Hi everyone, after the GP São Paulo I returned to play Bant Eldrazi, my favorite deck. And I'm satisfied with my results! I'll be playing the PPTQ with him on Sunday, and I'm optimistic.
After testing several cards in more than 100 games in the last two weeks, I wanted to leave some comments to reflect and strengthen comments already written here.
2x Thalia main deck: Thalia is being spectacular for me, helps me in several games. Flexes my hands, disrupts the turns of Hollow One, Mardu, Jeskai, UW .... In addition to always take a removal of the opponent, freeing TKS and Smasher of the first removals. Another clear example, my history against Gifts Storm has always been the worst, but with it, I played 4 matches, and I won 4. And there is a second element that strengthened me more, and that I will speak now.
2x Damping Sphere in Side: This card is completing my side in a beautiful way, besides the versatility, it helps even more matches like Tron, Eldrazi Tron, KCI, Storm and other combos. I'm not sure if I'll play with two copies, but so far I don't want to throw them away.
MAIN DECK:
1 Breeding Pool
3 Brushland
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Plains
1 Temple Garden
3 Windswept Heath
3 Yavimaya Coast
1 Scavenger Grounds
4 Path to Exile
4 Ancient Stirrings
1 Dismember
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Matter Reshaper
3 Drowner of Hope
2 Eldrazi Skyspawner
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Boreal Druid (I wanted to optimize TKS on t2, and at the same time help against Bmoon. It could be a Talisman, but with Thalia I want to decrease noncreatures spells maindeck)
SIDEBOARD:
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Natural State
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Stony Silence
2 Damping Sphere
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Unified Will - Testing and Loving
1 Pithing Needle - Testing (A more flexible slot)
1 Worship
1 All Is Dust (Could be a second copy of EEs)
I hope to achieve a good result in the PPTQ and have a favorable path. I think the old players need a second chance at the deck.
Leave your opinions, the more knowledge better
Hi! I am Argetinean, I travelled with a couple friends for the weekend! Where were you? What were you playing? The magic world is a really small one! hahaha
No problem ... I asked, because my English is bad, and it would be easier to speak Portuguese with you. I hope you understand me
About the GP ... I was from Eldrazi Tron, I played for over a year with the deck, and I was confident, even knowing that metagame didn't favor him! I made 10-5, with two very ridiculous defeats against KCI
How I found out about you ... My friend (he was playing Grixis DS) told me that he faced a player who was with Bant Eldrazi, and I was surprised and excited about this fact! And because of that, I decided to give the deck a chance again, I came to read some news, and I found your post talking about the GP São Paulo = PPP
About Bant Eldrazi .... I love this deck, I played with it since its creation, I did excellent results in 2016 and 2017, but I honestly did not think it had the strength to go far in the GP SP 2018, besides I was not training with he, so I made my choice at Eldra-Tron.
I read your report, and my thoughts are ...
- Pain lands: I believe the idea is good for preventing life in a format that is quite fast and aggressive. But I think the risk isn't worth it, maybe use both, I don't know, but I got to test and suffered sometimes not to have blue
- Worship: I think the fantastic idea, because of the many free victories in Game 1, I had already thought about it, and you reinforced my thinking.
- Avancy: I confess that I was surprised to see her on your list, never tested, and initially I don't like it, but I will test!
- Vizier Chord: There's a player on my team who plays for Counters Company, and the game is really bad! It isn't by chance that in the first Bant Eldrazi lists that came out in 2016, it contained 3x Graffdigger's Cage on the Sideboard, precisely because of decks with Company.
- New Suggestions:
1- A letter that I like very much on my list is Restoration Angel instead of a Drowner of Hope (+1x Restoration / -1x Drowner)! Because the format is faster, and you have 4x CMC6 on the deck is very heavy, I found the exchange valid. Restoration gives an interesting surprise effect, protects its creatures, makes blockers suppressed, and it + displacer are invincible, plus a 3/4 fly is not irrelevant in the Modern. I love Drowner, but I don't want him in my starting hand, so I found the number 3x very good.
2- I added a Mind stone, as my "5 dork", helps me against Blood Moon, and gives me a draw in the late game, that idea, I brought it from the Eldrazi Tron, do a test.
Finally, I wanted to hear from you that you are active with Bant Eldrazi, how you are doing in the main matchups, and how you feel about the deck.
Congratulations on the great result in GP SP. Very well deserved.
Uooow, I can't believe I found you! hahah I was at the GP Sao Paulo too, and I knew I had a player on day2 with the deck I love the most, Bant Eldrazi *-* First of all, are you Brazilian? I am.
Hello everyone!
This is my first post here, and I wanted to share my experience with you. I went to play GP Sao Paulo last weekend and I took Bant Eldrazi to it. It was my first GP and I ended up 11-4 finishing 56 amongst over 1400 players. I am very happy about it!!
I think the deck right now is in a great spot (meta-wise) and on top of that it is so much fun to play (except to stupid prison decks -.-)
When crafting the list I expected to run into TRON KCI and HUMANS mostly. So with my brother who happens to be also my teammate and has been playing TRON forever we tech'd the deck so that it has a chance against oblivion stone on G1. We came up with the idea of playing Archangel Avacyn - indestructibilty was key, and then having the ability to sac tokens to make her turn around was also a cool interaction agaisnt go-wide decks (Double white is not so tough to pay agains decks that wont kill your mana dorks).
The second piece of tech we brought in was worship mainbord, as a one of (YES- I know, against some match ups it is a horrible draw, but I took the risk). Humans and grixis decks have few to none answers to it, so we gave it a try too. After testing we saw it works like a charm.
And the last change we made to the stock list was playing Aether Hub instead of Pain-lands to help prevent the life loss against burn and in aggro match ups.
As a personal call I decided to play more basic lands because losing to blood moon feels awful and I knew I'd face several paths to exile and fields of ruin
So, here is the list (I'm kinda new and I don't know how to post it the fancy way, sorry!) and below I have detailed my match ups. I am more than open to suggestions and I really hope you enjoy the read!
R1 G/W HEXPROOF 1-0
Beatdown showdown.
Luckily for me on G2 ang G3 he didn't draw a single Coronet.
G1 He came out too strong and killed me t5
G2 He mulled to 5 and I reality smash him on t3, he can't race it
G3 He mulled to 6 and kept a hand with 3 creatures, I go double noble into smasher on t3 again. He just can't race against the 7/7 trampler.
R2 VIZIER CHORD 1-1
God please no.
If anyone has any tips on how to navigate this match up please let me know!!
G1 She mulled to 5, I controlled her with two TKS taking away devoted druid and a chord, and pathing another druid she played, left her at 1 and she topdecked chord for the infinite ballista kill.
G2 She mulled to 5 again, this time without any lucky top-decks, I had a RiP on the field and nothing went out of control. I got there before she could combo me.
G3 She doesn't mull, her hand had the three pieces of the combo and before I could do anything (which is her t3) I get an enormous walking ballista to the face.
R3 HUMANS 2-1
This is what I had the deck tuned for.
G1 He doesn't have an answer to worship main-board
G2 He overpowers me, with double parish and lieutenant for the kill on T4
G3 I manage to stall the board until I get to lock him with drowner of hope and displacer. He wasn't aware of the interaction. When I blinked drowner for the first time he re-read the card and immediately conceded.
R4 VALAKUT 3-1
My lands are better than yours.
G1 I won dice roll and TKS him on t2 to see a hand with 5 lands and a titan. Stripe the titan out and smash him before he can do anything else.
G2 Kept a disdainful stroke in the opening, counter his t4 titan, he scapeshifts on t5 but has to kill my creatures because he can't valakut me to the face (I was at 20 thanks to the HUBS ) and he ran out of gas. (Playing hubs instead of pain lands was crucial here)
R5 JESKAI CONTROL 4-1
Cavern - name eldrazi - GG
G1 I won the dice roll for a cavern into temple, playing displacer t2 and tks turn 3, managed to lock him out of removal and sweepers.
G2 He played a geist on t3 trying to race me but wasn't quickly enough.
After the game he mentioned he had only been playing for a couple of months and had no idea such a deck existed
R6 MONO-RED PRISON 4-2
I wasn't expecting this at all.
G1 I mull down to 5 and he plays Chandra, ToD on t2 with ritual and SSG, into bridge t3 and Blood Moon t4- I can't get back into game before chandra ults and roasts me to death.
G2 He mulls to 5 this time but cant find Chandra, he plays both bridge and moon but doesn't pressure me, two stirrings allow me to find EE and the basic island for the 3rd color, I crack the EE end of his turn and swing for lethal.
G3 He draws nuts, playing Chalice on t1 with a SSG, sorcerous spyglass on t2 (naming EE) and moon on t3, he finds Chandra on t5 or t6 but there's not much I can do to get out of the lock.
R7 HUMANS 5-2
Another victim.
G1 Didn't know what he was playing, took a leap of faith, and kept a hand with Path x 2 and Worship. Once I see his land drop naming humans I sigh in relief. He manages to take out Worship with freebooter on t4 or 5 and swings for a bunch leaving me at 1 but with path EoT I get it back and he can't kill me through it.
G2 Was pretty similar to the game on third round, I swept the board with EE on 2 and then manage to lock him out with Displacer and Drowner.
R8 STOMPY 6-2
Yet another victim.
G1 He wins dice roll and mulls to 5. His first creature is a turn 2 Avatar of the resolute but he has more in hand. I manage to stall the table but a vault skirge kept taking chunks of life, one turn before completing the lock with a displacer I make a horrible mistake and let the flier hit me I had a BoP to block (I was at 4 life) - he aspects of hydra for the win.
G2 He comes out too strong and a worship from the topdeck saves me to the scream of - QUI PORRA I ESSA! (wtf is that??) he didn't sideboard any enchantment hate.
G3 I play spellskite on t2 and stop his aggressiveness significantly. He decides to go wide, but Avacyn sweeps the board and he can't get back into game, so I make it into day 2.
R9 VALAKUT 7-2
Good morning.
G1 He keeps a really bad hand after mulling to 6 and TKS t2 is too strong for it.
G2 Similar thing happens, but he manages to Summoner's Pact for a titan and kill a displacer and a skyspawner with Valakut's triggers. He didn't search for a fourth green source, so, after paying for the pact on the following turn he couldn't cast scapeshift and died to a smasher from the topdeck.
R10 VIZIER CHORD 7-3
God no, why again?
G1 I go TKS turn 2 and take devoted from his hand (he had infinite mana combo in hand). He proceeds to flood the board with fliers and Shalai to protect them. I manage to chump-block and displace my skyspawners for several turns but he plays a Rhonas whose activated ability messes with my chump-blocking, I make a bad call and swing with everything trying to force a mistake, he blocks correctly and kills me on the swing back. It is likely that I would had died the turn after if I hadn't attacked.
G2 I begin with cage on t1 and he goes viscera seer, vizier, kitchen on t1-2-3 and on t4 he reclamation sages my cage. I concede on the spot.
R11 HUMANS 7-4
Aether hubs would backfire eventually.
G1 I manage to play worship on t3 with a noble and a scion with a hub generating green on t1 and a cavern naming eldrazi, but I never draw the third land, with a hand full of creatures, he bounces both my creatures with reflectors and kills me trough the enchantment.
G2 I play a t3 smasher and ran him over, he flooded.
G3 I get color screwed again and he kills me with a not so good hand. (Stupid aehter hubs)
R12 TEMURSHIFT 8-4
Beast within into scapeshift - Just beautiful.
G1 I play two life saving TKSs to take spells out of his hand right before he could cast them, it gave me the game. Spells were C COMMAND AND SCAPESHIFT.
G2 I kept a hand with both disdainful stroke and beast within, he baits my DStroke with a JTMS and proceeds to scapeshift on the following turn. I beast within one of the mountains (this is a super neat interaction, look it up if you are unaware of it), the spells fizzles and he is left with only top decks, he drew a C COMMAND and a Snap Caster but eventually died to the creatures I had on the field.
R13 MARDU PYROMANCER 9-4
Mardu player, meet Reality Smasher. Reality smasher, smash.
This guy had no idea what my deck did and it cost him both games. Reality Smasher is an insanely good card against this deck on top of that.
G1 I go Displacer t2 into Drowner t3, he let me blink the drowner once before killing the displacer, I generate several tokens and then a smasher swings for lethal after I tap his blockers.
G2 I do Displacer into Smasher this time. Being at 4 he blocks the smasher with 2 tokens, I blink one of the tokens and he looks at me in disbelief -oh, I forgot about that.
R14 ELDRAZI AND TAXES (B&W) 10-4
Mana dorks > Aether vial
G1 I casted worship before he could take it out of my hand and he had no answers to it. I would have died to a smasher the following turn.
G2 He kept a greedy hand and didn't draw the third land. I went tk2 t2 into (I believe, can't recall exactly) a Smasher t3. He can't get back into game by the time he draws the land.
R15 GRIXIS SHADOW (CONTROL? - Never saw a Shadow) 11-4
No path to exile? - No problem
The deck is really powerful against path to exile-less versions of control
G1 I have two caverns in play he mulls to 6 and floods. He simply can't answer the aggro facet of the deck.
G2 He boards in lots of removal apparently and kills mana dorks and small eldrazis left and right but he fails to pressure me. His first threat is a Gurmag on t4 or 5. I draw beautifully playing smasher into drowner of hope and he has to concede.
Overall I feel the deck is quite strong against decks that commit to the table. I was lucky enough to get paired against several of them. Worship was an ALL-STAR on most match ups. I was sad I didn't run into any TRONs or KCIs, I had stony silences and damping spheres ready for them.
On paper THRAGTUSK feels awesome (Displacing him forever sounds insane xD) but in the matches I boarded him in, he didn't show up. I am still torn between Aether Hubs and Pain-lands and I didn't play against burn to test it out.
Then, Ancient Stirrings and Eldrazi Temples are just plain broken. Stirrings make any one lander hand keepable if you have a mana dork, and then temple paying for abilities enables super unfair turns with displacers.
So, overall that was my experience last weekend! Hope you enjoyed the read and thanks for going trough it!
Hi guys,
What are the thoughts about Hanweir Garrison?? I feel like this deck needs 10 CMC 3 creatures, like the Bant Eldrazi wore (4xReshaper / 4xDisplacer / 2xSkyspawner). I've been playing with this card, and I'm really enjoying the results, it's not Eldrazi, but only two copies does not look bad. The Hanweir Battlements could also be an interesting inclusion. I'm testing in place of Kessig Wolf Run.
Some bad matchs are falling in the format. It's a good time for Eldrazi Tron to come back!
After testing several cards in more than 100 games in the last two weeks, I wanted to leave some comments to reflect and strengthen comments already written here.
2x Thalia main deck: Thalia is being spectacular for me, helps me in several games. Flexes my hands, disrupts the turns of Hollow One, Mardu, Jeskai, UW .... In addition to always take a removal of the opponent, freeing TKS and Smasher of the first removals. Another clear example, my history against Gifts Storm has always been the worst, but with it, I played 4 matches, and I won 4. And there is a second element that strengthened me more, and that I will speak now.
2x Damping Sphere in Side: This card is completing my side in a beautiful way, besides the versatility, it helps even more matches like Tron, Eldrazi Tron, KCI, Storm and other combos. I'm not sure if I'll play with two copies, but so far I don't want to throw them away.
MAIN DECK:
1 Breeding Pool
3 Brushland
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Plains
1 Temple Garden
3 Windswept Heath
3 Yavimaya Coast
1 Scavenger Grounds
4 Path to Exile
4 Ancient Stirrings
1 Dismember
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Matter Reshaper
3 Drowner of Hope
2 Eldrazi Skyspawner
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Boreal Druid (I wanted to optimize TKS on t2, and at the same time help against Bmoon. It could be a Talisman, but with Thalia I want to decrease noncreatures spells maindeck)
SIDEBOARD:
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Natural State
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Stony Silence
2 Damping Sphere
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Unified Will - Testing and Loving
1 Pithing Needle - Testing (A more flexible slot)
1 Worship
1 All Is Dust (Could be a second copy of EEs)
I hope to achieve a good result in the PPTQ and have a favorable path. I think the old players need a second chance at the deck.
Leave your opinions, the more knowledge better
No problem ... I asked, because my English is bad, and it would be easier to speak Portuguese with you. I hope you understand me
About the GP ... I was from Eldrazi Tron, I played for over a year with the deck, and I was confident, even knowing that metagame didn't favor him! I made 10-5, with two very ridiculous defeats against KCI
How I found out about you ... My friend (he was playing Grixis DS) told me that he faced a player who was with Bant Eldrazi, and I was surprised and excited about this fact! And because of that, I decided to give the deck a chance again, I came to read some news, and I found your post talking about the GP São Paulo = PPP
About Bant Eldrazi .... I love this deck, I played with it since its creation, I did excellent results in 2016 and 2017, but I honestly did not think it had the strength to go far in the GP SP 2018, besides I was not training with he, so I made my choice at Eldra-Tron.
I read your report, and my thoughts are ...
- Pain lands: I believe the idea is good for preventing life in a format that is quite fast and aggressive. But I think the risk isn't worth it, maybe use both, I don't know, but I got to test and suffered sometimes not to have blue
- Worship: I think the fantastic idea, because of the many free victories in Game 1, I had already thought about it, and you reinforced my thinking.
- Avancy: I confess that I was surprised to see her on your list, never tested, and initially I don't like it, but I will test!
- Vizier Chord: There's a player on my team who plays for Counters Company, and the game is really bad!
- New Suggestions:
1- A letter that I like very much on my list is Restoration Angel instead of a Drowner of Hope (+1x Restoration / -1x Drowner)! Because the format is faster, and you have 4x CMC6 on the deck is very heavy, I found the exchange valid. Restoration gives an interesting surprise effect, protects its creatures, makes blockers suppressed, and it + displacer are invincible, plus a 3/4 fly is not irrelevant in the Modern. I love Drowner, but I don't want him in my starting hand, so I found the number 3x very good.
2- I added a Mind stone, as my "5 dork", helps me against Blood Moon, and gives me a draw in the late game, that idea, I brought it from the Eldrazi Tron, do a test.
Finally, I wanted to hear from you that you are active with Bant Eldrazi, how you are doing in the main matchups, and how you feel about the deck.
Congratulations on the great result in GP SP. Very well deserved.
What are the thoughts about Hanweir Garrison?? I feel like this deck needs 10 CMC 3 creatures, like the Bant Eldrazi wore (4xReshaper / 4xDisplacer / 2xSkyspawner). I've been playing with this card, and I'm really enjoying the results, it's not Eldrazi, but only two copies does not look bad. The Hanweir Battlements could also be an interesting inclusion. I'm testing in place of Kessig Wolf Run.
Sorry my bad english