Arbor Elf/Avacyn's Pilgrim for a turn 2 smiter?

I try to stay away from creature-based ramp due to prevalence of removal and board wipes in standard right now, especially at my LGS. However, I am seriously considering using maybe two of them in the deck because there are moments where I wish I had that extra mana to stabilize. I'm definitely keeping it in mind. Maybe 2 Arbor Elf mainboard in place of something.

Oooh, my favorite shard coloring. I'm digging this deck a lot!
How are the Disciple of Bolas working out for you? He really feels like a "hold him back and wait" rather than something to curve out. Also, I'm in full support of four mana dorks (Avacyn's Pilgrim, with Ghost Dad in mind). Earlier turn Planeswalkers and beefy-things are nothing to scoff at.

Trostani, Selesnya's Voice and Rhox Faithmender used to be my 4-drops of choice when this deck was more focused on lifegain, but it turned out that the lifegain was excessive and they didn't do a very good job stabilizing (plus Trostani's mana cost was hard to pull off consistently). Disciple of Bolas turned out to do a lot more work than people give him credit for. Swinging in with Thragtusk and then throwing him in for 5 cards and 5 life with a 3/3 token left behind is pretty devastating to control and aggro decks especially when they see you with 0-2 cards in hand and are starting to feel comfortable with board control. Those draws usually just gets me more removals and more Thragtusk to replenish the board. Whenever I resolved him on a Thragtusk, I usually won all but maybe one of those games. He's pretty huge. He also helps take the weight off of Garruk, Primal Hunter's back and allowing him to pump out more tokens. He also interacts very well with Restoration Angel even if that means you are targeting a beast token. That's draw 3 cards, gain 3 life and a 2/1 body for 4 mana so using him to "curve out" pretty much lets you curve back in with all the draws you get (I once played him turn 5 targeting Thragtusk after attacking and drew into Angel of Serenity and just casted it next turn to seal the game). He also let me cut Underworld Connections (phenomenal card) from SB and opened up more flexibility.

I definitely am leaning towards moving the dorks up to 4 (2 Arbor Elf and 2 Avacyn's Pilgrim? or 4 of the latter?) and cutting the land back to 24 (I think I can afford to do that with 4 mana dorks on board). After some testing, turn 2 Loxodon Smiter or turn 3 Thragtusk is pretty damn huge.

I have a very similar deck to yours except mine is straight Junk Control I had the chance to play a few standard games recently and got done in by an opposing Staff of Nin so that is a good choice And interestingly enough I had Vraska in my build as well until I edited it out a few hours ago. let me know what you think of the deck and if it gives you any help/ideas for yours.

In your description you say this is midrange and that it "drags out" the game to turns 4-5. First off turn 4-5 is still pretty aggressive, and with this you should be looking more around turns 8-10. Second, there are certain cards that don't fit that description. I like Garruk Relentless  ^Flip and Liliana of the Veil but they are more fitted to Jund control. 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad in here would fit much better. You should definitely finish the playset of Lingering Souls aswell, you would like to see at least one of those each game. I would recommend removing one or two lands because with Farseek you don't really need 25. Centaur Healer is a much better 3-drop here than Loxodon Smiter is so that you can stay alive long enough to drop your big cards against aggro. Personally I don't think Angel of Serenity and especially Armada Wurm are necessary here, as Thragtusk and Obzedat, Ghost Council can get the job done at the top of the curve. Disciple of Bolas is just a worse version of Garruk, Primal Hunter. I'd also run 4 Orzhov Charm and no Selesnya Charm mainboard, as Orzhov is just better. Take a look at my junk deck, Here Comes the Flood (1st at FNM!). It has been quite successful and it's current build is better than ever. Good luck, glad to see another junk player around, we are few and far between lately

hollandboys, thanks for the suggestions! I've seen your list a few times while browsing and the list is great (proven by your track record). However, my list just takes a different approach to Junk and to deal with my LGS's metagame. Your deck seems to focus more on generating as many tokens as you can and eventually swarming them with the help of life-gain and planeswalkers as support and thus are on the faster side of midrange as opposed to my list which is borderline control, which is why I need the 25 lands because I have to reliably be able to hit at least a land every turn, especially the first 5-6. I've tried running 23 and 24 and they just weren't enough for me as Farseek is the only ramp spell I'm running and, if you took the time to read through my updates, I am against mana dorks since I am going to get board wiped a lot and I need those mana to be accessible after such events. (You also have two keyrunes which is a type of ramp). At least from what I've seen on your updates, your LGS or at least a lot of your past matchups are aggro and control (Lingering Souls is just a killer against control especially with Sorin) so your strategy works quite well in that environment. I constantly see Naya and Jund midrange at my FNMs so I have to be able to answer to their very annoying and resilient creatures like Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip and Olivia Voldaren who are both difficult to deal with so I have to be able to win through card advantage and higher curve. Disciple of Bolas is criminally underrated and he has gotten me out of a pinch more often than people give him credit for. Him especially when paired with Thragtusk or a beast token makes a great emergency refueling to go on against aggro. Angel of Serenity is a must-have in this list as I don't have the overwhelming army of tokens to deal with a large board. She is a win-con by herself, usually allowing me to do a one-sided board wipe at the most crucial time and paving a way for my ground troops to advance (not to mention she makes one heck of a blocker if needed). Armada Wurm is still in here as an experiment and he's still under review on whether he's worth the spot or not (I haven't resolved him yet). He makes a great finisher to my curve right under Angel but he would also be one of the first cards I cut if I make any changes.

The changes I would consider so far given your suggestions are:

• Disciple of Bolas+Sorin, Lord of Innistrad conditional to more Lingering Souls getting added

More changes are to be made and I got a list going for those changes (I got a separate prototype list that I use on this site to do preliminary tests before actually making the changes on this page)

Thanks again for the detailed comment! Junk is the bomb!

I would suggest speeding your deck up. Naya aggro will beat you 2-0 every match with your current build. I play Morglen as well. It used to be mid-range and similar to this. However, I have been forced to speed it up due to Naya's constant turn 4 wins. Take a look and maybe it will help you. Strait Up Naya Hate

Ertl, I have the speed to deal with virtually any aggro short of Naya Blitz (which is the fastest deck in the format). I can usually reliably accelerate into 3 mana and begin my stabilization process. Lingering Souls, Loxodon Smiter, and the multitude of removals are there for this reason. I am pretty much all against creature-based acceleration because they're way too easy to remove which means having them in my deck will dilute my existing strength against control. I usually am able to take a few hits from aggro list and stabilize with Thragtusk or spirit tokens reliably by turns 4-5 (of course unless I run into some nut hand along the line of Burning-Tree Emissary into Burning-Tree into Burning-Tree into Flinthoof Boar, in which case I probably am screwed without Sever the Bloodline, but then again a lot of people are too.). I basically speed up my deck by slowing them down enough to where I can just win on draw quality alone.

Granted, I do stuggle against decks like Jund Aggro and Naya Humans if I run into below-average keeps or draws.

However, my meta is a lot different from yours. Midrange and non-Naya aggro lists are prevalent over here so I don't have to worry too much about building exclusively to deal with blitz-speed aggro since I will risk compromising my draw quality to keep up with other midrange lists. Our decks just have different ways of approaching aggro matchups. Yours relies on lifegain (which my deck used to do because Trostani, Selesnya's Voice is awesome) while mine relies on chump blockers and removals. Nice touch with Blood Artist, though. Gives you another win-con, sort of, and good synergy.

TL;DR: I agree that many aggro decks can potentially outrun my efforts to stabilize but I don't have to worry too much about them at my LGS and I have my own ways of stalling that have been working pretty well.

I wish I could say the same. I am bloody irritated at my meta. I SWEAR EVERYONE has some version of Naya aggro. If your not seeing it in your meta.... I am envious of your luck. As you can tell, my entire sideboard is to revert back to a mid-range deck vs control. Give me some time to read through all of your previous matches and I will definitely give some feedback on changes I would make.

It seems the only thing you struggle with is aggro. You have beaten nearly every mid-range/Control deck. I would like to say, add Trostani, Selesnya's Voice. But than I think... vs Control, she is not an answer. However, if you are already stomping control, removing a few cards to balance your deck vs aggro may really help. Their are a dozens reasons to add even a 1 of her to your deck. Her life gain on creature entrance synergizes perfectly with Obzedat, Ghost Council, Restoration Angel, Thragtusk, and Garruk, Primal Hunter. That is over half of your creatures. Her populate is terrifying along with Garruk, Primal Hunter, and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. With 25 lands and a play set of Farseek, implementing one or two Stomping Ground allows for Kessig Wolf Run to be run. Kessig Wolf Run is an answer to Jund (maybe not the best). If they block anything with one mere creature, you can pump with trample for game. Plus it has some synergy with Gavony Township. Finally, I wanted to add to your comment on Blood Artist. I can't get over the last game I won with nothing but a Blood Artist, Garruk, Primal Hunter, and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice in play. I would create a 3/3 beast and gain 3 life, populate a beast and gain 3 life. I would proceed to block with the beasts to gain life and ping my opponent with Blood Artist. Best stall/ping combo ever lol.

Blood Artist definitely has a place in my heart, mainly because I've had my life totals painted a big red zero by that card and that earned him my respect.

I am in the process of making some cuts/changes to my mainboard and sideboard (based on my matches this weekend) and tests are underway. You should see some changes within the next few days so let me know what you think then.

I used to run a couple Trostani, Selesnya's Voice in my mainboard and she did great against aggro but she had problems with flyers (which I tend to see a ton of for no good reason). However, now that I run a set of Lingering Souls, I may make a spot for her just so I can use my old deck name of Trostedat, the Voice of the Council. Trust me, I have experienced all kinds of synergy between her and the rest of my creatures. I have taken triple Hellrider attacks to the face for several turns only to come out with a positive net lifegain thanks to Obzedat, Ghost Council and populated beast tokens, all on top of a Rhox Faithmender. It was quite stupid.

The whole playing two Stomping Ground/Sacred Foundry for the Kessig Wolf Run thing seems a bit too...uh I don't really know the perfect word to describe this...maybe "cute" or "inefficient"?....to me. But if your results proved otherwise, I am willing to give it a try since I am well aware of the power level of that card.

I have found Kessig Wolf Run to help me end games vs creature based decks that can keep up creature for creature. I thought of suggesting it after reading your draw with Junk Rites. It allows you to swing that damage through even if he keeps blocking. AKA... one spirit token can win it for you. The other card I forgot to suggest was Unburial Rites. I was reluctant to use it at first. I only ran it due to courteousness towards a good friend. However, I found it to be similar to card advantage. Sitting on an Unburial Rites allows you to play more aggressive or feel safe knowing you can bring anything back. Not once but twice. Look forward to seeing your make-over so to say.

The issue about the Kessig Wolf Run is that I can't afford to run it mainboard along with other colorless sources without risking getting mana screwed and it would be rather awkward to side in in the event I run into that problem you mentioned. That draw against the junk at FNM was more of an issue of me playing too slowly and he got saved by the bell. I personally like the idea, but my color restrictions on various cards I run requires a relatively delicate mana split so I can't afford to disturb that balance (the land composition went through a few changes before having arrived at the current one. Playtesting gave me a good idea of what mana I need to reliably hit on what turn).

Tests are are still underway. Thanks for taking the time to look at and analyze my deck.

That's what I was worried about. But I thought I would bring it up in the off chance that it worked. Don't forget about Unburial Rites. Honestly, give a one or two of a try.

If you are having trouble with aggressive decks at all, you could consider playing fewer shocklands. You are running 12, which may be a little much for a midrange deck like this; you aren't running Arbor Elf or Avacyn's Pilgrim or any other reasonably good one-drop, so I don't see the point of running as many shocklands as the fastest 3-color decks in the format that really really need that speed. I've seen control decks run as few as 8 shocklands. Just something to consider as a possibility.

Hmmm....

Simba gets a +1

:3

I do what I can :)

Hey, how did the Unburial Rites do for you? And how often do you find your self siding in the Acidic Slime ? Debating testing him in my side.

The one Unburial Rites actually won me one game when he spent his last removal to take my Thragtusk and I casted it then he conceded. Other than that, I either didn't need to use it or didn't get a chance to use it.

Many Naya decks run Assemble the Legion , Witchbane Orb (some side it in against my Obzedat, Ghost Council , Staff of Nin , Blind Obedience , Kessig Wolf Run in their main or sideboards and Acidic Slime takes care of all that plus a deathtouch blocker and ETB target for Restoration Angel or Cloudshift .

It can also take out Nephalia Drownyard (esper control's primary win-con) and Vault of the Archangel should you run into BWx decks.

Taking out a land in general is usually good :) I lost a game because the guy resolved his slime before I did and I was stuck with 4 lands the rest of game.

I really haven't used him yet at the FNM since this is a fairly new addition to my sideboard but it looks great on paper and I can abuse the crap out of its ETB ability.

As a note though, I only had him only because I see more potential use out of him than out of Nevermore and Centaur Healer , hence the cut. It all depends on what your meta is like and you have to configure your boards accordingly.

He he. I thought a 1 of or maybe two of Unburial Rites would really add some utility to your deck :P

Just for giggles - Angelic Skirmisher perhaps?

Great creature. However, her 6 cmc means she's too high on the curve for me to earn a spot. Having 2 6-7 cmc spells in the mainboard of a midrange deck that plans on hard-casting everything (as opposed to Junk Rites which can run around 3 Angel of Serenity due to the fact that they can cheat her onto the field) is already pushing the envelope. And her 4/4 body isn't the most resilient, especially for 6 mana. The ability is overkill in my deck.

How is this possibly in the Top 8 for decks..? What is the world coming to.. ugh..

I don't know what that dude is talking about because this deck looks awesome its got all of the good standard stables with the exception of Thundermaw Hellkite , Snapcaster Mage and Geist of Saint Traft . I disagree with him and +1 for sweet description I could not do that long of one to save me.