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Ever sinceMagic: The Gatheringprinted Murktide Regent in Modern Horizons 2, the Izzet (blue/red) Murktide Regent deck has performed at the top of the Modern metagame. While more of a tempo-based strategy than a true control deck, Murktide Regent is the closest thing to control you can play in Modern if you want to have a chance against every other deck in the format.
This deck is filled with counterspells, damage-based removal, and card draw. Strategies incorporating these elements are doubtless one of the most popular styles of play in Magic history. Furthermore, no deck has a better chance against a variety of deck builds than Murktide Regent.
1 Change the Equation
1 Force of Negation
1 Cast into the Fire
3 Magus of the Moon
Key Cards
Murktide Regent
The namesake of the deck. In the large majority of games,you will need to stick a Murktide Regent on the battlefield to win. The combination of delve and additional counters being added to this card for every instant and sorcery exiled results in a very large creature for a low mana cost.
In combination with burn and your other threats,Murktide Regent often only needs to attack two to three timesto empty the opponent’s life total. While this Dragon is your best card, it’s alsothe deck’s most obvious weak point. Opponents who can manage to remove your Murktide Regents have a far greater chance of winning the game. Consequently, it’s important to know when it’s safe to castthis card if you want to have the highest win percentage possible with this deck.
you may grow two Murktide Regents at the same time by casting them back to back. Exile as few instants and sorceries as you can with the first Murktide Regent, then hit as many as possible on the second cast. The middle text of the card will trigger on the one you’re casting and the final text of the card will trigger on the one on the battlefield.
Dragon’s Rage Channeler
The best card for enabling your Murktide Regentas well as a significant threat in its own right once you get delirium going. Your best opening hands with this deck will include a Dragon’s Rage Channeler (DRC) and a Mishra’s Bauble. This combination of cards can result in enabling delirium as early as turn two.
If you have three card types in your graveyard and are missing an instant, you can target DRC with Unholy Heat. The creature will grow to three toughness before it takes two damage, allowing it to survive and swing in with delirium triggered.
Once DRC is enabled you can begin threatening your opponent’s life total while simultaneously building your graveyard for an inevitable Murktide Regent.If the opponent uses removal to deal with DRC, you’re likely good to cast your Murktide Regentand begin closing out the game.
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
The final important threat in your main deck. Dashing in Ragavan willsupply you with treasuresthat you’re able to use on future turns to fuel key spells. Furthermore, the damage Ragavan chips in for adds up in a format where players are commonly fetching and shocking their own life totals.
This isone of the trickiest cards in the deck to use properlyas casting it at the wrong time instead of holding up a counterspell can result in a loss. However, refusing to cast it and allowing the opponent time to stabilize can also lead to your demise. Knowledge of how to properly leverage this card separates the best Murktide players from the rest of the field.
Figuring out how to best use Ragavan has everything to do with knowing your opponent’s deck, key cards, and ultimate strategy. A depth of current metagame knowledge is required to pilot this deck at the highest level.
Mishra’s Bauble
As mentioned earlier,your best opening hands will include a Bauble. This is a key card for fueling delirium, but it does much more than that. This card will most commonly be used to better fix your draws as you need to find a Murktide Regent or two to win most games.
you may use bauble alongside a fetchland to better fix your draws. Play the bauble and look at the top card of your library. If you don’t like what you see, you can then crack your fetchland and shuffle your deck. This makes it so that you have a great chance of drawing a better card for the situation.
Counterspell
The be-all and end-allanswer to any cardyour opponent might play. You need to deploy your Counterspells on the right cards if you want to see success with Murktide Regent. Like the use of Ragavan, this also means that a depth of metagame knowledge and opposing decks is very important. For instance, you need to hold your Counterspells against many combo decks.
All of that being said, you’llmost often use your Counterspells to insure your Murktide Regents. In other words, these cards usually serve as protection for your biggest threat.
If you’re worried that your opponent has removal in hand, you can wait until turn 4 to deploy your Murktide Regent. This makes it so that you still have mana available for a counterspell in the case of your opponent attempting to remove the Dragon.
How To Play Murktide Regent
Like all tempo decks, Murktide Regent is aboutfinding the right moment and exploiting it with ruthless efficiency. In the modern day, you might say that this deck is all about finding the perfect vibe. The game plan involves threatening the opponent early with DRC and Ragavan before finally sticking a Murktide Regent to close the match.
Murktide Regent excels during the first four turns of the game. After that, you start to lose ground against the greater value that opposing decks often contain. In certain matchups though, you do want to take the position of the control player. Hyper-aggressive decks like Boros Burn can be outvalued if you can simply weather the storm they present at the beginning of the game.
Once again, piloting Murktide Regent to its utmost capacity requires extensive knowledge of the Modern metagame. This makes it a very difficult deck to play, however, it’s also the reason why Murktide has a decent chance of beating any other deck in the field. If you don’t know your opponent’s deck as well as your own, you’re going to be at a disadvantage.
This is not a deck where you can afford to sit back and hold up your counterspells. Rather, you shouldlook to advance the game state in the first few turns and pave the way for a lethal Murktide Regent. Proper draw manipulation usingExpressive Iteration, Preordain, and Mishra’s Baublewill allow you to fix your deck so that you can achieve this end.
Lightning Bolt and Unholy Heatshould be used to answer any creature threats your opponent fields. However, you can also use Lightning Bolt to strike the opponent for the last few points of lethal damage you need to win the game.Identifying when to use your Lightning Bolts on the opponent’s life totalis yet another important facet of this deck.
Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, Subtlety, Change the Equation, and Force of Negationare typically used to catch your opponent unaware andcounter something important for their game plan. Thankfully, they can also serve as further protection for your Murktide Regents in a pinch.
Sideboarding
You need tomaintain a key balance of instants, sorceries, and creaturesso that triggering delirium stays doable. Consequently, the best way to sideboard with this deck often involves taking a single copy out of the deck’s various pieces.
That being said, you will want totake all copies of a card out in matchups where the card is blank. For example, Unholy Heat is useless against a deck that doesn’t play creatures, so you’ll want to replace it with other instants including Mystical Dispute, Flusterstorm, and Stern Scolding.
As is the case with most Modern decks,your sideboard is mostly filled with hate cardsfor certain matchups. Magus of the Moon is great against three-five color decks, Dress Down answers creature combos like Yawgmoth, and Engineered Explosives is a super cheap solution to Rhino tokens from Crashing Footfalls.
Closing Thoughts
Murktide Regent has beenthe premier deck of the Modern formatfor years now, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. Players who can wrap their heads around the intricacies of the Modern metagame will findno deck more rewardingthan this one.
Newer players to Modern may find this deck frustrating and difficult to understand. If this happens to you,the best place to start is learning about opposing metagame builds, how they work, and what you need to do to beat them. Murktide Regent can do anything you need to beat an opponent but only in the hands of an informed pilot. So get learning and good luck!
