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Main » Articles » Standard Double Take

Standard Double Take

Kyle Boggemes
Posted on July 28, 2016
 Reddit

Hey everyone!

I’m back from the SCG in Columbus and what a weekend it was! I finished in 3rd place with this beauty:

Bant Company ? Eldritch Moon Standard | Kyle Boggemes, 3rd place SCG Columbus

This deck performed very well; I went 12-1 in the Swiss portion with 2 intentional draws at the end. I decided to trust my gut that Bant Company was going to be a great choice because it wasn’t performing well for me in testing. Andrew Elenbogen is a big fan of Bant Humans so I gave it a chance, but it’s not in my range. Rather than play the deck that feels like a better metagame choice, I just stuck to what I knew, flash creatures and value. A broken clock is right twice a day and Bant Company dominated the tournament.

I felt great about my performance because I faced a murderer's row of opponents:

  • Tom Ross

  • Todd Anderson

  • Jim Davis

  • Devin Koepke

  • Trevor Petrilli

  • Chris Anderson

  • Ali Aintrazi

  • Ronnie Ritner

Typically a Grand Prix is more competitive than an SCG open, but this was not the case here. The top tables were littered with talent on both days.

My loss in the swiss was Tom Ross and his Humans deck. That was a tough matchup for me and I intend to add a Felidar Cub or two to the sideboard to kill Always Watching. Aerial Volley was marginal for me, as I only faced a single Spirits deck. It’s a tough matchup, but I don’t think it will be popular in the future as Collected Company decks are too good. I would like to replace the Volleys with Selfless Spirits because I can block a spirit and trade off; my plan against Spirits is to trade resources and drag out the game. The card Collected Company is weak against Mausoleum Wanderer so I want at least 5 mana before I cast it. I shouldn’t dump on Spirits too much because Jeff Hoogland’s version of the deck had some cool things going on. He got to play four Archangel Avacyn, which is very good against Bant Company.

I felt the Bant CoCo mirror was in my favor, but ultimately fell in the top 4 to Devin Koepke’s sideboard plan of Tragic Arrogance. It was a great way to regain an advantage after being on the draw so you don’t die to the tempo game plan. My overall Bant mirror record was 7-1 in this event; I was undefeated in the mirror at the last Pro Tour and SCG Invitational. Tireless Tracker and Nissa, Vastwood Seer were all-stars; Thalia, Heretic Cathar underperformed as it was only good while on the play. It’s hard to play the aggressive role when you’re on the draw, which is why I didn’t play Thalia in the main deck.

The werewolf creature into Spell Queller/Bounding Krasis start felt like a nut draw that was better than what any other Standard deck could do. In the future I intend to find a version of Bant CoCo that can take full advantage of flash 3-drops and werewolves. The 9th and 10th flash 3-drops can be Void Grafter because it protects Spell Queller from dying to a removal spell.

Here’s the list I would play in a Standard event this weekend:

Bant Company ? Eldritch Moon Standard | Kyle Boggemes

I cut down to 24 lands and pushed the werewolf theme to the max. During the event, I was boarding in the full set of Lambholt Pacifist against the mirror because it put pressure on the opponent to walk into my Spell Quellers. The opponent would operate at sorcery-speed so I didn’t end up with a 4/4. If I wanted a 4/4 when they played at sorcery-speed I could simply pass and cast a spell on their turn.

Void Grafter played well with werewolves because the opponent would use removal at sorcery-speed which is easy to counter. The 2/4 flash body was also strong against Humans. Declaration in Stone is typically the last spell the Humans deck will cast so it’s easy to stop on their main phase one.

The mana is pushed more towards Blue and Green so Archangel Avacyn got the axe. This isn’t the end of the world because I’m able to go up to 28 Collected Company hits. I’m down to 12 White spells that only require a single White mana, which makes the overall casting costs more consistent.

I definitely want 2 Ojutai's Command in the sideboard because it counters Ishkanah, Grafwidow. Ali Aintrazi’s deck is able to tutor for the big bad spider thanks to Traverse the Ulvenwald. B/G Control decks will be more popular going forward and the spider is the best finisher that helps stabilize the game. It’s hard to attack through a ? with reach and a bunch of reach tokens. Even when you don’t counter a creature against control decks, it’s still great to return a Duskwatch Recruiter or Sylvan Advocate to play and draw a card. If you’re looking for the ultimate anti-control spell then look no further.

In the next week there will be plenty of different decks that come out of the woodwork in an attempt to stop Bant Company. Most of these plans will fail because the deck is very powerful and consistent. The mirror match will be very popular, so be aware that there is not a silver bullet to win; the games are dynamic and confusing. Most of the games swung back and forth and it was unclear who was actually winning at any given time. That was how I felt about the mirror and my friends playing the deck described similar feelings. I think this is clearly the best deck in the format now that I have more evasion to fight Planeswalkers from G/W Tokens.

And now here’s something you’ll really enjoy . . . 

W/B Control ? Eldritch Moon Standard | Kyle Boggemes

Andrew Elenbogen and I made this deck last week and it showed promise. It was initially going to be the deck I would play at SCG Columbus because Liliana, the Last Hope is such a powerful card. I didn’t want to play a slow Languish deck, but also needed game versus the hyper-aggressive decks. Liliana kills the early spirits while not being able to be countered by Mausoleum Wanderer and is very strong against Humans.

I have seen some classic W/B Control decks playing Liliana as a pseudo-removal spell, but I want to be able to take advantage of the -2 ability, too. Wasteland Strangler plays very well in this deck because I have seven 2-drops that exile a card. Ultimate Price isn’t great at the moment because the Elder Deep-Fiend decks are full of colorless creatures and Bant Company has too many gold creatures. Silkwrap is vulnerable to Dromoka's Command, but Wasteland Strangler can put the exiled creature into the graveyard on the following turn. Transgress the Mind is there to exile Elder Deep-Fiend, Reflector Mage, and Spell Queller.

Wasteland Strangler also plays well with my 3-mana removal spells. Stasis Snare and Anguished Unmaking got a boost from Eldritch Moon because it can exile Elder Deep-Fiend on the upkeep. That fact these removal spells also happen to exile creatures is icing on the cake. Ruinous Path takes a back seat because I have more creatures to pressure Planeswalkers anyway. I also don’t like to play sorcery-speed spells when I can avoid it in the current flash-infested metagame.

I took the creature sub-theme to the next level by adding a couple Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. A ? deathtouch is great against all of Bant Company’s 2/3s and can be cast on turn two as a pseudo-removal spell without a creature being in play. I can return it to my hand with Liliana’s -2 ability or sacrifice a creature to flip Archangel Avacyn. I can set up the Bruna + Gisela combo by casting Gisela and sacrificing it to protect against Reflector Mage. This is key because on a later turn I can return it to play and immediately meld. It’s a legend so I can search for it with Thalia's Lancers, too.

Thalia's Lancers is the lynchpin for this deck. Traditional W/B Control decks needed to play a lot of high drops in order to have a good late game, but the Lancers really ties the room together. I can search for Bruna or Linvala to continue my mid-game curve of haymakers. If Ayli’s in play I can sacrifice the Lancers and then have Bruna return the Lancers which can then search for Gisela to meld. The Lancers can also find mana by searching for the lone Geier Reach Sanitarium which could be crucial for casting Linvala or Bruna stuck in your hand. It also helps to loot away Gisela if you want to play around Reflector Mage and Spell Queller and get straight to melding.

Infinite Obliteration is a good sideboard card to exile Elder Deep-Fiend/Distended Mindbender out of Eldrazi decks and World Breaker out of Ramp strategies. It can be a challenge to slog through a train of Deep-Fiends because Sanctum of Ugin gets more 5/6s. This is another case where hand disruption works well against this strategy because there will be a Deep-Fiend in the opponent’s hand for me to exile and they lose a land to set this up. The same can be said for B/G sacrifice decks that play Distended Mindbender. That card isn’t popular at the moment, but will decimate control decks.

Hallowed Moonlight is interesting in the sideboard to stop Collected Company. It can also be good against White control decks because it negates Secure the Wastes as well as Bruna and Gisela melding.

Felidar Cub can kill Always Watching out of the Humans deck. This is important because Liliana is great at picking off 1-toughness creatures and the toughness boost can be annoying. I can return Felidar Cub with Liliana’s -2 ability so it gets better in this version. Be prepared for the occasional Demonic Pact deck, too!

The current decks keeping me in check are U/W Spirits and Bant Company. Gisela is a great creature, but is held back by the power of Reflector Mage and Spell Queller. Transgress the Mind is great in this deck because it can take Queller and Reflector Mage before I decide to cast Gisela. Either way, the Spirits matchup is difficult, so I would play this deck when Deep-Fiend is popular and the spirits deck are kept down by Humans.

I would like to note the overall SCG Columbus metagame didn’t have many Elder Deep-Fiend decks at the top tables. This will likely not be the case in the near future as the first tournament of a new Standard format has fewer new cards due to the set being out for only a day. I can assure you Elder Deep-Fiend is great against Bant Company and will be a dominating force at the Pro Tour.

In round 15 I discovered my opponent, Ronnie Ritner, was piloting a very similar deck he came up with independently.

W/B Control ? Eldritch Moon Standard | Ronnie Ritner

As you can see, the overall strategy remains the same, but we take different approaches with the support cards. I wasn’t a huge fan of Languish because there were too many 4-drops in the deck already. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is interesting because I can search for it with Thalia's Lancers. Going forward, I think Ultimate Price loses stock because it doesn’t kill Spell Queller or Elder Deep-Fiend.

We had conflicting viewpoints on Liliana, but two may be correct in a Bant Company-infested metagame. If you play it on turn three, I can flash in Bounding Krasis at the end of turn to nearly kill it. Once hyper-aggressive decks start to shine, as folks move away from Languish, Liliana will get more powerful.

I played against Ronnie in the top 8 and the single Blessed Alliance blew me out when I attacked with a single flipped Avacyn. It’s hard to play around because, if I chose to attack with more things, he can simply untap his massive bombs and block the smaller creatures. This was the most impressive new card I saw this weekend.

Closing Thoughts

Going forward, I think Tragic Arrogance gets better because it works around Archangel Avacyn and Selfless Spirit. Planar Outburst is embarrassing in the meantime because people will default to Devin Koepke’s version of Bant CoCo which won the SCG Open. Devin had a great version of the deck and it currently has a huge target on its head. Will it continue to dominate or will something else emerge?

That’s all for this week. I can’t wait to see the innovations in Sydney for the Pro Tour.

Thanks for reading!

—Kyle

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TAGS articles, standard, list, constructed, deck lists, decks, brews, kyle boggemes, #mtgemn, eldritch moon

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