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[Deck] Esper Stoneblade

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 3:32 am
by Mcdonalds
[i:3406facb]What is Stoneblade?[/i:3406facb]

Short Answer: Stoneblade is a deck built around Stoneforge Mystic

Long Answer: Stoneblade comes from the Zen-Scars standard deck 'Caw-Go', a U/W control deck built around Squadron Hawk, eventually adding Sword of Feast and Famine and Stoneforge Mystic, thus turning into Caw-Blade, with New Phyrexia, it gained Batterskull and became indisputably the best deck in the format until Stoneforge Mystic and Jace, the Mind Sculptor were banned in June 2011. Eventually the deck was ported to legacy, dropping squadron hawks and being teched out with legacy mana, and creatures, becoming Stoneblade.

[i:3406facb]Why should I play Stoneblade?[/i:3406facb]

It's an extremely flexible deck with lots of options, since it's introduction, it's been very consistent and very capable.
[i:3406facb]
What about U/W Stoneblade?[/i:3406facb]

A) I, the OP, have not
played with any of the U/W versions so theres that
B) For the past year, the Esper build has pretty much been the only one that top 8's/see play across the board, although it still shows up sometimes, most stoneblade decks are assumed to be U/W/b
[i:3406facb]
How about a deck tech?
[/i:3406facb]
Stoneblade could almost be called a good stuffs deck in a control shell, having a deck tech would almost be an evaluation of the best cards in those colors, that said a blueprint would look something like
[center:3406facb]
:3406facb
4 [card:3406facb]Stoneforge Mystic[/card:3406facb]
3 [card:3406facb]Snapcaster Mages[/card:3406facb] (possibly 4 but I've never seen a list with 4 lately)
1-2 [card:3406facb]Vendilion Clique[/card:3406facb]

4 [card:3406facb]Brainstorm[/card:3406facb]
4 [card:3406facb]Swords[/card:3406facb]
0-1 [card:3406facb]Ponder[/card:3406facb]
3-4 [card:3406facb]Force of Will[/card:3406facb]
1 [card:3406facb]Counterspell[/card:3406facb](maybe more)
0-1[cardb]Supreme Verdict[/card:3406facb]
0-1 [card:3406facb]Intuition[/card:3406facb]
2-3 [card:3406facb]Thoughtseize[/card:3406facb]
1-2 [card:3406facb]Inquisition of Kozilek[/card:3406facb]
0-1 [card:3406facb]Duress[/card:3406facb]
3-4 [card:3406facb]Lingering Souls[/card:3406facb]
1-2 [card:3406facb]Spell Pierce[/card:3406facb]
1 [card:3406facb]Vindicate[/card:3406facb]

3-4 [card:3406facb]Tundra[/card:3406facb]
2-3 [card:3406facb]Underground Sea[/card:3406facb]
0-1 [card:3406facb]Scrubland[/card:3406facb]
4 [card:3406facb]Flooded Strand[/card:3406facb]
5 Fetches that get U or W (mostly U)
1 [card:3406facb]Academy Ruins[/card:3406facb]
1 [card:3406facb]Karakas[/card:3406facb]
4-5 Basics (Usually 2 Island 1 Plains 1 Swamp)

1 [card:3406facb]Umezawa's Jitte[/card:3406facb]
1 [card:3406facb]Batterskull[/card:3406facb]
1 [card:3406facb]Engineered Explosives[/card:3406facb]
0-1 Sword of X and Y

3 [card:3406facb]Geist of Saint Traft[/card:3406facb](he's a
sideboard card, but almost always present)[/spoiler:3406facb][/center:3406facb]
may have forgotten something, but you get the idea

[i:3406facb]Why play this over Miracles?[/i:3406facb]

Preference, both have their pros and cons (Miracles has a very strong Maverick MU, while a mostly unwinnable goblins matchup and a poor Jund matchup, Stoneblade doesn't quite have any particularly strong matchup, but only 1-2 that are poor, and even it's worse matchups are very winnable), but it more comes down to playstyle, Miracles is more draw-go, while Stoneblade is a tad more proactive (and generally better at playing stoneforge mystic).

[i:3406facb]Why 3 Force/little countermagic? [/i:3406facb]

The deck does not need 4 Mainboard. Unlike say miracles, we have plenty of ways to approach a match, via discard, spamming removal, stalling with lingering souls until batterskull hits the table.

The combo matchup is a bit rougher game 1 due to this, but that's when the 4th force and additional discard
comes in

[i:3406facb]How does this deck play?[/i:3406facb]

It's a control deck through and through but what it does in each matchup differs, it's one of the strengths (and weaknesses) of the deck, in order to do well, you need to learn very quickly what your doing in each matchup, vs say goblins, stalling with lingering souls while picking apart their gas with discard is a winning strategy, but vs most combo, you want to board out lingering souls and in Geist of St. Traft and become more of an aggressor (see Who's the beatdown), it's also a weakness of the deck, not properly evaluating the best strategy is a quick way to lose a lot.

Matchups:

[u:3406facb]Jund[/u:3406facb]: This matchup is rough solely because game 1 is almost impossible, they are a deck of 2 for 1's and your trying to 1 for 1 everything (or 1 for 2 with force of will), although possible to win, it's very tough to do so, g2/3 it gets better as you get rid of Force and Thoughtsieze, but get used to having win 2 in a row

[
u:3406facb]Goblins[/u:3406facb]: Traditionally, Goblins murders non-combo island decks, not so much the case here, we have Jitte, Lingering Souls and Batterskull to curb the tide of goblins, avoid fetching duels up front, and don't be afraid to keep 1-2 lands in hand at a time to play around Rishadan Port and Wasteland, your primary concern should be getting jitte active and protecting it the best you can, they have 1-2 out to it, and plenty of ways to both get it (Matron/Ringleader) and ways to play it without worry (Cavern and Aether Vial). Game 2/3, Board out countermagic, they simply don't care, they have cavern and vial to play it, and Lackey to cheat it in.

[u:3406facb]Show & Tell Variants[/u:3406facb]: The problem g1, is that you have some counter magic and some discard, but they have plenty of countermagic and can play around discard, nevermind you don't play a quick enough clock to apply pressure, post-board, board out swords, as tempting as it maybe to keep it for grizzlebees, it's
simply not worth it.

[u:3406facb]Maverick[/u:3406facb]: Maverick is a deck that is really good at beating decks that don't play terminus; we don't. Do not let them untap with mother of runes.
(Work in progress)

(writing this for fun/out of boredom, I've wanted to write a primer so I am also using this as to get criticism for doing so)

Personal Decklist as of 4-17-2013
:3406facb
Lands
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
1 Scrubland
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flat
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Academy Ruins
1 Karakas

Creatures
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique

Jace:
3 Jace, the Mindsculpter

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

Artifacts:
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
1 Engineered Explosives[/spoiler:3406facb]

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 1:20 am
by Dodger
I'm not adding anything here but a guy at my LGS has this completely foiled out (for what's eligible anyway).

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 8:28 am
by Mcdonalds
That's expensive, you wouldn't by chance happen to have pics?

Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 12:13 am
by Dodger
Not on me, I'll see if I can get something sometime on a Friday night when he's playing between rounds. I realized I wasn't all that serious about magic the day he said he won an ebay auction for 4 foil Thoughtsiezes for $400.

Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2013 12:37 am
by Shaman
I actually have nothing to add to this. Good job.