Let's put it this way: I don't have issues playing against 43 Lands anymore now that I'm running 4 Deathrite Shaman :P
I thought about having a value Crucible in this deck, but so far, not as good as I'd hoped.
-Matt
2. SDT eats time and Ponder is better by a mile in the early game. Need a type of card now? -> Ponder. Though SDT is huge late-game. Ponder has nice benefits of being blue and having synergy with SCM and Brainstorm.Originally Posted by Gros
3. When you play Blood Moon you should be able to cast your other spells after it resolves. If you have a lot of UU or WW you might want to consider playing more basics. Or you could sandbag the Blood Moon until you have the basics you need.
4. Vendilion Clique is super versatile, but only shines in certain situations. I've heard people have a love/hate relationship with the card, and I have the same thing. I was sold on the card until my friend asked me to just play one tournament without it. Now my opinion is the card is 'awesome filler'.
Situation:
My opponent and I are both topdecking. He has a threat in play. This threat could be either a planeswalker, creature (with or without evasion) or utility land (like volraths stronghold, and a graveyard with a creature).
I'm looking for a card that, on its own, neutralizes this threat and is a threat by itself in this situation.
1. Tamiyo fills this role at the moment.
Does anyone know a card that would fill this role the best, or just trump the situation in my favor?
My local meta is infested with (mono white) Death and Taxes fielded by some of the best area players. Does anybody have any card suggestions for powerful sideboard options against this strategy?
Dread of Night shuts off most of the deck - after that, you generally just need to handle Stoneforge and Serra Avenger.
Holy #$&@
Doesn't elspeth do that job too, to some extend? Hell, why not play entreat the angels when your at it and just have a bigger threat then they could ever hope to have? I mean, is it really that important to have a card that will bail you out of every possible situation when you could work in order to not get in said situation, where you need a all around joker card, because you have no other card that can get the job done?
Also, I had a few questions for you in my last post. Could I have your insight on those?
Here's the UW deck I played yesterday, going 4-0 against competent players [Reanimator, OmniTell, this deck, and BGr Rock].
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
4 Spell Snare
2 Counterspell
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Jace, the Mind-Sculptor
1 Detention Sphere
4 Ancestral Vision
22 lands (3 Wasteland, 1 Volcanic, lots of basics, no Karakas)
I really liked this. Not having Elspeth meant that I never needed to hit WW, make my manabase a lot stronger. The Ancestral Visions were really good, and those that were drawn late I was able to effectively Brainstorm/Jacestorm/FoW them away. The idea was to basically play as many efficient 1-for-1 cards as possible, using AV to get ahead, and it worked like a charm. This configuration was designed to beat the other blue decks, and it did so quite well.
Spell Snare seems to be at the height of its power once again. Even the decks against which it used to be dead are now running targets: OmniTell has Burning Wish, a number of RUG players are adding Izzet Charm, every other blue deck has Snapcaster, etc.
The Counterspells were good as well, and I think two (2) is the right number.
On another note, the sideboard of any deck with white should now start with 3x Rest in Peace. The card is insane, and is especially insane right now. The RUG players I've used it against have described it as "super nuts insane."
A noob qn. Do you guys usually slam down SFM on turn 2 and hope that opponent doesnt have a kill spell for it or it's better to be more patient to cast it during turn 3 or 4 when you have more options available to you? Perhaps a discard spell before casting or a brainstorm to shuffle batterskull in case SFM gets plowed or decayed.
That question is really meta dependent.
Do you expect your opponent to have discard?
Do you have force back up?
Can you afford to wait a turn?
If I'm assuming the aggro role, then I'm dropping SFM on turn 2 and forcing my opponent to answer it immediately. If I'm the control deck, I may be more reactive and hold off a turn or two while dealing with my aggro opponent's early threats; once he's out of gas, a turn 3-5 SFM with backup can just win on the spot.
This.
-Matt
Anybody running Pithing Needle in the sideboard right now?
Hi guys,
I'm new on the forum. I've a question for you about Burn MU.
Last Tournament (51 people) i found some difficulty against Burn. Too many dual and fetch, thoughtseize isn't a nice card. Do you think counters and discard spell working well against lightning bolt, lava spike, chain lightning, rift bolt, price of progress, fireblast,ecc...?
I play the Vidianto list so:
3 force of will
2 spell pierce
1 counterspell
2 thoughtseize
2 inquisition of kozilek
is necessary to set the sideboard against burn decks?
Discard is okay, but not Thoughtseize.
Unless burn is prevalent in your meta, it's not typically something you worry about too much. Jitte or Batterskull can usually get there (watch out for Smash to Smithereens or Shattering Spree though). But if its enough of a problem for you, other cards that hurt them include:
Warmth
Circle of Protection: Red
Aegis of Honor
At a 51 person tournament, though, I'd probably try to get by with just the equipment, because there's better uses for those sideboard slots.
Don't forget to sideboard in something that can get rid of a Sulfuric Vortex (and Detention Sphere won't cut it).
Anyone making full use of giest of st traft ?
He's been great for me.
i usually play him in the side against UW control decks, or when i have to play the agressive roll. I don't like it maindeck cause it just dies to almost any blocker.
I don't like MTG, i just like legacy control decks.Esper stoneblade
I tried a UW version with 4 AV today and went 4-0 as well. I had to get through RUG Tempo (2-0), Dredge (2-0), Sneak Show (2-1), and BUG Tempo (2-0). The list I used is very similar to yours:
Creatures (11)
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Vendilion Clique
Instant/Sorcery (22)
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
2 Spell Pierce
2 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Supreme Verdict
Other (5)
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Lands (22)
1 Karakas
1 Riptide Laboratory
3 Wasteland
3 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Island
1 Plains
Sideboard (15)
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
1 Divert
1 Disenchant
2 Path to Exile
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Rest in Peace
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
The second Supreme Verdict maindeck was meant as a Detention Sphere.
Do you know what assuming does? It makes an ass out of you and me.
Get it...? Ass, u, me?
... ffs I was trying to be funny...
How did the AVs work out for you in general? Do you think omission of black and inclusion of AV have improved any of your matchups?
With Esper I find that the deck have all the tools it could need for a particular situation but not enough ways to dig for those answers and create real card advantage as opposed to the nominal card advantage from Snapcaster, Lingering Souls etc. So I would be interested in giving the UW version a try.
Esper is basically strictly better. You have more information, and information leads to wins. I don't really see a reason why you can't run AV in esper.
As far as being on the UW plan, for whatever reason, I have really liked the AVs so far.
So I've been playing the esper-variant to small success lately and I find myself sitting at the 1-2 table playing against one of the guys at my local weekly. He goes on and on pre-game about how poor the Esper-deck is and that the only reason it places well in tournaments is because a lot of high skilled players have that deck as their main preferred choice. I listen to the chatter and shuffle my deck and tell him that it probably is mostly my fault as pilot and not the deck itself that is responsible for the results.
He resolves a blood moon game 1 into my four nonbasics and a swamp and I have four tokens out and a jitte. He continues to slam down a jace and has a batterskull in hand. I swing for the fences with my tokens and for 7 turns I kill 3 jaces and his batterskull with tokens 3 times. He draws nothing and even though he has a top the first game ends in my favour with 6 blue cards in hand and 7 mountains on my side of the board. He tilts and whines and we move on to the next game.
He resolves an Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek, I disenchant his foundry and extracts it with surgical. He resolves an Elspeth and starts making dudes. The board is clogged up and I see no solution to his Elspeth and it has 7 loyalty counters with me just having a few tokens out. BAM - cue topdeck Vindicate and I say "Now see, this is the reason why you play Esper" and fries his Elspeth and turn the game around from there.
Just a fun story from a regular tuesday loosing streak. Over and out.
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