[DTB] Blade Control

[MrFrowny_]

So you're eschewing 1-mana interaction to run a 3-drop... against combo and Lands/Loam? If you're concerned specifically about Loam and Punishing Fire, graveyard hate is the correct approach, not playing symmetrical lock pieces that can be beaten with Barbarian Ring or Cabal Pit. And if they're spending five mana and two spells to get back one of their engines doesn't that play into your gameplan of making opponents waste their turns by countering their spells and make your other interaction like Wasteland better?

At least you​ can continue to use 1-mana spells in the Lands/Loam matchup. If you bring it in against any combo deck, it's either 3 mana Meddling Mage that doesn't pitch to Force or it's Chalice on 1, which turns off all of your cantrips and your best interactive spells. The card simply doesn't work in a blue control deck.

So I'm not the biggest fan of Prelate in Stoneblade but I thing you're being a little too harsh. I personally prefer Meddling Mage in my sideboard because he pitches to force and is a 2-drop instead of a 3 drop. But a downside to Meddling mage is that it's super linear with what you want to shut off. You can only name 1 card instead of an entire cmc. I couldn't count the amount of times against Sneak and Show where I play Meddling Mage and name sneak attack/show and tell, and then they slam the one I didn't name. The same thing happens against storm; Past in Flames, Ad Nauseum, Tendrils, etc. I know the same thing can happen with Prelate but I feel you have less room for error.

The biggest upside to Prelate and why I think he's still a good option is because he turns off lots of decks with just naming their foundation cmc. For instance;

Storm: Name 4; turns off tendrils, PiF, Empty the Warrens, also kills sideboard cards for them (massacre)

Sneak and Show: 3 or 4; sneak attack, show and tell, Jace. kills a few sideboard cards (blood moon, kozileks return)

Elves: 4; they can't natural order and then you till their board

Lands: 2; turns off loam engine, pfire engine

Delver: 1; they can barely do anything after that

I know that there's pros and cons to both Meddling Mage and Sanctum Prelate; the hard part is just choosing the right one for your meta.

[CptHaddock]

So I'm not the biggest fan of Prelate in Stoneblade but I thing you're being a little too harsh. I personally prefer Meddling Mage in my sideboard because he pitches to force and is a 2-drop instead of a 3 drop. But a downside to Meddling mage is that it's super linear with what you want to shut off. You can only name 1 card instead of an entire cmc. I couldn't count the amount of times against Sneak and Show where I play Meddling Mage and name sneak attack/show and tell, and then they slam the one I didn't name. The same thing happens against storm; Past in Flames, Ad Nauseum, Tendrils, etc. I know the same thing can happen with Prelate but I feel you have less room for error.

The biggest upside to Prelate and why I think he's still a good option is because he turns off lots of decks with just naming their foundation cmc. For instance;

Storm: Name 4; turns off tendrils, PiF, Empty the Warrens, also kills sideboard cards for them (massacre)

Sneak and Show: 3 or 4; sneak attack, show and tell, Jace. kills a few sideboard cards (blood moon, kozileks return)

Elves: 4; they can't natural order and then you till their board

Lands: 2; turns off loam engine, pfire engine

Delver: 1; they can barely do anything after that

I know that there's pros and cons to both Meddling Mage and Sanctum Prelate; the hard part is just choosing the right one for your meta.

I don't think I would bring her in for the delver matchup but the rest of your analysis is spot on. Also against decks like 4c/Jund she can shut down fire/decay/loam on 2.

So you're eschewing 1-mana interaction to run a 3-drop... against combo and Lands/Loam? If you're concerned specifically about Loam and Punishing Fire, graveyard hate is the correct approach, not playing symmetrical lock pieces that can be beaten with Barbarian Ring or Cabal Pit. And if they're spending five mana and two spells to get back one of their engines doesn't that play into your gameplan of making opponents waste their turns by countering their spells and make your other interaction like Wasteland better?

At least you​ can continue to use 1-mana spells in the Lands/Loam matchup. If you bring it in against any combo deck, it's either 3 mana Meddling Mage that doesn't pitch to Force or it's Chalice on 1, which turns off all of your cantrips and your best interactive spells. The card simply doesn't work in a blue control deck.

Come on dude... I'm not saying that you should be getting rid of your hate cards to play her but rather that she should be supplementing your hate cards to the same effect that meddling mage is. I don't know where you get the impression that you need to slam her on 1 but that is very incorrect, this deck is not d&t. The point is that she shuts down things that this deck has historically had hard times dealing with almost all at once and you aren't forced to pick which engine you want to target. Will there be some games where 3 mana is too slow and meddling mage would have been superior? Certainly but there will also be games where she completely screwed up your opponent's strategy while mage would have done nothing.

Not sure why you'd bring up pit or ring, meddling mage dies to the same exact things unless you're going to name something like knight in that matchup.

[MrFrowny_]

I don't think I would bring her in for the delver matchup but the rest of your analysis is spot on. Also against decks like 4c/Jund she can shut down fire/decay/loam on 2.

Yeah I wouldn't bring her in against delver either, I just have a friend that mains D&T and was using his knowledge of Prelate in my personal analysis.

[Munchyman]

Do you know what's better than a germ equipped a Batterskull and Sword of Feast and Famine? Tasigur equipped with Batterskull and SoFF. That's one sick lifelink card advantage monster. Fun little Tasigur and SoFF combo^.^ surprises everyone until they're like wait that's so strong.

[MrFrowny_]

Do you know what's better than a germ equipped a Batterskull and Sword of Feast and Famine? Tasigur equipped with Batterskull and SoFF. That's one sick lifelink card advantage monster. Fun little Tasigur and SoFF combo^.^ surprises everyone until they're like wait that's so strong.

I reallllly want to run Tasigur.... My meta is just filled with so much Karakas :(

[Hanni]

Do you know what's better than a germ equipped a Batterskull and Sword of Feast and Famine? Tasigur equipped with Batterskull and SoFF. That's one sick lifelink card advantage monster. Fun little Tasigur and SoFF combo^.^ surprises everyone until they're like wait that's so strong.

You know what's better than a Tasigur equipped with a Battersull and a SoFF? A True-Name Nemesis equipped with a Batterskull and a SoFF.

[L10]

You know what's better than a Tasigur equipped with a Battersull and a SoFF? A True-Name Nemesis equipped with a Batterskull and a SoFF.

You know what's better than a True-Name Nemesis equipped with a Battersull and a SoFF? A Griselbrand equipped with a Batterskull and a SoFF.
http://www.mtgmintcard.com/articles/...ith-stoneblade

[Hanni]

You know what's better than a True-Name Nemesis equipped with a Battersull and a SoFF? A Griselbrand equipped with a Batterskull and a SoFF.
http://www.mtgmintcard.com/articles/...ith-stoneblade

You win. I concede.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

That decklist was bad.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[Zombie]

Even then the last thing the format needs is more Griseltard.

[MrFrowny_]

That decklist was bad.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

You gotta admit that list was suuuper spicy

[L10]

I love that with his logic, it could have really been any A+B combo. It could have even been Painter+Grindstone.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

You gotta admit that list was suuuper spicy

I really don't. That list is like dinner starting with a steak, but then half-way through it your waiter takes it away and replaces it with a crack-pipe and a shot of tequila.

[MrFrowny_]

I really don't. That list is like dinner starting with a steak, but then half-way through it your waiter takes it away and replaces it with a crack-pipe and a shot of tequila.

Oh I wasn't saying it's good lol, It was just real interesting. I like seeing unique takes on established decks.

[Madmankevinx]

What about going back to the beginning with no black/green splash in this DRs infested meta? Say, something along these lines: (rough draft thrown together while at work)

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
2 Counterspell
1 Ponder
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Council's Judgment
2 Supreme Verdict

3 True-Name Nemesis
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

4 Tundra
1 Glacial Fortress
4 Flooded Strand
4 Wasteland
2 Island
2 Plains
1 Karakas
2 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats

[CptHaddock]

I think that UW is pretty decently positioned right now as well. Although that is pretty biased since I have never been a fan of deathblade, I feel like if I want to jam out TNN asap with equipment you should just be playing bant. The more I play the deck again, I don't actually think that wastelands are really needed. Over the years this deck has gotten very potent tools at dealing with utility land using decks. Although with just straight UW I think you have so many ways to play the deck. I would also like to experiment with a Thought-Knot Seer variant that also plays factories like the one that did decent in SCG DC (or Baltimore) about a year ago.

This is what I have been playing for the record.

1 Vendilion Clique
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 True-Name Nemesis
4 Stoneforge Mystic

1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine/Sword of Fire and Ice

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

2 Supreme Verdict
1 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Moorland Haunt
1 Karakas
2 Plains
4 Island
3 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
3 Polluted Delta

[MrFrowny_]

I always felt that esper stoneblade was "the blade deck"? UW has its advantages but I feel that it's too reactive and can't put pressure on your opponent fast enough. I personally play Deathblade but sometimes I wish I would've played straight esper instead because it can play a better control deck instead of being a jack-of-all-trades.

What are your thoughts on esper right now? Everybody seems to be going to UW or UWr just because Miracles is gone and they think that there has to be a "pure control deck".

[CptHaddock]

I always felt that esper stoneblade was "the blade deck"? UW has its advantages but I feel that it's too reactive and can't put pressure on your opponent fast enough. I personally play Deathblade but sometimes I wish I would've played straight esper instead because it can play a better control deck instead of being a jack-of-all-trades.

What are your thoughts on esper right now? Everybody seems to be going to UW or UWr just because Miracles is gone and they think that there has to be a "pure control deck".

I really enjoy the playstyle of UW and the manabase stability are my 2 reasons for playing UW over Esper or Patriot. The splashes add a lot of power to the deck but at the end of the day I think that UW is still the most consistent. With the printing of TNN the deck can transition very easily to either an Aggro or Control deck as the matchup needs and I haven't really had any troubles with that. I find that my biggest problem with any of the variants currently is that I often run out of gas in the midgame and want a nonblastable way to gain some CA hence the gideon. I still would like to try Thopter/Sword or Ancestral Vision but I think that those are either too clunky or too slow respectively. I guess that is the price for playing a deck that is too fair.

Esper also seems fine. You get souls, discard, zealous, the black CA spells (whisper, confidant, strix, truths) and potentially metagame breakers like notion thief and perish. The 3 color variants also can reasonably play EE which is

[Madmankevinx]

One of the reasons I am considering U/W right now without a splash is possibly maindecking Back to Basics. Most legacy decks right now have a very greedy mana base due to Deathrite Shaman being jammed into any deck that can splash him (and Leovold being tempting to everyone who runs creatures in their U/x/x/x/x deck). I am seriously thinking about 2 maindeck Back to Basics with a 3rd in the board. With the number of counters I can run and uncounterable board wipe, I feel like that might be a reasonable addition.

[potatodavid]

I think that UW is pretty decently positioned right now as well. Although that is pretty biased since I have never been a fan of deathblade, I feel like if I want to jam out TNN asap with equipment you should just be playing bant. The more I play the deck again, I don't actually think that wastelands are really needed. Over the years this deck has gotten very potent tools at dealing with utility land using decks. Although with just straight UW I think you have so many ways to play the deck. I would also like to experiment with a Thought-Knot Seer variant that also plays factories like the one that did decent in SCG DC (or Baltimore) about a year ago.

This is what I have been playing for the record.

1 Vendilion Clique
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 True-Name Nemesis
4 Stoneforge Mystic

1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine/Sword of Fire and Ice

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

2 Supreme Verdict
1 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Moorland Haunt
1 Karakas
2 Plains
4 Island
3 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
3 Polluted Delta

this list doesn't have 60 cards.