Hello everyone. I'm working on an Esper control EDH deck featuring the somewhat innocuous seeming Merieke Ri Berit. It's your basic defensive / reactive deck that ramps into a combo, for right now Exquisite Blood & Sanguine Bond. I'm hoping to get it more "competitive."
I love this deck, it features most of my favorite cards, but it could definitely be better, I'd like to know what you guys think.
So right now I play it against a casual group of players that use proxies (though I don't use proxies, but I'm glad they do - it ups the level of competition). And there's once a month games at the local shop that are more challenging. It's pretty good. It's biggest problem is coming out too strong and drawing too much hate. Against people that know the deck, I'm usually target #1, but it's built for that.
It has problems with very fast token decks, and it has a big problem with milling, and I've never played against any sort of Stax deck. I think it needs Kozilek, Butcher of Truth to protect against mill and also as a possible backup win, but it'll be a month or two before I can justify a $30 card to myself. I also used to have some Ghostly Prison effects in there, but they were moved out for other cards, but perhaps there should be at least one in there.
I'm pretty happy with the mana base, the current combo requires 10-12 to go off in 1 turn, and it usually doesn't have too much trouble with that. I'll be replacing Arcane Sanctum with Command Tower soon enough, and I'm thinking about replacing Bad River with Academy Ruins. There's a lot of acceleration of various kinds in there, and I could see taking out 1 land or 1 signet perhaps. And also Lotus Bloom hasn't been quite as amazing as I'd hoped, despite being awesome with Tezzeret. Obviously, a cheaper table-kill combo would improve the base.
My knowledge of the entire card-base definitely is spotty, so I'm interested in whatever people have to suggest!
I love this deck, it features most of my favorite cards, but it could definitely be better, I'd like to know what you guys think.
1 Merieke Ri Berit
Creatures(10)
1 Baleful Strix
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Royal Assassin
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
1 Tidehollow Strix
1 Trinket Mage
1 Vampire Nighthawk
Instant (16)
1 Banishing Stroke
1 Brainstorm
1 Capsize
1 Counterspell
1 Cryptic Command
1 Desertion
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Force of Will
1 Hinder
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Pact of Negation
1 Render Silent
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Spin into Myth
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Vampiric Tutor
Sorcery (12)
1 Austere Command
1 Damnation
1 Day of Judgment
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Revelation
1 Mind Twist
1 Obzedat's Aid
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Temporal Mastery
1 Terminus
1 Vindicate
1 Azorius Signet
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Dimir Signet
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Expedition Map
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Jester's Cap
1 Lotus Bloom
1 Mana Vault
1 Meekstone
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Ring of Three Wishes
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Unbender Tine
Enchantment (8)
1 Detention Sphere
1 Exquisite Blood
1 Humility
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Prison Term
1 Sanguine Bond
1 Underworld Connections
Planeswalker (1)
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
Land (36)
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Bad River
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Fetid Heath
1 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Island
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Kor Haven
1 Marsh Flats
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Mystic Gate
3 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Scrubland
1 Sejiri Refuge
1 Strip Mine
1 Sunken Ruins
3 Swamp
1 Tolaria West
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Wasteland
1 Watery Grave
So right now I play it against a casual group of players that use proxies (though I don't use proxies, but I'm glad they do - it ups the level of competition). And there's once a month games at the local shop that are more challenging. It's pretty good. It's biggest problem is coming out too strong and drawing too much hate. Against people that know the deck, I'm usually target #1, but it's built for that.
It has problems with very fast token decks, and it has a big problem with milling, and I've never played against any sort of Stax deck. I think it needs Kozilek, Butcher of Truth to protect against mill and also as a possible backup win, but it'll be a month or two before I can justify a $30 card to myself. I also used to have some Ghostly Prison effects in there, but they were moved out for other cards, but perhaps there should be at least one in there.
It also DEFINITELY needs a backup combo. I'm open to suggestions. My current thought is to replace Nihil Spellbomb with Leyline of the Void and fit Helm of Obedience in there somehow.
I'm pretty happy with the mana base, the current combo requires 10-12 to go off in 1 turn, and it usually doesn't have too much trouble with that. I'll be replacing Arcane Sanctum with Command Tower soon enough, and I'm thinking about replacing Bad River with Academy Ruins. There's a lot of acceleration of various kinds in there, and I could see taking out 1 land or 1 signet perhaps. And also Lotus Bloom hasn't been quite as amazing as I'd hoped, despite being awesome with Tezzeret. Obviously, a cheaper table-kill combo would improve the base.
My knowledge of the entire card-base definitely is spotty, so I'm interested in whatever people have to suggest!