Hey everyone! Today I’ll be including a written piece to accompany my regular videos so that I can explain all my different card choices for the deck I’ll be playing. If you’re only interested in the videos, you can scroll down to see them, but be warned that the primer is full of useful information.
A CawBlade Deck Primer
As it turns out, CawBlade is still good without Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic. The deck still takes advantage of the powerful duo of Squadron Hawk and Sword of Feast and Famine and is using new tools to replace what it has lost. It is proving to be a strong contender in the new Standard.
Although M12 hasn’t been released online yet, I think the deck is still reasonable for the online format. You’re only missing out on two cards (despite the fact that they are really good), and the format is otherwise mostly the same.
Card by Card Analysis
The different components that make up a standard blue-white control deck are as follows:
- Card Draw
- Countermagic
- Threats
- Removal
- Utility
- Lands
A few cards might fit into multiple categories, but I’ll just be including them in their dominant category for the sake of simplicity.
Card Draw
Preordain (vs. Ponder)
Jace Beleren (vs. Divination)
Jaces Ingenuity
Without Jace, the Mind Sculptor, card draw has become scarce in new versions of CawBlade. New lists rely on Preordain and virtual card advantage from creatures and planeswalkers, but I really want to have at least some form of actual card drawing in my deck. Unfortunately, Jace Beleren is pretty weak in the format. You’ll have a few ways to protect it, but your opponent will have numerous ways to answer it. It’s not good against aggressive decks or the mirror match, and a lot of the time you’ll just be better off playing a threat. Just by writing this, I’ve practically convinced myself not to play it, but I don’t think I’m ready to stoop to Divination yet, so I’ll be giving Jace a shot at redemption.
As for the rest of the options, Ponder can be better than Preordain if you have numerous shuffle effects, which we do have, but I prefer to play the card that doesn’t require jumping through hoops.
The problem with Jace’s Ingenuity is that it costs the same as cards that actually affect the board, like Gideon Jura and Elspeth Tirel. However, Jace’s Ingenuity still seems better than Jace, Memory Adept.
Countermagic
Spell Pierce
Mana Leak
Stoic Rebuttal
This is a pretty simple section. Spell Pierce and Mana Leak are both cheap counters that complement the deck’s cheap threats; Stoic Rebuttal isn’t.
Threats
Squadron Hawk (vs. Wall of Omens)
Blade Splicer (vs. Mirran Crusader)
Hero of Bladehold
Consecrated Sphinx (vs. Sun Titan)
Squadron Hawk does everything. It carries a Sword, it saves planeswalkers, it crushes Signal Pest, it provides card advantage, and it kills opponents. Don’t get me wrong — I love Wall of Omens — but it is clearly outclassed.
Most CawBlade players seem to be in agreement that Blade Splicer is better than Mirran Crusader, but I think that both are acceptable. Blade Splicer is going to be a lot better if you expect to face burn spells, but Mirran Crusader is nice to have against Dismember. In any case, these two make for strong early game threats that can provide great defense as well.
Hero of Bladehold has always been a powerful game ender, but a certain pair of (now banned) cards was preventing him from seeing the light of day. Things have changed, and Hero of Bladehold is now one of the best threats any white deck can provide. It demands to be answered, or it will run away with the game; there aren’t many ways to threaten an opponent like this without having 6 mana. Expect to see this card a lot in the coming months.
It’s cool that Sun Titan can get back Blade Splicer, but I much prefer Consecrated Sphinx because of the deck’s lack of card draw. Sphinx will draw you enough cards that you should be able to win any game in which it survives a single turn. With the top two removal spells being Dismember and Oblivion Ring, Sphinx is definitely a good call. The real question is whether or not you want any 6-drops in the first place. Even though it’s a control deck, it has evolved to be rather aggressive. I will still opt for one 6-drop, but it’s not something the deck needs a lot of.
Removal
Dismember
Oblivion Ring
Day of Judgment
There’s not much going on here. Dismember and Oblivion Ring and simply the best removal spells in the format and every blue-white deck should have two to three of each.
As for Day of Judgment, it’s a great card because it can beat some strategies single-handedly, but the new CawBlade plays a lot more creatures than it did before, limiting Day of Judgment’s usefulness. I’m not playing it maindeck at the moment, but I board it in a lot. It might find its way into the main at some point.
Utility
Into the Roil (vs. Oblivion Ring)
Sword of Feast and Famine (vs. the other two swords)
Timely Reinforcements
Gideon Jura (vs. Elspeth Tirel)
Into the Roil is a very versatile card but it’s in competition with Oblivion Ring and thus isn’t in high demand. I still like playing one copy because it is a hard card to play around and has some synergy with the aforementioned Oblivion Ring.
Some CawBlade lists play three Sword of Feast and Famine. I don’t want to draw multiples of it, so I’m only playing two copies. Right now the consensus is that Sword of Feast and Famine is the best of the bunch, but I think that there is room for variation as the format develops. For now, the slots go to Feast and Famine.
Timely Reinforcements is sweet. The only problem with it is that it isn’t really a maindeck-able card, but I plan on boarding it in a lot.
Gideon Jura and Elspeth Tirel are very similar and are each better against different things. I am very tempted to run one of each because it’s too hard to tell which one is better overall, but for testing purposes, I’m going to give the slot to Elspeth.
Lands
Tectonic Edge
Inkmoth Nexus
My ideal land configuration is 26 lands with six lands that produce only colorless mana. Inkmoth Nexus only has marginal utility, whereas Tectonic Edge is good against almost every deck, so a 4/2 split seems appropriate in Edge’s favor.
And finally, the decklist:
New CawBlade by Ship It
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As for the sideboard:
Celestial Purge — I actually think this card is too narrow, especially when we gain access to Oblivion Ring. For now, it serves as a good answer to Koth and a bad answer to Splinter Twin.
Day of Judgment — As mentioned previously, I board this in a lot and it could find its way into the maindeck. For now, it’s a must-have sideboard card.
Flashfreeze — It has various other uses, but it’s simply great against Valakut.
Mental Misstep — I wasn’t sure if this card would catch on in Standard, but it definitely has been. It’s great against aggro decks, Splinter Twin, and can even be boarded in against control decks with discard spells.
Spellskite — Our answer to Splinter Twin that is also great to have against mono red.
When including M12, the only consequential changes I’ve made are adding three Oblivion Rings to the main in place of Blade Splicer and adding Timely Reinforcements to the board in place of Celestial Purge. Others seem to love Blade Splicer, but I end up boarding it out way too often for my liking. It’s something I’m not sure I want.
Keep in mind that most of the commentary in this primer is simply my opinion, which is always evolving. And with that finished, enjoy the videos!
Standard Daily Event Videos
Match 1
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hooray for mtgo shuffler!
Actually since the shuffler will repeatedly do things like what happened to you round one, that just dont happen offline, when i make deck on mtgo i usually just add one more land than i would offline.
forgot to say-
Gideon>elspeth
otherwise i like your list.
Obv oring will be in there once m12 hits too.
tirel is good because if you have some blockers , any problem is dealt with in 2 turns, o ring might be better suited to do so once they are online
I think Gideon would be better in this deck, but Elspeth wasn’t used in the 3 matches at all, so it’s equal.
i LOVE the art on your day of judgments
“hooray for mtgo shuffler!
Actually since the shuffler will repeatedly do things like what happened to you round one, that just dont happen offline, when i make deck on mtgo i usually just add one more land than i would offline.”
So things that just don’t happen offline like actually shuffle your deck?
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the shuffler. Bad things can happen both online and off and there’s nothing to blame for it except variance, which is just a part of the game.
Great series, this is really high quality content, it should get way more views/comments