[DTW] Bant Survival

[majikal]

Just went 6-2 in Atlanta, getting shafted out of top 16 by my shitty tiebreaks. Ended up in 21st. My only losses were to Countertop/Progenitus in round one and Goblins in round four. Both matches went to game 3 and had me get mana screwed. :(

Oddly enough, I rolled all the fuck over Merfolk all night long.

Edit: and Storm combo. Meddling Mage is such a beating!

[Jak]

Just went 6-2 in Atlanta, getting shafted out of top 16 by my shitty tiebreaks. Ended up in 21st. My only losses were to Countertop/Progenitus in round one and Goblins in round four. Both matches went to game 3 and had me get mana screwed. :(

Oddly enough, I rolled all the fuck over Merfolk all night long.

Edit: and Storm combo. Meddling Mage is such a beating!

Dang. I check out all the SCG top 16s and always look for Bant Sur. I'm glad you placed very well though. Mind posting the list?

[majikal]

Dang. I check out all the SCG top 16s and always look for Bant Sur. I'm glad you placed very well though. Mind posting the list?

Same list I've been playing for a while with a couple of changes to the SB -

4x Noble Hierarch
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Rhox War Monk
3x Meddling Mage
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Vendilion Clique
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Wonder <--- MVP all day
1x Loyal Retainers

4x Survival of the Fittest
4x Force of Will
4x Brainstorm
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Ponder

4x Misty Rainforest
4x Windswept Heath
4x Tropical Island
2x Savannah
2x Forest
1x Plains
1x Island
1x Karakas

Sideboard:
3x Spell Pierce
3x Faerie Macabre
1x Gilded Drake
1x Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Stoneforge Mystic <-- not liking this guy after all. I think I'd rather just play Jitte number 3 or another Spell Pierce.
2x Path to Exile
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn <-- Before you say anything about this, READ: It's not in here to try and cheat into play. In testing it has been brilliant against counter- or removal-heavy decks so I can shuffle all my dead critters back in, essentially for free, and keep playing threats/trying to combo off with Iona. Also, I've pulled some extremely lulzy plays involving an opponent's Crypt/Relic and a Wonder in my yard, pitching Emrakul in response to them activating, shuffling everything in and searching up Wonder again, letting their ability resolve, and then dumping Wonder back in my yard.

I had some very interesting games all night though. In round 2 or 3 (can't remember which and I don't have my notes handy) I played against Belcher, and in the last game I kept a no-land hand that contained two FoWs, 2 Spell Pierces, a Meddling Mage, a Rhox War Monk, and a Noble Hierarch. Turn one he plays Xantid Swarm, which I FoW. The next turn he tries to go off but I FoW his Burning Wish after he cracks an LED. We play draw go for a few turns until I draw into a Forest and play Hierarch, and then topdeck two more Hierarchs in the next two turns and start swinging for 3 every turn. I finally get him down to 3, and he plays a Tinder Wall and a SSG, but I draw into a fetch, go get a Trop, play Survival and dump Wonder in the yard for the win.

The second game of that round (he got me turn 1 on game 1 after I mulled to five with no FoW in sight) consisted of turns 2, 3, and 4 Meddling Mages naming Empty, Belcher, and Burning Wish, in that order. Not a lot to report on there.

[jeanbathez]

So last weekend i tested 3 Aether Vials, to see how it does, here is the list :

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

// Creatures
1 [ZEN] Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 [P3] Loyal Retainers
1 [10E] Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
2 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
4 [ALA] Rhox War Monk
1 [BOK] Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 [MOR] Vendilion Clique
1 [DIS] Trygon Predator


// Spells
4 [CST] Swords to Plowshares
4 [CST] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [EX] Survival of the Fittest
2 [M10] Ponder
3 Aether Vial

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [SHM] Faerie Macabre
SB: 2 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 1 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 [ALA] Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 [TO] Llawan, Cephalid Empress
SB: 1 [JU] Genesis
SB: 1 [PY] Spore Frog
SB: 3 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 2 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 [PS] Meddling Mage

Round 1 : Enchantress : 0:2
Game 1 : I don't know what he plays and kept a hand of 2 Lands, vial, Tarmo, and other stuff and only drew lands for the next 4 Turns (i should shuffe more !!!!)
Game 2 : After Mulligan, i kept a hand of 2 lands, survival and other stuff, this time you know what happened, i draw no lands...
In both games i saw 0 force, 0 BS, 0 Ponder > o.k. it can only become better ;-)

Round 2 : Elves Combo with climpse 2:0
Not much to say Force for his glimpse Game 1, Game 2 Cononist for the win

Round 3 : Gb Goblins 2:0
Here Vial shined, vial speed the deck so much with survival in play and he didn't used his wastelands, i think because of my 2 Vials on 2 and 3...

Round 4 : Bant Survival 0:2
My first real bant survival mirror : Its the first game where i missed my cutted spell snares
Game 1 : He went for survival first, next turn i tried my survival and he had spell snare , i force he force back. Then he played Iona on white (check ) and now it becomes interesting he searched for painter servant the turn after and named white my only out was now my bringing in my creatures with vial and hope to find a pridemage, but no....;-)
Game 2 : Again he has spell snare for my survival , and his resolved again, again painter but this time a grindstone ( Hello whats up here i thought)
But he was tapped out, so i thought one draw for grip, Pridemage or Ponder or BS but nothing :-(´

Round 5 : Gb Goblins 2:0

> bant survival mirror : has anyone of you played against such a list ? I think the list was way better then mine at least for the mirror...
> aether vial : don't know, sometimes i loved them, i was able to keep hands with 1 land vial and ponder, bs...then searching with survival and use creatures at instand speed...I never meet cb, another matchup where i thought they were good. So still not sure about that...
Comments ?

[majikal]

The more I think about it, the more I want Null Rod in the sideboard. Countertop decks tend to be slightly problematic, and Null Rod is a one-card answer to Top, Shackles, Explosives, and a myriad of other offensive trinkets.

[Tacosnape]

Oddly enough, I rolled all the fuck over Merfolk all night long.

Yes. Yes you did.

Fantastic job, awesome to meet you, and I loved seeing Meddling Mage in the list. Still my favorite creature ever made.

[Kuma]

> bant survival mirror : has anyone of you played against such a list ? I think the list was way better then mine at least for the mirror...

Cards that are good in the mirror match:

• CounterTop, especially Sensei's Divining Top
• Faerie Macabre
• Gilded Drake/Sower of Temptation
• Spell Snare

[majikal]

Yes. Yes you did.

Fantastic job, awesome to meet you, and I loved seeing Meddling Mage in the list. Still my favorite creature ever made.

Nice to meet you too, man! How far is Birmingham from Roswell, GA? You should come down to Supergames and play sometime.

[jeanbathez]

Cards that are good in the mirror match:

• CounterTop, especially Sensei's Divining Top
• Faerie Macabre
• Gilded Drake/Sower of Temptation
• Spell Snare

Thanks Kuma, haven't played a lot of mirrors with bant survival......i had a lot of mirrors with rock-survival...
I think finally you got me there and i will test CounterTop ;-)
I will start with spell snare and some tops main and a cb in side .....will see

[Carabas]

I really really like maindeck sower, and if you're worried about the mirror, I would make sure to test it. It's great v. a lot of decks, and it's especially brutal against reanimator, as just having it in your list makes their exhumes much much worse. While CB is powerful, I have a hard time seeing how this deck can afford those slots in its 75.

[chokin]

Gilded Drake might be a good idea as a random way to combat an opponent's Iona. I like that it's 2cc. I know people in the CT thread were talking about Jace TMS and a Chain of Vapor being put in the MD just to have a possible answer for Iona. And with Reanimator's popularity, I think that it may be a good idea to do something similar.

[Esper3k]

I've been playing Gilded Drake main myself.

I've also been playing around with SDT main instead of Ponder and running 4x Counterbalance in the sideboard for combo/mirror matchups.

I like the idea of Emrakul in the board as anti-anti-graveyard hate!

[DragoFireheart]

Why does this deck not run Natural Order + Progenitus combo? Is it simply due to a lack of space?

[majikal]

Why does this deck not run Natural Order + Progenitus combo? Is it simply due to a lack of space?

Yes. It basically boils down to either that or Survival, and Survival really just seems to be more versatile.

[jeanbathez]

Thanks for your suggestions !!!

Oh man, bant survival is not esay to build there are so many options. I play this deck since summer last year, and its allways changing but thats what i like about this deck, too ;-)

What do you guys think about the vials ?

@all : I had the feeling that more and more bant survival-players are cutting spell snares for Meddling Mages or nothing of both, just playing more creatures or ponders, what do you think ?

[majikal]

Thanks for your suggestions !!!

Oh man, bant survival is not esay to build there are so many options. I play this deck since summer last weak, and its allways changing ;-)

What do you guys think about the vials ?

@all : I had the feeling that more and more bant survival-players are cutting spell snares for Meddling Mages or nothing of both, just playing more creatures or ponders, what do you think ?

I cut mine for Meddling Mages a while back and haven't missed them at all.

[jeanbathez]

I cut mine for Meddling Mages a while back and haven't missed them at all.

What about MM against aggro decks, in paricular merfolk ?

Sometimes i had the feeling MM are insane against combo and sometimes against control, but bad against aggro and random decks....

You wrote you crushed merfolk, i see you play 4 RWM, but often they crushed me....?

[majikal]

What about MM against aggro decks, in paricular merfolk ?

Sometimes i had the feeling MM are insane against combo and sometimes against control, but bad against aggro and random decks....

You wrote you crushed merfolk, i see you play 4 RWM, but often they crushed me....?

Meddling Mage on Aether Vial or Lord of Atlantis after blowing up an Aether Vial is savage. Naming Daze is also pretty good.

I made a point in the Merfolk matchups to worry less about what they were actually doing and just try and stick a Tarmogoyf. The best way to do this is to start a counter war over something. If you can strip their cards away you will win. Along the same line of thinking is to try and get them to Daze your turn one or two play, and then drop or fetch for a dual land so that Wasteland becomes a tempo sink.

[Black Mass]

I went 3-2-1 into a top 8 split yesterday in a 20-person tournament.
It was my first competitive play I've seen since 6 months so I was a little rusty
lost against Merfolk
first game the only thing I could stick was a Rafiq, wich pounded him, but he was able to chump his way out and eventually he beat me to death with a flying Coralhelm Commander and a Kira.
second game was close agai, but in the end I totally forgot about Reejerey's second ability and was actually topdecked out. Could have won this one.
Second loss was against Pro bant. First game I held on to a hand with 1 Rainforest and a Brainstorm after having to mull to 6, but couldn't find a land. Second game was closer, allthough he was able to resolve a natural order wich made it game, I drew very bad in this one, but mistakes at my end were what cost me this match.
I drew against merfolk
won against ANT, Bridge Burn and Elves

my deck:

4x Tropical Island
3x Savannah
1x Forest
1x Plains
1x Island
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Windswept Heath

4x Noble Hierarch
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Rhox War Monk
2x Quasali Pridemage
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
3x Spellstutter Sprite
3x Meddling Mage
1x Loyal Retainers
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Kira, Great Glass Spinner
1x Sower of Temptation
1x Rafiq of the Many

4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will

4x Survival of the Fittest


//Sideboard
2x Krosan Grip
2x Tormod’s Crypt
1x Faerie Macabre
1x Gaddock Teeg
2x Spell Pierce
3x Path to Exile
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
1x Gilded Drake
1x Llawan, Cephalid Empress

[DragoFireheart]

Are there any alternatives to Loyal Retainers/Iona if you are unable to afford Loyal Retainers?