Bad Bogles 2: Back in Black -- $8 Hexproof (M19)

Standard BlaineTog

SCORE: 71 | 50 COMMENTS | 9039 VIEWS | IN 35 FOLDERS


Hail the horse! —July 18, 2018

Core 2019 has given us a magnificent gift and I'm not about to look it in the mouth: Vine Mare! This card is so darn good. It's the best Bogle in Standard right now by a wide margin and I threw it in the deck so fast it made our poor Scaled Behemoths go into immediate retirement. I've also been experimenting with Slippery Scoundrel and I'm pretty sold on it as well, but only as a 2-of. Other than that, the list is unchanged except for a few tweaks to the sideboard. This deck really hums now.

Shiv3r says... #1

neat.
Saw jade guardian and immediately tried to make a standard bogles deck. I think that your idea is better than mine (which tried to ramp to it on turn 3 or so), and one I had before I realized jade guardian was a thing(using a bunch of random equipment + artifacts to cast Bastion Inventor early). Definitely trying to control the board is where the deck shines, since your "bogle" can almost be used as a finisher.

November 6, 2017 2:02 p.m.

BlaineTog says... #2

Thanks! I really like Bastion Inventor but I think it goes better in Improvise Equipment lists. The problem is, Equipment in Standard right now really sucks. It's way easier to run more Control elements (which are actually pretty good at the moment) than sub-par equipment. I'm definitely keeping an eye out for good Equipment in the next few sets since Improvise is such a fun mechanic.

November 6, 2017 2:39 p.m.

beast_of_war says... #3

I love the idea for this deck and I'm also a big AC/DC fan so props on the references to Thunder from Down Under!

November 9, 2017 3:33 p.m.

myNameJeff says... #4

Love the deck idea, and im definitely going to build it, but what would you upgrade if you had more money?

November 11, 2017 10:23 a.m.

BlaineTog says... #5

Really just swapping in Carnage Tyrant for Scaled Behemoth and upgrading the Mana base to include some mix of premium dual lands, then swap in Vraska's Contempt for Hour of Glory in the sideboard. Other than that, we're already running the best cards we can for this deck; I wouldn't even really want Fatal Push over Trial of Ambition since we can often fire off a single Trial multiple times per game. I guess you could cram a copy or two of The Scarab God in but I'm not sure the deck really needs it.

That said, a stronger mana base would open up more sideboard options. That would really be up to you, though; sideboards always depend on the local meta anyway.

November 11, 2017 2:21 p.m.

GamingAndy says... #6

I feel like it needs early game defense.

November 18, 2017 1:20 a.m.

BlaineTog says... #7

That's what Trial of Ambition and Essence Scatter are for. :)

November 18, 2017 7:21 a.m.

GamingAndy says... #8

Trial of Ambition needs cartouches out to be effective.

November 19, 2017 6:19 p.m.

BlaineTog says... #9

I think you're a bit confused about how Trials work. You don't get any value off casting Trials after Cartouches -- rather, it's the other way around. You want to cast your Trials first, then cast a Cartouche later to pick the Trials back up again.

November 19, 2017 6:44 p.m.

GamingAndy says... #10

Oh..yeah now that I read them, thanks.

November 19, 2017 8:13 p.m.

amurphy1893 says... #11

This is great. Thanks for sharing.

November 27, 2017 8:11 p.m.

AntIsBack says... #12

Played this deck against my friends. Vs. Black AggroVs. Blue favorable Fliers AggroVs. Hapatra TokensSome Notes:Has trouble in the early game and aggro matchups.I have found that you can rarely get carnage tyrant/Scaled Behemoth out.You typically win with one jade guardian with all the cartouches.Be careful of Ixalan's Binding targeting enchantment!

Love the deck btw!

November 27, 2017 9:23 p.m.

BlaineTog says... #13

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it!

Yeah, aggro can be a bit rough, especially if you keep a hand without much interaction, but you're favored to win if you can just untap with a Bogle. Strap a Cartouche of Ambition on and you almost can't lose from there against Aggro. Jade Guardian is definitely the better Bogle, and you can bet I'll be on the lookout for Hexproof creatures in our colors over the next year that cost less than 6 mana to cast as I'd love to swap Behemoth out for something cheaper.

November 27, 2017 10:33 p.m.

AntIsBack says... #14

I would love to see a less budget oriented version of this deck + sideboard.

For my aggro match ups I can at least see siding in fatal pushes.Any other Ideas?

November 28, 2017 10:55 p.m.

amurphy1893 says... #15

Im also curious to see a non-budget version!

November 29, 2017 8:40 a.m.

BlaineTog says... #16

For the main deck, we're already pretty well optimized for what we're trying to do. Obviously you'd want to upgrade the mana base with better dual lands and Carnage Tyrant comes in for Scaled Behemoth, but other than that, I like our setup as-is. There's a case to be made for going with Fatal Push over Trial of Ambition but between getting to re-cast it and potentially taking out Hazoret the Fervents and Bristling Hydras, I honestly think Trial is the better removal spell for us. Honestly, the sorcery speed and 1B cost hardly matter since we're can't even start committing threats to the battlefield until turn 4 and having to wait until turn 6 (Guardian with Negate backup) isn't that bad for us either.

The sideboard changes things up a bit. First, Vraska's Contempt comes in over Hour of Glory. Hour gets the job done but Contempt is better once our mana base can support reliably making double-black by turn 4. This might also be a decent place for some Pushes, swapped in place of Consign / Oblivion. We might also be able to slip some copies of Duress into the sideboard with more-reliable Black mana, but that would depend on your meta.

November 29, 2017 10:32 a.m.

Implies says... #17

I've added Silhana Ledgewalker in place of jade guardian. Her evade is amazing early on for pressure at just 2-CMC. I also swapped out 2 Scaled Behemoth for 2 copies of Thrun, the Last Troll. He cbc, has hexproof as well as regenerate for 2. Been getting more consistent results during casual play

December 2, 2017 9:14 a.m.

BlaineTog says... #18

To be honest, if you're playing casually and not in any particular format, this probably isn't a great starting place for a Bogles deck. We're stuck with expensive Bogles and so-so auras in Standard but if you're not constraining yourself like that, you might as well go for a more traditional Bogles deck with cheaper, stronger auras and all 1-CMC Bogles. This Much Abrew deck (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/much-abrew-uw-unstable-bogles-modern) is a pretty decent full-powered Bogles deck and while it's obviously way, waaaaay more expensive that what we have here, you could take some inspiration from some of its cheaper auras.

That said, Invisible Stalker is strictly better than Silhana Ledgewalker while not even costing more. I'd also prefer 4x Gladecover Scout or Slippery Bogle over any combination of Scaled Behemoth and Thrun, the Last Troll, but at that point the deck is becoming very different and would need a lot of different cards.

December 2, 2017 9:47 a.m. Edited.

amurphy1893 says... #19

Pretty sure this is supposed to be a standard deck...

December 2, 2017 10:51 a.m.

BlaineTog says... #20

Oh it is, but Implies asked about casual play so I figured I'd float some suggestions.

December 2, 2017 6:21 p.m.

amurphy1893 says... #21

Youre right, my bad. :)

December 2, 2017 7:48 p.m.

amurphy1893 says... #22

I have the paper version of this deck now :)

Got trampled by my merfolk deck (linked below) 4 times in a row lol... gonna see if I can smooth it out somehow.


Muddy Merfolk

Standard amurphy1893

SCORE: 1 | 93 VIEWS


Thanks for sharing this deck idea!

December 4, 2017 10:52 p.m.

BlaineTog says... #23

I'm glad you're enjoying it, even if it's getting stomped. :)

Hmm, that Merfolk deck doesn't have any interaction other than two Cancels -- it's just trying to play past its opponent rather than mess with them. That's the worst-case scenario for Bogles. We really want our opponent to have a hand of dead removal cards in Game 1 to give us a free win before sideboarding. Against a deck with no removal, Jade Guardian is basically just a Gilded Sentinel, which is barely playable in Draft, much less Standard.

You could try running some Unsummons in the sideboard if your meta has a lot of aggro decks like that, though it's always going to be a hard matchup. Your best hope is just to play the controlling game early, until around turn 6, then try to get down a Jade Guardian with Negate backup. Carnage Tyrant would really help in this scenario, both because of the uncounterability and also because that extra point of Power means more Lifelinking.

Just some thoughts.

December 5, 2017 9:22 a.m.

amurphy1893 says... #24

Ill try the Unsummons. My LGS plays a few Ramunap decks so. I was also looking at Benefaction of Rhonas and Treasure Map  Flip to give the deck some early game plays and card digging. Benefaction of Rhonas keeps the deck cheap.

What do you think?

December 5, 2017 9:57 a.m.

BlaineTog says... #25

I tried Benefaction and it's actually quite bad. With only 8 Creatures in the deck, you're very unlikely to hit two cards, and the Sorcery speed just kills it. You really need to keep your mana open early to Essence Scatter threats. What's worse, it's really important for this deck to hit its land early and keep the interaction flowing, but Benefaction filters both of those to the bottom (it does hit Trial of Ambition, but then your opponent knows it's coming and can prepare for it).

I can see a case for Treasure Map, but I'm somewhat skeptical. The deck can only handle so much wheel-spinning and I wouldn't want to swap Treasure Map in over Opt. You could certainly try it out, though, maybe trimming a few Auras to make room on the assumption that the extra card filtering would help you get to them when we need them.

December 5, 2017 10:18 a.m. Edited.