FNM Recap: Bant Rampage

How was everyone's prerelease? Hope you had a great time. Unfortunately, there was no local FNM for me. The ol' local magic scene is being transitioned to a new shop, which fortunately for me was still hosting an FNM last week. Good ol' standard. Haven't had the opportunity to do an FNM in about three months now, so I was itching to try out the following deck I will be talking about today.

Now, I'm not going to beat around the bush, there was only 9 contestants since this particular shop has recently established itself in MTG. I came in second after receiving a bye (I came in last minute... oops!) and winning the following games. May I present, Bant Rampage (for lack of a better name)!

Deck List

Creatures

4x Noble Hierarch
1x Scute Mob
4x Steppe Lynx
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Mycoid Shepherd
2x Ranger of Eos
4x Rampaging Baloths

Spells

4x Path to Exile

4x Khalni Heart Expidition

4x Harrow
2x Bant Charm

Land

4x Misty Rainforest
3x Sunpetal Grove

4x Ancient Ziggurat

1x Graypelt Refuge

1x Soaring Seacliff

4x Forest

5x Plains

1x Island

The Tech

I like the deck overall. I'm still trying to decide if it'd be considered an aggro or a mid-range. I'm leaning toward mid-range. Landfall / land is obviously the spotlight in the deck. There's a ton of tech that both Knight of the Reliquary and Rampaging Baloths benefit from as well as Scute Mob and Steppe Lynx. The overabundance of ramp allows for getting a plentiful amount of Baloths on the board fast. Between the Rainforests and Harrow, it's not uncommon to have a 5/5+ Knight in play.

Originally, when I created this deck, Emeria Angel was the token producer of choice. I didn't like two things about this, however. First, it usually had the same death that the Baloths do (sometimes more common since it's in bolt territory). Sure, you could get Emeria out turn three, but you were generally left with maybe a couple 1/1 fliers when it gets killed. While the Baloth takes a while to set up, if you can drop a couple offspring on the board, it's worth the investment.

So the win cons are typically Rampaging Baloths and Knight of the Reliquary. I've done a T4 win with two Steppe Lynxes before, but that was more gravy than anything.

One critter that seems out of place is Mycoid Shepherd. I had Rhox War Monk, but I feel the Monk is too incorrect since it generally gets picked off the board quickly (thus resulting in no real lifegain). I changed it out with Grazing Gladehart, which was easier to cast, but very fragile and didn't really commit to blocking effectively. Now Mycoid Shepherd. If it dies off the bat, so what? 95% of the time, you gain five life. It also generally gains from Knight of the Reliquary, Scute Mob and Rampaging Baloths. I believe I am going to throw a one-of Oran-Reif, The Vastwood to potentially give the 4/4 Baloths the +1/+1 bump to also be eligible for life gain. Mycoid Shepherd is a real powerhouse in multiples as well.

There are many other simple things that make this deck tick. Note the lone Soaring Seacliff? This little trick has won me multiple casual games and a round during FNM. Tutor up that baby with Knight of the Reliquary and you have yourself a flying Baloth. A couple "down to the wire" games have ended in my favor with this little evasion trick. Path to Exile, I use this 50/50 as remove and as tech to create more Baloths or to pump a Lynx. Hierarch usually gets the path (effectively trading Hierarch with a land). Harrow and Khalni Expedition should be pretty straight-forward as far as what they provide for the deck.

Results

Again, I was able to claim 2nd place with this puppy after a Bye and two rounds resulting in 2-1. First opponent played Vampires and second was Warp World.

Match One: Vampires

This match was a battle! Two of the three games were down to the wire for quite a few of the turns. Though I understand that Vamps are a tier 1 deck, they are never total back breakers for me. They aren't the easiest to play against, but I feel their mechanics can be called without a hitch. The amount of life gain they can support is annoying, but as long as you can keep what's currently on the board in check, you should be good.

Game One began with me on the draw. I started out with a Noble Hierarch, a Steppe lynx and then a Knight of the Reliquary. He had played a T3 Gatekeeper of Malikir, in which I decided to sac my Steppe Lynx. I replaced it on turn four. He was able to clear most of my board using the usual Vampire removal. 7-8 turns in, I had yet another hierarch, a lynx, Rampaging Baloth and Baloth token in play and a Path to Exile in hand (he had a Gatekeeper still). I swung with the Lynx (not pumped) and the token. He chose to Doomblade my lynx (in fear I had a harrow) and block the 4/4. I pathed my lynx in response, creating another baloth. I was able to clean up soon after.

Game Two was brutally in his favor. I sideboarded out Bant Charm and two Khalni's and brought in 4 Celestial Purge. I mulliganned down to 5 (couldn't find land). He T1 Vampire Lacerator, T2 Gruul Draz Vampire and T3 Vampire Nighthawk. YEESH! I waited until my turn 4 draw to concede.

Game Three was the same deck configuration. This one I opened up a decent hand, By turn 5, I was able to ramp a bit using the Hierarch and a Harrow, which I was able to get a Baloth out and pop a Rainforest that I already had on the table. I played my Rainforest before playing the Baloths because he has enough mana open for a Doomblade. I was correct, he doombladed and I popped the Rainforest in response. 4/4 for six is nothing to write home about, but he ran out of removal by this point, so it was enough to keep his Lacerator and Child of Night in check. Both of us were in top-deck mode by this time. He top decked a Sanguine Bond, which I was able to Celestial Purge (which later I found out he was holding onto a Blood Tribute). Eventually I was able to clear his board so my 4/4 token could push through for the win. It was very down to the wire, I won with 2 life to my name. Yeesh!

Results: 2-1

Match Two: Warp World

This was a fun matchup. My inner Johnny loves Warp World. It can totally screw with the game, especially if you are running Bogardan Hellkite. My deck does phenomenally well in this match up due to the amount of permanents I can generate post-Warp World.

Game One this one was in my favor. I was able to get two Knight of the Reliquarys to stick and a Mycoid Shepherd on top of it. This resulted in about a 10 point life gain after he was able to take out one reliquary and the Shepherd. This left me at about 24 life after the fact. Later on, I had about three 4/4 Baloths in play when he played warp world. I had 15 permanents at the time (cha-ching!). As far as fun factor goes, he was also playing Rampaging Baloths. Since Warp World plays lands and creatures at the same time, it's common that when the Baloth comes into play, you will receive a healthy amount of tokens with it. It's unfortunate that Khalni Heart Expedition comes in after the fact. Anyway, this warp world resulted in me warping into two Rampaging Baloths, two Mycoid Shepherds and a bunch of land. I had six baloth tokens after the fact! woohoo. He picked off my 6/6 Baloths which resulted in a 20 point life gain, setting me at 44 life. I cleaned up soon after.

Game Two was fairly brutal for me. I had to mulligan to five. I opened with a forest and a hierarch. He played a couple blood braids which I suffered from greatly. He played warp world into a Rampaging Baloth and Karthus, Tyrant of Jund, which was just enough damage to put me at zero (I have no fliers, unfortunately, and I didn't have a single plains to play the Path to Exile I had in hand).

Game Three was a good example of how fast this deck can also work. It went as follows:

Turn one Noble Hierarch

Turn Two Steppe Lynx (I did not attack, I should have as it would have resulted in a turn 4 kill. but alas, I'm a conservative player and was holding a Path to exile).

Turn three Steppe Lynx, Attack for 3, Path something on his turn.

Turn four, play Misty Rainforest, crack Rainforest, Play Harrow. Steppe Lynxes are 8/8 a piece and swing for 16. Opponent at 1 life left.

Turn five, clean up!

It was pretty funny. I love those hands!

Results: 2-1

Recap

It was a good time. My only beef is that the opening hands were a bit unstable at times and I was left without options until say, turn four. There is also a lack of board sweeping which I found is aggravating against match-ups like White Weenie Soldiers. Leave that for the sideboard, I suppose. Overall, I was pleased that the tech worked in a fashion I'd like it to. Landfall and tricks surrounding it is a lot of fun!

Deck List

The Tech

Results

Match One: Vampires

Recap

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