Rogue's Passage

Land

{T}: Add {C}.

{4}, {T}: Target creature can't be blocked this turn.

Combos

• Alesha, Who Smiles at Death + Breath of Fury + Rogue's Passage + Sword of Feast and Famine
• Rogue's Passage + Tainted Strike

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Dandan	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Judge's Tower	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (48)

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with me …

5 days ago

Welcome back to another episode of Build a Deck with Me. In the first two episodes I focused on a couple decks that want to go infinite and combo out. I realize that playing infinite combos is not everyone’s idea of a good time, but one of the things I enjoy is finding cool interactions/ways to break cards. So today instead of finding ways to break cards, I’m simply going to start with a card that is already broken and build a deck around it. That card is Voja, Jaws of the Conclave. Ok, so maybe it isn’t broken, but you have to admit, you see this good boy on the field and you need to find a response quickly.

Research

In the last episode, I had some comments that suggested I talk about some of the general research that goes into deck-building. One thing to keep in mind is that when you’re building a deck there are general archetypes that exist and are fairly well known. These can often serve as models when thinking about what cards to use, although relying too heavily on them long term can diminish creativity. If you’re just starting out though, by all means run over to EDHRec and find what cards usually go into a counters deck or a tribal deck (spoiler alert that is what we’re building here). One of the things that I do that helps my deckbuilding is watching youtube channels that play commander. This includes: The Command Zone, Tolarian Community College, Commander at Home, and Elder Dragon Hijinks. There are many others out there, but these are the ones that I’ve watched more than a couple episodes of. As I’m watching an episode, I find myself thinking, “Wow I want to build something like that” or “I really liked the interactions with that”. For instance, there was a Commander at Home game where I got to see the interaction between Dihada, Binder of Wills and Odric, Lunarch Marshal and now they’re sitting on my desk, waiting to be built. Today’s episode is the result of one such instance. I watched The Command Zone episode that covered Murders at Karlov Manor. In that game, the Voja deck was a beast. It was fast, it made huge creatures, it drew tons of cards, and it just couldn’t be stopped, oh and the commander was a big puppy dog (wolf, puppy same thing).

To start building, I went into Gatherer and just began looking for a few things like Wolves, Elves, and Changelings. I started to realize that there are very few changelings and the wolves out there really aren’t that great outside of a few like Hollowhenge Overlord. So I turned back to the Command Zone for some help. They post their decklists on the videos and I began scrolling through it and much to my surprise, the list was similar to the ones that I had found, but wasn’t sure about like Ferocious Pup and Universal Automaton. These aren’t good cards unless you have something that really wants creatures on the field. And that’s when things started to click. The support for Voja didn’t necessarily need to be super strong in their own right, it just needed to enable him to do more.

Changelings

First of all, Voja is an interesting card because it wants both Elves and Wolves on the field. Most tribal decks want just one tribe so it almost feels like you have to make a choice between one or the other here. Well I don’t like choosing between two good options. It’s like deciding between chicken nuggets or a chicken sandwich at Chick-Fil-A. I say both! (I also might need to reconsider some life choices, but oh well)

Changelings are great because they have all creature types which means any tribal deck can use them. Some are extremely powerful, while others just have an interesting creature type. In this deck, however, we want to focus on low cost creatures. If they do something cool, bonus!

Realmwalker is awesome because it is every creature type but it can also cast creatures from the top of your library which instantly gives you card advantage, we will likely choose elf as our creature type when it comes in because they generally are going to be our lower cost creatures, our mana dorks, and likely the more prominent tribal type in our deck.

Remember any changeling on the field will trigger both aspects of Voja’s triggered ability so a Universal Automaton becomes a 1 drop enabler for both adding counters and drawing cards. Irregular Cohort provides two 2/2 bodies both of whom are changelings and give us more counters and cards.

Of course there are two cards here that are just amazing. Maskwood Nexus which makes all your creatures all creature types, and Shields of Velis Vel which does the same thing in instant form. Both are game changers with voja.

Elves

When it comes to elves, we generally want to have mana dorks. This is going to ramp us out quickly, but also allow us to have bodies out there to add counters to. A couple standouts besides the normal ones like Llanowar Elves are:

Gyre Sage who is going to get huge thanks to Voja.

Beast Whisperer will draw you lots of cards because we are going to be a creature heavy deck.

Yeva, Nature's Herald is also helpful in being able to get your cards out on your opponent’s turns.

All the versions of Tolsimir are great because they often come with a wolf token in tow.

Finally there is Shalai and Hallar… When you’re adding counters to every creature on your board equal to the number of elves you control, this card can take out an opponent.

Wolves

There are a few wolves out there, but its surprisingly fewer than you would think. Hollowhenge Overlord is really good, and so is Ferocious Pup. You play it and suddenly you have two wolves which means two more cards when Voja attacks. Another great wolf is Roaming Throne. I know what you’re thinking, “it’s a golem.” In this deck, it’s a wolf… trust me. Roaming throne will double all of Voja’s triggered abilities and now you’re thinking “Voja only has one triggered ability.“ Actually, Ward is a triggered ability. Which means now in order to target him, your opponents need to spend 6 mana!! So you swing with Voja, let’s be conservative and say that you have just llanowar elves, Voja, and roaming throne, you add 2 +1/+1 counters to everything and you draw 4 cards. Speaking of doubling that trigger: Annie Joins Up. A super underrated card so far and triggers on Voja, Shalai, and Tolsimir.

Other fun stuff

There are a couple other things that help support Voja as well. Counter multipliers and additional combat steps are all good things for this deck. You don’t want to put too many of those in though because when push comes to shove you’re likely going to just want a creature to play instead of another counter multiplier. I have Kami of Whispered Hopes in the deck, because it adds counters, but it also produces a crazy amount of mana which I can use to empty my hand of creature cards. Hardened Scales is fine and even Branching Evolution feels worthwhile, but I chose not to add any others.

For additional combats I added only two cards, one was Relentless Assault and the other is Great Train Heist. The latter is great because it has more versatility, is an instant, and costs the same as relentless assault for its first ability. Both of these cards can win the game pretty easily.

There are also wolf producers like Howling Moon which I’ve played in Arena with great results. (also pairs well with Tocasia's Welcome). Sword of Body and Mind produces wolves, gives protection, and mills your opponent. Arlinn, the Pack's Hope  ^Flip is another powerful card since it produces wolves, but can also give you flash on your creatures.

Finally, there is a card that I’m proud to say I noticed before it became super popular. Silver Shroud Costume. I remember playing it in the dogmeat deck and thought, this is good, I’m going to put a copy into voja. At that time it was $5. It has since surged to $20 and there is a reason. It can flash out and attach to Voja, who is now hexproof, (in case ward 3 wasn’t enough) and unblockable gg.

Card Draw, ramp, interaction

Don’t forget your interaction. Just because Voja has ward 3 and is hard to spot remove, doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to be protected. Flawless Maneuver, Heroic Intervention, Teferi's Protection etc. will help keep him and the rest of your creatures safe.

As far as ramp goes, Voja wants creatures which means a lot of ramp is going to be in the form of mana dorks not mana rocks or traditional green ramp spells. I still added a few green ramp spells, but its definitely fewer than some of my other green decks.

Card draw is also a little different here. We’ve got Beast Whisperer and Tocasia's Welcome already and they work really well with the deck since the Beast whisperer is also an elf and tocasia’s welcome triggers with all of our mana dorks which we can flash out on other turns as well. Voja of course is the main card draw engine (seriously a commander who draws cards is just waiting to be abused). Other good cards here are Inspiring Call and Rishkar's Expertise.

About Card Draw

One quick note on card draw that has recently changed the way I think about it. I used to separate card draw into two different categories. Card draw engines which are ongoing effects that will give me cards as long as they remain on the field. The other is simply cards that draw more cards. Previously, I assumed that the former were excellent cards and the latter were well… not great. But as I was listening to The Command Zone they started talking about cards and the amount of triggers you can expect to get in a single game. This changed the way I thought about it. A card like Rhystic Study is great because you are likely going to get some cards from it, but your opponents can pay the 1 or they can remove it. The idea is to think about your card draw engines in terms of the average cards you get from it. This helped me starting think about the usefulness in a card like Inspiring Call which is likely to give me 4-5 cards when I play it, at least. Rishkar's Expertise similarly will net me upwards of 7-10 cards and play a spell from my hand. Meanwhile, rhystic study, which is a great card, will likely get me 5-6 cards before being dealt with, sometimes only a couple. It helped me shift my thinking and made me consider other cards that I had previously dismissed.

Lands

Not a lot of utility lands are needed in this deck, I did like Rogue's Passage, because a lot of times Voja is swinging for lethal commander damage. Making him unblockable is great.

Here is the final form: Voja, the good boy

And by final form, I mean the form I’m currently playing, but likely will change because decks are always being updated and changed. As always, hope you enjoyed the article and if you have any commanders or interactions that you want to see built, let me know in the comments.

indieinside on Cobra Kai's Mojo Dojo Casa House of Serpents

1 month ago

Rogue's Passage ?

capwner on "Master of Cruelties" - Budget but Strong?

3 months ago

As an x/4 in a no fury meta I think this card could potentially be good. The deck really wants Ragavan but yeah that's not very budget. Bowmasters too.

About 'understanding what to replace,' the way I think of it is, you know there are always more potential good cards than you can actually run in any deck, usually there are multiple good ways to build a deck. Every card should play into your synergy, except for sideboard cards which can attack something very specifically. And every card should be the best possible option for its slot (most versatility, most synergies with your other cards, most favorable in specific interactions vs. specific cards). Example, this is why I love Apostle's Blessing in here, it's versatile because it protects and evades, and these are both things your deck REALLY needs. And it's a cheap instant. Great card.

But now look at Goblin Tunneler, I see a card that is part of the gameplan, but it's also an x/1 non hasty creature and a 2 drop. This is going to fall short a lot of the time. Maybe a card like Wedding Invitation or Key to the City could be better in this slot. Generator Servant is great for the haste but it has the same weakness. Splitting that with artifact ramp like you did is good, maybe consider options like Pentad Prism but go with what you think plays the best. Molten Collapse is a strictly better Dreadbore and not expensive. Sunken Citadel might be a good land to combo with Rogue's Passage, maybe then Field of Ruin instead of Ghost Quarter? And Graven Cairns? On the lands topic I really like the idea posted above of adding Leechridden Swamp but you do need the fetches to really make it work.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death has a nice effect but doesn't really synergize with anything besides bringing your Master back, which it can't even do vs. LB and Solitude. Maybe adding cards that combo with her like Fulminator Mage or Augur of Skulls could make her better. Lightning Greaves also makes her and a lot of your other creatures better too, this is a card I'd consider for a 1 or 2 of. But without adding more support, you might consider cutting Alesha and adding something along another angle.

I like Brainspoil, the tutor is nice because finding the Master is definitely a bottlneck in the deck. Grim Tutor is an option but a bit more expensive, Profane Tutor is affordable but has some problems. Having at least one other tutorable 5 drop would make your BS a lot better. 1 of Glarewielder would be kind of cute.

Hand disruption is another angle you might consider, it's really good for a slightly slower combo deck like this to nullify your opponent's big early plays and buy you a couple extra turns to combo them out. Collective Brutality is a pretty decent flexible card that also finishes your opponent.

In the end I think tuning your list and making cuts is about trying to make as many of these meaningful synergy connections between different cards as possible, getting the right amount of each type of effect you want (3 vs 4 of a specific effect like Dreadbore matters a lot vs some decks!), and then you cut either your lowest synergy cards, or effects you think you could safely go down a count on. Usually you want 6-8 ways of getting your key card in action, or 6+ of each combo piece/synergy if it involves multiple cards, and in a perfect world you want 4+ post board copies of HATE for particular meta decks, like 4 Leyline of the Void vs. Living End, or 8 killspells that can kill a Primeval Titan or Sheoldred. Your board cards should address aspects of other decks that really threaten you, no need to run those Leylines if you already beat that deck most of the time. It often comes down to having the right reactive cards, so you want good numbers of the ones you'll need the most.

Sorry for the whole ass book! It seemed like you wanted the help and I liked the concept/got into it a bit once I started looking. I think there's a lot of work and playtesting you could do to really optimize this, and maybe it could end up being pretty good+still affordable!

DreadKhan on Sauron, The Dark Lord Commander Deck

4 months ago

I feel like this deck should look pretty hard at Relic of Sauron, it's one of the best mana rocks for a Grixis deck, it also offers card draw and a discard outlet when you don't need the mana. I also feel like you might want more ramp, but I'm not sure I'd shave the land count too much further. I do have much higher average MV decks with similar land counts, they tend to run a lot of ramp though!

I've always liked the idea of evasive Changelings in this deck, the best being Changeling Outcast, but Mistwalker is also good, Mothdust Changeling less so but still interesting, evasion is really good on an Army in here. Taurean Mauler might be worth throwing in too, any of these is infinitely better than trying to use a token as the base for your army. Amoeboid Changeling can make any creature an army (to trigger Sauron). You might even try Maskwood Nexus, you can always choose not to wheel your hand away if you're happy with it (could be an issue if you're getting in with several armies in a turn).

Since Sauron discards your hand before he draws a new one you might want to look into some recursion effects, Black is very good at that kind of thing. Sheoldred, Whispering One is a nice easy-button recursion card that also hassles your opponents, but she is slow and a ton of mana, but you can reanimate her with something like Animate Dead or Reanimate. Since Sauron can make you a new token whenever someone casts a spell (if you don't already have one) you could use sacrifice based recursion effectively, Hell's Caretaker could do some work. These are just a few low hanging fruit, if you need a bunch more (or cheaper ones) I could probably rattle off more.

With this much built in discard you might look at the better Delve cards, Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time come to mind immediately, both are pretty good card draw if you don't have to pay any generic mana in.

Mask of Griselbrand can work well as a draw source, it also gives two useful abilities for an Army. Not sure if this is too out there, but you could try Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep and Shizo, Death's Storehouse, if you make an Army your Ringbearer it becomes Legendary, meaning these lands don't just help Sauron (but making Sauron unblockable is inherently good in a deck like this because he has 7 power and he's a 3 hit kill). Fear from Shizo is probably better than First Strike in most metas, but First Strike is a very useful effect. Rogue's Passage is a nice budget card that can let Sauron or an Army get in each turn. I really have enjoyed using Scavenged Brawler, it would be very good with your Commander (if he can get in twice he can kill someone, regardless of their life total), but it'll also be useful with a good sized Army token, those key word abilities are pretty sweet in my experience. Dauthi Embrace is a nifty old card that can be very sneaky, you can use it to help opponents get in, not just to protect your creature from blockers. If you plan to attack and are in Red you might benefit from Berserkers' Onslaught, double strike on your entire board can be a very powerful effect.

If you want a way to protect Sauron from most board wipes, I really love Gift of Doom, this gem of a card can be cast as a Morph for 3 mana, after which you can sacrifice a creature to attach the aura to a creature (note that this method doesn't target the creature it attaches to, so you can get around Shroud on your creature) at literally any time you have priority iirc. It's also not a spell or ability, so you can use it in response to something with Split Second. Indestructible is very good, but if you can get Deathtouch on a creature with trample it only takes 1 point of damage to 'destroy' any creature (regardless of whether or not it dies), the rest goes over, so it has great synergy with Scavenged Brawler (and other Trample sources). You can always cast it for 5 mana, and it's not a terrible card in that form, but the Morph effect is one of the best ways to protect an individual creature (or to turn your opponent's block attempt into a blood bath).

Finally, Mercadian Bazaar, Subterranean Hangar, and Saprazzan Cove are my spiciest ideas for a deck like this, I will take no offense if you laugh at them, but you might be surprised by what they can do in a deck with a 6 mana Commander. I use the first two as well as two Fallen Empires storage lands (which I wouldn't encourage you to use unless you want gray hair) in my Rakdos deck, I play them as ramp cards, and it's openly hilarious how useful they can be if you really want to cheese out a big Commander (or recast them repeatedly).

Hope some of this brainstorming is helpful, Sauron is a pretty strong Commander that attracts a fair bit of attention afaik.

jamochawoke on Uurg eats everything

4 months ago

This is a super fun little combo deck! But it can get shut down pretty easily. I'd suggest putting some key Commander pieces in that you're missing... and thankfully there's a TON of things that work with a land-based deck archetype like this in those colors.

First off, you need to complete your Cultivator combo with Splendid Reclamation for getting all those lands out of your own yard in a very big way (Cultivator probably becomes the biggest thing in your game at this point)!

Centaur Vinecrasher or Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar are superb alternate or additional beatsticks for Cultivator with tons of synergy with your commander that also dig themselves out of the graveyard after they get immediately removed like in my games!

Terravore is nice if you never hit Cultivator in your games (or it gets hated out).

Constant Mists basically you get eternal fog in a deck like this whenever you want if it doesn't get countered.

Entish Restoration, Dig Up, and Beseech the Queen for synergistic tutors.

Kagha, Shadow Archdruid, Elvish Reclaimer, Grisly Salvage, World Shaper, Circle of the Land Druid, Stinkweed Imp, Winding Way, Life from the Loam, Scapeshift, and Satyr Wayfinder for digging through the deck faster while also rotating lands. Life From the Loam is ESPECIALLY GOOD for its dredge ability in this deck so you can keep casting it. Scapeshift is the single most powerful cycler you could run but it's very $$$ and doesn't synergize completely with this deck (it's more for landfall decks, but it can still work with this too).

The utility lands Witch's Cottage, Mortuary Mire, Memorial to Folly can help get your creatures back out of the 'yard.

The utility lands Witch's Clinic, Rogue's Passage, Ghost Quarter, Strip Mine, Wasteland, Field of the Dead, Thespian's Stage, Restless Cottage, Boseiju, Who Endures, and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire would all help your deck's overall resilience and ability to deal with threats.

Either Abundance or Rishkar's Expertise could be a game-ending bomb for you. Rishkar's is great if your commander has enough power. You can draw a ton of your deck, likely hit a tutor you cast for free, then if your hand is flooded with lands you discard down to 7 putting all those lands in your 'yard making your commander even bigger! Abundance isn't as synergistic, but is basically a creature tutor spell for Cultivator Colossus if you decide to not run any other beaters or utility creatures.

Assassin's Trophy for instant-cast targeted removal of EVERYTHING.

Tear Asunder and Abrupt Decay are less-good Assassin's Trophy but at least Decay can't be countered.

Casualties of War for when you need to get rid of a lot of different pests that turn.

Return to Nature for instant-cast targeted removal of Enchantment/Artifact or Graveyard card.

Drown in Filth for a land-synergistic targeted removal that gets around indestructible.

Terror Tide for land-synergistic boardwipe that also gets around indestructible.

Nurgle's Conscription, Froghemoth, and Bojuka Bog for some enemy graveyard hate.

Rain of Filth for a MASSIVE spike in mana for that turn.

Worm Harvest for generating a TON of tokens off of the lands in your 'yard.

Titania, Protector of Argoth or Rampaging Baloths for much, much bigger tokens.

Gitrog, Horror of Zhava and The Gitrog Monster for super frog-land-pseudocycling synergy!

Brawn since you're putting things in your 'yard anyways you might as well give your commander and other beatsticks Trample for free! Trample has saved me so many times in games. No reason not to run it in this deck tbh.

Erinis, Gloom Stalker, Ayula's Influence, and Old Rutstein for more synergy with your commander's ability.

Life / Death for making an army out of your lands or pulling something out of your 'yard.

The planeswalkers Nissa of Shadowed Boughs and Vraska, Golgari Queen can give you alternate win-cons while also being synergistic with your commander.

If you don't need more combo stuff and just need another big beatstick alternate for the Colossus it's hard to go wrong with Yargle and Multani's power (plus the stained glass alt-art is sick!). But unfortunately it doesn't come with the cool yard recovery abilities of the other beatsticks I mentioned and doesn't have trample or evasion, but it does have more power than Emrakul!

Goldberserkerdragon on Most unique deck!!!!!

4 months ago

IcyFire27 You could swap out Prowler's Helm for Rogue's Passage. Maybe cut a few of the lesser creatures for more draw. You should see plenty of creatures at around 27-33, coupled with draw you see everything. Ugin seems good but not necessary. Cheers!

DreadKhan on Goose Mother Voltron

5 months ago

Mark of Sakiko or Bear Umbra might do some work, mostly to enable you to play a lot more stuff? Belt of Giant Strength seems synergistic, it stacks with your +1 counters. Crystal Shard is a pretty good way to get your Commander back in hand, but it can also be used to punish any player who dares use all their mana up (some players are really bad at tracking stuff like this, depending on the playgroup). Rogue's Passage is an interesting way to guarantee the survival of your Goose. If you want more mass removal I have had some luck with Mass Manipulation, it's hard to cast but the effect is pretty strong if you steal more than 1 thing.

I'm not sure if your Goose gets big enough or not, but Tempting Licid is a decent Lure effect, and you can technically attach it to an opponent's creature that attacks (and remove it after blockers are declared) to either wipe out blockers (letting you/others get in) or get a creature killed, you can also use it to put a Lure on something you don't care about so The Goose can get in unblocked (you can save the Licid).

When it comes to ramp and fixing, I find 2 colour decks are extremely forgiving, and having one of those colours be Green makes it even easier to build. One of the annoyances of Enemy Pair decks (like Simic) is that their aren't as many dual lands to choose from, but their are still a few budget range dual lands that come with basic land types, these really pop with stuff like Nature's Lore, which can find a non-Basic Forest, enabling you to get your colours quickly and consistently, but IMHO it's really hard to not hit your colours in a Simic deck. It's really annoying that the only 'budget' typed dual I can think of is Breeding Pool, but that's a long way from budget, and you're only in 2 colours.

If you like +1 counters and drawing cards you might enjoy Generous Patron, if you're desperate you can give your own stuff the counters, but if you want cards you can do so (and still have a body). Another card that might be generally useful is Skullwinder, you can use this to generate political leverage, possibly getting to choose what the opponent will actually get back. Cultural Exchange is an obscure card that can very much take over a game if you time it right, ideally you use it after people have already wiped and hopefully don't have another at the ready. Mass Diminish might be better than Frogify, note that it lasts until your next turn and affects all of a player's creature, yet still comes with Flashback to boot. This is very good with something like Tempting Licid. Transmogrifying Wand might not look very good, but being able to remove the 3 most annoying creatures for a grand total of only 6 mana is pretty sweet, it's also a great deterrent piece once it's out and still has counters, people can't play key creatures until it's dealt with or out of counters. Return of the Wildspeaker is a good way to refill your hand, it's among the best of it's kind, but Momentous Fall is better if you're being wiped or something.

Zicatela on

6 months ago

Kessig Wolf Run was meant to be Rogue's Passage