Hey, everyone!

I’m proud to say that my weeks of grinding have paid off! I finished in seventeenth place (12–4 with the worst tiebreaks) at the Star City Games Invitational. The structure of the event was four rounds of Standard and Modern for two days. I want to focus on the Standard deck I have been championing: Bant Company.

Bant Company at the SCG Invitational

After going 6–2 in Standard at the SCG Invitational with Bant, I wanted to run it back at Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad. Despite a target being on my head, I felt my version was more consistent thanks to cutting most of the blue cards including Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and some Bounding Krasis. An Ann Arbor teammate Andrew Elenbogen finished in the Top 4 of the SCG Open in Columbus with some slight tweaks to our Invitational list.

Another teammate, Max McVety, won the whole Invitational with Mono-White Humans. I expected this deck to be popular going forward because Tom Ross also made the elimination rounds at the SCG Open in Columbus.

Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad

My Pro Tour experience was very interesting. I flew into Madrid from Detroit on Wednesday afternoon and arrived Thursday morning. Something I cannot do is sleep on a plane, and this trip was no different. Instead, I watched Room and The Revenant and drank beer. It was fun, but jetlag was going to be hell. My goal was to stay up all day on Thursday so I could sleep twelve hours before Day 1. Mission accomplished.

Draft 1

There are sixteen rounds in a Pro Tour, so the first three won’t determine my future entirely. I thought my Constructed deck was great, so I still felt confident for the tournament.

There were a number of questions I had for the Constructed portion, including:

• How many mirror matches will I face?
• Will Mono-White Humans be popular? Were my tweaks enough to make the matchup close?
• Did one of the big teams break the format?
• Since Bant Company is public enemy number one, will it perform well or will the competition be able to handle it?

After a week of reading about Standard, I made some slight modifications to my list. There was nothing major because the G/W-splash-blue Bant Company deck has yet to have a poor tournament performance.

Here’s the list I registered for Standard:

Bant Company ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (27)
• 2 Bounding Krasis
• 3 Den Protector
• 4 Deathmist Raptor
• 4 Duskwatch Recruiter
• 4 Reflector Mage
• 4 Sylvan Advocate
• 3 Archangel Avacyn
• 3 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

• Spells (8)
• 4 Collected Company
• 4 Dromoka's Command

• Lands (25)
• 5 Forest
• 6 Plains
• 3 Canopy Vista
• 3 Yavimaya Coast
• 4 Lumbering Falls
• 4 Prairie Stream

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Lambholt Pacifist
• 3 Negate
• 3 Felidar Cub
• 2 Declaration in Stone
• 2 Tireless Tracker
• 1 Den Protector

Buy This Deck

This deck was smooth as butter.

I played against five unique archetypes in Day 1 of Standard:

Round 4: Kyle Anthony Peters with Esper Control 2–0 — I didn’t play against Esper in my testing, but this was a great matchup. Narset did overperform, as I had to deal plenty of damage to stop her from drawing cards. Languish wasn’t scary, as I could replenish my threats within a turn. Sylvan Advocate was a big threat when I had six lands because the 4/5 body gets around Languish and Grasp of Darkness. I would love to play against this deck ten times in the Standard portion of the Pro Tour.

Round 5: Hiroyuki Ishiwada with R/G Ramp (no Goggles) 2–1 — This is a tough matchup, but I managed to win. The third game felt dire, as he was ramping early, but he never found any threats. Sometimes, I beat Ramp, and sometimes, it beats itself.

Round 6: Tulio Jaudy with R/W Eldrazi 2–1 — I flooded out in Game 1 and missed on my Collected Company, so I lost. Overall, the matchup felt very good. I had Declaration in Stone for large threats after sideboard. One mistake I made was not playing around Hallowed Moonlight. I think Tulio was on the same team as Luis Salvatto.

Round 7: Matt Sperling with Mardu Control 2–1 — I think the biggest draw to playing Bant Company is the matchup against control decks. This match was still close because Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet can be scary. It is tempting to ’board out all of your creature removal, but you need to kill Kalitas quickly. I flooded out in Game 3; there were ten lands in play, and my hand was three more. A top-decked Collected Company found me a Duskwatch Recruiter, which was able to put the game out of reach for Matt.

Round 8: Josh McClain with G/W Tokens 2–0 — My draws were good, while Josh’s draws were bad. I think this is a bad matchup, and that scares me. Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is a threat that needs to be addressed quickly, and it’s hard to kill. There is also a tension between casting an early Reflector Mage to bounce tokens that block Planeswalkers and holding it back to answer Ormendahl, Profane Prince.

After the rocky 1–2 start, I pulled out a 5–0 in Standard.

Where were all of the Bant Company decks!?

As it turns out, about a quarter of the Day 1 metagame was Bant Company and about 10% was Mono-White Humans. I had strange pairings since I didn’t play against either deck.

Draft 2

After a quick 3–0 in my second Draft pod, I found myself at 9–2. I didn’t think my B/G Delirium deck was insane, but it could pull out a couple match wins. Not only did I not think my deck was strong enough to 3–0, my pod was full of very skilled Magicians: Fabrizio Anteri, Matt Nass, Makihito Mihara, and Mark Jacobson.

I didn’t get very much sleep after Day 1 despite going to bed at 10:00 P.M. Since I only slept for maybe two hours, Standard proved to be challenging as I entered the final stretch of the tournament. I escaped with a 2–3 record, and it was clear to me I was not playing well at all.

Round 12: Steve Rubin with G/W Tokens 1–2 — This isn’t a great matchup, but the first two games were close. I kept my first speculative hand of the tournament in Game 3 and was punished. The hand was missing white mana, and I never found any. This was a feature match, so you can find more details on the Wizards website.

Round 13: Lukas Blohan with Jund Midrange 1–2 — Lukas played well, and I did not. I was greedy and played a Dromoka's Command to kill Kalitas, but he had the removal spell in response. I felt I had the tools to win the game if I were more patient. Overall, the matchup felt good because I have Deathmist Raptors to grind out massive amounts of card advantage. The key card to watch out for is Kalitas because it can exile the Raptor. An interesting card out of the Jund deck was Dragonmaster Outcast.

Round 14: Eric English with Mono-White Humans 2–0 — This was the first time I played against Humans this tournament. I won the die roll and had Collected Company, Dromoka's Command, and Archangel Avacyn, which are the three most important cards in the matchup. I was able to win the match 2–0, so my sideboard helped me earn a win on the draw. Lambholt Pacifist and Felidar Cub finally pulled their weight! White Weenie can’t beat the Cub.

Round 15: Nick Slind with Bant Company 2–1 — I finally faced a mirror match! I love playing the mirror because I feel the changes I made significantly improve the matchup. I have two Bounding Krasis while the opponent has four. I also have eleven basic lands and don’t have to worry about casting my spells out of sequence as often. It’s hard to tempo out your opponent because 2/3s will bounce off each other. Reflector Mage also helps slow the game down to the point that card advantage is key. Nissa, Vastwood Seer is very strong in the mirror, and my five Forests support three copies. Deathmist Raptor is also a great way to gain card advantage. The mana in my version has plenty of untapped lands, so I don’t fall behind as often, and cutting blue cards helps me be more consistent.

Round 16: Joel Larsson with GR Goggles Ramp 1–2 — Joel and I have a history of playing in Round 16 of Pro Tours. This means we both have a history of doing well on the PT because there is always a lot of money and Pro Points on the line when we play. I beat him to earn ninth place at Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir, I conceded to him to get closer to Platinum in Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch, and now he beat me to make eleventh place and secure Platinum.

This is a very bad matchup for Bant Company because the Pyromancer's Goggles allow a single removal spell to kill my entire board. Bant Company is good at rebuilding from sweepers, but not double-kill spells that can be played at instant speed. I felt very lucky to take a game off him when I was on the play.

So there you have it: I finished the event 11–5, which is good for twenty-third place. I ended up 7–3 in Standard, but I had two very winnable matches with more sleep. Overall, I felt great about my finish. I made this version of Collected Company before the set was fully spoiled and stuck with it to great success.

Grand Prix Toronto

I did well, but what does that mean for my next event: Grand Prix Toronto?

Here’s my updated list:

Bant Company ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (27)
• 2 Tireless Tracker
• 3 Den Protector
• 4 Deathmist Raptor
• 4 Duskwatch Recruiter
• 4 Reflector Mage
• 4 Sylvan Advocate
• 3 Archangel Avacyn
• 3 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

• Spells (8)
• 4 Collected Company
• 4 Dromoka's Command

• Lands (25)
• 5 Forest
• 6 Plains
• 3 Canopy Vista
• 3 Yavimaya Coast
• 4 Lumbering Falls
• 4 Prairie Stream

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Lambholt Pacifist
• 3 Negate
• 2 Felidar Cub
• 3 Declaration in Stone
• 1 Den Protector
• 1 Stratus Dancer
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 1 Profaner of the Dead

Buy This Deck

This will probably be the list I register. It takes into account the terrible performance by Mono-White Humans by cutting a Lambholt Pacifist and a Felidar Cub. I’m also going to try a Profaner of the Dead against G/W Tokens. It’s a miss on Collected Company, so the addition is not free. I can transform my Avacyn by exploiting a creature, so there’s some good synergy.

I wanted more counters, but I wanted to keep a high number of Collected Company hits, so Stratus Dancer also made its way into the ’board. It’s also a morph creature for Deathmist Raptor. This is key because I already lean on the Raptor in the grindy matchups in which I want to counter spells. It doesn’t counter Goggles or Chandra, but it is versatile enough to play a single copy.

The biggest change to this deck is the lack of Bounding Krasis. Some might say I’m insane, but I haven’t been a big fan of the card. It was great against Mono-White Humans, but I prefer casting Collected Company after creatures have attacked. If I play Bounding Krasis, I should play it before attacks are declared, which gives my opponent more information. I also want the flash creature in matchups in which I want to ’board in counters. This means I have too many blue cards after sideboard since Reflector Mage rarely is cut.

Something to note about Bant Company is how well it mulligans. In all of the rounds I’ve played so far, I have not lost because I mulliganed too many times. I can recall four games in which I mulled to five cards, and I won all of them. There have been a few games I lost in which I kept a speculative hand that punished me. You don’t have to mulligan, you get to mulligan!

G/W Tokens

Team Face to Face unleashed another powerful force at the Pro Tour: G/W Tokens. I think this will be the best performing deck at Grand Prix Toronto.

There aren’t many great options for Bant Company to sideboard in against G/W Tokens to make the matchup great. I am considering joining the G/W Tokens menace this weekend because Grand Prix don’t have a high enough prizes to encourage the masses to come up with groundbreaking solutions to the previous week’s dominant decks. If you look at the stock list, you will notice it plays a ton of good cards. I love playing decks full of good cards! How can you go wrong playing four copies of Avacyn?

The only thing holding me back from completely jumping ship is my experience with Bant Company. I went 6–2 at the SCG Invitational and 7–3 at the PT. I’m also playing a unique list, which gives me an advantage; the masses will still be tricked by Deathmist Raptor morph shenanigans (clever girl).

If I do play G/W Tokens, I would stick with something very close to Steve Rubin’s list:

G/W Tokens ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Steve Rubin

• Creatures (15)
• 3 Thraben Inspector
• 4 Sylvan Advocate
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 4 Archangel Avacyn

• Planeswalkers (8)
• 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

• Spells (12)
• 2 Secure the Wastes
• 4 Dromoka's Command
• 1 Evolutionary Leap
• 1 Stasis Snare
• 4 Oath of Nissa

• Lands (25)
• 7 Plains
• 8 Forest
• 2 Westvale Abbey
• 4 Canopy Vista
• 4 Fortified Village

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Quarantine Field
• 2 Tragic Arrogance
• 3 Declaration in Stone
• 2 Secure the Wastes
• 1 Evolutionary Leap
• 1 Clip Wings
• 1 Stasis Snare
• 2 Lambholt Pacifist
• 2 Hallowed Moonlight

Buy This Deck

After reading Mike Sigrist’s thoughts on the deck, I made some changes he advocated after playing it at the Pro Tour. He said Oath of Nissa was great and Thraben Inspector was the weakest card, so I made a one-for-one switch. In an effort to make the mana more consistent, I also cut the third Westvale Abbey for an eighth Forest.

I would feel confident playing either deck. Don’t be afraid to play public enemy number one because the strongest cards in Standard are good enough to carry you versus any opponent.

Thanks for reading! I hope I have another positive tournament report next week!

-Kyle