"Who...are...you?” The phrase was made famous in the Lewis Carroll classic, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by the Caterpillar. Other important lines he said might include something like, ‘Who... ARE... you?’ or, ‘Why?’ while sitting on the giant mushroom, smoking on his pipe. Do you remember him? Not that it matters, because it is not what we will be discussing today, but again, I ask you…

“Who... are... you?”

During the course of my writings, I have always tried to stay one step ahead of the other guys, with either something breathtaking, or intuitive, or perhaps something genius! This time, I thought the best way to do it would be to supply you with a random deck and a story.

Funny little decklist. I just playtested it to remind myself of why it was such an annoying deck. I remember now.

Just as a courtesy to you younger players who think they might want to stay in this game for a long time, I would suggest getting yourself a notebook, and keeping a Magic journal. There are a lot of stories and tactics that you will forget about that might be helpful five years from now. Just like in the example I just gave, I could not remember why my buddy Ron ever wanted to play against that deck. That is why I made sure to playtest it, to remind myself of why and what it did. Nothing. That is your answer. It does nothing. It continually keeps you drawing cards until at long last your opponent runs out of cards, and cannot figure out why.

See, every time I used to show up at Ron’s house, he would look at me with a little twinkle in his eye and he would say to me, “Did you bring it?”

‘It’ could mean a lot of things. Depending on whose mouth those words just came out of, and whose ears those words just entered definitely impact what ‘it’ is. In the case of the words leaving Ron’s lips, and entering my ears, ‘it’ was my little deck of confusion.

Ron never did beat the deck, and truthfully, I don’t think he ever wanted to. I believe he just wanted to finally figure out why he ran out of cards, since he was always putting cards back into his library.

This deck, basically, will continually wipe creatures away with Wrath of God and Balance, reset the lands with Armageddon and Storm Cauldron, and keep the hands fresh with Anvil of Bogardan, Howling Mine, and Teferi’s Puzzle Box.

The game usually got interesting when it came time for Ron to tap his mana, being as courageous as he could be, to cast a mana-intensive creature. This would return a fistful of lands to his hand, and then he’d end his turn, knowing full well that I was going to pitch seven cards under my library, and in the next 10 or so cards I would see a Wrath or Balance.

Ron’s next turn would begin with the painful process of figuring out what would be more beneficial to him, toss his hand under the library first, or wait until after he draws from the two Howling Mines and then draw / discard to the three Anvil of Bogardan.

As you can see, my win condition was basically gravity. I would let the draw step slowly pull him towards the grave, as the numerous Mines ate away at his library, one card at a time. And of course, being his friend, I would not ever let him do it all in one step. He had to say, ‘draw, discard, draw, draw, discard, draw, draw, put my hand at the bottom, draw 11 cards, play my two lands, discard down to seven, go.’ Fun-filled casual decks, don’t you just love them?

Now, you may be sitting there thinking one of two things, “What the hell just happened to me?” or “Why on earth would he call this the Beginner’s Guide to Rogue, if he is going to tell me a story about an old Ice Age / Mirage Standard deck and tell me a story about an old friend?”

Both are very valid points, and now that we are returning from the commercial break above, I can get to my task at hand, teaching you more about being a good Rogue player.

“Who are you?” Who indeed? You really need to reflect on this someday. In the purest Magic sense, there are a few typical personalities. While I never really liked being labeled about anything, I have since ignored those names, however I believe they are something like Johnny, Timmy, and Mo. Basically, they are a couple personality types that represent the Magic scene. I do not want to spend time trying to tell you about these labels, instead, what I want to do is scramble through the true personalities of the tournament scene. I am sure you have come across those people, and most likely, as I run down them, you can say, “Oh my God! That is Larry!”

There is the aggressive player, who is normally playing your aggro decks, such as Mono Black Control (MBC), Land Destruction (LD), Weenie, and Stompy style decks. Another group of players can be found playing strict control or permission decks, a few examples of this might be Tog, Wake, Counter Post, etc. The other group of players would be the ones who are living and dying on the next, latest, and greatest combo. They want the biggest bang for their dollar, and will be happy either by blowing someone up for 600 damage, or having their combo detonate in their own face, so long as it was a tremendous explosion. A few samples of this would be Prosperous Bloom, Goblin Charbelcher decks, Heartbeat, etc.

The normal player typically will stay in their own comfort zone, and play their style decks. This is perfectly fine if you like to be predictable, and be an easy meta-game casualty.

If you really were to think about your gaming group, I would be willing to bet you could run down the list of buddies, and name them all, and tell me what deck they are playing. I’d also be willing to be you that those people always have, and always will be playing that style of deck.

This is ‘Who you are.”

It is important to know who you are. If you are good at Aggro decks, more power too you. If you are a combo junkie, good for you. If you are a control freak, and need to play permission, then knock yourself out.

However, my experience tells me, that there is nothing more intimidating in the game of Magic than having that known Control player, beat my face in with an unexpected creature deck.

If you have seen Bill playing a certain Blue-Red Control deck for the last five weeks, on week six, what would you expect him to play? Of course, Blue-Red Control. Having said that, most likely, you will have something waiting for him and his cute deck in your sideboard.

You get paired up with Bill in Round One, and his first land drop is a Swamp.

“…What the hell?” Your sideboard antics are now useless. You are about to take an ‘L’ here, because he is one step ahead of you, and is prepared for you, who are most likely playing the same deck you have been bringing for the last six weeks.

Decks come, and decks go. It is not the quality of cards that make a Championship Player. It is the brain power that the player possesses. Sure, players with higher ratings can be swift and dodge lower rated players, and not play during the unstable times of Block Rotation to protect their ratings, but the best players don’t need to do this. They are vigilant in their study of their chosen hobby, Magic: The Gathering. They are able to change with the times, and can be alert enough to feel when someone is onto them, and will change an entire sideboard to cope with you, or even change decks and tactics.

To be a good Rogue player, sometimes you must step out of your comfort zone. You can not live in a box and always play the deck type that best suits you. There will come a time when you make a discovery, finding a ‘chink in the armor,’ if you will, of the strongest deck. Perhaps it can’t deal with a goblin rush very well. If you always have been a Control player, a Goblin deck might not sit well in your hands. If you plan to be a good Rogue player, it is now time to suck it up, buy yourself some Mountains, and a bunch of Goblins, and sit down and learn about combat tricks. You need to refresh yourself on the rules of combat, such as Trample, Haste, and First Strike.

I will never lie to you and tell you that being a Rogue player is an easy life, because it is not. It is at minimal, a part time job. You will be spending a lot of time in playtesting, practicing, learning, reading, scouting, etc. It is not a job for the weak of heart. You need to put in a lot of time doing research, and reading people’s articles, not only to see what the most popular decks are, but also how to play with them, and ultimately beat them.

During your playtesting, you need to play as those decks that you are hunting. You need to know how Blue-Red Control works. You need to know what a typical sideboard for it runs. What do they do in certain situations? What might a reaction be from them if I present this threat? By putting yourself in their shoes, you can find those subtle weaknesses that are not found by simply playing against the deck. Once you have found them, and know how to exploit them, it's time to develop your plan of attack.

Once you have decided to play your Goblin deck this coming Friday Night, you still have not finished your weekly duties. Read up on what other Goblin decks have been doing. See if there are any Goblins you have overlooked and might be worth considering.

What is this? Someone else has come across your same discovery, and now the Blue-Red deck is packing heat in his sideboard for you, and it is Thursday already! Should I just go in, guns a blazing, hoping upon hope that the guys at the store did not read the same article that you did? No, you’re the hunter! You need to be one step ahead of them - or at least be deceptive enough to appear a step ahead of the competition.

If nothing else, come in with something that would not be expected of you. If you are traditionally a Control player, and were disappointed with your Aggro deck idea being stolen, then try a Combo deck. They would still never see you coming. The best part of a combo deck is that it can go off at any given moment, and win against anything, especially if they are not prepared for you. Good combo decks explode around turn four to six, and in slower environments, even a good Control deck will not be prepared to deal with you and the 45 mana in your pool.

Most of the skill of the Rogue player is not in his ability to play the game. We can all, at some level, play this game. It is his active decision to be versatile enough to be able to play all facets of the game, whether it is Control, Aggro, or Combo. It is vitally important for the Rogue player to be well versed in each of these modes of the game, and have at least one deck of each style ready and set to play each week.

Did you think that your research ended Thursday night?

NO!

Your research ends at 5:59 Friday, before the 6:00 Tournament begins. You should try to have at least two to three decks prepared to play. As you are waiting for the tournament to begin, walk around the gaming scene, keeping your deck safely and secretly tucked away in your box, and check out your opponents. Most of the average players will most likely be making deals to get cards for their deck, or may even be playtesting their deck against a friend. Make mental notes of what you see, and keep in mind that a lot of the better players know what you are doing and may try to trick you into thinking they are playing their bad White Weenie deck in the tournament. It is always a safe bet that if you know the person to be a Control player, and he is playing a creature deck (poorly I might add), he is not going to be playing a creature deck during the tournament.

Also know that you are not the only one scouting, so keep your deck box closed, and keep your mouth the same way. Don’t give hints and don’t tell them what you’re not playing, as the process of elimination might give away your tactics.

Do not be afraid to play the Goblin deck at the last moment if you notice that there are other Goblin decks being played tonight, but be smart enough to realize that you need to sideboard against those decks. So perhaps you will decide not to play the combo deck after all, and to go in with your prepared Goblins, but with a few minutes left, you add a set of Pyroclasms to your side, or maybe even main deck. With the Goblin deck infestation aimed at knocking off the Blue-Red Control, they may overlook the fact that they are the most populous deck, and if that is so, your quick scouting and sideboard changes now makes your deck able to easily tackle the other Goblin decks, and by default nets you at least two wins, without even drawing a card.

This is all in theory. I have no way of knowing if a Goblin deck can beat a Blue-Red Control deck without studying the cards available. I am merely giving deck names that I know and using a hypothetical scenario. However, that is how it works. That is how you are successful at being a Rogue. You have to keep your eyes and ears open. Also, be prepared to lose a few games, as Rogue players do hit ruts where you run into the deck that you’re not aiming at. For example, if you are heavily targeting a control deck and are loaded to the brim with discard hate, and you run into a Goblin deck that doesn’t really care if it discards a Goblin Balloon Brigade, then you might have a rough time in that game. Keep your chin up, and be prepared in the future.

Now would seem to be a good place to break off and end my article, but alas! I cannot end here! Not like this! Not at a time like this! Do you realize that this is the most exciting time of the year for a Rogue player? It's Block Rotation Time! Ring the bells! Sound the alarms! Bring the kids in and party like it's 1999!

Block Rotation is a time that I always openly embrace. Any random deck builder can appreciate this time, as it is the beginning of a new period. It’s a lot like baseball, in the fact that we all know that that the Yankees, A’s, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Giants are going to make the playoffs each year. So many teams really stand no chance. Yet every year, they are so excited because everyone is 0-0 to start the season. Too bad that teams like the Royals are destined to be pounded into a 100 loss season again.

Block Rotation is the same thing. We wipe clean the slate of boring Champions of Kowabunga decks and enter the era of Revisiting Old Ideas. This time is even more particularly special to me as it brings back a lot of my old friends. Such as Grinning Totem, Enduring Renewal, are you kidding me… are you seriously giving me my Mirari back? Muahaha!

I can’t sit here and bore you with more talk, I need to get my decks out for you to see and love! But I should stay calm, and discuss the strategy of rotation with you. Rotation is a time when all the decks are technically Rogue. How many decks will be centered on Suspend cards? What will the Sliver influx do to the environment? Will Buyback and Kicker dominate like it did in their heydays? We will not only see, but we, the Rogue Community, will make our mark.

We are the ones who will be generating the next top decks. It is our creative juices that toss decks out that end up being the next big thing. Of course, Slivers will be a huge thing at the beginning. Most likely, I imagine Slivers having a near Affinity level impact on the Standard environment. It’s an easy build, the cards are pretty straightforward, and they have been done before. Slivers dominated the beginning of the Tempest Era, and will do well again.

The nice thing about Slivers, is that there are numerous ways to go about the Sliver decks. I would go into more detail here, but Cashew did a really good job setting up Slivers in his recent article, and I greatly encourage you to read it. It will be good training for you young Rogues out there to find the article and do your research. I will, however, give you a suggested Control Sliver build that I think you will eventually run headlong into… unless you’re the evil devil strangling someone else with it instead.

The deck is designed to be more of a passive deck to begin the game, contrary to traditional Sliver decks. The normal Sliver deck wants to overrun the opponent and get the victory as quickly as possible. This deck wants to slow a rush with high toughness slivers, via the Watcher Sliver’s ability, and hopefully get a Telekinetic Sliver into play quickly and jam up the opponent’s board with locking down his creatures and/or lands. A quick board tempo on your part can completely lock out a single color and reduce these possible threats to a minimum. The victory can come in one of three ways.

First, you can simply bull rush through the field of tapped permanents and deal 20 damage for the win. Second, you can Mill out his library with your extra Slivers, once you get his field frozen and Screeching Sliver in play. The final way, and most likely the most impressive win would be once you’ve established the field lock, plus have in play a Psionic, Watcher, and Essence Slivers. You can then tap any Sliver with a toughness of four or more and pound the opponent for two damage, which deals three to the individual Sliver. What makes this most impressive is that the Watcher and Essence Sliver tandem makes the Sliver not only survive the attack, but also gain you five life. More than likely you will not even need to add up the damage and life, as your opponent will probably submit once he discovers your soft lock.

The next deck I would like to show you is a hybrid of two old Odyssey Block decks. For some strange reason, Wizards decided it would be a good idea to give Chris a bunch of old friends. So I suppose it would be an injustice if I didn’t abuse those cards now wouldn’t it? Without further ado, I present to you, Power of Whispers. (Not a very catchy name, as I never had been very good at naming decks.)

Yea, yea.. I know. “Oh God No! Its 61 cards! I can’t possibly play with more than 60 cards! I only own 60 cards!” Well, too bad for you. I made the deck 61 cards because I like 61 cards, for reasons I have explained in previous articles.

If you had played back during the Odyssey Block days of Standard, you will remember two distinct decks that seem to be merged here in theory. First was the MBC (Mono-Black Control) deck which featured a ton of creature removal and ended up generating a ton of Black mana with Cabal Coffers and pumping it into Corrupt and other high cost black spells. The reason these spells were so high, is because they wanted to send those spells through the Mirari and get a second copy, and thus adding three colorless mana to the casting cost of the spells. Thankfully, Wizards have provided me with Gauntlets of Power, in which I can generate a lot of Black mana and also the powerful Mirari. As I scanned the new creature removal spells, I noted that gone from the realm of Black is a mana efficient, mass removal spell. It used to have spells such as Infest or Mutilate to cleanse the field, but those days are gone for now. All Black can do is pick off single creatures here and there, unless you want to dump all that mana into Plague Wind.

The second deck type I mentioned was the old Wake Deck, because of the same cards, mentioned, Gauntlets of Power and Mirari, but more so because of the renewal of control the deck utilized. Wake was a tough deck, not because of the fact that it could generate all of that mana, and could make eight million elephants, but because it was tough to kill. No matter how much force you pushed with, it was resilient enough to counter the select spells, fog away damage, and gain enough life to survive another turn. This deck has similar abilities, and has the potential to go more Wake or more MBC via sideboard.

Looking more specifically at the cards selected for this deck you will note the extreme amount of creature removal. I am playing 12 creature kill spells, with the potential of 16 if needed. The Mirari turns the single creature removal into either a big creature kill or multiples of creatures heading to the grave. The problem Last Gasp has always had was… that creatures with 4 toughness don’t tend to die from it for some reason. That problem is resolved with either Sudden Death snuffing it out, or Mirari-ing the Gasp and making it lose six toughness. Note: Don’t try to Mirari the Sudden Death, or your friends might laugh at you.

You may wonder to yourself why I chose not to use Phyrexian Arena, as that is what MBC did, for a card drawing engine. My reasoning is that I wanted to utilize Blue as a card drawer. It gives me Whispers of the Muse, which can net me more cards per turn that a single Phyrexian Arena, albeit at a higher mana cost, and also gives me access to Compulsive Research. Another noticeable thing is the sneaky little Academy Ruins. Someone might think that a simple Disenchant answers my deck, but Academy Ruins puts the Gauntlets or Mirari back on top of my library to be drawn next turn.

The next thing about the deck I’d like to talk about is the power of the Mirari. If you have never seen a ‘balanced broken’ card in play before, you are in for a treat. The tricks that can be done with the Mirari are simply insane if you can generate the mana to do so. A single Gauntlet gives me two Black per Swamp, and I can continue playing them to get three and four mana per Swamp. In theory, mana should not be a problem, thus fueling the Mirari is not a problem.

So on with the tricks!

Whispers of the Muse with its Buyback costs six mana, and nets you two cards (card draw and the Whispers back), however for an additional three mana you get three cards.

Compulsive Research was good at three mana to net either one or two cards. For a measly three more mana I get either two or four cards.

Demonic Collusion, the new Diabolic Tutor with Buyback, is good on its own in this deck, as for five mana, I get to search out and get the needed card. With the Swamps generating two mana, odd mana costs can start to burn a little bit. Good thing the Mirari makes that cost a round eight mana! The Buyback of discarding two cards is normally not going to be that bad, as once you can afford to pump this thing to its nasty potential, you’ll have un-needed cards to dump.

Soul Spike is an average card at seven mana to siphon four damage at instant speed. However, it was designed in the Alliance pitch card style, so discarding two cards could be a nice way to kill that Hierarch and gain four life in the mean time. Whether you discard or pay the seven mana, why not pitch in three more mana and gain eight life?! As this card is the kill card of the deck, take a look at the next trick.

Sins of the Past has been an intriguing card for a while, as it could have been another Yawgmoth’s Will, but it limits you to only one card for double the mana. The fun really begins with this deck when you have a couple Soul Spikes in the grave and cast Sins of the Past, of course Mirari-ing it, and targeting both Spikes. The fun is not the Sins, it is the fact that you just played two Soul Spikes for free (technically for six mana). We might as well pay six more mana and copy both of these Soul Spikes and deal 16 damage to our opponent and gain the same amount. Sins also works well with the cards of the deck with Buyback, as upon resolution of the spells, you have both a remove from the game item and a return to your hand item trying to happen at the same time. Put them correctly on the stack and you will get the card back before it is removed from the game. *wink*

There you have it. Two decks straight from my mind, without consulting the other sites to get ideas. It was much fun for me to develop these decks and feel the waves of creativity crash over me than to do research and copy others' ideas. I am reminded of the same lesson that comes to me every time we have a Block Rotation. People don’t like to think, and its better that way. And also, life itself is a learning lesson. No matter how old you are, you are never too old to learn, and that is what separates us from the lab rat. We touch the electrified cheese for fun, and they just can’t figure out why that damn chunk of cheese is stuck to the wall.

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.

Articles Spotlights from 2006
The Games People Play - Tactical Magic.
If I worked at R&D
The Beginner’s Guide to Rogue
Druid Week Primer
Opting In: Ravnica
MDV Idol: Finale!
Avatar Week Primer
Delusions of Mediocrity: Getting Stuffy in Here.
Raiding Ravnica: Guildmages and You!
Lands-More than Mana: Part One