Thanks mate, I'm actually the Usea person - I'm looking for playables in my Legacy and Modern deck
I'm just wary of trading duals for Modern staples, especially stuff like Restoration Angel and Geist which will most likely go down in value after Standard rotation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Force of Will
3 Restoration Angel
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Geist of St Traft
I went to a very small 8 man tournament last night and played against 2x RUG delver decks and a UW stoneblade list. Snares and Stifles were both excellent for me.
I draw a Miracle card naturally during my step as the first card of my turn. I look at the first card, see it is a Miracle and reveal it. It does not touch my hand.
I do not have enough mana to cast Miracle right now (not enough lands). Can I play a land, then proceed to cast the Miracle card for the Miracle cost (whilst keeping the Miracle card revealed on the table)?
Also, lets say I do not have sufficient lands to cast the Miracle card until the next turn. Does the Miracle cost 'wear off'?
Ie. My question is – during what time periods may I cast a card for its Miracle cost?
Out of the decks to beat, REB is relevant against:
Reanimator
Storm
Team America
RUG (maybe but they don't really run many blue cards after g1 when they side in their own REB and Grudges)
Mirror
Bant
Spell Pierce helps against the first three decks. Geist works against the mirror. I admit that REb is great against Bant.
However, REB won't be used against GW Maverick, Nic Fit, Dredge, Zoo - the metagame has shifted to beat our deck. These are the harder matchups (with the exception of Zoo) for our deck and our sideboard should address that.
I used to run a red splash version of the deck but moved away from it towards a straight UW list.
Your basically running a hybrid shell of Bant, Maverick and Stoneblade.
It is a great idea, but I feel keeping the deck to U/W stone blade shell is what is important. If you want to run something besides SFM, Snappy and Clique, try a couple Geist. Sure there are 10,000 great ideas we can come up with for splashing different colors but you take away stability and such. This deck grinds games out, thats what it does. It comes from nowhere and wins, end of story.
Great example:
I was playing RWU Tempo against my friend piloting Stoneblade last night. I dominated him in the early to mid game. He finally found his relevant removal and was able to get rid of my Jace (despite the fate sealing). I stabilize back and we go back and forth, I play a Grim Lavamancer, he again has removal. He then proceeds to grind me out with a batter skull.
He was at 6 life, he recovered and grinded me out. I can guarantee 100000 other people can share stories almost identical to this. If it isn't broke, don't fix it.
I've tried Geist in this deck. I previously ran 4 SFM, 4 Snap, 2 Clique and 2 Geist. Geist is great against the mirror, combo (as a quick clock and pitches to FoW) and RUG Thresh lists. I agree with your points re Geist being great, especially with a Sword.
But these are generally lists we can beat - what we have is a problem against Maverick. Maverick doesn't allow us to have a clear board to allow us to swing safely with Geist for value. However, Mom may allow us to do so. It might move us toward a more aggro approach with Geist and Mom. What I want to do is allow us to address our more problematic matchups without giving away too many percentage points against decks we should be winning against.
The deck has a good concept (recurring Punishing Fire gives us infinite removal against multitudes of creatures which Stoneblade is weak against). But there are some things I don't like in his deck (too many Groves/Fires, two Elspeth is too many and SoFaI is inappropriate.)
So with that deck and idea in mind, I came up with the following list:
Basically, I took the shell of a Stoneblade list with the 2 flexi slots (which people have used for Paths, Shackles or Bolts) - and filled those slots with Punishing Fire. Then I cut a Spell Snare for a 3rd Punishing Fire (reasoning being - if we don't counter it, we are going to Fires it eventually anyway).
The manabase was then reconfigured to have 3 Groves (4 is too many - though I am wary about running 3 in a deck with no land tutors). I added 2 Volcanic Islands to allow for REBs and EE in the side. EE can now go up to 4 as well with the Green from Groves.
I'm not sure on the Disenchants in the board now that I have EE.
I can see this deck covering up some of the weaknesses of a traditional Stoneblade list.
Any thoughts re this approach?
Edit: Glurman, I see you haveposted a similar list to mine, though I'm not too sure about Wastelands AND Grove (too many colourles sources?) and a maindeck Crucible replacing 1 SFM.
I like your board but is 3 Path to Exile, 1 Jitte overkill when we already run 3 Punishing Fire in the main? I'm thinking sweepers such as EE and Wrath would be better because we have enough spot removal.
It is worth it. Snapcaster Mage is needed because it gives you incremental advantage over the course of a game.
It is inherently flexible: lets you double up on removal when facing creature heavy decks, a second brainstorm when you need to dig for an answer, a second Counterspell when facing a late-game bomb. It only gets better when you run REB/Bolts/Surgical Extraction/Flusterstorm in the side.
This is the card that finally allowed a Blue control deck finally beat Merfolk (8 virtual Swords to Plowshares is pretty damn good). You may argue Batterskull was the key, but it was balanced somewhat by the printing of Dismember.
Back in the MM period, this deck ran Standstill/A vsions as the draw engine. Now that these options aren't viable, we turn to Snapcaster as our card advantage engine.
I don't see Snapcaster falling to less than a 3 of in this deck. In your deck however, I can see why there is less of a reliance on Snapcaster though.
I'm just wary of trading duals for Modern staples, especially stuff like Restoration Angel and Geist which will most likely go down in value after Standard rotation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Force of Will
3 Restoration Angel
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Geist of St Traft
for 3 Underground Sea (condition NM or NM-)
I draw a Miracle card naturally during my step as the first card of my turn. I look at the first card, see it is a Miracle and reveal it. It does not touch my hand.
I do not have enough mana to cast Miracle right now (not enough lands). Can I play a land, then proceed to cast the Miracle card for the Miracle cost (whilst keeping the Miracle card revealed on the table)?
Also, lets say I do not have sufficient lands to cast the Miracle card until the next turn. Does the Miracle cost 'wear off'?
Ie. My question is – during what time periods may I cast a card for its Miracle cost?
That is:
3x Gifts
1x Looting
1x Unburial Rites
2x Reanimate targets.
Faithless looting can be used from the GY to pitch Rites or reanimate targets.
Reanimator
Storm
Team America
RUG (maybe but they don't really run many blue cards after g1 when they side in their own REB and Grudges)
Mirror
Bant
Spell Pierce helps against the first three decks. Geist works against the mirror. I admit that REb is great against Bant.
However, REB won't be used against GW Maverick, Nic Fit, Dredge, Zoo - the metagame has shifted to beat our deck. These are the harder matchups (with the exception of Zoo) for our deck and our sideboard should address that.
I used to run a red splash version of the deck but moved away from it towards a straight UW list.
I've tried Geist in this deck. I previously ran 4 SFM, 4 Snap, 2 Clique and 2 Geist. Geist is great against the mirror, combo (as a quick clock and pitches to FoW) and RUG Thresh lists. I agree with your points re Geist being great, especially with a Sword.
But these are generally lists we can beat - what we have is a problem against Maverick. Maverick doesn't allow us to have a clear board to allow us to swing safely with Geist for value. However, Mom may allow us to do so. It might move us toward a more aggro approach with Geist and Mom. What I want to do is allow us to address our more problematic matchups without giving away too many percentage points against decks we should be winning against.
You probably saw it on MTGSource or on a German site: http://www.teamadhd.nl/wp/?p=491.
The deck has a good concept (recurring Punishing Fire gives us infinite removal against multitudes of creatures which Stoneblade is weak against). But there are some things I don't like in his deck (too many Groves/Fires, two Elspeth is too many and SoFaI is inappropriate.)
So with that deck and idea in mind, I came up with the following list:
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Body and Mind
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Snare
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Counterspell
3 Punishing Fire
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Plains
1 Karakas
4 Island
2 Volcanic Island
3 Grove of Burnwillows
4 Tundra
1 Riptide Laboratory
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Wrath of God
1 Crucible of Wolrds
2 Flusterstorm
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Disenchant
Basically, I took the shell of a Stoneblade list with the 2 flexi slots (which people have used for Paths, Shackles or Bolts) - and filled those slots with Punishing Fire. Then I cut a Spell Snare for a 3rd Punishing Fire (reasoning being - if we don't counter it, we are going to Fires it eventually anyway).
The manabase was then reconfigured to have 3 Groves (4 is too many - though I am wary about running 3 in a deck with no land tutors). I added 2 Volcanic Islands to allow for REBs and EE in the side. EE can now go up to 4 as well with the Green from Groves.
I'm not sure on the Disenchants in the board now that I have EE.
I can see this deck covering up some of the weaknesses of a traditional Stoneblade list.
Any thoughts re this approach?
Edit: Glurman, I see you haveposted a similar list to mine, though I'm not too sure about Wastelands AND Grove (too many colourles sources?) and a maindeck Crucible replacing 1 SFM.
I like your board but is 3 Path to Exile, 1 Jitte overkill when we already run 3 Punishing Fire in the main? I'm thinking sweepers such as EE and Wrath would be better because we have enough spot removal.
It is inherently flexible: lets you double up on removal when facing creature heavy decks, a second brainstorm when you need to dig for an answer, a second Counterspell when facing a late-game bomb. It only gets better when you run REB/Bolts/Surgical Extraction/Flusterstorm in the side.
This is the card that finally allowed a Blue control deck finally beat Merfolk (8 virtual Swords to Plowshares is pretty damn good). You may argue Batterskull was the key, but it was balanced somewhat by the printing of Dismember.
Back in the MM period, this deck ran Standstill/A vsions as the draw engine. Now that these options aren't viable, we turn to Snapcaster as our card advantage engine.
I don't see Snapcaster falling to less than a 3 of in this deck. In your deck however, I can see why there is less of a reliance on Snapcaster though.