The Year of the Rogue Decks

As most of you know, the Pro Tour Qualifier season is here, and there have been a few good rogue combo decks in this format. The best have been Mind’s Desire, Cephalid Breakfast, CephaLife (a combination of the Cephalid Breakfast and Life), and Draco-Explosion. In this article, StevieT92 will go in-depth on the rogue decks of Extended.

Cephalid Breakfast

Cephalid Breakfast relies on the en-Kor creatures (Nomads en-Kor, Shaman en-Kor) to repeatedly target a Cephalid Illusionist. The Cephalid Breakfast player will mill their whole deck , then flashback Krosan Reclamation, putting Reanimate and Exhume into their library. The next turn, they play one of the reanimation spells, reanimating a Sutured Ghoul, which eats two Krosan Cloudscrapers. Dragon Breath will come into play, creating a hasty 26/26.

Birds of Paradise, Chrome Mox: These provide mana acceleration and fixing.

Worldly Tutor, Vampiric Tutor: These are tutors. They can help by finding a Kami of Ancient Law or Gilded Drake to take care of almost anything the other player has.

Brainstorm: This is the single most powerful card drawer in Extended.

Cabal Therapy: This is the only disruption that this deck runs. It is usually needed against other combo decks.


CephaLife
CephaLife combines the combos of Cephalid Breakfast and Life, and is a very robust combo deck. The deck relies on the en-Kor creatures (Nomads en-Kor, Shaman en-Kor) to target a Task Force, Daru Spiritualist, or a Cephalid Illusionist. What happens is this: The CephaLife player will get out an en-Kor creature, which will target one of the three trigger creatures a million times. Then, if it was a Daru Spiritualist or Task Force that was targeted, the creature will get infinite toughness and get sacrificed to a Starlit Sanctum or Animal Boneyard. If it was a Cephalid Illusionist, the whole library will be milled. Then, the CephaLife player will flashback Krosan Reclamation, putting Exhume and Reanimate back into the library. The next turn, It will draw and play one of the reanimation spells, targeting a Sutured Ghoul. It will eat two Krosan Cloudscrapers. Dragon Breath will come into play enchanting it, creating a 26/26 hasty monster.

CephaLife
Lands 4 City of Brass 4 Forbidden Orchard 2 Starlit Sanctum 2 Llanowar Wastes 2 Tarnished Citadel 1 Caves of Koilos 1 Yavimaya Coast 1 Adarkar Wastes 1 Brushland 1 Underground River Creatures 3 Cephalid Illusionist 3 Daru Spiritualist 3 Nomads En-Kor 1 Shaman En-Kor 1 Sutured Ghoul 2 Krosan Cloudscraper	Spells 3 Aether Vial 4 Brainstorm 4 Vampiric Tutor 4 Worldly Tutor 3 Cabal Therapy 3 Living Wish 2 Chrome Mox 1 Dragon Breath 1 Exhume 1 Krosan Reclamation 1 Reanimate 1 Worthy Cause	Sideboard 2 Kami of Ancient Law 2 Gilded Drake 1 Dragon Shadow 1 Energy Field 1 Bone Shredder 1 Forsaken City 1 Battlefield Scrounger 1 Cephalid Illusionist 1 Daru Spiritualist 1 Nomads En-Kor 1 Rootwater Thief 1 Starlit Sanctum 1 Uktabi Orangutan

Aether Vial: This allows the CephaLife player to put its creatures into play without being countered and helps some of this deck's mana issues.

Chrome Mox: This provides mana acceleration and fixing.

Vampiric Tutor, Worldly Tutor, Living Wish: These tutors help CephaLife's speed and consistency.

Cabal Therapy: This provide disruption, particularly for other combo decks.



Draco-Explosion

Another new combo deck is Draco-Explosion. This deck relies on the fact that most players will do at least four damage to themselves by using painlands and fetchlands. The deck uses Brainstorm, Scroll Rack, and occasionally Vampiric Tutor to put a Draco on the top of the library. The deck then plays an Erratic Explosion to the dome for sixteen. This deck is different from the other combo decks in the fact that it is only a two-card combo, and as such has room to run counterspells and other control elements.
That said, this deck runs more like a control deck with the combo as a win condition.

Counterspell, Mana Leak: Counterspells, the two best.

Brainstorm: Must I say it? This is the second-best card drawer ever. It goes in almost every blue deck in extended. In Draco-Explosion, it also has the bonus of being able to put a Draco on top of your library.

Fire/Ice, Volcanic Hammer: These are burn, and Ice can shut down a creature for a turn. Also, if the opponent doesn't deal four damage to himself, these can help with the win.

Intuition, Accumulated Knowledge: This is the card drawing engine, the best there is.

Mystical Tutor, Cunning Wish: These provide tutoring power.




Mind's Desire

An extremely complicated and hard to play combo deck, Mind’s Desire (the main storm-based combo in the format) relies on cheap blue spells, cost decreasers (Nightscape Familiar and Sapphire Medallion), and the Urza block’s free spells to generate a huge storm count. It then plays Mind’s Desire to see and be able to play about five to ten spells for free. This usually draws it into its win condition, a huge Brain Freeze. The Mind’s Desire player will play all the non-storm spells, and finally, play a huge Brain Freeze, milling at least fifty cards off their opponents deck. This deck is jam-packed with tutors, and is consistent. It is one of the few decks that can beat Life, even when Life has executed its combo!

Cloud of Fairies, Snap: These "free spells" are the powerhouses of the deck. They keep the storm count growing as well as keeping mana open to play more spells. Used in conjuction with the cost decreasers, Sapphire Medallion and Nightscape Familiar, they only cost and untap two lands, which is really needed to generate a big enough storm count.

Turnabout: Turnabout, provided that the player is at four mana, is another card that helps the storm count grow while keeping enough mana to play more spells. It can also be used definsively before you go off, which is a bonus.

Intuition, Accumulated Knowledge: This is one of the best card drawing engines of the format. The Intuition fetches three Accumulated Knowledge. Then, the player plays the AK, drawing three cards. The other tutors, if possible, tutor up the last Accumulated Knowledge, which draws four cards.

Brainstorm, Deep Analysis: These are the two best card drawers in Extended.

Chrome Mox: This provides mana acceleration


The key to these decks is their sideboards. They can pack dedicated hate for the most popular decks, and those decks cannot realisticly pack hate for a rogue deck. This gives these rogue decks the edge they need to keep winning. But, as these decks become more popular, they start getting hated out. With such a deep card pool, I expect some of the innovative deckbuilders will come up with more of such decks, and i predict that new rogue decks will get some top 8s this year. In the year of the rogue decks, any deck can win!


Until next time, deal 16 to the dome.

-Steve