Dav5037’s Bant Tokens deck is fighting on a lot of different angles. You may remember Sam Black’s deck from Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar that performed admirably for the small number of pilots that played it in that tournament.
This Bant brew would appear to mostly be a spiritual successor to that deck from several months ago. Oath of the Gatewatch has provided a variety of tools for upgrading Sam’s old deck including Reflector Mage, Sylvan Advocate, Oath of Nissa, and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar.
While Reflector Mage may get the title of Best New Card In Standard, I think Nissa’s cards are the most valuable here. Folks are finally starting to come around on how powerful the Voice of Zendikar is, and the powerful green planeswalker is finally getting it’s time in the sun. Not only is Nissa capable of creating a horde of Plants, but with her -2 ability reminiscent of Glorious Anthem alongside format-staple Gideon, Ally of Zendikar this Bant Tokens deck harnesses a variety of pumps effects.
Secure the Wastes is the glue that ties this deck together, allowing it to switch gears from a grindy midrange deck to “combo-killing” an opponent with a large end-step Secure the Wastes into either of the aforementioned Anthems.
The movement towards a wide variety of spot removal and effects like Crackling Doom makes this one-two punch plan incredibly appealing.
Dav5037 is utilizing a few different enchantment removal options, and while I can understand the desire to play some Silkwraps (especially as a means to handle Jace Vryn’s Prodigy) I think we might be spreading ourselves a little too thin.
Having nine enchantments in the deck is starting to get us dangerously low on relevant Oath of Nissa hits, and I’d really like to see more consolidation towards the creature base. All of the creatures this deck plays are so powerful, why not just play more copies of them?
The sideboard here is mostly about finding an efficient and effective card for a particular matchup, but there’s also a nice grindy sub-theme with the inclusion of Den Protectors and Planar Outbursts to go even longer against opposing creature decks.
For a deck without Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy or Collected Company, the power level of this Bant Tokens deck is absurdly high. I’m a huge fan of its ability to switch roles and get aggressive in the blink of an eye – especially when fighting Rally the Ancestors and Ramp decks is a necessity in this Standard format for midrange decks to survive.
Creatures (10)
Planeswalkers (8)
Lands (26)
Spells (16)
