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Thread: [Deck] UWx Stoneblade

  1. #81

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by Cheesehead View Post
    Hi all,

    I am picking up the final peaces for Stoneblade/Deathblade.. I am not sure what the strongest deck is.. I am between Esper Stoneblade with 2 Jace 2 TNN and SFM package or Mentor/Probe/Cabal Therapy package..

    I don't know if Deathblade (TNN or Mentor package) would be better though.. also I don't have the Tropical Island. So, is the Shaman worth it?

    So can you help me, what's the best Version?

    Thank you!
    Hi,

    I prefer to not give wrong information about which version is better, it's too subjective without good statistics. Maybe you should collect statistics on some sites to have a better insight.

    About your hesitation between Mentor and Deathrite, you could check this list from a good player. He is playing them all, Mentor, Deathrite, Probe and Cabal.

    I personally think that Pyroblast is a must at this time so that's why I play UWr over Esper or Deathblade.

    Hope that helps a little

  2. #82
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    What's the general plan against the BUG decks? I usually am fine against their normal gameplan, but goddamn Liliana is tough to beat sometimes. Both if them
    Quote Originally Posted by Richard Cheese View Post
    I've been taking shitty brews and tier 2 decks to tournaments and losing with them for years now. Welcome to the club. We meet for cocktails after round 6.
    Quote Originally Posted by Stevestamopz View Post
    Top quality german restraint there.

    If I'm at the point where I'm rage quitting, you can bet your kransky that I'm calling everyone involved a cunt.

  3. #83

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    How many fetchlands do you all run? Also what's your mana base look likes if you are planning to run Back to Basics & would you run wastelands and B2B together?

  4. #84

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by kahboom0225 View Post
    How many fetchlands do you all run? Also what's your mana base look likes if you are planning to run Back to Basics & would you run wastelands and B2B together?
    9-10 seems about an average number of fetches. B2B is probably only a good idea in UW stoneblade, in that case yeah you would run it alongside wastelands. In a UWX deck, B2B may or may not work, i'm toying around with the idea, but i haven't decided either way yet. If you do want to run B2B in a UWX deck, i do think wastelands are too greedy.



    Hello everyone!
    When I played deathblade I made it a habit to post a semi-weekly tournament report. It helps me remember my mistakes and hopefully some people learn from it. If the consensus is that this sort of thing is too spammy or you just don’t like it, let me know and I’ll definitely stop.

    Around the end of last year I decided that DRS didn’t really belong in stoneblade. I reverted back into esper stoneblade. DRS essentially got replaced by utility spells, and manabase got way more basics to combat the delver matchups. The list below is the end result of the brewing I did over Christmas.
    Lands-21
    3 Island
    2 Plains
    1 Swamp
    3 Tundra
    2 Underground Sea
    1 Scrubland
    4 Flooded Strand
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Marsh Flats

    Creatures-9
    3 Stoneforge Mystic
    3 True Name Nemesis
    3 Snapcaster Mage

    Spells-27
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    3 Ponder
    3 Force of Will
    3 Collective Brutality
    3 Thoughtseize
    2 Spell Pierce
    2 Supreme Verdict
    1 Unearth
    1 Search for Azcanta
    1 Council’s Judgement

    Artifacts-2
    1 Batterskull
    1 Umezawa’s Jitte

    Planeswalkers-2
    2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

    Sideboard:
    3 Surgical Extraction
    2 Flusterstorm
    1 Fatal Push
    1 Path to Exile(Good against Gurmag/Depths)
    1 Meddling Mage
    1 Containment Priest
    1 Disenchant
    1 Engineered Explosives
    1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    1 Supreme Verdict
    1 Force of Will
    1 Unearth

    Match 1: Pox(2-1 Win)
    I’m paired against a local guy who more or less always runs pox. Pox is a long grindy matchup, but it’s definitely winnable. Pox is a less common deck to encounter so I’ll give a bit of an overview. Pox is best exemplified by the card smallpox. It attacks, your creatures, your hand, and your manabase. As most of its removal is untargeted sacrifice effects, cards like TNN are less valuable. Furthermore, this deck is one of those times where fetching basics isn’t always a guarantee. I would highly recommend that you fetch basics since they play wasteland, but understand that they aren’t safe from cards like smallpox/sinkhole.

    The problem with pox is that they have a hard time closing games out. Their wincons are urza’s factory, cursed scroll, and Liliana(veil and last hope). Liliana gets out of control pretty quickly, but factory and scroll won’t kill you for 3-4 turns. You want to play the long game, develop your manabase, then leverage the power of cards like Jace in the late game where they will struggle to kill you.

    Game 1:
    This one I end up losing pretty handily. I survive his early pox with thoughseizes/spell pierces, but then he drops an ensnaring bridge I’m unprepared for. He gets down to 1 card and starts cursed scrolling me to death. I can’t find an out to bridge and I die.

    One thing to note, I almost won this game under the bridge with a SFM+jitte. Jitte is very good against bridge. If you glue it to a SFM you can attack for 1, then pump it before damage, allowing you deal 5 damage without triggering bridge. Batterskull cannot do this. Jitte+SFM is also great against night of soul’s betrayal, but you must have a counter on jitte already. Soul’s betrayal turns SFM into a 0/1 meaning bridge can’t stop it at all. Just make sure you pump your SFM before damage or you won’t get any counters since no combat damage will be dealt.

    Game 2:
    -3 Collective Brutality(doesn’t hit factory, and 2 mana for discard is not great)
    -2 Supreme Verdict(doesn’t hit factory)
    -1 TNN(Pox has a ton of sacrifice effects, against pox TNN is basically a vanilla 3/1)
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +1 Fatal Push
    +1 Path to Exile
    +1 Disenchant
    +1 Engineered Explosives

    This game goes long. I manage to develop my manabase in the early turns and stop his land destruction/ensnaring bridge. I get to something like 6 lands in play and I start recasting and picking up batterskull to win the game. Normally this isn’t a good way to win but against pox it is perfectly viable. They can’t counter the batterskull, and all their removal targets the germ. Just avoid their discard spells which is easy if you pick it up on their end step and redeploy it immediately. He ends up using an innocent blood, and 2 liliana of the veil to stall the germ token, but eventually he runs out of killspells and it starts connecting. Note that batterskull can be answered by pithing needle/bridge, so if you want to go this route keep those cards off the board.
    Search for azanta gets involved in this game as well. I manage to flip it, although maybe I shouldn’t have considering how much land destruction they have. In either case they couldn’t deal with it and it became immediately clear just how powerful Azcanta the Sunken Ruin is when left unchecked. I don’t know if I can advocate for 2 of them, but the 1 in my list has certainly earned its keep.

    Game 3:
    Not much of a game. He gets stuck on a swamp, and 2 factories. Most of his spells cost BB so he ends up being unable to cast a lot of things. SFM+Batterskull clean it up in short order.

    Match 2: Burn(2-0 Win)
    This was a match I always struggled with as deathblade. But thanks to a ton of basics and snapcasters this match was winnable. This matchup also highlights one of my pet cards, collective brutality, which I feel is really underplayed.
    Game 1:
    Opening hand is some fetchlands, collective brutality, snapcaster mage, and a spell pierce. Great start. He deploys a goblin guide giving me a land. T2 Brutality pitching 2 extra lands for all the modes is amazing. T4 snapcaster mage flashing back brutality and escalating twice again pretty much ends the game. SFM comes down at some point and formally wins.

    Game 2:
    -2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor(too slow)
    -3 Thoughtseize(terrible in this matchup, basically a free lightning bolt for them)
    -1 Search for Azcanta(might be too slow in this matchup)
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +1 Fatal Push
    +1 Path to Exile
    +1 Unearth(amazing against decks without STP)
    +1 Disenchant

    I get another live the dream hand. TNN, flusterstorm, unearth, collective brutality, and lands. T2 brutality escalated twice pitching land and TNN felt great. Unearthing TNN on the following turn felt even better. At some point I flash back snapcaster mage targeting brutality escalating it some more. It ends up being very close, I end the game at 2 life. TNN/snapcaster finish him off.

    Match 3: Big Eldrazi(0-2 Loss)
    Big eldrazi feels like the rebirth of 12 post, a deck I always struggled against. 12 post relied on cloudpost/glimmerpost/vesuva to generate a ton of mana. It used to be played as a counter to Miracles(the one with top) because the cards it would play cost 7+ mana, well out of reach of the countertop lock. I thought it went the way of the dinosaurs after top got banned and low to the ground delver/wasteland decks took over. Guess it came back.
    Game 1:
    Almost made a game of it. He sticks a coercive portal which essentially lets him draw an extra card per turn. This basically lets him win the game. I do make a game of it, getting him down to 1 with TNN, his ancient tomb helps out in a big way, dealing him around 8 damage over the game. I lose this game because I choose not to cast collective brutality and drain him for two earlier in the game. Brutality got sniped by a thought-knot seer.

    Game 2:
    -2 Spell Pierce(Big mana deck, they’ll pay the pierce tax without blinking)
    -3 Collective Brutality(Huge creatures, not a lot of instants/sorceries)
    -1 Umezawa’s Jitte(Their creatures are huge, the counters don’t really matter)
    +1 Disenchant
    +1 Fatal Push(marginal, but I can kill a thought-knot)
    +1 Path to Exile
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice(card draw is probably better than jitte)
    +1 Force of Will(Probably our best card in this matchup, thoughtseize may be #2)
    +1 Engineered Explosives(deals with chalice)

    Not much of a game. I don’t draw any of my key cards. I manage to get a TNN suited up with SoFi, but the following turn he lands a kozilek. Without a Force of Will I pretty much die on the spot.


    Do let me know if you have questions/criticisms. I learn this way and I’ll be happy to answer them.

  5. #85
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by Cheesehead View Post
    Hi all,

    I am picking up the final peaces for Stoneblade/Deathblade.. I am not sure what the strongest deck is.. I am between Esper Stoneblade with 2 Jace 2 TNN and SFM package or Mentor/Probe/Cabal Therapy package..

    I don't know if Deathblade (TNN or Mentor package) would be better though.. also I don't have the Tropical Island. So, is the Shaman worth it?

    So can you help me, what's the best Version?

    Thank you!
    Neither deck is better or worst than the other. They are similar, but have different strengths and weaknesses

  6. #86

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by First_Revenge View Post

    Do let me know if you have questions/criticisms. I learn this way and I’ll be happy to answer them.
    Hi,

    yes two questions here

    1) how do you get rid of Leovold against 4c control. I mean you have 2 verdicts and 1 council, seems pretty good, but with 3 colors, can you consistantly cast them ? They also have access to discard spells, it may be difficult to hide the verdict until you have all your mana up. Especially if Leovold is on the board, BS/Ponder cannot be cast.

    2) how do you value Search for Azcanta ? I am also currently testing the card.

    Thx

  7. #87

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by sagagx View Post
    Hi,

    yes two questions here

    1) how do you get rid of Leovold against 4c control. I mean you have 2 verdicts and 1 council, seems pretty good, but with 3 colors, can you consistantly cast them ? They also have access to discard spells, it may be difficult to hide the verdict until you have all your mana up. Especially if Leovold is on the board, BS/Ponder cannot be cast.
    So 4C control is difficult but I’d say it’s pretty much even. As such it’s hard to give specific advice, so I’ll have to keep it broad here. Yes leovold is a real pain in the ass to deal with. My primary outs are the verdicts and judgement which you mention. They probably aren’t particularly hard to cast in this matchup since 4C control usually doesn’t run wasteland so I’m not tethered to basics. Regarding hiding the verdict, that’s a bit more complicated. Supreme verdict doesn’t actually see that much play, so new opponents probably won’t see it coming until you actually cast the damn thing. If you start playing it consistently at weeklies or something then ya, people will see it coming. Part of the beauty of verdict though is that there isn’t a whole lot they can do about it regardless. With respect to actually hiding the card from discard, keeping a brainstorm online at all times is your best bet.

    I think you’re also asking about what to do against a resolved leovold if you don’t have answers in hand. Honestly, once you’re in this position there isn’t a whole lot you can do other than pray. But you can take measures to try and prevent yourself from ever being put in that position. First I get thoughtseize so I can just take potential leovolds outright. Second, thanks to collective brutality I get to run 3 more killspells. Brutality killing a DRS is good in this situation since it means you can save your STP for leovold, which isn’t great, but a 2-1 isn’t the end of the world. Third if it really goes bad I can FoW it.

    Side note, you can cast ponder into a leovold, you get to re-arrange the cards, you just don’t get the draw. It doesn’t feel great, but if you’re in the hole it may be the only way out.

    I think my game 2 and game 3 get a bit better, here’s how I’d SB:
    -3 FoW(Terrible in this matchup)
    -3 Thoughtseize(I’m iffy on this one, but it does tax your life total...?)
    -1 Collective Brutality(Doesn’t kill Leovold and you get more efficient removal post board)
    +2 Flusterstorm(Great against kommand/hymn/snapcaster)
    +1 Fatal Push
    +1 Path to Exile(No basics so this is STP on steroids)
    +1 Unearth(They can’t really exile creatures so...)
    +1 Supreme Verdict
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice(They usually have a lot of artifact hate)

    There's even an argument to removing your stoneforge package altogether to combat kommand. They'll probably sideboard in more kommands so the value of those goes down. Ive tried this once or twice to some success, but i'm not sure if its correct. Doing this would probably give me access to 3 surgical extraction which can blank their snapcasters.

    On a spicier note, since I do run a lot of basics, I’ve contemplated playing 2 back to basics in the SB. It hoses these matchups and the sol land matchups pretty handily. Playing it on a 3 color mana base does seem greedy though.

    Quote Originally Posted by sagagx View Post
    2) how do you value Search for Azcanta ? I am also currently testing the card.

    Thx
    Hard to say. Initial testing proves promising. Against wasteland decks it’s probably best left as a filter to dodge wasteland. And putting cards in my graveyard isn’t the worst thing since I play a lot of snapcasters.

    That being said, if you do flip it and your opponent can’t deal with it, this thing is busted. Of note, it does in fact dodge Leovold since you LOOK at the top 4 cards, then PLACE one of them into your hand. The magic word “draw” doesn’t appear, so you get to make leovold look dumb. I’m actually pretty afraid that 4C control lists themselves will catch on and start running this card too.

    I just need to put in more reps with this card before I have definitive opinion, but I do like it so far.

  8. #88
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by First_Revenge View Post
    Hard to say. Initial testing proves promising. Against wasteland decks it’s probably best left as a filter to dodge wasteland. And putting cards in my graveyard isn’t the worst thing since I play a lot of snapcasters.

    That being said, if you do flip it and your opponent can’t deal with it, this thing is busted. Of note, it does in fact dodge Leovold since you LOOK at the top 4 cards, then PLACE one of them into your hand. The magic word “draw” doesn’t appear, so you get to make leovold look dumb. I’m actually pretty afraid that 4C control lists themselves will catch on and start running this card too.

    I just need to put in more reps with this card before I have definitive opinion, but I do like it so far.
    I've actually really enjoyed having Azcanta in blade although i'm playing straight UW. It gets you a source of CA that doesn't just involve spewing things on the board. Which is useful when you're playing against some of the bigger control decks and in general just synergies with blue cards. Not sure what the right numbers are though.
    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.

  9. #89

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by First_Revenge View Post
    Hard to say. Initial testing proves promising. Against wasteland decks it’s probably best left as a filter to dodge wasteland. And putting cards in my graveyard isn’t the worst thing since I play a lot of snapcasters.

    That being said, if you do flip it and your opponent can’t deal with it, this thing is busted. Of note, it does in fact dodge Leovold since you LOOK at the top 4 cards, then PLACE one of them into your hand. The magic word “draw” doesn’t appear, so you get to make leovold look dumb. I’m actually pretty afraid that 4C control lists themselves will catch on and start running this card too.

    I just need to put in more reps with this card before I have definitive opinion, but I do like it so far.
    Quote Originally Posted by CptHaddock View Post
    I've actually really enjoyed having Azcanta in blade although i'm playing straight UW. It gets you a source of CA that doesn't just involve spewing things on the board. Which is useful when you're playing against some of the bigger control decks and in general just synergies with blue cards. Not sure what the right numbers are though.
    Thanks for your feedbacks. I agree that Search may be a good answer to Leovold by itself. Regarding you being afraid of opponents Search, I think you are right but it seems not that good in 4cc as their manabase is not ideal. Against Miracles, we may have issue dealing with Search.

    That's why I open again the neverending subject, why do not play the red splash. Like you CptHaddock, I switched from esper to straight UW but without success. I had good results with esper, but with the current meta it's too difficult to play black IMHO. The loss of life of Thoughtseize and the manabase are difficult with the need of two white mana.

    The red splash brings answers to Leovold, JTMS and Search post board, and you also have an easier pre board game with only 2 colors for your manabase.
    I took this example as you (First_Revenge) are sideboarding out FoW and Thoughtseize against 4cc. I think that Jace may be too difficult to fight for esper.

    What do you think ?

  10. #90

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by sagagx View Post
    Thanks for your feedbacks. I agree that Search may be a good answer to Leovold by itself. Regarding you being afraid of opponents Search, I think you are right but it seems not that good in 4cc as their manabase is not ideal. Against Miracles, we may have issue dealing with Search.
    I’m afraid of 4cc running it because it is super easy to cast. It costs 1U to cast, so their manabase won’t be a problem unless it somehow struggles to come up with a U mana. I’d honestly probably just cut 1-2 baleful strix and dump this in its place if I were playing 4cc.


    Quote Originally Posted by sagagx View Post
    That's why I open again the neverending subject, why do not play the red splash. Like you CptHaddock, I switched from esper to straight UW but without success. I had good results with esper, but with the current meta it's too difficult to play black IMHO. The loss of life of Thoughtseize and the manabase are difficult with the need of two white mana.

    The red splash brings answers to Leovold, JTMS and Search post board, and you also have an easier pre board game with only 2 colors for your manabase.
    Okay, this is a really big open ended question regarding the 3 stoneblade archetypes. Here’s how I think the 3 break down so maybe you understand why I’ve made the decisions I’ve made.

    UW Blade-Strong because of its simplicity. Its manabase is virtually unassailable. It also gets to run 4 wasteland and back to basics to punish opposing greed piles. It really leans on countermagic since it lacks the utility of a splash color.

    UWr Blade-IMO, you play this deck because red elemental blast exists. It’s a clean answer against almost any blue card except for a resolved TNN. You do get to play things like bolt/blood moon, but they’re really footnotes. The bad part is a slightly greedier manabase(it’s still perfectly manageable), and probably suffering a bit if you’re opponent doesn’t play blue.

    UWB Blade-You play this for cards like thoughtseize which gives you more proactive gameplans. This build tends to have the least stable of the manabases because black is far more demanding of a splash color than red, especially once you start wanting to jam DRS in it. Black also gives you access to fatal push, which is great against all the delvers kicking around. UWB also leans less heavily on countermagic because of thoughtseize-esque cards.

    Personally, I play UWB blade because it’s the only blade deck that gives you proactive information. A T1 thoughtseize lets you take their best card, and more importantly sculpt a game plan around what your opponent has in hand. UW and UWr are pretty much reactive decks that lean on countermagic. Consequently, you’re forced to play games in the dark, which could lead to a lot of misplays. My assumption is that for really skilled players like QK, this isn’t really a problem since they’re just straight up better players. But getting to lean on a thoughtseize as a crutch for perfect information really helps.

    In regards to esper’s difficulty in the current meta, this partially why I’ve built the deck the way I have. I’ve cut the normal 2 wastelands for another plains and another island for 6 total basics, which is unusual for an esper list. The two basic plains also help me play color intensive spells like verdict. Supreme verdict is largely a reaction to delver decks, a sweeper that can’t be stopped in a deck full of basics is really good. Delver is the reason unearth is in the MD and SB. Delver decks don’t have STP. Unearthing a stoneforge mystic essentially forces them into another 2-1. Unearthing also lets you “bait” verdicts by committing a TNN to the board without really caring. Unearthing snapcasters is also hilarious as it gives you a discount on flashback spells, albeit at sorcery speed.

    But to me collective brutality is really what holds my esper deck together and it’s why I continue to push so vocally for the card. It kills, it duresses, and it gains life to help offset a thoughtseize, and in general it’s never really bad. It’s an absolute house against burn and elves if you escalate it. Ben Friedman does a really good job at explain brutality’s power here if you’re interested. My deck in a lot of ways is derived from his list.
    http://www.gatheringmagic.com/benfri...age-in-legacy/

    I do want to say that there likely isn’t a “correct” answer to this question. Play what you like, just know the strengths/weaknesses.

    Quote Originally Posted by sagagx View Post
    I took this example as you (First_Revenge) are sideboarding out FoW and Thoughtseize against 4cc. I think that Jace may be too difficult to fight for esper.

    What do you think ?
    Jace is rough, it’s kinda why i’m screwing around with sideboarding out the stoneforge plan altogether in an effort to blank their kommands. You could try this, but I don’t know if it’s correct or not:
    -3 Stoneforge Mystic
    -1 Umezawa’s Jitte
    -1 Batterskull
    -1 Collective Brutality
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +1 Path to Exile
    +1 Fatal Push
    +1 Supreme Verdict
    +1 Unearth

  11. #91

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by CptHaddock View Post
    I've actually really enjoyed having Azcanta in blade although i'm playing straight UW. It gets you a source of CA that doesn't just involve spewing things on the board. Which is useful when you're playing against some of the bigger control decks and in general just synergies with blue cards. Not sure what the right numbers are though.
    I'm not sure either, its definitely 1 or 2. If i had to guess now i'd say its a 1 of. Miracles probably uses it better than we do and they're maxing out at 2.

    EDIT: Sorry for the double post, meant to integrate it into the original post.

  12. #92

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    I am planning to run 4x wasteland in my U/W build. Any thoughts on crucible of worlds as a sideboard option?

  13. #93

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by First_Revenge View Post
    I’m afraid of 4cc running it because it is super easy to cast. It costs 1U to cast, so their manabase won’t be a problem unless it somehow struggles to come up with a U mana. I’d honestly probably just cut 1-2 baleful strix and dump this in its place if I were playing 4cc.




    Okay, this is a really big open ended question regarding the 3 stoneblade archetypes. Here’s how I think the 3 break down so maybe you understand why I’ve made the decisions I’ve made.

    UW Blade-Strong because of its simplicity. Its manabase is virtually unassailable. It also gets to run 4 wasteland and back to basics to punish opposing greed piles. It really leans on countermagic since it lacks the utility of a splash color.

    UWr Blade-IMO, you play this deck because red elemental blast exists. It’s a clean answer against almost any blue card except for a resolved TNN. You do get to play things like bolt/blood moon, but they’re really footnotes. The bad part is a slightly greedier manabase(it’s still perfectly manageable), and probably suffering a bit if you’re opponent doesn’t play blue.

    UWB Blade-You play this for cards like thoughtseize which gives you more proactive gameplans. This build tends to have the least stable of the manabases because black is far more demanding of a splash color than red, especially once you start wanting to jam DRS in it. Black also gives you access to fatal push, which is great against all the delvers kicking around. UWB also leans less heavily on countermagic because of thoughtseize-esque cards.

    Personally, I play UWB blade because it’s the only blade deck that gives you proactive information. A T1 thoughtseize lets you take their best card, and more importantly sculpt a game plan around what your opponent has in hand. UW and UWr are pretty much reactive decks that lean on countermagic. Consequently, you’re forced to play games in the dark, which could lead to a lot of misplays. My assumption is that for really skilled players like QK, this isn’t really a problem since they’re just straight up better players. But getting to lean on a thoughtseize as a crutch for perfect information really helps.

    In regards to esper’s difficulty in the current meta, this partially why I’ve built the deck the way I have. I’ve cut the normal 2 wastelands for another plains and another island for 6 total basics, which is unusual for an esper list. The two basic plains also help me play color intensive spells like verdict. Supreme verdict is largely a reaction to delver decks, a sweeper that can’t be stopped in a deck full of basics is really good. Delver is the reason unearth is in the MD and SB. Delver decks don’t have STP. Unearthing a stoneforge mystic essentially forces them into another 2-1. Unearthing also lets you “bait” verdicts by committing a TNN to the board without really caring. Unearthing snapcasters is also hilarious as it gives you a discount on flashback spells, albeit at sorcery speed.

    But to me collective brutality is really what holds my esper deck together and it’s why I continue to push so vocally for the card. It kills, it duresses, and it gains life to help offset a thoughtseize, and in general it’s never really bad. It’s an absolute house against burn and elves if you escalate it. Ben Friedman does a really good job at explain brutality’s power here if you’re interested. My deck in a lot of ways is derived from his list.
    http://www.gatheringmagic.com/benfri...age-in-legacy/

    I do want to say that there likely isn’t a “correct” answer to this question. Play what you like, just know the strengths/weaknesses.



    Jace is rough, it’s kinda why i’m screwing around with sideboarding out the stoneforge plan altogether in an effort to blank their kommands. You could try this, but I don’t know if it’s correct or not:
    -3 Stoneforge Mystic
    -1 Umezawa’s Jitte
    -1 Batterskull
    -1 Collective Brutality
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +1 Path to Exile
    +1 Fatal Push
    +1 Supreme Verdict
    +1 Unearth
    Ok I understand your points. I do not have enough data to contest Collective Brutality. It seems a good sideboard card to me more than a mandatory maindeck card. For example, I do not really agree with the article of Ben Friedman regarding D&T. It seems too expensive (and sorcery speed) to really benefit from Collective facing a T1 mother, T2 Thalia or when they are on their mana denial strategy. Burn is a good matchup for UW or UWr. I understand that Collective improve the matchup for esper.

    About Search for 4cc, I mean they are already fighting Blood Moon, B2B, wastelands and so on. Transforming Search into another non-basic land seems not that great and Search never flipped is not great. It may be weaker than Night's Whisper for us. I may be wrong, it's true that transforming into a land, even a non-basic, may help against wasteland. I have more doubts post board for Blood Moon, B2B or From the Ashes.

    Like I said, I played UW recently without good results, and Verdicts was the issue (for me). They are our only solution for delver decks but are weak against all the others. Too expensive, kill our TNN/SFM but you are probably right with Unearth. If you have to play Verdicts, Unearth seems really great.

    Your sideboard plan against 4cc seems better this way. I think that Path should not be board in, as they are playing at least one swamp and one island.

    Last thing regarding Unearth against Grixis Delver. My issue is more on fighting Cabal Therapy than protecting or resurect the SFM. Same thing post board, the issue is with Grudge. I mean I am fighting against the discard spells and grudge more than keeping SFM on the board. How do you value Unearth regarding this aspect of the matchup ?

    By the way, thanks for your explanations so far, really appreciated.

  14. #94

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    So I've been thinking about the leovold issue also. I haven't played uwx blade control for quite some time, but with that new Warkite Marauder and a sofi or jitte, I think we are good, I'll be looking into it now. Heck, even without an equipment it still turns on your cantrips until eot. It's probably worth testing.

    Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

  15. #95

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    That's some pretty nice tech

  16. #96

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by Secretly.A.Bee View Post
    So I've been thinking about the leovold issue also. I haven't played uwx blade control for quite some time, but with that new Warkite Marauder and a sofi or jitte, I think we are good, I'll be looking into it now. Heck, even without an equipment it still turns on your cantrips until eot. It's probably worth testing.
    Maybe I’m not understanding this right, but doesn’t warkite marauder trigger leovold as you have to target him? If this is the case doesn’t this give the same end result as plowing leovold, albeit in a more roundabout manner?


    Quote Originally Posted by sagagx View Post
    It seems a good sideboard card to me more than a mandatory maindeck card. For example, I do not really agree with the article of Ben Friedman regarding D&T.
    No problem, I enjoy writing this stuff and it helps crystalize things that I learn. Sometimes I worry I write too much and fall into the TLDR category.

    I’ll disagree with the sideboard notion. To me sideboard cards are ridiculously costed answers to specific problems. Surgical extraction and flusterstorm are great examples of this. In the right situations they’re back breaking, in most other situations they’re useless. Collective brutality is an overcosted answer to many problems. It’s a second line removal spell to STP while simultaneously being a second line discard spell to thoughseize. There are simply more efficient SB cards you should be using instead of brutality.

    I will agree with the D&T sentiment, brutality is pretty bad. My deck in general isn’t that great against D&T. To put it bluntly, I’ve built my deck around supreme verdict/collective brutality in an effort to combat aggro decks. But D&T isn’t really an aggro deck, it’s a prison deck dressed like an aggro deck. So basically the two cards I’ve built my deck around don’t actually work. Thankfully I don’t have to play D&T a lot in my local meta, I think I played it maybe 4-5 times last year? At that rate I’ll just begrudgingly chalk it up as a bad matchup and move on. If it did start becoming a serious contender in the local meta, I’d probably just start boarding in 2-3 dread of night and just be done with it. As Mike Ehrmantraut says, “No half measures.”


    Quote Originally Posted by sagagx View Post
    Transforming Search into another non-basic land seems not that great and Search never flipped is not great. It may be weaker than Night's Whisper for us.
    I’ll disagree that search never flipped is not great. The obvious part being in the late game you can stop yourself from drawing excess lands/useless spells. The more complicated/situational answer is going to hinge on how many snapcasters you happen to run. If you run 3-4 snaps, at some point you start viewing the graveyard as an extension of your hand. So tossing potentially useful spells into the yard knowing you can snap them back at will, and then taking what amounts to an extra card maybe isn’t such a bad idea.

    It can also let you fetch a bit more greedily I suppose. If you’re opponent is staring down a search they’re probably not going to want to waste your duals.

    Quote Originally Posted by sagagx View Post
    Last thing regarding Unearth against Grixis Delver. My issue is more on fighting Cabal Therapy than protecting or resurect the SFM. Same thing post board, the issue is with Grudge. I mean I am fighting against the discard spells and grudge more than keeping SFM on the board. How do you value Unearth regarding this aspect of the matchup ?
    Everything I’m saying here is theoretical since I haven’t played against grixis delver with this list.

    Before I start, a mini soap box, IMO the real problem card in grixis delver is gitaxian probe. It tells them exactly what’s up for no cost, so surprise cards like verdict lose value. It allows for busted plays with therapy/pyromancer. And it gives perfect information to a deck looking to kill you in 2-3 turns. And you can’t really even stop it, you need to save your spell pierce for things like therapy.

    Game 1 the plan depends on the opening hand, and it really helps if you go first. Key thing to remember, just assuming everything in your hand costs 1 more to play around daze. If you can force them to FoW your spells it’s much better. They probably won’t use daze on your cantrips unless you really telegraph it’s a desperation play. Generally you’re looking to survive the early turns, then leverage your card quality in the late game. You don’t have to worry so much about artifact hate G1, but I do use my FoW/spell pierce to deal with therapy.

    If I get a ton of point removal, it’s fairly straightforward, kill everything, but slow it down by a turn to play around daze. So it’ll be something like T2 STP into T3 collective brutality, fetching basics as much as humanly possible along the way.

    If I get a hand with supreme verdict I definitely start sculpting a gameplan around it. You definitely want a brainstorm in such a hand to try and hide the verdict if possible. This hand definitely has a bit of a balancing act to it. You want to get maximum value out of verdict, but at the same time you can’t just leave grixis delver to its own devices for 4 turns so you should use some point removal. In situations where I know I can cast verdict eventually, I like to kill DRS and delver with point removal. I like sweeping up pyromancer/gurmag with verdict because they both require a level of “investment” which makes a verdict more powerful. TNN also falls under this umbrella for obvious reasons.

    There’s also middle of the road hands with ponders/brainstorms. In this case what you do depends on what your cantrips. You’ll either draw into point removal or maybe dig a verdict out. If your opener doesn’t look like either of these three cases it’s probably a mulligan.

    Game 1 unearth is great, assuming you can find it. They don’t have as much artifact hate so unearth SFM can be profitable. Using discard to attack equipment can be a bit trickier, other than countermagic or tucking it with a brainstorm I’m not sure what else you can do. It also lets you cast TNN more freely, casting TNN with 1 mana open forces them to use FoW. On the follow up turn, unearthing it for 1 forces them to FoW again, if they can even do it. Snapping back unearth is just gravy.

    For games 2 and 3 here’s what I do:
    -3 Thoughtseize
    -1 Council’s Judgement(assuming they have daze this ends up costing the same as verdict, too slow)
    -3 FoW
    -1 Jace(Good late game engine, but probably too slow for this matchup)
    +2 Flusterstorm(stops the discard/artifact hate)
    +1 Fatal Push
    +1 Path to Exile
    +1 Engineered Explosives
    +1 Unearth
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice(redundancy vs artifact hate)
    +1 Supreme Verdict

    You really want to drag the game long, drain grixis of resources, then force them to live off the top of their library. This SB plan turns my deck into a pile of removal spells that will trade at minimum 1-1 with their critters. Snapcaster mage, unearth, and playing around daze are value plays that force grixis into 2-1 scenarios. Once you get them into top deck mode, they have the potential to draw a lot of bad cards. Daze, FoW, Bolt(depending on your life) are pretty bad. Depending on the board state even drawing delver and pyromancer can be bad. Eventually you’ll stick a TNN, SFM, or Jace they can’t deal with and you’ll win.

    I am still legitimately scared of a probe/therapy as it is one of the few ways grixis has of trading with us at an unfavorable rate. I prioritize this for countermagic

    Accept that you will probably to lose 2 equipment in this game. Fetch the least valuable stuff first, like SoFi, and counter the first half of ancient grudge since the flashback cost is harder to stop with pierce/flusterstorm.

    Unearth is still just as good in G2 and G3. Unearthing TNN dodges red elemental blast, and its B manacost just about guarantees they’ll have to dump a FoW to stop it. Things they might bring in like marsh casualties aren’t that big of a deal either as they just keep putting TNN back in the yard to reanimated.

  17. #97

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by First_Revenge View Post
    Maybe I’m not understanding this right, but doesn’t warkite marauder trigger leovold as you have to target him? If this is the case doesn’t this give the same end result as plowing leovold, albeit in a more roundabout manner?
    No, I agree you aren't. They get one card. Then their Leo is a 0/1 with no abilities. If your Warkite Marauder has an equipment attached that isn't batterskull, then Leo is dead. If it's not, your cantrips, removal and discard are all still turned on until EOT. Then, you can cantrip, find removal and end him. Its good against a lot more than that though. Anyway, I hope you can find a way to see what I see, but if not, don't fret. I'm sure someone will show you on camera someday, because I'm pretty sure this is the next good blue creature in a string of good blue creatures that have ended up being exactly amazing in this beautiful format.

  18. #98

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Spent some time thinking on this as a SB card.

    Quote Originally Posted by Secretly.A.Bee View Post
    Its good against a lot more than that though. Anyway, I hope you can find a way to see what I see, but if not, don't fret.
    What other circumstances? I could see it being okay against delver, and maybe marit lage if you can get them to make at sorcery speed. Probably decent against something like MUD? Is there something i'm missing?

    My continual problem is that i just don't see how this is better than something like fatal push in the SB. Fatal push seems to do most of what marauder wants to do at the half the cost and at instant speed.

    Maybe its just something i have to see on camera to understand fully.

  19. #99
    Site Contributor

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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by First_Revenge View Post
    What other circumstances? I could see it being okay against delver, and maybe marit lage if you can get them to make at sorcery speed. Probably decent against something like MUD? Is there something i'm missing?

    My continual problem is that i just don't see how this is better than something like fatal push in the SB. Fatal push seems to do most of what marauder wants to do at the half the cost and at instant speed.

    Maybe its just something i have to see on camera to understand fully.
    Everything about it just seems really mediocre, I guess it pitches to force of will so that is a plus. This seems just like the karakas interaction but instead of having the potential upside of locking your opponent out blood moon/b2b or wasting them off a colored source you are just drawing them a card. I think that stoneblade has a lot of tools to deal with Leovold i.e. removal, counterspells, discard but it's just a matter of drawing/sequencing things correctly. Sometimes Leovold resolves and there is nothing you can do about but that is why he's the best hatebear they've ever printed.

    Quote Originally Posted by sagagx View Post
    Thanks for your feedbacks. I agree that Search may be a good answer to Leovold by itself. Regarding you being afraid of opponents Search, I think you are right but it seems not that good in 4cc as their manabase is not ideal. Against Miracles, we may have issue dealing with Search.

    That's why I open again the neverending subject, why do not play the red splash. Like you CptHaddock, I switched from esper to straight UW but without success. I had good results with esper, but with the current meta it's too difficult to play black IMHO. The loss of life of Thoughtseize and the manabase are difficult with the need of two white mana.

    The red splash brings answers to Leovold, JTMS and Search post board, and you also have an easier pre board game with only 2 colors for your manabase.
    I took this example as you (First_Revenge) are sideboarding out FoW and Thoughtseize against 4cc. I think that Jace may be too difficult to fight for esper.

    What do you think ?
    I like blasts but I found UWr to be really mediocre outside of that. Outside of that I think that all blade decks have a lot of tools for dealing with the 4c matchup. You can try to out CA them with cards like night's whispers or try to go over/wide with planeswalkers. I like being way more proactive with discard, against the bigger control decks in the format I think that snagging a card early is one of the best ways to interact with them. I was trying esper for a while but I couldn't find a build that didn't feel clunky. I'll try the build that first_revenge posted, it looks like is solving a lot of the problems that I was having with my lists.

    I feel like a lot of the time when I lose to cards like JTMS, i'm really losing to the cards that lead up to JTMS. If you're looking for another answer to all of these cards Vindicate is a classic.
    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.

  20. #100

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    I’ve been lurking these forums for quite some time, but never actually post. But, I figured as the lone Stoneblade player in the top 32, I’d make an account and share my experience this weekend.

    So let me start off by saying I had every intention of playing 4cc this tournament, but due to some troubles at the post office, (thankfully) I was forced to play Jeskai Stoneblade. This was my first large Legacy event (I had played in some GP/SCG side events, multiple MTGO events, etc.) so I was a little nervous with my teams hopes and dreams riding on me making good decisions in a format where every little decision matters. I don’t have the exact sideboard plan for each matchup, as I didn’t write it down throughout the tourney, but here’s a quick rundown of each match. Remember this was a team Open, so not every match was finished.

    Decklist for Reference: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...?DeckID=118334

    Rd 1 Grixis Delver - No Finish (1-1, Close game 3, probably lose)
    We sit down round 1, by opponent plays Scalding Tarn into Usea into Delver. Grixis Delver is the most played legacy deck, so I was definitely prepared to play this matchup multiple times. He wins game 1 pretty handedly off the back of a Young Pyromancer and some cheap interaction. Game 2 I kill his turn 1 DRS, land a Blood Moon on turn 3, and he scoops to the Batterskull. Game 3 is not going great when both my teammates finish up their matches in a loss. Hate to start the tournament 0-1, but what can you do.

    Rd 2 Burn – Win
    This is actually a matchup I thought I might face multiple times in the early rounds, and I was correct. I’d expect a higher amount of budget decks in the early rounds of a team tournament anyway, but SCG DFW was changed last minute to a Team Open, so I kind of predicted even more budget decks. This matchup feels pretty good for Stoneblade, so I didn’t feel the need to devote any sideboard slots for this particular matchup. I don’t remember many details from game 1, but I won. Game 2 we both mull to 6, my hand is Force, Force, Spell Pierce, Swords, Ponder, and Stoneforge. He chooses to mull to 5, I show my hand to my teammate asking what he thinks, he jokingly does the “snap keep” snap. I look at him and say “Nah, I think I’m gonna keep it, he’s going to 5”. I scry a True-Name to the bottom, and peel the flooded strand off the top. I miss my land drop the next turn, but then draw into a basic island and I’m firing on all cylinders.

    Rd 3 Elves – Win
    Wasn’t expecting a ton of Elves, but Jitte and 6 1 mana removal spells are pretty solid against the tiny green men. Game 1 my opponent mulls to 5, plays bayou into Deathrite. My initial instinct was that this was a bad 4cc hand, I had no 1 mana spot removal spells in my opener, so I force the Deathrite. He then plays a turn two Visionary and I feel kind of silly. That might or might not have been the correct play anyway when my opponent mulls to 5, but I’m thinking it was incorrect. I win game 1 with a True-Name and Jitte. Game two I have a True-Name with a Batterskull trying to race a Progenitus, but no luck. Game 3 I have a Stone-Forge with a Jitte and SoFI on her going to town, an Ethersworn Canonist sitting on the battlefield, with a ridiculous hand which at one time had 3 forces, 1 ponder, 2 counter spells, and a containment priest in it.

    Rd 4 Burn – Win
    Again, playing against a pretty good matchup. I could tell my opponent was a bit new and possibly wasn’t sure what Jitte did, as he let me attack with a Snapcaster wielding one when he had a bolt in hand. I win game 1, game 2 he lands a sulfuric vortex and I’m feeling a little uneasy. I draw a bolt and already had a snap in hand, and actually just ended up racing him. Playing 7 basics is very nice against Price of Progress.

    Rd 5 Grixis Delver – Win
    I generally think Stoneblade decks are at it’s best when it just gets to play control and then land a threat. Game 1 of this matchup was anything but that. He’s on the play and plays a turn 1 DRS, I turn 1 swords it, he dazes, I FOW, it resolves. This was a very aggressive line, but I had this gut feeling his hand was soft. I played Stone-Forge on 2 grabbing SoFI, True-Name on 3, Activate Stone-Forge and Equip to TNN on 4, and aggressively beat him down. Game two I land an early blood moon and the game is over.

    Rd 6 Esper Stoneblade - No Finish (1-0, I was way ahead game 2)
    At this point I’m feeling really confident after rattling off quite a few match wins in a row. We’re at table 9 and feeling good. My opponent plays a turn one creeping-tar pit and I think “uhhhh, is this guy about to cast Shardless Agent on me? What year is it?” Then he plays a beautiful Beta Tundra (all of his duals were Alpha/Beta and the rest of the deck foil… jealous!), and then it makes sense that he’s on Esper Stoneblade. We play a 35-minute game 1 which I eventually grind out. We’re about 10 turns deep into game 2 when both of my teammates inform us they’ve lost. Womp womp, streak down.

    Rd 7 BR Reanimator – Win
    When we sit down for the match, my opponent has one of those deck boxes that have a see-through portion and I can see a defense grid. I feel like my unfair matchups aren’t great, so I’m thinking this is where it all heads south for me. My opponent was an older gentleman who made some questionable/loose plays. He plays turn one badands into dark rit into thoughtseize and I’m sitting here looking at my hand of 3 lands, counterspell, stoneforge, force, and a ponder. I don’t think I’m suppose to Force here, so I show him my hand and tell him to finish me off. He passes the turn and I’m completely shocked. I ponder into another Force of Will and somehow manage to win this matchup 2-0. In game two he had a Sire of Insanity and Chancellor in the graveyard, he knows I have a swords in my hand and instead of reanimating the chancellor and letting me kill that, he reanimates the Sire and lets me kill that, obviously before my end step.

    Rd 8 Eldrazi Stompy – Win
    Game 1 my opponent is on the play, turn 1 chalice on 0 and then ancient tomb into chalice on 1, which I force. I don’t necessarily think that’s the best line for him, but I suppose it stops him from getting turn 1’d by an unfair deck. I don’t really remember all the details of this match other than all 3 games he had chalice on 1 turn 1, and I had Force of Will all 3 games. Later in game 3 he Sorcerer Spyglasses my Stoneforge, then cast a chalice on 2 (I’m not sure why you don’t chalice on 1 or 3 personally, considering Stoneforge is already locked down). I eventually race an 8/8 endless one with a Clique carrying a Batterskull.

    Rd 9 BUG Delver - Loss
    Last round of Day 1, at this point as a team we’re sitting at 6-2, so Day 2 is already locked. BUG Delver is in my opinion a terrible matchup. A lot of threats that have to be answered, Abrupt Decay that can’t be played around, True-Name and Lili are threats that my deck has very few answers for anyway, and Hymn to really make my life miserable. Neither of these games were particularly close, however I really punted game 2 when I had a chance to stabilize (I fetched incorrectly to not have double white for verdict, however he had a lili the last hope on the field and drew the LotV that same turn, so unlikely I’m winning from there anyway)

    Rd 10 Sneak and Show – Win
    Round 1 of Day 2. Feeling pretty good about my overall performance from the previous day, but aware that today’s opponents should overall be a bit better. We get paired up against some of the local grinders that I was vaguely aware of. I hear him talking about picking up sneak attacks for a good price before the match starts, so when he led with a turn 1 volcanic into preordain I was fairly certain what I was up against. My hand was pretty good and I eventually got there as he kept drawing payoff spells, but no protection. Game 2 he mulls to 3, and at that point finishing the game is a formality for me. The more entertaining part of the match was the huge judge call/spat over in our standard match, where they essentially called my buddy a cheater for marking his energy incorrectly. I’ve known the guy since 3rd grade (I’m 27 now lol) and throughout that time have never once seen the guy cheat or do anything unethical in anything in life, much less magic. There’s even been points in magic tournaments where I’ve thought he was too nice/forgiving of opponents in a competitive environment, so it’s hard to believe he was being malicious here. The judge ruled in our favor and the local Dallas grinders were complete dicks the rest of the match.

    Rd 11 Infect – Win
    Not a matchup I was expecting a ton of, but turn 1 Inkmoth kind of gives it away. The dudes deck was beautiful, completely foiled out and Japanese. I honestly don’t think I’ve played more than 1 match against this deck ever, but it feels pretty favored for me. Game 1 I get a jitte on a stoneforge mystic and at one point have 4 counters on my jitte, eventually winning by bolting my opponent and pumping the stoneforge. Game 2 is very similar with a grim lavamancer to add to the embarrassment of riches.

    Rd 12 Lands – Loss
    This was against the eventual tournament winners, and a pretty good lands player. I don’t have a ton of experience in this matchup, but I’m familiar with the deck. I lose game one after taking forever to find a TNN. Game 2 I land a Blood Moon and he has no access to green mana, easily ride a batterskull to victory. Game 3 my opener has blood moon, stoneforge, 3 fetch lands, force of will, and blue card and I’m feeling really good. At this point my teammates have split 1-1, so a ton of pressure riding on this game and I had the dream opener. He plays basic forest into mox and I quickly realize this blood moon isn’t going to be nearly as good as I want it to be. I land the Blood Moon and just hope he doesn’t have the k-grip. I draw a surgical and surgical his loam and see he has K-grip, a tireless tracker, and he already has a Dark Depths on the field with no counters thanks to my Blood Moon, gg boys.

    Rd 13 BUG Delver - No Finish
    I don’t really remember a ton about this match. I know game 1 he wrecked me with a Hymn into Lili and I never really had a chance. Game 2 he kind of over extends to four threats on the board (one being a TNN) when I had Verdict in hand. Both of my teammates had lost, I had a Clique on the field with a Nahiri in hand, and he had a Delver on the field with no cards in hand. No clue how it would have played out, but that matchup feels awful so game 3 probably goes in his favor anyway.

    Rd 14 No Show
    Kind of weird that a team no-showed this late in the tournament with prizing still available, but we waited our 10 minutes and then went and did a little trading. I got to pick up a sweet invention sword of feast and famine so I can’t complain.

    Rd 15 Merfolk – Win
    Going into this round, we knew we needed to win to possibly top 12, but a win would guarantee a top 16. My opponent leads on Mutavault into Aether Vial. I’m looking at this lovely spell pierce in my hand that would’ve been sweet had I won the die roll. I’m assuming merfolk as they’re the only deck I know in legacy that plays Mutavaults and Aether Vials. My first ponder shows a verdict, so I’m feeling pretty confident at this point. I use all my spot removal on his mutavaults. He plays a True-Name, vials in a phantasmal image copying the True-Name, and I cast verdict. He scoops em up. Game 2 he mulls to 5 I believe, and it wasn’t particularly close. Unfortunately, my two teammates didn’t have the same luck, as they both lost in 3.

    I personally finished 10-2, with the team going 9-6, good for 24th place.

    Overall, I had a complete blast playing in the team event. If you’ve never played in a team tournament, you’re really missing out on some of the most fun you can have playing Magic. As for the deck choice, I’m pretty glad the USPS didn’t get my underground seas to me on time to switch to 4cc. I didn’t feel like a dog in really any of the matchups (except maybe BR reanimator where I kept my butt clinched the first couple of turns), and felt like I got quite lucky in pairings to play in a lot of matchups where Jitte is really good. If I had to run it back, I’m not even sure I’d make any changes to the deck list except possibly trying to find room for another Tundra.

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