Bant is an excellent Shard. It has access to the best removal and some of the best card drawing in the current Standard environment. Path to Exile and Oblivion Ring coupled with Noble Hierarch and Mulldrifter felt almost illegal together in the same deck.

I played in another Friday Night Magic even though I had already won the FNM Reward for the month, and won first, playtesting a deck that was inspired and conceptualized built by my wife. I mostly played it to see if I could “get it there”, as she has had some sour luck with it. So, before I discuss my play, lets look at that list!

"VigilBant"

---

Lands (21) 4 Seaside Citadel 4 Brushland 4 Adarkar Wastes 1 Treetop Village 4 Plains 1 Island 3 Reflecting Pool Creatures (25) 4 Noble Hierarch 2 Knight of the White Orchid 2 Gaddock Teeg 4 Rhox War Monk 4 Wall of Reverence 4 Stoic Angel 1 Battlegrace Angel 4 Mulldrifter Other Spells (14) 4 Path To Exile 4 Oblivion Ring 4 Bant Charm 2 Negate Sideboard (15) 3 Runed Halo 2 Negate 1 Pithing Needle 2 Wrath of God 1 Martial Coup 2 Filigree Fracture 4 Celestial Purge

The longest match I had was against and “unpowered” (i.e. no Bitterblossom or Thoughtseize) version of Faeries. The match I lost was because I missplayed my Path to Exiles, allowing him to get a couple mana ahead of me. I really think I could have pulled that one off if I’d been a little more judicious. After that, I managed some decisive victories hiding behind Wall of Reverence sending in my Stoic Angel.

The weakest cards in the main were Knight of the White Orchid and Gaddock Teeg. I sided them out almost every time for usually two Wrath of God. Martial Coup was very helpful in the couple of matches I used it, and having it in the side was a nice surprise for a lot of my opponents. I’m still debating Runed Halo; I know it will someday trump my opponent, I just haven’t met them yet.

I worried a lot about planeswalker.deck making an appearance, as that seemed to be this decks bane the last couple of times it was played in an FNM. Pithing Needle is the “I’m not playing White” answer to the new permanents, and Celestial Purge is very versatile in this environment.

With Alara Reborn now available, I plan on doing some more tweaks to make this thing really hum. Here is a rough idea:

"VigilBant Returns"

---

Lands (21) 4 Seaside Citadel 4 Brushland 4 Adarkar Wastes 2 Plains 1 Island 3 Forest 3 Reflecting Pool Creatures (27) 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Jhessian Infiltrator 4 Qasali Pridemage 4 Wall of Reverence 4 Stoic Angel 2 Rafiq of the Many 4 Mulldrifter 1 Battlegrace Angel Other Spells (12) 4 Path To Exile 4 Bant Charm 4 Oblivion Ring Sideboard (15) 3 Runed Halo 2 Martial Coup 2 Wrath of God 3 Negate 2 Filigree Fracture 3 Celestial Purge