4 Kolor Midrange/Control

Continuing Wizardden.com's spotlight on Rogue T3ch decks, today we take a look at what I have been brewing up since the full spoiler of Khans was released. For those who are familiar with the decks I tend to build and play this won't be too surprising. For those who are not familiar with my deck building let me start with a small disclaimer. I enjoy playing the unorthodox on par with the established meta for the challenge as well what can be learned from taking a unique perspective on the format. With that, lets take at the list.

4 Kolor Midrange/Control

Non-Land (35)
4 Anger of the Gods
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Bow of Nylea
3 Courser of Kruphix
1 Crater's Claws
4 Embodiment of Spring
3 Font of Fertility
4 Font of Fortunes
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
3 Genesis Hydra
1 Keranos, God of Storms
3 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Murderous Cut
2 Prognostic Sphinx
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Land (25)
2 Forest
2 Frontier Bivouac
2 Island
1 Llanowar Wastes
3 Mountain
2 Polluted Delta
1 Shivan Reef
1 Swamp
3 Temple of Abandon
1 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Mystery
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Yavimaya Coast

Sideboard (15)
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Circle of Flame
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Crater's Claws
1 Gainsay
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
1 Genesis Hydra
2 Negate
2 Silence the Believers
1 Surrak Dragonclaw

That's right four colors, to be honest five colors was the original plan but the strain on the mana was too great. If white was incorporated Nyx-Fleece Ram, Utter End, and End Hostilities would be on the top of the list to include. Taking a very serious look at the options available after cutting white, there was one very tough decision to make. Despise, Courser of Kruphix, and Anger of the Gods, are all very good early game cards, but only two of the three could be used. In a deck this stretched on mana the most important thing is getting the correct colors on the correct turns. Asking for black turn one, double green and double red turn three is just too much to consistently count on. After opting for green and red as the base and it has been very successful thus far. With Courser of Kruphix blocking the little guys, forcing them to spread out to get around him thereby playing straight onto Anger of the Gods.

After excessive early ramp and dealing with the opponents early offensive the game plan shifts to phase two: pressure. The remainder of the deck consists high power threats that can carry the game on their own. Genesis Hydra, in tandem with the early ramp creates a mid and late game tempo that is hard to match. Courser of Kruphix, Prognostic Sphinx, and scry lands manipulate the top of your library allowing game changing hits off the hydra. The mix of walker and creature based threats and clear lack of Fated Retribution in the format makes it very difficult for the opponent to recover any tempo once the threats start coming down. The variety of walkers allows the deck to avoid the legend/walker rule even when blind flipping off of a hydra trigger.

The best match-ups for this deck are jeskai varients, and hard control. The large toughness and sheer number of threats are difficult for either deck to manage. The worst match-ups are those heavy on fliers that big enough to dodge Anger of the Gods or those with creatures larger than my own. Darksteel Citadel is also major pain in game one. To compensate for these short comings Arbor Colossus will quite likely find it's way into the 75 very soon. The reach, heavy bulk, and low cost all fit quite nicely into this list. Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker is definitely the weakest link and may have to step aside for the tree giant.

Wrapping it all up lets break down the sideboard card by card. The extra bow provides an Elixir of Immortality type of effect for the long grindy matches, and much needed life gain for heavy burn match-ups. Chandra, Pyromaster and Surrak Dragonclaw diversify the threats even more for grindy matches. Circle of Flame laughs at Goblin Rabblemaster and other low toughness attackers. The counterspells are for matches where you can afford to leave mana open and have something worth countering such as wrath and enemy walkers. The extra copies of mainboard cards give the deck better chances of pulling them in match-ups where they are wanted most. Lastly the newest addition to the sideboard, Silence the Believers was to deal with those problematic big creatures mentioned earlier. It is important to note that those decks often have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth making Silence the Believers much easier to cast.

This has been Ariel with Wizardden.com, thank you for reading and always feel free to share your crazy ideas.