Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
I've been piloting the list below to solid Top 8 results during the past 3 months :
// Lands
2 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
1 [R] Scrubland
2 [R] Tundra
3 [ON] Flooded Strand
3 [R] Underground Sea
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
3 [TE] Wasteland
1 [UNH] Swamp
1 [UNH] Island
1 [UNH] Plains
// Creatures
4 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic
3 [RAV] Dark Confidant
3 [ISD] Snapcaster Mage
2 [ISD] Geist of Saint Traft
// Spells
4 [CST] Swords to Plowshares
1 [NPH] Batterskull
1 [MBS] Sword of Feast and Famine
2 [LRW] Thoughtseize
4 [MM] Brainstorm
2 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
2 [M10] Ponder
3 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
4 [AL] Force of Will
2 [ROE] Inquisition of Kozilek
1 [GP] Repeal
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 1 [AP] Vindicate
SB: 2 [6E] Perish
SB: 2 [BD] Diabolic Edict
SB: 3 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 [ISD] Liliana of the Veil
SB: 2 [ARB] Meddling Mage
SB: 1 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 [RAV] Darkblast
Quick explanation on the ratios used :
4 SFM: Obv. with the equipment package containing Batterskull. The card is both CA/CQ as usual.
3 DC: Tried as a 4 of in the first place, the openers with more than 1 were pretty much always mediocre as you don't ever want to have 2 on board with some high CC in the list. 3 has proven a fairly effective number so far.
3 SCM: 4 is too much IMHO as the card often act as a late game bomb. 2 would be not enough as in some matchup, you want to play it Turn 3 and recur a removal to stabilize or spotted discard to maintain pressure on your opponent hand.
2 Geist: The guy is golden. Vs. control, it dodges removal and bash for a tremendous amount of damage. Vs. Aggro, it carries charged Jittes or SoFaF unopposed. There are very few thing that can manage a 4/4 Hexproof Pro green/black beater that bash for 8 total.
4 STP / 4 Brainstorm / 4 Force of Will / The equipment Package: Do I need to explain something here ?
2 Thoughtseize / 2 Inquisition of Kozilek: Spot Discard is key to fight on a fair ground against combo, while not being irrelevant Vs. Aggro denying them access to their next drops in the curve or stripping them of the removal they would otherwise aim at our Card Advantage creatures. The split is a safe way to warrant not losing too many LP while using Confidant and fetches on a regular basis.
3 Spell Pierce: We just need to keep Combo in check. Having access to cheap counter accomplishes just that. Like the 4 disrupt cards, the card prove fairly relevant against aggro countering their removal on SFM/DC giving us the opportunity to stabilize.
2 Ponder: With only 21 lands and 2 of hate card in the sideboard, we must ensure that we dig deep enough in our library not to miss any land-drop and find our answers. I'd rather have this over Preordain because it theorically digs deeper to find specific card and the fact that we can rearrange our 3 top at will is more relevant with card such as Confidant if a land is available among the 3 we see. This used to be a 3 of till I witnessed a rise in popularity of Delver based decks in my meta, leading to the inclusion of the card bellow.
1 Repeal: The all around player. On a transformed Delver, the card pulls out a good tempo boost costing 1 and cantripping while your opponent must setup a new top of library to transform his dude once again. A cantripping blue fog is just perfect to support our middle to late game strategy. On various occasion, the card gives access to nice tricks (Liliana on the opponent side with his hand emptied, Repeal in response to Lili's +1 is just hilarious). Bouncing and nabbing the card bounced with Seize or Inquisition is also a quite potent play costing us 1 card. The card gives us the 21th blue card allowing us to FOW without any real effort.
2 Jace: A shame we don't have room for a third one. Ramping to 4 mana can be troublesome at times but overall, he does what he does, closing games on his own.
Manabase: pretty self explanatory. A quick hint for Wasteland though : While a times the card allows us to cut selectively a relevant color on our opponent side, it's here manily to remove some pesky lands (Maze/Laboratory/Tower of the Magistrate/Grove/Mishra/Mutavault), in time for us to hit with our equipments and gaining advantage.
SB :
1 Spell Pierce: It allows us to run 8 relevant counters against storm post-board.
2 Perish: Turns the tide against Bant / Elves Aggro / Maverick / Mongoose based TT decks.
2 Diabolic Edict: With Reanimator running rampant in my meta, the card offers us a way to deal with a resolved Inkwell Leviathan or a Iona setup on white. Not bad against all kind of aggro decks where post board we tend to shoot critters at sight.
2 Darkblast: Delver/Confidant/Xantid/Lavamancer/Mother of Runes/Hierarch/Elves/SCM, the list is incredibly long. Recuring spot removal is kind of the dream and synergizes well with ours Ponder/Brainstorm to get rid of the irrelevant cards.
3 Surgical Extraction: Did I told you that Reanimator was running rampant in my meta ? Useful against Punishing Fire / Loam and really synergetic with SCM.
1 Liliana of the Veil: Bant and many non red strategies cannot effectively deal with Lili slow but constant hand grinding. A third sac effect is not that bad in aggro matchups were Jace tend to be too slow to have an impact.
2 Meddling Mage: Very usefull when your opponent relies on key card to deploy its strategy. Replaces Geist or SFM depending of the matchups.
1 Relic of Progenitus: A fourth graveyard dealing card helps greatly when it comes to graveyard dependant MU such as Ichorid or Reanimator.
1 Vindicate: All around player, really great against Control or as a second response (Repeal beeing the first) to hate permanents (BtB, Blood Moon, choke).
any comment or question ?
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
1 Vindicate over Repeal maindeck seems better and safer option. Nice list.
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
4 stoneforge mystic
1 batterskull
1 sword of X&Y
4 dark confidant
4 snapcaster mage
2 vendillion clique
4 swords to plowshares
2 counterspell
4 spell snare
4 force of will
4 brainstorm
2 sensei's divining top
3 jace, the mindsculptor
4 tundra
3 underground sea
4 marsh flats
4 flooded strand
3 mishra's factory/wasteland
2 island
1 plains
Do not post decklists with no explanation of cards or deck discussion or without proper punctuation / capitalization. If you haven't already, please familiarize yourself with the site rules. -Jander
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
@OrGy
Nice list. I would like to give it a try too. One question though, seeing that 2cc spells are very popular right now, I noticed the absence of Spell Snare in your list. Is Spell pierce much better than it? How about Lilliana, does the deck really need it? Couldn't the slot be another instant or sorcery that can answer threats?
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dsck
1 Vindicate over Repeal maindeck seems better and safer option. Nice list.
I actually kind of like Repeal. It can be an out to an early Blood Moon, Vindicating is much harder. Also I think it has application against most DTBs, here the instant speed EOT tempo gain of returning something to their hand and cantripping is actually a bigger beating than sorcery speed destroying it. I'm looking at: Repealing Batterskull's Germ token (Stoneblade, Deadguy), GSZ'd Dryad Arbors (Maverick, Bant), and flipped Delver of Secrets (RUG). Repeal works as a great means to maximize resources in any of those cases forcing your opponent to expend more mana/time reestablishing board state, while the UWb Esper player has no real investment (between Instant speed and cantripping). Buffing Blue count is never awful either, though I'd consider it minor.
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sumbahdy
@OrGy
Nice list. I would like to give it a try too. One question though, seeing that 2cc spells are very popular right now, I noticed the absence of Spell Snare in your list. Is Spell pierce much better than it? How about Lilliana, does the deck really need it? Couldn't the slot be another instant or sorcery that can answer threats?
Thanks for the comment :)
Spell Snare over Spell Pierce in the list is a frequent debate in my team : Each
card has its merit but overall, Jace as an individual threat and ANT/TES as a whole are a lot more frightening than opposing 2CC threats (with the exception of Bitterblossom which rarely sees play in our meta). But, if you feel more confortable with Snare, the switch can be made without any major drawback.
Liliana never cease to amaze me post board against Mid Range strategies : Without real mean to get rid of it, Bant will be reduced to subpar play in short order (like throwing Cliques and Snapcaster Mages without protection right onto STP and Darkblasts).
At worst, the card can simply -2 to get rid of an opposing creature, and get bashed on opposing turn, effectively acting as a Edict + 1/2 Fog effect, allowing us to build up our board without being under too much pressure to stabilize.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
from Cairo
I actually kind of like Repeal. It can be an out to an early Blood Moon, Vindicating is much harder. Also I think it has application against most DTBs, here the instant speed EOT tempo gain of returning something to their hand and cantripping is actually a bigger beating than sorcery speed destroying it. I'm looking at: Repealing Batterskull's Germ token (Stoneblade, Deadguy), GSZ'd Dryad Arbors (Maverick, Bant), and flipped Delver of Secrets (RUG). Repeal works as a great means to maximize resources in any of those cases forcing your opponent to expend more mana/time reestablishing board state, while the UWb Esper player has no real investment (between Instant speed and cantripping). Buffing Blue count is never awful either, though I'd consider it minor.
I couldn't have put better words on the usefulness of the card (although I must point out that Repeal on GSZ'd Dryad Arbor will certainly get you a spicy Warning on Illegal Target ^^)
Minor tricks occasionnaly show up during testing or tournaments :
- While racing, bouncing Geist's Angel token post damage step can help us reach the critical removal we need.
- Snapcnaster Mage can also benefit from its interactions with Repeal, Surprise Chumpblocking opponent's bigger Threat and being bounced back to our hand, ready for some more flashbacking action, netting us on card in the process.
- Resetting a Loyaltied-Up Jace, can be game saving at times also.
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
// Lands
4 [TE] Wasteland
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [A] Underground Sea
4 [A] Tundra
1 [A] Scrubland
1 [A] Island (2)
1 [A] Plains (1)
1 [A] Swamp (1)
// Creatures
4 [ISD] Snapcaster Mage
4 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic
// Spells
4 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 [MOR] Bitterblossom
1 [NPH] Batterskull
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
3 [AL] Force of Will
4 [DIS] Spell Snare
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [A] Swords to Plowshares
3 [ROE] Inquisition of Kozilek
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [AL] Force of Will
SB: 2 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 1 [RAV] Darkblast
SB: 2 [TE] Perish
SB: 4 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 1 [SOK] Manriki-Gusari
SB: 4 [GP] Leyline of the Void
I've been running this more controlish list for a while and it's been really solid! It focuses on card advantage via Jace, Bitterblossom, Snapcaster, SFM to overwhelm opponents.
The deck tries to dodge STP by only playing creatures that give you immediate card advantage (so no Dark Confidant).
Bitterblossom is a real headache for aggro-control and control decks, and also helps having blockers every turn vs Aggro. It also protects Jace very well and takes care of opposing planeswalkers! It also works extremely well with Jitte and the occasional Batterskull equip.
Jace just wins games, play 4!
The manabase has been very solid for me so far. 24 lands works well with 4 Jace and trying to land a turn 2 Bitterblossom/SFM whenever possible. And it is easy to shuffle away excess lands with Jace/Brainstorm(Snapcaster) late game. I think it's hard to justify playing utility lands (Mishra's, Riptide, etc) before the full set of Wastelands since it is way more versatile.
Inquisition is a card I've been testing recently and have been pleased with it so far. Snapcaster flashback is great!
Thoughts?
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
Quote:
Originally Posted by
OrGy
I've been piloting the list below to solid Top 8 results during the past 3 months :
// Lands
2 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
1 [R] Scrubland
2 [R] Tundra
3 [ON] Flooded Strand
3 [R] Underground Sea
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
3 [TE] Wasteland
1 [UNH] Swamp
1 [UNH] Island
1 [UNH] Plains
// Creatures
4 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic
3 [RAV] Dark Confidant
3 [ISD] Snapcaster Mage
2 [ISD] Geist of Saint Traft
// Spells
4 [CST] Swords to Plowshares
1 [NPH] Batterskull
1 [MBS] Sword of Feast and Famine
2 [LRW] Thoughtseize
4 [MM] Brainstorm
2 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
2 [M10] Ponder
3 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
4 [AL] Force of Will
2 [ROE] Inquisition of Kozilek
1 [GP] Repeal
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 1 [AP] Vindicate
SB: 2 [6E] Perish
SB: 2 [BD] Diabolic Edict
SB: 3 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 [ISD] Liliana of the Veil
SB: 2 [ARB] Meddling Mage
SB: 1 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 [RAV] Darkblast
Quick explanation on the ratios used :
4 SFM: Obv. with the equipment package containing Batterskull. The card is both CA/CQ as usual.
3 DC: Tried as a 4 of in the first place, the openers with more than 1 were pretty much always mediocre as you don't ever want to have 2 on board with some high CC in the list. 3 has proven a fairly effective number so far.
3 SCM: 4 is too much IMHO as the card often act as a late game bomb. 2 would be not enough as in some matchup, you want to play it Turn 3 and recur a removal to stabilize or spotted discard to maintain pressure on your opponent hand.
2 Geist: The guy is golden. Vs. control, it dodges removal and bash for a tremendous amount of damage. Vs. Aggro, it carries charged Jittes or SoFaF unopposed. There are very few thing that can manage a 4/4 Hexproof Pro green/black beater that bash for 8 total.
4 STP / 4 Brainstorm / 4 Force of Will / The equipment Package: Do I need to explain something here ?
2 Thoughtseize / 2 Inquisition of Kozilek: Spot Discard is key to fight on a fair ground against combo, while not being irrelevant Vs. Aggro denying them access to their next drops in the curve or stripping them of the removal they would otherwise aim at our Card Advantage creatures. The split is a safe way to warrant not losing too many LP while using Confidant and fetches on a regular basis.
3 Spell Pierce: We just need to keep Combo in check. Having access to cheap counter accomplishes just that. Like the 4 disrupt cards, the card prove fairly relevant against aggro countering their removal on SFM/DC giving us the opportunity to stabilize.
2 Ponder: With only 21 lands and 2 of hate card in the sideboard, we must ensure that we dig deep enough in our library not to miss any land-drop and find our answers. I'd rather have this over Preordain because it theorically digs deeper to find specific card and the fact that we can rearrange our 3 top at will is more relevant with card such as Confidant if a land is available among the 3 we see. This used to be a 3 of till I witnessed a rise in popularity of Delver based decks in my meta, leading to the inclusion of the card bellow.
1 Repeal: The all around player. On a transformed Delver, the card pulls out a good tempo boost costing 1 and cantripping while your opponent must setup a new top of library to transform his dude once again. A cantripping blue fog is just perfect to support our middle to late game strategy. On various occasion, the card gives access to nice tricks (Liliana on the opponent side with his hand emptied, Repeal in response to Lili's +1 is just hilarious). Bouncing and nabbing the card bounced with Seize or Inquisition is also a quite potent play costing us 1 card. The card gives us the 21th blue card allowing us to FOW without any real effort.
2 Jace: A shame we don't have room for a third one. Ramping to 4 mana can be troublesome at times but overall, he does what he does, closing games on his own.
Manabase: pretty self explanatory. A quick hint for Wasteland though : While a times the card allows us to cut selectively a relevant color on our opponent side, it's here manily to remove some pesky lands (Maze/Laboratory/Tower of the Magistrate/Grove/Mishra/Mutavault), in time for us to hit with our equipments and gaining advantage.
SB :
1 Spell Pierce: It allows us to run 8 relevant counters against storm post-board.
2 Perish: Turns the tide against Bant / Elves Aggro / Maverick / Mongoose based TT decks.
2 Diabolic Edict: With Reanimator running rampant in my meta, the card offers us a way to deal with a resolved Inkwell Leviathan or a Iona setup on white. Not bad against all kind of aggro decks where post board we tend to shoot critters at sight.
2 Darkblast: Delver/Confidant/Xantid/Lavamancer/Mother of Runes/Hierarch/Elves/SCM, the list is incredibly long. Recuring spot removal is kind of the dream and synergizes well with ours Ponder/Brainstorm to get rid of the irrelevant cards.
3 Surgical Extraction: Did I told you that Reanimator was running rampant in my meta ? Useful against Punishing Fire / Loam and really synergetic with SCM.
1 Liliana of the Veil: Bant and many non red strategies cannot effectively deal with Lili slow but constant hand grinding. A third sac effect is not that bad in aggro matchups were Jace tend to be too slow to have an impact.
2 Meddling Mage: Very usefull when your opponent relies on key card to deploy its strategy. Replaces Geist or SFM depending of the matchups.
1 Relic of Progenitus: A fourth graveyard dealing card helps greatly when it comes to graveyard dependant MU such as Ichorid or Reanimator.
1 Vindicate: All around player, really great against Control or as a second response (Repeal beeing the first) to hate permanents (BtB, Blood Moon, choke).
any comment or question ?
Dark Confidant looks too risky with 5x 5CC, 2x 4CC, 3x 3CC, 2 Thoughtseize (and Flashback), 9 Fetches. You haven't had any problems with this?
I feel like 21 lands is too few for this kind of deck, as a single Wasteland can wreck it pretty hard, in addition to the chance of being mana screwed at the beginning of the game (especially in a 3 color deck!).
In my testing, I found out that Spell Snare is a much better topdeck than Spell Pierce and deals with more dangerous threats even at the beginning of a match. You should consider a split, if not running the full set of Spell Snare.
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jeet
Dark Confidant looks too risky with 5x 5CC, 2x 4CC, 3x 3CC, 2 Thoughtseize (and Flashback), 9 Fetches. You haven't had any problems with this?
I feel like 21 lands is too few for this kind of deck, as a single Wasteland can wreck it pretty hard, in addition to the chance of being mana screwed at the beginning of the game (especially in a 3 color deck!).
In my testing, I found out that Spell Snare is a much better topdeck than Spell Pierce and deals with more dangerous threats even at the beginning of a match. You should consider a split, if not running the full set of Spell Snare.
Confidant is on rare occasions a problem due to some high CC lurking in the deck, I must admit. This of course must be mitigated by :
> the fact that Batterskull is really often fetched by SFM thus not that regularly on top of the library
> the use of Ponder/Brainstorm/Jace to prevent too much hard hits
> the relatively low average CC of the list ~1,36, including Batterksull)
> Batterskull/Jitte which both allow to stay high in LP when online (I know this argument is a bit flawed, but still valid when fighting toes to toes against an opponent also running Batterskull. In that case, CA is really what's make the winner)
21 lands fells just fine to me, because my list is a tiny bit less controlish than yours and, Jace/Batterskull aside, I don't need more than 3 mana to be operational. Ponder, Brainstorm and proper fetching to prevent being wastelocked away are necessary indeed.
I will give Snare another shot, because the card is really powerful and a better topdeck as you mentionned. Pierce made the cut in my meta primarly because of Reanimator and ANT running rampant. A 2/1 split could be efficient.
Regarding the list you proposed, I like it very much. I must point out that all 4 Wasteland may seem a little too much, since you are not running any kind of mana denial => 1 manland such as Creeping Tar Pit or simply Factory could do the trick as a replacement. Wasteland really serves as a utilitary land hoser (Grove/Maze/tower of the Magistrate) and with good Library manipulation, you will most certainly get one when necessary running only 3.
Kudos on that list, I will most certainly test it and try to give you a more detailled feedback.
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
I've been testing out orgy's list, and it's sick! I only wish there was room for more repeals; the look on the opponent's face when you bounce batterskull's germ token is priceless.
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
@Jeet
Do you really need 4 Jace in the deck? I'd say 2 would be ok and add more t1 discard or a catch all spell like Vindicate? Also why the 4th Force of Will in the SB rather than MD?
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cuthbertthecat
I've been testing out orgy's list, and it's sick! I only wish there was room for more repeals; the look on the opponent's face when you bounce batterskull's germ token is priceless.
Due to the rise in popularity of Nic Fit and Liliana Junk in my meta, I've been testing some minor tweaks :
MD => - 1 Dark Confidant + 1 Vendilion clique
Dark Confidant too often falls prey to Liliana's -2 and various sorcery speed removals, without time to net me some useful CA. Clique EOT casting helps quickly solving Liliana while stripping your opponent of any relevant removal they might hold in hand. 1 loyalty Liliana against a flying 3/1 : My bet on the later. And additional body to carry equipments all the way is indeed a nice bonus.
SB => - 1 Darkblast + 1 Path to Exile
Darkblast, while being really useful against Tempo Zoo and Maverick, is kind of disapointing when facing reccuring Finks, Sun Titan, Scanvenging Ooze. Exiling those pesky problems is always nice. The added bonus is that Tempo and punishing Maverick lists run very few basic lands (1 or 0), so OK, I don't get to reccur my removal, but you don't get any additional land, sir.
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
Quote:
Originally Posted by
OrGy
Confidant is on rare occasions a problem due to some high CC lurking in the deck, I must admit. This of course must be mitigated by :
> the fact that Batterskull is really often fetched by SFM thus not that regularly on top of the library
> the use of Ponder/Brainstorm/Jace to prevent too much hard hits
> the relatively low average CC of the list ~1,36, including Batterksull)
> Batterskull/Jitte which both allow to stay high in LP when online (I know this argument is a bit flawed, but still valid when fighting toes to toes against an opponent also running Batterskull. In that case, CA is really what's make the winner)
21 lands fells just fine to me, because my list is a tiny bit less controlish than yours and, Jace/Batterskull aside, I don't need more than 3 mana to be operational. Ponder, Brainstorm and proper fetching to prevent being wastelocked away are necessary indeed.
I will give Snare another shot, because the card is really powerful and a better topdeck as you mentionned. Pierce made the cut in my meta primarly because of Reanimator and ANT running rampant. A 2/1 split could be efficient.
Regarding the list you proposed, I like it very much. I must point out that all 4 Wasteland may seem a little too much, since you are not running any kind of mana denial => 1 manland such as Creeping Tar Pit or simply Factory could do the trick as a replacement. Wasteland really serves as a utilitary land hoser (Grove/Maze/tower of the Magistrate) and with good Library manipulation, you will most certainly get one when necessary running only 3.
Kudos on that list, I will most certainly test it and try to give you a more detailled feedback.
I played Dark Confidant for a good while and the life loss, and making my opponent's removal relevant is what made me switch it for Bitterblossom. But if Dark Confidant sticks around for a turn or two, you are in very good shape of winning the game. It is a very good card.
I would go for at least 22 lands while playing 2 Jace and 2 Geist. Maybe cut a Ponder for a land?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sumbahdy
@Jeet
Do you really need 4 Jace in the deck? I'd say 2 would be ok and add more t1 discard or a catch all spell like Vindicate? Also why the 4th Force of Will in the SB rather than MD?
Jace just wins you the game most of the time, if you untap with it in play. And it's a beating for Maverick and UW, both of which who see quite a bit of play nowadays. I might consider Vindicate for SB as it does sound good.
I moved a FoW to the SB after I added IoK MD, since I found myself siding out at least a FoW in many matchups due to card disadvantage. I don't really want to play more discard MD since while being amazing early game, it doesn't shine as much in the late game.
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jeet
I played Dark Confidant for a good while and the life loss, and making my opponent's removal relevant is what made me switch it for Bitterblossom. But if Dark Confidant sticks around for a turn or two, you are in very good shape of winning the game. It is a very good card.
I would go for at least 22 lands while playing 2 Jace and 2 Geist. Maybe cut a Ponder for a land?
I firmly think that 2 Ponder + 4 Brainstorm are mandatory to ensure the list runs smooth. While I'm not opposed to add the 22th land, I'd be more inclined to cut something else depending on the meta you're into : Jitte underperforms at times, Thoughseize n°2 or Pierce n°3 are not always stellar if you don't encounter frequent combo decks, etc.
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
I think it is a common misbelief that you can just run some cantrips and lower the land count without giving it much thought... still wanting to support snapcaster & jace.
Using up mana to find lands often means not only playing a brainstrom for suboptimal value but also wasting a turn, because there is not enough mana left for what you would like to do.
Besides that what I find really tough in Esper is the fact that U,W & B are all equally important in the early game. In BUG green can usually come later for deed and goyf, but in esper you need all 3 colors early. That is also the reason why Hymn cannot be supported... but even playing 1 mana discard makes it kind of awkward, since you of course play white removal...
Would be interesting to hear some experiences with the manabase...
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
Quote:
Originally Posted by
catmint
I think it is a common misbelief that you can just run some cantrips and lower the land count without giving it much thought... still wanting to support snapcaster & jace.
Using up mana to find lands often means not only playing a brainstrom for suboptimal value but also wasting a turn, because there is not enough mana left for what you would like to do.
Besides that what I find really tough in Esper is the fact that U,W & B are all equally important in the early game. In BUG green can usually come later for deed and goyf, but in esper you need all 3 colors early. That is also the reason why Hymn cannot be supported... but even playing 1 mana discard makes it kind of awkward, since you of course play white removal...
Would be interesting to hear some experiences with the manabase...
I'd like to adress your concern about the equivalency of UWB in the build, which I find a tad biased : Black (preboard) is significantly less important than the other colors in general.
Depending on the MU, White or Blue is prevalant in the early game : Against Aggro, White is the color you'd want to be available since most of our reliable answers go through white cards (SFM>Skull or simply STP). In that configuration, Black is clearly less usefull since neither Point discard nor Dark Confidant have a huge impact on their strategy.
Against Combo, Blue is the way to go (followed by black for point discard) enabling our early digging for countermagic. Same observation against Control.
The tricky situation is against Aggro-control, where you'll be hard pressed to prevent Jace hitting the board on your opponent side while adressing annoyances such as Tarmogoyf/Clique/KotR/SFM that will reduce you to shreds in short order. In those MU, I'd be more inclined to fetch for Blue real quick and dig for STP and counters while maintaining options on black for point discard on T3/T4.
I cannot stress enough that the deck curve is really low : 1 Repeal, 2 Jace, 2 Geist and 3 SCM are the only card really demanding more 3 mana or more (SoFaF/Batterskull are generally played for a discounted price).
Honestly, I'd be lying if I stated that we don't run into mana problems against decks such as Pox or Aggro Loam, but those deck are not really representative in my meta so while I occasionaly grin when I get paired against those nightmares, that doesn't happen a lot these times.
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
Hey there
With the new creatures from Innistrad, I feel that this deck needs to be adjusted.
Here is my latest list which I am testing:
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Mother of Runes
4 Dark Confidant
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Brainstorm
4 Spell Snare
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Preordain
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
4 Flooded Strand
1 Plains
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Scrubland
3 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
Sideboard
1 Tormod's Crypt/Grafdiggers Cage
1 Darkblast
2 Spell Pierce
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Meddling Mage
3 Perish
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Vindicate
I really want to slot in 4x Tidehollow Sculler into this deck somewhere - do you think we can shift this toward a Vial list with bears such as Sculler etc?
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
Quote:
I really want to slot in 4x Tidehollow Sculler into this deck somewhere - do you think we can shift this toward a Vial list with bears such as Sculler etc?
I'm not sure why every deck in the format feels the need to run Delver of Secrets. The creature is an aggressive 1 drop that fits best in aggressive decks. This deck is of a controllish nature. A 1cc 3/2 Flying creature is not what this deck needs. You want room for Sculler? Cut the Delver's for it.
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
It was previously Snapcaster in that slot, which I found somewhat incorrect for this deck. I was thinking Delver would fit as a card that provides a clock, which becomes obnoxious with Mom.
I will test the Sculler version you suggested though.
Also, I want to cut the Skull for a sword of body and mind in the maindeck and replace the sofai in the side with skull. What do you reckon?
Re: [Deck] UWb Esperblade
I mean, I don't know. Turn 1 Mom protects turn 2 SFM, which makes it pretty easy for this deck to drop a turn 3 Batterskull. Dropping a 4/4 vigilance lifelink is alot faster than dropping a Sword of X and Y and equipping it.
Also, the triggered abilities of Body and Mind are worse than Fire and Ice. The protection abilities are just as good in this metagame. If I were to cut the Batterskull, I'd probably do it for SoFI before SoBM, but that's just my opinion. Honestly though, you're almost always going to want to grab Jitte first anyway.
