A couple of weeks ago I wrote about updating one of my favorite Modern staples with Guilds cards - Black-Green Rock. As I started working on this Standard format and writing down different deck ideas, I got to thinking about if perhaps one of my favorite decks might translate to our freshly rotated format. Midrange style decks are always one of my favorite things to play. They generally allow interactive game play, while also having aggressive draws if they are built properly.

Let's start with a first draft of a Rock style deck in Standard:

B/G Rock | Guilds Standard | Jeff Hoogland

• Creatures (23)
• 2 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 2 Thrashing Brontodon
• 3 Doom Whisperer
• 4 Jadelight Ranger
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Midnight Reaper
• 4 Thorn Lieutenant

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Vivien Reid

• Instants (8)
• 2 Cast Down
• 3 Assassin's Trophy
• 3 Vraska's Contempt

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 The Eldest Reborn

• Lands (26)
• 10 Forest
• 4 Swamp
• 4 Memorial to Folly
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Woodland Cemetery

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Arguel's Blood Fast
• 2 Carnage Tyrant
• 1 Cast Down
• 2 Deathgorge Scavenger
• 4 Duress
• 3 Moment of Craving
• 2 Ritual of Soot

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While we do not have threats as efficient as Tarmogoyf in Standard, the opposing cards we are facing down also tend to be a bit less scary. We also lack Dark Confidant or Tireless Tracker for card advantage, but we have a couple of other cards that slot into similar roles:

Thorn Lieutenant is exactly the style of card I like to play in Midrange decks like this. It provides a body early for going into combat against aggressive decks. It generates value against control when it simply dies. It scales into the late game as a mana sink if we flood out a bit.

Jadelight Ranger provides a bit of card selection, occasionally draws a card, and can beat down. Midnight Reaper is a card that I have not heard much about, but is something that comes with an OK body and a very powerful effect. For any interactive decks, Reaper is essentially a must kill right away. It turns every trade we make in combat into something profitable for us. It insulates our board very nicely against any sweeper effects controlling decks might want to use to keep our midrange deck in check.

After our more efficient threats, we have our top end bombs that provide some card advantage for us:

Doom Whisperer is a large threat that closes games out very quickly. The fact that it is evasive in multiple ways is fantastic to start, but once we pair it with some powerful card selection we get something truly awesome. While Whisperer does not technically provide card advantage, the selection it provides against any deck not pressuring our health total is enough that it feels like drawing cards.

The Eldest Reborn is likely one of the most grindy cards this archetype has to offer. If our opponent has a card in hand when the second ability resolves, Reborn often generates three or even four cards for one. Vivien Reid is a card I am not entirely certain of, but is something I want to try out a bit before I write her off entirely. Her plus generates card advantage every turn and her minus offers a bit of utility to our removal.

Speaking of removal and utility - one of the best things about playing Black-Green is the suite of removal that answers most problems

One thing that I feel is worth pointing out is that I think Assassin's Trophy's drawback is a lot more detrimental in Standard than Modern. This is for two reasons. First is that more basic lands tend to get played in Standard on average. This means even in the late game we will be giving our opponent lands with this removal. Second is that Standard often involves higher curves. In Modern, giving our opponent their 6th land is often trivial. In Standard we could possibly be ramping them into their top end bomb a turn sooner.

All of that being said, I think the flexibility Trophy provides still makes it worth playing, just not as a four of in a midrange deck like this. Then we have Vraska's Contempt. A card that allows us to get around death triggers as well as offering us a small amount of buffer in our life total against aggressive decks. If we have a Doom Whisperer in play, Contempt basically reads Surveil 2 which is nice.

Thrashing Brontodon might seem like an odd inclusion at a glance, but I really like cards like this one. Its stats line up well against the various Red threats like Goblin Chainwhirler, while its ability to Naturalize something can offer good utility in other matchups.

The last thing I'd like to mention about the main deck is our land count. While 26 might seem like a lot, I think the way archetypes like this are most likely to lose is by stumbling rather than flooding. Also worth noting is that included in our 26 lands are four copies of Memorial to Folly. This means if we are flooding out, we can turn one of our lands back into another resource.

The sideboard going into a new format is often guess work, but I feel like I covered the two most important bases a deck like this has. That is, plans for people trying to get under us, as well as a plan for people trying to go over the top of us. Life gain from Moment of Craving and Deathgorge Scavenger should be excellent against various Red decks, while Duress in combination with Carnage Tyrant should be great against people going over the top. Ritual of Soot kills a good deal of our creatures, but it is there as a safety net in case Tokens are popular.

While I was working on the midrange deck, Midnight Reaper got me to thinking a bit that he was exactly the style of effect you'd like to have in an aggressive shell. In my article last week I talked a bit about a possible Green Stompy deck splashing White, which got me to thinking perhaps a splash toward Black for Reaper could be worthwhile:

B/G Stompy | Guilds Standard | Jeff Hoogland

• Creatures (34)
• 2 Vine Mare
• 4 Glowspore Shaman
• 4 Kraul Harpooner
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Midnight Reaper
• 4 Nullhide Ferox
• 4 Pelt Collector
• 4 Steel Leaf Champion
• 4 Thorn Lieutenant

• Instants (4)
• 4 Assassin's Trophy

• Lands (22)
• 1 Swamp
• 8 Forest
• 2 Golgari Guildgate
• 3 Unclaimed Territory
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Woodland Cemetery

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Duress
• 2 Find // Finality
• 3 Kitesail Freebooter
• 3 Moment of Craving
• 1 Cast Down
• 2 Status // Statue
• 1 Vivien Reid

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I especially like the potential Black opens up in the sideboard for us in this deck. Discard spells let us poke holes in control decks' plans, while Moment of Craving gives us a fantastic way to keep up with smaller aggro decks.

Wrapping Up

Trying out different things in our freshly rotated format has reminded me how much fun Standard can be. Only time will tell if the format can remain varied and interesting as weaker strategies are weeded out, but I for one am hoping that this visit to Ravnica will be as memorable as the last few times we came to this wonderful plane.

What have you been finding good results with in Standard? Anything like the Black-Green decks I have listed here, or something else? Let me know in a comment below!