Cards like Canopy Vista and Tireless Tracker used to be pretty common on ladder, but now it feels like every deck is either aggro (Mardu vehicles or monored being the most common) or counterspell control.

I dislike this meta - to beat out-and-out aggro decks, one needs lots of answers and sweepers, but that just leads to losing to counterspell control. Does anyone out there have something that beats both?

Midrange is in a tough spot ATM, because even though the metagame is mostly aggressive, Vehicles are far from an easy prey for it and many "classic" solutions don't work against them (Sweepers, for instance).

I've been toying around with GB Delirium, as recursion is something counterspell decks hate and it actually has decent play against Vehicles. It doesn't outright beat both decks, but it doesn't outright lose to one or the other either. Here is the thread about it with some discussion - maybe you can find a build you're comfortable with and the deck contains one of the two cards you miss so dearly

Define what you mean by midrange...

B.c.: I believe that a midrange curve, with green ramp, and hard to kill 4-5 drops is still pretty valid right now - it can include sweepers, but I don't think that's the right move. What is currently hard is the sweeper heavy deck, but that's mostly because sweepers don't actually answer the threats you should be worried about - e.g.: vehicles.

edit: AND midrange has to be geared to beat aggro, or else it will never work. (just to clarify what I mean when I refer to Vehicles as the top threat to beat)

Well with all the AKH spoilers happening currently; if we get the right cards I could see Midrange decks making a bigger comeback; especially with the mana dorks we have.

If RDW gets its tools from Amonkhet, which is looking likely, it can beat through Mardu Vehicles with its consistency and value 1 drops. If that happens, Midrange has better tools to deal with that as the face of aggro instead of the resilient Vehicles.

Do we have real agro decks in Duels, for starters? I thought we have fast midranges at most...

All what I see are PW decks (which are a form of midrange too) and an array of midrange decks, besides the ocasional RDW or WW...and then some midrangeish control, usually Grixis or Jeskai, with Towers etc

Mardu Fehicles I'd call it fast midrange, with just 3-5 x 1 CC critters...now even more, that most of them pack Chandra, Gideon, Flagship...

My Snake/Bloodbriar/revolt deck is doing fine on the ladder and its as mid-range as it gets...

Tapping out on 3 means losing on 4 to Cat or Giddeon.

Oh no...

good ol' chiang, answering duels questions with standard
hows the pro tour going?

i can't decide if I like Haven's or 'bin's post better. both are awesome

Bit ambiguous and different people have different definitions. I don't have a definition myself, but the biggest distinguisher to me is that it's capable of playing both aggro and control, and has cards to beat both. That's why I mentioned Tireless Tracker. It's a 3-mana creature that can trade against aggro (not idea but not terrible) and generates card advantage against control. Its curve tends to peak around 4-5 mana, unlike big ramp decks which might go to Ulamog, or pure control decks that may still run stuff like Emeria Shepherd and Sorin.

I haven't seen green ramp either for a while, which is weird, since it should have tools to fend off the aggro decks. The two most common aggro decks I see are monored (folds to sweepers) and vehicles (folds to Reclamation Sage), both of which green ramp can run, but I just don't see the deck - the ladder I see is overwhelmingly aggro and control.

Maybe my next project would be to make a midrange deck ... what is this deck you're running Haven_pt?

I'm sorry. I know this is me being semantic, but what in the hell does Canopy Vista have to do with midrange? You're sad because you're not seeing rare lands on the opponents side of the battlefield?

A deck running white + green is pretty likely to be midrange, isn't it?

It could be. But not neccissarily. Could be control. Could be aggro. Archetypes are not defined or restricted by their colors in most cases.

It could, but it's more likely to be midrange. Sort of like if you queue on ladder into an unknown opponent who leads with Sunken Hollow, you'd be justified leading with a tap land instead of a Swamp to hold up Fatal Push.

2 pptq top8, once with Marvel and once with Jeskai cat.

Choked 2 other times, going 3-2.

Win % of 60% in constructed, calculated using Planeswalker points stats and that sick webpage.

Apart from being a jumble of probably bullsh*t stats, marvel is a combo deck and cat is a control deck both of which feature in STANDARD.

WTF does this have to do with the viability or proliferation of midrange in duels you idiotic monkey?

It's nice to have a proper villain back here on NGA. We really need it