U/W Stoneforge Control

For my first article, I figured I’d do a break down on a deck. I was very pleased with this deck after drafting and easily went 2-1, though I think with a little more mulligan disciple, should have went 3-0.

I went into this draft with very easy p1p1, Batterskull. My other choices didn’t even seem relevant. The deck kind of built itself when I was passed a Restoration Angel and then a Sword Of Body And Mind. It became pretty apparent when I opened a stoneforge mystic in pack two and the rest became history.

Lands:

9 Islands

5 Plains

Flooded Strand

Tundra

Karakas



Creatures:

Merfolk Looter

Spellskite

Stoneforge Mystic

Serendib Efreet

Pestermite

Aether Adept

Flickerwisp

Lu Xun, Scholar General

Venser, Shaper Savant

Emeria Angel

Restoration Angel

Glen Elendra Archmage



Spells:

Momentary Blink

Wrath of God

Terminus

Condescend

Sphinx’s Revelation



Artifacts:

Umezawa’s Jitte

Vedalken Shackles

Sword Of Body And Mind

Loxodon Warhammer

Batterskull



Enchantments:

Treachery



Relevant Sideboard:

Sundering Titan

Worn Powerstone

Sun Ce, Young Conquerer

Grafted Wargear

Masticore

I liked this deck because it had some pretty explosive plays and a lot of haymakers that had to be answered or I could just take over the game. That seemed to happen a lot, but I felt the deck lacked in some departments. I needed more control. I tried picking up more counterspells, but just didn’t see them. I would have snapped up a Mana Leak, Counterspell, or Miscalculation incredibly high.

Match 1 – Terrell Boaz – Survival Junk.

Terrell was playing this G/W/B Survival deck that had the potential to just crush me. He had Sun Titan, Shriekmaw, Fauna Shaman, Noble Hierarch, Elesh Norn, Triskelion, and then Unburial Rites and Makeshift Mannequin to abuse it again. His deck also had a lot of value with Grim Monolith, Yavimaya Elder, Garruk, Wildspeaker, Parallax Wave, and Krosan Verge. He often went Noble Hierarch into Survival, end of turn pitch something, but I drew very luckily and miracled Terminus after he played out his last creature. I then played a Pestermite end of turn, which carried a Sword of Body and Mind to the red zone. After that, he just couldn’t recover.

At one point I had a turn two Stoneforge Mystic into Batterskull. I thought for a long time about Momentary Blinking my Stoneforge Mystic to grab a Umezawa’s Jitte and settled on leaving up Condescend. It seemed like a much better play to protect my Batterskull and Stoneforge. I thought long and hard about this because he had just played Noble Hierarch into Oracle of Mul Daya and I really wanted a way to kill Oracle before it gained him too much value. It turns out, being drunk and almost making the wrong play pays off. I naturally drew Umezawa’s Jitte and machine-gunned his creatures. He was eventually able to Survival, pitching a creature to grab Elesh Norn, but then I played a Karakas and he scooped.I thought the highlight of this match was a discussion between Terrell and I. When I played Stoneforge Mystic on turn two, I went in search of Umezawa’s Jitte. I thought this would be a great plan against his deck full of ramp dudes, Survival, and Fauna Shaman. Clearly he was a creature deck and Jitte has the potential to crush creatures. He then talked me into getting Batterskull because at that point I could just beat him down when he hadn’t played any creatures, yet. Eventually I went with his plan and drew Jitte anyways.

Match 2 – Andrew Hurst – Grixis Reanimator

Hurst was on this tight reanimator deck with Sneak Attack as a back-up plan. He had threats like Sphinx of the Steel Wind, Woodfall Primus, and Terastodon. All that and a lot of great enablers like Oona’s Prowler, Faithless Looting, and all the good reanimator spells like Reanimate, Exhume, and Animate Dead. All in all, I felt good about the match up because I had wraths, easy ways to bounce his creatures back, and tamiyo to lock him down.

Game one was pretty boring and I had Flickerwisp to bounce a come into play tapped land into Sword of Body and Mind and that was game. He did a lot of digging, but could only find Sphinx of the Steel Wind as a reanimation target. Game two was a bit more exciting and but it kinda went the same way. He went turn 2 Oona’s Prowler and pitched a Woodfall primus. I kept up condescend and he pulled the trigger on Exhume. I countered it, found a Stoneforge Mystic two down, put it on top and slammed it next turn. He couldn’t answer Sword of Body and Mind and that was the match.

One thing I learned from this match was the power of Body Double. While it didn’t get to be relevant in this match up because of Sword of Body and Mind, It had a lot of potential and would have crushed me. Being able to copy a Woodfall Primus, have it come back as a Sphinx of Steel Wind or Terastodon would have made it impossible for me to win. I think I’m going to start picking that card much higher.

Match 3 – Chris Kronenberger – Wildfire Ramp

This whole match was hilarious. Instead of telling you Chris’s deck, i’ll just tell you what happened. Game one chris led with Chrome Mox into lotus cobra. Then he went Obstinate Baloth. I was sitting there making land drops and Stoneforging. How little i knew that didn’t matter, He untaps, Plow Unders my only two lands and then proceeds to destroy me. Game two he leads with Mox Diamond, Forest, Rofellos on turn one and then Plow Unders me again… on turn 2. I somehow recover by playing an Umezawa’s Jitte and Flickerwisp. Chris plays a Siege-Gang Commander and makes a horrible mistake. Instead of just shooting down my creatures if i attempt to equip, he plays out a Thrun, The Last Troll. He instantly realized his mistake and i was able to steal away by topdecking a Sword of Body and Mind to swing for a bunch. Game three was an absolute beating. Chris leads with turn two Lotus Cobra into turn three Thrun, The Last Troll into turn four Blastoderm. This is where it gets ridiculous. He then plays Burning of Xinye, regenerates Thrun and before he can attack I scoop ’em up.

Chris had both Wildfire and Burning of Xinye in his deck. Not only is insanely oppressive to plow under every game on turns 2 or 3, it gets a bit more ridiculous when you can drop some Wildfires with Thrun out.

Overall, the draft was a great deal of fun and a lot of hilarious interactions happened throughout the night. Andrew Hurst had a game go, Elite Vanguard, Honor of the Pure, Lingering Souls, Armageddon. At some point Max Jacob, our friend from Canton, Ohio, dropped a Maelstrum Wanderer on me to cascade into Garruk, Primal Hunter and something else to swing for lethal that turn when I was sitting comfortably at 15. I felt like a jackass sitting there with a Wrath of God in my hand.

After Thoughts

I recommend this Rare, no powered cube list to anyone. The reasons I chose this list is because it’s a very balanced list that is about interaction beyond brokenness. No one actually likes going Channel – Ulamog. It’s not fun for your opponent and it’s not fun for you. You may think you’re having fun for that moment, but then you realize instead of having a great interactive and thought-provoking game of magic, you just shit on your friend and now just wait for your next round with a few beers. I’d rather drink them doing combat math and thinking about outs for my deck.

Two other great pictures came out of this cubing experience. The first one i’ll let you just see the mulligan to 4 Chris took in Draft #2:

The next thing was Max Jacob going turn 3 Ajani, turn 4 Chameleon Colossus and then saying, “Chris you’re dead. Chris… you’re dead. Stop. That Go For The Throat in your hand doesn’t kill him, you’re dead, Chris.” Chris then proceeded to look down at his hand, see Go For The Throat, and scoop.

See you next time when I try to talk Chris Kronenberger into writing a Combo primer for cubes against his will!

-Ross Koblentz