2001)

Okay, I admit it. I’m a rogue deck player. As much as I like winning a tournament, I like hearing, “What in the heck is that guy playing?” even more. A whole lot less play testing goes into my rogue decks than into the net deck of the week, but I still get pretty good results. Here is a Type II deck that I have been tweaking every since Invasion came out.

“5 Color Jank”

Green

4:Harrow Find the Basic Lands
4:Quirion Elves Speeds up mana, and fills in colors
4:Gaeas Might Usually worth +5, +5 in this deck

Red

4:Tribal Flames Better than a Lightning Bolt in this deck
3:Kavu Scout Often a 5/2 for three mana
2:Collapsing Borders Mid-game clock, and a bit of life gain.

Black

4:Exotic Curse Kills almost any creature in the game
1:Goham Djinn Regenerating blocker – or beatdown

Blue

4:Dream Thrush Early damage – might replace with the 0/2 from APOC

White

2:Global Ruin Monocolor Hoser
1:Seal of Cleansing
1:Disenchant
1:Ruham Djinn More beatdown

Artifact

3:Tek Star of the show

Land

8 Forests
6 Islands
3 Swamps
3 Plains
3 Mountains

Sideboard

2 Earthquake
2 Disenchant
1 Tek
1 Wayfaring Giant
3 Protective Sphere
2 Spectral Lynx
4 Coalition Honor Guard

What a pile, right? But it works surprisingly well. There are eight big creature removal spells, plus four more possible combat tricks with the Gaea’s Might. This is usually plenty of board control. I have five big creatures of my own, plus some help from the Kavu Scouts. Plenty of chump blocking with the elves and the birds once the mana base is secure.

Why does it work? There are multiple paths to victory. Sometimes I can burn out the opponent. In one memorable game, I hit for 20 points of Tribal Flames damage over two turns. Sometimes, an early creature rush, backed up with a tribal flame will finish the opponent quickly. If it gets to a mid-game, Tek comes in and puts you on a 3 or 4 turn clock.

Why don’t I use non-basic lands? Because they don’t count as basic lands for Tribal Flames, scouts, diseases, and Tek. I don’t really need them anyway. With Harrow, the elves, and the thrushes, mana is rarely a problem. No spell requires more than one colored mana anyway.

Why no gold cards? I found that needing two colored mana, even of different colors, slowed me down.

Main deck changes I’ve been considering:

Losing three basic lands and adding the three new Cities of Brass that I just picked up.

Losing the Collapsing Borders and adding Last Stand. Believe me, I’ve got the mana to play it.

Losing the Elves and adding Birds of Paradise. Hmm, too bad I don’t have any.

Losing a Tek and adding a Cromat.

Let me know what you think – I’m especially interested in how to take better advantage of Apocalypse. If I get enough good suggestions, I’ll post a followup.

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