Standard: Bant Birds - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Who doesn't love Chocobos? Prompto Argentum is a big fan of these yellow, blue, green, or white birds—well, there are chocobos of all colors, and Final Fantasy brought enough support that, along with some Bloomburrow cards, we have a deck where we can use Chocobos in Standard with Bant Birds!

Bant Birds is, in essence, an Aggro, and much of its explosive potential involves the Landfall ability. The heart of the archetype is Traveling Chocobo, which interacts with Sazh's Chocobo and Sidequest: Raise a Chocobo to double the triggers of Landfall and considerably increase the power of our creatures. Another card that benefits from them is Dazzling Denial, which transforms into an enhanced version of Mana Leak if we have a bird in play.

The rest of the deck is the core the archetype needs to function: Mockingbird is the best bird in Standard today due to its versatility of copying any creature while maintaining its type. Aven Interrupter does a good impression of Spell Queller, and Valley Questcaller, while not a bird, provides that inter-type interaction that helps pressuring the opponent.

Maindeck

Healer's Hawk doesn't have many functions in our list other than being a one-mana Bird, easily increasing the amount we need for Sidequest: Raise a Chocobo. Lifelink also helps in matches against Aggro.

Mockingbird becomes any creature we need that's already on the board at the right cost, while retaining the Bird type. Remember that we can also copy our opponent's creatures with it.

Sazh's Chocobo is an ideal first-turn play, especially if accompanied by Fabled Passage in subsequent turns. If left unanswered, it can eventually get out of control, and two land drops are enough to turn it into a respectable clock, while it only grows with each turn.

Sidequest: Raise a Chocobo technically offers two bodies for one card and two mana, since we usually have no trouble having four or more birds on the board to trigger the enchantment.

Valley Questcaller boosts the power of all Birds while helping filter the top with each Bird that comes into play.

Aven Interrupter functions as a Tempo play, giving us an extra turn to deal with whatever the opponent was planning to cast. Sometimes, that one turn is all we need to end the game, especially in Control matchups.

Traveling Chocobo doubles the trigger for all Birds and all Landfall triggers. With it in play, Chocobos gain +2/+0 for each land played, and Bartz and Boko will likely become unconditional removal.

Besides being a 4/4 for just , Bartz and Boko has an ETB that can clear blockers or deal with a troublesome creature during the match.

Dazzling Denial functions as a cheap counterspell early in the match, and its potential is amplified if we have a Bird in play. There are many games where it becomes practically an unconditional Counterspell, since holding four mana is too expensive for a portion of decks in the current Metagame.

Get Lost is our main removal. Besides being unconditional, it also deals with enchantments and Planeswalkers, relevant in Esper Bounce and Dimir Midrange games.

Bushwhack serves a dual function as a spot removal and a means of guaranteeing a land drop for Landfall triggers, in addition to fixing our mana when necessary.

Currently, we only have access to the Breeding Pool as Shock Land, so we supplement the mana base with Floodfarm Verge and Hushwood Verge, as well as Fabled Passage, which interacts with the Landfall theme to increase the power of the creatures we control.

Since we use many creatures that share the same type, Cavern of Souls is an obvious choice: the protection from stack interaction helps against Phantom Interference and No More Lies or Three Steps Ahead.

Sideboard

Spell Pierce is another tempo play against Azorius Control and can also work against Esper Bounce for more turns due to the archetype's habit of reusing Stormchaser's Talent, in addition to being a common answer against cheap removal and Unholy Annex.

Annul unconditionally answers Agatha's Soul Cauldron It also takes care of most cards Esper Bounce tries to recast, and Pinnacle Starcage in Azorius Control.

Despite not sharing a creature type, Tishana's Tidebinder is an effective answer against Agatha's Soul Cauldron, Vivi Ornitier, and Kaito, Bane of Nightmares.

Collision Course is the closest our color combination has to Abrade, and we need more interactions capable of dealing with Abrade without relying on linear answers.

Sheltered by Ghosts is primarily used in games against Aggro, in the mirror, or against archetypes where instant-speed interaction isn't as punishing or where the two-for-one we take doesn't put us too far behind in the game.

The extra copies of Get Lost offer another efficient way to interact with the board in matches where counterspells are less relevant, whether against Midrange or Aggro.

Rest in Peace Is our choice for graveyard interaction, considering that the need to play around with Ghost Vacuum can be more dangerous against Izzet Cauldron or Naya Yuna in the current metagame, but either is an effective answer against these matchups.

Izzet Cauldron

IN

OUT

Dimir Midrange

IN

OUT

Mono Red Aggro

IN

OUT

Azorius Control

IN

OUT

Esper Bounce

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Kweh!