Bant Elementals

This deck aims to present a steady stream of threats using Risen Reef as an engine. Cards that pump out multiple elementals like Voice of Resurgence and Master of Waves can overwhelm a board state quickly. Even if a Reef isn't in play, the deck's sticky threats can confound opponents.

I believe there is a Modern version with Collected Company; this one uses Green Sun's Zenith to ramp and to find more Reefs and Voices. Other Legacy-only cards this has access to are STP for removal and Force of Will for defense, in addition to ABUR duals.

Caleb Durward played the first version I saw to a 4-1 finish on his stream. My version is 58/60 in the maindeck, with the only difference being two Brainstorm cut for 1 Titania, Protector of Argoth and 1 Gaea's Cradle. This offers some explosiveness to the deck, which often has quite a bit of mana in play due to aggressive ramping on the first two turns with 4 Hierarch and 4 GSZ. For the sideboard, I made a few more changes, opting for a Crop Rotation package to get access to Karakas due to Marit Lage's popularity at the moment. However, there may be a better build out there. Here it is:


4 Risen Reef
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Unsettled Mariner
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Master of Waves

3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Force of Will
3 Force of Negation
4 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Waterlogged Grove
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Windswept Heath
2 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Savannah
2 Tropical Island
1 Tundra

2 Containment Priest
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Knight of Autumn
2 Force of Vigor
1 Collector Ouphe
2 Veil of Summer
1 Karakas
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Pithing Needle
2 Crop Rotation

Loved to see the success of the deck and happy it's getting attention.

I will definitely try out Master of Waves the next time I play the deck.
I played a Vengevine version in a weekly tournament with 22 attendees.

I ended up going 2-2, I wasn't disappointed at all but felt that I would've done better with 4 Intuition in the main deck rather than only 2.

0-2 vs 4c Aluren
2-0 vs Bug Control
2-1 vs Grixis Tezzerator
1-2 vs BR reanimator

Decklist
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Greenbelt Rampager
4 Unsettled Mariner
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Risen Reef
4 Vengevine
1 Dryad Arbor

4 Green Sun’s Zenith
2 Ponder

2 Intuition
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares

2 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Savannah
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
3 Snow-Covered Island
2 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Plains

Sideboard

1 Spell Snare
1 Flusterstorm
1 Force of Negation
1 Gideon’s Triumph
1 Holy Light
1 Council’s Judgment
2 Pithing Needle
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Collector Ouphe
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth



Edit: Petition to name the deck Point Break!

i definitely was trying to figure out how to incorporate vengevine! I couldn't figure out how to get it into the GY but I guess intuition is fine. Aquamoeba is an elemental too.

love greenbelt as a GSZ-able Vengevine trigger.

I have been a little unimpressed with unsettled mariner. i think it might be OK if we had other mana denial but instead it just costs them 2 mana to bolt your reef and shut of your engine. i like the U for the forces and masters but there may be a better use of the slot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maharis

i definitely was trying to figure out how to incorporate vengevine! I couldn't figure out how to get it into the GY but I guess intuition is fine. Aquamoeba is an elemental too.

love greenbelt as a GSZ-able Vengevine trigger.

I have been a little unimpressed with unsettled mariner. i think it might be OK if we had other mana denial but instead it just costs them 2 mana to bolt your reef and shut of your engine. i like the U for the forces and masters but there may be a better use of the slot.

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I felt the same way about Unsettled Mariner this week, I'm used to playing them in Spirits where they are a lot more impressive but I would need to play them a bit more, they're probably useful in some other match-ups.

Perhaps there is room for Wasteland in the deck as well? But I'm not so sure about that.