Temur Montrous Control! (Temur Mid-Range/Superfriends with Control Flexibility) (Standard)

Welcome to the Temur Mid-Range strategy that has the sideboard flexibility to become a control deck! What Temur has been lacking, especially in Temur Aggro decks, is a way to avoid being stalled, wiped, or burned out faster than it can get threats on the board. In order to defend the monsters Temur cares so much about, something has to change in the way people think about this aggressive wedge.

Meet the solution: A deck that puts a lot of planeswalker pressure on the board turn 3, a deck that can counter those pesky spot removals and board wipes, and a deck that can outlive Jeskai Burn through consistent life gain cards.

THE MANA:
-Pain lands give us the flexibility we need for a tri-color deck.
-The scry lands and the fetches work well to help thin out the deck so we can get to the cards that we need most. (Note that the preference for some people might be to put in more scry lands than pain lands. While that is fine, realize that it slows down your game a lot. The difference between a Turn 3 Polukranos and a Turn 4 Polukranos can sometimes be the game.)
-The Bivouac is nice because of its tri-color flexibility, so I see no reason not to run just 1.
-The basics are for the fetches to find. There is no need to run 4 of any one basic.

THE PLANESWALKERS:
Here I will explain why I choose not to run Sarkhan in this deck. 2 reasons: 1) He is not worth the money right now in my opinion, and 2) Stormbreath is far better for this deck. Why? Most removal being played right now contains white (Utter End, Suspension Field, Banishing Light, Abzan Charm) and Stormbreath dodges that beautifully. Also, the monstrous ability is totally reachable with the amount of mana acceleration this deck runs. A monstrous Stormbreath is an opponent's assured death if unanswered. Stormbreath also blocks Wingmate Roc and Butcher of the Horde beautifully, something Sarkhan can't do.

Whew! Now with that out of the way, here are our Superfriends are WILL be joining us in this deck:
-Chandra creates openings for our creatures with her +1 and combos beautifully with the Courser using her +0 ability. We won't be using her ultimate, but getting a free opening every turn is exactly what this deck needs.
-Kiora locks down single threats with her +1 and gives us huge advantage with her -1 ability (an extra land and an extra card). Again, it's unlikely we will use her ultimate because we should have won already then, but she has the ability to swing the game in our favor in a big way as soon as she hits the board.
-Xenagos is every monster deck's best friend. The +1 ability works beautifully to monstrous Stormbreath or Polukranos, pump up a Crater's Claws or just allow us to play 2 cards from hand instead of just 1. The +0 ability keeps the pressure on the opponent with hasty 2/2's and outpaces the Rabblemaster's goblin tokens damage-wise. We might use The Reveler's ultimate because there are bound to be giant creatures and lots of land within the top 7 cards of our deck, and it act beautifully as a game finisher, especially with a few hasty Knuckleblades at our command.

THE NON-CREATURE SPELLS:
Well, the ones that aren't Planeswalkers either.

-Bow of Nylea might be the All-Star of the deck. Why? It stalls burn decks with its consistent life gain and turns every creature we attack with into a killing machine with deathtouch. Don't know what to do with your Elvish Mystic on Turn 6? Attack with it. Remarkably, your opponent will let it go through!
-Crater's Claws is one of our win conditions. Stoke the Flames? Nah. Not with the mana we'll have available and the big creatures we'll have on board. 11 of our creatures trigger Ferocious, so by Turn 4, there's over a 90% chance that we'll have at least 1 of them. At its worst, Claws is a Fireball, but at its best its a free Shock PLUS a Fireball in 1 card. Yes, please.
-Dissolve is the tried and true catch-all counter spell (Cancel) plus the beautiful perk of scrying. Having 1 in our main board gives us some more security when playing our creatures or anticipating board wipes, and with more in the sideboard, we can decide if we want to have more answers or not.
-Mindswipe is the Temur counter spell. No, it's not Trap Essence. Trap Essence is just bad. Mindswipe is beautifully flexible. (It's also obviously Temur because of that Rattleclaw Mystic art.) Early game, it is a weaker, costlier Syncopate with a little extra zap. Mid to late game, though, it can be an answer and a win condition all wrapped up in one. Countering a spell and then dealing 4 to face for a mere 6 CMC is a beautiful thing, and this deck can do that as fast as Turn 4.
-Stubborn Denial is Temur's answer to targeted removal and board wipes. Again, since it is highly likely we will have the Ferocious trigger, this goes from being a weaker Force Spike to being a cheaper Negate. All we need to do is keep 1 blue mana open, and with 16 cards that can provide us with just that, this becomes a beautiful answer to every Temur threat.

THE CREATURES:
Now here is where the real meat of the Temur strategy lies.

-Elvish Mystic does not need to be explained. Do we want 2 lands on Turn 1? Yes? Okay.
-Rattleclaw Mystic is so beautiful. If we've played our hand just right, we could be sitting on 8 mana (6 net after Rattleclaw is flipped) on TURN 3. That's a Stormbreath AND a Stubborn Denial left open. On which turn? Yup.
-Sylvan Caryatid is still here though, because it dodges removal is a way that Rattleclaw could only dream of. It's just straight up more reliable. Realistically, a morphed card put down on Turn 2 will get Lightning Strike'd every single time if the opponent has it in hand. Caryatid is slower than Rattleclaw, but can withstand a lot more harassment.
-Courser of Kruphix is our other form of consistent life gain. It also lets us weed through our decks nicely and combos hilariously with Chandra.
-Savage Knuckleblade is the Temur Swiss Army Knife creature that has presence during all stages of the game. It can come out as quickly as Turn 2, or come out with Haste on Turn 3. It protects itself by bulking itself up or by bouncing itself back to safety. It becomes a 6/6 on nearly every swing mid to late game. I just love this guy.
-Polukranos is as scary as ever. There is a reason why every deck with access to green that plays creatures will play The World Eater. It's ahead of the curve and blows up creatures on its own while making itself bigger. That's a big deal.
-Stormbreath Dragon is in the same boat as Polukranos. I explained what he does when I justified my lack of Sarkhans in the deck, but just know that once he hits the board, our opponent is on a 2-turn clock.
-Surrak is too good not to run, but he very well may be the largest target for removal in the deck. A flash speed, uncounterable, trample-granting 6/6 is the way Temur says, "Good game." Surrak is also a hilarious friend of Xenagod's, making him an flash speed, uncounterable, trample-granting hasty 12/12. Woo!
-Speaking of Xenagod, this is another singleton we should run because it makes all of our threats become twice as scary, and one turn earlier than normal. A 10/10 hasty Polukranos is not fun to deal with.
-Sagu Mauler is the all-star against control decks with a lot of spot removal. And a 6/6 trampler for 6 CMC is nothing to scoff at. The morph flexibility of the card is just an added bonus.

THE SIDEBOARD:
The sideboard is meant to make this creature-heavy, relatively aggressive strategy into a control deck, catching opponents really off-guard in Game 2 (that is, if we need to change our plan of attack).

-Plummet is the green kill spell that is of particular relevance right now. It takes care of almost all of the scariest threats in Standard, including Stormbreath, Wingmate Roc, Butcher of the Horde, Master of the Feast, and Mantis Rider. Opponents will also not be expecting it since we aren't running any black.
-Lightning Strike is our other kill spell option, killing off Mantis Rider and other threats, including Fleecemane Lion, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Eidolon of Blossoms, and Narset. We can also go to their face for the win.
-Anger of the Gods is as close as we get to a Wrath in Temur colors. And good news: 13 of our main board creatures survive it! This card neuters Rabblemaster strategies and wipes out a Mantis army.
-Dissolve, Stubborn Denial, Mindswipe and Disdainful Stroke just all serve to give us more answers to opponents' spells. Preventing the opponent from getting threats on the board gives us time to build up our army.
-Sagu Mauler is a more conservative replacement for Polukranos and/or Surrak with the advantage of having Hexproof in control match-up situations.
-Prognostic Sphinx is our alternate win condition if we switch the deck to control mode.

There it is! I might make some changes as I continue to play test the deck, but it is poised to deal with all the biggest decks in the Standard metagame right now, so go out and beat face! Current play testing has shown me how remarkably consistent this deck is at beating face by Turn 4.