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ROGUE PLAY Build Around Me Part I

by Nafiz Erman

Hello dear readers and welcome back to Rogue Play. After two weeks of set review articles and theoretical musings, now it's time for some action.  I already (secretly!) started testing M11 cards and in this article I will share some deck designs with you which you may (or may not) find interesting. The online release date for M11 is drawing near, and you should start preparing your shopping list. Most definately that list of yours will have the obvious bombs in it but maybe after this and the next article, I can add a few more cards to it.

So this isn't an article that will try to convince you why Grave Titan is a good card. I will not tell you that Fauna Shaman works very well with Vengevine. Those things you already know. I will not give you a Valakut deck after putting a few Primeval Titans in it. You will also not find the next generation of Jund deck here which now has Obstinate Baloth in the sideboard. No dear readers, this week I'm taking a look at several specific cards of M11 which are good enough to build an entire deck around them.

The cards I will talk about this week are these:

All are very interesting and with the right approach it is possible to do something really powerful out of them. 

Okay dear readers, as I have lots of things to talk about, please allow me to start with the first deck which happens to be this:

 

DECK #1:
Building Around Phylactery Lich

Phylactery Lich is by far my favorite card of M11. Actually this fact surprises me because I rarely find creatures sexy(!). As a Blue mage, my main interests are sorceries and instants. But this one is exceptionally good... at least for me. So I decided to build a deck around this one but soon found out that it was way harder than I first thought. My first attempts were the Lich plus Nantuko Shade and a few Vampires as creatures, and then a few random artifacts and some removal. After a few test games, I realized that it simply wasn't that easy. During those early testing stages I first decided to determine which artifacts I was going to use. Basilisk Collar as a four-of was automatically in. And then... and then there was nothing! I tried many artifacts but none performed the way I thought they were going to be. I was also thinking for the sideboard in the meantime and Dragon's Claw was my first pick. It was an artifact and it was also going to be my Kor Firewalker against Red decks. Then I made an odd decision and decided to try a long forgotten artifact; I decided to give Scepter of Fugue a try. It replaced Duress in the sideboard as a four-of and testing revealed that it is such a fantastic card against Control. I cannot tell you how destructive a second turn Scepter is. Oh and yes, it's an artifact as well.

Liliana Vess foresees that the future belongs to her dark minions. A sidenote: I created this pic, so please ask before using it.

Then I made another very odd decision; I decided to spice the deck up a bit and added Red to it. Yes I'm aware of the casting cost of Phylactery Lich but first hear me out dear readers. Of course I didn't add Red as a second main color; I only added just a bit. And this decision gave me a very important card; it gave me Veinfire Borderpost (of course it's the borderpost, what else did you think it was?!)!

Finally I added one other useful artifact to my sideboard; I added Brittle Effigy. There are sadly creatures that are immune to my dark magic and then there are others which are simply too big for me to handle, and therefore I thought about this simple yet elegant solution.

And thus the deck started to take shape. 

 

For some very long time I believed that ten artifacts in the main deck are a must and therefore I had two Executioner's Capsules as well. But testing showed that the Capsule was only good in a few certain match-ups and that it was a dead card in most of the others, so I removed it.

Okay, this was the start. Then came the biggest decision: Was I going to use Dark Tutelage in this deck or not?

To use or not to use: that is the question.

My final decision was to use it and that decision brought another limit to my ability to build the deck. I already had to add good and playable artifacts to the deck, and now I also had to find me some low cost cards. Hard enough? You can be sure that it was!

After testing many different creatures and spells, I finalized my list and ended up with this:

 

Now a few words about some cards and decisions: I added Red not only for Veinfire Borderpost of course. My main concern was my removal package. All the good Black removal spells says "nonblack please" and I didn't want to end up with dead cards in my hand against Black creatures. Therefore cards like Executioner's Capsule, Doom Blade and Vendetta (or even Hideous End) were out of the question. I really needed something that can kill creatures of all sizes and Terminate therefore was an obvious choice.

My creature package must be clear. All the good cards are in. I added those two Kalastria Highborns to act as my fifth and sixth Basilisk Collars and together they allowed me to play my Dark Tutelage without any fear.

Then I added four Cunning Sparkmages to the sideboard which may seem odd in an almost Mono Black deck. But as I already had my Basilisk Collars in deck (as a whole playset even), I decided to give it a try and I am now very happy that I made that decision. Not only it kills those annoying Birds and Snakes and Hierarchs, it can also deal with anything after getting equipped with the Collar.

Then finally I added Anathemancer to the sideboard. It is true that I can pay and/or without any problems with this deck, but there was no way I could pay  for a Goblin Ruinblaster just to deal with nonbasic lands. Tectonic Edge was also not an option. I needed basics to be able to play my Veinfire Borderposts and I already had six nonbasics. So I had no space for other nonbasics.

And so I made another decision: Instead of destroying nonbasics, I decided to punish the opponent for playing them. And thus Anathemancer became an obvious choice.

And this dear readers is the deck I built around Phylactery Lich. Now I'm waiting for the online release of M11 so that I can properly test it, but I know that it's a good deck and I know that intense testing will only make it better. So I strongly suggest you to add Phylactery Lich to your M11 buy list.

 

DECK #2:
Building Around Time Reversal

In both part one and part two of my M11 set review articles I talked about this card and told you that Time Reversal plus Underworld Dreams might be an interesting deck. You know what dear readers; it really is!

But just like the Phylactery Lich deck above, after a few quick experiments I immediately realized that it wasn't that easy to build this deck properly. But the problem I faced this time was something else.

Phylactery Lich wants you to play some artifacts along him (her? it?) and I had problems finding quality artifacts for the deck. But this time my problem wasn't the quantity of playable cards; on the contrary, my problem was the high number of playables! I first started like this:

 

This was a nice start but a few quick test matches showed that it wasn't nice enough. Any fast deck was a problem and I had simply no answer to creatures. And I also saw that I simply wasn't needing four-of everything. So I started from the scratch.

I realized that I could "sacrifice" a few Temple Bells and Font of Mythoses. And as I said, I realized that I needed removal. I tried many removal spells but none was solving my problem; I desperately needed a board sweeper and Consume the Meek was just not it. I neededDay of Judgment. There was no card that could replace it.

So Day of Judgment it became.

But my greed didn't end there! I also had my eyes on one specific card. This card to be exact:

And now I was happy. I was happy with my win engine which was this:

 

And I was also happy with my removal package which happened to be this:

 

But the hardest part was to make this deck "operate". And by that I mean the mana base of course. Playing four colors isn't an easy task these days and that meant some ALA tri-lands were needed. I worked hard on the mix but after sometime I solved that puzzle too.

And after I added the sideboard, I ended up with this final version.

 

I know that this list looks complicated. I know that most of you think that I'm insane. But trust me dear readers, I'm not... well okay maybe just a little bit, yes.

I really did try to keep things simple. I tried to stick to the typical and the most common  style of Underworld Dreams deck. But that simply didn't work. At least I couldn't make it work. I needed White and I needed a tiny bit of Red too. And that above is what I ended up with.

So how does this deck "operates"? Well, just like any other Control deck, it starts the game a bit slow and plays its artifacts and enchantments; Howling Mine, Underworld Dreams, Temple Bell, Font of Mythos etc... Then it stays alive with Sleep and Day of Judgment which is a card most people absolutely don't expect from an Underworld Dreams deck. And then when everything is under control, it brings out its big guns; Time Reversal and Runeflare Trap.

You should really see your opponent's face when you play Time Reversal while you have two Underworld Dreams' out. Fourteen damage to the face for just ! Priceless.  And a few words about the sideboard: Countersquall is an excellent card against decks that play a lot of noncreature spells such as nasty planeswalkers, unwanted sorceries and instants etc... Basically it goes in against all sorts of Control decks. Leyline of Sanctity is my savior against Red and Red/Black discard decks. No burn spells, no Blightning, no Duress... life is really a lot easier after a turn zero(!) Leyline of Sanctity.

Then those three Path to Exiles in the sideboard replace three Sleeps for game two and three, because after getting hit by an unexpected Day of Judgment in game one, the opponent learns the lesson of not overextending. Also manlands are still a big problem. And finally I side in Rest for the Weary against really fast Aggro decks.

So dear readers, this was the way I built my Time Reversal deck. Did you like it? Please let me know below in the comments section. But before you do that, please also do take a look at this third deck too.

 

DECK #3:
Building Around Destructive Force

Paper players already started enjoying their Destructive Forces and I'm happy to be one of them. This card is so open to abuse and so far I saw a few interesting  and  versions. But the one version I built is a bit different. My version is all about the raw power of Red and Green. As you also do know, Destructive Force is a killer spell but it has a hefty price. And to be able to pay that price in a reasonable time, you have to mana ramp fast; pretty fast even. And that is why Green is needed. Explore, Rampant Growth (yup, it's still in Standard), the new Green Titan called Primeval Titan and the new Kodama's Reach called Cultivate are all needed. Oh them and also Garruk Wildspeaker too. He's really excellent in this deck. So with all those thoughts in mind, I started building my deck and added four copies of all the cards I mentioned above and started testing... only to see that this wasn't such a good idea. It was true that I was generating mana like crazy and that I was able to cast my Destructive Force pretty fast, but as you know dear readers, that card isn't a card that wins games on its own. It's a tool that helps you to render opponent's tools useless and buys you time so that you can bring in your win condition. But what was my win condition?

Actually Primeval Titan was a great win condition but it wasn't that easy to keep him alive. Even with one or two lands, every opponent was able to deal with him. Also I had another more important problem; I had to find a way to recover after a Destructive Force. 

Actually Mr. Wildspeaker was a great was of recovering after my Destructive Force. While he was on table, all I needed was two lands to "operate". And then I came up with the idea of adding one of the most unfair cards of Standard to the deck; I'm talking about Bloodbraid Elf. Of course Bloodbraid Elf is a good card anytime during a game but I found out that she was even better when played just after Destructive Force. With the deck I was playing, it was almost certain that she was going to reveal a mana card to me and that was my way out of my own Destructive Force. And so I started concentrating on my win conditions. Garruk Wildspeaker's tokens were one. Primeval Titan was another one. Bloodbraid Elf was another one. Of course Raging Ravine was one. But I wanted another win condition and so I came up with the idea of Chandra Nalaar.

MY WIN CONDITIONS

Yes, those cards were my win condition but there was actually one other. Something that doesn't look like much at first but gets huge after my Destructive Force. This to be exact:

Months have passed since we first saw this dude but I'm still trying to figure out why he has haste. But anyway, what matters is what it does and it does become a 5/5 after I clear the board with my Destructive Force. Very nice don't you think?

Actually I should also talk a bit about my sideboard but I will do so after I show you the finished list. Let's take a look at it first and then we'll talk about the sideboard.

 

There is one thing I cannot allow to happen while playing this deck: I cannot allow my Destructive Force to be Negate'd, Cancel'ed or Mana Leak'ed. That cannot and shouldn't happen, and therefore for a long time I had Autumn's Veil as a four-of in the sideboard. And testing revealed that it was really effective against decks with counterspells, but it also revealed that it was ONLY good against decks with counterspells. So it was a very narrow card but I needed something I could use in other match-ups too and decided to give this one a try:

This card was helping me fight counterspells just like Autumn's Veil was; it was actually even better. I was casting my Destructive Force, the opponent was casting Negate and with Reverberate I was copying that Negate and was targeting itself!

Reverberate helped me against counterspells but unlike Autumn's Veil, it also came in handy against some other decks too such as discard decks. People already started using Liliana's Caress with Megrim and started building decks around those two cards. And Blightning is still out there. I knew that Reverberate couldn't save me from discarding cards but at least I was hurting my opponent too with his own discard spells.

The other cards of the sideboard by the way, should be clear. Pelakka Wurm to gain life, to draw a card and to win from time to time, Goblin Ruinblaster to blast some nonbasics, Mold Shambler to deal with some unwanted noncreature permanents and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth for long games and to deal with mill decks if I meet any.

Oh and I do have one rules question: What happens if you cast your Time Warp during your turn and I Reverberate it? Whose turn will next turn be? Mine? Yours? If it is yours, then will I get two turns in a row after yours? Wow, too complicated....

Okay dear readers, and this is the deck I came up with for Destructive Force. Other players also try this card and some add White for Ajani Vengeant, Path to Exile and Wall of Omens, and some others prefer using it with Blue for mainly Jace, the Mind Sculptor. But I kept things simple this time and I do believe that I ended up with something really destructive!

 

WRAP UP

And so I come to the end of part one of my Build Around Me articles. I do hope you enjoyed the decks. I'm sure that there are other ways of using the cards I mentioned in this article but these were the ones I could come up with. If you have other ways of using them, please share your ideas with us below at the comments section.

Thank you!

 

NEXT WEEK ON ROGUE PLAY
Build Around Me, Part II

The "build around me" cards of M11 aren't only the ones you saw in this article. There are some other really interesting ones and next week I will be talking about them. Next week I will build two decks around two very interesting artifacts of M11 and then I will talk about another very interesting enchantment.

Thank you for reading.

See you online
Nafiz Erman, aka Lord Erman