[DTB] Blade Control

[learntolove6]

i'm going to jupiter games this weekend. does this list stand a chance anymore:

1 Vendilion Clique
4 Stoneforge
4 Snapcaster
2 Geist of Saint Traft

3 Jace
3 FoW
3 Spell Pierce
3 Spell Snare
4 Brainstorm
4 StP
1 Batterskull
1 Jitte
1 Sword of FaF
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Mana Leak

4 Tundra
2 Volcanic
4 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
2 Wasteland
3 Mishra's Factory
1 PLains
4 Island

SB:
2 Sulfur Elemental
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Disenchant
1 FoW
2 Purify the Grave
2 Path to Exile
1 Wrath of God
1 Spell Pierce
2 Flusterstorm



it's basically traditional uw stoneblade with the red for the sulfur and REB. I know esper stoneblade is a terrible match-up for me so i have to hate it accordingly. does anyone think this build is still relevant?

[Slime]

I've got a new list and have done quite well with it at my LGS, 3-1ing 2 consecutive events.

4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Snapcaster Mage

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Spell Snare
2 Counterspell
4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Wrath of God
3 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant


SB:

1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Humility
1 Energy Flux
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Wrath of God
1 Disenchant
2 Path to Exile
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Spell Pierce


I feel like it is time to adopt a more trump-based strategy when fighting decks designed specifically to beat us, like Maverick or other strategies which are very hard for us to deal with like Dredge. This brought me to the utilization of Enlightened Tutor

The silver bullets from the sideboard are very strong and I feel like that beteen Humility, EE and Wrath, the matchup against Maverick becomes near to even, and Dredge is very positive with Crypt plus Tutor plus Extraction.

In a lot of other matchups, the diversification of instant/sorcery based solutions with permanent base solutions is way harder to deal with, for example the Storm matchup with counterspells plus Canonist.

Thoughts?

[matunos]

I've also had some good preliminary results with an E. Tutor package. I would ditch the Humility for Cursed Totem, though. Humility nerfs all your guys, shutting down your card advantage from Tiago and preventing you from tutoring for your equipment. If nothing else, Maverick just runs more bodies than you, and more Elspeths. Teeg stops it from being cast anyway. Cursed Totem can be cast as early as Turn 2 and is a must-stop for Maverick and other decks as well (Metalworker, anyone?). Save Humility for the Thopter and Landstill decks.

[matunos]

I agree. Judging from initial testing, this spell seems to solve U.controls biggest issue:
getting through the early game as unharmed as possible, while keeping the board clean.

That extra turn (+1 land +1 cantrip + untap) makes a HUGE difference.
I've found Chrome Mox to be immensely helpful for frequent turn 2 Time Walks. Though it's a rare scenario, but TM + Mox enable >turn2< Jaces..

Here's my current shell for reference (different archetype, but may contribute inspiration)

I'm skeptical that you want to play accelerants like Chrome Mox just to capitalize on an early TM. I'll be happy enough with a turn 3 Jace :-). It gonna be hard enough fitting the TMs into the deck. I'm hoping Brainstorm and Jace are enough to juice TM for value. (I'm also hoping the DCI doesn't preemptively ban it in Legacy as the rumors out of PAX are saying.)

[Slime]

I've also had some good preliminary results with an E. Tutor package. I would ditch the Humility for Cursed Totem, though. Humility nerfs all your guys, shutting down your card advantage from Tiago and preventing you from tutoring for your equipment. If nothing else, Maverick just runs more bodies than you, and more Elspeths. Teeg stops it from being cast anyway. Cursed Totem can be cast as early as Turn 2 and is a must-stop for Maverick and other decks as well (Metalworker, anyone?). Save Humility for the Thopter and Landstill decks.

I've gotta disagree on this one. Humility seem terrible on paper, but in my testing it was amazing. You've got the equipment on the table as your Mystics have already resolved while you can prioritize on stopping theirs from hitting the table. Your Snapcasters flashing back swords already got you through the early game. Then, when you hit 4 mana for Humility you are pretty much closing out the game.

[matunos]

I've gotta disagree on this one. Humility seem terrible on paper, but in my testing it was amazing. You've got the equipment on the table as your Mystics have already resolved while you can prioritize on stopping theirs from hitting the table. Your Snapcasters flashing back swords already got you through the early game. Then, when you hit 4 mana for Humility you are pretty much closing out the game.

Maybe I'm doing this all wrong, but I can't think of a single game against Maverick, Bant, Zoo or Thresh, or even the mirror, in which I've been able to rush out a turn 2 SFM and have it survive long enough to cheat out a Batterskull; or in which a Qasali Pridemage didn't make an appearance. Against these decks, you might eventually cheat out a Batterskull, with your 2nd SFM, often when you have enough mana to hardcast it (but why hardcast when you can vial?). Also, Maverick and Bant don't tend to flood the field with creatures like Zoo and Thresh do; they are more likely to slow roll you, especially if they put you on a Wrath.

If you really can vial an early Batterskull *and* remove all of their threats by the time you've hit your 4th land drop, you've already won. That is not the time for Humility, it's the time for pride. The only thing you have to worry about at that point is Qasali Pridemage. Totem shuts him down just as easily as Humility, and two turns earlier (when it's relevant for that vialed Batterskull to stick). I would save the 4 drops for Wrath and planeswalkers. Totem kills most of their game, all that's left is Teeg, Thalia, Mindcensor (if they're playing it, it's being pushed out by Thalia) and Elspeth (who cares little of your Humility anyway), and hexproof guys, if any.

Unless you just want to have fun bouncing and re-playing your Batterskull to flood the field with 1/1 Germ tokens. ;-)

[preddi]

I feel like it is time to adopt a more trump-based strategy when fighting decks designed specifically to beat us, like Maverick or other strategies which are very hard for us to deal with like Dredge. This brought me to the utilization of Enlightened Tutor

The silver bullets from the sideboard are very strong and I feel like that beteen Humility, EE and Wrath, the matchup against Maverick becomes near to even, and Dredge is very positive with Crypt plus Tutor plus Extraction.

In a lot of other matchups, the diversification of instant/sorcery based solutions with permanent base solutions is way harder to deal with, for example the Storm matchup with counterspells plus Canonist.

Thoughts?

I think you are right about the silver bullets being great right now. While Humility seems bad for this deck it is actually near to 90% win against Maverick. They just can't beat you without equipment or elspeth. You just have to force their elspeth and stick your own.
But I'd like to point out that Cunning Wish is a good card to get silver bullets too. I saw several successful lists on thecouncil.es. What do you guys think of that tech? It also opens paths to beat punishing fire and dredge game 1.

[Dzra]

I'm having trouble understanding the argument for Humility over Cursed Totem. Every one of our creatures has an enter the battlefield ability. Humility doesn't let us break symmetry. Aside from SFM's second ability, Totem is like a guided nuke right at Maverick. And two turns earlier.

[SupREME-10]

I like the Enlightened Tutor and/or Cunning Wish idea as well.

I had not really considered Cursed Totem but I do own enough of them to try it out at least, and there is certainly good tech to build a toolbox in the SB with the Wish or Tutor suit to make it more efficient.

My biggest issue is always what to remove though ?

[Dzra]

A couple local tournaments this past weekend. It seems like locally at least, Maverick is on a down trend and combo is on the rise. As such, I might be dropping WoG (and/or Cursed Totems) for more combo hate. I think in addition to the bare bones of Surgical Extraction and Spell Pierce, Meddling Mage is one of the best combo hosers. Especially since it gives us up to four lines of attack against combo: countermagic, extraction, permanents, and hand disruption from Cliques. Meddling Mage is great against Dredge too as Dread Return into Flayer of the Hatebound is a serious alternative to Bridge for them. Although... I'm sorely tempted to squeeze in my two new judge foil Flusterstorms....

Also, I've been thinking some of essentially a return to the faerie build of the deck, except perhaps dropping the SFM package for 2 Jittes and Lingering Souls. Maybe running 2-3 Bitterblossom along with it. Although the current builds of Esperblade had a good showing at first, I think putting all your eggs in the Lingering Souls plan is risky when Sulfur Elemental is such a strong card against both Lingering Souls and Maverick.

But my final point is don't be bad like me... I've forgotten to remove cards from someone's library two times now with Surgical Extraction. Two different matches, two different weeks, same player, same deck. The first time I forgot to remove Merchant Scroll and proceeded to have two played against me for the loss. This past Saturday, I was so excited to nab the FoW in the yard as well as the FoW in his hand that I forgot to search his library... this one I squeezed the win, but it nearly resulted in a punt as his only out was getting a FoW off his Brainstorm to counter my FoW. ;o I will search their library. I will search their library. I will search their library.

[Ziveeman]

Hey guys, I Top 16'd the SCG: Phoenix Open. I'll get a tournament report up tomorrow night on my site. Anyway, here is my list: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=45479

Here is what I played against:

Round 1 - Burn - 2-0
Round 2 - ANT (Antonius on here, He Top 32'd) - 2-1
Round 3 - Maverick (Top 32) - 2-1
Round 4 - MUD - 1-2
Round 5 - Belcher (Top 16) - 0-2
Round 6 - RUG (Top 32) - 2-1
Round 7 - Sneak Show (Top 32) - 2-0
Round 8 - Dream Halls (Top 32) - 2-1

Any questions or comments, feel free to ask :)

[lavafrogg]

Grats on the finish! What is with your apparently random sideboard? Do you just trust that your cantrips will find the 1 ofs?

[Ziveeman]

My sideboard was great. I kinda like the Nassif-style sideboard (though honestly I didn't even realize how random it was until I registered the decklist). I feel the big events are diverse enough, especially Opens, where running a 4/4/4/3 style sideboard isn't correct. I played 8 different decks out of 8 rounds, and each small difference in the variation of cards can swing the percentage points in your favor. For example, even though Hydroblast was intended for the burn matchup, it was also relevant in the Dream Halls matchup (at least, it was much better than the Darkblast I sided out :P).

[Dzra]

Any questions or comments, feel free to ask :)

The only mistake I can really see from the match write up against Dream Halls was taking the False Cure. The right call was probably take the Dream Halls, especially since you had the counter for Intuition. False Cure doesn't present any sort of threat until he starts Confluxing off Dream Halls. His Intuition was likely searching up FoW to land Dream Halls with counter backup. Even without the counter for Intuition, taking the Dream Halls meant that he would have had to Intuition for Dream Halls, possibly giving you an extra draw to look for an answer.

I'm also a little confused about your SB. It looks like you had a SB ready for Intuition, but then ended up cutting Intuition and leaving the SB full of 1-ofs. I guess it worked out for you, but looking back, would you rather have had a more cohesive board or maybe the MD Intuition back?

[Ziveeman]

The only mistake I can really see from the match write up against Dream Halls was taking the False Cure. The right call was probably take the Dream Halls, especially since you had the counter for Intuition. False Cure doesn't present any sort of threat until he starts Confluxing off Dream Halls. His Intuition was likely searching up FoW to land Dream Halls with counter backup. Even without the counter for Intuition, taking the Dream Halls meant that he would have had to Intuition for Dream Halls, possibly giving you an extra draw to look for an answer.

I'm also a little confused about your SB. It looks like you had a SB ready for Intuition, but then ended up cutting Intuition and leaving the SB full of 1-ofs. I guess it worked out for you, but looking back, would you rather have had a more cohesive board or maybe the MD Intuition back?

Yeah I realized after the game that I should have taken the Dream Halls or Conflux. I guessed that False Cure was just a one of and he could have Intuitioned for the discarded combo piece anyway (since discard would leave them with 3 of each left), so by removing False Cure I effectively force him to go for Progenitus, which I could race...but not on a mull to five. It was my first time playing versus the deck (as was most people I'm assuming) so mistakes are to be had.

I did have Intuition instead of Vendilion Clique but I didn't feel like adding more mental strain on what I was assuming was going to be a mentally taxing day. I had played Zoo and RUG Delver at the other two SCG events I've been at, and those are much easier to play than Stoneblade, so I wanted to make sure I could pilot it with as few mistakes as possible.

I still liked my sideboard though. It was diverse enough for everything to get boarded in at some point, so none of the sideboard pieces felt particularly dead. With Jace, Brainstorm, and Ponder, I was going to see most of those cards anyway. I have a habit of doing this to my sideboard anyway. It's probably my aversion to giving up a match completely - I feel like I want to stand a chance in every matchup.

[Ziveeman]

For those interested, my tournament report is here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...at-SCG-Phoenix (scroll down a little till you find the decklist if you don't wanna read the chaff)

[dal9ll]

Hey everyone!

I’m a longtime lurker in this thread and I want to say how helpful this thread has been for me in designing and playing my own UW Stoneblade deck. I have a few questions on the deck:

1): Has UWx Stoneblade Control virtually replaced UWxy Landstill? The decks do function quite differently but they do run a lot of the same cards and run a similar early game, except that where Landstill will play Standstill, Stoneblade will play SFM. Is Landstill still viable in today’s Legacy? I’m a longtime Landstill player.

2): I see a lot of Stoneblade decks running a single copy of Intuition. What is it’s function and how is it useful in this deck? What are common examples of Intuition targets in different matchups?

Also here’s a decklist of mine. It’s pretty standard, I think. Eventually I’ll probably be interested in transitioning it to UWb Stoneblade or UWr Stoneblade after I become more familiar with the traditional UW build. Can I get any advice on the deck, particularly the sideboard?

4 SFM
3 Snapcaster
2 Clique
1 Giest of St. Traft

3 Jace 2.0
1 Elspeth 1.0
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Jitte

4 FoW
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
1 Counterspell
1 Mana Leak
4 Brainstorm
1 Intuition (?)
4 StP

2 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
4 Mishra’s Factory
3 Wasteland
1 Riptide Laboratory
3 Island
1 Plains

Sideboard:
3 Canonist
2 O-Ring
2 Path to Exile
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Disenchant
1 Pulse of the Fields
1 Manriki-Gusari
1 Clique
1 Wrath of God

Thanks for reading! I appreciate any comments!

[Dzra]

Geist is underwhelming. You'd be better off with a 3rd Clique or a 2nd Elspeth. Some people will try telling you otherwise though. ;p

15 Blue sources is on the light side. I'd probably encourage you to drop 1-2 Mishra's (at least) to up that a bit.

Three equipment is on the high end and Batterskull is your absolute best equipment, with SoFF or Jitte following it up.

Intuition is mainly included in the Esper lists to dump a bunch of Lingering Souls into the yard, but it can also act to double your SB cards by going Taigo, Taigo, SB instant/sorcery. As such, you should probably up your WoG count since it's unlikely you'll hit 6 mana to Snap it back.

You can probably switch your Oblivion Ring count with your Disenchant count or just cut down to 1-1 or 0-2 to make room.

Three GY hate is very low, and note that none of them interact positively with Snapcaster. Surgical Extraction is probably the best, but there's a case out there for Leyline of the Void. If you never see combo (Show and Tell and Storm) but have a lot of Dredge and Reanimator, Leyline is likely better. If you think you'll see Storm, then Extraction is miles better.

Canonist isn't bad, but remember that it shuts off your own Snapcaster. As far as hatebears go that we have access to, I much prefer Meddling Mage. You'll probably catch most combo players off guard by boarding in hatebears. They don't usually expect them from us and it can turn into an easy win if they haven't boarded in their bounce.

Pulse of the Fields is interesting. Burn can be a difficult MU if you don't land a Batterskull soon enough. If you're having trouble with Burn, also look to adding more MD Spell Snares, 3-4 is pretty standard for UW builds. I don't dislike the Pierce though, as that will definitely help most of your MUs.

[matunos]

I prefer Canonist for a few reasons:
- It's tutorable, allowing you to minimize the SB slots it takes.
- It's recyclable via Academy Ruins, though that is of limited use IRL.
- The decks against which I want a Canonist out, being able to flashback my instants is less important. For instance, as long as the Canonist is in play, Storm (including High Tide) cannot win; they have to bounce or otherwise remove it first, after which my Snapcasters are usable again (but hopefully I can counter their removal). Presumably the same is true for Hive Mind and Dream Halls, but I've never played against either. Canonist isn't an instant win against the likes of Elves or Enchantress, but it slows them down a lot. Snapcasting stuff is just not a very viable plan against combo, I find.
- Combo decks are not as likely to expect hate in the form of Canonist, so there's a good chance they will not board in any removal in Game 2 (Enchantress will still have Oblivion Ring, though.)
- Some combo decks can simply play around whatever you'd name with Meddling Mage. I've lost to ANT in a chain not involving any Dark Rituals (although it's hard for them; they and/or Cabal Ritual make excellent Surgical Extraction targets if you get the chance). Elves might not be able to combo up to Emrakul if you name Glimpse of Nature, but I think they can still unload an impressive army of elves against you.

My plan against burn:
- Dzra is right to point out that the main game plan is landing a Batterskull. If you can keep a Jitte powered, that is also good. Either can keep you alive and win you the game. But don't overextend by playing both Batterskull and Jitte at the same time if you don't have to, because otherwise you'll lose both to Shattering Spree post-board.
- Play around Price of Progress by fetching basics as much as possible.
- If you need specific hate, my current preference is Aegis of Honor. Why that over something like CoP:Red? For one, it's not specific to a color, but let's face it, we're talking about red burn decks. More importantly, it can't be undermined by things like Leyline of Punishment or Everlasting Torment. And, of course, it helps kill your opponent, which seems good to me. That being said, I've never actually used it in play, because I didn't have it in my sideboard since, until recently, burn decks were not present in my local meta.
- In times of desperation, StP one of your own guys. I won a match on Monday against burn by Snapcastering in an StP and then flashing back the StP on my Snapcaster to stablize at 1 life, next turn land a Batterskull and mount a comeback. Months ago I did much the same thing by plowing one of my Mishra's Factories.
- If you want to keep the Pulse of the Fields-type card, I would go with Timely Reinforcements instead. It requires less colored mana to cast, gives you more life up front, and gives you a few guys to block/attack with. It would be costly, but theoretically possible, to flash it back with Snapcaster.
- If your meta is seriously infested with burn and ANT, then Leyline of Sanctity is an option. I think burn is pretty much dead to that. ANT can bounce it or go for the Empty the Warrens plan. But it certainly makes their life more difficult.

[matunos]

Oh, and I am a fan of Geist. He wins games. Clique dies to Gut Shot (aw, snap!).

Clique is good too, though. I wouldn't run 3, but I won't criticize someone who does.

You could definitely make room for both though, once you drop SoFI from your mainboard you actually have 4 equipment, counting Batterskull, which is overkill. You don't want to draw your equipment naturally).