I can only imagine how sick you all are of Caw-Blade. Me, on the other hand? I’ve been having a blast traveling the country, cutting up different regions of unprepared opponents. The fact of the matter is, there are very few people out there who are putting in real time and effort to defeating the Caw menace.
Anyone care to guess how many of my opponents have bemoaned their luck after losing to me?
Let’s take a look at my track record, shall we?
SCG Open DC: 1st place with Sparkblade
-Lost to no one!
SCG Open Edison: 7-3 with Sparkblade
-Lost to Valakut, RUG, something else
SCG Open Memphis: 5th with Darkblade
-Lost to Vampires in the swiss (beating the other two people with the same list), RUG in t8 when I got runner, runnered.
SCG Open Dallas: 1st with Darkblade
-Lost to no one! Even four RDW opponents couldn’t beat me.
SCG Open LA: 2nd with Darkblade
-Lost to Boros in the swiss and U/W in the finals.
SCG Open Atlanta: 5-2 with Darkblade
-Lost to the actual mirror (hey, they’re catching on!) and Vampires.
Running good? Maybe. Playing well? Most likely. The luckiest I’ve ever been? Please. Simultaneously, there are Legacy tournaments proving just how mediocre I could be doing under different circumstances. I could provide excuses for why I’ve lost every single match in these Opens. Most were avoidable during deck construction or with plays that I’ve made. In truth, I should probably be performing better in the Opens.
So what does that mean for you? Either:
1) You should be playing some form of Caw-Blade at Grand Prix Dallas.
Or
2) You should take a serious look at your preparation. If you think you beat Caw-Blade decks with good pilots, you are wrong.
Something is very flawed with how most people prepare, which is especially true of when there’s a deck like Jund, Faeries, or Caw-Blade that is obnoxious to play against. Most of the time the person piloting that deck in playtesting is going to keep loose hands and play poorly hoping that they lose. They don’t want the “best” deck to seem as good, and typically hope that their team’s brew beats it.
Before you register that brew, confident that your Caw-Blade matchup is awesome, you need to do a little soul searching. Is this the best thing you could come up with, or should you just give in and be the bad guy? If you don’t, you will most likely walk away from the tournament, tail between your legs, wondering what happened.
But enough of that, onto the actual strategy!
Which Caw strategy do I recommend? Well, that seems rather obvious if you’ve been paying attention to what I’ve been playing in tournaments. Clearly I think U/W/B is the best version, although I can’t fault someone for wanting to play U/W either. I just think it’s a riskier choice, given that Spell Pierce is very weak against some of the decks out there. Meanwhile, Inquisition of Kozilek is an all star.
Regardless of what version you play, Caw-Blade is going to perform admirably. It’s been a while since a deck has been capable of attacking from many different angles, all the while one angle would be powerful enough to spawn a deck on it’s own.
Plan A: Cast Stoneforge Mystic on turn two, fetching Sword of Feast and Famine. Start connecting with it asap. Use Squadron Hawk to create a stream of creatures that can wield the Sword, making them all huge threats. This plan fights creature removal very well.
Plan B: If your opponent manages to Thwart your Sword plan, either through creature removal, or because you didn’t happen to draw a Mystic or Sword, then you start deploying Planeswalkers.
Plan C: Some combination of A and B, or a typical U/W Control plan utilizing removal and card advantage. Sun Titan (or some other fattie) to finish.
So how do we fight all of these plans? It’s like we need to be anti-aggro and anti-control with the same deck, which is extremely difficult when nearly every card in Caw-Blade provides them card advantage.
Option #1: Ignore Them
Your first thought might be Valakut, but aggressive red decks like Boros and RDW don’t care what Caw-Blade is doing either. Again, this is where misconceptions take over and lose you matches. For example, Manic Vandal is not a card you want to sideboard in against Caw-Blade with RDW.
Attempting to play their control game by trying to destroy their equipment is picking the wrong fight. Once you play the matchup from the Caw side, you realize that trying to connect with a Sword is a pipedream against red decks. The lesson: Ignore the equipment!
Valakut is a fine deck right now, but suffers from the problem of not having a coherent plan against Caw-Blade. Players jam cards like Nature’s Claim, Wall of Tanglecord, Tumble Magnet, and/or Lightning Bolt against Caw decks, yet don’t understand why they lose afterward.
Caw-Blade just isn’t on Plan A all the time, so you shouldn’t waste your time trying to just fight that aspect of the deck. Try a Valakut list with four Primeval Titan, four Inferno Titan, four Summoning Traps, and no extraneous removal spells. I guarantee you’ll do better against Caw-Blade than any version with six cards devoted to fighting Sword of Feast and Famine.
Option #2: Fight Them
Umm, good luck I guess? U/B from Grand Prix Barcelona is probably the deck that does this the best, but I’m not impressed. Any Caw-Blade deck prepared with Jace Beleren and Duress should be able to destroy U/B on every single threat. The only downside is losing some games to U/B’s Tectonic Edges.
I’m amazed that Martin Shienin went 9-1 against Caw-Blade decks at the GP, especially considering that LSV and company loved getting paired against the Japanese masters at PT Paris who were all playing U/B. The lists haven’t changed much, so it doesn’t feel like U/B really gained anything.
Even if the U/B players understand the matchup better than the Japanese did in Paris (which isn’t likely, considering the Japanese were the first ones putting Stoneforge Mystics into their U/W Control decks), they still haven’t gained much edge back.
Naya Sparkblade attempts this option valiantly. They have Cunning Sparkmage to stop the birds, equipment of their own, and tutorable dudes to blow up their opponents’. However, Naya is this strange combination of tempo plus control that doesn’t really work out. I feel like Naya would just be better off as a Quest deck, ignoring Caw-Blade, than incorporating controlling elements into a deck when they most certainly have to be the beatdown.
Option #3: Become Them
Clearly I chose this option. Many players tend to avoid mirror matches like the plague, but I feel like those are the matchups I want to play the most. I know for a fact that I’m going to know how to play my deck, be confident in all my choices, and have solid plans for each matchup, but can I say the same for all of my opponents? If you’re willing to put in the work, you should probably just play the best deck, especially something like Caw-Blade, as its mirror match isn’t nearly as annoying as Faeries or Jund.
Once you figure out a better plan than everyone else has, beating the mirror match becomes easy. If that’s the deck to beat because it’s already great against everything else, I think you’re set up nicely to win the tournament.
So what’s the plan then? Well, for the last month I’ve been playing Darkblade and putting up great results. However, with every week and every tournament I’m left wondering if maybe there was something I could have done differently. There are so many ways to approach the mirror matches, and varying ways you can get leveled, so it’s always tough.
The way I see it, you need some sort of action for the early game to stop them from running you over with a Stoneforge Mystic.
Cards that help in this regard:
Duress
Inquisition of Kozilek
Divine Offering
Into the Roil
Squadron Hawk
Spot removal isn’t where you want to be. However, when I was paired against David McDarby in Atlanta, I kept in a pair of Go for the Throats. Typically, I would take them out, but I knew that David had studied my list and most likely my sideboarding plans. I figured he would think that he was free to equip his Sword or get in for lethal with Creeping Tar Pit, and I’d be able to take him by surprise.
I also assumed he had a couple Sun Titans, which gave GftT the nod over Condemn. However, in game three, I didn’t draw any black mana after my mulligan to five, and couldn’t effectively cast my spells. Against a master in the mirror, especially when they know your list and plans, you may have to switch it up on the fly.
The discard spells are the best since they fight Sword of Feast and Famine and Planeswalkers. I really like Into the Roil for the same reason. While it doesn’t kill Sword, it can combo with a discard spell for the same effect, buy you a turn of tempo, and is one of the few cards that can Remove Gideon.
At DC, I ran two Divine Offerings, but quickly upped it to three for Edison. In DC, I drew them multiple times, and killing their Sword was typically all I had to do to win. Their sequencing and resource management was embarrassing compared to mine, but I didn’t notice that was the main reason I was winning.
In Edison, I stopped siding them in altogether, wishing they were something else. It can be a big tempo swing early game to Divine Offering their Sword, but it rarely happens. If they happen to not draw Stoneforge Mystic, then you have effectively mulliganned unless they have something like Tumble Magnet.
The format isn’t in its infancy anymore. Many players are adopting my two Sword of Feast and Famine strategy, so Divine Offering doesn’t stop them from ever connecting with Sword. Late game, they have Sun Titans to bring it back, so you can never really stop them from having a Sword if they really want it. A catch-all, temporary solution seems far better to me, and that’s exactly what Into the Roil is, with a little bit of value attached.
Still, Tumble Magnet seems to be catching on again. Divine Offering might be worth playing as a two of for the Grand Prix. I would probably side in one against the mirror in the dark, but both against any blue deck that’s shown a Magnet. If Valakut has Tumble Magnets, I wouldn’t bother.
Using Squadron Hawk to chump an aggressive Stoneforge Mystic is good in the short term, but I assure you that line of play isn’t likely to win you the game. Oftentimes, that line will put you in a deep hole. All of your Hawks will be gone, they will eventually draw a Hawk of their own, and then they’ll have Sword advantage with an army of dudes.
These types of situations led to the decision to keep in one Day of Judgment in the mirror. There are just some situations you get into where your Planeswalkers or even Sun Titan aren’t enough to get you out of the situation. At that point, you need a reset button in your deck so you’re always drawing live.
Overall, you want a solid number of cards able to stop the Stoneforge menace, but you don’t want cards completely devoted to that aspect of the matchup. Things like Mana Leak on the play or Duress that can stop Jace or Gideon are far more welcome.
Next up in the Planeswalker threat. Discard and counters are fine and all, but sometimes when you’re jockeying for position, you have no choice but to tap out. Occasionally, you Duress them, see that Jace, but you have to take their Sword anyway.
One of the best things you can do in the mirror is play Inquisition, then Duress, then Jace Beleren or Jace, the Mind Sculptor. It’s lines that like that make the black splash very appealing to me.
For the most part, there is no coming back from someone having a Jace and Gideon in play. If they have any sort of follow-up, then even spending some turns legend rule-ing theirs won’t help you come back. There are some Titans and other big creatures that make it possible to fight through them, so I’ve been trying to find the best combination of cards that would allow me to do that.
Some things that seem reasonable to play:
Sun Titan: This one is fantastic in U/W, but can be playable in U/W/B if you play the Tectonic Edges and Jace Belerens like I was. Otherwise, rather than Sun Titan being insane every time you cast it, and having your pick of the varying effects it provides, you are simply returning a Hawk or Sword. Now, neither of these is actively bad, but for my six drop, I want it to be the most powerful it can be.
Grave Titan: Lundquist started these guys, and I didn’t see the point. Especially in the first game, there is almost no matchup where it’s a stalemate until you drop a Titan. Not only that, but the Titans, especially Grave, are all that good right now. Caw-Blade has insane two-drops and four-drops, and you have to fight those before you can even begin thinking about which six-drop you want.
Still, Grave Titan has its advantages over Sun Titan. Rather than needing a full graveyard, Grave Titan gives you card advantage off the bat. After one swing, you should have enough random duders to start attacking their Planeswalkers, even if they Assassinate your Titan with Gideon.
Sun Titan, however, still has a lot of advantages over his black brethren. With Vigilance, you don’t have to worry about Gideon cutting him down, and Sun Titan prevents them from connecting with Sword. He’s not black or green, can bring back Hawks, and is vigilant. In addition to fighting the Jace war, the Tec Edge war, and the Attrition war, he’s just naturally good against Sword which is a nice boon.
Hero of Bladehold: This might actually be good. It’s like Grave Titan but costs two less. Having a four drop threat that is immune to Spell Pierce is pretty insane as well. The problem with these cards lies in the fact that if you tap out on turn four, you better have a damn good response to their turn four Jace. If they play Jace and bounce your Hero, you are in some serious trouble.
Playing Hero alongside Spell Pierce (although Duress is a fine substitute) is a very attractive option. Being able to cast Hero against a deck with Spell Pierce is also awesome, so with that knowledge, I would expect Hero to be solid in the U/W mirror, but not necessarily great against a deck with Tumble Magnet (unless you have Divine Offering, OH THE LEVELING) or with spot removal.
Frost Titan: Not the best option right now, but it’s still underrated. This is another one of those dudes, like Grave Titan, that’s probably going to be able to clear some blockers and attack a Planeswalker. Again, I’m not endorsing this guy, just saying that he’s something to keep in mind.
Admonition Angel: This is like a really sweet Sun Titan. Is it better or worse? I’m not entirely sure. If you cast it, play a fetchland, and don’t have them immediately bounce it with Jace or cast Day of Judgment, I don’t really see how you’re losing. However, most of that is true for Sun Titan as well.
Consecrated Sphinx: Oh, the options that we have. It really is a sad state of affairs when we have a bunch of insane six-drop mythics, but none of them compare favorable to the Titan cycle. Again, a sweet card, but probably not much more than that.
Liliana Vess: I think Wafo-Tapa was onto something. Shocking, right? Playing this instead of your second or third Titan makes a lot of sense. In a way, it’s like a new, different Gideon Jura that could also be whatever brand of six-drop you like. If you’re playing Darkblade, I suggest playing one instead of the second Sun Titan.
Phyrexian Crusader/Inkmoth Nexus: If Grand Prix Barcelona didn’t happen, I was fully prepared to cut Squadron Hawks for a little poison package. However, with the uprising of U/B Control, there’s another matchup out there where Hawks are better. Crusader is definitely something to consider if Caw-Blade continues to dominate and the format becomes more polarized.
Baneslayer Angel: I’ve seen these in a few lists, but I don’t agree. Against red decks, you want to make their Mark of Mutinies as dead as possible, and that seemed like a card that people were boarding in against me in the dark. It’s fine in the mirror if it sticks, but Jace typically squashes that plan.
Emeria Angel: I had these in my sideboards for a while, as it seemed like creating a steady stream of guys would be solid. However, it was rare that I could pinpoint a game where Emeria Angel outright won the game for me. Typically, if it were any other spell, I would have won regardless, so I just decided that it wasn’t as good as I thought it was. If anything, I’d be more willing to try Hero of Bladehold for the reasons I mentioned above.
Geth: Despite Geth being the first two letters of my first and last name, I’m not a big fan of him. Lundquist swore by it, but then again, he also had access to Divine Offerings at a time where I was shunning that plan. If Offering is your thing, perhaps you should consider a Geth instead of a Sun Titan.
Elspeth Tirel: I can’t ever imagine Elspeth being better than Gideon. I would certainly play the fourth Gideon before any Elspeths, and might even dip into Venser territory before Elspeth, especially if I’m playing any Tumble Magnets.
If you look at my track record, you’ll notice that there are only certain decks that I’ve lost to. R/U/G and Valakut can ignore you and quickly assemble a winning board position. Boros and Vampires can do the same. I feel like Darkblade is better positioned to stop that situations from occurring, although straight U/W isn’t bad either.
It just feels like I have more control over how the game plays out with Darkblade because I better answers to nearly all the threats. U/W has to lean pretty hard on Mana Leak and Spell Pierce, and once people start playing around those, winning becomes very difficult. Having no pinpoint spot removal is a problem I don’t want to have either.
So what’s the verdict? Unfortunately, I’m not going to share a decklist with you. For the astute reader, there are plenty of tips and tidbits in here that, when combined, you could probably guess which type of list I’m leaning toward. Still, I wanted to provide this information to help you make your own choices. Even if it doesn’t help you win the tournament outright, I’m sure you can look back and realize what a valuable process it all was.
No matter which option of ignoring them, fighting them, or joining them, I wish you luck.
GerryT