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The Dragon's Den
Igloo - a Rogue Extended Deck
By DeQuan Watson -
11.23.05
Well, extended season is well
underway. We have a large variety of
different decks making their
appearance this time around.
This
just leads us all to the same
opinion that Wizards of the Coast is
doing a great job of monitoring the
format and staying on top of things.
As with all formats though, the
average player is going to play
something that he already knows
well. The average player is also
likely to play a deck that popular.
It's not really to be part of the
'in' crowd though. It's more about
general knowledge.
When a deck is popular, many people
talk about it. You can cruise the
internet and find information about
a popular deck on a ton of different
sites. Professional players will
even break down the deck and its
various matchups. This can save a
player tons of time in figuring out
various sideboard situations. A
player also won't have to worry
about which things to look out for.
Your testing time is now a quarter
of what it once was.
That's all fine and good, but at the
same time, it opens up the
possibility that your opponent has
that same information available.
This means that he also knows how to
beat the popular deck. This means
that there are no secrets for the
pilot of the popular deck in
question. This is honestly a two way
street and can create a lot of
interesting situations.
In some cases, this helps a player's
sideboard choices along. There are
often times you will see a game
decided by an interesting card
brought in from the sideboard. What
if the deck is THAT popular'
Sometimes, a deck gets so popular
that it makes up 20% of the metagame
field or more. In those situations,
players have been known to put cards
that hurt those metagame decks in
their main deck. This may seem
slightly risky at first, but if you
are expecting to face a particular
matchup three times in one day, that
gives you an edge in a third of your
matches. And that's not a bad thing
in any way.
So, what's all this mean? Well,
sometimes players try too hard to
make a new rogue deck to bust the
format wide open. And many times, it
doesn't even happen. Sometimes,
rogue choices can come from
anywhere. Just this past weekend
Olivier Ruel won a Grand Prix with a
Solitary Confinement deck. It's a
deck that players knew about, but no
one was acknowledging. He managed to
take it and turn it into a winning
strategy and come out on top. So, it
can be done. Sometimes, you might
just need to look at things you
already know and go from there. Many
times, the need to go out on a limb
isn't as 'needed' as it seems.
I come to you with a rogue deck
choice today. Honestly, I've only
done a little bit of testing with it
thus far. I've spent a bit of time
playing this build against a couple
of different Psychatog variations
and monoblack control and have some
decent results. Also, be aware that
this is an extended deck that's
largely a metagame choice. If your
field has a lot of 'Tog, Monoblack,
and possibly even Desire, this deck
could be a decent choice for you.
Let's get to the deck list.
IGLOO
2 Auriok Champion
4 Hand of Honor
2 Isamaru, Hound of Khonda
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Meddling Mage
4 Soul Warden
4 White Knight
4 Chrome Mox
3 Glorious Anthem
4 Mana Leak
4 Stifle
4 Suppression Field
4 Adarkar Wastes
2 City of Brass
4 Island
8 Plains
Sideboard:
4 Disenchant
2 Gilded Light
2 Kami of Ancient Law
3 Morning Tide
4 Silver Knight
This deck seems painfully simple. In
many ways, it is. Personally, I
think it can be changed a bit to
include a couple of Bonesplitter,
but bend to your tastes. So why are
the card choices what they are?
Well, as it turns out, having life
gain is actually decent against
'Tog. When you are constantly going
at them, they have to keep burning
cards to take out our guys on the
block. This leaves them with less
cards to try and finish you with. At
first it seemed a bit odd, but as
things went along, it became more
obvious that this is a small issue.
The Auriok Champion and Soul Warden
help with this strategy.
If you notice, the deck is sporting
ten creatures with Protection from
Black. This is really important.
Psychatog is black. Monoblack
control obviously has a lot of
black. Smother is the creature kill
spell of choice these days, and it
too, is black. Even the Stinkweed
Imp that many decks are playing is
black. This makes it extremely
difficult to deal with your
creatures. You force them into have
to play a Kagemaro or Boomerang to
have a solid shot at beating you.
We also know that there are combo
decks out there. ScepterChant is
still being played. And we know that
Mind's Desire is a pretty tough
deck. Meddling Mage and Stifle can
help you deal with these problems.
You can stop them from playing a
card your are worried about, or you
can just as well stop the Storm
trigger from the Mind' Desire. Also,
stifle can be used against a lot of
things. Early in a match you might
even use a Stifle to stop your
opponent from land searching.
Remember earlier, how we discussed
certain cards sometimes being played
in the main deck simply due to
metagame awareness? Well, this is
one of those times. Suppression
Field in the main is huge. Psychatog
can't activate with this on the
table. Isochron Scepter can't
activate. Lands can't sacrifice to
search. Goblins can't sacrifice your
damage, or mana, or power bonuses.
Also, Wild Mongrels and Rootwallas
can't activate.
This deck isn't a huge powerhouse of
any kind. However, it does what it
needs to do. It gives you a fair
matchup with potential answers to
everything. Be aware that the
sideboard is rough and needs to be
tailored up a bit. That's always
going to be a work in progress.
But, here's a deck that gives you
the option to be different ands till
be competitive this extended season.
There is a lot you can do with this.
The best part is that it's not all
that difficult to play.
Until next time,
DeQuan Watson
a.k.a. PowrDragn
PowrDragn at Pojo dot com
www.jdsevents.com
www.thegamecloset.com
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