[DTB] Blade Control

I just spent the day playing at a Team event locally, 5 rounds and I was in the Legacy seat piloting WUr Stoneblade. Each match felt good, except for round 5 when I played against burn.


4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 True-Name Nemesis
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Counterspell
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Ponder
1 Spell Pierce
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Council's Judgment
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Karakas
1 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand
2 Plains
4 Island
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra


And the sideboard

2 Meddling Mage
2 Flusterstorm
2 Containment Priest
2 Blood Moon
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Council's Judgment
1 Wear / Tear
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Supreme Verdict


Round 1: RUG Delver (2-0, Team 1-0)
Game one I spent a lot of time trying to kill turn 1 Delver and eating cards out of his hands until I drew a sweeper as he was flooding on lands. Game 2 I had all of the answers on time.

Round 2: Lands (1-1-x, Team 2-0)
I lost a lengthy game 1, and was on the verge of winning game 2 when my teammates won their Modern and Standard game. Game 3 not necessary

Round 3: Grixis Delver (2-1, Team 3-0)
I took game 1, he took game 2 in a quick exchange and savage Cabal Therapies, game 3 went to turns but I managed to seize control and equip Jitte on True-Name.

Round 4: Ant (2-1, Team 4-0)
I take game one when he casts Ad Naus and goes to 3. I fetch in response to his Lotus Petal after and bolt him. Game 2 he makes the requisite number of goblins to beat an early Batterskull and I am never in it. Game 3 goes long and he draws a lot of lands, I end the game with a mitt full of counterspells, flusterstorms, and a snapcaster. Then I end up beating him down with double Snapcaster while keeping my hand full of blue cards.

Round 5: No Fetch Burn (1-2, Team 4-1)
I lose game 1 to turn 1 Guide, turn 2 Guide + Swiftspear, t3 gas pedal. Game two I stabilize at low life and equip Jitte onto Batterskull. He concedes after the first hit. Game 3 I am fetching basics to avoid Price of Progress and try to stay in the fight by StPing my own True-Name. He burns me out.

For this, I boarded in Flusterstorms, SoFaI, and Wear / Tear. I took out Keranos, Jace x2, and 1x Ponder. Was there any other way I could have boarded to give me a better chance in the match? Or, any SB suggestions to make the burn match a little easier?

We end up drawing out the Top 4 and splitting prizes. My thoughts after the game are swapping a Keranos/Flusterstorm, and cutting a Pyroblast or Supreme Verdict from the board for a Sudden Demise. I need/want to fit in Surgical Extractions, but I don't know what I could even begin to cut in consideration for it.

Just finished 102 MU's with UWR Stoneblade with a list very similar to MzFroste's list. Got 68% win rate. Unfortunatelly just one 5-0 in leagues untill now although I got a plenty of 4-1. Jund is by far the worst MU of all. I think I must be doing something wrong cause I lost every game I played against the deck. Aluren, Lands, 12 Post Eldrazi and 4c Leovold are pretty hard too, but nothing compares to Jund.
In the other hand, Burn, Reanimator, Depths Decks, Bug Delver, DNT, Monored Stompy and Maverick are all favorable MUs. I thinkg Grixis Delver is 50-50 MU and depends a lot of their hands. If they get to stick a threat with a lot of diruption, they will likely win the game.
About the sideboard, RIP is better positioned than surgical in this deck. You want a permanent hate to the grave in fair MUs like bug delver, jund and lands and you countermagic can hold the game till a rip is online when playing against reanimator, so nothing to lose here. Red blats are amazing right now and can do the hard work against 4c leovold, show and tell, mirror, Miracles, even agains grixis delver. Canonist and flusterstorm are the anti-combo package and you can get some good use for flusterstorm against delver decks, 4c leovold and the mirror too.
Anyway, I am just curious about this win rate. I see there's a lot of players with a lot more 5-0 in the leagues and better results. Just wondering about their win rate. Someone told me a couple weeks ago that 75% win rate is what you need to be good online. If you have any thoughts on this, please let me know.

Results

https://preview.ibb.co/ndcK0F/Capturar.jpg


Decklist

https://preview.ibb.co/gyFHnv/Capturar.jpg

Won the Legacy monthly here locally, good for a decent chunk of store credit and 8 more rounds of practice for the Team Open this weekend. I took a very similar list to Saturday’s, but made some minor changes.

Round 1: Infect (2-1, 1-0 in matches)
He takes a quick game 1 with a plethora of pump spells. My removal doesn’t quite line up right for when it could be used.
-1 Council’s Judgment, -1 Batterskull, -1 Ponder, -2 Jace
+1 Flusterstorm, +1 Staticaster, +1 Pyro, +1 REB, +1 Wear / Tear
Games two and three turn into the grindy chipfest games Infect loves, but I manage to get an active Jitte in game two on a SfM and don’t start pumping it until I have at 5 counters, so I can respond to every potential pump spell he plays and still have a counter left over. Game 3 it much the same, I only have counters in my opener after a mulligan to 6, but draw into Bolt + Snap over two turns and am able to stabilize with a low amount of infect.

Round 2: LEDredge (2-0, 2-0 in matches)
He starts on Cephalid Coliseum into Careful Study (pitching Dredger) and LED. I Force LED and he Dredges, missing his 2nd land drop. I play SfM and get Jitte, then patiently build counters and kill my SfM to exile three Bridges. EE on 0 and then a True-Name seal with deal with me at 2.
-1 Council’s Judgment, -2 Jace, -1 Spell Snare, -1 Clique, -1 Counterspell, -1 TNN,
+2 Containment Priest, +1 Staticaster, +2 Surgical, +1 Supreme Verdict, +1 Meddling Mage
Game 2 I kill his early creatures to prevent a Dread Return on Iona, hit 3 Narcomeobas and Bridges with Extraction, StP his Ichorid’s, have an EE on 0, and slowly dismantle him until he’s reduced with Thug putting Narcomeoba on top as a chump blocker. Batterskull eventually equipping Jitte does the work from there.

Round 3: Aggro Loam (0-2, 2-1 in matches)
I lose to the ultimate side of variance and get screwed on lands both games. Game 1 I have Tundra + Fetch + Brainstorm in my opener but never draw another land and he wastes my Tundra. Game 2 I mulligan to 5 and keep a No Land plus cantrip hand, but never find a second before he kills me.

Round 4: Topless Miracles (2-0, 3-1 in matches)
I play a more aggressive role realizing he’s the control in this matchup, and maindeck EE as a lead-in test to resolving Jace locks him out of Entreating while I establish control and attack with TNN for the win after Clique in response to a miracle trigger to prevent Terminus.
-1 SfM, -1 TNN, -1 Spell Snare, -3 Lightning Bolt, -1 StP, -1 Jitte
+1 Keranos, +1 Council’s Judgment, +1 REB, +1 Pyro, +1 Fluster, +2 Surgical, +1 SoFaI
Game 2 I jam Jace on 4 with Force backup, but don’t protect it. He counters, I let it go, then Force his Jace and play Keranos on 5. Keranos gets it done from there and is soon joined by Jace number 2 providing all the cards I need to finish it out.

Round 5: Burn (0-2, 3-2 in matches)
We’re locked with a draw, but he wants to play to have a higher seed. We play and both games are close, but he’s able to burn me out before I get established.
-2 Jace, -1 Council’s Judgment, -1 Clique
+1 Fluster, +2 Meddling Mage, +1 Wear / Tear
Game 2 is closer and I kill 2x Guide, 4x Swiftspear, but the burn is too much to fight uphill against.

Top 8, 6th Seed
Top 8: Eldrazi (2-0, 4-2 in matches, on the draw)
Game 1 he draws too many lands, and I’m able to bolt early Mimics before getting Batterskull onto TNN. He does not draw All is Dust.
-1 Jace, -1 Clique, -2 Counterspell, -1 Ponder
+1 Verdict, +1 Council’s Judgment, +1 Staticaster, +1 Meddling Mage, +1 Wear / Tear
Game 2 I draw hot fire, bolting, StPing, and CJing anything that gets played before casting TNN and suiting it up.

Top 4: Turbo Depths (2-0, 5-2 in matches, on the play)
Game 1 he has turn 3 Marit Lage, but I chump with Clique (targeting myself, bottoming Supreme Verdict), then play t4 Jace and bounce it. After that I play control and keep his board clean while Fatesealing until a Jace ultimate.
-1 Fluterstorm, -1 Ponder, -1 TNN, -1 Jitte, -2 SfM
+2 Meddling Mage, +1 Council’s Judgment, +2 Surgical Extraction, +1 Wear/ Tear
Game 2 my opening keep is Snap, Surgical, Swords, Fetch x2, Tundra, Ponder. He leads on Thoughtseize taking Snap, then Duress taking StP and makes Marit Lage on 3. I proceed to topdeck Snap, Surgical Depths, and Snap+StP the token. Skill game. After that I play against two Massacres until I put Batterskull on Snap and Meddling Mage Massacre to stop any others. He concedes to Pikula.

Finals: Topless Miracles (2-0, 7-2 in matches, opponent’s choice)
This is the same player I was against in the Swiss. I offer a split and he no-Sir’s it, and has the choice to play or draw, and chooses to draw. This game is very similar to the one in the Swiss, where I take an aggressive role in the first game and play a threat on two (SfM, countered), three (TNN, countered), and four (Jace, he tries to counter, but I Force) backed up by an EE on 0 after Jace resolves. I proceed to tick Jace up every turn, and Ultimate him, then do nothing but play lands and discard cards in cleanup he knows about from our earlier game.
SB was the same as the Swiss. He chooses to draw again.
This goes almost exactly the same, but I hit an early Surgical on his Pyroblasts (4, no REB’s) to cut down his counter capability. EE on 0 gets hit by Wear / Tear and he Unexpectedly Absents my Keranos 5 cards deep. I play Snap + Pyro to counter something then suit it up with SoFaI to bait a Terminus, and then move into Jaceand suit True-Name up with SoFaI. Jace + Sword draw me enough to finish him off the turn he’s able to blind draw into Entreat for 5.

The deck felt great again, except for the burn match and losing to the land screw in round 3. Round 3 style games will happen though, so I’m not too upset about how that one went when I look back on it. I have a few small changes in mind before the Team Open this weekend, but definitely am interested in feedback concerning the more troublesome matches.

How has Keranos been?

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Originally Posted by NimbleJosh

How has Keranos been?

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Once I moved it to the side it felt great. It's exactly the card that I want in a "go long play draw-go" style of game.
The limited ways to remove it after resolution is gravy, and the cards it can provide by helping you dig through a no fetch brainstorm is tough to beat.

Has anyone tried UW stoneblade or USA delver? They're pretty similar except more low to the ground. I like the 4 wastelands in the two decks because you get to punish people that keep greedy hands. I also like them because it makes opponents mulligan more aggressively to find lands/avoid getting wasted out, thus making winning easier. I think the trade off of dropping red/power for consistency/wasteland fear seems reasonable. UW stoneblade can still play a nice control game still too. Going to experiment with one of these at my weekly locals tonight hehe

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Originally Posted by QKisMyName

Has anyone tried UW stoneblade or USA delver? They're pretty similar except more low to the ground. I like the 4 wastelands in the two decks because you get to punish people that keep greedy hands. I also like them because it makes opponents mulligan more aggressively to find lands/avoid getting wasted out, thus making winning easier. I think the trade off of dropping red/power for consistency/wasteland fear seems reasonable. UW stoneblade can still play a nice control game still too. Going to experiment with one of these at my weekly locals tonight hehe

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I've played both UWR Delver and UWR Stoneblade at my LGS Legacy monthly events.

1st run with UWR Delver put me in top 4
2nd run with UWR Delver I played for a Mox but didn't make top 8 so my record is irrelevant
3rd run with UWR Stoneblade finished in 10th

I have another tournament coming up at the beginning of August. It's for a local legacy league. Top 8 gives me enough points to qualify for the invitational and a top 16 finish will give me enough points to have a good shot. So the pressure is on to do well at this next event.

I myself am torn between Delver and Stoneblade. Delver has the free wins with wastelands and early removal but Stoneblade has the long game with Snapcaster Mage and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. both run very unique game plans while both run a majority of the same cards. I've been following the success of the Stoneblade lists lately and this deck is putting up results quite frequently and in larger tournament sizes.

Delver is more streamlined and low to the ground, can finish games quickly and forces opponents to have removal for the early delver which makes Stoneforge Mystic able to survive easier. Plus there's the whole play of turn 1 delver, turn 2 wasteland your land, bolt/swords your creature. This can often be so back breaking the game is just over before it can even begin.

So as to the question as to which should you run Delver or Stoneblade? The answer is....I DON'T KNOW! lol

In all honesty, I think Stoneblade is a better option mostly due to the fact that it has lots of basic lands (I was a miracles player so i love me some basic lands) as well as it is hard to argue with the results the deck has been putting up lately. While there isn't a lot of people playing this deck necessarily, it has put up some strong finishes and that's nothing to sneeze at.

What is your general gameplan against aluren? I never win a single game!!!

Try Containment Priest for Aluren. You have to cast it in response to them casting a Cavern Harpy for it to be effective, but it's a fairly decent strategy against the archetype. Also surgical on a discarded/countered Aluren takes the wind out of their sails pretty efficiently.

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Originally Posted by Secretly.A.Bee

Try Containment Priest for Aluren. You have to cast it in response to them casting a Cavern Harpy for it to be effective, but it's a fairly decent strategy against the archetype. Also surgical on a discarded/countered Aluren takes the wind out of their sails pretty efficiently.

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Ethersworn Canonist*

My mistake, yes, Ethersworn, and again, in response to the Harpy, as any other time they just do everything in response and you lose to them with your canonist on the stack.

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With the Jeskai Stoneblade list that people are playing how important is it to have 3 Volcanics currently I only have 2 and was wondering.

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Two volcanic and a mountain are enough red lands to cast bolts, moon and blasts

Meant to put I only have 1 Volc didn't double check that post well enough.

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Originally Posted by Excrempus

Meant to put I only have 1 Volc didn't double check that post well enough.

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One volcanic is not enough to play UWR if that is your intention

I agree about needing more red sources. I run 4 (2 Volc, 1 Plateau, 1 Mountain) in my UWr list

Why so many basic lands in this deck? I understand why you would want 1 Plains and 2 Islands but not Plains#2 and Island#3-4. The second Plains only casts Council's Judgment (1-of?). Only in versions with multiple Verdicts do I see the use for it. As for the 3rd Island, it mostly casts Snapcaster into Counterspell which is pretty narrow. Why not additional fetches, duals, or even Wastelands (Land hate is our weakness) instead of superfluous amounts of basic lands?

Am I the only one underwhelmed with council's judgement?

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Originally Posted by NimbleJosh

Am I the only one underwhelmed with council's judgement?

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No. I find EE #2 to be superior. CMC1-2 wrath against DnT, Elves, and Delver is amazing and so is being able to wrath at 0 for Chalice or Goblin tokens. Council is good at answering Jace or removing TNN without losing our own.

I think Judgment is there as a safety measure for any random permanent that could prevent you from grinding your opponent such as a Moat or a Grave Pact. The fact that it can be Snapcasted is gravy. EE and Judgment overlap and they both have their own restrictions. I guess the idea behind the split is that if you were to draw both, the split covers more than multiples of the same card.

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Originally Posted by zebhillard

Once I moved it to the side it felt great. It's exactly the card that I want in a "go long play draw-go" style of game.
The limited ways to remove it after resolution is gravy, and the cards it can provide by helping you dig through a no fetch brainstorm is tough to beat.

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What does your current sideboard look like now? And what is your SB plan for Grixis Delver and Storm? I'm planning on bringing something pretty similar to GP Denver this weekend for side events and sideboarding correctly is always my biggest weakness.