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By: Arctic_Ghost, Arctic_Ghost
Nov 10 2021 1:02pm
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Bant isn’t a color combination you see a ton of. It is true you don’t get the powerful removal that you get with black or red and you don’t get access to a card like Lightning Bolt to burn your opponent out with Ephemerate loops. However there are some powerful green cards that you have access to that Pauper players can easily forget about. That is what we are going to talk about today.


The list we will be looking at today was part of the 5-0 dump from 10/27/2021 and was piloted by the player OlavoJusMTM. The big thing I like about this deck is that it is a control deck that has a way to lock your opponent out of the game. Okay, before I ramble on with some nonsense and waste your time, let’s get into the list.


Archaeomancer – Here is your way of looping Ephemerate. Although you have plenty of other powerful spells to get back in general so Mancer is just an important card to the deck in general.

Sea Gate Oracle – A really good creature for the early game that you can loop to get cards with in the late game. I think 3 is the perfect number.

Stonehorn Dignitary – Every aggro players favorite card to face off against. Doesn’t surprise me to see this here.

Coiling Oracle – I love this card. Not only can it be card advantage, it can be mana ramp as well. It might not have high stats, but its enter the battlefield ability is extremely powerful. In a control deck like this, you are very mana hungry and card hungry, so no matter which side of the ability get, both are good for your game plan.

Ephemerate – One of the cards that this deck is based around. You don’t play 4 because you don’t them to be stranded in your hand with nothing to use them with. One of the worst things a can face as a control player is having dead cards in hand, so not maxing out on a card you only ever really need 1 copy of is a good idea.

Counterspell – You are a control deck and have access to blue. Seeing Counterspell in the deck should not be a surprise.

Dispel – A good and cheap way to fight a counter war and removal. I am happy to see 2 copies and not just 1 here in the main deck.

Preordain – You are a control deck and so you want to push bad cards to the bottom to smooth out your draws for the late game. Preordain is the best card for that.

BrainstormBrainstorm is very interesting in this deck. Not only do you have 6 fetchlands that work well with it, but you also have Coiling Oracle. You can put a land back on top with Brainstorm and then use Coiling Oracle to put the land into play for a little bit of ramp and card advantage all in 1. You still have to draw the second card, but this way you only lose 1 draw step and ramp a tiny bit in the process.

Ghostly Flicker – A deck like this wouldn’t be complete with Ghostly Flicker. Since this costs 3 mana, it is more of a late game and seal the deal type of card. Ephemerate is only 1 mana and is good in the early game as well, which is why you play 1 more copy.

Moment’s Peace – Gotta keep the aggro decks at your mercy and this is a really good card at helping you do that.

Pulse of Murasa – A great card for a deck like this. Not only can you return your creatures to use them again, but you gain a lot of life in the process.

Temporal Spring – Here is your way of locking your opponent out of the game. The unfortunate part of it is that it is a sorcery, but it does hit a permanent and put it on the top of your opponents library. You don’t need more than 1 copy really and so that is why there are only 2.

The Manabase


Simic Growth Chamber – Although this is a bounce land, do remember that your deck is mana hungry. Try not to keep such land light opening hands and carefully think about your mulligan decisions.

Ash Barrens and Evolving Wilds – Here are your fetch lands to help with Brainstorm and mana fixing. I am not sure 4 copies of Ash Barrens is necessary, but that is my opinion and I could easily be wrong.

Thriving Isle – A great dual land for this deck. Not surprising to see 4 copies.

The rest of the manabase is made up of basic lands in the form of 6 Island, 1 Forest and 1 Plains. I think the manabase is great this way as there aren’t really any other fancy lands you need and you don’t want to make your deck too slow.

In my opinion, the reason for only 1 copy of a Forest is because you are mainly a blue control deck that splashes both white and green. I spoke earlier about 4 Ash Barrens feeling unnecessary. In my opinion for the manabase, I think a couple copies of Thriving Grove would be good because you do have Dust to Dust in the sideboard and more green cards as well.

The Sideboard

Stonehorn Dignitary and Moment’s Peace – Another copy of each for any aggro decks you may face.

Dispel – Really good against almost any deck in the format. Mainly for blue decks and Burn though.

Aerial Volley and Claws of Wirewood – Both of these are good against the Faerie decks but also good against decks with lots of flying creatures in general.

Blue Elemental Blast – For those pesky red mages.

Dust to Dust – Everyone needs some good Affinity hate.

Exclude – Against the slower creature decks where the game might go a little longer or against midrange decks, the extra card you draw from Exclude could make a big difference while also dealing with a threat.

Return to Nature - I love the flexibility of this card, though I agree with only having 1 copy as it is 2 mana and doesn’t have a huge impact.

Revoke Existence – I think this is a fine card. I hate that it is a sorcery, but I think it is fine. For example, being able to exile a card like Rancor could come up against certain matchups.

Weather the Storm – A great card against Burn and other red aggro decks to buy time. A second copy might be good if you expect a lot of red aggro decks.

Conclusion and Verdict


I like what this deck is doing and if you like grindy decks than I believe you will to. I think this deck is really good against aggro decks and has some good game against control with its Flicker loops.

I can see this deck having a tough time with some like the Faerie decks however as while you do have a lot of card advantage, your spells are more expensive than theirs to a degree. I also think you have game against Tron, but the game can snow ball quite quickly and you might not have enough mana to lock them out fast enough. However, I do think your aggro matchup is quite good because you have a ton of stalling. You should also be good against the Midrange decks as well because you should be able to keep up card for card. Just need to be careful of a strategy such as Bleak Coven Vampires because they don’t need to attack to win the game, so do be careful. I also think you should have a good shot at beating Affinity, but it is Affinity so it will always be a coin flip because the deck is so powerful.

Do I think you should play this deck? For the leagues yes, I think this deck will be quite challenging and fun. For the challenges however, while normally I would say I wouldn’t risk the entry fee, I have been eating my words lately, so there is a good chance that, with the right 75 cards, you could end up with a good finish in a challenge. I am just weary because the challenges are not cheap to enter.

I think you have the tools to beat everything In these colors, although there is the matter of if you are quick enough to keep up. Your spells are a bit expensive and you don’t have much ramp. You are relying on using Fog like effects against creatures and then using Counterspell on specific spells you can’t deal with. On some turns you will need to decide on whether you should develop your board or leave up a Counterspell. A decision like that could mean the whole game by itself.

Although the good thing about being a Fog deck like this is that you can let almost any creature through and not worry. This is great because it allows you to play a game of solitaire almost and buy a ton of time.

When building a deck like this, you won’t be able to beat everything and so predicting the right meta game is very key. With the right 75 cards, I think this deck is fine, but 1 wrong mistake in deck building (as well as playing the game itself of course) alone could cost you.

However, with all this being said, as always, do remember my words are not gospel. I will always encourage you to try a deck that I bring you despite my personal feelings. Remember that results will vary and always remember to practice!

Would you like to compete in a free Pauper tournament with some great prizes? Head on over to Gatherling.com on Tuesday nights at 8pm EDT and play in our weekly Pauper Classic Tuesday's event! Join the chat #PCT to chat with us and feel free to find most of the competitors on Discord!

Thank you so much for reading. Best of luck to you in your next tournament and I’ll catch you all next time!