It feels like an eternity ago that I was advocating for Azorius Stoneblade in Modern. I guess that’s because Modern’s landscape has been fundamentally altered several times since then. Thankfully, we’ve circled back to a metagame where Stoneforge Mystic is an excellent choice. There are some contenders but there ‘s no other deck I’d play for SCG Regionals this weekend.
Creatures (11)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (24)
Spells (20)
Didn’t the Modern community come to the consensus that Stoneforge Mystic isn’t very good in the format?
I believe the opposite is true but Stoneforge Mystic certainly fell out of favor once Oko, Thief of Crowns reached mass adoption. When the dust settled from that, Amulet Titan was the king of the format and people were scared to play a deck with small white creatures against a ramp deck, including me.
However, the reason I started playing this deck again was that I figured out how to beat Amulet Titan and so did others. In fact, the week after I started advocating for Azorius Stoneblade, it won a Modern Premier Challenge on Magic Online, typically one of the more difficult events the client offers. Since then, it’s put up even more results.
If you were to believe the real-life metagame will follow the Magic Online metagame, we’re about to be swimming in Eldrazi Tron and Grinding Breach. Overall, that’s not a bad place for Azorius Stoneblade to be either.
Not much has changed since I last advocated for this deck. Mystic Sanctuary was printed, which changes things slightly, but the overall gameplan remains. This is a tempo-based version of Azorius that utilizes Spell Queller and Sword of Feast and Famine to gain tempo on its opponent. You can typically sideboard into a more controlling shell but tempo will be how you win the majority of your games.
Shaving another Snapcaster Mage is defensible. Opt and Path to Exile are all you need to make it playable but it’s bad enough of the time that two copies could be correct. Depending on what you’re expecting, a sixth removal spell maindeck could be a good choice. As long as you’re able to get ahead in the early-game, closing should be trivial against most decks, so having an additional way to interact with your opponent would be helpful.
Cryptic Command certainly competes at the four-mana slot but the synergy with Mystic Sanctuary is too strong to ignore. I wouldn’t be playing Cryptic Command otherwise. Being able to bounce your Mystic Sanctuary with Cryptic and then use a cantrip or planeswalker activation to redraw it the next turn is incredible and adds a new angle of attack.
When the format consisted of mostly Amulet Titan decks, Spell Snare wasn’t a card I was excited to play with. Now that the format has opened up again, you can register Spell Snare and have a reasonable number of targets, but it’s still not where I want it to be. When Spell Snare is good, it’s one of the best cards you can have in your deck. I’ve played as many as three copies before. Very few things allow you to steal tempo like an early Spell Snare but it’s narrow.
Why not splash Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath? As much I love Ice-Fang Coatl and turning over an Uro to Thought Scour, now is not the time. That sort of gameplan isn’t effective against the vast majority of the metagame. I’ll be happy when that time comes but it isn’t now.
Should we splash red for Lightning Bolt? Again, no. Although this is more tempo-based than any other Azorius deck in the format, Lightning Bolt doesn’t serve as effective removal at the moment. If it killed everything like it used to, then maybe we’d have a consideration. As in, it’s barely better than Lava Spike and we need all our Path to Exiles.
The manabase is incredibly smooth. When we’re trying to utilize Mystic Sanctuary, there isn’t any need to play Glacial Fortress or Celestial Colonnade. You only get to play one Plains, which means you actually need a third Hallowed Fountain in order to have enough fetchable white sources. That will make it difficult to get choked on white mana when facing another deck with Field of Ruin or some other land destruction.
Without any lands that enter the battlefield tapped and a lack of utility lands, having an additional cantrip in Serum Visions helps keep you gassed up heading into the mid-game. Opt tends to win out because of its synergy with Snapcaster Mage, Spell Queller, and the other counterspells, but Serum Visions is a fine second choice. Remember that it has synergy with Teferi, Time Raveler!
As for the sideboard, we’re firmly in the portion of the Modern metagame where we’re looking for hammers, not diversity or hedging. I prefer the hedging formats but you gotta do what you gotta do.
VS Grinding Breach
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Rest in Peace is hardly game over because of how many copies of Engineered Explosives and Teferi, Time Raveler are in their deck. Thankfully, both of those cards are sorcery-speed, so you can use Force of Negation to protect it under most circumstances. Be cautious of their ability to build a wide battlefield presence, blow up your hate card, and win with Grinding Station.
For the most part, you need to keep their card advantage engines offline. If they don’t have something like Emry, Lurker of the Loch online, your disruption will be able to contain them. I would prefer taking out as much removal as possible but it’s necessary to keep some for Emry; Sai, Master Thopterist; and the like.
Their Teferi, Time Ravelers are potentially scary, which is why Mystical Dispute comes in. Sniping Emry makes them less narrow.
VS Heliod Company
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Not only do you have plenty of removal to break up their combo, but you also have outs to infinite life thanks to Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Granted, there are several decks that have outs to infinite life, so I doubt Heliod Company will last long in Modern, at least in its current iteration.
VS Amulet Titan
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I’m thinner on sideboard slots for Amulet Titan than I have been in previous weeks but that’s because I need to address the new decks that have popped up, stealing some of Amulet Titan’s metagame share in the meantime.
Aven Mindcensor and Aether Gust are the best sideboard cards you could ask for against Amulet Titan. Ashiok, Dream Render can get attacked and there’s no surprise element. Your opponent will often cast Primeval Titan into open mana, especially if they have a Cavern of Souls, and both Aven Mindcensor and Aether Gust are powerful ways to punish.
VS Burn / Mono-Red Prowess
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Despite Burn being scary in general, it’s a relatively easy matchup. Stoneforge Mystic can run away with the game, especially when backed up by Force of Negation. Timely Reinforcements out of the sideboard is typically game over.
VS Dimir Whirza
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This is basically like playing against Jund. They’ll try to deal with your threats and gain card advantage before finally sticking a threat. Your two options are to go under them or outdraw them, both of which are viable. Thankfully, you have all the tools to fight them.
Rest in Peace is fine here too, at least in low numbers.
VS Dredge
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Obviously this matchup is going to hinge on your access to graveyard hate. Force of Negation can slow them down if their draw is particularly bad but it’s rare.
Given that the plan is to resolve Rest in Peace and protect it, shaping your entire gameplan around it makes sense. For example, Supreme Verdict won’t do much against an army of recurring creatures, yet it will all but lock up the game when you have a Rest in Peace. Even though Rest in Peace is cheap, your opponent could easily have seven power on the battlefield by the time it resolves and you’ll need a way to catch up.
VS Eldrazi Tron
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I haven’t quite figured out how to sideboard in this matchup. My recommendations are certainly fine but I wouldn’t be surprised if you wanted each copy of Force of Negation. Teferi, Time Raveler can be great at slowing them down and removing Chalice of the Void for a turn but is often clunky and poor in multiples.
VS Jund / Death’s Shadow
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These matchups are mostly the same. Death’s Shadow has a faster clock, whereas Jund has Liliana of the Veil and Bloodbraid Elf to help them grind. Both matchups are difficult, especially since we don’t have any extra sideboard help for them. We can’t beat everything, and Thoughtseize decks aren’t exactly crushing Modern at the moment, so we shouldn’t worry too much.
VS Gifts Storm
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You could make a case for Aven Mindcensor to nerf Gifts Ungiven and provide a clock but it’s not as effective as you’d prefer. Instead, load up on disruption, kill their creatures if you can, and save an answer for Aria of Flame. Teferi, Time Raveler can help with that problem but it’s not great in the matchup otherwise.
VS Azorius Control
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I love playing this matchup but that might just be me. You have the disruption, the cheap threats, and the card advantage necessary to get under the control deck. It’s part of why pure control is so flawed in Modern. Now that you have Cryptic Command and Mystic Sanctuary, it will be difficult to run out of gas.