[DTB] Blade Control

[Qweerios]

I have been jumping back and forth between Miracle, Stoneblade, and Grixis Tempo lately and I think Lightning Blade is what I will settle on. I am not entirely sold on Grim Lavamancer yet because I want to ensure GY food for Snapcaster, Moorland Haunt, and Academy Ruins. I think StP and Bolt are both superior to Grim in a Blade shell and having 8-9 (EE) removal spells + SFM, Jitte, and Batterskull should be enough to secure aggro matchups. I feel like Grim is going overboard. Is he necessary against BUG, Jund, Gobs, and DnT?

[Esper3k]

I have been jumping back and forth between Miracle, Stoneblade, and Grixis Tempo lately and I think Lightning Blade is what I will settle on. I am not entirely sold on Grim Lavamancer yet because I want to ensure GY food for Snapcaster, Moorland Haunt, and Academy Ruins. I think StP and Bolt are both superior to Grim in a Blade shell and having 8-9 (EE) removal spells + SFM, Jitte, and Batterskull should be enough to secure aggro matchups. I feel like Grim is going overboard. Is he necessary against BUG, Jund, Gobs, and DnT?

I actually love Grim right now in the meta. Most important things he does is kills Deathrite Shamans and completely wrecks D&T. Generally speaking, I haven't had too much of a problem filling up the yard to make sure he stays fed.

[Esper3k]

Ok, so finally getting around to writing up my tournament report for the Legacy event at GenCon for the uncut AQ sheet.

After scrubbing it out in the Vintage tournament (hey, at least I made myself play it this year!), we go back to my favorite format!

Here's the list I played:

// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
1 [OV] Mountain
1 [7E] Plains (1)
1 [LG] Karakas
3 [ARC] Island (2)
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
2 [B] Volcanic Island
4 [U] Tundra
1 [R] Plateau
1 [TS] Academy Ruins

// Creatures
3 [MOR] Vendilion Clique
3 [TO] Grim Lavamancer
4 [ISD] Snapcaster Mage
4 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic

// Spells
4 [5E] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 [OV] Swords to Plowshares
3 [MPR] Lightning Bolt
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
1 [NPH] Batterskull
2 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
1 [RTR] Izzet Charm

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 3 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 [RTR] Detention Sphere
SB: 2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 [DK] Blood Moon
SB: 2 [A] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 [JU] Envelop
SB: 1 [DGM] Wear / Tear
SB: 2 [PS] Meddling Mage

A little over 100 players were registered, so 7 rounds of swiss. Payout was down to T32 (just in M14 packs, but hey it's better than nothing, right?).

Round 1 - vs Grixis Pyromancer / Delver

Game 1: We play draw-go for awhile as we both play blue lands and aren't sure if the other person is playing Stifle or not. We play some mind games when he Cabal Therapies me, then flashes it back and I Brainstorm in response. My SFM & Jace go the distance while my hordes of removal kill his Bobs and Grim Lavamancers.

-4 Force of Will
+1 Spell Pierce
+2 Engineered Explosives
+1 Detention Sphere

Game 2: I play out a T3 SFM with Brainstorm in hand to protect from Cabal Therapy. Of course, that's the turn he reveals Cabal Therapy off of his Delver and has the REB for my Brainstorm. He gets down a Bob that I don't have an answer for and quickly pulls ahead.

Game 3: This time, I have plenty of removal and while he gets down a Pyromancer, he can only get 1 token out of it as I Spell Pierce his Ponder to keep him from finding more cantrips. SFM + Academy Ruins seals the deal against any artifact destruction.

1-0 (2-1)

Round 2 - vs Death & Taxes

This is a matchup I think we're very favored in. The sheer amount of removal we have on top of Grims / EE makes life so tough for them as long as we take care of Mom.

Game 1: I kill all his guys.
Game 2: This game is more interesting as he gets out a Manriki-Gusari and actually equips it on a few guys to make Lavamancers less effective, but a bunch of strategically placed Bolts and StP again kills all his dudes.

2-0 (4-1)

Round 2 - vs Reanimator

Wow, Reanimator! This deck still surviving against all those Deathrite Shamans? Props to my opponent for having the balls to play this.

Game 1: We fight over a reanimation spell, which I win. Jace fatesealing buys my Clique enough time to end the game.

-3 Grim Lavamancer
-3 Lightning Bolt
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor (I'm on the draw so I figure I need a faster answer to dudes)
-1 StP
+3 Surgical Extraction
+1 Detention Sphere
+1 Envelop
+2 Meddling Mage
+1 Spell Pierce
+2 REB

Game 2: He goes nuts with T1 Entomb->Iona, T2 Exhume with both Force & Daze backup to stop my Spell Pierce and Force.

-3 StP
+3 Jace (I'm on the play now and have more time)

Game 3: This is a weird one. I mull to a hand with no white source, but my hand is chock full of countermagic, a Meddling Mage, a SFM, a Surgical, and I have a Brainstorm. My opponent keeps Forcing my two Brainstorms to keep me from finding a white source as he Thoughtseized me earlier and saw that I had no white source but I eventually peel a fetch land and that cracks the game open.

3-0 (6-2)

Round 4 - vs NO RUG

I remember seeing Reid Duke play this on a feature match during one of the SCGs. Pretty cool deck!

Game 1: We go back and forth and he eventually resolves a Natural Order for the big P. However, I actually have a Clique online with a Batterskull + Jitte in play and that outraces Progeniuts.

Thinking back, I'm pretty certain I misboarded here. The FoW's actually should've come out since the only spell I really care about is Natural Order and I'm pretty certain he took those out now that I think about it. The REBs were also pretty bad against his deck, so I boarded those out in G3.

-3 Grim Lavamancer
-3 Lightning Bolt
+1 Spell Pierce
+2 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Envelop
+2 Meddling Mage

Game 2: This one is close. We get to the point where he's in topdeck mode with a 5/6 'goyf vs my fist full of cards, but I'm at 5 life and have to keep chump blocking the Goyf every turn. I have a Jitte in play, but can't get enough mana to play a blocker + equip it (I've been pretty mana short all game). I eventually get to 5 mana, but have to Izzet Charm his fresh Lavamancer and then play a Clique on his draw step. The card he drew? Daze.

-2 Red Elemental Blast
-1 Envelop
+3 Lightning Bolt

Game 3: I keep a 2 lander with double Brainstorm and don't find a second land. He Surgicals my StP then beats me down with Tarmogoyfs.

3-1 (7-4)

Round 5 - vs Imperial Painter

Hilariously, a good friend of mine (DrewliusMaximus) plays this deck all the time in our meta, so I actually have plenty of experience playing against it!

Game 1: He leads off with a basic Mountain and Faithless Lootings. I think "Painter?" curiously in my head and the jig is up when he discards a Grindstone and Simian Spirit Guide. I have the basic Plains in my hand and just play a Flooded Strand and pass even though I have a Lavamancer in my hand. My patience is rewarded when he T2 Blood Moons and I fetch a basic Island in response. Sadly, I have double Jace and a Clique in my hand, but I have Lavamancer, the basic plains, SCM, and a Lightning Bolt to protect me. The game goes long, but Bolt + SCM takes care of Painters while Lavamancer + SCM grinds him out. I eventually Brainstorm into some Forces to pitch the Jaces & Clique to.

-3 Grim Lavamancer (while this seems good in theory against them, he doesn't deal with Painter which is the most important thing)
-2 Spell Pierce (they generally have hordes of mana so Pierce isn't as good here)
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor (UU is hard to play under a Blood Moon)
+2 Red Elemental Blast (this is hilarious against Painters)
+1 Wear/Tear
+2 Engineered Explosives
+2 Meddling Mage
+1 Detention Sphere

Game 2: He leads off with T1: Mountain, Grindstone, T2: Mountain, Grindstone, T3: Mountain, Painter. I kept a hand of Force, Brainstorm, Lightning Bolt, StP, Flooded Strand, Island, Arid Mesa, so I was feeling pretty good and was content to just play lands. On his T3 Painter turn, he pitches double Spirit Guide and goes for the win. My StP on his Painter in response just blows him out and he can't get back into the game from there.

4-1 (9-4)

Round 6 - vs UWr Punishing Fire Miracles

I saw him go to time in his last round and I knew this one was going to be rough.

Game 1: I keep a fairly aggressive hand but he manages to stabilize the turn before I'd kill him and I lose to CounterTop + Miracles.

-4 Swords to Plowshares
-4 Force of Will
-3 Lightning Bolt
-2 Grim Lavamancer
+1 Spell Pierce
+2 REB
+2 Engineered Explosives
+1 Wear / Tear
+1 Detention Sphere
+1 Envelop
+2 Meddling Mage
+3 Surgical Extraction

Crazy Sideboarding, I know, but having to deal with CB, Miracles, AND Punishing Fires makes things awkwards. I considered the Blood Moons but figured Surgical was generally better.

Game 2: I beat him down with a Clique and equipment while Jace gets me crazy card advantage.

Game 3: He keeps an opener with double Leyline of Sanctity and keeps a hand with no white mana and Grove with no early plays, so I'm pretty certain he has PFires. I start tempoing him out with my countermagic constantly stopping his recurring double PFires (he doesn't have enough mana to keep returning both and keep playing them) while my Clique beats down at him. However, I can't find a Surgical and we end up drawing.

4-1-1 (10-5-1)

Round 7 - vs Elves

Game 1: He drops Llanowar Elves and I go with a T1 Grim Lavamancer. Now most of us would be pretty happy in this situation, right? Well, I get stuck on 2 lands so I can't effectively kill multiple creatures a turn while applying pressure and the turn before I'd stabilize, he hard casts a Craterhoof Behemoth and slays me.

-2 Spell Pierce
-1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+2 Engineered Explosives
+1 Detention Sphere

Game 2: I get an early SFM backed up by removal and the Pointy Stick of Awesomeness takes over his board.

Game 3: I get another T1 Lavamancer... and get mana screwed again. He gets a massive Ooze followed by Tarmogoyf, followed by Vengevine!!! and caves my skull in.

4-2-1 (11-7-1)

Finished 17th place for 3 boosters of M14, woo!

Overall, I was still very happy with the deck and while I wish I could've done better, I feel it's more pilot error than any particular weaknesses in the deck.

If I were to change anything, I might try and slip 1 Supreme Verdict into the board, but I'm having a tough time figuring out what to cut. Blood Moon hasn't been that great for me, but I think that's also been because I haven't really been playing against many decks where it's backbreaking against.

[KobeBryan]

wow...congrats. I can't believe you were able to beat punishing fire without wasteland.

[Esper3k]

wow...congrats. I can't believe you were able to beat punishing fire without wasteland.

I think we have plenty of tools against it post-board. Surgical and Blood Moon are just fine if you really want to beat it, imo. I just needed to find a Surgical in Game 3!

[KobeBryan]

I think we have plenty of tools against it post-board. Surgical and Blood Moon are just fine if you really want to beat it, imo. I just needed to find a Surgical in Game 3!

i dont' think bloodmoon is the way to go. I've tested it several times against deathrite decks. Its not working for me.

the fastest i get it on is turn 3. I also screw myself over if i do not have my basics in play. There aren't many cards in this deck that uses red.

[Einherjer]

i dont' think bloodmoon is the way to go. I've tested it several times against deathrite decks. Its not working for me.

the fastest i get it on is turn 3. I also screw myself over if i do not have my basics in play. There aren't many cards in this deck that uses red.

1) Play tighter.
2) Play more.
3) Don't use unqualified statements, just because one specific card didn't work in your very (limited) testing.
4) Learn to fetch Basics?

Greetings

[KobeBryan]

1) Play tighter.
2) Play more.
3) Don't use unqualified statements, just because one specific card didn't work in your very (limited) testing.
4) Learn to fetch Basics?

Greetings

eh ok.

this isn't like those stompy decks where you can just plop a bloodmoon on turn 1 and just win off of that.

you still gotta fight turns 1-3 then on turn 3 u plop the bloodmoon. but whatever you say.

[Barbed Blightning]

eh ok.

this isn't like those stompy decks where you can just plop a bloodmoon on turn 1 and just win off of that.

you still gotta fight turns 1-3 then on turn 3 u plop the bloodmoon. but whatever you say.

I'd play it against shardless, jund or typically "unwinnable" matchups like 12 post. It's slow, yes, but if you land it at a critical time (difficult against Jund since they run basics and have a quick clock) you'll win without a doubt. Even later in the game vs BUG, say, it can totally lock them out.

Bringing it in vs RUG is obviously a bad idea.

[Sturtzilla]

1) Play tighter.
2) Play more.
3) Don't use unqualified statements, just because one specific card didn't work in your very (limited) testing.
4) Learn to fetch Basics?

I think that a lot of the posts on this forum as a whole could use reading this post. People like just suggesting a card without testing it them self or will want to totally abandon a piece of tech because it didn't work out perfectly. Good post Einherjer.

[AEnesidem]

+1 to einherjer's post

however it is true that blood moon can sometimes be weird in this deck. Sometimes you just draw your duals and can't play your blood moon. However, the drawback is smaller than the upside IMO. You can wreck some decks completely, and if they get out of it they spent a lot of time searching for an answer.

[Pdingo]

@AEnesidem

We Play 9-10 fetchies and 2 Island 1 Mountain and 1 Plains, this Scenario shouldn't happend^^

To Blood Moon
I think it's a very strong sb Card. And have a place in the SB as a 1-2off.

[Tempus]

Today I played Esper3k's list at a 16 man tournament. Only changes I made were -1 Surgical +1 Tormod's Crypt -1 Wear//Tear +1 Disenchant

R1: U/G Infect 2-1
G1 He starts with Tropical->Ponder->Probe. I think it's RUG Delver and fetch for basic Island instead of Volcanic and have no read to handle his creatures...
G2 I lock him out with Blood Moon
G3 We durdle a while and he attacks me with 1 of his 2 Noble Hierarch. When I'm at 13, I drop SFM->Skull. In his turn he makes his Noble Hierarch (including Exalted triggers) into a 17/18 creature after I decide not to block. Luckily 2 Invigorate give me 6 Life and he concedes after realizing his mistake...

R2: BG Dark Depths 2-1
G1: I force a first turn Bob he drops the combo in the second turn. No Stop so Game 2
G2: I drop Meddling Mage naming Vampiric Hexmage. He kills my Mage, after I drop Jace. I plays Hexmage and Depth and I bolt it to prevent him from winning, killing my Jace in the process. He then drops Thespian Stage with not enough Mana to activate. I happily drop EE, just the get told that Marit Lage is indestructible. So I attack with my two creatures, he activates his Stage and gets a token to block. I play Detention Sphere on it and we're off to G3.
G3: I luckily assemble a board with two MM (Hexmage, Needle), Karakas and a Bloodmoon. He just has two Mox Diamonds and draws no second Decay and I win a match I should have lost in two.

R3: UR Painter 2-1

G1: He combos me out turn 4 with Blast + Force Protection
G2: Mull to 5. He does nothing for the first 3 turns, giving me enough draw steps to make up for the mulligan. I then kill and counter everything, beat with SCM till he's dead.
G3: Again mull to 5. Nothing for the first 3 turns, then he plays Grindstone and the turn after Painter which I force. EOT I extract it (which he forces), I then draw SCM and the MM on Transmute Artifact prevents Wurmcoil Shenanigans...

R4: Draw with Painter

Top4: Mirror (as far as I could tell -2 Spell Pierce +2 Restoration Angel, he also had 4 Ponders, no idea what he cut for those...) 1-2
G1: He resolves all for BS, 3 Ponder, 6 StoP and 2 Bolt...
G2: I kill and counter everything and beat him down
G3: We both extract each other's Brainstorm, I misplayed mine before Extraction which cost me Clique and Jace (put them on top to hide from his Clique...), his Ponder got him there as he draw both equipments and I just Skull which he eventually got rid off with Clique after I bounced it..

The only change I'd made is -1 Izzet Charm +1 Fire/Ice, but I didn't play combo.

[Pdingo]

Nice report tempus!

Gruess Pascal

[Qweerios]

Made top4 at a local tournament with a Lightning Blade list using zero Grim Lavamancers. I mulligan at least 9 times during the day and lost 5 of 7 die rolls. I don't have a report but here were my results:

Swiss:
2-1 vs. BUG Tempo
2-0 vs. Dark Maverick
1-2 vs. Shardless BUG
2-0 vs. DnT
2-1 vs. Goblins with white

Top8:
2-0 vs. DnT
0-2 vs. 4c Loam

The meta was pretty much all aggro that day. I think there was 1 SnT player and he complained all day...I remember DnT being a joke with 4 Bolt, 4 StP, 4 Snaps, 2 Izzet Charms main and 2 EE, 1 Sulfur Elemental side. All of my games against the aggro decks were 1 sided, I think I overdid it on removal and was lucky to dodge control and combo. Most of my mulligans were due to color screws, mana shortages, and/or mana floods.
4c Loam is very difficult to beat because I have to keep Chalice off the board, Extract PFire and LftL/Waste, save countermagic for Devastating Dreams, and deal with KotR/Thrun. The games were very close but I definitely lacked some tools for that particular matchup.

Here's the list I used:


Creatures (10)
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique

Spells (21)
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce
2 Izzet Charm

Others (6)
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull

Lands (23)
2 Wasteland
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Karakas
1 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand
2 Volcanic Island
3 Tundra
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Pyroblast
2 Flusterstorm
1 Counterspell
1 Wear // Tear
2 Meddling Mage
1 Sulfur Elemental
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Engineered Explosives


I played a couple of money matches against Esper Miracles (lost) after the tournament and I feel like that matchup could have been much better than it was. I could have used some Spell Snares and/or a 3rd REB out of the board for this one (and for 4c Loam and Shardless BUG... Spell Snare is MVP there).

-The deck worked nicely for this particular tournament but I believe it is a bit too heavy on creature removal. Bolt is mainly used as StP #5-8 as reach is rarely relevant except against Planeswalkers.
-I didn't wish I had Grim Lavamancer at any point, I don't think it would have made that much of a difference against Shardless BUG (Hymns and AV buried me).
-I didn't regret cutting Plateau for the 3rd Island
-Riptide Laboratory did a lot of work.
-I have mixed feelings about Meddling Mage because he can be very powerful but most of the time, he isn't.
-Double blue can be difficult to reach going for basics during the first turns when Bolt and StP tend to be your first spells. Counterspell isn't fast enough for Strix, Hymn, SFM, Liliana, Chalice@1 etc... for these reasons I believe Spell Snare would be superior to Counterspell for this particular version.
-My all-basics approach frustrated a lot of my opponents

Going forward I think Izzet Charm is a great card for a Blade Control deck and feels very smooth between Bolt and Pierce (2/2/2 split perhaps). I would also like to include a Crucible of Worlds and another Wasteland. I have played Izzet Charm in Miracle and more controlling builds of Stoneblade before and I really liked how the Faithless Looting function became relevant when lands piled up in my hands when I had a Crucible in play.

I think the most notable difference between Lightning Blade and StoneBlade is in the dedication to the colors you play. Lightning Blade will delve deeper into red than a simple splash for virtual copies of StP while StoneBlade will commit further to white for cards like Supreme Verdict and Elspeth. Red gives you more of an immediate impact and a tighter manabase. You get more consistency on how your early turns develop but you have to really calculate how you intend on closing the game down. White packs more of a punch with its UU and WW costed cards but relies on less copies of the early disruption to get through to specific key cards while it builds up to that point in a safer fashion. I can't really tell for sure which of those 2 versions of Blade Control would reward the better player. Personally, I highly value a strong manabase, I love the flexibility of the 3rd color, I hate taping out during my main phase even for Verdict and Elspeth, but I also find them life saving more often than i'd like.

[Purgatory]

Did you ever miss Academy Ruins?

EDIT: I've been testing Esper3k's list on MWS over the past couple of days, and even if I'm playing against randoms, it feels very stable. There are a lot of "creatures" (i.e. there are cards that might not act in combat, but they have a Power and a Toughness) in the format right now, so the almost obscene amount of removal feels great so far. I have all the cards sans Plateau and Clique #3 IRL, and I might just sleeve it up to try it at a local event or something, it's been a while since I've played with Stoneforge Mystic.

[Esper3k]

Congrats on the tournaments, guys!

Some thoughts:

- Grim Lavamancer: I actually like him quite a bit against the Shardless BUG deck. He kills everything in their deck except Tarmogoyf, which he can even help control with your own graveyard.
- Meddling Mage: For me, I only bring in MM against combo and control or against decks that rely on single key spells. He's really bad when they have a bunch of creatures that can actually kill him in combat, so watch out there. Against combo, he's been amazing for me. He gives you another line of disruption that isn't countermagic based, so they have to bring in different types of hate to deal with him (typically bounce, which is conveniently very bad against most other creatures in our deck, including our other best creature weapon vs combo -Vendilion Clique).

Another brief tournament report - I played in a small (13 man - 4 rounds swiss, cut to t4) tournament for an FTV: 20 as the top prize.

Here's the list I brought - a few more tweaks from before.

// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
1 [OV] Mountain
1 [7E] Plains (1)
1 [LG] Karakas
2 [ARC] Island (2)
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
2 [B] Volcanic Island
4 [U] Tundra
1 [R] Plateau
1 [TSP] Academy Ruins

// Creatures
3 [MOR] Vendilion Clique
3 [TO] Grim Lavamancer
4 [ISD] Snapcaster Mage
4 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic

// Spells
4 [5E] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 [OV] Swords to Plowshares
3 [MPR] Lightning Bolt
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
1 [NPH] Batterskull
2 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
1 [RTR] Izzet Charm
1 [FD] Engineered Explosives

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 2 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 [RTR] Detention Sphere
SB: 1 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 [6E] Enlightened Tutor
SB: 1 [RTR] Rest in Peace
SB: 1 [DK] Blood Moon
SB: 2 [A] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 [JU] Envelop
SB: 1 [DGM] Wear // Tear
SB: 2 [PS] Meddling Mage
SB: 1 [RTR] Supreme Verdict

I moved 1 EE to the main because I wanted a way to deal with problematic Enchantments & Artifacts in case they slip through my countermagic. I also wanted to experiment with one ETutor in the board again, which makes a bunch of 1-of enchantments & artifacts playable from the board. With the eTutor, I really wanted to fit an Ethersworn Canonist somewhere in the board, but I couldn't figure out a cut to make. The Supreme Verdict is something I just wanted as a nasty sweeper against the tempo decks & Merfolk.

Round 1 - vs UW Stoneblade

The player was a friend of mine - pretty much the only person in the tournament I didn't want to play because he's a better player than me.

Game 1: He mulls to 5 and I grind him out chaining Jaces.

-4 Force of Will
-2 Swords to Plowshares
+2 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Wear // Tear
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Detention Sphere
+1 Spell Pierce

Game 2: We eventually get double Academy Ruins, double Karakas, and double Clique on the board along with double Batterskull (and double Jitte at one point). However, I'm recurring EE with Academy Ruins so we sit and stare at each other for a long time and eventually draw.

1-0 (1-0-1)

Round 2 - vs Dark Maverick

Game 1: He has T1 Mom. I have StP. I kill his dudes and eventually get Jitte online.

-4 Force of Will
-2 Spell Pierce
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Wear // Tear
+1 Supreme Verdict
+1 Detention Sphere
+1 Blood Moon (shuts off Karakas, Maze, Wasteland)
+1 Rest In Peace (shuts off Ooze & Knight)

Game 2: I Supreme Verdict away his board then drop Equipment.

2-0 (3-0-1)

Round 3 - vs Deathblade

Game 1: We go back and forth, but he lands a Geist and of course has Karakas out and I can't deal with it in time before it kills me.

-4 Force of Will
-2 Spell Pierce (the only key thing I can really Spell Pierce is Jace since all their removal is cheap like mine)
+2 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Supreme Verdict
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Blood Moon
+1 Enlightened Tutor

Game 2: I get out a T1 Grim Lavamancer and he doesn't have an answer for it, so it kills all his dudes. I also get to REB a Geist this game :)

Game 3: He has an StP for my T1 Lavamancer but doesn't do much other than playing a Jitte with no creatures. T4, I EoT Clique him, see that he only has a Spell Pierce to stop the Blood Moon in my hand, play a land on T5 to get to 5 mana and drop the Blood Moon, which prompts the scoop.

3-0 (5-1-1)

Round 4 - ID vs RUG

3-0-1 (5-1-1)

Round 5 - Top 4 vs Spiral Tide

Game 1: We both get stuck on 2 lands as I'm aggressively Spell Piercing his cantrips and he's doing the same to me. He finds 3, then 4 lands first then kills me as two Time Spirals find me 0 Force of Wills.

-4 Swords to Plowshares
-3 Lightning Bolt
-3 Grim Lavamancer
+2 REB
+1 Spell Pierce
+2 Surgical Extraction
+1 Enlightened Tutor
+1 RIP
+1 Engineered Explosives (not optimal, but it at least kills Candelabras)
+2 Meddling Mage

Game 2: I Surgical away his Force of Wills then drop a Meddling Mage on High Tide. That's actually a punt because if I had paid better attention to his deck, I would've noticed that he had brought in 0 bounce spells and had no maindeck win conditions other than Cunning Wish. MM on Cunning Wish would've just locked him out of the game. Anyways, MM still gets there.

Game 3: I aggressively Spell Pierce his cantrips, then Vendilion Clique + SFM + Batterskull finish the game in 2 turns.

4-0-1 (7-2-1)

Round 6 - vs RUG

Game 1: My opponent mulls to 3 and still has double Stifle to stop my first two SFMs on top of a Mongoose. I Force the Mongoose and just beat him up with 1/2's and let my card advantage take over the game.

-4 Force of Will
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+2 REB
+1 Spell Pierce
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Enlightened Tutor (normally I don't like this against non-combo decks, but finding answers to Mongoose are so important, I feel I need to bring it in)
+1 Supreme Verdict
+1 RIP

Game 2: Bad luck strikes me as I keep a 2 lander (basic island, basic plains) with double SFM. Of course, he has triple Stifle this game and Stifles my fetch when I finally find my third land at around T5.

Game 3: Game goes long... which is what I want! I kill his dudes, recur EE a couple of times, and while he has super disruption with Wastelands and Stifles again, I weather the rush of guys and eventually stick my Batterskull and that's the game.

5-0-1 (9-3-1)

[Barbed Blightning]

Congrats Esper! List looks tight. Few questions:

-Qweerios mentioned wasteland in his list. Any thoughts on your exclusion of the card?
-Surgical: why over RIP? Pinpoint removal of problem cards?
-Did the tutor do work for you at all?
-Grim. Was he ever dead? My buddy and I are making lightning blade. I love grim, he dislikes that RIP turns him off completely.

Thanks

[Esper3k]

Congrats Esper! List looks tight. Few questions:

-Qweerios mentioned wasteland in his list. Any thoughts on your exclusion of the card?
-Surgical: why over RIP? Pinpoint removal of problem cards?
-Did the tutor do work for you at all?
-Grim. Was he ever dead? My buddy and I are making lightning blade. I love grim, he dislikes that RIP turns him off completely.

Thanks

Not a huge fan of Wasteland here. I love the card, but we really need all the mana we can get, especially colored mana. I just think the benefits to it don't outweigh the drawbacks. Postboard, we have things like Blood Moon to deal with problematic lands.

Surgical: Plays better with our own graveyard as well as works with SCM. I'm just playing with the 1-of RIP for the decks that it hurts more than us.

ETutor: Tutor'd for RIP once against RUG so far. Seems fine.

Grim: in the matchups where he's not as good (combo, control), you bring in MM so your creature density is still decent. Otherwise, he's just amazing against almost any deck with creatures.

[Purgatory]

Not a huge fan of Wasteland here. I love the card, but we really need all the mana we can get, especially colored mana. I just think the benefits to it don't outweigh the drawbacks. Postboard, we have things like Blood Moon to deal with problematic lands.

Surgical: Plays better with our own graveyard as well as works with SCM. I'm just playing with the 1-of RIP for the decks that it hurts more than us.

ETutor: Tutor'd for RIP once against RUG so far. Seems fine.

Grim: in the matchups where he's not as good (combo, control), you bring in MM so your creature density is still decent. Otherwise, he's just amazing against almost any deck with creatures.

What about Riptide Laboratory? Sure, you trimmed a land from the latest list so it might be tough to find something to cut for it, but it seems good on paper (even better than in Qweerios list, since it can act as protection from removal for Grim Lavamancer as well, so they have to 2-for-1 themselves to get him off the table permanently).