MAINDECK: -1 Vent and -1 Rhino for +1 Hissing Quagmire and +1 Tireless Tracker, respectively. (It's become trendy to cut Tracker, which I think is a big mistake. We want games to go long enough for Tracker to be fantastic, and that usually happens.) If I had my druthers you'd cut both Rhino, but that's often a pet card and it seems good enough in your local meta.
SIDEBOARD: -2 Finks for +2 Feed the Clan. This is an overlooked gem for us -- it often counterfeits entire game plans when it resolves (and can't be Pathed or fall to your own Tendrils like Finks). I've had two in my board since I got tired of losing close games to Burn and I've never looked back.
I'm skeptical about the Blood Baron -- it's a fine card but doesn't scream "necessity" in your list. Given the way you described your meta, I'd recommend -1 Baron and -1 Stony Silence for +2 Fulminator Mage (or Ghost Quarter if those are unavailable). You seem unable to punish greedy mana bases. Even blowing up a land against Burn can make a huge difference. Grinding against fast decks can be too slow and grinding against decks like TitanShift can be meaningless if you can't disrupt them in the right way.
Lili the Last Hope is a meta dependent slot. I have plenty of CoCo nonsense to deal with, so I maindeck her to kill dorks efficiently. Your mileage may vary. She's not a great -2 prospect right off the bat -- Eternal Witness is a better candidate if you need that effect (because Lili will probably die at 1 loyalty anyway). I've fallen in and out of love with EWit but currently wouldn't leave home without her. She's great to rebuy discard or land destruction when that's what you need, which Lili the Last Hope can't always do.
I'm going to disagree with this as well. While tracker is a great card and I run 1 main 1 side, Rhino has won me so many games it's unreal. Sure, a 4/5 body doesn't match up well against e-tron's creatures and GDS creatures, it's still a great card. 2 Rhino is the perfect number IMO.
If you really want to beat burn, then you should play feed the clan. But if you want to have a better overall sideboard, Kitchen Finks is WAY better. I bring him in against control decks, mirror, anything with LotV, GDS, aggro decks, and burn. Way more versatile.
E-Witness is also a fine card, but our deck is already graveyard reliant, especially when we play Grim Flayers. So I think it's beneficial to use grindy cards like Tracker or Gideon in that slot that don't use the GY to hedge against cards like RiP or Relic.
Placed 4th in a small 20 person tournament this week. Gotta keep emphasizing how good Gavony is. I played UW control 2 times and went 2-0 in both rounds, with 1 game in each round being easy wins because I got Gavony on the board and they didn't have GQ or SS in time.
Still playing around with Rec sage vs Natural state. My only loss that night was a loss to a blood moon deck and not being able to kill the blood moon at instant speed lost me one game. Rec sage was stellar in the UW matchup, though. It's a solid 2-for-1. Maybe 1 Rec sage 1 Natural state? Not sure. I just don't like how narrow Natural state is.
I run 1 Natural State and 1 Rec Sage in my board last week. Both have their upsides, and those upsides are situational. Rec Sage comes with a body that can be displaced, which is usally GG against decks like affinity or Lantern. Natural state is instant speed, and can be gotten back efficiently with Ewitness. But the 3cmc restriction can be a problem. Sometimes you just need to kill a worship or a Leyline. A 1-1 split has been working well for me.
Just want to share the MU i had and a few thoughts with you.
Abzan Company L
BG Tron W
Ramunap Company W
Grixis Shadow W
Grixis Shadow W
Mono white hatebears W
WR Prison W
Sultai Midrange W
Eldrazi Tron L
Valakut W
Kiki Chord L
Valakut W
Storm W
Eldrazi Tron W
Dredge W
The deck felt great and wouldn't change a thing maindeck. Regarding my options i prefer 4 skyspawner because it represents both an early beater (even more with hierarch) and ramp. Also it combines with displacer better then reshaper, can block flying creatures, provides two blockers in time of need and combines well with gavony township. Overall i think skyspawner is more agro then reshaper and the early damage can make a big diference imo. Everything else is pretty mainstream besides gavony which was always great and won me some games, i will continue playing it without a doubt.
Concerning the sideboard i would change Worship and Thragtusk for a surgical and a reclamation sage
Good job PokemonTrainer17707! I ran a very similar list to yours at a pptq last weekend. Why the ratchet bomb in the SB? A 3rd EE seems like a better option unless I am missing something. I also suggest cutting the Stony down to two, and maybe replacing #3 with a rec sage. Stony and EE against affinity is a nonbo, and reducing Stony down to 2 makes it much less likely you ever draw more than 1. And in matchups like tron and Etron, Stony Silence is fine but not the best card. I would probably only bring in 2 in those matchups anyway. Just a suggestion.
Is our TitanShift matchup as good as most are saying? The few times I've been pitted against the deck, I was crushed without much opposition. I suppose I need to fix my sideboard up a bit. Along with TitanShift, I've been struggling with the mirror recently as around 5 players come with the deck each Tuesday...any advice on sideboarding lines?
I think Titanshift is one of our worst matchups. It's probably 70/30 or maybe 65/45. If you don't draw TKS, then you can basically never outrace a scapeshift without a nut draw. Primeval Titan is also almost unbeatable. Drowner can keep it in check for a turn or two, but that's about it. You can't Drowner/Displacer lock it because a valakut will eventually just bolt your displacer. It's beatable, but rough. Disdainful stroke and flashfreeze are probably your best bet from the board. I run 3x Disdainful and 2x Stubborn denial in the board. It's a bit overkill, but valakut decks are everywhere right now.
I can't help but think that disdainful stroke would be better than Flashfreeze. Still good against CoCo/Chord decks, Tron decks, Etron, control strategies, Ad Naus, and still hits both scapeshift and Titan. Worse against burn and maybe skred red, but I think the pros outweighs the cons pretty heavily. I run 2x Disdainful stroke in Bant coco, and 2x-3x disdainful stroke in bant eldrazi and it's been great.
I played Bant Eldrazi at a PPTQ yesterday. I was running pretty hot and the deck felt great. But unfortunately I lost in the top 8 to a Worship in g2, and then in g3 I kept a 2-lander with Eldrazi Temple/Cavern, and never drew another land. The deck felt really good though. I will be playing it in the future for sure.
Hey everyone, apparently we are back to Tier 2 now? /cheer.
Joking aside, I've noticed that the meta at my local PPTQs have been GDS, E-Tron, Affinity, Valakut, and an assortment of tons of random decks. The way modern tournaments usually are. So with that meta in mind, I thought bant eldrazi would be good to start playing again. It's good against the "random" modern decks, and is positive against GDS and ETron, even against affinity, and probably 70/30 against Valakut decks.
But I just can't decide whether or not to play Matter Reshaper or Skyspawner. Skyspawner is great against affinity, but it doesn't really shine in any other matchup. With that in mind, I'm looking toward Matter Reshaper, but I think the eldrazi scion that Skyspawner provides really helps those land-light draws, and really helps us accelerate to Reality Smashers and Drowners in the matchups where you want them on board asap.
I am also running either 3 RiPs in the board or a 2/1 split of RiP/Grafdigger's Cage. But in the matchups where I want RiP, I also kinda want Matter reshaper. Like Abzan, GDS, KotR decks, maybe Jeskai. Obviously Reshaper and Rip is a nonbo, so that's another reason why I'm leaning towards Skyspawner.
I'm thinking I'll just go 3/2 split, probably 3 Skyspawner/2 Matter Reshaper. I wonder if there's any other bant eldrazi aficionados here that might have a say in the Skyspawner/Matter Reshaper dilemma that we all face.
I'm not an aficionado, but my belief is that 4 skyspawners is the way to go. You're correct about matter reshaper being a nonbo with rest in peace, and it gives you that extra mana to get out a faster threat. Here are my additional points in favor of skyspawner:
1. Skyspawner is better against blood moon.
2. skyspwaner synergizes better with gavony township, and has synergy with Displacer. Yeah folks, displacer targeting skyspawner can be good at times. Infinietly block a death's shadow and get a token out of it every activation.
If you are not playing gavony township, you should over ghost quarter, you lose too many games from running out of action.
I like your points for skyspawner. I think I'll be on 4x Skyspawner for the weekend.
Gavony is interesting, but I'm thinking my single utility land will be 1x Tectonic Edge. I think tectonic edge is much better right now than ghost quarter. Against UW control, Grixis, Scapeshift, and Etron, I would much rather have Tectonic Edge. Against affinity, I would rather have GQ. So i think that weighs in the favor of Tec Edge, but gavony sounds quite good too.
How do you guys sideboard versus Death's Shadow Jund/Grixis? The matchup feels good, but I don't know if it's right to just side out all the low CMC hitting discard spells?
Burn (pray to dodge):
Out: 1 Spellbomb, 3 Thoughtseize, 1 Dark Confidant (I want all Confidants out, but I don't have enough in my SB for it)
In: 2 Collective Brutality, 1 EE, 1 Flaying Tendrils, 1 Lingering Souls
Your sideboarding plans look pretty good. Your board is pretty weak to burn, but you know that and most decks must make sideboard concessions somewhere. I'll go through a few nitpick SB plans I noticed:
Affinity: You want damnation for sure. Kills Etched Champion. LotV isn't great in this matchup, and I would rather have IoK than LotV. I know IoK can be a dead draw late, but a t-1 ioK can mess up an affinity player pretty hard sometimes by taking an enabler like Mox Opal, 0-mana creature, springleaf drum, etc, or maybe if they have a single payoff card it can just snatch that.
UW Control: Board in the 4th Lingering Souls, and as for removal spells, I would keep Path in over Fatal Push. Both can hit Colonnade, but path can hit gideons, and sometimes you can path your lingering souls token in response to a detention sphere to keep the rest, and net a basic land out of it. Obviously having path + fulminaters is bad synergy, but you won't be casting path on your opponent's creatures until late game where the basic shouldn't really matter, and Pathing your own souls token is real clutch sometimes. I would also keep in all the Ioks. Maybe cut something like -1 Scooze -1 Spellbomb -1 Path To Exile -3 Fatal Push
Counters Company: I like Thoughtseize over surgicals here. Thoughtseize hits their best card against you (CoCo) and can mess up their curve, and can nab something important that they got back with an eternal Witness. Surgical is usually a card advantage loss, which is not what we want to be doing in this matchup. Also, LotV can be pretty weak on the draw, especially if you are taking out hand disruption.
Hey everyone, apparently we are back to Tier 2 now? /cheer.
Joking aside, I've noticed that the meta at my local PPTQs have been GDS, E-Tron, Affinity, Valakut, and an assortment of tons of random decks. The way modern tournaments usually are. So with that meta in mind, I thought bant eldrazi would be good to start playing again. It's good against the "random" modern decks, and is positive against GDS and ETron, even against affinity, and probably 70/30 against Valakut decks.
But I just can't decide whether or not to play Matter Reshaper or Skyspawner. Skyspawner is great against affinity, but it doesn't really shine in any other matchup. With that in mind, I'm looking toward Matter Reshaper, but I think the eldrazi scion that Skyspawner provides really helps those land-light draws, and really helps us accelerate to Reality Smashers and Drowners in the matchups where you want them on board asap.
I am also running either 3 RiPs in the board or a 2/1 split of RiP/Grafdigger's Cage. But in the matchups where I want RiP, I also kinda want Matter reshaper. Like Abzan, GDS, KotR decks, maybe Jeskai. Obviously Reshaper and Rip is a nonbo, so that's another reason why I'm leaning towards Skyspawner.
I'm thinking I'll just go 3/2 split, probably 3 Skyspawner/2 Matter Reshaper. I wonder if there's any other bant eldrazi aficionados here that might have a say in the Skyspawner/Matter Reshaper dilemma that we all face.
Hey everyone, I sleeved up Jonathan Rosum's list list night to play at a local tournament. It felt really good, and the 1-of Thundermaw won me all 3 games that I drew him in.
But I was wondering how to sideboard against eldrazi tron. I identified the obvious cards to bring in from the board, which included 2 Rejection, Verdict, 2 Stony Silence, 1 Elspeth, and maybe Vendilion Clique. But what do you cut? My first inclination was to cut the Helixs and electrolyze, and trim the bolts because they don't kill much in the matchup. But the matchup seemed like the jeskai deck really wanted to be the beatdown, and cutting the burn spells makes that plan much worse. So I wonder if cutting the cryptics, and not bringing in the elspeth and verdict might be a better plan. I'm not experienced in the matchup do know, I was just theorizing.
Here is my current list. I wish I could squeeze in a third Tracker in the sideboard, but I'm already playing very little graveyard hate, IMO. Thanks for the pointers, brosterman!
I think 2 Trackers is the perfect number. 3 seems like too many. Looking at your list, your best strategy against UW would be to extend into a verdict, then slam a Coco or 4-mana planeswalker. If you can set up that situation, you should be in a good spot. Having the flash threats helps too, especially Vendilion Clique. And like I said earlier, saving your counterspells for things like Big Gideon, Elspeth, and Sphinx's Rev will keep your UW opponent from pulling ahead. Your creatures will be able to overcome their sweepers/removal as long as they don't pull ahead.
@Dejadal I do play 3 Voices. They would be great when resolved, although I never drew them in those matches. I've had a day to think about the matchup a bit more, and I've narrowed it down to a couple of questions:
1. What should I Spell Queller? Is any spell worth it? Or should I save it? I think I Quelled a few Think Twice early, partly to get a creature on the board, but I'm not sure it was worth it.
2. How do I maximize the chances of having my planeswalkers resolve (I play Elspeth, and am considering adding Gideon, AoZ to side in)? Wait for opp to tap out? Bait out a few spells first? Wait for 6/7 mana so I can have a counterspell to protect it? Or try to play it asap and just take that chance?
The more general question I have is just what endgame or game state am I trying to play toward? Am I trying to stick creatures aggressively or is it productive to grind against UW Control. They draw so much better and my opp always played Sphinx's Revelation on later turns to renew his life/hand.
Thanks for any input!
The link to your deck isn't working for me, but I'll give you some pointers. You always need to be on the watch for Supreme Verdict. A lot of times you want to extend a few creatures, and then make them verdict. The best thing to do is to try and setup a situation where they need to verdict, and have a coco for that moment. They don't play a whole lot of single target removal, so playing out early knights and coursers is fine. If they have to path it early, it gives you a nice resource advantage. Also, holding up queller for a Supreme Verdict is a good play because it buys you a turn of attacking, and you don't really overextend any more because they need another removal spell to kill the queller.
To answer your questions:
1) Supreme Verdict is the big thing you want to use queller on. You want to be careful not to queller a spell that would be fine to cast after a supreme verdict. An example would be a Gideon. If they resolve a verdict, then get the free Gideon cast, it puts you pretty far behind. A spell you want to hit is something like Detention Sphere. If they resolve a Verdict and get the free detention sphere cast, it's really bad because they just resolved a verdict and you won't have any creatures.
2) Goes along with #1. You want to force them to verdict at some point, and afterward is the ideal time to cast a Planeswalker.
In general, I've been able to out grind a UW control player a lot of times with Courser and Tracker. Also saving your counterspells for their big plays like Rev, Elspeth, big Gideon, etc is good because they will have trouble getting ahead without them. Tracker is also really good against them post board. It demands an answer, and if they don't have it, it snowballs quickly.
I don't have much experience in the mirror, but when I played it,I cut 2 of 4 Fatal Pushes, 2 Stubborn Denials, and 2 Inquisitions for 2 Spellbombs, a surgical, two P+K, and a Dreadbore. Street Wraith actually seems like a solid threat in the mirror that you can cycle early and cast late. I wasn't sure on the Inquisitions and Stubborn Denials though. I'm interested in what more experienced pilots do in the mirror.
somebody has some techs against bant eldrazi? i feel it is a poor matchup, and even in sd i dont have many answers ( only rejection are very good and they play cavern of souls).
Coming from a Bant Eldrazi player, a single Dreadbore in the SB will help. Also LotV can be punishing, especially if you set her up with thoughtseize effects. It's a rough matchup, and oftentimes a single drowner of hope can win the game for Bant Eldrazi. I would always try and keep up a terminate or fetch+Fatal Push when you think they will drop a TKS. Although TKS isn't that great in the matchup because it gets outsized by all of the grixis threats. GDS is the aggressor in the matchup because Bant can stabilize with drowner of hope, and can lock out the game with drowner + Displacer. So I would keep all the hand disruption spells in.
Ideally, I like Unified will. But my experience has taught me that it's not always on when we need it. Maybe 90-95%, depending on the matchup. So due to our deck's weakness to Valakut strategies, I like Disdainful Stroke. It's so important for our counterspell to hit both Primeval Titan AND Scapeshift. It also does work against UW control, hits Ad Naus, and hits eldrazi tron pretty hard as well. BUT it makes your deck much weaker against Living End, but that matchup is basically unwinnable anyway. So I prefer a 2/2 Split of Disdainful/Stubbs, maybe a 2/3 split.
I'm going to disagree with this as well. While tracker is a great card and I run 1 main 1 side, Rhino has won me so many games it's unreal. Sure, a 4/5 body doesn't match up well against e-tron's creatures and GDS creatures, it's still a great card. 2 Rhino is the perfect number IMO.
If you really want to beat burn, then you should play feed the clan. But if you want to have a better overall sideboard, Kitchen Finks is WAY better. I bring him in against control decks, mirror, anything with LotV, GDS, aggro decks, and burn. Way more versatile.
E-Witness is also a fine card, but our deck is already graveyard reliant, especially when we play Grim Flayers. So I think it's beneficial to use grindy cards like Tracker or Gideon in that slot that don't use the GY to hedge against cards like RiP or Relic.
I run 1 Natural State and 1 Rec Sage in my board last week. Both have their upsides, and those upsides are situational. Rec Sage comes with a body that can be displaced, which is usally GG against decks like affinity or Lantern. Natural state is instant speed, and can be gotten back efficiently with Ewitness. But the 3cmc restriction can be a problem. Sometimes you just need to kill a worship or a Leyline. A 1-1 split has been working well for me.
Good job PokemonTrainer17707! I ran a very similar list to yours at a pptq last weekend. Why the ratchet bomb in the SB? A 3rd EE seems like a better option unless I am missing something. I also suggest cutting the Stony down to two, and maybe replacing #3 with a rec sage. Stony and EE against affinity is a nonbo, and reducing Stony down to 2 makes it much less likely you ever draw more than 1. And in matchups like tron and Etron, Stony Silence is fine but not the best card. I would probably only bring in 2 in those matchups anyway. Just a suggestion.
I think Titanshift is one of our worst matchups. It's probably 70/30 or maybe 65/45. If you don't draw TKS, then you can basically never outrace a scapeshift without a nut draw. Primeval Titan is also almost unbeatable. Drowner can keep it in check for a turn or two, but that's about it. You can't Drowner/Displacer lock it because a valakut will eventually just bolt your displacer. It's beatable, but rough. Disdainful stroke and flashfreeze are probably your best bet from the board. I run 3x Disdainful and 2x Stubborn denial in the board. It's a bit overkill, but valakut decks are everywhere right now.
I like your points for skyspawner. I think I'll be on 4x Skyspawner for the weekend.
Gavony is interesting, but I'm thinking my single utility land will be 1x Tectonic Edge. I think tectonic edge is much better right now than ghost quarter. Against UW control, Grixis, Scapeshift, and Etron, I would much rather have Tectonic Edge. Against affinity, I would rather have GQ. So i think that weighs in the favor of Tec Edge, but gavony sounds quite good too.
Your sideboarding plans look pretty good. Your board is pretty weak to burn, but you know that and most decks must make sideboard concessions somewhere. I'll go through a few nitpick SB plans I noticed:
Affinity: You want damnation for sure. Kills Etched Champion. LotV isn't great in this matchup, and I would rather have IoK than LotV. I know IoK can be a dead draw late, but a t-1 ioK can mess up an affinity player pretty hard sometimes by taking an enabler like Mox Opal, 0-mana creature, springleaf drum, etc, or maybe if they have a single payoff card it can just snatch that.
UW Control: Board in the 4th Lingering Souls, and as for removal spells, I would keep Path in over Fatal Push. Both can hit Colonnade, but path can hit gideons, and sometimes you can path your lingering souls token in response to a detention sphere to keep the rest, and net a basic land out of it. Obviously having path + fulminaters is bad synergy, but you won't be casting path on your opponent's creatures until late game where the basic shouldn't really matter, and Pathing your own souls token is real clutch sometimes. I would also keep in all the Ioks. Maybe cut something like -1 Scooze -1 Spellbomb -1 Path To Exile -3 Fatal Push
Counters Company: I like Thoughtseize over surgicals here. Thoughtseize hits their best card against you (CoCo) and can mess up their curve, and can nab something important that they got back with an eternal Witness. Surgical is usually a card advantage loss, which is not what we want to be doing in this matchup. Also, LotV can be pretty weak on the draw, especially if you are taking out hand disruption.
Joking aside, I've noticed that the meta at my local PPTQs have been GDS, E-Tron, Affinity, Valakut, and an assortment of tons of random decks. The way modern tournaments usually are. So with that meta in mind, I thought bant eldrazi would be good to start playing again. It's good against the "random" modern decks, and is positive against GDS and ETron, even against affinity, and probably 70/30 against Valakut decks.
But I just can't decide whether or not to play Matter Reshaper or Skyspawner. Skyspawner is great against affinity, but it doesn't really shine in any other matchup. With that in mind, I'm looking toward Matter Reshaper, but I think the eldrazi scion that Skyspawner provides really helps those land-light draws, and really helps us accelerate to Reality Smashers and Drowners in the matchups where you want them on board asap.
I am also running either 3 RiPs in the board or a 2/1 split of RiP/Grafdigger's Cage. But in the matchups where I want RiP, I also kinda want Matter reshaper. Like Abzan, GDS, KotR decks, maybe Jeskai. Obviously Reshaper and Rip is a nonbo, so that's another reason why I'm leaning towards Skyspawner.
I'm thinking I'll just go 3/2 split, probably 3 Skyspawner/2 Matter Reshaper. I wonder if there's any other bant eldrazi aficionados here that might have a say in the Skyspawner/Matter Reshaper dilemma that we all face.
But I was wondering how to sideboard against eldrazi tron. I identified the obvious cards to bring in from the board, which included 2 Rejection, Verdict, 2 Stony Silence, 1 Elspeth, and maybe Vendilion Clique. But what do you cut? My first inclination was to cut the Helixs and electrolyze, and trim the bolts because they don't kill much in the matchup. But the matchup seemed like the jeskai deck really wanted to be the beatdown, and cutting the burn spells makes that plan much worse. So I wonder if cutting the cryptics, and not bringing in the elspeth and verdict might be a better plan. I'm not experienced in the matchup do know, I was just theorizing.
I think 2 Trackers is the perfect number. 3 seems like too many. Looking at your list, your best strategy against UW would be to extend into a verdict, then slam a Coco or 4-mana planeswalker. If you can set up that situation, you should be in a good spot. Having the flash threats helps too, especially Vendilion Clique. And like I said earlier, saving your counterspells for things like Big Gideon, Elspeth, and Sphinx's Rev will keep your UW opponent from pulling ahead. Your creatures will be able to overcome their sweepers/removal as long as they don't pull ahead.
The link to your deck isn't working for me, but I'll give you some pointers. You always need to be on the watch for Supreme Verdict. A lot of times you want to extend a few creatures, and then make them verdict. The best thing to do is to try and setup a situation where they need to verdict, and have a coco for that moment. They don't play a whole lot of single target removal, so playing out early knights and coursers is fine. If they have to path it early, it gives you a nice resource advantage. Also, holding up queller for a Supreme Verdict is a good play because it buys you a turn of attacking, and you don't really overextend any more because they need another removal spell to kill the queller.
To answer your questions:
1) Supreme Verdict is the big thing you want to use queller on. You want to be careful not to queller a spell that would be fine to cast after a supreme verdict. An example would be a Gideon. If they resolve a verdict, then get the free Gideon cast, it puts you pretty far behind. A spell you want to hit is something like Detention Sphere. If they resolve a Verdict and get the free detention sphere cast, it's really bad because they just resolved a verdict and you won't have any creatures.
2) Goes along with #1. You want to force them to verdict at some point, and afterward is the ideal time to cast a Planeswalker.
In general, I've been able to out grind a UW control player a lot of times with Courser and Tracker. Also saving your counterspells for their big plays like Rev, Elspeth, big Gideon, etc is good because they will have trouble getting ahead without them. Tracker is also really good against them post board. It demands an answer, and if they don't have it, it snowballs quickly.
Coming from a Bant Eldrazi player, a single Dreadbore in the SB will help. Also LotV can be punishing, especially if you set her up with thoughtseize effects. It's a rough matchup, and oftentimes a single drowner of hope can win the game for Bant Eldrazi. I would always try and keep up a terminate or fetch+Fatal Push when you think they will drop a TKS. Although TKS isn't that great in the matchup because it gets outsized by all of the grixis threats. GDS is the aggressor in the matchup because Bant can stabilize with drowner of hope, and can lock out the game with drowner + Displacer. So I would keep all the hand disruption spells in.