Printable View
bitterblossom is in my Lingering souls list.
maybe you can cut a ponder if you want to play gurmag angler.
but neither bitterblossom nor gurmag angler are must haves. as you can see I play both and I like it and it works in my meta.
both share my style of playing. different players have different style and these differences are important if you play the mirror, beside the skill level.
I’m thinking of a version of this deck that trims all (or most) of its CMC > 2 cards based on the (unfounded) idea that this is the sweet spot for power and efficiency in the format at this time. CMC 2 cards (like Bob, Stoneforge, Tarmogoyf, Snapcaster, Young Pyromancer to take the iconic best ones for each color) tend to just beat those at CMC 1 (the fairest comparison is Deathrite, Mom, Goblin Guide, and Delver I think).
CMC 3 doesn’t bring much more to the table in terms of power and efficiency. There aren’t a lot of 3s bigger than Tarmo, TNN vs. Stoneforge + Batterskull offers a wall but loses races when it attacks, etc. Furthermore, CMC 3 runs face first into the format’s mana denial, Daze/Stifle/Wasteland/Port making short work of a lot of it. BUG Delver has moved quite a bit in this direction anyway, with more 2s and more lands than any other Delver deck.
As an initial sketch, I’d offer:
20 lands including 4 Wasteland
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dark Confidant
4 Stoneforge Mystic (with 3 equips)
2-4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Brainstorm
1-2 Chrome Mox
…this leaves some slots left over even if the numbers are maximized. I’d love to get some advice if anyone has tried something similar. It’s a bit of a departure from the usual versions of the deck, but I don’t think it’s necessarily that different. Maybe Abrupt Decay could fill the last couple of slots.
It looks more like a Deadguy Ale deck with blue in it than anything else at this point.
lists like this can work but without blue. some abzan lists were quite good so far. without wasteland there are 16 lands. so we play about 8 fetchlands and we have a total for 8 lands which can produce mana for us. with that black count you need 3 underground sea. for stoneforge you need 2 tundra. and you want a scrubland. so we have 6 lands so far. then you want decay. with a bayou and a tropical you can play 1-2 decays.
other utility lands or even basics have no space.
and your mana base will kill you. you will miss your colored lands.
chrome mox is in my opinion not good here because it will always produce only 1 color of mana and we don't wantbto dump anything away.
try an abzan shell if you want to go with this. but also without 4 wasteland.
The primer for Deathblade was written 3 years ago. It's time for a new one in 2016.
Hi, I'm Neo. And this is my primer for Deathblade
I.Overview
II.History
III.Decklists
IV.Card Choices
a.)Manabase
b.)Creatures
c.)Spells
V.Deathblade as a Stoneblade subtype
a.)Esper Stoneblade
b.)UW Stoneblade
c.)UWR Stoneblade
VI.Match-ups
VII. Different Styles of Deathblade
a.) Esper Deathblade
b.) 4c Deathblade
c.) Abzan Deathblade
d.) Shardless Deathblade
e.) Punishing Deathblade
VIII. Personal
I. Overview
Deathblade is a fair deck which uses powerful cards such as Stoneforge Mystic and Deathrite Shaman, from which it derives its name. As a subtype of the Stoneblade deck, Deathblade utilizes the natural combination of Stoneforge Mystic and powerful equipments, like Batterskull, Umezawa's Jitte, and sometimes a Sword of X and Y (a popular choice is Sword of Fire and Ice). Many decks have trouble dealing with these equipments, especially Batterskull which creates a 4/4 Vigilance Lifelink creature when it enters the battlefield. Deathbalde also employs other threats such as Snapcaster Mage, Vendilion Clique, True-Name Nemesis and sometimes even Baleful Strix. In addition to these powerful creatures, Deathblade also uses the best removal in the game in Swords to Plowshares, Abrupt Decay, and Council's Judgment; the best counters in Force of Will and Spell Pierce; and the best disruption with Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize. These cards are supported by the strongest planeswalkers: Jace, the Mind Sculptor, who can win the game by his own, and Liliana of the Veil.
To find what you need, Deathblade plays the best cantrips in Legacy: Brainstorm, Ponder. Some lists even include Sylvan Library to get even more card selection and advantage.
There is no "BEST LIST". Deathblade lists, especially those that use 4 colors, are flexible and different lists each come with their own advantages and disadvantages. The main goal of the deck is to exhaust the opponents resources and attack him with strong spells. See more under point IV. Card Choices.
II. History
Stoneblade decks first appeared in 2010 with Worldwake which gave us Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic. The synergy of the both cards made it the Deck to Beat in Standard: Caw-Blade.
Players used this synergy in Legacy with powerful Legacy staples, such as Force of Will and Swords to Plowshares.
The deck quickly restructed itself quickly after the Return to Ravnica (October 2012) expansion’s creation of Deathrite Shaman and Abrupt Decay, resulting in today's skeleton of Deathblade. Older builds of the deck included Geist of Saint Traft but in Commander 2013, a new creature appeared: True-Name Nemesis. This creature turned out to be the perfect creature for the deck; immune to spot removal, unblockable, and even stronger with any of the powerful equipments the deck runs attached to it.
For a more comprehensive reading on the more traditional Stoneblade decks, check out the Blade Control primer here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...-Blade-Control
III. Decklists
1st Lauren Nolen, Star City Open: Nashville; 5/19/2013
4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Notion Thief
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Scrubland
1 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
2 Wasteland
1 Batterskull
4 Brainstorm
3 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
Sideboard
2 Meddling Mage
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Celestial Purge
1 Counterspell
1 Disenchant
1 Force of Will
1 Hydroblast
1 Path to Exile
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Thoughtseize
1 Vindicate
An older list from 2013, this list is still playable right now, but over the time stronger cards hit the floor. For more decks and ideas about various decklists there are various sites like tcdecks, mtgtop8 or mtgpulse. My personal list looks like this:
//Maindeck
1 Bayou
1 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Karakas
3 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
2 Wasteland
2 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Batterskull
2 Bitterblossom
4 Brainstorm
1 Council's Judgment
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Force of Will
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Liliana of the Veil
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sylvan Library
3 Thoughtseize
1 Umezawa's Jitte
//Sideboard
1 Baleful Strix
1 Containment Priest
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Force of Will
1 Invasive Surgery
1 Life from the Loam
1 Nahiri, the Lithomancer
1 Pithing Needle
2 Rest in Peace
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Zealous Persecution
IV. Card Choices
a.) Manabase - Deathblade’s mana base is incredibly greedy and building and managing it is the hardest part about this deck. Fetching incorrectly or an opponent's Wasteland hitting an important land and you'll quickly find yourself unable to cast any spells. Deathblade lists traditionally use up to 4 colors: White, Black, Blue and a bit Green.
Most lists run about 21-23 lands with 8-10 being fetchlands, 2-3 wastelands, a few utility lands and sometimes 1 or 2 basics.
Deathrite Shaman helps the deck stabalize and ramps to play strong 3-drops on turn 2 or to allow a turn 2 wasteland into Stoneforge Mystic.
For utility lands, many lists often run Karakas. It produces white mana and has the unique ability to bounce a legendary creature like our own Vendilion Clique. In some lists you will find Academy Ruins, which is often used to bring back equipments or Baleful Strix.
Creeping Tar Pit is also a common choice which is safe against sorcery speed removal and is an unblockable creature.
b.) Creatures – Over the years the typical configuration of creatures has changed. Also every player has a different playstyle and may employ different creatures. Below are the typical core creatures, and other strong choices to slot in at your own discretion.
Core Creatures:
Deathrite Shaman: A playset Deathrite Shaman is the heart of Deathblade. He does everything in Legacy. He can provide a clock, manaramp, heal, and control graveyards. It's very common for him to eat removal due to how strong he is by himself.
Stoneforge Mystic: The second core part in Deathblade. 3-4 copies are typical. Many decks can't handle the Batterskull or Umezawa's Jitte that she finds. While she is a core creature, 3 copies is typically the amount you want to run as after you find Batterskull and Jitte, she's just a 1/2.
True-Name Nemesis: The main beater in the deck. Deathrite shaman allows him to come down on turn 2 and equipping him with either Jitte or Batterskull is usually game over.
Good creatures:
Baleful Strix: An amazing creature in creature matchups. Does everything for us. Replaces himself as soon as he resolves, can hold equipment, and can be pitched for Force of Will, not to mention he almost always trades up.
Snapcaster Mage: Another form of card advantage, allows you to use whatever spell you just need more of. Lists usually run 1-3 copies depending on how many instants and sorceries you end up running.
Vendilion Clique: A 3/1 flyer at instant speed that allows you to control the hand of the opponent and to get important information. Very strong with Karakas - Attacking on your turn and then bouncing and replaying him on your opponent's turn allows you to have a clock and control what answers they could have.
Fatties: Many different cards fit the role here including Gurmag Angler, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, and Tombstalker. Typical in Abzan lists, each of these cards here do essentially the same thing which is just beat the opponent. Delve allows them to be dropped very quickly and typically for only 1-3 mana.
Angler is just a vanilla 5/5 but sometimes that's all you need.
Tasigur is a 4/5 for 1 mana less than Angler but he is legendary which means that an opposing Karakas can stonewall him. His ability is nice in grindy games but is generally not relevant.
Tombstalker is another 5/5 but costs 1 more than Angler, but gains flying. Some people think this is worth the extra mana, some don't.
Other strong creatures:
Mirran Crusader: The Death and Taxes star. Some players like him in Deathblade. He holds equipments like Umezawa's Jitte and Sword of Fire and Ice pretty well. The Sword especially is pretty great. Missing only protection from white and having two sword triggers each combat is amazing, not to mention the fact that he becomes a quick clock with 8 damage per swing.
Dark Confidant: A good creature, he was played a long time ago as a core creature. However, things have changed. He provides card advantage and can be great in a control meta, but be careful: revealing a Force of Will, Jace, or Batterskull will hurt. Not to mention that a lot of lists run a decent amount of 3 cmc cards, and the damage can add up. He is still pretty common in Abzan lists though.
Venser, Shaper Savant: He is pure control. With a Karakas out, you can lock your opponent out. Also he has a decent body with 2/2.
Tarmogoyf: Ach ! Hans run! Also a card that was played some time ago, he only costs 2 mana and grows quickly. While True-Name Nemsis is the current choice beater, Tarmogoyf can be great in a race.
Recruiter of the Guard: He can search up for nearly every creature in the list, allowing for more toolbox-esque builds. He can be a little slow but in grindy match ups he is invaluable.
c.) Spells – Deathblade is a flexible all-rounder. Your spells allows you to switch roles. From control to aggro and from aggro to control. The goal of the deck is to successfully answer all of your opponent's threats while continually dropping your own threats to slowly win. Below again are some core and strong choices.
Core Spells:
Swords to Plowshares: Often called the best point removal. Helps out to remove strong creatures especially early in the game. Some choice targets include: Dark Confidant, Deathrite Shaman, Mother of Runes, Goblin Guide, and Delver of Secrets but these are just a few examples.
Brainstorm: Draw three good cards and put back two bad ones. That's the dream. Brainstorm becomes much better with a fetchland, which allows you to shuffle away the cards you put back. As an Instant, it helps to find answers like a removal spell or a counter spell in various situations.
Thoughtseize: One of the best discard spells available. Don't forget that the discard is not the only powerful thing Thoughtseize provides. You also get information. This helps you know what your opponent's plans are or if they can react to your own.
Umezawa’s Jitte and Batterskull: The main equipment package. Batterskull needs an answer or it wins. Jitte is great with a creature out already. The favorite creature to attach it to is True-Name Nemesis. It's unblockable and you will get your counters. Jitte is also super flexible, it helps you stabilize, remove small utility creatures, or increase your clock.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor: The core planeswalker. Often supported by Liliana of the Veil, he provides a ton of control. His +2 lets you filter either yours or your opponents draws, his 0 is a brainstorm a turn, and his -1 allows you to bounce threatening creatures. And his ultimate simply wins the game.
Force of Will: A necessary evil in this format. A strong counterspell that allows you to trade another blue card and 1 life to counter nearly anything at anytime. Usual 3-4 copies are found in the mainboard. Depending on your build, you may not have enough blue cards to support 4 copies. At least 18 blue cards should be played and even this is often too little.
Strong spells:
Abrupt Decay: One of the more flexible removal spells out there and a good reason to include green. The fact that you can't counter it makes Decay to a great weapon.
Council's Judgment: The catch all removal. Judgment doesn't target which means you can exile cards like True-Name Nemesis.
Ponder: An additional cantrip to find what you need beside Brainstorm. Ponder can shuffle by its own but is a sorcery. If you have the space in your build, strongly consider it.
Liliana of the Veil: Some players like her over Jace. She is a great planeswalker but sometimes we won't want to discard cards. Despite this, she helps to control the board and disrupt the opponent's hand. Control players hate her on turn 2.
Spell Pierce: Another cheap counter to include. In a creature weak meta a better choice. But also counters Chalice of the Void for X=1. Chalice is a strong card against us. Also handles removal like Swords to Plowshares early in the game and is a good counter to flashback with Snapcaster Mage.
Other good spells:
Sword of Fire and Ice and other "Swords of...": Sometimes included in the mainboard, the Swords are all different but most of them are pretty strong like Fire and Ice. Many players also include one or more in the sideboard as well/instead.
Lingering Souls and Bitterblossom: Token producers. Both allow you to get some number of 1/1 flying tokens, which are great at holding equipments. Many decks have problems with flying creature and multiple creatures. Both have their own pros and cons, and neither is strictly better.
Sylvan Library: Mentioned before. Sylvan Library is another tool for card advantage and allows us to dig through our deck and to draw additional cards if we want. 4 life can be a lot to pay for an additional card, but with a Batterskull on the field we can offset this life loss and get a lot of card advantage.
Kaya, Ghost Assassin: A newer planeswalker, her abilities are very unique. She strip the opponent's resources better than Liliana can through her -2 ability, but her -1 can sometimes win the game itself. In a race, a 4 life swing can be huge. Her 0 allows her to control creatures on the board and kills tokens. Beside that we can blink our Stoneforge, Snapcaster, or Vendilion Clique to get the etb triggers back and protect them against sorcery speed removal.
f.) Sideboard Options – The Sideboard is super important in determining who wins a tournament. Did you bring the right cards with you? There is no perfect Sideboard and you never know what will hit you. Here are some suggestions, which work great in this deck:
Engineered Explosives: A great card. I also like it in the mainboard and it often catches opponents by surprise. Great against decks with similar mana costs, such as Aether Vial decks because they use creatures with similar CMCs to get the full advantage of vial. Engineered Explosives also allows you to kill non-creature permanents with a CMC of 1 to 5 thanks to Deathrite Shaman. But careful! It destroys your stuff as well.
Surgical Extraction and Extirpate: Both do the same thing. Extraction allows you to cast it while tapped out while Extirpate allows you to ignore counterspells or other responses. They remove key cards in graveyards such as Life from the Loam, Punishing Fire, or Demonic Tutor. There is almost always something to hit with them and against Reanimator they are just great. Removing all of their Griselbrands helps a ton in that match ups. Another interesting card is Invasive Surgery. It's a sorcery counter and Surgical Extraction in one card.
Nihil Spellbomb, Relic of Progenitus, Rest in Peace: All have one goal: Grave hate. RIP is the strongest one, but it also hurts us it turns off Deathrite Shaman and Snapcaster Mage and makes our Delve creatures significantly worse.
Spellbomb and Relic are softer grave hate options. Spellbomb needs no mana to activate and exiles only one graveyard. For an additional black mana the Spellbomb becomes a one sided Relic. The good part about the Relic is the other ability. It keeps the graveyard small.
Flusterstorm: Great against combo and in counter wars. Allows you to counter cards with Storm. The problem is most of the Storm players can handle Flusterstorm with Cabal Therapy.
In important counter wars, against Show and Tell for example, Flusterstorm is the final word.
Path to Exile: Additional spot removal. Lists with enough green mana support often replace this with Abrupt Decay.
Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek: Additional discard spells. Sometimes needed against control and combo decks.
Disenchant and Krosan Grip: Good in mirror matches and Death and Taxes. Both help you against Aether Vial and equipment. Krosan Grip costs more but has split second. That makes it better against Miracles to handle Counterbalance. But careful: While they can't activate Sensei's Divining Top, the Counterbalance trigger still goes on the stack and they can blind flip to counter it.
Counterspell and Force of Will: Pure counters. If you aren't running 4 copies of Force in the main, here is your 4th copy. They are good against control and combo decks to stop them. Force is ''free“ and Counterspell is the best answer beside that.
Meddling Mage: Says no to key cards. Great against combo decks. Can also help also against control decks to stop their mass removal such as Terminus and Supreme Verdict but also their win options like Entreat the Angels and Monastery Mentor.
Golgari Charm, Zealous Persecution, Toxic Deluge, and Supreme Verdict: Mass removal. Golgari Charm is a more flexible card through its other abilities, but naturally is the weakest of the choice. Zealous Persecution is the only one without a symetrical effect, and is great for tokens/small creatures. Deluge and Verdict are more expensive but help deal with bigger threats.
Planeswalker: Some Planeswalkers help you out with their tokens and other abilities. Here is a small list of Planeswalker for Deathblade:
Elspeth, Knight-Errant: A token producer and supporter in one card. Pro: Both abilities are +1 allowing you more flexibility and helping you get closer to her ultimate each turn. Against certain decks the ultimate is amazing.
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad: Quite similair to Elspeth. Produces lifelinking token with his +1. His -2 provides a permanent buff to them as well. His biggest strength is his ultimate which allows you to steal a good creature and planeswalker. With -6 his ability can also come a turn earlier than Elspeth's.
Garruk Relentless: Yet another token producer. If he flips he can search up any creature like Stoneforge Mystic.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: His 0 creates a 2/2 token which is great. Against non-white decks he can turn into a 5/5 and attack without fear of being hit with a sword to plowshares. His ultimate is available the moment he hits the field and can be quite strong in the right scenario.
Nahiri, the Lithomancer: The last token producer, that synergizes with our equipments. The second part of the +1 is the best with a Batterskull on the field - you end up with a 5/5 creature. The -2 gets you equipments back or lets you put them safely onto the battlefield. The equipment given by her ultimate is incredibly strong - a True-Name Nemesis with this blade kills the opponent at this stage of the game pretty often.
Kaya, Ghost Assassin, Liliana of the Veil and Jace, the Mind Sculptor were mentioned before and additional copies are playable in the sideboard against control decks.
Vendilion Clique: In the sideboard or as additional copies to the mainboard. This creature is pretty good. Mentioned in Card Choices.
Detention Sphere: An interesting card. Good against Grixis Pyromancer or Miracles with Monastery Mentor
Vindicate, Council's Judgment and Abrupt Decay: Additional copies or just a sideboard card. These cards are great, versatile removal spells and our answers to cards like Counterbalance or against problematic Planeswalkers. Vindicate can also destroy lands like Maze of Ith, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Glacial Chasm or Dark Depths which can give us some trouble.
Notion Thief: A great answer to any deck that likes to draw cards, via spells like Brainstorm or Jace. A decent body at 3/1, he can carry equipments decently. However, he has no evasion and can die pretty easily.
Pithing Needle: An all around strong card. Allows us to stop some abilities like Thespian's Stage or Aether Vial. Strong against Miracles to deal with Sensei's Divining Top.
Life from the Loam: Great against decks which will try to attack our manabase. Allows us to get lands back and with the dredge mechanic can improve a brainstorm without a fetch.
Containment Priest: Great hatebear against cards such as Green Sun's Zenith, Aether Vial, Goblin Lackey, Natural Order, Show and Tell, Sneak Attack etc.
Ethersworn Canonist: Strong against combo decks. Doesn't affect us very much and stops every Deck that wants to play more than one spell in a turn like Storm and Elves.
V. Deathblade as a Stoneblade subtype
At this point every player has their own preference. I personally love to play Deathblade. Here are some points from an objective point of view:
a.) Esper Stoneblade – The big difference is the Deathrite Shaman. Esper Stoneblade plays Dark Confidant for more card advantage and focuses more on a control build with mostly 3 copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and very often any token producer like Lingering Souls or Bitterblossom or Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. The tokens serve to both provide a clock and to protect the Jace. Also Esperblade is a bit slower because they can't ramp mana. To work around this disadvantage, some players include Chrome Mox.
b.) UW Stoneblade – The Mother of all Stoneblade subtypes. No Deathrite Shaman, no black at all or even green. UW Stoneblade is a pure control deck. As every control deck it's quite slow. UW Stoneblade plays more counters than Deathblade does. However, Deathblade gets a more diverse suite of answers at the cost of a much weaker mana base.
c.) UWR Stoneblade – Jeskai Stoneblade is a bit more aggressive as Deathblade. Red brings aggressive spells like Lightning bolt that can quicken a clock. Jeskai Stoneblade often has a higher instant and sorcery count than usual and so will sometimes include Delver of Secrets as a aggressive 3/2 for 1 mana. In exchange for this, they lose the ability to drop a True-Name Nemesis off Deathrite shaman on turn 2.
VI. Match Ups
It's difficult to give any percentages for any particular match up. Games are determined by skill and luck of the draw and while the deathblade archetype is stronger against certain archetypes, it is hard to say exactly how well you'll do in a match up depending on your exact list.
Below are some common match ups and related notes.
a.) RUG Delver – Temur Delver, a staple of Legacy, utilizes a mix of cheap cards, free counters, and land hate making it a hard opponent. Our good cards here are Swords to Plowshares, Umezawa's Jitte, and Abrupt Decay. Baleful Strix is typically on defense here, trading with every one of their creatures, however they are prime targets for a lightning bolt or forked bolt. The longer the game goes, the stronger we get and the weaker the delver player gets - our individual cards are better, we just need to be able to play them all. For sideboarding, we want to bring in cheap board wipes like Zealous Persecution, Toxic Deluge and Engineered Explosives. Slower cards like Jace are not very helpful so you can bring them out. If you have additional spaces, consider bringing in grave-hate to deal with Nimble Mongooses and Goyfs. This is a winnable match up, but you can lose very quickly. Despite being a tempo deck, it can feel like an aggro deck at times. Remember: Thoughtseize costs 2 life but its better than a Delver hitting you every turn.
b.) Shardless BUG – Playing against Shardless BUG is a war of attrition, their deck wins via card advantage. Our strongest weapons are cheap counterspells like spell pierce or counterspell. Cards like Force of Will, while powerful, provide a lot of card disadvantage. A cute card is also Divert. Redirecting an Abrupt Decay, Hymn to Tourach or an Ancestral Vision is very funny. For Sideboarding there are few options. We want cards that give us card advantage such as Jace, the Mind Sculptor, answers to their threats via spot removal and board wipes, and hard to efficiently deal with threats, like tokens, and cards that replace themself or do more than that, like Baleful Strix. This is a very hard match up, that requires you to get card advantage in any way possible.
c.) Lands.dec – Lands.dec is another strong deck against us. Punishing Fire every turn deals with many of our creatures, and constantly being Wastelanded is hard for us due to our fragile mana base. Counters are very poor in the match up since there are so few spells being cast by them, and half of them are recurrable (Life from the Loam and Punishing Fire). Planeswalkers, while strong, will often die to Punishing Fire loops. To combat them, a sideboard Life from the Loam helps fight against Wasteland loops and Pithing Needle on Thespian's Stage stops their Dark Depths combo. Meddling Mage can stop Abrupt Decay and Punishing Fire. A well timed Surgical Extraction can stop their Life from the Loam or Punishing FIre from returning to their hand. (Be careful of a untapped Grove of the Burnwillows or open Green Mana though - they can respawn to the Extraction by giving you life to pick up their Punishing Fire or use a cycle land to dredge back Lomb, countering your extraction)
d.) Aggro Loam – Aggro Loam is quite popular here in Europe. The deck employs Life from the Loam and a toolbox of lands like the pure Lands deck. The big difference are the creatures. Dark Confidant and Knight of the Reliquary are the stars. The Knight is often too big for us to deal with and Punishing Fire loops are still deadly. In addition to the cards mentioned above in the Lands match up, we also need creature removal now for KotRQ and Bob. Don't forget to leave in some way to answer a Chalice on 1 turn 1 via a Mox Diamond.
e.) Eldrazi – Eldrazi decks pack a lot of effective hate against us mainboard between Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere. A turn 1 Deathrite Shaman followed up by a quick True-Name Nemesis is one of our strongest plays here. Counters are strong here as well to stop their hate pieces and All is Dust. Here we want to bring in spot removal and board wipes, though zealous persecution and golgari charm are weaker here. Baleful Strix is great in this match up - it instantly draws a card and can kill any of their creatures, which are typically atleast a 4/4. Cheap token producers like Lingering Souls can buy us time to stabilize their early aggression.
f.) Miracles – The control deck of the format. The important spells in their deck include cards like Jace and the combination of CounterTop. Pithing needle can stop Sensei's Divining Top and Meddling Mage can name their win conditions. Invasive Surgery is very good in this match up. Depending on their list you may want to take out spot removal - some lists have started to run Monastery Mentor which is must-answer card. He is, however, easier to handle and stop than a end-of-turn Entreat the Angles. Abrupt Decay destroys Counterbalance. Remember: In response to the miracle trigger, you can flash a Vendilion Clique and make the opponent put away his Terminus or Entreat the Angles. Repeatable token producers are great here - they provide a clock that can't be responded to with a swords to plowshare, and if they terminus, you can just make more tokens.
g.)Death and Taxes – Death and Taxes is a strong creature based deck, but we can deal with answers fairly well. Jitte is very strong in this match up considering how many x/1s they have, and spot removal and board wipes are great here as well. Be careful with spot removal against a non summoning sick Mother of Runes. Make sure to keep in some cards to deal with Aether Vial and possibly even an opposing Batterskull if they run Stoneforge Mystic. Tokens are very effective at stalling the board while we find good answers and threats. Make sure to have some amount of flyers either through tokens or Baleful Strix to deal with cards like Flickerwisp, Serra Avenger, and Aven Mindcensor.
h.) Storm – Here we want counters, discard, and Ethersworn Canonist. Depending on the version we can bring in gravehate to stop Past in Flames. Meddling Mage is also great if you know what their win con is. While spot removal is generally terrible in this match up, board wipes can be useful if they use Empty the Warrens as their win con. Be careful though: Some players board in Xantid Swarm while you board all your spot removal out.
i.) Cheating Big Creatures Into The Game – This is an archetype that has a lot of different decks that do the same general thing. Decks like Sneak and Show, Omnitell, and Reanimator all want to do the same basic thing which is use a combination of cards to cheat a big fatty into play super early. Typical fatties include Griselbrand and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. To deal with this, we want counterspells and discard (becareful not to discard the reanimation target against reanimator!), Pithing Needle (for Sneak Attack), Meddling Mage (for Show and Tell), and Containment Priest. Against Omnitell we can board in Ethersworn Canonist. They want to play Show and Tell putting Omniscience into the game and casting cantrips or one of their creature for free. If they need cantrips to find a creature, great. If they have the creature on their hand we have at least 1 Turn to find an answer. Against Reanimator we need also gravehate. Deathrite Shaman is great on it's own, but more grave hate is even better.
j.) Elves – This creature based deck plays more like a combo deck to flood the board with a bunch of small green creatures, then somehow convert that into a win, usually by casting Natural Order for either a Progenitus or Craterhoof Behmoth. Despite being a "flood the board" deck, spot removal is great here as we can take out their enablers, and slow them down greatly. Obviously board wipes are great and since most of their creatures are weak, Zealous Persecution and Golgari Charm are still good here. Discard to hit their business spells like Natural Order is very strong and ways to pre-emptively deal with their tutors, such as Meddling Mage and Containment Priest, are also very strong.
VII. Different Styles of Deathblade
Over time, players will add their own style to their personal list. Here is a list with a little explaination to different styles of Deathblade I saw. That doesn't mean that they have to be good, but at least they were in the top 8 of an event.
a.) Esper Deathblade – The Esper colors are blue, white and black and the names comes from Esper Charm (not included). In a pure Esper Deathblade list, there is no green, which means no Abrupt Decay. Also some Esper lists are more likely an Esperblade with Deathrite Shaman to manaramp. Therefore it includes Vindicate as all round removal and more often Lingering Souls. No green means also the missing of Deathrite Shaman's ''green“ ability and cards like Life from the Loam and Sylvan Library.
b.) 4c Deathblade – The difference between Esper and 4 color is the green mana. Most of the time, however, 4c Deathblade lists appear as Esper DeathBlade. In a 4c lists 2-3 green producing dual lands are standard. Most of the time you will see a Tropical Island and Bayou/Savannah, depending on the actual build, or all 3. Green offers some good cards as mentioned in 7a.: Abrupt Decay, Sylvan Library, Golgari Charm and Life from the Loam are the most common.
c.) Abzan Deathblade – Just like Esper (7a) Abzan Deathblade is named after Abzan Charm (not included). Abzan is a very special style of Deathblade and plays without blue. For card advantage Abzan lists are playing Dark Confidant and Sylvan Library. As big beaters Abzan Deathblade uses Tarmogoyf and one of the 3 Delve creatures (4b). There is no blue for counterspells, and instead Abzan uses discard as a form of proactive control in form of Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach and Liliana of the Veil.
d.) Shardless Deathblade – A very rare style of Deathblade including Shardless Agent and Ancestral Vision to gain card advantage. Shardless Deathblade looks more like Shardless BUG with a white splash for Stoneforge Mystic and Swords to Plowshares. Playing Tarmogoyf or True-Name Nemesis depends on your own. The strongest part about this Deathblade variant is the surprise effect. Opponents will think that they are playing against a Shardless BUG until you reveal your Stoneforge Mystic and they don't have any answers for Batterskull.
e.) Punishing Deathblade – Also a very rare Deathblade type including Punishing Fire and Grove of the Burnwillows. The colors are often Abzan to get more advantages from Grove of the Burnwillows, because it can produce green mana, but also seen in a 4c variant. Punishing Fire is a great removal spell that can keep coming back. Quite similar to Punishing Maverick or Aggro Loam lists without Knight of the Reliquary.
VIII. Personal
First of all, I want to thank Sturtzilla for his primer, which is now 3 years old, and gave me a template for this primer.
Deathblade is my favorite deck and at the moment I can't imagine playing something else. You can see my list above in 3. I will try update my personal list and this primer as well.
Currently, I like to play Bitterblossom.
Also I want to thank the community for some great talks about this wonderful deck.
And I want to thank PotatoSol for editing this post in terms of grammar.
Thank you for reading the primer and I hope you enjoy Legacy for a long time and maybe even trying Deathblade yourself. I tried different builds over time and Abzan seems quite fun because I love Hymn to Tourach. I also tried it in a 4c list without Force of Will, though I didn't like it. Maybe Deathblade is better without any blue in this black Abzan shell, but right now I love my deck and it brings me frequently victories at tournaments and events.
Just putting in my updated list:
Lands: 22
1 Bayou
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
2 Wasteland
Spells: 23
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Batterskull
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Lingering Souls
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Thoughtseize
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Creatures: 15
3 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Sanctum Prelate
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 True-Name Nemesis
===
Sideboard: 15
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Containment Priest
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Flusterstorm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Nahiri, the Lithomancer
2 Pithing Needle
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Swords to Plowshares
============
Notable changes:
============
Added 2 Sanctum prelates to the mainboard since I just think they're so strong. So far I've been really unimpressed with Recruiter of the Guard though so I'm holding off on that.
Council's Judgment has always been a disappointing so I cut the copy in the main and the copy in the side. I also cut 1 Stoneforge mystic from the main to make room for the prelate. In the sideboard I added 1 Engineered Explosives.
I'm also testing a slightly different land base with 1 extra plains in there over a tundra. Helps me play around wasteland/blood moon/back to basics, but it does make my mana base feel considerably weaker. Not sure how that's going to turn out to be honest.
I haven't included Glissa, the Traitor in this build but I do want to include either her or something else to deal with decks like Eldrazi. I just haven't found the slots for her and I feel like I would have a hard time casting her since she requires double G
I see Sanctum Prelate more like a sideboard option if you play it. he is only good against miracles naming 6. 1-4 kills yourself. Prelate is a great card but not that creature we need and he does to less for us.
Grafdiggers cage kills your Lingering souls. right now I am playing nihil spell bomb and it's great.
In my list I could use the cage better since snapcaster mage is the only card which gets hurt by it.
I compared your list with mine and searched the missing cards. Planeswalkers.
I would play at least Jace. But when I played Lingering souls Liliana of the Veil became even better. discarding souls and gettig it for 2 was always a game winning advantage.
I wait until my Kaya comes. atm I'm not sure what I want to cut. The meta is creature heavy and Jace becomes weaker and weaker. Kaya allows me to control creatures better and can create card advantage and life drain.
I feel like game 1 against most match ups, there are enough options that are atleast decent to name with Sanctum Prelate and that we have enough of a diverse mana cost suite that it can be mainboardable. I even named 1 against a delver deck the other day and it was great since they had just resolved a pyromancer that I had no answer to and they didn't get a single trigger off it since all their instants/sorceries were at 1.
I might make the switch to Nihil spellbomb, I forget which card specifically that exiles cards from graveyard THEN casts them (which cage can't deal with) but nihil spell bomb or something similar would deal with it.
Also I do have Jace in my list, I just forgot to update that part (-1 swords to 3 swords total from previously). I currently don't have access to Lili's :( I do think they have some spot in the deck, not sure where though.
I also want to include a Kaya in my list, not sure if I'm going to mainboard her or not. Again, don't have access to one at the moment so can't test.
Hello,
Can you guys help me out. I want to see if deathblade is a good fit for ny meta. I recently moved from shardless (my love) to jund as i needed the extra removal and tempo.
My meta is full of infect and dnt, splashed lightly with miracles and dredge(which i get most decks just lose game 1 anyway). But, what gengre of deathblade is good for this? I once tested an abzan deathblade and it was fun. But i really wanna cast some cantrips, maybe even some snapcasters if needed
most of the times deathblade isn't fast. of course you can destroy others with True-Name Nemesis on turn 2 and getting Jitte equipped.
blue is more flexible as other variants without. Brainstorm offers instant library manipulation while abzan is the gamble: top or flop.
abzan and jeskai stoneblade playing more removal than esper/4c deathblade. while abzan supports 3 or 4 abrupt decay jeskai uses lightning bolt.
Against dnt force of will is useless. of course we could counter aether vial but that's not a strong move. I would favor abzan against dnt since you have the proactive discard, decay and even more green/black removal in your sideboard.
I can't tell much about Infect since I played only 3 times against it but I was never afraid to get killes. Jitte is the star. Blue should be fine to counter and finding answer better. abzan can hold them down with discardand forces them into topdeck which is awful with this deck.
the power of dredge is the missing possibility to interact with their actions. preboard we have deathrite and swords to remove ichorid for ever. if dredge is such a thing in your meta, rest in peace is good again although it kills your own cards. counters don't help and discard is awful.
miracles is strong and it's the better control deck. a straight aggressiv plan should win and abzan does this better.
What is in jeskai deathblade? Ive never heard of this variantQuote:
Originally Posted by Neo900
jeskai is no deathblade Variant. it's only regular Stoneblade. often time mixed up with jeskai delver since the only difference between them is often just the delver who is often included in jeskai stoneblade as an aggressiv play with more instants.
jeskai deathblade would like a jeskai stoneblade with a light black splash for deathrite shaman. I think that won't work out.
I think this deck is a superb choice against Infect and DnT if you're willing to devote sideboard slots to the matchup. Zealous Persecution is really strong against both of those decks. Darkblast is nice. With a modest constriction (no Lingering Souls), you can even run Dread of Night if "overkill" isn't in your vocabulary.Quote:
Originally Posted by Whit3boy316
You might be able to get by without a lot of sideboard space. The disruption only needs to clear you for one Jitte hit and it's pretty much over.
In tribe heavy meta Engineered plague is a nice option. hits a bit against dnt on human. also hits gobins and elves. merfolk is not so great since we play true-name.
dread of night is an Option but also just for heavy metas with too many dnt. normally we can handle other creatures and DnT has the problem that they don't have a real answer to batterskull. the only thing they could do is too fly over it or race with their own skull
One thing that Dread of Night has going for it is "splash" damage against Monastery Mentor.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neo900
I wouldn't bank on Death and Taxes not having an answer to Batterskull for long. I have a feeling that with Recruiter and Prelate out now more people will be playing the deck and so Manriki-Gusari will be seeing a good bit more sideboard play.
Disenchant hit me harder so far than manriki gusari. we can swords the creature or decay gusari.
dread of night can get easy countered at CMC1 by miracles.
we will see what recruiter and Prelate will do in the meta. prelate seems very strong so far. but death and taxes is rare seen in my local meta. last time at the big monthly event I saw a few eldrazi and a few goblins.
as so often I got blamed for playing deathblade and reaching top8 since I beat this one player twice on a weekend.
Thanks for the input everyone. What does a modern day esper list look like these days? Im excited to finally use snapcaster and brainstorm again. Also with infect and dnt in my meta should i make mainboard changes such as more removal?
Personally I do very well against dredge, I think I've actually won more game 1s against it than I have lost (Small sample size though, probably around 5 matches total)
Turn 1 DRS is very strong for dealing with their dredger and against Mana-Dredge, wasteland is surprisingly strong since it turns off a lot of their draw enablers (making it so they can't dredge at instant speed). Engineered Explosives is amazing in this match up as well. Another trick is to sacrifice your creatures aggressively to get rid of their bridges early before they can get too much value off them. Germ tokens dying do count for this.
Against Infect, we have two options. We can flood the board so that they can't get through, but if they get something like a Blighted Agent on the field this plan folds. Otherwise we can just drop a threat when we can and otherwise keep mana open to threaten removal/counterspells, or try to rip through their hand with discard spells. Wasteland here should be keep for their infect creatures but try to wait until they use a pump spell on it. Also make sure you play around crop rotation into inkmoth. Pendelhaven is also a decent target.
I'm about 50-50 on Miracles now and I'd like to say that's mostly because of Lingering Souls and True-Name Nemesis. Managing your clock here is incredibly important - if playing another threat doesn't increase your significantly change the amount of turns it will take you to win, don't play it. Typically I'll have 2 creatures at most on the board. I'd imagine Bitterblossom is strong here as well, though I don't run it.
Thanks for the info. One other question i have is why run deathrite? I understand he is great. But in this dexk i wouod imagine more snapcaster/vclique/lingering souls(i saw some decks dont run them) would be betterQuote:
Originally Posted by PotatoSol
Deathrite does a lot of things pretty okay and our deck doesn't focus on doing any 1 thing. We're not an aggro deck, we're not a control deck, we're not a combo deck...we're just a bunch of good cards put together.
Specifically, Deathrite allows us to ramp us into a quick turn 2 True-Name Nemesis. On top of that, it fixes our horrid mana base, allowing us to be more greedy with our spells. On top of that, it's a good clock so the opponents have to answer it, and since we run so many threats, this allows us to try and overload their removal spells, giving them hard choices.
A lot of deathrite's power in our deck is "invisible" but I assure he is VERY strong
Deathblade without Deathrite Shaman is not deathblade. he is one of the best cmc1 creatures ever printed and there is a reason that every green deck play him and got banned in modern. beside tempo advantage he fix our mana issues. deathblade is a 4 color good stuff greed pile.
Esperblade (without Deathrite) tries to win by card advantage with more discard and dark confidant for an extra card per turn.
if you want more snapcaster and clique you should try a control heavy version of Stoneblade with a simple uw manabase.
there is a short comparison between deathblade and all other Stoneblade version in my primer a few sites ago.
I will try to let it set as the official primer for this thread.