I’m also huge on Bant right now, but my list is a bit off of the conventional ones. I’ll be writing about it for next week.

The Capslock is how you know he\’s correct.

Steve,

Do you feel like if Reanimator WERE a bigger deal, Bant would be better equipped than Jund to deal with it? I understand ignoring their reanimating as a Seance player; we win through graveyard hate all the time and it often just ends up being dead against us because we can hardcast anything. So if they can ignore GY hate, you shouldn\’t play it.

That said, Craterhoof is a card that is spiking lately and may continue going up, If players find that they want to shift to this build (I don\’t personally recommend it) would Bant have better access to the kind of hate that would make that matchup more winnable? That was the basic premise behind my pitting bant against jund in the analysis. I wish I\’d known you guys split, but it doesn\’t really matter because I read the SCG coverage of the finals there and Jund just ate it against Reanimator. I have to imagine your build would have been better capable. Thanks for the insight and thanks for helping to popularize what I think is my favorite collection of 60 cards in standard right now.

The top four at the 5k in Mpls actually split – the other gentlemen were kind enough to give me the official win as I had the highest remaining seed and was undefeated on the day.

Bant is a great choice right now and it really should be getting more hype. The enchantment aggro deck that lost in the top 8 seems very strong and the control version has treated me very well – 12-2, with 2 IDs over two events so far.

The matchup against the current reanimator decks is pretty good because you don’t really care about anything they reanimate. Last round at states playing for T16, my opponent drew 14 cards off of Gristlebrand and it didn’t really matter because none of the cards could get through the deck’s defenses. You can stall / wrath into an Angel of Serenity fight and eventually win through an ultimate Jace.

If reanimator goes back towards the mana dorks + craterhoof build that got some play just after Avacyn Restored released, that would swing the matchup as their threat could overwhelm Bant’s defenses. Dana’s deck, with the Angel of Glory’s Rise combo, would of been an interesting match since I have limited ways of interacting with the combo.

One thing I would recommend for anyone playing the deck is to practice enough so that you can play quickly. The deck can take a very long time to win and the mirror match can be terribly slow.

Feel free to hit me up with any questions on the deck or whatnot!

Thanks,

Steve