Sideboard

Artifact (3)

Unknown (1)

  • 1x reclaimation sage

Introduction

My favorite color combo is Bant. My favorite deck was an Innistrad block standard Bant list I created. That deck list is here. I did pretty well with it. I won an FNM or two. Above all, though, it was super fun.

When the Mirrodin block rotated out, I just stopped paying MTG. I did not want to keep up on Standard. Too much money. Modern was relatively new I believe and the card pool just felt inaccessible to me at the time. Same with Legacy. So I left MTG.

Return to MTG

I returned in 2015 right when Oath of the Gatewatch set came out. Still squeamish about Standard and with rotations about to become even faster, I decided to jump into Modern. There I felt I could dust off my Bant list, sit on it for a while and have fun. Not so. While I had been gone I learned that key cards in the list had been banned. I also learned that the ramp strategy I used which included Rampant Growth may have been good in Innistrad standard, but certainly not Modern. Way too slow. Modern decks easily kill by turn 4, if not sooner. So decided I had to move on from Bant.

What Next?

I went for Infect. I got the netdeck UG list together and played that for a bit. And while it's obviously a great deck, it felt alittle boring. There really weren't too many things to do to the deck by way of customizing and brewing to make it better, once I had all the typical UG parts. It's kind of a closed system unless some new amazing pump spell gets released. And a big part of the fun of Magic to me is brewing.

Next I moved to UWR Control. That list is here. UWR is definitely a complete shell, but I felt maybe there was a little more room to brew. I tried a few iterations of UWR such as this, and this. Ultimately, though, my brews just seemed like worse versions of the more established UWR shell. And of course this is the case. I'm not a pro. There are reasons archetypes exist and rogue decks that break into metas are pretty rare. So I got a little discouraged and stopped playing for a couple months.

A New Direction

But just the other day I was reminiscing about Bant. I realized that a big part of what made my Bant deck back in Innistrad so fun was the flexibility. It had lots of lines of play. It had room to grow. It had colors I liked. And it could use killer cards like Green Sun's Zenith and Ponder to get you gas when you needed it. The digging power gave the whole package room to work. Some lists also used Birthing Pod of course which dramatically increased the responsiveness and flexibility to strangle the opponent's game.

I was trying to think what could make Bant good. Since Green Sun's Zenith, Ponder, and Birthing Pod were banned, and they were probably the three cards that could make my old Bant list more viable, I wondered what could approximate them? Those cards get you things you need at any point in a game. And then it hit me. Collected Company is the key. It's not as precise as the GSZ or pod, sure. And it does have the potential to totally brick. But it trades that drawback with the fact that it's instant and it gets two things instead of one. Coupling that with "enter the battlefield" effects, and it can get you a lot things in one play.

Conclusion

So there you have it. Below is my iteration of Bant. I know there are better lists right now with Knights of the Reliquary and Retreat to Coralhelm butI'm going to give this a shot. I'm going to jam some familiar Bant goodness into a Company shell. Maybe I'll even cram my boy Venser, the Sojourner an the list. I see as I'm writing this that Bant Company placed well in Charlotte GP in May 2016. Who knows, maybe there's room for this archetype to grow! I may try out a Knighfall build here as well at some point. For now,

Bant company.

**Please note, this list is comprised of cards I actually own and none of what I don't.

Archetype

Fundamentally this deck follows a midrange beatdown gameplan. The goal is generally to kill the opponent with lots of mid-size creatures, or one very large creature. That said, it's certainly possible to eek out the last bit of damage with an exalted Birds of Paradise in a pinch!

There are three pieces of tech that make the deck tick. First, Manadorks like Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch provide ramp to get out our 3cmc mid-sized creatures on turn two and get to work. Since we play , card draw is also available via Serum Visions to smooth out draws. Serum Visions also happens to allow for some library fixing to better ensure positive hits on Collected Company. I cut visions in this current build, but it is possible to add as needed. Thirdly, while most of our creatures are just heavy hitters, some creatures that we run actually have some pretty devastating disruption effects on the opponent. Fiend Hunter and Reflector Mage offer fantastic tempo swings in our favor, doing decent work against aggro. Voice of Resurgence of course is a huge problem for decks like Burn, Delver, and even Jund. Spellskite is also a favorite disruptive creature and works wonders against Infect. These disruptions can also essentially be played at instant speed with the likes of Chord of Calling or even Collected Company. Most opponents will not be able to predict an instant Chord of Calling fetching a Fiend Hunter to o-ring their attacking threat. Once I chorded up a Knight of the Reliquary in response to attacks to block as a 5/5. Opponent did not see it coming. Had the Knightfall combo on my next turn. All of these disruptive creatures and combined utilities enable the beatdown plan to occur faster and more consistently.

There are a few ways to achieve our goal which we will explore in the next sections.

Stick an Early Geist

The most obvious beatdown plan is simply to drop a turn two Geist of Saint Traft. He's a four turn clock if unanswered. The opponent will need to answer. And it's not easy given hexproof and 4/4 in the air. While the opponent is dealing with him you'll have time to set up your next stage of assault.

Go Wide

The next beatdown option is to achieve an explosive turn 3 and 4 wide board state with Collected Company getting more mid-sized creatures like Blade Splicer, Giest of Saint Traft (if you hadn't already), Knight of the Reliquary and/or Loxodon Smiter. Two or three of these creatures starts a two or three turn clock if unanswered.

Knightfall Combo

Another line of attack is going to be the Knightfall combo. For those unfamiliar, Knightfall is a two-card combo requiring only Retreat to Coralhelm and Knight of the Reliquary on the battlefield to go off. Essentially the combo goes like this: Knight of the Reliquary can tap to sac a forest or plains to get another land on the battlefield. As you do so, Retreat to Coralhelm landfall triggers, allowing you to untap Knight of the Reliquary and do it again. You can do this over and over putting many lands into the graveyard. This grows the Knight of the Reliquary very large. Once you've made it sufficiently large, you can finally get something like Kessig Wolf Run to give it trample. Or you can make it get Sejiri Steppe to give it protection from a color. Then you swing with a giant knight and hopefully win. There are many other lines of play throughout this combo process that can be rather complex. For example before the knight sacs a land, you can tap it for mana. That lets you do other things as needed while the combo goes off. There is also a way to stack Retreat to Coralhelm triggers to do cool things while it goes off. It's a great little combo requiring very little to become deadly.

Prime Time

The final beatdown strategy would be to ramp and go wide with Collected Company to flash convoke Primeval Titan into play. While not an automatic game-over for the opponent, Primeval Titan's land tutoring effect can be backbreaking in a deck like this. He can get Gavony Township, Kessig Wolf Run, Ghost Quarter, or even Inkmoth Nexus. Anything we need really to push forward. And with Retreat to Coralhelm benefiting from landfall triggers, the possibilities open up moving us closer to the win.

Defense

You might be wondering at this point, the plan sounds great, but how do we protect ourselves? What stops an opponent from ruining our day? Well there are a few answers to the question really.

First, the deck simply doesn't care much about the opponent. There are so many options that usually we dont run out of gas. There are lots of lines of play that we can just barrel forward with threat after threat.

Second, we can certainly use our creatures thoughtfully. We might try to put out a screen with Blade Splicer and bait responses. Or stick a fake-out early Giest of Saint Traft which must be answered. While the opponent is distracted, we combo off with Kightfall. But we can switch back to Geist if need be. There's nothing better than a distraction that can just as easily win games for us quickly. Additionally, but not as consistently, we can tutor some utility creatures. Chord or Company in a Wall of Omens, Reflector Mage, Reflector Mage, Fiend Hunter, Spell Skite, or whatever is needed.

We do also typically run some number of Path to Exile in the mainboard. Also, since we splash for Kessig Wolf Run, it's not too tough to run Lightning Bolt. Just try not to dip creature counts below 24 or 25 otherwise Collected Company becomes less relevant.

Finally, because we have access to and , there are a lot of lock-out options for the sideboard. We can always side in a counterspell and denial package for games 2 and 3.

All in all BantCo is a white-knuckle deck. It prefers the old saying, offense is the best defense.

Conclusion

That's the overview of the gameplan. It's straightforward in theory. But it's highly nuanced in gameplay. There are significant decision points at the beginning and middle of the game that can dramatically impact outcomes. I like to think of the deck as fundamentally stompy with some degree of headiness to it. The thinking person's beatdown deck.

Suggestions

Updates Add

3-1 Modern Wednesday tournament.

0-2 vs Storm

Game 1: I had mana problems. Conceded at turn 5 with two lands in play.

Game 2: More mana problems. Hit land drops just no fetches. Hit nexus, township, and steppe. Opponent dropped Blood Moon and I scooped.

2-1 vs RG Tron

Game 1: opponent couldn't find Tron. I beat face with Elspeth, Knight-Errant and a flying 5/5 Voice of Resurgence.

Game 2: opponent got Tron quickly and dropped Ugin, Wurmcoil, and oblivion stone in that order. I almost had the combo. Played Collected Company end of his fifth turn and couldn't find Knight of the Reliquary. I scooped.

Game 3: Nailed the combo on turn three. Opponent wasn't super familiar with it. I demonstrated the combo and after one loop he conceded. Opponent later told me he had Tron in hand with Karn Liberated.

Successfully raced Tron. Very happy with that. No Ghost Quarter needed.

2-1 vs BR vampires

Game 1: Tempo early game with Fiend Hunter snatching lords. Hit the combo on turn five or six end of turn with Collected Company. Began to combo off on my turn. The opponent was tapped out. I asked whether he'd like for me to complete the combo or just demonstrate it once. He insisted that I complete the combo, which I agreed to. I was a little nervous because the Knightfall combo is rather complex. It can get messed up of done incorrectly, especially later in the game when lands have already been played. But I went on with it. The process lasted for a good ten minutes until my opponent suddenly said stop. He explained that he had just realized Knight of the Reliquary was played off a Collected Company at the end of his turn. He didn't know I could swing. He conceded.

Game 2: Grinded this game out. Got our life totals down to 2-1 in the opponent's favor. I had the win with an unblockable Mirran Crusader on the board, but he played a vampire card that let his 0/1 vampires get flying and +3/+3 or something. Flew over and nabbed the win.

Game 3: another grindy game. I'm not complaining. BR vampires intends to be fast so grinding out a game against them is actually good and increases our inevitability. Controlled the board and won over the top with +6/+6 double strike Mirran Crusader.

2-0 vs Jund

Both games I played well and the deck played well. Kept the opponent's board in check. Matched incremental card advantage move for move. Stayed ahead on damage. Eventually shut it down both games. Great match up.

4th place overall

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Revision 8 See all

(5 years ago)

+1 Blessed Alliance side
-1 Burrenton Forge-Tender side
+2 Courser of Kruphix main
+3 Damping Sphere side
-2 Eidolon of Rhetoric side
-1 Forest main
-3 Geist of Saint Traft main
-1 Ghost Quarter side
+1 Hallowed Fountain main
-2 Izzet Staticaster side
+2 Loxodon Smiter main
+1 Misty Rainforest main
-1 Path to Exile main
-2 Reclamation Sage side
+1 Scavenging Ooze main
+1 Settle the Wreckage side
+1 Temple Garden main
-1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar main
-1 Tireless Tracker main
+1 Unified Will side
and 23 other change(s)
Date added 7 years
Last updated 5 years
Legality

This deck is not Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

45 - 6 Rares

9 - 7 Uncommons

2 - 1 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.41
Tokens Elemental */* GW
Folders Modern
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