B A  N T   C O N T R O L 

 

Bant control with a focus on shutout using Flash / utility creatures and counterspells.
Still undergoing testing.  Tailored for Bo3, but also viable for Bo1.
Sideboard is still being tweaked to suit the meta.  Matchup related notes will be added over time.

After having played this deck extensively in both ranked Bo3 queue and ranked Bo1 queue, I decided to test it out in Bo1 Constructed Event.
Delightfully surprising result: 7-0 run ICRs.

 MATCHUPS AND SIDEBOARDING (WIP) 

RED DECK WINS / MONO RED BURN / RAKDOS BURN
Deck seems to do well versus most burn decks and even RDW with the inclusion of 4x Revitalize instead of 4x Opt.  Being able to play a Frilled Mystic as a counter on curve is powerful, and provides a relevant body that you can block with.  Growth Spiral is relevant even in these matchups, as being able to cast Cleansing Nova or Angel of Grace on turn 4 can mean the difference between life and death.
OUT - 2x Hydroid Krasis and 2x Chemister's Insight.  IN - 2x Knight of Autumn, 2x Lyra Dawnbringer.  Casting Krasis for lower amounts of mana is fairly inefficient compared to putting a Lyra on the board on turn 4 (thanks to Growth Spiral).  Chemister's is also just too slow here, and you'll most probably find yourself either answering a threat or countering a spell in an effort to stabalize.  Knight is very useful in these matchups, whether you're looking to gain life, establish a blocker, sponge up a removal spell or, perhaps most importantly, destroy an Experimental Frenzy or Flame of Keld.

MONO BLUE TEMPO
I haven't been matched against many mono blue decks when testing this list, so it's fairly difficult to formulate concrete opinions on the matchup.  Overall, in my experience, this list has performed exceptionally vs mono blue.  It's fairly difficult to beat out a mono blue deck that manages to push out a cheap creature on turn 1 and a Curious Obsession on turn 2, but with careful use of your counterspells it is possible to come out the victor.
OUT - 1x Chemister's Insight.  1x Cleansing Nova and 1x Settle the Wreckage.  IN - 2x Crushing Canopy, 1x Spell Pierce.  I've found that multiple Chemister's is often detrimental in the tempo matchup, and Nova is far too slow, while Settle is thwarted by a Siren Stormtamer activation.  Canopy is an excellent card for crushing a flier or disposing of a Curious Obsession.  Pierce is always helpful in a counterspell war and can help secure your key spells.

GATES
This deck will do fairly well against Gates if you know to counter the right spells.  Syncopate and Settle the Wreckage are key cards here, as they will exile Gate Colossus when it's played and when it attacks respectively.  Ixalan's Binding is probably the biggest sideboard card for this matchup, at least in my experience.
OUT - 4x Opt and  1x Spell Pierce.  IN - 2x Devious Cover-Up, 3x Ixalan's Binding.  Pierce feels less useful as Gates decks can ramp in mana very quickly, and the matchup is slow enough that card selection from Opt less valuable.  Counterspell recursion seems fairly strong here, and games in this matchup can go on for quite a while, so Cover-Up should be quite useful.  Bindings are huge against Gates if you're able to protect them.

ESPER CONTROL / GRIXIS CONTROL / JESKAI CONTROL
I've played against a number of Esper control and, surprisingly, Grixis control lists with this deck.  It can be incredibly difficult to deal with a barrage of Thought Erasure, and Duress in the post-sideboard games.  Sometimes it can just come down to the quality of your draws.  As is true for most control mirrors, more counterspells will help a lot.  I've actually found more success in these matchups with more copies of Angel of Grace in the deck, as it is often difficult for control decks to answer both a big-bodied Flash-in threat and a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria or Wilderness Reclamation on the next turn.
OUT - 4x Opt, 1x Settle the Wreckage.  IN - 2x Crushing Canopy, 2x Disdainful Stroke, and 1x Spell Pierce.  Both Revitalize and Settle are mostly dead cards in the control mirror.  Canopy will help dispose of troublesome Enchantments like Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, while also serving as an answer to Thief of Hope that some Esper players like to sideboard or even mainboard.  As usual, Stroke and Pierce will help win counterspell wars, with Pierce especially being an MVP in this matchup.

 CHANGELOG 

08/02/2019 - Removed 4x Revitalize.  Added 4x Opt.  This change should have been logged a while back.  Opt is just far more useful for improving the quality of your draws throughout every stage of the game, whereas Revitalize is only really useful against aggro and burn.  I recommend running 4x Revitalize in Bo1 and 4x Opt in Bo3.
05/02/2019 - Removed 1x March of the Multitudes.  Added 1x Frilled Mystic.  Tentative change.  March has won me a number of games in the past, but the inclusion of 4x Mystic is far too good to pass up.  March sometimes ends up being a dead card, whereas Mystic is almost always useful.
05/02/2019 - Manabase tweaked - Removed 1x Forest.  Added 1x Glacial Fortress.  Small change made to help with the need for U and W in the early turns.  Fortress should be able to come in untapped fairly often with this setup.
04/02/2019 - Removed 1x Angel of Grace.  Added 1x Hydroid Krasis.  A seriously tentative change.  Angel of Grace has rarely ever disappointed, but I've experienced a lot of flooding with the deck.  Krasis is a great card that provides a payoff for flood while also providing a respectable body.
03/02/2019 - Removed 1x Precognitive Perception.  Added 1x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria.  Perception hasn't been anywhere useful in the way that I had envisioned.  A third Teferi should help, especially considering the amount of removal in the current meta where it's often difficult to secure a key creature or Planeswalker.
03/02/2019 - Removed 1x Negate.  Added 1x Absorb.  Negate hasn't been performing exceptionally well, and there have been plenty of situations in which I wish I had Absorb instead.  Might make room for Negate in the sideboard in future.
03/02/2019 - Removed 1x Dream Eater.  Added 1x Chemister's Insight.  Eater has been incredibly mediocre in most matchups.  Insight synergizes well with Reclamation and helps gain card advantage in the midgame.
30/01/2019 - Removed 3x Sinister Sabotage.  Added 3x Absorb.  I've always preferred Absorb to Sabotage, but seeing so many SCG Indianapolis lists running 4x Absorb really reinforced my thinking on the matter.  3 life can make all the difference when facing burn and aggro decks, and I don't think that Sabotage can really compare.
27/01/2019 - Removed 3x Absorb.  Added 3x Sinister Sabotage.  A few people have commented on how Sabotage is far more useful in Bo3 compared to Absorb due to the Scry, so I figured I would implement the change and do some testing.
18/01/2019 - CREATED.

 NOTES AND CONCERNS 

31/01/2019 - This list was initially built with 3x Absorb, then later changed to include 3x Sinister Sabotage instead.  After a bit of testing and looking into SCG Indianapolis lists, I'm not convinced that the Scry 1 of Sabotage outweighs the 3 life gained from Absorb.

 COUNTERSPELLS: 

 ANTI-AGGRO  //  ANTI-BURN: 

 DISRUPTION AND REMOVAL : 

 CARD DRAW / CAN-TRIPS : 

 ALTERNATE WIN CONDITIONS :