I've been wanting to build a Bant deck for years now, and I finally felt like it could fit my playstyle with the enchantment creatures. Eidolon of Countless Battles is the true hero here, he turn almost any decent board state into a win in this deck. The idea is to have hexproof platforms for great enchantments, but to have enough midrange options to recover from wipes, edicts, or hand disruption. Evasiveness and lifelink usually let you ignore everything else your opponent is doing while you beat them down.
At first glance this seems like a very straightforward bad aggro hexproof deck, but in the current meta it's been a pretty solid midrange-ish deck that capitalizes on knowledge of what your opponent is doing or can do. You have to make sure that you're going hard enough against the decks that it's safe to do so against, while holding back just the right amount and playing around other decks.
Sideboarded indestructibility helps against wipes, as does the bestow creature(s).
Selesnya Charm is mainboarded specifically because of how common Far / Away, Devour Flesh, and
Celestial Flare
are in the meta right now. It allows me to easily spawn a guy to sacrifice in response (or in
Celestial Flare
's case, to hang buddy with), as well as removal for their threats or gods, and a possible trample win condition if necessary.
Spell Rupture
is also in the sideboard in case Selesnya Charm isn't enough, as well as being an extremely versatile card in this deck (thanks rubeerubin and DocMan).
Suggestions are welcome, especially JOU cards that I may have overlooked. I've removed
Trollhide
and Indestructibility from the sideboard in favor of
Ajani's Presence
. Any suggestions to fill out the rest of the sideboard?
Matchups
Monoblack Devotion
So far monoblack devotion hasn't been a problem. You need to make sure to always play two creatures before loading one of them up with enchantments. Having a Selesnya Charm in hand before making big play with one creature is a good idea as well. Otherwise your threats and lifelink will snowball much harder than their own, so it's usually a pretty easy win. Your hand should be pretty resilient to disruption as long as you have more than one platform to start with (you'll draw enchantments). If necessary you can board more counterspells or Detention Sphere if you're worried about Erebos, God of the Dead or Pack Rat.
-2
Witchstalker
+2
Spell Rupture
Control (Esper, Azorious, America, etc)
Just play carefully the first game, while still being aggressive. Drop early threats with Gladecover Scout and
Bassara Tower Archer
. Keep an eye out for Cyclonic Rift and Supreme Verdict the first game by never committing more than one creature to the board. Play around counterspells by only dropping your lifelink enchantments when you're sure they'll land.
-3 Selesnya Charm+3
Spell Rupture
if Cyclonic Rift+3
Ajani's Presence
if Supreme Verdict
The rest of your games against them will be leaving mana open for
Ajani's Presence
in response to verdict, or making sure to leave mana open to counter Cyclonic Rift. Other than those two cards your threats will beat them on their own.
Aggro (Mono-black, burn, etc)
Just race them. You just need to land
Gift of Orzhova
or
Unflinching Courage
and you win. You may want to board in
Spell Rupture
vs burn or non-creature spell heavy decks, but it's really just going to be a race. It's possible for you to beat them on the play before they beat you, but more likely it's going to be your lifelink that gets you out of range too fast. Sideboarding will be situational.
I'll add more matchup tech as I come up against decks that require it.
