I'm thinking about taking Esper, becuase Jeskai feels a bit disappointing nowadays. This Wafo-Tapa updated list looks a good point to start, but I have a couple questions:
- Is it reallt whort to not play Leaks nor Tectonic Edge only for having the set of Path to Exile? When this list was released there were no Murderous Cut, so, nowadays we could play withtout Path to Exile, making Leak and Tectonic Edge more viable (As Fabiano stated). I would like to listen opinions on this (I have 0 testing, I'm just theorycrafting).
- Tasigur is a good card, why not playing 1-3?
- Lingerings are also well positionated nowadays, Junk Affinity Infect... Why no lingerings?
The rest looks fine to me!
There is no deck in the current meta that can do anything scary with the extra mana. In the days of pod and deathrite shaman yes it was indeed bad but the format no is either full of hyper aggro or midrange decks that you just ramp up to siege rhino which is a pretty laughable card against us. Murderous Cut comes into play way too late against the aggro decks and sucks against junk aggro or little kid whatever it is called that runs voices and kitchen finks.
Ghost Quaters over tec edge is good in the current meta due to infect and affinity but more due to infect. You need to kill Inkmoth asap and the requirement for tec edge loses many games in those matchups where ghost quarters would have won. It is also a positive change against tron since you can blow up a land before tron even comes online.
Tasigur is not really good in this deck. He turns on your opponents removal. One of the advantages of this deck is blanking your opponents removal and you give up that narural card advantage by running a good target for that removal without being able to over burden their removal with other dangerous targets. The only place I like him is against combo but even there he has problems due to interfering with Logic Knot which is our best mainboard counterspell. With this it regulates him to the sideboard but even then there are more crippling bombs to have against bgx and better beaters against combo that do not interfere with Logic Knot and become worse as the first one gets dealt with. I would him in a midrange shell with discard lingering souls and other threats.
Lingering souls is good but again it needs threats to be effective imo. Its also a terrible card against twin and makes electrolyze an actual card against you.
Came up with this list. Dropped Esper charm for gifts ungiven, it's primarily a control deck with potential for combo, essentially removing weaknesses from the pure control or pure combo builds of Esper or gifts. Sideboard can include some gameending threats for rites, or silver bullets for gifts. It's untested but sounds amazing when you consider how versatile it can be
Came up with this list. Dropped Esper charm for gifts ungiven, it's primarily a control deck with potential for combo, essentially removing weaknesses from the pure control or pure combo builds of Esper or gifts. Sideboard can include some gameending threats for rites, or silver bullets for gifts. It's untested but sounds amazing when you consider how versatile it can be
I would drop Ashiok and two lingering souls otherwise it looks fine I play a similar gifts list but a bit more on the control side.
Ashiok is the main source of inevitability in this de k. Sometimes they answer our spirits and snapcasters and two beatsticks. Ashiok gives us a way out that liliana does not. Ashiok also happens to help out our defense, albeit a little slowly. Souls are a way to accrue value and stall until our gifts engine takes over
Ashiok is the main source of inevitability in this de k. Sometimes they answer our spirits and snapcasters and two beatsticks. Ashiok gives us a way out that liliana does not. Ashiok also happens to help out our defense, albeit a little slowly. Souls are a way to accrue value and stall until our gifts engine takes over
Those things are true sometimes. There are matchups where ashiok would be minus a card for you since it is easily dealt with or does nothing. Same with lingering souls. Lingering souls is card advantage when facing decks that mainly rely on spot removal as defense over creatures but sometimes the 1/1s migh5 as well not exist and just stall but put you down on cards. It is like when people say snapcaster generates value all the time which is not true. If the 2/1 body actually means anything in the matchup then yes he generates value by nlocking a weenie and glashing back a card but if the body does nothing it is just a 1 for 1 unless you flash back a card that generates value on its own like esper charm or a wrath. I agree that souls is strong in the current meta but I rather have more interaction for decks like twin, burn, and infect to survive until turn 4 rather than cards that make the midrange matchup better when that matchup is already easy.
I think gifts should go 2 routes if it want to reach gifts mana before they are pinned down to where they will die before turn 5. You either run a lot of early interaction such as path, spell snare, mana leak and yes even discard or you go the thirst for knowledge route with mana acceleration for a turn 3 gifts into turn 4 lock against linear decks.
I understand where you're coming from; I cameup with this list in about 5 minutes.
Black Sun's Zenith shuffles itself in which helps when you need to gift for a sweep.
I could see moving ashioks to the board and going down to 3 lingering souls.
4 might not be the best, but i know 2-3 is a certainty.
perhaps in those 3 slots we could fit
1 Esper Charm
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Negate
That is better but I would still go with more interactive and cheap spells. Some more paths or spell snares will go a long way in helping you survive without just outright dying by giving up tempo the turn you gifts.
RE: Path to exile/Ghost Quarter: There's no deck that can substantially punish us for the extra lands. There is no deck that can utilize a big mana advantage against us except the Tron builds, and those builds are so threat-light that Path to Exile and any form of targeted land destruction are strong to begin with against them.
RE: Black Sun's Zenith: At least for me, this is a relic of the Pod days. Locally, I haven't cut it because there's still a good number of kitchen finks running around because of Burn and Delver being heavily played. When I have to prep for a large event like an IQ or a PPTQ, I will likely sit down, do the testing, and end up switching it to a third verdict.
RE: Murderous Cut/Tasigur, the Golden Fang/Mana Leak: Don't play bad cards to justify bad cards. Tasigur is a strong, undercosted beatstick. He's also just a beatstick, in a deck that has already made the decision to not play beatsticks to avoid turning on removal. Trying to justify this by playing bad cards like mana leak and murderous cut is not improving esper control, it's trying to build esper midrange starting from the wrong direction. Logic Knot is the best delve spell for the control build of esper until such time as we get a counterspell that doesn't fall off hard in the mid to late game.
RE: Lingering Souls: Yes, this card is amazing in the metagame right now. Especially against grindy midrange decks. Oh wait, we already crush those. Well, it's also good against Infect! Well sure, except we could just be playing slot removal, which is stronger in other matchups. It slows down affinity--except we already have 3-4 spell snares AND mainboard wraths. Lingering souls is best in a proactive deck that can tap out for it without just being dead, likely because of discard spells. Guess what we don't play in the mainboard?
RE: Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver: Holy hell the hype train is real. Yes, Ashiok is a strong play against Junk. No, Ashiok is not inevitability. It is a cmc 3 permanent in a format where the premiere removal spell is abrupt decay. Yes, it runs away with games. So does Baneslayer Angel. So does Tarmogoyf. That doesn't mean that these cards are unbeatable, or provide any form of inevitability. It's just a threat, with the upside of being slightly harder to answer than a creature, and cheaper than other noncreature win cons, and the downside of not impacting the board directly the turn it comes down. It still loses to EOT pestermite, untap twin kill you.
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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 agree with you over everything except tasigur. Tasigur is an incredible source of card advantage on top of being a beater. I think Tasigur is a great card as a one of - mainboard or sideboard since once it gets online it really locks the game up on its own. It also manages to feed your own graveyard and rebuild for delve
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Storm and Burn all formats
MODERN
GRIXIS FAERIES
FISH
NAYA BURN STANDARD
RABBLE RED E D H
OCEAN MASTER LORTHOS
Daretti's House of Artifacts AND LAND DESTRUCTION
SIDISI VALUE
RE: Path to exile/Ghost Quarter: There's no deck that can substantially punish us for the extra lands. There is no deck that can utilize a big mana advantage against us except the Tron builds, and those builds are so threat-light that Path to Exile and any form of targeted land destruction are strong to begin with against them.
RE: Black Sun's Zenith: At least for me, this is a relic of the Pod days. Locally, I haven't cut it because there's still a good number of kitchen finks running around because of Burn and Delver being heavily played. When I have to prep for a large event like an IQ or a PPTQ, I will likely sit down, do the testing, and end up switching it to a third verdict.
RE: Murderous Cut/Tasigur, the Golden Fang/Mana Leak: Don't play bad cards to justify bad cards. Tasigur is a strong, undercosted beatstick. He's also just a beatstick, in a deck that has already made the decision to not play beatsticks to avoid turning on removal. Trying to justify this by playing bad cards like mana leak and murderous cut is not improving esper control, it's trying to build esper midrange starting from the wrong direction. Logic Knot is the best delve spell for the control build of esper until such time as we get a counterspell that doesn't fall off hard in the mid to late game.
RE: Lingering Souls: Yes, this card is amazing in the metagame right now. Especially against grindy midrange decks. Oh wait, we already crush those. Well, it's also good against Infect! Well sure, except we could just be playing slot removal, which is stronger in other matchups. It slows down affinity--except we already have 3-4 spell snares AND mainboard wraths. Lingering souls is best in a proactive deck that can tap out for it without just being dead, likely because of discard spells. Guess what we don't play in the mainboard?
RE: Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver: Holy hell the hype train is real. Yes, Ashiok is a strong play against Junk. No, Ashiok is not inevitability. It is a cmc 3 permanent in a format where the premiere removal spell is abrupt decay. Yes, it runs away with games. So does Baneslayer Angel. So does Tarmogoyf. That doesn't mean that these cards are unbeatable, or provide any form of inevitability. It's just a threat, with the upside of being slightly harder to answer than a creature, and cheaper than other noncreature win cons, and the downside of not impacting the board directly the turn it comes down. It still loses to EOT pestermite, untap twin kill you.
This guy gets it. Fabiano used ashiok but it mostly worked in sultai because he also ran more cards that put strain on his opponents adrupt decays. Same things goes for Tasigur he is best when you overburden your opponents answers with other threats.
If you're going to run card advantage permanents in this deck, you should make them synergize with the endgame: Revelation/WSZ/Colonnade with a pile of mana. Ashioks and Tasigurs are random, unnecessary angles of attack that help your opponent interact with you. Unless you're going to play a Soorani version and maindeck discard and planeswalkers, I don't understand why you would bother with anything besides card draw, disruption, and X spells. Why play to the board when you can just goldfish your opponent and then sweep it all up? That's that many more Anticipates (or Think twice if you're seriously cutting a central engine piece) you could be running.
I don't see how Night of Souls' Betrayal isn't a better maindeck card than Lingering Souls. I suppose one can argue that they can attack a combo deck, but that seems anecdotal considering we actually have the tools to lock these down, unlike UWR.
I made the switch to 2 Ghost Quarters. Seems just plain better once you think about it.
Yeah, I've not had the option come up to quarter my own lands for manafixing, but I *have* gotten to path a dude, quarter two lands, and shadow of doubt, all in response to a fetchland crack. He just scooped it up.
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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
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
that is so completely a midrange deck it isn't even funny. Sure, it plays esper colors. Sure, it has 2 cryptic commands. That's not a control deck. there's a freakin' playset of tasigurs and zero esper charms.
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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
16 Players tonight--I guess there was a big engineering test tonight, so about half the regulars couldn't show up, either because they were taking it or were TA's for the class. I made a last minute decision to play three leylines in the board instead of one when I found out 5/16 players were on burn, so of course I never played any of them.
Round 1: BGu midrange
Opponent was splashing stubborn denial, snapcaster mage, serum visions, and thoughtscour into the BGx shell. Game one, I nearly grind him out, but I rev for 6 into 5 lands and a leyline, then draw three more lands and die the turn after. Was really Dumb. Sideboarded in the fat end, purges, 2/3 leylines, and the wrath. Opening 7 has 2 leylines, 2 lands, 2 think twice, and an esper charm. I decide to go for it, and he has the turn three maelstrom pulse. I get screwed on land drops, and draw nothing but removal for his dudes while he lands a liliana. It goes ultimate. We topdeck back and forth for about 8-10 more turns, with my surviving a liliana ult. Eventually, I amass lands and topdeck into a rev for 7 to put the game away. Game three, I board back out two of the leylines for spell snares. We trade stuff back and forth, and eventually he lands liliana and we go back to the topdeck war. I purge liliana, and he draws on consecutive turns a tasigur, a goyf (that is only a 2/3 due to his and my delving), and then he topdecks stubborn denial, as his only card in hand, to my wrath. If that wrath had stuck, I had him pretty dead to rights with two think twices in the graveyard to reload on and 8 lands in play to his four. Can't win 'em all I guess.
Round 2: 4 color zoo.
This player is usually on bant or twin or scapeshift. I've never seen him play zoo before. He keeps a sketchy hand game one that has no one drop, a two drop that I spell snare, and he fails to hit a land for three turns while I establish myself and settle in to beat him up with wraths and cryptics. Game two, I board in leylines, wrath, and the fatties, and a dispel. I cut the cryptics and the remands. He curves nacatl into nacatl + loam lion into geist, and I'm dead to rights before I would even have a fourth turn. Game three, I keep a hand with leyline, two lands, two spell snares, a path, and a think twice. I curve out nicely, answer his threats for the most part, he gets his beatdown going. at one point, I have five lands in play, and he attacks for 7; I'm at 8, but have leyline out. I rev for 2 EOT, draw the verdict and the batterskull, slam verdict, then path his answering play and slam batterskull. I stabilize off batterskull + colonnade from there.
Round 3: five color UWR glittering wish control. Best way to describe this deck. I win it 2/0. It's a brew, it's creative, it has some merits, but I'm basically the better control deck and he's UWR control except he doesn't have the full set of helixes or electrolyzes and he doesn't have a combo kill threat, so basically I'm the control deck with more countermagic and better manlands. I win it in two.
Round 4: Dega Midrange.
This is barely a match. His build is basically all in on lingering souls, the 4 mana battle cry dude that makes tokens, and Elspeth knight errant/Chandra/phyrexian arena/removal. I slam a turn 5 curse of death's hold and all of a sudden his only win cons are a couple of 4 mana 2/3's and some 1/1 tidehollow scullers. Game two I start with leyline and curve out spell snare, think twice, esper charm, verdict, batterskull, Elspeth, baneslayer. He dies. It was dumb.
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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
Anyway successful lists should always be reviewed, whether you think they are control or not
It is quite the midrange deck, but it is a result.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
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There is no deck in the current meta that can do anything scary with the extra mana. In the days of pod and deathrite shaman yes it was indeed bad but the format no is either full of hyper aggro or midrange decks that you just ramp up to siege rhino which is a pretty laughable card against us. Murderous Cut comes into play way too late against the aggro decks and sucks against junk aggro or little kid whatever it is called that runs voices and kitchen finks.
Ghost Quaters over tec edge is good in the current meta due to infect and affinity but more due to infect. You need to kill Inkmoth asap and the requirement for tec edge loses many games in those matchups where ghost quarters would have won. It is also a positive change against tron since you can blow up a land before tron even comes online.
Tasigur is not really good in this deck. He turns on your opponents removal. One of the advantages of this deck is blanking your opponents removal and you give up that narural card advantage by running a good target for that removal without being able to over burden their removal with other dangerous targets. The only place I like him is against combo but even there he has problems due to interfering with Logic Knot which is our best mainboard counterspell. With this it regulates him to the sideboard but even then there are more crippling bombs to have against bgx and better beaters against combo that do not interfere with Logic Knot and become worse as the first one gets dealt with. I would him in a midrange shell with discard lingering souls and other threats.
Lingering souls is good but again it needs threats to be effective imo. Its also a terrible card against twin and makes electrolyze an actual card against you.
2 Cryptic Command
1 Ojutai's Command
3 Remand
2 Murderous Cut
1 Path to Exile
1 Doom Blade
1 Dismember
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Unburial Rites
4 Lingering Souls
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
3 Island
1 Swamp
2 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Watery Grave
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Isolated Chapel
Came up with this list. Dropped Esper charm for gifts ungiven, it's primarily a control deck with potential for combo, essentially removing weaknesses from the pure control or pure combo builds of Esper or gifts. Sideboard can include some gameending threats for rites, or silver bullets for gifts. It's untested but sounds amazing when you consider how versatile it can be
I would drop Ashiok and two lingering souls otherwise it looks fine I play a similar gifts list but a bit more on the control side.
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
MODERN
GRIXIS FAERIES
FISH
NAYA BURN
STANDARD
RABBLE RED
E D H
OCEAN MASTER LORTHOS
Daretti's House of Artifacts AND LAND DESTRUCTION
SIDISI VALUE
Those things are true sometimes. There are matchups where ashiok would be minus a card for you since it is easily dealt with or does nothing. Same with lingering souls. Lingering souls is card advantage when facing decks that mainly rely on spot removal as defense over creatures but sometimes the 1/1s migh5 as well not exist and just stall but put you down on cards. It is like when people say snapcaster generates value all the time which is not true. If the 2/1 body actually means anything in the matchup then yes he generates value by nlocking a weenie and glashing back a card but if the body does nothing it is just a 1 for 1 unless you flash back a card that generates value on its own like esper charm or a wrath. I agree that souls is strong in the current meta but I rather have more interaction for decks like twin, burn, and infect to survive until turn 4 rather than cards that make the midrange matchup better when that matchup is already easy.
I think gifts should go 2 routes if it want to reach gifts mana before they are pinned down to where they will die before turn 5. You either run a lot of early interaction such as path, spell snare, mana leak and yes even discard or you go the thirst for knowledge route with mana acceleration for a turn 3 gifts into turn 4 lock against linear decks.
Black Sun's Zenith shuffles itself in which helps when you need to gift for a sweep.
I could see moving ashioks to the board and going down to 3 lingering souls.
4 might not be the best, but i know 2-3 is a certainty.
perhaps in those 3 slots we could fit
1 Esper Charm
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Negate
That is better but I would still go with more interactive and cheap spells. Some more paths or spell snares will go a long way in helping you survive without just outright dying by giving up tempo the turn you gifts.
RE: Black Sun's Zenith: At least for me, this is a relic of the Pod days. Locally, I haven't cut it because there's still a good number of kitchen finks running around because of Burn and Delver being heavily played. When I have to prep for a large event like an IQ or a PPTQ, I will likely sit down, do the testing, and end up switching it to a third verdict.
RE: Murderous Cut/Tasigur, the Golden Fang/Mana Leak: Don't play bad cards to justify bad cards. Tasigur is a strong, undercosted beatstick. He's also just a beatstick, in a deck that has already made the decision to not play beatsticks to avoid turning on removal. Trying to justify this by playing bad cards like mana leak and murderous cut is not improving esper control, it's trying to build esper midrange starting from the wrong direction. Logic Knot is the best delve spell for the control build of esper until such time as we get a counterspell that doesn't fall off hard in the mid to late game.
RE: Lingering Souls: Yes, this card is amazing in the metagame right now. Especially against grindy midrange decks. Oh wait, we already crush those. Well, it's also good against Infect! Well sure, except we could just be playing slot removal, which is stronger in other matchups. It slows down affinity--except we already have 3-4 spell snares AND mainboard wraths. Lingering souls is best in a proactive deck that can tap out for it without just being dead, likely because of discard spells. Guess what we don't play in the mainboard?
RE: Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver: Holy hell the hype train is real. Yes, Ashiok is a strong play against Junk. No, Ashiok is not inevitability. It is a cmc 3 permanent in a format where the premiere removal spell is abrupt decay. Yes, it runs away with games. So does Baneslayer Angel. So does Tarmogoyf. That doesn't mean that these cards are unbeatable, or provide any form of inevitability. It's just a threat, with the upside of being slightly harder to answer than a creature, and cheaper than other noncreature win cons, and the downside of not impacting the board directly the turn it comes down. It still loses to EOT pestermite, untap twin kill you.
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
MODERN
GRIXIS FAERIES
FISH
NAYA BURN
STANDARD
RABBLE RED
E D H
OCEAN MASTER LORTHOS
Daretti's House of Artifacts AND LAND DESTRUCTION
SIDISI VALUE
This guy gets it. Fabiano used ashiok but it mostly worked in sultai because he also ran more cards that put strain on his opponents adrupt decays. Same things goes for Tasigur he is best when you overburden your opponents answers with other threats.
I don't see how Night of Souls' Betrayal isn't a better maindeck card than Lingering Souls. I suppose one can argue that they can attack a combo deck, but that seems anecdotal considering we actually have the tools to lock these down, unlike UWR.
I made the switch to 2 Ghost Quarters. Seems just plain better once you think about it.
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
Also, I'm another person climbing aboard the ghost quarter train. Tron / infect / manlands. Too good,
The four Liliana of the Veil is an interesting choice.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
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
1 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Watery Grave
2 Hallowed fountain
1 Godless Shrine
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
1 sunken ruins
1 mystic gate
2 ghost quarter
4 Cryptic Command
4 Spell Snare
2 Logic Knot
Card Draw:
4 Esper Charm
3 Think Twice
2 Sphinx's Revelation
Cantrips:
1 shadow of doubt
2 Remand
Removal:
4 Path to Exile
3 Supreme Verdict
Random:
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 White Sun's Zenith
1 Batterskull
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Wrath of God
2 Celestial Purge
3 Duress
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Dispel
3 Leyline of Sanctity
16 Players tonight--I guess there was a big engineering test tonight, so about half the regulars couldn't show up, either because they were taking it or were TA's for the class. I made a last minute decision to play three leylines in the board instead of one when I found out 5/16 players were on burn, so of course I never played any of them.
Round 1: BGu midrange
Opponent was splashing stubborn denial, snapcaster mage, serum visions, and thoughtscour into the BGx shell. Game one, I nearly grind him out, but I rev for 6 into 5 lands and a leyline, then draw three more lands and die the turn after. Was really Dumb. Sideboarded in the fat end, purges, 2/3 leylines, and the wrath. Opening 7 has 2 leylines, 2 lands, 2 think twice, and an esper charm. I decide to go for it, and he has the turn three maelstrom pulse. I get screwed on land drops, and draw nothing but removal for his dudes while he lands a liliana. It goes ultimate. We topdeck back and forth for about 8-10 more turns, with my surviving a liliana ult. Eventually, I amass lands and topdeck into a rev for 7 to put the game away. Game three, I board back out two of the leylines for spell snares. We trade stuff back and forth, and eventually he lands liliana and we go back to the topdeck war. I purge liliana, and he draws on consecutive turns a tasigur, a goyf (that is only a 2/3 due to his and my delving), and then he topdecks stubborn denial, as his only card in hand, to my wrath. If that wrath had stuck, I had him pretty dead to rights with two think twices in the graveyard to reload on and 8 lands in play to his four. Can't win 'em all I guess.
Round 2: 4 color zoo.
This player is usually on bant or twin or scapeshift. I've never seen him play zoo before. He keeps a sketchy hand game one that has no one drop, a two drop that I spell snare, and he fails to hit a land for three turns while I establish myself and settle in to beat him up with wraths and cryptics. Game two, I board in leylines, wrath, and the fatties, and a dispel. I cut the cryptics and the remands. He curves nacatl into nacatl + loam lion into geist, and I'm dead to rights before I would even have a fourth turn. Game three, I keep a hand with leyline, two lands, two spell snares, a path, and a think twice. I curve out nicely, answer his threats for the most part, he gets his beatdown going. at one point, I have five lands in play, and he attacks for 7; I'm at 8, but have leyline out. I rev for 2 EOT, draw the verdict and the batterskull, slam verdict, then path his answering play and slam batterskull. I stabilize off batterskull + colonnade from there.
Round 3: five color UWR glittering wish control. Best way to describe this deck. I win it 2/0. It's a brew, it's creative, it has some merits, but I'm basically the better control deck and he's UWR control except he doesn't have the full set of helixes or electrolyzes and he doesn't have a combo kill threat, so basically I'm the control deck with more countermagic and better manlands. I win it in two.
Round 4: Dega Midrange.
This is barely a match. His build is basically all in on lingering souls, the 4 mana battle cry dude that makes tokens, and Elspeth knight errant/Chandra/phyrexian arena/removal. I slam a turn 5 curse of death's hold and all of a sudden his only win cons are a couple of 4 mana 2/3's and some 1/1 tidehollow scullers. Game two I start with leyline and curve out spell snare, think twice, esper charm, verdict, batterskull, Elspeth, baneslayer. He dies. It was dumb.
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
Anyway successful lists should always be reviewed, whether you think they are control or not
It is quite the midrange deck, but it is a result.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas