U/B StalkerBalance

[Hanni]

I wasn't sure if there was another deck idea on the Source for this or not... I didn't see anything and the closest thing I did see was U/B Landstill. This deck doesn't use manlands or Standstill, so I decided to not post this in the U/B Landstill thread. If there is a thread already like this, and if a mod could merge this one to that, awesome.

I'll post the decklist first and then explain it:

U/B StalkerBalance

Lands (21)
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Underground Sea
5 Island
3 Swamp
1 Volrath's Stronghold

Creatures (7)
4 Shriekmaw
3 Tombstalker

Spells (32)
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Predict
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Counterbalance
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Thoughtseize
3 Damnation

Sideboard (15)
4 Duress
3 Extirpate
1 Haunting Echoes
3 Engineered Explosives
3 Pithing Needle
1 Nevinyrral's Disk

So basically, it's just a U/B Control deck. However, instead of running lots of creature removal, I run more stack control. Thoughtseize just so happens to answer creatures, which helps in that regard.

The deck isn't as powerful as some dedicated control decks since it doesn't run cards like Standstill, Fact or Fiction, etc... but it's also a bit faster than those decks. Tombstalker typically comes down fairly quickly and most of the deck is lower in cost. Counterbalance is just amazing at controlling the gamestate vs most decks. I really like how Shriekmaw is a solid removal piece early on that can turn into an alternate evasion win condition later on.

This deck probably isn't original. It's a pretty solid deck though... maybe not as well thought out as other control deck ideas, but solid nonetheless.

It's combo matchup isn't that bad... it runs a shit-fuck-ton of control elements and the clock isn't as slow as most other control decks.

It's pretty solid against Threshold too, since it utilizes many of the same cards... the difference being that alot of the cards in this deck handle problem cards in their deck. What I mean is, cards like Tombstalker, Shriekmaw, and Damnation are typically really hard for their Counterbalance to hit (Shriekmaw paid via Evoke does have a CMC of 5 still, right?) while my Counterbalance typically hits all of their stuff.

I'm not really sure how much of an advantage Counterbalance gives this deck vs other control decks.

Against fast paced aggro, this deck basically just wants to survive into a Damnation and then control the stack with Counterbalance from there. Goblins is probably a bad matchup... but I think that just about any other aggro matchup should be pretty good. I can also bring in EE if needed vs aggro.

The only thing that stands out to me is that I only have 10 2cc spells. I wish I could up this a little more... but the only thing that stands out is dropping Shriekmaws for 2cc removal. However, I think Shriekmaw is just too strong to not run in this deck.

[Thehunter820]

hmm looks decent, you could probably get by with adding in more hand or/and creature removal, and maybe bob could fit in somewhere, however with the draw he would be that necessary unless you just have to draw cards fast to keep up with fast-aggro, I dont have time to test it right now, on my way to school, but i'll give it a go when I get home though, looks to be decent :)

[Maveric78f]

I don't get the synergy between balance and the 11 cards with CC>5.

By the way, bitterblossom should be in the deck. It's either a forcefield or a 6 turn clock. As it avoid damnation/shriekmaw nicely too, it's really a great card for the deck.

21 lands is too much probably.

[FoolofaTook]

Goblins is a big problem, although Thoughtseize might buy you an out. Everything I try to do with BU these days has Goblins as a big weakness pre-board.

[Benie Bederios]

Hi I had a deck like this a few pages back. It can be found here (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8412).

I added white for Swords to Plowshares. I think the manabase is still quite stable with three colors, especially if you play 21 lands like your list. The Trinket Mage toolbox allows me to play fewer Tops( you only want 1) and some versatile answers. Same is true for Cunning Wish. 6 3CC spells isn't much, but enough to soft-lock decks with higher manacurves( Dragon and Faerie Stompy). It isn't hard to keep it on the top three cards instead of drawing it.

Next to that this is your mana curve (1 mana/2 mana/etc...).

16/10/0/3/8/0/0/3

Compared to mine

15/10/6/0/4/0/0/4

In earlier versions I didn't had 3CC slot. Although it works in faster decks( Thresh and Confidant Dreadnought) Tombstalker is a little to slow. It's a 4-turn clock that comes down on about turn 4 to 6. That means winning turn 10.

Also Shriekmaw/Stronghold combo looks pretty random with only 1 Stronghold. Even a Wasteland can stop that. And without Stronghold Smother( if you don't want to splash white) > Shriekmaw 90% of the time.

BB