deck critique

[l\l l l/l]

Casey's 4-1 success w/Bant last week made me think of my own Bant deck that I took to States. I wonder if I built it wrong. Here's the list:

4 Flooded Grove
4 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Seaside Citadel
4 Treetop Village
4 Vivid Creek
2 Island

4 Condemn

4 Bant Charm
4 Cancel
4 Mulldrifter
4 Rhox War Monk
2 Jace Beleren

4 Cryptic Command
4 Stoic Angel
2 Wrath of God

2 Cloudthresher

SB:
4 Snakeform
3 Negate
3 Remove Soul
2 Cloudthresher
2 Wrath of God
1 Jace Beleren

The basic gameplan is to control the board, much like Cruel Control but only more aggressively and w/a better mana base. I went 4-0 the FNM prior to States but then went a dissapointing 3-2 on game day. I lost a match to Zombies! (died to Stillmoon Cavaliers as Wraths, Cloudthreshers and Snakeforms refused to show.) I also lost to "The Short Bus" as early Teeg ruined my day.

I noticed yesterday that Casey had trouble w/Tanaka's Cavaliers. That card seems to be the bane of this deck. Oh well, what do you guys think?

[Michael Tanaka]

Cavaliers dodge all of your spot removal and neuter your otherwise superior creatures. Sower is usually your best bet, as decks with Cavaliers usually can't remove or neutralize their own creature. Snakeform is also good, but most of the things that it is good against aside from Cavalier are bad right now. My vote goes to Sower, without testing data. Hmm, I guess dropping a huge green monster with tentacles flailing is a good way to stop a Cavalier, too.

I am not sure about Cryptic, Cancel, Negate AND Remove Soul all in the same list. I think you should start either Negate or Remove Soul, and maybe SB the other one. The 3cc slot looks like where you start playing scary things . . . unless you're keeping mana up for Cancel; I do not think it fits well into your curve. 1-2 Cancels might be better at protecting your endgame alongside Cryptic from opposing efforts to stabilize, but then can Negate or Remove Soul do that too? Again, that is more my personal preference rather than fact supported by numbers or data.

On another note, I remember there were Colossi in the deck the night before; did you switch them after FNM?

About Gaddock Teeg . . . I do not know what to say, other than pray for a Bant Charm. There might be an on-color solution in the Conflux spoiler or somewhere in LRW block, but I cannot remember any easy ones. Flashfreeze comes to mind, but no ideas for when he is on the table already.

I cannot think of anything more to write right now, maybe more to come later.

[The Dane Train]

Seems to me that this deck has nothing to do for 3 turns (assuming you hit perfect mana), then is basically all in on a 3 drop. If he dies, you're way behind and the deck has nothing to catch up with. This looks like mostly a fish type deck, but without the fish. I'm sure next set's StP redux will help, but as it stands this deck seems too slow for what it appears to want to do.

[l\l l l/l]

I didn't run Sower as I am neither Fareies or Reveillark. My plan for protecting such a fragile creature would be to wait until I have counter back up (7 mana in this build). I frequently go 3rd turn 3 drop, 4th turn Angel, then wait for 6 mana to play a creature w/Cancel back up or an EOT 'Thresher.

Snakeform is for 'Lark, Cavalier, Swans, etc.

My reasooning for not running 2 drop counters main was that I had no idea what to expect and for game 2, I could SB out 4 cards for 3 Negate/Remove Soul and 1 Jace.

I didn't ever run Chameleon Colossus in this deck.

Michael Tanaka said:

Cavaliers dodge all of your spot removal and neuter your otherwise superior creatures. Sower is usually your best bet, as decks with Cavaliers usually can't remove or neutralize their own creature. Snakeform is also good, but most of the things that it is good against aside from Cavalier are bad right now. My vote goes to Sower, without testing data. Hmm, I guess dropping a huge green monster with tentacles flailing is a good way to stop a Cavalier, too.

I am not sure about Cryptic, Cancel, Negate AND Remove Soul all in the same list. I think you should start either Negate or Remove Soul, and maybe SB the other one. The 3cc slot looks like where you start playing scary things . . . unless you're keeping mana up for Cancel; I do not think it fits well into your curve. 1-2 Cancels might be better at protecting your endgame alongside Cryptic from opposing efforts to stabilize, but then can Negate or Remove Soul do that too? Again, that is more my personal preference rather than fact supported by numbers or data.

On another note, I remember there were Colossi in the deck the night before; did you switch them after FNM?

About Gaddock Teeg . . . I do not know what to say, other than pray for a Bant Charm. There might be an on-color solution in the Conflux spoiler or somewhere in LRW block, but I cannot remember any easy ones. Flashfreeze comes to mind, but no ideas for when he is on the table already.

I cannot think of anything more to write right now, maybe more to come later.

[l\l l l/l]

As far as the mana curve goes, I originally had 4 Broken Ambition over 4 Cancel but I failed to Force Spike/Miscalculation a lot of the time. I also liked the idea of being able to play a 3 drop on the 6th turn w/hard counter back up.

I'm sure I ran 4 Mulldrifter main but I forgot what slots they took up. Prolly Finks slot. Fixed.

The Dane Train said:

Seems to me that this deck has nothing to do for 3 turns (assuming you hit perfect mana), then is basically all in on a 3 drop. If he dies, you're way behind and the deck has nothing to catch up with. This looks like mostly a fish type deck, but without the fish. I'm sure next set's StP redux will help, but as it stands this deck seems too slow for what it appears to want to do.

[l\l l l/l]

"I frequently go 3rd turn 3 drop, 4th turn Angel, then wait for 6 mana to play a creature w/Cancel back up or an EOT 'Thresher."

I forgot that I had Mulldrifter over Finks. Therefore, I can go 5th turn (non-evoked) 'Drifter :]

FYI, I mostly expected Cruel Control. This deck also pwns RDW.

[l\l l l/l]

Here's another deck I considered for States:

"Assassins"

4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Murmuring Bosk
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Twilight Mire
4 Vivid Creek
4 Vivid Marsh

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Nameless Inversion
4 Scarblade Elite
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher

4 Crib Swap
4 Doran, the Siege Tower

4 Chameleon Colossus
4 Murderous Redcap

4 Demigod of Revenge

SB:
4 Thoughtseize
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Infest
3 Wispmare

I modelled this deck after Bennie Smith's Demigod Doran, which took me to t8 @PTQ Berlin. I liked the standard transition until Dru smashed me w/Elementals. Damn Dru!

[JJ]

I lost pretty hard to that bant deck. I'm wondering who designed it for him though, because (and I don't mean any harm or malice in this) I kind of doubt he made that deck on his own...I could be wrong though. It just seems like somebody who can forget to attack for 4 turns straight might not be able to make that kind of a deck. haha I lost that game too btw, it was a damn good deck. Props to him, regardless of who made the deck (and double if it was him!)

[l\l l l/l]

Dru made it. Casey may have tampered w/it however...

[JJ]

Dru? Has he played at Paula's before? The name doesn't quite ring a bell... I have a feeling I know who he is by face but not by name ><</body>

[The Franchise]

That's damn funny.

[James]

-2 Jace +2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
-1 stoic angel (heavy number of copies for mid-early game imo)
Negate > Cancel
loxodon war hammer (?) there's like no artifact removal in the format right now is there?
sower of temptation is awesome if you can find room
I would also bump cloud thresher to 4 copies as faeries looks a bad match up for you

how did you/he do?

[l\l l l/l]

I wouldn't replace Jace w/Eslpeth b/c Stoic Angel locks down multiple attackers (mainly there vs Bitterblossom). True, you could make chump blockers but this deck doesn't get beat down. My losses were to an unblockable Stillmoon Cavaier and early Tegg. Eslpeth doesn't do anything in these match ups.

The 4th Stoic Angel was there for consistent board control as w/out them I only have 2 maindeck Wraths & 'Theshers. They don't get bad in multiples, allow me to race as i'm more mid-range than true control and allow me to set up a Wrath better (they see Stoic, build up their board, then try to alpha strike. I Wrath, then drop another Angel).

Negate is def a good counterspell and I tried them out main but they ended up being situational depending on the match up. Faeries doesn't maindeck Negate. I tried out Remove Soul main but ended up with the same problem. Broken Amibtions is prolly the best candidate but I wasn't able to reliably counter spells. Maybe it's b/c I tested vs too many control decks...

Cancel doen't get any play so i'll concede that I prolly made a mistake here. However since I couldn't find anything else to be more effective, it's prolly a sign that I chose the wrong deck to play. In any case I have access to 3 Negate/3 Remove Soul after sideboarding.

I don't think I run enough creatures to justify War Hammer. I also have waaay to many 3 drops in case you didn't notice.

Sowers are good in Faeries and Reveillark b/c you can either protect them w/Scion of Oona or recur them w/Reveillark. I do neither. They are also a non-bo w/Cloudthresher.

I have access to 4 'Thresher after sideboarding but running 4 main would be a mistake. Cruel Control's only real bad match up at the time was Faeries and they typically only ran 2 main. The only reason to run 4 is if you are positive that you could take advantage of the evoke as 4 mana is much more reasonable than 6. Or if you're playing in a control mirror where you expect the game to last a while.