Hello everybody,
this is the followup of the previous article where I explained how to build a Esper Stoneblade Deck.
In this article I will explain how to play this deck and sideboard plan against a variety of the deck in the meta, starting from the previous list, and the odds from my experiece. We're the left side on the odds' percentage.
Let's get Started.
Burn
Against this deck your gameplan could be divided in 2 phases:
Phase 1: Try to stay alive until they end the gas
Phase 2: Try to kill them before they get more gas to kill you.
Here you've to fetch carefully, because every point is vital here. Batterskull is a MVP, obviously, so play your mystic only if you can protect her or you're sure that they can't deal with her.
After that the reach 2 cards in hand, use your Snapcaster aggresively, so Main Phase Snapcaster plus IoK or in your opponent end Snapcaster plus Opt is the correct play, because you've to close the game ASAP after that you've stabilized.
If you don't have a board but you've a Jace, start to fateseal your opponent and try to kill him with Jace ultimate.
Side
Out: -2 Thoughtseize, -2 Cryptic Command
In: +1 Celestial Purge, +1 Fatal Push, +2 Monastery Mentor
As I said before, you've to close the game ASAP after that you've stabilized, so we remove Thoughtseize because we don't want to damage ourself, and 2 Cryptic Command because it needs 1UUU and for four mana this card does little. Instead we put more removal and more card for closing the game. Usually they're going to side artifact hate, in form of Smash to Smithereen, so play carefully your equipment!
Matchup odds: preside 45%/55%, post side 55%/45%
Jund
In this matchup, Value is the Word!
They have 8/10 card advantage cards plus 4 virtual advantage cards: 4 Wrenn & Six, 4 Liliana of the Veil and 4 Bloodbraid Elf and 1 or 2 Kolaghan's Command, so with discard spells try to priorityze this cards.
Don't be afraid to use Force of Negation for countering these kinds of card, specially on Wrenn.
After that, try to stay always on 6/7 life, because your opponent can kill you with double bolt or BBE + bolt, so pay attention on your life after that treshold. With first Jace activation, try to use fateseal to get him out from bolt range.
Don't forget that Teferi stops cascaded spells!
Side
Out: -3 Stoneforge Mystic, -1 Batterskull, -1 Sword of Feast and Famine
In: +2 Monastery Mentor, +2 Lingering Souls, +1 Celestial Purge
Because value is the word, we're going to become an Esper Control! We're siding out all the SFM package because your opponent will likely side in artifact hate, so we're countering them in this manner. Cast mentor only if you can get an istant value from it.
Matchup odds: preside 50%/50%, post side 60%/40%
Tron
This is a bad matchup! Here you have deploy an early threat and then disrupt your opponent till the win. If you manage the early tirns, than you're likely able to get the win, but you've to be aware of their big boys, so try to stay open with counter for them. If you can, turn 2 SFM with a Force of Negation as a backup is the play, because a t3 batterskull could be a nice threat.
Side
Out: -2 Fatal Push, -2 Drown in the Loch, -1 Enginereed Explosive, -1 Liliana, the Last Hope, -2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
In: +2 Surgical Extraction, +2 Fulminator Mage, +2 Disdainful Stroke, +2 Monastery Mentor
We side in more land hate with Surgical, so you can remove Tron lands, after that we side more creature to beat the opponent ASAP. Keep disdainful stroke if you can for creature and Force of Negation for planeswalker.
Matchup odds: preside 30%/70%, post side 45%/55%
Whirza
With discard, counter and removal, this isn't a bad matchup on G1. The key here is to counter their combo pieces: Urza, Thopter, Whir. Play carefully, but try to slam a threat with the right timing, because the longer goes the game, more likely they're going to win.
Side
Out: -1 Liliana, the Last Hope, -1 Enginereed Explosives, -1 Path to Exile
In: +2 Surgical Extraction, +1 Stony Silence
So, they're a combo deck, so exiling all combo pieces from the deck is the right way to deal with them. Moreover, with Stony Silence you can shut all the mana rocks/fixer that they play
Matchup odds: preside 60%/40%, post side 70%/30%
Eldra-Tron
Eldratron is another not-so-good matchup, but is better than G-Tron because plays in a more fair way, but we don't understimate them, because T2 Chalice on 1, T3 Thought-Knot Seer and Turn 4 Reality Smasher is still a bad thing! So, here you've to be careful on Chalice and Karn. Don't use Force of Negation against artifact because our opponent could get it back with Karn, so keep your force for countering Karn. Moreover, their topdeck is better than ours, so after that we stabilized, we need to close the game ASAP
Side
Out: -1 Liliana, the Last Hope, -1 Enginereed Explosives, -2 Fatal Push, -4 Inquisition of Kozilek, -2 Geist of Saint Traft
In: +2 Surgical Extraction, +2 Fulminator Mage, +2 Disdainful Stroke, +2 Monastery Mentor, +1 Supreme Verdict, +1 Disenchant
Here Geist isn't so good, because your opponent creatures are bigger than it; we remove IoK because we're lowering the number of cmc 1 spells, we're removing push because you've always to trigger revolt to get it online, and explosives and Liliana because they're not so good. Here the plan is similar with tron plan. Get out mentor only if you can get value from it, and remember that Prowess triggers even if chalice is on board
Matchup odds: preside 35%/65%, postside 50%/50%
Stoneblade
Here it's like Jund, but simplier! They have less value engine, with Jace, Teferi at 5 and Snapcaster, so use counters and discards for this cards. Pay attention on their T3feri, because he shuts down your instant and not be afraid on casting SFM on turn 2, because you can cast Batterskull in the late game. Obviously don't let resolve opponent Batterskull, because it's a very hard issue if it hits the battlefield.
Side
Out: -3 Stoneforge Mystic, -1 Batterskull, -1 Sword of Feast and Famine
In: +2 Monastery Mentor, +2 Lingering Souls, +1 Disenchant
Here you can read the same suggestion made for Jund, because the matchup it's very similar, with the only difference that Stoneblade doesn't run discard.
Matchup odds: preside 60%/40%, post side 70%/30%
Grixis Death Shadow
We're favored here, because they're a tempo deck and we're a deck full of discards and removal! We've 13 cards between discards and removal plus 3 Snapcaster, so it's very likely that they will have always a empty board. Play cautiuosly when they have a Death Shadow on board, because they can kill from Outtanowhere! When you use Jace, with first activation use fateseal to get it out of bolt range
Side
Out: -3 Stoneforge Mystic, -1 Batterskull, -1 Sword of Feast and Famine, -1 Enginereed Explosives, -1 Force of Negation
In: +2 Monastery Mentor, +2 Lingering Souls, +1 Celestial Purge, +1 Fatal Push, +1 Supreme Verdict
We don't want to die in first 5 turns, so we side in more early removal. Remember that they play stubborn denial, so play wisely around it and don't let them to counter your answer!
Matchup odds: preside 60%/40%, post side 70%/30%
TitanShift
This matchup it's really weird, because they're a combo with lands, so it's very hard to deal with them. Here Batterskull really shines, because give you a race and lifegain. Try to keep your counter for Primeval Titan and Scapeshift, and don't forget that Valakuts' trigger check the number of mountains twice, so after that your opponent has put all the trigger on the stack, you can destroy a shockland and hope that your opponent doesn't have other basic mountain!
Side
Out: -1 Liliana, the Last Hope, -1 Enginereed Explosives, -2 Fatal Push, -2 Inquisition of Kozilek
In: +2 Surgical Extraction, +2 Fulminator Mage, +2 Disdainful Stroke
For the side we put more land hate and surgical, so that we can exile all Valakut. Try to keep your Disdainful for Primeval Titan and get out your Batterskull only if you can protect it with counters!
Matchup odds: preside 45%/55%, post side 65%/35%
Final Thoughts
These are my guidelines about the most common decks accordingly to MTGGoldfish. I will cover other matchups in another article, because this is already boring even without all the matchup!
These guidelines, by the way, are useful for all midrange decks.
What do you think about? Are you going to give a shot to this deck?
Regards
Vito
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