Flying on the Moat (Bant Moat)

[Morte]

I was wondering about a way to build a deck around Moat and flying creatures.


http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=159308&type=card

Moat seems good in a world of non flying creatures, and the choice of playable flying creatures is so small it’s not that hard to find the best options:


http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=152549&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=136204&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=118924&type=card http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=97112&type=card

This leads to a bant shall, which is also useful to add :g: for a bit of acceleration – Noble Hierarch, GSZ + Dryad Arbor + Scryb Ranger – and :u: to protect the Moat.

Add equipment package to profit all this evasion, Jace which is also protected by Moat, and this is the first draft:

4 Noble Hierarch
3 Vendilion Clique
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Scryb Ranger
1 Trygon Predator
3 Stoneforge Mystic

1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

1 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Moat
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of will
2 Spell Snare

1 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
3 Windswept Heath
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Academy Ruins


Sideboard:
3 Spell Pierce
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Stony Silence
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Path to Exile
1 Life from the Loam


Green Sun's Zenith is not so great with such a reduced green creature choice, but I wanted to fit one with a Dryad Arbor, which is very good with Scryb Ranger too. It’s also another Qasali or Gaddock when boarded in.

Enlightened Tutor grants a reliable way to find Moat and secondarily an equipment or the explosives. It’s also very good for the wide sideboard options it opens.

Other cards I considered:
- Sword of Light and Shadow: very good, especially for the protections. No good creatures for recursion here. I preferred the other two swords
- Batterskull: germ doesn't fly ofc. Could be useful pre-moat
- Baneslayer Angel: (!) a powerful finisher? Seems not needed atm
- Sylvan Library: nice, didn’t find room
- Mother of Runes: not so many creatures, no need for extra evasion
- Daze: no mana denial to support it
- Wasteland: I need colored mana and up to 4 mana, I think it doesn’t fit, even if it would be good to have a tool against Maze of Ith
- Karakas, Maze of Ith: too random w/o KotR

The deck runs quite smoothly. An equipped flyer is a good clock and a robust card advantage engine. Moat is a house against Maverick, Tempo matchup is not so bad, control is good and combo is fine, especially post sideboard. I think there's potential.

Comments and suggestions are welcome! :smile:

[sauce]

clearly needs more bladed pinions :laugh:

[Greenpoe]

It's about time someone put an aggressive Moat deck together. This is just as good as Steel Stompy with the Abyss. But only one GSZ? I do love that Scryb Ranger will just laugh at enemy Delvers/Cliques/can't be Jace bounced. Why even bother with Stoneforge Mystic instead of 4 E-tutor? You can't run Batterskull and Stoneforge doesn't attack under a Moat. E-tutor is card disadvantage, but it's cheaper, instant and dodges Snare (but get hit by Pierce-which is easier to dodge because it's an instant though). IMO, costing 1 + being instant + added versatility of grabbing Moat/equipment/Oblivion Ring/Phyrexian Revoker makes it better.

[unicoerner]

I d like to see some spellsputters in there. I don't like the Stoneforgers, too.

[Final Fortune]

Is this really any better than U/b/w Faeries, because I can't think of anything you listed as being superior than Spellstutter and Bitterblossom.

[Morte]

@ sauce: trolling? :smile:

@ Greenpoe: thanks for the copious feedback. I’d like to increase the GSZ count too, I’m working on it. Stoneforge Mystic has the purpose to increase the robustness of the deck. I could say that, at worst, the deck is a mix of elements from Maverick, Bant Aggro and Stoneblade, and until you’re playing like the top tiers, you can’t play too bad. My goal is to profit Moat, of course, but Moat is not so fast nor so reliable once it’s in play, I can protect it but I must consider that the opponent could remove it.
Mystic’s body and card advantage are very good as a backup of the Moat strategy, and also the ability to play equipments counter-proof is very useful, given that having an equipment in play is key.
4 E-tutor are hard to support. I can’t go above 2 not even in Thopter Foundry, where I have much more locking conditions: I think it’s possible only in combo decks where you win immediately after getting the combo pieces, like in Painter-Grindstone.

@ unicoerner/Final Fortune: Spellstutter + Bitterblossom is a good catch. I considered green for acceleration – hierarchs are very good both for mana and exalted – and for Scryb Ranger/GSZ, but I can see how black for Bitterblossom could be superior. A tempo shell with Tombstalker is nice, but it’s another story: I’m looking for a way to abuse Moat in an aggressive deck. This is also the answer to your question, FF: UBx Tempo Faeries has not a great matchup against Maverick, which is by far the most popular matchup in my meta. Moat is a good hatepiece against it.