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Thread: [Deck] UWx Stoneblade

  1. #181

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by Megadeus View Post
    Esper Mentor Blade:

    Maindeck (60)
    3 Snapcaster Mage
    4 Stoneforge Mystic
    2 Vendilion Clique
    1 Dragonlord Ojutai
    1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
    1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    4 Brainstorm
    2 Cabal Therapy
    4 Ponder
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    3 Force of Will
    2 Thoughtseize
    2 Collective Brutality
    3 Lingering Souls
    1 Supreme Verdict
    1 Council's Judgment
    1 Umezawa's Jitte
    1 Batterskull
    4 Flooded Strand
    3 Island
    2 Plains
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Scrubland
    2 Tundra
    1 Underground Sea
    1 Swamp
    1 Karakas
    1 Marsh Flats

    Sideboard (15)
    2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
    2 Flusterstorm
    3 Surgical Extraction
    2 Diabolic Edict
    2 Disenchant
    1 Supreme Verdict
    1 Force of Will
    2 Engineered Plague
    You call it Mentor Blade but I don't see Mentors. Just that bad that you cut them and didn't name swap or the list is incorrect?

  2. #182
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    I see no reason to run Mentor over TNN without Probe, unfortunately. Mentor still has a home in Miracles, but it doesn't make sense in an Esper Stoneblade shell anymore.
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  3. #183
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by DrRuler View Post
    You call it Mentor Blade but I don't see Mentors. Just that bad that you cut them and didn't name swap or the list is incorrect?
    Yeah I edited an old list. Ignore the name I'm lazy. I do think Mentor versions might have some play. Unearth might be "good"
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  4. #184

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    I played this list for my first post-ban event yesterday. It's my normal list except I went -1 Path to Exile +1 Manriki-Gusari in the sideboard since I expected a lot of taxes (there was, but I never paired against it).

    Round 1 vs UR Delver (2-1) (with Chain Lightning and Stormchaser Mage):
    G1 - I don't remember too much, but I know he won the die roll, dazed my t1 ponder, and flipped his delver blind. I fell too far behind to win and conceded before I showed what I was on.
    Sideboard: -2 Back to Basics, -1 Supreme Verdict, -2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor, +2 Meddling Mage, +2 Path to Exile, +1 Ethersworn Canonist. I boarded out jaces since it seems poor vs a deck running ~8 lightning bolts plus hasty creatures
    G2 - I swords'd his t1 delver and played a stoneforge to get jitte. I ended up with a meddling mage on Lightning Bolt (after which I got chain lightninged 3 times) and ended up winning with like 3 counters left on the jitte. The turn before I won, I played 2nd Meddling Mage on Snapcaster Mage (which it turns out he doesn't run) - I think it might have been better to go for redundancy and also named lightning bolt.
    G3 - He went turn 1 fetch into volc into delver. I wasteland his volc (he hadn't seen any yet this match) and he's kept on no lands for turns 2 and 3, after which I just have too much of a lead for him to fight back through.

    Round 2 vs Depths (1-2):
    G1 - I'm on the draw without a force, and he lands a t1 chalice on 1. My Karakas keeps him at bay for a long time, but eventually he starts dredging loam until he finds a wasteland. I eventually just die to Marit Lage.
    Sideboard: -1 Umezawa's Jitte, -1 Sword of Fire and Ice, -1 Batterskull, -4 Stoneforge Mystic, -1 Supreme Verdict, -1 Force of Will, -1 Ponder, +1 Back to Basics, +2 Disenchant, +3 Surgical Extraction, +2 Path to Exile, +2 Meddling Mage. I'm pretty sure my board strategy isn't 100% correct here, but I just rolled with it.
    G2 - This game ends up being a big grind. He taps out to loam t2, which I surgical. He gets a Liliana, the Last Hope out, but I get a Jace out to match pressure. Lili gets to 6 counters before I've brainstormed enough to find the council's judgment. Once that happens, I start fatesealing him out of the game - he gets marit lage once, but I have the swords and he concedes to Jace at 13 counters
    G3 - I mull to 4 and have to force a t2 chalice. This was not a win for me.

    Round 3 vs Goblins (2-1):
    G1 - I win the die roll and open with ponder. He has the lackey t1, but I have stoneforge fetch jitte. He plays chieftain his t3 and swings with the 2/2 lackey - I end up playing a naked snapcaster and trading. On my turn I stoneforge in SoFI and equip, praying to just dodge Warren Instigator. Unfortunately, he has it, but all he cheats in are 2 ringleaders. On my turn, I play and equip jitte, and then swing, killing the chieftan and the instigator with my equipment. He can never catch up from here, and I close it out in short order.
    Sideboard: -2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor, -2 Back to Basics, -1 Spell Pierce, -2 Force of Will, +2 Meddling Mage, +2 Path to Exile, +1 Supreme Verdict, +2 Disenchant
    G2 - I don't remember much of this - I just know I had to force a t1 Instigator and eventually died to getting overwhelmed.
    G3 - This game ended up being pretty grindy. Eventually, I get to play verdict out with a Gideon at 2 counters, and he ends up providing enough value. Also, a meddling mage on Goblin Matron ends up being a powerhouse, since he had 2 sitting in his hand (and the turn he died, his vial had only gotten to 2).

    Round 4 vs High Tide (2-0):
    G1 - I don't see much by turn 2 (only basic Island and Brainstorm), so my stoneforge finds SoFI. Once he forces my true-name t3 pitching High Tide, I know what I'm up against. I have a t4 True name to keep the pressure up, and he has to try and combo off pretty quickly. I attempt to force his first High Tide, but he ends up countering it with a pretty interesting line that involved playing High tide, turnabout, cunning wish for pact of negation. At this point though, he's down too much mana to go off after his Meditate and scoops it up.
    Sideboard: -1 Supreme Verdict, -4 Swords to Plowshares, -1 Umezawa's Jitte, -2 Back to Basics, +2 Meddling Mage, +3 Surgical Extraction, +1 Ethersworn Canonist, +2 Disenchant.
    G2 - I land a t2 stoneforge finding Batterskull. When he taps out t3 for cunning wish, I surgical his brainstorm and see a hand of Turnabout, Force, Time Spiral, Flusterstorm. I end up spell piercing the wish, to which we trade forces. He ends up having to use another force on Meddling Mage, at which point he's too many cards behind. I did end up finding out that he boarded in Defense Grid, making me feel justified in bringing in the Disenchants.

    Overall, I finished 3-1, and took 5th (Sadly, the bigger payout is to top 4). I walked away with my money back.

  5. #185

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Hello everybody,

    With the latest bannings, it looks like mana denial is back on the menu, and I feel like a UW deck can be pretty strong at doing it.

    I am looking to play a Stoneblade-like list with 4 Stifle, 4 Snapcaster, and 4 Wasteland, but am unsure of what I should include.

    For example, since I'm going for early interaction and wasteland, I feel like I don't really want 3+ drops, then maybe I should be playing UW delver?

    Does anybody of you have some experience playing Stoneblade with Stifles?

    Thanks a lot for your help.

  6. #186
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    If you're going the Stifle/Waste route, I would consider looking into UWR Delver.
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  7. #187

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Eventhough wasteland is great, being a zero mana stone rain, it also hampers your mana development, making it harder to play three- and four drops. The same goes for daze.
    Stifle on the other hand doesnt cost a land drop and is "Something to do with your mana" in the early game being a midrange/control deck.
    It is possible that T1 Stifle the fetch into T2 SFM into T3 TNN is a good play. The stifle setting opponent on back foot paving the way for the following plays.
    Stifle must of course be coupled with pierces and flusterstorms.

  8. #188
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by JackaBo View Post
    Eventhough wasteland is great, being a zero mana stone rain, it also hampers your mana development, making it harder to play three- and four drops. The same goes for daze.
    Stifle on the other hand doesnt cost a land drop and is "Something to do with your mana" in the early game being a midrange/control deck.
    It is possible that T1 Stifle the fetch into T2 SFM into T3 TNN is a good play. The stifle setting opponent on back foot paving the way for the following plays.
    Stifle must of course be coupled with pierces and flusterstorms.
    As someone who played a lot of Stoneblade back before Miracles and Deathrite Shaman, when RUG Delver and Maverick were all the rage, I think this analysis is right. UW Stoneblade does not make for a great mana denial deck because it's primiarly a control or control-aggro (at best) deck that wants to hit its land drops. You're not playing super-cheap threats like Delver of Secrets, after which you can sit back on two lands and use the others to wasteland your opponents, Daze their magic, or Brainstorm away like RUG does. You're also not playing mana accelerants (Noble Hierarch, GSZ, Knight of the Reliquary for the late game) like Maverick does.

    With the control path comes the inevitable Jace the Mind Sculptor (I mean, obviously you would drop Jaces if you're looking to play Stifle, etc., but Jace is actually pretty good), and he costs 4 mana (5 if playing around Daze). Snapcaster Mage costs more than 2 mana if you want more than an ambush viper. Verdict, etc. Losing that land drop in order to wasteland your opponent is almost always a bad move, except in very specific circumstance (usually: you think they're mana-screwed and you can keep them out of the game, or they have a very problematic land you need to get rid of, like Grove of the Burnwillows.)

    In summary, IMO if you want to play mana denial, RUG Delver seems absurdly well positioned for that (it always has been); if you want play mana denial and Stoneforge Mystic, then Death and Taxes is better at that game. I'm skeptical of Wasteland altogether in Stoneblade (and certainly of 4 of them), and would be looking at more the Back To Basics route, Mishra's Factory, or playing a couple of my own utility lands, or just more basics and fetches in those slots.

  9. #189

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    I see, thanks a lot for the answers.

    The appeal, to me, was more about playing Stifle with Snapcaster. Snap wants as many 1-mana interaction as possible, and I feel like Stifle should complement it well, like Swords does.

    I'll continue searching for a good Stifle Snap list, and maybe it's indeed UWR delver instead!

  10. #190

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Is the maverick deck 50/50 against esper stoneblade? What fair decks are 50/50 against esper stoneblade? I'm trying to build another deck so my friend can play legacy with me.

  11. #191

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by Admiral View Post
    I played this list for my first post-ban event yesterday. It's my normal list except I went -1 Path to Exile +1 Manriki-Gusari in the sideboard since I expected a lot of taxes (there was, but I never paired against it).
    What is the reason you are playing 4 wasteland and 2 back to basics? Isn't that a bit overkill and makes your mana worse, playing only 18 lands (If you don't count wasteland as a land)?

  12. #192

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by kramer733 View Post
    Is the maverick deck 50/50 against esper stoneblade? What fair decks are 50/50 against esper stoneblade? I'm trying to build another deck so my friend can play legacy with me.

    Should be close to 50/50. Honestly, almost any deck is pretty 50/50 with esper stoneblade. Noteably i think big mana decks have a huge advantage though.


    With all the brewing going around I took a look at my list to see what I could adjust. I eventually landed on this list. I really wanted to test brightling and spellstutter sprite. The sprite performed very well, but due to matchups brightling never had a chance to shine.
    Lands-19
    2 Island
    2 Plains
    1 Swamp
    3 Tundra
    1 Underground Sea
    4 Flooded Strand
    3 Polluted Delta
    3 Marsh Flats

    Creatures-15
    4 Stoneforge Mystic
    4 Spellstutter Sprite
    3 True Name Nemesis
    2 Snapcaster Mage
    2 Brightling

    Spells-22
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    3 Force of Will
    3 Thoughtseize
    2 Ponder
    2 Collective Brutality
    2 Spell Pierce
    1 Council’s Judgment
    1 Preordain


    Artifacts-3
    1 Batterskull
    1 Umezawa’s Jitte
    1 Engineered Explosives

    Planeswalkers-2

    2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor


    Sideboard:
    2 Surgical Extraction
    2 Zealous Persecution
    2 Back to Basics
    2 Meddling Mage
    1 Engineered Explosives
    1 Disenchant
    1 Thoughtseize
    1 Force of Will
    1 Containment Priest
    1 Flusterstorm
    1 Spell Pierce

    Match 1: Bizzaro Storm??(2-1 Win)
    Game 1:
    I have no idea what he’s on and my opener is very open ended, a triple brainstorm, 3 lands, and swords. His opening plays confuse the hell out of me. He leads on a scrubland into thoughtseize taking a STP from my hand. I’m thinking deadguy ale. I just land pass, and then he plays watery grave, so esper death’s shadow? But then he puts a griselbrand in yard so I now know he’s reanimator of some flavor. He fooled me badly at this point, I’d been brainstorming to get critter hate, not reanimator hate. He eventually gets his magus of the mind combo to go off and I force him to play it out so I can see how it works. His combo ends with me getting tendriled for a lot.

    Game 2:
    Okay, well that was unorthodox but it’s a graveyard deck like any other so I assumed my plan didn’t change much.
    -2 Brightling
    -1 Umezawa’s Jitte
    -1 Jace the Mind Sculptor
    -1 Engineered Explosive
    -1 Council’s Judgment
    -2 Swords to Plowshares
    -1 True Name Nemesis
    +2 Surgical Extraction
    +2 Meddling Mage
    +1 Thoughtseize
    +1 Force of Will
    +1 Containment Priest
    +1 Flusterstorm
    +1 Spell Pierce

    I think this game his deck either imploded or he missed a line of play. Early game I have thoughtseize/FoW/spellstutter to keep him from doing anything productive. We go T4 and I’m in a pretty good position. He’s only got 2 lands in hand and a griselbrand in yard. My hand is good, I’ve got jace, my 4th land, and my draw for turn is containment priest. I can either windmill slam the jace or hold back for a containment priest. I decide to put him in a do or die position and slam jace. Once jace resolves I have another choice. I could brainstorm, but I’m not sure what I could possibly find. FoW+ blue card would be ideal since I don’t have the mana for pierce/fluster. But I only have containment priest in hand and I’ve already used 2 FoW. It just doesn’t seem likely I’ll find anything good. The +2 isn’t spectacular either, he has a fetchland in play so no matter what he’ll have a live draw to find a reanimation spell. I opt to +2 him and bottom a silence, in retrospect I should have brainstormed. In either case his next draw is of course shallow grave. He blinks grisel in, punches me for 7, draws 14 cards and fizzles, apparently he was missing firemind’s acquisition to tutor a wincon from his SB. I have no idea how the deck works, but I probably shouldn’t have won this one.

    Game 3:
    I mulligan into a decent hand. 2 Lands, brainstorm, pierce, SFM, thoughtseize. My scry on top is surgical. Opponent’s opener is a thoughtseize taking pierce. I retaliate with a thoughtseize of my own, I see griselbrand, careful study, and some instant speed reanimation spells. Reanimation working at instant speed is new to me, I opt to take the griselbrand and extract it before his reanimate spells pop online. From there it isn’t particularly close. I get a meddling mage naming shallow grave to turn off a lot of his reanimate spells. SFM starts apply pressure and the game closes out.

    Match 2: Dredge (2-1 Win)
    Game 1:
    I know he’s on dredge, I figure a FoW, pierce, thoughtseize hand is likely as good as it’s going to get for me. He’s on the play, I FoW his opening LED, but he immediately follows up with breakthrough putting a ton of dredgers in the yard. I give it another turn in case he fizzles, but the game effectively ended on T0.

    Game 2:
    Exact SB as Match 1. This game goes grindy. I hold off his early game with spellstutters/countermagic/thoughtseize, but on T3 or so eventually he manages to resolve a LED and place some dredgers in the yard. He starts going off, but he can’t attack profitably since killing a spellstutter would nuke his bridges. SFM comes down and launches a batterskull into play. I use brutality to kill my own SFM to nuke his bridges anyway. Batterskull gets equipped to spellstutter and eventually puts the game away.

    Game 3:
    FoW, surgical and some other stuff, it’s definitely keepable. He starts off a lot like Game 1, I FoW his opening LED, but he casts faithless looting and puts troll/thug in the yard. For lack of a better option I surgically extract his troll. His next two or three dredges are pretty anemic, taking troll hurt him way more than I thought it would. Batterskull gets cheated into play and puts the game away.

    Match 3: Infect(Draw)
    Game 1:
    He starts on a glistener elf telling me whats up right away. He has 3 or 4 infecters, I deal with them, until he plays a blinkmoth nexus. I’m out of removal and thin on countermagic. He goes off through a Flusterstorm and KOs me with a become immense.

    Game 2:
    -1 Council’s Judgment
    -2 Jace the Mind Sculptor
    -2 Brightling
    -1 True Name Nemesis
    2 Zealous Persecution
    1 Engineered Explosives
    1 Disenchant
    1 Flusterstorm
    1 Spell Pierce

    Spellstutter sprite has its day in the sun, it stops 2 crop rotations cold. The rest of my removal suite is enough to deal with his infect creatures so he never gets going. SFM gets batterskull and clocks him out very quickly.

    Game 3:
    Ends up being a draw on time. Opponent goes down to 4 cards and actually ends up being able to do lethal damage to me off a noble hierarch+2x invigorate+berserk. I have a Flusterstorm for the berserk though so he just fizzles. Unfortunately we were on turns at this point and I didn’t have enough time to finish the job. I’m convinced I would have won if the game continued though.

    I still have to test brightling, I’m reasonably convinced it’s a great card for us, but the matchups weren’t conducive to testing it. Spellstutter sprite felt really good, it did way more than I gave it credit for. It definitely earned its keep this week.

  13. #193

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Guess i have lurked this site long enough to write something here.
    I've tried to gather as much information as possible from UW Stoneblade and i have to admit it there isn't that much info out there really. To me it seems Miracles just takes the cake over stoneblade in peoples minds.

    This is probably my fifth year of playing legacy in tournaments, but just now i actually own a deck of my own. I previously played mostly mono U omnitell and after that i changed to Food Chain which i still LOVE to play.
    The fact is that the deck is a little more expensive because of the amount of duals you have to play, so i skipped it and decided i go for stoneblade or miracles.
    Later on i can invest more on the duals if i decide volcanics or UG Seas are needed.

    I grinded Xmage with stoneblade and i quite like it so far. Midrangey to controlish deck that lets you actually play magic and not only finish the game on turn 3.
    About 50 games behind me at the moment. I started to record my wins after i decided i want to learn this deck and my stats are now 18-2-11.
    My losses have been mostly to combo decks like reanimator, storm, infect, aluren and enchantress.


    My deck at the moment:

    Lands 20:

    1x Arid Mesa
    4x Flooded Strand
    6x Island
    3x Plains
    4x Polluted Delta
    2x Tundra

    Creatures 10:

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

    Instants 16:

    4x Brainstorm
    1x Counterspell
    4x Force of Will
    2x Spell Pierce
    1x Spell Snare
    4x Swords to Plowshares

    Sorceries 6:

    1x Council's Judgment
    4x Ponder
    1x Supreme Verdict

    Rest 8:

    1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
    2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    1x Batterskull
    1x Engineered Explosives
    1x Umezawa's Jitte
    2x Back to Basics

    Sideboard 15:

    2x Containment Priest
    1x Disenchant
    1x Ethersworn Canonist
    1x Flusterstorm
    1x Hydroblast
    2x Monastery Mentor
    1x Path to Exile
    1x Spell Snare
    2x Surgical Extraction
    2x Terminus
    1x Vendilion Clique

    My first list had 21 lands and stuff like teferi in the mix and not that many one of's to round the main deck for different threats.
    I also first had only one Back to Basics main because i thought it isn't that important, but game 1 BtB can really surprise the opponent if they play carelessly.
    If the opponent doesn't have that many non-basics it still can buy you a lot of time and/or make them use a removal to it.
    1 is too random where 2 seems just the right amount that you find it on turn 3 more often so you can check if you can win the game on the spot or win some turns - yet they won't clog your hand with useless multiples.

    Spell Snare seems really clutch in some matches that might grind out of spell pierce's reach, but game 1 spell pierce seems way better because i feel this deck is really soft to combo decks. Clique main is also for that reason.
    3 Stoneforge is something i'm pondering about. Maybe cut to 19 lands or put gideon to SB, but then again gideon is better against some of the harder matchups since it's a faster clock or just a harder to answer threat.

    Should stoneblade have mentors in main? It seems a little too nutty not to be in main. But what to cut out in that case...

  14. #194

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by Sulamies View Post
    Should stoneblade have mentors in main? It seems a little too nutty not to be in main. But what to cut out in that case...
    This has been rarely seen, the reason being the two plans are completely opposite.
    SFM+Equip+TNN is a huge investment in the "going big" direction, while Mentor+storming cheap spells is a huge investment in the opposite direction (going wide). I'll provide two examples.

    1. You don't want a blockable and easily killable creature (mentor or a monk token) to carry your powerful equipments. TNN does the job much better, and playing both mentor and tnn looks sketchy.
    2. When you cast Monastery Mentor, you want untapped mana and cheap disruption to protect him. Moreover, when you eventually untap with your Monastery Mentor in play, you want to look at your hand and see a bunch of useful cc1's to combo with. You don't want to see those heavy cc3+ cards like Back to Basics and PW's that this deck runs.

    That being said, both plans are really powerful in the current metagame and, while being "opposite", they're not stricly nonbo.
    If I was to run mentors, i'd cut some other heavy cards (e.g. PWs and/or TNN) and maybe find some space for a sea and a couple of therapies.

  15. #195

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Regarding miracles, personally I don’t like/refuse to play it for what amount to personal reasons. I just find miracles far too durdely/do nothing for my taste, it does have its devout followers though. The only concrete downside I can bring against it is that it is SLOW and mentally taxing to play. Unless you know the deck/play quickly you will end up drawing a lot.

    I’m not that big on B2B in the main. With the ousting of DRS most decks are now reliably packing 2-3 basics which really hurts the effectiveness of B2B. I think wasteland is probably a better card and you should be trying to jam 4 in your list if possible. B2B could still be great against big mana decks like cloudpost/eldrazi if those come to prominence.

    Spell Snare seems too cute for my taste. It makes sense in RUG delver because that deck operates on extremely low mana, and they concede the long game anyway. You want to play the long game and spell snare just has too much potential to rot in hand. I’d go with a counterspell instead.

    -1 Spell Snare
    -2 Back to Basics
    -1 Island
    -1 ???
    +1 Counterspell
    +4 Wasteland

    IMO, monastery mentor is a build around card, not a drop fit into any random UWx blade shell. There were old deathblade lists that ran it, but they sacrificed a lot of utility cards to run things like git probe. On its own I don’t think you have the spell density to run it, although it’s a good thought. I’d consider slotting in meddling mage in the SB instead.

  16. #196

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Spell Snare is close to the best it's ever been due to the number of relevant 2-drops in the current meta. If you don't think it's good now, I don't think the card is for you.

  17. #197

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by First_Revenge View Post
    Regarding miracles, personally I don’t like/refuse to play it for what amount to personal reasons. I just find miracles far too durdely/do nothing for my taste, it does have its devout followers though. The only concrete downside I can bring against it is that it is SLOW and mentally taxing to play. Unless you know the deck/play quickly you will end up drawing a lot.

    I’m not that big on B2B in the main. With the ousting of DRS most decks are now reliably packing 2-3 basics which really hurts the effectiveness of B2B. I think wasteland is probably a better card and you should be trying to jam 4 in your list if possible. B2B could still be great against big mana decks like cloudpost/eldrazi if those come to prominence.

    Spell Snare seems too cute for my taste. It makes sense in RUG delver because that deck operates on extremely low mana, and they concede the long game anyway. You want to play the long game and spell snare just has too much potential to rot in hand. I’d go with a counterspell instead.

    -1 Spell Snare
    -2 Back to Basics
    -1 Island
    -1 ???
    +1 Counterspell
    +4 Wasteland

    IMO, monastery mentor is a build around card, not a drop fit into any random UWx blade shell. There were old deathblade lists that ran it, but they sacrificed a lot of utility cards to run things like git probe. On its own I don’t think you have the spell density to run it, although it’s a good thought. I’d consider slotting in meddling mage in the SB instead.
    With 4 snapcaster mages the deck is mana hungry and that's why i don't like wasteland, but i can see wasteland being better in a different way and in a different build.
    Back to Basics just gives me a way to check if i can win the game on the spot that wasteland rarely does and in my testing i've liked it so far - the fair deck has a way to cheat wins.
    You don't always have to get all their lands it's also about the attrition where you get 3 lands and it might be enough to get a win since now your spell pierces are relevant in the mid to late game and they can't counterproof their plays.

    Spell Snare has been really good for me, but the biggest dissappointment is that it does nothing against sneak and show.

    Miracles is favored against uw stoneblade, but with 2 spell snares you can catch counterbalances, snapcasters (really relevant since they usually play pyroblast), counterspells, search for azcanta all of which are relevant in every step of the match.

    Chalice decks can find a back breaking chalice, but you still have a 1 mana answer to it any stage of the match. Many of the chalice decks seem favored for uw stoneblade just as long they don't get the chalice to stick.

    Storm has 2 really relevant main deck cards at two mana. Infernal Tutor or Burning Wish. From SB you can answer echoing truth and defense grid. Again, no matter how the try to manouver, you can keep one mana up and it doesn't matter how many turns they wait.

    And Counterspell is really clunky. I like 1 because it gives me another option for snapcaster mage, but 2 seems really greedy.

  18. #198

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by Sulamies View Post
    With 4 snapcaster mages the deck is mana hungry and that's why i don't like wasteland, but i can see wasteland being better in a different way and in a different build.
    Back to Basics just gives me a way to check if i can win the game on the spot that wasteland rarely does and in my testing i've liked it so far - the fair deck has a way to cheat wins.
    I agree with this 100%. I haven't been playing Stoneblade for very long at all, but in my playtesting with Wasteland, I lost too many games because I was unable to utilize SCM, and I only run 3 SCM. I can see why some people don't like maindeck B2B, but a surprising number of people don't respect it. Yesterday I stole G1 from a Bant Stoneblade player who tapped out with all 5 of his lands being duals+Wasteland. Even post-board he only fetched 1 basic early on due to the color requirements of his hand.

  19. #199

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by First_Revenge View Post
    IMO, monastery mentor is a build around card, not a drop fit into any random UWx blade shell. There were old deathblade lists that ran it, but they sacrificed a lot of utility cards to run things like git probe. On its own I don’t think you have the spell density to run it, although it’s a good thought. I’d consider slotting in meddling mage in the SB instead.
    Yeah i've had Meddling Mage and i sort of like it, but against troublesome matchups i rather have Ethersworn Canonist or Containment Priest instead.
    sfm + equip are so bad against combo that i rather have mentor and clique to get a better clock against them.
    If i take out Mentor how should i win faster against combo or is that even that relevant in your opinion? Meddling Mage can hit them hard, but then again our clock is slower.

  20. #200
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    I like how the solution to beating combo matchups isn't playing more cards like flusterstorm or hatebears but in fact a 3 drop that doesn't even come online till turn 4+.
    Quote Originally Posted by ThatDeleuzeGuy View Post
    I want to play as close to possible a 100% reactive deck that also approached 0% variance in how it played. I want to play magic with as little variance as possible. Also had a foiled out miracles deck that was an investment of about 6 grand that is now nearly worthless.
    Quote Originally Posted by Secretly.A.Bee View Post
    My original post did that.

    I'd love to have a battle of wits with you but I see you lack the necessary equipment.

    Good day.

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