[DTW] Bant Survival

[Waikiki]

I think spell snare is one of those meta slots. You could easily shift it for more cantrips/Beaters or anything that suits you.

Imo zoo is a pretty good matchup. Rhox war monk is a pain in the ass for them. Also spellstutter sprite becomes mostly a hardcounter. Together with 3 sideboard path and additional war monks its pretty favored. You could also run some jittes between main and side if you expect alot of aggro decks.

Pre board I rather face zoo than merfolk.

Since im attending madrid aswell. I will probably bring this deck with me aswell. If I decide to play it depends on the meta I expect. The deck really has a doable matchup vs alot of archetypes. But none are really a bye. Making the correct plays is very very important. But Ye still haven't made any results lower then 9th place with the deck (all 40+ tournaments)

[Jak]

I'm reconsidering this deck for GP Madrid and I'd like to ask you some things, specially to Waikiki and Jak.

- What are your feelings about Spell Snare? The card has stopped being as popular as it used to be, but I'm considering it may be useful for a GP metagame...

- What are your thoughts about the matchup against fast aggro like Naya Burn? I found the matchup a little bit weak (although I don't have enough experience with the deck to make solid statements), and considering it's one of the most popular decks in Spain/Europe, I think this matchup should be solid preboard.

I still like Spell Snare. It still hits plenty of things like Goyf, Pridemage, Standstill, EE (@2 which is what decks should play it as against us), Counterspell, Sylvan Library, Lord of Atlantis, etc. Now, I might not run it depending on what could be there. If you can meta game well, then maybe playing Jittes main if you see lots of Zoo or Tribal etc. It's a MD card to handle a lot of things.

Rhox War Monk. Play 4 main if you see it that much. I would also run 8 Swords between main and side. Having 1 mana answers to their 1 mana threats is what you need most of the time to take advantage. You might also want to test some Kitchen Finks in the board. 2 life, kill Nacatl, 2 life, and then chump is pretty good.

[dragon7284]

I've been playing this deck for a month now... and won 4 straight tournaments with it. They aren't large tournaments by any means, ranging anywhere from 8-15 people usually, but it's a very solid deck. My meta consists of Merfolk, Landstill, Reanimator, Zoo, a solid LD control deck, and a couple rogue decks. Here's my exact list

3x Survival of the Fittest
4x Brainstorm
3x Ponder
4x Force of Will
3x Spell Pierce
3x Swords to Plowshares
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Rhox War Monk
3x Qasali Pridemage
4x Tarmogoyf
1x Wonder
1x Genesis
1x Sower of Temptation
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Rafiq of the Many
1x Vendilion Clique
4x Flooded Strand
4x Windswept Heath
4x Tropical Island
3x Savannah
1x Tundra
1x Forest
1x Island

SB
3x Path to Exile
1x Swords to Plowshares
3x Treetop Village
3x Spell Snare
2x Pithing Needle
3x Life from the Loam

I tried the Spellsutter Sprites for awhile, they just weren't cutting it for me. I almost always didn't want them in my hand and usually just used them as FoW fodder or to survival with. Any feedback would be much appreciated :)

[Waikiki]

Spellstutter is a preference I think. I really like them they suit my playstyle alot. Drop a bomb and react on what the opponent does.

I do got some questions for your deck.

3 swords?

sb:
treetop/loam plan? whats up with that?

[dragon7284]

Yeah, I've been running 3 for awhile, but I've been toying with the idea of moving the Archmage to the board (or completely) and putting the 4th one in. It's probably a good idea, I might try it at next weeks tournament...

As far as the SB plan, its pretty much a meta choice. A triple exalted treetop can be absolutely backbreaking for landstill, which is probably my toughest matchup where I play. The LftL helps against the LD control and against Wasteland recursion since this deck runs so few mana sources. The other decks I pretty much wreck house and don't need to worry about siding much aside from the Paths. Anything you think might work better against those decks? Thanks!

[Waikiki]

against landstill I run spell pierce and gaddock teeg on the sideboard, teeg stops every bomb they got against you (explosives, elspeth, moat, wrath of god and force of will) also I can easily protect him with the pierce, or spellstutters.

Vs land destruction cards Ive been using is scryb ranger, It serves a multi purpose to gain combat tricks or actually gain mana when having a hierarch in play. And not to be missed it helps spellstutter sprite ;)

[Waikiki]

As a reference this is the list Im currently running:

// Lands
1 [P3] Plains (3)
1 [P3] Forest (2)
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
4 [A] Tropical Island
3 [A] Savannah
4 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
1 [P3] Island (1)

// Creatures
1 [MM] Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
1 [ALA] Rafiq of the Many
2 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
2 [ALA] Rhox War Monk
1 [DIS] Trygon Predator
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
3 [LRW] Spellstutter Sprite
1 [P3] Loyal Retainers
1 [ZEN] Iona, Shield of Emeria

// Spells
4 [EX] Survival of the Fittest
4 [CST] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [CST] Swords to Plowshares
3 [LRW] Ponder
3 [DIS] Spell Snare

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [ALA] Rhox War Monk
SB: 2 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 2 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 [JU] Genesis
SB: 3 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 1 [TSP] Scryb Ranger
SB: 3 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 1 [PS] Meddling Mage
SB: 1 [BOK] Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

I've added the iona/loyal trick to test it out. Im not sure how great the impact of the cards are yet but I will hope to find out on an upcoming tourney.

[Jak]

Bant Survival is now an archetype/deck listed on deckcheck.net

[Julian23]

In my experience there are 4 very distinguishable variants of Survival:

- FEB
- Survival Advantage (all that Rofellos, Quirion Ranger, Anger, drop 4 Goyf stuff)
- RecSurvival (in a Rock shell with Deeds, very slow control deck)
- BantSurvival

but I guess it's like with all these CB-Top and Thresh variants, we can't have a thread for each of them. It's sad, because I would really like to discuss Wuascht Survival without other people always bringing up stuff that doesn't belong in heavy control deck.

[sco0ter]

- FEB
- Survival Advantage (all that Rofellos, Quirion Ranger, Anger, drop 4 Goyf stuff)
- RecSurvival (in a Rock shell with Deeds, very slow control deck)
- BantSurvival

+ Welder Survival
+ ATS

[Julian23]

+ Welder Survival
+ ATS

Well, I was talking about decks showing up in Top8 lists at least every now and then. Guess I should have been more specific about that. Although this means kicking out FEB as well.

[Philipp2293]

FEB recently showed a top 8 in a recent french tournament. But from the listed ones, it's the most obscure.

[sco0ter]

FEB recently showed a top 8 in a recent french tournament. But from the listed ones, it's the most obscure.

Alexandre Blanchard (the FEB player) told me, he did Top8 even three times in large French events during the last few months. But those event aren't listed on deckcheck.net though.

[Waikiki]

I ended first after swiss with bant survival last tournament Splitting T4

Report: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...236#post413236

[godryk]

First of all, grats on your finish!

However, I must ask you to speak in more detail about the Retainer+Iona combo package, as you would've asked to anyone running it.

Is there a reason for running it other than pure curiosity?
Does it improve any matchup?

I may find it interesting and I will definitely be testing it, but I'd like to hear a little bit reasoning from one of the deck's "creators".

[Illissius]

I think he was arguing from the position that Survival was already in play, in which case 5 mana to win the game (or steal it) isn't impossible (2GGW) whereas searching for 2 lifegaining Monks(GGGGWWUU) or GoyfWall(2GGGG) looks pretty difficult; particularly when playing around Wasteland and Port.

Indeed, for 3GGGW you don't get only Iona; you get Iona and Survival. Tarmogoyf looks like a bad card too when you count it as costing 2GGG (Survival + activate + Goyf).

[Waikiki]

First of all, grats on your finish!

However, I must ask you to speak in more detail about the Retainer+Iona combo package, as you would've asked to anyone running it.

Is there a reason for running it other than pure curiosity?
Does it improve any matchup?

I may find it interesting and I will definitely be testing it, but I'd like to hear a little bit reasoning from one of the deck's "creators".

I chose to ran iona out of pure curiosity. First of I thought mehhh another slot thats dead in my starting hand. So I went out and test it.

It won me the game against landstill which I would not have won without because He had an active elspeth and jace. Iona on white cuts of all of his removal so I had the chance of one lethal swing with iona (and some help of next turn rafiq) Before I'd be death.

Vs merfolk it helped me stabelize things because his counters become useless and again iona with a next turn rafiq often swing for the win.

Against aggro loam I also recovered thnx to iona shutting down all of his outs while a next turn rafiq made her swing for 20.

So in all iona gives you alot of protection and recovery power and also is able to end the game in 1 or perhaps 2 turns if the opponent does not have any fliers.

I have not tried Iona vs other decks yet.

[Jak]

I am definitely fitting in graveyard hate into my SB. I had some close games against Ichorid on Sunday that would have turned out different had I had some way to get rid of his GY.

The deck did play well against Tempo Thresh. I got my basics and never over extended my one toughness dudes into Fire/Ice.

I really don't have thoughts on Iona/Retainers because I haven't tested it, but I just wonder if it is better than Natural Order. The big plus for NO is that it is another "I win" card outside of Survival. It is at least 2 more slots though.

[Waikiki]

I think the 2 slots are very very important.

[crow_mw]

On top of adding more non-blue non-creature cards to the deck. Even in last tournament report by Waikiki there was a situation in which he needed to topdeck a creature to win the game.