards
 
Xenagos, God of Revels

 

Next part I worked on was removal. In my first list I had Sylvan Primordial and Abrupt Decay. For this version I kept Sylvan Primordial but replaced Abrupt Decay with Putrefy.

I Want It All... But Let's Talk About Money
Under Construction
Creatures
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Sylvan Primordial
2 Voyaging Satyr
2 Xenagos, God of Revels
11 cards

Other Spells
4 Darksteel Ingot
3 Putrefy
3 Xenagos, the Reveler
10 cards
Lands
4 Golgari Guildgate
4 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
23 cards
 
Putrefy

 

Then I looked at the rest of the deck. Fathom Mage, Chromanticore, Urban Evolution, Primeval Bounty, Progenitor Mimic and Prime Speaker Zegana were going to stay. But I had still some empty slots to fill. And the most important slot I had to fill was actually Courser of Kruphix's one. The life gain from that creature was helping me greatly when playing the first deck. Here I had no life gain. I had to find something to replace it.

My first choice was Centaur Healer of course but later during testing I replaced it with this one:

Horizon Chimera

Testing showed me that this one was a much better choice than Centaur Healer even though it costs one more and is a bit more fragile. But with the amount of card drawing I had in deck, a.k.a. Fathom Mage and Urban Evolution and Prime Speaker Zegana, gaining stupid amounts of life was possible, so I decided to use it.

And for the final two empty slots I chose a real monster; I decided to add Arbor Colossus to the deck. It was useful because of its relatively low cost and its very big and fat(!) body, its ability to kill Desecration Demon and all that jazz, as well as helping me turn my Xenagos, God of Revels into a creature.

And at the end, the budget version of my five colored deck, turned out to be this:

 

Looks good, no? Not sure? Alright then, let's see it in action and then you can decide how good or bad it is. 

 

GAME 1:
Against Selesnya Aggro

What is this? Why are Selesnya decks all over the Casual Room? Do people warm themselves up for the new Ajani? Ah well, I don't mind.

So long story short, this below happens in this game:

Pretty straightforward.

Overall: 1-0

 

GAME 2:
Against Control-ish Jund

Anger of the Gods and a couple Dreadbores kill all my early game plays but I don't really care too much. All he does is to kill what I play and that means I can reach to seven mana to cast Sylvan Primordial without any problems. I do that and destroy his Blood Crypt, he kills it as expected, but I then play another Sylvan Primordial targeting another Black source of his and the next turn enchant it with Chromanticore. He untaps, draws and concedes.

Overall: 2-0

 

GAME 3:
Against White Weenie

I take some early game beating as expected, then play Xenagos, the Reveler to draw his attention somewhere else than my life total. It works and I basically Fog him by sacrificing my "Party God". Sylvan Caryatid is a nice blocker even though not enough on its own, and I finally use my Putrefy I had in my opening hand targeting his Frontline Medic. Indestructible is not nice!

I then sacrifice yet another Xenagos, the Reveler and that Brave the Elements making his creatures unblockable gives me a heart attack, but slowly and steadily I gain the board advantage. Prime Speaker Zegana comes down as a 3/3, then I play Sylvan Primordial and then Horizon Chimera. A Banisher Priest banishes(!) my 6/8 Avatar creature for some time but it's not something a second Putrefy can't solve.

Finally Xenagos, God of Revels comes down and it's "gg" very shortly after that.

Overall: 3-0

 

GAME 4:
Against Life Gain w/Sanguine Bond

His is a nice deck I have to admit. It starts as normal mono Black devotion, then White mana starts showing up, Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Liliana of the Dark Realms come down. And after some really bloody fights on the battlefield, I manage to kill them both and also manage to win the war of attrition (I destroy that, he destroys this, strongest one survives), and all of a sudden those two Sanguine Bonds become meaningless.

My Xenagos, the Reveler is "online" since turn three by the way and with his tokens and with my two Horizon Chimeras' huge contribution (both for the life they make me gain and their red zone "activities"), I manage to overcome the problems.

Top play of the game: Urban Evolution with two Horizon Chimeras on table. It was fun!

Overall: 4-0

 

GAME 5: 
Against Four Color Angelic Accord

This is an awesome game! 

My opponent starts the game incredibly fast with tons of card drawing spells, Supreme Verdicts and on top of them, three(!!!!!) Angelic Accords. I catch him fully tapped and Putrefy his Elixir of Immortality (phew, that was close!) and then two Sylvan Primordials take out two Angelic Accords. 

But he reaches to some seriously high mana and starts casting his Merciless Evictions. An Elixir of Immortality shuffles everything he played back, and it's again rinse and repeat. Supreme Verdict, Divination, Urban Evolution, Angelic Accord, Merciless Eviction... Oh God!

I in return, bring in Xenagos, the Reveler and Primeval Bounty and managed to squeeze in a few points of damage at that point.

He then plays another Elixir of Immortality, makes two Angel tokens but I force him to once again sweep the board with Supreme Verdict

Primeval Bounty from that point on becomes my superstar, as it gives me a beefy 3/3 creature every time I play a creature. And even though he seems to have endless Supreme Verdicts and Merciless Evictions, there comes a point where he's out of those.

Exactly nineteen damage when my opponent is at nineteen life. Nice!

I first play a Fathom Mage who comes down with a 3/3 token of course, and at the end of his turn bring in my Horizon Chimera. On my turn I play Chromanticore as enchantment and put all the +1/+1 counters from Primeval Bounty on Fathom Mage (drawing lots of cards). And then I swing for lethal.

Overall: 5-0

 

WRAP UP

The last time I played a five colored deck was waaaaaaay back when Lorwyn and Alara were the Standard blocks. I remember having a deck with Bloodbraid Elfs, Cryptic Commands and Ajani Vengeants, and at the end I was even casting Cruel Ultimatums! It's been so long since I enjoyed the "full might" of Magic with its every color and their best cards available to me. Therefore I think I must thank Chromanticore for making me build this week's decks. Both of them were huge fun to build and to play.

Ravnica and its dual lands (shocklands and gatelands) will still be in Standard for like another five months, so I can only suggest you dear readers to take this week's decks as an inspiration for you and start brewing some nice five colored decks. Oh, and the Timmier the better! I think that as I'm getting older, the Spike in me dies with every age and the Timmy in me grows and grows and even starts playing an influential part in my card choices. 

So yes, build something five colored and make it big!!

 

A FINAL NOTE
Sideboards

I received a few comments in the past weeks about adding sideboards to my decks. I don't do that because:

1- As you are fully aware, my column is aimed more at casual players rather than the Spike-y crowd. And in casual games, you really don't need a sideboard.

2- You need to have a meta to have a sideboard. In tournaments, you have an idea of what you may face and so you can work on a sideboard. On the other hand, the Casual Room doesn't have a meta to begin with! In one game I play against Slivers, in the other game I play against an Angelic Accord deck as you saw, or I play against something even weirder like Possibility Storm. What would you side against these?! And not to mention I'm playing all kinds of weird things myself! So yeah, sideboards don't really work in the Casual Room.

3- I can still work on something generic and start my games as matches. And to be honest I did that too at some point. But seeing a game set as a match makes the majority think that I'm looking for a practice for tournaments somehow. Even though we're in the Casual Room. And all I faced in those matches were boring and cutthroat tournament decks. The real casual crowd doesn't really have sideboards for their decks.

So the bottom line is that sideboards are not "working as intended" in the Casual Room and they're a bit pointless. 

Alright dear readers, that was all from for this week.

As always, thanks for reading.

See you online.
Nafiz Erman, aka Lord Erman

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