MTGO
ARENA
PAPER
Standard Grixis Midrange Guide by Mogged
My current version of the deck
$513/276.65 Tix
Maindeck (60)
| Creature [15] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Bloodtithe Harvester | $0.35 | |
| 4 Corpse Appraiser | $0.35 | |
| 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker | $21.99 | |
| 1 Ertai Resurrected | $0.99 | |
| 2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse | $84.99 | |
| Artifact [3] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 3 Reckoner Bankbuster | $1.99 | |
| Instant [11] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 3 Cut Down | $1.49 | |
| 3 Make Disappear | $0.59 | |
| 2 Abrade | $0.35 | |
| 3 Go for the Throat | $1.49 | |
| Sorcery [4] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 Soul Transfer | $0.49 | |
| 1 Gix's Command | $1.99 | |
| 2 Brotherhood's End | $7.49 | |
| Land [27] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Haunted Ridge | $8.99 | |
| 1 Mountain | $0.01 | |
| 4 Underground River | $3.49 | |
| 4 Sulfurous Springs | $1.99 | |
| 2 Shivan Reef | $0.69 | |
| 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance | $5.99 | |
| 1 Swamp | $0.01 | |
| 4 Xander's Lounge | $14.99 | |
| 1 Otawara, Soaring City | $27.99 | |
| 4 Stormcarved Coast | $3.99 | |
| 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire | $12.99 | |
| Sideboard [15] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 Liliana of the Veil | $15.99 | |
| 2 Unlicensed Hearse | $1.79 | |
| 1 Reckoner Bankbuster | $1.99 | |
| 2 Abrade | $0.35 | |
| 1 Cut Down | $1.49 | |
| 1 Disdainful Stroke | $0.35 | |
| 2 Duress | $0.35 | |
| 1 Negate | $0.35 | |
| 1 Soul Transfer | $0.49 | |
| 1 Brotherhood's End | $7.49 | |
| 1 Spell Pierce | $0.59 | |
| 1 Kaito Shizuki | $3.99 | |
$115.96 Tix @cardhoarder
$2.90 / Week @cardhoarder
$396.82 @tcgplayer
$516.45 @cardkingdom
Visual View
Similar Decks
Proxies
Archetype Analysis
Magic online format
Apprentice and MWS .dec
Grixis midrange is a deck that excels at grinding by using this old recipe for success: Combining cheap interaction with the most powerful 2 for 1 effects in the format.
It has access to the best 2 drops and 3 drops in Standard making it worth to play this painful manabase and having a bad end curve
The deck is based on Nathan Steuer’s world championship list
https://mtgdecks.net/Standard/grixis-midrange-decklist-by-nathan-steuer-1485802
That list was the best possible call at that time since Esper midrange was the deck to beat but some changes had to be made for this new metagame
Synopsis of the early Brothers War Standard metagame
New cards didn’t make a huge impact even though there are many useful pieces and I expect some new decks to spawn as the format progresses. Regardless this is what Standard looked like going into the showcase week:
- Grixis midrange - for sure the most popular deck having only 1 bad matchup from the previous metagame (Esper Channel)
- Esper midrange - Good against soldiers and random but bad versus the most popular deck (Grixis)
- Esper Channel/Legendary - bad against soldiers even with esper midrange and good against Grixis and random
- Soldiers - good against Esper channel bad versus everything else
- Random - Monoblack/Jund midrange/Grixis anvil etc
These decks have their differences in matchups but there is one common factor, they are all bad against Grixis.
After I tried some decks like monoblack I concluded that It was hard to find something that beats a combination of the above at the same time.
Card choices
Updating Nathan Steuer’s deck
Grixis world championship list seemed like the best positioned but it had one major problem, the two new decks Esper Channel and Soldiers were very good against its finisher Invoke despair and some minor things like duress having no targets, this was a relatively easy problem to fix by just changing the finisher and therefore since the finisher costs 1BBBB the mana base can also benefit from that making it smoother overall.
Adding the right finishers
Finishers weren’t great. Gix’s command was the best I could do due to its versatility. Sheoldred is the best thing you can do at 4 mana if you don’t have access to white.
Manabase was better so I could now include Brotherhood’s end which was a goal of mine from the beginning and is also the best card in the new set.
Sideboard guide and matchup key points
When fighting midrange against midrange there are only a few things you can do to make the matchups better.
Even Grixis versus Esper which is considered a traditionally good matchup for Grixis is still like 55-45 in my opinion, so the idea is to secure a matchup that’s easier to adapt for like Soldiers rather than try to get tiny percentage points elsewhere.
GRIXIS MIDRANGE MIRROR
In this matchup there isn’t much you can do to get an edge we do not have invoke despair which is a better finisher for the mirror than whatever we can do but in reality casting 5 cmc cards is not what you want to do versus counterspells, also there are some possible overextensions to invoke that you can handshake to them.
I choose to have a very interactive plan that can draw go leaving 2 mana up to punish expensive spells since the matchup is all about your 3 drops getting value or bankbuster somehow surviving, that leads to fighting off sheoldred and invoke extremely well
On the play
On the draw
ESPER MIDRANGE
This is a good matchup, Ao can be scary if it resolves making the inclusion of soul transfer really useful. Wedding announcement is the biggest problem since we instantly have to assume a more aggressive role before our removal becomes worse,Underdog Dennick Raffine Sheoldred Wandering emperor are easy to deal with and this is how we get our edge
On the play
On the draw
ESPER CHANNEL/LEGENDS
This matchup is a weird case, duress and invoke despair used to be useless against this deck but we are playing none of it, instead we are playing sweepers and more removal which are excellent vs them, this is no longer a bad matchup but a good one instead.
They could kill us if we are on the draw but it’s almost impossible to die on the play, we are the control they are the beatdown
On the play & on the draw
SOLDIERS
This is a powerful new aggro probably the best aggro we have seen in the last year of standard, unfortunately for them and fortunately for us their deck has a great weakness of being one dimensional, overextending by going wide mostly on sorcery speed making it super prone to mass removal and in our case Brotherhood’s end, if they try to play around it they give us a chance to do our creature plan which also matches well against them.
This matchup is extremely good and is the reason why I prefer this version over the invoke version.
You should swap soul transfers for make disappears if you are expecting Kayla’s reconstruction from their sideboard
On the play & on the draw
MONOBLACK
This matchup is slightly favored, our brotherhood’s end is good versus everything they can do from from 1 to 3 cmc, they have some recursion and ward so targeted removal isn’t super effective vs them. We are better equipped to win the grind war if we don’t get swooped fast
On the play
On the draw
Conclusions
It is true that right now Grixis doesn’t have true bad matchups, especially with this version that doesn’t give much of a room to rogue decks but that doesn’t mean the deck doesn’t have a weakness.
Most creature strategies have proven to be ineffective against Grixis but the Grixis mana base is painful and there are too many targeted removal game one, monored could target the painland damage and some kind of control could target game 1 free wins by outgrinding Grixis so there is still much left to deck build in my opinion.
If you liked this article maybe you will also find interesting on of the following ones Pioneer Azorius Control Sideboard Guide, Top 8 at the Legacy Challenge with Mono-White Initiative: In-Depth & Sideboard Guide, New Standard, New Brews: A Fresh Twist on Dimir Midrange by Mogged, Modern 5C Creativity Primer & Sideboard Guide, Winning the Manatrader Series: A Deep Dive into Pioneer Rakdos Midrange, Mastering Lutri in Modern: Deck & Sideboard Guide
Sign Up for MTGDecks newsletter
You'll receive a weekly email with more articles like this.
MTGO Grinder
Mogged is one of the MTGO grinders behind many of the top winning decks across formats. He has the most Challenge top8s and wins in 2021, and is currently leading in Challenge wins in 2022. His articles show a deep understanding of the MTG theory and are great for those looking to improve their gameplay, better understanding the game, and learning how the metagame evolves over time.
