you should actually think about metallic mimic and oona's bodyguard....seems pretty explosive to me
Oona's Blackguard is already in a lot of folks' lists. I'm not sure Metallic Mimic adds enough for me considering it has no evasion compare to some of the 1-drops that do, but I suppose that will depend on one's build.
Door of Destinies is way too slow at 4-mana + a creature, it is just a Bad Moon that comes too late most of the time.
The maindeck Leyline of the Void is also a rather strange inclusion imho (you play against a lot of "Dredge" decks ?).
In my version of the deck I'm probably going to cut some removal (2x Dismember) and the 2x Quickling and add 4x Smuggler's Copter which provides looting and a bigger-evasive body to the smaller/ground creatures.
Playtested monoblack a little. The deck was a lot of fun, and surprisingly competitive, but I had trouble closing games out fast enough. So I'm thinking some burn will help give a little extra reach against slower decks and removal against faster decks. Plus having answers to affinity and ensnaring bridge is good.
blightning is a great replacement for noggin whack that doesn't rely on prowl and frees up the two drop slot a little. You can even run both against slower decks for maximum disruption.
cloak and dagger is way too good. This deck struggles against removal heavy decks. If they kill your first few creatures, you can be stuck with a handful of uncastable prowl cards, so multiples of either cloak or invisible stalker are mandatory. Probably should be playing some number of thoughtseize type cards in the main or side, but I wanna give this list a whirl and see how it plays out.
So I tried out b/r rogues for quite sometime in the tournament practice area on MTGO.
It was a lot of fun. Blightning is very powerful, and there were a few games I won out of nowhere, dealing 8 damage in burn in one turn. However I just wasn't doing well enough. Frogtosser banneret ended up being very bad in my opinion, and there were times when something really needed to die on the otherside of the field and lightning bolt wasn't enough to kill it. additionally, blightning had a bad habit of getting countered by decks that blightning really shines against. And once again, I was still having problems against removal heavy decks, especially when they killed my turn one or turn two creature and left me with a hand full of prowl cards.
So I tried out u/b splashing for invisible stalker and spell pierce. Both cards were great, but stalker alone was too slow, he needs an anthem effect or equipment in order to be really threatening. Even powering him and other rogues up with oona's blackguard still wasn't that great. It was very slow to make use of, and the blackguard is super fragile. I only ever got to use her discard effect maybe twice in all my games I played because she often died before I could ever even put counters on stuff. For two mana, It just didn't seem worth it. Then I got my butt whooped by a midrange deck running sorin, solemn visitor and a lightbulb went off. So, I give you, esper rogues:
Most of these cards are self explanatory. Sorin is a another very powerful anthem effect that helps recover from boardwipe and draw fire from the aggro lists. Deft duelist is a very strong turn two play that is good on its own but still synergizes with the rest of the deck. It is particularly strong against removal heavy decks and fast aggro decks since the first strike allows it to block pretty well. Another plus to splashing white is better removal and sideboard cards, like Rest in peace, stony silence, path to exile, and any artifact/enchantment removal you decide to through in.
On a side note, cloak and dagger doesn't target when you equip it for free. So you can still equip it to your shroud creatures, and a 4/1 with first strike and shroud is pretty tough to deal with.
I'm going to test this list for a bit and get back to you guys with some results. But so far, the deck still seems to have problems with naya zoo, ensnaring bridge, and blood moon decks. I'm thinking a basic plain and something like fragmentize might be necessary.
Other cards of note you fine furry people might be interested in.
sickening shoal
Even though you're prowl spells typically cost 2-3 mana, their actual costs are much higher, which makes sickening shoal a free spell that kills almost anything. Sometimes, I wish I had that in hand instead of fatal push since I can't always trigger revolt
neurok commando
it's a rogue. It has shroud. It draws cards. 'Nuff said. I fully intend to test this card moving forward.
undying evil
for those of you still running oona's blackguard, this card combos nicely. It counters a removal spell, lets you block a dude, buffs your creature, and it makes for discard with the blackguard.
bitterblossom
anyone else try this card? Personally I hated it when I was on u/b rogues. It was too slow to make a difference most of the time and a terrible draw once you were low on life. The only time it was good was on turn two or three against hard control. Although it's possible the card would work a lot better alongside sorin, solemn visitor. That may warrant testing in the future.
ashiok, nightmare weaver
this card is pretty sweet against midrange and slower aggro decks, like merfolk or eldrazi. Another card I plan on testing later. His ultimate seals the deal against control as well. Perhaps I'll try two or three in the board.
I'm running a tempo-ish version and it is pretty fast as is. I have 21 lands: 4x Drowned Catacomb, 4x Choked Estuary, 8 Swamp and 5 Island. So far I have invested the most money into the non-lands but will soon be adding in Watery Grave.
My question is two-fold:
Is Watery Grave an automatic 4-of or do folks run 3 shocklands at times?
Also as I currently skew Swamp over Island, would it be better/worse/no change to include 3-4 Tainted Isle?
As I said the deck is already running pretty fast. The only card in there requiring more than a single U or B to cast is Earwig Squad but I typically Prowl them out anyhow and that reduces the color-specific need to B. I had been playing with 2 Countersquall but so rarely used them I have side-boarded both.
I've even played with 20 lands successfully, perhaps when Watery Grave gets included I'll drop back to that number.
On a general note, I love this tribe and the Prowl mechanic. I only started with a $60 version of this deck and quickly outgrew the meta of my playgroup with it, even against some really strong decks (Ezurri Elves, Bogles, Prowess RDW, Eldrazi).
i've never had a problem with Drowned Catacomb, if it's in my hand and I keep I also have a Swamp and my deck is 8 of black 1 drops that I can play Swamp turn 1 and the Catacombs turn 2 and later with no problem. Same with the Choked Estuary. Always plenty of swamps or islands in hand early on. I would assume taking swamps and islands out for 4 WAtery Graves would not effect that as those have the correct land type listed to work with the Catacombs and Graves. The deck skews black and goblin rogues outnumber the faerie rogues,
Do you have an updated list to spring off of D90Dennis14? I remember playing mini black rogues a few years back and it was a blast. Might have to throw together a non budget rogue list and see how far I can push it.
Also, for everyone, how have your matchup been? What so you fear and what do you love?
Red should be burn, Goblins, Dragons, draw/discard, and Standard-unplayable 5CMC cards with insane, lengthy effects that take 10 minutes to figure out what they do and another 20 to actually make their effects work on the field.
This is very similar to a Merfolk Deck. 12 Lords ( Metallic Mimic , Oona's Blackguard and Stinkdrinker Bandit, use Aether Vial.
It is more disruptive as the Merfolk Deck and the creatures have their own Evasion.
At the moment a little bit weaker as the merfolk deck, but this Rogue Deck is still evolving
Some Card Choices bitterblossom : With the Lord, it is ridiculous strong card and strong by itself, but also very slow.
Aether vial at best in this deck
Turn 1: Aether Vial
Turn 2: :2mana:CMC Counter Lord into 1 Drop with Vial . --> 1 Lord and CMC creature with +1/+1 Counter.
Looter il-Kor: a very important creature. you can cycle Land and useless cards (Aether vial Topdeck draw). Card quality in a aggro Deck make the Deck just better.
Spells: Disruption and Protection (Spell Pierce) against Sweepers
Sidenote:
This Deck has also a lot of Faeries. So it can be viable to use some faerie effects and faerie spells.
Never Forget -> in every new Magic Set we get new Rogues
Since you guys want another lord effect, and there seems to be an agreement that blue comes with better cards, Adaptive Automaton is always a decent lord for a desperate need of some lordship, would be my choice over Metallic Mimic usually.
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LEGACY: Soldier Stompy WW // Blue Stompy UU // Fit Variants BGRW // Sol Land Brews BGRUWC MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
The creatures in this deck will never beat other creature decks (the best individual creature in the deck is probably Oona's Prowler)
but they all have evasion (to best utilize Stinkdrinker Bandit) and should win on the back of some disruption like a tempo deck.
This is how I see the deck working.
Aether Vial doesn't work in this deck imho because of the non-bo with the "Prowl" ability and creature like Stinkdrinker Bandit and Earwig Squad which aren't meant to be hardcast.
I'm not high on Looter il-Kor (as a 1/1 for 2-mana) personally and would prefer Smuggler's Copter as a looter (and a faster clock) in this deck.
The Lords aren't really the Problem. Adaptive Automaton is cute but for the tempo plan that i follow, its a little bit too expensive and slow. Ok the Metallic Mimic is not much better, but i like the Counters on the creatures and 2 Mana is not that much.
The creatures in this deck will never beat other creature decks
That's wrong. Ok, other creatures Deck are tough matchup's but we have here an very fast Deck and with the Lords we got the Punch we need to be faster as the other creatures Deck. Oh, and forget blocking...that is obvious not really an option for us. For this we need the Removal and a good Sideboard plan.
I play, Bant Spirits, Allies and some other Tribal Decks for Fun. I really hate Aether Vial in these Decks, but in this Rogue Decks it works sadly very well in my Tests.
Vial just do make the Deck a lot faster. Before i play vial, i still got 2-3 cards in my hands against other aggro Decks and loose. That is very odd, because we have a very low mana curve.
My playorder is like this if can play in this order:
Lords --> 1 Drops / Protection Speels --> Utility / 2 Drops creatures --> Earwig Squad.
The only way i see to get the Lords on the board before i play my One Drops was this.
Turn 1: Aether Vial
Turn 2: CMC Counter Lord into 1 Drop with Vial . --> 1 Lord and 1 mana CMC creature with +1/+1 Counter.
Why ist that important for me, to get early counters? First we need a good clock to win very fast and second with Oona's Blackguard we can use the discard effect.
Ok, there is the nonbo with Prowl. luckily there are "only" of 10 those cards. So this Problem come not very often.
Smuggler's Copter vs. Looter il-Kor
Thats really funny. In the last weeks i have the copter mainboard, but i had replaced him, because of this reasons:
il-Kor is a Rogue and he activated the Prowl mechanic
No activation via crew mechanic
Can be played via Vial
He will profit from the Rogue Lords
No chump blocking from little fliers (a little better evasion)
big Downside: The base stats are only 1/1
For me it was here a clear winner. But to be fair: 1/1 is really really low , but i need him as a Role Player. Nothing is more frustrating to manaflood or to Topdeck something useless Cards like the second Aether Vial. Most of the time he have an +1/+1 counter on it and sometimes with the stinkdriver he just do a lot more damage as the copter.
My Plan is/was it to make a very fast Tempo Deck and it work surprisingly good. That was the reason, i posted it here to reanimate this thread and bring hopefully new ideas.
speaking of hope, i wish that wizard print something like Regal Caracal for Rogues in the next Set
@D90Dennis14
i like your Aggro-Control Version and the Manabase look a lot better like the Chaos that i have done. Thanks!
How it work for you?
I will test your Version by the time. It looks also good for me, but im afraid that the other decks have enough time to stabilize before you can win.
Have you mention vendilion clique for your Deck ?
A pretty good showing for the deck against tough competition, the "Storm" match was surprisingly close and could be won to go 4-1
(as Bogles is basically unwinnable without a lot of dedicated SB cards).
So I'm interestes in Rogues again. D90Dennis you were concerned about Vial being bad with Prowl, but the lists I see including yours don't even run that many prowl cards. Just Vial in the other creatures and Prowl in the Prowl creatures. Vial is generally good in decks like these.
This is the list I'm testing. Kind of a mix between your two lists.
LEGACY: Soldier Stompy WW // Blue Stompy UU // Fit Variants BGRW // Sol Land Brews BGRUWC MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
I've been very impressed with Thieves' Fortune (1-mana Impulse) lately as it really helps find the right cards when I need them and gets me out of mulligans (which can happen with 20x lands).
I've decided to add 4x Thieves' Fortune over the 2x Smuggler's Copter and 2x copies of Bitterblossom.
Some other cards I'm still not sure about but will continue testing are the: 2x Quickling and 4x Spellstutter Sprite.
I'm pretty happy with the rest of the deck so far (besides small changes to the manabase and SB).
I think Thieve's Fortune is a great card. I'm not sure if it's right to cut Bitterblossoms since the card is so good. I think Earwig Squad is a bit underwhelming, but can be a fantastic sideboard card. For the maindeck, I think I'd rather deal with the cards on the bf or in the opponents hand.
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Always wear protection kids, sleeve up your deck.
LEGACY: Soldier Stompy WW // Blue Stompy UU // Fit Variants BGRW // Sol Land Brews BGRUWC MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
So, I was playing rogues before the MTGGoldfish videos came out (had actually been emailing SaffronOlive about the tribe for several weeks prior to the videos coming out), and I'd been running a more control oriented build (deck here if you're curious), but I found the deck really struggled with trying to be both a control deck and a tribal deck. Effectively, I was trying to control via both rogues and spells, and it didn't exactly work. I was also centering my focus on Oona's Blackguard and trying to supplement with Metallic Mimic, but it wasn't working too well. I'd been theory-crafting potential solutions with another fellow rogue enthusiast, and he was way more keen than I was on Stinkdrinker Bandit. From the way my deck played, when I'd run him at all, he died pretty much as soon as he hit the field and gave me no value. Or, he'd be the only creature on the board and,well, you know how that goes.
Then the videos came out and I got to see the aggro strategy in action, and finally managed to let go of the control focus enough to let the tribe be a tribal deck.
I love Earwig Squad to pieces. Honestly, it's probably a pet card for me. But after playing and playing with it main, I found it's just better off in the sideboard. Yes, a T3 5/3 that exiles 3 cards of your choice from their library is great, but the Jester's Cap isn't always the most helpful, and at least when I was running Squad main they got removed surprisingly easily. Metallic Mimic was good for the lord effect, but it was often just too slow and not evasive enough. Also made Oona's Blackguard get hated out that much more.
From my experience, Noggin Whack is great in a casual/budget sense. If you can't afford Thoughtseize and don't have/can't get Inquisition of Kozilek, by all means run them. It's great it hits two cards and can hit lands, but it's limited in not revealing their whole hand and also giving them the option of what to reveal. Cloak and Dagger, competitively, is too slow. Most of the time, your opp will just spot remove whatever they want gone before it gets equipped. Morsel Theft is a hard one for me. I love my black Helix. Love love love love it. But Thieves' Fortune is just better for the draw filtering, and it's cheaper.
P.S.: I can't get my deck label formatting right -_-
Honestly, I'm not a fan of Latchkey Faerie. I don't think it does enough for what it costs. In a deck that values high cost efficiency, a 3/1 flyer that replaces itself for 3 mana just doesn't feel like quite enough value. (Granted, I'm running Bitterblossom in the Latchkey slot so I'm playing with a little looser budget).
All right, story time. So, I used to run Oona's Prowler main. 3/1 flyer for 2 cmc that can help with hand disruption? Great! Enter Restore Balance. Opp resolved one of those nasties, emptied his hand to Prowler, and sat back peacefully in control and ahead. I haven't faced them, but the Hollow OneVengevine decks are another prime reason not to run Prowler. Nothing hurts more than letting your opp cycle Street Wraiths for free to slam free Hollow Ones.
As for my own list, I'm considering swapping out the Bloodstained Mires for another basic Island and Swamp, and maybe the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth for a fourth Mutavault. Thoughtseize over IoK is a tossup, I might play around with it and see how I like the life loss vs absolute discard factors. I'm also testing adding a second Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in the side, though I haven't settled on what it'd replace. But I've won several games because I had an Ashiok on the board stealin' their stuff. (It's hilarious to watch a Humans deck boardwipe, then scoop because I started aggroing with their humans.)
Was looking at rogues for a bit and saw seffron's video and thought it was interesting. This is the similar take I want to try. Dash Hope and Morsel theft look like a fun tech to me so hopefully can try them as a way to continue to mess with the opponent while chipping away with the little guys
In the previous set the notable rogues were: Syndicate Trafficker, Contraband Kingpin and Gonti, Lord of Luxury (slow) which didn't seem to fit the deck as it doesn't use artifacts (I don't even play Cloak and Dagger anymore)
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R Zada Arcane Storm
RBU Marchesa
GWU Estrid
GWR Samut?
URB Kess
(R/W)(U/B) Akiri & Silas
BWR Alesha
R Neheb Dragons
G Nylea Wurms
W Darien
U Tetsuko
My only non-rogue creatures are Spellstutter Sprite so they might be replaced in a more aggro version by Metallic Mimic.
Here is the build I consider at the moment:
4x Triton Shorestalker
4x Faerie Miscreant
4x Oona's Blackguard
4x Oona's Prowler
2x Quickling
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Stinkdrinker Bandit
2x Earwig Squad
Enchantment (4)
4x Bitterblossom
Instant (8)
3x Fatal Push
3x Vapor Snag
2x Dismember
4x Polluted Delta
3x Watery Grave
4x Darkslick Shores
3x Secluded Glen
2x Swamp
1x Island
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Mutavault
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Victim of Night
2x Dismember
3x Noggin Whack
2x Earwig Squad
As I don't have Bitterblossom yet, I use Morsel Theft as a replacement (with a different function) for now.
4 Pulse Tracker
4 Night Market Lookout
4 Guul Draz Vampire
4 Deathcult Rogue
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
4 Oona's Blackguard
4 Balustrade Spy
4 Lawless Broker
2 Earwig Squad
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Door of Destinies
2 Geier Reach Sanitarium
19 Swamp
Sideboard:
4 Rag Dealer
3 Lurking Informant
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Lost Legacy
I'm referring to:
Pulse Tracker/Night Market Lookout (no evasion), Guul Draz Vampire (too conditional), Deathcult Rogue (overcosted), Balustrade Spy (overcosted), Lawless Broker (overcosted, weak and no evasion) and also Zulaport Cutthroat (which is more of a combo card for decks like aristocrats with sacrifice outlets and reanimation spells).
Door of Destinies is way too slow at 4-mana + a creature, it is just a Bad Moon that comes too late most of the time.
The maindeck Leyline of the Void is also a rather strange inclusion imho (you play against a lot of "Dredge" decks ?).
In my version of the deck I'm probably going to cut some removal (2x Dismember) and the 2x Quickling and add 4x Smuggler's Copter which provides looting and a bigger-evasive body to the smaller/ground creatures.
Im thinking red.
4 nightshade stinger
4 frogtosser banneret
4 oona's blackguard
4 stinkdrinker bandit
2 earwig squad
4 blightning
3 fatal push
2 goblin grenade
3 cloak and dagger
4 bloodstained mire
2 verdant catacombs
2 wooded foothills
4 blood crypt
4 swamp
3 mountain
3 mutavault
Playtested monoblack a little. The deck was a lot of fun, and surprisingly competitive, but I had trouble closing games out fast enough. So I'm thinking some burn will help give a little extra reach against slower decks and removal against faster decks. Plus having answers to affinity and ensnaring bridge is good.
blightning is a great replacement for noggin whack that doesn't rely on prowl and frees up the two drop slot a little. You can even run both against slower decks for maximum disruption.
cloak and dagger is way too good. This deck struggles against removal heavy decks. If they kill your first few creatures, you can be stuck with a handful of uncastable prowl cards, so multiples of either cloak or invisible stalker are mandatory. Probably should be playing some number of thoughtseize type cards in the main or side, but I wanna give this list a whirl and see how it plays out.
I'll work up a sideboard later on
Comments and criticism appreciated
It was a lot of fun. Blightning is very powerful, and there were a few games I won out of nowhere, dealing 8 damage in burn in one turn. However I just wasn't doing well enough. Frogtosser banneret ended up being very bad in my opinion, and there were times when something really needed to die on the otherside of the field and lightning bolt wasn't enough to kill it. additionally, blightning had a bad habit of getting countered by decks that blightning really shines against. And once again, I was still having problems against removal heavy decks, especially when they killed my turn one or turn two creature and left me with a hand full of prowl cards.
So I tried out u/b splashing for invisible stalker and spell pierce. Both cards were great, but stalker alone was too slow, he needs an anthem effect or equipment in order to be really threatening. Even powering him and other rogues up with oona's blackguard still wasn't that great. It was very slow to make use of, and the blackguard is super fragile. I only ever got to use her discard effect maybe twice in all my games I played because she often died before I could ever even put counters on stuff. For two mana, It just didn't seem worth it. Then I got my butt whooped by a midrange deck running sorin, solemn visitor and a lightbulb went off. So, I give you, esper rogues:
4 faerie miscreant
4 triton shorestalker
4 invisible stalker
4 deft duelist
4 stinkdrinker bandit
2 earwig squad
13 Instants/Sorceries:
4 fatal push
2 path to exile
3 spell pierce
4 noggin whack
3 sorin, solemn visitor
22 Lands:
4 Marsh flats
4 polluted delta
3 watery grave
2 godless shrine
3 swamp
3 island
3 mutavault
2 stony silence
2 rest in peace
3 Mana leak
2 Path to exile
2 Cloak and dagger
2 zealous persecution
2 Earwig squad
Most of these cards are self explanatory. Sorin is a another very powerful anthem effect that helps recover from boardwipe and draw fire from the aggro lists. Deft duelist is a very strong turn two play that is good on its own but still synergizes with the rest of the deck. It is particularly strong against removal heavy decks and fast aggro decks since the first strike allows it to block pretty well. Another plus to splashing white is better removal and sideboard cards, like Rest in peace, stony silence, path to exile, and any artifact/enchantment removal you decide to through in.
On a side note, cloak and dagger doesn't target when you equip it for free. So you can still equip it to your shroud creatures, and a 4/1 with first strike and shroud is pretty tough to deal with.
I'm going to test this list for a bit and get back to you guys with some results. But so far, the deck still seems to have problems with naya zoo, ensnaring bridge, and blood moon decks. I'm thinking a basic plain and something like fragmentize might be necessary.
Other cards of note you fine furry people might be interested in.
sickening shoal
Even though you're prowl spells typically cost 2-3 mana, their actual costs are much higher, which makes sickening shoal a free spell that kills almost anything. Sometimes, I wish I had that in hand instead of fatal push since I can't always trigger revolt
neurok commando
it's a rogue. It has shroud. It draws cards. 'Nuff said. I fully intend to test this card moving forward.
undying evil
for those of you still running oona's blackguard, this card combos nicely. It counters a removal spell, lets you block a dude, buffs your creature, and it makes for discard with the blackguard.
bitterblossom
anyone else try this card? Personally I hated it when I was on u/b rogues. It was too slow to make a difference most of the time and a terrible draw once you were low on life. The only time it was good was on turn two or three against hard control. Although it's possible the card would work a lot better alongside sorin, solemn visitor. That may warrant testing in the future.
ashiok, nightmare weaver
this card is pretty sweet against midrange and slower aggro decks, like merfolk or eldrazi. Another card I plan on testing later. His ultimate seals the deal against control as well. Perhaps I'll try two or three in the board.
Comments and criticism welcome!
My question is two-fold:
Is Watery Grave an automatic 4-of or do folks run 3 shocklands at times?
Also as I currently skew Swamp over Island, would it be better/worse/no change to include 3-4 Tainted Isle?
As I said the deck is already running pretty fast. The only card in there requiring more than a single U or B to cast is Earwig Squad but I typically Prowl them out anyhow and that reduces the color-specific need to B. I had been playing with 2 Countersquall but so rarely used them I have side-boarded both.
I've even played with 20 lands successfully, perhaps when Watery Grave gets included I'll drop back to that number.
On a general note, I love this tribe and the Prowl mechanic. I only started with a $60 version of this deck and quickly outgrew the meta of my playgroup with it, even against some really strong decks (Ezurri Elves, Bogles, Prowess RDW, Eldrazi).
Choked Estuary is not a land I'd run in Modern and Drowned Catacomb is ok as a 1x-of (maybe 2x) as you really don't want your lands to enter tapped in the early turns.
Tainted Isle isn't legal in Modern but there are River of Tears and Underground River as more budget options.
I'd go with Darkslick Shores and maybe also Secluded Glen if you run enough faeries.
Also, for everyone, how have your matchup been? What so you fear and what do you love?
Ok, first the Deck.
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Island
1 Mutavault
2 Polluted Delta
1 Secluded Glen
3 Swamp
1 Underground River
1 Watery Grave
2 Bitterblossom
2 Fatal Push
2 Noggin Whack
2 Spell Pierce
4 Æther Vial
//Creatures
4 Earwig Squad
4 Faerie Miscreant
3 Looter il-Kor
4 Metallic Mimic
4 Oona's Blackguard
1 Oona's Prowler
4 Slither Blade
4 Stinkdrinker Bandit
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Countersquall
1 Dismember
2 Duress
1 Fatal Push
2 Invasive Surgery
1 Knowledge Exploitation
1 Quickling
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sower of Temptation
This is very similar to a Merfolk Deck. 12 Lords ( Metallic Mimic , Oona's Blackguard and Stinkdrinker Bandit, use Aether Vial.
It is more disruptive as the Merfolk Deck and the creatures have their own Evasion.
At the moment a little bit weaker as the merfolk deck, but this Rogue Deck is still evolving
Some Card Choices
bitterblossom : With the Lord, it is ridiculous strong card and strong by itself, but also very slow.
Aether vial at best in this deck
Turn 1: Aether Vial
Turn 2: :2mana:CMC Counter Lord into 1 Drop with Vial . --> 1 Lord and CMC creature with +1/+1 Counter.
Looter il-Kor: a very important creature. you can cycle Land and useless cards (Aether vial Topdeck draw). Card quality in a aggro Deck make the Deck just better.
Spells: Disruption and Protection (Spell Pierce) against Sweepers
Sideboard:
Graveyard Hate: Relic of Progenitus
big creatures: Sower of Temptation , Dismember , Fatal Push , Sudden Spoiling (?)
Spot Removal: Quickling , Countersquall , Duress , Knowledge Exploitation
Sweepers /Combos: Countersquall , Invasive Surgery
artifact hate: Ceremonious Rejection
LandBase Decks : Spreading Seas (?)
Sidenote:
This Deck has also a lot of Faeries. So it can be viable to use some faerie effects and faerie spells.
Never Forget -> in every new Magic Set we get new Rogues
MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
The creatures in this deck will never beat other creature decks (the best individual creature in the deck is probably Oona's Prowler)
but they all have evasion (to best utilize Stinkdrinker Bandit) and should win on the back of some disruption like a tempo deck.
This is how I see the deck working.
Aether Vial doesn't work in this deck imho because of the non-bo with the "Prowl" ability and creature like Stinkdrinker Bandit and Earwig Squad which aren't meant to be hardcast.
I'm not high on Looter il-Kor (as a 1/1 for 2-mana) personally and would prefer Smuggler's Copter as a looter (and a faster clock) in this deck.
Here is my version of the deck:
4x Slither Blade
4x Faerie Miscreant
4x Oona's Prowler
4x Oona's Blackguard
4x Spellstutter Sprite
2x Quickling
4x Stinkdrinker Bandit
2x Earwig Squad
Enchantment (4)
4x Bitterblossom
Instant (6)
4x Fatal Push
2x Vapor Snag
2x Smuggler's Copter
Land (20)
4x Polluted Delta
3x Watery Grave
4x Darkslick Shores
3x Secluded Glen
2x Mutavault
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Swamp
1x Island
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Earwig Squad
2x Victim of Night
2x Dismember
3x Noggin Whack
2x Nihil Spellbomb
Adaptive Automaton is cute but for the tempo plan that i follow, its a little bit too expensive and slow. Ok the Metallic Mimic is not much better, but i like the Counters on the creatures and 2 Mana is not that much.
That's wrong. Ok, other creatures Deck are tough matchup's but we have here an very fast Deck and with the Lords we got the Punch we need to be faster as the other creatures Deck. Oh, and forget blocking...that is obvious not really an option for us. For this we need the Removal and a good Sideboard plan.
I play, Bant Spirits, Allies and some other Tribal Decks for Fun. I really hate Aether Vial in these Decks, but in this Rogue Decks it works sadly very well in my Tests.
Vial just do make the Deck a lot faster. Before i play vial, i still got 2-3 cards in my hands against other aggro Decks and loose. That is very odd, because we have a very low mana curve.
My playorder is like this if can play in this order:
Lords --> 1 Drops / Protection Speels --> Utility / 2 Drops creatures --> Earwig Squad.
The only way i see to get the Lords on the board before i play my One Drops was this.
Turn 1: Aether Vial
Turn 2: CMC Counter Lord into 1 Drop with Vial . --> 1 Lord and 1 mana CMC creature with +1/+1 Counter.
Why ist that important for me, to get early counters? First we need a good clock to win very fast and second with Oona's Blackguard we can use the discard effect.
Ok, there is the nonbo with Prowl. luckily there are "only" of 10 those cards. So this Problem come not very often.
Smuggler's Copter vs. Looter il-Kor
Thats really funny. In the last weeks i have the copter mainboard, but i had replaced him, because of this reasons:
My Plan is/was it to make a very fast Tempo Deck and it work surprisingly good. That was the reason, i posted it here to reanimate this thread and bring hopefully new ideas.
speaking of hope, i wish that wizard print something like Regal Caracal for Rogues in the next Set
@D90Dennis14
i like your Aggro-Control Version and the Manabase look a lot better like the Chaos that i have done. Thanks!
How it work for you?
I will test your Version by the time. It looks also good for me, but im afraid that the other decks have enough time to stabilize before you can win.
Have you mention vendilion clique for your Deck ?
Some more votes might help it make into videos.
A pretty good showing for the deck against tough competition, the "Storm" match was surprisingly close and could be won to go 4-1
(as Bogles is basically unwinnable without a lot of dedicated SB cards).
This is the list I'm testing. Kind of a mix between your two lists.
// 4 Artifact
4 Aether Vial
// 28 Creature
4 Slither Blade
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Oona's Prowler
4 Oona's Blackguard
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Stinkdrinker Bandit
1 Earwig Squad
3 Looter il-Kor
// 3 Enchantment
3 Bitterblossom
4 Fatal Push
1 Vapor Snag
// 20 Land
4 Polluted Delta
3 Watery Grave
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Secluded Glen
2 Mutavault
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Swamp
1 Island
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Earwig Squad
2 Victim of Night
2 Dismember
3 Noggin Whack
4 Thoughtseize
MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
I've decided to add 4x Thieves' Fortune over the 2x Smuggler's Copter and 2x copies of Bitterblossom.
Some other cards I'm still not sure about but will continue testing are the: 2x Quickling and 4x Spellstutter Sprite.
I'm pretty happy with the rest of the deck so far (besides small changes to the manabase and SB).
Here is my updated list:
4x Slither Blade
4x Faerie Miscreant
4x Oona's Prowler
4x Oona's Blackguard
4x Spellstutter Sprite
2x Quickling
4x Stinkdrinker Bandit
2x Earwig Squad
Instant (10)
4x Fatal Push
2x Vapor Snag
4x Thieves' Fortune
2x Bitterblossom
Land (20)
4x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
2x Bloodstained Mire
2x Watery Grave
4x Darkslick Shores
2x Mutavault
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Swamp
1x Island
2x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Countersquall
2x Earwig Squad
2x Go For the Throat
2x Dismember
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Nihil Spellbomb
I still switch between Countersquall or Thoughtseize and Go For the Throat or Victim of Night to see what works better for the SB.
MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
So, I was playing rogues before the MTGGoldfish videos came out (had actually been emailing SaffronOlive about the tribe for several weeks prior to the videos coming out), and I'd been running a more control oriented build (deck here if you're curious), but I found the deck really struggled with trying to be both a control deck and a tribal deck. Effectively, I was trying to control via both rogues and spells, and it didn't exactly work. I was also centering my focus on Oona's Blackguard and trying to supplement with Metallic Mimic, but it wasn't working too well. I'd been theory-crafting potential solutions with another fellow rogue enthusiast, and he was way more keen than I was on Stinkdrinker Bandit. From the way my deck played, when I'd run him at all, he died pretty much as soon as he hit the field and gave me no value. Or, he'd be the only creature on the board and,well, you know how that goes.
Then the videos came out and I got to see the aggro strategy in action, and finally managed to let go of the control focus enough to let the tribe be a tribal deck.
My current list:
4x Oona's Blackguard
4x Slither Blade
4x Stinkdrinker Bandit
2x Triton Shorestalker
4x Vampire Cutthroat
4x Bitterblossom
2x Bloodstained Mire
4x Darkslick Shores
1x Island
3x Mutavault
4x Polluted Delta
2x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of YawgmothIT
4x Watery Grave
4x Remand
4x Thieves' Fortune
3x Vapor Snag
1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2x Liliana of the Veil
2x Countersquall
1x Dismember
1x Dragon's Claw
3x Earwig Squad
2x Ghost Quarter
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Spell Pierce
3x Thoughtseize
I love Earwig Squad to pieces. Honestly, it's probably a pet card for me. But after playing and playing with it main, I found it's just better off in the sideboard. Yes, a T3 5/3 that exiles 3 cards of your choice from their library is great, but the Jester's Cap isn't always the most helpful, and at least when I was running Squad main they got removed surprisingly easily. Metallic Mimic was good for the lord effect, but it was often just too slow and not evasive enough. Also made Oona's Blackguard get hated out that much more.
From my experience, Noggin Whack is great in a casual/budget sense. If you can't afford Thoughtseize and don't have/can't get Inquisition of Kozilek, by all means run them. It's great it hits two cards and can hit lands, but it's limited in not revealing their whole hand and also giving them the option of what to reveal. Cloak and Dagger, competitively, is too slow. Most of the time, your opp will just spot remove whatever they want gone before it gets equipped. Morsel Theft is a hard one for me. I love my black Helix. Love love love love it. But Thieves' Fortune is just better for the draw filtering, and it's cheaper.
P.S.: I can't get my deck label formatting right -_-
All right, story time. So, I used to run Oona's Prowler main. 3/1 flyer for 2 cmc that can help with hand disruption? Great! Enter Restore Balance. Opp resolved one of those nasties, emptied his hand to Prowler, and sat back peacefully in control and ahead. I haven't faced them, but the Hollow One Vengevine decks are another prime reason not to run Prowler. Nothing hurts more than letting your opp cycle Street Wraiths for free to slam free Hollow Ones.
As for my own list, I'm considering swapping out the Bloodstained Mires for another basic Island and Swamp, and maybe the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth for a fourth Mutavault. Thoughtseize over IoK is a tossup, I might play around with it and see how I like the life loss vs absolute discard factors. I'm also testing adding a second Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in the side, though I haven't settled on what it'd replace. But I've won several games because I had an Ashiok on the board stealin' their stuff. (It's hilarious to watch a Humans deck boardwipe, then scoop because I started aggroing with their humans.)
4 Slither Blade
4 Triton Shorestalker
2 Vampire Cutthroat
2 Invisible Stalker
4 Oona's Blackguard
2 Oona's Prowler
4 Stinkdrinker Bandit
2 Earwig Squad
3 Fatal Push
4 Bitterblossom
3 Dash Hopes
4 Thieves' Fortune
2 Morsel Theft
Lands:20
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
4 Watery Grave