[Deck] Deathblade

Strix is quite decent against Delver. Other Midrange decks have problems against Strix too. Especially BUG decks which want to grind are slowed down by it. With the extra evasion you are able to get some counter on Jitte or with Batterskull you get a huge monster.
Besides the Deathtouch you draw a card. You come deeper into your deck and you can pitch it into Force of Will.
Of course it's not great against Combo. But that makes sideboarding way easier.
Against control it depends on the other deck. Against Stoneblade you can block the germ. Against Miracles it blocks Mentor. Far from perfect but okay.

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Originally Posted by Neo900

Last weekend I was in prague and played one of the biggest tournaments we have in europe.
I managed to reach the top 8 undefeated but lost in the quartefinale against lands.

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Congrats on your strong finish. It's always nice to see people that have been putting a lot of work into a deck do well with it! I've never been a big fan of traditional Esper Blade lists, but yours are really interesting, keep it up!

Last question Neo, what made you ditch Bitterblossom? Its not a great topdeck but man I sure love stopping Anglers with it.

After Games i Have made THIS list putting just best cards:
4 deathrite Shaman
4 stoneforge mystic
3 true-name nemesis
2 Monastery Mentor
1 tombstalker
---14/61
2 Jace the mind Sculptor
---16/61
1 Batterskull
1 umezawas jitte
1 Sword od fire and ice
---19/61
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Fatal Push
2 thoughtseize
1 counterspell
1 spell pierce
41/61
4 Polluted delta
4 flooded strand
1 misty rainforest
2 underground sea
2 tundra
1 scrubland
1 tropical Island
2 Island
1 plains
1 swamp
1 karakas
61/61

Side:
2 containment Priest
2 meddling mage
2 ethersworn cannonist
2 surgical extraction
2 zealous persecution
1 toxic delunge
1 engineered explosives
1 flusterstorm
1 vendilion clique
1 pithing Needle

The idea is flood opponent in jest cards. Most of card is single win. I like to play MMentor and create a lot of little guys which can be hard to stop. Another strong option is Jace. When game is going to mid/late JTMS can win by gibony huge advantage or kill opp library. Also it can be as a fuel for FoW in some scenario. I think in THIS meta when there are a lot of Blue Decks we need use SoFaI. It helps kill delver and give Adv. Mana base cant run wasteland in my opinion. I prefer to Have basic over wastelands. Its better to Have stron mana base. In Sb i focused on flexible options like meddling mage which i love. Strong sweep board likedelunge, explosive, persecution. The only one thing that i Have still on my brainDesk is Sword of Feast and Famine against fair green deck but we dont Have many of them. Last card that i Have played every day is Abrupt decay. I want to put 2 copies in main but donno how xD Ok its Obv that we dont Have countertop in meta but: each enchantment from lands, mirror, aether vial, and problem like: opposite Needle, choke.

You can hit all that stuff with Disenchant without having to add green to your mana base. Can't comment on Mentor, let us know how it goes.

Hi, i am new player with EsperBlade. I really like this deck, maybe i think i find my way.

I am running this list :

Planes

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Creatures (10)

2 True-Name Nemesis
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Snapcaster Mage

Spells (26)

4 Force of Will
1 Batterskull
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Collective Brutality
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thoughtseize
2 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce
1 Engineered Explosives

Lands (22)

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


Sideboard

3 Meddling Mage
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Collective Brutality
2 Thoughtseize
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Fatal Push
2 Engineered Explosives

I did 4-0 in local tornament 2 times. I would like to prepare the Legacy GP in Europe (next year) and i find this list on YouTube. I am not sure if this list is good for a Big tornament.

Can you tell me what do you think about this list? I like Souls, Clique but this cards is not in the deck list.

I love your list Neo, i think i will test it.

Thanks for yours opinions.

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Originally Posted by whocansay

Last question Neo, what made you ditch Bitterblossom? Its not a great topdeck but man I sure love stopping Anglers with it.

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Bitterblossom is a nice card but I don't think it's good enough right now. It hurts yourself and Lingering Souls kills faster. I need it right now only against controlish match ups; miracles, jund, aggro loam and stoneblade are my most common choices where I bring Lingering Souls up. Lingering Souls is also not hit by removal spells like Decay, Disenchant etc.

@Cyanhur
Your list seems very control heavy. Espacially here in Europe the trend is more towards Grixis Delver. In Prague there was about 15% Grixis Delver. Collective Brutality is a strange card. The Problem is it doesn't do anything as good as other cards. 2 mana discard and 2 mana removal is quite slow and the life drain is often unnecessary. Escalate makes the card interesting but gives you card disadvantage way more often because it fails against cheap counters like Spell Snare/Pierce. I would cut 2 Jace and 2 Snapcaster Mages for 4 Deathrite Shaman since this is the Deathblade thread anyway. Shaman does too much for this deck; mana, clock, lifegain and grave hate.

@HardBrain
Mentor is a card which gives me headache. In Miracles it seems so powerful that I want to play it too but I don't have the slot or so many cantrips. I'm excited how this card will work out for you and for the deck.

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Originally Posted by Neo900

@HardBrain
Mentor is a card which gives me headache. In Miracles it seems so powerful that I want to play it too but I don't have the slot or so many cantrips. I'm excited how this card will work out for you and for the deck.

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i will play today against Lands so I will be first real good testing against. I think build deck on cards which can ruin opponents is the point. Mentor without instant kill can win a game. wait till we can resp somehow and just produce 1-2 guy. they will grow each turn and will bring swords on their hands. it makes some dead card against some mups live. like fatal push against lands. we can push one 1/1 guy to pump other army.

I have to reply here @Cyanhur because your Inbox seems full and I'm not able to send you a message:

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Originally Posted by Cyanhur

I prefer to continue in private message, because i have many questions about the deck.

You do not like jace in the deck?

About brutality, yes you right now i understand when i make play test with friends or my brother (playing grixis) sometimes i lost to many card with bruta and i took pierce.....

Maybe i have to cut 4 bruta in my list? (is it not fine with Souls synergie?)

Do you think i have to keep 2 verdict? What is the best list for you beetween your list or control list?

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Right know my list is as controlish as I would go with 5 point removal and 7 counters. The problem with Jace is that there is too much Delver in the metagame and a 4 mana planeswalker is too slow. Same could be true for Supreme Verdict.
I played 3 Snapcaster for a certain time and it was awful. Snapcaster Mage stucks in your hand for too long too often.
Brutality as a nice synergy with Lingering Souls thats true. But if you want to have synergies with Lingering Souls I would consider Liliana of the Veil. With Verdict you have a good protection for Liliana and she is a long time problem for the opponent while you can apply pressure on more resources. With Liliana's discard and Lingering Souls you should be able to win the game.
Esperblade is more likely to be a control deck. Deathblade is more aggressive and so I play it as well.

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Originally Posted by Neo900

I have to reply here @Cyanhur because your Inbox seems full and I'm not able to send you a message:



Right know my list is as controlish as I would go with 5 point removal and 7 counters. The problem with Jace is that there is too much Delver in the metagame and a 4 mana planeswalker is too slow. Same could be true for Supreme Verdict.
I played 3 Snapcaster for a certain time and it was awful. Snapcaster Mage stucks in your hand for too long too often.
Brutality as a nice synergy with Lingering Souls thats true. But if you want to have synergies with Lingering Souls I would consider Liliana of the Veil. With Verdict you have a good protection for Liliana and she is a long time problem for the opponent while you can apply pressure on more resources. With Liliana's discard and Lingering Souls you should be able to win the game.
Esperblade is more likely to be a control deck. Deathblade is more aggressive and so I play it as well.

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Oh yes my mistake, haven't saw my Inbox.

Thanks you for your anwser now i understand your choice.

I will change my list and i will send you again.

I am starting to play BWU Blade deck since 2 week. I do not know if i prefer esper or death, that's a difficult choice. I think they are a strong deck for any tornament.

@Neo900
Congratulations on your excellent finish! Nice to see deathblade in the big lights !

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Originally Posted by whocansay

Last question Neo, what made you ditch Bitterblossom? Its not a great topdeck but man I sure love stopping Anglers with it.

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The other thing I found in my testing was that bitterblossom and TNN end up competing with each other for the turn 2 play. TNN is probably the better turn 2 play in that it presents a threat that goes live the next turn. Bitterblossom doesn’t present an active threat until turn 4, since the token produced on turn 3 will be summoning sick. Bitterblossom is also a miserable late game draw.

I ended up replacing blossom with lingering souls for these reasons. Additionally, I run collective brutality in the list so there’s a synergy there.

@hardbrain
List looks pretty sweet. I came to almost the same conclusion as you with sword of fire and ice. I ended up putting it in the SB though, in general I’ve found three equipments can make opening draws clunky occasionally.

Echoing previous comments, abrupt decay just stretches our mana too thin and forces you to play into wastelands. Disenchants are probably the better option even though it is counterable.

@cyanhur
Disregarding the lack of deathrite shaman, I think you could cut 1-2 snapcaster mages, probably both supreme verdicts, and creeping tarpit. I’ve never really like supreme verdit, its very color intensive which makes you play into wastelands, and it costs 4 mana. If you go up against tax effects like thalia it’ll cost 5. I think I’ve pitched this card to FoW more than I’ve actually casted it. Just generally I don’t like sweepers like this in creature decks.

Creeping tarpit has felt really bad every time i've played it. Coming into play tapped really stalls out some hands, while its an unblockable body, it takes 4 mana to do it. TNN just seems like a better option.

@neo900/@cyanhur
Regarding collective brutality, I’ll have to disagree. To me it’s the perfect bridge between fatal push/thoughtseize. For example, when I used to run 4 STP/2 Fatal Push, I would be miserable against combo. Literally 10% of my deck does nothing, and I’d end a lot of game 1’s staring at useless cards. Brutality is overcosted, but at least it’s almost always a live card in any given matchup.

Also, you really shouldn’t be escalating brutality in situations where you can get it spell pierced/dazed. 85% of the time it’s an overcosted duress or fatal push. Against blue decks, the escalate ability essentially doesn’t exist, or you’ll walk into 2 for 1’s. I don’t know what the board state was that made you make this play, but I generally don’t do it unless it’s out of desperation. The only exception to this is you can guarantee they’ll FoW it, in which case you 2 for 2 each other. Or, the card you pitch is something like lingering souls from which you derive value.

About the only times I escalate are against burn(escalating twice is legitimately excellent) and sometimes elves. I know that when I escalate in these scenarios it I am guaranteed to trade at parity.

This might be different experience about Collective Brutality.
I'm quite happy how my deck works right now that I was able to win our local little tournament (6 players, 3 rounds).
Thoughtseize feels good again in the Mainboard.

Can we beat Miracles or do I just suck?

What the hell is this answer?

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Originally Posted by KobeBryan

Why would you be playing against miracles is the real question

If you are, you cant beat a watered down miracles...thats on you

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New Miracle is actually much better vs slower fair decks like Deathblade since it has so many Predicts and Counterspells. Sword of Fire and Ice along with some sort of CA engine in the board (Painful Truths or Sylvan Library for me) are your best options. Try to counter Terminus or their card draw.

The match up against miracle is even..i beat it more than it's beat me but i really know witch angle i have to counter because i love to play mircale by myself..Thoughtseize is very strong here..also leovold and daze. Also keep it in the removal and jitte for mentors..also just to lock them down with shaman is nice..i try not to play to much creature spells.

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Originally Posted by whocansay

Can we beat Miracles or do I just suck?

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SoFaI
TNN
Painful
Jace
TS

I think yes. But it's a 50/50 MU.

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Originally Posted by Pdingo

The match up against miracle is even..i beat it more than it's beat me but i really know witch angle i have to counter because i love to play mircale by myself..Thoughtseize is very strong here..also leovold and daze. Also keep it in the removal and jitte for mentors..also just to lock them down with shaman is nice..i try not to play to much creature spells.

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Gotcha, that seems wise. I was wondering whether I should bring in Zealous Persecution for the tokens but that seems pointless if he can just Brainstorm in response.

How do you guys sideboard against Reanimator? The BUG version in particular?

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Originally Posted by whocansay

Gotcha, that seems wise. I was wondering whether I should bring in Zealous Persecution for the tokens but that seems pointless if he can just Brainstorm in response.

How do you guys sideboard against Reanimator? The BUG version in particular?

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It depends on your build.
I exchange the SFM package and the TNN (8 slots in my board)

+ 3 MM
+ 2 Surgical
+ 1 Edict
+ 2 Containment

Quote:

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Originally Posted by whocansay

Gotcha, that seems wise. I was wondering whether I should bring in Zealous Persecution for the tokens but that seems pointless if he can just Brainstorm in response.

How do you guys sideboard against Reanimator? The BUG version in particular?

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FWIW, i don't like removing the stoneforge package since you do need to put a clock on them eventually. G2 and G3 against this deck often becomes a staring match for a bit as both sides build up a ton of counters. Dropping a mystic fetching batterskull on T4 or so with mana open presents a threat they need to either hard counter(probably FoW) or hit with AD. You're fine with either honestly, you get counters of AD out of their hand. Batterskull is also the perfect target since you can just EOT it whenever its convenient.

I do like leaving 1-2 STPs in the deck. While its clearly weak against griselbrand, i've been seeing cards like grave titan pop up as well which are weak to STP. Its also worth nothing that sometimes STP'ing a griselbrand is occassionally good enough. They may not have enough life to draw 7, or they may just blank.

-3 TNN
-2 Lingering Souls
-2 STP
-1 Jitte
+2 Surgical Extraction
+1 Containment Priest
+2 Flusterstorm
+1 Invasive Surgery
+1 Sofi
+1 Pithing Needle

Had a question about the Storm matchup - say they're about to go off and you have one hard counter on hand, no Past in Flames in the yard yet, do you counter the very first Dark Ritual / LED or do you wait for them to chain several Rituals together and risk getting blown out by either Past / Tutor?