MTG Salvation

Quote from Bantdrazi »

I have an opportunity to put him to 2 if I swing, but then i make his death shadow angry. (also he could block my smasher with death shadow, and because trample damage, his shadow would live.)

You'll be happy to know that you can assign more-then-lethal damage to creatures with your trample. You can attack with your 5/5 into a 2/2 shadow and assign 4 damage on the shadow to make him die. Or just the whole 5 dmg if you dont feel like min maxing your math

This is true, I could of assigned overly lethal damage, assuming my opponent did in fact block. As a death shadow player, they could of also very happily taken the damage to have an 11/11 death shadow. And then I lose to temur battle rage. It felt safer to hold back and stall until reinforcements (Drowners) arrived.

I'm having trouble with Bant Knightfall. Any tips?

I only have experience on that matchup from the other side of the table. Vizier version or traditional Knightfall?

Traditional, if I'm not mistaken.

I've only played against Knightfall a few times with Bant Eldrazi, but I would saw that you want to be the aggressor. Reality Smasher is really good in this matchup. Knightfall also overloads the 3-drop slot and 1-drop slot, so a well-timed EE can be very devastating against Knightfall decks. Displacer is also really good here, as it is in any creature matchup. If you can't kill them quickly, I would try and go for a displacer lock. Displacer is also very good against their spell quellers, as you can start locking their own spells under their quellers. But I think Knightfall would side those out postboard.

Oh wow. I have never realized that spell queller is a must ability. That's awesome you can lock there own spells. Question on that interaction though. If they spell quelled your Ancient Stirrings, and then you flicker the queller, and try and cast the Stirrings, can they just quell it again? I haven't had that interaction come up before. So in order for you to be able to lock there own spell under queller, I need to flicker spell queller when they cast a spell, and then not cast my previously exiled spell?

Nope, spell Queller can't target the same spell when it's blinked because the blink resolves all at once. Spell Queller ETBs before the other player can even cast the previously exiled spell.

Also, I don't think Knightfall ever really boards out Queller. Even though it misses Smasher, Drowner, etc. and can be flickered by Displacer, it's still one of the most powerful cards in the deck

Well, Prep for GP Oklahoma, I took a stock list to battle at my LGS:




Yeah, I played tight, and deck felt great. I know our deck isn't played as much anymore but players know me as the lone remaining Bant Eldrazi pilot. They also don't ever like actually playing against the deck.

R1) Vs Counter Company 2-1 Win
Yeah, see this is why I like our version over Eldrazi Tron. I had triple Noble out and a TKS and smasher. My 8/8 Smasher forced him to trade off his board and EE punished him for playing multiple 2cmc dorks. G2 he got it via combo kill before I could set up. G3, I applied pressure and landed double Grafdigger's Cage. Stubborn Denial countered his company on curve and he fell way behind. I had the right amount of pressure and hate. Sure they have it sometimes but so do we.

R2) Vs Dredge 2-0 Win
I played smart game 1, got a T3 smasher with Skypawner Beats on line before he could a mass a massive board state. Path's took care of blockers and my drowners came down to seal up combat. G2, he mulls to 5 and I do what our deck is designed to do, T2 TKS into Displacer holding up path and stubborn.

R3) Vs Elves 1-2 Loss
Look the fact that I took 1 match off this pilot means a lot. This match up is terrible and trying to shore this up makes us lose points elsehwere. I'm fine with the deck having rough match ups. EE shined and G2 came down to me blowing up his 1cmc dudes and smashing in hard. Rawr

R4) Vs Tron 2-0 Win
Yeah, I double TKS him G1. K, G2 was a bit closer but had the countermagic up and beat Karn and Ugin on board (yes I beat both on board at the same time). Don't get flustered against them, they will resolve something, and you will just path it. My opponent landed Ulamog, went to exile my 2 displacers and I blinked them

Decks still great, the tools are there for it to be successful. Sure it has bad match ups but it's modern, the Sb is stupidly good. I'm sold on playing this at the GP.

With the meta shifting towards Jeskai Control I think Bant Eldrazi is in a great place! This is the kind of control we are 100% favored against. DS is still a good match up, Dredge is fine (out Sb hits them due to how anti Storm we can be), Counter's Company can be rough but we have tools here. Affinity is favorable and I think the Humans Match is not bad, EE seems great here. I'm in the camp that burn is favorable as long as you MD Matter Reshaper. I think we can get under Eldrazi Tron and are the better of the Eldrazi Variants in the Mirror. With Scapeshift being pushed down and decks like Jund and Abzan coming back, that means combat/ board presence is relevant again. That's where our deck is the strongest.

i didnt have the cages in play yet, i found them a few turns later.

GQ and Wastes are both bad imo. Gavony is the much stronger utility land esp with 5-6 dorks and skyspawners.

Jeskai is not a walk in the park. They can win games if we dont have cavern. We are definitely favored but eldrazi tron and gds are in my view easier.

this is one of the reasons I was leaning towards 4x Cavern of Souls in my main. This is the card that hoses them in the match up. Do you think going to 4 is correct for the GP?

4 has always been right. It's the second best land in the deck that effectively works as a 4 color land...

Thinking about testing Endless one. It's particularly relevant against jeskai control and against path in general since it is a threat that can avoid bolt or queller and also benefits from the extra lands. It adds consistency and allows us to use mana efficiently. Also it can be cast under blood moon I would consider it as a 1- or 2- of in place of my current main deck ballistas which I would move to SB.

The manabase is way too inconsistent to be messing around with utility lands - I guess if you run 24 lands but a 23 land build with a utility land is begging for terrible hands and being stuck on colours.

Quote from IslandsAreBroken »

The manabase is way too inconsistent to be messing around with utility lands - I guess if you run 24 lands but a 23 land build with a utility land is begging for terrible hands and being stuck on colours.

I totally agree. I lose too many games with cavern/temple hands, or games where I only have 1 colored source. That's why I switched my flex land into Horizon Canopy. It still has the utility flexibility, but makes green and white. It's been solid. I also think you could run the 4th cavern as the utility land is jeskai and/or UW is popular, but running 4x cavern AND a utility land like GQ or Township is mega greedy.

I agree re. utility land discussion - my mana base/list

// Bant Eldrazi

// 60 Maindeck
// 3 Artifact
3 Engineered Explosives

// 25 Creature
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Drowner of Hope
4 Eldrazi Skyspawner
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise

// 4 Instant
4 Path to Exile

// 24 Land
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Windswept Heath
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
2 Brushland
2 Yavimaya Coast
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Horizon Canopy

// 4 Sorcery
4 Ancient Stirrings


// 15 Sideboard
// 7 Artifact
SB: 4 Chalice of the Void
SB: 3 Relic of Progenitus

// 3 Creature
SB: 2 Reclamation Sage

// 2 Enchantment
SB: 2 Worship

// 3 Instant
SB: 1 Settle the Wreckage
SB: 2 Negate

SB: 1 Stony Silence

I think a utility land is only possible as a 24th land and with 5 or 6 dorks. I played 23 with gavony for a while and it is a little too inconsistent.

The only bant eldrazi list to show up in rptqs had relics and eternal scourge. Very interesting and I think it is particularly well built against Jeskai but I personally don't like relic in the main deck at all.

Quote from whyjesse »

I think a utility land is only possible as a 24th land and with 5 or 6 dorks. I played 23 with gavony for a while and it is a little too inconsistent.

The only bant eldrazi list to show up in rptqs had relics and eternal scourge. Very interesting and I think it is particularly well built against Jeskai but I personally don't like relic in the main deck at all.

I think main deck relic is for decks with somewhat limited turn 1 plays. With my list I have 6 dorks and 4 stirrings - so I think that is enough. My take on Eternal Scourge is that its good against Moon and heavy removal decks - I haven't tested it but I agree it is quite interesting - looks like ill order some and start testing. I doubt I could find room for more then 2 and im reluctant to cut any skyspawners - so not sure how its going to fit at this stage.

Having said that my current list uses a Boreal Druid, and sb batterskull to try and allievate some of the issues that Bant faces in the current meta.

Current List

//Lands
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Windswept Heath
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Brushland
2 Yavimaya Coast
2 Forest
1 Plains

//Creatures
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Drowner of Hope
4 Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 Rhonas the indomitable (Shave 1x skyspawner and 1x Rhonas for 2x eternal scourge)

//Dorks
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Boreal Druid

//Other
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Path to Exile
2 Engineered Explosives

//Sideboard
SB: 3 Chalice of the Void
SB: 3 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 Negate
SB: 2 Reclamation Sage
SB: 2 Worship
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 1 Settle the Wreckage
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives

Started team testing this week, on the docket were matches against Grixis Deathshadow and UW Control (w/ Azcanta).

Results:
Grixis DS, Favorbale, VERY favorable. We knew this, only I didn't realize how good the match up actually was until I played it about a dozen times pre SB and then 20 SB.

UW Control, aye ya yai, this is rough. If we were to try and improve against this deck after SB I assume it would need to be something with Cast Triggers. Cards like World Breaker and even the big daddy himself Utamog came to mind but that deviates from what our deck wants to do. Maybe a card like Eternal Scourge is worth testing, but I just feel like we need to curve out and disrupt via TKS.

More to follow.