Post-bannings Caw-Blade

by DarkJesper on 14 August 2011

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

Instants (10)

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Deck Description

EDIT: REMOVED 1 FROST TITAN, 1 DAY OF JUDGMENT, 1 DISMEMBER FROM SIDEBOARD TO ADD 3 MENTAL MISSTEP (SEE COMMENTS AND DESCRIPTION FOR EXPLANATION)

2ND EDIT: Added one more Into the Roil to the mainboard at the cost of a Spell Pierce. There appears to be one hell of a dick trick available when O-Ring is combined with into the roil. Works as follows (note, I only found this out after the FNM I played this deck, one week ago.)

You cast Oblivion Ring.
When it enters the battlefield, it's first ability goes on the stack. To that ability you respond by Into The Roil-ing that very Oblivion Ring. The bounce effect will go on top, to resolve first, after which Oblivion Ring's second triggered ability will go on the stack, returning to play nothing, as nothing was initially exiled with the O-Ring. Then the first ability of the O-ring will finally resolve. You will exile a non-land permanent of choice, and you may cast the Oblivion Ring again. If then the O-ring leaves play, only the the last exiled permanent will return to play...


My take on the caw-blade deck. I played this deck at a FNM last week, and I played it 3-1 in the end...

I'll first explain certain choices in the deck. To see the deck list, scroll down, as after explanation there comes a coverage of how I played and what my match-ups were.

I chose to mainboard 2 sun titans, as it really helped out against removal heavy decks that had to use removal spells to deal with the hawks, and when the unexpected titan showed up, it would put the game away for me.

Second weird choice: 4 Oblivion Ring mainboard. I knew this was weird to do, but eventually it really payed off in the mirror match (read below) and the mono-black matchup (also read below). The mirror ended where he dropped a turn 3 sword of feast and famine, after we both resolved squadron hawk, to which I responded with oblivion ring. It gave me the opportunity to leave my opponent with 2 mana open after playing another hawk and used it mana-leaking my sword, which I spell-pierced. From then on, I started to gain some more of advantage and O-ringed his second sword. So far so good.

Another weird choice: no spellskites mainboard/sideboard. this has one simple explanation: i don't have any. There is no way I can find them anywhere without either ordering or buying a shitload of boosters. I don't plan doing either of them.

The first match-up was against another caw-blade player. The first game really took long, and eventually after both we ran out of creatures, my second main-board Sun Titan showed up. As my opponent did not have any card available to deal with it, it revived my squadron hawks and jaces, which gave me the edge. The second game was not so special, he got stuck on 3 lands and I happily hit him with my Sun Titan. That concluded the match-up and I was really happy I won that match, as I never before fought a post-bannings caw-blade deck and it was the first time I played it, and I knew my opponent had way more competitive MTG experience than I did.

The second match-up was not that hard. I played against a Solitaire-combo Grand Architect deck. It used Mindslaver combined with Prototype portal to control your opponent infinite times. As the combo required 10 mana to work each turn, the architect was chosen to easily provide that amount. The first game I lost because my squadron hawk didn't appear and I got completely overrun by over a dozen of blue creatures, as well as a Wurmcoil Engine and a Platinum Angel. He mentioned those cards were in their in case combo didn't work out. After that game I boarded in 3 Revoke Existence and 3 Dismember to deal with it, and ended up winning the 2nd and 3rd game.

2 - 0 so far...

3rd Matchup: Mono-black control. This matchup was terrible for mono-black. The sword gives your creatures pro-black, and as my opponent didn't play any board-whipers, his spot removal was useless and he lost the first two games, even after sideboarding. I didn't board anything in.

3 - 0 so far, things go really well...

4th matchup: Blue-black control. This is the match-up I lost. Not only was he probably the strongest, smartest play I ever faced, he also brought the deck that had an obvious advantage against caw-blade. He had vampire Nighthawks and Inquisition of Kozilek mainboard, which both totally screwed my draws and plays. Squadron hawk became a dead creature and the Swords all ended up in the graveyard. As I found out I didnt have anything useful in the sideboard against the deck, I played the second game, hoping to be lucky. I wasn't: turn one inquisition blew away the hawk, and the only creature remaining was sun titan, but as I got stuck on six lands, he dropped a grave titan on turn 6 backed-up by a spell pierce, so I lost that match-up.

3 - 1 overall. I'm satisfied. Especially as this was the first FNM I played caw-blade and I won the mirror.

Enjoy the list and plz leave a comment or two xP...

Deck Tags

  • Tournament

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

5
Likes

This deck has been viewed 3,716 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

2020000

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Post-bannings Caw-Blade

wow!! i see you really put your effort and heart into this, and the deck looks, well ,amazing, just the only thing is replace the timely reinforcements for maybe 2 more jace or 1 jace and 1 gideon, for gid always is super annoying and i would have won many more games, but, they played gid, anyway check out my decks by clicking my name and tell me what u think

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Posted 14 August 2011 at 23:18

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I really like timely reinforcements main-deck twice because it provides the creatures I need to get the sword equipped onto. Timely Reinforcements is a card that can completely tip the game in your favor, especially against red decks or tempered steel strategies. The 6 life is not that awesome, but 3 guys for just 3 mana is absurd.

I'd prefer not to draw into Jace too often. I'm more motivated to keep a hand with Timely Reinforcements in it than keeping the same hand but with Jace instead. Jace does make me draw cards, but doesn't provide any offensive abilities. Timely Reinforcements is capable of immediately putting pressure on my opponent, especially if I can get a sword of feast and famine into play the next turn...

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Posted 15 August 2011 at 18:17

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sounds good....

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Posted 15 August 2011 at 22:27

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oh ya i was just playing my w/u venser sundial deck w/ timely reinforcements in the sideboard, AND THEY WRE AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you so much for noticing them.

anyway, you have some decks that need to get to the front page, so i think we can help each others deck get noticed, for people could benefit from t quality decks,. im planning to upload about 5 more decks, including my venser sundial which i finally GOT A GIDEON. so check out my decks these next couple weeks!!

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Posted 17 August 2011 at 02:13

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couple comment boosters for ya here

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Posted 14 August 2011 at 23:19

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couple comment boosters for ya here

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Posted 14 August 2011 at 23:20

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Alright I run caw blade as well and right now build is 3 Gideon,2 jace and you lost to blue black becuase you didnt sideboard mental misstep if you had that you may have stood a chance. My buddy runs B/W controll and i mental misstep his Inquisition of Kozilek and he's pretty well locked down cuz he wasnt abel to get rid of the hawk, or counter spells. Im still messing with a build i'd like to take to grand prix pittsburg.

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Posted 15 August 2011 at 11:11

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Yeah, I was searching for a strong card to board in against blue-black and now I realize that it's just mental misstep that would have saved me those games... thanks for the answer, you really helped me out.

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Posted 15 August 2011 at 18:18

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No problem man, i only knew the answer because I went through the same thing.

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Posted 16 August 2011 at 09:13

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So will Caw-Blade be able to survive after Innistrad comes out?

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Posted 26 August 2011 at 17:06

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no probably not! and that's mainly because Squadron Hawk, Preordain and Celestial Colonnade will rotate out when Innistrad comes out. There sure are a few replacements for those cards, but squadron hawk was just absurdly overpowered when it comes to card advantage. Without it, there is no way this deck will survive. The concept will remain the same, but it could hardly be called Caw-blade, as the deck loses it's hawks...

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Posted 29 August 2011 at 13:44

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And along came Mageblade. XD

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Posted 24 September 2012 at 18:48

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