With results pouring in regularly for Extended PTQ Top 8’s around the globe, one deck that is constantly rising in popularity and doing consistently well is Bant Aggro. While this isn’t the most original name for a deck, nor the most original deck idea, it does do the thing we all strive to do: win. The deck has access to an on-par manabase, as well as some of the most efficient creatures in the metagame. You have decent or good matchups against the format’s tier 1 decks (Faeries and Zoo), and have pretty good game against fringe strategies as well. With tons of PTQ’s in the States still to come, I foresee Bant continuing its surge of Top 8 performances, and potentially taking home some blue envelopes in the process.
Recently, Joseph Grier (no, you shouldn’t know this name) and I collaborated on a version of the deck that he played at the PTQ in Little Rock, Arkansas. We tested a few different variations on the creature base, including the very awkward Trygon Predator, and concluded that most of the 3-drops in the deck were too slow and pretty terrible. There are certain matchups that are just bad, and you shouldn’t play too many
high-variance cards in order to combat their strategies. Trygon Predator has a fine body at 2/3, but is far from the optimal casting cost you would desire, and far from the toughness you would want for the 3 mana investment against an aggressive opponent. Rhox War Monk is a fantastic creature for this slot, as he has 4 toughness, and the ability to swing games massively in your favor. Just one swing or block will shift life totals 6 points, which is the equivalent of 2 cards against the Burn Deck or Naya Zoo. If they target him with multiple burn spells, then he has already performed the needed job. With Trygon Predator, his 3 toughness was just too vulnerable to warrant his inclusion, as he has no value from coming into play (see Vendilion Clique). The creatures you want in this deck need to have “virtual haste” or a very certain niche. Vendilion Clique is an example of a card with a very certain niche, as well has having flash and flying. He is an example of a perfect 3-drop.
One list we came across that placed 2nd at a PTQ was playing 4 Ethersworn Canonist and 3 Gaddock Teeg maindeck. This seemed excessive and inherently wrong, and we thought you could easily find more efficient creatures to play maindeck and move those anti-combo creatures in the sideboard. However, the TEPS matchup is fairly abysmal game 1 without any of these creatures, so we made a decision to play one of the two. We left Ethersworn Canonist in the maindeck, and put Gaddock Teeg into the sideboard. This seemed like a fair compromise, as Canonist seemed better than Gaddock Teeg against more decks we saw when scouting the tournament (TEPS, Elves, Bitterloam) and could easily be sided in matchups where he shined.
In testing, Joseph found out that Noble Hierarch, while amazing on turn 1, was pretty terrible later in the game. A fine substitute we found was Ponder, as it gave you great tempo early in the game to curve out (which is what you want from a 1 mana spell), while still giving you a fine topdeck on turns 5-10. It could turn a topdeck war heavily in your favor, which is something that definitely cannot be said for Noble Hierarch. It also made Tarmogoyf larger with little problem. While cutting Noble Hierarch made the deck a little bit slower, ultimately it made it stronger. It also allowed us to play more Treetop Villages, which gave us something to do later in the game when we drew excess mana sources. It also gave our Faerie matchup a small boost since they have an awful time dealing with Treetop Village. And, since most of our spells cost 2 mana, coming into play tapped was always worth it and rarely relevant. With the addition of Ponder, we found that most of the 3 drops were even slower and bad anyways (Trygon Predator, Troll Ascetic, etc), so we cut them for more efficient creatures that had similar effects on opposing popular decks. Enter Kataki, War’s Wage; clearly we had a stronger threat to Affinity than Trygon Predator, while still giving decks like UW Tron and Swans headaches from having to keep their artifact lands and signets tapped every turn. Kataki plays many roles against various decks, often as a crazy bomb against Affinity, and sometimes as a hindrance to decks playing too many artifacts. At the worst of times, he is a grizzly bear that interacts poorly with Umezawa’s Jitte and Ethersworn Canonist, but Affinity is just good enough against you to warrant such an inclusion.
Another card we found to be glacially slow was Oblivion Ring. With the versatility to get rid of virtually any problem permanent, we found that it was often too clunky and fairly bad against the majority of the field. While it had many uses against decks packing Sulfuric Vortex or Tarmogoyf, we often found that it lacked against decks packing Vendilion Clique and Stifle. On top of that it is just strictly dead against TEPS and irrelevant against Elves. With all of these problems, as well as access to a better removal spell in Bant Charm at the same converted cost and the cutting of Noble Hierarch from the deck, we trimmed it for the much more efficient Path to Exile. I expect most Bant Aggro players will adopt this route, as Path to Exile has already started to show up regularly in lists I have seen from other recent PTQ’s. Path to Exile is still heatedly debated on its power level. Whether or not it should be included in any given deck playing white is argued on a fundamental level. I don’t believe you can really argue Path to Exile fundamentally, but instead you should look at the role you are expecting it to play in the given deck. I have already discussed my opinions of this card, but I personally think it is fantastic.
Other than that, no other cards really stood out as being poor, but some of the numbers seemed half-hearted (specifically the 2 Spell Snare). We fine-tuned a few things and eventually ended up with this list:
4 Breeding Pool
2 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1 Plains
1 Temple Garden
3 Treetop Village
4 Windswept Heath
4 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Kataki, War’s Wage
4 Rhox War Monk
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Bant Charm
4 Mana Leak
3 Path to Exile
4 Ponder
3 Spell Snare
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
Sideboard:
4 Engineered Explosives
3 Gaddock Teeg
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Threads of Disloyalty
As an aside, we had a few card availability issues, and he was unable to play with 8 fetchlands- which is the correct number. However, his 2nd place finish at the event should hold some water on the deck’s power level, even if card availability was somewhat of an issue. His only loss the entire day was in the Finals against a very random (and probably bad) matchup in Swans Combo. Recently Swans Combo has been abandoned in favor of TEPS, which would have been a pretty stellar matchup for Joseph. His opponent was packing cards like Firespout, Starstorm (!!??), and Engineered Explosives, where TEPS would have had virtual blanks. We thought the matchup would be ok with Bant Charm and Path to Exile, but he had to double mulligan in Game 1 into a 1-land hand that didn’t do much. In game 2, his opponent played Threads of Disloyalty on his Ethersworn Canonist. Afterwards, Joseph made the mistake of not immediately killing a Swans of Bryn Argoll in a hope to 2-for-1 his opponent in response to Chain of Plasma. He played a spell on his turn, and his opponent ended the turn with a Chain of Plasma targeting the Swans of Bryn Argoll, drawing his deck and killing Joseph the next turn. Even though his bad draw in game 1 and mistake in game 2 cost him the match, the deck performed spectacularly well.
Most of the cards in the maindeck have been explained or are obvious inclusions, so I will continue to the sideboard. The deck’s worst matchup is Elves without question. The little green men can really put the blade to you, but having a one-sided wrath effect in Engineered Explosives can be a pretty amazing weapon against them. Having 4 copies in the board against a deck full of 1 casting cost creatures is quite possibly the best feeling in the world. It will also be an unexpected sideboard card, as they will mostly just expect Ethersworn Canonist and Gaddock Teeg to be played against them. However, they don’t need to play Chord of Calling to “combo” out on you, making Gaddock Teeg simply a bear. A single Glimpse of Nature can lead to a massive army of 1/1’s that you have virtually no way of penetrating unless you are prepared with a removal spell like Engineered Explosives. Ethersworn Canonist can play a great role in slowing them down, but it will only be a matter of time before they find a Viridian Shaman to bust the little guy up. But if you play well, and back him up with a Mana Leak or Vendilion Clique, usually a single Canonist buys you enough time to take the game away from them. Umezawa’s Jitte in tandem with all of these cards gives you a shot at beating them 2 out of 3 games.
The Kitchen Finks and Threads of Disloyalty are nods to the popularity of Zoo in the forms of both Naya and Domain. With the decks in question rising in popularity, having 5 sideboard slots dedicated to them is not unreasonable. In fact, there are only a handful of matches where Kitchen Finks is not a solid beater. Having versatile sideboard cards can be great for a deck with so many metagame choices in the maindeck (Path to Exile, Ethersworn Canonist, Kataki War’s Wage, etc.). You also have the ability to sideboard in a few Engineered Explosives, as they can often be one-sided wraths against Zoo’s nut draw of “Wild Nacatl x2 and Kird Ape” within the first two turns. These draws can be hard to deal with if you are on the draw, and having Engineered Explosives to handle the problem is nothing short of absurd. It can also randomly blow up opposing 2 and 3 drops if you sandbag your own.
With the increase in power and popularity of Zoo in all of its forms, I think that Bant actually becomes a better choice for the metagame. It is generally tough for Zoo to handle opposing Tarmogoyfs, Rhox War Monks, and counterspells. If you stick one of your larger threats and are able to protect it from removal, you can often overcome an opponent quickly. With Bant Charm and Path to Exile, you also have the ability to blow out their overwhelming Tarmogoyf draws, allowing your own monsters to win any race they may battling in. Zoo relies on its creatures to deal a majority of their 20 damage, so keeping them off the table can buy you very valuable time to take control of the game with a dominating creature or Umezawa’s Jitte. You can even make their Sulfuric Vortexes look poor, as you will often have a larger board presence when they play it, and be at a higher life total due to having fewer lands that deal damage to you on top of Rhox War Monk or Kitchen Finks after boarding. Overall, I would say Zoo is a favorable matchup, and I would be happy getting paired against it all day.
A questionable matchup is Faeries, but it is far from “bad.” While you can have the explosive starts with counter backup that just blow them out, often they will have the right tools to thwart your plans or interact with you in ways to gain a significant advantage. However, sometimes you will be able to overrun them with cheap monsters and keep their relevant spells from resolving via Mana Leak and Spell Snare. Even their Sowers of Temptation look bad when they tap out, only to get Bant Charmed or Path to Exiled. A card that would normally be devastating to you is now rendered harmless for a single white mana (or UWG). Excellent. However, they do have the necessary elements for coming back from most poor board positions. With their access to cards like Engineered Explosives, Umezawa’s Jitte, Spell Snare, Venser, Shaper Savant, Ancestral Visions, etc, they have the ability to fight back from virtually unwinnable game states. That is one aspect that makes Faeries such a great deck to play, but not one you want to play against.
With Bant’s popularity on the rise, it is time to consider the possibility of mirror matches, and potential cards to cut from the maindeck in favor of a stronger plan against other decks. However, it might be fruitful to keep the “hater” cards maindeck in an attempt to up your percentages against your bad matchups. Kataki and Ethersworn Canonist may seem loose, but I don’t know many creatures that would feel correct in their place. Possible considerations include things like Vinelasher Kudzu, Watchwolf, or some other grizzly beater with a decent ability. At first glance, Kudzu might seem awesome but it has some pretty apparent drawbacks. Playing Kudzu would require the addition of a few more fetchlands, which would make your manabase a bit more painful and ultimately lead to a slightly worse matchup against Zoo. Secondly, you would rarely want to play the Kudzu before turn 3, as he would instantly die to a Mogg Fanatic or Tarfire/Seal of Fire. This seems pretty bad to me, so we’ll pass him for now. Watchwolf may be a great addition to the deck, as he seems to have been forgotten by time. A 3/3 body for 2 mana is nothing to sneeze at. He is easily castable and can put solid pressure on a control opponent, and is usually a fair compliment to Tarmogoyf. However, I don’t think that a vanilla 3/3 is effective enough to be better than a 2/2 with an “I win” factor against a particularly bad matchup. Kataki and Ethersworn Canonist both have this ability, and could possibly remain in the maindeck.
The obvious drawback to playing Ethersworn Canonist with Kataki is a bit glaring, so I think it should be replaced with Gaddock Teeg, while moving Canonist to the board. He has the ability to shut off mass removal against decks playing Wrath of God, Damnation, or Engineered Explosives, as well as other decks that don’t show up on the radar much. Mass removal can be really devastating to your strategy if you aren’t holding a Mana Leak, and Gaddock Teeg has no upkeep when Kataki is in play. You can expect to play against 5-9 different decks in a PTQ, and having a card that works wonders against a random Joe playing Martyr.dec with Wrath of God and Akroma’s Vengeance can make your day a little bit easier (random but it happens). With Vendilion Clique to strip their “combo” out of their hand, you have the power of inevitability over their extremely large life total. While this is a very narrow example, the benefits of playing with Gaddock Teeg can be huge. You can effectively cut off Faeries’ Engineered Explosives against you, while also shutting down their Cryptic Commands. You also have the ability to shut down Death Cloud and/or Damnation against decks still playing those (or the random Garruk Wildspeaker). He doesn’t shut down any card in your deck, and has a fairly easy cost to play. Adrian Sullivan even went so far as to play 4 in his “Sullivan Stompy” deck from last week. It also plays a similar role in the matchup where Ethersworn Canonist shines: TEPS.
With all of these changes in mind, here is my current list (and hopefully what Joseph will be running at the PTQ in Tallahassee):
4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
3 Treetop Village
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Okina, Temple of the Grandfathers
2 Breeding Pool
3 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Gaddock Teeg
3 Kataki, War’s Wage
4 Rhox War Monk
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Ponder
4 Path to Exile
3 Bant Charm
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Mana Leak
3 Spell Snare
Sideboard:
4 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Wilt-leaf Liege
3 Engineered Explosives
2 Kitchen Finks
A small change to the manabase was the addition of Eiganjo Castle. While this card may seem awkward, it definitely has applications. It can save any of your 9 maindeck legends from getting burned by a Seal of Fire, Tarfire, or Mogg Fanatic, and can save Gaddock Teeg from spells like Incinerate or Lightning Helix. On top of that, it can prevent Umezawa’s Jitte from getting counters if their creature has two or less power. That is something that should not be overlooked, as Jitte can but a ridiculous beating on any aggro deck. I was originally going to play a 2nd plains, but the Eiganjo Castle is strictly better in most situations. We also added the missing fetchlands, and changed the dual lands around to support the spell base a bit more easily (adding more Hallowed Fountain is definitely the right call).
During the PTQ Joseph said that he didn’t use as much of his sideboard as he would have liked. This led to cutting a few of the more narrow cards, including one of the Engineered Explosives, to have a few other versatile cards for different matchups. While I stated earlier that Oblivion Ring was glacially slow, it did play a valuable role in some matchups (including Zoo). However, it was cut from the deck for a better card. Having a few in the sideboard can be amazing against certain decks, and ultimately give you outs to cards that seem impossible to beat (Sulfuric Vortex, Astral Slide). It can also give you a bigger edge in the mirror match, as you can handle opposing cards like Worship (garbage but still played), Tarmogoyf, Rhox War Monk, or Jitte while being more versatile than a Disenchant effect. It will be a poor card more often than Path to Exile, but you side it in over bad cards in certain matchups like Kataki or sometimes Ponder. It can also randomly be decent against Affinity, since their biggest threats to you are Myr Enforcer, Master of Etherium, and Arcbound Ravager. It can also get rid of Cranial Plating, as that card makes all of their threats extremely dangerous (even stupid 0/2 fliers). While clunky and slow, there are few cards that can do what Oblivion Ring does, so its inclusion in the sideboard as a “catch-all” is probably a good idea.
One major upgrade in the sideboard is Wilt-leaf Liege instead of Relic of Progenitus. I think he has the capability to push your Loam matchup over the top. Taking the role of aggressor in this matchup is key, as you have a lot of large threats that are hard for them to deal with, as well as Gaddock Teeg to stop any Damnation or Death Cloud mischief. Wilt-leaf Liege can put you on the fast track to bashing their brains in as early as turn 1, but expect them to side out their Raven’s Crimes in game 3 if they see the Lieges in the second game.
I also cut the Threads of Disloyalty due to the presence of Duergar Hedge-mage in most Zoo sideboards. Since you have Jitte, they are going to side him in attempting to keep from getting KO’ed by the pointy sticks, so the Threads of Disloyalty may end up being victim to splash damage resulting in a huge blowout. Having 4 Path to Exile, along with large creatures and Bant Charm, should allow you to overcome this matchup without much difficulty. The two Kitchen Finks can come in as well to help shore up aggressive matchups where you are constantly racing.
Overall, I feel as if the deck has a lot of strong matchups in the current Extended metagame, and is a reasonable choice for any PTQ. A lot of decks just can’t beat War Monk carrying a Jitte, and free wins are hard to come by in a large field. With a solid mix of great creatures, great answers, and counter magic, you should often find yourself writing the ‘2′ next to your name on the result slip. You should also know how to beat the deck if you seriously plan on playing in an upcoming event. Bant is starting to steamroll in popularity, and shouldn’t be brushed off as a “worse than Faeries” deck choice. The two are not much alike, and many players will opt for the Bant deck for many of the reasons previously stated, as well as the simple and blatant hatred for playing a deck called Faeries (this is a pretty common phenomenon in my area). While I don’t think Bant is the best deck in the format, I do think it has the ability to win a PTQ and should not be taken lightly. If played by a competent player and put in the right environment, the deck can really flourish.
On a side note, I wanted everyone to know that MTGO received the best news ever last week: Magic Online Championship Series. For the past few years or so, Wizards has done everything in their power to neuter the Magic Online playing experience. V3 was a disaster, and it still hasn’t recovered the player base it once had. Realistically in the past, there would be 60-80 people in any given Standard Premier Event. Now, you are lucky to have 40 players. However, this is all going to change. Basically, they are hosting 7 tournaments that give away 8 total qualifier slots to the Magic paper World Championship in Rome, Italy in November, while also qualifying you for the Magic Online Championship held in the same location. If you qualify for one of these slots, you will receive a minimum of $4,000 and a complete set of any available set on Magic Online (including Invasion, ME2, etc). For those of you who don’t play Magic Online competitively, I would suggest that you start. I, for one, will abandon a PTQ that is far away if I can compete in one of the Championship series tournaments online instead. Hell, I’ll probably even try to plan my wedding around these tournaments. Qualifying for Worlds is more important to me than a Pro Tour, and I don’t have to travel more than 10 feet to reach my computer.
Finally, Worth Wolpert and company are doing something right for the program, and this should be considered a giant leap forward for everyone in the MTGO community! Please post your thoughts in the forums on the Bant Deck as well as this topic, even if you don’t play Magic Online. I would recommend it for any player aspiring to become more competitive or if you have the desire to actually win tournaments. It’s a great tool and is finally getting some much deserved love.
Oh yeah, by the way I’m getting married in September to the best girl ever.
Todd Anderson
strong sad on MTGO
x2jtande @southernco.com