Ante Deck Transition

It’s time for me to retire my Ante decks and make some new ones. Good bye Bant and Thopter Foundry!

Ante Bant Deck: 4 Akrasan Squire / 4 Aven Squire / 4 Sigiled Paladin / 4 Quasali Pridemage / 2 Rhox War Monk / 2 Jhessian Infiltrator

Quasaili Pridemage is such a good card. I’m glad to see that Stnd decks still sometimes run him in G/W decks. My finishers were either RWM (on average it would gain me 5 life) or Jhessian Infiltrator (unblockable). I hated having more than one finisher out at a time with this deck because most of the time I would just attack with one creature, that’s why I only have 2 RWM & 2 Jhessian Infiltrator. Often I would be put in situations where I would have 2 RWM in play, when it would be optimal for me to attack with just one.

4 Ponder / 4 Bant Charm / 4 Ardent Plea / 3 Finest Hour / 2 Vines of the Vastwood

Finest Hour is dirt cheap. I got mine for $1.50 each and they pushed this deck over the top. Vines of the Vastwood is so good in this deck. With Exalted decks, sometimes it’s best to attack with just one creature, Vines of the Vastwood was a dirty trick to protect your 5/6 RWM, that would eventually become a 9/10 with Shroud and Lifelink. Also, if you have Finest Hour out it’s going to get to attack again as an 11/12.

4 Seaside Citadel / 1 Bant Panorama / 18 Basic Lands

Running 2+ Panoramas out of 23 lands sometimes gave me awkward mana hands that were too slow, so that’s why I only run 1. I ran 23 lands because I wanted to make sure that I would be able to hit 5 lands by turn 7 to drop a Finest Hour.

This deck never saw any real action but was still fun to play with. Good bye Bant!

Ante Thopter Foundry Deck: 4 Esper Stormblade / 4 Glazefiend / 2 Sanctum Gargoyle / 2 Ethersworn Shieldmage / 4 Esperzoa

This deck is super synergistic. Glazefiend was a beast in this deck. It could easily become a 4/5 out of now where. Esperzoa was essential with a lot of cards in this deck, like Sanctum Gargoyle and Ethersworn Sheildmage. There’s nothing like infinite recursion or Fogs.

4 Ponder / 4 Kaleidostone / 4 Oblivion Rings / 4 Thopter Foundry / 2 Open the Vaults / 1 Sigil of Distinction

Thopter Foundry lost a lot of its greatness after the M10 rule changes but was still an amazing card! If I was off to a slow start or got Wrath’ed I would just make Thopter tokens, gain life, and chump block, then return everything but lands and Ponder with Open the Vaults. Sigil of Distinction was also a great card because it could easily give one of my creatures +5/+5, if it runs out of +1/+1 counters then I would just bring it back with Sanctum Gargoyle or Esperzoa.

4 Fieldmist Borderpost / 4 Mistvein Borderpost / 4 Arcane Sanctum / 5 Plains / 5 Island / 3 Swamp

The Borderposts helped make Stormblade a 3/2 flier as well be fodder for Thopter Foundry. I only played this deck once against another Ante deck. I will miss this deck the most but it’s time for me to move on and build my Nighthawk Control deck and my Valakut deck! Valakut is only $1 right now! I'm so excited!