Understand the In’s and Out’s of BUG Midrange and the crazy fast vintage format!
Art: Deathrite Shaman
by Steve Argyle
The Deck
In a format filled to the brim with fast mana and carddraw a midrange deck may seem odd. Through various hate cards we can lock down our opponents and force them to play at our speed.
BUG Midrange
| Creatures (12) 4 Deathrite Shaman 3 Collector Ouphe 1 Snapcaster Mage 2 Tarmogoyf 1 Hullbreacher 1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest Planeswalkers (23) 1 Narset, Parter of Veils 2 Oko, Thief of Crowns 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Brainstorm 1 Gitaxian Probe 1 Mental Misstep 1 Ponder 1 Spell Pierce 1 Abrupt Decay 2 Assassin’s Trophy 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Time Walk 2 Force of Vigor 4 Force of Will 1 Dig Through Time 1 Treasure Cruise Artifacts (4) 1 Black Lotus 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Sapphire Enchantments (1) 1 Sylvan Library | Lands (18) 1 Bayou 1 Forest 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Strip Mine 3 Tropical Island 2 Underground Sea 2 Verdant Catacombs 4 Wasteland Sideboard (15) 3 Fatal Push 1 Flusterstorm 1 Grafdigger’s Cage 2 Endurance 1 Energy Flux 2 Virtue’s Ruin 1 Force of Vigor 4 Leyline of the Void |
Vintage is Magic’s Craziest Format with more Power than Commander or Legacy. Vintage is a tough format to get into due too High Prices and the average player doesn’t know enough about it. With this deck primer we are going to help introduce players to one of Magic’s most fun formats!
General Gameplay Strategy:
Like most midrange decks the main goal of the deck is to force the opponent to play at your speed. We can accomplish this by punishing fast decks with Cards like Leovold, Emissary of Trest and Collector Ouphe to force them to play at our speed. Since this is a vintage deck we of course are playing many pieces of power. The main win condition is a large tarmogoyf.
Important Cards in Bug Midrange:
Deathrite Shaman has found success in all eternal formats Including being banned in Modern and Legacy, while it is not at its highest power in vintage it is still a great piece of targeted hate and feels fair in all matchups.
Collector Ouphe is great in any matchup against artifact decks, specifically shops and paradoxical outcome decks.
Leovold is very good against any spells deck that wants to use card advantage and great against land destruction such as wasteland.
Hullbreacher is also great against any fast blue decks like storm.
Good Matchups for BUG Midrange:
Dredge
Shops
Blue Decks
Bad Matchups for BUG Midrange:
Doomsday
Survival of the Fittest
Oath of Druids
Sideboard Guide
Against Dredge:
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Sultai Midrange Mirror Match
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Against Shops:
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Visual View of the Deck:
Hope you enjoyed this Deck Primer, please leave any feedback in the comments below.
Vs Video Featuring BUG Midrange coming soon