Top 4 at Rogues Quarterly Summer 2025 with Replenish
Prologue:
An early wake up call on a Sunday is a rough beat. Following that up with a trip across the blind eternities is a parlay into bankruptcy.
There was a cool designer at my previous employer that used to call Kentish Town “New Phyrexia”. A place covered by the Praetor’s oil, unrecognizable from the Mirrodin we knew and loved. For Premodern, I have faced the Northern Line and ventured there, and I would do it again.
Rogues Quarterly, RQ for short, is an event held at the namesake board game cafe. Francis and Francis, FGR and FGC for extreme clarity, run the event out of their London Eternal collective. Chill guy Nick runs the cafe. It’s free admission besides table fee, prizes all come from donations, and the two TOs keep vibes immaculate. Everyone signs memento cards. There’s good food and drink on site. Even the non-magic customers of Rogues Quarter that come and go during the day are chill.
This would be my third RQ. The first one was mere weeks into my premodern journey. A format novice playing a Meddling Mage deck, I went 3–2 with UW Dreadnought, ecstatic to beat the mirror. At the second one I made a last minute audible from Mono Blue Dreadnought to Replenish after pondering the raw power of the latter and the metagame’s adjustment to the former. Also, FGR had been consistently reporting how little Replenish was played in the Southeast of England, which gave it some appealing novelty edge and sideboard softness. I ended up going 2–2–1, potentially missing on top 8 with my round 5 loss to Dreadnought. I was also playing on 2 hours of sleep that day, going straight from the airport to the venue.
Some of my practice had taken place during weeklies. Dark Sphere hosts premodern on Mondays, and Mythic Goblin is in the middle of a weekly league every Wednesday for the next twelve months. The prize? A Mox Diamond. The current frontrunner? Yours truly.
There’s also a month of tournaments ahead. In my egotistical mind, there’s this conflict of testing my ability in an event like RQ, but also not telegraphing what I could play in a bigger event like Big Smoke in July. That one is supposed to break all UK records with 64 attendees, and of course 63 of them will choose their deck to metagame against me. Especially if I win Rogue’s Quarter.
If you’re unfamiliar with Premodern, you can find an intro to the format and decks here.
I considered myself more prepared than ever, with room to improve of course. I had played 50 matches of Replenish recently. In between those, some discord research, gameplay watching and Spike Colony listening. I am sorry Lanny, but you are tripping on Attunement. I also had a proper night of sleep. On the flip side, I had split my attention recently between that deck and U Tide Control. I was sure for a long time that Tide would be the best call for RQ. The London Eternal connection attracts some blue loving legacy minds to the event, and Tide likes seeing that. I had also been winning more with Tide than with Replenish. However, I could not trust my small sample size, and felt no fear of blue opposition. I did not approve of the idea of long rounds at paper events, never have. It wasn’t really a last minute deck change. I could not risk the regret of practicing with a potential best deck and leaving it home for some Faerie Conclave pile.
Rogues Quarter
I woke up the Sunday of RQ surrounded by Frida, Carlota and Joaquina, three wonderful dogs. My wife had been up earlier to go for a 10k, so I got ready, fed the four-legged friends, refilled their water then headed underground.
Trains are a blessing on society. Trains on Londonian Sundays on the other hand are known for providing material worthy of pro-car essays. I got lucky and ran into no alarms and no surprises on my way, but others weren’t so lucky. We’d eventually delay kickoff on RQ to make sure everyone could make it.
With ample time in my hands, I walked around Kentish Town and stopped at a cute cafe called The Fields Beneath, near Camden Brewery on the west side of KT. I have enough time to scribble on my sideboarding notes, pet a stranger’s dog and walk slowly towards the venue.
I get there and the Brighton crew is gathered outside Rogues Quarter, banter already in progress. Inside, FGR is gathering donations for the prize pool and distributing copies of our new Lands And Legends edition. Only six pounds each, grab yours now!
After a few TO announcements and everyone making their way there, 24 of us are off to play with brown artifacts.
My list was a product of strategic thinking. Rich Shay’s thinking though, not mine.
Replenish:
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
4 Plains
4 Skycloud Expanse
4 Attunement
4 Frantic Search
3 Intuition
3 Mana Leak
3 Opalescence
4 Parallax Tide
3 Parallax Wave
4 Replenish
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Stifle
3 Swords to Plowshares
SIDEBOARD:
3 Tsabo’s Web
2 Abeyance
2 Fact or Fiction
2 Orim’s Chant
1 Hydroblast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Stifle
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Wrath of God
Round One: Carlos with Sligh
I’ve seen Carlos playing Enchantress before, and we’ve discussed Dreadnought special tactics. However, most of the time one sits across from him, it’s advisable to brace for Mountain, Jackal Pup.
I win the die roll which is critical in this race of a game one. He opens on fetchland Pup which I swords immediately. I get to Adarkar Wastes, Skycloud Expanse and Seal of Cleansing Turn 2. He follows that up with a Mogg Fanatic. I drop Parallax Tide to combo him on turn 3 at a canter off Ancient Tomb. Fanatic and Tomb get me so low that I am sure he would have won on the play. Winning the die roll and keeping him chilled on lands gave me enough time to spin the blue cards and find the winning combo.
Sideboard:
Minus 2 Ancient Tomb, 2 Frantic Search.
Plus 2 Blasts, 1 STP, 1 Stifle.
Carlos goes to the mulligan well twice to start Game 2. They say you need to get lucky to win a tournament. I keep a very slow hand that taught me a lesson. Carlos opens on Mogg Fanatic. I draw a blast for my first turn and Carlos proceeds to play around that the whole game by keeping one red up, giving me time. Attunement turn 3 fills the graveyard. He still drops two Lavamancers that mostly attack given his empty graveyard, except for the odd Incinerate to the face. I Intuition once with mana up, he blasts and I blast in response, finding Replenish. Next turn I go to Intuition again on his end step, and he blasts it and takes the opportunity to bolt my face down to 2. That turns off my Ancient Tomb, and I fail to draw a non-painful land that could cast Replenish.
Game 3 I have a fast City Of Traitors plus Replenish hand with Swords backup. He has no turn one play and only draws Pup turn two, which I Swords. He blasts my first Attunement, but the game goes on without much pressure or disruption until I cast a large Replenish.
We chat a bit about the metagame and Carlos calls that it seems soft to Elves. He would make a good Data Analyst.
1–0
Round Two: Joss with Pit Rack
The last format I truly loved before Premodern was Budget Bodern. I had my buddy Jonathan and friends in common over for barbecue in the summer of 2024, and he mentioned I should show up at his local shop more often. I had played Pauper there, and did love the vibes. The problem is that I had clearly identified the gameplay of Pauper was not for me: too grindy, too many answers, too many two for ones. Jonathan had a new suggestion though: what if you could play Modern without Horizons and Lord Of The Rings being protagonists, with old staples being viable if not top notch? Every last Friday of the month, that was possible at Badger Badger with Budget Bodern. All modern cards legal, same banlist, with decks not costing more than 50 GBP according to mtggoldfish or your deckbuilding equivalent.
One of my nightmare matchups at those events was Joss on infect. After I fizzled out with storm one month and got the trophy the next playing Prowess — Monstrous Rage and Cutter weren’t involved — I finally landed on building Dredge. Stinkweed Imp did cleanup against the metagame of Affinity, Aggro-Control and Midrange that was common at Deptford. The problem is that it couldn’t in a hundred matches race Infect, Joss’ weapon. Every time we face one another, my loss column would start from one.
Now in Premodern, I knew they had been building Slivers but were already established with Pit Rack. I was hopeful for the matchup since my deck had 20 cards that became resources after being discarded, and that Joss could not interact with the stack or the top of my deck.
After putting an order for a Classic Burger that should arrive after the round, I’m on the draw game one. Out of all decks, it’s probably less of a problem being on the draw against Pit Rack. They whiff a Cabal Therapy, which lets me land Attunement. Joss drops Cursed Scroll and duresses my Replenish, but mostly stays passive. I later realize they drew a bunch of Dark Rituals without stuff to use the mana on, so I get to spin as much as needed to find all combo pieces.
Sideboard:
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Minus 1 Ancient Tomb, 4 Frantic Search, 2 STP.
Plus 2 FoF, 3 Web, 1 Stifle, 1 Seal.
Game 2 I drop an early Web, which draws me the second, but Joss draws only swamps and instantly sacrifices each Wasteland. Those slow me down quite a bit, keeping me on island only. They duress Swords and a Wave from my hand in consecutive turns, then drop Plaguespitter. When I draw a white producing land I point a potentially premature STP at the ugly little guy, wanting to take some action and buy time to drop more lands. Little did I know they would follow that up with Phyrexian Negator. That is a clock! Joss points a Chain of Smog at me when I have 5 cards, one of them being Replenish and the rest combo pieces. I entertain a line where I point that back at Joss’ two card hand so they would make me fill the graveyard and keep Replenish. I don’t follow it to not be punished by Funeral Charm, which seems suspect in retrospect. I end up having two turns to find a fourth land to cast Replenish. First draw is Attunement, which I don’t cast to still play around Funeral Charm. Joss follows that with Duress, which takes said Attunement which I am thankful for. The Attunement propaganda machine spread fear! They attack me down to two and did not have the charm. One more shot at drawing land! It’s not a land.
Game 3 I add an STP and cut an Intuition from seeing the Negator. Joss opens Dark Ritual into Duress, Blackmail, Duress. I am left with two lands and Swords. Their hand is also bare and Joss floods a bit, which gives me hope. My Attunements are coming up blank though, and reducing my hand size. Joss starts finding consecutive Racks and Pits to put me on lock and clock, no sign of good cards on top.
1–1
Lunch Break
I was the first to get my Classic Burger, this time with Buffalo sauce. I work on my fries as I watch Carlos coach eleven-year-old powerful magician Val on Sligh versus Enrico on Legacy Weapon. Val is a polite gentleman who likes Bloomburrow, so I hope there’s a Beza in his next booster. Sweet cards like Gerrard’s Wisdom and Allied Strategies are being cast as I get to my Classic Burger, one of the highlights of RQ.
I pay David a beer in settlement of previous cardboard trades, and we are off to draw seven cards again.
Round Three: Neil with WRG Fruity Pebbles
Neil’s deck choices always seem to amuse, informed by the maximization of grief, being one’s own or the opponents. Fruity Pebbles seems like a less toxic pile in that spectrum.
Replenish doesn’t mind seeing a Survival deck without blue or black disruption, so I enter the matchup cool as the other side of the pillow. We both mulligan to six with myself losing the die roll. Neil has seen me play Dreadnought, so I open on Island to represent Daze and Stifle, and it seems to work. I go as far as promising to Neil that I would not daze a spell in the month of June, with full sincerity. No commitments on Stifle though. Neil has crazy mana acceleration with Birds and a Wall of Roots, while I keep a controlling hand of lands, Stifle, Mana Leak and Intuition. Neil resolves survival which finds Squee, Hermit, Hermit. I stifle a Deranged Hermit Trigger and counter the next. I drop a Tide and a Seal back to back, keeping Neil on only creature mana and no power to attack. With this buffer of safety I use Intuition and Attunement to assemble the combo.
Sideboarding was improvised, not being familiar with the deck. I leveraged my configuration against Elves as a prior:
Minus 3 Tide.
Plus 1 STP, 1 Seal, 1 Wrath.
Game 2 Neil keeps a Xantid Swarm and double Call Of The Herd, a strong anti control hand. That bodes well for the deck with Intuition, Attunement and a combo finish. I drop an early Seal without a Survival to target. Neil drops Elves and another creature. I deploy a Parallax Wave, at which Neil points a Naturalize. That allows me to clean the board while holding priority and destroying the Wave. Neil is left with zero resources and my next Attunement finds replenish and Opal to ring the school bell. Academy Rector never reported for class.
2–1
Round Four: Elio with Junk Oath
I have played against Elio’s Oath Ponza deck in weeklies multiple times, on both Tide and Replenish, and both decks seem to give Winter’s Grasp a hard time. I saw he was on a WBG list with Vindicates, which I didn’t know if they were replacing Stone Rains or adding to them. I was ready to reevaluate the order I drop my lands and how I use my Mana Leaks if those could allow me to reach 3 or 4 mana, no problem. There would be another black sorcery which would eventually get me though.
I win the die roll, and Elio lets me know that he had lost all of those during the day. Game One I lead on Island, he responds with Treetop Village. I go Ancient Tomb and Attunement turn 2. Elio wastelands my Ancient Tomb, drops Mox Diamond into Sylvan Library. That’s their only way to go ahead on cards and now I’m at a speed bump so great turn for him. My hand now only has fair lands, three and four drops so I just make my drop and pass with zero action. He draws two from Sylvan and Vindicates my land. I drop another land on my turn, while he drops Port and Duresses a Replenish. That I wasn’t expecting. In my turn I can’t cast anything due to Port and pass again with just a land drop. More extra draws for Elio who pays 8 life now, fueling a second Mox, a second Vindicate and a second port. He taps one of my two lands on upkeep and I finally draw Frantic Search. We pass back and forth and in my next upkeep I can finally Frantic Search after ports resolve, putting OpalWave in the yard. I don’t find the 4th mana though and from that point it’s just Treetop beats and double Ports forever.
Sideboard:
Minus 1 Swords, 1 Intuition, 3 Leak, 1 Frantic Search, 1 City
Plus 2 FoF, 1 Stifle, 1 STP, 3 Web
I hate siding out Frantic Search against a Port deck, but the discard makes me want to hedge a bit. Game Two I keep 4 lands. He wastes my first land drop. We follow up with Island and Treetop respectively. I play Ancient Tomb with Intuition and Stifle in hand. He wastes my tomb and I go for Intuition rather than stifle, going for 3x Ancient Tomb. In retrospect I dislike that play, Stifle would keep me on potentially 4 mana turn 3 and could use the Intuition to sculpt the combo. I draw Tsabo’s web and deploy it, drawing another, locking his Treetop. Elio follows up with Mox, Forest and Naturalize to get out from under the web. I play my second web and the draw does not find any gas. He naturalizes that too and plays another Treetop. I find Frantic Search in my draw step, which I don’t wanna sandbag for port turns since I have seen Duress. I cast that but found no Tide, no Replenish. Elio deploys a Terravore on his turn, which I’m cold to without Swords in hand. I only have two remaining in the deck so I can’t Intuition for three. I try to force an error and play Intuition anyway on his end step, finding 2x Search and 1x STP. He can give me one, and there’s one left for me to draw. He does give me the STP, playing around me comboing on my turn, so Terravore is gone. He follows up with a second one, and this time I have no combo or a second STP.
The addition of Duress to Oath makes my Frantic Searches worse, although still needed versus Port. That is a difficult resource constraint for Replenish.
2–2, and I am close to out. My silver lining is that my 2 losses are to people who will make top 8.
Round Five: Alex with Dragonator
An archetype rematch from Rogues Quarterly Spring, I entered the match feeling good about it. We are both fast and graveyard based, but I have Swords and Mana Leak game one to interact with his combo, while mine is free to jam.
I win the die roll, but Alex is first on board with Putrid Imp, while I get turn two Attunement. He does not have a turn 2 play, so I spin Attunement in my main phase, discarding Tide and Wave, redeploying Attunement now with one mana up on his turn. Alex finally double discards with Imp, Reanimating Bladewing the Risen with a trigger to bring back Vampiric Dragon. I stifle the trigger. Another spin of Attunement on my turn finds Opal and Replenish for the win.
Sideboard:
Minus 1 Seal, 1 Tide, 1 City, 1 Intuition
Plus 1 Swords, 1 Stifle, 2 Blasts
Game Two Alex applies Stronghold Gambit on turn 2, which in this matchup is a power crept Show and Tell. That gives him Dragon Mage. I look at the card and the Ancient Tomb in my hand, pondering the compressed game length but also the potential rewards of wheeling as Replenish. I am taking that wager. I respond with Attunement for more wheeling, then Alex connects with that next turn, dropping a Putrid Imp too. I have discarded one Replenish to the wheel, so I need to find one of the remaining three. I don’t spin Attunement in my turn yet cause I want the mana open in his turn to interact, winning the last turn possible on low life. Alex taps out for Sneak Attack before attacking next, which I don’t know why. He attacks again, and I Abeyance in the attack phase just in case he has Lotus Petal or Mox Diamond for Duress shenanigans after the wheel. My graveyard is getting filled like a pint glass with delicious ale foam on top, but I’m down to 4 life. Alex just passes after the attack. I am able to untap, spin Attunement and Replenish to get rid of his board. He shows me Sickening Dreams which could reach me out of nowhere if he had the mana for it. Maybe I would have lost if he didn’t deploy Sneak Attack.
We spend the post match discussing potential UB Dragonator with Careful Study and actual Show and Tell, which Alex is happy to be reminded that is legal in this neighborhood retirement volleyball retreat of a format.
3–2 and I brace for 9th Avenue Heartache.
End of Swiss and Top 8 Announcement
FGC is ready to drop the Top 8 announcement after five rounds. Premodern Cube is cubing in the background, as he goes to name Bryan in first, undefeated with Hermit FEB. Two players at 12 points up to third place, then he says that there are 4 players on 10. Grim tableau for the 9 pointers as only one can get in. Sneaking into top 8 with 9 is…Thomaz! Or is he? We find out that Ben’s win in round 5 was misreported, putting him at 9 points now too. Standings are recalculated: I am still 8th! Awkwardness avoided.
If I want to win, I’m gonna have to beat number one on the draw.
Top 8: Bryan with Hermit Full English Breakfast
I should have lost the last time I played Bryan at Rogues Quarter, but the games took too long. On Replenish, I got Haunted Echos-ed by his Finkula tech and was left with a deck of Opalescence and utility cards, no Replenishes or enchantments with parallax in the name left. My Swords and slow army of enchantments refused to let Finkel and Pikula through though, so we went to time at 1–1.
This time, he was not on blue. My only previous experience with FEB was playing versus Nick Bormann’s Tradewind list, and watching gameplay online. It would be my first time facing HFEB. The deck appears to be a glass cannon at first glance, but I’d argue it uses Cabal Therapy better than any other deck in the format.
Bryan took the play as the number one seed. He kept seven while I mulliganed two dysfunctional hands down to 5, keeping Wave, Attunement, Swords and two lands. My original plan was to race while using any excess small mana for disruption, but the mulligans were sure to add some difficulty. He led on Birds while I led on Adarkar Wastes. Bryan deploys a City of Brass and taps his other permanents to cast Hermit Druid. I Swords on end step. I deploy Attunement off Ancient Tomb on my turn and pass. He proceeds to Cabal Therapy for Stifle. Seeing I don’t have any other answer, Bryan drops his second Druid. I spin Attunement on my turn, not finding combo pieces or more Swords. I have Intuition but there are only two one mana answers left in the deck. I decide to play Attunement and a land, keeping mana to spin again and find swords. The spin comes up blank and he goes off with Druid on upkeep followed by Krosan Reclamation. He draws unearth from the now bare deck, casts it on Volrath’s Shapeshifter copying Karmic Guide, bringing back Psychatog. He flashbacks therapy for good measure. His shapeshifter becomes a tog, gets huge, and then becomes Akroma to beat me for naughty, naughty, hasty lethal.
Sideboard:
Minus 3 Search, 1 Tide, 1 Intuition, 1 Seal
Plus 1 STP, 1 Stifle, 2 Chant, 2 Abeyance
Game two I have a fast hand on the play, with filter land, sol land, fetch, Attunement, Tide, Swords and Intuition. I am able to drop turn three tide, which gives me enough hand sculpting turns to cast a huge Replenish.
Game three I open a functional but slow hand on the draw: three UW lands, Attunement, Replenish, Opal, Wave. I can’t keep a hand that does not interact with his combo or wins for 3 turns so I ship it. I keep 6 on the basis of Sol Land plus Attunement. Bryan Duresses said Attunement but I find another on my second draw. With Swords on his first Druid I’m able to buy time to assemble Seal Tide. My hand is accumulating Abeyances and Mana leaks, the latter being potentially bad in the matchup, at this point. I get to draw half of my deck off re-spinning Attunement each turn and juice up the graveyard, but there are no Replenishes in sight. Bryan has enough time to reassemble a mana base and deploy a Druid which I would need to Abeyance, but he smells the shenanigans and just attacks. Another Druid. Ancient Tombs had been taxing my life total for a while. I am at 8, then 6. After we get to one turn before Druid beatdown would be lethal, I find the first Replenish in the bottom 25 cards and finally go off.
4–2, on to top 4
Top 4: Manuel with UW Tide Control
I had faced Manuel with BW Control and some Anurid Brushhopper Terrageddon list in the past, myself on Replenish both times. I was bracing for a steeper hill to climb this time. I had caught glimpses of his matches, enough to have seen the blue white control shell and Standstill. I wasn’t sure if he was on Tide though, which is a card that gives control an edge by punishing tapouts with an insta-KO.
I expected game one to be very hard, given he can draw more cards than me, counter all relevant spells, and eventually win quickly with soldiers or lands given I would be tapping Ancient Tomb so much.
I knew I would need to take risks to break serve. My opener had Mana Leak so I speculatively kept it, even though I had only filter lands. I should have been punished, since I could not cast spells until turn 5. Thank the skies that was not on camera: it would have been a mean comment section. To my excitement though, Manuel drew very sketchy lands too, having a blue source and two Factories to start, discarding to hand size after bricking a couple times. That made me envision a turn where all I had to do was pay for his mana leak to resolve a key spell. I spent my next few turns spinning Attunement once a sol land was deployed. When he tried to crack a fetch for the second blue, I Stifled. In my next main phase, I search frantically a couple times, never drawing any counter magic. Eventually I have enough excess mana for a Replenish. There was Manuel’s Mana Leak, that I could pay for and win the game.
Sideboard:
Minus 3 Intuition, 4 Search, 3 STP
Plus 3 Web, 2 Chant, 2 Abeyance, 1 Stifle, 2 FoF
I expected things to get better as I’m bringing all the silence effects and attacking Manuel’s manabase. I do drop a Web off two regular lands, but he is able to Annul it. I resolve a Seal of Cleansing and we play draw go for a bit. He Annuls my Attunement and drops a Meddling Mage naming Replenish. Oops I cut all the Swords. I go for a Wave and he counters. He has not played much card draw this game, so his hand is getting as depleted as mine, but I’ve been crafting with Attunement. Next turn I go for a KO tide with that Seal still in play. He Chains the Seal with Tide on the stack, and I have no mana to replay it. That gives him time to Annul my Seal next turn, reassemble and win with Mage plus later land beats.
Game 3 I have turn one Web and some Chants in my hand. I lead on Adarkar Wastes, he responds with Faerie Conclave. Slam that Web turn two. He is low on mana for a bit and I’m putting Attunement to work. Eventually he is able to Seal my Web. I try to deploy another one and he Annuls it. He drops Standstill and has an active Dust Bowl, so I feel the pressure. I feel bitter as I crack it with a Replenish, which he counters after drawing three. Manuel deploys a Pikula on Attunement on his turn. I draw Attunement, passing with no action. He cycles Decree of Justice the turn after. I try to bait with Orim’s Chant on my next main phase but he counters that, as well as my Tide follow-up. And then he finally reveals a fair Tide on his turn, keeping me off 4 lands for 2 cycles. That is followed by another Tide combo’ed with Chain of Vapor. I still find enough mana to Wave Mage and a few tokens, but he’s too far ahead on resources, while my life total is low. I felt no fear of blue opposition, nor regret.
4–3, 4th place
Francis Gene-Rowe and Manuel ended up splitting the final, with FGR etched in zeros and ones as first place.
Next
I walked home with a signed Douglas Shuler Forest and a gold-bordered Bloodstained Mire for prizes. I’m pumped to play more magic, but I will limit myself to weeklies for a bit and give my brain some space.
The plan is to decompress during the end of June with other games — Hades 2 anyone? — and some Brazilian Breakfast Buffet that we have scheduled for Sunday.
I’m still pushing to stay ahead in the league. As we lead up to Labyrinthe, I wanna test more top decks. Dreadnought and Tide Control are already in the conversation. I need to find a Terrageddon list I like, maybe GWr, since I’ve been disappointed by straight GW. Elves is powerful but I doubt I can learn that in two weeks. Enchantress would be possible, but I downgrade it as I estimate the days of Dreadnought and Goblins dominating the local meta might be over. That deck DOES play Replenish and OpalWave though.
Thanks for listening, and see you on the next DLC.
