Single Scoop: An Early Look at Standard Rogues
Zendikar Rising is here and Wizards of the Coast was kind enough to invite me to play in their Early Access event. Through that I got to try out the deck I've been waiting to make happen.....Ii's Uro Ramp! Just kidding. Rogues are here, and I'm so excited to play with this tribe in standard because I've been forcing it since Thieves' Guild Enforcer. However, Zendikar Rising gave us a ton of support with a new lord and a great Rogue finisher in Zareth San, the Trickster. Here's the list I played during the Early Access Event.
Other Zendikar Rising lists can be found here:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/theorycrafting-zendikar-rising
Gameplan
The deck is a tempo deck and functions along the lines of Dimir Flash and Delver. We have cheap threats that turn this into a Mill & Aggro deck. The new lord in Soaring Thought-Thief is perfect and what rogues needed. The fact that attacking with one or more rogues immediately starts milling makes it so we turn on powerful cards like Drown in the Loch. I've thought about adding cards like Into the Story but it still might be a bit clunky at four mana so I left it out of this list.
Rogues got another big payoff in the mill plan by having Zareth San, the Trickster! This card performed way better than I thought it would as it is able to get any PERMANENT out of the opponent's yard. So it's entirely possibly we can ramp (hehe)! The fact that it has Rogue-Jitsu is a perfect way to get around counter magic and when the format will probably shift to playing Bloodchief's Thirst to deal with Lotus Cobra, that means we get around all of the sorcery nonsense! This is definitely the kind of Rogue finisher we needed as I had to choose between this and Rankle, Master of Pranks and though Rankle is powerful, the flash and Rogue-Jitsu aspect of Zareth-Sama is perfect!
A totally new and potential break out card for this standard will be Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath (Sarcasm) so we need to be prepared for this card. Its the whole reason we're playing a card like Eat to Extinction and Cling to Dust as we really do need to make sure the Uro train doesn't ever get going. At the time of filming I didn't add Confounding Conundrum but it's entirely possible we need to make room for the card as it doesn't auto win against the ramp decks but it does slow them down enough for us to steal the victory in rogue fashion.
Conclusion
Rogues were winners in this pre-release event but week one is known for aggro decks and throughout the event, I got stomped by Crokeyz on a Boros Warriors list and I assume there's a ton of other aggro decks I just didn't run into so I'd look into adding Witch's Vengeance if aggro takes shape in the form of tribal. Other than that, I think the deck can go far if it respects Uro enough. I'll definitely be doing a best-of-three video for this deck with more updates after release so thanks for taking an early look at one of the more fun tribes!
Thanks for reading!
If you ever have a deck you want to be made into a video feel free to leave a like, comment, Email, and subscribe to the MTGGoldfish Youtube Channel
-Your Friendly Neighborhood AsianAvenger
Twitter: @TheAsianAvenger || Twitch: twitch.tv/TheAsianAvenger || Email: theasianavenger@mtggoldfish.com
