Hello everyone.

Today, I would like to share the Frontier experience I had during the 9th God of Frontier Challenger Tournament week-end in Japan.

I didn’t know a lot about Frontier before this event but I wanted to join it, because it is a big event in Japan. To be able to choose a deck and play it correctly, I read a lot of article about Frontier and consulted a lot of deck list. The deck I saw who I felt the more confident with the general game play was Bant Human, mainly because I played it before in standard and won French WMCQ with this deck. Kageyama Hiroki, a Japanese player, had many good finishes with Bant Human and I decide to pick his decklist to start my test for the tournament.

The most difficult thing with the deck is about how to sequence your lands, and anticipate your draw, and 《Collected Company》 results. You should fetch before your 《Collected Company》 to be able to trigger 《Renegade Rallier》 but if you can sacrifice a clue or if one of your creature is going to die, you should not do it and keep it for 《Tireless Tracker》. Also, the good moment to cast a 《Collected Company》 is never the same. Sometime you should play it in sorcery, to potentially increase your team stats with a 《Thalia's Lieutenant》, or remove a blocker with 《Reflector Mage》. Sometime you have to use it before opponents attack step if your opponent is owning a《Smuggler's Copter》 or after if you want kill attacker with upcoming blockers.

Two days before the event, I joined a 9th God of Frontier Challenger Tournament Trial (Even if as a Gold Level Pro, I already got a Bye) with something very similar to this list. I played against:

As a first time playing Frontier, 4-1 is not a bad result. I really enjoyed the deck and the games in general, but I had the feeling that the deck list could have some changes, especially in the sideboard.

First change, I wanted to play 24 lands instead of 25. Even if I see how lands are important in the deck with 4 《Tireless Tracker》, the presence of 4 《Renegade Rallier》 with Fetchlands should be enough. So, I cut a 《Botanical Sanctum》 for a 《Jace, Vryn's Prodigy》. I also cut a second 《Botanical Sanctum》 for a 《Fortified Village》, deck is mainly green and white maindeck and we will use blue cards in slow matches when you have time to find a blue source.

The Sideboards

2 《Phyrexian Revoker》

The card does a lot of thing. You can prevent yourself from 《Aetherworks Marvel》. Against Saheeli, you can name 《Smuggler's Copter》, 《Saheeli Rai》, 《Servant of the Conduit》, 《Elvish Mystic》 or 《Whirler Virtuoso》. What is good with 《Phyrexian Revoker》 is you can get it on 《Collected Company》 but also it is a creature who comes back on 《Renegade Rallier》.

2 《Arashin Cleric》

《Arashin Cleric》 is obviously a card against Atarka Red. 《Lantern Scout》 is also a possibility but personally I prefer to add a 2 drop creature against aggressive decks. We could not play any of them because the matchup is already so great with 4 《Glory-Bound Initiate》 and 《Dromoka's Command》.

3 《Manglehorn》

《Manglehorn》 does almost the same job because 《Saheeli Rai》 makes artifact copies. It destroyed 《Aetherworks Marvel》 or make it arrive into play tapped. Also, Blue Red artifact is a quit popular archetype in Frontier. 《Manglehorn》 doesn’t destroy enchantment but you already have 《Dromoka's Command》.

1 《Nissa, Vastwood Seer》

《Nissa, Vastwood Seer》 is an additional way to make card advantage against grindy match. You can get it on 《Collected Company》 and transform it later. With only 3 basic 《Forest》 in the deck it’s not great to play more than one.

2 《Dispel》

It counter removals, 《Dig Through Time》, 《Dromoka's Command》 and 《Collected Company》 in the mirror match.

2 《Disdainful Stroke》

The cards you have in mind when you side in 《Disdainful Stroke》 are 《Torrential Gearhulk》, 《Dig Through Time》, 《Languish》, 《Aetherworks Marvel》, 《Hour of Devastation》.

2 《Declaration in Stone》

The card is great against Goblin tokens of Atarka Red. It is also a good answer to 《Darksteel Citadel》 enchanted by 《Ensoul Artifact》. I like to play the card in aggressive mirror match on the play too.

1 《Dromoka's Command》

The card is doing a lot of thing. It works perfectly with 《Glory-Bound Initiate》 to win every lifepoint race in aggressive matches where it is very difficult to play against. It deals with 《Ensoul Artifact》 and preventing damages from spells like 《Shrapnel Blast》 and 《Lightning Strike》. This is why I like to have the 4th 《Dromoka's Command》 in the sideboard.

Result

I lost twice against Yukio Matsuda who won the tournament with UB control. He played pretty well, his deck was great and the matchup is almost unwinnable for me with my actual list. If this kind of control deck is popular you should play more 《Disdainful Stroke》 and good threat like 《Jace, Vryn's Prodigy》, 《Kefnet the Mindful》, 《Rhonas the Indomitable》 or 《Gideon, Ally of Zendikar》.

What card should be ban from Frontier?

I think the format is pretty healthy. There are combo decks but they are not dominating the format and unbeatable, aggressive decks are strong and control has a lot of cards to fight everything. The only card who should not be legal for me is 《Dig Through Time》.

The card is banned in Modern, Legacy and restricted in Vintage. With Fetchlands, 《Torrential Gearhulk》 and 《Jace, Vryn's Prodigy》 it is just an absurd card.

I enjoyed Frontier a lot. The format is full of good games.

I really recommend you to try it.

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy DEZANI