DeckConstruct – Magic the Gathering podcast - Magic the Gathering podcast.

How To Be A Rapscallion

I know everyone wants to be a successful miscreant running rogue decks successfully. Being a mischievous scamp adds a lot to Magic as you can befuddle your enemies with their expensive decks while you are running an inexpensive pile of cleverness and synergy. So, as Disturbedone0777 has asked for my aid in becoming a rapscallion, I figured I should create a guide for all who desire to be mischievous and cunning. I cannot guarantee that a deck built following these steps will be successful but if success was all that mattered wouldn’t you just be netdecking?

Before you can look as cool as Joven here and enter Snarg’s House of Sin, you must first follow a few easy steps

1st. Have a particular card, cards or mechanic you want to build around.

Rogue decks don’t just jump out of nothing. When building a deck you should have something you want to build around. Have a card you want to try to break like me with Notorious Throng with the deck you saw in my first article. Another example that I am currently working on is basing a deck on Lodestone Golem. Both these cards are easily built around either setting me up for a tribal deck for the former or an artifact based one for the later. You can also build around mechanics like one of my friends did with wither back in Shadowmoor. To a lesser extent you can also set a goal for the deck and look for cards that further that goal but that can be more difficult if said cards don’t exist in the format you are building for.

2nd. Recognize that you are playing sub-par cards.

Lets face it, when you play a rogue deck you are playing cards that are inferior for some reason to the tier 1 cards. This can be because they are overlooked, because they die to the same hate as some tier 1 deck, or are just plain bad in general. The key difference between playing rogue cards and tier 1 cards is synergy. A bad card can allow for fun interactions that allow decks to function better or simply function. Just remember these cards are generally not going to be equivalent to their tier 1 counterparts when compared one-on-one. Cards like Narcomoeba are bad cards but when put in decks like Dredge they become very solid.

3rd. Have a plan for tier 1 decks.

While not a part of deck construction, you should have a plan for each tier 1 deck. This does not mean you have to have a good matchup against everything but you need to capitalize on the fact that you know your opponents deck while they have to think their way through yours. While you may not need to know all the subtleties of the SuperFriends matchup for FNM, knowing what you would do if you faced it is important. You can also use the lack of understanding about what your deck does against decks that would otherwise be bad matchups. Red Deck Wins is generally a bad matchup against rogue decks as it has so much removal but if you can trick its pilot into misinterpreting the important targets in your deck you can pull out victories that you should not get.

4th. Expect the worst and plan for it.

While this ties into having a plan it deserves its own step. You can’t assume your opponent will spend the entire game using Twiddle on his islands and bouncing the Twiddles back to his hand with Call to Mind and Mnemonic Wall to do it again. Most likely he is going to interact with you in some way. Either with removal or creatures your opponent is going to make your life a bit more difficult (admittedly in Legacy and Vintage they may just combo off but if you don’t have a plan for combo why are you playing Legacy or Vintage?)

5th. Accept failure.

You will not always have a good idea for a rogue deck. Sometimes a deck in theory can act completely different in actual play. Instead of getting depressed, persevere, either admitting that a deck is bad or figuring out what needs to change to get it to work. Sometimes it is a card that you think is key that is messing up your deck that once removed makes the deck better. Frogtosser Banneret was a card that I thought was necessary for tribal rogues being a hasted prowl enabler and making them cheaper to cast. The main problem is that it forces you to overextend which normally backfires. Removing it let me play more quality creatures and have a more stable deck.

I hope these points have helped you become a rapscallion like me. Until next week have fun messing around with new M11 cards (or salivating for them if you did not make it out to a prerelease). As usual please leave me constructive criticism to help me improve my articles.

Perry Grosch

Tags: Goblin Secret Agent, mtg, rogue decks