Quote Originally Posted by btm10 View Post
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.