Image courtesy of Scryfall.com
Tracking The Duke of Midrange: Performance Over Time Across Sets
In the wild, multi-color strategies tend to live or die by fragility or flexibility. The Duke of Midrange is a curious specimen that invites us to examine how a single card can influence a deck’s arc across sets and meta shifts. Released in an offbeat “Unknown Event” set, this legendary Lhurgoyf Wizard doesn't just sit in a binder collecting dust; it embodies a design philosophy where tempo, value, and inevitability collide on one sticky, mana-hungry frame. 🧙♂️🔥
First impressions matter: The Duke costs 2 mana plus a triad of colors—black, green, and red (B/G/R). That color identity alone signals a blend of disruption, ramp, and raw aggression, all under one fearsome creature. Its tri-color identity, unusual for a single card, foreshadows a creature designed to scale with the game’s ebb and flow rather than impose a single, rigid plan. On the battlefield, its ETB ability asks you to choose Thoughtseize, Lightning Bolt, or Abrupt Decay and then casts a copy of the chosen spell for free. That means you can rip a key disruption, deal a lethal chunk of damage, or remove a problematic permanent without paying mana. The card’s true crescendo, however, is its power and toughness calculation: power equals the number of card types among cards in all graveyards, while toughness is that number plus one. In other words, the Duke’s value grows as the game’s graveyard ecology diversifies. ⚔️🎨
“A creature that counts cards, then counts again.” — The Duke’s elusive flavor text, quoted here with playful irony
Across different sets and formats, the Duke’s performance resembles a barometer for graveyard synergy. Early games in any Duke shell lean on building a broad graveyard ecosystem. Thoughtseize on ETB can tilt the throttle toward disruption, while Abrupt Decay ensures your opponent’s mana artifacts or nonbasics don’t outpace you. If you lean into the Grimdark of black, the natural instinct is to fill the yard with as many card types as possible—creature, instant, sorcery, artifact, enchantment, land—each one nudging the Duke’s power upward. When you stack diverse card types, the Duke not only hits harder with a beefier figure—often threatening to scale to hyperbolic dimensions—but also offers a flexible springboard for midrange or inconsistent combo paths. The result is a design that rewards planning and sequencing across multiple sets where graveyard interaction evolves with card types in circulation. 🧙♂️💎
Consider a hypothetical progression: in an early phase, you play defensively, dunk a Thoughtseize on the Duke’s ETB, and nurture your graveyard with a handful of cards that contribute to card-type variety. Mid-game, Abrupt Decay helps you clear a blocker or a key permanent, while the Duke’s power climbs as the graveyard fills with artifacts, instants, and more. Late game, you might unlock a towering threat whose statistics are no mere numbers but a living ledger of the game’s history. This is where the Duke earns its stripes as a long-game instrument—less about raw immediate impact and more about pressure that accrues as the battlefield evolves. It’s a philosophy you’ll see echoed in multi-set story arcs and deck-building mindgames across formats. 🧙♂️🔥
For builders, The Duke of Midrange is a case study in orthogonal design: a single card that blends value, disruption, and resilience, with a growth curve that’s explicitly tied to game state. Some players might gravitate toward ultra-tuned graveyard-centric lists, enjoying a “runtimes of milestones” feel where each game is a little different but always orbiting a familiar center. Others may embrace a broader toolbox, using the free copy of a chosen spell to fuel tempo swings that catch opponents off guard. In both cases, the card’s heavy mana investment is balanced by the payoff of scaling power, a dynamic that can feel especially satisfying in long, drawn-out matchups and casual cross-format play. 💥
From a collector’s perspective, the Duke’s presence as a rare from a quirky set adds a splash of curiosity. Its tri-color identity, along with the fact that it isn’t a standard-legal pick in modern formats, positions it as a niche centerpiece for friends who love a good “what-if” in their deck-building discussions. The design leans into a playful, almost experimental vibe—fitting for a set labeled “Unknown Event”—and invites players to explore what-if scenarios where graveyard density and card-type diversity drive the game’s tempo. Collectors who chase unique combinations and rare tri-color legendary creatures might find the Duke a delightful bookmark in their personal MTG history. 🎲
To weave this card into modern hobby life without losing the thrill, many battlers pair it with other tri-color or multi-color engines, or simply rotate it through cube environments to test its scaling garden. It’s a reminder that MTG’s breadth isn’t just about the most efficient combo or the sharpest meta call; it’s about those elegant, durable moments where a single card’s growth mirrors a game’s longer arc. If you’re balancing nostalgia with a dash of experimental play, The Duke of Midrange offers a narrative thread that feels both classic and refreshingly idiosyncratic. 💎
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Possible deck-building takeaways
- Incorporate graveyard diversity early to push the Duke’s power fast.
- Reserve the free-copy option for disruption or removal that’s most impactful in your matchups.
- Balance mana base to support tri-color plays without sacrificing late-game stability.
- Use the Duke as a flexible finisher in casual multi-player games rather than strictly competitive formats.