Beating Bant Company: A Gauntlet of Homebrews
Standard Deck Help forum
Posted on July 27, 2016, 4:31 p.m. by abby315
I'm trying to find a brew of my own that can have AT LEAST a damn 50% win-rate against Bant Company, which will be completely overrepresented at my LGS Top 8 on Game Day. I thought others might be interested in the results.
Let me start by saying: if you can't beat em, join em. This is probably a solved standard until Collected Company rotates. Bant CoCo is incredibly consistent, resilient, and very punishing. By far the best deck to beat Bant CoCo is Bant CoCo. (Interestingly the mirror match is really difficult and basically comes down to the right draws...)
Still, I know there'll be people who don't like to netdeck, people who think Bant CoCo is a boring deck, people who don't want to spend $200 on a deck that will mostly rotate in two months.
The Decks
So here are the brews I made to try and beat it. From least expensive to most.
B/G Elves with Decimator of the Provinces.
U/R Thing in the Ice control.
Monoblack Eldrazi with Distended Mindbender + Matter Reshaper.
Mono-white Death n Taxes with Thalia, Heretic Cathar.
My popular Jund midrange, altered to try and face Spell Queller and Reflector Mage without fear.
Testing Methods
My testing uses this Bant CoCo list and enlists my friend to play it, since I have a lot of doubts of the accuracy of goldfishing two decks. I'll post the results at the bottom in an accordion.
And if you guys want to participate with your own decks or testing mine, go for it and please share your results (and decklists)!
Just try and be honest, throw out any wins that were massive (like forgetting to flip Avacyn, not noticing a Selfless Spirit) misplays.
Quick note, I might be rather slow on this because HONESTLY playing so much against Bant Company is really frustrating. But I'm planning to have at least 5 matches (Bo3) per deck by a week before Game Day.
Records
MATCH 1: WIN
G1: Loss
G2: Win
G3: Win
MATCH 2: WIN
G1: Win
G2: Win
MATCH 3: WIN
G1: Win
G2: Loss
G3: Win
MATCH 4: LOSS
G1: Loss
G2: Loss
MATCH 5: WIN
G1: Loss
G2: Win. I EXILED HIS COLLECTED COMPANY BY Eldrazi DisplacerING HIS OWN Spell Queller HAHAHA
G3: Win. Flipped Avacyn.
MATCH 1: LOSSG1: LG2: L
MATCH 2: WING1: LG2: WG3: W
Cheers!
(Not sure if this belongs in 'Standard Help' or 'Standard' but it said no decklists there, so.)
clayperce Thanks! I'll test out your red deck if I have time; if not just feel free to keep letting me know how testing goes for you and I'll put the results up.
Having ridiculously good success with the Monowhite Taxes deck right now actually. All of the matches are close, but it's 4-1. Finding out that Eldrazi Displacer is by far the best card to have against Bant CoCo (yet another thing in a line of cards, like Spell Queller, that beat Bant Company but Bant Company can run them... Wizards......)
I actually forced the Bant CoCo player to exile his own Collected Company by flickering his Spell Queller while it was being cast. Absolutely hilarious.
Will be testing Jund next! But these games are... taxing... :)
July 28, 2016 6:40 p.m. Edited.
I have a deck here that still has not lost to Bant Co or G/W tokens... I have had many rounds with each deck, but so far:G/W tokens: the first game is grindy as all get out. But then after siding, I own and control the board until I win. Games usually always go to game three, but after game 2 I usually win in 8-9 turns.
BantCo: again,really grindy game 1, but then I side in most of the SB, but Then my opt never really gets a chance to + up on me.
bant has dragons too- its kind of a creature/field control deck, but for some reason it just works against these kind of decks... my problem is Mardu superfriends and other decks that just do not rely on creatures to win...
August 3, 2016 7:07 a.m.
hawk393 Thanks for your decklist! I'll add it to the main post. I have actually suspended testing right now of my other homebrews because none were as promising as the White deck.
Instead, I'm now testing the White deck against a number of other popular netdecks right now, including Sultai Control, g/w tokens, G/U Crush of Tentacles, and U/W Spirits.
I'm going to edit the main post to reflect that and add these two lists to the decks that can handle Bant CoCo. :)
August 4, 2016 11:35 a.m.
I have an update from games yesterday. BantCo and mardu superfriends, I went 2-0 on. Each match I flipped abbey and ulted tamiyo. A really strong combo in the deck was actually the den-mist combo and release displaced proved invaluable. I am.strongly considering it for the mainboard. Thalia is a beast and dromoka is amazing. Brian Connors well, but she always got sided out for something better game 2. My major loses were what made think I need to change the deck... temur emerge I went 0-2. I wont have a single way of dealing with emrakul, or deep fiend... and my other loss was to mono white weenies, I went 2-1 game 1 I got mana screwed. Game 2 board wipes did work followed by dromoka for the win and game three was a mana screw.... over I placed 6 out of 16. So question is, how do I.make it better from here?
clayperce says... #2
abby315,
First, thanks much for putting this thread out! I'm really hoping there's SOMETHING out there that can beat Bant Co!
Second, here's a copy of Devin Koepke's deck, for those that want to playtest in T/O rather than Cockatrice or whatever:
Devin Koepke's Collected Bant
Standard clayperce
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Finally, I wanted to offer up a RDW list for your consideration. I've just started testing the deck, but I was surprised and pleased to see it go 2-0 vs. Devin's list in my first match. I'd LOVE to hear how (if?) it works out for you or others.
Red Deck FTW (EMN)
Standard clayperce
SCORE: 1 | 1 COMMENT | 88 VIEWS
Thanks again!
July 28, 2016 10:09 a.m.