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Hello everyone! First off, I'd like to apologize for lack of new articles since school and job hunting has been taking over my life. So, where the heck are we in the standard environment? After the banning of two of the most dominant cards in Standard, Stoneforge Mystic and Jace, the Mind Sculptor, almost every deck brewer I know went into overdrive into building the next beast to take over the spot of Caw Blade. Without Jace and Stoneforge, I tried to look back into what creatures were not able to shine, and this week I'm going back into the midrange format - this time featuring a black and red deck with NEW additions from Magic 2012. I decided to brush off the old developmental lists that I had done earlier in my articles and go deeper into the research by redesigning my entire process and show you guys my new take on brewing from a Caveman's point of view. Here is my new take on my developmental lists:
Development List: BR Obliteration
Overall Goal: Beat opponent down with effective creatures disrupting their hand and board with removal and discard spells.
New Mechanics: YES: phyrexian mana, (X/P) mana, Cost can be paid with either X or paying two life
Combo: -
Colors: Black/Red/Colorless
Overall Converted Mana Cost: -
Creatures-Spell Ratio: -
Converted Mana Cost: 6 or less
Planeswalker:
- Lilianna Vess
Creatures:
Artifact Creature:
Spells:
Instant -
- Stagger Shock
Sorcery -
Artifact -
Lists:
Test Version 1
Creatures:
4 x Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 x Grim Lavamancer
3 x Solemn Simulacrum
2 x Urabrask the Hidden
2 x Grave Titan
3 x Manic Vandal
Spells:
4 x Dismember
4 x Lightning Bolt
3 x Go for the Throat
3 x Inquisition of Kozilek
3 x Disfigure
Land:
4 x Blackcleave Cliffs
4 x Dragonskull Summit
3 x Lavaclaw Reaches
9 x Leechridden Swamp
5 x Goblin Mountaineer
This deck is a more controlling midrange deck that builds up by removing early aggro and threats, and then builds up to a hasty Grave Titan. For this deck, it's geared more towards a control metagame with Caw running around. Aggro is another story, as Goblins and Red Deck Wins have a very good match up, but depending on your meta you can easily fix that. In the midgame this deck shines since you take care of their threats and finish with a grave titan. This version of the deck curves fairly well with with the help of Solemn Simulacrum to get you to Urabrask and Grave Titan.
Test Version 2
Creatures:
4 x Goblin Guide
4 x Abyssal Persecutor
3 x Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 x Urabrask the Hidden
2 x Solemn Simulacrum
Spells:
4 x Lightning Bolt
3 x Doom Blade
3 x Mimic Vat
2 x Sarkhan the Mad
3 x Incinerate
3 x Despise
3 x Go for the Throat
Land:
4 x Dragonskull Summit
3 x Lavaclaw Reaches
4 x Blackcleave Cliffs
13 x Leechridden Swamp
This version is a sacrifice-type deck that gets value without Jace being in the format. Sarkhan had little chance to shine since all your opponent had to do was bounce your Dragon (at the cost of your original creature) and with Mimic Vat you take their best creature (or your own) and start with the beats. Also, a Urabrask under Mimic Vat is very fun to surprise your opponent if they forget, and is obviously strong even if they don't. The curve is a bit iffy since this is somewhat of a aggro-control-to-midrange type of deck, but in the mid-to-late game this deck gets so much fun after Mimic Vat hits play with either a Urabrask, Grave Titan, or, better yet, Solemn Simulacrum to get your mana base up. As if that weren't enough, he even blocks to draw you a card.
Test Version 3:
Creatures:
4 x Moltensteel Dragon
4 x Phyrexian Obliterator
3 x Phyrexian Metamorph
3 x Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 x Bloodghast
2 x Manic Vandal
Spells:
4 x Lightning Bolt
3 x Incinerate
3 x Sarkhan the Mad
3 x Go for the Throat
3 x Dismember
3 x Despise
Land:
4 x Blackcleave Cliffs
4 x Dragonskull Summit
3 x Lavaclaw Reaches
11 x Leechridden Swamp
This list is similar to the one above, but this one is much more sinister than one might think: if you can live the dream, it combines Sarkhan's ultimate to surprise your opponent when you have two Moltensteels out to just one shot your opponent. The curve on this is fine since most of the draws are either Swamps or Black mana sources. The one problem this deck has is the W/x players with Oblivion Rings and mass removal. This version is still being worked on to compensate for it. I main decked the Vandals since the resurgence of Caw-Blade decks have given us a plethora of artifacts to destroy. And, having a 2/2 body is rarely bad, but it gets even better when Sarkhan the Mad is around to turn it into a Dragon.
As you can tell, the decks in this article are still in the development stage, but I think there is definitely promise here. Most importantly, playing a deck like the ones above give you an alternative to the CawBlade menace that so many of you have been loathing.
My next article will be how the deck did online and at my current FNM, so stay tuned! As such, please don't be shy about commenting below on where to take the deck from here; I'll be sure to entertain all of the best suggestions.
Kellen Huber
Great article loved the process of ideas using a rarely played walker, would love to see your take on B/R mid-range with smallpox once innistrad is released.
K7e7z