[DTB] Blade Control

[Chimera87]

So I've taken up EsperBlade as an alternative to BUG StrixStill in the past month. I've been to three tournaments sofar, putting up nice results with 4-1-1 (3-1-1 to go top 8; top 4 loss), 3-1-1 (I.D. last round, loss in top 8) and yesterday's 5-0-1 (I.D. last round, top4 split).

The list I ran the first two events:

4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Karakas
1 Wasteland
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
3 Ponder
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
1 Vindicate
2 Lingering Souls
1 Supreme Verdict
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Vendillion Clique
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sideboard
1 Disenchant
3 Rest in Peace
1 Humility
2 Flusterstorm
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Perish
1 Zealous Persecution
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sword of Feast and Famine

And yesterday's list:

3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains
2 Creeping Tar pit
1 Karakas
1 Mystic Gate
4 Sword to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
1 Vindicate
1 Lingering Souls
1 Supreme Verdict
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Baleful Strix
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Vendillion Clique
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

SB
1 Disenchant
3 Rest in Peace
1 Humility
2 Flusterstorm
1 Perish
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Dimir Charm
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Notion Thief
1 Sword of Feast & Famine

My thoughts on Vidi's list initially were that the manabase was way too greedy for my taste. I ended up cutting some of the cards to get the Ponder count up and reduce the colourless sources. This turned out to work perfectly. However, I constantly felt that the Lingering Souls were just too expensive and I never wanted to see more than 1 in a game. That's why I ended up testing the StrixBlade list, which removes the Lingering Souls for Baleful Strix. Strix has proven its worth to me in my BUG StrixStill lists and I just needed to see what it did in StoneBlade. It was awesome all day, trading with Goys and wielding equipments like a champ.
I also tried Sensei's Divining Top over Ponder to see whether the late-game awesomness of Top could top the early game effectiveness of Ponder (using the argument of having enough to do on turn 1 anyway, with discard, brainstorm and plow). I loved them throughout yesterday's tournament. Lastly, I removed all the Spell Pierces with the argument that the discard is as effective in the early game and provides much needed information. Spell Pierce has been dead in hand too often in the previous tournaments. If there was room, I'd still have them in.