I think given the proliferation of dredge, infect, and linear combo decks like ad nauseam, is a clear sign that many in Milwaukee were preparing to face Bant Eldrazi. I’m willing to bet that after Dredge’s performance last weekend people will be packing an over abundance of GY hate in the next tournament.

A deck’s power level and influence must be addressed over the course of a much broader length of time. Ancient Stirrings is still the best cantrip in the format while it’s being used in that deck. Temple is still the best land in the format while it’s being used in that deck. Noble H, TKS, and Smasher are still three of the best creatures in the format while they are in that deck. I don’t believe that we need to get rid of these cards or the deck at this time, but to argue that the power level of Bant Eldrazi shouldn’t be concern when approaching the meta seems crazy to me.

I’d argue the same is true for Infect and Dredge as well, just as it was true for Pod and Twin before it. Are all of these decks good? Of course. Are any of them broken? I’d argue no, but in the case of Twin and Pod I don’t believe that the decks were banned because of their power level, they were banned because of their propensity to limit development.

The article never once says that the deck is too good, and in fact, I specifically direct the article away from banning discussions.

You’re correct in that assumption. UW Control did pretty well for itself during Eldrazi Winter, and it was on the back of the mighty Supreme Verdict.

I am mid building UW controll and as of yet I was banking on Bant Eldrazi being not too bad of a matchup if you have access to 3+ wrath effects.

Except that they design for standard where thoughtknot and smasher were both perfectly fine cards. In fact they barely see play in standard. If anything was a design mistake it was definitely the lands not the new eldrazi.

the whole problem is the new eldrazi cards to begin with. they should have never been designed at that casting cost and with almost negligible and at most times no disadvantage when they come into or leave play especially since Eldrazi Temple and the currently banned Eye of Ugin ‘s existence.

The 2 problem cards (TKS and Reality Smasher) along with Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin were all the problem cards during Eldrazi Winter and banning just the Eye didn’t hurt the deck much given to how powerful the new Eldrazis are (lose Eye of Ugin? nevermind, we still have Noble Hierach which lets our Matter Reshaper swing for 4, TKS swing for 5 and Reality Smasher swing for 6 with trample).

Of all the design mistakes R&D has made the past decade, the new Eldrazis take top spot in my book.

From what I understand it’s not about the support spells. They’re blue and white because the best “colored” Eldrazi, Drowner of Hope and Eldrazi Displacer, are in those colors. They’re green because of Ancient Stirrings and Noble Hierarch.

In my opinion they would switch to oath of nissa, which is almost as good in the deck, although not quite (it does have the ability to fetch a dork however.) I play Mardu and Bant Eldrazi is a bad but not terrible matchup. Honestly Eldrazi temple is the most annoying part.
Does anyone know why they are bant? Im sure there is good reason but I feel like Atarka’s command or lightning bolt offer better reach than path and red opens up vile aggregate which comboes about as well with drowner of hope as eldrazi displacer. I am guessing its for the sideboard cards or better fixing off hierarch?
Temur oe Jund seem like they could be better option with a temple ban because currently forerunner of slaughter is too color intensive.

However, I’m not sure that we need to start sharpening our pitchforks for a while. The deck does seem fairly powered down from the cold, cold winter that we’ve recently emerged from. However, the arguments above are solid, and the trend lines are hard to ignore for too long. I’m not sure Temple is the true problem card (while it is certainly an amazing boon for the deck), I believe that there are certainly enough ways to address the land. From Ghost Quarters to spreading seas to fulminators to blood moon I believe that there’s enough targeted land hate out there to address it.

As much as it may pain Tron players to hear it, I have to say that IF there is a problem card–it seems as though Ancient Stirrings is it. I think it’s hard to argue against that.

Not gonna lie your u sorcery is way too good. Seems like thats your dream card as a blue mage not bant eldrazis, which would have never been able to use that. Cavern of souls is a good card but honestly should only come off the format if control gets more powerful and it is actually hemming it in; right now controls problem isnt losing to cavern its not having good cards.

I feel like he is not saying its nescessarily a bad matchup, It seems he realizes that he is wrong in manys views. I agree though that while Merfolk has a Postive matchup it is no where near the level of affinity or elves

I don’t dislike the idea of Bant Eldrazi. I think it’s cool that there is an aggro/midrange hybrid deck (tribal as well, some people love tribes) in modern, but there are three three cards in Bant Eldrazi that I take issue with. Note, I am full aware that if for some reason these three cards were banned, the deck would cease to exist entirely, and that would not be my intention. These cards are the backbone for the deck, and the reason why you can play a card like Matter Reshaper or Eldrazi Skyspawner. In my fantasy land, Bant Eldrazi would lose those the following cards but get suitable replacements. Here they are:

Ancient Stirrings: The concept behind this card was probably fine when it was printed. There are serious deck restrictions to be able to take advantage of Stirrings, and if you don’t build your deck towards those restrictions you can whiff completely or settle for a land that is going to be low impact. The problem is, if you overcome these restrictions without necessarily warping your deck to accomodate Stirrings, it becomes and absurdly powerful card. I didn’t like it in Tron and I sure don’t like it in Eldrazi. As a salty control/tempo player, I can’t help but compare it to Serum Visions. Blue should have the best card selection; it’s part of Blue’s color identity, and two don’t compare. If we ignore combo and pretend it doesn’t exist, do you think Blue control would run the following:

U:Sorcery:Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal an instant, socrcery, or land from among them and put it into your hand. Then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Obviously I didn’t put too much though into that, I wanted a relative card I could compare that would slot into an existing deck (Grixis Delver for example) that had around the same number of targets as Ancient Stirrings and has deck-building considerations. The restriction is you need a spell dense deck, but just because there is a restriction you need to build around doesn’t mean the card is “ok”

Cavern of Souls: I’m going to copy word-for-word Reddit user /u/AzoriousAnarchist reply in the spoiler for Ceremonious Rejection
“I was kidding a bit, but it’s just a silly design. Hate cards are essential to the game, but they should have an opportunity cost attached. A card like [[Vexing Shusher]] can totally destroy Blue control decks, but if you end up not facing any counterspells, then you just put a vanilla 2/2 in your 75.
This allows for a push and pull, where an archetype can be totally destroyed by hate, but only if people are willing to dedicate the deckslots. You can fill your Modern deck with 15 anti-graveyard sideboard cards and have an 80% winrate vs. Dredge, but then you sacrifice a whole bunch of other matchups.
What’s annoying about Cavern of Souls is that in a tribal deck, there’s practically no cost to playing it. It helps with multicolored tribes and even taps for colorless too, with the upside of randomly invalidating certain decks. And there’s no reason to ever take it out of your deck, even if counterspells aren’t that great in the meta, because it’s still a good land. For reference, look at Boseiju, Who Shelters All. It comes into play tapped, costs life every turn, and only provides colorless, and yet it still sees play as a sideboard card. That’s the kind of cost a land should make you pay for such a powerful effect.”

To add to that idea, Bant Eldrazi is a top-heavy midrange/aggro deck. Part of the big risk in playing high CMC cards is the tempo blowout of getting those cards countered. When you don’t have to worry about counterspells, it becomes a lot easier to justify tapping out for fatties. Getting a three mana Ezuri or 2 mana merfolk through counter magic isn’t as bad as getting a 6 CMC Eldrazi past it. Again, I acknowledge the deck restrictions needed to take advantage of Cavern. There are plenty of stronger cards than Eldrazi Drowner at 6 CMC in modern, but Drowner is still a good card on its own (especially in a deck that blinks)

Eldrazi Temple: It’s a land that produces double mana and comes into play untapped. I’m conflicted about Temple, because without it Bant Eldrazi surely doesn’t exist, but I also don’t like fast mana in modern and there isn’t really a way to replace Temple in that regard. In a format with no good way to deal with lands, this is too good. We need a way to fight Temple that isn’t GQ or Blood Moon.

As a biased blue mage, I would most like to see Cavern get the boot. All of the sudden, I can throw a couple Ceremonious Rejections in my board, mana leak the turn 2-3 TKS or 3-4 Reality Smasher and gain tempo, and have probably a decent chance to go toe-to-toe with Bant Eldrazi. Snapcaster decks are well under 10% of the modern Tier1/2/3 metagame. There is a whole subset of this community who grows more disenfranchised each month, something needs to change. Maybe giving blue decks a shot at the new top boogeyman will give the archetype enough of a jolt to be relevant again.

TL,DR Bant Eldrazi gets to abuse cards that become way too strong. Just because there are certain deck-building considerations when using these cards doesn’t mean the cards aren’t still too powerful with the recent introduction of the new Eldrazi.

I think that you should also note that Eldrazi is somewhat soft to Blood Moon strategies, as well as “Bolt the dork” plays. Given that there are only 4 Temples in the deck, Eldrazi sometimes depend on their dorks (or Eldrazi Skyspawner and its Scion) to power out their big guys ahead of schedule, and everything from Lightning Bolt to Electrolyze can punish them if they do.

Overall, though, I liked your write-up, and I think that it’s a good idea to highlight the deck. The lack of postboard answers to it is definitely a real thing, and may be its critical competitive advantage at the moment.

Very good article, as usual. I don’t like to play linear decks. I usually play jund, grixis delver, or jeskai control. Lately I’ve been playing grixis delver a lot. Trying to adjust to the presence of bant eldrazi at my LGS, I first tried blood moon. It’s an ok card. But in the last couple weeks I swapped it for spreading seas. You can play it a turn earlier, it cantrips, and the net results are roughly the same. So far, I’m happy with that choice.