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By: Psychobabble, PB
Apr 10 2013 1:11pm
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What is midrange

"Midrange" is a pretty vague term. There's no clear definition, but in general terms it describes creature based decks, aiming to win through combat damage, but these aren't aggro decks because the creatures midrange plays are bigger, slower and generally stronger than the creatures aggro decks play. The defining line between midrange and control can also get fairly blurred. Generally the difference is that control decks play less creatures and more counterspells, but decks like bant (in both standard and block) can walk a very fine line between the two strategies, playing a creature based strategy with some control elements (counterspells, sphinx's revelation etc.). Another common feature of midrange is ramp, which as we'll explore is in a bit of a strange place in block at the moment.

Anyway, definitional issues aside, there are a number of strong cards in block that are the hallmark of midrange strategies. Most of them are mythic rare, so we're definitely moving out of "budget" deck territory in this (and subsequent) article. These cards tend to be powerful enough to justify building a deck around them, but often require a fair bit of synergy around them to make the most of them, so they aren't splashed by a control deck as their 4-card win-con package. Here's some examples of paradigm midrange cards in the current block environment.

domri radegyre sageAurelia, the WarleaderLotleth Trollgideon, champion of justiceArmada Wurm

Midrange in block

There's a few peculiarities of midrange decks in block at the moment. A hallmark of most midrange decks is 1 and 2CMC mana-ramp, such as Birds of paradise (and variants), rampant growth, explore or farseek. But there is no such ramp available here, all we currently have are keyrunes. These are decent at ramping and fixing, and have the side benefit of being alternate win-cons, but taking your third turn off to accelerate your mana is much worse than taking your second turn off. You REALLY want to be doing something to impact the board on turn 3 vs aggro decks. The prevalence of aggro in the current meta makes keyrunes very close to competitively unplayable at the moment, which is a shame.

There's also an interesting hole in the curve of block at 5. There's a bunch of powerful cards at 4 that you might want to accelerate to if you could (desecration demon, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, alms beast, Deadbridge Goliath, ghor-clan rampager, slaughter games), but unlike cheaper ramp spells, keyrunes accelerate from 3->5 which means the lack of powerful 5 drops in block - with the notable exception of Obzedat, Ghost Council - further reduces the utility of keyrunes.

Anyway, that bring us to the one 2 mana pseudo-ramp spell that is in block:

Gyre Sage

Gyre Sage is a card which screams "build around me". It's a card with enormous upside. In magical christmasland scenarios, it's possible to use the sage to hit a 6 drop on turn 4 which is enormously powerful - there's absolutely no shortage of strong 6 drops in block. This can be done by playing burning-tree emissary + another 3 power creature on turn 3 after dropping a sage the turn before; a plethora of creature can accompany the emissary to unlock this particular achievement (ghor-clan rampager, Deadbridge goliath, centaur healer loxodon smiter, Gyre Sage, gore-house chainwalker dreg mangler to name a few).

The astute among you, though, will observe that playing gyre sage into two other creatures into a 6 drop looks like a really good way to lose to supreme verdict and you'd be absolutely right. Which is why midrange decks in block look to have other angles of attack vs supreme verdict decks. The chief candidate here is one of my most favourite cards in block - Domri Rade - who has found a home in one of my favourite decktypes in block, naya midrange.

Naya midrange

Anyone who follows uber-grinder xMiMx's exploits will know that he has a multi-format love affair with domri rade. I'm don't blame him, as I said I have something of a man-crush on the wild little dude myself. While he wasn't the first to jam domri into a naya shell in block, he was certainly one of the earliest people to move away from an aggro shell and piloted this thoroughly midrange list to a 3rd place finish in an early premier event:

 

Naya midrange
xMiMx - RTR Block Premier (3rd place) - February 22, 2013
Creatures
2 Angel of Serenity
3 Armada Wurm
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Experiment One
4 Frontline Medic
4 Gyre Sage
4 Loxodon Smiter
2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
27 cards

Other Spells
4 Domri Rade
4 Mizzium Mortars
8 cards
Lands
3 Boros Guildgate
3 Forest
3 Gruul Guildgate
2 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
25 cards

Domri Rade

 

All of the hallmarks of midrange are here. Gyre sage to accelerate, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice to trump aggro and then some big finishing creatures to go over the top of any other creature-based strategy. The list also highlights one of the advantages of running Domri in a naya shell, as opposed to gruul or jund. Domri is BFF with boros reckoner, which is fairly easy to cast with the naya mana base. Here's one example why:

what happens there is that you fight the ash zealot, redirect the damage from Boros Reckoner to gore-house chainwalker and then you're still left with a difficult to deal with reckoner and domri on the board. That particular combo is absolutely devastating against aggro decks, but Domri itself is primarily a weapon against control decks. Not only is it excellent against azorius charm, if you can land it early, it can deliver you a steady stream of card advantage while setting yourself up for an emblem that will win you the game. It simply doesn't matter how many sphinx's revelations your opponent casts when they're facing down this:

Domri, of course, requires a creature-heavy deck build to be fully effective, given that his +1 really wants you to play a LOT of creatures. Generally, I follow xMiMx's template of trying to have only 4 non-land cards other than domri, but that's not to say that's the only way of doing it. Here's a more recent successful effort from battleofjace:

This list fascinates me, because with only ~31% of drawing a card with domri's +1 (compared to ~45% in the list above), it's pretty clearly using him just as an emblem generator and occasional fighter, not as a source of card advantage. This list has also entirely foregone Frontline medic in favour of even more 'big stuff', as well as a more versatile maindeck non-spell package, which includes call of the Conclave to pump out 3/3 beasts ahead of the curve. The sideboard also highlights Gideon, Champion of Justice as a difficult to deal with finisher against control. You might think that assemble the legion could perform this function, but as most of the control decks in the format use Jace, architect of thought, that's not a particularly good finisher for decks like this seeing as his +1 completely blanks it and you have almost no ways to deal with a planeswalker at instant speed.

How to play it

There are three critical areas of decisions with these naya decks - how much to extend, how to play around counterspells and how to sideboard. Generally, you want to be quite conservative with how much you commit to the board against decks with board wipes, because one of the biggest ways that they generate card advantage against you, and ultimately win the game, is through wiping multiple of your creatures with one spell. The tension, of course, is that if you don't pressure them enough to stop them resolving sphinx's revelation for x=4+ then you're going to find it very difficult to win the game. The decision is really going to be based on what's in your hand. If you have good follow up plays after a verdict, particularly angel of serenity which can be used to pick up pieces, then don't be afraid to play an extra creature out. But if you don't have anything very strong to play out, then you might want to just take the risk, although be mindful of detention sphere blowouts before you play the second creature of the same name. Generally if you can threaten 4+ damage a turn vs a control deck then you'll be making them feel uncomfortable. Obviously boros charm is huge against these decks too, so keep it up as often as you can if it's in hand (and perhaps even bluff it if it's not).

As far as counterspells go, the good news is that loxodon smiter is an absolute beating against counterspell decks. But that's where the good news ends. If you're playing 1 and 2 drops at all, they're either benign gatekeeper vines or evolve creatures that won't do more than tickle if you can't land your 3+ drops. And control decks will rarely need to tapout against you except maybe turn 4 to verdict your early plays. And here is where the aforementioned lack of 5 drops really hurts, because there aren't many great options for a turn 5 follow up to a wrath, although Domri obviously works. Anyway, 'playing around' counters with this deck often seems to boil down to jamming your threats and hoping you have more than your opponent has counterspells. Again, Domri helps here so prioritise resolving him when you can.

Finally, sideboarding. Being in red gives you access to mugging and electrickery which are great against mono red, so bring them in over some of your high end and gatekeeper vines. You probably want to cut all of your angel of serenitys and aurelia, the warleaders, but keep in at least a couple of armada wurms because you need some way to win the game and they're great at stabilising the board. You are also bringing in a lot of non-creature spells, and he's a bit slow, so cut a couple of domri's too. Generally you will have all the tools to beat aggro, the question is whether you draw the mana to cast your spells at the right time. With three colours, and the slowness of guildgates, sometimes you just won't get there.

Against control you want to be taking out mizzium mortars and (boors reckoned) in favour of boros charm and any additional fatties or sideboard trumps you might have, like Gideon, champion of justice. Enchantment removal also bears consideration against detention sphere, and selesnya charm comes in against both other midrange and obzedat, ghost council decks.

How to beat it

The meta is naturally quite hostile to naya midrange decks, reflected in the fact that it only has moderate placings in daily events. The deck has a very hard time beating sphinx's revelation, and control finishers like obzedat and angel of serenity are tough for it to deal with. In general, it has few direct ways to generate card advantage (outside Domri) so any combination of spot removal and card advantage generators (wrath, draw or planeswalkers) will be strong against it. The exception is rakdos's return which can lead to huge loxodon smiter blowouts if the naya player has been sandbagging them in hand (pro tip: sandbag them in hand if you can!).

Some other options

Naya is the most popular, but there are also some other midrange options in block. I don't have space left to discuss them in detail, but here's a couple of other decks. First up is a straight selesnya list that hearkens back to the RTR version of the deck (which, incidentally, was pushed out of the meta by Sphinx's Revelation at the time - I can't see this being much different to be honest):

Selesnya midrange
HappyEnd1ngs - RTR Block Premier (6th place) - March 29, 2013
Creatures
4 Armada Wurm
4 Centaur Healer
4 Dryad Militant
4 Experiment One
4 Gyre Sage
3 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
3 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
4 Wayfaring Temple
30 cards

Other Spells
4 Call of the Conclave
4 Selesnya Charm
8 cards
Lands
6 Forest
3 Grove of the Guardian
5 Plains
4 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Temple Garden
22 cards

Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage

Another interesting recent development is junk, a reference to BWG colours not the quality of the deck. I actually think this deck could have some real promise, and I'm surprised it hasn't put up more showings. It is a relatively new deck though, so perhaps it just hasn't had time. This particular list seems to be almost pre-boarded against control, I'm not sure how smart that is in an aggro-infested meta, but it did take this pilot to a 4-0 finish:

Conclusion

As I've already alluded to, midrange is in a bit of an awkward spot in the current block environment. Reliance on guildgates in a 3 coloured mana base is a recipe for occasionally stumbling, and stumbling equates to death against mono red. On the flip side, the archetype has few ways to generate card advantage and isn't able to kill the blue-based control decks before they can fire off a game-ending sphinx's revelation. Still, these decks are very fun to play with a lot of really sweet cards, many of which are destined to be big standard role players in the future if they aren't already, and I certainly recommend playing around with them if you get the chance.

2 Comments

Well done - I really like by deluxeicoff at Wed, 04/10/2013 - 15:55
deluxeicoff's picture
4

Well done - I really like your use of a screengrab - in this day/age of videos all over the place, it's nice to rest your eyes on a 'frozen in time' example...really helps soak in.

Thx for the feedback, I'll by Psychobabble at Wed, 04/10/2013 - 18:42
Psychobabble's picture

Thx for the feedback, I'll definitely look to use screenshots where appropriate in the future.