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Main » Articles » Building with Collected Company

Building with Collected Company

Chris Henderson
Posted on March 9, 2016
 Reddit

Collected Company is a busted Magic card. If it wasn’t immediately obvious at first, it certainly is now that the two top decks in Standard—Rally and Bant Company—both run the card. But I believe that these two decks are only scratching the surface of what is possible with Collected Company.

Collected Company
In Standard, we currently have access to enough lands to make a four-color deck viable. This means we have an abundance of options for creatures that we can Collected Company into. The best options in green are probably Deathmist Raptor and Sylvan Advocate. Blue allows you to play with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, one of the best cards in Standard. But with gold cards is where things really become interesting.

Reflector Mage is another card that is quickly making a name for itself as one of the powerhouses of Standard. It conveniently also costs 3 mana, making it a great Collected Company target. Reflector Mage is the primary reason why Bant builds of Collected Company have become so popular. There are few feelings as great in Standard as hitting two Reflector Mages off a Collected Company and removing the opponent’s best two creatures.

Andy Ferguson has been tearing up the Star City Games Tour with Bant Company, recently winning the Standard Classic in Louisville. Here’s his list.

Bant Company ? Oath of the Gatewatch Standard | Andy Ferguson

Mantis Rider
This and similar builds have been the most popular Company decks thus far. But why stop at three colors? The mana in the format can easily support four, as is demonstrated by Rally and Dark Jeskai. Adding red provides additional options that allow us to maximize the power of Collected Company.

Mantis Rider is among the best positioned 3-drops in this Standard format. With decks like Rally and Ramp that are weak to flyers and looking to play a long game, this hasty flyer is exactly what the doctor ordered. Hitting two of these off a Collected Company allows you to attack for 6 damage immediately for just 4 mana.

If we’re playing red, we may as well add Savage Knuckleblade, one of the most inherently powerful 3-drops in Standard. Rattleclaw Mystic also provides mana-fixing to help the four-color mana base run more smoothly. Playing four colors also means you are able to use the converge mechanic. Bring to Light has been used in Modern to allow you to play more copies of Scapeshift, and it can also serve as extra copies of Collected Company in a four-colored build.

My good friend Luke Patterson and I brewed up this four-colored list, which he used to win an Invitational Qualifier. The deck has since become a known quantity, placing in the Top 8 of Grand Prix Houston in the hands of Amir Radmard. Here’s our list.

Four-Color Company ? Oath of the Gatewatch Standard

I also took down a Standard Game Day with a similar list, and we both Top 8’d a Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier with it, with Luke making the finals. The deck is inherently very strong, as it plays arguably the best 3-drops to Company into: Mantis Rider, Savage Knuckleblade, and Reflector Mage. Playing Bring to Light also means that you will probably play more Companies than your opponent.

Stratus Dancer
One notable omission from the deck is Sylvan Advocate. In testing, we realized we wanted a 2-drop that could help us against Rally, and Stratus Dancer fit the bill. It exploits Rally’s two biggest weaknesses: the fact that it doesn’t play flying creatures and the fact that it leans heavily on instants. You’re fine playing it on two most of the time, and it provides a lot of value in the late game, as it counters a spell while bringing back your Deathmist Raptors.

The deck has favorable matchups against most of the format, including Ramp, Atarka Red, and Dark Jeskai. Chandra, Flamecaller can be a problem for the deck, which is why you have four Disdainful Strokes in the sideboard. Those also come in against Ramp. Dispel is the most efficient tool for fighting against Rally, and it is also very good in the Company mirror, where it counters Company, Dromoka's Command, and the opponent’s Dispels. Arashin Cleric and Radiant Flames are both primarily for Atarka Red, as you can Radiant Flames for 2 to kill the opponent’s creatures without killing most of yours.

Radiant Flames also gives you a tool for Company mirrors, where it kills all of the opponents’ creatures while leaving your Savage Knuckleblades behind. Other options that we may test out in that slot include Linvala, the Preserver and Chandra's Ignition, which could both potentially be good ways to swing the mirror matches in your favor. Thought-Knot Seer and Kozilek's Return are both impactful Bring to Light targets that can be brought in against Eldrazi Ramp and Atarka Red respectively.

We’ve seen Andy Ferguson play Abzan Company before, but one clan that hasn’t been explored in a Company shell is Temur. One possible build allows you to use the ferocious and formidable mechanics by playing a lot of 4-power creatures. Here’s one take on the list.

Temur Company ? Oath of the Gatewatch Standard | Chris Henderson

Crater Elemental
Going Temur does mean you miss out on Reflector Mage, but it gives you access to a card that hasn’t seen much play but that has some potential: Crater Elemental. The card gives you interaction when you need it—and a big creature to help you close out the game. If the Blue Eldrazi deck catches on, the card is very well positioned in that matchup, blocking Reality Smasher and killing Thought-Knot Seer.

Temur Charm gives you a good way to attack through a clogged board against Rally. It also does a good Dromoka's Command impression, and it provides a counterspell against Ramp. It’s a versatile tool that gives the deck everything it was otherwise lacking.

Another way to maximize the power of Collected Company is by playing small creatures that become better in the late game. We’ve already seen this in Bant Company, which plays Sylvan Advocate and sometimes Warden of the First Tree. But another late-game power card we can hit off Company is Dragonmaster Outcast. The card saw a bit of play in early builds of Dark Jeskai, and since then, it hasn’t had a real home in Standard. But the card is very powerful if it isn’t dealt with immediately.

Nissa, Vastwood Seer is a card that cannot be supported in a four-colored deck but that is right at home in a three-colored shell. It also gives you more power from your Collected Companies later in the game, and it gives you access to another Planeswalker, in addition to Jace, Vryn's Prodigy.

The trick here is reaching six lands. Probably the best tool for doing this in Standard is Explosive Vegetation. The card may seem out of place in a deck full of small creatures, but it turns on Dragonmaster Outcast, Sylvan Advocate, and Nissa. Here’s a possible list.

Explosive Company ? Oath of the Gatewatch Standard | Chris Henderson

I haven’t tested this deck out, so I’m not sure how competitive it is. Still, the idea behind the deck is to make your Collected Companies become more powerful the longer the game goes. At the very least, it certainly looks fun to play.

There are even more directions that one could go with Company, including Abzan splashing blue for Reflector Mage. This allows you to play Anafenza, the Foremost, which is one of the better answers to Rally. The card even has a lot of potential in Modern. It’s been used already in Abzan lists for its ability to find combos with Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Anafenza. Craig Wescoe also wrote an interesting article recently in which he talked about a Bant build using Champion of the Parish alongside Fiend Hunter and Banisher Priest to fight Eldrazi. Here’s Craig’s list.

Oblivion Company ? Modern | Craig Wescoe

Here, Reflector Mage alongside exile creatures gives you plenty of ways to answering opposing Thought-Knot Seers and Reality Smashers. You then have Champion of the Parish and Knight of the Reliquary as finishers. Against Eldrazi, Riders of Gavony allows you to ignore the opponent’s creatures entirely, though it may be better off in the sideboard. Post-’board, you have access to powerful tools against the best decks, including Burrenton Forge-Tender, Kataki, War's Wage, and Meddling Mage. Melira, Sylvok Outcast is another potential addition that would help against Infect.

Another way to go with a Modern Company deck would be a more interactive Abzan build. This would allow you to combine exile creatures like Fiend Hunter and Banisher Priest with black cards like Tidehollow Sculler and Wasteland Strangler. Flickerwisp also excels in this build, as it allows you to permanently exile cards with Sculler and Fiend Hunter. For example, when you Company into a Flickerwisp and a Fiend Hunter, you can stack the Flickerwisp trigger on top of the Fiend Hunter trigger so that the Fiend Hunter’s leaving-the-battlefield trigger happens before the comes-into-play trigger. Nothing has been exiled yet, so there is nothing to return. Then, the Fiend Hunter’s comes-into-play ability triggers, and you get to exile something permanently. When the Fiend Hunter enters the battlefield again at the end of the turn, you can exile yet another creature.

Credit for the idea goes to Luke Patterson. Here’s what a Flickerwisp Abzan list might look like.

Flickerwisp Abzan ? Modern | Luke Patterson

The addition of Tidehollow Sculler gives you disruption against combo decks like Grishoalbrand and Scapeshift, which otherwise would be very difficult matchups. Wasteland Strangler and Flickerwisp both make your temporary-removal creatures permanent while providing reasonable aggressive bodies. Knight of the Reliquary is probably the best finisher for the deck, as it allows you to search up a Gavony Township or just attack for the win. Playing black also allows you access to more powerful sideboard options, such as Fulminator Mage, Sin Collector, and Orzhov Pontiff.

I’m excited to try out these decks and figure out what the best way to use the card is. I hope this has given you some more ideas about the potential of one of the best Magic cards printed in the last few years.

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TAGS articles, standard, theory, constructed, analysis, decklist, chris henderson, collected company

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