No, but brilliant Spectrum would have killed me. I had the mana... Hard to say if I made the right play.

If u listened to shadowcran and played an 80 card deck, you wouldn't have been in that mess

True, he'd have killed me much faster with his relatively well built board flood deck - which I assumed at first was basically my Sultai (or close enough e.g. Abomination somewhere in there). Really happy it wasn't, btw. Yikes!

So I went Back to the board with Blue Drazi. The deck was really consistent, but I felt that it may be possible to crank it up to 11.

Chant of the Bant Daya

1 x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4 x Gatecreeper Vine
2 x Elvish Visionary

1 x Evolutionary Leap
1 x Disperse

3 x Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2 x Natural Connection
2 x Nissa's Pilgrimage
1 x Displacement Wave

2 x From Beyond
1 x Adverse Conditions
4 x Mwonvuli - Acid Moss

1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 x Kiora, Master of the Depths

1 x Disciple of the Ring
2 x Planar Outburst

1 x Drowner of Hope
1 x Greenwarden of Murasa
1 x Oblivion Sower
1 x Part the Waterveil
2 x Nissa's Renewal

1 x Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger

2 x Plains
4 x Island
9 x Forest
2 x Lumbering Falls
2 x Canopy Vista
2 x Prairie Stream
1 x Azorius Guildgate
1 x Simic Guildgate


If it would go to a tournament, I'd put this in sideboard, allowing me to either morph into an awaken control deck or a bant beatdown.

3 x Jadi Offshoot
2 x Reclamation Sage
1 x Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 x Suppression Bonds
2 x Angelic Edict
1 x Drowner of Hope
1 x Woodland Bellower
2 x Gaea's Revenge
1 x Adverse Conditions
1 x Bounding Krasis


This thing is destroying everyone I meet currently. Only loss so far due to greedy play (I really wanted that 10/10 Falls NAO instead of 1 turn later when I couldve paid for Hexproof on opponent's turn).

Edit:

OK few more losses, still 18/3 on steam. IF anything, the deck is now stretched to the max manawise. Fortunately there's so much ramp and fixing it seems to not be an issue. To note though that 1 loss was because despite looting twice with jace, I failed to find land nr 3.

oh MAN, I love the idea of putting a sideboard when you post a deck. It's totally saying, "these cards could help situationally" and then we can make adjustments based on our own metas. It actually makes the story-telling of a decklist more complete since we know the stuff that's top of your "wedding invite B-list"

Very cool idea to put that. I hope more people do that.

I still wouldn't play in a sideboard tournament, but I think it's neat to read the thinking behind it.

I concur... And I'm going to start doing so, after deck entries into the next tournament are in.

To help bad deck builders, like me, it would be cool to know which cards you envision removing for certain cards. For instance in Rabble's build above... you'd put in the offshoots and rec sages against a quick aggro deck. I'm guessing you'd take out stuff like Ulumog, Greenwarden and maybe some lands to make room? This is where I get confused. I don't want to destroy the basic premise of the deck in, what is supposed to be, a minor tweak

I don't consider myself a good builder... I try to put some thought into what I do and then spend forever tweaking


Well this is sorta a transformational sideboard. Of course I'm not gonna describe what exact numer I'd bring in vs each single build, but I can give the general gist of the thought process.

vs aggro/tempo/tribal I'd go this way :

+1 Bounding Krasis +2 Reclamation Sage + 1 Drowner of Hope+1 Eldrazi Skyspawner +1 Adverse Conditions +3 Jadi offshoot +1 Woodland Bellower
-3 Mwonvuli Acid Moss -1 Ulamog -1 Oblivion Sower -1 Part the Waterveil -1 Disciple of the Ring -1 Nissa's Renewal -1 From Beyond -1 Greenwarden of Murasa

This way it becomes a token themed midrange deck with boardwhipes and some lifegain. Should be pretty though to burst through. Gain some life, Ramp some, make em spend burn on your dorks.
Wave/whipe the board. Drop walkers and bodies and beat face. Emblemed Skyspawners / Drowners/ Bellower are .... obscene.

VS draw- go control :

+1 Bounding Krasis +1 Reclamation sage +1 Woodland Bellower (enchant tech and more bodies) +2 Gaea's revenge (duh) +1 Eldrazi Skyspanwer (good for faster stronger plays and good vs walkers)
-1 Adverse Conditions -1 Drowner of Hope -1 Displacement Wave -2 Planar Outburst -1 Part the Waterveil

VS ramp :

+2 Angelic Edict +1 Suppression Bonds +1 Skyspawner
-1 Adverse Conditions -1 Drowner of Hope -1 Gideon (firecraft, rolling thunder, tramplers... meh) -1 Evolutionary Leap

Basically I wanna win this by ramping faster than him, get the first moss in; then kill him with a Displacement wave(which is sometimes like upheaval in an artifact deck from 15 years ago brooooken)/Greenwarden/Lumbering Falls combo or by 'tricking' his ulamog by playing mine first, then dispersing my ulamog as he casts his to target mine.
Since ramp vs ramp is 90% of the time about getting the first Moss in, and I run no counterspells, being on the play is stupidly important. The skyspawners help you cast Ulamog /go ham with comboes faster than your opponent. On the play this deck is heavily favourite vs other ramp because of this. On the draw, I'll take anything that ramps hard and has redundancy in the mana, and hope to snag his important plays with the white spot removal later.

Main weakness is Rolling thunder. We do have Disciple and the double Renewal to help with this though.

Awesome post, love the insight

Thanks Barney, it's nice to get a nod for the effort I put in. You can go back to sniping me now

#worstsiglineever

This is one of the three decks I am playing for the Monthly League. Posting our deck lists is not required, but I think that it would be great if everyone chose to, so I'm doing so myself even if it leads to some level of competitive disadvantage. Also, I'd like to know how my decks hold up when my opponents know what is in them.

It is basically a mid-range/value/control/random UGW good cards thing, but it's been really good for me and is the deck I'm most confident in right now. So far I'm 26 wins, 4 losses with it on Steam.

The curve is smooth, it's got several answers to Ulamog (including your own Ulamog), it just destroys aggro, and it's perfectly happy to grind with the 3-5 color good stuff decks. Depending on the draw, once in a while you just have lethal T6 or T7.

One thing I particularly like about it is that all six of the four drops are serious threats that must be answered or I'm very, very likely to win, and it's well equipped to defend them.

Also, it's really good at making its land drops and recovering from Moss.

Creatures

1 x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4 x Gatecreeper Vine
4 x Elvish Visionary
1 x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 x Reclamation Sage
3 x Bounding Krasis
2 x Woodland Wanderer
1 x Greenwarden of Murasa
1 x Woodland Bellower
1 x Oblivion Sower
1 x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

Spells

2 x Evolutionary Leap
2 x Scatter to the Winds
3 x Roil Spout
2 x From Beyond
1 x Kiora, Master of the Depths
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 x Planar Outburst
2 x Angelic Edict

Lands

5 x Forest
2 x Plains
2 x Island
1 x Swamp
2 x Lumbering Falls
2 x Canopy Vista
2 x Prairie Stream
2 x Hinterland Harbor
2 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Sunpetal Grove
1 x Azorius Guildgate
1 x Simic Guildgate
1 x Selesnya Guildgate


The only cards I'm not too sure about are Oblivion Sower and the Roil Spouts. The Spouts can be just back-breaking at times, but against token or Rites/Evolpea recycle decks, they're not too great. Certain ramp decks don't have too many good targets either. Oblivion Sower is like always a C+. I'm usually not upset to play it, but any given time I play it, there's probably something I'd rather be playing. The trouble is that what that something else might be varies.

Hey guys! So I've been working on a few builds lately and I am having a lot of fun and success with this "Bant Aura Control" build.

Nebula's Bant Aura Control

2 x Herald of the Pantheon
4 x Elvish Visionary
4 x Tightening Coils
3 x Telling Time

3 x Blessed Spirits
1 x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
4 x Claustrophobia

4 x Suppression Bonds
3 x Inspiration
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

2 x Sigil of the Empty Throne
3 x Knightly Valor

3 x Boonweaver Giant

6 x Plains
3 x Island
2 x Forest
2 x Lumbering Falls
2 x Canopy Vista
2 x Prairie Stream
2 x Hinterland Harbor
2 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Sunpetal Grove


This is a pretty straight forward deck. Basically you just lock down their board with auras until you get a win-con out. There's plenty of draw to help you keep things locked down while also getting what you need to win and the lands to do so with. Ideally you want a Tightening Coils in your starting hand and/or a Herald of the Pantheon or Blessed Spirits. You want to save Suppression Bonds for abilities, although if you have to there's nothing wrong with using one to get rid of a tough creature. Most of the time, past the first couple turns, you are usually getting some sort of benefit from casting auras, whether it is healing, +1+1 counter on the Spirits, or of course our favorite benefit, flying angels of bad assness. Knightly Valor is always a powerful addition to anything, even a 1/1 token. Best part is Boonweaver Giant can get a second use out of it from the GY as well! Of course we want to save our draw spells to use at the end of an opponent's turn so they might think we are holding back a counter (unless you are looking for a missed land drop!).

I'd be more than happy to do a more in-depth card-by-card analysis if anyone wants! I've been loving the hell out of this deck and having tons of success with it! Good luck and happy hunting!

So psyched to try this deck as I have not played a Boonweaver Giant yet, even having put 100's of hours into the game. I only have 3x of Suppresion Bonds but supposedly all the cards. ARe there 4x copies? Maybe I'll have to mail Wizards.

suppression bonds is indeed a common

Here's my Bant mill, control deck. It torture's the hard AI.

Win Conditions

1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
3 Sphinx's Tutelage
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

Control

3 Disperse
3 Tightening Coils
4 Gideon's Reproach
3 Suppression Bonds
2 Planar Outburst
2 Scatter to the Winds
2 Spell Shrivel

Ramp - Lifegain

4 Nissa's Pilgrimage
3 Retreat to Kazandu
2 Nissa's Renewal

Card Draw

3 Inspiration

Lands

2 Canopy Vista
2 Hinterland Harbor
2 Prairie Stream
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Evolving Wild
7 Forest
4 Island
2 Plains

The more I play with Telling Time, the more I dislike it; Artificer's Epiphany is just so much stronger at getting through your deck. I'm also looking at Elvish Visionary and all I see is "Draw a Card". You can get that effect with Alchemist's Vial and play Epiphanies and you won't really hurt your curve. The discard effect of Epiphany also works well with Knightly Valor and Boonweaver.

The only problem I could see is not enough targets for Knightly Valor with the loss of four Visionaries, but that seems super frail and easy to disrupt anyway.

I would think about:

-4 Elvish Visionary
-3 Telling Time
-1 Inspiration

+4 Alchemist's Vial
+4 Artificer's Epiphany

okay can we just establish that "destroying the hard AI" isn't exactly the best metric for testing how good your deck is

feel free to use the AI to test your decks consistency but if you want to claim your deck is good say that it beats up players

the hard AI practically beats itself for gods sake

I luv u

That might be decent changes but the visionaries really do help with chumping early game. It's worth testing though!