Hey there! I've been playing modern for a few years now and decided it's probably time to start looking at other decks to build and have been looking at bant company as a deck that looks really interesting. I decided to try out bant mostly because of the Tamiyo, Field Researcher spoiler along with the fact that I recently happened to have gotten a few cards for the deck (Voice of Resurgence, Knight of the Reliquary, Qasali Pridemage, a few other). I decided to take your deck as a place to start because you've got a lot written out about the deck as a primer, along with updates to the deck history and you've got all your recent changes being shown.

I was just wondering if I could get your help with trying to get a list together. I'm really interested in new tamiyo, but knowing very little about the archetype I really don't know how good she is. I'm also not sure which direction is better for the deck depending on the meta its in, should I go for the knightfall combo? Should I go for just CoCo value beatdown? Should I add some more tempo cards like Reflector Mage to the list? Is Tamiyo, Field Researcher even worth running? I plan on getting the full list eventually, so budget isn't really an issue for me (plus my brother works at a card shop and the owner lets me borrow cards for FNM for testing things).

But yea, if you have time to help out someone who's new to the archtype that would be awesome! If not, I've got your primer and your that I can consult since they both look awesome! Thank you so much! :)

Hey Nixin72 thanks for dropping by and for the kind words!

First let's tackle the Tamiyo, Field Researcher question.

I'll be completely honest, I've not given excessive thought to her in the archetype but I think that she could work. In general, I've been very pleased with my recent addition of Elspeth, Knight-Errant to the deck and I think that Tamiyo would largely fare the same. Playing these 4-mana planeswalkers is great against the field of midrange decks that are trying to jam 4 copies of Lightning Bolt or Path to Exile down your throat (they also conveniently dodge Abrupt Decay). My concern is that I'm not sure Tamiyo is better, or perhaps even as good as Elspeth in this sort of deck. I would consider using Quadrant Theory to try and evaluate the two cards. If you're unfamiliar this is a principle developed by Brian Wong of Limited Resources renown link here - article about Quadrant Theory.

• Developing - Here I feel that both cards are relatively even. Elspeth can generate tokens to help defend against attackers or she can take a Geist of Saint Traft to the skies for some major offense. Tamiyo is able to either tap down attackers and buy you more time or tap down blockers to put the pressure on early. I think that Tamiyo is more versatile here (given that both her abilities may be utilized on offense or defense), but Elspeth still seems more explosive. I think that I favor Elspeth though given her ability to affect an empty board.
• Parity - Here Tamiyo grants you the *potential* for real card advantage (particularly using her +1 the turn after her -2) but Elspeth guarantees *virtual* card advantage via her tokens. Both planeswalkers provide a form of evasion on stalled boards - Tamiyo's being wider reaching while Elspeth's is a more focused yet powerful effect. In the face of flying blockers, I think Tamiyo is slightly better at parity.
• Winning - To be honest, both planeswalkers are gas when you're ahead. If you're firing on all cylinders, Elspeth's pump ability will put the game away in short order. However, Tamiyo can tap down the last straggling chump blockers and allow you swing in for lethal. Once again, it seems like Tamiyo is better when you already have multiple other creatures while Elspeth can be just as effective with only one other creature.
• Losing - Here I think that Elspeth is the clear winner. If you're really losing, your opponent will probably just ignore Tamiyo, attack you and let you draw a couple of cards - what does it matter if they kill you? Tamiyo's -2 can definitely buy you time, but given the nature of it's negative loyalty, this is not a permanent solution. On the other hand, Elspeth comes down and can make a new chump blocker *every* turn and never die solely by using this stall tactic. Granted, a 1/1 soldier may not always be enough either, but it does provide you with longevity.

After looking at the two cards in more detail, I'm still not sure that there is a clear cut winner. I would say experiment with Tamiyo, Field Researcher as she certainly seems to have promise. She would theoretically play very well with Voice of Resurgence as your opponent will either have to let the Voice through and take their 2 damage while you draw cards or let you upgrade Voice into a bigger threat. Tamiyo would also make me want to try playing some copies of Brimaz, King of Oreskos, though at that point the mana-base starts becoming tricky.

I know that isn't a very decisive answer, but it gives you something to mull over.

Onto Knightfall Vs. CoCo:

To give you some history, I used to play a Melira Company deck when Collected Company first hit the scene. My eventual shift to Bant Company came on the heels of playing combos that were relatively easy to disrupt and ending up with useless combo pieces left over. Now I will fully admit that both Knight of the Reliquary and Retreat to Coralhelm are generally more useful than something like Melira, Sylvok Outcast. That being said, I very much like the redundancy of the value style company decks - you typically have some sort of interaction for most scenarios and your Collected Companys become much more consistent. I don't like the fact that you need to untap with Knight to generate any value given how succeptible she is to common removal (Path, Terminate and Abrup Decay, plus the occasional Bolt). I do genuinely believe that if you are playing a deck with creatures that cost less than and exclude Collected Company you are making a mistake. The card is very powerful. WIth that in mind, I would be hesitant playing 3 copies (what I've seen to be the consensus number) of Retreat to Coralhelm since they inherently weaken your CoCo's.

Reflector Mage

I think that Reflector Mage would be a fantastic addition, in certain metas. In particular, he seems powerful against decks that are slightly more midrange than Bant Company that also happen to be playing creatures with which they can block. In other words, Abzan or Jund - decks where we would be the aggressor and can generally get within a turn or two of winning but get stymied by a stubborn Siege Rhino or Tarmogoyf standing in our way. It would also be great against Phyrexian Obliterator!

I could see playing 2 copies in the sideboard and maybe trimming one Birds of Paradise and one Dromoka's Command in those matches. What are your thoughts?

Wow, thank you so much for that in depth reply! I'd heard about the quadrant theory before, but I'd never read an article explaining everything so specifically like that one, so thank you for that. I definitely feel as if your evaluation of tamiyo is incredibly fair, yea elsepth is probably better. However I wonder if you could argue a slightly better case for tamiyo in a knightfall list, just since she helps you dig for the combo. I think it would be worth testing if I were to go knightfall.

Now the list run by Eli Kassis that was piloted to a 5th place finish at GP charlotte is actually running the knightfall combo and CoCo, which seems ideal to me, I don't know. But it's also not running elspeth. Again, I'll probably test dozens of iterations.

As for Reflector Mage, his effect as a one time thing seems underwhelming after testing him out a bit. I proxied up a list running 3 of him plus Eternal Witness and Eldrazi Displacer (which by the way is incredibly fun, I had a matchup against death and taxes and that was probably the most fun, most confusing game of magic I'd ever played :P ) and he just didn't do a whole lot. Sideboard is probably where he's best, bring him in against midrange decks, infect or anything that has slower threats. He's Definitely a lot better in standard, I feel like he's a worse remand in modern.

Like I said, I've proxied the deck out and so far I really love it. It's got dozens of different lines of play every single turn and it's a deck that is keeping both you and your opponent constantly on their toes. Definitely a deck I want to continue building and taking some time to learn how to play everything out, it's really fun.

my decklist is just Bant Midrange (until I can find a more creative name for it), let me know your thoughts. It's a pretty generic list right now, but I want to test out all sorts of different things to find an approach I really like. I feel like there's just so much you can do with the basic bant shell, which is something that you can't do with burn and zoo, (which are the two decks I currently own) so I feel like this deck is gonna be really fun for me since I love brewing almost as much as playing.

Again, thank you so much! I really appreciate all your help!