I'd like to talk about a few of them here, because they are turning wins into losses at a public level.
1) Playing not enough lands/keeping hands with low land counts.
A two-lander is a pretty rough keep in a deck that really wouldn't mind being at 7 land, and must get to 5 to start doing anything at all. A two-lander with Farseek on the draw is almost not enough, because people are playing countermagic for some reason, and are using it aggressively, also for some unknown reason.The deck wants lands in play. It requires them to function. You don't have one-drops in Bant, you will only be playing a spell a turn for quite a while, so it really doesn't matter that you have "5 spells" in your opener, if you only cast two of them before you die.
Cards like Borderland Ranger/Gatecreeper Vine/Elvish Visionary/Think Twice help you dig (and on turn two, they are almost always digging for land whatever spell you use), but your deck needs to be prepared to make it to 5 mana every game, and that means playing a bunch of relatively non-sexy lands to make that happen.
Solution: Play 26 or more lands. Fill in with some utility lands!
2) Getting your stabilizing creature counterspelled.
This is just unacceptable in this day and age. We have a unparalleled number of straight up uncounterable creatures, early value creatures, and Cavern of Souls to make virtually anything uncounterable.It seems standard these days to play upwards of 8 counterspells in blue decks, and when we're facing that kind of insanity, not packing 3-4 Caverns is just suicide if your plan is to cast a Thragtusk or an Angel of Serenity, and win from there.
Casting those spells will win you the game, but only if they resolve, and that's where Cavern comes in.
We want to be playing more lands anyway, so you might as well have your utility lands be Caverns until the meta gets beaten to death by 5 power uncounterables.
Loxodon Smiter is another solid early drop, that beats down hard, and is uncounterable on it's face, so take that tempo decks... It also two-for-zeros Liliana of the Veil, which is not bad at all.
Solution: Play 4x Cavern of Souls.
3) Losing straight up to planeswalkers.
Bant has some of the best creatures in the format, and arguably the best removal for planeswalkers in the form of Restoration Angel, and Detention Sphere. I see people left and right playing two Spheres, and expecting that to answer the 5-10 planeswalkers in your opponent's deck.Thragtusk is all well and good, but he's surprisingly poor against planeswalkers, and so is tapping out for Thragtusk. When your play is Thragtusk, and their play is Tamayo, tap your Thragtusk, you're not ahead quite yet. We need the Restoration Angel, Detention Sphere, or some other follow-up to avoid just losing to this board state.
Solution: Play creatures. Play answers to perminants. Play Restoration Angel.
4) Being dead to Geist of Saint Traft
Geist is a powerful sideboard card, but there are so many tools in G/W/U to answer it without having to specifically answer it, it's terrible to see people losing to this card. Centaur Healer, your own Geists, Restoration Angel, Thragtusk, Selensya Charm, Borderland Ranger, are all pro-active spells, that can kill your opponent, that answer Geist without needing a specific answer to it in the form of a Liliana, Sweeper, or the like.Sideboarding into a control deck for their control deck really doesn't feel like the way to go in these matchups. We should be sideboarding into uncounterable threats, that can individually reduce your opponent to zero life. They only have so many wraths, and if their counters do nothing, all you have to do is fight through a few 5-drops, and you'll be offering the opponent your hand.
Solution: Play creatures. Don't over-rely on targetted removal.
5) Playing finishers that don't finish.
Drawing cards is cool, gaining life is cool, but we need to reduce our opponent to zero life to win the game. If all your card drawing is doing is drawing you into more card drawing, it doesn't matter how many cards you draw, your opponent will eventually have time to kill you with a haste creature, an x-spell, or a recurring threat like Moorland Haunt or Kessig Wolf Run.Thragtusk is great against everyone, because it does the job of killing your control opponent. That is the good part of the 'Tusk in that matchup, make sure you have enough threats, and are going over the top enough with your win condition such that they can't come back.
Drogskull Reaver, Sphynx's Revelation (as your "finisher"), over-reliance on Jace (a planeswalker that doesn't kill your opponent in any respect), or Armada Wurm are not going to win those control games. I'd rather sideboard into Strangleroot Geist than Drogskull Reaver in a control matchup, don't fall into their trap, and cast some uncounterable beaters.
If you're going to go over the top, make sure what you're doing is actually over the top, ideally leading to a dead opponent.
Solution: If you're going to play a 6+ cc spell, think about what happens if your opponent has a Doom Blade variant, or a Negate. Or if they just have a Thragtusk or Angel of Serenity, since that's what these spells are competing with.
6) Over-reliance on counter target spell
Having a few counters is not necessarily bad in any matchup, but it has to be in your deck for a reason, or it won't help you win any games.Counters are particularly poor as answers to creatures these days, or they should be. If you can counter a Thragtusk, that is just about the best way to deal with it, but I can't imagine there will be much of that going on for much longer (see point 2).
Counters are an okay answer to "big spells", but they don't work as answers to those spells while you're tapped out to put a 'Tusk into play, and this is the best opportunity your opponent has to play their big spell.
I'd even go so far as to say I want a counter for their Sphynx's Revelation, Tamiyo, or Unburial Rites on Angel of Serenity, but I don't want to deal with every spell in their deck that way, because it's simply not feasable.
Solution: Don't have too many cards that are dead to Cavern of Souls. Have a plan against a resolved problematic permanent.
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