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People misuse the term”rogue” more than they do the term”fascist.” They hear the word in context and they think they know what it means. Rogue doesn’t mean bad. If you play with bad cards, please don’t call them rogue. Bad cards are bad. Rogue cards are very good when the metagame predictions are right and the strategies hold, even if they may seem bad otherwise. A Gray Ogre is not a good card. No rogue deck designer would ever tell you to play with Gray Ogre even if you had a deck where Gray Ogre seemed like the perfect fit: you can get the superior Suq’Ata Lancer at the same cost and size; you can get the slightly worse – but still superior to Gray Ogre – Goblin Chariot at the same. A Stromgald Cabal might not look much better than a Gray Ogre against a G/R land destruction opponent, but man does it put the hurt on a White combo deck.

The rest of one of Mike’s best.

Okay, it’s pretty early. You still have a solid month to prepare for Regionals this year. You’re probably going to need it, too. The format is very diverse, and the top decks are tough to play, offering tons of different game play choices and subtle deck building options that could mean the difference between top 8 (and a qualification for Nats), or 2-2 drop. In any metagame, you really have to know the matchups, but this one in particular is very unforgiving of errors. So what’s a guy to do? Well I’ve got nine steps to help you out and then a discussion of what I’ve discovered during playtesting.

It’s been almost a year in the making folks, but Joe Black is finally here. At long last, the man who many consider the funniest Magic writer around has joined StarCityGames.com! Readers will Thrill! at Osyp’s harrowing tale of how he became”The Beefmaster.” Audiences will Chill! (and eat a donut) as Osyp recounts all the tawdry details of Mike Turian’s Bachelor Party. Magic players will Laugh! all the way to the bank as Osyp debunks popular metagame myths and recounts etiquette faux pas in other countries. This is one Featured Writer debut that simply cannot be missed!

TwelvePost was made for a format much different from that of current Type Two – there were no Biddings, Goblins, Decrees, or even Akroma’s Vengeances. It took advantage of fast mana lands to cast game-winning spells as quickly as possible. Its principle was if you can’t out race them, overpower them. Few things are more powerful than an 11/11 indestructible trampler backed by Leonin Abunas and Platinum Angel. Currently Affinity has a tough time removing Platinum Angel and Abunas game one, as many versions only have Shrapnel Blast to remove the pair. Killing both requires them to draw two of only four cards and they still have to kill you. Limiting your opponent’s outs like that is pretty good.

There is one matchup in which Ravager Affinity consistently has trouble. Playtesting and stacking skills notwithstanding, the mirror match is an awful prospect for whoever decides to use the deck. Although artifact destruction spells and answers to opposing Disciples of the Vault can be boarded in, these options crowd up the sideboard and necessarily dilute the effectiveness of the deck’s win conditions. For all its cleverness, casting Furnace Dragon will usually be like cutting off Chiss-Goria’s tooth to spite his face. Artifact destruction is not the answer to winning the Ravager Affinity mirror. The answer lies much closer to home.

I’ll do a card by card breakdown for all seventeen of the Ravager decks placing in the top 2 of European Regionals, and then talk about the rest of the current metagame. Then I’ll close with the latest decklists for a playtest Gauntlet. Well, what are you waiting for?