[DTB] Blade Control

For those that run Geist sideboard, what match ups do you board him in?

U/W control seems like the primary one but is that really that popular? Stoneblade mirrors even have a decent amount of creatures between mystic. linger souls, snapcasters, cliques and people are running Supreme Verdict now. Combo, I'd rather have counters or discard or Vendillion Clique which you can flash in EoT and discrupt their combo instead of just taping 3 main phase. I do understand if you hit with discard and see they hav e nothing that Geist is a good clock. I haven't gotten around to trying Geist just yet. Cockatrice being busted is putting a damper on that.

@James Dean
I do bring in Rest in Peace against RUG as well.

I been running Dark Confidant for awhile in Legacy and Vintage. Sometimes you do draw a high casting cost card from Bob and die from it but the risk is worth the reward. Typical Vintage Confidant deck has a similar curve between Auriok Salvagers, Jace, Force of Will, Blightsteel collosus. Difference is you have trinket mage for Top instead of life gain via Batterskull and Jitte.

I find vs mana denial decks getting to 4 mana period can be a tall order so Elspeth costing WW isn't that big a deal.

@kirdie
Aenesidem is right. Esper Stoneblade isn't a good deck to play on a budget you need to be able to cast your spells. Underground Sea provides black to thought seize turn 1 and then blue so you can counterspell turn 2. Polluted Delta can fetch for your basic swamp and island. If you are on a budget you might want to start with U/W control and then work your way up to Esper.

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Originally Posted by Kirika

For those that run Geist sideboard, what match ups do you board him in?

U/W control seems like the primary one but is that really that popular? Stoneblade mirrors even have a decent amount of creatures between mystic. linger souls, snapcasters, cliques and people are running Supreme Verdict now. Combo, I'd rather have counters or discard or Vendillion Clique which you can flash in EoT and discrupt their combo instead of just taping 3 main phase. I do understand if you hit with discard and see they hav e nothing that Geist is a good clock. I haven't gotten around to trying Geist just yet. Cockatrice being busted is putting a damper on that.

@James Dean
I do bring in Rest in Peace against RUG as well.

I been running Dark Confidant for awhile in Legacy and Vintage. Sometimes you do draw a high casting cost card from Bob and die from it but the risk is worth the reward. Typical Vintage Confidant deck has a similar curve between Auriok Salvagers, Jace, Force of Will, Blightsteel collosus. Difference is you have trinket mage for Top instead of life gain via Batterskull and Jitte.

I find vs mana denial decks getting to 4 mana period can be a tall order so Elspeth costing WW isn't that big a deal.

@kirdie
Aenesidem is right. Esper Stoneblade isn't a good deck to play on a budget you need to be able to cast your spells. Underground Sea provides black to thought seize turn 1 and then blue so you can counterspell turn 2. Polluted Delta can fetch for your basic swamp and island. If you are on a budget you might want to start with U/W control and then work your way up to Esper.

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Working cockatrice server: play.woogerworks.com. Thank me later :p
I have 2 geist in the sideboard and i bring them in against a lot of decks. I bring them in against miracles, combo and yes even Jund and BUG. Basicly you board them in when A.you don't want the game to go too long, B.you need extra clock C. you need powerful topdecks. Miracles is still quite popular and even more so now it won 2 SCG opens. Geist is a must answer for them and half their removal doesn't work on it. Aganst the mirror, the idea is to burn a path in their defenses with plow+snapcaster mage and you just race them to death. Not only that but geist also kills planeswalkers when they don't have souls. I wouldn't bring it in against combo if i didn't have the slots for it, but we have so much slow stuff we can take out against combo that there is always some space for geist. It's an extra card that pitches to FoW, it's a strong clock, and our discard allows us to tap out on turn 3 more often than not. Against bug and jund It's immune to abrupt decay. So you just remove their goyfs and swing in with geist till they are dead.

I know not everyone will agree with this but for me it has worked, and if vidi and other players are still running them it obvisously works for them too. I guess it's preferrance but geist is good in a lot of instances you don't expect him to be good in. I was always anti-geist and i was one of those who said geist was overrated but in the SB of this deck i actually really like it.

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Originally Posted by James Dean

I think Elspeth is definitely better than a third Souls. When you have a clear board to brainstorm with Jace, finding the extra planeswalker typically locks the game up in a more powerful way than finding another set of ghosts. It also allows you opponent more room to make mistakes as far as threat identification goes.

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You need the protection of Souls to get that open turn with Jace. I agree that Elspeth would be great, but not if you remove cards that would compromise Jace.

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Originally Posted by igri_is_a_bk

You need the protection of Souls to get that open turn with Jace. I agree that Elspeth would be great, but not if you remove cards that would compromise Jace.

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Not only that but the evasion on souls is extremely good as well to activate jitte+ the fact that elspeth doesn't give muliple tokens at once. If the meta swings to the dark side (combo) i wouldn't play either though.

Because I always get draws with UW miracles and and I do not have the cards for Esper Stoneblade I decided to go UW Stoneblade for a tournament this weekend. Is there any Top 8 decklist of UW Stoneblade from a recent tournament and what would be a good sideboard? Is surgical extraction still good for a UW sideboard or is the damage too much?

What's the general strategy for playing against RUG? I always find myself wastelanded or short of lands. They will almost almost hold a mana up for stifle so I can't really fetch that easily as well. Plowing their delver or goyf will almost certainly be countered via pierces or daze but if I wanna fetch to pay, they will stifle.

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Originally Posted by kirdie

Because I always get draws with UW miracles and and I do not have the cards for Esper Stoneblade I decided to go UW Stoneblade for a tournament this weekend. Is there any Top 8 decklist of UW Stoneblade from a recent tournament and what would be a good sideboard? Is surgical extraction still good for a UW sideboard or is the damage too much?

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Results, dunno, but I've always liked the look of this:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...l=1#post690787

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Originally Posted by Zombie

Results, dunno, but I've always liked the look of this:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...l=1#post690787

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speaking of which, that guy never showed up again, and never awnsered my questions... :(

to kirdie

aside from that, gypsy's list stays my go to list, when it comes to u/w. He splashed red in his latest lists, but his older builds got the job done nevertheless. can't copy pasta on phone, but you can search that name on this thread.

everyone and their mom's playing esperblade at SCG.

what is esperblade's bad matchup?

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Originally Posted by KobeBryan

what is esperblade's bad matchup?

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to be honest, 12 post is one of the only decks I am really afraid of...

Oh and maybe angel stompy. Don't want to play against that.

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Originally Posted by KobeBryan

everyone and their mom's playing esperblade at SCG.

what is esperblade's bad matchup?

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It doesnt have any. The deck is literally 50-50 against the whole field. Decks who attack the manabase have a small edge against esperblade and punishing fire is problematic but apart from thet, the matchups are even. Esperblade is extremely adaptable.

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Originally Posted by AEnesidem

It doesnt have any. The deck is literally 50-50 against the whole field. Decks who attack the manabase have a small edge against esperblade and punishing fire is problematic but apart from thet, the matchups are even. Esperblade is extremely adaptable.

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No wonder you left bant.

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Originally Posted by KobeBryan

No wonder you left bant.

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He will be back.

Has Vidi or anybody with a lot of experience wrote any tournament reports or articles about Esper Blade?

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Originally Posted by KobeBryan

everyone and their mom's playing esperblade at SCG.

what is esperblade's bad matchup?

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12 Post and Aggroloam decks are difficult to deal with, but of the Tier 1 decks, I think Sneak Attack is unfavored.

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Originally Posted by matunos

12 Post and Aggroloam decks are difficult to deal with, but of the Tier 1 decks, I think Sneak Attack is unfavored.

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but you got so many things to counter sneak show.

you have discard, vendillion clique, coutners, board wipes.

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Originally Posted by KobeBryan

but you got so many things to counter sneak show.

you have discard, vendillion clique, coutners, board wipes.

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Discard is probably the strongest route, but they have Brainstorm and an arsenal of cantrips. Your counter suite is typically less than theirs, and Clique can only do so much, especially if they're a one-of as they are in many decks.

Post-board it's a little better, in that discard + extraction can be rough, and they tend to take more time sculpting their hand with counters. Even so, the double threat of Show and Tell and Sneak Attack (plus things like Defense Grid) make it rough. Sneak Attack is the bigger threat because it's resilient against Clique and immune to Jace and sweepers.

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Originally Posted by matunos

Discard is probably the strongest route, but they have Brainstorm and an arsenal of cantrips. Your counter suite is typically less than theirs, and Clique can only do so much, especially if they're a one-of as they are in many decks.

Post-board it's a little better, in that discard + extraction can be rough, and they tend to take more time sculpting their hand with counters. Even so, the double threat of Show and Tell and Sneak Attack (plus things like Defense Grid) make it rough. Sneak Attack is the bigger threat because it's resilient against Clique and immune to Jace and sweepers.

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ahhh i see.

I can actually stand a chance against Sneak show with bant, but i cannot touch this deck for the life of me.

I'm guessing blade control has a very good matchup against mav.

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Originally Posted by KobeBryan

No wonder you left bant.

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He will be back.

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Yeah, i had my fun with bant but in the end esperblade is the better deck IMO. Discard and lingering souls create a lot of flexibility and make this deck extremely adaptable. I also believe these tools make this the better jace deck. It has the same 50-50 mu's as bant but without the horrid elves and maverick matchup. Not only that but also flavorwise this deck corresponds to me more. I like it so much that i'm foiling it out. I've never been a fan of creatures an playing mor than 14 creatures and starting to cut blue is just impossible for me :p.

What do you guys think about the "deathblade" deck. I tested it on cockatrice yesterday and it wxa indeed a strong deck although i disliked the way the deck played. Sometimes you just open with thoughtseze->bob->geist and you win, but sometimes you draw dew multiple geists, DRS and discard spells in the late game and you can't do a,nything to your opponent who dominates the field.

It's a nice deck... having more options and more mana is a great starting point! To use the shaman to it's fullest you need to be more aggressive (like BBD pointed out in his decktech). To _me_ that is a whole other deck than Esperblade. Building a shell for geist and shaman require so much and you could end up with some janky midrange-draw that is not fast enough to race combo, nor durdly enough to take on something like esper. A good set of cards only get you so far...and to me Geist is a trap in a deck with planeswalkers. But kudos to BBD for beeing innovative and trying something new.

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Originally Posted by AEnesidem

Yeah, i had my fun with bant but in the end esperblade is the better deck IMO. Discard and lingering souls create a lot of flexibility and make this deck extremely adaptable. I also believe these tools make this the better jace deck. It has the same 50-50 mu's as bant but without the horrid elves and maverick matchup. Not only that but also flavorwise this deck corresponds to me more. I like it so much that i'm foiling it out. I've never been a fan of creatures an playing mor than 14 creatures and starting to cut blue is just impossible for me :p.

What do you guys think about the "deathblade" deck. I tested it on cockatrice yesterday and it wxa indeed a strong deck although i disliked the way the deck played. Sometimes you just open with thoughtseze->bob->geist and you win, but sometimes you draw dew multiple geists, DRS and discard spells in the late game and you can't do a,nything to your opponent who dominates the field.

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