[Deck] DeathBlade

[Neo900]

RiP get the job often done. Against P.fire the best creatures is nemesis.

Against combo you have counter and ethersworn canonist. I like to play Invasive Surgery also. You could play RiP against ANT so they can't go off on past in flames.

[Basquiat]

Here is my current list:

21 Lands
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Scrubland
1 Bayou
2 Wasteland
1 Plains
1 Swamps
1 Island
1 Karakas

14 Creatures
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique


19 Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thoughtseize
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
1 Ponder
1 Vindicate
1 Council's Judgment

7 Big Spells
2 Jace, the Mind-Sculptor
1 Liliana Of the Veil
1 Sword of Fire And Ice
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte


Sideboard:
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's cage
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Containment Priest
3 Flusterstorm
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Lingering souls



I need help with the sideboard , as you would to the main archetypes format

[PotatoSol]

Congrats on the result. I guess its too late now, but you should prioritize getting more Underground Seas. Its the most important dual land in a Deathblade deck.

Also regarding your maindeck, 15 Blue cards isn't quite enough to support 4 Forces. Moving forward I would strongly suggest either moving one copy of Force to the side, or get up to at least 17 Blue cards main.



For permanent-based grave hate, Rest in Peace VS Cage depends on the meta you expect. These days I see a lot more Lands than Elves, so I almost always go with RIP. If you're worried about Punishing Fire in particular Surgical is another option. I typically play 1 RIP and 2 Surgical.

I have 1 underground sea at the moment, and I intend to get another (I wanted to run 2 seas and 2 tundras and 1 of the others). But I figured the trop was more important since I needed a g/u source and i didn't want to have to run a shock.

I'm thinking cutting a thoughtseize and cut council's judgment for 2 of either spell pierce, ponder, counterspell or something, not sure what. Thoughtseize was nice when I could open with it but it was dead so often, and I might just switch it to hymn and put a couple in the side. Council's judgment main was disapointing a lot of the times.

[Neo900]

Here is my current list:

21 Lands
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Scrubland
1 Bayou
2 Wasteland
1 Plains
1 Swamps
1 Island
1 Karakas

14 Creatures
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique


19 Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thoughtseize
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
1 Ponder
1 Vindicate
1 Council's Judgment

7 Big Spells
2 Jace, the Mind-Sculptor
1 Liliana Of the Veil
1 Sword of Fire And Ice
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte


Sideboard:
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's cage
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Containment Priest
3 Flusterstorm
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Lingering souls



I need help with the sideboard , as you would to the main archetypes format

You are playing green, why no decay mainboard. It's so good an better than Vindicate. I like a total of 2.
3 Flusterstorm seems a bit too much. Is your meta full of combo ? If not, cut them. 1 should be enough for a lonly ANT player or matchups like bug and miracles.
You are playing spell pierce>Thoughtseize. Thoughtseize is great. You get informations and take a card. That does more than Spell Pierce. It counters a noncreature. Thoughtseize takes it away from the hand, forces the opponent to other plays (which are worse) and you can work on informations.
You are playing karakas and plains. That are 2 monowhite manasources. Deathblade is so greedy and have to support its colors. 2 monowhite can kill you. You could play a Wasteland, creeping tar pit or an extra fetchland.
What does a 1-off Ponder for you ? As a Deck which can play a control role you could play a senseis diving top or sylvan library instead.
Both have pros and cons but they are redudant and deathblade needs some kind of redundancy.
Supreme Verdict is okay and playable. But we have access to black and can play Toxic Deluge. It costs 3 not 4 which makes a huge difference. The fact that it can be countered is not importamt. Decks like AggroLoam, death and taxes, eldrazi don't counter anyway.

Since our manabase is fragile I can just recomend Life from the loam in the Sideboard. It's great.
Also I liked Darkblast. Killing Dark Confidents and unflipped delvers and recycling it is great.

[Seraphix]

I got 1st at a ~30 player weekly playing Deathblade yesterday. Pretty generic list:

4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Stoneforge Mystic
2x Snapcaster Mage
3x True-Name Nemesis
1x Vendilion Clique

4x Brainstorm
2x Ponder
4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Thoughtseize
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Mana Leak
1x Vindicate
4x Force of Will
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Batterskull

4x Polluted Delta
4x Flooded Strand
2x Marsh Flats
3x Underground Sea
2x Tundra
1x Scrubland
1x Tropical Island
1x Island
1x Swamp
1x Plains
2x Wasteland

SB: 2x Surgical Extraction
SB: 2x Disfigure
SB: 2x Zealous Persecution
SB: 2x Meddling Mage
SB: 1x Rest in Peace
SB: 1x Invasive Surgery
SB: 1x Disenchant
SB: 1x Engineered Explosives
SB: 1x Pithing Needle
SB: 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
SB: 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant


My rounds went as follows:

Round 1: Shardless BUG (2-0)

Round 2: UG Infect (2-0)

Round 3: Burn (2-0)

Round 4: Mentor/0 Jace Miracles (1-1)

Round 5: Aggro Loam (2-0)


I think I got pretty lucky but the list is solid. I'm trying the Mana Leak in my maindeck flex slot but it hasn't been amazing so far. Also considering cutting 1 ZP from the board for a Toxic Deluge.

[PotatoSol]

Why are you running mana leak? Isn't Counterspell or even Remand just strictly better?

[Secretly.A.Bee]

IMO mana leak is just fine. Back when Landstill was played, we played a Miscalculation because UU is hard to get early and still make all your optimal plays. People also don't read in to only 1 open blue source as much.

Remand just isn't playable in this format.

[Neo900]

congrats for 1st place.
your list seems solid.
Mana leak is most of the time a hard counter and comes as a big suprise.
Vindicate is fine but why no councils judgment?
Sometimes we can't counter something so we need it.

[Seraphix]

Why are you running mana leak? Isn't Counterspell or even Remand just strictly better?

congrats for 1st place.
your list seems solid.
Mana leak is most of the time a hard counter and comes as a big suprise.
Vindicate is fine but why no councils judgment?
Sometimes we can't counter something so we need it.

Counterspell is playable in Deathblade, but Mana Leak is easier on a manabase with multiple basics (CS needs UUU to Snapcast). Same with WW for Council's Judgment.

Sometimes Leak is just Counterspell, which is great, but I boarded it out a bit more than I would have for CS (perhaps incorrectly). I'll likely go back to playing Spell Snare in this slot.

Vindicate is worse than CJ in a lot of situations, but being a Stone Rain comes up surprisingly often.


Also, does anyone have thoughts on the new BW planeswalker from Conspiracy 2 in this deck? Its being talked about in Esper decks, but I can't see myself running it over Jace or Elspeth.

[Neo900]

kaya seems so good. She is pure card advantage and destroys our control enemies with -2. the blink is quiet good with stoneforge or exiling other creatures until our turn for a safe attack with everything. -1 seems okay. While stalling we can do some damage but I see the 0 and -2 as a great addition to our deck.
I am going to give her a try in place of a Liliana. As Planeswalker I have then 1 jace, 1 liliana, 1 kaya and a Nahiri lithomance in my board.

[PotatoSol]

I'm thinking about running her too. Straight value with Baleful strix too. I don't run snap or clique but with this I might.

[PotatoSol]

Sanctum Prelate seems amazing. Recruiter of the guard seems great too. I think I'm going to go to 2-3x Stoneforges, 0x Council's Judgment, and 0-2x Baleful Strixes for some number of recruiters and Prelates.

[Neo900]

sanctum prelate hurts us. on 1 we die and 2 or 3 is not as good as 1.
recruiter seems fine. but I don't know what I should cut. Also we lose more speed. we are not fast anyway and stoneforge timewalks to often just like recruiter would. He enables a toolbox for our deck and we will see how good he really is.

[PotatoSol]

The numbers I would name for prelate are:

Miracles - 6 (For Terminus)
ANT - 4 (For Tendrils and Empty the Warrens)
Imperial Painter - 2 or 3 (For Grindstone or Blood Moon/Bridge)

I haven't thought too much about it but none of those numbers really hurt us too badly. I don't run any 6 cmc cards, Jace is my only 4. Putting in on 2 or 3 is a little more annoying but I think it's worth it in match ups where that a card at those cmcs just kills us. Remember, it doesn't hit creatures.


As for the recruiter, I think we'd go a little more toolboxy with that build, and start including weird creatures as 1-ofs in the main or side that answer specific things. Maybe this is changing the deck too similar to D&T or Maverick but I think it might be worth it. Some random creatures off the top of my head are peacekeeper (vs something like Eldrazi or Elves), Ethersworn Canonist (combo), spirit of the labyrinth (combo), Prelate (when necessary), etc, etc, etc.

[Neo900]

prelate could be a sideboard option.
the toolbox thing could work but it also slow. first for 3 the recruiter and then the creatures. against eldrazi I have the feeling there's no time.

[Seraphix]

sanctum prelate hurts us. on 1 we die and 2 or 3 is not as good as 1.
recruiter seems fine. but I don't know what I should cut. Also we lose more speed. we are not fast anyway and stoneforge timewalks to often just like recruiter would. He enables a toolbox for our deck and we will see how good he really is.

The numbers I would name for prelate are:

Miracles - 6 (For Terminus)
ANT - 4 (For Tendrils and Empty the Warrens)
Imperial Painter - 2 or 3 (For Grindstone or Blood Moon/Bridge)

I haven't thought too much about it but none of those numbers really hurt us too badly. I don't run any 6 cmc cards, Jace is my only 4. Putting in on 2 or 3 is a little more annoying but I think it's worth it in match ups where that a card at those cmcs just kills us. Remember, it doesn't hit creatures.


As for the recruiter, I think we'd go a little more toolboxy with that build, and start including weird creatures as 1-ofs in the main or side that answer specific things. Maybe this is changing the deck too similar to D&T or Maverick but I think it might be worth it. Some random creatures off the top of my head are peacekeeper (vs something like Eldrazi or Elves), Ethersworn Canonist (combo), spirit of the labyrinth (combo), Prelate (when necessary), etc, etc, etc.

Prelate is interesting but I'd rather have Chris Pikula in many situations. Costing two versus three mana is a HUGE difference (think being on the draw against combo), and Pikula pitches to Force.

Miracles has a good spread of CMC so its never a hoser in that matchup. I don't love Pikula in the matchup either, but he's fine. Setting this dude to 6 is the same thing as just naming Terminus. You gain some value on 2 to hit Predict and Counterspell along with Counterbalance. 1 will be good in some spots too. This depends on the composition of your own deck though.

The only matchups I can immediately think of where he's a huge upgrade over Pikula are the Punishing Fire/Abrupt Decay/Life from the Loam/Golgari Charm decks, which are very good against us.

If you want to incorporate new Recruiter it pushes the deck in a very different direction. I think this card is a more relevant addition to decks that don't have access to Skillstorm and Pondurdle to find the stuff they need.

[yotrixxx]

hi guys so im a fairly new magic player (about a year) and even newer legacy player about a month and this is the deck I chose, I hate having unwinnable matchups and like winning off the back of my play skill not dropping cards that say oops i win. having said that i cant find much on the deck thats not very very old. are there any good matchup guides or sideboard guides anyone can point me too, this thread seems like its mostly just arguments over lists lol ,

the list im playing is

4 deathrite
4 stone forge
2 true name
2 snapcaster
1 spell pierce
2 ponder
3 abrupt decay
3 swords to plowshare
1 vendillion clique
3 thought sieze
1 inquisition of kozilek
1 batterskull
1 jitte
3 force of will
4 brainstorm
2 jace
1 lingering souls
4 delta
4 misty
1 strand
3 sea
3 tundra
2 trop
1 scrub
1 savannah
2 waste
1 karakas

sideboard
1 life from the loam
1 ee
1 verdict
1 vendillion clique
1 zealoys persecution
1 councils judgement
2 flusterstorm
1 painful truths
1 fow
3 surgical extraction
2 rest in peace

[diablo4488]

are there any good matchup guides or sideboard guides anyone can point me too, this thread seems like its mostly just arguments over lists lol ,

I think the deck is not so easy to play. You can choose so many different ways (and this makes it also interesting).
Certainly practice is the best advice here. What are the matchups you're scared the most?
I think you should probably also add some Baleful Strix to your MB, this creature is just hilarious (maybe cut Clique to SB and remove 1 Decay as you already play 4 discard spells).

[KobeBryan]

hi guys so im a fairly new magic player (about a year) and even newer legacy player about a month and this is the deck I chose, I hate having unwinnable matchups and like winning off the back of my play skill not dropping cards that say oops i win. having said that i cant find much on the deck thats not very very old. are there any good matchup guides or sideboard guides anyone can point me too, this thread seems like its mostly just arguments over lists lol ,

the list im playing is

4 deathrite
4 stone forge
2 true name
2 snapcaster
1 spell pierce
2 ponder
3 abrupt decay
3 swords to plowshare
1 vendillion clique
3 thought sieze
1 inquisition of kozilek
1 batterskull
1 jitte
3 force of will
4 brainstorm
2 jace
1 lingering souls
4 delta
4 misty
1 strand
3 sea
3 tundra
2 trop
1 scrub
1 savannah
2 waste
1 karakas

sideboard
1 life from the loam
1 ee
1 verdict
1 vendillion clique
1 zealoys persecution
1 councils judgement
2 flusterstorm
1 painful truths
1 fow
3 surgical extraction
2 rest in peace

Why do you need 9 pieces of gy hate

[Neo900]

True. the 3 surgical are too much.
Pithing needle and zealous persecution are good options. also toxic deluge is good.
baleful strix is strong right now. It gives you card advantage and blocks everyone.
Liliana of the veil offers also removal and advantage against control decks.
Since you are playing 4 stoneforge you could play a 3rd equipment at least in the board.
sylvan library offers long time advantage instead of painful truths.