Guest Book: Stapled Together – Introduction (Part 1)

Valentin, a highlander staple from Turku, starts off a multi-part article series of midrange staple cards in European Highlander. In this inaugural part, he will explain the philosophy of the series.

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Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Colorless
Part 3: White
Part 4: Blue

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Hello everybody. I really like playing European Highlander and want more people to enjoy it. At the time of writing the midrange decks of various flavors are extremely popular. They are relatively easy to pick up for beginners and play and can do well in most matchups if played correctly, which makes them good for both newcomers to the format as well as veterans. 

This is written so that any newcomer would have a good starting point to see what staples are played in midrange decks to start with or what staples to use as budget replacements. And for people more familiar with the format I hope that this can give a new perspective and be a place to find interesting tech cards, though try to be patient as I will also mention a lot of the “obvious stuff”. It’s also a nice bonus that staples from midrange decks tend to work as good filler cards for more unique deck types and strategies.

Before going into card discussions, here are a few important notes so that everybody is on the same starting line:

• All things described are my opinions based on years of experience of the format. There is some bias present, which I try to keep to a minimum. If you have differing opinions on some of the cards, I am happy to discuss and possibly revise my opinion.
• The definition of what specific archetype is can change from person to person. For the purposes of the article, I will call any deck a midrange if the general gameplan of the deck can be characterized as “apply pressure and outgrind opponent”, ie. the idea is to play cheap and strong cards and either win with them or gain enough value to win the game through that value. This means that decks like UR tempo would fall into midrange category as well.
• Due to all the power creep and other factors, the format is homogenized enough that a midrange that tries to be slower and grindier is indistinguishable from control decks, while the one that tries to be faster would easily be labeled as aggro-deck by most. Many black decks could also be labeled as reanimators due to the discard-synergies and reanimation spells they run…  So while this is written as a guide about midranges, this is more about generic staples that every deck in the format could or should run.
• The evaluation here will focus on the power-level, efficiency and modality/versatility of the cards. The goal is to discuss which cards are good to put into which types of midrange decks under which conditions.
• This is obvious, but still: different places have different local metagames, so not all opinions are applicable to all metagames. I try to focus attention on metagames that I have seen in large tournaments in Finland. 
• Nonbasic hate is an important point of consideration in the format. Splashing many colors is very easy and is done by many. This makes nonbasic hate very strong and you have to ask yourself a question of where you want to be on the hate spectrum? “Punish Greed” (1-2 colors with red and/or blue), “Push Your Luck” (3 colors) or “Greed and Pray” (4-5 colors).
• If I call the card weak, it doesn’t mean that it cannot win the games and that it cannot outperform other cards under certain conditions. What I mean by ‘weak’ is that usually there are better cards that can be used for the same manacost or a similar effect for cheaper cost. One of the fun parts of the format is that even these ‘weak’ cards can perform very well, when the deck is built correctly.

Before starting to make a midrange deck, there are a few important considerations to make. If you just want to have fun with your favorite color combination or play with some specific cards you like, then it is never wrong to do that. It doesn’t make the deck “worse”, since having good synergies generally makes for a stronger deck than simply throwing together a bunch of “strong” cards. I have also noticed that the top cuts of the tournaments have people with more personalized decks, because you get more edge when you know all the lines and combos of your deck inside and out and have a few surprises. It’s better to utilize “suboptimal” cards to 100% than getting only 50% from “optimal” cards that you are unsure how to use. And it’s more fun for everybody.

All that being said, there are some guidelines that you should think about when building a midrange deck.

• A lot of the 2 color decks are very strong and consistent. There are enough strong cards in one and two colors, so that these decks can out grind 3+ colored decks. Another important upside is that you are less susceptible to nonbasic hate, while having the ability to play it yourself  – even non-blue non-red decks can run Winter Moon.
• The downside of running 2 colored decks is that they have some notable weaknesses. When starting from one or 2 colors, the reason you would want to add another color is to address these weaknesses. If you are not covering your weaknesses, then your deck would likely be stronger or more consistent playing fewer colors. For example grixis deck that runs a small number of counters has the same weaknesses as an aggressive rakdos deck, which also has the strength of nonbasic hate.
• Switching from 2 to 3 colors generally means that you either get more power (more top tier one drops or getting access to some top tier threats) or you get to answer stuff that was problematic before. A good example is that UR has issues with enchantments and big creatures, while UW is light on strong threats. Combining/splashing the decks you get Jeskai that does not have either of the issues, but the downside is that the deck has much fairer game against generic 3+ colored midrange decks and lands strategies are more difficult. 
• In general, the more colors you run, the more consistently strong your threats are and the stronger your reactive spells are. The less colors you run, the more conditional stuff you are forced to run. The question is what place in the spectrum is most comfortable and fun for you to play in.

Mana curve and land count are as important here as they are in any other format. When considering the cost of the card, I count the minimum number of mana to use the card – ie. Brazen Borrower is counted as a 2 mana card, while Lorien Revealed is a one mana card. The general guideline is as follows:

• The number of one-mana cards in the deck is around 20-30, with most decks running somewhere in the middle. Generally each color has around 1-3 very strong one-drop threats that are seen everywhere and the rest are removal, utility or cards that you need to run for supporting your gameplan. When the count of one-mana cards is getting close to 30, the main reason is usually the number of blue one mana cantrips in the deck.
• For 2 mana cards the spread is a bit higher with 14-28. The count heavily depends on the number of colors you run. 2 mana counters in blue are relatively easy inclusions, while other colors have relatively low numbers of cards that are strong enough. When running 3+ colors, there is usually a higher count of good 2 mana cards, while monored and some green decks can keep the count of 2 drops to a minimum. However, it is important to note that to have a good curve out on a low number of 2 drops you need to either have fast mana (generally in red) or ramping (green with manadork into 3 drop on turn 2).
• Generally the number of 3 mana cards varies in the range of 5-15. Red and green decks tend to be on a higher end of the spectrum in this case, while 3+ colored decks tend to be on the lower side. The main reason for running more than 8 would be either lack of good threats in 1-2 mana slots (2 color decks), ramping (green decks) or a grinder style of deck
• 4 mana cards come down a bit too late, so generally one would run 0-2 of these. Maybe going as far as 3-5 in decks that want to grind more.
• For manabases the numbers are usually around 31-36. In this number I count cards like Wasteland, Chrome Mox, MDFCs and Land Grant that give some mana on turns 1 and 2 without extra work, but not stuff like Lorien Revealed. Blue decks tend to play around 32 with all the cantrips. Other decks tend to run somewhere around 34. Of course the decks that are grinder and play a lot of 3 drops or run multiple 4 drops want to run more lands – 36 or even as high as 38. Though with 38 lands you are a very controllish midrange or some lands-based deck.
• Generally speaking any land that cannot come into play untapped on turn 1 is not good enough to be in the midrange decks. For this reason I would currently never run any checklands (Glacial Fortress and other lands in this cycle) in european highlander anymore. Surveil lands are a notable exception to this rule as they are very important (though running the third one is up for debate) and Arena of Glory is also very strong. MH3 2 colored MDFCs are sometimes strong enough, 3 color decks might want to run triome for mana consistency, while 2 color decks might want to play some of the better manlands, but overall running taplands is strongly discouraged in the format. Mana confluence and City of Brass are good enough for manafixing that even 2 color decks might want to consider them.

I will also give my estimate of the card’s usability, but most of the time it is not the strength of the effect that decides whether the card needs to be cut from the deck but rather how well the effect fits into the game plan. Another important point of consideration is the how consistent these strong cards are at being good – i.e. I will rank a card that depends on the opponent or board state to be good lower than the card that has multiple modes or is good by itself without additional conditions.

(S) – S for splashing. The whole reason the deck is playing the color it does is because these cards are in those colors.
Examples: Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes, Forth Eorlingas

(A) – Top tier staples that would be good nearly in any deck, but that could be cut depending on synergies, metagame or other factors. Even when playing 3-5 colored decks, you will try to fit these into the deck if you are running the corresponding color.
Examples: Brainstorm, Lightning Bolt, Swords to Plowshares

(B) – General staples that would see play in 2 colored decks, but when 3rd color is added to the deck, then even these start getting cut.
Examples: Mana Leak, Brightglass Gearhulk, Collective Brutality

(C) – Niche cards that either have low power level or low versatility. Usually these cards would be cut from the deck, but either the color combination has a weakness which this card can mitigate or the deck needs this type of effect and there is nothing better. Feed The Swarm can be used as an example of the former (in Black, BR and UB decks since these decks do not have good answers to enchantments and this addresses that weakness), while Mental Note is good example of the latter (there are better cantrips, but it is one of the more efficient ways to fill the grave). I could have separated this category further down into “niche” and “very niche”, but there is not much point as either way the deciding factor for running these cards is the amount of synergies you have in the deck for them to work rather than their power level.