Much Abrew: UW Unstable Bogles (Modern)

Tweet by SaffronOlive // Oct 02, 2017

video Much Abrew About Nothing modern

Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Last week's Instant Deck Techs provided a good reminder of how, when all of you know I don't like a deck, you're going to make me play it, just to watch me suffer. As soon as the UW Unstable Bogles deck tech went up, there was no doubt that it would end up the most popular and that we'd end up playing it for Much Abrew this week. Thankfully, UW Unstable Bogles is Bogles with a twist, dropping green cards altogether in favor of some weird blue auras like the namesake Unstable Mutation, Invisible Stalker, an additional hexproof creature, and some counterspells to shore up the combo and control matchups. With this in mind, we actually have two questions to answer this week. First, is the blue-white build of Bogles actually good? Second, and more importantly, is it any fun to play? Let's get to the videos and find out, and then we'll talk more about the deck!

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UW Unstable Bogles (Instant Deck Tech)

UW Unstable Bogles vs. Grixis Death's Shadow (Match 1)

UW Unstable Bogles vs. Death & Taxes (Match 2)

UW Unstable Bogles vs. Grixis Death's Shadow (Match 3)

UW Unstable Bogles vs. Intruder Alarm (Match 4)

GB Longbow vs. Titan Shift (Match 5)

UW Unstable Bogles (Wrap-Up)

Discussion

You probably noticed that instead of playing the two-player queues, we took Unstable Bogles into a competitive league, which is why we ended up with a second match against Grixis Death's Shadow. The good news is that UW Unstable Bogles crushed it, and we finished the league with a solid 4-1 record.

In fact, our only loss was pretty disappointing. While Intruder Alarm Combo is sweet (and we should probably play it at some point), it's not really the type of deck you expect to run into at 3-0 in a competitive league (especially considering our opponent was 0-1). While it seemed like we would have a chance in the matchup thanks to our counters, we couldn't find our disruption in time to keep our opponent from comboing off, which kept us from the 5-0 finish.

While I hate to admit it, the deck was actually pretty fun to play. Maybe it's not so much that I dislike Bogles; it's that I dislike playing against Bogles. When we're the ones with the 20/20 hexproof lifelinker that The Abysses the opponent every turn, Bogles is actually pretty fun.

Typically, Bogles in Modern is green-white, but after playing this build, it seems that UW is superior at the moment. While our clock is a bit slower (since we replace a one-mana hexproof creature in Gladecover Scout with the two-mana Invisible Stalker and because we lose Rancor), we make up for this lack of speed by having ultra-evasive hexproof creatures and disruption.

If you look back on our matches, we almost certainly would have lost to Titan Shift if we were playing green over blue and might have lost at least once to Grixis Death's Shadow as well. Having access to Stubborn Denial really helps to fix a lot of Bogles' problems with fast combo decks, which are fairly popular in Modern at the moment. Because of this, if you're looking to play Modern Bogles, the right choice at the moment is likely UW Unstable Bogles.

Overall, I don't think there's really much to change about the deck. Actually, I don't think I'd change anything at all.

So, should you play UW Unstable Bogles in Modern? I think the answer is yes. The deck certainly proved to be competitive against the best decks in Modern and was more fun to play than I expected. Apart from a better combo / control matchup, the other advantage blue has over green is that it gives the deck more play. The GW Bogles deck is pretty much just looking to slam enchantments on Bogles and hoping that's good enough to win the game. The addition of Stubborn Denial and Spell Pierce actually added some more decision points to the game, which makes the deck more enjoyable and challenging to play.

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, commenting on, and subscribing to Instant Deck Tech videos! As always. leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.