BG Counters

The best part of playing rogue decks is when you play against another rogue deck. Both of you try your best to outwit your opponent and hope they stumble while they sideboard against a deck that’s under the radar.

One such deck caught my attention while I was playing my Anointed Sanity deck and he was playing Deeproot Champion as a win condition together with Winding Constrictor and utilizing a bunch of aftermath cards to pump his Champion.

Similarly how energy based decks play Longtusk Cub and Walking Ballista to achieve the same goal and double the amount of counters they get with Snake out, my opponent took it a step forward and deployed Deeproot Champion and grow it through aftermath spells which are basically 2 spells in 1 card.

What my opponent played was Appeal to give his Deeproot Champion trample, then cast Authority to tap down blockers. This was honestly a very clever synergy. He also used Driven to refill his hand and cast Despair to deprive me of solutions. These 2 cards actually work really well together since both halves give trample which is relevant to Deeproot Champion.

Though Authority was a great way to remove blockers, I prefer not just to tap but to remove them permanently so in exchange for White, I choose to splash Red instead.

Cut to Ribbons shows promise in a deck that wants to remove blockers that are sizeable and have a way to deal the last few points of damage later in the game. We’re playing mostly Black and Green so the double black for Ribbons shouldn’t be a problem.

Another good aftermath card with Red is Claim to Fame. Claim is extremely relevant because we are playing at 20 creatures that costs 2 mana. Fame allows us to swing with the creature we just unearthed keeping our momentum after a board wipe.

Here’s my take on BG Champion splash Red!

Creatures: 20

4 Deeproot Champion
4 Longtusk Cub
4 Servant of the Conduit
4 Winding Constrictor
4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner

Spells: 20

4 Attune with Aether
4 Blossoming Defense
4 Driven // Despair
3 Cut // Ribbons
3 Claim // Fame
2 Supernatural Stamina

Lands: 20

4 Blooming Marsh
4 Aether Hub
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Rootbound Crag
5 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Mountain

Sideboard: 15

3 Appetite for the Unnatural
4 Fatal Push
4 Duress
2 Lost Legacy
2 Scrapheap Scrounger

Looking at the deck list I get really excited because it looks very simple but it can really pack a punch.

It can pull off the same line of play as any energy deck which is Attune to Cub to Constrictor and threaten with a 4/4 Cub by turn 3.

It can also lead with Deeproot Champion on turn 2 into Winding Constrictor on turn 3 and start casting your noncreature spell and go crazy.

For card advantage, we will use Glint-Sleeve Siphoner which helps keep our hands somewhat full. The menace is relevant to get us some free energy early.

For protection, we run the following cards apart from Claim to bring our 2-drops back.

Blossoming Defense serves as our combat trick, removal counter spell, and a way to beef up our Deeproot Champion by 3 power. Supernatural Stamina is copies 5 and 6 of Blossoming Defense, giving the same power bonus with the added perk of bringing the creature back if it dies. This works great with supposedly bad blocks and bad trades. This is also a great card to use when an opponent casts Fumigate on his 5th turn, and we can get a Longtusk Cub back, or a Winding Constrictor back and restart our game.

As for the sideboard, Fatal Push replaces Cut if the opponent is quick out of the gates like Ramunap Red. It’s also great against eternalized tokens, don’t forget.

Duress allows us to peak at control players and check if our creatures will sun into a Settle the Wreckage, or if we can commit more creatures and avoid getting Fumigated. Lost Legacy is reserved for Approach decks exclusively.

Getting our Deeproot Champion under Ixalan’s Binding is extremely painful so we need to pack at least some artifact or enchantment hate. Vehicles are still a thing, and GPG decks are also on the rise so it’s best to be prepared.

Lastly is Scrapheap Scrounger which helps us fight against attrition decks. It’s also a great card to protect ourselves from opposing Scarab God by eating whatever they plan to take from our graveyard.

Thanks Marc Lee Morjandin (hope I got your last name right) for sharing your deck with me to tweak and write about!

Cheers,

Vanson