Two decks for today. One is for all of you ballers making six figures, using Umezawa's Jittes as coasters for your drinks. The second deck is a more reasonably-costed deck, saving you enough money so that you can proudly supersize your meal instead of skimping out.
First, the rich daddy one.
Bant. The name originates from the Magic the Gathering set Shards of Alara representing the combination of green, white, and blue. The driving mechanic behind Bant is exalted, rewarding players who attack with a single creature. Fortunately, the selected colors are home to powerful beaters such as Baneslayer Angel and Sphinx of Jwar Isle who can use exalted effectively.
Green is also home to tiny critters that produce mana such as Noble Heirarch and Birds of Paradise. They can setup the juice to summon the aforementioned powerhouses.
Put the two concepts together, and you get something called Mythic Bant:
Download the deck for Magic Workstation: CLICK ME
Developed by Zvi Mowshowitz (you can follow him on Twitter @thezvi), Mythic Bant works as a pseudo-combo deck. Your goal is to ramp up with the 12 mana creatures into a beater creature and deal damage for the win. The reason I call it a pseudo-combo deck is that since you have no MB removal or counters, you can disregard most of what your opponent plays (though you should still be careful about walking into removal). Your creatures are supported by Finest Hour and Rafiq of the Many to further the beats on your opponent. Should your fat creatures fail to take down your opponent, you can fall back on your manlands to mop up your opponent's remaining life points.
I call this a pseudo-combo deck since it plays like a real combo deck but doesn't win in one turn. Instead of generating mana through rituals and spirit guides, your mana dorks fuel the way for your win conditions. In addition, should your onslaught be able to be defended against, you lack any sort of card advantage generation as well as lacking great top decks with 25% of your deck being a mana dork or Finest Hour.
The SB makes up for this by packing Jace, Negate, and Bant Charm. With these cards, you can add some control elementals and card fixing to make the deck more reactive to your opponent.
There's one threat to the deck that has popped up since it's birth, but the deck has evolved to eliminate it. Any guesses?
Says no to Baneslayer, Rafiq, Rhox War Monk, etc.
Don't think you've won if you've gotten that creature out versus this deck though. The deck now packs Mind Control to swipe the creature from opposing players.
Mythic Bant has placed in the top 8 at a large number of tournaments, which you can see by clicking here. It ended up taking 1st place at GPT Kuala Lumpur.
In short, it's a good deck that has the power to blow out if unmaintained early with enough gas to trudge through midgame. Late game, it can have problems if the opponent has a better field than you.
The deck costs $500 though. For extra emphasis, I will place it on its own line.
$500!!!!!!
Considering that most Magic the Gathering players lack (legal) ways of making that much money, Mythic Bant is not an option for them.
My mission was to create a Bant deck for under $100.
That's right, no Bankslaying in this deck folks.
Trading in the explosiveness of Mythic Bant, I took a page from Jund decks to make the deck work. Jund utilizes the cascade effects of Bloodbraid Elf to play an additional spell for free. While the card that flips up is random, it typically is a card like Blightning which provides further card advantage to the Jund player.
Bant offers two usable cascade spells: Ardent Plea and Captured Sunlight. I chose to go with Ardent Plea only since one and two drops are easier to make not random. I have two targets in the deck:
- Rampant Growth - You'll be pulling out two cards with a Plea: a basic land + Growth itself. You'll also be up one land.
- Trace of Abundance - Besides ramping, this card on a manland allows you to invest in a future untargettable win-condition.
Before I get too involved in talking about the deck, check out the deck entitled Bantvantage:
Download the deck for Magic Workstation: CLICK HERE
Besides Ardent Plea, the other main engine in this deck is Wargate. Early in the game, use it to ramp up your mana or stack your deck with Halimar Depths. Midgame, use Wargate to get more lands through Borderland Ranger or get a shrouded blocker with Calcite Snapper. Late game, search up Mind Control to answer win conditions, Oblivion Ring to remove problematic permanents, or Finest Hour/Battlegrace Angel to power out a win condition.
Wait..Battlegrace Angel?
It's better for this deck than Baneslayer Angel. I know I said this would be a budget deck, but that is not the reason. The main reason I say it's better is that it can help out the turn it comes out, especially with the previous example of Wargate. Plus, should it not get removed, it can continually boost attackers from the sideline, letting them swing lifelinked and exalted.
Kiss of the Amesha is here since Mind Spring is a no-go with cascade. Seven life is also not a bad deal. Snapper is here as a defender/attacker, but you can try Wall of Denial or Rhox War Monk as well.
Rest of the deck should be self-explanatory. Ramp up early, control the board midgame, then go for the kill late game.
I had the chance to test this using MWS Workstation to see how well it holds up. Here are the results:
Game 1 vs White Weenie:
He starts off with a great hand, going turn 1 Steppe Lynx followed by two Knights of the White Orchid. I'm able to ramp up, but unable to draw a Day of Judgment.
He does the Workstation Player Lost
UW Open the Vaults Combo:
G1
I start off well with a Stirring Wildwood and Rampant Growth while he sets up with lands and borderposts. Turn 5 I miss my land drop, but it doesn't hold me back. I'm able to land a Finest Hour and Stirring Wildwood beats for 9, putting him at 11. He digs with Sphinx of Lost Truths while I Kiss of the Amesha. I land a Calcite Snapper who slowly meanders in (he's a turtle, they're slow) exchanging with the Sphinx. He eventually Oblivion Rings the Finest Hour. Rounds of draw-go pass by until he gets the Open the Vaults he needed. Charged by Filigree Angel, he goes up to 42. I have the Day of Judgment for the first swarm. However, the second OtV he casts brings back Sanguine Bond which kills me.
Score: 0-1
SB: +1 Pithing Needle, +2 Knight-Captain of Eos, +1 Bojuka Bog / -1 Oblivion Ring, -3 Calcite Snapper (Not 100% sure on this one)
G2
I keep a hand with Wargate ready to fetch out a Bog should the opportunity present itself. I get out a Borderland Ranger and a Battlegrace Angel. Backed by Angel, Ranger swings in for 3, putting him at 17 and me at 23. He has an Oblivion Ring for the Angel and Journey to Nowhere for the Ranger though, so my plans are halted. I kiss up to 30 trying to get more beats. He eventually taps out for a Sphinx and Courier's Capsule. Behind my computer screen, I'm fist pumping more fiercely than Mike Flores since I cast Wargate into Bojuka Bog. Take that Knight of the Reliquary! With his graveyard out of commission, he casts two more Sphinxes to refill it. I DoJ his 3 Sphinxes, leaving him with a Celestial Colonnade. Over 6 turns, I fail to get any sort of answer to this colonnade.
Score: 0-2
UGW Cascading Allies:
G1
I start out with a T2 Rampant Growth, T3 Halimar Depths, and a T4 Calcite Snapper. He has a T2 Ondu Cleric, T3 Ardent Plea > Jwari Shapeshifter, and a T4 Ardent Plea > Harabaz Druid. I know the druid does bad things, so I cast a Day of Judgment to wipe the board. He follows up with a Hada Freeblade.
I lay down a Battlegrace Angel, but he's able to put it off a turn with Into the Roil. I attempt to recast it, but he has the permanent answer with Path to Exile this time. I kiss up while he sets up his board with an Enlisted Wurm > Harabaz Druid and a Captured Sunlight > Ardent Plea > Jwari Shapeshifter copying Hada Freeblade combo. I get down a Calcite Snapper and Wargate out a Battlegrace Angel to start swinging in uncontested.
The tide turns when I Mind Control an Enlisted Wurm, which prompts him to Day of Judgment. Things look bad when he gets out a Talus Paladin and a Jwari Shapeshifter, but I get out a Calcite Snapper to defend. He's able to start swinging in for near lethal due to exalted, which prompts him to day of Judgment once again. The power of Finest Hour seals the deal when I swing in twice with a Stirring Wildwood protected by Trace of Abundance.
Score: 1-0
SB: No Change
G2
This game is less epic since he mulls down to 4. He only gets two Ondu Cleric and a Jwari on the board, while I get a great push with T4 Battlegrace Angel, Kiss of the Amesha, and Finest Hour. I stomp him with 83 life.
Score: 2-0
RB Bloodchief Burn
G1
Doesn't start out so hot for me. He gets out two Bloodchief Ascensions his first two turns, while I am only able to get out a Calcite Snapper. After that, I draw into nothing and die a horrible burning death.
Score: 0-1
SB: -3 Day of Judgment / +3 Rhox War Monk
G2
This game is just ridiculous. He hits 4 consecutive Goblin Guides. I wasn't expecting creatures, so I had no removal MD. I draw a Rhox War Monk way too late and die a quick death.
Score: 0-2
MonoB Vampires
G1
I start well, hitting lands through a T3 Borderland Ranger and a T4 Ardent Plea. I see a T2 Bloodghast and a T3 Gatekeeper of Malakir, so I know he's playing Vamps. T5, I Wargate out a Calcite Snapper, but he has a Gatekeeper of Malakir for that also. I get out a Battlegrace Angel, and on the turn I get ready to swing, I get out an Ardent Plea which cascades into a Trace of Abundance, providing just enough mana to cast the Finest Hour in my hand. I swing with an 8/8 Battlegrace Angel, then a 12/12 Battlegrace Angel. With only a Gargoyle Castle protecting his life points and having a 20 + life point difference, he performs the classic Player Lost
___________
Summary:
As mild testing has shown, this deck has a great late game but a weak early game. Fast decks such as Red Deck Wins have a great game against this deck. I would recommend Bantvantage for metagames where you expect slow, control style decks and midrange decks.
That's it, thanks for checking it out. Also, the full Rise of Eldrazi spoiler is out, if you haven't seen it, the full version in text format should be out here in a few days: MTGSalvation
Till next time,
Follow me on Twitter at @shadowsketched
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