Introduction
Bant has spawn many different sub-archetypes since RTR become legal - Bant Tempo, Bant ramp, Bant midrange, Bant control. Bant Run, is basically Bant Midrange with a red splash for wolf-run and/or a few splashable red bombs. With the addition of wolf run, Bant midrange no longer have to overextend, and radically change how the late game play out.
As people all jumped onto the Reid Duke's Bant list, the more midrange version of bant is getting very little attention. However, the recent successes of Bant Run proves that this sub-archetype is also very competitive. So, I decide to write a primer for this unique sub-archetype.
Bant Run is NOT the usual Bant Control, where you play defense most of the time, and then chain revelations and Elixir until you win with Thragtusk. Instead, it is a more tap-out board-control deck, with a playstyle closer to Naya Midrange. Unlike Naya, Bant Run switch red cards for blue cards, exchange the explosiveness for card advantage engines, and more powerful sweepers instead of burns, thus having a better late game than Naya midrange decks. In theory, you may consider Naya Midrange - Naya Blue - Bant Midrange - Bant Run - Bant control - Drownyard Bant Control being a continuum of decks, from most aggro-ish to most control-ish.
The game plan of Bant Run is to play defense in the first few turns against the fast aggro decks. After you stabilize with sweeper and midrange threats, you can play draw spells to refill your hand or continue to answer opponent's threats. Finally, you win by sticking any creature and wolf-run it, to put opponent in a short clock. Once you stick a threat in mid-late game, Bant Run can switch from defense to aggro and back very easily, unlike the traditional Bant Control which could durdle for many turns before you could stick a finisher or milling opponent to death. In the late game when wolf run in online, you may need to decide how you need to spend your mana: further develop the board? sink all mana to wolf run? sink some mana to wolf run and leave some up for counterspell/removal? Or play a big sphinx's revelation instead? If you played RG wolf run in last standard, you may remember that you often need to decide to play another titan, or to go all-in and sink all mana to pump inkmoth. This deck is similar, so knowing when to switch defense/aggro roles and making correct choices are crucial to play this deck well.
Card options The core
Kessig Wolf Run - Turns every creatures into a must-answer threat, and providing a mana sink late game.
Shocklands and Checklands - Run a lot of them. This deck plays 3 main colors + 1 splash color + colorless wolf run, so a lot of dual-colored lands are needed. Looking to the successful lists and also my own list, my thought is to run about 25 lands, with 2 wolf run and 23 colored sources. Among the colored sources, you should fill most slots with dual-colored lands, with 1xStomping Ground, 1xSacred Foundry, 1xSteam Vents, and finally fill out the remaining slots with only 1-3 basics. Some players can be fine with 2 red sources, but I still play 3 to make sure I can activate wolf run when I draw it. Since the choice of spells is different for each deck, I cannot give the exact land count of each color. The best way is to build a manabase using statistical tools like MWS deep deck analysis, and then playtest it to refine the manabase.
Farseek - The mana fixer for a 4 color deck. Play 4x. The priority for the 1st Farseek is to make sure you have access to all three colors of Bant in the near future according to the remaining lands in hand, with emphasis on WW if you intend to play Supreme Verdict ASAP, UU if you need Sphinx's Revelation or Jace or Dissipate ASAP, or more G if you want to play Garruk. After all colors in Bant is online that you can play most spells in your hand, then proceed to fetch the red dual lands if you haven't get it.
Sphinx's Revelation - A must-have for UW decks looking for late game. Play at least 2x, although it's not bad to play the full playset.
Thragtusk - One of the best card in current standard. Good against both aggro and control. Play 4x.
Centaur Healer - A smaller thragtusk to hold off early aggro. Play at least 2x, up to 4x if your local meta is all aggro.
Restoration Angel - Combo well with Thragtusk and Centaur Healer, mess up the tempo of decks playing draw-go. The number of copies is linked to how many target in your deck worth to blink, so 3-4x is usually the right answer.
Detention Sphere - Can exile everything not hexproof. Excellent answer to token.dec. A must-have for this deck. Andrew Shrout runs 3x Main+0x Side, Melissa DeTour runs 1+1, and I run 3+1.
And yes, this is the core. This deck is flexible enough that you can greatly modify your deck to suit your local metagame.
Optional Land
Cavern of Souls - If your local metagame is infested with control decks and tempo decks, you may consider putting cavern in, and adjust your manabase accordingly.
Other Removals
Supreme Verdict - Kill everything, can't be countered. I'd suggest 4 between main deck and sideboard. More creature-intensive lists can afford to run less.
Terminus - Best answer against Zombies, Kibler's GB aggro and reaminator. However, it costs a lot if you cannot miracle it. If you run azorious charm and think twice, you may run more and replace a Supreme Verdict. I run 1x in sideboard.
Oblivion Ring - If you feel that Detention Sphere is not enough, this is for you.
Aurelia's fury - An instant-speed removal and sweeper that is very powerful, as this deck can pour large amount of mana in to it. May double up as a finisher if your board is empty and opponent is low in life.
Counters
Note: Although Cavern of Souls is everywhere, I still suggest to run some between maindeck+sideboard, to keep the tempo, control and combo decks in check. As a reference: Andrew Shrout runs 0 maindeck + 2 sideboard, Melissa DeTour runs 3+2, and I run 2+4.
Syncopate - Good in early game, not so good late game.
Dissipate - 3 cmc and Double blue may be problematic early game, but this is the catch-all counter.
Negate - Very solid sideboard card in tempo and control match ups.
spell rupture - We play fatties to make this card very powerful, however if our board is empty this card is useless. I don't know as I didn't test it thoroughly. My feeling is that it's too situational and will not make the cut though.
Essense Scatter - We have enough ways to kill creatures, and Cavern of Souls is everywhere. So I don't think this will make the cut.
Cancel- Generally dissipate is better, and dissipates seem to be enough already.
Dispel- Rarely relevant for us, we're mostly countering walkers and dangerous sorceries.
Other Creatures
Well, you must remind that all creatures in this deck can become lethal threat with wolf-run! Augur of Bolas - Provide early defense against aggro decks, may cantrip if you play a more spell-heavy version. Snapcaster Mage - Flashing back a charm / verdict / revelation is just too good. Or it may help you to get your crucial 5th mana by flashing back farseek. I run 1 as a wildcard spell. Geist of Saint Traft - Excellent against Esper control, door control, Reid Duke's Bant, and any deck that play him (in order to legend-rule opposing geist). Terrible vs midrange and aggro. So he is usually a sideboard card. Rhox Faithmender - Additional creatures against aggro. Usually belongs to sideboard, as we already have a lot of maindeck answers against the aggro decks. Angel of Serenity - Reanimation and removal in a stick, but costs 7 mana. May get a blow out against reaminator and token decks, can get you an upper hand in Thragtusk attrition, and may bring back your creatures milled/killed in control matchup. However, she's usually too slow against fast aggro, and you can rarely resolve it against counter-heavy tempo decks before you die. Prime Speaker Zegana - If you have another creature in play, it is another Sphinx's Revelation but with a fat body. Otherwise, it is just a random Elvish Visionary. I still don't think we have enough creature to play her, but maybe she will find a home in a more creature-oriented build. Gisela, Blade of Goldnight - Can close the game extremely quickly when coupled with wolf run. The only downside is that a 7-mana creature that doesn't have haste, resiliency or have immediate impact on board is usually not very good nowadays. Yes she completely blunt the assault of aggro deck, but being stolen by act of treason effect that are common in Rx aggro sideboard, is the worst nightmare. Worked for Melissa DeTour as a 1x in sideboard, but I'm still not sold on this idea. Sigarda, Host of Herons - Awesome against the decks that abuse sacrifice effects, such as The Aristocrat, Angel of Glory Rise.dec, or decks running of Edict effects such as Esper or Jund. Jund in particular have basically no answer to her apart from blocking with Nighthawk or Thundermaw.
(Questionable choice, only for the most aggressive builds) Borderland Ranger - As we play so many non-basic non-gate cards, he is usually not worth it. But Andrew Shrout play this as his mana base has 6 basics. Avacyn's Pilgrim - Provide additional acceleration, you may play a land less if you play this. But it's not good in sweeper-heavy builds. Huntmaster of the Fells - Andrew Shrout played it instead of verdict against aggro, but in less red-intensive decks he is usually uncastable turn 4. I don't think this belongs to more spell-heavy version with more sweepers.
Other Utility spells
Think Twice - My feeling is that it is a filler for this deck. Melissa DeTour also mentioned she included it because she had too little things to play in turn 2. But with Terminus, sometimes it might make miracles. Rest in peace - The best silver bullet against reanimator. Run 2-4x in sideboard. Witchbane Orb - The silver bullet against RBx Midrange/control, Drownyard.dec, and burn.dec. Run a few in sideboard. Ray of Revelation - Very good against Bant Enchant, and good against control decks running Detention Sphere and O-ring. A good sideboard card. Erase - If Rancor is running rampant in your local meta, substitute Ray of Revelation with this.
Multi-role cards and walkers
Charms: It is debatable if Azorious or Selesnya charm is better, or you can run a 2/2 split of them. Simic Charm...too situational IMHO, and the pro's lists don't run it too. Azorious Charm:
(+)not a complete dead card against control
(+)may gain you a lot of life in the right situation
(+)gain tempo for sure against fast aggro decks, may reset Stromkirk noble and Champion of Parish with a few counters.
(+)Removing a blocker when you are wolf running - note that if the blocker is removed, then all damage can be trampled to opponent. Call a judge if opponent insists his creature is still being blocked.
(-)Temporary removal only, so very bad against value creatures such as Thragtusk; or creature that may mess up your tempo when casting, such as restoration angel. Selesnya Charm:
(+)A hard removal for x/2 dude or fatty or opposing wolf run guys. Especially relevant when you need an instant speed removal against a Thragtusk being blinked or an Angel of Serenity trying to bring back 3 of opponent's creature.
(+)Save your dude from burn, or act as a combat trick
(+)Late game, can combo with Kessig Wolf Run / flashback with snapcaster mage, let any opposing creature become 5 power and then exile it. Great for Boros Reckoner or Unpumped Olivia.
(+)When you need to race, you can always get a 2/2 dude and wolf run from there.
(-)Not effective against 3/3 dudes or 3/4 dudes early game
(-)drawing multiples early game against control is just awful
Jace, Architect of Thought - Hold off Gruul or zombie sligh, force them to overextend to a sweeper. Net you a lot of card in control matchup. Kill token.dec by himself. Or prevent control players to stick the 5cc Jace. However, he really needs other support cards such as blockers or sweepers against aggro, otherwise his +1 is useless. Garruk Relentless - Removal for aggro deck, and endless pressure for control deck. A lot of pros choose it over Big Garruk, probably because of its less restrictive casting cost. Garruk, Primal Hunter - Making dudes endlessly, and double-up as additional Sphinx's Revelation. Insane when combo with wolf run. I run a split of 2x Sphinx's Revelation and 2x Big Garruk. Jace Memory Adept - Insane against control decks, poor against aggro. Usually a sideboard card. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage - Insane against control decks, better than Big Jace against aggro, but I reckon it's still a sideboard card in this deck.
Match up analysis
NOTE: the following comments are based on my own version, and my experience with Bant Run since the beginning of RTR. Getting a different list, such as the winning Melissa DeTour's list, may change the match up.
Jund: Even. Pre-board it's slightly unfavorable. I save my Selesnya Charm for Thundermaw Hellkite, and to a lesser extent pumped Olivia. Use detention sphere wisely against Keyrunes and Walkers. Once you resolve a Sphinx's Revelation, it is hard to lose. Post board, you get Witchbane Orb as the Silver Bullet, as well as hard counter against walkers, so it become slightly favorable. Just don't over-board as you still need sweepers against their creatures. I'd say this is a tough matchup, because if you draw badly or cannot play tight you will lose easily, and it is very easy to make a mistake against such a grindy deck with a lot of angles of attack.
R/x Deck Wins, Zombies, Sligh aggro: Good. We have enough lifegain cards, sweepers, and detention sphere to combat aggro. Use your charms, augur of bolas and healer to fend off early rush, then sweep the board if needed, then stablize with Thragtusk and Resto Angel. Detention Sphere for Aristocrat and other 2nd-wave creatures. If you play Selesnya Charm, Thundermaw Hellkite is a joke.
GWx aggro: Slighly in our favor. Thalia is really a bane, because she delays our removals and sweepers for 1 turn. If they get the nut draw, the 1-turn-difference may be the difference between losing or stablizing, as they lack the ability to refill their hand after a sweeper.
GWx wolf run: Generally good. They lack a good CA engine, so if we can get into late game, we are the one in favor. However, if they manage to stick a Garruk or if we have no immediate answer for Angel of Serenity (eg Selesnya Charm), then we may be in deep trouble. Save your counterspell against Garruk.
Reaminator: Well, there's a few different flavor of reaminator. (a) Hoof.dec: this is actually a good matchup, as it needs a critical amount of smaller creatures to function, and rely heavily on mana dudes. If you sweep the board on time, and have selesnya charm ready for hoof, this deck is hard to get a lethal attack. Post board, bringing in Rest in Peace help the matchup further. (b) Grindy big-guys, such as Junk Reaminator: even to good, depending on your build. Game 1 is poor, as they can play Thragtusk over and over, while swinging in the air with Angel of Serenity and Griselbrand that come back over and over. Eventually they will grind you out of CA and win. If you don't have Selesnya Charm ready to response to their angel trigger or remove Griselbrand on time, you will lose. Game 2 and 3 are generally good, as you board in graveyard hate and more counterspells for their walkers and unburial rite. (c) Angel of glory rise.dec: maybe the worst matchup of this deck. Nothing in the maindeck is a good answer for this deck, except racing with Selesnya Charm tokens and centaur healers and resto angel...so game 1 is Awful, unless opponent is seriously mana screwed or milling very badly. Post-board, you are only break even/slightly favored, because you NEED to draw your silver bullets to win. Even if you draw it, opponent can still abrupt decay your RIP and start milling again. And they also have a very decent midrange beatdown plan backed up with Cavern of Souls. I hate this matchup as I really need to win BOTH game 2 and 3, which isn't an easy task. If you run Angel of Serenity, it may be a correct play to exile their reamination targets, and then ride your angel to victory. If you run Sigarda, she can shutdown opponent's infinite loop by herself, but still need to handle their beatdown plan.
Durdle control decks eg UWR miracles, Esper drownyard control, 5cc/door control, Reid Duke's Bant: Poor pre-board, good postboard. Every time I play against a durdle deck opponent in my LGS, I will say to them: I'm siding in 10 cards against you! Take out all the wraths, Selesnya Charms and Healers. Side in more detention Spheres, Witchbane Orb(for Esper and Door), Geist of St Traft (if you run it), Angel of Serenity, all counterspells in sideboard, and Ray of Revelation. Then it become an easy matchup...if the match don't go to time. In one game, I just managed to wolf-running for lethal damage in Turn 5 Extra Time! So, another important thing about this matchup is to become familiar with your deck, so you can play faster without making mistakes!
Note that Esper control seems to run more Edict effects such as Devour Flesh and Tribute to Hunger. So Geist of Saint Traft is less effective, compared to pre-GTC.
UW tempo: Poor pre-board, slightly favored to good post-board. The VIPs here is Supreme Verdict and Det Spherefor their dudes, Rest in Peace for their Moorland Haunt and Runechanter Pike, and counterspells for their Sphinx's Revelation.
UWR tempo: Well, this deck changed quite a lot after GTC, and I haven't played against this deck much. My feeling about the matchup is about even, but I could be wrong. Thragtusks gives them a lot of headache, but if they disrupt you too much or pull out the Reckoner 13 damage combo you often lose. 6/3 UPDATE: Played a few matches against UWR recently. It seems that their new list is less anti-control and more anti-aggro. And they stop running Thundermaw, Geist of St Traft, Moorland Haunt, and Runechanter Pike, which are all important trump card against us, at least in G1. If they tried to pull out the 13 damages combo, and you are running S-charm late game, you can kessig wolf run opponent's Reckoner, and then Selesnya Charm it. So, I think at this moment, the UWR matchup is in our favor.
My own stories of blowouts
1. I still remember one time my Zombie opponent get his nut draw of T1 Diagraf, T2 Diagraf + Gravecrawer, T3 Messenger, T4 Searing Spear, T5 Hellkite. However, I ambushed his 1st Diagraf with Selesnya Charm, preventing an attack with a Healer, and then snapcaster back the Charm to ambush his 2nd Diagraf and Messenger. And then I sweep away the messenger, hellkite and gravecrawer with a Verdict. He's practically out of gas, but I still have a Sphinx's Revelation in hand. I won 2-0 against him finally.
2. I played against Kibler's GB aggro. Opponent side-in Triumph of Ferocity. I have a Garruk, Primal Hunter in play, while opponent has a 3/3 dude in play. At his upkeep, I wolf-run my own guy to pump 1, so he couldn't draw a card. And I used the same tactics for 4 turns, so his triumph is effectively blanked...
3. Against Jund. I mana screwed at 5 lands for about 7 turns. In between, I drew 3 Selesnya Charms and 1 snapcaster mage. Every time, I waited my opponent to pump his guy with wolf run, and then I selesnya Charm his guy. He became grumpy, complaint that I was too lucky, as he was finally out of gas by the way I drew the 6th land.
4. Against 5cc control. I didn't draw a Witchbane Orb, but I played a negate before. I thought my opponent has a Rakdos Return in his hand, so when I pumped my guy using wolf run, I always left 2 mana open, bluffing for the nonexistent negate. And my opponent thought for a long time every turn, didn't call my bluff:) 3 turns later, I drew a negate, followed by a dissipate, and then the match became one-sided.
5. At a GPT, against Esper Control. Late game, I had a Garruk PH in play. opponent had sorin, a Vamp token, and vault of archangel in play. Opponent was nearly out of gas, but still has 50+ life due to vault of archangel. I wolf-run my beast to take down Sorin. Then I made a beast every turn, while opponent flashing back his 3 Lingering Souls in his grave, for 3 turns. I trade my beast for his tokens, one at a time. Then he swept the field for one turn. Eventually, he could not find an answer for my Garruk, and I wolf-run him to death.
6. Against GWx aggro. After sweeping the board, opponent played another Silverblade Paladin, with a Rancor on, and paired with a mana dude. My only removal in hand is Selesnya Charm, but I had 6 lands in play including a wolf run. What should I do? Well, when he attacks, I pumped his Paladin for 1, and then Selesnya Charm it!
S Charm and less than 4 Revelation looks wrong. A Charm is just more versatile and if you're going to try to be the biggest Revelation deck in the format, you probably want to max out on it.
Still the same Bant Control deck imo, just red instead of black. The original Bant control lists, pre-splash, were similar in running lots of Angels and creatures to stave off aggro. This version just goes back to those roots really.
When looking at Melissas List, what is the plan against Esper? Getting the Orb and hoping, that you can get it out and protect it, two times? I think thats not really a good plan.
I admit that her list is a bit weak against Esper, but as she mentioned, "I'm hoping that I pair up against aggro all day", indicating that she is gunning for an aggro-filled Pro Tour, similar to the SCG opens, instead of seeing a lot of control decks. I'd guess her plan would be:
+1 Detention Sphere, +2 Garruk Relentless, +x Counterspells, and then proceed to play a tempo game. If the Esper player removes Orb, then he may not have an answer for Garruk, and wolf-run will make 2/2 wolves lethal very soon.
S Charm and less than 4 Revelation looks wrong.
A Charm is just more versatile and if you're going to try to be the biggest Revelation deck in the format, you probably want to max out on it.
IMHO, this deck is not about the biggest revelation deck. Although it shares a lot of cards with Reid Duke's Bant Control, bant run focus a bit more on developing the board so it can abuse wolf run. Therefore, I'm running a split of 2x Garruk Primal Hunter and 2x Sphinx's Revelation, as Garruk can also provide bodies to stabilize the board in addition to card-drawing. So far, it works for me - clogging up the board against aggro decks, or providing endless dudes to make Esper run out of removals, or draw me cards in the right situations.
And I admit that I was going to and fro of S-Charm and A-Charm. I started with 4x A-Charm, but changed to a split in the RTR game day. Currently, S-charm works better for my metagame. However, if A-Charm is working for you better, go for it. The best way is to playtest against the decks in your meta, and decide which charm(s) to include.
Me too. One of my friend, frustrated with his esper control, sleeved Bant Run up with 2x Aurelia's Fury, and took down a GPT. One of his game changing play was, in response to fiend hunter trigger exiling angel of glory rise, he Fury the hunter and tapped down all reanimated dudes, thus breaking the infinite loop. He then proceeded to win the match as opponent failed to dig for another infinite loop.
Finally, a dedicated thread for this deck. i have been playing this deck for a while and won last FNM going 6-0 (no top 8) with a 36 person turnout. I haven't ever placed below 3rd with this deck in FNM play. There are so many aggro decks in standard right now and this deck really only struggles against RDW on a nut draw and Esper or decks featuring Obzedat, Ghost Council game 1, before we can sideboard in selesnya charm. Also, that new Boros Reckoner combo deck can be a toss up. they can win or combo so fast that you just lose sometimes. After sideboard that match-up also gets a lot better, though.
I know it isn't necessarily midrange, but the concept is the same. Get into the mid-late game and get one threat out, and you can win pretty easily if you play defensively. I don't run 4 sphinx's rev and honestly I don't ever wish I had more, except against Jund, maybe. If i want more I leave them in the sideboard and they come in for certain match-ups.
Here's the deck list I've been testing since gatecrash came out.
I had Fury in there to test, but I've switched to Cavern because I'm also running Angel of Serenity, allowing me to create some strong late-game scenarios against control.
Played at the Game Day today. Swiss 4-1 (BW aggro 2-0; Jund 0-2; GW Trostani Midrange 2-0; RDW 2-1; Jund 2-0) into top 8 (Naya Aurelia wolf run 2-0; RDW 2-0; draw with Angel of Glory Rise 0-0 as the shopkeeper was in a hurry to leave, so he gave both of us a playmat)
I was lucky as my pairing was bringing no bad matchup to me (as least even for Jund). I believe I would lost to reanimator if I would play the match out.
won game day with bant run
first game was against a homebrew mill deck 2-0
second match was against rdw 2-0
third game naya 2-0
fourth was r/b zombies 2-0
fifth was naya 2-0
all star was Aurelia's fury
[CENTER]Bant Run Reaminator: Well, there's a few different flavor of reaminator. (a) Hoof.dec. This is actually a good matchup, as it needs a critical amount of smaller creatures to function, and rely heavily on mana dudes. If you sweep the board on time, and have selesnya charm ready for hoof, this deck is hard to get a lethal attack. Post board, bringing in Rest in Peace help the matchup further. (b) Grindy big-guys, such as Junk Reaminator. Game 1 is poor, as they can play THragtusk over and over, while swinging in the air with Angels and Demons that come back over and over. Eventually they will grind you out of CA and win. If you don't have Selesnya Charm ready to response to their angel trigger or remove Griselbrand on time, you will lose. Game 2 and 3 are generally good, as you board in graveyard hate and more counterspells for their walkers and unburial rite. (c) Angel of glory rise.dec. Nothing in the maindeck is a good answer for this deck, except racing with Selesnya Charm tokens and centaur healers and resto angel...so game 1 is generally a mess. Post-board, you are only break even/slightly favored, because you NEED to draw your silver bullets to win. Even if you draw it, opponent can still abrupt decay your RIP. And they also have a very decent midrange beatdown plan backed up with Cavern of Souls. I hate this matchup as I really need to win BOTH game 2 and 3, which isn't a easy task. If you run Angel of Serenity, it may be a correct play to exile their reamination targets, and then ride your angel to victory. If you run Sigarda, she can shutdown opponent's infinite loop by herself, but still need to handle their beatdown plan.
How does Sigarda shutdown their infinite loop? Her text only stops spells and abilities your opponents control from making you sacrifice permanents.
Hi everyone, I ran Bant Wolf-Run at GP Quebec City; I didn’t finish well but it was because my first two matches went to time and (to be honest) I made a few too many playing mistakes. That said I just wanted to add my thoughts on how it played and changes that I’ve made since the tournament.
My first match-up was against Esper Control, then Jund, then Esper Control, then a Bant Mirror, and finally Esper Control before I dropped from the tournament. I was expecting to see Boros Reckoner all around me, and I did, just not right in front of me.
The big change that I made from Melissa’s list was that I cut two Centaur Healers for two Angels of Serenity. The reason was three-fold; 1) I had no byes and was concerned that I might see B/R Zombies early in the tournament (mostly because it’s cheap and someone might lend it to a friend etc. –the Angel has helped me during play testing remove late game Aristocrats, 2) When I got behind against agro decks I found a card like the Angel of Serenity could put me back into the game, and 3) I was worried after PT Montreal Esper Control might main-deck Ghost Quarters which would significantly weaken the match-up for me and putting a fast clock on them seemed like a good idea.
I really liked having the Angel in the deck; in a clutch game against Jund it helped me clear the board of a Huntermaster and something else, and grabbed a Thragtusk from my graveyard allowing me to win. My opponent didn’t except to see the Angel.
A card I really wished I had in my sideboard and possibly maindeck would be Jace, Memory Adapt. Two of the Esper Control decks that I played against had one in their main deck. With Esper sometimes I couldn’t draw a Kessig and this would be another great win condition against them if I could resolve it early.
That’s my two cents. I’m hoping to hear back from the community about the addition of the Angels of Serenity to the deck and possibly maindecking Jace, Memory Adept.
honestly I have 2 in sb and don't side them against b/r zombies you gain way to much life.
funny story I was playing against a b/r zombies I gained a lot of life starting at 3rd turn board wiped a few times and he built up a little I was at 35 life he attacked for 15 he was at 7. I had fury in hand with 9 lands open after he attacked he asked how much was I down to I said 20 and then I asked him does he have any life gain he said no and I said gg and hit him for 7 with fury and he then he threw his deck and screamed "I hate bant run" and left
Yeah, I think some of us have decks that we *just don't like*. For me, it's Reanimator. Sometimes in the past I used to get pretty upset when I'd lose to certain decks (well, mostly it was getting upset with myself). But that when I was a little more emotionally unstable in general. I'm better now.
But yeah, people need to learn to control their outbursts. It's okay to get upset or whatever, but it's not okay to be violent or to start yelling.
So how many spells do we need to run to be able to support Augur? Most lists I see (including the one I'm putting together) have 19, but I remember the old Delver decks used to want to run 22-23+ to support Delver flippage. I wonder how the Augur math works out?
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Level 2 Judge
Currently playing:
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
I feel as although Centaur Healer is a good creature, the card advantage from Jace is just a tad bit stronger. Jace also helps in the aggro matches and is not too shabby in the control match. In the control matchup, Centaur healer is pretty bad and I hated seeing him against them. Aurelia's fury in testing is an all star. Tap down blockers and life charm with Azorius for a huge life swing, play Fury and ping your opponent to prevent any charm tricks during battle, hit your opponent on their upkeep and make them beat you with creatures (or tap out for instants etc..), or just finish them off with a huge burn spell. Lately I've been finishing games with 10+ mana out easily and that represents at least 8 points of damage. I feel that it is a much stronger card than think twice and the card advantage from our Jace's really helps. Another reason I'm liking Jace is most decks that try to mill us usually bring in two from the sideboard so, playing a numbers game they would have to have both and hope we drew none for it to be effective against us.
I played 5 matches with the deck today, matchups were:
Aristocrats Net deck (1-3)
The aristocrats matchup is just plain bad here, the Aristocrat is a powerhouse against us as everything we do only slows it down. I lost 1-2 and offered a best of 5, my opponent excepted and while the game was good, the result was the same. All day I questioned the subtraction of centaur healer from the 60, and even the 75, but Jace was money all evening long and I don't know what to cut for 2-3 centaur healers if anything.
Bant Midrange (2-0)
Relatively simple matchup, our Kessig's really gave me the edge here and I ended up winning it with 15 mana on the board and several swings from a large Restoration angel.
Boros Aggro (2-0)
Another easy match, Jace slowed down the beats and I was able to cast a large sphinx's revelation when he had run out of gas to take game one. Game 2 Dissapated a Boros reckoner which was also pretty nice. Highlight of the match was game 1, with my opponent at 10 life and no cards in hand and me at 7 with 4 cards, I was able to tap down his two boros reckoners, and deal him 4 damage leaving him with 6 life and no blockers. The following turn I dealt him 6 damage from a Thragtusk and a Auger of Bolas for game.
Gruul (2-0) Bad player playing a good deck. He made several mistakes and it was a pretty easy win.
Reanimator (2-1) Game 1 went his way with an AOS on turn 5 followed by a Hoof and a few dorks swinging in. Game 2 I mulled to 6 but got turn 2 farseek online and slowly built up my team. Jace got me into a sphinx's revelation and an Auger of Bolas got me an Azorius charm which then netted me my Supreme Verdict to wipe his dorks and slow him down. Game 3 was an easy one as he mulled to 5 and missed several land drops.
Human Aggro (3-0) Home brew of U/W humans. He got off pretty good with turn one War falcon turn to Aven Squire but I was able to Jace into a Supreme Verdict and wipe his board turn 5. After that, he was out of gas and I Sphinx->Thragtusk->Resto->Spinx my next few turns and pretty much put the game out of reach from that point. Game 2 was pretty nice, he had a quite large champion of the Parish and a bunch of human tokens and I cast an Aurelia's fury for x=4 to tap his Champion, kill 2 tokens and ping him to stop an O-Ring play. He asked if we could play one more and I was able to stop a late game Miracle Terminus with Aurelia's Fury which pretty much sealed the deal.
All in all, I need some help here deciding how good Centaur healer is, is it amazing enough to play it over Jace? Or is it better than Aurelia's fury? That I can't answer yet but in today's testing I think it was outclassed by both of those cards. Any critique would be great.
I played 5 matches with the deck today, matchups were:
Aristocrats Net deck (1-3)
The aristocrats matchup is just plain bad here, the Aristocrat is a powerhouse against us as everything we do only slows it down. I lost 1-2 and offered a best of 5, my opponent excepted and while the game was good, the result was the same. All day I questioned the subtraction of centaur healer from the 60, and even the 75, but Jace was money all evening long and I don't know what to cut for 2-3 centaur healers if anything.
Bant Midrange (2-0)
Relatively simple matchup, our Kessig's really gave me the edge here and I ended up winning it with 15 mana on the board and several swings from a large Restoration angel.
Boros Aggro (2-0)
Another easy match, Jace slowed down the beats and I was able to cast a large sphinx's revelation when he had run out of gas to take game one. Game 2 Dissapated a Boros reckoner which was also pretty nice. Highlight of the match was game 1, with my opponent at 10 life and no cards in hand and me at 7 with 4 cards, I was able to tap down his two boros reckoners, and deal him 4 damage leaving him with 6 life and no blockers. The following turn I dealt him 6 damage from a Thragtusk and a Auger of Bolas for game.
Gruul (2-0) Bad player playing a good deck. He made several mistakes and it was a pretty easy win.
Reanimator (2-1) Game 1 went his way with an AOS on turn 5 followed by a Hoof and a few dorks swinging in. Game 2 I mulled to 6 but got turn 2 farseek online and slowly built up my team. Jace got me into a sphinx's revelation and an Auger of Bolas got me an Azorius charm which then netted me my Supreme Verdict to wipe his dorks and slow him down. Game 3 was an easy one as he mulled to 5 and missed several land drops.
Human Aggro (3-0) Home brew of U/W humans. He got off pretty good with turn one War falcon turn to Aven Squire but I was able to Jace into a Supreme Verdict and wipe his board turn 5. After that, he was out of gas and I Sphinx->Thragtusk->Resto->Spinx my next few turns and pretty much put the game out of reach from that point. Game 2 was pretty nice, he had a quite large champion of the Parish and a bunch of human tokens and I cast an Aurelia's fury for x=4 to tap his Champion, kill 2 tokens and ping him to stop an O-Ring play. He asked if we could play one more and I was able to stop a late game Miracle Terminus with Aurelia's Fury which pretty much sealed the deal.
All in all, I need some help here deciding how good Centaur healer is, is it amazing enough to play it over Jace? Or is it better than Aurelia's fury? That I can't answer yet but in today's testing I think it was outclassed by both of those cards. Any critique would be great.
healers are a must jace is not. af is great won me game day
Augur is the best possible insurance against aggro. I think he's good for this deck for that reason alone
Well, for me and my friends he bricks so often that we just started thinking out loud to replace him with Frilled Oculus, since Augur is usually a 1/3 with no abilities for us. A potential 3/5 would not be irrelevant neither against aggro nor control.
Private Mod Note
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Original quote byTacosnape "All ideas that give me knowledge without any effort involved on my part are good ideas. Chop chop, my dear fellow."
DCI L2 Judge GP:Madrid 2010 45th GP:Amsterdam 2011 74th GP:London 2013 67th Bazaar of Moxen 2013 32nd
Introduction
Bant has spawn many different sub-archetypes since RTR become legal - Bant Tempo, Bant ramp, Bant midrange, Bant control. Bant Run, is basically Bant Midrange with a red splash for wolf-run and/or a few splashable red bombs. With the addition of wolf run, Bant midrange no longer have to overextend, and radically change how the late game play out.
As people all jumped onto the Reid Duke's Bant list, the more midrange version of bant is getting very little attention. However, the recent successes of Bant Run proves that this sub-archetype is also very competitive. So, I decide to write a primer for this unique sub-archetype.
Bant Run is NOT the usual Bant Control, where you play defense most of the time, and then chain revelations and Elixir until you win with Thragtusk. Instead, it is a more tap-out board-control deck, with a playstyle closer to Naya Midrange. Unlike Naya, Bant Run switch red cards for blue cards, exchange the explosiveness for card advantage engines, and more powerful sweepers instead of burns, thus having a better late game than Naya midrange decks. In theory, you may consider Naya Midrange - Naya Blue - Bant Midrange - Bant Run - Bant control - Drownyard Bant Control being a continuum of decks, from most aggro-ish to most control-ish.
The game plan of Bant Run is to play defense in the first few turns against the fast aggro decks. After you stabilize with sweeper and midrange threats, you can play draw spells to refill your hand or continue to answer opponent's threats. Finally, you win by sticking any creature and wolf-run it, to put opponent in a short clock. Once you stick a threat in mid-late game, Bant Run can switch from defense to aggro and back very easily, unlike the traditional Bant Control which could durdle for many turns before you could stick a finisher or milling opponent to death. In the late game when wolf run in online, you may need to decide how you need to spend your mana: further develop the board? sink all mana to wolf run? sink some mana to wolf run and leave some up for counterspell/removal? Or play a big sphinx's revelation instead? If you played RG wolf run in last standard, you may remember that you often need to decide to play another titan, or to go all-in and sink all mana to pump inkmoth. This deck is similar, so knowing when to switch defense/aggro roles and making correct choices are crucial to play this deck well.
Card options
The core
Kessig Wolf Run - Turns every creatures into a must-answer threat, and providing a mana sink late game.
Shocklands and Checklands - Run a lot of them. This deck plays 3 main colors + 1 splash color + colorless wolf run, so a lot of dual-colored lands are needed. Looking to the successful lists and also my own list, my thought is to run about 25 lands, with 2 wolf run and 23 colored sources. Among the colored sources, you should fill most slots with dual-colored lands, with 1xStomping Ground, 1xSacred Foundry, 1xSteam Vents, and finally fill out the remaining slots with only 1-3 basics. Some players can be fine with 2 red sources, but I still play 3 to make sure I can activate wolf run when I draw it. Since the choice of spells is different for each deck, I cannot give the exact land count of each color. The best way is to build a manabase using statistical tools like MWS deep deck analysis, and then playtest it to refine the manabase.
Farseek - The mana fixer for a 4 color deck. Play 4x. The priority for the 1st Farseek is to make sure you have access to all three colors of Bant in the near future according to the remaining lands in hand, with emphasis on WW if you intend to play Supreme Verdict ASAP, UU if you need Sphinx's Revelation or Jace or Dissipate ASAP, or more G if you want to play Garruk. After all colors in Bant is online that you can play most spells in your hand, then proceed to fetch the red dual lands if you haven't get it.
Sphinx's Revelation - A must-have for UW decks looking for late game. Play at least 2x, although it's not bad to play the full playset.
Thragtusk - One of the best card in current standard. Good against both aggro and control. Play 4x.
Centaur Healer - A smaller thragtusk to hold off early aggro. Play at least 2x, up to 4x if your local meta is all aggro.
Restoration Angel - Combo well with Thragtusk and Centaur Healer, mess up the tempo of decks playing draw-go. The number of copies is linked to how many target in your deck worth to blink, so 3-4x is usually the right answer.
Detention Sphere - Can exile everything not hexproof. Excellent answer to token.dec. A must-have for this deck. Andrew Shrout runs 3x Main+0x Side, Melissa DeTour runs 1+1, and I run 3+1.
And yes, this is the core. This deck is flexible enough that you can greatly modify your deck to suit your local metagame.
Optional Land
Cavern of Souls - If your local metagame is infested with control decks and tempo decks, you may consider putting cavern in, and adjust your manabase accordingly.
Other Removals
Supreme Verdict - Kill everything, can't be countered. I'd suggest 4 between main deck and sideboard. More creature-intensive lists can afford to run less.
Terminus - Best answer against Zombies, Kibler's GB aggro and reaminator. However, it costs a lot if you cannot miracle it. If you run azorious charm and think twice, you may run more and replace a Supreme Verdict. I run 1x in sideboard.
Oblivion Ring - If you feel that Detention Sphere is not enough, this is for you.
Aurelia's fury - An instant-speed removal and sweeper that is very powerful, as this deck can pour large amount of mana in to it. May double up as a finisher if your board is empty and opponent is low in life.
Counters
Note: Although Cavern of Souls is everywhere, I still suggest to run some between maindeck+sideboard, to keep the tempo, control and combo decks in check. As a reference: Andrew Shrout runs 0 maindeck + 2 sideboard, Melissa DeTour runs 3+2, and I run 2+4.
Syncopate - Good in early game, not so good late game.
Dissipate - 3 cmc and Double blue may be problematic early game, but this is the catch-all counter.
Negate - Very solid sideboard card in tempo and control match ups.
spell rupture - We play fatties to make this card very powerful, however if our board is empty this card is useless. I don't know as I didn't test it thoroughly. My feeling is that it's too situational and will not make the cut though.
Essense Scatter - We have enough ways to kill creatures, and Cavern of Souls is everywhere. So I don't think this will make the cut.
Cancel- Generally dissipate is better, and dissipates seem to be enough already.
Dispel- Rarely relevant for us, we're mostly countering walkers and dangerous sorceries.
Other Creatures
Well, you must remind that all creatures in this deck can become lethal threat with wolf-run!
Augur of Bolas - Provide early defense against aggro decks, may cantrip if you play a more spell-heavy version.
Snapcaster Mage - Flashing back a charm / verdict / revelation is just too good. Or it may help you to get your crucial 5th mana by flashing back farseek. I run 1 as a wildcard spell.
Geist of Saint Traft - Excellent against Esper control, door control, Reid Duke's Bant, and any deck that play him (in order to legend-rule opposing geist). Terrible vs midrange and aggro. So he is usually a sideboard card.
Rhox Faithmender - Additional creatures against aggro. Usually belongs to sideboard, as we already have a lot of maindeck answers against the aggro decks.
Angel of Serenity - Reanimation and removal in a stick, but costs 7 mana. May get a blow out against reaminator and token decks, can get you an upper hand in Thragtusk attrition, and may bring back your creatures milled/killed in control matchup. However, she's usually too slow against fast aggro, and you can rarely resolve it against counter-heavy tempo decks before you die.
Prime Speaker Zegana - If you have another creature in play, it is another Sphinx's Revelation but with a fat body. Otherwise, it is just a random Elvish Visionary. I still don't think we have enough creature to play her, but maybe she will find a home in a more creature-oriented build.
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight - Can close the game extremely quickly when coupled with wolf run. The only downside is that a 7-mana creature that doesn't have haste, resiliency or have immediate impact on board is usually not very good nowadays. Yes she completely blunt the assault of aggro deck, but being stolen by act of treason effect that are common in Rx aggro sideboard, is the worst nightmare. Worked for Melissa DeTour as a 1x in sideboard, but I'm still not sold on this idea.
Sigarda, Host of Herons - Awesome against the decks that abuse sacrifice effects, such as The Aristocrat, Angel of Glory Rise.dec, or decks running of Edict effects such as Esper or Jund. Jund in particular have basically no answer to her apart from blocking with Nighthawk or Thundermaw.
(Questionable choice, only for the most aggressive builds)
Borderland Ranger - As we play so many non-basic non-gate cards, he is usually not worth it. But Andrew Shrout play this as his mana base has 6 basics.
Avacyn's Pilgrim - Provide additional acceleration, you may play a land less if you play this. But it's not good in sweeper-heavy builds.
Huntmaster of the Fells - Andrew Shrout played it instead of verdict against aggro, but in less red-intensive decks he is usually uncastable turn 4. I don't think this belongs to more spell-heavy version with more sweepers.
Other Utility spells
Think Twice - My feeling is that it is a filler for this deck. Melissa DeTour also mentioned she included it because she had too little things to play in turn 2. But with Terminus, sometimes it might make miracles.
Rest in peace - The best silver bullet against reanimator. Run 2-4x in sideboard.
Witchbane Orb - The silver bullet against RBx Midrange/control, Drownyard.dec, and burn.dec. Run a few in sideboard.
Ray of Revelation - Very good against Bant Enchant, and good against control decks running Detention Sphere and O-ring. A good sideboard card.
Erase - If Rancor is running rampant in your local meta, substitute Ray of Revelation with this.
Multi-role cards and walkers
Charms: It is debatable if Azorious or Selesnya charm is better, or you can run a 2/2 split of them. Simic Charm...too situational IMHO, and the pro's lists don't run it too.
Azorious Charm:
(+)not a complete dead card against control
(+)may gain you a lot of life in the right situation
(+)gain tempo for sure against fast aggro decks, may reset Stromkirk noble and Champion of Parish with a few counters.
(+)Removing a blocker when you are wolf running - note that if the blocker is removed, then all damage can be trampled to opponent. Call a judge if opponent insists his creature is still being blocked.
(-)Temporary removal only, so very bad against value creatures such as Thragtusk; or creature that may mess up your tempo when casting, such as restoration angel.
Selesnya Charm:
(+)A hard removal for x/2 dude or fatty or opposing wolf run guys. Especially relevant when you need an instant speed removal against a Thragtusk being blinked or an Angel of Serenity trying to bring back 3 of opponent's creature.
(+)Save your dude from burn, or act as a combat trick
(+)Late game, can combo with Kessig Wolf Run / flashback with snapcaster mage, let any opposing creature become 5 power and then exile it. Great for Boros Reckoner or Unpumped Olivia.
(+)When you need to race, you can always get a 2/2 dude and wolf run from there.
(-)Not effective against 3/3 dudes or 3/4 dudes early game
(-)drawing multiples early game against control is just awful
Jace, Architect of Thought - Hold off Gruul or zombie sligh, force them to overextend to a sweeper. Net you a lot of card in control matchup. Kill token.dec by himself. Or prevent control players to stick the 5cc Jace. However, he really needs other support cards such as blockers or sweepers against aggro, otherwise his +1 is useless.
Garruk Relentless - Removal for aggro deck, and endless pressure for control deck. A lot of pros choose it over Big Garruk, probably because of its less restrictive casting cost.
Garruk, Primal Hunter - Making dudes endlessly, and double-up as additional Sphinx's Revelation. Insane when combo with wolf run. I run a split of 2x Sphinx's Revelation and 2x Big Garruk.
Jace Memory Adept - Insane against control decks, poor against aggro. Usually a sideboard card.
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage - Insane against control decks, better than Big Jace against aggro, but I reckon it's still a sideboard card in this deck.
Match up analysis
NOTE: the following comments are based on my own version, and my experience with Bant Run since the beginning of RTR. Getting a different list, such as the winning Melissa DeTour's list, may change the match up.
Jund: Even. Pre-board it's slightly unfavorable. I save my Selesnya Charm for Thundermaw Hellkite, and to a lesser extent pumped Olivia. Use detention sphere wisely against Keyrunes and Walkers. Once you resolve a Sphinx's Revelation, it is hard to lose. Post board, you get Witchbane Orb as the Silver Bullet, as well as hard counter against walkers, so it become slightly favorable. Just don't over-board as you still need sweepers against their creatures. I'd say this is a tough matchup, because if you draw badly or cannot play tight you will lose easily, and it is very easy to make a mistake against such a grindy deck with a lot of angles of attack.
R/x Deck Wins, Zombies, Sligh aggro: Good. We have enough lifegain cards, sweepers, and detention sphere to combat aggro. Use your charms, augur of bolas and healer to fend off early rush, then sweep the board if needed, then stablize with Thragtusk and Resto Angel. Detention Sphere for Aristocrat and other 2nd-wave creatures. If you play Selesnya Charm, Thundermaw Hellkite is a joke.
GWx aggro: Slighly in our favor. Thalia is really a bane, because she delays our removals and sweepers for 1 turn. If they get the nut draw, the 1-turn-difference may be the difference between losing or stablizing, as they lack the ability to refill their hand after a sweeper.
GWx wolf run: Generally good. They lack a good CA engine, so if we can get into late game, we are the one in favor. However, if they manage to stick a Garruk or if we have no immediate answer for Angel of Serenity (eg Selesnya Charm), then we may be in deep trouble. Save your counterspell against Garruk.
Reaminator: Well, there's a few different flavor of reaminator. (a) Hoof.dec: this is actually a good matchup, as it needs a critical amount of smaller creatures to function, and rely heavily on mana dudes. If you sweep the board on time, and have selesnya charm ready for hoof, this deck is hard to get a lethal attack. Post board, bringing in Rest in Peace help the matchup further. (b) Grindy big-guys, such as Junk Reaminator: even to good, depending on your build. Game 1 is poor, as they can play Thragtusk over and over, while swinging in the air with Angel of Serenity and Griselbrand that come back over and over. Eventually they will grind you out of CA and win. If you don't have Selesnya Charm ready to response to their angel trigger or remove Griselbrand on time, you will lose. Game 2 and 3 are generally good, as you board in graveyard hate and more counterspells for their walkers and unburial rite. (c) Angel of glory rise.dec: maybe the worst matchup of this deck. Nothing in the maindeck is a good answer for this deck, except racing with Selesnya Charm tokens and centaur healers and resto angel...so game 1 is Awful, unless opponent is seriously mana screwed or milling very badly. Post-board, you are only break even/slightly favored, because you NEED to draw your silver bullets to win. Even if you draw it, opponent can still abrupt decay your RIP and start milling again. And they also have a very decent midrange beatdown plan backed up with Cavern of Souls. I hate this matchup as I really need to win BOTH game 2 and 3, which isn't an easy task. If you run Angel of Serenity, it may be a correct play to exile their reamination targets, and then ride your angel to victory. If you run Sigarda, she can shutdown opponent's infinite loop by herself, but still need to handle their beatdown plan.
Durdle control decks eg UWR miracles, Esper drownyard control, 5cc/door control, Reid Duke's Bant: Poor pre-board, good postboard. Every time I play against a durdle deck opponent in my LGS, I will say to them: I'm siding in 10 cards against you! Take out all the wraths, Selesnya Charms and Healers. Side in more detention Spheres, Witchbane Orb(for Esper and Door), Geist of St Traft (if you run it), Angel of Serenity, all counterspells in sideboard, and Ray of Revelation. Then it become an easy matchup...if the match don't go to time. In one game, I just managed to wolf-running for lethal damage in Turn 5 Extra Time! So, another important thing about this matchup is to become familiar with your deck, so you can play faster without making mistakes!
Note that Esper control seems to run more Edict effects such as Devour Flesh and Tribute to Hunger. So Geist of Saint Traft is less effective, compared to pre-GTC.
UW tempo: Poor pre-board, slightly favored to good post-board. The VIPs here is Supreme Verdict and Det Spherefor their dudes, Rest in Peace for their Moorland Haunt and Runechanter Pike, and counterspells for their Sphinx's Revelation.
UWR tempo: Well, this deck changed quite a lot after GTC, and I haven't played against this deck much. My feeling about the matchup is about even, but I could be wrong. Thragtusks gives them a lot of headache, but if they disrupt you too much or pull out the Reckoner 13 damage combo you often lose. 6/3 UPDATE: Played a few matches against UWR recently. It seems that their new list is less anti-control and more anti-aggro. And they stop running Thundermaw, Geist of St Traft, Moorland Haunt, and Runechanter Pike, which are all important trump card against us, at least in G1. If they tried to pull out the 13 damages combo, and you are running S-charm late game, you can kessig wolf run opponent's Reckoner, and then Selesnya Charm it. So, I think at this moment, the UWR matchup is in our favor.
My own stories of blowouts
1. I still remember one time my Zombie opponent get his nut draw of T1 Diagraf, T2 Diagraf + Gravecrawer, T3 Messenger, T4 Searing Spear, T5 Hellkite. However, I ambushed his 1st Diagraf with Selesnya Charm, preventing an attack with a Healer, and then snapcaster back the Charm to ambush his 2nd Diagraf and Messenger. And then I sweep away the messenger, hellkite and gravecrawer with a Verdict. He's practically out of gas, but I still have a Sphinx's Revelation in hand. I won 2-0 against him finally.
2. I played against Kibler's GB aggro. Opponent side-in Triumph of Ferocity. I have a Garruk, Primal Hunter in play, while opponent has a 3/3 dude in play. At his upkeep, I wolf-run my own guy to pump 1, so he couldn't draw a card. And I used the same tactics for 4 turns, so his triumph is effectively blanked...
3. Against Jund. I mana screwed at 5 lands for about 7 turns. In between, I drew 3 Selesnya Charms and 1 snapcaster mage. Every time, I waited my opponent to pump his guy with wolf run, and then I selesnya Charm his guy. He became grumpy, complaint that I was too lucky, as he was finally out of gas by the way I drew the 6th land.
4. Against 5cc control. I didn't draw a Witchbane Orb, but I played a negate before. I thought my opponent has a Rakdos Return in his hand, so when I pumped my guy using wolf run, I always left 2 mana open, bluffing for the nonexistent negate. And my opponent thought for a long time every turn, didn't call my bluff:) 3 turns later, I drew a negate, followed by a dissipate, and then the match became one-sided.
5. At a GPT, against Esper Control. Late game, I had a Garruk PH in play. opponent had sorin, a Vamp token, and vault of archangel in play. Opponent was nearly out of gas, but still has 50+ life due to vault of archangel. I wolf-run my beast to take down Sorin. Then I made a beast every turn, while opponent flashing back his 3 Lingering Souls in his grave, for 3 turns. I trade my beast for his tokens, one at a time. Then he swept the field for one turn. Eventually, he could not find an answer for my Garruk, and I wolf-run him to death.
6. Against GWx aggro. After sweeping the board, opponent played another Silverblade Paladin, with a Rancor on, and paired with a mana dude. My only removal in hand is Selesnya Charm, but I had 6 lands in play including a wolf run. What should I do? Well, when he attacks, I pumped his Paladin for 1, and then Selesnya Charm it!
Example Lists
4 Breeding Pool
3 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
2 Sunpetal Grove
3 Temple Garden
Creature
3 Augur of Bolas
3 Centaur Healer
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
4 Azorius Charm
1 Detention Sphere
2 Dissipate
4 Farseek
4 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Supreme Verdict
1 Syncopate
2 Think Twice
21 other spells
1 Centaur Healer
1 Detention Sphere
2 Garruk Relentless
1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
2 Negate
2 Rest in Peace
3 Rhox Faithmender
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Witchbane Orb
15 sideboard cards
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Borderland Ranger
2 Centaur Healer
3 Huntmaster of the Fells
3 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Cavern of Souls
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Hinterland Harbor
2 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Rootbound Crag
1 Steam Vents
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
3 Selesnya Charm
2 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Farseek
1 Centaur Healer
1 Curse of Echoes
3 Rest in Peace
2 Negate
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Syncopate
1 Garruk Relentless
2 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Pillar of Flame
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Breeding Pool
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Plains
Creature 12
4 Thragtusk
3 Restoration Angel
3 Centaur Healer
1 Augur of Bolas
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Farseek
3 Detention Sphere
4 Supreme Verdict
3 Selesnya Charm
1 Azorious Charm
2 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Dissipate
1 Syncopate
Walkers 4
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Jace, architect of thought
1 Detention Sphere
1 Terminus
2 Angel of Serenity
1 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Rest in Peace
2 Witchbane Orb
1 Dissiate
3 Negate
1 Ray of Revelation
I admit that her list is a bit weak against Esper, but as she mentioned, "I'm hoping that I pair up against aggro all day", indicating that she is gunning for an aggro-filled Pro Tour, similar to the SCG opens, instead of seeing a lot of control decks. I'd guess her plan would be:
+1 Detention Sphere, +2 Garruk Relentless, +x Counterspells, and then proceed to play a tempo game. If the Esper player removes Orb, then he may not have an answer for Garruk, and wolf-run will make 2/2 wolves lethal very soon.
IMHO, this deck is not about the biggest revelation deck. Although it shares a lot of cards with Reid Duke's Bant Control, bant run focus a bit more on developing the board so it can abuse wolf run. Therefore, I'm running a split of 2x Garruk Primal Hunter and 2x Sphinx's Revelation, as Garruk can also provide bodies to stabilize the board in addition to card-drawing. So far, it works for me - clogging up the board against aggro decks, or providing endless dudes to make Esper run out of removals, or draw me cards in the right situations.
And I admit that I was going to and fro of S-Charm and A-Charm. I started with 4x A-Charm, but changed to a split in the RTR game day. Currently, S-charm works better for my metagame. However, if A-Charm is working for you better, go for it. The best way is to playtest against the decks in your meta, and decide which charm(s) to include.
Standard
UR Control
Modern
Merfolk
Burn
Avacyn did nothing wrong!
Purify Innistrad!
#Purge
Me too. One of my friend, frustrated with his esper control, sleeved Bant Run up with 2x Aurelia's Fury, and took down a GPT. One of his game changing play was, in response to fiend hunter trigger exiling angel of glory rise, he Fury the hunter and tapped down all reanimated dudes, thus breaking the infinite loop. He then proceeded to win the match as opponent failed to dig for another infinite loop.
I know it isn't necessarily midrange, but the concept is the same. Get into the mid-late game and get one threat out, and you can win pretty easily if you play defensively. I don't run 4 sphinx's rev and honestly I don't ever wish I had more, except against Jund, maybe. If i want more I leave them in the sideboard and they come in for certain match-ups.
Here's the deck list I've been testing since gatecrash came out.
3x Thragtusk
3x Restoration Angel
2x Augur of Bolas
2x Sigarda, Host of Herons
Planeswalkers:
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
Instants/Sorceries:
4x Farseek
4x Supreme Verdict
4x Azorius Charm
2x Terminus
2x Sphinx's Revelation
Other:
3x Detention Sphere
1x Elixir of Immortality
Land:
4x Breeding Pool
4x Hallowed Fountain
3x Temple Garden
3x Glacial Fortress
2x Sunpetal Grove
1x Stomping Ground
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Forest
2x Kessig Wolf Run
2x Blind Obedience
2x Witchbane Orb
2x Ray of Revelation
2x Feeling of Dread
2x Rest in Peace
2x Negate
4 Breeding Pool
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Sunpetal Grove
3 Glacial Fortress
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Steam Vents
1 Forest
4 Azorius Charm
4 Farseek
2 Think Twice
2 Dissipate
1 Syncopate
4 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Supreme Verdict
1 Detention Sphere
3 Centaur Healer
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
2 Witchbane Orb
1 Detention Sphere
1 Centaur Healer
3 Rhox Faithmender
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Negate
2 Rest in Peace
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Drogskol Reaver
This is the list I intend to bring to FNM this week, as well as Game Day.
I really want to find a way to move Drogskol Reaver main... He's a fantastic finisher, especially with Wolf Run.
I also want to find a sideboard slot for some Angel of Serenity against Esper/Midrange, but I don't think there's room.
Sigarda is really really hard for Jund to deal with.
I was lucky as my pairing was bringing no bad matchup to me (as least even for Jund). I believe I would lost to reanimator if I would play the match out.
first game was against a homebrew mill deck 2-0
second match was against rdw 2-0
third game naya 2-0
fourth was r/b zombies 2-0
fifth was naya 2-0
all star was Aurelia's fury
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How does Sigarda shutdown their infinite loop? Her text only stops spells and abilities your opponents control from making you sacrifice permanents.
I’ve added my deck list below:
Creatures (14)
4 Thragtusk
3 Restoration Angel
3 Augur of Bolas
2 Centaur Healer
2 Angel of Serenity
Other Spells (21)
4 Farseek
4 Azorious Charm
4 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Think Twice
3 Supreme Verdict
2 Dissipate
2 Detention Sphere
Land (25)
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Grounds
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Breeding Pool
4 Temple Garden
4 Hinterland Harbor
3 Glacial Fortress
3 Sunpetal Grove
Sideboard (15)
2 Pithing Needle
2 Rhox Faithmender
2 Witchbane Orb
2 Negate
2 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Detention Sphere
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Rest in Peace
My first match-up was against Esper Control, then Jund, then Esper Control, then a Bant Mirror, and finally Esper Control before I dropped from the tournament. I was expecting to see Boros Reckoner all around me, and I did, just not right in front of me.
The big change that I made from Melissa’s list was that I cut two Centaur Healers for two Angels of Serenity. The reason was three-fold; 1) I had no byes and was concerned that I might see B/R Zombies early in the tournament (mostly because it’s cheap and someone might lend it to a friend etc. –the Angel has helped me during play testing remove late game Aristocrats, 2) When I got behind against agro decks I found a card like the Angel of Serenity could put me back into the game, and 3) I was worried after PT Montreal Esper Control might main-deck Ghost Quarters which would significantly weaken the match-up for me and putting a fast clock on them seemed like a good idea.
I really liked having the Angel in the deck; in a clutch game against Jund it helped me clear the board of a Huntermaster and something else, and grabbed a Thragtusk from my graveyard allowing me to win. My opponent didn’t except to see the Angel.
A card I really wished I had in my sideboard and possibly maindeck would be Jace, Memory Adapt. Two of the Esper Control decks that I played against had one in their main deck. With Esper sometimes I couldn’t draw a Kessig and this would be another great win condition against them if I could resolve it early.
That’s my two cents. I’m hoping to hear back from the community about the addition of the Angels of Serenity to the deck and possibly maindecking Jace, Memory Adept.
Edit: I added the two Jace, Memory Adept to the sideboard after the tournament and during the tournament I had a third Pithing Needle and a third Rhox Faithmender
funny story I was playing against a b/r zombies I gained a lot of life starting at 3rd turn board wiped a few times and he built up a little I was at 35 life he attacked for 15 he was at 7. I had fury in hand with 9 lands open after he attacked he asked how much was I down to I said 20 and then I asked him does he have any life gain he said no and I said gg and hit him for 7 with fury and he then he threw his deck and screamed "I hate bant run" and left
But yeah, people need to learn to control their outbursts. It's okay to get upset or whatever, but it's not okay to be violent or to start yelling.
So how many spells do we need to run to be able to support Augur? Most lists I see (including the one I'm putting together) have 19, but I remember the old Delver decks used to want to run 22-23+ to support Delver flippage. I wonder how the Augur math works out?
Currently playing:
Standard: Superfriends!
Legacy: Nic Fit / Pod
Pauper: Delvar; Tron; Flicker Stuff
Commander: Riku ("Some weird doubple spell thing happened"); Keranos ("I did a Gatherer search for 'random' and 'flip a coin.'"); Superfriends!
Here's the list, it's Melissa's list with a few changes:
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
3 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Breeding Pool
4 Temple Garden
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Farseek
3 Supreme Verdict
2 Dissapate
2 Aurelia's Fury
2 Detention Sphere
3 Angel of Serenity
2 Rhox Faithmender
2 Rest in Peace
2 Negate
2 Detention Sphere
2 Witchbane Orb
2 Terminus
I feel as although Centaur Healer is a good creature, the card advantage from Jace is just a tad bit stronger. Jace also helps in the aggro matches and is not too shabby in the control match. In the control matchup, Centaur healer is pretty bad and I hated seeing him against them. Aurelia's fury in testing is an all star. Tap down blockers and life charm with Azorius for a huge life swing, play Fury and ping your opponent to prevent any charm tricks during battle, hit your opponent on their upkeep and make them beat you with creatures (or tap out for instants etc..), or just finish them off with a huge burn spell. Lately I've been finishing games with 10+ mana out easily and that represents at least 8 points of damage. I feel that it is a much stronger card than think twice and the card advantage from our Jace's really helps. Another reason I'm liking Jace is most decks that try to mill us usually bring in two from the sideboard so, playing a numbers game they would have to have both and hope we drew none for it to be effective against us.
Aristocrats Net deck (1-3)
The aristocrats matchup is just plain bad here, the Aristocrat is a powerhouse against us as everything we do only slows it down. I lost 1-2 and offered a best of 5, my opponent excepted and while the game was good, the result was the same. All day I questioned the subtraction of centaur healer from the 60, and even the 75, but Jace was money all evening long and I don't know what to cut for 2-3 centaur healers if anything.
Bant Midrange (2-0)
Relatively simple matchup, our Kessig's really gave me the edge here and I ended up winning it with 15 mana on the board and several swings from a large Restoration angel.
Boros Aggro (2-0)
Another easy match, Jace slowed down the beats and I was able to cast a large sphinx's revelation when he had run out of gas to take game one. Game 2 Dissapated a Boros reckoner which was also pretty nice. Highlight of the match was game 1, with my opponent at 10 life and no cards in hand and me at 7 with 4 cards, I was able to tap down his two boros reckoners, and deal him 4 damage leaving him with 6 life and no blockers. The following turn I dealt him 6 damage from a Thragtusk and a Auger of Bolas for game.
Gruul (2-0) Bad player playing a good deck. He made several mistakes and it was a pretty easy win.
Reanimator (2-1) Game 1 went his way with an AOS on turn 5 followed by a Hoof and a few dorks swinging in. Game 2 I mulled to 6 but got turn 2 farseek online and slowly built up my team. Jace got me into a sphinx's revelation and an Auger of Bolas got me an Azorius charm which then netted me my Supreme Verdict to wipe his dorks and slow him down. Game 3 was an easy one as he mulled to 5 and missed several land drops.
Human Aggro (3-0) Home brew of U/W humans. He got off pretty good with turn one War falcon turn to Aven Squire but I was able to Jace into a Supreme Verdict and wipe his board turn 5. After that, he was out of gas and I Sphinx->Thragtusk->Resto->Spinx my next few turns and pretty much put the game out of reach from that point. Game 2 was pretty nice, he had a quite large champion of the Parish and a bunch of human tokens and I cast an Aurelia's fury for x=4 to tap his Champion, kill 2 tokens and ping him to stop an O-Ring play. He asked if we could play one more and I was able to stop a late game Miracle Terminus with Aurelia's Fury which pretty much sealed the deal.
All in all, I need some help here deciding how good Centaur healer is, is it amazing enough to play it over Jace? Or is it better than Aurelia's fury? That I can't answer yet but in today's testing I think it was outclassed by both of those cards. Any critique would be great.
healers are a must jace is not. af is great won me game day
Well, for me and my friends he bricks so often that we just started thinking out loud to replace him with Frilled Oculus, since Augur is usually a 1/3 with no abilities for us. A potential 3/5 would not be irrelevant neither against aggro nor control.
DCI L2 Judge
GP:Madrid 2010 45th
GP:Amsterdam 2011 74th
GP:London 2013 67th
Bazaar of Moxen 2013 32nd
Can you explain a bit more?