Archetype
Fundamentally this deck follows a midrange beatdown gameplan. The goal is generally to kill the opponent with lots of mid-size creatures, or one very large creature. That said, it's certainly possible to eek out the last bit of damage with an exalted Birds of Paradise in a pinch!
There are three pieces of tech that make the deck tick. First, Manadorks like Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch provide ramp to get out our 3cmc mid-sized creatures on turn two and get to work. Since we play , card draw is also available via Serum Visions to smooth out draws. Serum Visions also happens to allow for some library fixing to better ensure positive hits on Collected Company. I cut visions in this current build, but it is possible to add as needed. Thirdly, while most of our creatures are just heavy hitters, some creatures that we run actually have some pretty devastating disruption effects on the opponent. Fiend Hunter and Reflector Mage offer fantastic tempo swings in our favor, doing decent work against aggro. Voice of Resurgence of course is a huge problem for decks like Burn, Delver, and even Jund. Spellskite is also a favorite disruptive creature and works wonders against Infect. These disruptions can also essentially be played at instant speed with the likes of Chord of Calling or even Collected Company. Most opponents will not be able to predict an instant Chord of Calling fetching a Fiend Hunter to o-ring their attacking threat. Once I chorded up a Knight of the Reliquary in response to attacks to block as a 5/5. Opponent did not see it coming. Had the Knightfall combo on my next turn. All of these disruptive creatures and combined utilities enable the beatdown plan to occur faster and more consistently.
There are a few ways to achieve our goal which we will explore in the next sections.
Stick an Early Geist
The most obvious beatdown plan is simply to drop a turn two Geist of Saint Traft. He's a four turn clock if unanswered. The opponent will need to answer. And it's not easy given hexproof and 4/4 in the air. While the opponent is dealing with him you'll have time to set up your next stage of assault.
Go Wide
The next beatdown option is to achieve an explosive turn 3 and 4 wide board state with Collected Company getting more mid-sized creatures like Blade Splicer, Giest of Saint Traft (if you hadn't already), Knight of the Reliquary and/or Loxodon Smiter. Two or three of these creatures starts a two or three turn clock if unanswered.
Knightfall Combo
Another line of attack is going to be the Knightfall combo. For those unfamiliar, Knightfall is a two-card combo requiring only Retreat to Coralhelm and Knight of the Reliquary on the battlefield to go off. Essentially the combo goes like this: Knight of the Reliquary can tap to sac a forest or plains to get another land on the battlefield. As you do so, Retreat to Coralhelm landfall triggers, allowing you to untap Knight of the Reliquary and do it again. You can do this over and over putting many lands into the graveyard. This grows the Knight of the Reliquary very large. Once you've made it sufficiently large, you can finally get something like Kessig Wolf Run to give it trample. Or you can make it get Sejiri Steppe to give it protection from a color. Then you swing with a giant knight and hopefully win. There are many other lines of play throughout this combo process that can be rather complex. For example before the knight sacs a land, you can tap it for mana. That lets you do other things as needed while the combo goes off. There is also a way to stack Retreat to Coralhelm triggers to do cool things while it goes off. It's a great little combo requiring very little to become deadly.
Prime Time
The final beatdown strategy would be to ramp and go wide with Collected Company to flash convoke Primeval Titan into play. While not an automatic game-over for the opponent, Primeval Titan's land tutoring effect can be backbreaking in a deck like this. He can get Gavony Township, Kessig Wolf Run, Ghost Quarter, or even Inkmoth Nexus. Anything we need really to push forward. And with Retreat to Coralhelm benefiting from landfall triggers, the possibilities open up moving us closer to the win.
Defense
You might be wondering at this point, the plan sounds great, but how do we protect ourselves? What stops an opponent from ruining our day? Well there are a few answers to the question really.
First, the deck simply doesn't care much about the opponent. There are so many options that usually we dont run out of gas. There are lots of lines of play that we can just barrel forward with threat after threat.
Second, we can certainly use our creatures thoughtfully. We might try to put out a screen with Blade Splicer and bait responses. Or stick a fake-out early Giest of Saint Traft which must be answered. While the opponent is distracted, we combo off with Kightfall. But we can switch back to Geist if need be. There's nothing better than a distraction that can just as easily win games for us quickly. Additionally, but not as consistently, we can tutor some utility creatures. Chord or Company in a Wall of Omens, Reflector Mage, Reflector Mage, Fiend Hunter, Spell Skite, or whatever is needed.
We do also typically run some number of Path to Exile in the mainboard. Also, since we splash for Kessig Wolf Run, it's not too tough to run Lightning Bolt. Just try not to dip creature counts below 24 or 25 otherwise Collected Company becomes less relevant.
Finally, because we have access to and , there are a lot of lock-out options for the sideboard. We can always side in a counterspell and denial package for games 2 and 3.
All in all BantCo is a white-knuckle deck. It prefers the old saying, offense is the best defense.
Conclusion
That's the overview of the gameplan. It's straightforward in theory. But it's highly nuanced in gameplay. There are significant decision points at the beginning and middle of the game that can dramatically impact outcomes. I like to think of the deck as fundamentally stompy with some degree of headiness to it. The thinking person's beatdown deck.
