I don’t like using words like “overrated” or “underrated”. The meaning of those words is kind of taken away these days, and is often conflated with “bad” or “good”.
I’m very much not a fan of midrange as an archetype in Commander, however.
One of the worst parts about Commander as a whole is the lack of predictability, even in cEDH. A table at your LGS will never be the same as a table at a different LGS, which won’t be the same as a bigger event. Heck, even two games with the same players playing the same decks will be way different than any structured 60-card format. This isn’t a bad thing, of course, it’s just the nature of the format. It’s for this precise reason, this exact nature, that I’m not big on midrange.
Midrange, at its very fundamental core, is meant to outvalue, outgun, and/or outboard your opponents. If a player plays a card, you can 2-for-1 them later. If they play a 4/4, you might have a 3/3 that destroys it. If they stumble out the gate, a discard spell turn one will surely hamper them. This is the mantra of most midrange decks; To nickel and dime them until you get a quarter.
Where Midrange Comes Up Short
The issue with this strategy in Commander is two-fold.
First, you’re playing against three opponents.
While you can really hone in and construct your deck to your liking, the singleton format doesn’t play kindly to midrange. Even if you’re stacking tutors to find your best midrange threats, tutors do not play to the board, and every turn you don’t play to the board is a turn that strains both your resources and your individual cards. That 2-for-1 doesn’t look so hot when you’re looking down two large threats from two different opponents, with a third opponent simply playing blue. Additionally, there are very few actual cards that can keep three opponents with varying strategies, paces, and cards, under uniform control, or even managed. You’re going to be hard-pressed to find a way to have ways to keep pace at all stages of the game without going so far out of your way that you forget to have a game plan in the first place. Even if you do, good luck actually ending the game afterward. Midrange is all about managing your way through the tunnel until you get to the light at the end, but things get really rough when your tunnel collapses randomly, without ways to mitigate it.
Second, you’re playing against your own deck.
I touched on it before, but you simply don’t have reliable ways to build your deck to tackle so many different threats. If you’re trying to beat aggro, what do you do against an impending Thassa’s Oracle with protection? If you’re just trying to outvalue everyone, what happens when an Ad Nauseum resolves? What if an opposing Anje Falkenrath draws 2/3rd of their deck and throws down a Living Death while you’re holding two tutors and have no way to get a wrath quickly? Balancing your card choices is tough, and while it’s totally okay to forego certain situations or even archetypes in favor of tuning your deck more tightly, I feel there are a few too many variables to really tie it all together.
Where To From Here
If you are going to go with midrange, I would probably play something with Blue, with a reliable way of getting off the ground quickly, and a way to close the game out quickly. Your midgame will suffer because of this, but you might have to rely on a number of counterspells or tax effects to hold the table for a turn or two while you establish whatever lead you can muster. Even then, you’ll have to give up strength somewhere. This was something I realized a long while ago when I first started getting into Commander and worked on Urza, Lord Protector. I don’t think it’s impossible, but it’s definitely something you’ll have to put the time and reps in, and the higher powered you go, the more difficult it’ll be.
This isn’t a doompost about how midrange is dead or how it’s not worth building. I’m confident that people much better and smarter than me can pull it off, but when much easier strategies and self-sufficient cards exist at higher levels, and more streamlined, singular ideas exist in the lower end, it is not an archetype I’m clamoring to get working on.
Anthony Lowry (they/he) is a seasoned TCG, MMORPG, and FPS veteran. They are extensively knowledgeable on the intricacies of many competitive outlets and are always looking for a new challenge in the gaming sphere.