New to legacy, trying out esper deathblade

Legacy forum

Posted on July 6, 2014, 10:42 p.m. by TheGamer

So, i have never... Ever even thought about building a legacy deck until watching a SCG Open today. I saw Esper Deathblade being played and fell in love. So,i thought i should give it a try. First, some questions:

1) Can Esper Deathblade survive (mana wise) if i run only shock lands as my mana base and some other low value duals?

2) Is Esper Deathblade even good? I saw it at 5-1 and so i think it has to be a pretty good deck to get this far.

3) Is it fun? I certainly DO NOT want to get into legacy playing a boring deck that costed be about $3000 to build. If it isnt fun, what decks in specific are fun?

4) Does anyone have an Esper Deathblade builds for me to look at? I only saw some cards and was too lazy to look up some different builds myself. So. Does the TappedOut community have some for me to look at?

5) How does it win? Watching him play, i think its to just play disruption and then slowly beat the opponent with True-Name Nemesis or vendillion clique but im not really sure.

Thanks in advance for anyone who took the time to look at the Q's and answer them :)

Doing well in Legacy depends a LOT on your natural affinity (not a pun) for a given deck. A deck that pairs well with you as a player will do better for you in the long run than a "good" deck or the "best" deck. This will help you make more intuitive plays, as well as give you a better shot at enjoying yourself.

Esper Deathblade can function with shocks instead of proper duals, but cannot function efficiently without fetchlands. Being able to shuffle after Brainstorm is a huge deal, even if it seems minor. You absolutely will lose games that you could have won due to shocking yourself for mana, however. Esper is a grindy deck, and every life point matters in a lot of matchups.

Esper Deathblade is one of the best decks in the format. It has some of the best cards available in it (hence the price tag), and can function well against most combo decks and most fair decks. It has no truly bad matchups.

Esper Deathblade can absolutely be fun. It requires technical precision to pilot correctly, and every misplay could easily lose the game for you. You will end up winning a lot if you can master it, but will get absolutely thrashed if you don't learn from your mistakes. If this sounds fun to you, then give it a shot. At worst, you'll be playing really strong cards so you may luck into some wins. Just make sure to learn from those as well.

esper deathblade

Esper Deathblade wins through resource denial and powerful cards. Use early disruption to keep your opponent off of his/her gameplan, then finish them off with Stoneforge Mystic , Batterskull , True-Name Nemesis , and Deathrite Shaman .

July 6, 2014 10:58 p.m.

TheGamer says... #3

Wow NobodyPicksBulbasaur! That is some amazing advice! Thanks so much!

July 6, 2014 11:02 p.m.

IzexD says... #4

1)Any legacy deck really souldnt run shock lands, the damage is really important and you need to be able to fetch whenever.

2)Esper Deathblade is basically the best "fair" deck in the farmat with the most raw power.

3)Its actually quite fun, I love playing the control roll myself, it just grinds out your opponent.

4)Yes http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=69794 and http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=68900

5)It wins with a variety of things, ranging from Jace, the Mindsculptor (in the really grinding matchups), to beatdowns with V Clique and True-Name, to just getting Batterskull into play via Stoneforge Mystic .

July 6, 2014 11:05 p.m.

I would also highly recommend getting to know the Legacy metagame in more detail before you invest money into any Legacy deck, let alone one of the more expensive ones. There are so many strong decks in Legacy that you may easily overlook one that suits you by just focusing on what is popular at tournaments and ends up on stream.

Also, it might be a good idea to print proxies for the deck you end up choosing so that you can playtest the crap out of it before you invest any real money. It's never good to spend money on a deck only to find out you don't like it. That is especially true for decks that can cost several thousand dollars.

July 6, 2014 11:06 p.m.

TheGamer says... #6

Thank you as well IzexD! I do have a question though. Why 4 stoneforge mystic and 1 batterskull??? I dont understand that.

July 6, 2014 11:07 p.m.

TheGamer says... #7

Thats what i do with all my decks NobodyPicksBulbasaur, proxy em up and playtest! Also, i surprisingly have a few cards for it (1 Liliana of the Veil , 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor , 4 Deathrite Shaman , and a few others) so that is very good.

July 6, 2014 11:10 p.m.

You only run one Batterskull because you only need one in play to win the game. 4 copies of Stoneforge Mystic help you find it. She can also find Umezawa's Jitte , which absolutely obliterates a number of decks singlehandedly.

July 6, 2014 11:28 p.m.

IzexD says... #9

Batterskull is usually terrible in multiples as its a 5 mana spell, and in legacy 5 mana is a lot. Tutoring it up and basically "casting" it for 2 mana is tons better, Stoneforge Mystic also allows 1 ofs in several equipment like Umezawa's Jitte and the Swords of X and Y.

July 6, 2014 11:28 p.m.

TheGamer says... #10

Ok... Ok. I think in understanding this better. Thanks NobodyPicksBulbasaur and IzexD

P.S. Nice ninja bulbasaur ;)

July 6, 2014 11:31 p.m.

Nigeltastic says... #11

The only thing I would disagree on is that I personally find Esper Deathblade or Stoneblade to be terribly boring, but I also love combo decks, so take that into consideration for yourself too; I love dredge and other random weird bullshit combo decks, so I personally would never pick a deathblade variant. This sort of variation can make "is it a fun deck" a difficult question to get answers to.

July 6, 2014 11:40 p.m.

TheGamer says... #12

Thanks for your input Nigeltastic! Combo decks are also my bread and butter, but control is my favorite archetype so... Im really torn XD

July 6, 2014 11:51 p.m.

Khanye says... #13

Walking dead is another variant that you may want to try. Its not as pricey as esper deathblade, but just as hard to pilot imo. If you want to get your feet wet in legacy, I highly suggest running rdw or dredge at first to learn your meta and what to expect from the other top tiered decks. They wont win you a major tournament, but it will be a cheaper starting point. Legacy is a whole another ballgame compared to standard.

July 7, 2014 12:35 a.m.

Lyriczulu says... #14

I just wanted to chime in and second NobodyPicksBulbasaur about proxying the deck. Since legacy is quite expensive in most cases, proxying the deck or playing it on Cockatrice or what have you is definitely a good idea. Dropping $3k on a deck and then finding out you don't like it would be the worst feeling.

July 7, 2014 12:39 a.m.

sylvannos says... #15

I'm going to say no on shocks. As IzexD said, you need to be able to fetch whenever. In Modern, we can get away with fetching at the end of our opponent's turn. In Legacy? You're playing around Wasteland and you're using Brainstorm .

The good news is, you'll generally want something like 4-4-2-2-2, or 4 fetches of one combination, 4 of another, only 1~3 of each dual land, and the rest filled out with basics/utility/disruption mana.

You don't need 4 Underground Sea . For one, because you won't have room. 8 fetches and 12 duals and 4 Wasteland s is 24 lands. Number two: you're not always going to need more than a few basics, especially when it means you don't get blown out by Wasteland . And lastly, Fetches are better anyway just because of the shuffling.

In other words, you won't break the bank too much. Shock lands just won't do enough. You won't be able to fetch when you want, you won't be able to just sit on fetches without cracking them, and the life is relevant in a format with Wasteland and Rishadan Port .

July 7, 2014 3:56 a.m.

"1)Any legacy deck really souldnt run shock lands, the damage is really important and you need to be able to fetch whenever."

False, Belcher can run a single Stomping Ground and not care.

July 9, 2014 12:50 p.m.

sylvannos says... #17

@fluffybunnypants: Belcher doesn't run fetch lands.

July 9, 2014 6:32 p.m.

@sylvannos: That's correct.... but you said "Any Legacy deck."

July 10, 2014 7:20 a.m.

sylvannos says... #19

@fluffybunnypants: You're taking off the second half of that quote, which said "...you need to be able to fetch whenever." Like...read the entire post.

July 10, 2014 5:11 p.m.

sylvannos: I read the whole post. You said "any Legacy deck." Now chill, you're making it too easy.

July 10, 2014 6:45 p.m.

sylvannos says... #21

"hurr durr im soo guud at this gaem lol i can still win with Stomping Ground no need shitty expsensive card like Taiga ."

The difference between shocks and ABUR duals is the difference between guildgates and temples in Standard. You're going to run into some serious problems with a deck like Stoneblade if you try and swap out all of the duals for shocks. Likewise, when playing Belcher, you have to go the Empty the Warrens route and attempt to race your opponent. If you're going up against ANT, congrats: they now only need a storm count of 9 instead of 10.

But yes, please continue with the shitty one-liners in an attempt to boost your e-cred and one-up everyone. Really goddamn important for the discussion regarding Esper Stoneblade an answering the OP's question about how to build the deck on a more limited budget.

July 10, 2014 9:49 p.m.

This discussion has been closed