This brew started with me thinking "Gosh, I really want to play Bident of Thassa in a deck that isn't MUD." So, what colors are known for generating a lot of dudes? Selesnya! And thus, Bant is born. Though the once proud Bident has now been relegated to the side board due to its lack of consistency for the least hyped planeswalker since Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded, but surprisingly much better, Kiora, the Crashing Wave, I still like the premise of the deck a lot. It's mostly a "good stuff" deck, though there are some sweet synergies.
Archangel of Thune Meat-bag extraordinaire. This card is really really good. I could stop there, but she also gives us our "combo" in Courser of Kruphix and her. Juicing our team, gaining life, swinging in the air for growing amounts of damage, dang man.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion Makes us some meat-bags. This card helps us out a lot in the creature oriented matchups, which is why control players love it so much. Being able to survive to Elspeth will win you a lot of games, not much more needs to be said.
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes Draws us meat-bags, and makes meat-bags much meatier. I'm still trying to figure out how many copies I need to be running (although I think the answer is more than zero), we don't have a ton of removal so it may be hard to plop him on a stable board at all times, but I think he will be fantastic in a lot of matchups. The ultimate is not as bad as people say it is, if you gain 100 life, your opponent still has to figure out a way to kill you when you don't have to block for the rest of the game. I will say this is the best Ajani ever printed, mostly because other Ajani's required creatures already on the field, this guy can find you creatures to improve.
Kiora, the Crashing Wave As discussed earlier, this used to be Bident of Thassa, but I made the decision to make this into Kiora only recently. Bident was amazing at times, I had a friend playing an iteration this deck draw 11 cards at once (needless to say, he won) off the Bident, but if I wasn't playing against an empty board sometimes it was so clogged I never even wanted to waste a turn casting it (especially since we don't exactly pack tons of removal ourselves). In the situations where I would want Bident more, she can still draw me a card at least, and what ultimately did it was that Kiora is both reactive and proactive at the same time, while the Bident is purely proactive. She is reactive in that she keeps a threat on lock-down, and proactive in that she ticks me towards an ultimate or gives me cards and lots of mana early in the game (especially in combination with everyone's favorite midrange enabler, Courser of Kruphix). It is a way to stress out Detention Sphere/Hero's Downfall, and I think this deck stands a good chance of ultimating her due to the fantastic blockers we have (Courser, Caryatid, Brimaz, Voice, Elspeth). I'm excited to see how she turns out in playtesting, hopefully she'll make the deck better!
Polukranos, World Eater Our most massive mainboard meat-bag. He's a good midrangy type of threat. He removes smaller creatures, and 5 power isn't too shabby for 4 mana even if he isn't eating anything. Most green decks will run him until he rotates.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos Meatbag with meat-baglet friends. A great blocker, a standalone threat to force a Verdict, or an eater of removal, he is great for our midrange strategies, especially one with two Bidents.
Voice of Resurgence Hello 2-mana must-kill meat-bag. Everything that isn't a D-sphere, or an Anger of the Gods really doesn't like killing him, and counterspells become a lot worse with this guy around. He changes the way the game is played. I had Azorius Charm in this spot, but I thought "You know, every time I've had an Azorius Charm in hand, I wish it had been a Voice instead," so I did it.
Courser of Kruphix The most important meat-bag in the deck, this guy is the one that gets us there. Blocks like a brick wall, gains us some incremental life, and ensures we hit our spells on time makes this guy the perfect choice for a midrange deck. I've found that when I'm playing against Jund Monsters, whoever has an unchecked Courser will usually win.
Sylvan Caryatid Mana mana mana meat-bag
Kiora's Follower Mana mana mana meat-bag 5-8. I opted for him over Voyaging Satyr because I can catch people off guard by untapping a large blocker every now and then, and he can still attack for 1 through a Jace +1, and with Bident of Thassa in the 75 that matters. I also decided to cut a Brimaz and a Voice because I feel like mana acceleration is more important in this deck than early threats. Also I love to untap my big creatures mid combat, nobody ever sees it coming =)
Detention Sphere I like this card a lot more than Banishing Light, simply because they have to be conservative in not letting me get a 2-for-1, and deals with Pack Rat.
Cyclonic Rift Holy overload Batman...
Now, for my sideboard choices I tried not to be very reactive, which is a trap I feel like most people fall into. I have some things that mono-black can't interact with outside of a Thoughtseize, I have ways of going under and straight through Rev decks, I have hate for Monsters because it's a difficult matchup, I tried to spread it across the meta and prepare for a lot of different decks. I tried to put some good cards against Mono-Black in the sideboard, as game 1 against them is usually a win, but Lifebane Zombie and Doom Blade are hard to beat post-board, so good attrition cards are at a premium.
AEtherling just ends games, may as well have him somewhere in the 75.
Mistcutter Hydra This spot used to be Ajani, Caller of the Pride, but I'm trying out the Mistcutters to see if they're any better, sometimes I had Ajani and no creatures to buff.
Deicide Meh, may as well have it somewhere. Random utility against Enchantment Creatures, with the ability to hose a god, but only one so that I don't get flooded with reactive cards.
Angel of Serenity This mighty meat-bag is a HOSS against Mono Blue Devotion, which is kind of a hard matchup in game 1. In fact, if I've ever cast one against them in playtesting, I don't think I've lost. I usually take out Elspeth for this, as they are really good at pressuring Planeswalkers with their numerous flyers and Thassa making things unblockable. He can also come in against similar, removal light and creature heavy midrange decks as a way to just swing the board completely in my favor, or just rebuy my dudes out of the yard. Also my favorite card art ever.
Arbor Colossus Reach, big body, cheap monstrosity, interacts well with Desecration Demon, Stormbreath Dragon (a real problem card for this deck), and over half of the creatures Mono blue plays. The meat factor on this guy is quite nice too.
Bident of Thassa I love this card, unfortunately it's too inconsistent for mainboard play, but in the matchups we bring it in it can be fantastic. The token creating ability of this deck can make it scary for an opposing player who doesn't have enough blockers. With this and some of our other guys in the SB that can provide card advantage, I try to go toe-to-toe with control in the card advantage war, while sticking resilient threats like VOR and Mistcutters to create an engine that will hopefully win me the game.
Celestial Flare I thought about making these into Reprisal, but I figured the random utility against Naya Hexproof and creatures with pro white would make Flares worth the mana cost. I didn't want to make these more o-ring effects because of the extensive amount of Abrupt Decay decks running around.
Rapid Hybridization Cheap spot removal in these colors, since for some reason they won't reprint Swords to Plowshares... Idiots.
Suggestions are appreciated!
