MTG Salvation

IMO, new gideon is a really good magic card, but not for this deck.
For UW control, or more midrangey lists, he seems pretty good, but in a harder draw-go shell, he doesn't really fit.
I do agree, view him mostly as a 4/4 indestructible / maze of ith modal spell.
His last ability is really good very occasionally, otherwise, just hit people with him.

Depends on the build of ponza.
Basically any counterspells that aren't spell snare are good.
Paths, wraths, blessed alliance are all decent.
Answers to blood moon, and ways to end the game (clique, geist, queller, etc) are all fine.
Its a hard matchup, and its really dependent on draws.
Pretty much every decision you make it going to be obvious, it just comes down to if you have the answers or not.

Thank you all for the well thought responses!
I actually bottomed both, and proceed to lose against some sort of BW go wide lingering souls/liliana/bob deck. I think I'd have kept both top if I knew.
As Cody_X explained, maybe the best one is to keep negate top and bot TT, but what amuses me more is that maybe the correct play is just not to SV (as Annihilator pointed out), which just feels super wrong.

And yeah Annihi, I've got quite luck on the pairing roulette, felt good, lol. Anytime I don't see dredge and burn, I'm a happy man. (i went super prepared for tron, which is always present on my LGS, but didn't play any)

--- Edit because I forgot to answer some points
I really like runed halo - it's just very powerful against valakut (which is also present at my LGS) and never dead, while blessed alliance is better when you're having your life total targeted, but never a real game finisher (sometimes it is vs burn, but so can halo on eidolon be).
I'm testing cast out - I didn't like DSphere because of ADecay - given it's now less present, I still like the idea of cycling and flash, what makes it much more maindeckable IMO.

So with GotT, do we just slam him t3 almost automatically? Or do we want to try protecting him the turn we cast him?

Quote from kodieyost »

So with GotT, do we just slam him t3 almost automatically? Or do we want to try protecting him the turn we cast him?

Against any deck that has relatively few threats, like BGx or Death's Shadow decks, I tend to play Gideon as soon as able (ie if you won't get blown out by Lingering Souls or Stubborn Denial). I also tend to slam Gideon against any creature-aggro opponent that plays around wraths, such as certain types of Merfolk players and Company players -- especially if I have a follow-up wrath. However, I'm not even sure lil' Gid is where you want to be against go-wide decks anyways (I guess he can still fog an attack or 2). Against other decks, I try to time Gideon very carefully. Against Burn, I don't want Gideon to put me shields down to losing, so I tend to wait until mid-late game and use him as an un-skullcrackable life gain spell by playing and immediately embleming him, which is enough to win when backed by true life gain spells and counters. Spell Queller has also been working wonders against Burn.

So against burn you don't +1 him first to get him out of bolt range?

Quote from kodieyost »

So against burn you don't +1 him first to get him out of bolt range?

It depends. If I can safely afford to, then yes, I plus one first. If they have any creature out when Gid resolves, I plus one. Usually tho, neither of those are the case -- by that time they're playing draw go to punch through counterspells, so using gideon to make an emblem (for a possible big Gideon later) and eat a Bolt prevents them from killing you between your end step and their main phase after you play Gideon.

Tournament report:

Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes, well...

I went 4-1 with an elspeth/WSZ md win cons with 2 baneslayer sideboard. I cut down to 1 alliance for the elspeth and my sideboard I can't remember off hand but Baneslayer resolved into most boards is a HOUSE. I basically blanked my uw opponents entire gameplan by getting him into topdeck mode with charm and resolving baneslayer with dispel back up. From there, I untapped with a cryptic, dispel and rev in hand beat him down over successive turns until he had to do blocks with his colonnade which i then used resolve a rev with negate backup at that point and he scooped. Great deck but it loves to go to time.

So what lists is everyone playing right now? Like, if you were headed to a PTQ or something today, what Esper list would you play?

I knew my opponent and how he sides. This was game three and I didn't see much in the way of paths or removal post sideboard so I made a call. Sorry it wasn't proper. He also wasn't running gideon post from what I saw. Maybe I'm just bad.

I would certainly start by playing 4 Serum Visions, 4 Supreme Verdict and 4 Snapcaster Mage.

4 Snaps? Why? Isn't 2-3 enough?

I think 3 snaps is the magic number presently, tho I have been tempted to try out a supreme will in the third ones place in my current list.

I don't think it's per se wrong to bring in creatures against control, so long as they're utility. But I may be biased, as I bring in Cliques post-board.

Don't play supreme will.
I've played a little with it so far, it very much does not belong in this deck.

I'm still playing pretty much the same list I've been playing for a while.
If I were to play esper in a PTQ, Id probably play a pretty similar list, maybe without the spell snares.

Quote from TheAnnihilator0798 »

So what lists is everyone playing right now? Like, if you were headed to a PTQ or something today, what Esper list would you play?

This is the list I've been playing for months. The 60 stays largely unchanged, but the SB changes to suit the event. I've had modest success, usually top 8'ing or winning my local events and making 12th at a recent 73 person competetive event.

@RUGJester Thanks for posting your list. It looks pretty much like what I and kodie are playing. =D

I do have a few questions to ask: why play the 3rd Snap over the 4th Verdict main? How do you feel about the 2 Mystic Gate over 1 and a Sunken Ruins? Finally, what matchups are the Leylines aimed at?

Quote from BloodyRabbit_01 »

I wouldn't play it, right now, because people are starting to adapting against Control - seeing the resurgence in UW, Jeskai Queller and UB "Faeries". All of them are more proactive - aka better in a open field - and I would probably bring one of them instead. If I had to pack Esper, though, I would certainly start by playing 4 Serum Visions, 4 Supreme Verdict and 4 Snapcaster Mage.

Would you consider a more proactive Esper list?

Quote from TheAnnihilator0798 »

@RUGJester Thanks for posting your list. It looks pretty much like what I and kodie are playing. =D

I do have a few questions to ask: why play the 3rd Snap over the 4th Verdict main? How do you feel about the 2 Mystic Gate over 1 and a Sunken Ruins? Finally, what matchups are the Leylines aimed at?

Several good things to answer here. Nobody can go longer than we can, save Valakut, so we really just want to focus on being the best control deck possible. No gimmicks like GQ or spicy tech like souls. Just card draw, removal, counters and a few finishers. The Glacial Fortresses and Mystic gates keep our manna live against savvy opponents that try and take us off white or blue, and we are really just splashing black for Echarm (the beast) and more removal like Rabbit said. Tron, E-Tron, and others will GQ us, seas us, and it simply won't matter because as long as out manna functions we win, and we never need double black for one spell unless we are playing NoSB. I differ with Rabbit, in that while we don't have a lot of productivity, I don't see this as a downside. Verdict, while good in many matchup, is atrocious in others, while a 3rd snap can be anything we need it to be, and t 3-drop removal after a 1 drop can often be enough to turn the corner, getting us into Knot plus TT, or BA escalated. A note on BA, this card is bonkers, allowing us to soak more damage earlier, while making it back up later when manna isn't an issue, in addition to all the known benefits of BA. Plus, 4th Verdict can be obnoxiously Clunky when you don't need it. Leylines are specifically for burn. Halo is always better compared to a Leyline not turn 0, and is often just as good vs the combo decks while being good vs creatures etc. But I knew the events I would be going to in the near future would be heavy in burn, and Leyline hoses half their deck.

Hi guys!

I played at a new store in my town with 2 Secure the Waste & 26 Lands Draw-Go list and went 3-1.

Match 1: Lantern Control 0-2
Both games, he was able to establish a soft-lock (Lantern of insight plus 2 Mill artifacts) within the first 2 turns. Normally, I can "out draw" Lantern but he was too fast. Maybe I should have mulliganed into more action? I consider this clear loss as variance.
SB: All creature removals out.

Match 2: Mono B 8-rack 2-0
Poor fellow, I think I never went below 3 cards. Think twice is almost unbeatable for them. Keep counters up for Liliana of the Veil and this should be an easy match-up.

Match 3: GW Elves Company with Vizier Combo 1-0
G1: He brought me down to one life until I could keep the board clean while also keeping counters up for Collected Company. I needed about 6 more turns to find Sphinx's revelation. He should have conceded to save time at this point. Instead I had to find Secure the Wastes and win with 12 tokens.
SB: Engineered Explosives and 2 Dispel in, 2 Negate and my 1-of Spell Pierce out.
G2: I couldn't beat him within 5 extra turns. We continued to play a few more turns for fun and I was clearly winning but then we had to go to the last match.

Match 4: Affinity 2-1
G1: I forgot that he was playing Affinity and kept a hand with some draw spells, Negate and Supreme Verdict. He killed me in turn 4 thanks to 2 Steel Overseer. Maybe I should have taken a mulligan since I was on the play.
SB: 2 Negate, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Cryptic Command out. In: 2 Blessed Alliance, Engineered Explosives, Gideon Jura.
G2: An epic attrition battle because he was able to land a turn 2 Cranial Plating into turn 3 Ghirapur Aether Grid. This made all of his draws except for lands dangerous. Life gain from BA (saved me from Etched Champion as well) and Sphinx's kept me alive and I was able to destroy the Grid with Esper Charm. I kept control until I found Secure the Wastes for the win.
SB: Anguished Unmaking in for another Cryptic to deal with Plating and Grid
G3: He played a couple of unimpressive 1/1 creatures into my sweeper and I was able to finish him off in 5 min + 5 extra turns.

I was placed 4th of 18 players in a unknown meta. The list felt great but I started to think about including Stony Silence since I encounter a lot of combo-ish artifact decks lately.
Which cards from Lantern do you prioritize to counter? Lantern of Insight is obviously the enemy number 1. But what about the mill pieces vs. Ensnaring bridge?

Against lantern, you need to make sure brige doesnt resolve.
Lantern itself is obviously important, but its definitely target #2.
Otherwise, you want to just keep them off a critical mass of mill rocks.