MTG Salvation

So I've been trying out a couple things in some Leagues. I've switched back to Matter Reshapers instead of Skyspawners and have been finding them useful in the Shadow matchups (which I'm seeing often enough to justify it). I'm also testing a Rhonas the Indomitable in the main and a Gideon Jura in the SB. I'm finding them all to be helping quite a bit, but I don't have nearly enough sample size to draw reasonable conclusions. Has anyone tried any of these to more results?

Ewit + Displacer is great! I played against a Bant Knightfall deck. Kept bouncing and path-ing 3 of their creatures in 1 turn. Glorious.

Quote from Gryphicus »

Quote from janusfcb »

I think people would love to see you sweat on camera More than that, people would probably prefer to see a (outdated) list more than anything

By the way, if I wanna make this thread a actual primer, who do I contact?

Oh please! We are long overdue for a proper primer with detailed match-up analysis. I'm also creating a small application that will be able to simulate opening hands(based on deck composition) and calculate whether they are mana starved/flooded (taking into account mana dorks, ancient stirrings and the like) and what % of time this occurs. I did that in the past for an abzan eldrazi brew I was creating, if useful and I get some time to work on it, I will post the results here

That sounds extremely interesting and helpful!

Quote from janusfcb »

Is a complete and in-depth primer something people would like me to do? If I were to commit the tons of hours it would take to make detailed matchup-analysis, banners, stats and so on, I would like some more commitment from the Bant Eldrazi community in here as well (since I will start committing myself more). I'm thinking about starting to share my personal stats on a regular basis, look for interesting takes on Bant Eldrazi (especially with the new MTGO weekly championships that will launch this may. Here WOTC will post top 32 decklists eah week, and I expect Bant Eldrazi to be there at least quite often). I will probably also start to play in the competitive leagues solely since that will give the best information on how the deck is performing in the present meta and so on.

I would also need someone to correct the primer grammar wise and so on since I'm not a native English speaker... I would also need some input from some of the better Bant Eldrazi players in here. Even though I view myself as quite experienced with the deck, I don't have a GP/STC-open top 32 to show for it, and I bet that others in here has.

You should! I don't know how i can contribute or help but commitment is not an issue, since i'm at 95% of a foiled Bantdrazi deck and don't have any other decks to play with. lol

You definitely should! I mean, just look at DSJ's primer, we need something like that! I 100% support the idea and I'm willing to share all relevant testing as well

How can we get a banner done?

I would love to see a primer janusfcb. I enjoy your intelligent posts and respect your opinion. I would be willing to help by sharing my match data and help with the grammar of your primer. This thread was invaluable to me when i started playing this deck and I would love to see it go to the next level. Count me in.

Tested nest invader. It WOULD have been perfect for the deck if EE weren't so important. In a build without EE (but why would you) I would definitely consider it for the added consistency, but for practical purposes it doesn't make the cut - we want the 2cmc hole.

Batterskull has continued to be a good sideboard card. There are certain matchups where if it resolves you simply cannot lose. Plus lots of players don't expect it and aren't prepared to answer it.

Another card to test is Reflector Mage. It's potentially better than Ewit because the vast majority of time Ewit's only good when you can recur paths, but Reflector Mage does a really good impersonation of this and is almost always active (vs Ewit is only active when there's something in the graveyard). Turn 1 dork -> Turn 2 Mage bounce your creature -> Turn 3 Displacer displace Mage is GROSS. A key matchup where you can tell the difference between these two is burn. A turn 2 Reflector on the play is really strong.

Good try Janus but i think we could find a better one? I remember there was a thread helping guys to create banners. I'll try to look for it.

Anyway, how is running w 2x ewit? Jap foiled deck?? Tats sick!

I still nd the fetches, 2x brushland n 2 caverns.. hoping bantdrazi stays relevant..

Did some testing with Reflector mage. It is the REAL DEAL and better than eternal witness in this meta. 2-4x Reflector mage between mainboard and sideboard means that the mage-displacer combo comes up a lot of the time.

Reflector mage into Thought-knot is also a form of exile removal.

In this meta, Reflector mage will be sided in over Drowner of hope in the vast majority of T1 matchups: Storm, Elves, Affinity, Burn, Dredge... It is the form of cheap interaction that allows us to compete with these fast decks. It's also great in the mirror.

I gave it a shot:





I replaced the mana symbols for a lone black and white Bant Charm as I think they overloaded the image. I see two problems with my banner, let me know what you guys think: 1. It makes little reference to Bant colors (no Hierarchs/Displacer/Drowner), and I'm still not convinced about the font I used. If you guys like it I can put some more work into it

Tried adding some more elements. I really liked the idea of putting Stirrings instead of eye. Also, I tried changing Endless One for World Breaker since, even though he isn't part of the stock list, he's literally a green spaghetti monster with masterpiece Hallowed Fountain in the background. Can't bant much more.

There's no doubt that Ewit is the better card if we are allowed the time to abuse it. I have sung its praises before and believe it to be a strong card against any deck looking to go past turn 5. Ewit is probably better than Rmage against GBx, Shadow, UW control (mostly >50/50 matchups). However, those decks aren't the decks we're being pushed out by: Storm, Elves, Dredge, etc.

Against super fast decks like elves or affinity, we just need SOME form of interaction, because we can reasonably stabilize against 1/1s most of the time. The key against those decks is to get them off of payoffs like Master / Overseer / Ezuri / Archmage, at least until we can find a more permanent stabilization like worship. If we've already resolved a path or EE, we're on our way to stabilizing. Ewit doesn't help us to stabilize if one of those hasn't already resolved. But adding 2-4 reflector mages just increases the % chance we have interaction in our opener. The combo can also be active on turn 3 with Rmage instead of turn 4 with ewit.

It's not as good against merfolk because of Vial, but it's probably worth cutting a few drowners cause it's really hard to get to 6 mana against spreading seas.

I think it's better than Ewit against Coco decks only on the basis of being able to mana screw them. On the play, Turn 1 dork into Turn 2 Rmage bounce their birds is the strongest possible interaction we can have against them.

The mana to support Rmage is a little awkward since we're low on both W and U. But most draws with dorks are able to support it, so a Rmage shell should have 5 or 6 dorks. This is an argument to keep it as a sideboard card, where postboard we can name human on our caverns.

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One example of Batterskull being unexpected was in a Grixis shadow match where I knew my opponent sided out his Kolaghan's. The moment he saw the Batterskull he just paused and stared at the board for a few seconds. Other cases I would bring in Batterskull but not Worship would be things like UW control and Skred. My main argument is that E-tron runs it, and it can only turn 3 batterskull on a tron draw, and we are much more likely to have 5 mana on turn 3 via dork-skyspawner or dork-dork. With those draws we are semi-functionally a bant stoneblade deck

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Here's my submission for a banner!

Wow it's that much ?? I would proxy test it first lol. And yes I believe it goes in a skyspawner build, not reshaper... skyspawner ramps into it and also wields it most effectively.

Here's my current 75 including the Rmages:

2x Birds
4x Skyspawner
1x Rmage
0x Reshaper
4x Displacer
3x Drowner
3x EE
23x Lands (no utility)
Rest is stock

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1x Batterskull
1x Chalice
2x Disdainful Stroke
1x Flashfreeze
2x Reflector Mage
2x Stony Silence
2x RIP
2x Worship
2 Flex spots

Quote from whyjesse »

There's no doubt that Ewit is the better card if we are allowed the time to abuse it. I have sung its praises before and believe it to be a strong card against any deck looking to go past turn 5. Ewit is probably better than Rmage against GBx, Shadow, UW control (mostly >50/50 matchups). However, those decks aren't the decks we're being pushed out by: Storm, Elves, Dredge, etc.

Against super fast decks like elves or affinity, we just need SOME form of interaction, because we can reasonably stabilize against 1/1s most of the time. The key against those decks is to get them off of payoffs like Master / Overseer / Ezuri / Archmage, at least until we can find a more permanent stabilization like worship. If we've already resolved a path or EE, we're on our way to stabilizing. Ewit doesn't help us to stabilize if one of those hasn't already resolved. But adding 2-4 reflector mages just increases the % chance we have interaction in our opener. The combo can also be active on turn 3 with Rmage instead of turn 4 with ewit.

It's not as good against merfolk because of Vial, but it's probably worth cutting a few drowners cause it's really hard to get to 6 mana against spreading seas.

I think it's better than Ewit against Coco decks only on the basis of being able to mana screw them. On the play, Turn 1 dork into Turn 2 Rmage bounce their birds is the strongest possible interaction we can have against them.

The mana to support Rmage is a little awkward since we're low on both W and U. But most draws with dorks are able to support it, so a Rmage shell should have 5 or 6 dorks. This is an argument to keep it as a sideboard card, where postboard we can name human on our caverns.

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One example of Batterskull being unexpected was in a Grixis shadow match where I knew my opponent sided out his Kolaghan's. The moment he saw the Batterskull he just paused and stared at the board for a few seconds. Other cases I would bring in Batterskull but not Worship would be things like UW control and Skred. My main argument is that E-tron runs it, and it can only turn 3 batterskull on a tron draw, and we are much more likely to have 5 mana on turn 3 via dork-skyspawner or dork-dork. With those draws we are semi-functionally a bant stoneblade deck

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Here's my submission for a banner!

+1 for bannner

I like all the banner submissions. Nice work guys! My favorite is the banner by whyjesse.

Quote from SamAffandy »

Quote from whyjesse »

There's no doubt that Ewit is the better card if we are allowed the time to abuse it. I have sung its praises before and believe it to be a strong card against any deck looking to go past turn 5. Ewit is probably better than Rmage against GBx, Shadow, UW control (mostly >50/50 matchups). However, those decks aren't the decks we're being pushed out by: Storm, Elves, Dredge, etc.

Against super fast decks like elves or affinity, we just need SOME form of interaction, because we can reasonably stabilize against 1/1s most of the time. The key against those decks is to get them off of payoffs like Master / Overseer / Ezuri / Archmage, at least until we can find a more permanent stabilization like worship. If we've already resolved a path or EE, we're on our way to stabilizing. Ewit doesn't help us to stabilize if one of those hasn't already resolved. But adding 2-4 reflector mages just increases the % chance we have interaction in our opener. The combo can also be active on turn 3 with Rmage instead of turn 4 with ewit.

It's not as good against merfolk because of Vial, but it's probably worth cutting a few drowners cause it's really hard to get to 6 mana against spreading seas.

I think it's better than Ewit against Coco decks only on the basis of being able to mana screw them. On the play, Turn 1 dork into Turn 2 Rmage bounce their birds is the strongest possible interaction we can have against them.

The mana to support Rmage is a little awkward since we're low on both W and U. But most draws with dorks are able to support it, so a Rmage shell should have 5 or 6 dorks. This is an argument to keep it as a sideboard card, where postboard we can name human on our caverns.

---

One example of Batterskull being unexpected was in a Grixis shadow match where I knew my opponent sided out his Kolaghan's. The moment he saw the Batterskull he just paused and stared at the board for a few seconds. Other cases I would bring in Batterskull but not Worship would be things like UW control and Skred. My main argument is that E-tron runs it, and it can only turn 3 batterskull on a tron draw, and we are much more likely to have 5 mana on turn 3 via dork-skyspawner or dork-dork. With those draws we are semi-functionally a bant stoneblade deck

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Here's my submission for a banner!

+1 for bannner

+1 for bannner

Against heavy aggro meta I'm using a thragtusk mainboard in place of the 4th drowner (I don't have the 3th explosives) and its very good. The extra life and many beasts 3/3 can turn many games in our favor.

The free slot on sideboard i'll give walking ballista a try.