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Thread: [Deck] UWx Stoneblade

  1. #121

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by CptHaddock View Post
    Some of your sideboarding seems a little weird to me.

    For Miracles i'd cut the swords entirely and also bring in the EE, Sword and Last Hope. Verdict doesn't make much sense normally, I think that a lot of lists have swapped to EtA and you're rarely going to catch that card with a verdict. If you see a bunch of mentors i'd probably bring in the 2nd. Swords and Last Hope are basically just resilient threats. I'm a little iffy about Tasigur but I feel like if you don't want him in these grindy matchups what do you actually want him in your deck for?
    So game 1 I did see mentor, so I didn’t feel that cutting swords entirely was the right call. I never got to see EtA, he very well could be running it though. Verdict was largely an effort to contain an out of control mentor. I’ve seen the deck burn through 2-3 cantrips in a turn. STP doesn’t address this, and is counterable vs a deck full of counters. I could very well be wrong, but I like verdict because it’s an unconditional middle finger to mentor and his students.

    I agree with your Liliana call. I didn’t put her in because I didn’t see what she could kill. Her just being a board presence that must be dealt with is a reasonable assessment. I’ll have to revisit my sideboard choices here.

    IMO Tasigur gets cut because he’s pretty bad against a deck with 4x STP. Tasigur is in there to give me a diversity of threats, in this case miracles just has the perfect answer.

    -1 Tasigur
    -3 Collective Brutality
    -2 Swords to Plowshares
    +1 FoW(Jace/Search are must stop cards)
    +1 Disenchant
    +1 Supreme Verdict
    +2 Surgical Extraction
    +1 Liliana


    Quote Originally Posted by CptHaddock View Post
    In the big eldrazi matchup i'd keep in the pierces, they counter some of the early lock pieces/mana acceleration pieces. I don't think i'd bring in verdict, they're very rarely committing more than 1 threat on the board and most of their threats are game ending upon resolution anyways. Swords takes care off all of their creatures efficiently.
    I think you’re pretty much spot on with this assessment. Verdict probably doesn’t address the underlying problems in this matchup. My knee jerk reaction to remove pierce was probably just due to the massive amount of mana this deck produces in the first place. I’ll try this next time

    -1 Supreme Verdict
    -1 Unearth
    -1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
    -3 Collective Brutality
    +1 Force of Will
    +1 Disenchant
    +1 Supreme Verdict
    +1 Engineered Explosives
    +2 Back to Basics


    Quote Originally Posted by CptHaddock View Post
    I'm not really sure why you are bringing in removal for the Pox matchup. I don't know if anything has changed but pox has traditionally only played the 2/2 that comes back from the yard everytime and sometimes bloodghasts as creatures. Fatal push isn't really good any of those, and swords is going to be a dead draw.
    Hmm I guess we’re seeing two different versions of pox. The pox deck I’m encountering doesn’t run bloodghasts, or at least I haven’t seen them over the 3-4 matchups I’ve played against him. His primary threats are mishra’s factory and I think 2 tombstalkers. Given this threat suite I feel like I’m sideboard appropriately.

  2. #122

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Unless they are playing the next level subgame, competent Miracle players will typically side out STP against UWx Stoneblade. It does nothing against TNN, and they don't need to plow SFM/Snaps in most cases.

  3. #123

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    How feasible is it to play Jeskai Stoneblade with only 1 copy of volcanic Island? I am interested in mainly playing red for the pyroblast and blood moon in the sideboard.

  4. #124
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by kahboom0225 View Post
    How feasible is it to play Jeskai Stoneblade with only 1 copy of volcanic Island? I am interested in mainly playing red for the pyroblast and blood moon in the sideboard.
    Not possible and/or competitive

  5. #125
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by kahboom0225 View Post
    How feasible is it to play Jeskai Stoneblade with only 1 copy of volcanic Island? I am interested in mainly playing red for the pyroblast and blood moon in the sideboard.
    I've played some Miracles lists with a single volcanic main, and a mountain in the sideboard. The last blade deck I tried had 2/3 volcs and a mountain main, but it was playing 2 bolts main in addition to the post board blasts and moons. Try playing 1 volc with a mountain main, or sideboard, fetch accordingly. I suspect this will be fine if you only have red cards post board (ofc this requires you to have scalding tarns and arid mesa).

  6. #126
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Hello,

    First time posting, so apologies to the Mods in adavance.

    I started playing Legacy with a UW stoneblade list I found online and modified it over the past months after playing a few local and regional events.

    I am currently playing UW out of budget restraints, with only 2 Tundra and without Wastelands.

    This weekend, I will play my first bigger event at the JK Series in Maintal, Germany, and wanted to ask for some advice on my Main- and Sideboard. My current List looks like this:

    //Maindeck

    4 Stoneforge Mystic
    3 Snapcaster Mage
    3 True-Name Nemesis
    1 Vendillion Clique

    2 Jace the Mindsculptor

    4 Brainstorm
    4 Ponder
    2 Spell Pierce
    1 Spell Snare
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    2 Counterspell
    1 Council's Judgment
    1 Supreme Verdict
    4 Force of Will

    1 Umezawa's Jitte
    1 Batterskull

    2 Back to Basics

    4 Flooded Strand
    5 Island
    1 Karakas
    3 Plains
    4 Polluted Delta
    2 Tundra
    1 Windswept Heath

    //Sideboard

    1 Blue Elemental Blast
    2 Disenchant
    2 Ethersworn Canonist
    2 Faerie Macabre
    2 Meddling Mage
    1 Mindbreak Trap
    1 Nahiri, the Lithomancer
    1 Pithing Needle
    1 Rest in Peace
    1 Supreme Verdict
    1 Sword of Fire and Ice

    I'm looking to streamline and tune my sideboard for a bigger event with a more open meta, for which purpose I like the Meddling Mages, as they provide game against almost any deck. Previous builds included 1 Preordain in the Maindeck, which I've since cut in favor of a third TNN, as it's proven to be one of the most crucial cards in many a matchup. Originally the list included an Elspeth, Knight, which I now opted to drop for more control magic in the form of the one-of spell Snare, which has game against most games, and Elspeth, although she was strong, never felt like she provided enough meat for a 4 drop. compared to Supreme Verdict or Jace. I've been considering bumping supreme verdict to 2, because worst case it pitches to force, and can even be a decent answer to a single creature that isn't Marit Lage in the lategame, but I'm unsure on that (any feedback regarding this is also welcome) .

    I'm specifically seeking advice on the following things:

    -A replacement for the fun-of Nahiri, the Lithomancer in the sideboard, which is kind of a pet card, but feels inappropriate for a larger tournament.

    -What to Cut/replace in the sideboard to improve the matchup against (Grixis) Delver, and Sneak and Show, and storm. I'm intending to pick up a flusterstorm if budget allows it until the weekend, as well as a 2 Surgical extractions to replace the faerie Macabres, which against any Matchup other than BR Reanimator with Chancelor of the Annex seme to be just inferior to the aforementioned 1 Mana answer.

    -If I should, and if yes, how to, make room for a second Rest in Peace, Blue Elemental Blast (or Hydroblast).

    As an off-note, has anyone tried Terminus in the Sideboard? I haven't tried it out yet, but it seems like it could provide some game against Empty the Warrens decks and creature decks like Delver, Maverick and DnT.

    Any advice is apreciated, and thanks in advance!
    Last edited by Emiljho; 03-12-2018 at 05:14 PM. Reason: Formating and typos

  7. #127

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by Emiljho View Post
    Hello,

    First time posting, so apologies to the Mods in adavance.

    I started playing Legacy with a UW stoneblade list I found online and modified it over the past months after playing a few local and regional events.

    I am currently playing UW out of budget restraints, with only 2 Tundra and without Wastelands.

    This weekend, I will play my first bigger event at the JK Series in Maintal, Germany, and wanted to ask for some advice on my Main- and Sideboard. My current List looks like this:

    //Maindeck

    4 Stoneforge Mystic
    3 Snapcaster Mage
    3 True-Name Nemesis
    1 Vendillion Clique

    2 Jace the Mindsculptor

    4 Brainstorm
    4 Ponder
    2 Spell Pierce
    1 Spell Snare
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    2 Counterspell
    1 Council's Judgment
    1 Supreme Verdict
    4 Force of Will

    1 Umezawa's Jitte
    1 Batterskull

    2 Back to Basics

    4 Flooded Strand
    5 Island
    1 Karakas
    3 Plains
    4 Polluted Delta
    2 Tundra
    1 Windswept Heath

    //Sideboard

    1 Blue Elemental Blast
    2 Disenchant
    2 Ethersworn Canonist
    2 Faerie Macabre
    2 Meddling Mage
    1 Mindbreak Trap
    1 Nahiri, the Lithomancer
    1 Pithing Needle
    1 Rest in Peace
    1 Supreme Verdict
    1 Sword of Fire and Ice

    I'm looking to streamline and tune my sideboard for a bigger event with a more open meta, for which purpose I like the Meddling Mages, as they provide game against almost any deck. Previous builds included 1 Preordain in the Maindeck, which I've since cut in favor of a third TNN, as it's proven to be one of the most crucial cards in many a matchup. Originally the list included an Elspeth, Knight, which I now opted to drop for more control magic in the form of the one-of spell Snare, which has game against most games, and Elspeth, although she was strong, never felt like she provided enough meat for a 4 drop. compared to Supreme Verdict or Jace. I've been considering bumping supreme verdict to 2, because worst case it pitches to force, and can even be a decent answer to a single creature that isn't Marit Lage in the lategame, but I'm unsure on that (any feedback regarding this is also welcome) .

    I'm specifically seeking advice on the following things:

    -A replacement for the fun-of Nahiri, the Lithomancer in the sideboard, which is kind of a pet card, but feels inappropriate for a larger tournament.

    -What to Cut/replace in the sideboard to improve the matchup against (Grixis) Delver, and Sneak and Show, and storm. I'm intending to pick up a flusterstorm if budget allows it until the weekend, as well as a 2 Surgical extractions to replace the faerie Macabres, which against any Matchup other than BR Reanimator with Chancelor of the Annex seme to be just inferior to the aforementioned 1 Mana answer.

    -If I should, and if yes, how to, make room for a second Rest in Peace, Blue Elemental Blast (or Hydroblast).

    As an off-note, has anyone tried Terminus in the Sideboard? I haven't tried it out yet, but it seems like it could provide some game against Empty the Warrens decks and creature decks like Delver, Maverick and DnT.

    Any advice is apreciated, and thanks in advance!
    Okay, first off I’m curious about cutting wasteland. If it’s a budget thing I understand completely. However, understand that wasteland/back to basics are the big reasons to be in UW in the first place. Not running 4 wasteland probably hurts this deck severely. Without wasteland this list is inferior to the other 3C blade lists that trade in wastelands for the utility of a 3rd color. Please understand I’m not trying to be rude, it’s just difficult to see the upside of this decision if there is one at all.

    I’d probably try Gideon, ally of zendikar instead of nahiri. He produces dudes and is a sizeable clock.

    Honestly, I don’t really like RIP in this deck. It’s pretty slow, you’ll more than likely be dead before you actually cast it in matchups that matter. It also shuts off your own snapcasters which is nonbo. I’d just do 3 surgical extractions, it’s free and it has extreme synergy with snap.

    You seem fine against sneak and show, you have a ton of countermagic and land hate. Wastelands help this matchup if you can knock them off sol lands. They also run boseju which can be a real problem without wasteland.

    Regarding grixis delver, looking at your sideboard I see why you struggle. In your SB only blue blast and supreme verdict really help. In general your sideboard is seriously bent towards combating combo/grind matchups. I’d try adding in some EE for more removal. If you’re feeling spicy you could also try path to exile. Its functionally another STP, against grixis delver they don’t even get to fetch a basic. On top of this is the problem of you not running wasteland to punish a very land light deck.

    I’d try this:
    1 Blue Elemental Blast
    2 Disenchant
    2 Ethersworn Canonist
    3 Surgical Extraction
    2 Meddling Mage
    1 Path to Exile/Engineered Explosives
    1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
    1 Pithing Needle
    1 Supreme Verdict
    1 Sword of Fire and Ice


    I’ve never played this deck before though so take everything I’m saying with a grain of salt.

  8. #128
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by First_Revenge View Post
    Okay, first off I’m curious about cutting wasteland. If it’s a budget thing I understand completely. However, understand that wasteland/back to basics are the big reasons to be in UW in the first place. Not running 4 wasteland probably hurts this deck severely. Without wasteland this list is inferior to the other 3C blade lists that trade in wastelands for the utility of a 3rd color. Please understand I’m not trying to be rude, it’s just difficult to see the upside of this decision if there is one at all.
    I am currently runnig 0 Wastelands because I don’t own them yet, yes. How many would you play, and what would you cut? Would you go up to 22 lands, or even more? Is there any guide how to utilize Wasteland against different decks, or some general guidelines, i.e., just always fire it off, etc.?

    Also, absolutely no offense taken; a benefit that I felt in some games was that I could fetch more basics, thereby not being soft to opposing wastelands due to spending my land drops on mana producers instead of denial, but I feel like playing Wasteland myelf could bring a bigger upside. I’m trying to lend a playset for the weekend.

    What I don’t quite understand is how Wasteland and B2B synergize; is it just about having more sources of Mana Denial to limit my opponents? Without any play experience, the only direct Synergy seems to be that Wasteland prevents them from stacking up a few non-basics to cast a removal spell over a few turns once you’ve already got a B2B in play.

  9. #129

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Not being soft to basics is really valuable in this meta. I design my lists to basically ignore wasteland effects. You get to basically blank 4 cards in opposing decks which always feels great.

    But again, you are a two color manabase, this limits the angles that your deck can attack from. One of your better angles is wasteland. A 2 color deck like yours can't afford to sit there and watch 3 or 4 color decks develop their manabase. Their spells are just flat out more powerful than yours. Thats why manabases get greedy.

    You need to slow down their mana development as much as humanly possible. B2B is slow, against delver decks for example they've probably deployed all their meaningful threats already, and resolving a 3 mana enchantment against a deck full of daze/pierce/REB can be a daunting proposition. Wasteland gives you "free" instant speed land destruction they can't do anything about.

    In terms of when you use it, that is something you will have to figure out over time. In general if you're not hurting for land you should probably just fire it off. Try to aim at colors they need. For example, BUG delver decks need BB for a lot of their spells. So in that matchup you would prioritize underground seas for removal. MTGTOP8.com is a great resource with tons of competitive decklists, this will give you a feel for the meta.

    With only 20 land though we may have to cut a spell or two to cram 4 wasteland in.
    -2 Island
    -1 Karakas(its an unfetchable, nonbasic plains thats only relevant in one or two matchups)
    -1 Spell Snare(Not sure about this one. Wasteland just seems to have more uses than a spicy one of)


    Meh kinda day today, 1-2, definitely could have been better. List changed this week, wanted to test out search for azcanta.

    3 Island
    2 Plains
    1 Swamp
    2 Tundra
    2 Underground Sea
    1 Scrubland
    4 Flooded Strand
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Marsh Flats

    Creatures-10
    3 Stoneforge Mystic
    3 True Name Nemesis
    3 Snapcaster Mage

    Spells-24
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    3 Ponder
    3 Force of Will
    3 Collective Brutality
    3 Thoughtseize
    2 Spell Pierce
    1 Supreme Verdict
    1 Unearth

    Enchantment-2
    2 Search of Azcanta

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

    Planeswalkers-3
    2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

    Sideboard:
    3 Surgical Extraction
    2 Flusterstorm
    1 Engineered Explosives
    2 Zealous Persecution
    2 Back to Basics
    1 Disenchant
    1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    1 Supreme Verdict
    1 Force of Will
    1 Liliana the Last Hope

    Match 1: Lands(1-2 Loss)
    Game 1:
    Not the matchup I wanted to start my day on. Lands is a matchup I’ve essentially written off. It’s a deck designed to prey on fair blue decks. It’s not really worth wasting sideboard slots on TBH. Best plan is to probably try and dodge this matchup.

    Game 1 I get really lucky. I FoW his exploration and I guess he just draws really badly. I end up deploying 2 snapcasters to the board without flashing anything back in a desperate bid to apply some sort of clock. TNN eventually resolves and my opponent topdecks poorly and loses.

    Game 2:
    -1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
    -3 Collective Brutality
    -1 Supreme Verdict
    -1 Unearth
    +3 Surgical Extraction
    +1 Disenchant
    +2 Back to Basics
    The game actually starts off great. I keep some countermagic and a surgical extraction. He pitches DD to mox diamond I promptly surgical it. The next turn he deploys tireless tracker and starts beating me down. I dig though my deck for an STP and can’t find it. I end up dying a turn or two later.

    Game 3:
    Mulligan to six off a 5 lander. My starting 6 is okay, but it doesn’t contain any yard hate. I ponder/brainstorm looking for some, I can’t find it and his loam engine eventually gets online. I plow his first marit lage. And he promptly sets up for another. My draw for the next turn is back to basics which was great a turn or two ago, but now just seems too little too late. I end up scooping em up.

    I was advised by the guy next to me that back to basics might have been able to make a game out of it. Opponent might have hesitated in cracking off his marit lage since he wouldn’t get his lands back. I didn’t see the same out he did I guess.

    Match 2: Grixis Delver(2-1 Win)
    Match 1:
    I basically run out of removal to deal with his stuff. My TNN clogs up the ground, but his second or third delver flies over its head and kills me. Talked with him after the game, there was probably a way out if I deployed my SFM a bit earlier, but I prioritized TNN instead.

    Match 2:
    -3 Thoughtseize
    -3 Force of Will
    -2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    -1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
    -1 Search for Azcanta
    2 Flusterstorm
    1 Engineered Explosives
    2 Zealous Persecution
    2 Back to Basics
    1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    1 Supreme Verdict
    1 Liliana the Last Hope
    No really sure what happened. My hand was decent, but he probes me twice then snap concedes. Best guess is he kept a very greedy hand and couldn’t draw out of it.

    Match 3:
    My opening hand is some fetchlands and a pile of removal spells. Pretty much exactly what I want. I develop my mana, and kill his first 3-4 threats. At some point I use CB’s duress mode and see his hand is just Daze/land. I resolve a TNN and follow up by equipping it with SoFI. He can’t deal with TNN and the game ends.



    Match 3:DnT(1-2 Loss)
    Game 1:
    DnT has been really frustrating for me to play against. I’m probably 0-5 against it. I lose by pretty narrow margins. On paper it shouldn’t be this bad, but in practice it’s probably my worst personal matchup. Came into this match looking to kill a personal demon, just didn’t get it done this time around. Maybe next go.

    Keep Island, 2x polluted delta, thoughtseize, collective brutality, TNN, and SFM. Not a bad start. One weakness I see right away is no ponder/brainstorm and no way to fetch a basic plains. Figure I’ll just hope to draw my way out of it.
    T1 Thoughtseize reveals mom, 2 wastelands, 3 plains, and an aven mindcensor. Mindcensor is unusual, but it seems a ways off and I can crack some basics to get around it. Mom ends up being the pick. After that the game gets awkward fast. I deploy the TNN off 2 islands and swamp to stall out the ground game. CB kills the first mindcensor, but he has a second mindcensor. I draw a second brutality, and a scrubland. I use those to kill mindcensor #2, but promptly get wasted off my only white source. The board state stalls to an acceptable condition. My TNN staring down a lonely thalia. I have SFM in hand, I only need to draw white mana to cast it find a jitte, and win the game. My next 4 draw steps end up being agonizing, thoughtseize, FoW, batterskull, and to add insult to injury my final draw of the game is jitte. By the time I draw the jitte it’s too late. He’s been slowly developing his board and going wide and had lethal on board.

    Game 2:
    -3 Thoughtseize
    -2 Search of Azcanta(too many wastelands)
    -1 Unearth
    +1 Supreme Verdict
    +2 Zealous Persecution
    +1 Liliana, the Last Hope
    +1 Disenchant
    +1 Engineered Explosives

    Goes about as textbook for me as it can go. TNN gets suited up with a jitte and connects on T4. He tries to make a game out of it, but jitte is just too much in the long run.

    Game 3:
    The mulligan monster strikes. 1 lander, and it’s a non basic. I think there’s one brainstorm in there. Too much potential to get wastelanded or brainstorm locked out of the game. My 6 is another 1 lander, this time with no cantrips. My 5 is about as good as 5’s get, brainstorm, island, marsh flats, polluted delta, EE. I kind of make a game out of it, but it end up getting blown out by flickerwisp. I had put EE on 2 to nail a jitte, SFM, and a thalia, but flickerwisp helpfully reset my EE to 0. Pretty much lose on the spot.

  10. #130

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Awful night with a lot of mulligans, 1-3 sadly. I’m pretty sure I saw my swamp as the only mana source in hand at least 3 times tonight. Same list as last week.

    Match 1: Sneak Attack(1-2 Loss)
    Game 1:
    This guy is normally on lands so I keep a decent hand with STP. He switched it up this week and instead shows me a T2 SnT off of a volc island/ ancient tomb. I don’t have countermagic so I scoop em up.

    Game 2:
    -4 Swords to Plowshares
    -1 Supreme Verdict
    -1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
    -1 Umezawa’s Jitte
    -1 Unearth
    -2 True Name Nemesis
    +3 Surgical Extraction
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +2 Back to Basics
    +1 Disenchant
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    +1 Force of Will

    My opener is 5 lands, snapcaster, batterskull. Yikes. My six are snapcaster, thoughtseize, surgical extraction, ponder, swamp, and FoW. So clunky. I figure I’d best just hope to draw a blue source. I don’t draw a blue source for 2 turns, but my thoughtseize/FoW are enough to keep him from getting out of control. Eventually I find land #2 and start beating him down with SFM+SoFI for the win.

    I also see 2 basic islands and realize that back to basics is a terrible card against him. Whoops.

    Game 3:
    -2 Back to Basics
    +2 True Name Nemesis

    Game 3 comes down to the wire. My opening 7 is a no lander, and my 6 is again a swamp, thoughtseize, surgical extraction, and some cantrips. I figure my 5 isn’t getting any better and I hope that my scry and being on the draw will net me a land down the line. This hand is also extremely clunky against leyline of sanctity, which I know he plays. He doesn’t reveal a leyline so I let out sigh of relief.
    Opening thoughtseize sadly doesn’t reveal any combo pieces. He’s kept 4 lands, 2 ponders, and a FoW. I take the FoW with the intent of extracting it when he tries to go off to strip his countermagic. He tries to jam a SnT the next turn without protection, I counter that, then snap caster extract it. His hand then reveals Sneak Attack and a land. He resolves a sneak attack and we start a top deck war, I get SFM+SoFI out again and start hammering away. On his last turn at 4 life his final draw is of course the griselbrand. Nailbiter, these matches always suck to lose.

    Match 2: Aggro Loam(0-2 Loss)
    Game 1:
    Opening 7 is a six lander, mulligan again. My six is STP, cantrips, brutality, and lands which is fine. I run out of answers to his creatures, eventually he gets a Bob to stick and starts drawing cards. His 2 knights of the reliquary get massive, as does his tireless tracker. It does get to a point where I have TNN+Batterskull. My opponent swings in with 2 Knights(9/9), Scavenging ooze(5/5), and a tireless tracker(4/3). Tireless tracker is the only thing I can actually kill so I go to block it. I forgot that Maze of Ith is a thing, he mazes his own tracker out of the way so that I don’t get the TNN lifelink. His remaining power on board is enough to kill me.

    Game 2:
    -1 Unearth
    -1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
    -2 Search for Azcanta
    -3 Thoughtseize
    -2 Collective Brutality
    +3 Surgical Extraction
    +1 Engineered Explosives
    +2 Back to Basics
    +1 Disenchant
    +1 Supreme Verdict
    +1 Liliana the Last Hope

    A non game sadly. Opening 7 is 5 lands, batterskull, jace. Ship it back. My six is swamp, ponder, brainstorm, STP, and some other stuff. I figure I’ll just roll the dice and hope that the scry is enough to find me a land. It isn’t, in fact I don’t draw a land for 4 turns before I just scoop em up.

    Match 3: Pox(1-2 Loss)
    Game 1:
    Another clunky hand. My opening 7 is underground sea, ponder, brainstorm, FoW, and some other stuff. A one land hand against pox is never great, but with ponder/brainstorm it’s not the end of the world. But that’s not the kind of night I’m having. Underground sea into ponder reveals 3 non land cards, I shuffle them away, and draw my 4th card which is a batterskull. Oh happy day. Of course I get wastelanded turning off the brainstorm. I don’t draw another land for 5 turns and just concede.

    Game 2:
    -3 Collective Brutality
    -1 Supreme Verdict
    -1 Search for Azcanta
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +1 Engineered Explosives
    +1 Disenchant
    +1 Liliana the Last Hope

    2nd verse, same as the first. Opening 7 is a no lander, going down to 6. I think my six was 4 fetchlands and 2 cantrips, totally fine for this matchup. The game ends up being grindy, I win the topdeck war and slam a jace down. I +2 him out of the game and eventually a jace ultimate kills him.

    Game 3:
    No third mulligan this time, but again the hand is really clunky. Swamp, Tundra, jace, SFM, and some cantrips. I figure I’m all in on jace at this point. The problem ends up being that I can’t find an STP to protect jace after he is resolved and he ends up dying to some attacking factories. I end up dying not too long after he does.
    Match 4:(BR Reanimator)
    Match 1:
    I know what this guy plays, my opening 7 is 5 lands, TNN, and engineered explosives. Yuck. My next six is a no lander. Double yuck. My 5 is 3 lands, FoW, thoughtseize. End up just keeping it. Opponent is on the play and opens with thoughtseize taking my FoW. It doesn’t end up mattering, my topdeck is a land. I thoughtseize and see a redundant hand I can’t stop. He goes off next turn and I can’t do anything about it.

    Match 2:
    -2 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
    -1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
    -1 Unearth
    -1 Supreme Verdict
    -1 Umezawa’s Jitte
    -1 Engineered Explosives
    +3 Surgical Extraction
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    +1 Force of Will

    My opponent essentially ends up being too greedy and loses to himself. My opening hand was pretty good, but he manages to go off through it. He puts a griselbrand in play with reanimate and draws 7 putting himself down to 4. At this point I have nothing on board so it’s pretty clear I’ve lost in all reasonable scenarios. But he then attempts to go off a second time, he thoughseizes himself down to 2 and puts an elesh norn in the graveyard, and shortly thereafter into play. All the while I’m staring at what is now a golden collective brutality. I show him the brutality the next turn and win. Won this one purely off the back of his greed, but at this point in the night I’ll take what I can get. Explained his mistake after the game, he accepted his mistake and learned from it.

    Game 3:
    My opening 7 is really good. Double surgical, search, FoW, and some lands. I figure I’ll hold him off with surgicals and win once my azcanta comes online. Ends up playing out more or less exactly like that, once search flips the game is all over but the crying.



    Pretty rough night all in all. A lot of it was really terrible openers, but I’m sure there were some play mistakes mixed in too. Next week I want to find room for ponder #4. At this point I’m also fairly convinced that search is a 1 of. Too many wastelands running around for it. It also doesn't help that my list is loaded with basics so more often than not my opponent is sitting on a wasteland or two they can't use.

    Until next week.

  11. #131

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Kind of the same list. I’ve upped the number of disenchants as I keep running into problematic artifacts/enchantments. Other than that azcanta has been pushed to the board for grindy non-wasteland matchups. It’s a great card, but I’m less and less convinced this is the appropriate shell for it, UWR is probably better since its more reactive. Maybe it leaves altogether in the future?

    Lands-20
    3 Island
    2 Plains
    1 Swamp
    2 Tundra
    2 Underground Sea
    1 Scrubland
    4 Flooded Strand
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Marsh Flats

    Creatures-10
    4 Stoneforge Mystic
    3 True Name Nemesis
    3 Snapcaster Mage

    Spells-24
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    3 Ponder
    3 Force of Will
    3 Collective Brutality
    3 Thoughtseize
    2 Spell Pierce
    2 Supreme Verdict


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

    Planeswalkers-4

    2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    1 Gideon Ally of Zendikar
    1 Liliana, the Last Hope


    Sideboard:
    3 Surgical Extraction
    2 Flusterstorm
    1 Engineered Explosives
    2 Zealous Persecution
    2 Back to Basics
    2 Disenchant
    1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    1 Force of Will
    1 Search for Azcanta


    Match 1: BYE
    We have an odd number of players and I’m the odd man out. Spend the time scouting out opponents and playing on my Switch.


    Match 2: R/W DnT(2-0 Win)

    Game 1:
    Get to face a slightly different version of the deck I’ve struggled with in the past. The difference appears to be the inclusion of magus of the moon for additional mana denial. My opening 7 is terrible, a bunch of blue spells and only a single marsh flats. My opening 6 isn’t much better, only a single land, some cantrips, and some removal. The only catch is that land is a scrubland. I keep it on the draw, hoping that my scry+draw will yield me something that gets blue mana. The game ends up being very back and forth. I EE to catch two of his opening vials, and eventually land a TNN in play. He makes a critical mistake however that turns the game in my favor. Basically he has a Mirran Crusader+SoFI and Thalia vs my TNN+Jitte and SFM. He attacks with crusader, which gets chumped by SFM, then for some reason he passes the SoFI to the Thalia. This ends up exposing the Crusader, the next turn TNN attacks and the Jitte counters get used to kill Crusader. I’m able to tank a hit or two from thalia and eventually I manage to stabilize with jitte. The game comes to its grindy conclusion after his thalia+SoFI+jitte loses to my TNN+batterskull+jitte. Pretty bizarre voltron battle, but TNN wins out. I get lucky in two ways this game, first my opponent makes a big mistake, and second my awkward mana doesn’t get punished by either wasteland or blood moon.

    Game 2:
    -3 Force of Will
    -2 Spell Pierce
    -1 Collective Brutality
    +1 Engineered Explosives
    +2 Zealous Persecution
    +2 Disenchant
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice


    Opening 7 is alright. Tundra, underground sea, fetch, TNN and some removal. I’m not thrilled by the number of non basics, but I’m not convinced my 6 is going to be any better. I plow his opening mom, and then get double wastelanded. I’m able to cantrip into some more basics and white spells. But the board is awkward, I have two islands, a swamp, and TNN in play. The problem ends up being that I can’t find a white fetch to get a plains into play, and he has a thalia on board. I’m staring down wasteland #3 on board so I’m really not going to fetch another non basic. TNN can’t really do much either as he’s holding back the white horde. I get lucky, off the top the draw is jitte, a turn later jitte is equipped and the game ends.
    Get through red and taxes with a bit of luck, felt pretty good to break a long losing streak.


    Match 3: Grixis Delver(2-0 Win)

    Game 1:
    Another awkward hand that doesn’t get punished too badly. Double tundra, polluted delta, STP, and some other stuff. I lose the die roll and his opener is delver. I decide to play around possible stifle, and just play delta and crack it for swamp. My draws end up being pretty good, I get a solid mana base going, and I’ve got 3 SFM and a jace in hand. My plan is to just keep dropping SFMs and running him out of cards, jace will be the knockout punch. The first SFM gets bolted, the second has its search ability stifled(woohoo I was right about him playing stifle), but the third sticks with me at around 5 life. Batterskull and jitte get cheated in play. In the meantime he manages to topdeck TNN which kinda holds off my well-armed swarm of kor and germ tokens. Once jace lands the game pretty much ends. I think we have one final fight over some jitte triggers, he tries to stifle a jitte lifegain activation. But I’ve been sandbagging a FoW for this or a potentially lethal lightning bolt. I FoW his stifle and the game ends.

    Game 2:
    -3 Thoughtseize
    -3 FoW
    -2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor(Not sure if correct, jace is not so great against pyroblasts sadly)
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +1 Engineered Explosives
    +2 Zealous Persecution
    +2 Back to Basics
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice

    Another weird hand, but probably my most interesting game of the night. Tundra, Underground Sea, fetch, back to basics, and some cantrips/removal. I’m normally thrilled to see B2B in my hand, but with 2 non basics it’s defiantly awkward. His opening DRS gets plowed and eventually we get to my opponent’s turn 3 end step. He’s tapped out to deploy a young pyro and make 2 tokens. In the meantime I’ve got my tundra, underground sea, and island in play, untapped. My hand is Snap, plow, B2B, EE, and verdict. At his end step I have some thinking to do.

    Line 1: The Risky Route
    Snapcaster mage, snap back plow to bait out a potential daze. On my turn deploy B2B trapping all his lands except 1(bounced by daze) beneath it. It’s important to note that 2/3 of my lands also get trapped beneath the B2B. But i’m 100% he doesn’t have basics at all, and he has a thinner land count, so I’ll likely draw out of it before he does. He does have a lot of 1 mana critters though, including gurmag angler that could kill me before I dig myself out.

    Line 2: The Safe Route
    Just plow the pyromancer and continue to remove his creatures until I’m in a position to better leverage my own B2B. But, I’m also passing up on a golden window for B2B. As the game draws on longer and longer its less and less likely I’ll ever see him tap out to cast anything again.

    *Cue Kenny Loggins Music*
    I opt to gamble a bit and take the risky route, I attempt to snap plow presenting him with a daze opportunity. He takes the bait and bounces a tropical island. This is great news for me, if he had bounced a volcanic island, pyroblast would be a live card next turn. My topdeck for the turn is polluted delta, so it turns out the daze bait was unnecessary, but whatever. Delta fetches swamp, B2B resolves pretty much telling me 100% he doesn’t have a daze in hand. I use my final land, tundra, to plow his pyromancer with impunity. He’s left with 2 pyro tokens and board that won’t untap. We durdle for a turn or two, I’m furiously digging for white mana, and he’s trying to find a way out. Somewhere in there I’m forced to use EE to clear his two tokens out. Eventually he gets a gurmag angler to stick which hits me twice, and he goes for a DRS to try and fix his mana. At this point though I’ve managed to dig myself out. With swamp, island, plains, and polluted delta(had to get another non basic), I cast supreme verdict and the game pretty much ends. He tries to make a game of it by casting ancient grudge against my batterskull, but he taps out to do it and I have pierce to stop him.


    Match 4: Lands(0-2 Loss)
    Based on records the last match of the night would either be UR Delver or Lands. I’d take delver in a heartbeat, but lands is instead waiting for me in the finals.

    Game 1:
    We both stall out, he gets his punishing fire engine going, but eventually I get a TNN to stick. I accidentally blow through a tabernacle trigger and am forced to sac it. Think he makes a lage token after that. Either way, the clock was too slow.

    Game 2:
    -2 Supreme Verdict
    -3 Collective Brutality
    -1 Umezawa’s Jitte
    -1 Liliana the Last Hope
    -3 Thoughtseize(This may have been wrong)
    +3 Surgical Extraction
    +1 Engineered Explosives
    +2 Back to Basics
    +2 Disenchant
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    +1 Force of Will

    Game 2 is pretty dismal as well. My opener is Gideon, extraction, brainstorm, and some lands, definitely good enough. I open with a surgical taking out his punishing fire, which is a promising start. I land a Gideon and he shows his last card in hand to be maze of ith. He makes three copies of it with thespians stage and my soldiers never connect. He also gets his tabernacle into play so it’s constantly taxing my resources. The game ends when he starts getting his loam/ghost quarter loop to go off. I get a snapcaster to flashback surgical extraction to try and get the loams out, but he has the cycle land in hand to get his loam out of harm’s way.

    Still pretty happy on the night, 3-1 is still a good record, just wish I’d gotten to play delver in the finals.
    Manabase needs some tuning. My deck is really hungry for WW thanks to supreme verdict/Gideon. I’m probably going to have to make some edits to the manabase. Scrubland seems more of a liability lately, and I don’t need 4 polluted deltas. Maybe cut scrub and a delta for 2 marsh flats?
    Last edited by First_Revenge; 03-29-2018 at 10:38 AM.

  12. #132

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Same list as last week, I think I’m beginning to settle in. Although I went 3-1 it was more draining than usual for reasons you’ll find out later.

    Match 1: Elves!(2-1 Win)
    Game 1:
    Opponent wins the die roll, I’ve seen him multiple times on DnT and my opener is fine against that. Some fetches, a cantrip, SFM, and some killspells. His opening forest into DRS catches me off guard, and it’s pretty easy to surmise he is on elves. My opening thoughtseize immediately presents a difficult decision. He has some random elves, reclamation sage, symbiote, cradle, and glimpse of nature. Reclamation sage basically turns my jitte off, but leaving him with glimpse + cradle seems more immediately threatening. I opt to take glimpse and figure I’ll try and bait his sage with a batterskull, this also means I save one of my killspells for symbiote so he can’t keep bouncing sage back to hand. He does end up taking the bait two turns later, even better for me he also forgets that batterskull can be bounced back to hand blanking his sage. Having killed his symbiote earlier, his sage is now trapped on board. A second SFM gets cast, jitte gets tutored up and starts connecting. Explosives on 1 kills 4 of his dudes as extra icing on the cake.

    Game 2:
    -2 Spell Pierce
    -1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
    -1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    -1 Batterskull
    +1 Engineered Explosives
    +2 Zealous Persecution
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    +1 Force of Will

    Game 2 starts out well enough, I keep his board under control, but I’m also sandbagging a supreme verdict in hand. He keeps bouncing stuff back to his hand via symbiote so I never get the opportunity I’m looking for. This comes back to bite me, ultimately he goes with a relatively weak craterhoof behemoth putting 9 power on board with 2 creatures. But I’m at 9 life, so it’s good enough for him to win. Should have cast the verdict earlier.
    In the course of the game I get this weird sense he’s running choke so I SB accordingly. Looking at lists now it seems like all elves decks run it, but still, I’m happy to have recognized that possibility mid match. SB gets adjusted accordingly.

    Game 3:
    -1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    -1 Thoughtseize
    +2 Disenchant

    Assuming he has choke, scrubland is now the most valuable land in my deck. I keep a reasonable opener and the game begins. I try to fetch around choke which is relatively easy since most of my killspells push me in that direction anyway. Eventually I do fetch 2 islands to cast a TNN with 2 SFM in hand. He immediately chokes me, locking me on scrubland and plains, enough for my purposes. I deploy SFM, glue jitte to TNN and go to town. He deals with the jitte, then SoFI comes out and he has a harder time of it. With opponent at 16 life I swing with TNN+SoFI, putting him to 9. My draw is Brutality, which along with TNN gives me lethal next turn. Opponent basically assumes he has one more turn than he actually does and dies to the brutality the following turn.


    Match 2: The Epic Storm(2-1 Win)
    Just through hearing the players around me talk, we had 3 newcomers to the store, all on storm apparently. So when I get paired against a new face I’m guessing the odds are pretty good he’s on storm.
    Game 1:
    He starts off behaving a lot like grixis delver to my confusion. I get probed, he ponders some, and then he casts cabal therapy against my partially known hand naming Force of Will. At this point the jig is up, if he were a delver deck he would have taken the known 2 STP in my hand in a heartbeat. He goes off and puts 18 goblins into play. I try and dig for my only out, engineered explosives, but I don’t find it.

    Game 2:
    -1 Liliana, the Last Hope
    -1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
    -2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    -2 Swords to Plowshares(Xantid Swarm is definitely a card storm decks play)
    -3 True Name Nemesis
    -1 Umezawa’s Jitte
    +3 Surgical Extraction
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +1 Engineered Explosives
    +2 Zealous Persecution
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    +1 Force of Will

    My opener contains ZP, cantrips, some countermagic, and some other stuff. He therapies me and I brainstorm in response. It’s a tough brainstorm, I decide to hide ZP on top and expose my countermagic to his removal. I’m basically praying that he goes the empty the warrens plan as I’m dead in the water to tendrils. He does go the warrens route and happily empties his hand to plop 18 goblins on the table. I flip over ZP, a card he hasn’t encountered before apparently, and the game ends with SFM closing it up.

    Game 3:
    On his turn 2 he starts going off, my hand is double zealous, brainstorm, and some lands. At this point he had stripped away my spell pierce. He goes through his entire hand, with infernal tutor being the last card cast, given that he knows about the ZPs in my hand he can only really be going for tendrils. I brainstorm miraculously finding the blue card and FoW to win it.


    Match 3: ANT(1-2 Loss)
    Next pairings are announced, I see a name I vaguely remember and when he starts walking over I recognize him as a semi-regular attendee, who of course, plays storm... I let out a private groan.

    It’s a rare occasion that I play TES and ANT on the same night, so it’s probably worth explaining some key differences between the two. TES is a far more “all in strategy,” you’ll recognize it because it plays cards like chrome mox and rite of flame, these cards are low cost so they’ll lead to explosives starts or horrific blowouts should the pilot fail. ANT is a more long range strategy, you’ll recognize it because it plays cabal ritual, a slower spell that gives them more mana. They use that additional mana to cast stuff like past in flames, a high cost card that TES can’t support. As a result, TES has a tougher time “reloading” than ANT does.

    Game 1:
    It’s kind of a blur, but game 1’s against storm aren’t very favored, I lean really heavily on G2 and G3. I probably run out of countermagic and just die to tendrils.

    Game 2:
    On a bright note, sideboarding was very easy, same thing! A combination of countermagic, and a snapcaster mage+surgical extraction taking his tutors was enough to kick the legs out from under him as he tried to go off.

    Game 3:
    Same thing, snapcaster mage+surgical take his tutors and another relevant spell. But lady luck giveth, and lady luck taketh away. With the storm counter at 15 or something, he has 5 black and 1 blue in his mana pool. He uses his last blue to cast brainstorm and rips tendrils, his only way out, right off the top of the deck. I’ll consider it even given the absurdly lucky brainstorm I’d gotten earlier.


    Match 4: ANT(2-0 Win)
    I look at the pairings board.... And it’s another name I don’t recognize, but it’s a face that I do. He’d been jamming some games against a friend and so I knew he was on storm. Wanted to get paired against one of the 3-4 delver decks in the room, but here we are...

    Game 1:
    Opening hand is a 5 lander with batterskull and brainstorm. I think about it for a second, I’m on the play so it’s risky, but I elect to not do it. Brainstorm is really good, but I don’t think it can fix 5 lands and a batterskull. My 6 is a no lander, and my 5 is pretty miserable too, but I keep, a land, two brainstorms, and 2 SFM. A good cabal therapy would ruin me, but at this point I don’t have much of a choice but to roll the dice. I play my land and pass. He duresses and I’m presented with a choice. I can brainstorm in response, but if I do I risk locking myself out of the game if I don’t draw a land. Also if I brainstorm now, I can only go 3 cards deep as I don’t get my drawstep to help dig further into the deck. Ultimately I just let duress resolve and he rips a brainstorm out. Next turn I do brainstorm and find FoW, jace, and land, about as good as I can ask for. He attempts to go off the next turn and empties his hand, the last card being an infernal tutor. I FoW it, stopping him for the time being, but sitting pretty in his yard is a past in flames with 2 lands in play, so I’m far from out of the woods. SFM+Batterskull deploy to start clocking him. In the meantime I’ve been drawing pretty hot and find another FoW+blue card. He moves to go off again, but I FoW the past in flames and he concedes.

    Game 2:
    At least my SB is easy. This game he probes and sees me with double FoW and no other blue cards with SFM as a clock. The problem for him ends up being that he doesn’t have discard spells so he just has to sit there until he gets a way to deal with FoW. SFM gets deployed and suited up, cards start getting drawn, and eventually I get into a spot where I have 2 FoW with 2 blue cards for backup. The killing blow ends up being a brutality to duress him, revealing a bunch of LEDs and rituals along with 2 infernal tutors. There isn’t much of a choice here, I yank one of the tutors, then surgically extract the other one from his hand. He now has a bunch of accelerants that storm into nothing. He draws dead and SFM kills him.


    Can’t complain overall, fighting 3 storm decks was unpleasant, but I did learn a lot. Looking back I realize that I beat 2 storm decks out of 3 without ever seeing a single thoughtseize...? Do I get a prize for that??

  13. #133
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Hi to everyone! :D
    This is my Jeskai Stoneblade list.



    Anyone else plays this deck?
    I would like to create a discussion for the best side in/out for this list with all metagame huge decks ;)

    I'm waiting for your replies! :D
    Currently playing:

    Legacy: UR Delver | UW Stoneblade | Grixis Delver
    Pauper: UR Delver

  14. #134

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by LucaT View Post
    Hi to everyone! :D
    This is my Jeskai Stoneblade list.

    Anyone else plays this deck?
    I would like to create a discussion for the best side in/out for this list with all metagame huge decks ;)

    I'm waiting for your replies! :D
    http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...?DeckID=118334

    The above list was mine I played at a team SCG event back in January, I still run the exact 75 through a league on MTGO a few times a week with fine results.

    I think we're playing 73/75 same cards actually. How has explosives been for you in the main deck? With how many fair decks I've been playing lately, having the Sword of Fire and Ice main deck has been great to be able to tutor up game 1.

    As for the sideboard, I'm playing a Grim Lavamancer and Nahiri in the board over an extra Disenchant and SoFI. Grim Lavamancer is about as lights out against DnT and other small creature decks as a Jitte is, and have loved it in the board. The Nahiri is more of a personal pet card that I've always loved, but you rarely lose a game where Nahiri is left on the board and have won a surprising number of games with a Nahiri ultimate

  15. #135
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    Qweerios's Avatar
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Just to comment on the last 2 posts....

    I too play a nearly identical 75 with a few exceptions. I don't play much Stoneblade these days but I did play many variants for several years and UWr was always my preferred version. So here are some points that you might find interesting for the sake of discussion about this nice streamlined list you posted.

    -Basic Mountain mainboard with only 2 Bolts is a wasted slot. I usually play the singleton Mountain as a SB card along with the other red SB cards that would be brought in against Wasteland decks. Playing 19 Lands mainboard with 10 fetches, 4 duals and 5 basics is enough with 8 cantrips. The 20th land comes in postboard when necessary.

    -4 basic Islands is a lot. I never needed more than 3 Islands and 2 Plains to have more basic lands than my opponents can care for. The 4th Island could easily become a 10th Fetch (2nd Mesa).

    -I think there is no good reason to omit the 4th Ponder. Playing 4 Ponders is as basic as playing 4 Brainstorms in a UWr control deck. As a hipster, I have been on the 8 cantrip suite years before it became mainstream :P . I won't go into details as to why 4 Ponders is a no-brainer but let's just say it makes your maindeck better/consistent and virtually expands your SB (postboard games > pre-board games). Ignore those who say cantrips are clunky and suck against Thalia and Chalice... Mulligans, land shortages/floods and color screws are clunkier. It doesn't matter what your opponent plays against you if you lose to your own draws...

    -Clique is such an underwhelming card compared to its alternatives. I love Clique and it's a shame it is no longer a fraction of what it used to be. Clique is a jack of all trades, master of none. Being particularly good at nothing is what makes Clique subpar to TNN and Snap. If you use it for additional disruption, more counterspells are better... I think you would be better off with a 4th Ponder here as a starting point.

    -Supreme Verdict is a fine card with it's own merit. However, I don't think it is nearly as good as EE as a mainboard card. EE is applicable to way more situations and matchups, has a more flexible cost, and retains its blowout potential while being able to dig you out of more dire situations. EE has value where Verdict has none. I would 100% play a 2nd mainboard EE over a singleton Verdict. Verdict is better at bringing you back from an insurmountable board position while EE prevents you from getting into an insurmountable board position (AKA: handles Chalice, EtW, explosive elves, sweeps Mom + Vial or DRS + Delver openers, and more!). Hell, you can even break from a Liliana choke-hold with an EE... Verdict is a fine SB card though.

    -As Cliche mentioned, Grim Lavamancer is not to be underestimated as a SB option. I personally think you can't go wrong with a single copy.

    -I am not a fan of the 2nd Priest in the SB. The effect of Priest is narrow and doesn't stack. If you want more GY hate, diversifying with RiP or playing something cheaper at 0-1 mana is more effective. Given that Elves is already quite positive, I would believe that a 2nd Priest is a concession to Sneak n Show.

    Just my 0.02$
    Do you know what assuming does? It makes an ass out of you and me.
    Get it...? Ass, u, me?

    ... ffs I was trying to be funny...

  16. #136
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Has anyone experience with wasteland in that (jeskai) build? Mainly dealing with utility lands as blinkmoth, cradle or busaiju. Now that turbo depths is a real thing, its more protection where counterspells fail. I see 2-3 of them in esper builds now and then.

    I guess grim lavamancer and izzet staticaster compete for the same sb slot? Staticaster has haste but can't be cast in early turns, but takes care of tokens and doesn't dissynergize with snapcaster nor is affected by drs.
    Last edited by BigBopper; 04-14-2018 at 01:46 PM.
    Gobbos: Kings of flavortext!

  17. #137

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by BigBopper View Post
    Has anyone experience with wasteland in that (jeskai) build? Mainly dealing with utility lands as blinkmoth, cradle or busaiju. Now that turbo depths is a real thing, its more protection where counterspells fail. I see 2-3 of them in esper builds now and then.

    I guess grim lavamancer and izzet staticaster compete for the same sb slot? Staticaster has haste but can't be cast in early turns, but takes care of tokens and doesn't dissynergize with snapcaster nor is affected by drs.
    Regarding wasteland, here’s my bit.

    Generally, I’m of the opinion that wasteland is something you play 4 of or you play none of. I’d also say that most of the time wasteland almost locks you into playing DRS thanks to the insane synergy you can get there.

    I’ve run esper deathblade in the past and now I’m on esper stoneblade. I used to run 2 wastelands in deathblade, but honestly I found it underwhelming. As a 2 of it never really constitutes a mana denial plan. It’s just too inconsistent. You could argue that it snipes utility lands, but again as a 2 of it’s not that reliable. Look at infect, they run 4 inkmoth nexus. You might waste the first nexus but they’ll grind through you on sheer numbers alone. In fact, given the sheer number of wastelands floating around in the meta, I’d argue that there just aren’t that many 1 or 2 of utility lands kicking around anymore. Non basics for the most part are duals or 3-4 of game critical pieces like cradle.

    Second big lesson, not all wastelands are created equal. Wastelands from a delver(grixis in particular) and DnT decks are just flat out better than ours. Their entire deck is built around wasteland, in ours wasteland is a tacked on afterthought. Without a fast clock like delver or a DRS to abuse the mana advantage, I’d estimate our wastelands are only about half as effective as a wasteland from a delver deck.

    When I made the jump down from esper deathblade to esper stoneblade, wasteland was one of the first things to get cut. First because DRS was going good bye. Second because I became convinced that based on the delver heavy meta I live in, basics were really where I wanted to be.

    And here’s the obligatory know your meta footnote. If your meta is infested with depths combo, then yeah, it’s probably worth running wasteland. If it isn’t, I’d say you’re probably just better off running basics.

  18. #138
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    I disagree with almost everything Qweerios argues in favor of.

    1) Basic mountain mainboard with 2 bolts in the main board is not a wasted slot. It gives 1 more slot to an already tightly packed side board. It serves to increase resilient to opposing mana denial plans. 19 lands is not nearly enough.

    2) There is in fact good reason to omit playing a 4th ponder. No, it is not as 'basic' as playing 4 brainstorms in a UWr control deck. UWr stoneblade requires action cards. As such, it is acceptable to omit a copy to play a card that actually does something. It also decreases vulnerability to chalice on 1 (potentially) & thalia (assuredly).

    3) Clique is not an underwhelming card. It is uniquely suited for different circumstances than true-name nemesis. It is disrupts combo decks where TNN is useless. It draws out counter spells & attacks planeswalkers at instant speed in control & midrange match ups.

    4) Supreme verdict is better at different things compared to EE. It clearly pitches to force of will whereas EE does not. Supreme verdict cannot be countered & cannot be stifled. EE also requires more mana to destroy creatures of converted mana cost 3. Supreme verdict does not require on field creatures to align converted mana costs to completely wipe the board. Yes, EE does different things like destroying chalice, but that does not down play the mana benefits of supreme verdict. It is simply a matter of card preference

    5) Containment priest is the complete opposite of the asserted notion that it is "narrow & doesn't stack". The card attacks aether vial decks, natural order decks, green sun's zenith decks, sneak attack, show & tell, dredge, and reanimator. The fact that the card has flash is also hugely relevant in the match ups you board the card in

  19. #139

    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    It’s been a while, been busy with work/finals/other obligations so I haven’t had time to keep updating. Do have some time this week so here we go(again). Decklist remains the same as last week, thinking of some minor tweaks coming up, but nothing too substantial.

    Match 1: Grixis Pyromanger(1-1 Draw)
    Game 1:
    I keep a hand of some removal, SFM, brainstorm, and jace. He starts the game off looking a lot like Czech pile. He eventually resolves a pyromancer and probes me which tells me that’s not the case. For the first 4-5 turns of the game I’m mainly trying to keep the board under control and get to the point where I can cast the jace that’s sitting in my hand. On T4 I cast a brainstorm hunting for a 5th land so I can cast jace with pierce backup. I find the land, I decide to put back a thoughseize and a leave jace on top. I know he plays cabal therapy and I’m not too fond of getting my jace stripped out. He does end up playing therapy naming jace, but that card is hidden on the top of my deck now. I resolve jace the next turn and brainstorm to victory. He dies under the weight of card advantage.

    Game 2:
    -3 Force of Will
    -3 Collective Brutality(No delvers, his main threat appears to be pyromancer)
    +1 Search for Azcanta
    +1 Engineered Explosives
    +2 Zealous Persecution
    +2 Flusterstorm

    He wins this game off the back of a T3 blood moon. He sticks me on an island and a plains with 2 SFM in hand. He has swamp, island, DRS. If I could plow the DRS I think I could have won this game and locked him off mana. Instead he resolves jace and runs away with it much the same way I did game 1. We go to turns and I try to basically survive, but he wins on T5 with 2 snapcasters and a DRS beating me down. We clearly don’t have time for a G3 and leave it at a draw.


    Match 2: ANT(2-0 Win)
    Game 1:
    I’ll just say my opponent drew horrifically. My hand is alright, pierce, FoW, cantrips, and a gideon. For the first two turns we play draw go, then he duresses me. My hand hasn’t changed that much. Pierce and 2xFoW are the only relevant threats, but brainstorm/ponder represent some potential goodies. I figure I’m assuredly losing a FoW in this case, but instead he yanks the Gideon...? It’s an odd play that signals to me he’s got nothing going on in his hand. The next turn ponder finds a jace which resolves, and then I get to live every blue mage’s wet dream by untapping with jace. Repeated brainstorms give me all the tools I need to win from there.

    Game 2:
    -1 Liliana, the Last Hope
    -1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
    -1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    -4 Swords to Plowshares
    -2 Supreme Verdict
    -1 Umezawa’s Jitte
    +3 Surgical Extraction
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    +1 Force of Will
    +1 Search for Azcanta
    +2 Zealous Persecution

    I get pretty lucky here. I forget what the opener here is, but T2 or T3 I CB him and see a pile of rituals and a tutor, which of course I take. A turn or two later all I’m sitting on is 2X FoW and an engineered explosives. He decides to therapy me which is a disaster. I decide to let it resolve and force him to make the right call. He does and 2xFoW hit the dumpster. He passes the turn, I draw a land for turn and since I can’t hide my explosives, I run it out on 0. I figure I’m probably dead at this point, 1 card in hand is a land so it’s time to start praying. He goes off, and somewhere in that chain he resolves ad naseum. He goes through a lot of his deck, but fails to find a tutor or tendrils and goes down to 1. He gets chunked pretty hard by flipping a worthless empty the warrens. He brainstorms to get a bit deeper in to his deck but still comes up empty. TNN kills him next turn.


    Match 3: Grixis Delver(2-1 Win)
    Game 1:
    Nothing too spectacular here. I get enough early removal to control his board, while getting enough basics to develop my own. As the game goes longer the game inevitably tilts in my favor. TNN and SFM get resolved, and eventually TNN carries a batterskull in for the win.

    Game 2:
    -3 FoW
    -3 Thoughtseize
    -1 Jace, the Mindsculptor
    -1 Collective Brutality
    +1 Engineered Explosives
    +2 Zealous Persecution
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    +2 Back to Basics

    This game goes off the rails pretty quickly. He leads on volc, I go plains and pass, he plays a sea and resolves pyromancer. I play island and try to plow the pyromancer and he double dazes the plow picking up two tokens in the process. I start getting beat down for 4. I do sort of stabilize, but it’s too late. I’m at 1 when I finally clear the board, and I just cast sword of fire and ice hoping to connect with something down the road. We enter the awkward top deck phase. I rip 2 TNNs off the top but he has a FoW for each of them. Eventually he just plays a 1/1 delver I can’t answer and slips in there for lethal.

    Game 3:
    The planeswalker special. My opener is some land, Liliana, STP, and cantrips. I keep his board under control early, and on T4 I resolve a Liliana playing around a daze. He eventually deals with Liliana by bolting her twice, but somewhere along the line I’ve drawn my Gideon. Gideon resolves and starts pumping out 2/2s. He actually manages to stick 2x gurmag anglers and surgically extracts my STP, so the fish are quite literally a big problem. TNN helps hold back the fish and Gideon just keeps being a knight factory. Eventually SFM resolves, I get batterskull and pass. I’m very conscious of my opponent’s potential artifact hate. As long as this game has gone, I’m pretty much assuming he has an abrade. Equipping batterskull to TNN is not a great idea, he just abrades the batterskull after the equip. I need 8 mana to make it work, but I’m not that far off at 6, and I do have some cantrips. I decide to just blink the skull into play to represent a potential threat and to allow my opponent to make a mistake by trying to abrade it. He ends up falling for the trap and abrades a batterskull against 3 untapped lands. Batterskull gets bounced, replayed, and then glued to a TNN to break the stalemate.


    Match 4: UB Omnitell featuring Lim Dul’s Vault(1-2 Loss)
    Game 1:
    I roughly know what this guy is on having seen him play occasionally before, never actually sat down and faced him though. Game 1 my hand is alright, a CB a piece of countermagic, and a ponder. It ends up not being enough, my CB eats a FoW and he resolves SnT through the countermagic to win.

    Game 2:
    -1 Liliana, the Last Hope
    -1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
    -4 Swords to Plowshares
    -2 Supreme Verdict
    -1 Umezawa’s Jitte
    +3 Surgical Extraction(Really screws with vault stacks)
    +2 Flusterstorm
    +1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    +1 Force of Will
    +1 Search for Azcanta
    +1 Disenchant(its pretty bad, but maybe I can disenchant omniscience at an awkward time for him)
    He leads off on a boseju which is really good. Thankfully I have enough discard to keep him at bay. I strip his hand and start beating down with a snapcaster. Apparently he draws pretty dead and concedes.
    Game 3:
    Pretty frustrating game. He starts on boseju again(only 1 in his deck). I start stripping his hand out leaving him on 2 lands, omniscience, and emrakul. Its T3 and I’m stuck on an underground sea and tundra in play. My hand is spell pierce, search, and I think a CB. I figure that vault is pretty much his only way out at this point, and I really do need to get my deck going. I decide to cast the search and hope for the best. And right off the top rolls a lim dul’s vault. He casts it, finds SnT, and resolves it off the back of boseju. Womp Womp.

  20. #140
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    Re: [Primer] UWx Stoneblade

    Quote Originally Posted by QKisMyName View Post
    I disagree with almost everything Qweerios argues in favor of.

    1) Basic mountain mainboard with 2 bolts in the main board is not a wasted slot. It gives 1 more slot to an already tightly packed side board. It serves to increase resilient to opposing mana denial plans. 19 lands is not nearly enough.

    2 Volc is more than enough to cast 2 Bolts pre-board. Arguing for more SB space at the expense of MB space implies that your SB is more important than your MB, which is not the case. If you care about hypergeometric distributions and choose that 20 lands is better than 19 with 8 cantrips and 3-4 mana curve toppers in a 5+ turn deck, basic mountain remains the worst possible 20th land you could draw.

    2) There is in fact good reason to omit playing a 4th ponder. No, it is not as 'basic' as playing 4 brainstorms in a UWr control deck. UWr stoneblade requires action cards. As such, it is acceptable to omit a copy to play a card that actually does something. It also decreases vulnerability to chalice on 1 (potentially) & thalia (assuredly).

    Ponder is one of the best ways to give you more action. It in fact increases your odds of giving you the right action for the right circumstance. Arguing that shaving a Ponder makes you more resilient to CotV implies that you won't replace it with a CMC1 spell, which likely increases your curve and makes the deck statistically clunkier, therefore giving you less time to react (AKA less business gets played).

    3) Clique is not an underwhelming card. It is uniquely suited for different circumstances than true-name nemesis. It is disrupts combo decks where TNN is useless. It draws out counter spells & attacks planeswalkers at instant speed in control & midrange match ups.

    I concede to you that Clique does radically different things than TNN. However, against PW, Midrange and Control TNN is clearly superior so your argument is moot. Clique only shine against slower combo variants and the occasional Miracle trigger on an already favorable board.

    4) Supreme verdict is better at different things compared to EE. It clearly pitches to force of will whereas EE does not. Supreme verdict cannot be countered & cannot be stifled. EE also requires more mana to destroy creatures of converted mana cost 3. Supreme verdict does not require on field creatures to align converted mana costs to completely wipe the board. Yes, EE does different things like destroying chalice, but that does not down play the mana benefits of supreme verdict. It is simply a matter of card preference

    yes they are different but their differences mean a lot. Pitching to FoW is one of the poorest argument for card quality IMO and relevance in #of Matchups outweighs any of the points you proposed. Stifle is a Relic and only sees play in RUG against which reaching 4 mana is much more difficult than landing and activating a 3 mana wrath over 2 turns.

    5) Containment priest is the complete opposite of the asserted notion that it is "narrow & doesn't stack". The card attacks aether vial decks, natural order decks, green sun's zenith decks, sneak attack, show & tell, dredge, and reanimator. The fact that the card has flash is also hugely relevant in the match ups you board the card in
    The effect of the 2nd Priest on the board doesn't offer much more than the first... they don't stack very well. Splitting 2 Priests into 1 Priest and 1 Rip for instance gives you a lot more matchup coverage and the same amount of total GY hate. Nearly all of the cards you named are played in a very limited amount of decks. Priest shines against Sneak n Show and Elves mostly. that's 2 major Matchups at best. Dredge is marginal and 2 mana GY hate in Creature form against Reanimator variants is splash hate at best. Also the only Vial deck in the meta worthy of consideration would be DnT and you don't want to bring in Priest in that matchup because of Flickerwisp...
    Do you know what assuming does? It makes an ass out of you and me.
    Get it...? Ass, u, me?

    ... ffs I was trying to be funny...

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