[Deck] The Rock

At least now they're calling it Abzan Stoneblade:


Creatures (17)

4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Tarmogoyf

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Liliana of the Veil

Lands (22)

1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Bayou
2 Savannah
1 Scrubland
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Karakas

Spells (19)

1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sylvan Library
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Lingering Souls
1 Painful Truths
4 Thoughtseize

Sideboard
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Containment Priest
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
2 Choke
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Gaddock Teeg

I don't think this list is doing anything crazy, and I love it. It's playing all the cards we all know and love, and doing well with it. I still like a singleton Zenith for the flex in grabbing Scooze or Goyf, and Teeg from the board. I've never been a huge Liliana fan, but otherwise, I like everything here. I'd play Therapy if you're playing Souls, but to each their own. Sideboard is a lot of bears against Combo, but obviously we can see that this list isn't designed to prey on Miracles - no Grips, fewer Libraries, fewer Needles. Overall, I'm surprised the Miracles list that won was what it was. Oh well. Nice second place finish! :cool:

I absolutely love this list. I'm on something similar - I use another Liliana personally though. I think she's a house. The only thing that disturbs me in this list is a lack of Hymn to Tourachs. I feel that we need as much discard as we can get to fight the unfair decks and going T1 Discard, T2 Wasteland/Hymn is sometimes our only avenue to beat the super fast combo decks.

But, all in all. I like playing the most efficient creatures in fair magic.

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Originally Posted by sdematt

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Sideboard
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Containment Priest
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
2 Choke
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Gaddock Teeg

I don't think this list is doing anything crazy, and I love it. It's playing all the cards we all know and love, and doing well with it. I still like a singleton Zenith for the flex in grabbing Scooze or Goyf, and Teeg from the board. I've never been a huge Liliana fan, but otherwise, I like everything here. I'd play Therapy if you're playing Souls, but to each their own. Sideboard is a lot of bears against Combo, but obviously we can see that this list isn't designed to prey on Miracles - no Grips, fewer Libraries, fewer Needles. Overall, I'm surprised the Miracles list that won was what it was. Oh well. Nice second place finish! :cool:

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According to the Champion's tournament report(here, in Chinese), the Rock player made some obivous mistake(maybe too tired at 8:00pm) in the final. Which included forgot to active Liliana, forgot to wasteland, didn't equip a 0/1 Goyf for attacking.

What are the Lieges in SB for? Some anti-Eldrazi technique (like target StP to Reality Smasher, and put the Liege to battlefield)?

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Originally Posted by Tokugawa

According to the Champion's tournament report(here, in Chinese), the Rock player made some obivous mistake(maybe too tired at 8:00pm) in the final. Which included forgot to active Liliana, forgot to wasteland, didn't equip a 0/1 Goyf for attacking.

What are the Lieges in SB for? Some anti-Eldrazi technique (like target StP to Reality Smasher, and put the Liege to battlefield)?

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If that's the case - I'm not sure why he doesn't run Loxodon Smiters. He doesn't get much out of the Anthem effects like Wilted Leaf does in modern. Smiter could be at least relevant due to cant be countered clause. Could be useful in beating Miracles in the face game 2.

Actually, he does get some value from liege via 3x Lingering Souls. Also, the bigger goyf is against Eldrazi, the better.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Nerubian

If that's the case - I'm not sure why he doesn't run Loxodon Smiters. He doesn't get much out of the Anthem effects like Wilted Leaf does in modern. Smiter could be at least relevant due to cant be countered clause. Could be useful in beating Miracles in the face game 2.

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HI! I was the pilot of this deck at the Indy classic. Wilt – leaf was a card chosen to sure up the shardless matchup. In my testing online I felt I needed a threat that could not be abrupt decayed. Plus putting my lingering souls tokens out of golgari charm range is gravy on top. Obviously it matches up well against Lily and hymn as well. It's fine to bring him in the eldrazi matchup. It might be wrong in the sideboard of this stoneblade deck, but I've always been fond of the card. Sometimes it just gets people.

Hello all

First off great job by Jj Garlock for his 2nd place finish. Jj and I are great friends. We play the same deck most of the time(we usually play maverick), we also share our online collection and test junk strategies. I talked to Jj earlier last week and told him about my current build of junk/Rock including lingering souls and it was very good. He agreed and since he owned tarmogoyf he played our list on Sunday. I was able to come up with the same record playing maverick but my tie breakers were worst and it ended in 9th place😢. Shit happens. We live about 2 and 1/2 hours away from Indy and departed very early. So any mistakes that were made in the finals were due to fatigue. I let Jj know the deck was being discussed here and he may see any questions you might have.

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Originally Posted by Tokugawa

According to the Champion's tournament report(here, in Chinese), the Rock player made some obivous mistake(maybe too tired at 8:00pm) in the final. Which included forgot to active Liliana, forgot to wasteland, didn't equip a 0/1 Goyf for attacking.

What are the Lieges in SB for? Some anti-Eldrazi technique (like target StP to Reality Smasher, and put the Liege to battlefield)?

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Yup for sure. I miss played the finals in spectacular fashion. LOL I'm just going to chalk it up to a learning experience and get over it. My group drove up the morning of at 5 AM so it was definitely a long day.

The lieges are for shardless. They match-up well against Lily and hymn and cannot be abrupt decayed. Pumping souls is nice against golgari charm. That whole day I put it in the play twice from a Lily uptick. It was also somewhat of a hedge for eldrazi, yes.

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Originally Posted by Drunken Rancor

Yup for sure. I miss played the finals in spectacular fashion. LOL I'm just going to chalk it up to a learning experience and get over it. My group drove up the morning of at 5 AM so it was definitely a long day.

The lieges are for shardless. They match-up well against Lily and hymn and cannot be abrupt decayed. Pumping souls is nice against golgari charm. That whole day I put it in the play twice from a Lily uptick. It was also somewhat of a hedge for eldrazi, yes.

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Reasonable to choose Liege over Smiter. Liege is out of the range of Decay, means it was very hard to remove by BUG decks.

Rhino is also a relevant threat against Shardless - 4/5 Trampler ain't shabby with a helix ;)

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Originally Posted by sdematt

Rhino is also a relevant threat against Shardless - 4/5 Trampler ain't shabby with a helix ;)

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This. Also blocks TKS pretty damn well. Also, Jace-bounce him every turn, thanks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Drunken Rancor

HI! I was the pilot of this deck at the Indy classic. Wilt – leaf was a card chosen to sure up the shardless matchup. In my testing online I felt I needed a threat that could not be abrupt decayed. Plus putting my lingering souls tokens out of golgari charm range is gravy on top. Obviously it matches up well against Lily and hymn as well. It's fine to bring him in the eldrazi matchup. It might be wrong in the sideboard of this stoneblade deck, but I've always been fond of the card. Sometimes it just gets people.

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Congrats! How did you find your combo matchups with only 4 mainboard discard spells and no sideboard discard spells? Was there anything that under or over-performed that weekend?

I lost to Jim Davis playing your list yesterday thanks to that Wilt-Leaf Liege. It is a really pain for Shardless to overcome. If anyone wants to see the match in action here is a link to Jim's broadcast playing the deck.

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Originally Posted by ironclad8690

I lost to Jim Davis playing your list yesterday thanks to that Wilt-Leaf Liege. It is a really pain for Shardless to overcome. If anyone wants to see the match in action here is a link to Jim's broadcast playing the deck.

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Sick! Thanks :)

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Originally Posted by Nerubian

Sick! Thanks :)

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I'm sleeving this list up too, I love how its not trying to do anything cute. I don't, however, own any Liliana's anymore, what would you recommend in those slots?

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Originally Posted by GreatWhale

I'm sleeving this list up too, I love how its not trying to do anything cute. I don't, however, own any Liliana's anymore, what would you recommend in those slots?

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This:

4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Tarmogoyf


Lands (22)

1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Bayou
2 Savannah
1 Scrubland
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Karakas

Spells (19)

1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Sylvan Library
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Lingering Souls
1 Painful Truths
3 Thoughtseize
2 Cabal Therapy

Sideboard
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Containment Priest
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
2 Choke
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Gaddock Teeg

Literally just did: -1 Thoughtseize, -2 Liliana; +2 Cabal Therapy, +1 Sylvan Library

With 0 copies of Liliana, cards like Concil's judgement would be helpful for dealing with threats(Tnn, mongoose, Mom,etc) which not in range of Stp/Decay.

Why not replace all-1cmc discards with mix of Seize/Hymn/Therapy ? Especially when eldrazis rising in meta.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tokugawa

With 0 copies of Liliana, cards like Concil's judgement would be helpful for dealing with threats(Tnn, mongoose, Mom,etc) which not in range of Stp/Decay.

Why not replace all-1cmc discards with mix of Seize/Hymn/Therapy ? Especially when eldrazis rising in meta.

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I'd be in for a 1-of Vindicate. Hitting lands can be a nice tempo play. Not sure how much TNN you have running around. SoFI is decent, and you have Souls to race, too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sdematt

I'd be in for a 1-of Vindicate. Hitting lands can be a nice tempo play. Not sure how much TNN you have running around. SoFI is decent, and you have Souls to race, too.

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All old players love Vindicate:eek::tongue::tongue:, are't they?

Do you and Wilkin Chau know with each other?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nerubian

Congrats! How did you find your combo matchups with only 4 mainboard discard spells and no sideboard discard spells? Was there anything that under or over-performed that weekend?

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Luckily, I did not get matched up against storm at all that weekend. but too be fair, I thought storms numbers would be low due to the success of eldrazi. Thinking about adding cabal therapy with the souls to fuel it.

Souls was the best card this weekend. Shines in the fair match-ups.

Might make a bayou a scrubland.

also add a teeg to the board.