Following the banning of Aetherworks Marvel a few weeks ago, the format has dramatically changed as decks are no longer constrained by either requiring an extremely fast clock or interaction with Marvel. Midrange has been able to flourish, and we are seeing a battle between the various aggressively slanted midrange decks, such as Green/Black, Temur, Mardu or Zombies. There currently isn’t much of a large control presence in the  Magic Online meta as they still suffer from the same problems as pre-ban; the most played decks attack along multiple axis, creatures, planeswalkers, card advantage, making it difficult for control to answer every threat.

Today I’m talking about G/B, more specifically G/B Energy. I believe that G/B is the best place to start in standard, because it has the most powerful optimal curves when compared with the other midrange aggressive decks in the format. Its ability to curve out into unstoppable boards is made more consistent with cards like Longtusk Cub and Glint-Sleeve Siphoner acting as must kill threats on 2. They are more punishing than Grim Flayer and can get out of control faster. The deck can also adjust roles very easily, despite being a seemingly aggressive deck, it can switch into playing the controlling role seamlessly with recurring advantage sources throughout the deck in the form of Tireless Tracker, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar.

Matchups and Sideboarding

Temur Energy: The Temur matchup is a reasonably close fought midrange battle in which most of your early threats are more powerful than theirs, but they have the more powerful plays on turns 4 and 5. The main big threats that Temur brings to bear against you are Glorybringer and Chandra, Torch of Defiance, both of which left unanswered will often destroy your board presence and leave you behind very quickly. Their deck relies on damage based destruction, so making your creatures 5/5 where possible will ensure they don’t get taken down for free by the aforementioned threats.

It’s important to deal with their mana producing creatures where possible if you do not have an answer to turn 4 Glorybringer, but holding your grasps for this are essential. If it is possible to have a Walking Ballista with 4 counters its often best to just let them keep their smaller creatures and save the Ballista to stop the dragon as it is often the only important threat.

Temur lists are constantly changing, some lists play 4 mana Chandra, some lists play a couple of 6 mana Chandra. Elder Deep-Fiends and Confiscation Coup can also be troublesome options both in the Main Deck and Sideboard.

Out: 4 Walking Ballista, 2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar (or 2 Fatal Push if no Longtusk Cubs), 1 Verdurous Gearhulk.

In: 1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship, 2 Gonti,Lord of Luxury,  2 Lay Bare the Heart, 2 Tireless Tracker 

We remove  Walking Ballista because often your snakes will die on turn two and you won’t be able to gain the extra counter on the Ballista, making it a weak play on turns 2 or 3. They also do not have x/1’s to pick off. Nissa is hard to protect and is incredibly vulnerable to Glorybringer, setting you up to get 3 for 1’d too easily. Verdurous Gearhulk comes out to make sure we don’t have too many 5’s on our curve.

Mardu Vehicles: This matchup is quite play/draw dependant with their good draws being very powerful and aggressive, however their threats are vulnerable to Fatal Push or Walking Ballista. An important part of this matchup is working out how to deal with Gideon, it is important to work out a plan based around the possibility of a turn 4 or turn 5 Gideon. Without a way to take it down in 1 to 2 turns you will lose the game very quickly. Decks will top out with Glorybringer and/or Avacyn. The same things said about  the dragon in Temur section apply here, however your removal will be much more taxed here, as you will need to fire off removal on threats such as Heart of Kiran and Thalia.

In: 1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship , 2 Manglehorn.

Out: 2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar +1 Verdurous Gearhulk

Nissa is very hard to protect in this matchup and Gearhulk’s removal is to keep our curve lower, as we won’t have time to sit on multiple 5 drops often. A point for consideration here is that they can opt to board 10-15 cards to transform into a planeswalker based midrange deck playing Fumigates, Oath of Liliana’s, Chandras and Sorins. This makes the matchup look quite different and makes you the beatdown player. If they are going down this route and you know this, or you see it in game 2, its good to bring in Gonti and more Tireless Trackers, removing potentially  Fatal Push and Manglehorn to adjust for a less creature based deck.

Zombies: Zombies is probably your hardest matchup because they are doing the same things you are, but they are able to go wider and bigger faster. They are able to draw more cards than you, and in general just out board presence you. That said the matchup is not unwinnable and a good curve or a well timed Yahenni’s Expertise is often all it requires to win.

Its important to deal with Cryptbreaker, and you should not hesitate to trade a 1/1 Ballista on turn 2 to kill the cryptbreaker. The other major threats in the deck are Relentless Dead and Diregraf Colossus, both of which will lead to an overwhelming board presence, if both can be killed cleanly then its usually correct to do so.

In: 1 Skysovereign, 3 Yaheeni’s Expertise.

Out: 1 Gearhulk, 3 Blossoming Defence

Blossoming Defence isn’t impactful enough and it is more important to have answers for their threats than to protect yours. As always trimming a Geearhulk to enable supporting Skysovereign. It could be correct to just play 2 Skysoverign main deck at this point, but their are still alot of rogue decks in the format against which you’d rather have a Gearhulk as it is a more powerful threat as part of an aggressive curve in game one, whereas games usually become more answer based post board, and Skysovereign adds a different dimension to your deck.

G/B Mirror(Delirium aggro):This matchup ends up going 1 of 2 ways, either a grindy back and forth where card advantage and planeswalkers fight back and forth, or a battle of who can make the biggest creatures unchecked.

In: 2 Ob Nixils, 2 Gonti, 1 Tireless Tracker, 1 Skysovereign

Out: 2 Balista, 4 Siphoner on draw. 2 more Balista + 2 Gearhulk on the play.

We bring all of our card advantage and 2 for 1’s in the matchup and remove Ballista’s because apart from Siphoner, which often comes out, there isn’t much they can kill in the matchup. On the play Siphoner is good enough as Aether Hub or Attune into Siphoner will give you a game winning level of card advantage. Against the delirium decks be careful of Their planeswalkers, they have worse/less creatures than you, but more removal and more value built in so you need to build some pressure to stop them being able to be as greedy as possible.

To summarise, this is a great place to start in the new format, playing a proactive midrange deck gives you the ability to adjust to new decks and your specific meta. You can use sideboard slots differently for the decks you expect to face at your local tournaments. Scout around and ask the good players what they are playing and adjust for that.

Let me know in the comments where you see the meta going, or what evolutions and changes the g/b deck will need to stay relevant with the release of Hour of Devastation.