Hexproof Bant!

[kiblast]

Hexproof Bant (formerly known as Blouses) is a deck which plays Hexproof creatures (obviously) such as Geist of Saint Traft and pump spells/effects such as Unstable Mutation or Exalted triggers to power out a turn 3 pumped attacker that should win the game by turn 4-5 with disruption backup, namely Force of Will and Spell Pierce or Daze. This gameplan undoubtedly makes it one of the coolest deck ever.
It was played various times and placed top8/16 in various minor/big tournaments during the past years but as far as I know it didn't never really catch legacy players attention and has always been an underdog since its first appearance a couple of years ago.

Without further ado, let's analyze one of the last lists that did well recently.

Rogue, by Brendan Lutzi (9th @SCG Portland)


Creatures [20]

4 Aven Mimeomancer
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage

Instants [15]

3 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Spell Pierce


Enchantments [5]

2 Spectral Flight
3 Unstable Mutation


Lands [20]

2 Forest
2 Island
2 Savannah
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath


SB

2 Kitchen Finks
1 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Mindbreak Trap
2 Path to Exile
3 Submerge
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Gaddock Teeg



Creatures.

8 Mana Dorks: Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch. These guys enable your turn 3 Geist which is the strongest play you can develop, enabling a turn 3 potential attack for 7 ( Exalted Geist and Angel). If you add a pump spell the effect is devastating. You Ideally always want to drop one turn one.

4 Geist of Saint Traft: He's our main beater! Hexproof is good in this metagame. He gives control players headaches. Plus, nothing says fuck you Abrupt Decay like an exalted and enchanted Geist beating for 9 turn 3.

4 Qasali Pridemage: Additional Exalted trigger, a decent beater by himself, hinders CB, Batterskull and Jitte, good in multiples.

4 Aven Mimeomancer: Brendan became my new hero when I saw this list just because of this card. Basically he's a not-so-bad beater by himself (hes a pitchable evasive beater for 3 anyway) and his main hobby is transfoming all your midgame bad topdecks ( Birds of Paradise and Hierarch mainly) into a small army of Vendilion Clique-sized beaters. Mimeomancer also works very good with Exalted triggers, is not so difficult beating for 5 or 6 per turn with him (you play 8 exalted guys). Certainly a decent choice.

Pump spells and other spells.

2 Spectral Flight: Gives a boost and evasion to a beater for only 2 mana investment. Probably one of the best in colour pump spells.

3 Unstable Mutation: +3+3 for u, then +2+2 for 0, then +1+1 for 0. Doesn't give any form of evasion though. Easily cuttable imho.

3 Force of Will: I generally dislike this choice but here it's understandable since FoW is not an essential part of this strategy, and maybe the metagame where the guy played didn't need the 4th Force maindeck.

4 Daze: This deck has a strong early to midgame and wants to close the game before shifting to lategame. That's where Daze shines. This deck is generally tapped out during the first 3 turns of the game so it's really the best counter spell available. Also playing mana dorks you kind of nullify the drawback of setting yourself back a turn.

4 Spell Pierce: avoids early Tops and CBs and generally is an hard counter during the first 3 turns of the game.

4 Brainstorm: it's awwwsome the same way Maru the cat is, I mean I feel like cuddling and snuggling it every time I draw one. That's why I keep giving tells to my opponents- because I play Brainstorms.


Cards I'd play:

Riding the Dilu Horse is the main reason why you should play this deck. Fits nicely on curve and basically reads +2+2 and unblockable. Give it to a Geist and watch your opponent cry!

If you play Riding the Dilu Horse, Troll Ascetic is easily your 2nd best beater. Regeneration, hexproof (here in its original form, the infamous troll-shroud) and decent body makes him a very solid choice for this deck.

Green Sun's Zenith lets you play Hierarchs only as mana dorks and still have 8 ways to produce 3 mana turn 3. Gives access to maverick-style toolbox of creatures.

Deathrite Shaman is an improved Bird of Paradise that also can net you some life. Makes sense as a 1 of in GSZ builds.

Even if the deck is mana hungry, you need a very, very good reason not to include some copies of Wasteland. Wasting a land and keeping your opponents under Daze or Pierce range one turn more is a very very good way to try to artificially lenghten the ''early game state'' where this deck shines, and therefore gaining tempo. I'd play 3 since you also need lands to cast stuff.

Karakas Yeah, this deck wants a Karakas maindeck because against UWx control mass removals ( Supreme Verdict, Terminus) are their only out to a resolved Geist, bouncing Geist in response to Terminus is super cool and helps you restarting your race easily. Also, works as a 4th Wasteland vs. decks using Karakas.


Therefore, my list!


4 Misty Rainforest
4 Flooded Strand
3 Tropical Island
2 Savannah
2 Tundra
3 Wasteland
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Karakas

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Troll Ascetic
4 Qasali Pridemage
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons


4 Brainstorm
3 Pierce
4 Daze
3 Force of Will
3 Riding the Dilu Horse
2 Spectral Flight
3 Green Sun's Zenith

Sb:
4 Submerge
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Flusterstorm
3 Pithing Needle
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Krosan Grip


Now I just need 3 Riding the Dilu Horse and I'm ready to test this pile.

[Esper3k]

Wouldn't Thrun be better than Ascetic? Sure he costs 1 more but he gives you so much more.

Have you considered Invisible Stalkers or Silhana Ledgewalkers as cheap evasive attackers as well?

[kiblast]

Wouldn't Thrun be better than Ascetic? Sure he costs 1 more but he gives you so much more.

Have you considered Invisible Stalkers or Silhana Ledgewalkers as cheap evasive attackers as well?

Thrun, the Last Troll is better than Ascetic Troll, I guess it's ok to play 1 or 2 of them, not more, since you really need to drop a beater turn 2. Basically I don't think Ascetic and Thrun are fighting for the same slots. He was in one of my previous versions and he's certainly a very good addition; he's also bounceable with Karakas which is huge. At the moment I'm testing Sigarda in that slot since she's great vs. BUG control which has seen a certain revamp lately, thanks to Abrupt Decay. You can easily fit one in the md. by cutting the Flusterstorm if your meta lets you do so (edit: I was playing a Flusterstorm maindeck last week in testing, that's why I wrote this. It was in a Spell Pierce slot, so you can do -1 Pierce +1 Thrun)

Invisible Stalker /Silhana Ledgewalker seem amazing but the thing is that they don't provide a decent clock by themselves.

[Esper3k]

Thrun, the Last Troll is better than Ascetic Troll, I guess it's ok to play 1 or 2 of them, not more, since you really need to drop a beater turn 2. Basically I don't think Ascetic and Thrun are fighting for the same slots. He was in one of my previous versions and he's certainly a very good addition; he's also bounceable with Karakas which is huge. At the moment I'm testing Sigarda in that slot since she's great vs. BUG control which has seen a certain revamp lately, thanks to Abrupt Decay. You can easily fit one in the md. by cutting the Flusterstorm if your meta lets you do so (edit: I was playing a Flusterstorm maindeck last week in testing, that's why I wrote this. It was in a Spell Pierce slot, so you can do -1 Pierce +1 Thrun)

Invisible Stalker /Silhana Ledgewalker seem amazing but the thing is that they don't provide a decent clock by themselves.

Agreed that Stalker / Ledgewalker aren't good clocks by themselves, but they give you a T2 Hexproof guy to drop in case you don't have the T1 mana guy so you can still attack on T3 with a pumped evasive Hexproof dude. Just a thought.

I think maybe the Ascetics can be split between Stalkers / Thruns?

[kiblast]

Agreed that Stalker / Ledgewalker aren't good clocks by themselves, but they give you a T2 Hexproof guy to drop in case you don't have the T1 mana guy so you can still attack on T3 with a pumped evasive Hexproof dude. Just a thought.

I think maybe the Ascetics can be split between Stalkers / Thruns?

I would'nt completely dismiss Ascetic Troll, as it fits perfectly in curve and is the 2nd best creature in the deck. If you have a manadork out turn 1 you want to maximize the chance to drop a good hexproof beater turn 2, and this deck can boast 8-9 ways to have mana ramp turn 1.

Thruns' 4cc makes him a silver bullet at max, and Stalker is awful. If I had to play Stalker I'd rather have goyf.

[Barook]

What about 1-2 Elspeths as an additional enablers?

While not having hexproof and not going well with Riding the Dilu Horse, Mirran Crusader could be amazing with all that pump. He's a downright brutal threat and you can protect it with your counters from spot removal. He's still immune against Abrupt Decay.

Crusader + Elspeth is a 2-turn clock. The ideal play would be something like:

T1: Mana dork
T2: Crusader
T3: Elspeth, swing for 10
T4: Swing for 10, GG

[KobeBryan]

What about 1-2 Elspeths as an additional enablers?

While not having hexproof and not going well with Riding the Dilu Horse, Mirran Crusader could be amazing with all that pump. He's a downright brutal threat and you can protect it with your counters from spot removal. He's still immune against Abrupt Decay.

Crusader + Elspeth is a 2-turn clock. The ideal play would be something like:

T1: Mana dork
T2: Crusader
T3: Elspeth, swing for 10
T4: Swing for 10, GG

The power of blouses is that it cannot be targeted. crusader, plow, there goes your main weapon.

And where are you going to find the space for it? The deck is pretty tight as is. Hell, you cannot even play removal in the MD

[slave]

Riding the Dilu Horse seems like a terrible choice.
I'd much rather play Vines of Vastwood, Armadillo CLoak, Cloak of Mists.
But if the reason you're playing Dilu is to fit your curve, I'd consider Traveler's Cloak or Unquestioned Authority, which have no hand-disadvantage, (similar to Cloak of Feathers)

I'd consider a couple Jitte too to outlast or destroy weenies blocking you.

[lochlan]

All credit for this deck belongs to Philip Contreras and Nick Morehead from Grants Pass, Oregon. And the name of the deck is not "Hexproof Bant," it's "Blouses." ("Formerly known as"...pshaw.) And, yes, it's a Chappelle Show reference.

I spoke with Philip at an event in Medford at Astral Games recently and he told me that Brendan Lutzi played Spectral Flight despite Philip's advice against it. Brendan was, in Philip's words, trying to be the "hero" by playing the card. As you guys may recall, Philip received a lot of attention for the inclusion of Spectral Flight when he won SCG Sacramento with it. Riding the Dilu horse is a strict upgrade (since this deck is designed to consistently ramp to 3 mana on turn 2) and the reason they're not playing it is that their playgroup doesn't own any copies. (Step it up, guys!)

Kiblast's list in the OP seems sub-optimal to me:

• The whole point of this deck is to ramp to 3 mana and cast your 3cc dudes on turn 2, cutting some of the mana guys seems wrong. I get that flooding your hand with 1cc do-nothings is awful (unless you have Mimeomancer, yeah?) but it's so critical to get your plan going with some kind of tempo.
• Deathrite Shaman is not right for this deck. If you open without a fetch and your opponent plays around it then you don't get to ramp. So it becomes a liability for your tempo. And you don't even play black! Strictly worse than Birds IMO.
• And, yes, I see your Green Sun's Zenith. It doesn't work in this deck. You want to play a 3-drop turn 2, NOT tutor for a mana guy. Totally anti-synergistic with the plan. If you are going to play it, at least play Dryad Arbor...but honestly since it only produces it's certainly not worth it.
• Wasteland to keep your opponents playing through soft counters seems incorrect, and I assume follows directly from having fewer T1 mana guy plays. If you're slower at getting to 3 mana then of course your soft counters are going to be worse. I realize the original tournament-winning list played 2 Wasteland but I didn't like it then either. It is bad for your three-color mana base and doesn't do much for your plan.
• Sigarda, Host of Herons at five mana is waaaayyy too expensive to be even close to playable. Might as well be a 50-mana spell in this deck.
• Troll Ascetic doesn't have evasion which is why it gets cut. Aven Mimeomancer makes the opponent's creatures smaller on the back-end, turns your mana guys into evasive beaters, etc. It seems like an odd choice, but it actually does something for this deck. Without casting Dilu/Spectral Flight on the Troll, he is quickly outclassed and ends up being a wall you don't want. Given that he fits into the Hexproof plan he's not the absolute worst to play, but I really like Mimeomancer here. The feather counters stick around, and if your first Mimeomancer gets removed then they get turned back on when you drop your a second.

I do like playing a singleton Karakas, although it's pretty random in this deck considering 4x Brainstorm are the only card-selection spells.

--
Edit: almost forgot the best reason to play Aven Mimeomancer over Troll Ascetic: it gives Geist evasion. So, yeah, much better than the Troll.
Edit 2: Also, for whatever it's worth, when I talked to him Philip said he would play two copies of Riding the Dilu Horse in the sideboard. I p

[Esper3k]

Is there really no better pump enchantment we can find than Spectral Flight / Riding the Dilu Horse?

I feel like there's got to be something better out there.

[lochlan]

Is there really no better pump enchantment we can find than Spectral Flight / Riding the Dilu Horse?

I mean, the deck also plays Unstable Mutation. But I think the big appeal of Riding the Dilu Horse is that it isn't an enchantment at all, and cannot be removed. Furthermore, it is impossible in this format to block a creature with Horsemanship.

So, no, there is no better pump spell for this deck than Riding the Dilu Horse.

[slave]

I mean, the deck also plays Unstable Mutation. But I think the big appeal of Riding the Dilu Horse is that it isn't an enchantment at all, and cannot be removed. Furthermore, it is impossible in this format to block a creature with Horsemanship.

So, no, there is no better pump spell for this deck than Riding the Dilu Horse.

Why?
There are literally heaps of options for cards that give evasion and last more than one turn.
If we have a hexproof creature like Giest in play, why would you pick a sorcery like Dilu, over something that is a permanent?
I mean, Unquestioned Authority turns your offense into unblockable turn after turn, or potentially turns a mana dork into something useful.
AND you draw a card.
Why is Dilu better than that?

[Roman Candle]

Why?
There are literally heaps of options for cards that give evasion and last more than one turn.
If we have a hexproof creature like Giest in play, why would you pick a sorcery like Dilu, over something that is a permanent?
I mean, Unquestioned Authority turns your offense into unblockable turn after turn, or potentially turns a mana dork into something useful.
AND you draw a card.
Why is Dilu better than that?

The pump from Dilu Horse is permanent, even though it's a Sorcery. It doesn't say "until end of turn."

[slave]

The pump from Dilu Horse is permanent, even though it's a Sorcery. It doesn't say "until end of turn."

Oh.
That's a little unordinary.

[Esper3k]

Oh.
That's a little unordinary.

Yeah, that's what makes Riding the Dilu Horse super awesome.

[kiblast]

All credit for this deck belongs to Philip Contreras and Nick Morehead from Grants Pass, Oregon. And the name of the deck is not "Hexproof Bant," it's "Blouses." ("Formerly known as"...pshaw.) And, yes, it's a Chappelle Show reference.

Look, you could even be referencing the bible, fact is there was no thread for this deck here and I'd like to have a bit of conversation regarding this archetype. Call it whatever you want, I know which was the original name and I'm not claiming it's my own invention.

I spoke with Philip at an event in Medford at Astral Games recently and he told me that Brendan Lutzi played Spectral Flight despite Philip's advice against it. Brendan was, in Philip's words, trying to be the "hero" by playing the card. As you guys may recall, Philip received a lot of attention for the inclusion of Spectral Flight when he won SCG Sacramento with it. Riding the Dilu horse is a strict upgrade (since this deck is designed to consistently ramp to 3 mana on turn 2) and the reason they're not playing it is that their playgroup doesn't own any copies. (Step it up, guys!)

Well I guess that Spectral Flight is indeed a better choice than Unstable Mutation since it gives evasion. Anyway I agree with you that RtDH (for god's sake that name is a pain in the ass to type) is the best in curve pump spell.

Kiblast's list in the OP seems sub-optimal to me:

• The whole point of this deck is to ramp to 3 mana and cast your 3cc dudes on turn 2, cutting some of the mana guys seems wrong. I get that flooding your hand with 1cc do-nothings is awful (unless you have Mimeomancer, yeah?) but it's so critical to get your plan going with some kind of tempo.
• Deathrite Shaman is not right for this deck. If you open without a fetch and your opponent plays around it then you don't get to ramp. So it becomes a liability for your tempo. And you don't even play black! Strictly worse than Birds IMO.
• And, yes, I see your Green Sun's Zenith. It doesn't work in this deck. You want to play a 3-drop turn 2, NOT tutor for a mana guy. Totally anti-synergistic with the plan. If you are going to play it, at least play Dryad Arbor...but honestly since it only produces it's certainly not worth it.
• Wasteland to keep your opponents playing through soft counters seems incorrect, and I assume follows directly from having fewer T1 mana guy plays. If you're slower at getting to 3 mana then of course your soft counters are going to be worse. I realize the original tournament-winning list played 2 Wasteland but I didn't like it then either. It is bad for your three-color mana base and doesn't do much for your plan.
• Sigarda, Host of Herons at five mana is waaaayyy too expensive to be even close to playable. Might as well be a 50-mana spell in this deck.
• Troll Ascetic doesn't have evasion which is why it gets cut. Aven Mimeomancer makes the opponent's creatures smaller on the back-end, turns your mana guys into evasive beaters, etc. It seems like an odd choice, but it actually does something for this deck. Without casting Dilu/Spectral Flight on the Troll, he is quickly outclassed and ends up being a wall you don't want. Given that he fits into the Hexproof plan he's not the absolute worst to play, but I really like Mimeomancer here. The feather counters stick around, and if your first Mimeomancer gets removed then they get turned back on when you drop your a second.

I do like playing a singleton Karakas, although it's pretty random in this deck considering 4x Brainstorm are the only card-selection spells.

--
Edit: almost forgot the best reason to play Aven Mimeomancer over Troll Ascetic: it gives Geist evasion. So, yeah, much better than the Troll.
Edit 2: Also, for whatever it's worth, when I talked to him Philip said he would play two copies of Riding the Dilu Horse in the sideboard. I p

Thanks a lot for the criticism. I'll try to answer point by point:

-I understand perfectly that the whole point of the deck is to ramp to 3 turn 2. In fact I include 8 ways to accomplish this task:
4 Noble Hierarchs
3 GSZ (I do play Dryad Arbor)
1 Deathrite Shaman (could as well be Birds of Paradise fwiw)

- I don't want to tutor up a mana guy with GSZ. GSZ it's here just because it's turn one mana dork 5-7 through Dryad Arbor. I do understand you could be playing Bop instead but Bop sucks after you reach 3 mana while GSZ clearly doesn't. You are flooding and you topdeck Bop? Useless. If you topdeck GSZ you go fetch a beater (Troll Ascetic). You are in mana screw instead? well topdecking Bop or GSZ is functionally the same.

-Wasteland is the optimal play turn 3, not turn 2. Wasteland is good here when you already have 3 mana out, and every other mana source you draw sucks. Therefore there is no point in wasting turn 2 whereas it's amazing turn 3 to set back opponent one turn (so he's not Supreme Verdict'ing you on his turn 4).

-Sigarda: I had a spare slot and wanted to play a bomb. Could be Elspeth. or the 4th GSZ to bring up to 9 the possibilities of ramping turn 1.

-Troll Ascetic not having evasion is a huge problem, but in a build where you have GSZ he's better than Mimeomancer (because of your committment to G). If you are playing Bop obviously Mimeomancer is better. But since Abrupt Decay is around, how long do you think Aven will stick? It does a lot of amazing things (I know it turns your dead draws in 3/1 flyiers and gives evasion to your critters), but he's basically the only targetable creature which is worth targeting. If you play troll you nullify all removals because the only targets left are manadorks and Qasali.

-Why should anyone run RtDH in sb? I'm considering playing 4 md.

[SirTylerGalt]

Hey lochlan, thanks for the explanations! Really interesting.

[...] I really like Mimeomancer here. The feather counters stick around, and if your first Mimeomancer gets removed then they get turned back on when you drop your a second.

According to the Gatherer rulings, Aven Mimeomancer is even better than you think:

http://magiccards.info/query?q=!Aven+Mimeomancer

"5/1/2009: The affected creature remains 3/1 and has flying as long as it has a feather counter on it. The effect continues even if Aven Mimeomancer leaves the battlefield."

[lochlan]

-Sorry, I somehow missed that you were playing Dryad Arbor. Clearly it is in your list. But anyway, not being able to fix your three-color mana base seems like not the best to me. You want to be ideally playing a turn 2 Geist, so Having mana accel. that is is not really where you want to be.

-Obviously you won't be tutoring your mana guys if you have Dryad Arbor, so yeah that was just me being blind. As for Green Sun Zenith's other utility: first of all, I think using the Birds of Paradise slots with GSZ is wrong for the mana-fixing reason I just mentioned. You say that "Bop sucks after you reach 3 mana" but Aven Mimeomancer helps address that problem--and it is definitely a problem. Furthermore, you want to get a Troll Ascetic with GSZ but that is not the plan, the plan is Geist. Any beater is absolutely second to Geist.

So at this point you are now hurting your Geist mana with a GSZ plan so you can fetch...Troll Ascetic. I just can't agree that it's a good direction for the deck. I must confess that when I first started messing around with builds I also tried out GSZ. After all, it's one of the most powerful and efficient tutors in the format. But it's not where you want to be when playing Blouses.

-Your Wasteland plan just doesn't make sense to me. In a deck with only four Brainstorm for library manipulation and card selection, your plan is to always draw Wasteland sometime after you've developed your mana...to make sure your otherwise dead land draws are playable? You want to stop Supreme Verdict, yet the Supreme Verdict decks play enough basics to easily get around Wasteland. You may catch a bad player running into Wasteland, but that doesn't mean the card is playable. It doesn't do anything for your plan and hurts your three-color mana base, but play the card if you want.

-Sigarda or Elspeth seem very loose to me. I would stick to the plan rather than trying to cast 4-5 mana cards in a Geist tempo deck but play what you like etc.

-I think I agree that you want Troll if you play GSZ, which I would not play. As for Mimeomancer being non-hexproof: I 100% agree that a non-hexproof creature seems bad in Hexproof.deck. When you want to blank your opponent's removal, why should you draw removal with your non-hexproof Mimeomancer? I don't think it's perfect in the slot, but Troll Ascetic is just so unimpressive to me (unless you can manage to get RtDH or another pump/evasion spell on it) that I would--at this point in my testing with the deck--personally rather risk drawing Swords with Mimeomancer than play Troll Ascetic. I could see playing something else in the slot in the future, and I don't think playing Troll Ascetic is unreasonable. I could even see myself flip flopping on this and changing back to Ascetic. Obviously a hexproof creature would be ideal, but since I don't think any are good enough I will take the utility flier.

-I was not suggesting that you should run RtDH in the sideboard, I do not agree with that--and I was going to type that out (hence the "I p" at the end of the post) but I got distracted. I merely wanted to mention what the creator of the deck and thus-far most successful pilot had to say about the card. He said something about how it wasn't necessary in the current format, and for all I know he is right. But, again, I would also definitely play the card main deck. If you're playing Troll Ascetic 4-of may even be correct.


As for this:

Look, you could even be referencing the bible, fact is there was no thread for this deck here and I'd like to have a bit of conversation regarding this archetype. Call it whatever you want, I know which was the original name and I'm not claiming it's my own invention.

I do actually hate stupid legacy deck names for the most part but I also kind of feel like the people who invented a deck and put up a result with it get to name it. Bant Hexproof is obviously a more appropriate name for the purposes of discussion and understanding, but I will continue to refer to the deck as "Blouses."

And FWIW I'm glad you started this thread, I am obviously interested in the deck (although I don't necessarily think it's good...) and there is not a lot of discussion about it.

[lochlan]

According to the Gatherer rulings, Aven Mimeomancer is even better than you think:

Thanks for mentioning this, I had no idea!

[kiblast]

@Lochlan. I guess I really need a playset of the damn pump spell as I'm intrigued by the Gsz version and the Mimeomancer version and I want to start tesing them offline as soon as possible. I see Mimeomancer is super awesome if left untouched and I understand perfectly your reasonment behind it but I still feel I need to test the 2 builds to decide which one performs better.