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How do you guys sideboard against UW miracles and affinity? For U/W, usually i will side in a few extractions and lingering souls and thats about it. The counter lock is really irritating. As for affinity, I will just side in disenchants and EE. Game 1 is hard for me as they are very fast.
I think it is also relevant to include what to side out in the matchups. Against UW Miracles I side out IoK because and I also side in my one additional Thoughtseize. Mike, what do you side out against miracles?Quote:
Originally Posted by mike1987
I have no experience against affinity but both path to exile and lingering souls seem awesome. Lingering souls trades with a lot of their creatures and gives you multiple critters so they cannot insta-equip cranial plating to unblocked guy as easily. I would probably side out jace the Mindsculptor because he is slow and they have very little card advantage so brainstorm should be enough selection to get the job done.
EE is also hard for Counterbalance to deal with (play at X > 3, keeping sunburst at whatever you need it to be), and can blow up Angels at sunburst 0 (X = 0 or cast with all colorless).Quote:
Originally Posted by mike1987
Don't forget you can Clique in response to the miracle trigger.
An active Jitte will shut down Affinity.
I would like to hear more opoinions on the Force-thing.
My point is:
We have a low blue-count, which does not allow us to play FoW everytime we want. Secondly we actually do need all the blue-cards most of the time. Yes a Jace is a great pitch in the early-game but beside of that I think 2 cards ( atleast 1 being blue ) can handle any threat just as good as a Force - while being more useful in other MUs. I do not talk of cutting FoW completly as we do need it from to time vs unfair decks, but I think cutting it to 3 or even 2 is the way to go. By doing so, we open up some slots which can be used for various Catch-All-Answers.
Now, do I read the metagame completly wrong to warrant cutting FoWs? That can be true, ofc as I do not see Reanimator/Show and Tell as a great meta-factor right now. People are prepared for it, so they wont show up in such a great number. But you do not want to Force while being untapped versus Tempo. You do not want to Force a creature, when you could use most of your blue cards to gain more advantage by simply casting it and overhelming the threat you would just have countered. Not saying that FoW is bad, just implying that 4 is not the right number anymore.
Here is my most recent list for reference:
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
2 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Academy Ruins
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
3 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Thoughtseize
3 Lingering Souls
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Sideboard:
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Force of Will
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Spell Pierce
1 Path to Exile
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Surgical Extraction
1 Lingering Souls
Greetings
For miracles usually i will side out a couple of FOWs, a couple of STPs(they might bring more cliques into main), one vindicate, one counterspell and one ponder for 2 surgical extractions and 3 lingering souls, one JTMS(i only play 2 mainboard) and cabal therapy. Yea thats about it. One of the hardest SB decisions ever haha.Quote:
Originally Posted by Guy I Don't Know
@matunos Thanks for your advice. Yea active jitte kills their critters, jitte might be a bit slow though plus if they have an etched champion in play, its not easy to get counters on jitte as they can just block it every time. Etched champion and a plating is ouch.
Nice list there Phillip. Yea i am also leaning towards 3 FOWs these days, 2 pierces and 1 counterspell. Will side in if more is needed. I suppose since we play discards, less number of FOWs against combo could be needed. Plus you are right, our blue count ain't that high so I am happy with 3 FOWs MB. As to 2 Academy ruins, maybe you could cut 1 of it for dust bowl? Its very useful against pesky lands like maze of ith. Other than that, it's a solid list there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Philipp802
This is true. You really need a Lingering Souls spirit or a Clique to equip it to (or colorless manland, or Creeping Tar Pit, etc.).Quote:
Originally Posted by mike1987
Hi guys, I'm playing blade control since batterskull was released (and the nice misstep times haha). Still played it while the UW archetype wasn't that recognized, tried an Uwr version with 3 bolts, EE and REBs out the SB. It was sweetie against the aggros.
But lingering souls brought a new horizon to us, the black inclusion means we have a lot of stronger options at SB, yet correcting the usual problem UW had -you never could fetch a jitte with your first SFM since we had no bodies to carry it. Nedless to say that LS can protect our jaces and 2~3 turns with him alive is a stupid CA. Also, we got an upper hand against everything with 3~5 discard spells. They could lead the deck to a different line of playing, where you just know when to be aggressive and pressure your oponent safely (like a BGw aims to). So I think we just play a higher level deck, even with no format breaking tho. That said, that's the list I'm playing with great success in my state:
MAIN DECK
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Vendilion Clique
Creatures [8]
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Planeswalkers [3]
1 Batterskull
4 Brainstorm
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Force of Will
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Lingering Souls
1 Mana Leak
2 Spell Pierce
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Thoughtseize
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Spells [26]
3 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Island
1 Karakas
2 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
1 Swamp
3 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
Lands [23]
SIDEBOARD
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Disenchant
1 Extirpate
2 Flusterstorm
1 Force of Will
2 Humility
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Wrath of God
1 Zealous Persecution
Fisrt things first, I really hate to lose to a single maze of ith that won't let your batterskull or jitte connect so there's 4 wastelands (which aren't usual in the latest esper lists, at least on SCG). About basics.. I don't think we need more than 1 of each, actually I just took off the plains since the WW costs is just for Wraths and Humilities and I got karakas on maindeck and every fetchland can bring tundras to the battlefield; opposed to regular thinking, I'd rather be vulnerable to wastelands myself than having a basic land that won't help at all. About the fetchlands, deltas over strands since I'd like to start on swamp to discard then go 3 tundras in a row.. It's the best manabase opening tho. You won't need 2 black mana that often and makes you almost ignore wastelands.
About creatures, I cut one snapcaster since having 2 EEs MD makes you need him a little less against aggro decks and clique is just fantastic, it's way more versatile than lingering souls so you can't cut all copies of it; I just hold another one on SB that I board in every match besides aggro. Tidehollow is another BIG threat against combo, just when we have a great number of 'dead cards' like StP, lingering souls and even jitte.
I love jace and don't see myself cutting any of the 3 there but about the FoWs it's a little different: I've played this list with no FoW, 6 discards and spell snare.. It was insane until SaT decks came and made snare kinda unplayable. The mana leak as a 4th fow is quite ok against aggros, controls and even combos since this list has 4 wastelands. If we really need a 4th FoW, just side-in.
Blue elemental blast is great and really helpful against burn, which I think its the worst match for this list (and sometimes I just play Rest for the Weary when I predict a lot of Burns at my store.. =P) Humility is just sick, btw. It makes the single zealous persecution a LOT better since it turns into a instant wrath only for the opponent ;]. As known, it can win against maverick with such ease. Needless to say that Humility got its spot due to his strenght against griselbrand. Also breaks down goblins and even maverick in some way, since it locks qasalis etc.
I just love Flusterstorms, they are extremely versatile and works pretty well with SCM as well surgicals and that single extirpate (maybe 3 surgicals would be better, but idk.. I am very happy when ppl can't respond to it)
The only real match I'm not that comfortable is UW Miracles. But since we got discards our jace should get there easier and EE for 0 is what we need.
All the other MUs are pretty solid, it's up to you manage such power (: If liked, I can post regularly about my games and stuff.
I don't see much radical in the list above. I prefer a plain ole Counterspell over Mana Leak: the Couterspell becomes more valuable as the Pierces become worthless, and I've found it's not that hard to muster UU even early on (true, it's harder to Snapcast, but mustering UUU in the mid to late game isn't backbreaking either, and snapping back the Mana Leak later on is not often going to be relevant, especially when they can see it in your yard and play around it).
The reason you don't see Wastelands so much is that Dust Bowl offers much of the same utility in one card. Harder to draw into, but you usually don't need it early. This makes space for things like an Academy Ruins and/or more colored mana.
Speaking of which, the idea behind 4 basics is that you can still cast a Jace through a wastelock.
I don't think Burn is the worst matchup. It's definitely a race, but if you land a Batterskull or a Jitte early enough (keep it protected from Smash to Smithereens), you generally win. I've stabilized as low as 1 life against Burn before.
I think Lands and Aggroloam are some of our worst matchups. Among tier 1 decks, probably RUG Delver and Maverick, though both are pretty even, Maverick maybe even an advantage against post-board.
That's the nice thing about Stoneblade (as well as RUG and Maverick): they have even to good matchups against most competitive decks. Many decks with very good matchups also have very bad matchups, so it's hard to grind them through a tournament. They're really just spoilers for the tier 1 decks (read: most combo decks).
Hey guys,
Unlike most people who run Esperblade nowadays I still run the UWR Variant. Partly because I can't afford Underground seas right now but also because I like the Variant. My list is:
8 Fetches
4 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
1 Plateau
2 Island
1 Plains
3 Mishra
1 Riptide
1 Academy Ruins
4 Stoneforge
4 Snapcaster
2 Clique
1 Batterskull
1 Jitte
1 SoFaF
4 FoW
4 Snare
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords
3 Bolts
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Jace
1 Elspeth
Sideboard
3 Wrath
4 REB/Pyroblast
4 Surgical Extractions
4 Spell Pierce
I haven't been on a tournament for some time and hope the variant is still viable since I am going to take it to one this saturday. I've also seen a lot of people cut the spell snares for spell pierces main and wonder if this is the better variant currently. This would leave me with more sideboard slots I could fill - even tho I am not sure what to include. Maybe Sulfur Elemental for Mother of Runes and tokens. Has anyone playing the red variant (if there are people still..) ever tried Desolate Lighthouse? Also should I play 2 Geists over the Cliques in this deck?
I totally agree with that trade between leak and counterspell if you are not playing wastelands. But I don't feel right about sitting waiting for a dust bowl when a spirit carrying jitte can pretty much end the game asap. Needless to say that sometimes our card advantage just let us use our wastelands and break the opponent's manabase. And well, these 2 EE MD makes both canadian and maverick MUs way better for us since any '2 for 1' in these matches will make a huge difference.. also its a good answer to mangooses and mother of runes when a single StP is useless.. and lingering souls is there for that too. I'm pretty happy when I face those decks, actually.Quote:
Originally Posted by matunos
About lands, you are so right haha. A friend of mine keeps playing that shit and I just got a way to deal with it: 'keep winning and try to avoid' since the match is almost unwinnable because he always boards in leyline of sanctity to stop jaces and still has that pack of annoying things like EE, ghost quarter, chalices, etc anyway. That's one of the reasons I don't care about losing to a crucible+wasteland. You are betting higher for a strong manabase where you just won't be color screwed.
I'm afraid only of decks like enchantress or 'all in red', because of blood moon or even chalice+trinisphere, but I guess I can aford to have these prolly bad MUs when I have the tier1 decks pretty managed.
Have any of you guys tried the recent scg kansas winner's list?
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=48610
It's like a deck in between stoneblade and miracles. Terminus might be enable us to get out of pesky situations against goblins, merfolk or even maverick which are currently on the rise. Counterbalance main against those decks is pretty lame. So sideboarding in counterbalance against control, RUG delver, combo seems awesome to me. I might do some slight tweaks and use it for this week's FNM.
Been playing with it on MTGO for a couple of days now. It's pretty good, but the low land count can sometimes be a liability. It also wins like a control deck rather than a normal Stoneblade deck. You need to learn to play it fast because it will often go to turn 20+ before getting into a victory race condition.Quote:
Originally Posted by mike1987
I test a similiar version and think about a little tweaks:
-1 Stoneforge, because we only want one batterskull, all additional mystic seems very weak
+1 Snapcaster Mage, Body, Force Pitch, additional Removal or Cantrip, i think 3 is right compared to Stoneforge
-1 Vendilion Clique, yeah the Faerie-Pack can be good, but against Creaturebased Decks, a 1 Toughness Flyer isnīt scary enough (other decks are prepared for delver...)
+1 Entreat the Angels, a real finisher
-1 Jace, sometimes to slow
+1 Elsbeth , Stoneforge with Equipment plays very well with the female knight, strong after with terminus and beats jace in control mirror's
-1 Ponder, yeah it's good for miracle and draw quality, but with stoneblade and all the other stuff you need enough mana
+1 Land, i think 22 lands are fine, stable manabase and you can use ponder, brainstorm and top to find some nice spells rather than search for additional landdrops
I think, a hybrid deck can use both, game winning miracle abuse and stoneforge+equipment to end games fast enough before timeout calls. Against combo or rug, you can bring in some counterbalance for a nice top-lock.
In the past, I used to think of this as a pretty good MU, but recently I got schooled by a Lands player. It is a very unforgiving MU. You have to play tight, but you should be able to get there. Jace is very, very strong and they have no good answers to him in G1.Quote:
Originally Posted by KasumiFox
G1 can easily grind out 30-40 min and by then they will probably have a lock on you. Land's ideal round is to take as long as they can to win G1 and have G2 go to turns. If it's 15-20 min into the round and you don't have out a Jace (or the win in sight), just scoop it up so you'll have time to win the next two games. Surgical wrecks their engine (hitting LftL then Wasteland is almost always correct) and Vindicate is good at picking off problem lands or Leyline. Expect them to bring in Chalice, so EE is still strong. Don't forget to Clique away their LftL in their draw step after they dredge.
What I can't decide is what our worst cards are in the MU. Counters seem pretty weak. Swords are surprisingly alright, their main wincon (besides you slitting your wrists) is manlands and you want to be able to protect Jace. Discard doesn't seem great, but it can slow them down. Maybe just send all 6-7 counters packing..? You really don't want them resolving a t1 Chalice though.
I'm also testing a a similiar version to Kobie's list:Quote:
Originally Posted by MD.Ghost
-2 Ponder
-1 Stoneforge
+1 Entreat
+1 Snapcaster mage
+1 Land
Maybe I cut a third ponder, to make room for a third Spell Pierce. To this day, my side is:
3 Counterbalance
1 Terminus
1 Jitte
3 REB
2 Disenchant
2 Relic of progenitus
2 Surgical extraction
1 Engineered Explosives
Any advice or suggestion is welcome. thanks!!!!
Howdy there mtg source. Im looking for advice on my current build. Im trying to keep it u/w only.
Lands:
4 tundra
4 flooded strand
4 misty rainforest
4 wasteland
3 islands
2 plains
1 karakas
Creatures:
4 snapcaster mage
4 stoneforge mystic
2 restoration angel
2 vendilion clique
Spells:
4 force of will
4 brainstorm
4 swords to plowshares
3 ponder
3 jace, the mind sculptor
2 counterspell
Artifacts:
1 batterskull
1 sword of feast and famine
1 umezawa's jitte
Sideboard:
3 terminus
3 surgical extraction
2 disenchant
2 geist if saint traft
2 path to exile
1 grafdiggers cage
I would cut the 3rd Ponder, the SoFF (possibly to the SB), and the 3rd Jace (also to the side) for some more disruption. Some split of Spell Pierces and Snares. Four FoW and StP are not enough to consistently get you to t2 for your two Counterspells to be active.
How do you like the Restoration Angels? I almost played some a while back but decided to switch to Esper instead. I'm thinking about them again recently. We're such a creature-light deck that it seems like you wouldn't be getting value out of Angel's ability too often... but still, a 3/4 Flash Flier for 4 is pretty saucy.
I missed typing it in but i do have 3the spell pierce main. As far as resto angel i like it. My meta has at lot of flying dorks around and i needed another way to inetract with them. I am debating on cutting 1 jace to the board for a third angel.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dzra
It's really sad to play that long game consistently then get beaten by the single ghost quarter haha.. keeping then out of explorations/manabonds might be the way, so EE is the star here just as disenchant. But yeah, you kinda still need a couple of StP, but I feel that sometimes I might just draw cards that really interact with the game state.. and the lands player shouldn't start attacking before having the hardlock closed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dzra
I got a little less greedy so I'm back with 1 of each basic land (swamp, plains and island), but still want that karakas so I cut a wasteland.. Playing 3 of them right now. They win some games so easely to be forgotten and dust bowl is really slow tho.. I dont see myself playing that.
Also I dont feel right taking that SoFF out of MD.. In a meta filled with combos, you are not getting anything with your mystics having just batterskull and jitte on G1. =s
It is still pretty good agains G MUs and other control decks. The 'time walk' ability is sometimes underrated.
Do you guys want Show and Tell on banlist in some weeks?