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MJL's points have merit, but running a bad hybrid of DoJ and White Sun's Zenith is not the answer.

I would rather cast Stoneforge Mystic against any deck than I would Entreat the Angels.

Whether it will be time to finally hang up my Counterbalances remains to be seen; we have to wait to see...

I could see playing Terminus in the sideboard. In fact, I like it a lot, although I'd have to actually test it out.

I'm hesitant to try to adapt the new cards before seeing what happens in the...

Reporting back:
Stillmoon Cavalier was insane, even better than I expected. Against Esperblade, I'd much rather have shackles + stillmoon than Jace any day of the week.

You actually have a surprisingly small amount of ways to interact with Show+Tell.dec. Forces, Counterspells, and landing a Counterbalance on 3. Meanwhile, they can usually go off turn 3 with...

How? Have you played against this deck? It's probably the worst matchup. Now, granted, it is way over-represented in my meta, so you could easily ignore it in a larger tournament.


The issue...

Learned some more things:

Nobody else reads this thread.
Stillmoon Cavalier is a card you can maindeck, and is amazing against Stoneforge decks.


My sideboard now contains cards only for...

Trinket Mage has been underperforming. The decks it helped to prey upon in the past--Vial aggro, Zoo, Survival--are all gone.

I am anxious to try the following build, although I don't have the...

I haven't stopped jamming Counterbalance. Here are some things I've learned:

The only thing you care about is the opponent's tempo.
You can afford 5 colorless sources in UW if you have 22...

I more or less agree on all points. Note that some of the things I said are now outdated.

Really? This deck is loaded with answers to Jace. We can play a Pithing Needle at any time. We can play EE at 4. We have Snapcaster, which is pretty good against Jace. We have Batterskull, plus...

Dismember's 4 life is very significant. Between fetches, force, and that...you're basically starting games at 10-12 life.

The following list has tested well against the meta:
4 Flooded Strand
4...

I find Stoneforge Mystic to be miserable against any deck with Lightning Bolt, and right now that's all of them.

Note: I don't know how the following applies to Thopter lists.

At this point I am starting to think that Countertop lists need to run 8 pieces of removal. 4 of those should be a 1cc removal...

Posting a deck list and not explaining the choices you made that differ from the norm isn't very useful.

I wouldn't run Stifle-Dreadnaught in a mono blue list; those cards don't do enough, and are way outside the plan of the deck. I'd rather just win with some combination of Shackles, Jace, Trinket...

Uh, may I point out Probasco's list from GP: Chicago 2009? I guess he did splash for EE.

I have said this before, and I am saying it again now. You should know every time you are going to be Stifled, and you should know when to play around it, when to take the risk, and when to bait the...

I don't really think it's worthwhile to discuss sub-optimal options in a deck that runs around $1000 USD, especially if the optimal one isn't in the Grim Tutor / Moat / Tabernacle price range.

Also, and this probably goes for every version: Counterbalance comes out against Merfolk and Goblins.

In actual practice Mutavault is going to be abysmal compared to Mishra's Factory.

I don't see a reason to not run a basic plains.

I don't understand any of the sideboard choices. Shackles is...

Honestly Nassif's list from 2009 seems amazingly well-positioned right now.

I think it's interesting you think the format is too fast for Stoneforge Mystic, the proceed to run Snapcaster, Jace, and only 20 lands.

The environment is extremely hostile to this deck now. Team America, Landstill, and Merfolk are all matchups that you have to warp your deck to beat, and by and large they've all gained more from MM...

That's not really countertop; that's a deck with counterbalance-top in it. This thread is already straddling enough archtypes, we don't need to add more.