Who I Am, and What to Expect

My name is Joe Panuska AKA Bigheadjoe. I have been playing Magic for 14 years. For years I have been a rogue deckbuilder. I really don't want to go too much into my background on here, since I will soon be doing a podcast with my buddy Joe Pasco (who runs the Affinity For Islands blog) that goes into my playing history at great length.

While I do play net decks on occasion, and enjoy the serious tournament atmosphere, my long time love and the focus of this blog will be rogue decks and casual formats. Its what I have the most fun talking about, and what I have the most fun playing. We will be discussing EDH, Planechase (which I still haven't had a chance to play... frowny face), and any other casual variants I am playing at the moment. We will be discussing the current Standard metagame and how to break through it with you own rogue decklists. I will be providing tournament reports on my own attempts to do so. I guess in a way that will make my rogue decks netdecks, if I do well and you like my lists. That's trippy. That doesn't mean that I will never discuss the hot topics in Standard or tier one decks, I will just be talking about them from the perspective of a rogue player.

I am planning on updating this blog once a day if possible, although I start at my new job next week and am not sure yet how much time I will have to dedicate to updating this, but I will do my best to stay on the ball. Next week is Big Black Deck Week, where each day I will discuss a different topic concerning the black mage. Not really planning on doing a week for each color, at least not consecutively, but if this is something you would like to see happen let me know.

Since it is not quite Big Black Deck Week just yet, I will, in lieu of an introduction to who I am, post an email I sent to The Magic Sock podcast that goes over one of my favorite rogue decks, Monoblue Decking.

Enjoy.


Hi Ron,
    I am writing in response to your call for deck submissions from episode 163. This one was just too good to pass up.

    I have been playing magic since Summer of 1995. My dci # is 749887. That's right. 6 numbers. I remember them pulling my dci card off of a roll of cards. my friend Joe Pasco's is 749889. Someone must have got in line between us. I played a mono green deck back then, and when Alliances went out of standard I was super mad because I could no longer play my Yavimaya Ants.

That's when I decided to "go rogue." There was something about the limitations of standard that did not sit right with me. I played that same worn out green deck, with no sleeves, for 5 years. I tore it apart and put it back together over and over again, adding stompy goodness along the way. It's still together, no sleeves, to this day.

As a rogue, I was also into alternate win conditions. Poison counters were so cool, but back then there weren't enough poison creatures to build anything worth playing.

That's when I discovered "decking."

Making someone lose all of the cards in their deck. It's how you win in the Harry Potter CCG. (don't ask me how I know this.) Taking the spells straight out of the spellcaster's head. I fell in love with the concept. Millstone was great, hit them with a Braingeyser with 3 Howling Mines on the board. Taking a key tactic (card advantage) and turning it against my opponent was just so much fun. Making someone scratch their head while I won with lame cards was my favorite sort of victory.

Then came Traumatize and Brain Freeze. Suddenly "decking" as sound strategy seemed closer to reality. I spent years and years building different decks looking to harness this strategy as a winning one. However, one card has always stuck out to me, a card deemed the worst card in Onslaught, unplayable, a true "crap rare." Utter jank. Shall I continue?

Wheel and Deal.

To me, it opened up a whole new world of jaw-dropping wins. Mind you, they were few and far between, but when they happened it was so satisfying. I played it in tournaments. Standard. Probably when Psychatog was going around (which of course I hated. The first Psychatog I ever pulled is still in my binder, ripped in half fresh out of the pack, in 2 different slots.).

I have recently been interested in becoming a more serious magic player. Meaning studying decks, listening to podcasts, and working to build a competitive decks in standard and extended. I still don't netdeck, but I no longer stubbornly ignore them either. One deck I recently came across was the CounterTop deck from GP Chicago by Andy Probasco. I have to admit I didn't pay too much attention to the list because I don't have Force of Will of Goyf. But I liked the interaction between Counterbalance and SD Top, so I thought it would be fun to reference that deck, a top 8 deck, in my deck, an obviously rogue deck.

I had to put this back together after a failed attempt to once again make the deck type 2 legal. The list had to change because I last made an extended version when Odyssey was still legal. I honestly think this is the best decking deck I have ever created. I only used cards that I own and not a fantasy list.

I have not playtested this yet, but I will be firing up MWS in the next few days to give it a go and I will let you know how it does. I am only giving you a list (and a heartfelt rant) so if you want more info on my choices for the deck let me know and I would be glad to provide them before the deadline. Thanks for giving me the motivation to build an extended deck.

I am calling this deck "Wheel and Deal for the Win."

Lands (24):
x4 Shelldock Isle
x1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
x1 Springjack Pasture
x1 Urza's Factory
x17 Island

Spells (23):
x1 Twincast
x3 Remand
x4 Rune Snag
x4 Broken Ambitions
x4 Wheel and Deal
x4 Brain Freeze
x3 Traumatize

Artifacts (6):
x3 Sensei's Divining Top
x3 Mesmeric Orb

Enchantments (2):
x2 Counterbalance

Creatures (4):
x4 Drift of Phantasms

Planeswalkers (1):
x1 Jace Beleren

Sideboard:
x3 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
x3 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
x4 Riftwing Cloudskate
x1 Jester's Scepter
x2 Jester's Cap
x2 Feldon's Cane


That's the end of the email. I think I am going to rebuild this deck the weekend following Big Black Deck Week as a legacy deck and will post my edits for you to analyze. Looking at this list, I have added some cards to my collection since writing this email that will really make the deck competitive. Any and all feedback as to how to make this blog better would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading!
Bigheadjoe