21 LANDS
1 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
7 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
3 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
3 Tundra
9 CREATURES
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique
23 INSTANTS and SORC.
4 Brainstorm
2 Council's Judgment
1 Counterspell
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Force of Will
4 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Unexpectedly Absent
7 OTHER SPELLS
2 Back to Basics
1 Batterskull
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Umezawa's Jitte
SIDEBOARD
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Flusterstorm
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
1 Hydroblast
2 Meddling Mage
1 Disenchant
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Terminus
1 Vendilion Clique
This list has been working very well for me at my LGS, but there's a 2k tomorrow and I'm considering the following changes: -1 Island, +1 fetch, -1 Unexpectedly Absent, move EE to main to open up another SB slot for something OR add Path to Exile to main.
The only issue I see with your deck is being rather weak to Blast effects. How do you for example fare versus Grixis Control lists, Jeskai Miracles or the Mirror Jeskai versions? Or Grixis Delver (if it's still a thing in your meta)
Don't know about Grixis Control. Mostly play at LGS where there are minimal blast effects. Managed to dodge Grixis Control at the 2K today. Only Delver I've played against has been U/B Death's Shadow and RUG, which have both been just fine. Miracles is pretty rough, but I feel like that's likely to be the case no matter what color you splash. That being said, I am going to give the Esper version a try. Don't have money for Volcs :/
I don't see many of you guys playing Nahiri, the Lithomancer. Is there an earlier discussion where it was decided that she isn't good enough? I have been trying to figure out what to do with a couple board spaces for longer matchups, and mostly I see people with Gideons and blue cards. So far I haven't been able to convince myself to even try Teferi because of the blast issue. I have been running one Nahiri and one Elspeth, Sun's Champion, and been okay with them. But they aren't so great that I'm willing to rule out there existing better options. Take Possession is too much mana I think, and I haven't thought of many other options besides alternative Swords. Has anyone tried Karn, Scion of Urza? I can't think of any reason why it would be particularly good, but it might be worth a shot also.
The problem with Nahiri and big Elspeth is the mana cost. 5cc, and especially 6cc, is just a really big cost for a deck like this. Miracles could get away with it, because of the way that deck works (tons of cantrips and tons of removal, some of which is mass removal), but I'm not sure that's what I'd want to be doing in Stoneblade.
Jace and Gideon are simply more efficient at doing what you need them to do, IMO... and honestly, if you're in Esper, I'd very seriously consider both Bitterblossom and Lingering Souls before Gideon.
Not really? Or at least I don’t recall one, she didn’t really come up previously because DRS had made the format way too fast to consider a 5 mana walker that didn’t immediately win the game. Now that legacy is a bit slower, it could be worth revisiting? It did occur to me to try her in an esper build, but I ultimately decided academy ruins was a bit better.
Karn is a maybe for me, I haven’t tested it yet but at least on paper it seems like a walker that needs to be played in multiples as in like 3-4. I might get around to testing it one day, but no one seems to think it’s good in a blade shell so I’ll pass for the time being.
In terms of fringe options I’ve explored things like brightling. It ultimately didn’t work out because baleful strix is everywhere these days. I’ve also seen people playing straight baneslayer angel which seems fun.
Hype hype hype
gp richmond
Hi guys! Since the Banning of DRS, I have been searching for what my blue-based brainstorm deck should be. I played esper deathblade a long time ago, and was thinking about going back to Stone blade. I did have a question though, I swear. What is everyone's thought on spell queller? I am going to include my preliminary list idea below, and look forward to getting criticism and comments from people who have been playing the deck more recently so I may learn what the benefit of playing this is a blue brainstorm deck is. My last blue brainstorm deck was a Lauren, which I'm not sure is all that now, but I do think I would like to play stoneblade more currently. Thanks.
Deck: Legacy UW Stoneblade 9-3-18.dec
Counts : 60 main / 15 sideboard
Creatures:12
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Spell Queller
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
Artifacts:3
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
Sorceries:6
4 Ponder
2 Council's Judgment
Instants:16
4 Brainstorm
2 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Force of Will
Others:2
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Lands:21
1 Arid Mesa
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Flooded Strand
6 Island
2 Karakas
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Tundra
Sideboard:15
2 Containment Priest
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Divert
1 Path to Exile
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Disenchant
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Back to Basics
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
We speak for no one, we hear no one, we see no one
PS: congrats to Joe on his top8, if he posts on this list. Dude's a consummate professional, and deserves to success.
We speak for no one, we hear no one, we see no one
Congrats Joe. You're a beast. I always enjoy watching your matches.
Going to talk through Richmond on my stream at about 3 pacific time.
Loved your list and its consistency
No-wasteland decks just fold to Cavern and Karakas. How do you defend from it?
Overall if TNN is down, equipped.
Last edited by Poron; 09-06-2018 at 02:00 AM.
I've been tinkering around with Ancestral Vision and i've liked it so far.
Mainboard:
2x Tundra
1x Arid Mesa
4x Flooded Strand
6x Island
3x Plains
4x Polluted Delta
3x Snapcaster Mage
3x Stoneforge Mystic
2x True-Name Nemesis
1x Vendilion Clique
3x Ancestral Vision
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Brainstorm
3x Ponder
2x Spell Pierce
2x Counterspell
1x Council's Judgment
1x Supreme Verdict
4x Force of Will
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Back to Basics
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Batterskull
1x Engineered Explosives
Sideboard:
1x Back to Basics
2x Containment Priest
2x Disenchant
1x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Flusterstorm
1x Hydroblast
1x Meddling Mage
1x Path to Exile
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Vendilion Clique
### Why Ancestral Vision?
My theory with this Ancestral Vision -Stoneblade deck is that most of the time with Stoneblade turn 1 you shouldn't play anything. Before our 2nd turn i might either Spell Pierce an opponent's Ponder, Thoughtseize, Chalice of the Void, Show and Tell or Brainstorm in response to Thoughtseize, Chalice of the Void, Show and Tell.
For this scenario to be true, two things needs to happen 1) our opponent has one of these cases in their opener and plays it and 2) we have a spell pierce or brainstorm in hand.
This means that such scenarios aren't too common for me to bother too much about and there is also Force of Will available for fast starts as everyone knows.
Not giving too much credit for keeping your mana up on turn 1 i give leeway for Ancestral Vision to replenish my hand on turn 5 which is actually relevant in many cases.
Some decks tend to act on ripping your hand apart and then starts to resolve game ending spells while combo decks vomit everything from their hand and hope we don't have enough answers to them. Control decks answer everything we got and finally starts to drop their end game when you have nothing left to offer at their disposal. Suspended Ancestral can't be messed around with before you cast it and when you cast it you have all the mana open for counterspell if you need to fight over your card advantage. Stoneblade matches tends to go grindy even when you resolve SfM on T2 and your opponent has no answer to it immediately. It's not really a fast clock. Getting a new start in terms of hand size plays a big part on who is going to win the late game.
### Positives on Ancestral Vision:
-Gives us a great turn 1 play that we should usually play when we have it
-Can't be discarded from suspend, so you won't be out of cards easily
-When it triggers you have mana open to fight for it
-Doesn't care about Chalice of the Void for 1
-Can be exiled to FoW
### Negatives on Ancestral Vision:
-RUG Delver and other Stifle decks has a premium target for it since it can counter the suspend trigger
-Counterbalance has a likely shot to counter it if there is a land card on top of the deck
-In topdeck wars you might not want to draw it depending on the situation
Any thoughts on Turtenwald's GP Richmond list? The idea of a Delver deck with access to midrange tools and Back to Basics seems like it could be pretty strong, even if it's something of a nonbo with Swords to Plowshares.
List is here http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=19981&d=329588
I tried a list kind of like this a lonnggggggggg time ago. I didn’t like it, but personally I think that owen’s list seems pretty solid and he’s certainly a very capable pilot.
I didn’t like it because in my mind stoneblade is a mid to long range control deck. That doesn’t really sit well with delver’s low to the ground gameplan. Owen made a ton of card choices around delver, the most obvious being 4 wasteland and 4 daze. At the same time he also wants to lean on stoneblade’s endgame cards like Jace. And despite his deckbuilding choices at 24 instants/sorceries he’s less likely to flip this delver than grixis delver which seems to have 28-30 instants/sorceries.
I ultimately decided that I wanted more long range utility so axed cards like daze/delver accordingly. But given the right draws or an insanely good pilot I don’t see a reason why this couldn’t be good.
Well Patriot was a deck, wasn't it?! And his list seems somewhat in between Patriot and "real" stoneblade, dropping red for Jace, Snappy and BtB.
A lot of stuff seems like a design error on paper, while working out fine in reality.
Delver definetly helps pressuring in combo matchups pre and postboard, while also stalling ub shadow's delvers until BS is online and attracting removal away from your stoneforge. This way you can also drop somthing into play, even on the draw, before opponent's hymns hits. Maybe that was his reasoning for it's includation.
Not going red a call for the ever present BtB in miracles and the now more common Uw Blade, giving the opportunity to run wastelands alongside 4 basic lands and BtB himself. I could be wrong, but other Delver lists that do not run white, may have more troubles answering 20/20 flying indestructibles, gurmags and KotRs.
A friend of mine is often giving me hard times on the kitchentable with an UB deck that runs Delver, Strix, Venser, Snappy and delve cards (murderous cut and gurmag).
Delver often forces me to tap out on early turns, making me run into hymns and sinkholes unprotected.
That being said, I think the well defined and established lists often want equally established and known lists as a foe, to unfold their full potential.
And rogue lists can absolutly lure an opponent into suboptimal plays. I guess we all know these moments when you think "What the heck is he doing? I'll better bolt that!", just to regret it big time the following turn :D
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