Hey guys, I'm currently working on building 4c Deathblade and would love to get your opinions on the list I'm working on.
21 Lands
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
3 Underground Seas
2 Tundra
1 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Tropical Island
2 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Plains
12 Creatures
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 True-Name Nemisis
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
22 Instants and Sorceries
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
2 Force of Will
2 Lingering Souls
2 Ponder
3 Spell Pierce
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Thoughtseize
5 Others
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana of the veil
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
Sideboard
2 Flusterstorm
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Meddling Mage
1 Containment Priest
1 Disenchant
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Pithing Needle
1 Submerge
1 Bitterblossom
1 Nihil Spellbomb
I think this is an exceptional list. I really like it. I think you chose the best basic land to include because it gives you the corner case out of drawing a plains and casting sfm versus Blood moon stompy decks.
I'm a big fan of the 2 main deck lingering souls. I think you have better games versus the bad matchups that we encounter, shardless and maverick and aggro loam. It also makes the miracles matchup slightly favored, if I had to guess.
The number of lands looks great.
I used to play an esper walker control list and I ran a creature sweet of 1 Venser 2 Clique and 3 scm. Venser is a house. And it can almost hard lock certain matchups (think 12 post, which we are notoriously bad against, imo).
I think I would up my fow count to 3 and down my ponder count to 1. I use Stoneforge Mystic for additional shuffles alot.
A few other cards to consider, based on shifts in your meta:
- leovold (this card is straight FIRE)
- Atraxa (if your meta is chock full of Abrupt decay, again your mana base affords it better than my list because I run 3 basics)
- sanctum prelate (great versus storm, surprisingly good against shardless)
- Engineered Plague (if you find that Supreme Verdict isn't getting it done)
- Clique (if you find yourself surrounded by loam and miracles, this card is great)
This list doesn't work in my meta but I reallly like it for a agree tournament setting or a meta that doesn't punish a greedy mana base as much (in a miracles and shardless meta, for example).
EDIT:
Neo likes bitterblossom. I'm a fan of Sorin lord of innistrad. Specifically because of the lifelink and the acceleration that it provides alongside Lingering souls. Other day vs aggro loam (a real bad matchup) I ticked up Sorin twice, and then I cast and flashbacked souls and ticked Sorin down and presented lethal.
Awesome suggestions! I was thinking about cutting a Ponder for another Force. What should I cut for a Leovold? I can't decide.
I'll just throw in my 2 cents about karakas.
I actually just cut karakas for a wasteland and i'll echo Gneiss's thoughts above. I just found it wasn't pulling its weight as a utility land. Reanimator gets griselbrand and karakas looks foolish. Even marit lage tokens get made at instant speed now and typically your karakas just gets hit by wasteland not too long after. I'd add another blue source, a wasteland, or perhaps a creeping tarpit.
Also, just curious, what has your experience been with venser?
My current meta...
UR Delver x2
RUG Delver
BUG Delver
Esper Deathblade
Miracles x2
RB Reanimator
Belcher
Burn x2
Elves
Blue Lands
Jund
Punishing Loam
Maverick
Lands
(I was Maverick)
There's usually 2 Reanimator decks and another Maverick player. The Karakas was for the Reanimator, lands and GWB decks, though if y'all think it's better I can switch it out.
maybe cut it for another basic island or swamp? Your mana base is greedy so perhaps a bit more stability will help
Ok good to know. Yeah you certainly could use a swamp to help get your Deathrite Shaman in play and it's good against lands and against Blood moons from miracles sideboard. Good against maverick and and aggro loam. And with swamp, if you draw cards you can't cast, at least they can't Wasteland you while you wait to draw additional lands.
Looks like extra, inexpensive removal would also be helpful vs the delvers and elves. I run diabolic edict. It's pretty good against reanimator and lands. Plenty of other options.
Leovold will be good versus elves actually in case you know they're playing towards drawing their deck. It's good versus miracles. Good versus lands and aggro loam (Punishing Fire is very bad against leovold). Could also be good versus delver, but I have no idea because I've never had the opportunity to try it.
Surgicals look super important in your meta. If you are only running one Snapcaster Mage then a single rest in peace is really good versus a meta with knight o the reliquary, tarmogoyf, nimble mongoose, br reanimator, and lands.
But hey, your list looks pretty solid and I feel like if you have familiarity and comfortability with your list, it goes a long way. This deck is really user play skill dependent. So, if you have a build that suits you, rock it.
This sunday is the monthly major event and I am going to play this list:
//Lands
1 Bayou
1 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Karakas
3 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
2 Wasteland
//Spells
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Batterskull
2 Bitterblossom
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Ponder
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sylvan Library
3 Thoughtseize
1 Umezawa's Jitte
//Creatures
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Tombstalker
3 True-Name Nemesis
//Sideboard
SB: 2 Containment Priest
SB: 2 Engineered Plague
SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
SB: 2 Invasive Surgery
SB: 2 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge
SB: 1 Zealous Persecution
I am playing 4 Mystics and 3 Equipment right now. The meta is really grindy and sometimes agressive in form of Reanimator (mostly rb). Working more on the grind plan I cut Engineered Explosives. It blows my stuff away but other decks can come online again. When my Bitterblossom dies or my power on the board I need more time to get into the game again.
Without Explosives I can play safely Sylvan Library and more equipment. Jace the Mind Sculptor is too slow right now.
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I really like this list that 5-0'd a league. Very tight and efficient. Probably only needs 20 lands considering 4 Deathrites and 4 Ponders.
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=14269&d=285121&f=LE
What do you think?
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it's very controlish. 4 stoneforge and 2 equipment creates dead cards.
The problem Deathblade is bad as a pure control deck. Miracles does it better. you have only 12 creatures. Also he didn't play Planeswalker. I feel this list is way to powerless.
20 lands is a bad idea. This is hard control you should add more lands.
there is also no finisher. True-name Nemesis is a great card but can't do the job alone.
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How would Aura Shards be in our sideboard? I was thinking of running it instead of Disenchant.
3 mana enchantment is not good. it's not reactive and too slow. disenchant, decay and/or krosan grip should be better
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My Blade Deck~> here
My Decks, Ideas and Development->here<-
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~greetings from Germany~
#abolishthereservedlist
Thanks!
If I can't find an Underground Sea should I play a Creeping Pit, Swamp or Island?
This depends a lot on what spells and what other lands you are playing. Generally I'd say 3 UB lands is the minimum amount you can play though. I've done 2 Seas/1 Tar-Pit before and it was functional, but not ideal IMO.
I know you're a fan of Bitterblossom. I have some questions about the card:
>How good is it in the Grixis Pyromancer matchup? Its hard for them to remove if resolved and the bodies are relevant, but I think the life loss is also an important factor.
>To what degree do you respect Wear/Tear against Miracles when playing this card? i.e. will you sandbag it when you have an Equip out or vice-versa.
Should I cut Venser in favor of Leovold? I mean, they're both so good!
My current creature package is:
4 Deathrite
4 Stoneforge
2 True-Name
1 Snapcaster
1 Venser
Also don't know if I have a SB slot for him
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Rest In Peace
1 Sorin Lord of Innestrad
1 Pithing Needle
1 Disenchant
2 Meddling Mage
2 Fluster Storm
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Containment Priest
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Submerge
Submerge is a tempo card and not ideal as removal for this deck.
Supreme verdict is quite expensive in its cost.
Venser can lock opponents out. But it needs too much mana. Leovold is overall the stronger card with its passive ability and 3/3 body. Also he costs only 3 mana but bug can be hard to support. But as a one off it shouldn't be a problem.
Bitterblossom works great. Most of the times underrated by the opponent. The flying is huge for connecting with jitte or chump blocking. 1 life for a 4/5 tarmogoyf is fair.
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My Blade Deck~> here
My Decks, Ideas and Development->here<-
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~greetings from Germany~
#abolishthereservedlist
I have a completely different opinion here. I don't like Engineered Explosives as an answer to moon because you're not likely to hit 3 different colors of mana after a moon resolves, even with 2 basics. I also don't like the idea of running basics in this list. You're trying to get enough mana for four different colors with only 15 or so lands, so you want as many duals and fetches as you can. If you're going to run a basic, I don't get why you'd run a plains/island/swamp anyway. The obvious choice to me is a forest. If they play blood moon, crack a fetch for a forest in response, then you can play any of your 8 shamans or hierarchs for whatever mana you need. That, and you're one deathrite away from being able to abrupt decay away the moon. Forest is also a good answer to a wasteland lock for this reason. But the best way to answer a moon is daze/force.
Forest kills the mana base. Onmy decay and deathrite are castable with forest.
Explosives on 3 is more a proactive action as a reactive. We have to assume that there is a blood moon.
I play 1 swamp right now and it doesn't hurt. With bitternlossom I can win while there is a moon. Also I have deathrite shaman to fix mana.
Magic, Food and Nerdstuff Instagram here .
My Blade Deck~> here
My Decks, Ideas and Development->here<-
My magic orientated Blog
~greetings from Germany~
#abolishthereservedlist
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