Nice find!

And yes Skullcrack makes you cry hard!

archeo, cloudshift, and bone wand are amazing together and there are decks built around that combo.
skullcrack does suck and is the one card that makes me think about adding negate.

I think I would add Dissolve first. There are enough creatures that you don't want resolving for instance if they resolve a Kozilek, the annhilator mechanic will eventually destroy you. It sucks for them to get their graveyard back, but at least you don't die.

Besides the few times you will need a counter you should have plenty of mana to do so.

Kozilek has never been an issue as by the time he hits the table I usually have cleansing in hand. However I do agree that it would be the better option overall.

Well, Reprisal solves any large creature, but to solve skullcrack...yeah, dissolve beats negate. When I've played negate, I often just have it sitting in my hand idly waiting for something that never comes.

So I just played against a pretty good control Bant deck and saw a majority of the cards throughout the game. It won on the back of Sphinx-Bone Wand

Obviously I don't know how much and of what, but I did see:

1 x Reprisal
1 x Quickling
1 x Negate
1 x Elvish Visionary

1 x Banisher Priest
1 x Cultivate

1 x Archaeomancer
1 x Inspiration

1 x Angelic Edict
1 x Hunter's Prowess

1 x Sphinx-Bone Wand


I know a saw more than 1 Priest, Negate, both Prowess, and Cultivate. I'm assuming he had more than 1 Archaeomancer, Visionary, Reprisal, and Edict. Maybe 2 Wands, I would certainly add Kozi. Anyway, I was impressed with it, I don't remember the guy's name. what do you guys think?

Bant Control(I repeat, I suck at naming)

This deck was an attempt to get away from Turbofog and Tokens(Both are great, don't get me wrong, but I try to find other options to help myself and others stave off boredom).

Lands:24
4 plains
4 Islands
4 Forests
4 Azorius Guildgate
4 Simic Guildgate
4 Selesnya Guildgate

2 x Reprisal
3 x Lone Missionary
2 x Rhox Faithmender
3 x Angelic Accord
1 x Baneslayer Angel

4 x Voyage's End
4 x Inspiration

4 x Elvish Visionary
1 x Reclamation Sage
4 x Saruli Gatekeepers
2 x Pelakka Wurm

3 x Elixir of Immortality

3 x Species Gorger

Lifegain is used for triggering Angelic Accord, keeping you in the contest, frustrating your opponent and giving you the option of saving cards instead of being forced to play them right then to stave off defeats.

The deck combines that concept, a reliable defense, and Simic bouncing to control the tempo of the match. Since you're saving cards, board wipes need not concern you as you can recover easily and besides, the Elixir will get them back and can be used to trigger angelic accord on their turn. In truth, it's best to play 1 healer on your turn, regardless of your mana and save others for later.

So, now that I got my tourny match out of the way (didn't want to spoil the fun for Bob), I'm fine at posting this list. Much like I did with my Rakdos Heroic deck, I encourage everyone reading to give their opinions about the deck.

Bouncing
4 x Cloudshift

3 x Wall of Omens
3 x Leonin Snarecaster
2 x Quickling
4 x Elvish Visionary
4 x Satyr Wayfinder
2 x Voyage's End

2 x Mentor of the Meek
3 x Banisher Priest
2 x Attended Knight
2 x Chasm Skulker

1 x Vengevine

1 x Baneslayer Angel
2 x Species Gorger

1 x Soul of Zendikar

7 x Plains
2 x Island
7 x Forest
4 x Azorius Guildgate
4 x Simic Guildgate


- Not exactly new grounds here, but a bunch of combos put together trying to form something cohesive. Hopefully it's different enough from the other decks in this thread to pick people's interests.
- The story of this deck started soon after the game's release, in an online match when my random opponent almost beat me with Mentor of the Meek + Chasm Skulker + Species Gorger + cantrip weenies. His deck was very unfocused, though, with things like Seance and Roil Elemental that didn't belong to the deck. So, I decided to build around the combo, adding some things I found important and making a more streamlined version of the deck.
- Mentor of the Meek is the best card in the deck. The beautiful thing is that is the card draw here fuels more card draw, making it very hard to miss a land drop or not have creatures to cast. Sequences like dropping 6th land, play Mentor, play Elvish Visionary, pay for Mentor's trigger, draw 2 are very powerful and will snowball very fast. If you untap with Mentor, The amount of CA you'll muster is so high it becomes very hard to lose.
- I can write a lot about how busted Cloudshift is here, but I don't think I have to. With just Mentor and Visionary on board, it's a 2-mana Inspiration.
- Chasm Skulker is a card I consider really slow, but here your normal game-plan makes him very threatening. The fact that Mentor can make him a 2/2 right of the bat is cool, and I often sandbag a Visionary/Wall of Omens to help him.
- Baneslayer Angel doesn't work with any of the cards in the deck, but she's a combo with winning. You need very specific circumstances to not include her in every White deck that reaches 5 mana. The same applies for Soul of Zendikar and Green.
- The manabase might look a little conservative, but I don't want to get greedy with my Blue sources.
- I started with 3x Species Gorgers and 3x Quicklings, but that's a recipe for disaster. Cut one of each, which left me with 2 speculative spots. I'm using the pair of Voyage's Ends here, since I wanted interactive cards. They've been decent, but if you have a cool idea for a inclusion, I recommend starting the cuts here.
- Vengevine is also on the chopping block right now. It's very easy to trigger his recursion in the deck, and I'm often the aggressor, but I feel his impact is very low as a singleton. Which is a shame, since I love the card.
- The final doubt hovers over Attended Knights. It works with the deck, especially with Mentor, but the powerlevel is really low here.
- So, 5 cards I'm not sure ('vine, 2 Voyage's and 2 Knights). Genesis Hydra is on my radar. Opinions? Anything that stands out as inclusions or omissions? I repeat, I'm very open to any kind of feedback.

I would keep Vengevine, you don't have many creatures that attack well and you can dig him out of the yard very easily. What do you think of:

-3 Leonin Snarecaster
-2 Voyage's End
-2 Attended Knight
-1 Soul of Zendikar

+4 Pestermite
+2 Hunter's Prowess
+1 Resolute Archangel
+1 Genesis Hydra

I like Pestermite over Snarecaster because Flash; you sometimes get to pick off attacking utility creatures like Mentors and Guildmages, and tapping stuff on their turn is worth the extra mana. Plus you get to do stupid things like untap your Baneslayer pre-blocks. Hunter's Prowess is there mainly for the trample because all your big dudes lack a way to force through damage, and the synergy with Chasm Skulker is amazing. The Archangel is awesome in a deck with Gorgers and Cloudshift and is a decent-sized flier to boot. Genesis Hydra is just pure value, and Prowess can help him force through damage once he's big enough.

I would love to have Pestermite (Frost Lynx, actually), but the difference between 2 and 3 mana is pretty huge here. I'm using all my mana most of the time. I need to cast the tapper to push damage through and restock my hand in the same turn.

The other suggestions are interesting. I didn't consider Prowess and it might be great. I'm not a big fan of Archangel, but I see how it would work in the deck. Hydra is just awesome. But I'm not cutting Soul. Sure, Vengevine makes much more sense, but Soul impacts the board much more. I'll try something like this:

-2 Voyage's End
-2 Attended Knight
-1 Vengevine

+2 Hunter's Prowess
+1 Resolute Archangel
+2 Genesis Hydra (or keep one of the cards I'm cutting)

Thanks for the input!

Regarding Pestermite and mana, as long as you have the initial 3 you can use the ability to untap a land if that is a concern at that time so it would still only cost 2. If you can spare the 3rd mana then you can disrupt your opponent, or use it for untapping a tapped creature to block with, etc.

I think Pestermite gives so much value for that one extra mana that it would be worth running (and I think it's better than Frost Lynx). You'd still have eleven two-drops (I'm not counting Quickling), so it's not curve-wrecking or anything. You said yourself that with all the drawing and the Wayfinders that hitting land drops isn't a problem, so I would at least try it out.

It's not really a curve concern, since I'm not playing Snarecaster on turn 2 if I can help it. It's just that I cast so many things in the same turn that the deck is very mana tight. Casting Snarecaster, tap a blocker, bounce it, cast it again to bounce a second blocker, swing for a million happens a lot. I'm not confident I can do it that often with a card that A) costs more mana and B) is Blue, a color I want to keep at minimum. Believe me, the deck didn't begin with Snarecaster, because I know Pestermite and Lynx are much better cards. But the extra mana mattered more than I was comfortable with.

EDIT: I do need to stress, though, that sometimes small fliers can race you, so Pestermite could be relevant. But It's still a 2/1 body, so the help would be marginal at best. Thankfully, people aren't playing Squadron Hawks for some reason I can't fathom, so good for me

Weird

Lands
Plain x5
Island x5
Forest x5
Azorius Guildgate x2
Selesnya Guildgate x3
Simic Guildgate x2

Spells
Cloudshift x3
Think Twice x3
Cultivate x3
Seance x2
Doubling Season x2
Angelic Edict x3
Time Warp x1
Planar Cleansing x2

Creatures
Wall of Omens x3
Elvish Visionary x3
Genesis Hydra x2
Archaeomancer x3
Baneslayer Angel x1
Soul of Ravnica x1
Pelakka Wurm x3
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth x1

Other
Elixir of Immortality x2

I made this deck as a goof. But wow was I surprised. This deck has been insane and it doesn't look it at all. The big problem with this deck is that it is not fast at all but once you get rolling its really hard to stop. With so much draw you can burn through this deck to get out good combos. Against other stall decks I have come close to beating opponents just because they run out of cards. This deck stalls real well. The only real trick is if you can put out mana fast enough but such is the same with most decks.

Combos obviously Cloudshift + Time Warp + Archaeomancer.
Seance + Doubling Season. Having Wall of Omenss and or Elvish Visionarys in your gy from early stall will equal tons of draw and more stall. Not to mention Pelakka Wurms in your gy. With both enchants out you are looking at two Wurms (one that stays on the field) and 14 life.

Also if you have to Planar Cleansing and wipe your own Seance or whatever you can draw it again faster than you think if you pop an Elixir of Immortality. Especially with all the draw cards and also that a good chunk of mana is out of your deck.

As long as you use Seance smart and not exile yourself to death this deck is a winner.

Everyone else seems to have already built a fog build. It's not usually my style of combo deck, but i've been pleased with my brew so far. It wins with sphinx-bone wand or infinite turns either through species gorger or mercurial pretender paired with archaeomancer. Look out for Inferno Titan and kozilek, butcher of truth, but otherwise this deck holds its own really well. Also, don't forget as you're playing with Islands that just the threat of a counterspell can be as good as the real thing. At least 3 games I stalled my opponent just off of the threat thereof and then think twice at the end of the turn. I want some mystic snake all of a sudden.

Oh yeah, the lands are stupid in 3-color builds, of course. This was the first brew where having guildgate overload didn't bother me. Having said that, anytime you are trying to combo and have card draw you'll always run a little shy on land count as 2bestest pointed out, thus, the 23 lands. Look up combo decks playing preordain and ponder from cardboard magic for a more pronounced reference.

I'm open to suggestions here, especially concerning voyage's end, although 6 scry cards in the deck right now seems to mitigate the lack of, umm, inspiration.
PREMIUMS

FROG FOG

3 x species gorger
3 x elvish visionary
3 x wall of omens
1 x mercurial pretender
4 x archaeomancer
4 x safe passage
4 x fog
4 x think twice
3 x voyage's end
3 x dissolve
2 x planar cleansing
1 x time warp
2 x sphinx-bone wand
3 x plains
5 x island
3 x forest
4 x azorius guildgate
4 x simic guildgate
4 x selesnya guildgate

Deck: Bant Control (Contains Premiums)

Counts : 60 main

White:11
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Wall of Omens
4 Safe Passage

Blue:13
4 Think Twice
3 Guard Gomazoa
4 Hysterical Blindness
2 Talrand, Sky Summoner

Green:8
4 Fog
4 Elvish Visionary

Artifact:5
3 Elixir of Immortality
2 Sphinx-Bone Wand

Land:12
4 Azorius Guildgate
4 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Simic Guildgate

Basic Land:11
2 Forest
7 Island
2 Plains

Description: Not much to say here. I think others are already doing something similar. Just enjoy annoying your opponent, and you will eventually win.

Combo: don't play all 3 hawks, and you can recur them again using an elixir.

If you get the Wand out it's probably GG.

Hello, I got some idea yesterday, I am new here, but I think it might be interesting (if noone posted it earlier )



22 Lands:
6x Plains
3x Island
3x Forest
4x Azorius Guildgate
3x Selesnya Guildgate
3x Simic Guildgate

12 Creatures:
2x Selfless Cathar
1x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2x Mentor of the Meek
2x Banisher Priest
3x Phantom General
2x Talrand, Sky Summoner

4 Enchantments:
2x Military Intelligence
2x Doubling Season

5 Sorceries:
2x Cultiuvate
3x Triplicate Spirits

17 Instants:
2x Reprisal
4x Raise the Alarm
3x Vapor Snag
2x Think Twice
2x Negate
2x Nullify
2x Dissolve


This is just ordinary token deck with an addition of control element (counters and bounces) and a decent draw engine, since You will often have two or more tokens on the field ready to attack and more coming to play. Your win-con is just sheer power of tokens with Phantom Generals on the field. A few Negates and Dissolves should take care of Anger of the Gods, so always keep that in mind if You're playing vs red. A fair trade of balancing needs to be done around which and how many counters should be kept in the deck, but after a couple of hours of testing I'd say it's decent the way it is now. I am also considering adding a couple of Void Snare to get rid of things like Sanguine Bond or Seance. Your mana pool should not be a problem since it's running 10 gates and 2 Cultivate. For the same reason, I'm considering switching something with a couple of Saruli Gatekeepers(or another fom of life gain), since You often end matches dangerously low (6-10 life), and I am yet to encounter an aggro deck with decent starting hand. Suggestions are welcome, it's my first deck I built in Duels 2015 so I am aware it's not perfect

Satyr Wayfarer seems weak here. You really get nothing from dumping cards in your GY beyond the Vengevine, so playing him for his other ability alone seems rather weak. Or is it? I've never ventured into 3 colours yet, so maybe you need him to fix your lands? If that is the case, ignore that comment!! In general, I think you could find a better bounce target. Perhaps Frost Lynx, Genesis Hydra, Pestermite, Timberland Guide or even Elvish Pioneer? Also you seem to have a lot hinging on Mentor of the Meek, a card that will almost never survive a turn in play in my experience. He is the only reason that other cards you are running are good (such as Attendant Knight, Chasm Skulker). If the Mentor doesn't turn up or gets killed, those cards are sub-par. Finally, I think that aside from Cloudshift, Quickling is the deck best "surprise" card and you should run all 3. So for me...

-4 Satyr
-2 Skulker
-2 Attendant Knight
-1 Vengevine (double green at 4cc in 3-colour deck is never good)
-1 Soul of Zendikar

+4 Pestermite
+2 Genesis Hydra
+1 Quickling
+3 Skymark Roc (I somehow like this card in your deck, as it is currently not very aggressive and is heavily controlly)

I've had some success with felbatista's deck with goldenvoids additions, although I removed the skymark rocs for 2 x resolute archangel and a mold shambler

Deck is fun when it is allowed to get going, tons of card draw and creature protection.

Goes down hard against stormbreath dragon at times.

leonin snarecaster works well when he does, and other times is useless so feels clunky. But unsure how to replace or fix, because the times he does work you love him for it.

I've played a lot with this deck now and tuned it further. I was right about the Satyrs, they are weak and not needed, land is fine with the amount of draw in the deck. The Hydras were bad. Double green is a no-no and you usually cast it when it's a decent size (say X = 4 or more). When it's that big you do not want to bounce it! The deck has a problem attacking since it plays a lot of non-aggressive creatures, but it has decent control so I built to that strength: keeping blockers tapped out is the main play. It now looks like this:

4 Elvish Visionary
4 Lone Missionary
4 Frost Lynx
4 Pestermite
3 Wall of Omens
3 Banisher Priest
3 Species Gorger
3 Quickling
2 Mentor of the Meek
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Reclamation Sage

4 Cloudshift

4 Azorius Guildgate
3 Selesnya Guildgate
2 Simic Guildgate
6 Plains
5 Island
4 Forest

The Reclamation Sage is a bit of a whim right now. He's either garbage or golden. If artifacts and enchantments get stronger, he'll be better. If you don't like him I'd run a Snarecaster in that slot. Although 1 mana more, the Lynxes and Pestermites are just plain better in the deck at the tapping job. If cast at the beginning of enemy combat, Pesters effectively tap out a creature for 2 turns (theirs and yours). Lynxes do it for even longer. In fact if you shift a Lynx at the start of their combat, the target is out for 4 turns (theirs, yours, theirs and yours again). They are just so much better than Snarecasters. Pestermites account for a fair bit of the deck's damage.

In the end I have to say that the central idea of bouncing EtB creatures works better in Blue/Black/White. I have build an Esper version and posted it in that forum. It is much stronger than the Bant version, imo, and packs a ton of really sick tricks and combos. In fact I'd say it's a tier 1 deck. Check it out here (I called it "Phase Shift"): viewtopic.php?f=50&t=4945&start=40