MTG Salvation

GRx has always been my favorite type of piece from the color pie. Now I like Gruul too but there's something about that last splash that just tops of the flavor to me. Naya, Jund and now Temur or as we knew it RUG or as I knew it Pokemon Colors.

Jund Midrange become popular this passing standard with big drops like Polukranos, World Eater as early as turn 3 after a turn 1 Thoughtseize and a turn 2 Sylvan Caryatid. The thoughtseize didn't have anything to do with getting the Hydra out. Jund just likes to do that. Although the recent lists have been running more of a plansewalker midrange with Xenagos, the Reveler, Chandra, Pyromaster, Vraska the Unseen and a Garruk here and there. Running only a playset of Sylvan Caryatid and Courser of Kruphix as creatures and keeping the Thoughtseizes to the sideboard. A problem for them is that they're losing a good amount of support. Abrupt Decay, Golgari Charm, Putrefy, Dreadbore, Mizzium Mortars, Rakdos's Return, some really nice control that kept their board state large and in charge while the other player struggled to keep up.

Temur is the upcoming "Midrange" wedge. Marro has stated that they would be the midrange strategy and we've seen a few cards showing that off. Namely their mechanic, Ferocious, and the Enchantment Temur Ascendancy. We don't have a lot on Temur at the moment but with the Rattleclaw Mystic and the new 6 drop Sagu Mauler I figured it'd be time to start talking about the future of GRx Midrange/Aggro/Stompy. Already a few decks had begun exploring a blue splash before rotation, Kiora, the Crashing Wave and Xenagos, the Reveler made a nice two walker pair. A big card we're still waiting to see is the Temur Charm which by the time you read this may already have been spoiled for all I know but a good charm can sometimes be the support that makes the build.

For Temur I'd be looking for more of a quick mana base with focus on accelerants and big creatures/planeswalkers. A working skeleton could look like:

A working draft could look like


Now you'll be wondering why I put Kiora in my skeleton and not my deck. As I'm writing this I'm going over it with a friend of mine who points out in a deck like this to him Kiora seems more like a Win More. There's enough ramp already that there are other 4 drops you'd rather play and Nissa is more aggresive and a better finisher than Kiora is and as much as I love Kiora I have to agree. Originally I had 3 Kiora which I took out for 2 Nissa and a third Temur Ascendancy which could very well be the card that puts the deck over the top. I love it. I need to test it more but the haste seems like it could be relevant but the card advantage it could start giving is what this deck needs. With two the second ability stacks making multiple copies not really hurt you, plus enchantment removal isn't uncommon so why not play 3.

Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker is another new card that I think both parties could benefit from. He's fast, aggresive and has some utility. I think he'd shine in Jund where planeswalkers are the preferred drop.



That's just a rough skeleton, I'd even say Bile Blight should be in the skeleton somewhere. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure all Morph creatures have the "same name" so a well timed bile blight might be crushing depending on how many playable Morph creatures we get.

A notable weakness to the Temur deck is Crackling Doom. I'd like to believe the "Nut" draw for my draft is 3 lands, Elvish Mystic, Rattleclaw Mystic and Sagu Mauler. A 6/6 hexproof turn 3 is killer since board wipes are looking like they'll be closer to turn 5, so playing out most of your hand only to be hit for 2 and lose your big creature hurts. Not that it doesn't have plenty of plays that keep crackling doom off, but removal in general is plentiful in standard. That's why Negate would probably make such a good sideboard card. Just agains the cards that matter, a crackling doom, End Hostilities, etc.

So Temur vs Jund, two midrange builds that could easily be viable. Which splash looks worthy of GRx? Any cards I'm missing? Any sleepers that could join the fray? Begin Discussion!

As far as the Bile Blight thing goes, face down morph creatures have no name or type or color. Bile Blight only hits the one you target.

Instead of Bile Blight wouldn't Anger of the Gods be a better spell here?

Quote from Tanllus »

As far as the Bile Blight thing goes, face down morph creatures have no name or type or color. Bile Blight only hits the one you target.

Well that takes out what could've been a killer blow but its still a nice card.

I building myself a Temur Midrange style...the card i'm waiting the most is the temur charm...hoping to be in the same powerlevel as the sultai one...
the core of my build is Kiora, Xenagos, Jace & Chandra. Perhaps I'll run a single Sarkhan too.... I don't think that it needs more ramping besides Kruphix and Sylvan they are one of the MVP i can do on my first turns...Polucranos, Dragon and perhaps a single Sagu Mauler could do just fine as finishers, considering Xenagos is a decent finisher too. The colours have decent removal and card drawing (divination) in form of Anger of the Gods & Aetherspouts, Magma Jet & Lightning Fire. gonna wait till more temur cards shows up and then i post the list i'm working.

jund is love, jund is life.

I want to build a temur midrange deck too, but I don't really see a reason, aside from sagu mauler and prognostic sphinx, to splash blue.
If that's all you want, you might as well just play r/g and keep the stable manabase. I'm sure we get other blue cards that are good in this strategy but right now there aren't really any.

Temur ascendency is a bad card for this deck, it triggers off of like 8-12 cards in the deck. Might as well just cut them and add in more threats.

I am not impressed by Rattleclaw Mystic. The morph is handy if you are planning on playing a morph deck, but if we need mana fixing playing Courser, Caryatid, fetches and Xenagos should be plenty good. I am thinking more of a planeswalker combo of Xenagos, the Reveler, Nissa, Worldwaker and Kiora, the Crashing Wave.

I need to see more Temur to make a decision, but depending on the cards they show they could be very good. I am not too impressed by Abzan which is what I was thinking about playing earlier.

Quote from immapwner »

Temur ascendency is a bad card for this deck, it triggers off of like 8-12 cards in the deck. Might as well just cut them and add in more threats.

I'm gonna disagree with this. It's utility, sure, but it's necessary utility. The haste is gravy but drawing a card when you play a fattie is highly beneficial, especially when dealing with a removal heavy meta. Give it some testing yourself.

Hey, why stop at 3 colors? Fixing's going to be so good, just base it in green, eschew white cards, and see what you can come up with




Looks like a mess but I would love to sleeve it up for an FNM

honestly i don't feel there is enough blue floating around to justify a rug midrange deck. as red removal is severly lacking and there isn't much blue removal either i think if a third color is what you want(and rg by itself isnt good unless your just playing fatties with setessan tactics) then black is your best bet or even white as they have the best removal and the best mana fixing(aka naya and jund both will have access to 8 fetches) now some form of rug control i could see this as you could just play like caryatid, courser, sphinx, and maybe polukranos. could say nah to polu and add prophet of kruphix to the mix for some spiciness but anyway basically ramp abit play dissolve maybe a few lightning strikes with kiora, chandra, xenagos, and nissa and then maybe you might have something going there. personally i would almost just run 4 caryatid 4 courser with 2 prophet of kruphix a slew of p/wers with dissolve and a few draw spells plus anger of the gods and just try and go to town with it.

I don't want to give up black, but with rotation a lot of my reasons to play black will be leaving. Namely Abrupt Decay, Rakdos's Return, Putrefy, Slaughter Games. That being said, there are still a lot of good reasons. I still need to see more good cards, but Sagu Mauler has my eye.

Ascendancy and Prophet are more than good enough reasons to be in Blue. You also get access to Negates and maybe Jace's Ingenuity depending on where the meta shifts. Haste+Draw for 10 cards in your deck seems pretty good, or giving all your fatties flash and doubling up on mana with Prophet. We also haven't seen the charm yet.

Prophet is good just super vulnerable. Not trying to make the ole it dies to removal argument but wit Mortars and such rolling out your gonna see alot more Bile blight and Lightning strike coming around so it makes prophet skeptical

A good reason for blue: Clever Impersonator.

Crater's Claws..with Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and Stormbreath Dragon will be great palls...gonna run x3 in my RGu Walkers...and don't forget Nissa..

Quote from mrc_jr »

Crater's Claws..with Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and Stormbreath Dragon will be great palls...gonna run x3 in my RGu Walkers...and don't forget Nissa..

I am not in love with Crater's Claws. I think it is ok, seems like a win more card to me. If it was an instant I would think more highly of it, but as it is now, feels like Fireball 1.5.

I'm definitely going to try RUG with Prophet of Kruphix, Kiora's Follower, and Yisan the Wanderer Bard. The R will be fairly light, I think, for fatties and to sideboard in Crater's Claws against decks that lack boardwipes. If I can use Kiora's Follower + Nykthos with even 5 or 6 devotion, that's a lot of burn.

The gameplan would be the usual (forest) Elf > (island) Follower > (nykthos) Prophet; then Yisan on your turn; (forest) Elf and Follower on my turn; Nylea and Polukranos on your turn. On my turn 5 I have 9 devotion, and the followers alone can get me up to 23 mana.

We also get Clever Impersonator and Chord, something that could be incredibly powerful.

we just got an interesting spoiler in the Savage Knuckleblade.

Jund still does have all the removal but I want to keep testing with Temur. Right now I want to lean on a more creature heavy build and see how viable Ferocious is. I think now's a good time to test cards I'm unsure about, since we don't have the charm yet. The cards I'm mildly interested in are: Icy Blast, Crater's Claws and See the Unwritten.



Playing Boon Satyr over Courser of Kruphix could be a mistake but since he's a 3cc 4/2 and I'm looking for creatures with power 4+ I'm giving him another shot. As far as the "Other" packages, here's a few thoughts.


See the Unwritten comes off as a win more but there's certainly potential to it. Digging for a creature is pretty good and one of the cards I though would be nice with it is the Archetype of Endurance. Normally I wouldn't think it could see play in standard but the idea with it here is when you tutor with the StU you want creatures that are either Big, Provide crucial utility or both. Archetype seems like a good fit.


This one's much simpler. I'm playing big creatures, I've got the Ascendancy to keep the gas flowing, how about a card that can function as removal when I need it and some damage if I just need to get a little more through. I'm not going fancy with this one. I want to test with all four and see how I like it. If I decide I do than I can adjust how many I play then, if I decide I kind of do I'll test with less, if I decide I don't than I don't.


This isn't really a true package I'm just curious about Icy Blast. EOT tapping down all the blockers, untap and swing sounds like a solid finish. That said I don't want to play the full playset so I'm using this package to try out the Impersonator. It's a hard counter to Garruk and new Sarkhan and we can always just make another one of our big boys.

RUG Monsters, we'll see how this goes. If anyone has suggestions for other packages I should try or just critique or other takes toss them out.

Jund Players any new cards look interesting to you?

Temur certainly has midrange beaters. I wish knuckles had some form of evasion, even if it was trample. If Temur has a dragon of some kind, then I think we have a strong midrange setup.

I am looking at a backbone kind of like this: 3x Xenagos, 3x Kiora, 3x Sarkhan, 4x Coursers, 4x Caryatid. This means we have a lot of ramp potential with xenagos, stall/draw with Kiora and Win condition with Sarkhan. Add in Knuckles, Stormbreath and or another beater and I think we have a nice deck setup.

Quote from Existenz »

I'm also looking to build Temur Ramp. Just hoping that we get some good removal, Turn // Burn and Mizzium Mortars will be missed. Hopefully Temur Charm can be that missing piece. Here's what I have at the moment.

GuildCaster's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4 Sylvan Caryatid 4 Rattleclaw Mystic 3 Generator Servant 3 Savage Knuckleblade 2 Polukranos, World Eater 2 Prophet of Kruphix 2 Stormbreath Dragon 2 Scuttling Doom Engine 2 Sagu Mauler	2 Temur Ascendancy 2 Xenagos, the Reveler 4 Lightning Strike

Running Generator Servant over Elvish Mystic is interesting, going for Burst Mana instead of a curve. Rattleclaw won't work as well without a Mystic though as you can only trigger it's morph ramp a turn late. But I do like the idea of Burst Ramping.

personally I think Sarkhan >> Stormbreath, except for the fact that you can have 2 storbreaths in play at once.

Can someone explain to me why Rattleclaw Mystic is good? I mean better than Elvish mystic for sure, but why would I want it over Courser or Caryatid?

Quote from Complex Pants »

personally I think Sarkhan >> Stormbreath, except for the fact that you can have 2 storbreaths in play at once.

Can someone explain to me why Rattleclaw Mystic is good? I mean better than Elvish mystic for sure, but why would I want it over Courser or Caryatid?

I don't think you'd want it over Courser or Caryatid but with one or both of them it's another manaramper at worst and at best it can help you make some really explosive early game plays and set yourself up.

The Rattleclaw Mystic and the Caryatid are a decent turn 2 play with the Caryatid being favorable as the Mystic gets it's best value if you can morph it. The Elvish Mystic sets up for a turn 2 Rattleclaw Mystic or a Turn 2 Courser of Kruphix and with all 12 of Elvish Mystic, Rattleclaw Mystic and Sylvan Caryatid you're almost guaranteed a turn 3 Polukranos if you drew one. Your turn 3 accelerates into 4,5 or even 6 on a regular basis. Stormbreath Dragon, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, Nissa, Worldwaker, Sagu Mauler, we haven't even seen the Khan yet. With the right build it's possible to drop Temur Ascendancy into Savage Knuckeblade turn 3. Christmas land sure, but consistently big plays even without it.

Caryatid/Courser are a great combo as is but big midrange sometimes likes to play multiple ramp instead of just minor ramp/big fixing. Rattleclaw Mystic fits in well in a RUG style. I wouldn't put him in Jund but I like him in RUG. I've also been playing around with only running 3 Rattleclaw Mystics so you can run a single of Generator Servant. Elvish Mystic, Generator Servant, Sagu Mauler with Haste is also a fun turn 3 if you hit all the land drops.