Regionals Preperation: Rogue Decks

Starting to prepare for the April 14 Regionals waaay out in Portland, OR. After piloting my Wind-Up deck in its first big debut at the last Seattle regional and going 6-3, obviously im going to have to make some changes if I want to make top cut this time around. One of those changes is preparing for the suprising amount of Rogue decks that I saw last time around that I was ill-prepared for, in both side and the main.

These decks don't play by the rules that most of the top decks this format live and die by. Decks like T.G. Stun, Jurracs, Dark Worlds, Dragons, and Agents play by completely different rules, are weak to cards normally not seen this format in top main or side decks. Unless you understand what your dealing with, they can AND will ruin your chances of making top 8. This post will be a quick list of things to keep in mind when facing these decks:

RULE #1:  YOUR HAND TRAPS ARE (MOSTLY) USELESS
Most rogue decks boast a healthy resistance to hand traps that most people include in their main decks without a second thought. Whats worse, those same people do not realize how completely ineffective their hand traps are, and do not side them out or have proper side deck cards for the rogue matchup to side into! How effective do you think Maxx "C" is against a deck that lives and dies by its inherent special summoned boss monsters, like Dark World? How much will it hurt a Dark World player when you use Veiler against their Grapha? What monster can be Veiler'd at all in that matchup? What about the T.G. matchup? Veiler almost always hurts less than if you would have sided it out for removal, thats for sure. Maxx "C", Effect Veiler, most hand traps shine their brightest against decks with combo pieces that reach their ideal setups in steps that can be interrupted, like Wind-Ups and Inzektors. They are only marginally useful, or not useful at all against Rogue decks that imploy inherently summoned boss monsters with huge bodies like Hyperion, Grapha, Malefic Cyber End Dragon, or even a T.G. Rush Rhino w/ Horn equipped. Problem monsters that most Rogue decks use, such as Thunder King, King Tiger, and Doomcalibur are almost always normal summoned and come out with effects that are instantly troublesome. To be frank, they dont give a crap about your hand traps, and neither does the duelist your facing most likely.

RULE #2: REMOVAL IS THE NAME OF THE GAME
Most Rogue decks counteract their lack of speed and explosiveness with hyper-aggressive tactics. Hard removal is the only thing that will really stop most Rogue decks cold. Things like Smashing Ground, Dimensional Prison and Mirror Force really put in work against these decks, as removing their monsters is much more of a problem when you dont have the speed to easily replace them. D-Prison their Grapha and that player is hurting, Bottomless a Hyperion and you've delt a major blow. Dealing with monsters by themselves without causing you, the player, to have to combo off should be the goal of your side decked cards for Rogue. Staring down a field full of REDMD and other beefy dragons, which card would you rather have, the Mirror Force you decided to not side because it doesnt do well against Inzektors, or the Fiendish Chain that you currently have faceup that was equipped to a big dragon before it got removed for REDMD. Which brings me to my next point:

RULE #3: FIENDISH CHAIN IS CUTE, BUT YOU CAN DO BETTER
By and large its a bad idea to leave Fiendish Chain in against most Rogue decks. Its very hot and cold, sometimes hitting minor combo monsters like Venus or Desendent, but completely failing at containing boss monsters or anything with 1900 or more by itself. Chain a Hyperion and your still going to have to deal with it with another card or by comboing next turn. That Fiendish Chain might as well have been a Waboku for all the good it did you. Against hardcore Antimeta Rogue decks its a absolute joke. What in T.G.s do you want to use Chain on? Barbaros so it can go to 3k? What about any other their expendible T.G. monsters? Tengu? All bad choices. Chain on any monster in Dark Worlds is also hilariously bad. Chain is just bad at dealing with problems by itself that aren't combo pieces stranded on the field with their effects negated.

I hope this helped you realize what just doesnt cut it against Rogue decks, part 2 of this article will talk about good cards to use against the Rogue matchup.