This is a midrange deck that aims to outvalue the opponent by playing powerful creatures and planeswalkers on curve. Combined with efficient and effective removal, B/W Midrange takes control of the midgame and closes out by continually applying pressure. Most of our cards are already well positioned against aggro, our slew of threats should at least keep us in the game against control, and our disruption and very strong interaction will destroy combo.
CORE (22 Cards):
4x Grasp of Darkness4x Liliana, the Last Hope3x Anguished Unmaking4x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar3x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet2x Ob Nixilis Reignited2x Noxious Gearhulk
Our core represents our most important threats and removal. This part of the deck shouldn't change much except for some numbers being tweaked. Grasp and Unmaking create a package that hits nearly every relevant card in the game, while Liliana, Gideon, and Kalitas are one-card powerhouses that threaten to take over the game all on their own. Ob Nixilis and Noxious Gearhulk further diversify our threat package, with Ob providing insane utility on a stick and Noxious Gearhulk offering an evasive body in addition to removal and lifegain.
Lands and Flex Slots:
This deck has a really tough mana base, since we want BB on turn 2 and WW on turn 4. Often times we will probably have to settle for playing Gideon off curve, but that's okay because Kalitas is there to make sure we still have a proactive turn 4.
4x Concealed Courtyard4x Shambling Vent4x Aether Hub2x Plains10x Swamp
We're running a standard 24 lands, not too greedy and not too conservative. Upon testing it is very likely that this may go up, since we want to be hitting our land drops consistently and don't run much filtering. For now this is what we're looking at. This leaves the deck with 14 flex spots. The main things that we want are cheap cards that we can use to wrest control of the early game from aggro decks, some disruption for combo and control, as well as additional removal, utility, or threats as we can fit them in.
4x Gifted Aetherborn3x Glint-Sleeve Siphoner2x Transgress the Mind2x Kambal, Consul of Allocation2x Live Fast1x Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Gifted Aetherborn is an all-star 2-drop that really shines in this kind of deck. The deck is built around getting BB turn 2 for Grasp anyway, so hitting him consistently isn't a problem, he's a strong, proactive play, gains you life, and can even trade for big creatures late game. Really just an all-star. Glint-Sleeve Siphoner and Live Fast give us a little bit of an energy sub-theme in addition to Aether Hub. Glint-Sleeve and Live Fast allow us to keep card advantage coming in longer games as well as providing energy for mana-fixing. Turn 3 Live Fast can give you the energy to turn an Aether Hub back on and play Gideon turn 4. Transgress the Mind is great against combo and control, allowing you to gain information and usually pluck an important card from their hand. Kambal, Consul of Allocation is a great card against control, making each counterspell and removal they cast drain them. Sorin tops out our curve and represents a crazy strong card that we never really want in our opening hand, but are never sad to draw late game.
SIDEBOARD:
2x Transgress the Mind3x Fatal Push2x Thalia, Heretic Cathar2x Fragmentize2x Ruinous Path2x Hope of Ghirapur2x Blessed Alliance
The sideboard is very rough and will obviously take a better shape upon testing. Transgress comes in against combo and control, probably knocking out some removal. Fatal Push and Blessed Alliance come in against very fast aggro decks. Thalia comes in against copycat and probably aggro, Fragmentize comes in against marvel and maybe vehicles. Runious Path comes in against planeswalker decks. Hope if Ghirapur is to interact with counterspell-heavy plans which can otherwise rain on our parade.
