Why Batterskull?
Deck Help forum
Posted on May 5, 2015, 12:30 a.m. by Liszt
I've built an equipment deck and has been asking this myself for quite some time now. Apparently Batterskull is a nice card but it's beeing played so heavily that I have to ask myself what's THAT good about this card. Why would I want this card in my equipment deck? I don't really think it beats Umezawa's Jitte or Sword of Fire and Ice at any point. Is it only the ability which lets me put it back into my hand and thus save it from artifact removal? I can't cast it in graveyards anyways (right?) so I really have to have lots of mana to play with it efficiently and that again is something I usually don't.
Tutored and put into play easily with Stoneforge Mystic. Doesn't need another creature around to come in for the beats. Gains you life. Is resilient to most forms of removal.
May 5, 2015 12:35 a.m.
Zeondragon says... #4
At least that's what has always been used on me whenever it hits the field
May 5, 2015 12:35 a.m.
It also has living weapon which is notable, so you can attack straight away next turn without equip costs being a thing.
May 5, 2015 12:35 a.m.
Batterskull is incredibly popular for a couple reasons:
As mentioned above, if you have the mana, it dodges artifact hate.
Living weapon means you don't need to pay the steep equip cast to be able to even use it.
Vigilance and lifelink mean that you can gain up to 4 life on each turn, including your opponent's, giving you a better tempo game.
However, I see it more often played in control decks as a finisher than I see it in equip decks as... well, just another equipment. In those equip decks, the Jitte and Swords do better because of their low costs for huge effects.
May 5, 2015 12:40 a.m.
Stoneblade decks aren't control decks, they are midrange decks, and this is their beater.
May 5, 2015 12:45 a.m.
Stoneblade is definitely a control deck. Deathblade is a midrange deck.
May 5, 2015 12:49 a.m.
KillDatBUG says... #9
Batterskull is the primary reason why Stoneforge Mystic is banned in Modern.
That's all I have to say about that.
May 5, 2015 1:37 a.m.
KillDatBUG Certainly Batterskull is one of the better targets, but Stoneforge Mystic is the reason Stoneforge Mystic is banned. It's tutoring card advantage that also instant speed cheats on mana to put its tutor targets into play.
May 5, 2015 3:28 a.m.
I have to agree with that one. Stoneforge Mystic is nuts. The fact the she gives you a body, a tutor and an instant speed and uncounterable (well, really hard at least) way to put equipment into play all on a 2CMC creature is nuts. The fact that she was banned in standard and basically has an archetype built around her says something.
As for Batterskull - Other than the aforementioned reasons, Its a good value card. 5 CMC for a 4/4 vigilant lifelinker is really good. Not ot mention, even if the creature dies you can reset it easily enough. And for control decks, the life gain is super important. It lets you stabalise once your opponent has run out of steam. You drop down to 3-5 life? no problem, you get a Batterskull down and you can quickly get back out of the danger zone where one good Lightning bolt can take you out. Not to mention in modern it dodges Abrupt Decay and if they Path to Exile the germ in a desperate attempt to stay alive you just reset it and go to town again with one more land.
May 5, 2015 3:40 a.m.
Alright, I see that it's an insanely good card for control decks that kind of want to drag out the game, lifelink back, reset the Skull etc. But for a pure equipment deck with low CMC and an aggro strategy it doesn't really serve its purpose. So I think in conclusion I could sideboard it against decks that make the game go long but maining it should be avoided.
May 5, 2015 3:45 a.m.
You could run it as top of the curve one off if you wanted. But yeah, its designed to go long unless you have access to Stoneforge Mystic and then its an auto-include.
Do you have a specific decklist you want if for?
May 5, 2015 4:04 a.m.
If you are running Stoneforge Mystic you need Batterskull. Its basically a tutorable uncounterable bounceable 4/4 Vigilance Lifelink for 2 mana.
May 5, 2015 6:40 a.m.
Yes, you can see my deck here:http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/03-05-15-equipment/
I'm not really experienced though. Started playing Mtg about 2 Months ago. I also haven't yet decided the format of this deck. There is a little problem:
- I really really love Umezawa's Jitte and Stoneforge Mystic
- I really really dislike all this legacy stuff such as Brainstorm, Force of Will, Dual lands etc..
So I want to play the two cards mentioned above but at the same time I don't want to turn it into a Jeskai Stoneblade deck. I don't even want to splash in another colour. But if I don't this deck can't compete at all with other legacy decks. So yeah, kind of helpless at the moment.
May 5, 2015 11:25 a.m.
Liszt you should check out Death & Taxes if you want to play legacy. It uses Stoneforge Mystic, Batterskull, Umezawa's Jitte and Sword of Fire and Ice as win condition. You only need one of each if you play 4x Stoneforge Mystic. The rest of the deck is hatebears such as Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Phyrexian Revoker, Spirit of the Labyrinth and sometimes Aven Mindcensor. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben makes their Brainstorm and Force of Will much much worse, and responding to a Brainstorm by flashing in a Spirit of the Labyrinth with AEther Vial is pretty fun. Its mono white, so you dont need duals. You will need 4x Wasteland and 4x Rishadan Port tho, as the core of the deck is mana denial.
May 5, 2015 11:37 a.m.
Wow, that deck looks awesome, I really like it. But you only run 3 equipments. I understand that this is enough to make a good deck but I really wanted to build this deck with the focus on running lots of equipments. At one point I even considered going for Kaldra. I think I will have to stick with Steelshaper's Gift instead of the Stoneforge Mystic and some other low cmc equipment as a surrogate for the beautiful Umezawa's Jitte... Really hurts my heart! But I don't think I have a choice as I prefer modern over legacy at the moment. If you ever find another good recommendation, please let me know.
May 5, 2015 2:03 p.m.
Before i moved to Death & Taxes i ran an modern equipment deck (that slowly turned into D&T). My deck was 4x Kor Duelist and 4x Puresteel Paladin as creatures. 4x Path to Exile for removal. Then i had 1x Sword of Fire and Ice, 1x Sword of Feast and Famine, 1x Sword of Light and Shadow, 1x Sword of War and Peace. The rest of the deck was 0 cost equipments like Bone Saw, Accorder's Shield, Paradise Mantle (to get mega value from Puresteel Paladin) and 4x Golem-Skin Gauntlets to get even more value from my 0-drop equipments :). The deck was kind of dependant on Puresteel Paladin, that was the biggest weakness, but when he hit the board it went nuts :D
Zeondragon says... #2
Ok. Batterskull + Wurmcoil Engine Tell me if you catch my drift.
May 5, 2015 12:33 a.m.