This isn’t a MTG blog, but rather a blog centered on the cerebral/social aspects of gaming. I’m going to take a few liberties since it is my blog.
Since my return to magic earlier this year (Just before the release of Conflux) I’ve tinkered with a number of standard decks: Bant Aggro, Bant Control, Jund, Naya Zoo and even my own variation of RDW.
My Bant tinkering lead me to a different path then my meta compatriots. While everyone loaded their Bant decks with beefy bruisers like Rafiq and Baneslayer Angel; I chose to cheese my enemies with unblockable creatures like Jhessian Infiltrator and capitalize on the overlooked Quietus Spike.
After Alara Reborn/M10 this is what my decklist looked like:
Lands: Plains X 7 Forest X 4 Seaside Citadel X4 Glacial Fortress X2 Island X4 Terramorphic Expanse x2 Creatures: Qasali Pridemage X4 Battlegrace Angel X3 Jhessian Infiltrator X4 Baneslayer Angel X1 Rhox War Monk X4 Stoic Angel X3 Noble Hierarch x1 Wall of Denial X2 Spells: Bant Charm X4 Behemoth Sledge x2 Cancel X2 Oblivion Ring X4 Quietus Spike X3 Naturalize X2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant X1 Finest Hour X2
I won’t post the sideboard but I will mention several of the cards that were considered or briefly used: Jenara, Cancel, Trace of Abundance, Birds of Paradise and Captured Sunlight. The earlier iterations of Sneaky Bant were essentially aggro-bant with a healthy dose of control. I quickly discovered though that the deck was either feast or famine.
Ideally I would drop a Seaside Citadel first turn, Pridemage the second and Warmonk the third. Getting a Quietus Spike on an Infiltrator wasn’t ideal until at least turn 5 by which point I would already either be winning or losing. Stoic Angels worked well with the exalted mechanic giving me solid defense against the prevalent weenie and zoo decks. In the event that the game went long, Baneslayer, Elspeth and Battlegrace gave me solid finishers. But the deck lacked both consistency and flavour.
Sneaky Bant fell to the wayside and I found myself playing more Legacy, Extended and Casual games. But the idea lingered in the back of my mind for awhile. With the release of Zendikar (And the tasty goodies therein) the deck is hit with a breath of fresh air. Monday I should be able to post the rebuilt deck list along with commentary on match-ups and card strategy I’ve gleamed from a weekend of play-testing.
