Bant Aggro

Today we'll take a look into bant, tell you what we liked, didn't like and the changes we thought were necessary.

I was looking for something different to try (as always) and I knew I had found it when I saw the following list from Worlds:



Sphinx Bant by Dave Kearney

2 Aven Mimeomancer
3 Baneslayer Angel
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Borderland Ranger
3 Dauntless Escort
2 Great Sable Stag
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Scute Mob
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
3 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Path to Exile

4 Ancient Ziggurat
6 Forest
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Plains
2 Seaside Citadel

Sideboard:
2 Great Sable Stag
2 Wall of Reverence
3 Celestial Purge
3 Negate
4 Sleep
1 Pithing Needle


This list would let me play some of my favorite creatures in standard, I had no doubts that the list was solid (it did pretty good with his pilot) but I had to see for myself. The 8 mana accelerators together with borderland ranger was something I had tried and liked since the Titanic Rising Deck, the deck was working really well with only 21-22 lands.

What made this deck stand out for me was the inclusion of Aven Mimomancer, this card is amazing! Making your hierarchs and birds 3/1 flying threats gave this deck the edge it needed while projecting issues to your opponent as there are a lot of threats he really has to kill the moment they hit the board, thus making your Baneslayer stick when she finally comes to join the fight. Don't forget , you can make opposing Baneslayers 3/1 with Aven!

What I didn't like about this deck was the 4 scute mobs, the scutes are cute (hehe) don't get me wrong but 4? I really REALLY don't want one in my opening hand (let alone two...) so I cut its numbers down to one. With only one scute in the deck you really don't need 4 Rangers of Eos, so that was cut down to 2. Sphinx of Jwar Isle was another issue I thought I had to address ,it certainly does wonders but the deck felt too mana expensive with her in, however I thought I'd leave one in and see how it goes.

So immediately I had 6 slots to fill, and I started weighting my options, having an Aven mimeomancer in my opening hand felt really important so that went up +1. Emeria Angel is another logical choice , she has an amazing ability and a decent body, plus she works really well with Mimeomancer making all her bird tokens 3/1 +3. Fear of Boros led me to include 2 Rhox War Monks main (plus 2 more in the side).

Tried but didn't make the final cut:
Knight of the reliquary: Amazing as she is , she doesn't belong in this deck, her inclusion would make this deck a lot less aggro so I had to say no.

Rafiq of the many: He just never seems to work.

Jenara, Asura of war: In love with this card, but I don't know what to cut for her, everything else just seems, more important... :-(

So... after all that, the deck ended up looking like this:

Bant Aggro by Orgios

3 Aven Mimeomancer
3 Emeria Angel
3 Baneslayer Angel
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Borderland Ranger
3 Dauntless Escort
2 Rhox War Monk
2 Great Sable Stag
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Ranger of Eos
1 Scute Mob
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
3 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Path to Exile

4 Ancient Ziggurat
6 Forest
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Plains
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Glacial Fortress

Sideboard:
1 Great Sable Stag
3 Accidic Slime
2 Celestial Purge
4 Qasali Pridemage
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Rhox War Monk
2 Mind Control


Bant Aggro by Orgios (The I'm not so afraid of Jund version)

main deck -2 Great Sable Stag
+1 Behemoth Sledge
+1 Aven Mimeomancer

Side -1 Great Sable Stag
+1 Rhox War Monk


Differences with Dave Kearney's deck:

Despite the main deck that we already covered , the changes are more obvious in the side. I think Rox War Monk is better than wall of reverence for this deck, since we want to attack (after all this is an aggro deck). Accidic Slime's are for Valakuts, Crypts of Agadeem and Jacearators. Qasali Pridemage for Jacearator , Luminarch/Pyromancer's Ascension . Mind Control's are for opposing Malakir BloodWitchs (they are a huge pain).

I think bant has what it takes to be tier 1 material, there are different paths you can take to your final build, but one thing is certain, these colors can give your opponents a very hard time.