Pro Tour Eldritch Moon starts tomorrow (time zones…), and the question on a lot of peoples’ minds is…
Is Bant Company really this good?
The short answer is…
No.
It was barely three months ago when The SCG Tour®, in the weeks leading up to the Pro Tour, was dominated by white Humans aggro with Bant Company the only other contender. The Pro Tour, on the other hand, had a very different texture. As a reminder, here was the Top 8:
Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad Top 8
1. G/W Tokens
2. Bant Company
3. Esper Walkers
4. Esper Dragons
5. R/G Goggles Ramp
6. R/W Eldrazi Goggles
7. B/G Seasons Past
8. B/G Aristocrats
The real dominant deck was G/W Tokens, which went on to be the most successful deck of the past few months. In the weeks leading up to the Pro Tour, people didn’t have it. They didn’t have Pyromancer’s Goggles in ramp. They didn’t have Dark Petition plus Seasons Past. They didn’t have B/G Company. They didn’t know the right ways to build a control deck.
Is Bant Company good? Definitely. It’s better than Humans was in the last format. However, I think we’re going to see a number of other successful strategies,this weekend. For clues on what those strategies might be, let’s take a look at this past weekend’s Open and look for what new tech may have only just peeked its head around the corner.
|
Archetypes |
Top 32 Metagame |
|
Bant Company |
54.0% |
|
G/W Tokens |
11.1% |
|
W/B Midrange |
9.5% |
|
Abzan Midrange |
4.8% |
|
G/U Crush |
4.8% |
|
W/R Humans |
4.8% |
|
Sultai Delirium |
3.2% |
|
Grixis Control |
3.2% |
|
Esper Starfield |
1.6% |
|
Big White |
1.6% |
|
U/W Spirits |
1.6% |
Yeah, okay, sure, that looks bad. That’s fair. A deck making up more than half of the top-table metagame is really bad. It’s also really hard to script a narrative where this was an anomaly, given how dominant Bant was last week.
The most exotic deck of the weekend was definitely Cory Dissinger’s G/U Crush of Tentacles deck:
Creatures (18)
- 1 Elvish Visionary
- 4 Den Protector
- 2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
- 2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
- 1 Bounding Krasis
- 1 Hangarback Walker
- 1 Void Grafter
- 1 Emrakul, the Promised End
- 1 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
- 4 Noose Constrictor
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (25)
Spells (15)
We talked about this deck briefly Monday, but it bears a closer look. There are a number of subtle, important pieces of technology that could change the way the puzzle fits together in the weeks to come.
At its core, Corey’s deck is like a Sultai Delirium control deck that replaces Liliana, the Last Hope with Crush of Tentacles, taking things in a very different direction.
Crush of Tentacles can’t be Spell Quellered. That’s step one.
Step two, take a look at Corey’s nonland permanents with enters-the-battlefield triggers. Each Oath of Nissa, Elvish Visionary, or Nissa, Vastwood Seer you reset is an extra card. Den Protector goes even further, potentially even returning Crush of Tentacles to your hand. Now you can threaten to Crush every turn, if you are so inclined, and Nissa’s Pilgrimage helps make it possible to get enough mana to fuel this engine.
You don’t actually need to hold onto the game for long, however. Usually, setting up Emrakul, the Promised End is sufficient to close it out.
Bouncing all of your opponent’s permanents and then casting Emrakul is very difficult to beat. Should you need to, you can even bounce Emrakul with Crush of Tentacles!
I suspect there may be a few too many fancy creatures in this list, however.
Void Grafter, I can get behind. I think this card is underplayed anyway. A 2/4 flash creature for three is already a totally reasonable piece of cardboard, and the potential to protect a key creature from a removal spell is an invaluable option both to threaten and to search up with Traverse to “lock it up.”
Bounding Krasis, on the other hand, seems dubious. Hangarback Walker and Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy are sweet to untap. Krasis is just a fine card in general, and it’s nice to have an instant-speed form of interaction to go get, but I guess I’d be surprised if the value over replacement is really there. We’ve only got two Jaces! Can we just get more of whatever the best cards are?
Now we’re talking.
Eventually, we’re going to need to put black mana back in this beast. You know, after we add more Grafwidows. Ishkanah is one of the ten best cards in the set. You might already know… but if you don’t, you will soon.
While I would prefer to play a deck that uses four Gnarlwood Dryads maindeck, I also think it’s a respectable sideboard card. Think Fleecemane Lion.
Noose Constrictor is terribly underrated right now, which is funny, given how uncanny of a resemblance it has to one of the more notorious green two-drops in history.
While Wild Mongrel was terribly overpowered in its day, these are different times. Nowadays, creatures are enough better that a slightly better Wild Mongrel is merely quite good. The format has not yet been adopting it as it should a “quite good” card, however. There is a lot of competition at two in green decks, but Noose Constrictor is a worthy consideration.
Ali Aintrazi has suggested trying Noose Constrictor in Sultai Delirium, an archetype he has been leading the charge with, following up his finals appearance with a Top 16. Despite finishing a win outside the Top 8, his updated version marks a solid improvement to the strategy:
Creatures (14)
- 1 Dragonlord Silumgar
- 1 Den Protector
- 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
- 1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
- 1 Gilt-Leaf Winnower
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 1 Emrakul, the Promised End
- 1 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (26)
Spells (17)
I love the mix of Traverse the Ulvenwald targets here; however, I think we’re just leaving money on the table playing just two copies.
It’s slightly awkward at times, since we have so many tapped lands. However, I think the burden is on blue to justify the splash. I am skeptical of Oath of Jace, but Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy looks awesome. At the very least, I think we can pull back on black mana a little, particularly if we have Traverse the Ulvenwald to find it when we need it.
If we move towards some amount of Noose Constrictors, one oddball possibility to consider is Voldaren Pariah.
Voldaren Pariah is a strong card that hasn’t found a perfect home yet. It’s also super-sick with Noose Constrictor and Ishkanah, Grafwidow… if you can come up with the triple black it asks.
If it’s not right to play more Lilianas, I would change the deck until it is. We have only scratched the surface of this card.
I think this might be another good place to sideboard some Dispels, as we’re often going to be tight on mana. Getting to make a big play and hold up Dispel mana is going to be a major shift in tempo. Negate just isn’t nearly as fast.
I love the use of Painful Truths here. The card has fallen out of favor because of its weakness to Spell Queller; however, when you are only sideboarding it against non-control decks, the card is as awesome as ever… except no one casts it against you!
If I were tuning Sultai delirium, the three places I would look are:
? Does the blue justify itself, or should this be B/G Delirium?
? Should we hybridize this strategy with U/G Crush?
? Is control the best way to go, or should we actually be aggro or ramp?
I wonder if there’s a place for Noose Constrictor in Bant Company? We are in the market for aggressive two-drops, and I would guess the recent trend of Selfless Spirits, to go alongside Duskwatch Recruiter and Sylvan Advocate, may slow or decline. For reference, here’s the highest-finishing Bant Company list from this weekend:
Creatures (27)
- 4 Reflector Mage
- 2 Eldrazi Displacer
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 2 Archangel Avacyn
- 3 Tireless Tracker
- 3 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
- 4 Spell Queller
- 3 Selfless Spirit
Lands (25)
Spells (8)
Side note: Tamiyo, Field Researcher is a great sideboard card right now. Some people swear by her, whereas others think she’s terrible. The truth is, she’s strong, but vulnerable to aggressive strategies. She is, however, probably the best threat you can sideboard in against a control deck at the moment.
Duskwatch Recruiter as a three-of is actually reasonable, as the card definitely offers diminishing returns when you draw two. Selfless Spirit would also be a totally understandable three-of, as it is so valuable to draw one against Planar Outburst people, whereas the second one starts to fall off in value.
However, Osyp Lebedowicz has changed the game with his winning G/W Tokens list. It’s not so much the deck itself. His list is five cards different from some previous lists. However, Osyp, a three-time Pro Tour Top 8 competitor and Pro Tour champion, is also one of the best deck-tuners of all time. You know the style of deckbuilding Gerry Thompson is famous for? He takes a good deck and makes it a great deck. He takes a known strategy and adapts it to a new context. He makes remixes that are hotter tracks than the original ever was.
That’s the kind of deckbuilder Osyp is.
Despite G/W Tokens being the most successful deck of the last season, it struggled to really find its niche since Eldritch Moon. Spell Queller is just such a beating versus Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar. To try to combat this, Eric Rill advanced the strategy by cutting Tireless Tracker and Nissa, Vastwood Seer, and completely avoiding any creatures that cost four or less. He also used Ishkanah, Grafwidow as a five-mana threat, too expensive to counter with Spell Queller.
Osyp built on this approach, continuing to run zero threes, but he found a different five.
It has not been uncommon for Tragic Arrogance to show up in G/W Tokens. In fact, Rill had one in his maindeck and one in his sideboard. Osyp, however, took it to the extreme, maindecking three copies in order to completely blow out Bant Company every time he drew it. It’s not surprising to see him having cut a path through countless Bant Company decks on Day 2, including 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place.
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (8)
Lands (25)
Spells (15)
Planar Outburst was already good against Bant, since they keep so much of their advantage on the table. Selfless Spirit and Archangel Avacyn can trump it, however. Tragic Arrogance, on the other hand, can’t be stopped by either of those cards. Besides, keeping a Sylvan Advocate or an Archangel Avacyn is often going to be substantially better than the Reflector Mage you stick them with, to say nothing of getting to also keep a Hangarback Walker on occasion.
I wonder where all we might be able to use Tragic Arrogance where it’s not already being used? What about U/W Control?
Creatures (10)
Lands (27)
Spells (23)
Tragic Arrogance loves when we can keep a Dragonlord! It also puts even more pressure on us to not play Silkwrap or Stasis Snare, but I wouldn’t play those cards anyway. There are just too many Dromoka’s Commands.
Dan Jessup finished 22nd with a novel strategy that also takes advantage of Tragic Arrogance as a Bant trump.
Creatures (20)
- 4 Knight of the White Orchid
- 4 Eldrazi Displacer
- 4 Archangel Avacyn
- 4 Thraben Inspector
- 4 Selfless Spirit
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (26)
Spells (10)
This is another spot where I’d recommend moving the Tragic Arrogances to the maindeck at this point.
I love the use of Spatial Contortion here.
Spatial Contortion is perfect for killing Spell Quellers, sure, but it also kills most other threats in a Bant deck. Between it and Declaration in Stone (wisely selected over Silkwrap), we’ve got a lot more cheap spot removal than a white deck would normally run. Really, this is just a W/B Midrange deck, but replacing the black removal with the best alternatives in white and colorless we can get.
In addition to Avacyn, Gideon, and Westvale Abbey, for gaining an advantage in the mid-game, we’ve got Eldrazi Displacer shenanigans. I love exiling Hangarback Walkers and tokens anyway, but I also like disrupting Spell Quellers a lot.
Is there a Spell Queller strangling one of your spells? Cast an Eldrazi Displacer and then blink their Queller. When it comes back, there is nothing to target, so the ability fizzles. Then you cast your spell for free, and there’s nothing to stop you.
But wait, there’s more…
When your opponent tries to cast another spell, blink their Spell Queller to counter it!
Spell Queller’s ability is mandatory, so they will have to counter their spell if it’s the only spell on the stack! You can even upgrade what you have strangled later if they play something even more threatening.
Eldrazi Displacer plus Archangel Avacyn is sweet, no question, but you don’t know joy until you’ve “gone off” with Eldrazi Displacer plus Thraben Inspector…
Another advantage of playing Tragic Arrogance is extra protection against unusual strategies. For instance, Michael Lehman’s 18th-place Esper Starfield deck.
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (26)
Spells (31)
Unlike most Starfield of Nyx decks from previous formats, this one uses it more as a card draw engine than a victory condition.
Recycling Oath of Jace and Oath of Liliana turns the legendary status into an advantage. Now you can Edict every turn or rip through your deck quickly. You can even discard a Stasis Snare to Oath of Jace and then get it back next turn in order to save mana (while still going up a card).
While Oath of Liliana is an excellent addition, it doesn’t change this deck’s basic strategy or capabilities as much as one other new card:
Having the ability to stack up Lunar Forces can totally lock up a game. If they cast the spell they drew, you’ll just get Lunar Force back. If they wait to build up cards, you are still progressing your game by returning other cards. While you’re rarely going to completely lock someone out, you can be very disruptive and it provides an enchantment you can reliably get back that provides an advantage against everyone.
While I wouldn’t want to walk a Tragic Arrogance into a Lunar Force, it shouldn’t be too hard to set up a spot where we can use it to completely catch ourselves back up, maybe leaving our opponent with just a single Silkwrap or Oath of Liliana.
Before we move off of white decks, here’s the highest-finishing Humans aggro deck from this past weekend. People were asking about it Monday, but there’s just not really much in the way of new technology:
Creatures (31)
- 4 Knight of the White Orchid
- 4 Dragon Hunter
- 3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
- 3 Anointer of Champions
- 3 Expedition Envoy
- 4 Thraben Inspector
- 4 Thalia's Lieutenant
- 2 Hanweir Militia Captain
- 4 Town Gossipmonger
Lands (18)
Spells (11)
This is just the same update that people played last week, and the only new card is Repel the Abominable. I like having two copies better than one, and I think this is a fine deck, but it’s not where I’d want to be. The splash damage from Rending Volley, Dromoka’s Command, Grasp of Darkness, and Languish is going to be rough. At least there’s less Radiant Flames because of Spell Queller…
Creatures (12)
- 1 Dragonlord Silumgar
- 3 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
- 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
- 3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- 4 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (27)
Spells (19)
I love Grixis players. People who play Grixis are exactly the sort of people that would disregard the memo about not playing Radiant Flames, and then go on to smash people with it, and in a Goblin Dark-Dwellers deck, no less…
I’m guessing Bant Company is one of the four biggest decks, but it’ll be interesting to see the other three. Any guesses here?
? W/G Tokens?
? U/G Crush?
? Sultai Delirium?
? B/G Delirium Aggro?
? Abzan?
? W/B Angels?
? W/R Humans?
? Big White?
? U/W Spirits?
? Eldrazi Aggro?
? Eldrazi Ramp?
? Grixis?
? Something else entirely…? After all, not a lot of Eldritch Evolution getting talked about, is there…?