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Bogles is a deck built around the card Slippery Bogle and is a strong contender in the Pauper format ofMagic: The Gathering. Most often the deck uses Selesnya (green/white) colors with a few red cards in the sideboard thanks to having cards that can tap for other colors that are not played in the land base.
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The Bogles deck can win very fast and quickly run over slower decks in the format. Thanks to its creature pool it is very easy not to have to worry about most forms of removal, unlike other Aggro decks in the Pauper format.
4 Commune with Spirits
4 Ancestral mask
2 Cartouche of Solidarity
1 Cave of Temptation
Key Cards
Slippery Bogle
Slippery Bogleis the namesake of the deck. It’s a simple 1/1 creaturewith hexproof, an ability that is very uncommon in Pauper. The only way for other decks to actually deal with it is to force you to sacrifice it, as any other form of removal will not work on it.
Slippery Bogle, along with the other creatures in the deck,Gladecover Scout,andSilhana Ledgewalker,all share the ability to prevent them from being targeted by spells or abilities the opponent controls. This makes it safe to load them up with stat-boosting Auras, as they’ll be unable to be removed through most traditional means.
Ethereal Armor
One of the best Auras of the deck isEthereal Armor. Since your deck primarily consists of Aura spells, Ethereal Armor can boost your creatures up to incredibly high stats. If you put it on Silhana Ledgewalker this can be unblockable against creatures withoutthe flying ability.
Ethereal Armor makes combat a breeze, giving the creature its enchanting first strike to ensure it can win almost any combat and get around abilities like deathtouch that would otherwise destroy it.
Abundant Growth
Aweakness of Bogles is running out of cards in the hand.Abundant Growthis a way to circumvent that weakness by drawing you a card when it enters the battlefield. Abundant Growth allows you to play cards outside of your main colors in your sideboard (namely red) since it lets you tap a land for any color.
Abundant Growth helps with fixing mana to ensure you can always cast your spells. It helps you not rely on tapped dual lands to have a consistent two-color mana base.
Rancor
Rancoris the main way you’re guaranteed to get in for damage. It gives a respectable stat boost, but the important part is thetrample. Your creatures are often going to be powerful thanks to the Auras boosting them but they can still be blocked by a one-toughness creature.
Rancor makes things awkward for your opponent as it makes them struggle to find an answer. Even if they destroy the Aura, it simply goes back to the hand. The only way your opponent can deal with it directly is by forcing you to discard it.
Armadillo Cloak
Due to the lower number of creatures, it’s not uncommon to be dealt a lot of damage before you’re set up.Armadillo Cloakhelps to quickly rebuild your life total. It will give you life equal to the number of damage done while giving your creature trample to ensure you’re able to gain that life while hurting your opponent.
Ancestral Mask
The main way you’ll be closing out games is withAncestral Mask. It’s the Aura that gives the largest stat boost since, by the time you get it on the battlefield, you’ll have a plethora of other enchantments to make that stat boost even greater.
Attaching it to a creature that has trample is oftentimes game-winning, as the amount of damage done is often enough to win the game with that one attack. When combined withEthereal Armor,it’s not uncommon to have a creature well over 20 power.
Commune With Spirits
Commune With Spiritsis the only non-creature and non-Aura card in the main deck. It provides much-needed consistency that’s a controlled card draw as you can choose a card out of the top four cards of your library.
It can only add enchantments or lands, but since only 16/60 cards can’t be added with Commune with Spirits this is hardly a downside. It only costs one mana to cast so drawing it late-game can get you into your game-ending Auras likeAncestral MaskandRancor.
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How To Play Bogles
Bogles is a deck that, when it wins, tends to win fast. You want to deal in damage as quickly as possible before your opponent can even play enough lands to cast an answer. The deck is very aggressive and all about pressing the opponent by forcing them to block your creatures or risk losing the game early on.
Don’t be afraid to mulligan aggressively until you get a creature in your starting hand. Without a creature on the battlefield, the deck can fall apart quickly.
Thedeck isvery evasive,thanks to all the creatures having hexproof. The downside is due to the lower number of creatures it is prone to “edict” effects likeChainer’s Edictthat force you to sacrifice a creature.
Unfortunately, there are very few answers to this outside of having an extra creature to sacrifice that is not loaded up on Auras.
This is where theUndying Wolfin the sideboard comes into play. If you’re playing against a deck with edicts in them, bring Undying Wolf in for games two and three since that’ll come back to the battlefield thanks to Undying to keep your Aura-loaded creatures safe from being sacrificed.
Chainer’s Edict is the only popular edict in Pauper, so if you’re opponent is not playing black, you may feel safer loading up your Aura on just one hexproof creature.
The gameplay of the deck is very straightforward.Put down a creature and cast a ton of Auras onto it to make it a giant threat.While it struggles in combat during the early stages of the game, your creature(s) will likely win all combat closer to the end of it once Auras start being put on them.
Armadillo Cloak andSpirit Linkboth help to gain the life that was lost, and when this starts happening, it’s often impossible for your opponent to be able to come back from it.
Silhana Ledgewalkeris the card that benefits the least from the Auras that give trample since it’s an evasive attacker that can attack without being blockable on most occasions.
As such, if the option is available, these Auras are better suited forGladecover ScoutorSlippery Bogle.
If you have multiple copies ofAncestral MaskorEthereal Armor,it can be a good idea to spread them across the creatures you control (especially if none have trample) so that each of them is threatening each attack instead of just one.
