Playing Explorer: RB Midrange vs 4C Gates | Rondez on MTG Arena
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For a play-by-play analysis, check out a live commentary of the matchup that took place on May 11th, 2022. See the following link to the gameplay on Twitch.tv/Rondez or watch on my YouTube channel as it approaches 9,000 subscribers.
Desperate is how I might best describe my attempts to run a successful Jund Midrange list upon the release of the Explorer playlist on Magic: the Gathering Arena. Something can be said of my effort to splash the color green for the exciting spells discovered in Streets of New Capenna such as Riveteers’ Charm and Ziatora’s Envoy, but the range of removal in red and black allows for grindy matchups with a creature base that can be painful to remove. Nothing that I could put together seemed to be as consistent and resilient as the common iterations of Red-Black Midrange.
Some of those creatures include Graveyard Trespasser and Bonecrusher Giant. These creatures apply a tax to the opponent in their attempts to remove them and provide a Rakdos mage with a resource most precious to midrange players: resilience. Resilience is a necessity for the Rakdos mage in this instance and gives reason to my addition of Rekindling Phoenix.
Facing the extensive toolbox that is available to a Four-Color Gates decklist takes patience and surgical interaction. It is no wonder that a variation of this archetype in Ravnica Allegiance Standard finished in the Top 32 of Star City Games Con Indianapolis in 2019. On my Twitch, in a match that extended to game three, I was always uncertain if I would see threats outside of the Gatebreaker Ram such as Gate Colossus or Hydroid Krasis. The threat of a Mass Manipulation or Gates Ablaze looming upon my end step always had me wary of just how many creatures and planeswalkers I was willing to bring to the battlefield. On every passing turn, the sheep kept getting bigger and the colossus drew nearer.
Rondez G.
