American-Blade (legacy U/W/R control)

[lost_ronin_soul]

What is this deck about?
American blade is a deck that 'draw-go' deck. It means you make your most important plays often during your opponent's turn. The deck plays snapcaster, vendilion clique, and a boat load of instants to respond to your opponents plays. This is hopefully enough to disable their strategy. If you do play a card on you turn, its to hopefully drop a value card like Stoneforge, Jace, Geist of saint traft or some equipment.

The Deck list(2/19/2013)

Lands:
1 Academy Ruins
2 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Plateau
2 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains

Creatures:
2 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Vendilion Clique

Instants:
4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Spell Pierce
3 Swords to Plowshares(Sideboard one as of 4/18/13)
1 Izzetet Charm(updated 4/18/13)

Artifact:
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Engineered Explosives

Planeswalkers:
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor


Sideboard: (changes as of 4/18/13)
2 Detention Sphere
2 Flusterstorm
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Spell Pierce
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Rest In Peace
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Supreme Verdict


Card selection:
Main board:
Academy Ruins is a land that lets you be more aggressive with playing batterskull because you can rest assured you have potential to recur it if it takes an unfortunate trip to the graveyard. Also its stupid powerful with engineered explosives when you have the mana to work with. I choose it over the other option land (karakas) for this reason. I will note it is a personal preference.

I run 5 basics because it allows the deck to cast everything including hard casting force of wills with less non basic land disruption. I like running 17 blue land sources to help reduce ugly mulligans. I run 10 fetchland to insure I see basics when dealing with wasteland decks.

Geist of Saint Traft is a power house. With his self-preservation ability of shroud any decks have trouble removing him (example bolt, abrupt decay, swords, Jace) and he swings for 6. With this decks sweet spot removal he quickly wraps up games and its not uncommon he win a game all by himself because he is a boss. Be careful with bolts if the enemy packs misdirection! It ignores his hexproof.

Snapcaster Mageis a card advantage house and with so many instants in this deck. He is good for bear beats, and responding on your opponent's turn. He lets you safely put a clock on your opponents end step against combo matchups where its dangerous to tap out. Stoneforge Mystic is powerful plain and simple. He is the reason to run 4 Force of Will (as well as they improve combo matchup).With only 2 cards to search for however its best ran as a 3 of so you are less likely to draw a useless one late game. Batterskull is a nice card to fetch for when you are not sure if stoneforge will survive, and you want to attempt to put early pressure. Even if SF dies, at worst you have 4/4 life link vigilance threat when you get 5 mana.

Vendilion Clique is amazing. You can flash it in at the end of the draw step to get rid of opponents best cards, or slap it down at the end of their turn to put suprise agro pressure with evasion. If you have counter magic and the mana available against a combo deck, I prefer waiting till the end of the turn to try to slap it down because if they dont try to combo out you get a clock and get rid of the best card in their hand without tapping out giving them potential to combo off. If they do try to combo off you have the option to clique them *which can lead to wasted spells like a useless show and tell or mana excell wasted for your opponent) and you have mana for convential counterspells if things get dicey.It gets super charged with lingering equipment. It also can counter enemy stoneforge retrievals.

The singleton counterspell. When you need a hard counter, there is no subsitute that works better. Easy to snapcaster. Spell piercex3 is better at this point then an addition 3 counterspells in the main because this meta is too fast.

The singleton Izzet Charm. It is has application in every matchup due to its mediocre versatility. It has replaced the fouth swords to plowshares in the main board. It is a new addition, but so far its relevancy vrs swords to plowshares only came into question in 2 preboard games (one tournament, one playtest against maverick). So far in both times it was game changing and better in both both events. It stopped a sneak attack deck from outright winning when I had no other countermagic and against maverick I only had a basic mountain and basic island available. I am sure there will be days iI will wish it was the 4th sword but for I been super pleased by its results.

Lightning Bolt is great removal for most creatures, gives reach, and with snapcaster mage it shows real value. Its has interaction in almost every matchup you will ever face. Often it is better then swords to plowshares (when you want to kill a veteran explorer for mana, dont want the opponent to gain life, snapcaster fun , ect)

Force of will Is the glue of legacy. It helps keep combo decks at bay as well as gives you an insurance policy when you tap out for geist of saint traft, Jace, and stoneforge. It also is the hailmary (pray you find it) counterspell when u need a counter and you dig with brainstorm or sensei's diving top.

Spell Pierce stops early bad stuff from happening like disacard, enchantments, equipment and it also eats up planeswalkers very very very often. Its also snap caster friendly. If its not enough it can often be upgraded to or reinforced with Flusterstorm depending on what matchup you face.

Swords to Plowshares is one of the best removal spells. It normally makes the life gain your opponent gains trivia (most of the time). It interacts interestingly aginst decks that have sent to the graveyard from the field effects and gets rid of big creatures bolt can't wrap up. It is however completely useless in certain matchups like storm, enchantress, high tide, miracles, show and tell (typically unfavorable even with griselbrand builds).

Umezawa's Jitte is good for shoring up creature base matches (like elves). After its charged it can give American-blade's creatures some much needed toughness to survive combat exchanges. Typically try not to keep more then four counter on it at any given time since it can be destroyed and reducing your opponent's life total is important to put them in bolt range. I typically like is at 2-3 counters.

Sensei's Divining Top is this deck's version of ponder. It runs off any land increasing keep able hands. With the heavy fetchland base, prolonged games become more favorable. It gives a huge mid-late game advantage and helps play around discard strategies, find threats, or early game lands.

Engineered Explosives is your best best at removing threats that slip through countermagics (mostly enchantments and artifacts). It has nice Utilities against akward matchups. It eats token, small creatures, chalice of the voids, lions eye diamonds, liliana of the viels, and the occasional small child. The third Engineered Explosives is nice because it helps wipes tokens for the miracle/dredge matchup, hexproof answer, as well as wipe low CC creature rush decks like elves and agro.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor draw ability is stupid strong in this deck because its typically draws stuff to protect itself, and then follows up with card advantage lead which often turns into a game win (by finding the cards to dish the damage or if you prefer his ultimate it will get you the C.A. you need to keep it alive).

As for the sideboard:
Detention Sphere is a card I don't like because its leave play trigger. Unfortunately, its too good to not run since it is a good "catch all" . You bring it in against the mirror and show and tell, and if you prefer you can bring it in against creature based decks.

Flusterstorm helps with reanimator/tinfins matchup, as well are other combo and control decks. It is useful with all the storm decks I run into.

Mindbreak Trap is a 'catch all' to replace any potential dead cards and in the event there is no other decent sideboard cards are available (like against eldrazi casts), and yes it makes storm even more favorable by accident.

Red Elemental Blast are good because many many many decks run blue. is relevant in jace wars at any stage of the game. Its good against show and tell decks too.

Supreme verdict and I do not see eye to and I had a bad expierence with it. It has recently been allowed back into the sideboard as a one of, when i draw it it does alot of hard work for me.

Rest in peace is the sideboard graveyard hate. As only a two of the game plan is to stay alive long enough with countermagic to dig one of these up. Once cast you should be safe as long as its protected.

As for swords to plowshares and engineered explosives one of's, they are nice to reinforce the maindeck games 2 and 3 in appropriate match ups.

There is a similar delver version of the deck delver of secrets variant (I know these links may get broken with time or maybe or may become outdated but its to serve as a basic reference), and you may wonder why you would want to play American-blade, instead. American-blade has heavier mid-late game value cards package ( typically need an answer or can often turn around a game). ess likey to do that on a turn 5+ delver all by themselves). Those cards are the jaces and the small 5 card Stoneforge Package (Stoneforge +equipments). The Stoneforge Package in Jitte mode is hard on creature based decks and with flash creatures can foten get the drop on someone with a pseudo haste guy to equip a jitte and start killing off creatures if they dont keep a blocker back. On batterskull mode: it puts an aggressive clock that can deal 5 a turn once it becomes active. Delver decks run a sweet stifle/wastland package which helps win games outright by themselves by affecting opponents manabase. Stifle at times they are situational useless and as a game draws on it typically loses value. A late game stifle draw is typically terrible at recovering board position, and wasteland makes the manabase more fragile than the basic land package. Their deck runs Grim lavamancer instead which helps path clear for Geist of and to help control small creature populations but snapcaster is my preferance here. Explosives is excellent at creature control that delver can't run in the main as easily because most of their dudes cost 1 (delver and lavamancer) or zero (flipped delver) and explosives often is set on those. Yes explosives goes on two occassoinal while snapcaster or stoneforge to answer opponents threats, but their etb trigger already resolved so its less devasating on board position. Also engineered Explosives easliy nets card advantage by clearing mulpitle cards at once. (and can take out chalice of the void). The Esper Stoneblade deck runs a sweet discard package which I think is really nice at times, but American-blade excels at the trying to catch up on the draw better(I feel) because its more likely to draw a quick removal (bolt or swords) for that deathrite shaman, dark confidant, stoneforge, and other creatures that need to die quick before they become a major problem. With swords and lightning bolt it becomes easier to defend jace off a brainstorm ability because you are more likely to draw a kill spell or a snapcaster to flashback a kill spell. This gives you card advantage to help secure a win. Bolt is also nice for reach to bring your control deck to a quicker result against a tournament clock because you can clear dudes out of the way to beat face or you can snapcaster a bolt for extra damage. So this helps reduce the number of matches that you have that go to time. You can even use jace to bounce a snapcaster for that extra 3 damage that sits in your yard ^_^



Cards that were considered/tested(side/main board since i created the deck to its current state) :
counterflux (for protected combo decks but flusterstorm is currently more relevant, and was the card that originally drew me to splash red in the main ) , Rest in peace (it hits "when this dies" effects, like veteran explorer, and is solid graveyard hate) , Guerrilla tactics (neat tech on discard versus liliana of the veil and hymn and kills creatures , but isnt typically that big of a game changer), back to basics, trinket mage, pithing needle, supreme verdict, pyroclasm, undergroundsea (i added the 3rd tundra instead but the sea functions as an blue land that could increase explosives to 4 like jace , thrun, humilty, sneak attack, while maken surgical extraction easier on the life total), karakas(i like my blue land count with ruins), plateau (i try keeping 18 blue lands in the deck,..2 lands non blue basic lands leaves one spot left which i like ruins currently), magnus of the moon, stifle, wasteland, grim lavamancer (I dont like how you dont get any advantage from standard removal spells casted on him if he is not active), serra avanger (ran in white land mana based version in an older version), figure of destiny (ran in white land mana based version in an older version), izzet charm, pyro blast (as a two of when red blast is a two of, for a 4 card 2/2 split), lightning helix, kitchen finks, path to exile (as of 3 of sideboard), meddling mage (for combo matchups or if I need to bring in more dudes and can ban things), delver of secrets (I dont like how you dont get any advantage from standard removal spells casted on him and is anti-synergetic with swords a little bit), and Phyrexian metamorph (a second batterskull is attractive as well as being a legend killer).

SIDEBOARDING GUIDE 5/6/13:


****AGGRO****


+++++++++++++++++++++++
Goblins:
OUT:
3x spellpierce
1x counterspell
1x force of will

IN:
1x swords to plowshares
1x Engineered explosives
1x Supreme Verdict
2x Dention sphere

+++++++++++++++++++++++
RUG Delver:
OUT:
3x jace
4x lightning bolt
1x Izzet charm
1x counterspell

IN:
1x spell pierce
3x red elemental blast
1x Supreme Verdict
1x engineered explosives
1x swords to plowshares
2x Rest in Peace

Keeping force of will over lightning bolt maybe needed to prevent stifle'd fetchland land blow outs. Red's should handle delver of secrets just fine. Jace games 2 and 3is bad because you need to get to 4 mana and they have many cards that make it tough for jace to be worth it (red elemental blasts, sulfuric vortex, spell pierce ). Fluster storm is reall good at winning counter wars here, but I feel its depending what they side in I think sulfuric vortex is more of a threat to worry about. Gameplan is to sink a threat (primarily stoneforge) and protect it (force of will).

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Maverick:
OUT:
3x spell pierce
2x Vendilion clique

IN:
1x engineered explosive
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Sword to plowshares
2x detention sphere


I believe in keeping force of will in this matchup because it lets you safe cast stonforge without swords to plowshares killing it, It also stops greensun zeniths from resolving (which will change the game) as well as blow out cards like sylvan lybrary, tsunami, choke, elspeth, ect, exspecially if they can get cradle online and power through spell pierce. I normally am against taking out threats in the deck but vendilion clique gets stopped by karakas and maze of ith, and is a bad chump blocker versus thalia. There maybe a better 2 cards to cut because jitte and vendillion cligue is really good if they dont get a utility land online.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
JUNK:
Out:
OUT:
3x Spell pierce

IN:
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Sword to plowshares
1x engineered explosives

Detention sphere is optional, but probably not neccessary.


+++++++++++++++++++++++
Stoneblade
OUT:
3x spell pierce
1x umezawa's jitte
4x lightning bolt

IN:
3x red elemental blasts
2x detention sphere
1x engineered explosives
1x spell pierce
1x swords to plowshares

It is important to keep some spot removal main incase they sink a stoneforge mystic.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Merfolk:
OUT:
4x Force of Will
3x spell pierce

IN:
3x Red elemental blasts
1x Supreme Verdict
1x swords to plowshares
1x eneginered explosives
2x detention sphere

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Affinity:
OUT:
3x spell pierce

IN:
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Swords to plowshares
1x engineered explosives

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Mono-Red burn (sorcery/instants builds):
OUT:
2x engineered explosives
4x lightning bolt

IN:
1x Spell Pierce
2x fluster storm
2x mindbreak trap (bad countermagic to help make sure late game price of progress or sulfuric vortex don't land)
1x swords to plowshares (emergency life gain)

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Mono-Red burn ( with Creature):
OUT:
2x engineered explosives
2x lightning bolt

IN:
1x Spell Pierce
2x fluster storm
1x swords to plowshares


+++++++++++++++++++++++
U/R Delver:
OUT:
1x counterspell
3x spell pierce
1x izzet charm
IN:
1x swords to plow shares
1x engineered explosives
3x red elemental blast


This match seems to have been a favorable matchup so far since there isnt many builds with wastelands or stifle.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Jund
OUT:
3x bolt
2x engineered explosives

IN:
1x swords to plowshares
1x supreme verdict
2x rest in peace
1x spell pierce
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Vision cascade
OUT:
2 x bolt
2 x spell pierce
2 x engineered explosives

IN:
1x swords to plowshares
1x supreme verdict
2x rest in peace
2x flusterstorm

This matchup has been unfavorable.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
****COMBO****

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Reanimator (blue splash):
OUT:

2x Engineered Explosives
1x Umezawa's Jitte
4x lightning bolt
1x swords to plowshares

IN:
1x spell pierce
2x flusterstorm
2x rest in peace
3x red elemental blast

Swords to plowshare, lightning bolt, detention sphere, supreme verdict and red elemental blasts can shuffle around depending on the varient.

++++++++++++++++++++++
Tin-Fins
OUT:
4x lightning bolt
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Umezawa's Jitte
3x swords to plowshares

IN:
1x spell pierce
2x flusterstorm
2x rest in peace
2x mind break trap
3x red elemental blast


+++++++++++++++++++++++
Show and Tell:
OUT:
3x swords to plow shares
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Umezawa's Jitte
4x lightning bolt

IN:
1x spell pierce
2x flusterstorm
2x Dention sphere
3x red elemental blasts
2x mindbreak trap

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Sneak and Show
OUT:
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Umezawa's Jitte
4x lightning bolt

IN:
1x spell pierce
2x flusterstorm
2x Dention sphere
2x mindbreak trap


+++++++++++++++++++++++
Dredge:
OUT:
1x izzet charm
1x counter spell
3x jace
1x Umezawa's Jitte


IN:
1x engineered explosives
2x rest in peace
1x swords to plowshares
2x detention sphere


+++++++++++++++++++++++
high tide decks:
OUT:
3x Swords to Plowshares
2x engineered explosives
1x Umezawa's Jitte
3x spell pierce


IN:

2x Flusterstorm
2x mindbreak trap
3x Red elemental blast
2x rest in peace
+++++++++++++++++++++++
storm
OUT:
3x Swords to Plowshares
1x Umezawa's Jitte
3x jace

IN:
1x Spell Pierce
2x Flusterstorm
2x mindbreak trap
2x rest in peace

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Turbo Eldrazi (bad matchup)
OUT:
3x jace
2x engineered explosives
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x academy ruins
IN:
2x mindbreak trap
2x rest in peace
1x spell pierce
2x detention spheres
The goal is to race them. If they become active the goal then becomes to hailmary them and remove all their wincon's from the game (3 power-drazi and 4 primeevil titans). It's the best I can come up with to try and beat it :-/

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Elves:
OUT:
2x geist of saint traft
3x spell pierce

IN:
1x Supreme Verdict
1x engineered explosives
1x swords to plowshares
2x flusterstorm
+++++++++++++++++++++++
MUD
OUT:
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x snapcaster mage


IN:
1x engineered explosives
1x swords to plowshares
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Enchantress
OUT:
1x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Swords to Plowshares
2x lighting bolt


IN:
1x Spell Pierce
2x detention spheres
1x engineered explosive
2x mind break trap


****CONTROL*****

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Nic-Fit
OUT:
4x bolt
2x Engineered Explosives


IN:
1x Supreme Verdict
2x rest in peace
1x swords to plowshares
2x mindbreak trap (they ramp with veteran explorer)
this is just a base since sideboard may vary from scapewish, rectorfit, and GB builds
+++++++++++++++++++++++
U/W Miracles:
OUT:
1x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Swords to Plowshares
4x lightning bolt


IN:
1x fluster storm
1x spell pierce
3x red elemental blast
1x engineered explosives
2X detention spere


+++++++++++++++++++++++
U/B Tezzeret
OUT:
1x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Spell pierce
1x swords to powshares


IN:
3x red elemental blasts
2x detention sphere




Thank you for reading my first thread I ever posted. Feel free to give me your thoughts. The good, the bad , and the ugly :)

-LRS-
(Dave M.)