Video: Bant Aggro In Standard

In “Beating Reanimator,” I brainstormed an aggressive Bant deck that I thought might be good against G/W/B Reanimator due to its evasion—something most aggressive decks in Standard lack but which I think is very important against that particular deck.

After writing the article, I decided I was curious about how the deck would do, so I decided to record some videos with it. I knew that the list I wrote about was a sketch and that it was built around the goal of beating Reanimator—which is an important first step but not the only thing a Standard deck needs to do—so I reworked it a little to prepare for the metagame I expected on Magic Online. I came up with this:

Bant Aggro

Sam Black

Test deck on 03-31-2013

Standard

Creatures (27)

• 3 Invisible Stalker
• 3 Geist of Saint Traft
• 3 Restoration Angel
• 3 Wolfir Silverheart
• 2 Lyev Skyknight
• 1 Loxodon Smiter
• 4 Cloudfin Raptor
• 2 Frontline Medic
• 4 Gyre Sage
• 2 Master Biomancer

Lands (24)

• 2 Island
• 4 Temple Garden
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 3 Glacial Fortress
• 3 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Hinterland Harbor

Spells (9)

• 3 Syncopate
• 3 Increasing Savagery
• 2 Selesnya Charm
• 1 Spell Rupture

Sideboard

• 1 Negate
• 2 Slayer of the Wicked
• 2 Nearheath Pilgrim
• 2 Thragtusk
• 2 Loxodon Smiter
• 1 Detention Sphere
• 2 Sphinx's Revelation
• 1 Selesnya Charm
• 2 Rest in Peace

So how does it play?

That was pretty rough. I’m clearly not fast enough to beat the aggressive decks. That’s a huge portion of the field, so this needs to be addressed.

I rebuilt the deck and am playing with this from here on:

Bant Aggro

Sam Black

Test deck on 03-31-2013

Standard

Creatures (32)

• 3 Invisible Stalker
• 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 2 Geist of Saint Traft
• 3 Restoration Angel
• 3 Wolfir Silverheart
• 2 Lyev Skyknight
• 3 Loxodon Smiter
• 4 Cloudfin Raptor
• 2 Frontline Medic
• 4 Gyre Sage
• 2 Master Biomancer

Lands (21)

• 1 Forest
• 1 Island
• 4 Temple Garden
• 2 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 3 Glacial Fortress
• 2 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Hinterland Harbor

Spells (7)

• 2 Syncopate
• 2 Increasing Savagery
• 2 Selesnya Charm
• 1 Spell Rupture

Sideboard

• 1 Negate
• 2 Slayer of the Wicked
• 2 Nearheath Pilgrim
• 2 Thragtusk
• 2 Loxodon Smiter
• 1 Detention Sphere
• 2 Sphinx's Revelation
• 1 Selesnya Charm
• 2 Rest in Peace

Considerations: I might need Blind Obedience in the sideboard or Rhox Faithmender. I also might need more Loxodon Smiters main, although I don’t like them against Reanimator.

The second game was embarrassing. These videos definitely make me look horrible at Magic. It’s a good thing their purpose is to show how a deck plays more than to show how I play. I’m pretty sure I would have won the second game (and thus the match) if I had just Selesnya Charmed the Thragtusk to exile it instead of pumping the Silverheart.

My draws in both of those games were outstanding, but that was much more like how I envisioned the deck playing against Reanimator, although maybe not always quite that well.

I really thought I had the first game. Again, this is another game where I just didn’t play very well. I’m pretty sure I didn’t need to go for the Increasing Savagery, and if I’d just passed with counters, I don’t think I could’ve lost.

The next two games made my deck look pretty good. I wonder how consistently it can do stuff like that.

Thanks for watching,

Sam

@samuelhblack on Twitter

twitch.tv/samuelhblack