[DTB] Blade Control

[hartigan]

the red splash is partially a relic of the TC format, where lightning bolt and pyroblast were where you wanted to be. a third color is almost free in these sort of decks, and i think the access to red or black post-board helps a lot more in blue match ups than something like mishra's factory.

edit: i've also never been a fan of detention sphere over oblivion ring, banishing light, or council's judgment. yes, it pitches to force of will, but it's best against decks that have access to pyroblast. additionally, the amount of times you get more than one permanent with it is extremely low.

Okay that makes more sense.

I definitely have some black cards in the sideboard like Thoughtseize which are playable off the basic Swamp and the Underground Sea and they definitely provide some reach not available in straight UW.

I don't really mind playing Detention Sphere over the mono white exiling enchantments, I'll gladly take the vulnerability to Pyroblast over the potential upside of hitting tokens and being able to pitch to Force of Will, though I do see your point.

[Crazy88]

Hey folks, I'm just getting started in Legacy and am building Jeskai Stoneblade (and probably also Esper Stoneblade because most of the cards are shared). Just to confirm: is this thread related to these decks? I didn't find any dedicated thread to Jeskai Stoneblade and the lists here are pretty close to what I'm starting from (http://www.starcitygames.com/events/...eblade_wi.html), so I'm assuming this is the correct thread to post.

[presquepartout]

i've certainly been only posting about UWr stoneblade in this thread.

played in a 28 man tournament earlier today -- managed to 3-1-1, which got me into the top 8. won my quarterfinal match, and then the remaining 4 decided to split prize support, so i bounced. my list

4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 True-Name Nemesis
2 Vendilion Clique

4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
1 Counterspell
3 Dig Through Time
1 Sudden Demise
1 Council's Judgment

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull

4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Arid Mesa
3 Island
2 Plains
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic

2 Meddling Mage
2 Containment Priest
2 Pyroblast
2 Flusterstorm
1 Blood Moon
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Wear // Tear
1 Council's Judgment
1 Sword of Feast and Famine

Don't remember too many specifics, so just things that stood out.

Round 1 (1-1-1) against Shardless BUG. Tarmogoyf army won game one. Game 2 was extremely long and grindy, and DTT was an all star here. Eventually Batterskull was too much, forcing him to start burning Toxic Deluge on the germs.

Round 2 (2-0) against Leylines. I knew he was on this deck, so game 1 I mulled to FoW + blue card, which got there. Game 2, mulled to 5, but couldn't find a FoW, but kept an otherwise strong five with no permission (Ponder, Brainstorm, 2 lands, SFM). Opponent kept a slower hand that was relying on Suppression field. Blood Moon wrecked him.

Round 3 (1-2) against Lands. I picked up round 1 because my opponent forgot to de-sideboard, and didn't notice until after drawing a card. Game 2 I resolved Blood Moon while he was tapped out, but he eventually found Forest + Krosan Grip. Game 3, he had a quick Chalice on 1, followed by my Blood Moon. We played draw-go for 10 turns, and I never found another basic to cast either my Meddling Mage (naming K Grip) or Jace. Eventually, he found a K Grip, made a Merit Lage, which I attempt to Plow. He pointed out Chalice, so I responded to the trigger on the stack with DTT -- found the Wear // Tear -- but had already cast the Plow. I really don't like this matchup.

Round 4 (2-1) against Grixis stuff. My opponent was on a Grixis Young Pyro/Deathrite Shaman deck that also played Tasigur (but no Delver), which felt underwhelming to me. Not much to say about this one.

Round 5 (2-1) against Goblins. These were incredibly long games, and I won with exact damage in my last turn of extra turns (TNN equiped with Feast/Famine and Jitte). Sudden Demise was often getting a 5-1, but he was able to recover quickly. These games didn't feel great, and you basically just had to cash in equipment for tempo with TNN.

Quarterfinals against same BUG as R1. Games 1 and 2 were super grindy. Game 3, my winning board state was Blood Moon, Vendilion Clique, Relic, and Misty Rainforest. (He got to ultimate LoTV in this game, and I kept the pile of just Blood Moon and floated mana to cast Clique).

Overall, I think the deck is very strong and has game against the field. I do not like the Lands matchup one bit, and would like to find room for better graveyard hate, either Rest in Peace (which seems bad) or Surgical Extraction. A second Blood Moon seems correct as well. DTT, Vendilion Clique, and Spell Pierce were the best cards in the deck, by a wide margin.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

I don't play the red splash ever and sometimes I don't even splash for black. Bant is its own thing, and certainly less "control" than any other build, including junkblade. It's all flavors I guess (other than bant, maybe?)

From my phone. I do my best, dammit!

[hartigan]

I don't play the red splash ever and sometimes I don't even splash for black.

Would you have a list I could look at for straight UW Blade with no splash?

[matunos]

Round 3 (1-2) against Lands. I picked up round 1 because my opponent forgot to de-sideboard, and didn't notice until after drawing a card. Game 2 I resolved Blood Moon while he was tapped out[...]

If your opponent got a game 1 loss for presenting an illegal deck, you guys should not have been allowed to sideboard for game 2.

[presquepartout]

If your opponent got a game 1 loss for presenting an illegal deck, you guys should not have been allowed to sideboard for game 2.

We had already taken a game action (he drew a card for his 1st turn, which was the sideboard card), so I believe that is why we were allowed to sideboard. (The judge explicitly told us that we could sideboard for game 2).

[[SLAYER]chaos]

One thing I thought this deck was lacking is a big late game bomb. I feel like Elspeth can be the card I'm looking for. Even in a neutral or losing board state she can completely swing things back in your favor by either wiping away a few big green creatures or just pumping out an endless stream of chump blockers. I know she's a huge commitment at 6 mana but I'm hoping she can pull her weight even as just as one of. And at this point it's all just theory anyway, I'm going to be testing it this weekend though and I can report back with how she does overall.

Creatures: 6
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique

Spells: 25
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Ponder
2 Dig Through Time
2 Counterspell
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Council's Judgement
1 Path to Exile
1 Spell Snare
1 Flusterstorm

Artifacts: 2
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull

Planeswalkers: 4
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Enchantments: 1
1 Detention Sphere

Lands: 22
4 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
4 Tundra
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Karakas
4 Mishra's Factory

Sideboard: 15
2 Meddling Mage
2 Containment Priest
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Rest in Peace
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Humility
1 Detention Sphere
1 Hydroblast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Disenchant
1 Flusterstorm

[gabelmeister]

Would be interesting if she is worth.
But normally jace, baneslayer and elspeth, knight errant are the best late game bombs

[[SLAYER]chaos]

I used to have Knight Errant. Then had Baneslayer in the uwr version. I just always wanted to try her out in legacy and this seems like the deck where she would most naturally fit in.

[Collman]

Hey, very glad I found this thread. I've been building a similar list and I'd like to get your input on it.
I haven't been able to actually play a tournament with this deck yet since my local store is closed until next week or the other, so most of my testing have been with friends and whatnot. Here's my list.

1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique

1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Council's Judgment

4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Dig Through Time

4 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand
2 Arid Mesa
1 Polluted Delta
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
3 Island
2 Plains

Sideboard
1 Containment Priest
2 Blood Moon
1 Electrickery
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Spell Pierce
2 Pyroblast
2 Rest in Peace
1 Pithing Needle
1 Wear // Tear
2 Meddling Mage

The reason I'm playing this list is that I feel it has a good late game, plenty of removal for the small creature decks, a good mana base against wasteland, decent sources of CA and very impactful sideboard cards in RIP and Blood Moon.

Sadly, I don't feel like the mana base is good enough to operate on basics as easily as I'd like and I also feel like the deck is not aggresive enough sometimes.
I'm considering on going -1 Counterspell to relief some of that tension, and adding another creature to the deck. I've been considering the fourth SFM since playing 3 seems a little weird, but I often don't feel like she's the best. I might be wrong though, so I'll probably try it.

Elspeth in the SB is for Miracles which I don't feel is a good matchup but I'm also not 100% convinced that it's good enough or the best plan. Electrickery is there against Elves and D&T, it should be a Sudden Demise but I can't find one in my country.

I've been thinking about the EE + Academy Ruin's package, but that feels slow and I'm not sure that's where this decks wants to be at.

[somethingdotdotdot]

I've been playing UWr counterblade for the last couple of weeks and its been treating me well (Top 8'd the piq at scg la; and t8'd the other 3 local tournaments I've brought it to). However, I've always been an avid fan of the esper colors so I tried porting my uwr list into uwb. This is my current version and it's actually been beating my uwr version in testing.

4 True-Name Nemesis
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Lingering Souls

3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Counterbalance
4 Brainstorm
2 Dig Through Time
3 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Council's Judgment
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
1 Academy Ruins
1 Karakas
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
2 Island
2 Plains

SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
SB: 1 Flusterstorm
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 1 Force of Will
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 3 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Spell Pierce
SB: 2 Vendilion Clique
SB: 2 Containment Priest

So I put the thoughtseizes into the side and took the basic swamp out of the manabase. My thoughts are that I want the black splash to be pretty minimal preboard and be able to operate off of just basics and only fetch the sea/scrubland if I need to flashback the souls or cast the edict.

Advantages of Black:
- Lingering souls: good vs the mirror, miracles, and delver
- Thoughtseize: good versus combo (especially storm) and any stoneforge deck (pretty much every non-miracle white deck)
- Diabolic edict: good versus sneak/show, reanimator, and true-name decks; bad vs swarm decks

Advantages of Red:
- Pyroblast: anti-blue (main reason to run red)
- Lightning Bolt: good vs small creature/swam decks; bad vs big creatures (goyf, tasigur)
- Blood moon: great versus greedy manabases (haven't run this in the uwr version yet, but useful vs post and bug decks)

Any opinions on which color splash is better for the general metagame?

Edit: After a couple hours of testing I believe that the UWr version is much better at stabilizing versus decks with a lot of early pressure/land destruction (ie, Rug Delver, Bug with stifles, UG infect); the UWb version is better versus grindy midrange/control decks (it has a great matchup versus miracles) as well as combo in general. I believe some tweaks to the esper list to increase early disruption may turn it into the better overall list.

[MoAC]

I am new to Legacy and am building into straight UW Stoneblade. What are your opinions on running sword/thopter combo in the deck as a 1:2 split?

[somethingdotdotdot]

I am new to Legacy and am building into straight UW Stoneblade. What are your opinions on running sword/thopter combo in the deck as a 1:2 split?

I haven't tried thopter swords in the deck for a while, but it definitely helps out the miracles matchup as they have virtually no way to win once it resolves. The biggest problem is obviously resolving it through counterbalance and a slew of fow's/counterspells. I found that it was clunky in pretty much every other matchup, especially the BGx ones which were already iffy for the deck.

[Abantau]

Narset planeswalker looks promising in uw stoneblade.

[zzregz]

Guys... what do you think on my build? Please help me...


4 SfM
2 tnn
2 snapcaster mage
3 young pyromancer
(11 creature)

4 fow
2 daze
3 spell pierce
4 brainstorm
4 ponder
2 dtt
2 g probe
4 StP
2 lightning bolt
1 council's judgment
1 batterskull
1 jitte
(30 other spell)

2 arid mesa
3 scalding tarn
3 flooded strand
3 tundra
3 volcanic island
2 island
2 plains
1 karakas
(19 land)


2 containment priest
2 meddling mage
2 surgical extraction
1 g cage
1 wear/ tear
2 blood moon
1 sudden dimise
2 pyroblast
1 hurkyl's recall
1 pithing needle
(15 sideboard)



I hope you help me on my build... thanks...

[weaselface]

Narset planeswalker looks promising in uw stoneblade.

If I'm going to resolve a 4-mana planeswalker I would rather it be Jace.


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[matunos]

If I'm going to resolve a 4-mana planeswalker I would rather it be Jace.


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Agreed. Narset is unplayable in Legacy as long as Jace is legal (and possibly even if he's not.)

[Secretly.A.Bee]

I think even other Jaces are better for legacy than Narset. I'm going to be testing Narset in modern.

From my phone. I do my best, dammit!

[grim confident]

I do not think narset better than jace, in any case.

Unstable or need to meet in the draw, and slow rebound.

turn 4 has no effect on the battle.

so........