I really like your first list. Would it be worth cutting a fetch for a basic forest or plains just to ensure that you can combo on turn three and hold up Steppe if you opponent hasn't hurt themselves via fetching? Also, short of the Miracles lists that are running around, I feel a few Selfless Spirits fit in nicely to negate Verdicts and Bolt.
I've been running it hard for about a year now. I've always been of the mindset to never put an Island in it simply because KOTR can't target it but it almost feels necessary if the list is going to start running Jace.
brosterman, Thanks. Thats exactly what I was getting but I kept seeing that same manna-base at 22 lands and was thinking that I was missing something. I don't want to rely on my opponents hurting themselves to pull it off on 3.
Also, this is what I'm currently on. I'm heading to a GP in April. I know we have some time for things to sort out but would love suggestions in the meantime.
Land (22)
1x Breeding Pool
1x Flooded Strand
4x Forest
1x Gavony Township
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Island
3x Misty Rainforest
2x Plains
1x Sejiri Steppe
1x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
Enchantment (2)
2x Retreat to Coralhelm
Creature (27)
3x Birds of Paradise
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Eternal Witness
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Noble Hierarch
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Selfless Spirit
4x Spell Queller
2x Tireless Tracker
2x Voice of Resurgence
Instant (8)
4x Collected Company
4x Path to Exile
Planeswalker (1)
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Sideboard (15)
1x Aven Mindcensor
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Fracturing Gust
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Negate
1x Nissa, Steward of Elements
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Settle the Wreckage
1x Stony Silence
2x Unified Will
Somebody help me out with this. Because of the unbanning I'm switching from the 4 color version to run Kesing and Statacaster to pure Bant, cutting a bird and adding a Jace main to see how it goes. For those of you running the pure Bant, is it possible for KOTR to do a full 20 pts. of damage on turn 3 given this manna-base while still holding up a land incase you need to protect him with Sejuri Steppe? I've tried again and again and haven't been able to do it, even Ghost Quartering the Island early.
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
1 Flooded Strand
3 Forest (Uptick in Blood moon decks)
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Sejiri Steppe (Better than Kessig in this meta probably)
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Horizon Canopy
Land (22)
1x Breeding Pool
1x Flooded Strand
4x Forest
1x Gavony Township
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Island
3x Misty Rainforest
2x Plains
1x Sejiri Steppe
1x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
Enchantment (2)
2x Retreat to Coralhelm
Creature (27)
3x Birds of Paradise
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Eternal Witness
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Noble Hierarch
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Selfless Spirit
4x Spell Queller
2x Tireless Tracker
2x Voice of Resurgence
Instant (8)
4x Collected Company
4x Path to Exile
Planeswalker (1)
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Sideboard (15)
1x Aven Mindcensor
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Fracturing Gust
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Negate
1x Nissa, Steward of Elements
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Settle the Wreckage
1x Stony Silence
2x Unified Will
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
1 Flooded Strand
3 Forest (Uptick in Blood moon decks)
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Sejiri Steppe (Better than Kessig in this meta probably)
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Horizon Canopy