Hey guys, figured I’d post this list up finally, I’ve been playing deathblade for a while now and been tinkering with the list as I went along, this is what I currently play and I’m reasonably happy with. I’ve put up reasonable results with it at local weekly games. I’m admittedly not the best pilot, so I’ve likely left quite a few wins on the table.
Yes, I know the list is 61 cards. But I couldn’t figure out what to cut .
Lands-23
4
Polluted Delta4
Flooded Strand1
Marsh Flats3
Underground Sea2
Tundra1
Tropical Island2
Wasteland1
Karakas2
Island1
Plains1
Swamp
Creatures-13
4
Deathrite Shaman3
True-Name Nemesis4
Stoneforge Mystic1
Vendilion Clique1
Snapcaster Mage
Spells: 22
4
Force of Will2
Spell Pierce1
Counterspell1
Esper Charm3
Thoughtseize4
Brainstorm2
Ponder4
Swords to Plowshares1
Vindicate
Artifacts: 2
1
Batterskull1
Umezawa’s Jitte
Planeswalkers: 2
2
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Sideboard:
4
Thopter Foundry1
Sword of the Meek1
Ethersworn Canonist2
Containment Priest2
Rest in Peace2
Flusterstorm2
Abrupt Decay1
Toxic Deluge
Maindeck:
I feel the main deck is pretty standard, not many curveballs here. I do run basics as my meta currently seems to be teeming with blood moons and wastelands. Generally I also prefer just having a more stable mana base, so it’s not as greedy as other lists I’ve seen on here. The lone tropical island is really only in here for reanimator or miracles. Otherwise it’s a 3rd nonbasic island.
I’ve been seeing some dimir charm and painful truths in lists recently but I do think that esper charm is more flexible/better than either of these cards. End step drawing 2 or making an opponent discard 2 feels very good, and it’s also somewhat of answer to miracles as 3 is a relatively difficult number for them to come up with. In the miracles matchup I view this as half an abrupt decay.
I’d like to add a deluge maindeck and maybe one more counterspell or a snapcaster mage. Finding the space is difficult though. I also want to experiment with monastery mentor as well, perhaps I will end up cutting a TNN for it.
Just curious though, is the 23 land count too high? A lot of blade lists I see run as few as 21, with most at 22. Might be able to make space that way.
Sideboard:
Most of my sideboard feels pretty vanilla, I don’t feel like I’m making any waves here. Except for the thopter foundry combo.
I have a mild transformational sideboard into a thopter foundry combo. While I’ve gone back and forth on its inclusion I do like it and I’ll walk through my rationale because it’s probably the most interesting piece of tech in the deck.
Start with the bad. For starters it takes up 1/3 of my sideboard slots. Because it’s an artifact/equipment based strategy, it’s likely going to be impacted by the natural sideboard choices against the maindeck deathblade list. It’s also a relatively slow combo to set up, but we are naturally a slower deck and deathrites can help get this out a bit earlier.
The good, it flat out wins grindy games. Typically I yank 4 FoW and in goes the Thopter combo. In grindy games the combo is good if you have it in your early hand and just try to stick it immediately. It’s also good if you find it late game with 5-6 mana and you can immediately turn it on. Also, it’s almost always a G2 surprise and catches opponents off guard. I’ve won miracles matchups with this combo as it makes terminus way worse. On a more marginal note, as long as I have a basic island/plains up, I no longer care about blood moons anymore. The combo runs on colorless mana.
Anyway, I’d appreciate any feedback you have! Always looking to improve.