WOLF RUN BANT
I'm writing this because... well, because this is my favourite deck right now. Wolf Run Bant became famous when Melissa DeTora took it to last Pro Tour. Unluckily, she went out against the future winner. After that, the deck declined a lot. Recently, Melissa has made up another list, updated. We're gonna analyze a lot of aspects of this deck, be ready!First of all, Wolf Run Bant is the classic bant control deck that splashes red for Kessig Wolf Run. With that card, every creature is a huge threat that needs to be answered.
Deck Lists:
DeTora's first build:
[deck]
4 Breeding Pool
3 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed
Fountain
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
2 Sunpetal Grove
3 Temple Garden
3 Augur of Bolas
3 Centaur Healer
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
4 Azorius Charm
1 Detention Sphere
1 Syncopate
2 Dissipate
4 Farseek
4 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Supreme Verdict
2 Think Twice
Sideboard
1 Gisela, Blade of the Goldnight
1 Detention Sphere
2 Garruk Rentless
1 Centaur Healer
2 Negate
2 Rest In Peace
3 Rhox Faithmender
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Witchbane Orb[/deck]
DeTora's Wolf Run Bant 2.0:
[deck]
2 Angel of Serenity
3 Augur of Bolas
3 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
4 Azorius Charm
1 Detention Sphere
2 Dissipate
4 Farseek
4 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Supreme Verdict
2 Think Twice
4 Breeding Pool
3 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
Sideboard:
2 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Negate
1 Pithing Needle
n3 Rest in Peace
3 Rhox Faithmender
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Terminus [/deck]
Creatures:
Loxodon Smither: Great body, cannot be countered and answer to Liliana/Rakdos Return. Much better than Centaur Healer for this standard. The block vs aggro gives you much more that 3 life, he's out of Searing Spear's range and put a lot of pressure.
Thragtusk and Restoration Angel: Always the same trick, always super efficient. Thrag helps us stabilize and his son remain after a verdict/spot removal. The Resto Angel can come out of nowhere, has a decent body and makes us gain even more life and a token.
Angel of Serenity: The main problem of Wolf Run Bant was that when out of creatures, the deck had no other ways to kill the opponent. This is the solution. Angel of Serenity can bring back all the needed fuel for late game
and it's a 5/6 body that flies. Unluckily, since the WWW cost, the deck cannot bring more than a 2x.
Augur of Bolas: early blocker against aggro and super-useful for finding what we need. Mana? There's the Farseek. Cards? There's the Revelation. Wrath? There's the Supreme Verdict. Also, good synergy with Resto Angel.
Spells:
Azorius Charm: Auto 4x. Draw a card, lifelink to a creature or "your opponent skip a real draw". It's just insane and gain us basically a turn.
Farseek: Another auto 4x. Mana acceleration. Get your red source with this of fix your mana. Another top notch card.
[card]Sphinx's Revelation[/card]: Once more, a 4x. Who don't know this card? Lifegain AND card advantage. If you draw another one, it's hard to lose the game.
Supreme Verdict: 3x. Uncounterable wrath? Yes please. Turn 3 Verdict,
T4 Thragtusk and T5 Resto Angel is a lovely thing to do.
Detention Sphere: Chose an annoying non creature permanent and exile it. It's really useful against enchantments and plainswalker that are dangerous.
Dissipate: An all-star counter. It exile the spell, so goodbye flashback. Usually played after 2-3 turns since its UU cost.
Think Twice: A middle way between a filler and a good card. Usually this deck have few choises turn 2, so draw more is always useful. It has also flashback, so... why not?
Land:
Kessig Wolf Run: this deck is called Wolf Run Bant, right? This card makes every creature a serious thread to deal with, as we already said.
Sideboard:
As Melissa said, this deck preys on Midrange decks and Aggro decks. So it's huge weak point is Esper. The sideboard is made for that.
[card]Rest in Peace[
/card]: Humanimator and Junk are staples now. This is the answer.
Negate: The first cards to take against Esper and control in general. More counters are always useful.
Terminus: More hate against aggro. It can also deal with undying and Reanimator, since putting their cards at the bottom of the library won't help them.
Jace, Memory Adept: More hate against Esper. Jace is huge against them. It also helps us drawing some more cards if needed.
Rhox Faithmander: Against aggro. Roadblock + huge life gain with Thragtusk, so we put ourself too ahead for them.
Pithing Needle: Once more, esper. It shuts down annoying plainswalkers and Nephalia Drownyards. With its cost, he's also much easier to cast, avoiding counters (apart Oblivion Rings/D Spheres).
Sigarda, Host of Herons: The hardest creature to deal
with....against Esper. No spot removal, no sacrifice. It's very hard to remove and it's always a 5/5 flying.
Other Options:
Prime Speaker Zegana: The latest version of Bant bring her as a 2x. Great body and card draw. If you run her, it's a good idea to cut a Revelation.
Garruk, Primal Hunter: A very good walker. It produces tokens vs control and it helps draw. Unluckily, Jace for control is much much better.
Selesnya Charm: The meta seems to slow down. With this charm you can deal a lot of threats: Obzedat, Thragtusk, Angel of Serenity, Olivia (after enough pumping) and so on.
Purify the Grave: This card should be really considered in place of RiP. While Reanimator can Abrupt Decay our enchantment, they have no answer against this. It's instant and has a ridicolous flashback cost. In my opinion, it's better.
Matchup Analysis[/
i]:
Against Aggro: good game 1, very good game 2. With wraths, roadblocks and lifegain we should handle this archtype easily. Game 2, with more mass removal effects and lifegain we should have an easier time.
Against Midrange in general: good game 1, very good game 2. As above, should handle easily this kind of decks. We have wraths, we have tempo gain and huge draws. After sideboarding, we can shut down Jund's plainswalker and have more counters against them.
Against Esper: poor game 1, good game 2. We already said that Esper is our worst matchup. Game 1 we have almost no chances. But since half of our side is made for Esper, we should take care of them much better.
Against Reanimator: even game 1, good game 2. Reanimator is a very good deck. We have wrath effects and Azorius Charm. We have good creatures to block with and we have Angel of Serenity game 1 to deal with them. Game 2 should be easier. Negate, Rest in Peace, Terminus and Jace to mill them faster are all cards that put us
in a better position.
Little Sideboarding Guide:
Coming soon
