In her infinite wisdom, my lovely girlfriend Lindsay got me two books by Jamie Wakefield for Christmas: Quest for the Pro Tour and Secret Force: Quest for the Pro Tour II. I'm halfway through the second one, and I highly recommend them. They could use another pass through an editor (for some reason every word that ends with "red" is capitalized like this: "coloRed"), but Jamie's storytelling is enthralling. It's fascinating to hear about the early days of the Pro Tour, and how Derelor was considered hot tech at one time. More than anything, Jamie's personality shines through, and it feels like you're having a conversation with an interesting and well-spoken friend.

At the end of the first book, Jamie outlines his philosophy on Magic strategy. He calls it "The Wakefield School of Magic," and by today's standards, it may seem a little basic. At the time, though, Magic strategy was in its infancy, and Jamie's thoughts on the matter were pretty cutting edge. When distilled from several anecdotes and put in a numbered list, they look like this:

1. Always play 26 land.
2. "The last big creature you control, and they can't get rid of, wins you the game."
3. Play one color to minimize losses to color screw.
4. Build your own deck.
5. Know your deck.
6. Maintain a strong mental attitude.

Most of this stands up even today. The first rule seems a little too rigid, but what's important is the context: 26 was a huge number at the time. New players tend to underestimate how much land they will need – I ran twenty for a solid year before I finally lost one too many matches to Mana Screw. Even these days, when I first build a deck, I have a propensity to trim down on the land to fit in everything I want, and only after numerous hours of testing do I approach the correct number. I could save myself some time by starting a little closer to 26.

Rule #2 is the one of the most quoted lines in Magic history. There are numerous implications from such a statement, but the one that speaks to me the most right now is that small creatures quickly become irrelevant. I like building aggro decks, and I like to build them on a Sligh-like curve. Elite Vanguard? Yes please. Memnite? Get me a four pack. Then I lose a bunch of games to drawing late-game Memnites.

[caption id="attachment_12638" align="aligncenter" width="265" caption="This was my suggestion for family Christmas cards this year. Lindsay went with a picture of the baby instead."][/caption]

This really hit home the other day when I was battling with mono-red against blue/black control. I figured this was a pretty good matchup, as burn helps to contain Jace and they don't have much mass removal for when I get a good board presence.

So I was surprised when I lost game after game. Blue/Black had more than enough answers for my Goblin Guides and Geopedes, and then Grave Titan would come down and make every creature in my deck irrelevant. Every turn, he added two chump blockers, while closing out the game faster than I could rip burn spells. Sure, I had a plan for the late game – but Koth would eat a Duress or a Mana Leak, and Dragonlord always got the Doom Blade.

The point is that each of my cards relied on others to be effective. Goblin Guide needed Plated Geopede, which needed Koth, which needed a bunch of burn to clear the way. It played like a combo deck, and if I didn't assemble all the pieces to scrounge up twenty damage, then the each piece was worthless. Compare to Blue/Black control – cards like Grave Titan and Jace, the Mind Sculptor win the game on their own. Those are the "last big creatures" (okay, let's make it "threats"), and I couldn't answer them.

Here's my attempt at a deck with as many game-ending threats as I can reasonably put in a deck (I started with 26 lands, but with four chalice, it just wasn't practical.)

"Obvious Force"

• Spells (25)
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 2 Burst Lightning
• 4 Explore
• 4 Everflowing Chalice
• 3 Koth of the Hammer
• 3 Garruk Wildspeaker
• 3 Destructive Force
• 2 Chimeric Mass

• Creatures (11)
• 4 Acidic Slime
• 2 Chandra Nalaar
• 3 Inferno Titan
• 2 Wurmcoil Engine

• Lands (24)
• 4 Raging Ravine
• 4 Rootbound Crag
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 12 Mountain

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Goblin Ruinblaster
• 4 Pyroclasm
• 2 Lavaball Trap
• 3 Ricochet Trap
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 1 Koth of the Hammer

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Lightning Bolt and Burst Lightning – Buy you time to set up a D.Force against aggro, hit Planeswalkers.

Explore and Everflowing Chalice – Ramp you to your good cards, allow turn three Koths and Garruks.

Koth and Garruk – The meat of the deck. They quickly bump you to your endgame, plus stick around after the Force. These are also your best weapons against control.

Acidic Slime – Makes Force more devastating, takes out troublesome permanents like Tempered Steel and Mimic Vat. It even blocks and kills that jerk Grave Titan.

Chandra Nalaar – Another card that sticks around after a Force and gives control decks trouble. Usually 2-for-1s aggro decks.

Inferno Titan – All-purpose game finisher. Survives (surprise!) Force, domes ‘walkers, wipes a board full of weenies. Brutally fast clock.

Wurmcoil Engine – More resilient than Inferno Titan, and just as good against aggro decks. Only downside is that it's not a 2-turn clock.

Destructive Force – Centerpiece of the deck. The goal is to have a fatty or a Planeswalker when you Force to break parity.

Chimeric Mass – Latest addition, I like that I can play this at any point in the game, and it will still survive Force. Provides a nice mana sink if you don't draw your signature spell.

The mana base is obviously Mountain-heavy, to make Koth as good as possible. Twelve sources of green has been fine, though Terramorphic Expanse (and a Forest) could be added if it turns out to be too difficult to hit double green.

Sideboard:

Goblin Ruinblaster – Great against control, supplements the Acidic Slime and makes them pay for tapping out for Jace.

Pyroclasm – Elves and other assorted weenies. Decks like that are extremely popular online, because they are cheap and you can reasonably expect to make a profit out of them. The dream is that you win enough 8-man Standard queues to buy a playset of Primeval Titans. Pyroclasm is the ultimate dream crusher.

Lavaball Trap – My experiment against ramp, but probably too slow. With Acidic Slimes and all your ramp, you have a reasonable chance to hard-cast this while it's still relevant.

Ricochet Trap – After watching LSV nearly get blown out by a Reverberate in a recent Extended video, I was motivated to try the card. Unfortunately, the only card you really want to copy is Mana Leak, and Ricochet Trap is better at serving that purpose.

Inferno Titan – Better than one of the Destructive Forces against aggro.

Koth of the Hammer – Better than a Chandra Nalaar against control.

Unfortunately, this deck breaks Wakefield Rule #3 – Always play one color. I understand his logic. You lose a certain number of games each tournament to now drawing enough lands. Playing two colors adds to that number of games, because now you need to draw enough of both types of lands. I started with a Big Red deck in honor of that rule, but I quickly realized that when I didn't draw Everflowing Chalice, the deck was too slow. Iron Myr is too flimsy and doesn't play well with Pyroclasm and Destructive Force, so I had to look to green.

This is the reason the mono-color rule is out of date. You lose more games to the rigidity of a one-color deck and the inability to shore up its weaknesses than to color troubles, especially when we have access to the quality and quantity of dual-lands we have now (Jamie's R/G beatdown deck, featuring 4 Pillage and 4 Jolrael's Centaur, was running 13 Forest and 13 Mountain as its mana base).

That said, for the reasons Jamie wrote about, I've always opted out of playing Boros in large tournaments. Over the course of an eight round tournament, the fact that you are playing Steppe Lynx and Goblin Guide with only Arid Mesa to fix your mana on turn one will catch up to you – especially since the deck needs an explosive start to function correctly. I'm not saying the deck is bad; other people seem to do well with it pretty consistently. I just like to minimize the amount of luck I need in order to top 8.

Rule 4: "Build your own deck." Jamie uses the classic "rogue factor" argument, that playing your own brew will give you a strategic edge because you know the contents of your opponent's deck and they don't know yours. I don't buy it.

First, experienced players have learned that assuming you know exactly what your opponent is playing is dangerous. Just because it looks like Ascension and smells like Ascension (singed hair?), doesn't mean he's not playing Erratic Explosion-Emrakul or something. On a smaller scale, they could have added a second Cancel to Matignon's list from World's, and you don't want to just walk into it. Prudent players won't make an ass out of u and me, and that minimizes the rogue factor somewhat.

Second, your information edge is only really an edge in the first game of a match, and only in the early rounds of a tournament. Once I see what you did thar, either while you're smashing me with your Training Grounds combo game one or beating my friend round four, you give up that advantage.

Third, and most importantly, you're probably playing an inferior deck than the well-known killing machines being suboptimally piloted by your opposition. There's a reason the net decks become so popular so quickly – somebody who is better than you spent more time tuning a deck than you ever could, and won a tournament with it to prove how strong it is.

Look – I'm not against rogue strategies. I like to put silly half-baked lists in this space practically every week! I'm simply against playing a rogue deck solely because it is a rogue deck, thinking that your plan is so unlikely that everyone will be caught off guard and immediately lose. I've watched a lot of Pinky and the Brain. I know that even the most secret of plans can be foiled.

[caption id="attachment_12637" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The same thing we do every PTQ, Pinky. Try to win with Baneful Omen."][/caption]

Instead, I advocate playing a rogue deck for two reasons. The first is to have fun by competing with your own brainchild. The second is to attack the metagame from a new angle.

That guy that is better than you and had more free time to spend on Magic than you? His decks have one disadvantage: they were built for the past. You can build for the future! If you have a good read on the metagame and strong deckbuilding instincts, you can create a surgical tool that dismantles the top decks.

For example, say we want to beat the current Standard metagame (I certainly do!). The deck with a bulls-eye on its back is Blue/Black control – and how does that deck win? It uses various one-for-ones (Inquisition of Kozilek, Doom Blade, Mana Leak) to cripple our early game, reloads with a Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and finishes with a Grave Titan or Wurmcoil Engine.

A deck designed to win this matchup might play aggressive creatures to make sure Jace doesn't live through a turn. Those creatures would have to be resilient or provide card advantage to fight through the one-for-ones. Finally, we need a way to kill or get through the big six-drops.

Aggressive, resilient creatures? Sounds like a Vengevine deck.

"Next Level Birds"

• Creatures (24)
• 4 Vengevine
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Fauna Shaman
• 4 Squadron Hawk
• 4 Lotus Cobra
• 1 Stoneforge Mystic
• 2 Trinket Mage
• 1 Memnite

• Spells (11)
• 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1 Sword of Body and Mind
• 1 Brittle Effigy
• 4 Mana Leak
• 1 Unified Will
• 1 Spell Pierce

• Lands (25)
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 3 Seachrome Coast
• 1 Celestial Colonnade
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Terramorphic Expanse
• 2 Verdant Catacombs
• 4 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 2 Island

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Flashfreeze
• 2 Gideon Jura
• 1 Molten-Tail Masticore
• 4 Obstinate Baloth
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 1 Stoneforge Mystic
• 2 Volition Reigns

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This deck costs a lot of money. It plays some of the most powerful cards in Standard. It's based on a successful deck from six months ago (Next Level Bant). Still, I would argue it's a rogue deck – it draws on history, but it isn't a known quantity in the current metagame.

And it's also a good deck! I built it while writing this article, merely to serve as an example, and while I was testing it to make sure I wasn't presenting absolute dreck to all of you, a funny thing happened - I kept winning. I only played in the Tournament Practice room (when the baby is sleeping, I don't like to play with tickets on the line in case I have to quit), but I played against real decks (ramp, Vampires, control). The few games I lost, I felt like it was because I made mistakes. It's a difficult deck to pilot.

All the pieces work together beautifully. Fauna Shaman discards Vengevine to get Squadron Hawks which bring back Vengevines and provide fodder for Fauna Shaman. Trinket Mage can find Memnite to bring back Vengevine or Brittle Effigy to remove a critical Wurmcoil Engine. The fetch lands fuel Lotus Cobra, and all the shuffle effects (and Hawks) make Jace better. The six counters make sure all of this goes off without a hitch, but even if they land a Day of Judgment – you have Vengevines!

I wasn't sure about the Mystic, but Sword is good enough in some match-ups to justify its place. Sometimes all you have are a bunch of dorks hanging around, and that's where Sword really shines. The sideboard is still mostly theory, but it's been fine in the ten or so matches I've played thus far – counters for ramp and control; an extra Mystic to beat blue decks; Gideons, Baloths, and Masticore for aggro decks; Volition Reigns to steal any kind of Titan.

One game during testing, I went turn two Squadron Hawk on the draw, going up to nine cards. I discarded two Vengevines, and next turn I played Trinket Mage into Memnite. My opponent conceded on the spot. Still had all these Squadron Hawks!

I need to work on Wakefield Rule # 5 – "Know your deck," but this could be the real deal. I plan on tuning it into a Wrecking Ball and then demolishing some daily events. Next week, I'll let you know how it turned out. If by chance I didn't break the format, maybe I'll have to start over with a preconstructed deck…

Until then, remember to work on your Mental Toughness (Wakefield Rule #6). Maybe buy your brain an Affliction t-shirt, or just read Gerry T's fantastic article.

Happy New Year!

Brad Wojceshonek

BradWoj at Gmail dot com

bjwoj on Twitter