I could have sworn there were quite a few posts in between.Originally Posted by Water_Wizard
I don't think so. I get email updates, and I don't see anything missing here. The Stoneblade thread over at mtgsalvation was a little more active, maybe you're confusing it with that?
I'm having trouble against the mirror. I'm playing the fairy version with 3 REB in the sideboard. The rest of the deck is pretty typical.
I typically side out 4 Force and bring in 3 REB and a Crucible for the mirror but have still been loosing.
How do you side for the mirror and what plays are good?
When you say you're playing the fairy version, do you mean Spellstutter Sprites, and instead of Snapcaster Mage?
If so, it's my opinion that Snapcaster > Spellstutter in general, and I think that's even more true with the red splash, what with bolts and REBs.
What specific problems are you running into?
I play 4 snapcaster but no bolts main deck or sideboard. The red splash is only for REB.
The problem is I have repeatedly been loosing the mirror. It could be because I'm keeping bad hands or sideboarding poorly.
Is REB a good swap for FOW? Any other ideas for siding in the mirror?
@ matunos
I'm pretty sure the OP is using 4 Snapcaster Mage, 2 Spellstutter Sprite, 2 Vendilion Clique and some number of Mutavaults.
How many red mana sources do you run? Do you find you're able to play the REBs when you need to? If so, then I would say swapping out the FoWs for them is a fine idea. But if you're running enough red to support 3 REBs, I think you should seriously consider running some bolts main.
But can you give more details about what happens in your games against the mirror?
I'm not familiar with this mix. What's the point of running 2 Spellstutters? I'd probably look to swap them, and then replace the Mutavaults with Mishra's.
It's be helpful if bkemke posted a deck list so we don't have to guess.
@bkemke: If you could reliably produce R for Red blasts, I suggest you go -1 SFM, -1 Counterspell, -1 Fow for the Red blasts. Boarding out FoWs completely is bad because you'd surely be lacking protection for your Planeswalkers. The Faerie build should be favored slightly against the non-faerie version because the high density of fliers gives you more ways to be able to kill off planeswalkers. Could you share your list so we could elaborate more? But basically given the standard faerie version lists played by Chris Van Meter and the like in SCG, I'd probably go with the above configuration. I'm not really sure how you could fit CoW in your deck since I don't play it in my 75. You could probably side-out differently but personally I wouldn't go below 3 fow, 3 sfm, BS and SoFaF, 4 snapcasters, and 4 snares against the mirror. Snares are gold since they counter SfMs and ScMs in the match-up. 3 FoWs is just enough for you to push through a key Clique or Planeswalker that tip the match in your favor.
@matunos: Sprites seem weak but it's really effective in this shell. It flies to chip loyalties of walkers, a flier that carries swords, and more importantly, it counters key 1 or 2 cc spells like Snare, Pierce, Mongoose, BS, ReB, MoR, Top, SfM that you otherwise would have very few answers for, FoWing these cards is a bad play IMO because it sets you back 2 cards for 1, leaves you without a FoW for other threats you couldn't otherwise answer with other cards, and more importantly, gives you a way to answer a key pierce or ReB on your own FoW over a key play in the game. I tried the non-Faerie version before with Pierces and often found myself with dead Pierces in hand because the opponents have already established a good manabase. I've recently switched to the Faerie version and have been very successful so far.
From your response, I assume you play the more recently popular non-Fae lists. Care to share your inputs regarding a non-Fae list?
Why so serious?
Ok, here's what I'm playing:
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Force of Will
4 Spell Snare
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Jace, the Mindsculpter
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Counterspell
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Island
1 Plains
2 Wasteland
2 Mutavault
2 Volcanic Island
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Karakas
Sideboard
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Wrath of God
3 Path to Exile
2 Disenchant
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Crucible of Worlds
I agree on valuing hands with spell snare highest. I recall that any time I've won the mirror, it's been on the back of spell snare. For those asking about the fairy build, personally, I've been very happy with Spellstutter Sprite and Vendilion Cliche. At worst Sprite counters a Ponder, best case a STP or Bolt
Thanks for the information so far given you had to guess at my decklist!
If this has already been discussed, sorry... I've been playing the most common list pretty much, just with no SSS for a month or so now. I don't play against a lot of Merfolk, and to be able to block with Mutavault and bounce it with Riptide Lab is too marginal, so I've really been happy using Factories. I've noticed most lists are shifting to x2 Equipment slots MD, I guess I really haven't done enough testing to notice a difference yet, although, I think x3 equips may be better in a list with Cliques and SSS though (more fliers to make swords more effective). Here is my list:
x4 Brainstorm
x4 Spell Snare
x4 Force of Will
x3 Counterspell
x4 Swords to Plowshares
x4 Snapcaster Mage
x4 Stoneforge Mystic
x3 Vendilion Clique
x3 Jace, the Mindsculptor
x1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
x1 Batterskull
x1 Umezawa's Jitte
x1 Sword of Feast and Famine
x1 Riptide Laboratory
x2 Mishra's Factory
x3 Wasteland
x4 Flooded Strand
x3 Polluted Delta
x2 Marsh Flats
x4 Tundra
x1 Karakas
x3 Island
x1 Plains
sb
x2 Wrath of God
x3 Path to Exile
x2 Grafdigger's Cage
x3 Surgical Extraction
x2 Spell Pierce
x1 Crucible of Worlds
x2 Disenchant
Can someone give me a little insight as to why everybody runs x2 Wasteland? I get that there's alot of UU in the deck, Counterspell, Jace and Clique. I guess it's just reliably having enough colored lands then? The deck plays 24 lands and a mix of Mishra's Factory, Mutavault and Wasteland with one of Riptide Lab.
Anyway, I was just really just wondering about people playing x2 Waste, it seems like every single successful list plays x2, so I took notice of it and am curious about it. Any other deck critique or thoughts are definitely welcome! Would it be greedy to play x3 Factories? That would 7 colorless lands in total but it does seem really good, I haven't been able to test it enough yet, but if anyone else has tried I'd be interested to hear how it worked out for them.
Does anybody know what match-ups are bad for Blade Control? Are there any? (Surely, there must be?)
From my experience there are quite a few which are definitely NOT good.
1) Maverick: Every single card is a threat. Pre-Board very negative - postboard you have sweepers so its even. But mostly youll have to win G2+G3 to win the match...
2) Show and Tell: If not running black or red this MU is gonna be a pain in the ass. The HiveMind player got 8-10 Force of Will (Pact of Negation/Misdirection) and the SneakShow Player got Spell Pierces, Misdirections and Forces. Both decks have 2 outlets ( Show+Tell +HiveMind/SneakAttack) so yeah, a pretty straight UW Blade-Deck is going to have problems.
This are the two I can think of - but ofc there are many decks that are better than UW if their pilot is better (pretty obvious hu?)
So yeah, greetings
I think the worst matchup is actually dredge. Preboard very negative, postboard you can hope at least. But unless you draw multiple sideboard cards or surgical with snapcaster you will loose most of the time.
Plenty of decks run 3 Wasteland, if that's what you're asking. I think it's a question of mana base and meta. Our Wastelands are mostly for defense, not mana denial (unless you have a Crucible out), so I think it comes down to how many utility lands/man lands are a problem in your meta. You want to be able to waste things like Ith, Towers, Groves, etc.
Isn't this the same situation with most decks against dredge? Lose game 1 and try to win games 2-3 with hate. You're going to mull until you hit some hate, so then it becomes a question of how well you time it, and how much you had to mull for it, and can you fix your draws.
If Dredge is a real problem, you can always opt for Leylines, but I prefer Surgical. With 3 in the board, 4 Snapcasters, 4 Brainstorms, plus removal, I think you have a decent chance to grind them out, all else being equal.
How often is the second piece of equipment useful? How do you get it where the Batterskull wouldn't win you the game?
It seems to me that it should either be A) a second Batterskull or B) some other board control card that actually does something.
Magic Level 3 Judge
Southern USA Regional Coordinator
Pretty often if you face stuff like Tarmogoyf, Kotr, a big scavenging Ooze... a second batterskull is not necessary, you can't beat through them or block without losing your guy. I would also search for sword of feast and famine if i could get any profit of untapping my lands -to cast Elspeth+Jace for example, or simply if i must be untapped-.
The sword is also good against combo if you have some pressure and a good amount of life, since you can play with all you lands untapped in adition to disrupt a bit your opponent's hand.
The combination of Batterskull and Sword of Feast and famine seems to be the best build. In early game, with more reason if you are at G1 and you don't know what you're facing, batterskull is a great threat, but in the late game Sword has a lot of tricks and can stabilize the game against big green guys.
Sword of feast and famine also stops the batterskull germ! ;).
^^
PD. I'm sorry i missunderstood you, i thought you were takling about putting a secound batterskull instead of Soff.
I *am* talking about replacing the Sword of Feast and Famine or Jitte or whatever with a second Batterskull.
If you have two Batterskull, it stops germs cold. It stops most Oozes (and you can block and bounce/re-play the Germ), Knights and such.
Against combo, I found I just wanted Batterskull and then I never wanted to tap mana again.
Magic Level 3 Judge
Southern USA Regional Coordinator
I only play jitte as my second equipment as it turns creatures into killing machines while it is active. The only reason to ever search for the jitte is when I suspect the mystic to die and the equipment to be stuck in my hand for the forseeable future:/
An jitte on the board lets my factories pressure the opponent and turns any or my creatures from that moment on to be threats. A batterskull early can be thought seized away or stranded in my hand thanks to wasteland and friends.
When you have the mana, batterskull is the only card that should be fetched with mystic. Maybe a 2 skull 1 jitte plan will emerge as superior to what we are playing now but the protection from removal of light and shadow are too important to me at this moment.
P.s. I run 1 skull, 1 jitte and if need be 1 light and shadow.
"eggs... why'd it have to be eggs"
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