I’m afraid of 4cc running it because it is super easy to cast. It costs 1U to cast, so their manabase won’t be a problem unless it somehow struggles to come up with a U mana. I’d honestly probably just cut 1-2 baleful strix and dump this in its place if I were playing 4cc.
Okay, this is a really big open ended question regarding the 3 stoneblade archetypes. Here’s how I think the 3 break down so maybe you understand why I’ve made the decisions I’ve made.
UW Blade-Strong because of its simplicity. Its manabase is virtually unassailable. It also gets to run 4 wasteland and back to basics to punish opposing greed piles. It really leans on countermagic since it lacks the utility of a splash color.
UWr Blade-IMO, you play this deck because red elemental blast exists. It’s a clean answer against almost any blue card except for a resolved TNN. You do get to play things like bolt/blood moon, but they’re really footnotes. The bad part is a slightly greedier manabase(it’s still perfectly manageable), and probably suffering a bit if you’re opponent doesn’t play blue.
UWB Blade-You play this for cards like thoughtseize which gives you more proactive gameplans. This build tends to have the least stable of the manabases because black is far more demanding of a splash color than red, especially once you start wanting to jam DRS in it. Black also gives you access to fatal push, which is great against all the delvers kicking around. UWB also leans less heavily on countermagic because of thoughtseize-esque cards.
Personally, I play UWB blade because it’s the only blade deck that gives you proactive information. A T1 thoughtseize lets you take their best card, and more importantly sculpt a game plan around what your opponent has in hand. UW and UWr are pretty much reactive decks that lean on countermagic. Consequently, you’re forced to play games in the dark, which could lead to a lot of misplays. My assumption is that for really skilled players like QK, this isn’t really a problem since they’re just straight up better players. But getting to lean on a thoughtseize as a crutch for perfect information really helps.
In regards to esper’s difficulty in the current meta, this partially why I’ve built the deck the way I have. I’ve cut the normal 2 wastelands for another plains and another island for 6 total basics, which is unusual for an esper list. The two basic plains also help me play color intensive spells like verdict. Supreme verdict is largely a reaction to delver decks, a sweeper that can’t be stopped in a deck full of basics is really good. Delver is the reason unearth is in the MD and SB. Delver decks don’t have STP. Unearthing a stoneforge mystic essentially forces them into another 2-1. Unearthing also lets you “bait” verdicts by committing a TNN to the board without really caring. Unearthing snapcasters is also hilarious as it gives you a discount on flashback spells, albeit at sorcery speed.
But to me collective brutality is really what holds my esper deck together and it’s why I continue to push so vocally for the card. It kills, it duresses, and it gains life to help offset a thoughtseize, and in general it’s never really bad. It’s an absolute house against burn and elves if you escalate it. Ben Friedman does a really good job at explain brutality’s power here if you’re interested. My deck in a lot of ways is derived from his list.
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/benfri...age-in-legacy/
I do want to say that there likely isn’t a “correct” answer to this question. Play what you like, just know the strengths/weaknesses.
Jace is rough, it’s kinda why i’m screwing around with sideboarding out the stoneforge plan altogether in an effort to blank their kommands. You could try this, but I don’t know if it’s correct or not:
-3 Stoneforge Mystic
-1 Umezawa’s Jitte
-1 Batterskull
-1 Collective Brutality
+2 Flusterstorm
+1 Path to Exile
+1 Fatal Push
+1 Supreme Verdict
+1 Unearth