Discussion Forum

alright, tips for anything in the format right now running bant colors.
1. Run path (check)
2. Run rafiq (check)
3. Run some control. even if it's just enough to keep your opponent guessing. You have the blue, use it! (sorry, little carried away there)
4. Noble Hierarch. full playset, and you can swing with it for 3 on turn 2, which is kinda amazing (turn one Hierarch, turn 2 Hierarch, hierarch, swing with the first for 3 XD)

Now, a few questions. does your metagame have so many artifacts and enchantments to warrant mainboarding naturalize? Or can it be moved to side, to make room for something with a more general use? Is this a deck you'd like to keep just alara block and tenth, or are you willing to dabble in some lorwyn-shadowmoor? (finks? maybe?)

alright, I'll stop typing, this is actually the solid groundwork for a deck, just needs some tweaking, no major issues at all. I like it.

This is what I have done so far

I actually took out the 2 Benedictions, the 2 Naturalize and dropped 1 archer for 3x Rhox Charger and a 4th Sigiled Paladin.

I think I had 4 wins and 4 loses at my last FNM

The deck is getting better, but I definitely want 2-3 Battlegrace Angels. Not sure what I would cut out for the angels. Nor am I sure what I would cut to put in the Infiltrators. So far Running 2 Rafiq's has been working out.

As for the noble hierarchs, I would run them if I could get ahold of any for a decent amount/trade.

I was also thinking about using some Jehessian infiltrators.

8 round fnm? jeez....I'm lucky to hit 5 at the stores i go to. you might consider running Battlegrace Angel as a 2 or 3 of. It's fun, it's got flying, and it gives lifelink. With Rafiq, it's deadly.

[QUOTE=NightLoki]8 round fnm? jeez....I'm lucky to hit 5 at the stores i go to. you might consider running Battlegrace Angel as a 2 or 3 of. It's fun, it's got flying, and it gives lifelink. With Rafiq, it's deadly.[/QUOTE]

No it was only a 4 round FNM, but I played some extra games prior and after.

Yeah, I want to run some BGA's but I just need to get ahold of some. If I can get 2-3 of them and 3-4 Noble Hierarchs, I think I can work with hat.

ah, i see, that makes a little more sense then. If you can, 4 NH and 2 BGAs would be perfect for your deck. A big if (especially since she just rose in price thanks to this deck type) is elspeth, if you could get a hold of one. Works so well with exalted. +3/+3 flying, swing for X?
but yeah, the BGAs and NHs will really help you out. swap out court archers for one of those, it's not doin' ya much good I'm afraid
as for Rhox charger, I think kitchen finks would do ya better in that respect. Sorry I'm naming all these expensive cards, but there's a reason they're expensive ^^;;
What's your list now?

[QUOTE=NightLoki]ah, i see, that makes a little more sense then. If you can, 4 NH and 2 BGAs would be perfect for your deck. A big if (especially since she just rose in price thanks to this deck type) is elspeth, if you could get a hold of one. Works so well with exalted. +3/+3 flying, swing for X?
but yeah, the BGAs and NHs will really help you out. swap out court archers for one of those, it's not doin' ya much good I'm afraid
as for Rhox charger, I think kitchen finks would do ya better in that respect. Sorry I'm naming all these expensive cards, but there's a reason they're expensive ^^;;
What's your list now?[/QUOTE]

I am still trying to track down some Noble Hierarch's Nobody around here is willing to sell/trade for them and my local shop is out. Looks Like the internet is my only option to get some. I got 1 BGA today, still looking for a second.

I really don't like Kitchen Finks for this deck. I think the Chargers work better overall due to being exalted with trample. I am actually not a big fan of the planewalkers. I actually just gave a Jayce to a friend of mine because he needed a second one and I knew I didn't care to use him. Elspeth would be "good" but I don't think would be game breaking in this deck either way, especially since most 5CC decks run at least on pithing needle.

I have not bothered changing my deck yet due to still looking for cards for it, but I am also planning on running some counter-spells now, primarily Broken Ambitions and Negates

On the rhox charger vs finks aspect, i will concede then. It's really a matter of playstyle choice on those anyways. But yeah, anyways, how's your manabase looking? this is one of those decks that you need need need a consistent manabase every time. (wow, I sound like such a....pr*ck)

[QUOTE=NightLoki]On the rhox charger vs finks aspect, i will concede then. It's really a matter of playstyle choice on those anyways. But yeah, anyways, how's your manabase looking? this is one of those decks that you need need need a consistent manabase every time. (wow, I sound like such a....pr*ck)[/QUOTE]

With the lands I am currently running, I always have enough mana it seems. This will only be helped if I can ever get a hold of some Noble Hierarchs, they are like the Holy Grail of Bant cards at the moment.

Ok... I managed to get a hold of 3 Noble Hierarchs and re-vamped the deck a wee bit:

Here is the current Cinfiguration

Creatures
2x Rafiq of the Many
3x Noble Hierarch
1x Battlegrace Angel
4x Mulldrifter
4x Rhox War monk
4x Sigiled Paladin
4x Jehessian Infiltrator
1x Akrasan Squire

Spells
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Path to Exile
4x Broken Ambitions
1x Negate

Lands
4x Seaside Citadel
3x Ancient Ziggurat
3x Terramorphic Expanse
5x Forest
5x Plains
4x Island

Sideboard
3x Negate
4x Cancel
4x Remove Soul
4x Naturalize

At last nights FNM I went 1-2 in the first round vs. a red/black, burn/discard deck.

I got my opponent to sub-10 life each loss, but as fast as I play cards I never had a hand, and he was able to take care of my creatures. Even sideboarding out for a few more counters, he got me, but that was due to being mana screwed for some reason.

In the first loss I didn't get my first green mana until turn 7 and I had all white or white using spells for the most part. Then in the second loss it was the opposite, I had plenty of white mana but all green creatures. None of my Teramorphic Expanses or Noble Hierarchs hit the table in either loss.

Next round I faced off against a red/blue/green beefy creature deck, but I won 2-0 handily due to getting early round Rafiques and Infiltrators, and his mana gen getting screwed.

Third round I went 2-1 vs an elf/token deck. All three games were relatively close ones. First game I beat him with 12 health left. Second game I managed to get up to 29 health at one point, but was getting all land draws and he eventually wore me down, but not before I got him to 2 health. Then the third round was a stalemate for a long time, but I got to 48 health at one point then had a Mulldrifter hitting for 6/6 doublestike (12 total damage) that he couldn't block and he conceded the game but he did get me down from 48 to 17 health.

Final round I pretty much had no chance and went 0-2. I was going against a modified 5CC deck against our local pro player. He came up with this deck on his own where it uses 2 copies of Elspeth, Liliana Vess, Garruk Wildspeaker, Jace Belerin, and Sarkhan Vol, and then he runs with 4 copies of Ajani Vengent, and then he uses a bunch of those lands with the tokens and double mana producers. The deck works by playing cryptic command, Wrath of Gods, Ajani Vengent's land destrucion abilities, and then using massive Banefire's to finish you off. Both losses I got him to 8 health, but by that time he had more than enough mana and had slowed me down enough to Banefire me to death. First loss I had 28 health and he burned me down, second game I had 24 health and he had enough for a 60 point burn. I am at a loss for words what I can do against this particular deck... I even asked him for suggestions and he had none, he hasn't lost with that deck yet.

So once again, I had a mediocre outing. When the deck was rolling it worked great, but without having much counter-control to play with... Control, Discard, and Burn still hurt me a lot. I am hoping a second battlegrace angel and a fourth Noble Hierarch will help somewhat, but other than that, I am at a loss as to how to combat Burn and 5CC.

You wanna know how you kill burn? Finks. Finks kills me every time (BR Unearth deck). Well, not every time, but it is really annoying. I'd say when you get the cards, sub squire for hierarch, negate for BGA, take the cancels out of your sideboard, and swap Jhessian Infiltrators for Finks. As for the SB slots left open...Burrenton Forge-Tender for starters, cuz that doesn't help burn either. If you're really worried about the BR matchup, I'd consider siding Celestial Purge. Oh, and unless your metagame's really artifact/enchantment heavy, don't run 4 Naturalize in the board. Run 2 max

'Ello, Lurker-turned-registered-user here. Was reading up on Bant strategies across the world of Google and stumbled on to this.

Still working out the kinks in my Bant deck, but I've gotten a few cards that've worked really well for me.

Knotvine Paladin - It gains another +1/+1 for each of your untapped creatures.

Finest Hour - Untap your single attacker, it retains all of it's previous exalteds; now, you attack alone again, and all of them stack again!

Behemoth Sledge - This one's a wee bit pricey, but it's nice to get lifelink out on a specific attacker, as well as trample and the +2/+2 doesn't hurt (well, you anyway Xp).

View From Above - Thematically, this one seemed odd to me at first, something I threw in my Bant deck for some use at one of those tournaments where I was given an intro pack and a booster from the other two expansions this block. And in all actuality, it's proven worth its use, a cheap, replayable way to do direct damage with the one attacker each round.

As a closing note, keep in mind that until 2010 rules come into effect in July, Lifelink will stack for each source it comes from. So if you play Ronx War Monk as your attacker, have two Battlegrace Angels in play, as well as have Behemoth Sledge attached to the war monk, it'll do it's damage, and you'll get four applications of lifelink back to your own life. Even if its blocked. If nothing else, it's quite demoralizing to an opponent to watch your pull out a third d20 to keep track of your life score.

To close, one more scenario of multiple life link.

In play, you have a Knotvine Paladin, two Battlegrace Angels, Rafiq of the Many, Finest Hour, two Court Archers, and a Noble Hierarch. Knotvine Paladin attacks alone, with a base 2/2. From exalteds, he gains +7/+7. If all your other creatures are untapped, he gains another +7/+7. That's 16/16 to eat up a blocker or beat your opponent senseless, twice now with Rafiq. That's 32 damage to your opponent or a blocker. And you get 32 health. Now, with Finest Hour, you untap Knotvine Paladin, and he can attack alone again in a second combat phase. His ability, and the exalteds stack again, as you declare him to be your only attacker a second time. Now he's a 30/30. With double strike and lifelink.

Doesn't that make you wish he had that lovely trample from the Behemoth Sledge to trample with? ~_^

EDIT:

Two more I forgot.

The Clarion Ultimatum - Also expensive, but you could use it to put five more exalted cards into play from your library. Right before your attack phase, if you have the creatures in play to do it, you can add another +5/+5 to your exalted attacker. Downfall is they come into play tapped, so they don't add anything more to your Knotvine Paladin. At least not this turn. Also, keep in mind if you run out of creatures, you can blow a remaining permanent target on a land card or something you have in play.

Wargate - Search your deck for a card, and you only have to pay its converted mana cost. Good for getting some of the more situational encounters into play, but it also is pretty pricey. To cast Clarion Ultimatum in this fashion is a ridiculous 10 mana. But, in the early game, if you can pay just the three mana, one for each of Bant's colors, you can grab a non-basic land from your library, and as the card says it goes right to play, it's a free land card that turn to get a big five cost card, like Finest Hour or Battlegrace Angel out on turn four. Assuming, you're not playing Rafiq out on that turn.

Sorry for the edit and such, as well as the tl;dr. But hey, this is my favorite part of the game: bouncing strategies around.