The Bant Life
Survive, then pivot in an instant.
Angel of Serenity illustrated by Aleksi Briclot
Bant Ramp accelerates its mana, while clogging the board and gaining life, to cast devastating spells ahead of schedule. Congrats to nikola for taking the deck to a 3-0 finish, showcasing both its power and resilience. Let’s see how they did it.
Stall for Resources
These ensure Bant doesn’t fall too far behind while trying to gather resources.
Ramp strategies devote many resources to cast powerful spells ahead of curve, often falling behind on board in the meantime. Bant Ramp looks to accumulate their resources while keeping themselves healthy, and they have cards that do both at the same time. Farhaven Elf is a permanent ramp piece that can chump block. Wall of Blossoms does a better job at blocking multiple times, but replaces itself with a random card instead of ramping. Jace, Architect of Thought either draws some cards before distracting an attacker with a downtick, or absorbs a lot of pressure with upticks.
Each of these cards synergize well with Supreme Verdict and Wrath of God, as they lure their opponent to deploy more to the board to push through the blockers or eliminate the planeswalker. Because the Wall and Elf replace themselves, them getting swept up in a board-wipe is inconsequential. With the reset, Bant Ramp breaks parity by having extra lands on the battlefield and more cards in hand.
Lifegain Threats
More dedicated stall pieces that keep Bant alive using lifegain.
Some cards buffer Bant’s life total directly while threatening to end the game. Enough has been said about Kitchen Finks—praise be their name—so I’ll skip them for now. With a meta where four is the magic number for power and toughness, Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice sticks around to halt ground aggression. She turns every creature into a Kitchen Finks—praise be their name—to sustain against evasive creatures and direct burn. Combined with Armada Wurm, Trostani locks up the game with a 5/5 trampler and 5 life each turn.
One of the strongest reasons to be in the archetype is Sphinx’s Revelation, as it provides Bant Ramp the ability to go over the top of Midrange and compete with Control’s inevitability. With 7 cards devoted strictly to ramp and 25 lands, the deck is bound to have a lot of mana and nothing to do with it. Sphinx’s Rev solves that issue by gaining life and replacing itself—much like Kitchen Finks; praise be their name—with a hand full of gas.
Tempo Finishers
While they take a while to deploy, these cards usually end the game decisively.
This deck builds up to something big, stabilizing the board and propelling itself ahead. Armada Wurm dominates the ground. Multiple bodies lets the Wurm protect Bant from a single removal spell squashing their defenses or quenching their attack. Trample adequately lets Bant Ramp race and clock its opponents, requiring a direct answer.
Angel of Serenity was covered in the Midrange Management article, but here’s a quick refresher. The Angel buys time when behind, exiling prospective attackers. It breaks a stalled board, removing blockers and introducing an evasive beater. Even when ahead, it can exile the best creatures in its graveyard for grind value in a longer game.
Conclusion
Bant Ramp plans to go big quickly, but ensures it keeps itself safe along the way with defensive creatures, like Kitchen Finks—praise be their name. Mana sinks act as a contingency against flooding, and the deck has multiple ways to grind out a long game through card draw and recursion. Once deployed to the board, all Bant Ramp needs is an Angel of Serenity or an overloaded Cyclonic Rift smash in for victory.
