Rogues Speedrun Cthulu (Anowon, the Ruin Thief)

Commander / EDH Horror Mill Rogues Tempo UB (Dimir)

Latch

Rogues (21)

• 1x Changeling Outcast
• 1x Faerie Miscreant
• 1x Merfolk Windrobber
• 1x Nightshade Stinger
• 1x Prickly Boggart
• 1x Slither Blade
• 1x Thieves' Guild Enforcer
• 1x Triton Shorestalker
• 1x Vampire Cutthroat
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Faerie Vandal
• 1x Ghostly Pilferer
• 1x Invisible Stalker
• 1x Krydle of Baldur's Gate
• 1x Looter il-Kor
• 1x Soaring Thought-Thief
• 1x Thieving Skydiver
• 1x Nighthawk Scavenger
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Notorious Throng
• 1x Zareth San, the Trickster

Equipment/Auras (10)

• 1x Combat Research
• 1x Curiosity
• 1x Curious Obsession
• 1x Mask of Memory
• 1x Mask of Riddles
• 1x Psychic Paper
• 1x Rogue's Gloves
• 1x Sleeper's Robe
• 1x Nighthowler
• 1x Ophidian Eye

Mill (9)

• 1x Merfolk Windrobber
• 1x Thieves' Guild Enforcer
• 1x Cruel Somnophage
• 1x Krydle of Baldur's Gate
• 1x Soaring Thought-Thief
• 1x Fractured Sanity
• 1x Captain N'ghathrod
• 1x Consuming Aberration
• 1x Breach the Multiverse

Ramp (2)

• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet

Removal (1)

• 1x Feed the Swarm

Tutors (1)

• 1x Scheming Symmetry

Scales off mill (13)

• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Merfolk Windrobber
• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Soaring Thought-Thief
• 1x Nighthawk Scavenger
• 1x Memory Plunder
• 1x Captain N'ghathrod
• 1x Consuming Aberration
• 1x Guiltfeeder
• 1x Zareth San, the Trickster
• 1x Breach the Multiverse

Interaction (12)

• 1x An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1x Slip Out the Back
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Malicious Affliction
• 1x Unified Will
• 1x Memory Plunder
• 1x Snuff Out
• 1x Misdirection
• 1x Submerge

Theft or Copy (10)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Thieving Skydiver
• 1x Unified Will
• 1x Memory Plunder
• 1x Captain N'ghathrod
• 1x Fallen Shinobi
• 1x Zareth San, the Trickster
• 1x Breach the Multiverse
• 1x Knowledge Exploitation

Horror (5)

• 1x Cruel Somnophage
• 1x Nighthowler
• 1x Captain N'ghathrod
• 1x Consuming Aberration
• 1x Guiltfeeder

Recursion (2)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Victimize

Commander (1)

Draw (12)

• 1x Combat Research
• 1x Curiosity
• 1x Curious Obsession
• 1x Ghostly Pilferer
• 1x Mask of Memory
• 1x Mask of Riddles
• 1x Military Intelligence
• 1x Mischievous Catgeist  ^Flip
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Rogue's Gloves
• 1x Sleeper's Robe
• 1x Notion Thief

Lands (36)

• 1x Castle Vantress
• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Clearwater Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 15x Island
• 1x River of Tears
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 13x Swamp
• 1x Unclaimed Territory

Creatures (5)

• 1x Cruel Somnophage
• 1x Duskmantle Guildmage
• 1x Mischievous Catgeist  ^Flip
• 1x Nighthowler
• 1x Fallen Shinobi

Finisher (4)

• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Duskmantle Guildmage
• 1x Nanogene Conversion
• 1x Notorious Throng

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Sideboard

Equipment Aura (2)

• 1x Goggles of Night
• 1x Bonehoard

Creatures (1)

• 1x Sea-Dasher Octopus

Draw (1)

• 1x Sea-Dasher Octopus

Mill (1)

• 1x Sewer Nemesis

Interaction (2)

• 1x Memory Lapse
• 1x Reenact the Crime

Horror (1)

• 1x Sewer Nemesis

Theft or Copy (1)

• 1x Reenact the Crime

Scales off mill (2)

• 1x Reenact the Crime
• 1x Sewer Nemesis

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Maybeboard

Ramp (2)

• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Talisman of Dominance

Recursion (1)

• 1x Likeness Looter

Creatures (1)

• 1x Likeness Looter

Theft or Copy (1)

• 1x Steal Enchantment

Interaction (1)

• 1x Ghastly Demise

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Changes that need to be reflected in paper deck: - replace Fellwar Stone with Notorious Throng - Replace soul shatter with unified will - replace thought vessel with malicious affliction - replace metamorphic alteration with nanogene conversion - replace mirrormade with nighthowler - replace oona's blackguard with psychic paper - replace likeness looter with victimize - replace sewer nemesis with cruel somnophage

Firstly, this deck has tried to be budget friendly at the time it was made. However, it has been updated with some more costly cards (knowledge exploitation, dauthi voidwalker, Pongify, Notorious Throng) that would need to be cut for a budget build.

The deck was designed for a fun, late-game dynamic but consistent early-game play experience and it is hoped that while this strategy is not particularly powerful, it opens up unique/interesting lines of play with theft mechanics.

Now, on to the strategy: It's essentially a two-phase deck: Phase one is a tempo deck that is built on exploiting traditional EDH threat assessment (or, game theory) and EDH's ramp-orientated early game by flooding the board early with rogues that can be turned into card draw engines, but which also mill our opponents. Phase 2 follows this up with a pivot to GY steal and/or horror creature big threats that scale off graveyards.

Phase one works on the basis of the game theory that in the very early game our opponents would preference their development over curbing ours due to the multiplayer nature of EDH. This is because removing our 1cmc or 2cmc rogue-turned-draw-engine on turn 3 would put them behind on board development compared to the other two players, so it's a losing move for them. Indeed, our rogue-turned-draw-engines are deliberately costed aggressively so that these engines come online on turns earlier than our opponents feel willing to respond to (at a loss of their turn 2-3 development), and consequently don't draw much threat level. Eventually they do get wiped, but because our board was low cost, and our mana curve is so low, we aren't set back and we can redeploy quickly due to aggressive costings, or if we've drawn into our phase 2 cards, can pivot.

The other beauty is that this tempo rogues start sets up a beautiful pivot into phase 2. Several of our rogues have mill effects attached, or are fuelled by our commander. This builds graveyards into ripe targets for our scaling-horrors, or our GY steal cards. Additionally, we have a few ninjutsu cards to swap in some powerful on-hit ninja triggers that synergise with GYs, like Zareth.

In short, our deck takes advantage of game theory and abuses the standard EDH meta of prioritising ramp to have a fairly consistent, cheap and effective early game that sets up a fun and dynamic (if underpowered) late game.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 4 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 2 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.47
Tokens	Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Treasure