Stoneblade is a group of W/x decks that utilize Stoneforge Mystic in order to generate threats through very powerful equipment. With the printing of Batterskull, Stoneforge Mystic by itself becomes a fearsome play, allowing its controller access to a strong board position regardless of the time of the game. This is the card that defines Stoneblade as an archetype rather than a strategy since it provides a proactive plan. Many decks, such as Maverick, Death and Taxes and Excalibur (Bant with Stoneforge), utilize this combination but have access to other creatures that are proactive threats as well. Even some Zoo players have picked it up due to its sheer power.
What sets Stoneblade decks from these other established decks is it does not utilize other threats; instead, it uses equipment as its primary threat, combined with other “safe” creatures, such as tokens or manlands. The strategy is supplemented with disruption, removal and card advantage. As a result, the deck performs well at all stages of the game, allowing it to disrupt combo, slow down aggro and grind it out against control. Various version of the deck exist but all of them begin with the Stoneforge Mystic base.
This primer will be focused on discussion of Blue based Stoneblade decks, including Patriot. If you are looking for BW Stoneblade, Raggedjoe is maintaining it here:
Obviously this is not a restriction but it tends to be the trend. 4 Stoneforge Mystic implies that you need at least two pieces of equipment and you will want one out to play Batterskull cheap for as long as possible.
Swords is the most efficient removal spell in Legacy at the moment and, with a white base, it seems to be practical to use this to win combat.
The blue based version of this deck performs as a dedicated control deck (most of the time), so the rest of your deck will be a control shell. Here’s a typical list:
Note that the list for Stoneblade has about 5 or 6 flex slots which players can tune to their liking.
Creatures:
Vendilion Clique – A staple since the beginning, Clique is a powerful card in all blue midrange and control decks. It provides a threat and disruption at instant speed, which can really tip the scales. Expect to run 2-3.
Snapcaster Mage – Tiago is the card that has kept Stoneblade strong with the banning of Mental Misstep. It doubles up your spells and it provides an extra body to carry swords, block and pressure Planeswalkers. 3-4 of this man will be in your list.
Geist of Saint Traft – Although not an early addition like Snapcaster, Geist of Saint Traft has exploded in popularity recently since it pressure your opponent heavily. It also is a superb equipment holder thanks to Hexproof. If you run him, 2 is standard.
Spells:
Force of Will – The classic blue spell. One of the primary reasons to run blue since it gives you the ability to answer spells with no mana open. 4 is standard but some players will run 3 and put the 4th in the board.
Spell Snare – 2 is a huge number in Legacy at the moment, so Spell Snare is a consistent answer to trouble spells. Hits Stoneforge Mystic, Goyf, Burning Wish, Infernal Tutor, Green Sun’s Zenith for X=1 and a plethora of other spells. You will want 2-3 of this.
Daze/Counterspell/Mana Leak/Negate – Daze was standard previously but with the rise of midrange decks, it has been replaced by less soft permission. There are enough spells you want to be able to counter without losing tempo or card advantage, so 2 of these will be appropriate.
Brainstorm – The standard cantrip. Develops a lot of virtual card advantage with the 8 fetches you run. This is a snap 4.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor – The other reason you play blue. You are a control deck and Jace rewards you for it. Jace’s ability to take over a game from parity or even slightly behind is tremendous. 3 is minimum and many players will jump for the 4th.
The Sword:
Your equipment of choice will almost always be Feast and Famine. There are two reasons for this.
The first is the fact that it gives you tempo. You get ahead on mana, which is really important for a deck that does not like to tap out and tries to play as many of its spells on its opponent’s turn.
The second is the protections. Green gets past Knight and Goyf, which means you have a chance of racing green decks. Black gets past enemy Batterskulls, forcing your opponent to re-equip on to another creature to make good use of it.
The Sideboard:
Stoneblade has a tremendous number of sideboard options. However, you will almost always run the following cards in some capacity:
Path to Exile – with the rise of midrange decks and aggro, this has become very common in the board. Extra removal is very good since it allows you to not have to use Force as your answer to troublesome creatures.
Spell Pierce – An extra measure against combo decks and other control decks, this card will stop many spells, from Ad Nauseum to Jace, when you need it to.
Surgical Extraction/Purify the Grave – Stoneblade has notorious problems with graveyard decks (especially Dredge); therefore, you’ll need to combat graveyard decks so you don’t get far behind.
Disenchant – good in the mirror, fights Choke and is all around a reliable spell to deal with problematic cards.
Wrath of God – a second countermeasure to aggro decks and large creatures that are immune to swords. You will probably want some of these in your deck somewhere.
When splashing into another color, your mana base will typically change slightly. Usually an Island and a Plains are cut for the appropriate dual land. This may take some tuning depending on the splashed card.
III. Match Ups
Stoneblade has a number of good/even match ups. It typically can beat other blue decks and aggro decks because of Batterskull and equipment allow it to put a lot of pressure on the board state. In addition, combo is usually favorable or at least even with 10+ counter spells and Snapcaster Mage.
Stoneblade tends to struggle with midrange decks, such as Maverick and Bant; the threat density of these decks is very high and getting behind on cards with Force of Will is very noticeable. In addition, enemy equipment is a big problem since these decks can afford to run more protection swords and not be restricted to Batterskull.
In addition, Stoneblade struggles against Dredge. This is for many reasons. One is Cabal Therapy; a competent Dredge pilot can rip apart your hand in a single turn, which can spell game over for the Stoneblade player, since it will give them enough time to dredge into the win. Another problem is Ichorid. Ichorid plays two important roles. First, it pressures Jace and provides a consistent clock, making your life total extremely relevant. Second, combined with Bridge from Below, it clogs the board with Zombies, making it impossible for you to get ahead on cards. The last issue is life total. Dredge does not care about life totals for the majority of the game. This makes cards like Batterskull much worse since they can swing in units of 30 if you rely on Stoneblade -> Batterskull with no protection.
I like it, very nice job. I'm especially impressed with how you distinguished what makes a stoneblade deck different from a deck that runs SFM. I'm really digging the Italia one. I like the 3 mana lists more really, despite the manabase weaknesses. Definitely something I could play around with.
Very nice job on the PRIMER! one of the bests I've seen.
No offense dude, but you need to read more primers. This is a decent start, but not nearly THAT good... :/
Anyways, to start off discussion, I have seen people use Coralhelm as a beater in UW Standstill versions. Although he doesnt pack disruption himself, he is a potent threat under a Standstill even without a Sword. He alao has the obvious advantage of evasion. For the sake of discussion, let's say you take the posted UW list and drop 1-2 Jace and 1-2 Clique to add him as a 3-of. The obvious advantage he has over Clique is his toughness, making him a more durable threat. Not dieing to Bolt post-equip and Grim Pre-equip can be pretty sweet.
Raggedjoe
Anyways, to start off discussion, I have seen people use Coralhelm as a beater in UW Standstill versions. Although he doesnt pack disruption himself, he is a potent threat under a Standstill even without a Sword. He alao has the obvious advantage of evasion. For the sake of discussion, let's say you take the posted UW list and drop 1-2 Jace and 1-2 Clique to add him as a 3-of. The obvious advantage he has over Clique is his toughness, making him a more durable threat. Not dieing to Bolt post-equip and Grim Pre-equip can be pretty sweet.
but the Vendilion Clique gives you play with the karakas.. very useful.. and i believe more versatile..
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Anyways, to start off discussion, I have seen people use Coralhelm as a beater in UW Standstill versions. Although he doesnt pack disruption himself, he is a potent threat under a Standstill even without a Sword. He alao has the obvious advantage of evasion. For the sake of discussion, let's say you take the posted UW list and drop 1-2 Jace and 1-2 Clique to add him as a 3-of. The obvious advantage he has over Clique is his toughness, making him a more durable threat. Not dieing to Bolt post-equip and Grim Pre-equip can be pretty sweet.
Have you ever played with or against Jace? He wins games that you had no business winning all by his onesy. Four is almost always the right number and no less than three.
Clique is a 3/1 flier with Flash, which is extremely relevant, for 1UU that takes a card. Commander is a 2/2 for UU. If you want him to have evasion and not die to Lavamancer he costs 2UU, and you can't level him up at instant speed so they just kill him in response. He costs 4UU to not to Bolt. Doesn't seem all that good comparatively, especially since you don't care about the +1/+1 to Merfolk.
I personally do not play any Stoneblade builds (I have almost nothing from any of these lists), but one of my close friends runs BW and has been doing so for a while, so I have a feeling for the decks. Given a choice, I would play Patriot or Team Italia because I like Magus of the Moon and Grim a lot.
Thanks for the positive feedback, but it needs a lot of work. Match ups needs to be discussed, more thorough discussion of the variants is required (single card choices), sideboard options should be highlighted better. There's a lot that can be done.
EDIT: Here's a list I coughed up after working on this primer; it's trash but it makes me laugh:
The banner is kind of creepy with the severed hands on the swords' handles.
I've been running stoneforge decks in legacy, and it's been working fairly well. I find it runs the easiest with token generators like bitterblossom and Elspeth, Knight-Errant (giving access to vindicate and dark confidant as well).
Mirran Crusader is great with a sword, getting its effects twice and becoming a 8/4 essentially.
first of all, i lolololove the art. nice work back there, i wish i can customize that art on my play mat, i play excalibur bant. i really think stoneforge mystic
if i were going to play strait stoneblade, i'd play this kind of list.
since you run equipments, you must not run out of creature on the ground.
mortarpod - funny, but can be a tool for you since you generate creatures via elspeth and blossom, plus if confidant would hurt you next turn, you can just bombard him to your opponents face.
i have'nt tried it though. LOL
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Is the thread just for 4 sfm main deck varients? because Ive played against bladezoo, bladebant, bladeaffinty (this is pretty scary) anything and everything you can swing a dead cat at the moment is trying to shove the stoneblade engine into it
Yes, this is only the decks that use SFM/gear as the primary threat. All those decks have another plan and SFM is just icing on the cake. These decks take Stoneforge Mystic + Equipment and try to protect them so that they can win off just those cards.
@Arnnaria: Thanks for the sticky.
In theory, you could take a printer and have it print this onto a white playmat. Or silkscreen print it. Just saying if you really want a playmat like that.
I'm pumped this finally up! The banner and everything looks really great so far :D. I've been working on patriot for a while now and absolutely loving it. I've only got a chance to play it at my local store once going 4-1 and since then I've been making small adjustments here and there. Here's what I've been play testing with as of late.
Mirran Crusader is something that I was trying just as of last night and because of him I decided to switch out Sword of Feast and Famine for Fire and Ice. I'm ready to cut mirran crusader already though as getting WW through wastelands was proving difficult. I've got Magus of the Moon and I think I'll playtest him mainboard next. I didn't have any last tournament I played but after analyzing my opponents land I saw that basically all of them were very greedy and I could have flat out won a few games with magus.
Also, I've noticed that most of the patriot builds have no form of raw card advantage. Most builds seem to use Jace for that but I've found ancestral vision to be a total bomb, especially when I play it on turn 1. I've debated for a while now dropping it to make more room in my build but I'm not sure that's the right call.
I'll edit the rest of my sideboard into their soon, though I'm crafting it for my meta. What are people's opinions on E.Tutor with cards like Crucible of Worlds and Ensnaring Bridge as targets? I've never tried a tutor board before but it seems like it could be great. I'm also debating Wrath of Gods or Firespouts in there as well. Just some food for thought.
Lastely, I will try and help you out with the matchup analysis, Zirath. I can pm you results from this Sunday and let you know what I had trouble with.
Thanks again. Are you still planning on writing a UW only primer? We should link the primers together so that people don't get too deep on UW in this one if you plan to. You can also use this banner since it is pretty bamf.
I'll edit the rest of my sideboard into their soon, though I'm crafting it for my meta. What are people's opinions on E.Tutor with cards like Crucible of Worlds and Ensnaring Bridge as targets? I've never tried a tutor board before but it seems like it could be great.
I want to build a tutor board (I picked up a playset of E. Tutor yesterday, actually), but I'm not sure how good Ensnaring Bridge will be overall in the build I play as I tend to have a fair amount of cards in hand. Probably good against NO/Progenitus decks?
I'm still trying to figure my meta out as I only played two legacy decks in that FNM, really - NO-RUG (twice) and MUD Stompy - and the LGS only runs Legacy once a month. (I really, really want to play more legacy now). Depending on the meta I could run 2 E. Tutors and things like Tormod's Crypt, Blood Moon, Energy Flux, Pithing Needle, maybe even Energy Field, as I have at least one of all those cards ... although I kind of like the Magus over blood moon as he has a body so you can beat with him (with the downside that it may be a bit harder to keep on the board).
I'm thinking about dropping the crusaders and just running another Jace and another Clique, or another clique and SoFI main. (Edit: Although I did play a test game against MUD Stompy where a skulled up crusader held off a wormcoil engine ... but I'm not sure that will actually happen enough to matter) I'm new to legacy so I don't really know matchups - I don't know how to sideboard that well, other than 'this card seems dead, take it out for that card that seems not dead and/or less dead...' and making sure the Magus get in if I don't see any basics.
Thanks again. Are you still planning on writing a UW only primer? We should link the primers together so that people don't get too deep on UW in this one if you plan to. You can also use this banner since it is pretty bamf.
I'll just edit in strategies and matchup analysis, sideboarding, and flex spots this weekend, and you can copy and paste it into the OP.
I. Introduction
What is Stoneblade?
Stoneblade is a group of W/x decks that utilize Stoneforge Mystic in order to generate threats through very powerful equipment. With the printing of Batterskull, Stoneforge Mystic by itself becomes a fearsome play, allowing its controller access to a strong board position regardless of the time of the game. This is the card that defines Stoneblade as an archetype rather than a strategy since it provides a proactive plan. Many decks, such as Maverick, Death and Taxes and Excalibur (Bant with Stoneforge), utilize this combination but have access to other creatures that are proactive threats as well. Even some Zoo players have picked it up due to its sheer power.
What sets Stoneblade decks from these other established decks is it does not utilize other threats; instead, it uses equipment as its primary threat, combined with other “safe” creatures, such as tokens or manlands. The strategy is supplemented with disruption, removal and card advantage. As a result, the deck performs well at all stages of the game, allowing it to disrupt combo, slow down aggro and grind it out against control. Various version of the deck exist but all of them begin with the Stoneforge Mystic base.
This primer will be focused on discussion of Blue based Stoneblade decks, including Patriot. If you are looking for BW Stoneblade, Raggedjoe is maintaining it here:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=342919
II. The Deck
The Base
All Stoneblade decks start with the following cards:
Swords is the most efficient removal spell in Legacy at the moment and, with a white base, it seems to be practical to use this to win combat.
The blue based version of this deck performs as a dedicated control deck (most of the time), so the rest of your deck will be a control shell. Here’s a typical list:
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Mana Leak
3 Spell Snare
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Karakas
2 Plains
3 Tundra
3 Wasteland
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Path to Exile
3 Spell Pierce
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Disenchant
2 Wrath of God
Note that the list for Stoneblade has about 5 or 6 flex slots which players can tune to their liking.
Creatures:
Vendilion Clique – A staple since the beginning, Clique is a powerful card in all blue midrange and control decks. It provides a threat and disruption at instant speed, which can really tip the scales. Expect to run 2-3.
Snapcaster Mage – Tiago is the card that has kept Stoneblade strong with the banning of Mental Misstep. It doubles up your spells and it provides an extra body to carry swords, block and pressure Planeswalkers. 3-4 of this man will be in your list.
Geist of Saint Traft – Although not an early addition like Snapcaster, Geist of Saint Traft has exploded in popularity recently since it pressure your opponent heavily. It also is a superb equipment holder thanks to Hexproof. If you run him, 2 is standard.
Spells:
Force of Will – The classic blue spell. One of the primary reasons to run blue since it gives you the ability to answer spells with no mana open. 4 is standard but some players will run 3 and put the 4th in the board.
Spell Snare – 2 is a huge number in Legacy at the moment, so Spell Snare is a consistent answer to trouble spells. Hits Stoneforge Mystic, Goyf, Burning Wish, Infernal Tutor, Green Sun’s Zenith for X=1 and a plethora of other spells. You will want 2-3 of this.
Daze/Counterspell/Mana Leak/Negate – Daze was standard previously but with the rise of midrange decks, it has been replaced by less soft permission. There are enough spells you want to be able to counter without losing tempo or card advantage, so 2 of these will be appropriate.
Brainstorm – The standard cantrip. Develops a lot of virtual card advantage with the 8 fetches you run. This is a snap 4.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor – The other reason you play blue. You are a control deck and Jace rewards you for it. Jace’s ability to take over a game from parity or even slightly behind is tremendous. 3 is minimum and many players will jump for the 4th.
The Sword:
Your equipment of choice will almost always be Feast and Famine. There are two reasons for this.
The first is the fact that it gives you tempo. You get ahead on mana, which is really important for a deck that does not like to tap out and tries to play as many of its spells on its opponent’s turn.
The second is the protections. Green gets past Knight and Goyf, which means you have a chance of racing green decks. Black gets past enemy Batterskulls, forcing your opponent to re-equip on to another creature to make good use of it.
The Sideboard:
Stoneblade has a tremendous number of sideboard options. However, you will almost always run the following cards in some capacity:
Path to Exile – with the rise of midrange decks and aggro, this has become very common in the board. Extra removal is very good since it allows you to not have to use Force as your answer to troublesome creatures.
Spell Pierce – An extra measure against combo decks and other control decks, this card will stop many spells, from Ad Nauseum to Jace, when you need it to.
Surgical Extraction/Purify the Grave – Stoneblade has notorious problems with graveyard decks (especially Dredge); therefore, you’ll need to combat graveyard decks so you don’t get far behind.
Disenchant – good in the mirror, fights Choke and is all around a reliable spell to deal with problematic cards.
Wrath of God – a second countermeasure to aggro decks and large creatures that are immune to swords. You will probably want some of these in your deck somewhere.
Variants:
The primary variant of Stoneblade is Faeblade. The major change is to run Spellstutter Sprite and replace Mishra’s Factory with Mutavault. A very straightforward variant.
Since the mana base is fairly strong, splashes are easily accessible in Stoneblade. The splashes are commonly for the following cards:
Red Splash – Lightning Bolt, Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast, Magus of the Moon/Blood Moon
Black Splash – Bitterblossom, Vindicate, Thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozilek
Green Splash – Tarmogoyf, Knight of the Reliquary
When splashing into another color, your mana base will typically change slightly. Usually an Island and a Plains are cut for the appropriate dual land. This may take some tuning depending on the splashed card.
III. Match Ups
Stoneblade has a number of good/even match ups. It typically can beat other blue decks and aggro decks because of Batterskull and equipment allow it to put a lot of pressure on the board state. In addition, combo is usually favorable or at least even with 10+ counter spells and Snapcaster Mage.
Stoneblade tends to struggle with midrange decks, such as Maverick and Bant; the threat density of these decks is very high and getting behind on cards with Force of Will is very noticeable. In addition, enemy equipment is a big problem since these decks can afford to run more protection swords and not be restricted to Batterskull.
In addition, Stoneblade struggles against Dredge. This is for many reasons. One is Cabal Therapy; a competent Dredge pilot can rip apart your hand in a single turn, which can spell game over for the Stoneblade player, since it will give them enough time to dredge into the win. Another problem is Ichorid. Ichorid plays two important roles. First, it pressures Jace and provides a consistent clock, making your life total extremely relevant. Second, combined with Bridge from Below, it clogs the board with Zombies, making it impossible for you to get ahead on cards. The last issue is life total. Dredge does not care about life totals for the majority of the game. This makes cards like Batterskull much worse since they can swing in units of 30 if you rely on Stoneblade -> Batterskull with no protection.
Do you yourself play any of these decks?
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No offense dude, but you need to read more primers. This is a decent start, but not nearly THAT good... :/
Anyways, to start off discussion, I have seen people use Coralhelm as a beater in UW Standstill versions. Although he doesnt pack disruption himself, he is a potent threat under a Standstill even without a Sword. He alao has the obvious advantage of evasion. For the sake of discussion, let's say you take the posted UW list and drop 1-2 Jace and 1-2 Clique to add him as a 3-of. The obvious advantage he has over Clique is his toughness, making him a more durable threat. Not dieing to Bolt post-equip and Grim Pre-equip can be pretty sweet.
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Currently Playing:
W Death and Taxes
BGR ScapeWish Nic Fit
BGR Punishing Nic Fit
but the Vendilion Clique gives you play with the karakas.. very useful.. and i believe more versatile..
YUMA, AZ
Have you ever played with or against Jace? He wins games that you had no business winning all by his onesy. Four is almost always the right number and no less than three.
Clique is a 3/1 flier with Flash, which is extremely relevant, for 1UU that takes a card. Commander is a 2/2 for UU. If you want him to have evasion and not die to Lavamancer he costs 2UU, and you can't level him up at instant speed so they just kill him in response. He costs 4UU to not to Bolt. Doesn't seem all that good comparatively, especially since you don't care about the +1/+1 to Merfolk.
Good initial start. I think a section should be devoted to the creatures/ additional threats that sometimes comlpement stoneforge mystic.
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Thanks for the positive feedback, but it needs a lot of work. Match ups needs to be discussed, more thorough discussion of the variants is required (single card choices), sideboard options should be highlighted better. There's a lot that can be done.
EDIT: Here's a list I coughed up after working on this primer; it's trash but it makes me laugh:
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
3 Magma Jet
2 Fireblast
4 Path to Exile
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Chrome Mox
3 Wasteland
4 Arid Mesa
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Plateau
2 Plains
3 Mountain
I've been running stoneforge decks in legacy, and it's been working fairly well. I find it runs the easiest with token generators like bitterblossom and Elspeth, Knight-Errant (giving access to vindicate and dark confidant as well).
Mirran Crusader is great with a sword, getting its effects twice and becoming a 8/4 essentially.
Is 4 Stoneforge Mystic: 2 Equipment really optimal? I've been running 3 equipment (batterskull, Sword of Body and Mind, and Umezawa's Jitte) with 4 Mystics.
Haven't played caw blade (been skipping on standard since lorwyn cycled), but stoneforge + tokens is a blast.
-Legacy-
WUB Esper Stoneblade
WUR Miracles
BUG Bug Loam
if i were going to play strait stoneblade, i'd play this kind of list.
4 bitterblossom
4 stoneforge mystic
4 dark confidant
2 sensei's divining top
4 hymn to tourach
3 thoughtseize
1 duress
4 vindicate
4 swords to plowshares
1 batterskull
1 sword of fire and ice
1 sword of feast and famine
1 umezawa's jitte
1 basilisk collar
1 mortarpod
4 scrubland
1 godless shrine
4 marsh flats
4 swamp
2 plains
3 cabal pit
since you run equipments, you must not run out of creature on the ground.
mortarpod - funny, but can be a tool for you since you generate creatures via elspeth and blossom, plus if confidant would hurt you next turn, you can just bombard him to your opponents face.
i have'nt tried it though. LOL
EDH - UWGrand Arbiter Agustin IV
UBW Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Modern - Mono U tron / Polymorph / NFTW (ninja for the win)GR tron GR
Buy All the Dual Lands!!!
Buy All the fetches!
Create tons of EDH Decks!!!
Eat Nothing but Oats!! (LOL, not true)
Train MMA!!!
Marry My girlfriend!!!
Get her Pregnant only Once!
Teach my Son/Daughter Sports and magic cards!!!
Continue my legacy son!!!/Daughter!!
Yes, this is only the decks that use SFM/gear as the primary threat. All those decks have another plan and SFM is just icing on the cake. These decks take Stoneforge Mystic + Equipment and try to protect them so that they can win off just those cards.
@Arnnaria: Thanks for the sticky.
In theory, you could take a printer and have it print this onto a white playmat. Or silkscreen print it. Just saying if you really want a playmat like that.
4x Stoneforge Mystic
3x Grim Lavamancer
2x Vendilion Clique
2x Mirran Crusader
Instants:
3x Mental Misstep
3x Spell Snare
4x Force of Will
4x Brainstorm
4x Swords to Plowshare
Sorcery:
4x Ancestral Vision
Artifacts:
1x Batterskull
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
2x Jace, The Mind Sculptor
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Land:
4x Flooded Strand
3x Scalding Tarn
1x Arid Mesa
3x Tundra
3x Volcanic Island
1x Plateau
3x Wasteland
1x Mountain
2x Plains
2x Island
2x Enlightened Tutor
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Crucible of Worlds
3x Red Elemental Blast
3x Submerge
Mirran Crusader is something that I was trying just as of last night and because of him I decided to switch out Sword of Feast and Famine for Fire and Ice. I'm ready to cut mirran crusader already though as getting WW through wastelands was proving difficult. I've got Magus of the Moon and I think I'll playtest him mainboard next. I didn't have any last tournament I played but after analyzing my opponents land I saw that basically all of them were very greedy and I could have flat out won a few games with magus.
Also, I've noticed that most of the patriot builds have no form of raw card advantage. Most builds seem to use Jace for that but I've found ancestral vision to be a total bomb, especially when I play it on turn 1. I've debated for a while now dropping it to make more room in my build but I'm not sure that's the right call.
I'll edit the rest of my sideboard into their soon, though I'm crafting it for my meta. What are people's opinions on E.Tutor with cards like Crucible of Worlds and Ensnaring Bridge as targets? I've never tried a tutor board before but it seems like it could be great. I'm also debating Wrath of Gods or Firespouts in there as well. Just some food for thought.
Lastely, I will try and help you out with the matchup analysis, Zirath. I can pm you results from this Sunday and let you know what I had trouble with.
Retired
Legacy:
GRUB Lands
Modern:
U Tron
RG Tron
RG Ponza
3x Vendilion Clique
4x Brainstorm
1x Batterskull
1x Crucible of Worlds
3x Force of Will
4x Jace, the Mindsculptor
4x Mental Misstep
4x Spell Snare
4x Standstill
1x Sword of Body and Mind
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Island
4x Mishra's Factory
1x Plains
4x Polluted Delta
4x Tundra
4x Wasteland
1x Batterskull
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x Force of Will
1x Manriki-Gusari
3x Path to Exile
2x Pithing Needle
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Vedalken Shackles
1x Vendilion Clique
2x Wrath of God
By the way, I freaking love that banner.
Thanks again. Are you still planning on writing a UW only primer? We should link the primers together so that people don't get too deep on UW in this one if you plan to. You can also use this banner since it is pretty bamf.
I want to build a tutor board (I picked up a playset of E. Tutor yesterday, actually), but I'm not sure how good Ensnaring Bridge will be overall in the build I play as I tend to have a fair amount of cards in hand. Probably good against NO/Progenitus decks?
I'm still trying to figure my meta out as I only played two legacy decks in that FNM, really - NO-RUG (twice) and MUD Stompy - and the LGS only runs Legacy once a month. (I really, really want to play more legacy now). Depending on the meta I could run 2 E. Tutors and things like Tormod's Crypt, Blood Moon, Energy Flux, Pithing Needle, maybe even Energy Field, as I have at least one of all those cards ... although I kind of like the Magus over blood moon as he has a body so you can beat with him (with the downside that it may be a bit harder to keep on the board).
I ran this:
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Mirran Crusader
3 Vendilion Clique
Spells:
4 Brainstorm
4 Mental Misstep
3 Spell Snare
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
1 Batterskull
4 Force of Will
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Karakas
1 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
1 Tormod's Crypt
4 Red Elemental Blast
2 Spell Pierce
2 Firespout
2 Magus of the Moon
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Misdirection
I'm thinking about dropping the crusaders and just running another Jace and another Clique, or another clique and SoFI main. (Edit: Although I did play a test game against MUD Stompy where a skulled up crusader held off a wormcoil engine ... but I'm not sure that will actually happen enough to matter) I'm new to legacy so I don't really know matchups - I don't know how to sideboard that well, other than 'this card seems dead, take it out for that card that seems not dead and/or less dead...' and making sure the Magus get in if I don't see any basics.
I'll just edit in strategies and matchup analysis, sideboarding, and flex spots this weekend, and you can copy and paste it into the OP.