Breaking Bant.meta?

[Dreamer]

As the Highlander metagame at our local shop has evolved, it has coalesced more and more into a bunch of Bant decks. Some have a bit of black, like my old ones, some not. Pretty much all are Rock or Control. I've played blue-green-white-black Loam/lark/whatever concoctions since I started playing the format, and was pretty satisfied until now. I love the cards, but just like pre-Eldrazi Sha-Zen Standard, a bunch of midrange, however nice, eventually becomes boring.

The non-Bant decks in the shop are a multicolor Zoo build, a couple mono-black control decks, one of which has a heavy focus on discard, a Hypergenesis combo pile, Red-black Goblins, and my GWB Rector-Lark-Ranger combo deck (borrows heavily from Öhman's deck from the recent tournament in Tampere).

So far I've ascertained that my combo deck sucks against the discard deck, and has a slightly unfavourable matchup with Bant. (Or I just play badly) Needless to say, this makes playing less than enjoyable. I'm frustrated, and thus would like to ask for help: What kills Bant?

[Sturmgott]

Elves kill Bant.

The Staxx MU depends on the degree of artifact hate Bant runs.

Bounce-heavy Skies should have a good MU vs. Bant.

In general, all decks running functionally impressive critters should have a good matchup vs. Bant.

[Tiggupiru]

I went 4-0 in Tampere against Bant, but I think I got seriously lucky, and my opponent (same opponent both times) was mana flooded in like three of the four games. And once he had to mulligan to six after unsuccessful spoils mulligan. He also had fewer counters and heavier curve to gain edge against aggro.

I think with deck similiar to mine, you need to find several discards and play them on the same turn you drop Academy Rector/similar bomb they have trouble dealing. You could also switch up the targets for rector/pattern/natural order to a silver bullet against Bant, but I can't think of anything better over the top of my head.

[Dreamer]

I went 4-0 in Tampere against Bant, but I think I got seriously lucky, and my opponent (same opponent both times) was mana flooded in like three of the four games. And once he had to mulligan to six after unsuccessful spoils mulligan. He also had fewer counters and heavier curve to gain edge against aggro.

I think with deck similiar to mine, you need to find several discards and play them on the same turn you drop Academy Rector/similar bomb they have trouble dealing. You could also switch up the targets for rector/pattern/natural order to a silver bullet against Bant, but I can't think of anything better over the top of my head.

Yeah. Problem is, I pretty much run all decent targeted discard apart from Thoughtseize, which will replace Hymn as soon as I get one. There's just not enough of it to reliably disrupt Bant at critical moments. : /
Also, with regard to your build, why no Juniper Order Ranger and perhaps Murderous Redcap? Doesn't take much space, provides another line for comboing out, and integrates pretty well with the rest of the deck (Redcap kills Rector, is a win-con in Lark, Ranger is a viable Lark and Natural Order target, and quickly becomes a decent beater, etc.)

What would you suggest as a non-Bant Order target, anyway? Acidic Slime or something? (I'm currently running Woodfall Primus in place of Terastodon.)

Meh, should I just try a straight beatdown deck, something like a discard-heavy Doran Rock build or just Naya Zoo. Probably the best non-Bant decks I can build with big beaters.

[Tiggupiru]

Yeah. Problem is, I pretty much run all decent targeted discard apart from Thoughtseize, which will replace Hymn as soon as I get one. There's just not enough of it to reliably disrupt Bant at critical moments. : /
Also, with regard to your build, why no Juniper Order Ranger and perhaps Murderous Redcap? Doesn't take much space, provides another line for comboing out, and integrates pretty well with the rest of the deck (Redcap kills Rector, is a win-con in Lark, Ranger is a viable Lark and Natural Order target, and quickly becomes a decent beater, etc.)

Reveillark is there just for synergy and card advantage. I never planned on using him as a part of a combo. The goal of the deck is to get rector/pattern/order as soon as possible and fetch either Terastodon or Eldrazi Conscription. Bargain is the target if you expect a sweeper in your near future, this is probably not optimal, but I couldn't think of anything better.

Also, my list was missing Sylvan Tutor (which, I had no access at the time) and I replaced it with a Deranged Hermit, which turned out to be decent against bant. I'd still run Sylvan Tutor over it. I would also add Inquisition of Kozilek, but I am unsure what to cut. I was pretty happy with each card of the deck.

What would you suggest as a non-Bant Order target, anyway? Acidic Slime or something? (I'm currently running Woodfall Primus in place of Terastodon.)

Terastodon seems good. 18 power can be surprisingly hard to deal with. Progenitus is probably something they have no answer to, but I dislike him against decks with sweepers (which this deck has some trouble dealing with anyways) and Terastodon single handedly won me games against combo. Turn three eat your three lands, thanks for playing.

Meh, should I just try a straight beatdown deck, something like a discard-heavy Doran Rock build or just Naya Zoo. Probably the best non-Bant decks I can build with big beaters.

Naya is probably very good against bant. If you just want to hate it out, play aggressive strategy with problematic creatures and finish the with cheap burn.