Red Black Devoid Midrange

Thanks for the comment! This deck will be my debut into standard (i've been drafting and playing legacy for the past five years), so i'm unsure of exactly where the current standard meta stands and what cards I should plan to face. The deck will certainly undergo some adjustments as I figure these things out.

My chief concern with forerunner is the black red cost on turn two. Because I'm running the 3 matter reshapers and 4 thought-knots, I need to consistently have a colorless source by turn 3. Besides that, I'm currently running 8 other two drops (if we categorize bearer as a two- i'd of course rather cast it on turn 4), and I have a strong turn two play in playing and equipping ghost fire blade or clearing a blocker with spatial contortion. A 3/2 for two is excellent, don't get me wrong, and the ability to give mid-late games creatures haste is great, but it pales in comparison to the value of my other two drops and loses value in multiples. In defense of main board thought knot seer, the card's effect is better than vendillion clique's, and it's stapled onto a 4/4 body. Sure, it doesn't attack well into siege rhino or tasigur, but that's the reason ghostfire blade and ruins of oran-reif excel in this deck. I think that having the ability to grab my opponent's best card in hand (in exchange for a random card later on) will prove useful in many if not all match ups. Vile aggregate is in here purely as a meta call. It blocks some of the best creatures in the format and survives all playable burn. If my opponent uses hard removal to kill it, big deal. I traded a three drop for removal and am happy about it. This brings me to my next point: matter reshaper is an excellent magic card. It replaces itself: that's huge! Card advantage is any player's top advantage, and having an attacker that trades early or eats removal but produces another creature or at least another card in its wake fares well in almost any situation from the perspective of card economy. I agree that the flayer drones might not be worth it, but the incremental effect of dealing damage and the three power first strike makes it an appealing inclusion. Perhaps I'll cut these for two more slaughters? I'll see how they do in play testing. And lastly, about reality smasher. I don't know that I want to see a 5 drop in my opening hand all too often, which is why i'm running 3 instead of 4. I crushed my opponents with this card in sealed, so I know how powerful it is. If I feel that my creatures just get outclassed too quickly in the current meta, I will upgrade to a fourth. 5/5 is the sweet spot in standard.

Now a question for you: how do you feel about dust stalker? I'm not crazy about the 3 toughness and the fact that i'm already running thought-knot and bearer as turn 4 plays, but a hasty 5 on turn 4 is nothing to joke about. Thoughts?

Good rationalization on Thought Knot Seer. I still don't agree on Matter Reshaper though. I don't think it does enough specifically for an aggressive deck, but I have a mana hungry Coco/midrange deck that it's obviously unbelievable in. And the other nice thing about cutting it is that it would decrease your dependence on colorless mana a little, so you only needed it t4 or t5 (which, btw Corrupted Crossroads looks fantastic here, so good job).

Not so sure about Dust Stalker. It might be good but I would hesitate to crowd your deck any more with high cmc cards. Other than Thought Knot and Reality Smasher I would want almost everything else to be cmc <=2. Between the choice of not deploying all your spells before they stabilize or running out of gas not deploying all your spells is much worse for you. Plus you already have abilities like kicking Bearer of Silence, moving around equipment and best of all using Sea Gate Wreckage to keep yourself busy if it does happen. BTW I would try to put some reach in here. Maybe Blighted Gorge instead of Fen?

Oh and I forgot to tell you. I am also a Keegan!

Good point. Funny coincidence that we're both named Keegan; I don't think i've ever met someone with the same name. I think that i'll test matter reshaper as a 3-of, and if it doesn't perform, I'll switch into flayer drones, Kozilek's Shriekers, or Eldrazi Obligators. If I really want to focus on shortening my clock and safeguard against flood, I could consider sludge crawler. If I want to shift my strategy toward exiling cards, I could main deck transgress the minds and complete disregards and run a few wasteland stranglers, but this seems more conducive to a midrange strategy. I like the idea of boosting the effectiveness of sea-gate wreckage by running a more aggressive curve, and that overextending is not as much of a problem when I can draw two each turn. I've seen some lists play gorge over fen; and it seems entirely reasonable for the reason you've stated and because edicts lose so much value later in the game. My thought process behind fen is that it gives me an unconditional way to take care of my opponents large creature that I can't otherwise kill outside of combat. That, and the fact that I'm running no flyers and will likely play against esper dragons. I may be wrong, but it seems like one of esper dragons' strategies is to drop one flier and then protect it with counter magic as it attacks for the win. This nicely circumvents that plan of attack. I could see taking out the tomb of the spirit dragon for a blighted gorge, and just running two tombs in SB (I think tomb is relevant enough against aggressive decks to want in certain match ups). Tell me what you think. Also, what about SB? I just kind of threw together some cards that seem good in certain match ups, but nothing is set in stone.