Is Blood Baron of Vizkopa still a good finisher for an Esper control deck? Right now I'm using White Sun's Zenith, Gideon Jura, and Ætherling as my finishers for the deck, but I'd like to try to fit in the Baron over one of them (most likely the Ætherling). Is this a good idea or should I skip him?
I like that Blood Baron dodges a fair amount of Modern removal (including Bolt). I don't like that he has very little evasion (sure, protection does help, but it doesn't help against problem creatures like Goyf) or that his second ability will almost never be relevant.
I think he could see play if Batterskull wasn't a card. Baron's last ability is basically just trinket text, and Batterskull is pretty much as hard to deal with plus it has vigilance, equip and late-game recurrence. I don't think his unblockability against black and white makes up for that except maybe out of the SB against spirit tokens etc. Shame, I love Pimp Baron, he was easily my favourite card in Standard last season.
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Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
I was running a deadguy ale deck with BBV as the finisher. Put sword on him and it's just about game over. That said, when I'm considering one card finishers I'm thinking batterskull or wurmcoil engine. BBV does die to flame slash or combust, both of which are still in the meta.
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The point is really moot anyway. Esper control should be running celestial colonnade as the finsher anyway. That allows slots for even more disruption, removal, or discard. Heck, run crucible of worlds too if you're concerned about removal for CC.
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Esper's finishers are colonnade and White Sun's Zenith. If you check the thread out, you'll find most of the discussion points to the best finisher-creature for the mainboard apart from those two is Grave Titan. Beyond that, clique + snapcasters in the main is a perfectly fine supplement to WSZ and colonnade (that's the package I run at the moment) and Baneslayer/Batterskull are both strictly better sideboard material. BBV is really only better than batterskull in the narrow case of "they have creature removal but no artifact removal" and/or "they have krosan grip for batterskull". Otherwise, you're pretty much just better off with batterskull, as you can generate grindy CA by bouncing and replaying it if necessary, or by re-equipping it to something like a snapcaster or a clique, or even Tarpit/colonnade.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
I think you're discounting the fact that in a junk mirror, batterskull equips to your rhino for the absolute trump, whereas BBV just bites a liliana -, or gets double-teamed by rhinos to push in damage, or dies to a large goyf. I could see playing BBV in addition to batterskull, but batterskull is also a more versatile card (good against UR delver or UR twin for example) whereas BBV is hard to cast under a blood moon. Certainly, it's a pretty sweet trump card in that mirror match, but that's kind of a narrow application. It's kind of like bringing in Teferi mage in blue mirrors as a trump card--yes, it's sweet in the mirrors where it's a beating, but against everyone else it's just a really expensive vendilion clique without the hand disruption or the evasion. Or, linvala in the pod mirror--Good there, but it's a flying ham sandwich against everyone else except twin. Dragon's Claw in the burn mirror--OK, that has some application for other decks, but the point is it exists pretty much just to beat burn. BBV is really, really sweet if you want to beat junk midrange, but there are just better options for an all around card that also comes in against junk midrange, and batterskull is the best of those.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
If you're already mainboarding two batterskulls, yes, BBV is a pretty ridiculous sideboard card in your metagame.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
Ah, the old "that card sucks because there exists a single possible set of circumstances, no matter how contrived, that could answer it" argument. Haven't seen that one in at least a few seconds.
In any case, if they spent their two best cards to answer one of my grunts and I still got 4 lifelink out of it, I'll do that trade all day. Besides, Tiago is starting to decline due to competing with Treasure Cruise for graveyard chum.
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Is the prote tion really that much better then the isane 5/5 lifelink, first strike, vigilance angel?
As is usually the case, the answer is "sometimes."
If we're talking maindeck, I'd prefer Baneslayer Angel or Batterskull. But I can see this guy as a sideboard card, sided in for matchups where having protection from white and black will blank all their removal and make him unblockable (or close to it). It games like that, he's pretty hard to race.
URW Control
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Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
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Is this thread lost? Did it time travel from last year's Standard?
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Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
Wrong metagame right now. Come back to this when the format is all Slaughter Pact and Path to Exile.
Has somebody experience with that card in Modern?
Ah, the old "that card sucks because there exists a single possible set of circumstances, no matter how contrived, that could answer it" argument. Haven't seen that one in at least a few seconds.
In any case, if they spent their two best cards to answer one of my grunts and I still got 4 lifelink out of it, I'll do that trade all day. Besides, Tiago is starting to decline due to competing with Treasure Cruise for graveyard chum.
As is usually the case, the answer is "sometimes."
If we're talking maindeck, I'd prefer Baneslayer Angel or Batterskull. But I can see this guy as a sideboard card, sided in for matchups where having protection from white and black will blank all their removal and make him unblockable (or close to it). It games like that, he's pretty hard to race.
Modern: GW Hatebears/midrange, WGU Knightfall/evolution midrange stuff
Standard: nope
Legacy: W Death & Taxes
EDH (not Commander!): W Avacyn, Angel of Hope, GR Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, WGB Anafenza, the Foremost, WU Hanna, Ship's Navigator