Remember when everyone was terrified of Stoneforge Mystic coming off the ban list?

Like Jace, the Mind Sculptor before it, Stoneforge Mystic had a ton of historical reverence. Caw Blade was one of the most customizable and powerful Standard decks to ever exist, getting Jace banned in Standard. Stoneforge Mystic has been a premier threat in Legacy forever, as has Jace, the Mind Sculptor. But when both were released back in to the Modern metagame they didn't really do much.

Why?

Because frankly the interactive tools weren't there. Modern was a very linear and powerful format, where games often either ended (or effectively ended) by turn four. The hard to defend, incremental advantage of Jace didn't always add up for tapping four mana on your main phase, while Stoneforge Mystic and Batterskull would often be outclassed by something bigger and scarier.

Then along comes 2019.

Okay, technically Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath was printed 2020 but you get the idea. A lot of silly good Magic cards have been printed recently and they give fair decks much better tools in Modern. Add this to classics like Jace and Stoneforge Mystic and we've got something very nice.

Time Stamps:

Match 1 - 00:06:23

Match 2 - 00:50:31

Match 3 - 01:05:45

Match 4 - 01:40:55

Match 5 - 02:08:53

Bant Snowblade | Modern | Jim Davis

• Creatures (12)
• 2 Snapcaster Mage
• 2 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
• 4 Ice-Fang Coatl
• 4 Stoneforge Mystic

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 2 Teferi, Time Raveler

• Instants (14)
• 1 Spell Snare
• 2 Cryptic Command
• 2 Mana Leak
• 2 Opt
• 3 Force of Negation
• 4 Path to Exile

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Supreme Verdict

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 4 Arcum's Astrolabe

• Lands (23)
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Mystic Sanctuary
• 1 Temple Garden
• 2 Field of Ruin
• 2 Polluted Delta
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Snow-Covered Forest
• 1 Snow-Covered Plains
• 5 Snow-Covered Island

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1 Supreme Verdict
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Celestial Purge
• 1 Kor Firewalker
• 1 Mystical Dispute
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 2 Timely Reinforcements
• 2 Veil of Summer
• 1 Aether Gust
• 1 Engineered Explosives

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Not bad at all. Anyone keeping a video trophy count?

I'd go on to play this deck at SCG Tour Regionals over the weekend, and while I didn't do as well as I would have liked I came away with a Top 32 money finish. My changes to the deck were as I discussed in the video, adding Knight of Autumn over Timely Reinforcements in the sideboard as well as adding a Tireless Tracker and both were great.

And that's where the deck really shines.

Like Caw Blade before it, you can tune this deck to be good in almost any metagame. It requires good foresight as to what you expect the metagame to be, as well as good problem solving to find the correct answers, but the overall experience is very rewarding.

If you love playing fair, Bant Snowblade may be the deck for you!