Cave musings 2-The Rock Named and Building Original Ganksters

Welcome back to the cave, today I like to say that in advance we got to see what the set Rock,Paper,Scissors is named and that is the Rock or should I say Shards of Alara. Gotta say I'm very impressed with the name and the actually symbol. It reminds me of Mirage and Arabian Nights. My assumption is that its going to be a strong white colored set. White needs to improve itself and its power but not to overpowering as it was in the past. In the history of playing this game, its hard to figure out why certain colors are overpowered, well Wizards decides on that due that on purpose for set flavor but sometimes they do it by accident aka mr. pain inthe butt(Tarmogoyf).

Lets head on over to my cave of deck writings builds and see what I can write up today. I'm in a Dungeons and Dragons mood due to the unfortunate passing of D&D creator Gary Gygax, so lets look at a Rogue build I made and give you guys a break down of the deck and what are its strengths and weaknesses and how it stands up to the meta-game at Tate's Gaming Satellite. Here is the deck list to what I call Original Ganksters, Monoblack Rogues:

// Lands
21 [TSP] Swamp (3)

// Creatures
3 [MOR] Prickly Boggart
3 [MOR] Stinkdrinker Bandit
2 [LRW] Marsh Flitter
3 [LRW] Nightshade Stinger
3 [MOR] Oona's Blackguard
2 [MOR] Earwig Squad

// Spells
3 [MOR] Morsel Theft
2 [LRW] Profane Command
3 [MOR] Noggin Whack
3 [LRW] Fodder Launch
3 [LRW] Nameless Inversion
3 [10E] Consume Spirit
4 [TSP] Tendrils of Corruption
2 [10E] Cruel Edict

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [PLC] Extirpate
SB: 2 [10E] Deathmark
SB: 3 [PLC] Damnation
SB: 3 [LRW] Eyeblight's Ending
SB: 1 [MOR] Stenchskipper
SB: 4 [FUT] Korlash, Heir to Blackblade

Alright in order to break down the deck list I'l talk about four things. Why I made it, its strengths, its weaknesses, and meta-game match ups.

The main reason why I created the deck was to try and improve my way of making decks while thinking outside of the box of the current metagame, you will mostly see players play net decks and all the while top four in the local tournament and because of this I am not that kind of player. It's more fun to run a rogue deck(sorry about the pun) then playing a net deck because "you" created it.

Now what are its strengths? While play testing I noticed that its extremely fast when you hit the 1cc creatures of the bat, and lucky enough for me I have nine to be thankful for and thats where the deck picks up, the focus of the deck is based around the prowl mechanic that the rogues received and mostly your opponent will be at six life by turn five. The MVP's of the deck are, Earwig, Oona's, and Stindrinker. These combined with the speed of the one drops creates a quick paced option of you winning by turn five with fliers and fear with your creatures have 1+/1+ counters, including a 2+/1+ bonus for being unblocked with the stinkdrinker.

Now the main weakness of the deck is the fact that its monoblack. Yes I do know thats a weird way to put it but that in itself is its disadvantage, without the blue counter-part, its draw and counter spells are not around to see it. Also the fact that Chameleon Colossus dominates the deck its self and you will mostly scoop depending on the field position and your life total. Also it runs out of gas quickly if your draw doesn't go completely in your favor.

Now as of the meta-game match ups, playing with this online makes it difficult to assume the actually outcome of real life games but nonetheless its still a match up. For the Reveillark deck it did fairly well with a 2-4 record, losing in the first match up1-2 and losing again 0-2 with my opponent drawing nothing but mirror and body double. For the fairy deck, bitter-blossom is not that threatening if you have a good hand and the fact that tendrils,consume, and profane are keys, let them build with their small 1/1 army (killing Blackguard when it hits the table) and side out something and bring in Korlash because they need to block him constantly. I did 4-2 record. They only one that wasn't one of the two decks that most people I played against was something I consider a awesome deck and thats Goblin Animosity deck. This deck was fast and he brought me down to four life on turn four with just three creatures and the awesome power of Shard Animosity.

Alright thats all for this week of cave musings. Next time I'll be on my over to Dolmen's Gate to preview some of the new Shadowmoor cards that are spoiled for us by Magic:the Gathering.com and rate the ones so far and how it might impact the current standard format. Also look for some new Letsplaymtg.com Video Podcasts from yours truly in the upcoming weeks.