Bant Survival at a twenty-man local tournament, Sportz Nutz, Wadsworth OH

[Kuma]

I ran Bant Survival at a local twenty-man Legacy event Wednesday.

Here's my list:

4 Tropical Island
2 Savannah
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
1 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Rhox War Monk
3 Qasali Pridemage
1 Rafiq of the Many
1 Trygon Predator
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Eternal Witness
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Loyal Retainers
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Survival of the Fittest
3 Ponder

Sideboard:

4 Propaganda
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Ethersworn Cannonist
1 Genesis
1 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
3 Faerie Macabre
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt

I saw a lot of Tempo Thresh being sleeved up before the tournament and some talk of Ichorid being played, so I cut two Path to Exile from my board for a Relic of Progenitus and a Tormod's Crypt. The local Aggro Loam player walked in the door at the last minute which made me feel even better about the decision.

Round One: Brizentine Emperor with Mono-red Goblins.

I win the die roll and I fetch a Tropical Island to play Ponder. My top three are Force of Will, Tarmogoyf, and Trygon Predator. I draw the FoW and pass my turn. He plays Wasteland and destroys my Tropical Island, but lucky for me I have two more lands in hand. On my next turn, I fetch away my Trygon Predator. He plays Mountain, Aether Vial and I force it. I play a 4/5 Tarmogoyf. He plays a Mogg War Marshall, and I play a second Tarmogoyf. On my next turn I play Survival and hit him with a goyf. The turn after that I have an Iona naming red. He has a small army of Goblins, but with two goyfs, and Iona and an active Survival, he doesn't stand a chance.

+1 Kira, Great Glass Spinner, +4 Propaganda, -1 Eternal Witness, -1 Trygon Predator, -1 Vendilion Clique, -1 Rafiq of the Many, -1 Qasali Pridemage.

I board in Kira to shut off his Gempalm Incinerators, Stingscourgers, and Pyrokineses.

Game two I open a hand of 3x Propaganda, Tropical Island, 2x fetchlands, and a Ponder. I keep it with the knowledge that as long as he doesn't play a Lackey turn one I will be fine. He leads with Mountain, Aether Vial and I smile. My Ponder reveals junk and I shuffle, drawing a Tarmogoyf. He plays a Mogg War Marshall and I play a 2/3 goyf. He plays a Goblin Warchief and I play a Propaganda.

Cha-ching!

The next few turns he builds an army while I play my other two Propagandas and draw lots of land. Eventually he gets to six mana and starts whittling my life points down. I resolve a few creatures, but they barely slow him down as he uses Gempalm Incinerators and Pyrokineses to keep them off the board. He gets my life total down to six when I hardcast Iona

That's right. I hardcast Iona against Goblins.

Since I have more creatures than he has removal spells, I eventually stick a goyf and kill him with four swings of Iona. There were three out of nineteen lands in my deck at the end of the game, and I never saw a Survival.

1-0-0

Round two: Jedi Knight with Mono-red Goblins

Here we go again...

My opening hand was ill-equipped to deal with his turn one Goblin Lackey. It was something like 2x Noble Hierarch, 2x lands, Ponder, Brainstorm, and something else. I Ponder, looking for something to stop the Lackey insanity, but I don't find anything. He hits me with Lackey and puts a Warchief into play. I Brainstorm, again looking for something to keep the game manageable, and find a Tarmogoyf, but I can't play it until my next turn. He hardcasts a Gempalm Incinerator and hits me for five, putting a Goblin Matron into play, finding another Incinerator. I play a 3/4 Tarmogoyf, which he tries to kill with the Incinerator, but cycling the Incinerator makes it a 4/5! My goyf survives with four damage on it, but I trade with his Warchief in combat, going to four. On my turn, I play a Rhox War Monk. He plays a Mogg War Marshall and passes. I do some math, and decide to swing into his army with a 4/5 exalted Rhox War Monk, going to eight. I give him the possibility of victory if he draws a Goblin Chieftan, but my chances to swing the game were dwindling. He doesn't play a Chieftan, and I drop another Noble Hierarch allowing my Rhox War Monk to swing for five. He doesn't block and both our life totals are at thirteen. Next turn he doesn't block again, trying to build a critical mass of goblins. I drop a second Rhox War Monk, and he decides to trade a few Goblins for my attacking War Monk. It's all downhill for him from there as he's forced to keep making disadvantagous trades in combat.

Sideboarding same as before.

I didn't take very good notes for game two. He leads with Goblin Lackey and beats me down to twelve, but I stop him cold with a Propaganda. I play a Survival next turn and an Iona the turn after that. He can't do anything to stop me. After the game he told me he thought I was playing CounterTop with Progenitus, and showed me the Anarchies he sided in, which were dead with Iona in play.

2-0-0

Round three: yawg07 with Ur Painter

I know he's playing painter because we talked briefly between rounds, and he mentioned playing a Painter's Servant. I keep an opening hand with two lands, a Qasali Pridemage, a Trygon Predator, a Ponder, and something else, I think Swords to Plowshares.

*twirls monocle*

I Ponder and pass the turn. On my next turn, I play a Qasali Pridemage which he Forces. He plays a Grindstone and passes. I risk walking my Trygon Predator into Daze, but he Forces it as well. He plays a Sensei's Divining Top and spins it off an Ancient Tomb. I play a Survival and he Forces it, pitching his fourth Force of Will. He plays a Painter's servant naming blue. I try to StP it, but he has a Red Elemental Blast waiting for it! I draw my card and he wonders out loud if I can stop him from untapping and milling me. Fortunately, I have another Qasali Pridemage which I play and sacrifice immediately to take out his Painter's Servant. He untaps and puts Painter's Servant on top of his deck with Academy Ruins, but he doesn't have enough mana to play it. He spins Top trying to find a way to stop me, but a timely Force of Will helps me kill him before he can set up his combo.

+1 Kira, Great Glass Spinner, -1 Rhox War Monk

I draw a similar hand game two, blessing my good fortune. He plays a Grindstone and Forces a Qasali Pridemage, but I land a Trygon Predator and kill him with triple-exalted Predator beatz.

3-0-0

Round four: OneBigSquirrelGod with Ichorid

I know he's playing Ichorid because he sat next to me round one. Lucky me. He wins the die roll. I keep a hand with Force of Will, Tarmogoyf, and two Rhox War Monks, figuring I can beat him down quickly while he slow dredges.

He goes first passes his turn without doing anything. I play a turn two Rhox War Monk, followed by a turn three Rhox War Monk and beat him to six putting myself at 32. Unfortuately for me he Therapies the Force of Will and Dread Returns a Sphinx of Lost Truths. He makes just enough Zombies to kill me with Flame-Kin Zealot and we go to game two.

-1 Eternal Witness, -1 Trygon Predator, -2 Qasali Pridemage, -1 Vendilion Clique, -4 Swords to Plowshares, +4 Propaganda, +3 Faerie Macabre, +1 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Tormod's Crypt.

I keep an opener with Faerie Macabre, Force of Will, and some good beats. He plays a Cephalid Colosseum and a Lion's Eye Diamond, which I Force. I build an army and beat him down to four, but before I can kill him, he plays a Lotus Petal and Firestorms for four killing a Tarmogoyf, and two Rhox War Monks, while discarding three dredgers! I Faerie Macabre two Stinkweed Imps on his upkeep, and he dredges a Golgari Thug and finds more dredgers. I Brainstorm twice, and the second one finds me a Relic of Progenitus, which I play and use. A Noble Hierarch finishes him off.

Game three is one close game of Magic. I keep another hand with Faerie Macabre, but he leads with a Putrid Imp. At the end of my turn, he discards a Stinkweed Imp and I use the Macabre on it hoping it's his only dredger. Unfortunately, he discards another dredger, I think it was a Golgari Thug, and dredges it. I play a Tarmogoyf on my turn, and take him to fourteen with a 6/7 Tarmogoyf. He starts attacking me with his Putrid Imp, a Narcomoeba, an Ichorid and a zombie token, but I'm able to stave off some of the damage with another goyf. I manage to land a Survival and keep him off Bridges, and ultimately dredgers with Survivaled up Faerie Macabres, but his flyers take me to three. Finally, I slow him down enough that I can get an Iona. After a minute or so of deliberation, I name blue in case he boarded in Chains of Vapor. I sing with two goyfs and an Iona, knowing he's going to have to block with his Narcomoeba to stay alive. His Putrid Imp can only take me to one, and I win of the fourth turn of extra turns.

4-0-0

Round five: I ID so I can get some food before top eight starts. I think he was playing Burn, but I'm not 100% sure.

4-0-1

Top Eight: Vince with Countersliver

This is not an easy match for me, especially since Vince runs Spell Snare in his main deck. That card is the bane of Survival's existence.

Game one we each play a land and pass. On my second turn, I try to resolve Survival, but he Spell Snares it. I Force his Spell Snare, but he Spell Snares again.

Fuck me.

He plays a Crystalline Sliver, and the Swords to Plowshares in my hand becomes useless. A few turns later I play a 4/5 goyf to stabalize, but he StPs it. A turn later, a Mutavault, Muscle Sliver, and Crystaline Sliver take me to seven and I can't recover.

-1 Qasali Pridemage, +1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress. I probably should have boarded in the Sower of Temptation too, but oh well.

Game two we do a bunch of Forcing and fetching, when he Vials in a Crystalline Sliver and a Muscle Sliver and starts beating be down. I topdeck a Rhox War Monk and stabalize, but he has a Winged Sliver. Fortunately for me I topdeck Rafiq of the Many and I'm able to swing the game with a 4/5 lifelinking, doublestriking Rhox War Monk.

Game three I Force his turn one Aether Vial, but he has another one. I try to play Survival, but he has the Snare. He plays a Crystalline Sliver and takes me down to fourteen. He StPs a goyf and takes me to sixteen with his Crystalline Sliver. Next turn vials in a Muscle Sliver, taking me to eleven, and plays a Winged Sliver post-combat. I draw a Ponder, and shuffle back Rafiq, Tarmogoyf, land, knowing full well, there's nothing I can do to win. I draw Brainstorm off the Ponder and play it finding Survival, which I use to get a Llawan, Cephalid Empress, but with an active Vial, it wasn't even a speedbump.

4-1-1

I really missed Wonder against Countersliver, but that's one of like two matchups where you really want it. Rafiq actually won me a game, which makes me reconsider cutting him, as he can be amazing off the top in the lategame, and a valuable Survival target against fast decks. Genesis is the worst card in the 75 right now, as it's good in our best matchups (slow board control) and often irrelevant even there. I'm probably going to cut it. The Ponders continue to be excellent, and are probably going to remain in my list indefinitely, though I may try Sensei's Divining Top instead. I'm also considering Spell Snare, at least in the board, because it would have been a huge help against Slivers, and solid in some other tough matchups.

[Waikiki]

Congratulations! been a while since I played against slivers. Ive removed genesis from my sb aswell.

[Shugyosha]

You played some really interesting games, Iona hardcast must have been hilarious!

So Propaganda seems to be extremely good. Do you feel they have to be a 4-of as you always want to have them?

Have you any experience against Merfolk with Propaganda, as they can send over an unblockable creature or two every turn. Does it still give you enough time to race?

[Kuma]

You played some really interesting games, Iona hardcast must have been hilarious!

So Propaganda seems to be extremely good. Do you feel they have to be a 4-of as you always want to have them?

Have you any experience against Merfolk with Propaganda, as they can send over an unblockable creature or two every turn. Does it still give you enough time to race?

I don't know that Propaganda has to be a four of, but versus Goblins you really want to have at least one.

I've only played against Merfolk once with Bant Survival, and I didn't side in the Propagandas. If you're going to run Propaganda against Merfolk, you might want Wonder to help your Rhox War Monks connect. The problem with running Propaganda against Merfolk is that they hit you with fewer and bigger creatures than Goblins. The card can be effective against them, but it's not the match-swinging bomb it is against Goblins and Ichorid.

Llawan, Cephalid Empress and Iona are probably your best bets against Merfolk. Keep them off Lord of Atlantis and you should be fine.