UW Blade on the way to Legacy Stoneblade

[Chmur]

To avoid confusion - this deck is intended for MODERN play only.

Hello,

posted this on official MTG forums as well, but figured out posting here can only up my chances of getting more help/info/suggestions.

title says it all. I am die-hard UW player, tried other archetypes, colours and everytime returned back to the comforting waters of UW deck - and thus decided to build UW Stoneblade for Legacy format. Now, my friends are dabbling with getting into Modern from Standard and I started to think whether I am able to create a UW Blade deck for Modern using as many cards I'll be picking up for Legacy so I can ease the financial burden a little. This is my decklist so far so if you please could take a look at it and see if there are better options there, especially in the counterspell area.

I am not a PTQ/GP player and will never attend one with this deck. I am looking for a deck that won't end the day with 0-4 record in local shop tournament (T1 to homebrews) and doesn't need to be built from scratch - the investment I have to make for following list is 2 Hallowed Fountains, 2 Mutavaults, 1 Cryptic Command and 3 Kitchen Finks. Rest I either already have or am getting for Legacy regardless.

6x Island
4x Seachrome Coast
2x Scalding Tarn
3x Mutavault
3x Hallowed Fountain
2x Moorland Haunt
2x Celestial Colonnade
1x Arid Mesa
1x Plains
1x Tectonic Edge

3 fetches to thin out deck, 5 manlands and fetchable mana base should cover it alright here. Not sure if single TecEdge is enough.

4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Squadron Hawk
2x Vendilion Clique

Snaps as staple in any U control deck, white crows to thin deck some more and good clique never hurts.

2x Spell Pierce
3x Cryptic Command
3x Spell Snare
3x Mana Leak

Counterspell suite - getting playset of pierces and snares for Legacy regardless, so thought of using it here as well. Due to my limited knowledge of Modern is there plenty of good 2cmc spells to snare? Pondering cutting one Cryptic Command for Mana Leak/Spell Pierce. Was thinking running Muddle the Mixtures so I can tutor the 2cmc cards.

4x Path to Exile

White removal, need I say more?

1x Steelshaper's Gift

Equipment tutor. Not sure if 1 is enough.

2x Vedalken Shackles
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Batterskull

Not entirely sold on Shackles, but seen it on few UW modern decks so thought why the hell not. With 10 Islands in deck it should work, right?

2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3x Jace Beleren

Singlehandedly THE best white PW ever printed, possibly THE best PW. Baby Jace is nowhere near as cool as JTMS, but it's cheap repeatable card draw. Used him post ban in Caw-Blade standard, he performed well there. Since any deck manipulation is banned, gotta stick with it.

Sideboard:
3x Kitchen Finks
3x Disenchant
2x Dispel
2x Sunlance
2x Wrath of God
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Relic of Progenitus

This is the basic idea of SB. Not entirely sure what local field will consist of, so that's really just rough draft.

[lavafrogg]

I would suggest going to the UW Blade section in the DTB format and aligning your decklist to be as close to those as possible. The stoneforge/batterskull interaction is actually the stronger part of the UW control deck in that it lets you get on the board as fast as possible(for a control deck).

Many near legacy staples/legacy staples are quite cheap and should be purchased/traded for if you want to play in the format i.e. mishra's factories, swords to plowshares, brainstorm....

If you want to build a modern deck and play it in legacy that is also an acceptable plan but you would be outclassed along the power level of your deck, for that purpose read in the modern thread and mimic what you can do. A U/W Delver tempo list could have a shot in any format as could a U/W land-still build utilizing standstill and your man-lands(ghost quarter would be the best wasteland replacement but it is better to just ignore wasteland altogether if you don't have them...).

Buuutttttt....... if i had to offer you some help to fix your list as best as possible.

1. Cut squadron hawk or play legacy and get brainstorms and the real jace. Without both the hawks have little/no purpose.

2. Get Stoneforge mystics and batterskull. This should not need an explanation.

3. Play more wrath of gods. With your man land base you want to wrath as often as possible, I would cut all of the non-manland non-fetch non basics and get a solid mana base so you can wrath on turn four as often as possible.

4. Get force of wills. There is no real replacement for them in legacy and any blue based control deck should start and end with 4.

5. Counter-spell over mana leak. You aren't racing anyone with your clock, you need to be able to say no all game long.

6. Standstill or Ancestral visions are probably better than jace.

[Chmur]

Right. Appreciate the input, but I think we misunderstood each other right from the start. I am building Stoneblade for Legacy and that's my ultimate goal. FoWs, Mystics, JTMS and all that fancy stuff.

This deck is for MODERN. The format without FoWs, with banned Mystics and JTMS and all that fancy stuff. I knew the title and explanation might've been misleading and I am sorry for that.

3. Play more wrath of gods. With your man land base you want to wrath as often as possible, I would cut all of the non-manland non-fetch non basics and get a solid mana base so you can wrath on turn four as often as possible.

That Wrath part might actually work and is advice worth considering, not feeling like giving up the fetches, all in all they are just coloured mana when it comes to it - fetching Fountain EOT to keep it shock free is just alright.

5. Counter-spell over mana leak. You aren't racing anyone with your clock, you need to be able to say no all game long.

I was thinking about it for the legacy deck (as that one plays 3 leaks), but I think that the Legacy deck benefits more from Mana Leaks - in case I get into Factory-Tundra-Fetch lands on T3 I probably will rather 1U leak and crack fetch for EOT brainstorm or any other 1cmc counter available. As well, having Leaks in Legacy makes FoW exile choice quite simplish.

[boneclub24]

Just wondering if you've seen this post by me:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...W-Delver-Blade

Different decks but similar skeletons.

[Chmur]

Just wondering if you've seen this post by me:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...W-Delver-Blade

Different decks but similar skeletons.

Truth be told I avoid all Delver or Delver+Geist decks like a plague. I tried shifting to them from Caw-Blade when Standard changed and I simply don't like the playstyle, so that's not an option for me. As well, a friend of mine is building UWr Delver for Modern so I would love to do something different in case we feel like swapping decks around for some events and such.

Serum visions and Remand seem like reasonable choices, how are they working for you? I am opposed to Remand due to the fact that, unlike Delver decks that are on fast clock, UW with blade finisher is more about tempo and wearing down your opponent before striking him down, so the draw at the cost of opponent recasting spell next turn doesn't seem too appealing to me. Then again setting opponent 1 turn back for 2 mana and getting a draw from it might work.

[boneclub24]

Remand is an excellent tempo tool, and Serum is the best 1 mana cantrip in the format.

[Chmur]

Remand is an excellent tempo tool, and Serum is the best 1 mana cantrip in the format.

I've been testing Remand in the deck on Cockatrice for 20 games and there's the interaction with Vendilion Clique I haven't really thought about. But countering the rocks or bombs of opponent decks and them tucking them away proves to be very valid strategy.

I have altered the list over the weekend, too:

3 Celestial Colonnade
5 Island
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Arid Mesa
1 Plains
3 Tectonic Edge

4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Squadron Hawk
2 Vendilion Clique

2 Spell Pierce
2 Cryptic Command
4 Path to Exile
3 Spell Snare
3 Remand
2 Mana Leak

1 Steelshaper's Gift

2 Vedalken Shackles
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Feast and Famine

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Jace Beleren

SB: 3 Kitchen Finks
SB: 2 Disenchant
SB: 2 Dispel
SB: 2 Sunlance
SB: 2 Wrath of God
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence


I have been dabbling with the thought of letting Mana Leaks go altogether and adding 1-2 to Cryptic Commands. Then again I didn't really have too many chances to squeeze out the max out of Commands (or maybe I'm just playing them wrong as a counterspell + effect, need to see if pre-combat tapping and draw or bounce is valid too in some matchups).

As far as the card drawing goes, I haven't yet gotten to test Serrum Visions, as Jace Beleren seems to earn his spot quite okay. On the other hand, 1UU is quite the mana hog early in the game, so I have scheduled some testing with deck that plays no Jaces and plays 3-4 Visions (4 if I add only 1 command). I cut down 1 Elspeth as she is a game breaker, but by the time I can get her out and secure her with crows and whatnot I can quite reliably dig just the one in the deck and having 2 makes one very, very dead card.

Sideboard: Aside the fact that I have little to no clue how to sideboard in Modern (really don't know deck archetypes and what these decks play, that's study material for upcoming weeks), I decided to cut 1 Disenchant as 2 so far seemed alright and decided to add Linvala. To be honest, I have no idea why, but many UW tempo and control decks play 1 in sideboard so I just tossed her in for good measure.

[Mr Miagi]

3 fetches to thin out deck

indeed

I beleive you need more equipment. At least another sword would be welcome.. and I think you should not play this deck without 2(+) Elspeth 1.0

[Chmur]

I beleive you need more equipment. At least another sword would be welcome.. and I think you should not play this deck without 2(+) Elspeth 1.0

Well, so far haven't found myself in situation where more equipment would be needed. With this counterspell and removal suite that the deck packs, once I play the sword, it stays there. Batterskull can simply just bounce for 3 so that's quite covered as well. It's not really about having more items, but more about learning the opponent decks and finding the right way to play them. I'd like to know if your advice come from playing this deck and in that case I'd love to know what match-ups you struggled with keeping your equipment alive and a suggestion what to cut for the extra sword; if you haven't played this deck and it's just a feeling then I gotta say so far I am very happy with how the 2 pieces fare as I've so far haven't encountered a single match where loosing sword meant defeat. It was either lost way before that point or I have won regardless if I lost sword.

As far as Elspeth goes - I said that in my post just above yours. I started testing with 2 and it just wasn't worth it. Oftentimes I got 2 in my hand and couldn't even put her online as that would make me tap out with no real chance of getting back in my opponent's turn. I can see matchups and matches where T4 Elspeth +1 Token seals the game, but that her 2nd copy on the list of "let's try having it in SB instead of ??" that will be perfected over the course of the following months and attending tourneys, testing local meta etc.

[Chmur]

Alright. Elspeth's are back at the count of 2.

Jace Beleren is most of the time unfortunately just not cutting it, so I am on the outlook for Visions.

Had real issues with UWR Delver scepter, putting Fire and Ice into SB worked alright for post SB games, along with Disenchants. And I really think I'll cut 1 spell pierce and/or Mana Leak for Command, as there was plenty of times I prayed for Command topdeck.