Having almost exclusively played Stoneblade decks over the last few months, I was certain I would play one at this event, but I didn't know exactly which variant.
On Thursday night, the day before we were heading down to Baltimore, I had an epiphany of sorts. The Maryland /NOVA region is renown for being infested with Lands and Aggro Loam, two unfavorable matchups for a Stoneblade deck. So why not splash Red for Blood Moon?
Its not a novel concept by any means, but I quickly became convinced it was my best choice for the weekend, despite having never played this Stoneblade variant before. Unfortunately, an existential flaw in UWr Stoneblade is that it is essentially a strictly worse Miracles deck. There are almost no matchups where you would rather be playing UWr Stoneblade than Miracles. One could previously argue that UWr Stoneblade is more capable of closing games faster and avoiding draws than Miracles, but the incorporation of Monastery Mentor into Miracles has invalidated that argument. In fact, I would say a Miracles deck can now kill faster. However, I know how to play Stoneblade, and I have no idea how to play Miracles, so for me there was no choice. I am no stranger to "dead" archetypes, so this was fine.
At the player meeting 9 rounds of Swiss were announced. Here is how my rounds went:
Round 1: Miracles (2-0)
Game 1 Both me and my opponent had pretty good hands in the dark. He had Island, Top into Counterbalance with Force backup. I had two lands, two Forces, two Blue cards, and a Stoneforge Mystic. When the dust settled I had Batterskull beating down while he dug for an answer with Top but couldn't find it.
Game 2 I played a Delver-esque game of beatdown with Snapcaster Mage and Chris Pikula (naming Terminus) backed up by counterspells for removal.
Round 2: Gw Cloudpost (2-1)
Game 1 I was nowhere near killing him when he resolved Primeval Titan.
Game 2 I had a good mix of disruption and pressure, with Vendilion Clique and Sophie carrying the game despite an appearance by Thragtusk.
Game 3 I kept an awkward hand with Blood Moon. My opponent's hand was equally awkward with no Cloudposts and one of his lands being a Tabernacle, but he had Maps. Eventually I drew a 3rd land to Blood Moon, but he was able to get Green mana online off the Maps. I was off White mana and had to cast Snapcaster Mage as Ambush Viper just to get a clock going in conjunction with Sophie while on Island, Mountain, Mountain. I drew relevant counterspells to keep him off anything too dangerous while clocking him and was able to end it despite eventually losing my Blood Moon to a Grip. I had to sweat it big time as I was just dead to a Titan for a few turns with no Blood Moon or permission.
Round 3: Grixis Delver (2-0)
Game 1 I had timely removal and permission to answer his threats and got Jitte equipped to True-Name. After the game my opponent commented that my opener of Arid Mesa, Mountain, Bolt Delver led him to consider naming Eidolon of the Great Revel with Therapy next turn.
Game 2 I Forced a Pyromancer and Snared another, and jammed True-Name on 3 mana which resolved to my surprise. He resolved Angler, but having Probed and fetched several times I was winning the race thanks to the Bolt in my hand and just started attacking. He found a Deathrite Shaman to even it out too late.
Round 4: Death & Taxes (0-2)
Game 1 I made some poor plays in the face of Thalia, Heretic Cathar, including not Stoneforging in my Batterskull in response to a Vial on 3 activation (I was going to do it anyway) and forgetting she has first strike.
Game 2 I got steamrolled despite having a Bolt, Plow, and Snapcaster Mage in my opener and scrying True-Name Nemesis on top of my library. I used my removal spells to kill Mothers and then landed True-Name. He cast Council's Judgment right away, which I Forced pitching Snapcaster. At that point I was out of spells and didn't draw relevant action while he was able to walk through True-Name with Sophie.
Round 5: Death & Taxes (2-0)
Game 1 I forced my opponents turn 1 Vial off Plains pitching a Jace. With just Flooded Strand and Scalding Tarn in play he resolved Phyrexian Revoker and named Sensei's Divining Top. That's fine. Stoneforge Mystic and True-Name Nemesis ended the game shortly after.
Game 2 I got True-Name + Equipment on-line again before he could do too much.
Round 6: Omni-Sneak (0-2)
Game 1 my opponent didn't do much on the first few turns, so I put him on Miracles. An Impulse exposed him to be playing some kind of Show & Tell deck. I countered his first Show & Tell but he had another and Griselbrand came into play. My True-Name + Jitte valiantly tried to make it a race but he drew into Emrakul to kill me.
Game 2 was a short affair with many skill-intensive decisions made on both sides. My opponent cast Show & Tell, I cast Force of Will, he cast Force of Will, then the game ended.
Round 7: Miracles (0-2)
Game 1 my opponent played at a brisk pace and in an effort to match it I made some really loose plays. He answered all my threats and established Counter-Top, and I conceded despite being under no pressure.
Game 2 I tapped out for a Stoneforge Mystic, and my opponent resolved Counterbalance as I stared at the two Pyroblasts in my hand. The game was basically over at that point.
Round 8: Shardless BUG (1-2)
Game 1 I managed to get there with two True-Names and a Clique backed up by counterspells.
Game 2 I had mana problems and couldn't do anything about Liliana of the Veil.
Game 3 I felt like I had all the tools to win, but a well-timed Abrupt Decay followed-up by a Toxic Deluge were too much to overcome. I think I could have won this game had I made different plays at my many decision points.
At this point I was out of prize contention and reasonably tilted after losing 3 rounds in a row so I dropped.
Final Record: 4-4
Not the worst record, but a bit disappointing considering I begun the day at 3-0.
The deck felt solid overall and I would play it again. Blood Moon is a valuable addition to a Stoneblade deck that shores up some matchups it can struggle against. I also like having access to additional efficient creature removal like Lightning Bolt and Pyroclasm. Pyroblast naturally does wonders in the Blue mirrors. UWR is a very flexible color combination in Legacy that can be tuned towards a variety of matchups and metagames.
A big highlight of the tournament was fellow Punishing Maverick player Mark Strassman running undefeated through the Swiss to make Top8, beating 2 Miracles, 2 Lands, 1 Belcher, and 1 Omni-Tell deck along the way. Unfortunately, he lost in the quarterfinal to the eventual champion, Miracles veteran Sam Roukas. Strassman's list, like mine, is derived from Fabian Goerzgen's 3.5 color list with Deathrite Shaman, but was packing a lot more sideboard cards for the Miracles matchup. Its awesome to see other people representing Punishing Maverick and doing well with it. You can see Strassman's list and tournament report posted here on The Source.
The only real downside of the weekend was having to drive back to Massachusetts on Sunday night after the tournament. I got home at 4:00AM and by some miracle managed to make it to work on time at 9:00AM. Of course, at 7:00PM that same Monday night I was battling it out again at one of my Legacy weeklies. Can't stop playing the best format.
On Thursday night, the day before we were heading down to Baltimore, I had an epiphany of sorts. The Maryland /NOVA region is renown for being infested with Lands and Aggro Loam, two unfavorable matchups for a Stoneblade deck. So why not splash Red for Blood Moon?
| UWr BLADE, 10/15/16 | |
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Its not a novel concept by any means, but I quickly became convinced it was my best choice for the weekend, despite having never played this Stoneblade variant before. Unfortunately, an existential flaw in UWr Stoneblade is that it is essentially a strictly worse Miracles deck. There are almost no matchups where you would rather be playing UWr Stoneblade than Miracles. One could previously argue that UWr Stoneblade is more capable of closing games faster and avoiding draws than Miracles, but the incorporation of Monastery Mentor into Miracles has invalidated that argument. In fact, I would say a Miracles deck can now kill faster. However, I know how to play Stoneblade, and I have no idea how to play Miracles, so for me there was no choice. I am no stranger to "dead" archetypes, so this was fine.
At the player meeting 9 rounds of Swiss were announced. Here is how my rounds went:
Round 1: Miracles (2-0)
Game 1 Both me and my opponent had pretty good hands in the dark. He had Island, Top into Counterbalance with Force backup. I had two lands, two Forces, two Blue cards, and a Stoneforge Mystic. When the dust settled I had Batterskull beating down while he dug for an answer with Top but couldn't find it.
Game 2 I played a Delver-esque game of beatdown with Snapcaster Mage and Chris Pikula (naming Terminus) backed up by counterspells for removal.
Round 2: Gw Cloudpost (2-1)
Game 1 I was nowhere near killing him when he resolved Primeval Titan.
Game 2 I had a good mix of disruption and pressure, with Vendilion Clique and Sophie carrying the game despite an appearance by Thragtusk.
Game 3 I kept an awkward hand with Blood Moon. My opponent's hand was equally awkward with no Cloudposts and one of his lands being a Tabernacle, but he had Maps. Eventually I drew a 3rd land to Blood Moon, but he was able to get Green mana online off the Maps. I was off White mana and had to cast Snapcaster Mage as Ambush Viper just to get a clock going in conjunction with Sophie while on Island, Mountain, Mountain. I drew relevant counterspells to keep him off anything too dangerous while clocking him and was able to end it despite eventually losing my Blood Moon to a Grip. I had to sweat it big time as I was just dead to a Titan for a few turns with no Blood Moon or permission.
Round 3: Grixis Delver (2-0)
Game 1 I had timely removal and permission to answer his threats and got Jitte equipped to True-Name. After the game my opponent commented that my opener of Arid Mesa, Mountain, Bolt Delver led him to consider naming Eidolon of the Great Revel with Therapy next turn.
Game 2 I Forced a Pyromancer and Snared another, and jammed True-Name on 3 mana which resolved to my surprise. He resolved Angler, but having Probed and fetched several times I was winning the race thanks to the Bolt in my hand and just started attacking. He found a Deathrite Shaman to even it out too late.
Round 4: Death & Taxes (0-2)
Game 1 I made some poor plays in the face of Thalia, Heretic Cathar, including not Stoneforging in my Batterskull in response to a Vial on 3 activation (I was going to do it anyway) and forgetting she has first strike.
Game 2 I got steamrolled despite having a Bolt, Plow, and Snapcaster Mage in my opener and scrying True-Name Nemesis on top of my library. I used my removal spells to kill Mothers and then landed True-Name. He cast Council's Judgment right away, which I Forced pitching Snapcaster. At that point I was out of spells and didn't draw relevant action while he was able to walk through True-Name with Sophie.
Round 5: Death & Taxes (2-0)
Game 1 I forced my opponents turn 1 Vial off Plains pitching a Jace. With just Flooded Strand and Scalding Tarn in play he resolved Phyrexian Revoker and named Sensei's Divining Top. That's fine. Stoneforge Mystic and True-Name Nemesis ended the game shortly after.
Game 2 I got True-Name + Equipment on-line again before he could do too much.
Round 6: Omni-Sneak (0-2)
Game 1 my opponent didn't do much on the first few turns, so I put him on Miracles. An Impulse exposed him to be playing some kind of Show & Tell deck. I countered his first Show & Tell but he had another and Griselbrand came into play. My True-Name + Jitte valiantly tried to make it a race but he drew into Emrakul to kill me.
Game 2 was a short affair with many skill-intensive decisions made on both sides. My opponent cast Show & Tell, I cast Force of Will, he cast Force of Will, then the game ended.
Round 7: Miracles (0-2)
Game 1 my opponent played at a brisk pace and in an effort to match it I made some really loose plays. He answered all my threats and established Counter-Top, and I conceded despite being under no pressure.
Game 2 I tapped out for a Stoneforge Mystic, and my opponent resolved Counterbalance as I stared at the two Pyroblasts in my hand. The game was basically over at that point.
Round 8: Shardless BUG (1-2)
Game 1 I managed to get there with two True-Names and a Clique backed up by counterspells.
Game 2 I had mana problems and couldn't do anything about Liliana of the Veil.
Game 3 I felt like I had all the tools to win, but a well-timed Abrupt Decay followed-up by a Toxic Deluge were too much to overcome. I think I could have won this game had I made different plays at my many decision points.
At this point I was out of prize contention and reasonably tilted after losing 3 rounds in a row so I dropped.
Final Record: 4-4
Not the worst record, but a bit disappointing considering I begun the day at 3-0.
The deck felt solid overall and I would play it again. Blood Moon is a valuable addition to a Stoneblade deck that shores up some matchups it can struggle against. I also like having access to additional efficient creature removal like Lightning Bolt and Pyroclasm. Pyroblast naturally does wonders in the Blue mirrors. UWR is a very flexible color combination in Legacy that can be tuned towards a variety of matchups and metagames.
A big highlight of the tournament was fellow Punishing Maverick player Mark Strassman running undefeated through the Swiss to make Top8, beating 2 Miracles, 2 Lands, 1 Belcher, and 1 Omni-Tell deck along the way. Unfortunately, he lost in the quarterfinal to the eventual champion, Miracles veteran Sam Roukas. Strassman's list, like mine, is derived from Fabian Goerzgen's 3.5 color list with Deathrite Shaman, but was packing a lot more sideboard cards for the Miracles matchup. Its awesome to see other people representing Punishing Maverick and doing well with it. You can see Strassman's list and tournament report posted here on The Source.
The only real downside of the weekend was having to drive back to Massachusetts on Sunday night after the tournament. I got home at 4:00AM and by some miracle managed to make it to work on time at 9:00AM. Of course, at 7:00PM that same Monday night I was battling it out again at one of my Legacy weeklies. Can't stop playing the best format.
