As I write this, I’m sitting next to a spa which overlooks my Uncle’s nine-hole golf course. Quite the life, right? My uncle, as does most of my family, lives in Auckland, and I’ve been here since I came over to play in the Grand Prix. GP Auckland was a huge priority for me, and as such I spent a lot of time grinding Standard on Magic Online leading up to it. My last article was written when I was truly in love with Naya, and that’s what I ended up playing.
In the time between that article and the GP itself, I spent a lot of time testing a four-color variant of it.
Creatures (19)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (14)
![Magic Card Back](https://static.starcitygames.com/sales/cardscans/mr224_back.jpg)
Jund and Bant were becoming larger parts of the format, and Naya had issues with both Rakdos’s Return and various counterspells. While I felt that the matchups were fine, I really wanted an edge over the other midrange decks. I thought that splashing Rakdos’s Return and Sever the Bloodline was the way to go. Rakdos’s Return is a huge problem for Naya. In that matchup, both sides have a number of ways to stabilize the board, and the way to get ahead is by drawing cards with Garruk, Primal Hunter and Angel of Serenity. The problem with this plan is that you can simply lose your whole hand and your Garruk to just one card.
The games generally go long, so they don’t even need to have it straight away. They have a lot of time to draw it, and when they do, it will always be amazing. There were discussions amongst my team members about siding in Loxodon Smiters to fight this, but I felt that a 4/4 wasn’t good enough against Jund to be worthwhile.
When I began to test four colors, I was instantly surprised how little the additional color actually affected the mana base. This version had the same amount of green sources on turn 1. It needed slightly less sources of red, as it wasn’t trying to flashback Devil’s Play or overload Mizzium Mortars. Given that Farseek was often fetching a Mountain in the Naya version, it was now just finding Blood Crypts. That being said, you did take an average of two extra damage from your lands per game, and there are a few matchups where this is relevant.
I spent a long time on this deck. In fact, I was all set to play it at the GP, right up until the Monday beforehand. I was still doing well, and I was beating the midrange decks more often. I was having a much better time against the blue-based control decks and against the random decks like Epic Experiment. I was feeling like it was a better version of Naya. The Monday before the GP, however, I started to have second thoughts. A few of my teammates were still on Naya, as they felt it was more consistent and had a better curve. I had just gone 2-2 in another Daily Event on Magic Online when I decided to go back through my tournament results since switching from Naya.
I’m not sure why it took me so long to do this. In my mind, I had been merging the Naya and the 4C results together and had been viewing them as one. As it turns out, 4C wasn’t that good a deck after all. It had very few plays before turn 4 because of Sever the Bloodline replacing Selesnya Charm and Rakdos’s Return replacing Devil’s Play. This was a real issue against aggro, as you were taking extra damage in most games. Rakdos’s Return was also getting sided out in a lot of matchups. Â It was a fantastic sideboard card, but was it really worth the splash? Sever the Bloodline was also a great card, but costing four meant it was always being cast over another good spell.
With so much doubt in my mind, I decided I’d play Naya instead. This is what I sleeved up for the GP.
Creatures (18)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (15)
![Magic Card Back](https://static.starcitygames.com/sales/cardscans/mr224_back.jpg)
Fast forward twelve rounds and I was playing the final round of the Swiss to make Top 8. I was up one game against Reanimator, which I consider to be a good matchup, and was feeling pretty confident. Then I flooded out a couple of times to finish a very disappointed eighteenth. However, my good friend Adam Witton took the list to a second place finish, so overall it was a reasonable showing.
Despite the good results, I was not at all happy with my deck choice. It’s not that the deck was bad or that it is bad, it’s that I was out of touch with the state of the Standard format. I had spent so long testing the 4C version that by the time I decided not to play it, I didn’t think I had time to test anything new. I was worried that if I started playing Naya again and lost a lot that I wouldn’t have a deck for the event. I ended up playing a deck that was perfectly situated in the format which existed two weeks before the event. I knew it wasn’t ideal, but I told myself that the real life format is always behind the online format and that I would be fine.
What happened in that two-week period that changed everything? The answer is that the metagame simply evolved as usual. Midrange was the best. I knew this when I wanted to add Rakdos’s Returns to my list. Everyone else also knew this, or at least they figured it out during that fortnight. I mean, it’s not like it was some huge secret. Rather than adding an extra color to their decks for a few sideboard options, people built decks that were good against the midrange field.
Counterspells are terrible cards in Standard. Mana Leak rotated out, and everyone is playing Zombies or G/W Aggro with Cavern of Souls. So why on earth would anyone play bad counterspells? Well that, folks, is why midrange was the best. It spanked the aggro decks and even measured up against the blue-based control decks since they were without their usual permission. But once midrange took care of the aggro decks, permission took care of midrange. This is not to say that Jund is a bad deck, but that it now exists in a world very different than the one it was created for. By the time this article is posted, Zombies may very well be everywhere eating up the permission-based decks. That’s just how these things go.
What this tangent is meant to illustrate is that I was faced with a GP Day 2 littered with decks containing counterspells and was in no way prepared to deal with them. In addition to this, almost all of the Reanimator decks, of which there were many, were playing Craterhoof Behemoth (side note: I touched on this briefly in my last article, when I said that Reanimator was a good matchup given that no one was playing the Behemoth). As it turns out, it really isn’t a great matchup when they’re Behemothing you for lethal. A couple of Naya splashing Rakdos’s Return decks also made Day 2, which is a borderline unwinnable matchup for the deck I played. I still feel disappointed with my final result, but overall I’m surprised at how well I did given how hostile the room turned out to be.
Moving forward, I still like midrange. Thragtusk is amazing, and Restoration Angel is his best friend. Huntmaster of the Fells is another absurd creature to Flicker, and Angel of Serenity is obviously ridiculous. With this is mind, I think all midrange decks need to be playing a couple of Cavern of Souls. A lot of the permission-based decks have trouble dealing with a resolved Thragtusk, and if they do, they’ll often leave you with a window to resolve another key spell. Playing Caverns does put considerable pressure on your mana base, and it makes casting Garruk, Primal Hunter or the flashback on Devil’s Play difficult.
Garruk is still an amazing card, but Sphinx’s Revelation might be better. Being able to pass the turn and decide between Restoration Angel and drawing cards is great. The life gain means you can spend a midgame turn drawing cards against aggro. It’s even a suitable trump to Rakdos’s Return, as you can draw a bunch of cards in response, leaving yourself with at least a couple of awesome cards. Garruk was awesome when you had a Thragtusk in play, but when you don’t it often gets killed without drawing you cards. Sphinx’s Revelation is good in every game that goes long. And yes, I may have just advocated playing a double-blue spell in the same deck as Huntmaster, Cavern, and Angel of Serenity, but I’m willing to get a little crazy if it means I get to play all of the best cards.
Creatures (14)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (25)
Spells (18)
![Magic Card Back](https://static.starcitygames.com/sales/cardscans/mr224_back.jpg)
It’s not really Naya with blue; it’s more like Bant with red. Azorius Charm gives you a much-needed turn 2 play if you don’t have a Farseek. Jace is excellent on turn 3, and you really do want more than three ways of drawing cards. Supreme Verdict is very different from Bonfire, but in the absence of Avacyn’s Pilgrim, you lack the extra mana acceleration needed for Bonfire to be at its best. Without Pilgrim, you can also afford to have your sweepers be symmetrical because you won’t be wiping out your own mana sources. Verdict is also a lot better against G/W than Bonfire is since it can deal with Wolfir Silverheart. It’s also the removal spell you want most against the decks packing counterspells. Syncopate and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage are Bant-style cards that I wanted to try out, and I’ve found them to be useful.
Why should you play this over Bant? The answer is that Huntmaster is just that good. It’s even better in this deck than it is in Naya because you have more instants to cast and are therefore more willing to pass the turn in order to flip it. Huntmaster fills Centaur Healer’s role as well as the additional sweeper slot. It can take over a board, especially when combined with Restoration Angel, and this means you’ll need to sweep less often. It’s far more of a threat than Centaur Healer is, which means that it’s an actual card against the slower decks. They’ll never want to sweep away a Centaur Healer, but they’ll definitely be forced to find an answer to a Huntmaster.
I’m not going to go into too much detail about the sideboard, but I do want to touch on Rest in Peace. I think it’s fantastic at the moment. In this deck, you have zero cards that interact with your graveyard, which is actually quite rare for this format. I think that if there were more decks that weren’t reliant on their graveyards which could manageably cast a Rest in Peace, it would have a considerable effect on the format.
In a deck like this, you can easily refill your hand, meaning you don’t have to worry too much about being a card down so Rest in Peace not advancing your board is ok. In the matchups where it’s good, it’s really good. And this doesn’t just mean Reanimator. It’s obviously amazing against them because they’ll quickly run out of cards with it in play.
However, I’ve had the most success with Rest in Peace against the Adam Prosak U/W deck that Shane Remelt used to take down the recent SCG Standard Open in Dallas. It simply shuts down so much of their deck that’s good against you. Their Snapcaster Mages are otherwise amazing since they actually counter all of your spells. Their Runechanter’s Pikes are usually lethal. Moorland Haunt is difficult to manage, and Think Twice keeps their hand full of cards. With a Rest in Peace in play, their deck seems pretty ordinary. They can still Flicker their Augur of Bolas with a Restoration Angel and can still cast a Sphinx’s Revelation, but with so many ordinary cards to draw, it really isn’t hard to out-card them.
I hope you all enjoyed reading about my experiences with midrange. I urge all of you to get greedy at your next tournament and see for yourself just how good it feels.
As always, I look forward to your comments and feedback.
Dan Unwin
Sledgesliver on Magic Online