Hey everyone!

I've been closely following Modern as the developments have been exciting. We have now found initial key pillars of the format: Urza's Saga, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Primeval Titan, and Lava Dart. The format is still in its infancy, but it's hard to deny the power of these four cards. I'm crediting Mason Clark for establishing these pillars in an article he wrote last week.

With these four pillars in mind, I have revised Jeskai Stoneblade with Ragavan. Modern is a format where multiple builds of a deck are possible and I want to play the one that suits me. If you have followed my deck-building in the past you will know I'm a fan of consistency over power.

Let's start with the stock list which gained traction as Kanister made the top 8 of a Modern Challenge on June 21st.

RagaBlade | Modern | Kanister, Top 8 MTGO Modern Challenge 6/21/2021

• Creatures (10)
• 2 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 4 Stoneforge Mystic

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 2 Teferi, Time Raveler

• Instants (15)
• 2 Cryptic Command
• 2 Force of Negation
• 3 Archmage's Charm
• 4 Counterspell
• 4 Lightning Bolt

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Prismatic Ending

• Artifacts (3)
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Kaldra Compleat
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine

• Lands (24)
• 4 Island
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Raugrin Triome
• 2 Hallowed Fountain
• 2 Scalding Tarn
• 2 Steam Vents
• 3 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Force of Negation
• 2 Aether Gust
• 2 Mystical Dispute
• 2 Path to Exile
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 1 Subtlety
• 2 Timely Reinforcements
• 3 Wear // Tear

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Overall, this deck is very solid. It combines some of the top threats in the format with counterspells and planeswalkers so you can only go so wrong.

Here's my list for comparison:

RagaBlade | Modern | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (10)
• 3 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 3 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Stoneforge Mystic

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

• Instants (17)
• 1 Path to Exile
• 2 Force of Negation
• 2 Opt
• 4 Archmage's Charm
• 4 Counterspell
• 4 Lightning Bolt

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Prismatic Ending

• Artifacts (2)
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Kaldra Compleat

• Lands (24)
• 1 Snow-Covered Plains
• 3 Snow-Covered Island
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Raugrin Triome
• 1 Seachrome Coast
• 2 Hallowed Fountain
• 2 Steam Vents
• 3 Spirebluff Canal
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Scalding Tarn

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Teferi, Time Raveler
• 2 Aether Gust
• 2 Wear // Tear
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Force of Negation
• 2 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Path to Exile
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 1 Mystical Dispute
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine

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Field of Ruin could also be viewed as a third color, but it works unfavorably with Prismatic Ending and pushes toward building around Path to Exile or On Thin Ice. These removal spells are significantly worse than Prismatic Ending and Lightning Bolt. Tron lands currently have a low stock in Modern at the moment so I'm not interested in Field of Ruin.

The rest of the mana base is built around casting Archmage's Charm. You will notice every land in the deck is able to produce Blue mana. This weakens you against Blood Moon which is particularly relevant in this metagame as it's a great way to kill Urza's Saga and interact with Amulet TItan.

Ragavan can be dashed to play around opposing Archmage's Charms as it will return to your hand at the end of turn. I can steal opposing Dragon's Rage Channelers and enable delirium thanks to planeswalkers and artifacts going with the low hanging fruit of instants, lands, and creatures.

PieGonti suggested on Twitter to play Plains to mitigate Blood Moon's impact. I like this idea as Blood Moon would be a rotten way to lose after resolving a Stoneforge Mystic.

Cutting the fourth Island for a Plains also hurts you against Blood Moon. Teferi, Time Raveler and Prismatic Ending requiring White mana makes Island and Plains much more impactful than two Island. Plains allows Flooded Strand to fetch a White source without shocking.

Mountain would be another concession to the mana base, but doesn't improve your Blood Moon situation. The advantage of Mountain is to insulate yourself against Field of Ruin which is currently not seeing much play. It can also allow Scalding Tarn to fetch a Red land without taking two damage from a shock land. This is less of a concern as Spirebluff Canal fills the void of painless early Red mana.

Ragavan is one of the strongest 1-drops ever printed and increases the overall power level of Jeskai Stoneblade. Unfortunately, this means other decks are playing nimble interaction for small creatures, making the treasures less reliable. Ragavan thrives in uninteractive metagames as the 2/1 is free to damage the opponent in the early turns. For this reason, I currently favor three copies.

Opt has been cut from many Blue decks recently in favor of more flashy alternatives. It's still a spell that fixes your early mana and provides the glue needed to make Snapcaster Mage versatile. I don't like that the current builds of Jeskai Stoneblade become less consistent the more likely Ragavan is answered in the early game.

Tom also suggested Sacred Foundry in the place of Plains. It can be fetched by Scalding Tarn and Flooded Strand to avoid having to shock for both Hallowed Fountain and Steam Vents to cast Ragavan into Stoneforge Mystic. This is on my list to try.

Since Jeskai Stoneblade plays seven or eight Red cards, I would like a Seachrome Coast over a Spirebluff Canal. There are turns I want to cast a White removal spell as well as Stoneforge Mystic. There are more White cards than Red, making it reasonable to balance out the mana sources. There are still plenty of Red sources for an early Ragavan.

In spite of adding a Snow-Covered Plains I still want a fourth Archmage's Charm. Of the four new Modern pillars, Charm steals meaningful threats against all of them. Monastery Swiftspear, Ragavan, Dragon's Rage Channeler, Amulet of Vigor, Asmor, and The Underworld Cookbook. It can also counter Primeval Titan which is the more important mode against Amulet Titan.

Playing this deck at FNM was fun as each turn in the mid game featured me thinking about the endless possibilities of Archmage's Charm. My main takeaway after the tournament as well as my opponents is "for the love of God play four Archmage's Charm!"

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria felt expensive as there are plenty of late game mana sinks thanks to the Stoneforge package. Ideally Jeskai Stoneblade plays out lower to the ground because the remaining Blue decks are more focused on efficiency over power. In mirror matches it can be important to go slightly bigger, but going too far over the top means you can lose to tempo.

I'm also not a fan of Cryptic Command in Jeskai Stoneblade because most decks are low to the ground. As the format becomes more efficient, I think of Archmage's Charm as the way to generate a two-for-one by stealing an early threat.

Three pieces of equipment in the maindeck was too much. Batterskull is the best equipment against aggressive decks. Kaldra Compleat can be hard cast with Ragavan's treasure and provides a high ceiling on the power of Stoneforge Mystic against the rest of the field.

Sword of Feast and Famine is weaker with fewer counterspells compared to old Azorius Stoneblade lists, but is good against combo and control. Of the four pillars, I only want Sword of Feast and Famine against Amulet Titan as I need to clock them quickly, but not allow them time to set up Cavern of Souls casting an uncounterable Primeval Titan.

Past versions of Amulet Titan played Field of the Dead which made both protection from Green and Black relevant. Now that Urza's Saga can create colorless constructs and Spell Queller is not in the list to fly over, it's easier for Amulet TItan to block.

Sword of Fire and Ice is also a strong equipment against Lava Dart and Ragavan. Again, playing this equipment in the maindeck is speculative as Batterskull is generally stronger to fetch in those matchups.

The main argument for keeping a sword in the maindeck is to equip to Ragavan. This hasn't come up often because Ragavan is unlikely to connect against current midrange and control decks. If it does connect, it's due to the opponent not having removal.

Ragavan is also unlikely to need help damaging the opponent against uninteractive decks. The main exception is Arboreal Grazer out of Amulet Titan where I will board in the sword. 0/3s are too strong.

I prefer to sideboard the swords and swap them for either Batterskull or Kaldra Compleat. In every matchup I swap equipment and never board up to three. This has worked out very well in practice so far.

This is reducing my sideboard slots for efficient interaction which wouldn't have been acceptable in the past Stoneblade builds as I would have to board out a lot of countermagic or Path to Exile depending on the matchup.

Even after I incinerated two sideboard slots with swords, I didn't have enough cards I wanted to cut in each matchup. There's still more opportunity to make the sideboard more targeted for specific matchups. I'm not ruling out Kozilek for Mill.

The flexible interaction and inexpensive threats are what make Jeskai Stoneblade powerful. During the pandemic we got used to every opponent playing the most up to date decks thanks to card rental services on MODO and Arena crafting wildcards. Real life requires effort to put decks together and cards aren't cheap. Beating the best decks is important at the top tables, but you need to be ready for anything on your journey in the early rounds.

The only interaction left that doesn't fit this description is Force of Negation, so I need to make sure there are at least two anti-creature spells in the sideboard. This provides enough room for two swords and to play less targeted interaction in games two and three. I'm considering a fourth Force of Negation in the sideboard because I actually have enough cards to board out against combo decks: Lightning Bolt and Prismatic Ending.

I'm considering a Kataki, War's Wage in the sideboard to fight Urza's Saga decks. It's narrow since Affinity isn't a popular deck. I want it against Asmor and not much else, but that's in contention for the best deck. I already have Stoneforge Mystic as a 2-drop White creature, so I don't want too many Katakis if I play them. Kataki taxes my treasure and equipment, but the creature is so impactful in the right matchups I'm willing to take some downside.

The current artifact hate is Wear // Tear because it covers my bases against Amulet Titan and Asmor. Destroying enchantments against Amulet Titan hits both Urza's Saga and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove. Amulet Titan will run out Urza's Saga on the first turn as it wants to find Amulet as soon as possible, which makes a one-mana enchantment removal spell very powerful.

The generically powerful cards in new Modern decks means there are more opportunities to play artifact hate in the board for Urza's Saga. The enchantment land is very powerful, but still folds to large amounts of targeted interaction. I don't think Saga will be banned in the near future, but you do need to respect it.

Since Ragavan and Lava Dart decks both feature powerful cheap Red creatures, Threads of Disloyalty happens to be well positioned. I am considering one copy as it's effectively a fifth Archmage's Charm. Kroxa pairs well with Ragavan and Dragon's Rage Channeler and I expect to see more of this combination in the future. Stealing Kroxa would be downright dirty. It would have to be over the second Engineered Explosives because Force of Negation is the only bad card against creature decks.

I would like to maindeck a Path to Exile because Stormwing Entity and Murktide Regent are seeing play. Lightning Bolt and Prismatic Ending answer most threats in the format, but are lacking against big Blue creatures. A single copy in the maindeck can also answer Primeval Titan. If I was a Dragon's Rage Channeler deck I would opt to play Unholy Heat, but delirium isn't reliable as Stoneblade has less velocity to dump card types in the graveyard.

Rhino Cascade is waning in popularity as the deck is pretty simple. If you're not prepared to fight two big creatures at a time the deck can still kill effortlessly. I'm respecting the deck with two Engineered Explosives in the sideboard. Prowess has cut Sprite Dragon for Dragon's Rage Channeler meaning it now plays twelve 1-drops.

Teferi, Time Raveler is less powerful than in the prior format as there are fewer Blue midrange decks. Most of these Blue decks are now paired with Unholy Heat and Prismatic Ending to kill Teferi as well. I play a third copy in the sideboard as a way to fight cascade and Bring to Light. It's Blue and pitches to Force of Negation and can be ramped out with Ragavan on the second turn. Non-Blue decks are opting to play Void Mirror and Chalice of the Void to fight the unfair strategies.

I'm not a fan of Timely Reinforcements as it's mediocre against Prowess, leaving Burn as the main deck it lines up against. Burn is not a great deck in Modern at the moment as the rest of the format has sped up thanks to Modern Horizons 2. I would prefer Blossoming Calm if interacting with Burn was on my agenda, but I don't want either.

That's all I have for today. I'm happy to see Stoneforge has a shell that's able to compete with the ultra-efficient cards printed in Modern Horizons 2. Jeskai Stoneblade is likely the best three-color combination. The deck is very fun to play and I encourage trying out the differences I proposed.

Thanks for reading!

-Kyle