The Rock

A grindy BG midrange deck named after Rocky Balboa — it goes the distance. The Rock trades one-for-one, strips hands, and resets the board with the format’s most flexible sweeper.

Pernicious Deed is the centerpiece. For X+GBG, it destroys all artifacts, creatures, and enchantments with mana value X or less. Against Goblins, Deed for 2 wipes their board. Against Enchantress, Deed for 4 takes out everything. It’s asymmetric because you choose when to pop it, and you build your board around surviving it.

Duress and Cabal Therapy form the hand-disruption package. Duress on turn one sees their hand and takes the most dangerous noncreature spell. Cabal Therapy names a card blind — or with perfect information after a Duress — and can be flashed back by sacrificing a creature for a second strip.

Wall of Blossoms blocks early aggro and replaces itself with a card. Wall of Roots ramps and blocks. Birds of Paradise accelerates into turn-two Deed or turn-three Baloth.

Ravenous Baloth is a 4/4 for four that can sacrifice itself to gain 4 life — a massive swing against Burn and aggro. Treetop Village is a 3/3 trampler that attacks as a land, dodging sorcery-speed removal and playing under Standstill.

Engineered Plague names a creature type and gives all creatures of that type -1/-1 — devastating against tribal. Naturalize handles artifacts and enchantments that dodge Deed’s timing. Smother kills cheap threats at instant speed.

The Rock doesn’t have flashy combos or blinding speed. It wins by answering everything, grinding resources, and being the last deck standing.