Bad Bogles 2: Back in Black -- $8 / 2 tix Hexproof (Standard)

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Bad Bogles 2: Back in Black -- $8 / 2 tix Hexproof

BlaineTog

Land (25)
4x Forest
2x Foul Orchard
4x Hashep Oasis
6x Island
2x Submerged Boneyard
3x Swamp
4x Woodland Stream
Creature (8)
4x Jade Guardian
4x Scaled Behemoth
Enchantment (16)
4x Cartouche of Ambition
4x Cartouche of Knowledge
4x Cartouche of Strength
4x Trial of Ambition
Instant (11)
4x Essence Scatter
3x Negate
4x Opt
Sideboard (15)
3x Appetite for the Unnatural
2x Consign / Oblivion
3x Crook of Condemnation
2x Hour of Glory
1x Negate
2x River's Rebuke
2x Spell Pierce
Description
This is a Sultai take on my Bad Bogles deck, splashing Black for Cartouche of Ambition to help us race against Aggro without straying from the shoestring budget. All in all, I've been really happy with the upgrade as it really helps avoid situations where we land a Bogle, untap, and still lose to our opponent's wider board.

If you're new to the party, Bogles has been a deck in Modern for a really long time and its game plan is pretty simple: play a turn 1 Slippery Bogle or Gladecover Scout, load it up with cheap Auras, and smash face for the win. Standard doesn't have any 1-CMC Hexproof creatures or anything but it's still really fun to shred with Bogles in the 4- and 6-CMC range. Plus this deck is built mostly of bulk commons and uncommons, so it costs less than $8 in paper and 2 tix online. Can we take down Tier 1 monsters with draft chaff worth about as much as two measly packs? Maybe, maybe not, but we're sure gonna have fun trying!

For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)

We're running two Hexproof creatures: Jade Guardian and Scaled Behemoth. Jade Guardian is reasonably cheap at only 4-CMC so we can usually get it down fairly early, and a 3/3 Hexproof creature for 4 is already a pretty respectable body. A second Guardian can even donate its +1/+1 counter to a Guardian already loaded up with Auras! Scaled Behemoth is more expensive, to be sure, but it's simply enormous. Slap even one aura onto this guy and you're ready to rock against most boards.

Ride On

Ok, you've got your Hexproof creature down. Now it's time to get pumped.

Our best Aura is Cartouche of Knowledge. It's cheap, it keeps us drawing through our deck, and there aren't too many flyers in the format so this will often essentially make our Bogle unblockable.

Cartouche of Strength is also great, if a bit more expensive. It keeps us from getting chumped all day by Thopter tokens and getting to chow down on one of our opponent's creatures along the way is great.

Cartouche of Ambition is simultaneously our worst and most important Aura. It doesn't give us any evasion, it isn't especially cheap, and the ETB ability is quite weak compared to drawing a card or fighting a creature, but the Lifelink is absolutely critical to staying alive against swarm and aggro decks. This Aura can bring us back from the brink in a way the other Auras just can't, and for that reason alone, it's absolutely indispensable.

Finally, Hashep Oasis is our backup "Aura." The opportunity cost to run it is pretty low and it can sometimes shave a turn off our clock or enable an attack that would've otherwise been a non-starter. All in all, a good inclusion to the deck.

Jailbreak

Now we just gotta make sure we stay alive long enough to rock out, and for that we have a light control package.

Essence Scatter helps keep the board clear while we wait to get down a creature while Negate deals with non-creature threats early and protects us from sweepers later on. I already mentioned Cartouche of Strength but it's worth mentioning again, as it's a great way of interacting with the board if we miss countering something. Note that fight effects work very well with Lifelink so if you can afford to slap on a Cartouche of Ambition before your Cartouche of Strength, go for it.

However, we also have a bit of spice here for some removal that doesn't depend on getting a Bogle down: Trial of Ambition. We're already running a bunch of Cartouches and splashing Black, so I figure we might as well jam with the best of the Trials. Cast it early to pick off a 2-drop the opponent got in under our Essence Scatters, then pick it up later on after casting an Aura and re-cast it to take out their 5-drop. This can even lead to really brutal turn sequences where we cast Trial, Aura-up our Bogle, then cast Trial again before swinging into a now-empty board. You can even kill Carnage Tyrants or Bristling Hydras with this! How sweet is that?

Opt, meanwhile, helps us draw into the cards we need at any given time. We really need to make sure we hit our land drops early (seriously, missing land drops is almost as bad for us as it is for hardcore Control decks) and Bogles and Auras late, and Opt is perfect for that. This deck plays more like Combo than Midrange so a bit of card filtering is really, really important.

Highway to Hell

The lands are a little sketchy, I'll admit: we have all four Woodland Streams, a split playset of Submerged Boneyard and Foul Orchard, the aforementioned copies of Hashep Oasis, and some basics. Most of our serious action is further up the curve so we're not punished too badly for our budget taplands here, but the deck's mana situation could be better. Hashep Oasis can do some serious work here once we've got a Bogle down and some evasion strapped to it, but make sure you leave up enough mana to Negate their Settle the Wreckage!

Its A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)

For the sideboard, we have Spell Pierce and the fourth Negate for Control matchups, Appetite for the Unnatural for dealing with troublesome artifacts and enchantments, Crook of Condemnation to blow up graveyard strategies, Hour of Glory to deal with The Scarab God and Hazoret (it's our budget Vraska's Contempt, but we couldn't consider running any double-Black spells without upgrading our mana first anyway), and two copies of River's Rebuke to deal with go-wide and token decks, which can swarm us even once we've got a Bogle down. I'm also trying out Consign / Oblivion as a catch-all answer that can even deal with a troublesome permanent permanently with the right maneuverings on our part. All in all, we have a pretty diverse set of answers in our colors.

Let There Be Rock

Thank you for reading, and I hope you like the deck. $8 is about as cheap as a deck can be but if that sounds too cheap for you, Carnage Tyrant is essentially a strict upgrade to Scaled Behemoth, and obviously the mana base could use some serious love. Other than that, though, we're mostly running the best Bogles cards available right now so there's actually not that much difference here between full-price and ultra-budget.

That said, let me know if you have any other ideas for how to take this show to the next level! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Updates
Comments
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.
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.

deck chart
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.
amurphy1893 says... #26
Ill try out Treasure Map Flip and get back to you!

December 5, 2017 10:42 a.m.
Implies says... #27
Thank you for the tips Blaine. New to MTG and just liked the cheap pricetag and use of cartouches+ambition is pretty satisfying to use. I will use this as a starting point and sub in cheaper/better creatures going forward. I didn't know Invisible Stalker existed I will look to get him soon. I like Thrun's regenerate as he keeps all his auras. His can't be countered ability is fun to use against blue decks with a lot of counters

December 5, 2017 6:38 p.m.
AntIsBack says... #28
Hey I made some adjustments for my meta, and based on my collection.

I have a copy of carnage tyrant. I keep all the trials. I down 3 copies of behemoth and add in an additional negate + fatal pushes depending on the matchup. Ill be trying out apetite for unnatural, - just got my copies. I am playing against a favorable fliers deck that ixalan binding my cartouches.

The black cartouche is what they usually target as the life gain is bannanas.

December 5, 2017 10:52 p.m.
amurphy1893 says... #29
Has anyone considered running 2 Carnage Tyrants and 2 Striped Riverwinders? Does this still fit the theme? :)

December 5, 2017 11:13 p.m.
BlaineTog says... #30
I tried Striped Riverwinder in an earlier build but I found I was basically always cycling it. Seven mana for a 5/5 Bogle is really, really bad, and getting there takes forever. If I'm going to have to pay significantly more mana than a Jade Guardian, I want to at least get on-curve stats.

I haven't actually tried Carnage Tyrant since I don't own any on MTGO, but I can't imagine it would be anything less than a strict upgrade to Scaled Behemoth.

December 7, 2017 9:33 a.m.
amurphy1893 says... #31
Gotcha. I tried it and found the cycling was nice... I just never actually played it so... lol

December 7, 2017 9:37 a.m.
BlaineTog says... #32
Yeah, that's the thing about including Cycling cards: unless you're going to actually cast the card at least 50% of the time or you have a bunch if discard synergies to trigger, all it does is slow you down. If you're never going to cast Riverwinder, then Hieroglyphic Illumination or even Curator of Mysteries would be strictly better since you might draw two cards off the former sometimes or get an efficient flyer off the second, if that's what you need.

December 7, 2017 9:44 a.m.
AntIsBack says... #33
I am planning to take this to my local fnm. Sideboard considerations for me (based on my meta): Gifted Aetherborn for vs agro (will not be cartouche targets... or maybe?) Fatal pushes.

December 22, 2017 8:53 a.m.
BlaineTog says... #34
Good luck! Gifted Aetherborn is a great card, though you may have trouble casting it on time unless you also upgrade the Mana base.

December 22, 2017 10:18 a.m.
MrFluffyWaffles says... #35
I've tried this deck against my friend's mostly-finished Standard decks and done pretty well. However, I've had more luck by adding a certain card:

I've loved playing Curious Obsession in this deck! It's excellently cheap at just one blue mana, gives +1/+1, and helps fix the card draw problems of the deck because of how cheap every spell is.

Overall, fun deck. A little slow at first, but if you don't miss a mana drop for the first 4 turns, there are enough spells to keep you safely above 10-15HP. Then once that beautiful black Cartouche is on, woah baby.

February 5, 2018 1:07 p.m.
dejvos93 says... #36
I was thinking a bit and maybe it could be better but I'm not sure. If you took our Essence Scatters and Negatesand put in 4x Cancels and 3x Curious Obsessions or 3x Unsummons :)

-Dejvos

February 19, 2018 1:09 p.m.
Snivy__ says... #37
Why not make this deck with a Bant or Abzan build with Sram, Senior Edificer? He's a great card draw mechanic since you are running 12 auras

March 8, 2018 10:55 a.m.
BlaineTog says... #38
Abzan is not the way to go, I think. We really need access to counterspells to deal with sweepers.

I could see a case for Bant, using Squire's Devotion as our lifelink aura. This also gives us access to Adanto Vanguard as a virtual 2-mana Bogle; we're way worse against Moment of Craving, Unsummon, and Vraska's Contempt but that may be a worthwhile risk for getting on board so much faster. I'm not even sure if we'd want to bother with Sram, to be honest; it dies to virtually any removal in the game and our opponent will be happy to find targets for their Fatal Pushes and Magma Sprays.

The main downside of Bant is that it loses Trial of Ambition, which is a seriously fantastic card. Getting to cast and re-cast Trials is a huge advantage to Black, plus you have access to better removal if you decide to raise the budget.

Still, it might be worth testing this other build. Any Simic-base color combination could reasonably run Bogles at the moment.

March 8, 2018 11:45 a.m.
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Card costs (outer)Land mana (inner)
Instant
Enchantment
Creature
Land
Converted mana cost
Mana-curve
11.4%
11.4%
11.4%
11.4%
11.4%
11.4%
31.4%
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0
5
10
15
20

Date added 7 months
Last updated 5 months
Legality
This deck is Standard legal.

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.80
Folders Nice, Pauper, possible standard decks, Budget Standard, Decks to Build, Interesting Standard Decks, Budget Standard, Experimental, Why not..., Standard reboot : Deck Idea, See all 35
Top rank #4 on 2017-11-18
Views 6425
Revision 4
5 months ago)
+3 Swamp main
-3 Swamp main
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