I totally agree. Furthermore, replace them with a second Runed Halo, two Leyline of Sanctity, and another Dispel. Halo and Leyline are amazing, and Dispel shores up matches against other control decks and is generally an all-around tool.
W/o sv, you need 26 lands. Your basics should be 3 plains, 2 islands, 1 swamp. 2 GC would be preferable. 3/3 split path/push is not ideal. Verdict in sb should be wrath.
I could add another Plains, but 3 island is essential for Cryptic under Moon. Whenever I run 2 GQ, I get stuck without enough U or W. The removal suite is up for debate.
I think the best sideboard card against Burn is Vendilion Clique, not Timely. If you only run Timely for Burn, consider replacing them with Cliques. Clique cycles a Burn spell and then clocks them, which means you get to hit their only (hopefully) Skullcrack and maybe cast a Revelation. Assuming they don't get free creature damage in, Burn can't actually kill you through disruption till midgame, so I've found racing to be effective. It's hard to tell whether the matchup is positive with Clique since half the time Burn players are just terrible, but I've never been that scared to play it.
This is good advice. The best way to beat burn is a fast clock + disruption and Clique allows you to do that, at instant speed to boot. Without a clock, burn can just wait you out and sculpt a hand to get the last few points of damage in through your counterspells, but clique is a (somewhat) cheap clock, at instant speed, that disrupts their hand. It forces them to push through your disruption ASAP or deal with Clique, neither of which is a good trade for burn.
Another solid thing to do vs burn (sometimes) is Esper Charm in discard mode EoT when they're saving up on burn spells. You'll usually force them to discard some sorcery speed threats, or force them to go for it. Of course, you shouldn't do that if it means you're dead to bolt, but if you're at double bolt range with double counterspell or something like that, you can force the game in your favor.
I've actually felt the matchup is positive both when I'm playing burn or esper, but my esper 75 runs a lot of stuff thats good vs burn, so there's that. If I only were to play vs good burn players I doubt I'd feel the same.
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UG Arixmethes Combo UGR Wanderer UGB Tasigur Control URB Jeleva Storm RW Gisela Control
Aight. I've been out for a few days. I went to the GP in Richmond and played modern challenges and lots of pickup modern games against any and everyone I could get to jam games with me. The 75 I copied in below is what I played the entire weekend. In challenge events I went 13-6 in played matches (lots of ID's for value). In other matches I went 27-8. Several of my losses in challenges were to the same UW emeria titan player with an insanely durdley gifts ungiven package that I don't think I could ever actually beat without a lot of luck or some actual extirpates. Overall happy with the list I brought, considering this was what amounted to an open metagame and I went 40-11 against 51 unique opponents.
Losses were to naya chord, emeria titan, GR tron, GB tron, bant eldrazi x2, burn, merfolk, 4c evolution/chord, eldrazi tron, and abzan chord (not coco, like a toolbox chord).
I won every single match I played against a tarmogoyf or death's shadow deck, I beat every affinity player I played, and I beat every valakut deck I played.
My read on the metagame was that I really wanted to beat death's shadow and the decks that compete well surrounding it, which meant going in without any real firepower to the tron decks. Furthermore, because of the peculiarities with my build, I really don't match up well against any of the toolbox/chord decks.
Noteworthy items:
1. No fatal push. Blessed alliance is just better. The only decks against wish the efficiency improvement outweighs the power increase for BA are the very quick zoo style decks where a boardwipe is too slow, and they're still great.
2. Still on two snapcasters. Yes, push snap push is a atrong play in modern, but a build-your-own wrath isn't exactly gamebreaking. I won a lot of games against opponents who clearly misidentified the level to which I depend on my graveyard and ended up durdling around instead of pressuring me.
3. Baneslayer angel continues to be one of the most game breaking cards in the board. It's not there for burn. It's good if you can stick it against burn, but the card is in my board because of all the fair-ish creature matches where it literally can't be beaten without path to exile. Remember that liliana of the veil, terminate, path and dismember are the only common removal spells that hit her, and most decks will cut those effects over fatal push because they want to kill colonnade through countermagic. Oh, and it's randomly just a four turn clock you can slam in any tron or combo matchup once you clear a brief window to tap out.
4. I beat a taking turns player in a best of three, in turns in game three. Guy had the entire thing pimped out and had a taking turns lifepad--clearly not someone just messing around. I lost game one and then beat a gigadrowse in g2 and double gigadrowses in g3--i'm pretty sure I actually played a perfect game of magic to get there. This matchup is horrific. Both games the win was secured with the third mode on blessed alliance, which was kept in specifically to do that job.
Overall for the weekend, the theme was pretty much the same: play tight and get rewarded. I used every sideboard card multiple times during the challenges except timely reinforcements--i just didn't get paired against burn in any of them.
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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 can understand why I should cut Sorin, but why the Lingering Souls? I often play against other control decks, and it really provides the right amount of pressure. I preferably cut the Sorin and 1 Lingering Souls and get in another Runed Halo and a Leyline
I can understand why I should cut Sorin, but why the Lingering Souls? I often play against other control decks, and it really provides the right amount of pressure. I preferably cut the Sorin and 1 Lingering Souls and get in another Runed Halo and a Leyline
It dilutes what our deck is about. Lingering souls is a great card, _in a midrange build_. We are the best control deck. Trying to race isnt what we're about, we want to grind out the game to the bitter end. We shouldnt need the tokens against control, I'd rather have more counters/discard/prison elements.
I went undefeated 4-0 in the first tournament: 2-0 vs affinity, 2-0 vs living end, 1-0 vs eldrazi tron, 1-0 vs uwr control and went 2-1-1 (should have been 3-1 but a player just didnt concede the draw even if I had lethal on the board and he couldn't respond in any way) the second one (0-2 vs grishoalbrand, 2-1 vs burn, 1-1 vs scapeshift, 2-0 vs DS jund).
Then I made some on-demand 8-man where I continuosly faced burn (like 5/5 matches against burn...that was just incredible...) and lost 2-3 against them.
The list seems quiet ok so far, but I think I'm going to modify my SB, even if I dont know how yet. Burn is just one hell of a matchup, it is really luck-dependent and skill-testing at the same time. Still practising on it.
I'm quiet tierd now, so I'm not entering into a report now. If you want some insight on any game or the list I played just ask (not too mach to tell anyway)
Congratulations!
Your list looks similar to the one I am running except for Spell Snare. How did it perform?
So what matchup do you want sideboarding advice for? I'd be happy to post how I boarded or would board with my 75 against a specific deck/list.
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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
Aight. I've been out for a few days. I went to the GP in Richmond and played modern challenges and lots of pickup modern games against any and everyone I could get to jam games with me. The 75 I copied in below is what I played the entire weekend. In challenge events I went 13-6 in played matches (lots of ID's for value). In other matches I went 27-8. Several of my losses in challenges were to the same UW emeria titan player with an insanely durdley gifts ungiven package that I don't think I could ever actually beat without a lot of luck or some actual extirpates. Overall happy with the list I brought, considering this was what amounted to an open metagame and I went 40-11 against 51 unique opponents.
Losses were to naya chord, emeria titan, GR tron, GB tron, bant eldrazi x2, burn, merfolk, 4c evolution/chord, eldrazi tron, and abzan chord (not coco, like a toolbox chord).
I won every single match I played against a tarmogoyf or death's shadow deck, I beat every affinity player I played, and I beat every valakut deck I played.
My read on the metagame was that I really wanted to beat death's shadow and the decks that compete well surrounding it, which meant going in without any real firepower to the tron decks. Furthermore, because of the peculiarities with my build, I really don't match up well against any of the toolbox/chord decks.
Noteworthy items:
1. No fatal push. Blessed alliance is just better. The only decks against wish the efficiency improvement outweighs the power increase for BA are the very quick zoo style decks where a boardwipe is too slow, and they're still great.
2. Still on two snapcasters. Yes, push snap push is a atrong play in modern, but a build-your-own wrath isn't exactly gamebreaking. I won a lot of games against opponents who clearly misidentified the level to which I depend on my graveyard and ended up durdling around instead of pressuring me.
3. Baneslayer angel continues to be one of the most game breaking cards in the board. It's not there for burn. It's good if you can stick it against burn, but the card is in my board because of all the fair-ish creature matches where it literally can't be beaten without path to exile. Remember that liliana of the veil, terminate, path and dismember are the only common removal spells that hit her, and most decks will cut those effects over fatal push because they want to kill colonnade through countermagic. Oh, and it's randomly just a four turn clock you can slam in any tron or combo matchup once you clear a brief window to tap out.
4. I beat a taking turns player in a best of three, in turns in game three. Guy had the entire thing pimped out and had a taking turns lifepad--clearly not someone just messing around. I lost game one and then beat a gigadrowse in g2 and double gigadrowses in g3--i'm pretty sure I actually played a perfect game of magic to get there. This matchup is horrific. Both games the win was secured with the third mode on blessed alliance, which was kept in specifically to do that job.
Overall for the weekend, the theme was pretty much the same: play tight and get rewarded. I used every sideboard card multiple times during the challenges except timely reinforcements--i just didn't get paired against burn in any of them.
Nice result well played.
1. I agree, Blessed Alliance is dope. Fixes Burn and is still excellent against zoo if you make it to turn 4 and even on turn 2 it's efficiently costed 'remove generic creature' spell. As well as DS, Eldrazi, Stormbreath and Thrun. Also love how BA allows to beat Bogles game 1, it's the last thing they expect. I play 2 main as well since as long as I can remember.
2. I like 2-3 snaps. Not a fan of 1 or 4 copies in my testing. I'm personally more an "control-aggro" player and currently add red for bolt too which is kind of Tiago's girlfriend in magic form so 3 is good for me. When I play my Esper deck, I think 2 is the 'optimum' choice for maximum inevitability game plan of WSZ IMO .
3. I haven't tried Baneslayer but have had success in the past in Black based control decks with either Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or Blood Baron of Vizkopa. Having a 4+ toughness butt (dodges bolt v aggro) in addition to the extremely relevant life link ability is indeed game breaking against nearly every single aggro deck out there. And then it can venture into midrange match ups quite easily and dare I say be a legitimate threat against an unprepared control opponent.
4. Yep agreed, Time Walk is extremely hard to beat. In fact, that whole deck is one of the MAJOR reasons I decided to add red to my esper. Having bolt/snap/bolt really helps kill them before they can set up for a Gigadrowse#ggs. I'm very impressed you managed to beat the deck, I'd say that's the most impressive win for mine just looking at your brief report. Time Walk is really something. Also a sideboard Mindbreak Trap, mainly for Storm, is also quite good in this match up as it allows you to counter their Gigadrowse while also holding up a Cryptic/Knot/Negate when they attempt to go off the next turn.
On Emeria, yep the deck is better than I once gave it credit for. I used to look forward to playing Emeria in the past but these days, as soon as I see a turn 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin I groan even harder than when I see an Urza's Tower lol. I think the best way to win is Surgical Extracion/Extirpate in addition to Ghost Quarter to stop the resiliency. Alternatively, it IS possible to pull ahead via massive card advantage and EOT Cryptic-Bounce into Esper Charm discard against some of their slower draws and WSZ can definitely grind hard. I don't think I've ever seen a Gifts Ungiven package from them, was it the stock re-animator targets? I can imagine the grind potential between that and their name-sake land and would be tough to beat without some grave hate.
Also on Tron, I've noticed lately that they're much more in on the 2+ Sanctum of Ugin chaining Ulamog LD game plan in addition to maindeck World Breaker. I'm finding it's a lot harder these days to win as the 2nd Ulamog trigger plus any random WB beforehand is just a little too much for me to handle. That's like 5 lands gone right there. Have you noticed this trend at all or do you have any advice against that particular land destruction ad nauseam game plan from Tron?
What I'm personally most interested in your list is the counter package. In particular the more unconditional counter setup - 4 Cryptic Command, 3 Logic Knot. Would you be able to elaborate if those 7 unconditional counters where enough to stop any unfair combo shenanigans like Ad Nauseam, Valakut, Tron, Reanimator etc? Reason I'm curios is that I've dropped right down to 6 mainboard counters (3 Cryptic, 3 Knot) and am playing a couple more removal spells in their place (instead of Spell Snare), like Alliance and Helix to help fight cavern decks, burn, zoo, taxes, eldrazi and shadow.
@amalek0
I'm not sure about Blessed Alliance being better than Push, specifically against Burn. You kind of need to kill the 1 drops on 1 mana. Otherwise you take more damage than save, possibly. I can see in addition to Push, or if you're concerned about other matchups like Eldrazi.
Speaking of Eldrazi, that's the reason I went with Grave Titan over Baneslayer. Baneslayer gets wrecked by Displacer. I never considered that the coast might be clear to board them in against Jund, though I'm not sure I'd want to slam a Baneslayer against 4x Liliana, regardless of whether or not the cut Terminate. Would probably be worth it against Junk, since Lingering Souls is their best way to win.
How does everyone feel about a Singleton engulf the shores for a fourth suedo wrath effect and a single gearhulk to go with it. I'm thinking of trying it tomorrow night at my lgs. Going to try the following
25 lands
4 think twice
4 cryptic command
4 Esper charm
3 logic knot
2 negate
4 path to exile
2 fatal push
2 Sphinx's revelation
3 snapcaster mage
2 vendilion clique
1 torrential gearhulk
3 supreme verdict
1 engulf the shores
Hey Teferi! Why not upload your esper deck in this primer?
Well currently I'm jumping between UBW teachings and UBWR teachings, still undecided which way to commit, slightly favouring the red splash for more "loose/semi-free wins" with bolt/snap/bolt when I can get em. But I feel with Esper teachings it's a bit more hard controlling as it has a less options since it plays 1 less colour so I can afford to play some more hard counters which is always nice to have.
In regards to traditional Esper. I think Ryan Hovis had the sleekest build for Secure the Wastes (No SV) Esper so I'd play a list similar to his if I wanted a slightly more aggressive approach to Esper. But for the classic inevitable White Sun's Zennith style, well that's the most common/stock list in this thread and generally has about 2 flex slots in the main.
Like I mean the list plays alright, but I don't think it's stronger than the classic Esper lists. The only real thing it does differently is a teachings "lock" once stabilised which is quite powerful. So once you stabilise, you teachings for either teachings/teferi/cryptic/sphinx rev depending on the game state, then flashback teachings the next turn grabbing another piece. But 90% of the time you want to make sure you grab the 2nd teachings before you exile your first one via flashback with the only real exception of getting a sphinx rev if you've got 7+ lands in play. Then once Teferi hits the table, the opponent can't really annoy you with anything and you can literally just beat with his 3/4 body until they die. Man lands help quicken the clock too. Main thing is, once Teferi is in play, you can really go ham with your card advantage by either revving unopposed or flashing back a teachings for whatever it is you need. Literal death by 1000 cuts and by cuts I mean card draw. The only other things teachings has going for it, is similar to think twice as in nobody feels good countering it which can generate some sort of pseudo - real card advantage if you know what I mean.
But like I said, the deck is fun and it's a bit different, but I think the classic Esper list does control better. Adding red to it on the other hand, oh boy, now that's a different beast altogether. Now you have access to Kolaghan's Command which can give the illusion of high inevitability as opposed to real inevitability of WSZ. Who cares if your snaps/teferi get killed/countered, you just recur them with K-Command until you 'stabilise' then take over. Then you got bolt which does good work to take out planeswalkers and creatures alike with the big allure being able to 'race' decks that generally eat up draw go like Lantern, Mill, Tron, Time Walk etc and Lightning Helix is insane against burn.
But I'm a bit crazy, I like doing things a little differently, I just have so much fun playing stuff like teachings and am a huge fan of Time Spiral/Planar Chaos/Future Sight.
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MTGO: Modern - UBWR Mystical Teachings
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Cut lingering souls and sorin.
I totally agree. Furthermore, replace them with a second Runed Halo, two Leyline of Sanctity, and another Dispel. Halo and Leyline are amazing, and Dispel shores up matches against other control decks and is generally an all-around tool.
UWR Control
BR Hollow One
4 Serum Visons
3 Supreme Verdict
4x Cryptic Command
4x Esper Charm
3x Fatal Push
2x Logic Knot
2x Negate
3x Path to Exile
2x Sphinx's Revelation
4x Think Twice
1x White Sun's Zenith
1x Drowned Catacomb
4x Flooded Strand
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Godless Shrine
2x Hallowed Fountain
3x Island
1x Plains
4x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
2x Watery Grave
2x Dispel
2x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Negate
2x Runed Halo
1x Supreme Verdict
3x Surgical Extraction
3x Thoughtseize
Thoughts on SV: If I do cut it, it will be for a Path, a Logic Knot, and probably two Spell Snare, but maybe a Snare and a land. Thoughts?
UWR Control
BR Hollow One
UWR Control
BR Hollow One
This is good advice. The best way to beat burn is a fast clock + disruption and Clique allows you to do that, at instant speed to boot. Without a clock, burn can just wait you out and sculpt a hand to get the last few points of damage in through your counterspells, but clique is a (somewhat) cheap clock, at instant speed, that disrupts their hand. It forces them to push through your disruption ASAP or deal with Clique, neither of which is a good trade for burn.
Another solid thing to do vs burn (sometimes) is Esper Charm in discard mode EoT when they're saving up on burn spells. You'll usually force them to discard some sorcery speed threats, or force them to go for it. Of course, you shouldn't do that if it means you're dead to bolt, but if you're at double bolt range with double counterspell or something like that, you can force the game in your favor.
I've actually felt the matchup is positive both when I'm playing burn or esper, but my esper 75 runs a lot of stuff thats good vs burn, so there's that. If I only were to play vs good burn players I doubt I'd feel the same.
UGR Wanderer
UGB Tasigur Control
URB Jeleva Storm
RW Gisela Control
Losses were to naya chord, emeria titan, GR tron, GB tron, bant eldrazi x2, burn, merfolk, 4c evolution/chord, eldrazi tron, and abzan chord (not coco, like a toolbox chord).
I won every single match I played against a tarmogoyf or death's shadow deck, I beat every affinity player I played, and I beat every valakut deck I played.
My read on the metagame was that I really wanted to beat death's shadow and the decks that compete well surrounding it, which meant going in without any real firepower to the tron decks. Furthermore, because of the peculiarities with my build, I really don't match up well against any of the toolbox/chord decks.
4 polluted delta
4 flooded strand
3 hallowed fountain
2 watery grave
3 island
2 plains
1 swamp
1 drowned catacomb
2 ghost quarter
4 cryptic command
3 spell snare
2 logic knot
4 think twice
2 sphinx's revelation
4 supreme verdict
4 path to exile
2 blessed alliance
2 leyline of sanctity
2 snapcaster mage
1 white sun's zenith
2 celestial purge
2 stony silence
2 rest in peace
2 baneslayer angel
2 runed halo
1 wrath of god
1 elspeth, sun's champion
1 dispel
1 negate
1 timely reinforcements
Noteworthy items:
1. No fatal push. Blessed alliance is just better. The only decks against wish the efficiency improvement outweighs the power increase for BA are the very quick zoo style decks where a boardwipe is too slow, and they're still great.
2. Still on two snapcasters. Yes, push snap push is a atrong play in modern, but a build-your-own wrath isn't exactly gamebreaking. I won a lot of games against opponents who clearly misidentified the level to which I depend on my graveyard and ended up durdling around instead of pressuring me.
3. Baneslayer angel continues to be one of the most game breaking cards in the board. It's not there for burn. It's good if you can stick it against burn, but the card is in my board because of all the fair-ish creature matches where it literally can't be beaten without path to exile. Remember that liliana of the veil, terminate, path and dismember are the only common removal spells that hit her, and most decks will cut those effects over fatal push because they want to kill colonnade through countermagic. Oh, and it's randomly just a four turn clock you can slam in any tron or combo matchup once you clear a brief window to tap out.
4. I beat a taking turns player in a best of three, in turns in game three. Guy had the entire thing pimped out and had a taking turns lifepad--clearly not someone just messing around. I lost game one and then beat a gigadrowse in g2 and double gigadrowses in g3--i'm pretty sure I actually played a perfect game of magic to get there. This matchup is horrific. Both games the win was secured with the third mode on blessed alliance, which was kept in specifically to do that job.
Overall for the weekend, the theme was pretty much the same: play tight and get rewarded. I used every sideboard card multiple times during the challenges except timely reinforcements--i just didn't get paired against burn in any of them.
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
It dilutes what our deck is about. Lingering souls is a great card, _in a midrange build_. We are the best control deck. Trying to race isnt what we're about, we want to grind out the game to the bitter end. We shouldnt need the tokens against control, I'd rather have more counters/discard/prison elements.
Congratulations!
Your list looks similar to the one I am running except for Spell Snare. How did it perform?
Edit: @amalek0
@Robo_Memer on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube
Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!
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
Edit: And also against a UW control deck, do you think Esper draw-go could win it?
Nice result well played.
1. I agree, Blessed Alliance is dope. Fixes Burn and is still excellent against zoo if you make it to turn 4 and even on turn 2 it's efficiently costed 'remove generic creature' spell. As well as DS, Eldrazi, Stormbreath and Thrun. Also love how BA allows to beat Bogles game 1, it's the last thing they expect. I play 2 main as well since as long as I can remember.
2. I like 2-3 snaps. Not a fan of 1 or 4 copies in my testing. I'm personally more an "control-aggro" player and currently add red for bolt too which is kind of Tiago's girlfriend in magic form so 3 is good for me. When I play my Esper deck, I think 2 is the 'optimum' choice for maximum inevitability game plan of WSZ IMO .
3. I haven't tried Baneslayer but have had success in the past in Black based control decks with either Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or Blood Baron of Vizkopa. Having a 4+ toughness butt (dodges bolt v aggro) in addition to the extremely relevant life link ability is indeed game breaking against nearly every single aggro deck out there. And then it can venture into midrange match ups quite easily and dare I say be a legitimate threat against an unprepared control opponent.
4. Yep agreed, Time Walk is extremely hard to beat. In fact, that whole deck is one of the MAJOR reasons I decided to add red to my esper. Having bolt/snap/bolt really helps kill them before they can set up for a Gigadrowse#ggs. I'm very impressed you managed to beat the deck, I'd say that's the most impressive win for mine just looking at your brief report. Time Walk is really something. Also a sideboard Mindbreak Trap, mainly for Storm, is also quite good in this match up as it allows you to counter their Gigadrowse while also holding up a Cryptic/Knot/Negate when they attempt to go off the next turn.
On Emeria, yep the deck is better than I once gave it credit for. I used to look forward to playing Emeria in the past but these days, as soon as I see a turn 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin I groan even harder than when I see an Urza's Tower lol. I think the best way to win is Surgical Extracion/Extirpate in addition to Ghost Quarter to stop the resiliency. Alternatively, it IS possible to pull ahead via massive card advantage and EOT Cryptic-Bounce into Esper Charm discard against some of their slower draws and WSZ can definitely grind hard. I don't think I've ever seen a Gifts Ungiven package from them, was it the stock re-animator targets? I can imagine the grind potential between that and their name-sake land and would be tough to beat without some grave hate.
Also on Tron, I've noticed lately that they're much more in on the 2+ Sanctum of Ugin chaining Ulamog LD game plan in addition to maindeck World Breaker. I'm finding it's a lot harder these days to win as the 2nd Ulamog trigger plus any random WB beforehand is just a little too much for me to handle. That's like 5 lands gone right there. Have you noticed this trend at all or do you have any advice against that particular land destruction ad nauseam game plan from Tron?
What I'm personally most interested in your list is the counter package. In particular the more unconditional counter setup - 4 Cryptic Command, 3 Logic Knot. Would you be able to elaborate if those 7 unconditional counters where enough to stop any unfair combo shenanigans like Ad Nauseam, Valakut, Tron, Reanimator etc? Reason I'm curios is that I've dropped right down to 6 mainboard counters (3 Cryptic, 3 Knot) and am playing a couple more removal spells in their place (instead of Spell Snare), like Alliance and Helix to help fight cavern decks, burn, zoo, taxes, eldrazi and shadow.
WMMT5dx: Car - RK Coupe Track - Hakone Outbound
I'm not sure about Blessed Alliance being better than Push, specifically against Burn. You kind of need to kill the 1 drops on 1 mana. Otherwise you take more damage than save, possibly. I can see in addition to Push, or if you're concerned about other matchups like Eldrazi.
Speaking of Eldrazi, that's the reason I went with Grave Titan over Baneslayer. Baneslayer gets wrecked by Displacer. I never considered that the coast might be clear to board them in against Jund, though I'm not sure I'd want to slam a Baneslayer against 4x Liliana, regardless of whether or not the cut Terminate. Would probably be worth it against Junk, since Lingering Souls is their best way to win.
25 lands
4 think twice
4 cryptic command
4 Esper charm
3 logic knot
2 negate
4 path to exile
2 fatal push
2 Sphinx's revelation
3 snapcaster mage
2 vendilion clique
1 torrential gearhulk
3 supreme verdict
1 engulf the shores
Let me know what you think
Well currently I'm jumping between UBW teachings and UBWR teachings, still undecided which way to commit, slightly favouring the red splash for more "loose/semi-free wins" with bolt/snap/bolt when I can get em. But I feel with Esper teachings it's a bit more hard controlling as it has a less options since it plays 1 less colour so I can afford to play some more hard counters which is always nice to have.
In regards to traditional Esper. I think Ryan Hovis had the sleekest build for Secure the Wastes (No SV) Esper so I'd play a list similar to his if I wanted a slightly more aggressive approach to Esper. But for the classic inevitable White Sun's Zennith style, well that's the most common/stock list in this thread and generally has about 2 flex slots in the main.
4 polluted delta
4 flooded strand
2 hallowed fountain
2 watery grave
1 Godless Shrine
3 island
2 Swamp
1 plains
1 glacial fortress
1 drowned catacomb
1 ghost quarter
3 logic knot
1 negate
1 Surgical Extraction
4 esper charm
4 think twice
2 Mystical Teachings
1 sphinx's revelation
4 path to exile
3 fatal push
2 blessed alliance
3 snapcaster mage
1 teferi, mage of zhalfir
Like I mean the list plays alright, but I don't think it's stronger than the classic Esper lists. The only real thing it does differently is a teachings "lock" once stabilised which is quite powerful. So once you stabilise, you teachings for either teachings/teferi/cryptic/sphinx rev depending on the game state, then flashback teachings the next turn grabbing another piece. But 90% of the time you want to make sure you grab the 2nd teachings before you exile your first one via flashback with the only real exception of getting a sphinx rev if you've got 7+ lands in play. Then once Teferi hits the table, the opponent can't really annoy you with anything and you can literally just beat with his 3/4 body until they die. Man lands help quicken the clock too. Main thing is, once Teferi is in play, you can really go ham with your card advantage by either revving unopposed or flashing back a teachings for whatever it is you need. Literal death by 1000 cuts and by cuts I mean card draw. The only other things teachings has going for it, is similar to think twice as in nobody feels good countering it which can generate some sort of pseudo - real card advantage if you know what I mean.
But like I said, the deck is fun and it's a bit different, but I think the classic Esper list does control better. Adding red to it on the other hand, oh boy, now that's a different beast altogether. Now you have access to Kolaghan's Command which can give the illusion of high inevitability as opposed to real inevitability of WSZ. Who cares if your snaps/teferi get killed/countered, you just recur them with K-Command until you 'stabilise' then take over. Then you got bolt which does good work to take out planeswalkers and creatures alike with the big allure being able to 'race' decks that generally eat up draw go like Lantern, Mill, Tron, Time Walk etc and Lightning Helix is insane against burn.
But I'm a bit crazy, I like doing things a little differently, I just have so much fun playing stuff like teachings and am a huge fan of Time Spiral/Planar Chaos/Future Sight.
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