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Every so often I like to check things I think I know for sure, just to make sure I didn't miss something.

Today is #stoneforge. I'm trying the #all-in-druid-est possible version of #stoneforge that I can, so that I am not completely out of my depth.

List

Basically from my usual build, it is -3 Evolution -2 Lunge -1 Shalai, +3 Stoneforge +3 Equipment.

Then putting 3 Eldritch Evolution in the board for when I need to race; those are over the 3 Ouphes I have in my #all-in list.

Results

4-1 (9-4). All versions of the deck are super strong of course.

Unfortunately I have still literally never connected with a Sword of Light and Shadow against anyone, ever.

I will say I did win a game against Burn by landing a Batterskull. And my loss to Burn was due to a bad sideboarding decision related to equipment. So... ?

XOX Burn (T5) Lifetime 13-10 vs Burn

XOO Ponza (T4, T9) Lifetime 2-1 vs Ponza

OXO Spirits (T5, T9) Lifetime 4-1 vs Spirits

OO Ponza (T8, T3) Lifetime 3-1 vs Ponza

OO Czech Pile (T6, T4) Lifetime 2-0 vs Czech Pile

Round 1 on the play vs xame3 on Burn

This is where I try to test whether all this Stoneforge stuff is better than 2nd Shalai.

Lose Game 1

This kind of hand is not ok.

This one is dangerous but a keep. Bottom the Sword.

The Once Upon a Time is a T1 Noble, which gets a Bolt. T2 Vizier gets a Helix. Then I draw both of the other Horizon Canopies. I Finale for Stoneforge T4 which gets the Rift Bolt. All my things are dead and so am I.

-Longbow (?) -Call -Finale -2 Vizier +2 Forgetender +3 Path. Am I supposed to board out Longbow ever? I think probably not.

Win Game 2

This could work.

The Once Upon a Time is a Stoneforge. It dies to a Blaze. My T3 is a Forgetender and a Call for the other Forgetender, T4 is Stoneforge + Forgetender.

Batterskull hits the table T5 and it's enough.

Lose Game 3

Noo

Much better:

Bottom the second Druid. The Once Upon a Time is another Thicket. It's surprisingly bad if you never hit any way to Forgetender.

T1 Noble gets a Rift Bolt. T2 Druid lives but I get Skullcracked randomly.

I get to infinite mana but all I can do with it is gain 5 with a Batterskull attack. The lifegain gets another Skullcrack and I die T6.

As it turns out you should not board out Longbow.

Round 2 on the draw vs shadefinale on Ponza

Mana Dork deck with 4 basics should be strong vs Big Dudes And Mana Denial Stuff.

Game 1

This is a T4 on the draw with some acceleration into a backup plan, so I'm in.

Opponent plays T1 Utopia Sprawl T2 4/4 T3 Domri fight down my Noble. I play T3 Druid and Arbor, but a T3 Glorybringer kills the Druid. I need to draw Lunge to race this, and I don't. Note that Stoneforge Mystic would have been hilariously bad here.

+2 Forgetender +3 Path -1 SFM -1 Sword -1 Once -1 Call -1 Finale (??)

Win Game 2

Sure

Once Upon a Time is a Giver. They play T2 Blood Moon, which isn't very strong against us. Then T3 Cage, which means our Finale is just +20/+20 and not also a creature.

Win T4.

+1 Caterpillar -1 Finale

Win Game 3

This has basics but nothing else going for it.

This is quite a bit better; bottom the Batterskull.

My T1 Caterpillar gets Stomped T2 even though I have a Druid out. My Druid gets Elked T3. I hold Plains in hand to bait the Blood Moon, which works.

I end up trying to race the Oko with an Elk and a Batterskull. That doesn't work out because my Batterskull gets Abraded. Second Druid is also Elked.

I path the Bonecrusher Giant and put opponent to 4.

Second Oko stabilizes the opponent which means I can only draw Lunge to win; anything else will be Elked.

I manage to draw it T9 and win.

Postmortem Lunge is unbelievably important and powerful and I do not understand how anyone plays zero of this card in any list.

Round 3 on the draw vs EGGROLLIN on Spirits

This matchup should be very difficult because of how Spell Queller and Mausoleum Wanderer are gas against Finale. But on the other hand, 3 path is really good against them, and often Spirits players put Vedalken Wizards and other highly questionable cards (looking at you Moorland Haunt) in their decks, so they lose to deckbuilding much more than the average deck.

Win Game 1

Hear me out -- this is a T2 Druid T3 win 33% of the time, and a T3 Druid with protection T4 win the rest of the time. I kept it.

Once Upon a Time was a Stoneforge Mystic, which is not ideal. So I T2 Call for Druid.

T3 I am facing down pretty obvious Queller. So the question is -- do you play into it?

Like... what did they keep, if it had no 2-drop to play on T2 and no Drogskol Captain? It must be full of Quellers.

Whatever, I slam the T3 Druid into the Queller and it resolves. (!) They cycle the Waterlogged Grove. They Path the Druid and I go to save it with Vines, but that trades with a vialed in Wanderer. My experience against Spirits is that their deck doesn't work very well if they are forced to sacrifice Wanderers, so I feel good about trading Vines for Wanderer in this way. This is key -- this is why Vines is good -- when you trade 1 card and 1 mana for an interaction spell, you run them out of interaction without slowing yourself down.

I kill the Druid in response, leaving them with 2 cards in hand and a Rattlechains. Unfortunately the two cards are both lords, so I go to 14 and am in a big hurry.

T4 I can either Finale for Noble to make sure to have the mana to T5 win with Lunge, or I can Once Upon a Time for land to be able to win with Lunge. I go for the Once Upon a Time, and it hits Vizier. Note that this is better than taking Windswept Heath because it saves a life point.

This means as long as I am at 3+ life and there is no counterspell, I have a Lunge win T5.

Opponent hits me for 9 and I go to 5. I go for the Lunge, and it works. Win T5.

-3 Finale +3 Path. I would play Veils and cut Viziers, but they murder us fast, and Veil doesn't counter Spell Queller anyway, so I'm keeping the 4 Viziers.

Lose Game 2

Yup. Once Upon a Time is insane.

Opponent plays T1 Wanderer, and I try to bait it with a Once Upon a Time. They don't take the bait.

The Once Upon a Time can be either Giver or Noble, which I think is a really tough choice. I think they are on a lot of Paths and (probably) Deputies, so I took the Giver.

T3 I can go for a combo with Once Upon a Time having around 40% chance to hit a Vizier, but I'm not into it. I pass the turn and cast the Once Upon a Time in response to their fetch.

It misses anyway, hitting Horizon Canopy. They flash in Drogskol and hit me to 6.

I have no choice but to go for it; play Vizier T4 and it gets quelled.

I find a really complicated line that almost gets there because my Vines is a ritual which lets me pay for Wanderer, crack Canopy and Path the Drogskol, but in the end it's not so exciting because I end up at 2 life which makes my Lunge useless anyway. Really really close -- I win with 1 more life.

Looking at the speed of those games, I don't think Sword of Light and Shadow is what this is about, so -1 Sword -1 SFM +1 Veil +1 Finale.

Win Game 3

This is goofy as all hell but I'm keeping it every time. It has a few draws at greatness and both Druid and Vizier are basically guaranteed to be alive the whole game.

Opponent casts a Deafening Silence, which I guess is rough on the Lunge wins, but I'm just glad it's not anything from their maindeck; those cards would kill me.

This is a moment of "Spirits players sure do put bad cards in their decks."

If you are a Spirits player, consider putting 15 mountains in your sideboard for a month to train yourself to stop doing this. STOP IT.

As we do, I drew an Eladamri's Call as my first draw step. So T2 Druid, but it gets Pathed. I let the Path resolve thinking I would just Call for another Druid, but that's a mistake. Now the whole purpose of my hand is ruined. Gah. I should just kill the Druid. Your land drop doesn't do anything.

T4 I play two Viziers, because I can't afford to lose the Druid to the Queller. Opponent quells the second Vizier, which is a terrible sign -- it means there is another counterspell.

It's usually my motto that you can't ever beat two Spell Quellers with any deck.

But here we are.

I play third Vizier and pass the turn. I crack a Canopy and Call for Ballista because I might be able to cast it for X = 3 to get around Queller.

Indeed one of my Viziers gets Pathed, so I am up to 6 lands. I cast T6 Ballista X = 3, which eats a Unified Will via Mutavault. Yikes.

By T6 opponent has cast Hatecard Path Path Queller Counterspell, which is usually the bar opponents have to pass to win -- five interaction spells by turn 6.

The problem is they wasted most of those spells - Deafening Silence is not a good magic card and Pathing a Vizier is a really big waste of a premium spell.

Win T9 with Lunge on Vizier to activate Longbow pings, but it wasn't close really. To be fair Longbow + Lunge couldn't be cast in the same turn to the Silence did actually buy them approximately one turn. But your sideboard card needs to do more than that. Or just kill the opponent.

Round 4 on the play vs shadefinale on Ponza

See above.

Win Game 1

We need to go fast. This is a 33% chance at a 33% chance at a T3. That's not good enough.

This is at least a T4 on the play. That's not going to beat a lot, but it has draws that make it faster or more resilient, so it's a keep. Bottom Forest.

Opponent plays T1 nothing and T2 nothing off of double Forest. I feel like I am going to get Oko'd.

Nope, it's a Stomp.

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Neat interaction -- fizzling an Adventure is now in Modern.

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I end of turn Call for Ranger-Captain, and play T4 Ranger-Captain and Ballista on 1. I pump it to 2 and opponent plays Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner. I feel like I am going to get Inferno Titan'd or something soon. But it's just a Glorybringer.

I play T6 Giver + Druid and put opponent to 6, but then opponent uses Kiora to untap Glorybringer to Exert it again (!!!!!) killing my Druid again.

By Turn 7 I've set up what seems to be a pretty good position. I have Shalai and Giver up with opponent at 6. What could they possibly do from here?

DON'T ASK PONZA THAT QUESTION. THAT IS NOT A GOOD QUESTION. IT COULD BE ANYTHING

Ah no worries it was just Vengevine and Vengevine and draw 2. I have no idea what opponent's plan is with the Vengevines.

Win T8.

+2 Forgetender +2 Path -2 Vizier -1 Stoneforge -1 Light and Shadow

I really should have found room for Caterpillar.

Game 2

This is a T3 with a bonus Once Upon a Time that could be a Giver, so this is sweet.

My draw step is a Vines. Once Upon a Time could have been a Fetch for a Basic or a backup Druid. I went with the Druid.

I think this was incorrect. The Vines means I am unlikely to lose my fast Druid. What I am likely to lose is a land.

Luckily opponent just has T2 Domri, T3 Glorybringer, which gets completely embarrassed by Vines of Vastwood. What more do you want from a card than "G, Instant: Counter target spell or ability" with all manner of upside?

Win T3.

Round 5 on the play vs UsaZ on Czech Pile

Czech Pile is an abomination and must be crushed with utmost ferocity. The good news is Veil of Summer is the most important card in Modern, and these people are not going to learn that their decks are unplayable because of Veil of Summer for a long time. They have too much emotion and finance and play practice invested into their "kill everything" decks to realize that it's all over. Play 4 Veil of Summer.

Anyway:

Win Game 1

T2 Druid with Protection and only need to find one piece is always a keep for me.

Opponent Thoughtseizes my Druid. Naturally I draw a T3 replacement Druid. But opponent Thoughtseizes my Finale so I still can't win T4.

I set up this situation T4, which is hopefully troublesome for them.

I'm purposely not attacking because Double Thoughtseize implies serious Shadow action over there. But Ballista causes math problems for Shadow players, so we might be okay -- and we're also threatening lethal at all times now with any Vizier.

Opponent draws some nonsense cards like Wrenn and Six which don't do anything, and I win via combo T6, but I was going to win via normal combat damage anyway with double active Giver.

-2 Vizier -1 Finale -1 Call -1 Noble (Wrenn) -- also we should really cut Arbor but I forgot.

+4 Veil +1 Lightcaster until we see more.

Win Game 2

Not throwing back double Veil!

Opponent plays Nothing into Tarmogoyf, so I set up with T2 Giver + hold up Veil.

Opponent plays T3 Liliana of the Veil into that.

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GET IT?

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LILIANA OF THE VEIL?

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Anyway T2 Giver + Veil your interaction, T3 Druid + Veil your interaction, T4 win is pretty strong.

For style points I finale'd for Devout Lightcaster to exile the sad useless Liliana on the winning turn.

Results

4-1.

Stoneforge Mystic was mostly blank all the time, as expected. It's just not what the interactive games are about -- if you slow down that much, you just play into their game plan. But it did legitimately change the way that game 1 felt against Burn, and that's not nothing. But I lost a Shalai for this... hmm.

On the other hand, Lunge won me multiple games despite being only a 2-of. I can't imagine playing less than 3 of this card. And what am I cutting to make room? The Sword maybe? I could actually see it -- only playing 2 SFM, a Batterskull, and a Longbow as the whole package. I'll think about it going forward, but for now I want my 4 Lunge superpowered deck.

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