[DTB] Blade Control

[Arsenal]

So every once and a while a jank card appears and becomes playable. I want to know that if the increase in Liliana decks (Jund, BUG variants, ect) does Dodecapod seem playable?

I think Lingering Souls is a pretty good "answer" to Liliana of the Veil (Souls combats her +1, -2, and just flatout attacks her with 1/1 flyers).

[Tigro215]

I think Lingering Souls is a pretty good "answer" to Liliana of the Veil (Souls combats her +1, -2, and just flatout attacks her with 1/1 flyers).

True True, but a 5/5 in tandem with Souls doesnt seem bad either

[Arsenal]

True True, but a 5/5 in tandem with Souls doesnt seem bad either

I agree, but it seems way too narrow as it only shines against one specific card that is played in a couple decks. And you'd never want to hardcast him as he's just a 3/3 for 4 mana whereas you could've spent that 4 mana on Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

[learntolove6]

Arsenal,

I've been running the following manabase for the past 2 months:
1x Academy Ruins
4x Flooded Strand
3x Polluted Delta
1x Marsh Flats
2x Island
1x Karakas
1x Plains
1x Swamp
1x Scrubland
3x Tundra
3x Underground Sea
2x Wasteland

It may look greedy but I'm feeling perfectly comfortable with it. Maybe because I've been historically playing blue control decks always with Wastelands and feel like it's a safety net against a bunch of things. About a month ago they saved me from a lethal Price of Progress twice. You'd think it's a corner case use, but it's just such a utility I can't do without it.

Edit: Also speaking of opposing trouble lands even cards like Phyrexian Tower can be quite relevant in our weeklies. So I think yes, having the ability to get rid of them is important if you are not playing in a SCG copy-paste meta.

what does your maindeck look like? i agree with arsenal in that I have wanted to play 1-2 wastelands for a while, but i never know what to cut (it really helps against punishing jund). I have considered, as zerzab said, just cutting the 1 academy ruins for 1 wasteland, but i'm not sure about that. i also see that you're running 23 lands, so i'm just genuinely curious what your main deck looks like (i.e. what you cut)

[ThediscoPower]

@ TheArchitect: In this meta I would highly recommend my SB on the beginning of the page. Boarding 13 cards vs those combo decks is huge. Postboard TES, ANT, or SaS become very positive in my opinion!

@ Arsenal: I know many are disagree'ing here, but cutting the Ruins for a one of Wasteland, has been huge for me. Ruins are so seldom used and Wastelands versality makes up for that, while making the combo MU better aswell.
I can remember a clear 3 games which I won just on the back of Wasteland (including the fact, that players don't expect to see this from Esper...people netdecking lists, bla), where as I can't tell this from Ruins (little evidence I know) . In the lategame I usually prefer drawing /finding Jace, Souls etc. then skipping my drawstep for my BSK. Maybe this is a playstyle decision as well...

EDIT: I agree that playing both Ruins and Waste seems to taxing for the Esper manabase.

Did the same here, cut the ruins for the single wasteland. Worked well so far. However, I stayed at 22 lands. I tried to play 2 waste + ruins on 23 lands, but I hated having to mull good hands with colorless mana.

[xfxf]

what does your maindeck look like? i agree with arsenal in that I have wanted to play 1-2 wastelands for a while, but i never know what to cut (it really helps against punishing jund). I have considered, as zerzab said, just cutting the 1 academy ruins for 1 wasteland, but i'm not sure about that. i also see that you're running 23 lands, so i'm just genuinely curious what your main deck looks like (i.e. what you cut)

I tried a Baleful Strix build for a while, got satisfied with my aggro matchup but moved back to the classical build. I don't know what I'm cutting (or missing) from the mainstream build but this is my current maindeck:

3 Jace
3 Snapcaster
1 Vendilion Clique
4 SFM
3 Lingering Souls

4 Swords
1 Verdict
1 Vindicate
1 Engineered Explosives

2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition
1 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce
3 FoW

4 Brainstorm
1 Batterskull
1 Jitte

23 Lands

[ThediscoPower]

you are cutting ponder, I believe

[AEnesidem]

I tried a Baleful Strix build for a while, got satisfied with my aggro matchup but moved back to the classical build. I don't know what I'm cutting (or missing) from the mainstream build but this is my current maindeck:

3 Jace
3 Snapcaster
1 Vendilion Clique
4 SFM
3 Lingering Souls

4 Swords
1 Verdict
1 Vindicate
1 Engineered Explosives

2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition
1 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce
3 FoW

4 Brainstorm
1 Batterskull
1 Jitte

23 Lands

You miss the ponder.
In these lists i personally find ponder better than the 23d land. Ponder helps you search for your one of's. It dogs for land too and is an extra card to pitch to fow when needed (which is very relevant). I actually never felt the need for extra land. And if i'd add a 23d land i wouldn't really want it to be colorless since that wouldn't help me muchfurther and still increases the chance of bad mana in our opening hands.

[xfxf]

As I said I didn't have any problems getting my colors right with this list yet. I'm pretty comfortable running this manabase and Wasteland is rad. However I was recently considering to add a singleton Ponder to search for my silver bullets but didn't know what to cut. I'll try rolling without an EE for a while because so far every time I drew it, it could have either been better as a Swords, Verdict or a Vindicate. Maybe it's good because it can replace any of those to some extent but I'm feeling like I'd rather have the Ponder to search exactly what I'm looking for.

[Kirika]

I am not sure why more people aren't running Dark Confidant in their stoneblade builds. I been running it for a long time and I really like it other then the low blue count for Force of Will which doesn't matter much of the time as you board Forces out. I really like the card draw. It got even better with the ability to Cavern of Souls on Wizard

Current list is this with 3 Dark Confidant, might cut Inquisition for the 4th Confidant. Only issue I have with it is the blue count for force is pretty low. might make Spell Pierce into a Ponder. Not sure on what I would cut from the board if I wanted to try out Geist.
Artifact (4)
1 Batterskull
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Black (6)
3 Dark Confidant
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize

Blue (16+1 gold)
4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
3 Force of Will
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Spell Snare
1 Vendilion Clique

Gold (2)
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Vindicate

White (11)
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
2 Lingering Souls
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Swords to Plowshares

Lands (22)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Karakas
1 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
3 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
1 Swamp
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea

Sideboard (15)
1 Darkblast (elves, r/u delver, death/taxes, confidant mirrors)
1 Disenchant (Equipment, Choke)
1 Duress (control/combo)
2 Flusterstorm (control/combo)
1 Force of Will (combo)
1 Humility (big creature decks, reanimator, sneak/show)
1 Perish (Green decks)
3 Rest in Peace (Graveyard hate)
1 Supreme Verdict (creatures)
1 Sword of Feast and Famine (green decks, control)
1 Vendilion Clique (control/combo)
1 Zealous Persecution (elves, death+taxes, mirror)

Go back a bunch of posts if you want all the card explanations or ask me to repost that was really long.


@bib_o
I don't like Detention Sphere as a replacement for Vindicate it can't hit land and gets killed by Abrupt Decay/Disenchant/Ray of Revelation and you can't Snapcaster it.

I see the merits of Wasteland but I am not sure its worth the 4th Colorless land in a 3 color deck. I already sometimes get screwed by the Cavern of Souls, Academy Ruins, Karakas combination and Karakas makes white + Cavern casts Dark Confidant, Snapcaster and Clique

I like the 1st Sensei's Divining Top before I like the first Ponder. Top can be used for the long game for improving card quality.


@ThediscoPower
Don't see an issue with Darkblast and Rest in Peace. You want Darkblast for matchups with lots of X/1s like Elves, R/U Delver, Death/Taxes, other decks with Dark Confidant. Rest in Peace you want against Dredge, RUG Delver, Punishing Jund/Maverick. Rest in Peace is probably your best answer to Punishing Fire as Wastelands really stretch your manabase and Rest in Peace also nerfs Goyf, Goose and just wins vs Dredge if they can't kill it.


@Tigro215
I don't think Dodecapod is worth it. Too narrow. If you want additional answers to Liliana, Vendilion Clique, Detention Sphere or another Vindicate if your affraid of Abrupt Decay has more applications then Dodecapod. Lingering Souls as Arsenal mentioned is already good versus Liliana.

[learntolove6]

I am not sure why more people aren't running Dark Confidant in their stoneblade builds. I been running it for a long time and I really like it other then the low blue count for Force of Will which doesn't matter much of the time as you board Forces out. I really like the card draw. It got even better with the ability to Cavern of Souls on Wizard

Current list is this with 3 Dark Confidant, might cut Inquisition for the 4th Confidant. Only issue I have with it is the blue count for force is pretty low. might make Spell Pierce into a Ponder. Not sure on what I would cut from the board if I wanted to try out Geist.

Is bob better than baleful strix, which always sees a card, is blue, and can fly? I'm just asking, not saying bob isn't good because I think he is in this deck.

I also cut 1 lingering souls for 1 sorin, lord of innistrad. sdematt is talking that card up big time over on the rock thread and he convinced me to try it in here. another 4 mana card that's really good in the BGx match up. big issues become gaddok teeg and spell pierce in terms of resolving him, but he's at least worth testing!

[AEnesidem]

Is bob better than baleful strix, which always sees a card, is blue, and can fly? I'm just asking, not saying bob isn't good because I think he is in this deck.

I also cut 1 lingering souls for 1 sorin, lord of innistrad. sdematt is talking that card up big time over on the rock thread and he convinced me to try it in here. another 4 mana card that's really good in the BGx match up. big issues become gaddok teeg and spell pierce in terms of resolving him, but he's at least worth testing!

I find eslpeth to be better than sorin overall. But the most important thing that keeps me off of either elspeth or sorin is: Lingering souls' impact is imediate and is a waaaaay better combination with jace. That and also: our deck is already pretty heavy in curve. I wouldn't want to make my curve even worse.

[learntolove6]

I find eslpeth to be better than sorin overall. But the most important thing that keeps me off of either elspeth or sorin is: Lingering souls' impact is imediate and is a waaaaay better combination with jace. That and also: our deck is already pretty heavy in curve. I wouldn't want to make my curve even worse.

oh i definitely agree with you. lingering souls is one of the best cards in this deck, i am not discounting it's power. i just want to test something that could be alright. i can't discount it without personal evidence that it's bad.

[thecrav]

I'm not going to argue that Bob is wrong, but I think there are two main reasons people aren't running Bob:

You've got 5 things that will hit your for 5 ( 4 FoW and 1 Batterskull)

You reduce the threat level of the deck in exchange for the long game of drawing cards. For example, in your build, you've had to remove 4 cards to make room for your three Bobs and a Top.

Again, I'm not trying to say you're right or wrong, but I would guess that these are the two biggest reasons people are choosing not to go with the darkest of confidants.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

Something I'm trying, not really anything out of the blue (there is a pun in that somewhere) but baleful strix is something I've wanted to try

Lands:
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flat
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Academy Ruins
1 Karakas

Jace:
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Artifacts:
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull

Creatures
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Baleful Strix
3 Snapcaster Mage

Spells:
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Force of Will
3 Lingering Souls
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
1 Counterspell
1 Intuition
1 Vindicate
1 Spell Pierce

Sideboard:
3 Geist of Sant Traft
1 Spell Pierce
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Disenchant
1 Thoughtseize
1 Force of Will
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Perish
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
1 Vendilion Clique

I could see myself missing the Ponder, but my thought was with Baleful Strix, it cantrips and functions as pseudo~removal (insofar that anything it blocks will die), it can't find me land or shuffle my deck though, the supreme verdict was cut because the only creature based decks I've been really running into are jund, and perish does exactly what I want verdict to do...but cheaper.

As for bob, the reason I can fathom why it hasn't been played is this, the deck runs a (relatively) high curve, we have jace, batterskull, lingering souls, force of will etc, things that when flipped, are a punch in the face, we're not Jund/Esper Deathblade and can manipulate the top of our deck or mitigate the damage with DRS. In my experience, I've felt that, although the extra cards would be huge, it's not that needed in the deck.

[Mackan]

I really, really, like Dark confidant. Unfortunatly it's hard to make it work in this deck beacuse of the high curve and the grindy (lategame) nature of the deck. As a maindeck card he only makes bolt/plow good against us (killing mystic with plow is ok) but I like him as a sideboardplan the way some players have him in their CB-thopter sideboards...
The list is tight and we allready have a lot of CA. Bob is a billion times better than geist of saint traft so there is allways that ;)
Speaking of cb-thopters... this is a good sideboardplan if the meta becomes infested with Lingering soulsmirror. We allready have SFM to find the sword I mean.

[Tigro215]

What's the best way to include rest in peace into out side board? I have a tournament this saturday and I know of 5 players going, playing Jund, GWB (No Goyf/Knight), Esperblade, and Merfolk and U/R Delver

This is my current list and I've been having a blast playing it and it plays extremely tight.
1x Batterskull
4x Brainstorm
1x Counterspell
1x Engineered Explosives
4x Flooded Strand
3x Force of Will
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Island
3x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Karakas
2x Lingering Souls
2x Marsh Flats
1x Plains
3x Polluted Delta
1x Ponder
1x Scrubland
3x Snapcaster Mage
2x Spell Pierce
1x spell snare
4x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Swamp
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Thoughtseize
3x Tundra
1x Umezawa’s Jitte
3x Underground Sea
1x Vendilion Clique
1x Vindicate
1x Wasteland

Side:
1x blue elemental blast
1x Darkblast
1x detention sphere
1x Disenchant
2x flusterstorm
1x Force of Will
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Perish
1x relic of progenitus
1x supreme verdict
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Zealous Persecution

Any suggestions?

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

Probably the relic, although I've never really felt the deck needs RiP, we have enough interaction with the graveyard to where it's actually harmful to us (makes lingering souls much worse, and snapcaster useless), unless you expect a field of dredge..which would be a tad strange.

[Tigro215]

I'm more or less just trying to find away around punishing jund... Matchup just seems so terrible and RIP is one of the best ways to keep it under control. What does everyone think about Moat right now too? Probably not main but side?

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

I'm more or less just trying to find away around punishing jund... Matchup just seems so terrible and RIP is one of the best ways to keep it under control. What does everyone think about Moat right now too? Probably not main but side?

The two surgicals you have SHOULD be doing it then, they can Abrupt decay RiP and they can recover (they can also swing with DRS and Bob if they have to) from it, surgical hits the problem card in question, without it, they are pretty much Jund with a worse manabase and no manlands.

Moat seems pretty real against Jund, given the relative rarity of the card, they probably have literally two outs to it in their deck and won't be playing around it (actually, how do they?), judging by the rest of the DTB section though, there are only 3 decks it's really dead to (Miracle Control, ANT and Sneak attack), the rest it's perfectally playable against, of those, maverick and goblins it's probably weakest against, Maverick can blow it up with ease (although it's pretty obvious when they are going to, GSZ =2, I wonder...) and Goblins can combo through it and have enough mana denial to make the second white really tough to accomplish.