U/B/r Stalker

[snappingbowls | ಠ_ಠ]

everyone will probably hate on Daze and no Hymn and say I should just play BUG

This is a control tempo deck that can surprise win out of nowhere with a t2 flipped Delver but reliably ends games by grinding out with Jace or beating in face with x3 Tombstalkers.

The reason I don't play Hymn to Tourach is that it is only really good in the first few turns, costs BB and is a sorcery. These are not reasons enough to not run it, but I also play a lot of counterspells, and lots of removal. Basically I feel like the deck has enough control without Hymn or even thoughtseize.

x3 Jace the Mindsculptor

x3 Tombstalker
x3 Snapcaster Mage
x4 Delver of Secrets

x2 Spell Pierce
x3 Spell Snare
x3 Daze
x4 Force of Will
x4 Brainstorm
x2 Ponder
x1 Go for the Throat
x1 Dismember
x2 Fire / Ice
x4 Lightning Bolt

x3 Volcanic Island
x4 Underground Sea
x3 Scalding Tarn
x4 Polluted Delta
x2 Bloodstained Mire
x4 Wasteland

sb

x2 Diabolic Edict
x2 Engineered Explosives (might be better of as Firespout?)
x2 Pyroblast
x2 Red Elemental Blast
x2 Chain of Vapor
x2 Divert
x3 Surgical Extraction

Part of why I wanted to post this deck is that on paper it kind of looks like a weird deck as there are 18lands.dec and tempo thresh elements in here and late game stuff too. I don't think this is a bad thing because it in my playing of this deck Jace and TS are bombs that come down in the late game after snapcaster tricks and delver beats.

I know this is a pretty great community I just hope some of you guys look and the NaDD board!

[bowvamp]

I think that the random 1 ofs MD need to go, even if you've got more copies in the board the MD should give you good consistency g1. I also think that Fire/Ice would be better if you were playing fish, but doesn't really help when you're already playing 3 JTMS, 4 Lightning Bolt as creature removal. I would do:
-2 Fire/Ice
+1 Daze
+1 Ponder

-1 Dismember
+1 Go for the Throat

I agree with the Daze vs. Hymn argument. With such a light land base, it's perfectly fine to not run Hymn. I'd recommend Deathmark in the board, considering the popularity of Maverick these days.

[snappingbowls | ಠ_ಠ]

hey, cool, thanks for the reply. I'm glad to kind of have that thought validated, I have played tons and tons of decks that play Hymn, and I had tested them in here, but hitting BB on turn 2 was messy sometimes (not a concern with TS, I always play it t4 or later) and sometimes it was just winmore, or I'd draw too much disruption and not enough killing power.

I think the fire / ice suggestion is pretty compelling, the deck already has a lot of good removal.. i think maxing out dazes is gonna help my early game (obviously) and can still be pitched to FoW later.. 3 or 4 Daze is probably the thing I tweak most often with this deck as they're weak with SCM and underwhelming top deck late game

[Greenpoe]

No Stifle? Goes great when you're running so many instants/flash creatures + Spell Pierce/Wasteland/Daze. If you fit in Stifles, cut Jaces for Cliques so you can better fuel yourself at instant speed.

[Piceli89]

I think that the random 1 ofs MD need to go, even if you've got more copies in the board the MD should give you good consistency g1. I also think that Fire/Ice would be better if you were playing fish, but doesn't really help when you're already playing 3 JTMS, 4 Lightning Bolt as creature removal. I would do:
-2 Fire/Ice
+1 Daze
+1 Ponder

-1 Dismember
+1 Go for the Throat

I agree with the Daze vs. Hymn argument. With such a light land base, it's perfectly fine to not run Hymn. I'd recommend Deathmark in the board, considering the popularity of Maverick these days.

You tell him that Maverick it's popular, and then suggest cutting the only removal that it's likely to provide a 2-for-1 in that matchup? Tempo decks need a way to create card advantage or they're soon getting destroyed by GW's superior topdeck power and the redundancy of answer-me-quickly threats that deck packs. A card that fits this role perfectly in black is Darkblast, complementing Fire/Ice in shutting down the mana dorks and the pesky Mother. Then, you should consider few additional slots for the big ones (Submerge), and finally a couple of Perish to resolves stalled boards. Another route, although slightly slower, less tempo-ish and perhaps more prone to be stopped, is to fit a couple of Jittes in there and try to knock their army down with flying equi-beats.

By the way, here's a URBan list a friend of mine top8ed with in a 57 men (sorry for the caps lock, it's c/p'ed):

4 DELVER OF SECRETS
3 TOMBSTALKER
2 VENDILION CLIQUE
4 FORCE OF WILL
3 SPELL SNARE
2 SPELL PIERCE
3 DAZE
4 STIFLE
4 BRAINSTORM
2 PONDER
4 LIGHTNING BOLT
2 FIRE ICE
3 DIABOLIC EDICT
1 GO FOR THE THROATH
1 TERMINATE
4 UNDERGROUND SEA
3 VOLCANIC ISLAND
1 BADLAND
4 POLLUTED DELTA
2 BLOODSTAINED MIRE
2 SCALDING TARN
4 WASTELAND
SIDE:
3 PYROBLAST
2 PERISH
1 FIRE ICE
2 UMEZAWA'S JITTE
3 DISPEL
2 ENGINEERED EXPLOSIVES
2 EXTIRPATE

The list needs some trims here and there, but it worked pretty fine for him. If you want to accomodate Snapcaster, you could cut a Clique and something else and place a 2-of. No more. I think that SCM doesn't belong in full set numbers in tempo decks, because it's a dead draw/card in the first 3 turns, where you want to capitalize and keep your opponent at bay (elsewhere, you're going to lose).
Tombstalker, while fancy, provides some diversification on the win-cons, since it doesn't eat it to Bolt/Lavamancer and Pyroblast unlike all the others. I think he didn't play Casters fearing dissinergies with Stalker, but that should be quite manageable in the long game. Stalker's an almost win against Canadian Threshold in game one, too.

[snappingbowls | ಠ_ಠ]

Hmmm I might go down to x1 Fire / Ice MD? There certainly are very good against Gobs, Maverick and Zoo, it's a good anti aggro card that still does other good stuff when there aren't creatures in play. I like the idea of Terminate too, it and Diabolic Edict are the 2 other spells I wanted to play x1 or x2 of MD.