I don't have enough play data to say much more than 1) it crushes Lands and 2) my game 1s are significantly better. I've always on-and-off maindecked a blood moon (with good results), but it's only in the last two weeks that I've gone all-in on the concept by maindecking E-tutor and more E-tutor targets along with the maindeck Meddling Mages. I'm really confident in my fair matchups, so I want to shift some percentage towards unfair matchups and especially make the deck not the goldfish it was for game 1. It's pretty miserable when my game1 plan was to hope that my opponent loses to his own deck and not because I'm actually doing anything besides apply a clock.
I'd personally have 4 Ponders instead of the Geist. Just my 2 cents. You may also want to look into moving Elspeth to the sideboard and have 2 Cliques main. They're especially important when you don't run black for the sweet discard action.
Also pure UW is a good opportunity to get some utility lands in there. Either Karakas or Riptide Laboratory are great options, especially with a second Clique.
Here's my version of Esper Stoneblade that has brought me much success in game 1 where I should be losing. Especially combo decks who don't play around Wasteland or Stifle; I'm a control at heart, so the main/side board is geared towards my style without taking away from the U/W/X Stoneblade pillars.
We had a few individuals have their input for this deck to match the meta shift, initially - we had to beat combo decks. Since the banning of Dig Through Time; Omni-Show isn't as dominant in the meta in my area anymore. The meta is much more fair, and the resurgence of BUG Archetype; made this deck even better.
My main concern is that the main deck Stifles' will not perform at the GP Seattle next month. If my predictions are wrong, by having 2-3 Stifles in the main deck might be a liability if we predicted the meta wrong for the GP. The plus side, if my play-test group predicted the meta to be correct; the Stifle will get me a bye against opponents most Stoneblade decks should lose.
Example: U/B/x Stoneblade and Esper Deathblade loses to game 1 to Storm, Show and Tell, and Dredge. From my testing and tournament results; I have a 50/50 chance against those decks game 1 which isn't the case for those variants.
Last night I lost vs. 4-color delver and won vs. Grixis delver and then somehow got a bye last round. I did take a game off of 4-color delver, probably could have won one of the other games if I played better. Both the Meddling Mages and the E-tutor package makes the deck a whole lot harder to play than my older more conventional build of the deck. Situation: I E-tutored for Blood Moon and then immediately played it vs. the 4-color delver into an abrupt decay. Lessons: the threat of blood moon can be more powerful than just playing it, and humility is probably the better enchantment in the matchup anyway.
Last night I lost vs. 4-color delver and won vs. Grixis delver and then somehow got a bye last round. I did take a game off of 4-color delver, probably could have won one of the other games if I played better. Both the Meddling Mages and the E-tutor package makes the deck a whole lot harder to play than my older more conventional build of the deck. Situation: I E-tutored for Blood Moon and then immediately played it vs. the 4-color delver into an abrupt decay. Lessons: the threat of blood moon can be more powerful than just playing it, and humility is probably the better enchantment in the matchup anyway.
How do you lose to delver on Games 2/3? Stondeblade has 11 answers for Delver game 1, and game is they shouldn't have a chance of beating you.
Shouldn't you be fetching correcting, and baiting out the abrupt decay?
It's a pretty easy tell to know if they have removal in their hand.
Hello everyone. I'm looking for a bit of help putting together something of a budget Stoneblade list to run while I get together what I need for Deathblade. So far I've come up with the following:
Of course I love Narset, but she's not so great as to deserve a second copy in the SB. That slot should go to Nahiri. Also, since you are running Narset, you absolutely need to run at least 1 copy of Sensei's Divining Top. Top supercharges Narset by making her +1 completely reliable.
I would cut the Mirran Crusaders entirely, TNN is just way better at the role. You're better off with something else like e-tutor, second disenchant, second containment priest. Engineered Explosives is too weak when you entirely lack a third color, if you want to keep it in then you should shave a Factory for a Scrubland or USea (naturally, scrubland is cheaper in the short term but usea is more important long term).
Of course I love Narset, but she's not so great as to deserve a second copy in the SB. That slot should go to Nahiri. Also, since you are running Narset, you absolutely need to run at least 1 copy of Sensei's Divining Top. Top supercharges Narset by making her +1 completely reliable.
I would cut the Mirran Crusaders entirely, TNN is just way better at the role. You're better off with something else like e-tutor, second disenchant, second containment priest. Engineered Explosives is too weak when you entirely lack a third color, if you want to keep it in then you should shave a Factory for a Scrubland or USea (naturally, scrubland is cheaper in the short term but usea is more important long term).
One of the reasons I've sort of settled on Deathblade is because UW Stoneblade is decently playable. If budget was no issue I'd build BUG Delver for sure. The problem is there isn't really a budget version of BUG that's playable like Stoneblade is.
He does have a super light Red splash, but it might help tune your budget list a bit. Explosives seems like a good one to include. Other options if you have them are Vendilion Clique, Venser, Shaper Savant, and Monastery Mentor.
He does have a super light Red splash, but it might help tune your budget list a bit. Explosives seems like a good one to include. Other options if you have them are Vendilion Clique, Venser, Shaper Savant, and Monastery Mentor.
I just went 4-0 at my LGS with a UW Stoneblade list that I tried out for the first time. I generally play Esper Stoneblade, but I recently cut black in favor of a more stable mana base to see just how much would be lost by not having a third color.
Round 1: 2-1 vs Burn
Round 2: 2-0 vs Miracles
Round 3: 2-0 vs Deathblade
Round 4: 2-0 vs Imperial Taxes
Congratz on the win. Interesting take. Reminds me a of the Modern Jeskai Midrange builds, but with an upgrade to the spell base.
There was a bit of a debate when TTN came out, whether Geist was still playable. I guess there's the trade-off on clock, which isn't irrelevant. However, being blockable and killable (and not being able to block just about anything) does seem like a serious downside. Though dodging the usual Zealous Persecution answer seems meta.
Other than that, seems like a missed opportunity not to include some utility lands outside of the Colonnades. Most of the UW builds I've seen either run a bunch of Wasteland or Mishra's Factory. Their's also the opportunity to run stuff like Academy Ruins and Explosives.
Congratz on the win. Interesting take. Reminds me a of the Modern Jeskai Midrange builds, but with an upgrade to the spell base.
There was a bit of a debate when TTN came out, whether Geist was still playable. I guess there's the trade-off on clock, which isn't irrelevant. However, being blockable and killable (and not being able to block just about anything) does seem like a serious downside. Though dodging the usual Zealous Persecution answer seems meta.
Other than that, seems like a missed opportunity not to include some utility lands outside of the Colonnades. Most of the UW builds I've seen either run a bunch of Wasteland or Mishra's Factory. Their's also the opportunity to run stuff like Academy Ruins and Explosives.
This build also has sideboarded Back to Basics; the heavy basic count is no doubt intended to play favorably with B2B screwing over just about every non-Burn deck in the format to some extent. I could get behind a couple Wastelands, but Factories definitely don't mesh with the current build.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hey all... I'm retired, not dead. Check out what I'm doing these days (and beg me to come back if you want):
To be fair, Colonnade doesn't either on that basis. I mean, the potential is there to only activate and swing, sure, but that's fairly far into a matchup where that becomes viable.
Most of the basics would get played out on fetches anyway, so the 2-3 wasteland or what have you wouldn't change much. Though would help for all the matches where you don't side or draw back to basics.
Anyway. That's my only feedback. Rest of the build looks pretty tight.
Played another legacy tournament today with the same UW deck, going 2-1.
Round 1: 2-1 vs 12-post
Round 2: 2-1 vs 12-post
Round 3: 1-2 vs Merfolk
From my limited experience from this tournament and the last, I have found foregoing a third color to not be worth the slightly more stable mana base. Because there are only 4 fetches that can fetch both basics for any given color pair, I found the mana base to only be slightly better than a 3-color one.
Compared to Esper, relying solely on counterspells and no discard for interaction turned out to be problematic at several points, considering all of the counterspell hate in the metagame. I also sorely missed being able to fly over True-Name Nemesis with Lingering Souls and the incidental land destruction afforded by Vindicate. I will be going back to Esper next week and will be trying out a single maindeck Esper Charm. Besides the obvious efficiency of the draw and discard modes, the Demystify effect on a 3-mana spell is very relevant vs Counterbalance.
Played another legacy tournament today with the same UW deck, going 2-1.
Round 1: 2-1 vs 12-post
Round 2: 2-1 vs 12-post
Round 3: 1-2 vs Merfolk
From my limited experience from this tournament and the last, I have found foregoing a third color to not be worth the slightly more stable mana base. Because there are only 4 fetches that can fetch both basics for any given color pair, I found the mana base to only be slightly better than a 3-color one.
Compared to Esper, relying solely on counterspells and no discard for interaction turned out to be problematic at several points, considering all of the counterspell hate in the metagame. I also sorely missed being able to fly over True-Name Nemesis with Lingering Souls and the incidental land destruction afforded by Vindicate. I will be going back to Esper next week and will be trying out a single maindeck Esper Charm. Besides the obvious efficiency of the draw and discard modes, the Demystify effect on a 3-mana spell is very relevant vs Counterbalance.
I agree with the analysis of UW vs UW splashing a color, namely black. Stoneblade is generally speaking splashing black very lightly and mostly just for Thoughtseize, Lingering Souls and better EEs. The advantage you gain by playing hand disruption is huge in combo matchups and allows more early interaction as well as more informed interaction as the game progresses.
I think the idea behind pure UW is playing mishra's and/or wastelands. Mishra's for better miracles matchup and wasteland because it's wasteland.
For just one Steam Vents and one Plateau or one Watery Grave and one Savannah...I guess it's not the worst thing. But it doesn't seem all that good or appealing. I don't understand the Savannah though. What do you want the green for? Abrupt Decay?
Typically, an old-school stock Esper land base looked like this:
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea (or 2 Seas, 1 Creeping Tar Pit)
1 Scrubland
1 Academy Ruins/Karakas/Riptide Laboratory/Tower of the Magistrate/generic utility
Basically, to justify the splash, you'd maybe want 3-5 black sources (definitely more than just 1 source of black). If you're going budget, you might be able to get away with maybe 2 Swamps, 1-2 Watery Graves. Or like, if you have a Tar Pit, you can stick that in too. Number of fetches is variable.
For Jeskai, if I were to splash red, I'd just do 2 Volcanic Islands. So for a budget build, 1 Steam Vents/1 Plateau or 2 Steam Vents can work.
As far as life loss? Idk. It'll definitely matter. But maybe not THAT badly. For the red splash, 1-2 Vents won't kill you. For the Esper build, 1-2 Watery Graves won't be the end of the world, but if you go with 3+ Graves, you're gonna have a bad time. You're just gonna have to play test and figure out those numbers yourself. It's been a while since I've tried playing Legacy with shocks. Didn't realize you're running 2x Hallowed Fountains as well.
If you're gonna end up with like 5+ shocks, it might not be worth the splash.
Reprints the one card that people point to when saying that art objectifies women.
Well done Wizards.
Liliana does not objectify women in any way at all. We have gotten to a point in our society that every single picture of a women must be objectifying a women in some negative way......blah blah blah.. That is not the case. (((Sarcasm)))Picture of a girl drinking a milk shake, must be sex related and putting women down, picture of girl sitting on a beach, picture of a girl driving a car, picture of a girl on the moon at a new space station.)))
You have a picture of an attractive strong power women who girls dress up as for anime conventions. What more do you want? The picture is fine, happy to see a reprint. Sick of of seeing people claim that everything in existence must be putting women down. Then all I have to do is replace the word "women" with anything else to get the same mentality; fish, cats, arabs, blacks, jews, men, environment, whites, chinese, old people, etc. It doesn't matter what word I put in. Stop sucking life out of everything man. That artwork of her is awesome. Stop putting stuff down man. Just stop. If the picture was really as negative as you claim she would totally nude, in a kitchen, making sandwiches and giving blow jobs. Her abilities would be horrible as well. +1 do nothing -2 do nothing -6 do nothing. Instead liliana of the veil is an amazing planeswalker comparable to jace, the mind sculpter with great art to appreciate.
My suggestion listen to some comedy radio for a while, pandora is free, youtube is free there is something out there for you. ***** go make fun of somebody. The whole world is so serious and campaigning for some cause, or someones rights, everything is a hate crime, racist, sexist. blah blah blah.
"O no mcdonalds must be slandering a hate crime against skinny people every time they make a big mac." hahaha jeeze You're just someone perpetuating another groups negative perspective that they've made you believe is correct. Look at the picture for a hour and tell me what's wrong with it? I don't see anything.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
Hey all, I was wondering if there's a thread for strictly the Jeskai version of Stoneblade? It seems like most people are playing esper now, so the discussion doesn't feel like it touches on the lightning bolt splash that much.
Twitch channel
Also pure UW is a good opportunity to get some utility lands in there. Either Karakas or Riptide Laboratory are great options, especially with a second Clique.
We had a few individuals have their input for this deck to match the meta shift, initially - we had to beat combo decks. Since the banning of Dig Through Time; Omni-Show isn't as dominant in the meta in my area anymore. The meta is much more fair, and the resurgence of BUG Archetype; made this deck even better.
My main concern is that the main deck Stifles' will not perform at the GP Seattle next month. If my predictions are wrong, by having 2-3 Stifles in the main deck might be a liability if we predicted the meta wrong for the GP. The plus side, if my play-test group predicted the meta to be correct; the Stifle will get me a bye against opponents most Stoneblade decks should lose.
Example: U/B/x Stoneblade and Esper Deathblade loses to game 1 to Storm, Show and Tell, and Dredge. From my testing and tournament results; I have a 50/50 chance against those decks game 1 which isn't the case for those variants.
2x Snapcaster Mage
4x Stoneforge Mystic
2x True-Name Nemesis
1x Vendilion Clique
Artifacts
1x Batterskull
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Umezawa's Jitte
Planeswalker
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Instant
4x Brainstorm
1x Counterspell
3x Force of Will
2x Spell Pierce
2x Stifle
4x Swords to Plowshares
Sorcery
1x Council's Judgement
2x Lingering Souls
3x Ponder
1x Supreme Verdict
3x Thoughtseize
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Karakas
1x Wasteland
4x Flooded Strand
4x Polluted Delta
2x Island
2x Plains
1x Swamp
1x Scrubland
2x Tundra
1x Underground Sea
1x Back to Basics
2x Cabal Therapy
1x Containment Priest
1x Disenchant
1x Hydroblast
1x Meddling Mage
1x Nahiri, the Lithomancer
1x Notion Thief
1x Rest in Peace
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Zealous Persecution
1x Perish
Twitch channel
How do you lose to delver on Games 2/3? Stondeblade has 11 answers for Delver game 1, and game is they shouldn't have a chance of beating you.
Shouldn't you be fetching correcting, and baiting out the abrupt decay?
It's a pretty easy tell to know if they have removal in their hand.
4x Flooded Strand
2x Hallowed Fountain
4x Island
3x Mishra's Factory
2x Plains
4x Polluted Delta
1x Tundra
1x Windswept Heath
Creature (10)
3x Snapcaster Mage
4x Stoneforge Mystic
3x True-Name Nemesis
Instant (19)
4x Brainstorm
2x Counterspell
4x Force of Will
3x Spell Pierce
2x Spell Snare
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Council's Judgment
3x Ponder
1x Supreme Verdict
Artifact (2)
1x Batterskull
1x Umezawa's Jitte
Planeswalker (3)
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Narset Transcendent
1x Containment Priest
1x Disenchant
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Flusterstorm
3x Meddling Mage
2x Mirran Crusader
1x Narset Transcendent
2x Pithing Needle
2x Rest in Peace
Obviously I'll replace the shocks with duals as I get them. Any input would be fantastic. Thanks in advance!
I would cut the Mirran Crusaders entirely, TNN is just way better at the role. You're better off with something else like e-tutor, second disenchant, second containment priest. Engineered Explosives is too weak when you entirely lack a third color, if you want to keep it in then you should shave a Factory for a Scrubland or USea (naturally, scrubland is cheaper in the short term but usea is more important long term).
Twitch channel
One of the reasons I've sort of settled on Deathblade is because UW Stoneblade is decently playable. If budget was no issue I'd build BUG Delver for sure. The problem is there isn't really a budget version of BUG that's playable like Stoneblade is.
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique
Planeswalker (3)
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Spells (23)
1 Ponder
2 Lingering Souls
2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Council's Judgment
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Counterspell
1 Esper Charm
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
1 Engineered Explosives
Land (22)
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Marsh Flats
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
1 Karakas
1 Academy Ruins
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Disenchant
2 Rest in Peace
2 Spell Pierce
1 Path to Exile
2 Containment Priest
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Notion Thief
1 Cabal Therapy
2 Perish
1 Surgical Extraction
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3 True-Name Nemesis
2 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
Planeswalker (3)
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Liliana of the Veil
Spells (18)
2 Ponder
3 Thoughtseize
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Spell Pierce
4 Brainstorm
3 Force of Will
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Land (22)
1 Bayou
2 Flooded Strand
4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
3 Wasteland
1 Force of Will
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Council's Judgment
2 Flusterstorm
3 Meddling Mage
1 Pithing Needle
2 Rest in Peace
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Sylvan Library
1 Zealous Persecution
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Trinket Mage
2 True-Name Nemesis
Planeswalkers (2)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Spells (27)
1 Batterskull
3 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
2 Counterspell
3 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Red Elemental Blast
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Ponder
5 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains
3 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
3 Containment Priest
2 Izzet Staticaster
2 Blood Moon
1 Rest in Peace
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Wear
He does have a super light Red splash, but it might help tune your budget list a bit. Explosives seems like a good one to include. Other options if you have them are Vendilion Clique, Venser, Shaper Savant, and Monastery Mentor.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Interesting. Thanks!
I am amused to see Esper Charm. It turns out even in Legacy an instant-speed draw 2 for 3 mana is hard to come by.
WURUWr Stoneblade
Modern
WRGNaya Zoo Company
Round 1: 2-1 vs Burn
Round 2: 2-0 vs Miracles
Round 3: 2-0 vs Deathblade
Round 4: 2-0 vs Imperial Taxes
Spell Snare and Geist of Saint Traft were all stars of the night. Spell Snare countered key spells and provided some tempo advantage where Thoughtseize didn't feel nearly as effective. I also liked my choice to play Geist of Saint Traft over True-Name Nemesis. The faster clock that Geist of Saint Traft provided won me several games that I otherwise might have lost had I had a True-Name Nemesis instead.
2x Arid Mesa
2x Celestial Colonnade
4x Flooded Strand
5x Island
1x Karakas
3x Plains
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Tundra
Equipment - 3
1x Batterskull
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
Instants and Sorceries - 21
1x Council's Judgment
2x Counterspell
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
2x Ponder
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Supreme Verdict
2x Spell Snare
3x Geist of Saint Traft
2x Snapcaster Mage
1x Vendilion Clique
4x Stoneforge Mystic
Planeswalkers - 3
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Nahiri, the Lithomancer
2x Back to Basics
1x Dispel
1x Envelop
1x Manriki-Gusari
2x Meddling Mage
1x Pithing Needle
3x Rest in Peace
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Vendilion Clique
WURUWr Stoneblade
Modern
WRGNaya Zoo Company
There was a bit of a debate when TTN came out, whether Geist was still playable. I guess there's the trade-off on clock, which isn't irrelevant. However, being blockable and killable (and not being able to block just about anything) does seem like a serious downside. Though dodging the usual Zealous Persecution answer seems meta.
Other than that, seems like a missed opportunity not to include some utility lands outside of the Colonnades. Most of the UW builds I've seen either run a bunch of Wasteland or Mishra's Factory. Their's also the opportunity to run stuff like Academy Ruins and Explosives.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
This build also has sideboarded Back to Basics; the heavy basic count is no doubt intended to play favorably with B2B screwing over just about every non-Burn deck in the format to some extent. I could get behind a couple Wastelands, but Factories definitely don't mesh with the current build.
https://twitch.tv/annorax10 (classic retro speedruns & occasional MTGO/MTGA screwaround streams)
https://twitch.tv/SwiftorCasino (yes, my team and I run live dealer games for the baldman using his channel points as chips)
Most of the basics would get played out on fetches anyway, so the 2-3 wasteland or what have you wouldn't change much. Though would help for all the matches where you don't side or draw back to basics.
Anyway. That's my only feedback. Rest of the build looks pretty tight.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Round 1: 2-1 vs 12-post
Round 2: 2-1 vs 12-post
Round 3: 1-2 vs Merfolk
From my limited experience from this tournament and the last, I have found foregoing a third color to not be worth the slightly more stable mana base. Because there are only 4 fetches that can fetch both basics for any given color pair, I found the mana base to only be slightly better than a 3-color one.
Compared to Esper, relying solely on counterspells and no discard for interaction turned out to be problematic at several points, considering all of the counterspell hate in the metagame. I also sorely missed being able to fly over True-Name Nemesis with Lingering Souls and the incidental land destruction afforded by Vindicate. I will be going back to Esper next week and will be trying out a single maindeck Esper Charm. Besides the obvious efficiency of the draw and discard modes, the Demystify effect on a 3-mana spell is very relevant vs Counterbalance.
WURUWr Stoneblade
Modern
WRGNaya Zoo Company
I agree with the analysis of UW vs UW splashing a color, namely black. Stoneblade is generally speaking splashing black very lightly and mostly just for Thoughtseize, Lingering Souls and better EEs. The advantage you gain by playing hand disruption is huge in combo matchups and allows more early interaction as well as more informed interaction as the game progresses.
I think the idea behind pure UW is playing mishra's and/or wastelands. Mishra's for better miracles matchup and wasteland because it's wasteland.
Typically, an old-school stock Esper land base looked like this:
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea (or 2 Seas, 1 Creeping Tar Pit)
1 Scrubland
1 Academy Ruins/Karakas/Riptide Laboratory/Tower of the Magistrate/generic utility
Basically, to justify the splash, you'd maybe want 3-5 black sources (definitely more than just 1 source of black). If you're going budget, you might be able to get away with maybe 2 Swamps, 1-2 Watery Graves. Or like, if you have a Tar Pit, you can stick that in too. Number of fetches is variable.
For Jeskai, if I were to splash red, I'd just do 2 Volcanic Islands. So for a budget build, 1 Steam Vents/1 Plateau or 2 Steam Vents can work.
As far as life loss? Idk. It'll definitely matter. But maybe not THAT badly. For the red splash, 1-2 Vents won't kill you. For the Esper build, 1-2 Watery Graves won't be the end of the world, but if you go with 3+ Graves, you're gonna have a bad time. You're just gonna have to play test and figure out those numbers yourself. It's been a while since I've tried playing Legacy with shocks. Didn't realize you're running 2x Hallowed Fountains as well.
If you're gonna end up with like 5+ shocks, it might not be worth the splash.
UMerfolkU
UWRJeskai Ascendancy / Geist / ControlUWR
Legacy:
UMerfolkU
UWRJeskai StonebladeUWR