BU Midrange (Bo1)

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Meant for slower games, this is not going to be your fastest path to ranking but this was my first attempt at tuning a deck to be stacked against the rampant Oko Meta that is out there and the Cavalcade decks that aim to play under it.

This deck can benefit from draw cards but I'm not sure where to cut to make room for them and why we're running two Castle Lochveins and one Castle Vantress to cycle to our answers in the late game.  This deck has been tested at Gold Rank so my observations can be affected by inexperienced opponents.

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Favorable Matchups

Against the following deck-types I have yeilded some favorable results but this requires you to know quickly what you're playing against.

[*]Oko Ramp UG and Oko Sultai

The matchup we're stacked the most against with three main-decked copies of Noxious Grasp, four copies of Drown in the Loch, 4 copies of Murderous Rider, and Four Thought Erasures from the spell side.  On the creature side we're running Nightveil Predators and Stonecoil Serpents at 4 Copies each.  This stacks us nicely against Oko and Nissa the two big bombs that the deck has.  We run three copies of Fae of Wishes to pull cards like Unmored Ego, Elderspell, and other haymakers to fight the Superfriend stacking.

I can not stress enough that while the deck has options you are definitely fighting an uphill battle still as both of those decks are stacked with power cards.  Stonecoil Serpent and Nightveil Predator dodge Oko's ability which means we're forcing them to fight against creatures they can't depend on Oko to remove.

[*]Calvalcade Red

Noxious Grasp becomes dead here, but due to the nature of Red Deck players burning resources fast our Drown in the Lochs come online faster.  Don't be afraid to drop Stonecoil Serpents as spell soaking fodder to slow down the Cavalcade decks or even trade with their creatures early.  Kefnet and Nightveil Predator are good creatures here, and our Murderous Riders get us crucial life-gain while keeping cards like Chandra and the Red Thane out of the picture.  Fae of Wishes is an EXCELLENT blocker in this matchup as 1/4 means we can often 2 for 1 there early stuff.  The more resources we can bleed out of red.  This is why we're also running two copies of Enter the God Eternals in the Main to give us that spike of life-gain and deposit a 4/4 in the way.

[*]Selesnya Adventures

I was surprised that I had a good matchup against this deck but I owe this completely to Noxious Grasp being an instant speed answer to a lot of their problem cards.  This one you can be a little more greedy with your stonecoils and waiting to drop them at 2-4 mana as reach stops their flyers.  Also the majority of their creature spam tends to be 3 costed and under meaning Ritual of Soot hits them like a truck.

[*]Gruul Aggro

This matchup like Selesnya leaves us with Noxious Grasp still available.  Most of their problem creature cards are green or half-green which means we can hit a lot of threats.  I highly recommend using Fae of Wishes to grab Unmoored Ego to take Embercleave out of the equation so we don't die to sudden Double-Strike trample.  Scout their hands with your copies of Thought Erasure to deal with troublesome cards.  I have saved Noxious Grasp and Riders for after they get their embercleave out and equipped to rob them of a lethal swing and hit them for a nasty crackback.

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Coin-Flip Matchups

[*]Golgari Adventure

This one is a grind-fest pure and simple.  Unmoored Ego removing their Murderous Rider can save a lot of headaches in the long run and improve your ability to grind against them.  They can have some VERY explosive turns thanks to Lucky Clover and Innkeeper, may the top deck gods keep your answers at the ready.  I have won this matchup handily and I have lost this matchup brutally.  Vraska thankfully is of little issure for us as we have plenty of answers in creature and spell form to remove her.  Also our side-board haymakers like Captive Audience is tough for them to fight.  Keep in mind that Find/Finality and Order of Midnight can replenish their forces quickly and that's why this matchup is such a coin-flip.

[*]Knights Tribal

Much like Gruul if we take Embercleave out we have an easier fight.  I list this as a maybe matchup because while we do well against Boros Knights if we're against Mardu Knights they have options to kill us that don't rely on them connecting with our faces and have Murderous Rider to stop our Stonecoil Serpent.

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Unfavorable Matchups

These are matchups I don't see as often so we're not set up to fight them as a result, these are the matchups I have pretty much ceded to be in favor of stacking against the matchups I see the most.

[*]Fires of Invention Control Grixis

This is pretty much a ruinous matchup for us.  They will haymaker harder, they will value better, and our lack of card draw will eventually cause us to lose the long-run resource battle.  Grixis has very strong planeswalkers and Angrath's Rampage is a tough card for us to beat easily making the combination too much for us to easily overcome.  If we can somehow take Fires of Invention out of the equation it's a more tolerable matchup but unless that card is removed we don't fair well to it.

[*]Fires of Invention Control Jeskai

While yes we get some breathing room to play with by cheekily killing their Teferis left, right, and center, much like the Grixis Matchup they will out-grind us and perform better in the late-game.  Niv Mizzet can't ping our creatures to death but Jeskai Superfriends in particular is why Elderspell is in the side.  Elder Spell and Lilli butt-clencher?

[*]Rakdos Aggro

I will list the single most pain in the but card for us to fight and make us hope we go first.  Dreadhorde Butcher is a rough card to fight and I garuntee Rakdos Aggro will have the removal to rob you of your chance to stop them with early Stonecoil Serpents.  Rakdos Aggro can also go sacrifice engine and that can be a rough fight.

[*]Dance of the Manse Esper

Our lack of enchantment hate makes Doom Foretold an uphill battle.  If you can hit their deck with Unmoored Ego that's awesome, but they will out-draw you, out-board-wipe you, and have plenty of obnoxious options.  Teferi the Time Waster means we have to kill it on our turn or counter it before it hits the board.  So yeah, tricky matchup.

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Untested Matchups

Jeskai Fires Cavaliers

Jund Sacrifices

Sultai Food

Temur Superfriends