[DTB] Blade Control

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Originally Posted by Arsenal

I'm on the SCG Dallas winning UW Stoneblade list and love it.

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Gotta say, I also fancy that list! I included some suggestions below.

3 Snapcaster Mage --------------> 2 seem like the perfect number to me, as I always count him as CMC3, and 13 CMC 3+ spells (not counting FoW, Batterskull) feels like 1 too many imo
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 True-Name Nemesis
2 Vendilion Clique

4 Brainstorm
1 Celestial Flare
1 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
1 Spell Pierce --------------> only random choice: Pierce is only good during the early game/ early mid-game. Being a singleton you'll hardly every have it available then, which is why I'd prefer: Fluster Storm/CS/Snare/Ponder/Misdirection
1 Spell Snare
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Supreme Verdict

Artifacts (3)
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Planeswalkers (4)
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

3 Island
2 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
4 Mishra's Factory ---------> definitely too many, considering you run 15 spells requiring at least 2 colored mana resources (counting SCM). I'd go with 2, adding 1 Island and 1 Mystic Gate
3 Polluted Delta
4 Tundra
1 Academy Ruins
1 Karakas

1 Manriki-Gusari
1 Pithing Needle
2 Meddling Mage
1 True-Name Nemesis ----------------> not sure if needed, if you want to race opposing TNNs, maybe Flare #2 might be superior
1 Detention Sphere
3 Rest in Peace
1 Flusterstorm
1 Path to Exile
2 Swan Song
1 Venser, Shaper Savant -------------> I'd still prefer O. Ring as SnT hate
1 Supreme Verdict

Two words: Notion Thief

Tested him against BUG Shardless which is otherwise a tough match, he is absolutely insane.

@klaus

I went -1 Celestial Flare, -1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor and +1 Spell Pierce, +1 Spell Snare. Everything else feels perfect with the SCG Dallas list. Again, being able to not get Wastlanded out of games is something I highly regard.

Anyone have any experience running ghostway in the sideboard? Seems to be a good sweeper defense, tnn protection, and a nice way to gain a second set of etb triggers for stoneforge, baleful strix, snapcaster mage, and clique.

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Originally Posted by luckme10

Anyone have any experience running ghostway in the sideboard? Seems to be a good sweeper defense, tnn protection, and a nice way to gain a second set of etb triggers for stoneforge, baleful strix, snapcaster mage, and clique.

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Seems real neat however wouldn't Blade Control be better off just running more counters? 2W seems like a lot just to protect 1 or 2 guys we may or may not have. If you don't have and creatures on board, it seems like a dead card, where some sort of counterspell helps in multiple situations. Only way to know is try it though!

I've been contemplating running Spellstutter Sprite in the UW build. Anyone have experience with it?

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Originally Posted by UnsungHero

Seems real neat however wouldn't Blade Control be better off just running more counters? 2W seems like a lot just to protect 1 or 2 guys we may or may not have. If you don't have and creatures on board, it seems like a dead card, where some sort of counterspell helps in multiple situations. Only way to know is try it though!

I've been contemplating running Spellstutter Sprite in the UW build. Anyone have experience with it?

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Original UW Stoneblade lists ran Sprites, but nowadays, where would you find room? Between SFM, Snapcaster, TNN, and Clique, what are you cutting for Sprites?

First of all- this is my first post on these boards, so I would like to say hello to all of you :)

now let's get to the topic- I have been playing Esperblade (list that is pretty close to the list that top8ed GP DC) for almost a year but I can't figure out how to beat UW miracles. The deck is quite frequent in the meta where I play and I feel like it is my worst matchup. It has counterspells for my key cards, sweepers for TNN, and because of SDT it can completly ignore my discard spells. I would be very grateful for any advice on how to play this matchup and how to sideboard.

Greetings,
Erik

Hey,

Does somebody have the List which Shahar Shenhar played at GP DC? :)

Versus miracles, I find that pithing needle in the board helps a lot. Needle naming sensei's top is pretty backbreaking for them especially since they only have a few ways to kill it once it hits the board. Needle naming karakas is also useful for disrupting their clique/venser shenanigans. The matchup is pretty much a grind-fest based on who can topdeck better, but just remember to not overextend into their terminus-s and that you need to put a clock on them. From a few matches versus them, I remember a cb/top lock with 2/3 on top is pretty much game over and you should just scoop at that point and try to win the next game.

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

Planeswalkers (3)
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (23)
2 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Flooded Strand
3 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
3 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Karakas
Spells (24)
1 Batterskull
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Brainstorm
2 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Ponder
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Thoughtseize
1 Vindicate
Sideboard
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Meddling Mage
1 Humility
1 Flusterstorm
1 Path to Exile
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Thoughtseize


What do you guys think of this deck Reid Duke posted in his article. More basics, counterspells and verdicts. No baleful strix and one less discard in the main.

It looks like a slightly tweaked Vidi Esper list with 3 TNN instead of 3 Lingering Souls. Nothing really catches my eye, these lists have been running around forever, Reid just tweaked the numbers here and there.

Hi to all, I've picked up this deck recently and did a small tournament yesterday. Here's the list:

BEATERS (11)
4 stoneforge mystic
2 snapcaster mage
3 true-name nemesis
2 vendilion clique

EQUIPMENTS (3)
1 umezawa's jitte
1 batterskull
1 sword of fire and ice

PLANESWLAKER (3)
3 jace, the mind sculptor

COUNTERS (8)
4 force of will
2 spell pierce
2 counterspell

REMOVALS (6)
4 swords to plowshares
2 supreme verdict

CANTRIPS (6)
4 brainstorm
2 ponder

MANA (23)
4 tundra
3 island
2 plains
1 karakas
1 academy ruins
3 mishra's factory
4 flooded strand
3 polluted delta
2 marsh flats

SIDEBOARD (15)
1 true-name nemesis
1 path to exile
1 disenchant
1 manriki-gusari
1 wrath of god
2 detention sphere
2 swan song
1 flusterstorm
2 meddling mage
3 rest in peace

It's pretty stock as far as I know, I just opted for 2 supreme verdicts main deck for opposing nemeses and I've cut a land and something else for 2 ponders since they're basically part of the mana base.

Round 1 vs elves! 2-0
G1: He builds a board of deathrites and quirions but I counter his key spells (natural order and glimpse) and kill him with batterskull + jitte + nemesis
G2: he keeps a creature light hand full of NO and glimpses, but fails to find other creatures, although I was full of counters

Round 2 vs scape-fit with punishing fire 2-0
G1: this was a grinding match between his top and my jace, but the latter is better at this and I finish him with nemesis
G2: this match I'm on the offensive and he tries to answer my treats, but at the end batterskull seals the deal

Round 3 vs Jund 1-1
G1: his first shaman and Bob get plowed, he brings me down with bloodbraid beats but then I stabilize with double nemeses
G2: he's very quick to lay a couple of shamans, a Bob and a goyf, but then I play rest in piece and Stp Bob. The game took long because he found 3 lilianas and I fail to find a jace, then he finishes me off with shaman beats in the extra turns

Round 4 vs BGW nic-fit 2-0
G1: I counter and plow he's relevant treats and play a vendilion; he cleans the board with deed but in the meanwhile I tutor for batterskull and from here ride for the win
G2: I drop a quick nemesis followed by a clique in his eot, counter 2 of his spells (thank you counterspell and snapcaster) and win the match easily

Top 4 vs reanimator 1-2
G1: I counter a couple of his reanimation spells than nemesis and snapcaster beat him to death
G2: he reanimates an inkwell and, besides me having cast a vendilion, I cannot race him. I've made 2 errors in this game: first with vendilion I saw land, petal and fow and decided to put his fow in the bottom of the deck giving him reanimate, second I forgot to shuffle away a land that I put on top of my library with brainstorm
G3: I think I've made another mistake since I mull an hand with 4 lands and 3 cantrips which, in retrospective, should have been good. I've got a one lander with fow, double meddling, batteskull and detention sphere: he 'seizes my fow and reanimates an inkwell 2 turns after.

The deck felt strong and I think I'll play the same list next time: it has answers for everything and can easily switch beween control and aggro.
Comparing to deathblade I love the 5 basics and I think they are worth the advantage of playing deathrite shaman.

I too run a UW Stoneblade list and having basics is really, really good right now. Players are focusing in on the Wasteland/Daze plan really hard in order to prevent opponents from hitting 3-4 mana consistently. I run enough basics that I can literally just play Island, Island, Plains (no fetches involved) and start casting TNNs.

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Originally Posted by Arsenal

I too run a UW Stoneblade list and having basics is really, really good right now. Players are focusing in on the Wasteland/Daze plan really hard in order to prevent opponents from hitting 3-4 mana consistently. I run enough basics that I can literally just play Island, Island, Plains (no fetches involved) and start casting TNNs.

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That's exactly how it went for me: basics are very valuable right now to the point that I'm considering cutting the ninth fetch for an extra island (yesterday I had all my fetchable lands in play and drew a polluted which felt awkward).

Also, it's true that jace is weaker now against a true-name nemsis, but since you are playing them yourself you can win the race if your opponent attacks him instead of your life totals. Moreover supreme verdicts help jace stay in life and, obviously, he still rocks against the other decks as usual.

Hey everyone. I am Ty Thomason.

I had a friend tell me about this site and that people were discussing my list, so I came here to check it out. I wrote an article about the SCG Dallas list I played. StarCity didn't want it because they had too much legacy content already that week, so I published it here. I'll try to come back and add more to the discussion later.

No celebration for moving back into the DTB forum? Sam Black thinks Esper is the best deck in the format, the ability to disrupt combo and deal with creatures efficiently (especially other TNNs) puts the deck back in the ability to go 50/50 with almost every deck. Shardless BUG and Punishing Jund could still pose issues; I've been trying to find a space for a 2nd Lingering Souls to help counteract Lili. Has anyone else gone through these match-ups more thoroughly?

where do you read about Sam Black statements about esper? does he post a list?

I'm a huge fan of Reid Duke's Esper list (the one that Gordon based his SCG Oakland deck off of). I think right now, Esper colors is the best Blade Control deck out there, followed by Deathblade lists.

However, I like Esper over Deathblade since your manabase is more stable and with the rise in sweepers like Supreme Verdict, I don't like having more creatures on the field than necessary.

It's not seeming to do so well. Is there any consensus on a core to esper?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Secretly.A.Bee

It's not seeming to do so well. Is there any consensus on a core to esper?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

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Start with Vidi's GP Denver list, swap the 3 Lingering Souls for 3 TNN, and you're 99% done.