I would play Geists. There is no faster clock,it is really good vs TT obv. as well as other decks were u need to close a quick g3 and it complements ur 5removal+snap really good postboard.
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I would play Geists. There is no faster clock,it is really good vs TT obv. as well as other decks were u need to close a quick g3 and it complements ur 5removal+snap really good postboard.
I used to play RUG and Vortex was the go-to card against control and Batterskull. I think bringing one Disenchant in instead of a FoW wouldn't hurt you a bit.
In all these situations posted, what would Vidi do? Channel your inner ABC Magician.
(Hope this fills your quota Vidi)
Hi guys, 1st time poster, long time lurker here
I've been playing legacy for more than a year now, starting with affinity, then merfolk, then uwr delver, and now with esper stoneblade.
I'm having trouble with it lately because I feel like I'm durdling too much without accomplishing anything, or sometimes my cards would be irrelevant or even underpowered, which is a heresy, I know.
I play in my local shop, which regularly draws 10-16 players every saturday.
The meta is pretty good, we have rug delvers, elves, maverick, reanimators , mud, stone blades, and the usual home brews and rouge decks. At one point it was dominated by belches and combos, but I'm glad people stopped playing those.
This is the list I settled with:
4 stone forge mystic.
2 snapcaster Mage
1 vendilion clique.
4 force of will
2 spell pierce.
1 counter spell
4 brainstorm.
2 ponder
4 swords to plowshares.
3 lingering souls
3 inquisition of kozilek.
1 cabal therapy.
1 vindicate.
1 supreme verdict.
1 sensei's divining top
1 batterskull
1 umezawa's jitte
2 jace the mind Sculptor
1 elspeth knight errant
4 flooded strand.
4 marsh flats.
2 tundra
2 underground sea
1 scrub land
2 plains.
2 island.
1 swamp.
1 glacial fortress
1 riptide laboratory
1 academy ruins
Sideboard:
3 Geist of saint traft
3 surgical extracstion
2 perish
1 counterspell
1 engineered explosives
3 rest in piece
2 disenchant
I never had a problem with my manabase with marsh flats instead of polluted delta. I never get colored screwed. I'm also a big fan of fetching basics almost every chance I get. I might add a karakas soon. I think thought seize is ridiculously overrated. It's not that I can't get them, I just think that they're not worth it. Besides cabal therapy might be one of the best hand rippers ever. I usually perform well but I'm not satisfied with it. Some times I feel the deck does nothing. Any thoughts and opinion will be welcome
@Deadpool09:
I think 3 is the perfect number for Jace and I would also add one or two snapcaster mages (you could take out a ponder and the elspeth as you have lingering souls).
Jace is easily the strongest card in this deck. 3 is a minimum and a must. It's your late game card advantage engine and wincon. I can't believe you never have problems with mana if you run so many white fetches. What if you face RUG or anything else with wasteland, the first thing you want to fetch is island. If you haven't met these shitty situations you wil undoubtedly one day meet them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Deadpool09
Thoughseize is far from overrated. How will you pick away someone's jace or Force? or Ad nauseam against combo or a Sneak attack etc... There's a reason people play a 2/2 split. The cabal therapy sure is good but we don't have the constant stream of information decks like storm storm have. Oftentimes it's just inferior to any other discard spell. Besides, we want to cast discard on turn one, how bad is cabal therapy on turn 1 game 1 when you don't know what you are facing. It's fine in the board but inquisition and thoughtseize are clearly superior in the main.
Why only 2 snapcaster mages. Tiago is a key card here, i wouldn't go below 3. The card is a multitool and one of the cards that make this deck playable.
The better you are, the better Cabal Therapy and Inquisition get. You have to be pretty friggin' good for them to be as good as Thoughtseize.
I'm not sure whether 3 or 4 Jace is correct. Having the fourth in the board is not a bad plan.
I still think Geist is terrible against every deck that isn't Miracles.
Since the Standard days of Cawblade, SFM + Jace decks have always suffered from this. Sometime you'll have a hand that's all-in on the aggro plan, with very little counter/control measures, whereas other times you'll have a hand that's steeped in control elements, but can't apply any pressure on your opponent early. Because of this, you may find yourself holding a control hand when you absolutely need to have aggro online, or you're holding an aggro hand, but you need control elements pronto; Brainstorm/Ponder help smooth this out, but sometimes your opening 7/opening 6 decides your fate. I suspect you feel this deck "does nothing" when these unfortunate situations occur.Quote:
Originally Posted by Deadpool09
This is why I stopped playing Esper. I've gone back to UW with a red splash, added Spellstutter Sprites, Snares, and Cliques, and never looked back.Quote:
Some times I feel the deck does nothing.
Hey everybody, first post here, long time reader. Playing this deck since September with great results, really like how it performs. There's by the way a deck that is giving me loads of problems: Goblins. In my LGS and in some other bigger tournaments here in Rome there's a pretty good guy playing that deck, and even if i usually win G1 thanks to Jitte, g2 and g3 are almost impossible, since he has access to Krosan Grip and a 1x Tower of The Magistrate to deal with equips and gain all the time he needs to destroy me with his card advantage. That's my current list, i cutted some weeks ago the Vindicate since i didn't like it, considering to add it back again to deal with that Tower. Also i'm running a 3-1 split Thoughtseize-IOK due to the loads of combo decks that lots of people are playing at the moment here in Italy. Also, i cutted the SoFaF, everytime i draw it against RUG/TA i wished it was another removal, and PtE fits that slot very well, since it costs only a mere W and they don't have basic lands. Flex and cheap answers are the way we win those kind of MU's. Sure, the sword is really good against Jund, but noone play Jund here, too many combo decks at the moment.
Back on my first question: what's the SB plan vs Goblins? I always feel that i need another win con postboard "thanks" to Krosan Grip on Bskull, but Jace is mediocre and i don't like Geist in this MU. What do you think? Feel free to ask any question about the build. Sorry for my English.
3 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
1 Karakas
2 Island
1 Plains
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Academy Ruins
3 Lingering Souls
3 Thoughtseize
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Underground Sea (don't have the 3rd one, never had mana problems without it)
1 Scrubland
3 Marsh Flats
1 Swamp
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Spell Pierce
2 Ponder
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Polluted Delta
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Vendilion Clique
SB: 2 Perish
SB: 1 Force of Will
SB: 2 Disenchant
SB: 2 Flusterstorm
SB: 1 Supreme Verdict
SB: 2 Extirpate
SB: 3 Geist of Saint Traft
SB: 1 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 Path to Exile
COuld you post your list? I used to play a version like that, but I never really tried spellstutter in stoneblade.Quote:
Originally Posted by Malakai
You don't like Lingering Souls?Quote:
Originally Posted by Malakai
And I don't like the red splash. I feel as though it doesn't give us enough for that color beyond red blasts.
Lingering Souls is good. I played a list that was UWb, splashing only for 3x maindeck Lingering Souls. The problem was I still felt naked going into the pseudo-mirrors without Red Blasts, and Souls itself is embarassing without equipment. Esper is able to take out opposing discard to protect it, while Spellstutter can also do that job, but my UWb list could fit neither.Quote:
Originally Posted by DragoFireheart
This is fair. Fire//Ice is pretty good. My splash is very light. It really is only for the blasts out of the board. Occasionally, I'll play an Izzet Staticaster if I'm expecting Elves or Death and Taxes. Mostly I just found that if I wasn't playing Lingering Souls, every other black card other than Dark Confidant just didn't seem very good.Quote:
Originally Posted by DragoFireheart
The other issue I had with Esper was the mana just felt terrible. Any game where my opener had the scrubland or the basic swamp felt like I was dead to even light mana disruption, but half of the other games you needed to have those lands so it's not like you could cut them. I even tried going to 24 lands and playing a Ponder, and I still felt I was losing games to mana occasionally.
Esper also just didn't have enough blue cards for my taste. I don't want to be exiling Brainstorm or Jace in order to Force of Will something.
The real kicker, though, is with the exception of Stoneforge and Jace, every spell I have is instant speed. This is no small thing.
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=52093 is the starting point for my list. Mine differs a lot, but the shell is the same.
Won a local tournament this weekend (~30 ppl) going 5:0 playing the stock list (-1 Academy Ruins, +1 Wasteland)
Machtups were:
ANT 2:1
Rest in Pieces 2:1
ANT 2:1
BUG 2:0
ANT 2:1
G1 against combo is what I always lose, after boarding I bring 12 cards in, which strenghtens the MU quite much. This is the board I'm currently running:
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Flusterstorm
1 Thoughtseize
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Disenchant
1 Relic of progenitus
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Darkblast
1 Perish
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Force of Will
The Wasteland was strong all day (winning me a GPT as well) and I never looked back since I cutted Ruins. Wasteland is just strictly better vs Combo and another out for Punishing Fire, Cavern etc...
Since I'm going to GP Straßburg and curious which meta to expect (although I think quite much Combo) what would you cut for the 4th FoW maindeck, a Lingering Souls?!
Because the BUG MU ist quite good already imo, I'm thinking of changing the Relic with a Extraction...thoughts?
Greetings
Agree on the Academy Ruins drop. Think about how often you actually activate that card, and of those times how often it actually matters. I even like -1 Academy Ruins +1 Island
Changes I would make:Quote:
Originally Posted by Malakai
-2 Angel, +2 SCM
-Drop red stuff
-3 Volcanic Island, +3 Island
-2 Fire/Ice, +1 Path to Exile +1 Counterspell
Otherwise, I like your list.
EDIT: Hell, you could make those volcanics into Underground seas, make those fire//ice a Dismember and a Counterspell, and then turn the angels into Souls.
It's not my list. Mine drops the sorceries and some other stuff for Snapcaster and a couple more counterspells.
Angel is actually awesome purely for being a 3/4, flying, flash creature. The blink ability rarely comes up.
I activate the card quite often in fair matchups and it's what won me the game everytime i activated it. I wouldn't underestimate the ability to get back jitte/batterskull or engineered explosives. It has proven to be a valuable card to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Malakai
It's a card I hate to see opening hand in almost all matchups, but I definitely don't mind seeing it if the game has drawn long and I need to outgrind my opponent. Getting back a discarded Batterskull is no small thing in a fair matchup.Quote:
Originally Posted by AEnesidem
The blink ability seems really good with your flash-based creatures. Flash back a Snappy or a Fairy to reuse their ability.Quote:
Originally Posted by Malakai