In my last Modern event, something rather funny happened in my semifinal match-up. We had a break due to a judge needing to run an errand and we’re discussing a prize split anyways so we all got to chatting as we all knew each other’s deck list. I was on Abzan, then there was Burn, Ad Nauseum, and Affinity. Surprisingly, I was the deck they wanted to avoid. The fair deck in the room. After I lost game 1 to Affinity, he dropped 13 cards from his sideboard on the table and said “Here’s the [card]Stony Silence[/card] plan I guess” and promptly lost to a turn 2 [card]Stony Silence[/card] anyways. The game went on for a little bit but his gameplan was anemic when he couldn’t tap his [card]Darksteel Citadel[/card] for mana.

I don’t really like these games. I’m not the kind of guy who likes to win game one and then try to dodge hate for games two and three. I’m also going to take my free wins when I can get them however, and as a result my sideboard was packed with hate. My current sideboard is:

[list]
3 Stony Silence
2 Languish
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Obstinate Baloth
2 Duress
1 Golgari Charm
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Celestial Purge
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
[/list]

Now I’m sure this isn’t your typical sideboard but it’s still a work in progress. [card]Stony Silence[/card] is basically a KO against Tron, Lantern, or Affinity and playing white without it is kind of crazy. [card]Timely Reinforcements[/card] and [card]Languish[/card] act as my other strong hate. [card]Languish[/card] gets the nod over [card]Damnation[/card] because it doesn’t kill my own creatures fairly often and in testing it’s simply been overperforming. I could see that [card]Damnation[/card] is better if you want to side in Wraths in the mirror or against bigger decks, but the goal here was to kill aggro decks. [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card] is for discard decks and is also fine when you have dead cards in the main as a value creature. The rest are one-ofs that diversify killing things like Planeswalkers, [card]Blood Moon[/card]s, and [card]Keranos, God of Storms[/card]. Golgari Charm’s added utility is also something I value.

Sideboard cards that can be used in a variety of situations are really good in the midrange shell. If you suspect that your opponent might have an enchantment you can kill but are unsure, you can bring in the Charm and use it to regenerate a creature or kill off a [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] if they didn’t bring them in. This is counterintuitive to our hate cards but Modern is in a weird place so you kind of need both. You aren’t going to be able to cover all of your bases so I like to dedicate some cards for specific match-ups and then cover my bases. [card]Duress[/card] is generally great against any nonsense you might expect to play against. In saying that, nonsense doesn’t mean a deck is bad, you just need to expect anything in Modern.

So why am I talking about sideboard? Well building a midrange maindeck is a very difficult thing to do without an expected metagame. Talking about BG/x specifically, sometimes it has been correct to play straight BG, Jund, or Abzan depending on the expected metagame. I’ll show you how I came up with my current Abzan list. I started with the following plan:

3-4 Liliana of the Veil
5-8 Discard (Split of Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Duress)
4 Tarmogoyf
2-4 Scavenging Ooze
2-4 Path to Exile
2-4 Siege Rhino
3-4 Lingering Souls
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2-4 Abrupt Decay
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Extra Planeswalker
1 Big Threat (Not Rhino)
4 Role-Fillers
23-24 Lands

This was literally how I started my deck. I knew that I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but really had to play the deck and see what I was up against before I knew how well things would perform. My role filler was [card]Abzan Charm[/card] as it gave me a way to hold up mana against [card]Splinter Twin[/card] without being punished as much. However, with that gone, I think it’s time to find a replacement. 2 [card]Painful Truths[/card] and 2 [card]Kitchen Finks[/card] are in that spot currently. However, this gives me a lot of 3-mana spells so with more playing experience, I’ll have a better idea what to put in that spot. I did go up to 4 [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card], 3 [card]Path to Exile[/card], and 3 [card]Siege Rhino[/card]. I stuck with 6 discard main and put the 2 [card]Duress[/card] in the sideboard. [card]Garruk Relentless[/card] filled my planeswalker spot and he overperformed when there were lots of little things to kill but having him die to Bolt was kind of unacceptable. I’m looking to try [card]Gideon, Ally of Zendikar[/card], some form of Elspeth, Ob Nixilis, Reignited, or maybe adding another threat.

Speaking of big threats, [card]Obzedat, Ghost Council[/card] has been my go-to for going over the top. It’s really performed well for me. It ends a lot of games quickly and even if it doesn’t stick around, it generally gets at least one or two triggers while dodging sorcery speed removal.

Anyways, the concept is the same no matter what colours you play. If you want to play UWR, you’re going to start with [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], [card]Lightning Bolt[/card], and a mix of counterspells. You can decide to go more creature heavy or more spell heavy into a control deck. Things like Sam Black’s Temur Traverse list are good examples of a well-built midrange deck.

[deck]
[Lands]
1 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
2 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Stomping Ground
3 Wooded Foothills
[/Lands]
[Spells]
2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Gut Shot
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mana Leak
4 Mishra’s Bauble
1 Seal of Fire
1 Serum Visions
3 Spell Snare
1 Tarfire
1 Thought Scour
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
1 Eternal Witness
2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Tireless Tracker
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Gut Shot
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Negate
2 Spellskite
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Thragtusk
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Looking at this deck, we see that Sam Black had a plan for a shell he wanted. We see a limited number of 4-ofs in the deck and then the rest is built to maximize the effects of his cards. [card]Tarmogoyf[/card], [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], and [card]Traverse the Ulvenwald[/card] do a lot of work here with a large graveyard, lots to buy back, and some really sweet targets for Traverse. His sideboard can also be built uniquely as Traverse lets him find a lot of silver bullets.

Essentially what we are doing with all of these decks is taking a shell and customizing it to our liking. A shell that I’ve played in the past and I’m close to trying again is the 4 [card]Blade Splicer[/card] and 4 [card]Restoration Angel[/card] shell. These cards are really good on their own but also can be great together. Obviously it’s difficult to maximize the value but if you can get your opponent to use their removal on the [card]Blade Splicer[/card], there’s a good chance you’ll come out of that situation ahead. I really liked this when there was a lot of Jund decks floating around and everyone else was on [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card]. [card]Blade Splicer[/card] is really good versus Liliana and blocks aggro decks really effectively. Maybe you pair it with blue for Snapcaster Mage? Maybe you pair with red for [card]Avalanche Riders[/card]? Maybe you find a new shell for these? I’m going to try them soon in Abzan or Jeskai and can let you know my results!

This is what midrange is all about to me. You’re finding a deck or shell and filling in the pieces with what you think is best. I’m going to be testing the following list.

[deck]
[Lands]
1 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
3 Stirring Wildwood
1 Sunpetal Grove
2 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Woodland Cemetery
[/Lands]
[Spells]
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Lingering Souls
2 Painful Truths
3 Path to Exile
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
3 Thoughtseize
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
1 Archangel Avacyn
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Siege Rhino
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
[/Creatures]
[/deck]

Yes, that is an [card]Archangel Avacyn[/card] in the main deck. If you’re going to midrange, you might as well go all in! In actuality, I think it is a card that seriously merits testing. If you had nightmares of [card]Siege Rhino[/card] in Standard, [card]Archangel Avacyn[/card] is arguably much more common and much more powerful. [card]Siege Rhino[/card] already locked his spot in the deck and our little flip angel now has a chance to prove herself. I am expecting that if she is good, it’s going to be because nobody expects her but only time will tell. I hope this gives you some insight into Modern midrange and good luck at your next event!