Advent is fun. But the best version of Bant I believe is based around abusing ETB effects, and you can’t abuse Advent.

Well my plan is next month to get a playset of goyfs to add to the deck which I think will really make the blue cards shine a little brighter

Very nice list, although I feel like you’re losing more than you’re gaining by adding blue.

I think the hate bearers idea is a good one I built my bant as a tempo deck with delver and then decided to splash black for a 2 of tasigur my list looks as followed 4 Delver 3 noble hierarchs 3 geist of Saint Traft 2 snapcaster mage 2 Qasali Pridemage 1 scavenging ooze 2 tasigurs 4 Serum vision 3 remands 3 Mana leaks 3 Vapor snags 4 Path to Exile 2 spell pierce 1 Spell Snare 1 echoing truth 2 Windswept Heath 2 misty rainforest 4 Flooded Strand 1 Polluted Delta 1 Breeding Pool 1 Temple Garden 2 Hallowed Fountain 1 Wooded Bastion 1 Stirring Wildwood 1 Watery Grave 2 Island 1 Plains 1
SB. 1 Engineered Explosives 2 beast within 2 Spellskite 1 echoing truth 2 kor firewalker 1 Supreme Verdict 1 vendillion clique 1 stony silence 1 Creeping corrosion 1 mirran crusader 1 Rule of law 1 scavenging ooze

And for people who don’t want to splash a 4th color hooting mandrils is a fine tasigur replacement

4 Noble Hierarch
2 Birds of Paradise
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Voice of Resurgence
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Aven Mindcensor
2 Rhox War Monk
2 Eternal Witness

4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company

1 Ghost Quarter
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
2 Breeding Pool
2 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
2 Gavony Township
2 Flooded Strand

SB
2 Meddling Mage
2 Kataki, War’s Wage
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Spellskite
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Obstinate Baloth
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze

I used to build bant as a tempo shell, but I found it plays more consistently as a hatebears shell. Rhox war monk is much better than finks in matchups you want him, like burn and affinity. Sometimes you just get free wins with t1 noble t2 mindcensor. Overall I found this build gets there most reliably. Really feeling like Collected Company is a better card than Ojutai’s Command.

Heyho guys,

A little bit input from someone who tried to make Bant work. There are several things:

1) A big problem with Bant is it’s Mana curve. You have no real 1 drop (Noble is the best one here) , and also no good 2 drop (Tarmogoyf is btw horrible in that deck, trust me, you just can’t make him big, so you have to rely on the opp which can backfire horrible (I learned this the hard way)). The only good cards you can play in the 2 CMC slot is Scavenging Ooze, Pridemage (you don’t want to run the whole set here through) and Voice of Resurgence. I never tested Voice through (was to expensive and I began to play a different deck). BUT the 3 CMC cards are just insane. From Finks and Warmonk to Geist and Blade Splicer and in the end you still miss the best creature for this deck Knight of the Reliquary.

What happens is: You have no early game (Turn 1-2), but you have like 12 or more 3 drops (you need/want Bant Charm as additional Removal).

2) General Creatures and Planeswalker:
You “can’t” play Midrange Bant without Knight of the Reliquary. This cards is “our” Goyf, heck since DRS got banned it is the biggest creature in the format with one of the best abilities too. Bant is in general pretty heavy on 3 CMC spells, so you need ramp in form of Birds or Noble Hierarch (you can also play land based ramp, but they are worse), which are pretty dead in the lategame since you have no card like Lilliana to discard those “dead” draws to. But again, here shines Knight, since he can find your Township. Also he can find you the one of Bog, or the Ghost Quarter/Tec Edge you need against opp man lands. He is just insane in Midrange Bant. Just to give you a little insight. When I untaped with Knight I normally won around 80% of the matches (and yeah, I counted them), he is just THAT insane.

About Geist of Saint Traft. He is kinda iffy in Bant, since Bant can’t clear the way for him (you don’t want to use your only Removal (Path) on a random card (Ambush Viper, aka Snapcaster, or stuff like this). So you have to give him Evasion. The best card for this is by far Elspeth, Knight Errant. She is just insane (and arguably on of the best PW out there). Also she is pretty amazing against BGx, since she can’t die against Decay and make blockers for Goyf and co (Siege Rhino is pretty annoying, same with Lingering Soul (she may be not that awesome now, but like back than when I played the deck, she was just insane)). So, if you want to play Geist, you have to think a little bit ahead, since otherwise he is just a Psionic Blast 😛

3) Spells
Now it gets interesting. Path is obvious a 4 off, but you need Removal. Dromoka’s Command looks promising for this, but it requires the “biggest” creature on the board. So I don’t know how good this card actual is. And in the end you want to run between 2 and 3 Bant Charms since they are just insane. Another good cards is Valorous Stance, since it acts as a Removal spell against BGx and it can protect your own threats (but there is still Path).

Now there is Ojutai’s Command. The biggest problems with this card are: It is only an Essence Scatter and not a Counterspell (mode), where the biggest problem makers for Bant comes from non Creature cards, the first mode is more than cute, nothing else (as I said, Goyf isn’t good in this deck) and the other 2 modes are ok. You can argue about running 1-2 just for value, but even than I wouldn’t play it.

Summary:
Bant has a big CMC curve and removal problem. The first one can be solved, the second one sadly not (at least now, maybe they will print another good W removal spell). If you want a fair Midrange deck which is a Tier 2 deck (in my opinion) go with it. It makes ton of fun (especially if you attack with a huge Knight and the opp has to chump with stuff like Goyf just so that he doesn’t die). Also you can play awesome utility lands and you normally have access to them (again, Knight says hello).

Also, a big point is, there are not many players which play Bant (since it isn’t well known that there is actually a good deck). Hence, there isn’t that much of a development which hurts the deck. There may be an awesome version out there which can easily be Tier 1.5 but nobody found it yet. Furthermore, many people laugh about the idea from a Bant deck, since they think this specific colour combination is a joke.

Greetings,
Kathal

PS: Rox War Monk is better than Finks in that deck (at least when I played that deck). He looks kinda cute, but when you have him on the battlefield you notice how good he is.

PPS: If you want to run a Vial Control deck, look at Eternal Ruse. It abuses Vial, Eternal Witness and Familar’s Ruse for a soft lock. The core is UG, if you go into W you get Wall of Omens, Resto Angel and Path, R offers Lightning Bolt and Knuckleblade. It is an awesome deck which can destroy nearly every Midrange deck, but is kinda weak to fast aggro decks (especially if you go into W).

PPPS: Another take for Bant is with Sovereigns of Lost Alara (look here: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=2569&d=216688). Never played this version through, so no idea how good it it actually is.

I’ve been trying Sulimgar’s Sorcerer in the Mystic Snake slot. It can eat Wall of Omens or itself the second time around after a Restoration Angel. Deck still lacks the punch to go toe to toe with tier one decks in the format tho.

Not as well as one can hope I went 2-3 probably would have done a lot better but had 2 crucial mistakes 1 in Rd 1 game 3 and the other in rd 5 game 1

How’d you do?

Perhaps Dismember should be used.

I have tested coiling oracle and wall of omens in bant blink. Neither is good, but oracle is terrible. The body is just completely irrelevant at all points in the game and the UG casting cost can strain your early mana either by costing life or bungling your turn 3/4 curve.

At least wall of omens is a cinch to cast and blocks goblin guides and wild nacatls. But I’d still rather be mana leaking turn 2 against most decks than casting this – i.e. affinity, twin, and BGx.

I really want mystic snake to work as part of a UWg flash control deck, but as I said drawing a fistful of snakes and angels is terrible vs anything quick. I wish snake had been UUG 1/1 so it could curve into angel 🙁

Unfortunately, it looks like Bant’s been left behind in the good stuff category when compared to:
Lingering Souls
Abrupt Decay
Siege Rhino
Tsagur

Blue’s loss of good counterspells and good cantrips cannot reliably compete with black’s versatile disruption and power-creeped threats.
Tho
That said, what if this deck’s goal was to go long, and aim for lots of value creatures while holding up reactive mana.

A card like the above mentioned: “Dismiss the Weak – UG Instant
Counter target spell with CMC 3 or less”

Would do some work in making these colors viable among the current meta.

Here’s an idea:
4 Coiling Oracle
0-2 Elvish Visionary
2-4 Snapcaster Mage
0-2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Noble Hierarch
1-2 Restoration Angel
2 Mystic Snake
1-2 Tarmogoyf (Or Scavenging Ooze)

4 Path
3 Ojutai’s Command
0-3 Cryptic Command
2 Serum Visions
2 Bant Charm
1-2 Supreme Verdict
1 Detention Sphere
2 Mana Leak
1-2 Rite of Undoing
1-2 Return to the Ranks
0-2 Logic Knot

~2 Gavony Township
1+ Celestial Collonade
1+ Stirring Wildwood
Fetches
Shocks
Basics

3 Timely Reinforcement in sideboard
Possibly more life gain cards

Uses durdly 2 drop creatures to out card advantage the midrange decks, while threatening to win the late game off of Gavony Township. Supreme Verdict is hard to play around for your opponent. You can recover off of Return to the Ranks, which brings back threats and cantrip creatures/answers (Snapcaster, Qasali).

Path to Exile is the best removal spell in the deck.
Bant Charm imitates in, while occasionally being a counterspell in the Twin matchup.
Main deck life gain would be nice, but hard to fit in.
Ojutai’s Command is improved by the ability to recur Snapcaster into Path while cycling/countering (I guess gaining life if you HAVE to)
NobleHierarch takes advantage of all the 4 drops.
Cantrips help the deck stay proactive while developing manabase and finding more answers/threats.

Deck needs to be able to compete with:
Lingering Souls & Siege Rhino
Tsagur/Gurmag Angler & Delver/Pyromancer threats
Opposing Snapcaster card advantage value mirrors
Splinter Twin game 1
Burn

So…..long answer, but it’s a differnet idea for Bant.
Otherwise, bant just looks bad to be honest. No support from wizards unless you want to be the Hexproof aggro deck with swords/enchantments. Lots of fun planeswalkers too, but combo decks in modern make sure you wont be having any kind of fun like that, only disruption and cheap aggression.

Love the idea of a Bant Blink deck. I’ll probably work on that for a future article.

Coiling Oracle is a card. Probably not good enough though, yeah.

The cards you are suggesting are both mono-blue. Something like

Better Elvish Visionary/smaller Wistful Selkie
UG (or perhaps U/G U/G)
When ~ enters the battlefield, draw a card.
2/2

Would be within the colour pie, although not sure whether it’s good enough to push UGx decks.

Or else some 1UG creature that is fantastic with restoration angel / momentary blink.