The Trap Of Rogue Decks

How many of you try to make decks for tournaments? Decks that try to beat the best decks, decks that are innovative, or fun, or cool...and decks that lose. I was That Guy. Now I'm not. Unless you're one of the top players in the world, you probably shouldn't be trying to innovate totally new decks. Play a Tier 1 deck. You'll win more.

And even further! Some people actually COMPLAIN about netdecks! That they're somehow stifling the originality and creativity of the game, that it's less 'skilful' to win with it. If it's not netdecks in general, it's one deck. Affinity, Faeries, Five-Color Control...

"Everyone uses that deck!"
"That manabase in cash could feed a starving child for a year."
"That deck's cheap / broken / not fun."

Well guess what? It wins. And if you want to win, you need to play the best deck or beat the best deck, and if you want to beat the best deck, generally you want another Tier 1 deck (unless you're happy to get beaten by every deck EXCEPT the Tier 1 deck. Then you can make a hate deck just fine.) if you want to win.

How many of you have been in PTQ's? Tournaments are hard enough without self-inflicting rules. Nobody other than you is going to obey your rules unless your rules are "Do whatever you legally can to win."

Note that I'm not saying 'always play the best deck'. You should play the deck you think has the best position and power in the metagame: the deck most likely to make you win. And it's almost certainly not your creation. Warp World is cute, but can it win? Vampires is new and shiny, but will it win?

If you're not doing your best with deck selection, you're not doing your best as a player. And that's the road to losing. Because if you're not doing your best and playing one of the best decks, you'll be competing against someone who is. And in the end, when the dust settles, the only thing that matters is who has won, and who has lost.

N.B: I do not condone cheating. That's not a legal way to win. Anyone who points to this article as justification for cheating is a fool. Play Magic to the best of your ability. A game of Magic where you cheat is not a game of Magic. So play legally: but play the very best you can within the legal limits.

See you next time, when I bring you Time Sieve.

Zendikar Decks Part IV: Warp World

Welcome readers, to Part Four of the Zendikar Decks series. Today, we tackle Warp World.

Here's the decklist I chose:

Lands: (23)

4 Forest
5 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures: (29)

4 Birds of Paradise
2 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Greenweaver Druid
2 Keeper of Progenitus
4 Lotus Cobra
2 Noble Hierarch
3 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
4 Siege-Gang Commander

Spells (8)

4 Trace of Abundance
4 Warp World

I hopped on MWS to do battle.

Match 1 vs. U/B Mill

Game 1 he gets manascrewed while I get a Turn 4 Siege-Gang Commander and a Turn 6 Hellkite. His only plays are Hedron Crab and Jace.

Game 2 he plays a Turn 1 Hedron Crab. I play a Savage Lands. He plays a fetch, then Archive Traps me when I sacrifice my own fetch. I play Lotus Cobra.

I get to Warp World mana, and he mills me down to 12 cards in library. In my last turn before I die, I play Warp World and float 2 mana. He goes from 8 permanents to 4, and I get two Lotus Cobras and five lands so I can play another Warp World. This one gets him to one permanent, and I flip over Ob Nixilis. The landfall triggers kill him.

1-0

Match 2 vs. White Control

I get some early ramps, and lay out my hand. He casts Day of Judgement. He plays a Seraph and a Baneslayer, and I don't reach Warp World mana in time.

Game 2 I get a Turn 4 Ob Nixilis, and he uses Lapse of Certainty. He plays Guardian Seraph, I play Ob Nixilis, then play and sac a fetchland. He O-Rings it. I go for a Warp World, and he Lapses it. I play Warp World with one in hand. He gets Iona, Shield of Emeria and names red. He kills me with the giant flier next turn.

1-1

Match 3 vs. Naya

I play Lotus Cobra and Elvish Visionary: he plays Bloodbraid Elf into Trace of Abundance. He plays Cliffrunner Behemoth and a Garruk, then another Cliffrunner. When he uses his ultimate, I can't keep up with the raw power.

Game 2 We both play Trace of Abundance. He plays Cliffrunner. I play Keeper of Progenitus. He uses Bituminous Blast to cascade into another one, then finishes it with two Lightning Bolts to the dome.

1-2

Match 4 vs. Four-Color Midrange

He plays Noble Hierarch, I play Lotus Cobra. He Paths it, and plays Knight of the Reliquary. I get Ob Nixilis plus a fetch to out-do the 6/6 Knight. He passes. I swing, he goes to 2, and I Hellkite him to win.

Game 2 I curve out massively into a Turn 4 Warp World. Unfortunately, his 3 lands flip up 3 lands. I play Hellkite, he plays Rhox War Monk and Harrow. I get him to 4 life but he plays Baneslayer, then Realm Razer next turn. I chump with Birds and eventually Hellkite, but am never able to draw an answer.

Game 3 I get a Warp World, but he's lucky enough to Warp into Baneslayer while I fail to Warp into my finishers, and he bashes me to death.

1-3

Salivanth's Rating:

3.5/5

Matches x2:

2/5

Total Score: 5.5

I think the main reason Warp World failed was both my lack of knowledge of when to Warp, and the luck and raw power of some of my opponents' decks. When the metagame shifts to accommodate control, Warp World should become a lot better.

Next time: New Jund!

Zendikar Decks Part II

I promised in my original Zendikar Decks article here that I'd eventually flesh out these decks. Now is the time for me to do that. I'll propose 7 decks, and I intend to test them, one per day, (except for Saturday) for a week. I'll allow people to vote on their choice. Here are the decks:

W/B/R Control.

Lands (26)

4 Arid Mesa
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Marsh Flats
4 Mountain
5 Plains
5 Swamp

Creatures (4)

4 Baneslayer Angel

Spells (30)

3 Ajani Vengeant
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Day of Judgement
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Luminarch Ascension
3 Martial Coup
4 Path to Exile
4 Sign in Blood
3 Terminate

Sideboard:

4 Celestial Purge
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Solemn Offering
4 Volcanic Fallout

The deck has 7 Wraths, and ample finishers. It can finish from several angles. It has card draw in Sign in Blood, and plenty of spot removal. It's a rough draft, but could turn into quite a deck.

New Time Sieve

Lands (18)

7 Island
5 Plains
6 Swamp

Creatures (0)

Spells ()

4 Day of Judgement
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
3 Font of Mythos
4 Howling Mine
4 Kaleidoscope
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Obelisk of Esper
4 Open the Vaults
3 Tezzeret the Seeker
4 Time Sieve
4 Time Warp

Sideboard:

4 Celestial Purge
4 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Meddling Mage
4 Path to Exile

The deck loses a bit, and doesn't gain much, but the deck still has Tier 1 potential. An extra Tezzeret has been added for the non-combo finish. Obelisk of Esper acts as Borderposts 9-12, and the Day of Judgement is there to stop Vampires.

Vampire Aggro

Lands (24)

24 Swamp

Creatures (26)

4 Bloodghast
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Guul Draz Vampire
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Vampire Nocturnus

Spells (10)

4 Doom Blade
2 Duress
4 Sign in Blood

Sideboard:

2 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Deathmark
2 Duress
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
3 Ravenous Trap

The deck is fast, has some late-game plans, light disruption, removal and card draw, and it's VAMPIRES. Who doesn't like Vampires? The Ravenous Trap in the sideboard is against Time Sieve. Absolutely destroys them.

B/R Bloodchief Blightning

Lands (24)

4 Akoum Refuge
4 Dragonskull Summit
8 Mountain
8 Swamp

Creatures (18)
2 Ball Lightning
4 Goblin Guide
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Goblin Outlander
4 Vampire Lacerator

Spells (18)

4 Blightning
4 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Volcanic Fallout

Sideboard:

3 Banefire
4 Deathmark
4 Duress
2 Terminate
2 Volcanic Fallout


This deck is a fairly simple B/R deck. The idea is to beat the opponent to death, either with or without a Bloodchief Ascension.

New Jund

Lands (25)

4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Forest
3 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures (16)

4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Putrid Leech
4 Vampire Nighthawk

Spells (19)

4 Bituminous Blast
4 Jund Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Sign in Blood

Sideboard:

4 Deathmark
4 Great Sable Stag
3 Jund Hackblade
4 Volcanic Fallout

A Jund list with many of the same traits as pre-Zendikar Jund: the ability to play as aggro or control, a malleable sideboard, and a lot of sheer power, and Cascade.

New Warp World

Lands (23)

7 Forest
9 Mountain
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures (29)

4 Birds of Paradise
2 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Keeper of Progenitus
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
4 Siege-Gang Commander

Spells (8)

4 Trace of Abundance
4 Warp World

Sideboard:

4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Thought Hemorrhage
4 Vithian Renegades
3 Volcanic Fallout

Most of the deck remains the same. The main additions are Ob Nixilis, who is a BEATING if you get 3-4 lands off Warp World, and Lotus Cobra to power out more fast starts.

Soldiers

Lands (24)

23 Plains

Creatures ()

4 Captain of the Watch

4 Elite Vanguard

4 Kazandu Blademaster

4 Kor Aeronaut

4 Veteran Armorsmith

4 Veteran Swordsmith

Spells ()

2 Conqueror's Pledge

4 Honor of the Pure

4 Path to Exile

3 Brave the Elements

Sideboard:

3 Baneslayer Angel

1 Brave the Elements

4 Celestial Purge

3 Devout Lightcaster

4 Harm's Way

This is an archetypal White Weenie deck: plenty of guys, some modern token-producers, and the Anthem of choice, Honor of the Pure. Also features the anti-removal Brave the Elements as a new addition.

So those are our seven. Be sure to vote for which one should be tested first in the poll!