Geist of Saint Batterskull

Modern Competitive Midrange Stoneblade Tempo WU (Azorius)

Silverdrake

Land (22)

• 1x Celestial Colonnade
• 1x Eiganjo Castle
• 4x Flooded Strand
• 4x Hallowed Fountain
• 3x Island
• 3x Plains
• 3x Seachrome Coast
• 3x Windswept Heath

Planeswalker (3)

• 3x Teferi, Time Raveler

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Detention Sphere

Creature (17)

• 4x Giver of Runes
• 3x Snapcaster Mage
• 4x Stoneforge Mystic
• 3x Geist of Saint Traft
• 2x Spell Queller
• 1x Vendilion Clique

Artifact (2)

• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Batterskull

Instant (12)

• 4x Path to Exile
• 2x Spell Snare
• 3x Dovin's Veto
• 2x Remand
• 1x Force of Negation

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Emeria's Call  ^Flip
• 2x Winds of Abandon

---

Sideboard

Artifact (3)

• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Sword of War and Peace

Creature (2)

• 2x Fiendslayer Paladin

Instant (4)

• 1x Ceremonious Rejection
• 2x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Force of Negation

Enchantment (6)

• 3x Rest in Peace
• 3x Leyline of Sanctity

---

A midrange-y-er approach to the classic stoneblade shell.

Mana Base

7 Fetches to ensure we can get our colors when we need them and to help fight blood moon. A single manland to help close out the game without too many taplands. 10 fetchable lands, including 6 basics to fight blood moon. 3 Seachrome coast since our curve realistically tops out at 3, so they always enter untapped when it's relevant and tapped when it isn't. One of Eijango Castle since it lets Geist eat an Anger of the Gods or Sweltering Suns, and prevents him from dying to flash blockers like Snapcaster, Queller, and Clique. Emeria is just a weird plains that can help us close out games if need be.

One Drops

Path to Exile because it's simple, efficient removal with a low cmc that doesn't get in the way of our beatdown plan. Giver of Runes because the card is absurd. Why does it give protection from colorless? Why is it a 1/2? We may never know. Ideally we drop a T1 giver into a T2 Stoneforge, since the optimal play against Stoneforge is to kill it T2 so the caster winds up with a Batterskull stuck in hand. T1 giver means they need two T2 removal spells to get rid of the Stoneforge. Also allows our low toughness creatures to eat damage based boardwipes, can act as a combat trick, can make our beaters unblockable, and can protect our Quellers to prevent blowout. Overall, the card is absurd. Spell snare because it's like a path for noncreatures - deals with troublesome noncreature spells at an effecient price that doesn't interfere with our beatdown plan. Additionally, most of the modern playable artifact hate is 2 cmc: Shennanigans, Smash to Smithereens, Disenchant, Destructive Revelry, Wear, Kataki, Stony Silence, and more.

Two Drops

Stoneforge for obvious reasons. Veto keeps our beaters alive through targetted removal and boardwipes, and prevents combo decks from killing us before we can kill them. Remand most often delays troublesome blockers for a turn to give us extra time to either find a path or find a way to push our beaters through. Snap gives our removal and countermagic extra value, in addition to being a flash threat that holds a sword reasonably well. And Winds of Abandon as effective 5th and 6th copies of path, with the added bonus of being able to one-sided wipe a stalled board.

Three Drops

F&F is arguably the better sword to be mainboarding in modern, but F&I is easily one of my favorite cards in the game so I'm running it instead. If I were taking this shell to more serious tournaments I'd swap out the F&I for a F&F. A pair of Quellers play into our midrangey tempo plan perfectly, and hold a sword very well. Teferi is an absolute monster, and any UW deck without it is playing the game wrong. In addition to his standalone power, he's doubly good in this shell since he can bounce a Stoneforge to find another equipment, or bounce a Queller to permanently exile the quelled spell (your opponent won't be able to cast it off of the Queller ability since Teferi says they can't cast spells on your turn!). Detention Sphere as a bit of catch-all removal for when a noncreature threat you can't deal with resolves. A single Clique fights against combo and can save equipment we've tutored for from being thoughtseized by putting them on the bottom of our library. And finally Geist, because he's arguably the best UW aggro creature in the game. Equiping things like swords to creatures is always risky because your opponent has a chance to respond and kill the creature you're attempting to equip, leaving you without a creature and down the mana you spent to activate the equip ability. With a hexproof creature like Geist, however, that isn't a concern!

Sideboard

Rejection against Tron, Affinity, and the mirror
Veto against any noncreature-heavy decks, but especially control and combo.
Fiendslayers against burn - they're surprisingly effective.
Force against any noncreature-heavy decks, but especially control and combo.
Leyline against burn and disruption-heavy decks like jund.
Shadowspear against boggles.
L&S against removal-heavy decks like control and jund.
W&P against burn.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 5 Mythic Rares 39 - 7 Rares 7 - 3 Uncommons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.08
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Angel Warrior 4/4 W, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B
Folders	Modern