I do not feel like card advantage engines are the real problem. This deck already cannot lose an attrition war. The problem with control is the linear decks asking to much out of our top decks. Anticipate helps here since it goes 3 cards deep lets you choose the card (unlike serum visions) and dumps the shaft all at instant speed and for 2 mana. You are more like to see your sideboard cards with this in our deck during boarded games. Anticipate is better if you want to add consistency without losing too much tempo against all the linear decks in the format. In short we lose games because of people asking very important questions while we are struggling to pull the right answers in time.
I agree completely with this. I feel it is a fairly agreed upon opinion that control decks do best in a known format. The plethora of viable linear strategies available as options make constructing a control deck to be capable of meaningfully interacting with each of them is a challenge to say the least. I think this card will help offset this. I think also Anticipate has a distinct advantage over Think Twice due to the near overwhelming power of the sideboard options in Modern. I would rather look three cards deep for the bombs in my current match-up then draw two cards for twice as much mana.
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However, I continue to try and I continue, indefatigably, to reach out. There’s no way I can single-handedly save the world or, perhaps, even make a perceptible difference - but how ashamed I would be to let a day pass without making one more effort. -- Isaac Asimov
With anticipate, I'm considering a different approach to sideboarding for some matchups. Scapeshift has been problematic for me because skilled scapeshift players can assemble their combo plus excessive amounts of interaction before we truly have the game on lockdown, and baloths from the side make just firing esper charms at their face a risky proposition. My thought is that I may end up cutting leyline(s) from my 75 and add a playset of kor firewalker. It's not just a burn hate, it also is a clock that's hard for twin, delver, scapeshift, and UWr control to remove, and it comes down before the "no more tapping out" time window closes. I'm not entirely sure how this changes all the matchups, but it does potentially free up a mainboard slot. No testing yet, just theorycrafting at the moment. I'll start with testing it against scapeshift and UWr, since if it doesn't do work there, it isn't worth the slots.
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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 have a lot to learn about how to properly play the deck, and I'm sure these are chock full of egregious play mistakes, but here are some videos of me jamming some Esper Control games.
One sideboard choice you may not have considered yet is Meddling Mage. I got the idea from Gerard Fabiano's Esper list he made recently. Here is a link if you wanna check it out. [url=http://mtgdecks.net/decks/view/177643[/url] I personally have been play testing a list quite similar to his and have been having a lot of success with it so far. Meddling Mage has been an all star for me. As far as burn goes I really like his idea of playing timely reinforcements x2 in the main. Notable changes I made to his list are: moving thoughtseizes to the sideboard and trading oust's for path's in my own list. I also moved v-clique to the main from the side since I sided the thoughtseizes and added another Restoration angel over Tasigur since I want to play at flash speed as much as possible.
I realize 1 mana makes a huge difference, but vs. most of the decks that it would be helpful against I think I would honestly rather have Nevermore. It seems much more difficult to remove, and won't get swept up by a Verdict.
I haven't tried meddling mage in esper; comes in naming scapeshift or remand against scapeshift, comes in naming grapeshot against storm, names ad nauseum or slaughter pact in the Ad Nauseum matchup, names the delve-pump spell against infect, hits plating or ravager against infect. not terrible in theory, but playtesting is king when it comes to hatebears vs combo decks.
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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 realize 1 mana makes a huge difference, but vs. most of the decks that it would be helpful against I think I would honestly rather have Nevermore. It seems much more difficult to remove, and won't get swept up by a Verdict.
You probably want a non land win condition of some kind, the advantage of zenith being that it's never dead and is an instant. I've played without it and the main issue was going to time.
Im probably gonna get bashed but: Is White Sun's Zenith really where we want to be?. I have played around 500 best of threes since switching from uwr to esper. Thats somewhere between 1000 and 1500 games. Im playing a list with only the zenith and 3 Celestial Colonnade and 2 Creeping Tar Pit as finishers and i rarely find myself wanting to draw the zenith. I am winning around 5% of my games with the zenith and th rest with manlands (The tar pit has worked great for me).Most often its dead in my hand or used to bait a counter or used as chumpblocker. And when i really want it i often just do not draw it. To top it off i often find myself boarding out the Zenith in games 2 and three since there are a lot of maI'mtches where i really do not like it. I am contemplating of playing 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang as finishers together with Anticipate once it goes live.
So my question is do we really want to play zenith?
Zenith is almost impossible for midrange decks to deal with while Tasigur will just turn their cards on. Zenith is the only win con I would want outside of manlands its like a one card combo.
Vs. Scapeshift? They're as likely to run Baloths as anything else game 2 to hamper Esper Charm, and if you're forced to sweep up... anything, you'll lose it. Same with Storm, he's not attacking into an Electromancer.
MM is clearly the better card in a vacuum, but circumstances being what they are (when you want this effect in control you *really* want it, and you don't have FoW to protect it), I worry about it dying too easily.
I'm actually in a love/hate relationship with zenith. It's everything I want in a finisher; it's instant speed, it's not individually vulnerable to any sort of removal (short of extraction or countermagic) and it's infinitely scalable. It even provides infinite chump blocking to deck players ( I did that to pod opponents on multiple occasions). That being said, it is difficult to resolve. Against any blue deck, I always cringe g1's when I draw It because I know it's not likely ever truly going to be safe, at least not before when I could have started manland beats.
The problem is it's the only finisher that fits two important criteria--it's both Resilient to removal AND has flash. I've been considering other options; darksteel sentinel, jin-gitaxias, Core Augur, mystic snake, notion thief, pearl lake ancient, Restoration Angel, surrak dragonclaw, teferi, Mage of Zhalfir. Those are the potentially relevant flash-creatures that we can use as finishers; As becomes readily apparent, they all either die to removal immediately, can be countered, or are not sufficiently strong at ending the game. Resto angel turns into almost the best compromise of mana costs and clock, with potential added value, but it's just a 3/4 flash flying for 4, or necessitates playing other bad cards to turn it on. It's tailor-made for a midrange deck, but not quite what we need. Jin gitaxias reduces your opponents to topdecking, except they get a chance to kill it and you likely tapped out for it. Same story for surrak, except it's cheap enough and big enough to justify it; too bad it's in RUG. Teferi is a house against blue decks, but it doesn't do squat against more than half the meta. Pearl lake ancient is everything we want, except it's too expensive and the protective ability costs too much for us to make use of it.
Cruel ultimatum is a sorcery. Blue Sun's Zenith would be my top choice except for time concerns. Most other spell-based finishers are either too costly, not sufficient to kill every opponent, or are sorcery speed.
Planeswalkers and sorcery-speed creatures are the last and, in my opinion, weakest category. Planeswalkers, if you can protect them, are excellent. However, the problem with both of these options is that they are sorcery speed AND hard to re-buy if they are somehow dealt with. Planeswalkers in particular are the type of permanent that will have a target on them in sideboarded games. And creatures like aetherling, baneslayer angel, and batterskull all suffer from the problem of costing too much to tap-out for reasonably against most combo decks.
Control doesn't have any truly excellent finishers except for colonnade and tar pit; However, we have so many not-terrible options that I don't believe we need an improvement in that area; a 5% improvement in a category we're already 90% in isn't helping us. A solid counterspell reprint or an unbanning of ancestral visions would do a lot more for us.
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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
Vs. Scapeshift? They're as likely to run Baloths as anything else game 2 to hamper Esper Charm, and if you're forced to sweep up... anything, you'll lose it. Same with Storm, he's not attacking into an Electromancer.
MM is clearly the better card in a vacuum, but circumstances being what they are (when you want this effect in control you *really* want it, and mancer and Baloth. don't have FoW to protect it), I worry about it dying too easily.
Baloth will eventually be dealt with unless you just lost to it which nevermore would lose in that situation as well. Scapeshift and storm will not have answer to a resolved hate bears while you will be able to deal with their electromancer and baloth. You never will board wipe vs scapeshift and you will only board wipe against storm if they go for the empty the warrens plan which if you the game usually ends due to them throwing all their resources for the tokens. Thing is once you deal with their threats and few bounce spells you will eventually just be clocking them which is the real reason to run pernament based hate otherwise it is probably better to just discard their combo piece and win counterwars. Stalling with nevermore just says you have forever to find a bounce spell.
It may be an awesome sideboard wincon, since our BGx opponent will probably sideout the Abrupt Decays.
The question is if it is "maindeckable".
I dont know. It's a turn 1 play, which this deck has few of (this is both good and bad). It survives boardwipes (which we play a few of), we control when it gets used, so we can dodge most removal (dont animate unless its bigger than 3/3 against red decks, etc). Its a mana dump, which we can use while holding up mana for counters/removal. It gets bigger while we do what we want to do.
I think it at least has potential. And if we maindeck it, it can make people side in enchantment hate g2/3, giving them dead cards against 56-58/60 of deck.
The new guy is basically a manland that does not require a million mana to activate. I like it against combo since those decks do not run good answers to things like this. It is a really safe wincon against those decks. I would not main it though as long as Adrupt Decay is a thing. Its also great against control.
Tasigur is better in general but he is much worse against remand and grave hate which some people bring when they see think twice, snapcaster, and Logic Knot. I like Myth realized much more against combo since they usually run counter magic which makes your other tasigurs worse while fate realized can be played before countermagic turns on. Against fair decks that actually interact with creatures outside of counter magic instead of trying to race them Tasigur is better but we do not need wincons in those matchups. I see Myth Realized as an alternative to the geist plan in sideboard for those folks wjo were on thst plan. He kills slower thsn geist but does not require a significant mana investment during vulnerable times against combo decks.
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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
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
http://youtu.be/TK8jf7HFse8?list=PLaUnM24uNg0DHOmRzaweLeCujhJnV5ypg
Seems like it my be good vs Ad Nauesum. Maybe Storm naming Grapeshot so they cannot kill him?
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
Being able to attack is what makes it good.
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
Zenith is almost impossible for midrange decks to deal with while Tasigur will just turn their cards on. Zenith is the only win con I would want outside of manlands its like a one card combo.
Vs. Scapeshift? They're as likely to run Baloths as anything else game 2 to hamper Esper Charm, and if you're forced to sweep up... anything, you'll lose it. Same with Storm, he's not attacking into an Electromancer.
MM is clearly the better card in a vacuum, but circumstances being what they are (when you want this effect in control you *really* want it, and you don't have FoW to protect it), I worry about it dying too easily.
The problem is it's the only finisher that fits two important criteria--it's both Resilient to removal AND has flash. I've been considering other options; darksteel sentinel, jin-gitaxias, Core Augur, mystic snake, notion thief, pearl lake ancient, Restoration Angel, surrak dragonclaw, teferi, Mage of Zhalfir. Those are the potentially relevant flash-creatures that we can use as finishers; As becomes readily apparent, they all either die to removal immediately, can be countered, or are not sufficiently strong at ending the game. Resto angel turns into almost the best compromise of mana costs and clock, with potential added value, but it's just a 3/4 flash flying for 4, or necessitates playing other bad cards to turn it on. It's tailor-made for a midrange deck, but not quite what we need. Jin gitaxias reduces your opponents to topdecking, except they get a chance to kill it and you likely tapped out for it. Same story for surrak, except it's cheap enough and big enough to justify it; too bad it's in RUG. Teferi is a house against blue decks, but it doesn't do squat against more than half the meta. Pearl lake ancient is everything we want, except it's too expensive and the protective ability costs too much for us to make use of it.
Cruel ultimatum is a sorcery. Blue Sun's Zenith would be my top choice except for time concerns. Most other spell-based finishers are either too costly, not sufficient to kill every opponent, or are sorcery speed.
Planeswalkers and sorcery-speed creatures are the last and, in my opinion, weakest category. Planeswalkers, if you can protect them, are excellent. However, the problem with both of these options is that they are sorcery speed AND hard to re-buy if they are somehow dealt with. Planeswalkers in particular are the type of permanent that will have a target on them in sideboarded games. And creatures like aetherling, baneslayer angel, and batterskull all suffer from the problem of costing too much to tap-out for reasonably against most combo decks.
Control doesn't have any truly excellent finishers except for colonnade and tar pit; However, we have so many not-terrible options that I don't believe we need an improvement in that area; a 5% improvement in a category we're already 90% in isn't helping us. A solid counterspell reprint or an unbanning of ancestral visions would do a lot more for us.
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
Baloth will eventually be dealt with unless you just lost to it which nevermore would lose in that situation as well. Scapeshift and storm will not have answer to a resolved hate bears while you will be able to deal with their electromancer and baloth. You never will board wipe vs scapeshift and you will only board wipe against storm if they go for the empty the warrens plan which if you the game usually ends due to them throwing all their resources for the tokens. Thing is once you deal with their threats and few bounce spells you will eventually just be clocking them which is the real reason to run pernament based hate otherwise it is probably better to just discard their combo piece and win counterwars. Stalling with nevermore just says you have forever to find a bounce spell.
Thats not bad at all.
I dont know. It's a turn 1 play, which this deck has few of (this is both good and bad). It survives boardwipes (which we play a few of), we control when it gets used, so we can dodge most removal (dont animate unless its bigger than 3/3 against red decks, etc). Its a mana dump, which we can use while holding up mana for counters/removal. It gets bigger while we do what we want to do.
I think it at least has potential. And if we maindeck it, it can make people side in enchantment hate g2/3, giving them dead cards against 56-58/60 of deck.