From brainstorming, I like jamming 3-4 From Beyond in the deck with a set of Bone Splinters. We are an attrition based deck. And a 1/1 every turn is fine. Then it can search out a 1-of of any Eldrazi you like. I'm thinking maybe Deathless Beyond for the recursion. The 1/1's also have synergy with Catacomb Sifter which could also be good when you drop a Siege and start looping edict creatures, though I don't know if it does enough at 3 mana.
And obviously Ob Nixilis is good. A reusable Murder is what we want to pair with Titan.
I'm honestly most excited about the new utility lands, specifically Mortuary Mire for just grabbing back a Titan or Den Protector to keep grinding. Blighted Fen could be useful too.
So Warden is terribad and was always a 3/3 for 3 so I decided to go pretty deep to find its replacement but I think I found a keeper in Reaper of the Wilds. It's just so versatile and really embodies the rock mentality with all of its abilities. You can give it protection and you can have it trade with anything and the amount of scry triggers you can rack up with this deck can be insane sometimes especially since it survives Languish. Speaking of which I lived that dream against mono-red by killing off 4 turdfaces but then proceeding to keep the top card on my deck 4 times...
I'm still playing around with the numbers on it, but it may need to come down to a 1 of even though I really want to keep 2.
Been toying around with this on MTGO. I agree with everyone that Merchant just wasn't cutting so I put in Palace Siege and the Archfiends. The demon is in there as another way to combat dumb Thopter tokens. It hasn't been to bad. Still trying to find the optimal build to fight off the rhino and walker menace. Also been beating up on these poor Starfield enchanment decks. Just doesn't seem fair when I side into a total of 6 hand disruption spells and 3 aethers lol.
Also, as you can see I've been testing Warden. IDK about it, but I thought it couldn't hurt to try. It could be a powerful late game threat.
Let me just start off by saying that I've been away from Standard for a while mainly because I found it boring, even with Origins dropping. But then I found this thread and just knew I had to build this deck. Not only did I drop the money for the cards in paper magic before even testing, but because it's so cheap I made my first foray into MTGO it today and I got to say the deck performs pretty well.
I really like that the devotion deck has taken on pretty much a Rock-type shell and in the original Rock colors to boot. From my admittedly little experience on MTGO with the deck (I have to play it on paper) the deck can be very grindy. The SB is geared heavily against control as I think it's a terrible G1 matchup but I actually should have beaten it today in 3 games as I hit UB Dragons with a double thoughtseize which cleared the way for the God of the Dead as I began to bury him in card advantage, but my noobiness in MTGO caused me to throw out a Mistcutter for 1 when it could've hit for 6 and that eventually led me to a loss by timeout (once again caused by inexperience with the software).
So the major things you'll see different are the Heralds. Idk for sure if they're good enough in here, but I used to play BW at the start of the block and it did work so I figured I'd throw it in here. I'm surprised I haven't been able to flip a Den Protector into Herald and ride that to victory even once as I thought that would be a near common occurrence. The other thing in here is Soul of Innistrad. I agree with the sentiment that there needs to be a bit more oomph at the top end with the haymakers, and I've tried Ugin, but the 8 mana is just too difficult for this deck. So I figured I'd throw out SoI as he also shined out of the SB in my BW deck and I think he could possibly be even better here with the ability to get back Den Protectors or chain multiple Merchants together. Speaking of which having SoI out makes it much easier to slam a languish onto a board with Merchant as you can just get it back. Of course, I haven't actually drawn the card yet so this is all theorycrafting but I think he's a great addition with a lot of raw power and resiliency built in. Also, I have Garruk in here over Ugin once again simply because of the mana cost. There are games where I would've lost if I had Ugin because I couldn't cast it, but I drew my seventh land and Garruk turned the game around.
I'm still trying to get in games against other Midrange decks. I've played a lot of UR artifacts/mill and I already mentioned I punted against UB Dragons, but I think the Abzan decks are playing in the Daily Events and I'm not comfortable enough with MTGO to go in there, but maybe when I do I'll stream a Daily or something. We'll see. For now, I'm just glad to back playing Magic with a deck that's actually fun.
I played BW Midrange for a very long time(since the start of Khans block) before finally switching to Mardu in the past few weeks. I found it was very weak to control decks, and while Duress may help I feel Mastery of the Unseen should still find it's way in the 75 for that matchup.
If I were to update it it would probably look something like this.
I played a similar kind of Monsters type list a few weeks ago at an Elite IQ. Ended up going 4-2-1 in the main event but went 3-0 to win a box on the side.
The idea was to ramp into 4 or later drops and start gaining card advantage through all of them. 4 Ashclouds let me overload their removal and if they wanted to Chain it I had a maindeck answer and I was okay with Abzan exiling it instead of drawing 2. I could build up armies with Whisperwood, Xenagos, and Nissa. And I could get a Outpost Siege out faster than the RW decks with Caryatid (I used it over Rattleclaw here because getting my dork killed would put me way too far behind.) Deck performed well. Unfortunately I designed it to beat RW and ran into the deck in my first 2 matches but ended up losing both. However, while I did get crushed in one of them, I lost one of those matches because I simply punted away a practically insurmountable advantage in G3. I did bounce back after that and ended up crushing Abzan along with Mardu. The tie was against GW Devotion.
In the side event I played BW Warriors, Abzan Control, and Sultai Control. Crushed BW and took it 2-0 through some hard-fought games against Abzan. I just think the deck is inherently good against Abzan. Dragons plus Phoenixes along with Nissa just make it hard on them. It's also important to note that I have 1 Darksteel Citadel in the deck for 4/4 indestructible shenanigans and it came in very handy all day long for me without ever ruining my mana. It was just so good against every deck in the field every time I got it off and it came in real handy in this match living through everything except Charm. Unfortunately, Sultai Control mulliganed in both games against me so I won that without much effort.
All in all I like the deck, but having really played since the event. If I did I would get rid of Hornet Queen and move Rec Sage to the board. I only maindecked Sage because I expected a lot of RW at the tournament. As for the Queen I saw myself siding it out a lot and need to make room for DTK additions. I actually like where your list is at and might use it as a baseline, but I also might go ahead and switch to Temur to try some things.
This is the list I've been homing in on for my next deck. I've always liked Mardu and even bought all the lands before khans came around. I finally settled with the Mardu deck that 1 the Orlando 5k a couple weeks back as a starting point. I've also read Mark Nestico's article and just watched the decktech by Briksza at the Dallas Open. I do agree with bringing it more in-line as RW deck, and I've gotten the best results testing with it online, but for the life of me I can't see how Wingmate Roc is better than either of the red 5 drops. You have Butcher, Seeker, and Grandmaster to gain life and Roc without Raid is just bad. I also found that playing 4 Wild Slash was fine but felt going down to 3 and replacing with a Cut just seemed better. Now, with the Jeskai Aggro picking up I've gone down to 1 Slash in favor of Strikes because we have to be prepared to kill Mantis Rider.
Edit: Briksza using the dragon mode on Outpost Siege with Butcher as an outlet to win the game was awesome. Hope he made day 2.
Ari Lax's Midrange deck from his latest premium video. I personally think it looks great. I think the sideboard could do without a Drown tho and maybe a Glare in it's spot.
So I'm looking to build another deck, and then I saw this while looking at the GP Miami top 32. It looks pretty sleek and streamlined and 13th place at a GP is no slouch, but I don't play Sultai so I don't know for sure. What do you guys think of it?
While decks want to durdle he just flies right over them. Great if you want to get aggressive on turn 3 and never really bad because of bestow. I played BW for a while and would suit him frequently on seeker to just swing a game like that, or at the very least negate his only downside.
In an effort to always go bigger I've been tinkering with this. Really wanna go down to 24 lands and 3 Phoenixes and I'll keep that in mind for paper magic but right now Cockatrice is telling me 25 lands is the way to go.
I like the deck by Sager54 but would probably cut Outpost Siege down to 2 and up Crater's Claw by that amount. Maybe even cut a Wild Slash for a full set of claws.
Been playing around with this. A little different than most lists. I prefer a more play powerful threats at every point on the curve (ala Abzan Aggro) than an all-in style. What I've gathered so far is that Herald of Torment is just a beating against green decks, especially if played on turn 3. From there you just bash overhead while they durdle as you kill their threats. Also, I've found Citadel Siege to just be flat out better than Brutal Hordechief. In fact, Citadel Siege has been a complete house in games I've played it making everything into a threat. I wasn't keen on playing Bloodsoaked Champion because it can't block but with Citadel Siege the ability to bring it back later on gives you a powerful recursive threat. I might have to bring Siege up to 3, but there's definitely no need play a set of Siege's and Brutal Hordechief does have reach (both with it's drain ability and ability arrange blocks or simply alpha strike) so for now I've gone with 2/2 split.
And obviously Ob Nixilis is good. A reusable Murder is what we want to pair with Titan.
I'm honestly most excited about the new utility lands, specifically Mortuary Mire for just grabbing back a Titan or Den Protector to keep grinding. Blighted Fen could be useful too.
So Warden is terribad and was always a 3/3 for 3 so I decided to go pretty deep to find its replacement but I think I found a keeper in Reaper of the Wilds. It's just so versatile and really embodies the rock mentality with all of its abilities. You can give it protection and you can have it trade with anything and the amount of scry triggers you can rack up with this deck can be insane sometimes especially since it survives Languish. Speaking of which I lived that dream against mono-red by killing off 4 turdfaces but then proceeding to keep the top card on my deck 4 times...
I'm still playing around with the numbers on it, but it may need to come down to a 1 of even though I really want to keep 2.
3 Den Protector
4 Erebos's Titan
2 Warden of the First Tree
3 Archfiend of Depravity
4 Merciless Executioner
Spells: 16
2 Read the Bones
3 Bile Blight
3 Thoughtseize
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Crux of Fate
3 Languish
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
Enchantments: 2
2 Palace Siege
Lands: 25
4 Temple of Malady
2 Forest
4 Jungle Hollow
9 Swamp
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Radiant Fountain
2 Prism Ring
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
2 Gaea's Revenge
2 Duress
1 Crux of Fate
1 Bile Blight
3 Unravel the Æther
1 Silence the Believers
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Thoughtseize
Been toying around with this on MTGO. I agree with everyone that Merchant just wasn't cutting so I put in Palace Siege and the Archfiends. The demon is in there as another way to combat dumb Thopter tokens. It hasn't been to bad. Still trying to find the optimal build to fight off the rhino and walker menace. Also been beating up on these poor Starfield enchanment decks. Just doesn't seem fair when I side into a total of 6 hand disruption spells and 3 aethers lol.
Also, as you can see I've been testing Warden. IDK about it, but I thought it couldn't hurt to try. It could be a powerful late game threat.
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Erebos's Titan
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Soul of Innistrad
3 Den Protector
4 Herald of Torment
Planeswalkers: 1
1 Garruk, Apex Predator
Spells: 17
2 Read the Bones
3 Bile Blight
3 Languish
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Crux of Fate
4 Thoughtseize
11 Swamp
4 Temple of Malady
3 Radiant Fountain
3 Jungle Hollow
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
2 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Duress
3 Prism Ring
1 Bile Blight
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Crux of Fate
3 Unravel the AEther
1 Silence the Believers
I really like that the devotion deck has taken on pretty much a Rock-type shell and in the original Rock colors to boot. From my admittedly little experience on MTGO with the deck (I have to play it on paper) the deck can be very grindy. The SB is geared heavily against control as I think it's a terrible G1 matchup but I actually should have beaten it today in 3 games as I hit UB Dragons with a double thoughtseize which cleared the way for the God of the Dead as I began to bury him in card advantage, but my noobiness in MTGO caused me to throw out a Mistcutter for 1 when it could've hit for 6 and that eventually led me to a loss by timeout (once again caused by inexperience with the software).
So the major things you'll see different are the Heralds. Idk for sure if they're good enough in here, but I used to play BW at the start of the block and it did work so I figured I'd throw it in here. I'm surprised I haven't been able to flip a Den Protector into Herald and ride that to victory even once as I thought that would be a near common occurrence. The other thing in here is Soul of Innistrad. I agree with the sentiment that there needs to be a bit more oomph at the top end with the haymakers, and I've tried Ugin, but the 8 mana is just too difficult for this deck. So I figured I'd throw out SoI as he also shined out of the SB in my BW deck and I think he could possibly be even better here with the ability to get back Den Protectors or chain multiple Merchants together. Speaking of which having SoI out makes it much easier to slam a languish onto a board with Merchant as you can just get it back. Of course, I haven't actually drawn the card yet so this is all theorycrafting but I think he's a great addition with a lot of raw power and resiliency built in. Also, I have Garruk in here over Ugin once again simply because of the mana cost. There are games where I would've lost if I had Ugin because I couldn't cast it, but I drew my seventh land and Garruk turned the game around.
I'm still trying to get in games against other Midrange decks. I've played a lot of UR artifacts/mill and I already mentioned I punted against UB Dragons, but I think the Abzan decks are playing in the Daily Events and I'm not comfortable enough with MTGO to go in there, but maybe when I do I'll stream a Daily or something. We'll see. For now, I'm just glad to back playing Magic with a deck that's actually fun.
If I were to update it it would probably look something like this.
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Herald of Torment
4 Seeker of the Way
3 Wingmate Roc
2 Citadel Siege
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Thoughtseize
3 Bile Blight
1 Utter End
2 Duress
6 Plains
6 Swamp
4 Scoured Barrens
4 Temple of Silence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Side
1 Whip of Erebos
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 End Hostilities
2 Erase
3 Valorous Stance
2 Archfiend of Depravity
3 Mastery of the Unseen
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
Bestowing Herald on Seeker and gaining 6 was one of my favorite things to do.
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Frost Walker
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Thunderbreak Regent
3 Lightning Strike
4 Stubborn Denial
3 Crater's Claws
4 Yavimaya Coast
3 Shivan Reef
4 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Frontier Bivouac
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Temple of Epiphany
1 Temple of Abandon
I played a similar kind of Monsters type list a few weeks ago at an Elite IQ. Ended up going 4-2-1 in the main event but went 3-0 to win a box on the side.
4 Ashcloud Phoenix
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Hornet Queen
2 Whisperwood Elemental
2 Reclamation Sage
Spells: 7
3 Lightning Strike
2 Stoke the Flames
3 Crater's Claws
2 Outpost Siege
Planeswalkers: 4
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
2 Nissa, Worldwaker
Lands: 24
8 Forest
5 Mountain
2 Rugged Highlands
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Darksteel Citadel
3 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Nylea's Disciple
2 Setessan Tactics
3 Arc Lightning
2 Wild Slash
1 Back to Nature
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Harness by Force
The idea was to ramp into 4 or later drops and start gaining card advantage through all of them. 4 Ashclouds let me overload their removal and if they wanted to Chain it I had a maindeck answer and I was okay with Abzan exiling it instead of drawing 2. I could build up armies with Whisperwood, Xenagos, and Nissa. And I could get a Outpost Siege out faster than the RW decks with Caryatid (I used it over Rattleclaw here because getting my dork killed would put me way too far behind.) Deck performed well. Unfortunately I designed it to beat RW and ran into the deck in my first 2 matches but ended up losing both. However, while I did get crushed in one of them, I lost one of those matches because I simply punted away a practically insurmountable advantage in G3. I did bounce back after that and ended up crushing Abzan along with Mardu. The tie was against GW Devotion.
In the side event I played BW Warriors, Abzan Control, and Sultai Control. Crushed BW and took it 2-0 through some hard-fought games against Abzan. I just think the deck is inherently good against Abzan. Dragons plus Phoenixes along with Nissa just make it hard on them. It's also important to note that I have 1 Darksteel Citadel in the deck for 4/4 indestructible shenanigans and it came in very handy all day long for me without ever ruining my mana. It was just so good against every deck in the field every time I got it off and it came in real handy in this match living through everything except Charm. Unfortunately, Sultai Control mulliganed in both games against me so I won that without much effort.
All in all I like the deck, but having really played since the event. If I did I would get rid of Hornet Queen and move Rec Sage to the board. I only maindecked Sage because I expected a lot of RW at the tournament. As for the Queen I saw myself siding it out a lot and need to make room for DTK additions. I actually like where your list is at and might use it as a baseline, but I also might go ahead and switch to Temur to try some things.
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Butcher of the Horde
3 Seeker of the Way
2 Soulfire Grand Master
Spells: 18
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Crackling Doom
4 Stoke the Flames
1 Murderous Cut
1 Wild Slash
2 Thoughtseize
2 Lightning Strike
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Enchantments: 3
3 Outpost Siege
Lands: 24
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Caves of Koilos
3 Mountain
4 Nomad Outpost
1 Swamp
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Temple of Malice
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Glare of Heresy
2 Mastery of the Unseen
2 Thoughtseize
2 Archfiend of Depravity
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Erase
2 Valorous Stance
This is the list I've been homing in on for my next deck. I've always liked Mardu and even bought all the lands before khans came around. I finally settled with the Mardu deck that 1 the Orlando 5k a couple weeks back as a starting point. I've also read Mark Nestico's article and just watched the decktech by Briksza at the Dallas Open. I do agree with bringing it more in-line as RW deck, and I've gotten the best results testing with it online, but for the life of me I can't see how Wingmate Roc is better than either of the red 5 drops. You have Butcher, Seeker, and Grandmaster to gain life and Roc without Raid is just bad. I also found that playing 4 Wild Slash was fine but felt going down to 3 and replacing with a Cut just seemed better. Now, with the Jeskai Aggro picking up I've gone down to 1 Slash in favor of Strikes because we have to be prepared to kill Mantis Rider.
Edit: Briksza using the dragon mode on Outpost Siege with Butcher as an outlet to win the game was awesome. Hope he made day 2.
2 Whisperwood Elemental
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Siege Rhino
Spells: 14
4 Hero's Downfall
2 Bile Blight
4 Abzan Charm
3 Thoughtseize
1 Utter End
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Lands: 26
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
4 Temple of Silence
4 Temple of Malady
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Windswept Heath
3 Forest
2 Plains
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Erase
1 Murderous Cut
3 Drown in Sorrow
2 End Hostilities
2 Mastery of the Unseen
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
3 Read the Bones
Ari Lax's Midrange deck from his latest premium video. I personally think it looks great. I think the sideboard could do without a Drown tho and maybe a Glare in it's spot.
3 Rakshasa Deathdealer
4 Satyr Wayfinder
2 Torrent Elemental
2 Whisperwood Elemental
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Lands: 24
2 Forest
1 Island
2 Swamp
1 Evolving Wilds
3 Llanowar Wastes
1 Mana Confluence
4 Opulent Palace
3 Polluted Delta
3 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Mystery
2 Yavimaya Coast
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Bile Blight
4 Hero's Downfall
2 Murderous Cut
1 Sultai Charm
2 Thoughtseize
2 Treasure Cruise
1 Bile Blight
1 Dig Through Time
4 Disdainful Stroke
2 Negate
2 Pharika's Cure
2 Sultai Charm
1 Whip of Erebos
2 Thoughtseize
So I'm looking to build another deck, and then I saw this while looking at the GP Miami top 32. It looks pretty sleek and streamlined and 13th place at a GP is no slouch, but I don't play Sultai so I don't know for sure. What do you guys think of it?
While decks want to durdle he just flies right over them. Great if you want to get aggressive on turn 3 and never really bad because of bestow. I played BW for a while and would suit him frequently on seeker to just swing a game like that, or at the very least negate his only downside.
2 Ashcloud Phoenix
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
1 Sagu Mauler
4 Savage Knuckleblade
3 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
2 Whisperwood Elemental
Spells: 10
3 Stubborn Denial
4 Lightning Strike
3 Crater's Claws
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
Lands: 25
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Shivan Reef
4 Frontier Bivouac
4 Forest
4 Mountain
1 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Abandon
2 Arbor Colossus
2 Monastery Siege
1 Reality Shift
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Back to Nature
1 Burn Away
2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
2 Anger of the Gods
In an effort to always go bigger I've been tinkering with this. Really wanna go down to 24 lands and 3 Phoenixes and I'll keep that in mind for paper magic but right now Cockatrice is telling me 25 lands is the way to go.
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
2 Brutal Hordechief
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
3 Seeker of the Way
4 Chief of the Edge
4 Herald of Torment
3 Wingmate Roc
Enchantment:
2 Citadel Siege
Spells: 10
2 Valorous Stance
3 Thoughtseize
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Bile Blight
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Land: 24
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Scoured Barrens
9 Swamp
4 Caves of Koilos
5 Plains
4 Temple of Silence
2 Drown in Sorrow
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Thoughtseize
2 End Hostilities
2 Utter End
3 Hushwing Gryff
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Bile Blight
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Erase
Been playing around with this. A little different than most lists. I prefer a more play powerful threats at every point on the curve (ala Abzan Aggro) than an all-in style. What I've gathered so far is that Herald of Torment is just a beating against green decks, especially if played on turn 3. From there you just bash overhead while they durdle as you kill their threats. Also, I've found Citadel Siege to just be flat out better than Brutal Hordechief. In fact, Citadel Siege has been a complete house in games I've played it making everything into a threat. I wasn't keen on playing Bloodsoaked Champion because it can't block but with Citadel Siege the ability to bring it back later on gives you a powerful recursive threat. I might have to bring Siege up to 3, but there's definitely no need play a set of Siege's and Brutal Hordechief does have reach (both with it's drain ability and ability arrange blocks or simply alpha strike) so for now I've gone with 2/2 split.