Bant Spirits (w/ Deck Guide) (Modern)

Bant Spirits has fallen off recently, but it's still a powerhouse, and stands to gain significantly from a potential Phoenix/Faithless Looting banning.

This is the list I would play today, but there are several flex spots throughout both the main deck and the sideboard (this is what the cards in the maybeboard are for).

Most builds of Bant have gone away from the lone copy of Birds of Paradise in favor of the 21st land. Some builds have both the 21st land and the Birds. My build has the Bird and takes away the 21st land (the third Botanical Sanctum), because all the best cards in this deck are either 3 or 4 mana. In matchups like Izzet Phoenix or Burn (both of which this deck struggles with) you need to race to get Worship down. In most other matchups, your best line is often Turn 1 mana dork into Turn 2 holding up Spell Queller. I believe this is sufficient justification for the Birds of Paradise. Taking out the 21st land is certainly a risk, however, there are still 25 traditional Mana Sources in the deck, and 28 Mana Sources if you count Aether Vial as a Mana Source.

Here we come to the second flex spot: the one that is traditionally held by a lone copy of Rattlechains. Rattlechains itself is something of an interesting card, and it might be worth running a copy. It can blank a removal spell, and gives all your other spirits flash, which can help you represent Collected Company, Spell Queller or Path to Exile without actually having Collected Company, Spell Queller or Path to Exile. Right now, I think the best use of this flex spot is almost definitely Remorseful Cleric. Black-based Midrange decks (with the exception of Grixis Shadow) have low percentages in the metagame. Blue-White Control and Jeskai Control also have low percentages in the metagame. These were some of Rattlechains' best matchups, which makes it lose some of its value. For these reasons, I think Rattlechains is probably the worst use of this slot. The battle, therefore, is between Remorseful Cleric and a third copy of Selfless Spirit. Because of how big Dredge and Izzet Phoenix are at the moment, I think that Remorseful Cleric gets a slight edge at the moment. It isn't exactly a powerhouse in either matchup, but on certain draws, it has the potential to win the game or at least keep you alive for a while. I should also mention that you could cut this slot entirely, in order to keep both Birds of Paradise and a 21st land.

Both of our last two flex spots are in the three-drop slot. The first is currently held (in my list) by a single copy of Kira, Great-Glass Spinner. Kira is another interesting card in Bant Spirits. Originally, I began to play Kira over Rattlechains, and I grew to love the card. It wins the game against Black-based Midrange decks, and has weird applications against a lot of decks. I don't think you should ever play Kira if you're going to also play Rattlechains. It's something of an either-or decision you have to make. They do basically the same things, as long as you don't mind not having the ability to give everything flash (which I don't at the moment). The other cards you could play in this slot are Geist of Saint Traft, and Eidolon of Rhetoric. Both of these cards are currently in the sideboard. This decision was multifaceted. I don't think you can justify running Kira in the sideboard right now. It would almost never come in. On the other hand, Geist of Saint Traft and Eidolon of Rhetoric are good in specific matchups, and struggle in others. Eidolon of Rhetoric is only really good against Izzet Phoenix and other matchups like Storm. Geist is good against black-based Midrange, Control decks, and in other matchups where you need a fast clock. At the moment, I think Geist is a little limited in its applications, especially as a maindeck card. It's usually something of a silver bullet, and that makes it a bad hit off of Company unless you want it. Kira, on the other hand, is something you're always fine with being on the table, which, to me, makes it a better hit off of Company. If Phoenix continues to not only be in the format, but dominate it, however, I think that there should be a real consideration given to Eidolon of Rhetoric as a maindeck silver bullet. It will be a mostly dead card in some matchups, but something will need to be done in order to sure up the Phoenix matchup.

Our last maindeck flex spot is something of a complicated one. There are three cards vying for this slot: Path to Exile #3, Deputy of Detention #3, and Reflector Mage #1. I've given the edge to Path to Exile #3 at the moment, and I think that the only way you can justify this is to cut the 21st land. You need to have 30 creatures in the deck for Company. You can have fewer, but that, in my opinion, is not an optimal build. Path is the best answer to cards that you have to be able to answer: Thing in the Ice, Wurmcoil Engine, World Breaker, and other flying blockers among them. After Path to Exile, I would probably give the edge to Reflector Mage. Reflector Mage is good in spots where Deputy of Detention isn't good enough. It is a longer-term answer to cards like Thing in the Ice.

The sideboard also has a number of flex spots. As far as I'm concerned only the following nine cards are fixed into the board:

3 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Knight of Autumn

The rest is up to your personal choice. I personally think Gesit of Saint Traft, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Damping Sphere and Worship help significantly to shore up some pretty terrible matchups. Tron and Izzet Phoenix are our two worst matchups, by far. Damping Sphere and Geist of Saint Traft are our two best cards against Tron. In turn, Eidolon of Rhetoric and Worship are our two best cards against Izzet Phoenix. With the exception of Eidolon of Rhetoric, each of the aforementioned cards has significant applications against other decks. See the limited sideboard guide below for more information.

The last card, that I haven't mentioned, is Unified Will. Unified Will is a very, very, very good card. Most of the time it's just Counterspell. I would love to be able to run a second copy, but at the moment, I think having better cards for our two worst matchups is more important.

Sideboarding

Before we get into Specific matchups, I'd like to discuss sideboarding in general first. Oftentimes, the first cards to come out are Aether Vial. Whenever creatures come out and noncreatures come in, you're going to want to go down a single Collected Company. In addition, you're probably going to want to go down a Collected Company whenever you bring in a Worship, because you desperately need to avoid being flooded on four drops.

Izzet Phoenix

• 3 Phantasmal Image
• 1 Collected Company
• 1 Worship
• 1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

This is a tough matchup. Thalia is a very good card because it can slow them down. Eidolon of Rhetoric can do the same thing, and it turns off Phoenix while also being very difficult to answer (they need either Flame Slash or Rending Volley, which both see very little play, or Lightning Axe, which requires them to discard a card, which can be very good for you depending on their draw). Worship, if you can resolve it, should be game over. As soon as it comes down, you need to stop blocking. A deck like Phoenix could potentially wipe your board with targeted removal, so there's no reason to make it easy for them. Expect Spell Pierce and Anger of the Gods out of their board to make things difficult for the Worship plan.

Dredge

• 3 Aether Vial
• 2 Selfless Spirit
• 3 Rest in Peace
• 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Dredge is a good matchup, in my experience. Sure, Game 1 is tough. Game 1 against Dredge is tough no matter what deck you're on. Rest in Peace is Rest in Peace, and Thalia blocks Bloodghast forever while also annoying your opponent by making Darkblast, Lightning Axe, Life from the Loam, Cathartic Reunion, and Conflagrate all cost more (not to mention Nature's Claim).

Boros Burn

• 3 Aether Vial
• 1 Remorseful Cleric
• 2 Selfless Spirit
• 2 Knight of Autumn
• 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1 Worship
• 1 Unified Will

Burn has been a tough matchup for me, although i don't really think it is tough on paper. This has been my sideboarding strategy so far. Worship wins the game on its own, as long as you can put down creatures. I don't go down a Collected Company in this matchup because you'll desperately need to dig for Knight of Autumn. I could see going down a Collected Company and bringing in an Eidolon of Rhetoric, but I haven't exactly tested with it, so I'm not going to throw my testing onto you.

Tron

• 3 Aether Vial
• 1 Remorseful Cleric
• 1 Kira, Great-Glass Spinner
• 1 Collected Company
• 2 Damping Sphere
• 1 Unified Will
• 1 Geist of Saint Traft
• 2 Stony Silence

Tron is a tough matchup, but I've had some success with this lineup. Plan on seeing Geist of Saint Traft plus another sideboard card in order to win it. You could also justify bringing in Knight of Autumn, but it's often too slow, and you have Deputy of Detention in the maindeck to do a reasonable impression of it.

Grixis Shadow

• 1 Remorseful Cleric
• 3 Aether Vial
• 1 Unified Will
• 1 Geist of Saint Traft
• 2 Rest in Peace

Grixis Shadow is a matchup I've actually had quite a bit of success against. Rest in Peace comes in because it shuts down Snapcaster and Delve threats. Unified Will is good because it's a Counterspell against a deck with few threats. Geist is a card that's very hard for Shadow decks to answer. Aether Vial comes out because it's a terrible top deck. It comes out against most every deck that runs Thoughtseize.

Hardened Scales

• 3 Aether Vial
• 1 Remorseful Cleric
• 2 Selfless Spirit
• 3 Rest in Peace
• 2 Stony Silence
• 2 Knight of Autumn

I've had quite a bit of success against Hardened Scales as well. Rest in Peace comes in to turn off most Arcbound Ravager lines (it shuts off Modular), and Stony Silence is just a beating. Knight of Autumn is targeted removal for Artifacts. Selfless Spirit comes out because Scales has no removal whatsoever outside of Walking Ballista and Dismember, neither of which Selfless Spirit is particularly good against.