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The Heretic's Sermon

Breaking Stupid Rares in Type II, Part Five - Mogg Sentry

By John Hornberg

Dedicated to Chris and Jay. Chris because he abuses the card, Jay because he collects them, and sideboards them in his TB Counterburn Deck. He also designed the deck I'm featuring here, which breaks it with land destruction, an unheard of thing in the current Type II format. This is just my rendition of it.

HI EVERYONE! I'M BAAAAACK!

For your enjoyment, I'm going to break Mogg Sentry, that lovable 1/1 rare that so many people seem to open up in Planeshift packs. For those of you who don't know, Mogg Sentry is a 1/1 for a red from Planeshift that gets bigger with each spell your opponent plays, getting +2/+2 when he or she does so.

A bland card at best, but this card helps to abuse the biggest thing newbies and scrubs do - use their first main phase to play spells.

By doing that, they allow your sentry to get bigger, thus making him a formidable blocker against their creatures.

Another advantage to him is the fact that he is un-Shock-able, which means the status quo burn spells, like Shock and Seal of Fire, don't work on him. 
Rage is about the only thing you can kill him with burn wise in Type II.

Another advantage is that he is a pain against mono blue and blue decree, especially if you use your first main phase. That's a stretch for a lot of you extremely talented players, but still, my theory makes sense:

You've got a Mogg Sentry on the board, and they have, say 10 islands untapped.

You play a spell that we'll call Poo.

They counter Poo with Foil , because Poo will annoy them if it hits the board.

Your Sentry is bigger, and attacks for three.

Your opponent might respond with a Repulse, Unsummon, or even a Rushing River.

Still, that last line is not the point. By playing spells that force out counters you get the Sentry a lot bigger, and you make it an intimidating force for which they might have to block.

Okay, now on with the decks that he can be played in. Just remember, he's evil against mono blue, so he fits well into any deck that will make a deck drop a lot of responses, thus, the ideal deck for Mogg Sentry is land destruction.

Well, think about it. They want to play an instant, but by loosing the land that you target, they cannot do so, so they respond with by playing that instant, or they just outright counter the spell so that they get to keep the land. Thus, the Sentry is gettign bigger, while your opponent

(Note! - I'm not making this up. I've played Mono Blue in situations like this, where I couldn't afford to lose the land that was being targeted. So, I'm dropping counters, and taking three to five each turn from the Sentry because I don't have a creature.)

Thus, let's back up Mogg sentry with a Land Destruction heavy make up,as to make them have to play their instances. Your make up for your spells should look a little like this:

1 Seismic Mage

4 Stone Rain
4 Pillage
4 Dwarven Landslide
2 Rith's Charm
2 Implode

Now, after the land destruction structure is set in stone, or how ever you like it, you need removal - thus burn in the form of Ghitu Fire and Urza's Rage go in. Then we'll go with some miscellenious burn spell, like Seal of Fire, to go in. Thus, it'll look like so:

2 Ghitu Fire
4 Urza's Rage (For those of us who can't get Urza's Rage, then play Shock)
4 Seal of Fire

After that's said and done, the threats need to go in. In keeping with the theme of land destruction, the Seismic Mage goes in, as shown above. Then, out star, 4 Mogg Sentry, just because we can. Then, the rest of the creatures, probably four slots, are up to you. You might want to go with Tahngarth, even though four of him is excessive.

Skizzik is extremely good, but for those of us who are way too cheap to go out and trade for Skizzik, there's Goblin Legionnaire, who's really worth splashing white for. For the heck of it, we'll play him here over Skizzik.

Noble Panther is also really good. He's an imposing threat (a 3/3) in which your opponent can't ignore. As good as Blastoderm is, I think he's ill suited for this deck, not to mention he's played by everyone and their dog. 
So we'll just ignore him.

Birds of Paradise are also extremely playable in this deck, because it makes Rith's Charm even more playable, but it forces you to play green, which isn't that bad. On the bright side, you gain Thornscape Battlemage, and Thunderscape Battlemage for that matter. Both are annoying creatures, with annoying kickers, that can be extreme set backs for your opponent, and the birds enable you to play the black kicker on the Thunderscape Battlemage. 
The downsides include the fact that you're stuck without a green, so you'd half to do more than just splash it.

In the end, my creatures looked a lot like this:

1 Seismic Mage
4 Mogg Sentry
4 Goblin Legionnaire
2 Thornscape Battlemage

Finally, it's time for Jay's favorite word: C-C-COMBO!

Yes, we're going to throw in Dingus Egg, just to make the land destruction a lot more interesting. This deck only needs one for two reasons:

1) Being reliant on a card like this for damage will get you killed, because I guarantee they'll draw, play, and attack with more creatures during the game than you'll destroy lands.
2) What happens when the Egg doesn't show up, that's right, you die!

Okay, now that the deck is done, here's the complete list:

Type II Land Destruction with Mogg Sentry Deck

Creatures (11)
1 Seismic Mage
2 Thornscape Battlemage
4 Mogg Sentry
4 Goblin Legionnaire

Spells (25)
2 Ghitu Fire
4 Urza's Rage or 2 Planeswalker's Fury and 2 more Ghitu Fire
4 Seal of Fire
4 Stone Rain
4 Pillage
4 Dwarven Landslide
2 Rith's Charm
2 Implode

Artifacts (1)
1 Dingus Egg

Land (23)
3 Shivan Oasis
3 Karplusan Forest
2 Battlefield Forge
2 Elfhame Sanctuary
1 Forsaken City
1 City of Brass
3 Dust Bowl (More L.D.)
1 Rath's Edge (A land many deck's should have)
6 Mountain

One problem this deck might have is with Fires decks, because Fires tends to be extremely fast, an attribute this deck unfortuantely lacks.

This deck could have a lot of trouble with blue if it doesn't have the Sentry in play, or it looses the Sentry to something like an early Force Spike or a counter later on.

One last comment I'm going to say is why I'm not playing some cards, or very few copioes of some. Well, first, I'll start with Turf Wound.

Turf Wound is good, it's very good, but you don't benefit much from it later in the game, hence, why it's not here.

I left out some Implodes because Implode cost five, which ties up a lot of your mana a lot of the time. Dingus Egg was stated above.

Well, I guess that's it. I just have one appeal to make to everyone: 
Please, please, please show some thought in your articles! The pojo has posted some good stuff, that's really good to read, and some stupid stuff that's a deck, like a short statement saying: This deck is good.

I ask of you, please show some thought in your articles. I do, and I wish some of you would do the same. I'm not attacking anyone, I'm mearly asking.

Oh yes! It was brought to my attention by someone who read my article on Pure Reflection that I doubled up on Fact or Fiction. So, just keep in mind that I ment 4 Orim's Chant in place of one of those Factg or Fictions. 
Sorry, I goofed!

Thank you. Have fun playing, and remember, it's the thought that counts.

Over and Out,
John "The Happy Heretic" Hornberg

Remember my E-Mail promiseland85@hotmail.com if you have any questions, want some help with a deck, or just want me to break a stupid rare that I haven't yet. If I don't reply, don't feel left out, I have many pressing concerns that need to be taken care of, like school. I try to reply everytime, though. The School Newspaper calls often for me to do a lot of work!

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