Rogue Legacy Ideas- Part 1

In preparing for the upcoming grand prix, I've come up with ideas for some interesting decks. The problem, is, as usual, that most of them are just downright terrible. That being said, I'm still going to share some of the thought processes that went into them and what cards I think will be good and bad to be playing this weekend.



The unbanning of Grim Monolith opens up some interesting options. Monolith is an inherently powerful card, and it is also good friends with Voltaic Key. The question is what color (or colors) to pair it up with, and which other effects we want to have in the deck. Being a huge fan of Trinket Mage, and considering that it can tutor up the Key, I am naturally drawn to blue. Some other auto-includes are Thirst for Knowledge and Sundering Titan as a finisher.

The rest of the choices are not quite so obvious. One combo that intrigued me was Lodestone Golem and Sculpting Steel, which can quite easily lock an opponent out of the game. Sculpting Steel also isn't always the worst as an extra Monolith or Key, and it's obviously unreal if you have Titan out already. Since most of our spells are artifacts anyways, Golem should hurt them a lot more than it will hurt us. Here's the list I ended up with:

Monoblue Monolith | The Rusty Machete

Spells:  
4 Voltaic Key
4 Grim Monolith
4 Sculpting Steel
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Lotus Petal
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Thran Dynamo
4 Ponder
Creatures:
4 Trinket Mage
4 Sundering Titan
4 Lodestone Golem
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truths

Lands:  
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
2 Seat of the Synod
12 Island

Sideboard:  
15 Makindi Griffin

The problems with this deck, as one may expect, are that it's quite inconsistent; it has a lot of draws where it can't do much with its mana and others where it doesn't have the mana to cast its spells. The games where Key/Monolith gets online fast are pretty sick though, and the ability to land a Lodestone Golem on turn 1 or 2 is not to be underrated. While I don't expect any build similar to this to make waves at the GP, Stax decks of various sorts will be there, and I do expect the designers of those decks to be playing better lists than this one, probably including Chalice of the Void and real removal spells.

Another idea that I had was to port the Brozek R/W landfall deck into legacy. A lot of zoo lists are running Steppe Lynx already, and Goblin Guide is not unreasonable against decks that aren't the mirror as well (though it is painful when they have Brainstorm or Top out). Geopede seems like a good creature on offense, though I don't think that Zektar Shrine Expedition will be able to make the cut. Again, a number of additional cards, like Chain Lightning, were pretty obvious to include. Here's the list:

R/W Landfall | The Rusty Machete

Spells:  
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Helix
2 Fireblast
Creatures:
4 Goblin Guide
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Plated Geopede
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Grim Lavamancer

Lands:  
4 Wasteland
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Plateau
1 Plains
1 Mountain

Sideboard:  
15 Drake Umbra

Having four Lavamancers as opposed to two or three isn't always the strongest, but he's better than any of the other options and the deck really just needs to max out on one-drops. Hellspark is surprisingly good at getting in damage, and with all the burn spells this deck has no trouble clearing the way of blockers or providing a considerable amount of reach. Another aspect of this deck that I like are the Wastelands; it is very real for this deck to just play out a stream of one-drops while wasting the opponent out of the game, and Wasteland plays very well in this particular deck because of its plurality of low-cost spells. The card doesn't just extend the game or trade one-for-one, it actually helps you build on-board advantage. The only thing is that it's a bit of a nombo with path, but usually path is just there to help break through the final few points, not to be used aggressively on the first creature the opponent plays.


Another card I've been trying to break for a while is Vengevine. The card has a lot of potential synergy, and 16 hasty points of damage makes your opponent feel the pain. Obvious combos are with cards like Careful Study, Intution, Survival of the Fittest, and Fauna Shaman. Below are two lists, one of them G/W, and the other G/U, that utilize those interactions.

U/G Vine | The Rusty Machete

Spells:  
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Intuition
2 Careful Study
Creatures:
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Vengevine

Lands:  
4 Tropical Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Forest
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:  
15 Grizzled Leotau

The first list is more of a beatdown-oriented tempo list. It has Hierarch and Goyf with the standard U/G tempo package of Ponder, Brainstorm, Force, and Daze. Intuition provides a way to net three Vengevines (or just act as a tutor), and with a Mongrel and a Rootwalla one can easily bring back Vengevines quickly. Keep in mind that playing a Mongrel, then discarding a Vengevine, then discarding the Rootwalla to the Mongrel and playing it for its madness cost will trigger the Vegevine. Careful Study is just another dig spell and a way to bin Vengevines, but having multiples is abysmal so I'm only running two. The land count can afford to be pretty low since we have Hierarchs as well as one-mana manipulation spells. I played a similar list at a GYGO legacy event to a 2-2 finish because my sideboard was unprepared to fight the combo decks that were prevalent at the time (1/5 didn't get the job done), and even though I'm not choosing to play this deck for the GP, its ability to smash any creature mirrors is pretty astounding. Next up is the list with white:

W/G Vine | The Rusty Machete

Spells:  
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Swords to Plowshares
Creatures:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Fauna Shaman
1 Loyal Retainers
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Vengevine
2 Basking Rootwalla
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Loxodon Hierarch
3 Gaddock Teeg
1 Eternal Witness

Lands:  
4 Savannah
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Seijiri Steppe
1 Maze of Ith
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Plains
4 Forest

Sideboard:  
15 Stonework Puma

This list is more centered on being a toolbox deck incorporating various combos. With either a Fauna Shaman or a Survival, the Retainers/Iona combo can be set up. Another line of attack is to bin consecutive vengevines and then survival into Rootwallas, bringing them all back. Rootwalla doesn't initially look strong in this list, but the ability to sneak in there for free is often times significant, even if he's just chumping to buy time while you search for the silver bullet. Having 4 swords is a must against the creature decks, and Teeg is well positioned against various cards you'd have trouble beating otherwise (i.e., force of will). Survival decks also allow a small toolbox of creatures such as Witness, Loxodon Hierarch, and Pridemage, which, although situational, will want to be tutored sometimes and can always be discarded to a survival effect if they're dead in a particular matchup. Also included in this deck is a land package for Knight of the Reliquary, since that card really is just too good to not play in a deck like this- just the ability to get Wastelands alone is tremendous, let alone acting as a Mother of Runes or fetching up a Maze of Ith versus the aggro decks. Join me later today (or possibly tomorrow) as I talk about some of the major decks, what cards I am going to be playing, and how I feel to best attack the current format.