[Deck] Deathblade

[RHWil]

Got wrecked by storm when testing my first time against it. I’m thinking AN is the card to fight over. Waited for Tendrils and let AN resolve. Quickly learned that was a bad idea. My SB plan is 2 Flusterstorms, 2 Meddling Mage, 3 Surgical Extraction. Already running 4 FOW and 4 Thoughtseize.

[First_Revenge]

AD is definitely the card you want to fight over. Their tutors are also decent things to fight over, although i believe storm player sometimes just like to use them as bait for your countermagic.

I don't know your decklist so specific advice is difficult in a deck as configurable as stoneblade, but that being the case i think a really good card for our deck is collective brutality. Its a decent killspell and a decent discard spell. Cards like swords to plowshares are truly excellent but they're dead draws in a the storm matchup for example.

To show you what i mean, here is what my deck looks like post sideboard against a storm deck:
4 FoW
2 Spell Pierce
2 Flusterstorm
1 Invasive Surgery
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Collective Brutality
3 Thoughtseize
2 Zealous Persection(if they run empty the warrens)
1 Engineered Explosives(if they run empty the warrens)

Thats 9 Counterspells, 6 discard spells, 2 yard hate cards, and 3 outs to empty the warrens with snapcaster mage to buy some of those spells back.

At the same time collective brutality lets me do this against a aggro/delver deck:
4 STP
2 Fatal Push
3 Collective Brutality
2 Zealous Persection
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Engineered Plague

Collective Brutality lets me turn my deck into a pile of killspells or a pile of discard/countermagic.

As a side note collective brutality against burn is hilariously effective if you escalate it twice.

[RHWil]

Since I’ve only played Legacy entire 3 week’s I felt like I needed a tuned list and I know I wanted to play Bant or Esper Deathblade so I ended up using Molz’s 75 but swapping out 1 Leovold in the SB for a Clique because I wanted more hand disruption.

My post SB options include
4 FOW
2 Flusterstorm
4 Thoughtseize
1 Clique
3 Surgical
2 Meddling Mage
3 Zealous although I’d probably only go w 2 unless I’m playing Elves or DNT.

I’d probably cut 4 Plows, 1 Jitte, and 2 Strix for sure. Possibly some mix of SFM or TNN. Keeping in Leovold feels right though. Still need to cut 2-3 cards after Plows and Strix.

[tescrin]

I really wouldn't run MMage until you're quite proficient. Running Canonist is likely to win you more games even in the other MUs you're gonna board in MMage in. Canonist is great against Infect, Aluren, Food Chain, Storm, and even when it comes to decks it seems mediocre against; like sneakshow; it's a house.

The reason is because it makes all engagements 1-sided. If you're ahead on board you can just leave up a wall of counters and all your opponent can do is trade 1-for-1 each turn with their spells until you run out of counters; which you should be able to judge whether or not you need to counter a spell via meta knowledge.

In order:
* Nuke Ad Nausium -> It's almost always a desperation play these days; as the decks are more likely to win with PiF or just a good Tutor hand.
* Nuke Tutors, but usually only if they're pretty deep or they're using it to get an answer for the boardstate
* Consider nuking Rituals/LEDs -> Careful here, but if you can count their mana properly you can often snip their second ritual or so and really screw them up. It may feel better when you get a 5-for-1 by getting the tutor after popping an LED; but it feels a lot worse when they Ritual, Ritual, Duress, LED, Tutor, You Lose. Doing this bullet point properly takes a lot of good judgement, hand knowledge, etc..

Other times, if you run some heavily conditional counters like Spell Pierce, you may consider hitting random cantrips in the early game just to slow them down. They're cantripping for a reason, and Spierce is a really really mediocre card against them unless you pinch a lucky ritual or they squeeze their mana too hard.

[cheinp]

I won last small 20 people tournament (no swiss) with quite Molz7 list. The deck is awesome. 13 points, losing dice all times.

Only changing:
Main:
-1 Seize / +1 Fatal push

Side:
-1 Zealous / +1 Elspeth
-2 Meddling / +1 Canonist + 1 Kambal
-1 Leovold / +1 Collective Brutality (I side in all time and thinking about change it by push...)

Pairs (couldn't test against combo):

Deathblade Mirror: 2-1. Basically the first one who resolve an equiped TNN won. Leovold was important as well... I had better draws than him so...

Jeskai Delver: 2-1. It was a weird version of JD. Cutting his delver was enough, he couldn't deal with my TNNs. The one I lost he had 3 delvers which was too much punch for me...

Blade: 1-0. I really sweated against him. I've got the TNN advantage but their veredicts wipe me out more than once... He finally lost the first long one and in the second one he resolved a blood moon but time was running out and five turns weren't enough for him.

4c: 1-1. Long matches. I won the first and he beat me the second crashing me with thousands of kolaghans... No time for tie-break.

Grixis Pyromancer: 2-1. Batterskull won alone the first one. Two delvers and 3bolts were demasiado for me in the second. Third one, Batterskull equiping TNN for the win.

:D

[Hrothgar]

:D

Congrats!
Can you post your 75?

[RHWil]

Heres Molz’s list that I run. Only change I made is 1 Clique for the Leovold in the SB. It’s the same list as cheinp with the changes stated.

Deck: Legacy Esper Deathblade 1.1.dec

Counts : 60 main / 15 sideboard

Creatures:17
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Baleful Strix
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
4 True-Name Nemesis

Spells:22
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Thoughtseize
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Batterskull
4 Force of Will

Lands:21
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
2 Wasteland

Sideboard:15
2 Meddling Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Flusterstorm
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Sylvan Library
3 Zealous Persecution
2 Council's Judgment
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

[cheinp]

Congrats!
Can you post your 75?

It is quite the same as Jon Goss one.

Creatures [17]

1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Baleful Strix
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 True-Name Nemesis

Instants [13]

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Fatal Push

Sorceries [6]

3 Ponder
3 Thoughtseize

Planeswalkers [1]

1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Artifacts [2]

1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Lands [21]

1 Island
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Tropical Island
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Tundra
2 Wasteland
3 Underground Sea
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta

Side:
2 Council's Judgment
2 Flusterstorm
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Kambal Consul of Allocation
1 Sylvan Library
1 Collective Brutality
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Elspeth Knight Errant

[First_Revenge]

It is quite the same as Jon Goss one.

Not sure if you are aware but molz=jon goss

[militiaman89]

As far as TNN vs Mentor is concerned, they do different things which I don't think are easily comparable. In the right spot, Mentor can be very resilient to spot removal. It's also much better when you can Probe/Therapy to clear the way first, or can protect it for a turn.

TNN is much stronger against heavy spot removal decks, and against decks with a slower clock. TNN is more vulnerable to sweep effects... TNN is vulnerable to Zealous Persecution, Marsh Casualties, Golgar Charm, etc, where Mentor is not.

Running Deluge in the board when you play TNN is a non-bo, whereas it becomes an option if you play Mentor.

TNN is vulnerable to Pyroblast, where Mentor is not. Mentor is vulnerable to Sulfur Elemental or Dread of Night, where TNN is not.

TNN is more vulnerable to Diabolic Edict and Drop of Honey. Mentor is more vulnerable to Abrupt Decay.

TNN is atrocious against combo decks, where Mentor is fantastic. TNN is better in an aggro/tempo approach, whereas Mentor is better in a control approach.

Mentor has the ability to bring you back from losing board states in a way TNN never could, but requires a deck composition that is heavy in non-land, non-creature spells, and requires that you have the resources to do it. TNN is a better topdeck when you are empty-handed.

So the point is that it's not really cut and dry. Both have pros and cons. I like both approaches. I've had great success with Bant Deathblade, and I've had great success with Mentor Deathblade. I don't think either approach is better than the other.

Hey hanni been jamming your list on mtgo, would love to see your sideboard guide for the matchups. Only change i made was -1 EE +1 liliana of the last hope. The deck felt fantastic but didnt know if i sideboard properly even though i didnt win a majority of my matches. Also wondered if daze over pierce was considered as it works with dropping a mentor on turn two alot more valued. Ive played about 5-6 matches and only lost to lands which his hands were insane and it was still very close games. Im going to a larger legacy event this coming weekend and had a.meta full of grixis, lands and delver x decks. I feel that this build or.one with moon.in board would be best and wondered what your insight on it is.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[cheinp]

Not sure if you are aware but molz=jon goss

I am :D

[Hanni]

Hey hanni been jamming your list on mtgo, would love to see your sideboard guide for the matchups. Only change i made was -1 EE +1 liliana of the last hope. The deck felt fantastic but didnt know if i sideboard properly even though i didnt win a majority of my matches. Also wondered if daze over pierce was considered as it works with dropping a mentor on turn two alot more valued. Ive played about 5-6 matches and only lost to lands which his hands were insane and it was still very close games. Im going to a larger legacy event this coming weekend and had a.meta full of grixis, lands and delver x decks. I feel that this build or.one with moon.in board would be best and wondered what your insight on it is.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I have a sideboarding guide on a word doc on my work computer. I need to make some adjustments to it, but I may try to post it soon. Not sure if I'll have the time to do it before your event on the weekend, so I apologize in advance if I cannot.

I had considered Daze in earlier iterations, but the deck doesn't really want to set itself back on land drops, and Spell Pierce is more effective than Daze past the first couple of turns. Daze is great for the times when the deck can ramp into a turn 2 Mentor, but the frequency of that line is fairly low (turn 1 DRS dies often).

[ntropy]

I have a sideboarding guide on a word doc on my work computer. I need to make some adjustments to it, but I may try to post it soon. Not sure if I'll have the time to do it before your event on the weekend, so I apologize in advance if I cannot.

I would love to see that. I'm trying to reignite the fires of Legacy in a friend, and this is likely the correct deck for them, but it's out of my wheelhouse. A guide to shore up his considerable playskill with some meta knowledge and guidelines would be great.

[Hrothgar]

Everyone want to see that guide Hanni!
If you want to join the Discord Blade Group, a lot of player are interesting to your deck!
I, as always, have some doubt about the 18 lands but the deck work ah ah, i don't know how with 2 Jace and 4 Mentors!
Anyway, one of the most nice deck of this last months.

[Hanni]

Everyone want to see that guide Hanni!
If you want to join the Discord Blade Group, a lot of player are interesting to your deck!
I, as always, have some doubt about the 18 lands but the deck work ah ah, i don't know how with 2 Jace and 4 Mentors!
Anyway, one of the most nice deck of this last months.

The manabase works because the deck has 12 cantrips, 4 Deathrite Shaman, and 4 basic lands with very light colored requirements for its spells. It might look crazy on paper, but it works fine in actual play.

[Hrothgar]

The manabase works because the deck has 12 cantrips, 4 Deathrite Shaman, and 4 basic lands with very light colored requirements for its spells. It might look crazy on paper, but it works fine in actual play.

Tanks for reply!
I want to test your idea!

[Cyanhur]

Hi, can i have your opinion about this list :

1 Batterskull
1 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
2 Lingering Souls
1 Tropical Island
2 Island
2 Tundra
2 Wasteland
2 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Swamp
3 Thoughtseize
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
4 True-Name Nemesis
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Underground Sea
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Force of Will
4 Polluted Delta
3 Ponder
1 Scrubland

SB: 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
SB: 2 Zealous Persecution
SB: 1 Liliana, the Last Hope
SB: 2 Meddling Mage
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 Disenchant
SB: 2 Flusterstorm
SB: 1 Council's Judgment
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Fatal Push or 1 push + 1 edit diabolic

Somes Friends say me your mana base is strange or maybe cut one TNN for other Creature

Thanks for your anwser!

The metagame is eldrazi, grixis delver bug control, 4c control cz pile, some others deck

[First_Revenge]

Hey there!

Just for future reference, please list your cards in some sort of order. Lands, creatures, spells, etc... Makes it much easier to read.

That being said the list looks fine. I’d probably cut a TNN for a leovold. In these value heavy matchups, perhaps a second jace would suit you well.

The absence of spell pierce could hurt you in matchups like Czech pile. Pierce is great against kommand, planeswalkers, hymn, and just generally speaking combo decks.

That’d be where I start. You can look at my list posted above for what I used to run, its warped around collective brutality, which is really good.

[Neo900]

After a long time offline I'm back at The Source with another big sucess at the MKM Series Frankfurt (Germany).
After 10 rounds of magic I was able to reach Top 16 (11th) out of 380 players. I started with a bye and lost against Omnishow and ANT.
Round 1- Bye

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Round 2- UB Deathshadow 2-1; game 2 he was able to cut me of my mana completly and I lost. Overall my opponent had really bad draws and bad keeps with solo wasteland etc

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Round 3- Death and Taxes 2-0; both games straigth into Jitte and True-Name Nemesis

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Round 4- Omnishow 2-0; Starting of with discard and a fast clock. Game 2 I start with Meddling Mage and lock him down with Jace

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Round 5- BUG Delver 2-1; Against a friend of mine. The games were very long. Game 1 is quite a race. I have many removal spells. After top decking Jace I was able to bounce Tarmogoyf and attack for win with Notion thief and Jitte. Game 2 I lost against Loam Wasteland lock. Game 3 was very tough. We spent all our spells to a final stall between Baleful Strix and Tarmoyf. I had to set Pithing Needle on Deathrite Shaman to prevent losing against his 2 Shaman. After topdecking a Stoneforge I was able to get Batterskull. With an attack into Tarmogoyf I killed Goyf with Zealous Persecution. Getting me back to 10 life. Top deck Nemesis was his loss.

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Round 6- ANT 0-2; He starts his combo but forgot my Deathrite which exiles his tutor in response to Past in flames, left him with Ad Nauseum on 1 life to cast. Finding a Lotus Petal into flashback Ponder into Infernal Tutor. Game 2 he had all discard into my loss.

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Round 7- Omnishow 0-2; Getting straight a Grieselbrand draw 14 into my face and his protection, two times -.-

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Round 8- BUG Delver 2-0; First Game I got him with double Nemsis. Game 2 I had many removal spells and fast my equipment online.

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Round 9 - Bant Blade 2-0; First Game we had both a True-Name with equipment but I had more on mine, all 3. Game 2 I shut down his mana and slow him down and win by True-Name with equipment.

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Round 10- Grixis Pyromancer 2-0; Game 1 with Batterskul and enough removal. Game 2 quite similiar, forcing him to bad trades with Stoneforge for a Pyromancer

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Deck: Esper DeathBlade

//Lands
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Karakas
1 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
2 Wasteland

//Spells
1 Batterskull
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Ponder
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Thoughtseize
1 Umezawa's Jitte

//Creatures
3 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Notion Thief
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 True-Name Nemesis

//Sideboard
2 Disenchant
2 Flusterstorm
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Lingering Souls
2 Meddling Mage
1 Pithing Needle
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Zealous Persecution

Deckstatistik anzeigen

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After 12 hours of magic I was quite happy to manage a comeback after two losses.
After this I want to try Liliana, the Last Hope. Bringing back a True-Name Nemesis seems quite nice, paired with removal and a win option in one Planeswalker.
Unearth seems quite interesting too. Maybe I try this one out.

[First_Revenge]

Hey Neo! Great to see you still putting up terrific results!

Maindeck Notion Thief is spicy. Did you nail anyone with it?

More of a side note about unearth, I’ve been running two of them to pretty reasonable success, 1 maindeck and 1 more SB. That being said in your build I’m not sure it’s that great. For unearth to really shine you need more snapcaster mages to flash it back. Against URX delver decks a pretty sweet line is stoneforge mystic, unearth stoneforge mystic, snapcaster mage unearth stoneforge mystic. Since their deck doesn’t have swords to plowshares you essentially get to 2-1 them 3 times.

Cards like collective brutality are also synergistic because they give you back door ways of casting TNN while dodging mana requirements and pyroblasts.

So yeah it’s pretty good, I just don’t think esper deathblade is a good shell for it. The only reason I was able to fit more snapcasters in my deck is because I cut deathrites and essentially became esper stoneblade. I did this for a few reasons:
1. DRS sits in slots where more traditional “utility” cards sit.
2. DRS warps our manabase significantly in the greedy direction.
3. I believe that our deck doesn’t leverage DRS to its fullest potential like wasteland driven delver decks do.

If you’re up for it i’d love a discussion on the pros/cons of DRS since I’m actively weighing that out now.