Discussion Forum

1. Bant Charm isn't as efficient at any of those cards at doing the things it does...but it does all of them. Not a single one, all of them. So, it's very flexible when you need it to be.
2. No clue.
3. It depends. If we're talking the Mythic deck (which happens to be Bant colored) then no, Mythic's one of the best and Soldiers is like Tier 2 or 3.
4. If you're playing casual, Clarion seems like a fine card. In competitive? Not so much.
5. Again, Bant isn't very specific, it really depends what you're trying to do. Still, there are always good cards in those three colors that don't have Exalted, especially since we still don't know what format you're talking about.

[QUOTE=wd40]I'm starting up MTG again, and i've been going through a couple of test decks. Bant looks pretty cool, but i was wondering about a few things.

1. Most of the bant decks that i see use Bant Charm, but i don't really see the use of this card. Can someone explain why this card is so good?
-There's alot cheaper bounce cards, quasali pridemage can get rid of artifacts, and there are cheaper counters for instants.
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Versatility, plain and simple. A single card that can remove a creature (and removing is far better then killing, think indestructable), destroy and artifact or be a counter all in one. If every card in your hand was equally versitile then it would be hard to loose. Many games are lost because you don't have the corrent answer in hand for the problem that presents itself. Bant Charm is up there with Vindicate, Mealstrom Pulse and the likes. It's the best of the charms. If you don't see it in a competitive deck it is probably because at a mana cost of 3 with 3 different colors it's slow but in casual multiplayer games for instance it's a beats.

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3. Is standard soldiers a better deck than Exalted Bant?
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Exalted is about to rotate out of standard. If you care about such things.

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4. Is it ever worth it to have Clarion Ultimatum in the deck?
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depends. In tournament play it's aweful but in multiplayer I know a guy who runs it in a planeswalker multiplayer deck and it's pretty brutal when he plays it. Doubling his mana base isn't bad for instance.

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5. I'm very hesitant to put any creatures that dont have exalted in the deck, but are there any that are a MUST for bant?
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Exalted isn't all that, lets face it, you can only attack with one creature which is a huge limitation. Noble Hierarch has been proven to be the exception, she is raw power. Rafiq is pretty bad ass as well. Qasali Pridemage is very good for many reasons, mostly because he kills enchantments and artifact in a creature shell.
In a casual game I enjoy Knotvine Paladin as well.

I run a bant deck myself, and I find bant charm to be fairly useless.

If I were you, I'd put very few non-exalted cards in this deck, unless you want to use the eldrazi conscription + sovereigns of lost alara combo or use a stoic angel.

As far as exalted goes, the best combo is to get battlegrace angel, rafiq of the many, and finest hour IMO.