Grixis Midrange

Abstract:

The inheritor to the best deck of the pre-The Brothers' War Standard, Grixis Midrange in the current format remains a symphony of card advantage. Its big claim to fame on the way to winning The World Championship was an upgrade at the 3-drop spot, where Corpse Appraiser offers both card advantage and selection... While still accomplishing a little of the disruption that makes Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton exciting.

Standard's cavalcade of Underground Rivers, Sulfurous Springs, and Xander's Lounges make Invoke Despair almost as easy to cast for Grixis as it is in Black decks with fewer colors (something primary competitor Esper tends to eschew).

With only 2-3 copies of Make Disappear main deck on average, Grixis always seems to have it when you tap out for something good. Unlike Mono-Black, it can Abrade your Reckoner Bankbuster. A wild mix of cards - some specialized removal, some counterspells that go terribly in the long game, a couple of creatures (if high leverage) - Grixis makes arguably the best use of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki in the format... If only because it can get rid of the cards it doesn't want. Later, the ability to copy Bloodtithe Harvester or Corpse Appraiser makes Reflection of Kiki-Jiki look better than... Well not better than the oddballs who copy Titan of Industry, but far, far better than most reasonable Clone wannabes.

What's Terrible About Grixis?

Perhaps fittingly for the most popular deck in the format, Grixis bears two kinds of Kryptonite... One of them Red (literally).

1. Identity - More and more I feel like Grixis kind of doesn't have a reason to exist. This is an odd thing to say about an archetype that just won The World Championship and also is the most popular deck now. But it just doesn't proactively do anything that much better than its peers, especially given the complexity of the Grixis mana base. This is the only deck in Standard that can hit five straight land drops and be unable to cast one of its key spells if you weren't paying attention. While the most card advantageous for sure, it's not appreciably more card advantageous than a deck with just a bunch of Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathars. This point is exacerbated by the fact that Grixis tends not to play four copies of Reckoner Bankbuster, while its midrange control peers all do (granted, because they lack the raw card quality offered by a three-color control deck). Finally, Grixis is the worst example of "the shiny new thing" ... Bloodcoil Serpent just hasn't been performing as well as Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. Ditto on Phyrexian Fleshgorger; which, if you want it, just seems better in a Mono-Black deck. My recommendation for Grixis players is to go back to triple Sheoldred. But, again, at some point you have to be wondering why you're playing Grixis in the first place.
2. Mono-Red - There are a lot of lopsided matchups in Standard. Some of them (One of the various Cityscape Leveler or Portal to Phyrexia decks against one of the fair midrange control decks) just never go the other way. But Mono-Red seems like it should be winnable for a deck whose removal usually starts on Cut Down. But it's atrocious. The lure, I fear, is that the games look so close for Grixis. If only this; what if that happened instead? Those kinds of games... But it's awful. The Grixis mana base is too punishing, and the deck gets stuck playing one-for-one from behind, often behind on mana. Again, this is a matchup that might be repaired with a judicious application of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse... But at that point why not just Corrupt a body with Mono-Black?

Azorius Soldiers

Abstract:

The inheritor to the Mono-White Weenie decks of the past year, Azorious Soldiers has much the same play pattern... Draw an annoying creature. Play it. Have exactly the right number of Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brutes to ruin the opponent's day. Attack! Perhaps imprecisely :( Profit!

One of the reasons for this deck's popularity is because it accomplishes much of what Esper is trying to do at both lower curve and fewer colors. The addition of many new cards from The Brothers' War makes Soldiers legitimately powerful, even if they don't get to play Raffine, Scheming Seer specifically.

How is this an actual Magic: the Gathering card? How is it that Recruitment Officer is not even the fifth most scary card in Soldiers?

Extremely scary, and arguably the most cerebral card in the Soldiers deck. Essentially, the opponent will tend to have to have two different styles of removal, or will lose to one of the Siege Veteran's abilities.

There was a time Skittering Skirge was my favorite creature in Magic: the Gathering. I won a lot of tournaments with Skittering Skirge; and it even took my friend Jon Finkel to the 2000 US National Championship! Harbin, Vanguard Aviator really shows you the power creep of the last quarter-century. This card is tough to beat because sorcery speed removal is kind of worthless against it. A patient Soldiers player can just wait through a standoff and "flying Overrun" you in a single swing. Harbin's toughness is too low for Destroy Evil, and despite an insane combat rate - 3/2 in the air for two - it never even has to attack itself to finish a game.

Soldiers is not fun to play against. When you're winning, it feels stressful in a way unlike every other matchup in Standard. You can have done everything right but still be one Harbin topdeck away from death out of nowhere. The deck is incredibly resilient to removal, and tons and tons of the cards are way above any reasonable rate.

Losing to Soldiers, on the other hand, feels desperate. If you have multiple one-mana removal spells in your opening hand, you have more than a puncher's chance. If you just come out on your regular curve, hitting land drops and tapping your mana every turn... You might be run over anyway. Soldiers is also extremely volatile. Myrel, Shield of Argive is the latest attempt to bring back the fun of Winota, Joiner of Forces! Hooray?

Okay... Why Not Just Play Soldiers?

If someone wants to beat Soldiers, they probably can. Early in the format, when I was mostly playing a Mono-White deck with 4 copies of Lay Down Arms AND 3 copies of Depopulate main deck, I was routinely ranching the little Blue and White Weenies. I think that implies that Soldiers can be flat-out bad to sideboards.

Imagine a universe where Mono-Red switched into all Visions of Phyrexia and efficient point removal in Game 2... They'd just go into a suppression strategy and expose the Soldiers inability to take games outside of The Red Zone. I do think that Soldiers is a high incentive Best-of-One deck. If the opponent isn't gunning for you (especially given the popularity of Grixis), they're just not going to win very often.

I do not believe Soldiers has any natural Game 1 predators at present. This is particularly the case as the recent addition of Protect the Negotiators allows the [Blue and] White Weenies to stop big spells or sweepers, at least when they already have the initiative.

Mono-Red Aggro

Abstract:

A clever beatdown deck, Mono-Red comes in multiple flavors in today's Standard. Most of them play a lot of haste, including Phoenix Chick, Feldon, Ronom Excavator, and Monastery Swiftspear to put on pressure. Mono-Red can strike out of nowhere and take advantage of deck-building inefficiencies like no other deck in the format.

All versions can surprise an opponent; and will often do so in individually and particularly surprising ways. The first time I got ranched by a 3x End the Festivities draw, I was kind of cheering for my opponent. Someone who draws two copies of Squee, Dubious Monarch can out-class The Wandering Emperor. You still have hasty holdovers from previous formats, including Reckless Stormseeker // Storm-Charged Slasher and Thundering Raiju [in some builds]. Others go for resiliency with the aforementioned Squee, Planeswalker card advantage, or even main deck Visions of Phyrexia. Now there's a Magic card!

Mono-Red always seems to have the last Lightning Strike they need. This is partly because they have one of the lowest land counts in Standard, and partly because Reckless Impulse has become a Staple in most versions.

Mono-Red is afraid of the Big Bad...Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

The deck has no really slam-dunk ways of dealing with the best creature in Standard; though playing a couple of copies of Rending Flame main deck can provide hilarious results in other matchups. One of the reasons I'm such a staunch advocate of just playing more copies of Sheoldred in your Black decks is because drawing two is awesome! If a Mono-Red player dealt with your first Sheoldred, it probably cost them two cards; and they can easily be out of gas when your second one hits the battlefield.

Mono-Red is hyper sensitive to the opponent's deck configuration and perhaps the most draw-dependent deck in Standard. An opponent who has Lay Down Arms in their opening hand is going to be fundamentally problematic; especially because of how Phoenix Chick, Ronom, and Squee just work. Loran of the Third Path - a 2/1 for three mana - doesn't seem like it would be very efficient against a deck of Mono-Red's speed... But Loran can line up against Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano or Mechanized Warfare in a way that seems scripted for the scrappy White underdog.

Mono-White Control

Abstract:

For my money, Mono-White is the best overall strategy in Standard and the most rewarding deck to play.

It has tons of card advantage via 187 creatures like Spirited Companion, Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar, and Loran of the Third Path. Increasingly, Mono-White gets recursive value from The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration or Serra Paragon... Which can be doubly or even triply effective when paired with additional 187 action.

While Mono-White doesn't come close to the top of the metagame on power level - it does not play Titan of Industry, Cityscape Leveler, or Portal to Phyrexia - it can look pretty dang powerful. Sanctuary Warden and The Wandering Emperor make for a heck of a Batman and Robin duo. This is particularly the case when matching up against what should be the best spell in Standard. Mono-White will often just shrug off an Invoke Despair and keep going.

Most recently I switched from the Sanctuary Warden-heavy builds to what Andrea Menguchi posted last week on Twitter:

Built two paper Standard decks to practice for the upcoming RC like it's 2018 all over again! Team Grixis or Team MonoWhite??? #MTGStandard pic.twitter.com/LpuUM6w7xG

— Andrea Mengucci (@Mengu09) January 10, 2023

While there was never a stage where my MWC decks various weren't just farming Events for Play-In Points, I think Mengu's version is just better than anything I was playing previously. Initially, I couldn't wrap my head around losing Cathar Commando and The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration... But Mengu's deck is so much more resilient, and plays a great mid-game.

The main thing I missed was just how unstoppable Steel Seraph is in the Black matchups. I had always felt I had game against Black - especially Mono-Black - but Steel Seraph has forced all the Black decks to re-think their removal packages. If you do nothing but keep a 1/1 token in play, they can't really kill it with Invoke Despair... And those who were all about Go for the Throat basically get raced. Even if they have Sheoldred.

I've won numerous games from essentially one life against a Sheoldred through judicious use of Steel Seraph and Ambitious Farmhand // Seasoned Cathar (a card that I didn't have at all in my original builds)... And while Steel Seraph really isn't more powerful than Sanctuary Warden in the abstract, its ability to combo with Serra Paragon or dodge The Wandering Emperor via conditional vigilance are both A+.

While Mono-White cannot be built to beat decks that are specifically bigger than it is (there is a clear ceiling to its power level), it can be tuned to beat any decks or combination of decks below the truly gigantic / uncastable spells tier; including the mirror.

What Beats Mono-White?

Extremity.

On the top end, Mono-White can't really beat the gigantic decks. Even if it draws a ton of Lorans to contend with a ton of big artifacts... Those artifacts tend to be, by definition, recursive... So you're probably going to run out of Lorans way before they run out of gas. I don't even think it's worth thinking about sideboarding against the big-big decks. Just hope the Soldiers and Mono-Red folks contain them out of your bracket.

Mono-White is also very vulnerable on the low end... At least depending on how you've built it. Early on I was not having any problems with Soldiers with 4 Lay Down Arms and 3 Depopulate main deck. I was also way ahead against Mono-Red.

Today, playing Mengu White Control, I have more problems with Mono-Red (though not terminally). On the other hand, I routinely get trounced by Soldiers. Again, this is something that can be solved by sideboarding.

Did your brain just jump to Depopulate?

I think I'd run some of that card, but it spurs two additional, related, thoughts for me.

1. Farewell - I think I'd experiment with this card out of the sideboard. It's clearly far worse against Mono-White, where you might get run over before you can cast it (and it's probably even worse against Mono-Red)... But what about the mirror? You might be able to outlast a Mono-White opponent if playing for Farewell. It certainly takes the edge off of big threats like Serra Paragon and ignores Shield counters.
2. Circle of Confinement - I think that what you really want to do is slow down the opponent's rush, or ability to go wide on the battlefield before it all gets out of hand. Circle of Confinement does double duty against Yotian Frontliner, Siege Veteran, or Squee (cards that benefit from being simply destroyed)... And you might actually gain three life sometimes! Obviously if you could just play more copies of Lay Down Arms you would.

Finally: Corrupt

This is a card that has started to appear in Mono-Black decks; I think as a response to the increased number of Steel Seraphs in Mono-White. Not only does this card give Black an out to Steel Serpah, but it changes how Mono-White can plan a long game. Previously you'd only have to think about direct damage in chunks of two (for every Sheoldred trigger, or by how much you can blunt Invoke Despair). Now Mono-Black can brain you for 6+ and win the game out of nowhere. Watch out, heroes!

LOVE

MIKE