now I need your constructive help on how to beat burn from the sideboard in conjunction with the maindeck counterspells and Inquisitions. Go!
For UB your options are pretty limited, but the typical lifelink monsters are still quite good and colorless. But if you just want to give them the finger real bad then jam 4 dragon's claw into your side and call it a day. That combined with counter magic should be all you ever need unless you want to yolo some white leylines. Other than that and lifelinker of choice you're really just down to dispel and negate.
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
Had my first official dry run with UW tonight and oh man did it go well. I was lucky enough to get the missing remands and stony silence for the full list that I posted a bit ago. Now here's what happened.
Round 1: Elves
Game 1 I kept a counter heavy hand and turn 1 ancestral. They open with a mana dork and I reply with AV. Next turn I spell snare a another dork and proceed to cast and flash back think twice looking for a wrath or any removal. I don't find any verdicts and not even a path to go with my snapcaster after both sides of TT and a resolved AV. So now I have to cryptic to fog/draw then do it again the turn after. Then I have to snap cryptic bouncing snap and finally find a wrath. But I am some how having mana color problems. I only have 1 white mana so I GQ myself to "filter" and I drop the verdict, setting be back on lands. I top deck another GQ back up to 4 lands and he replays another pair of dorks and I have to snap wrath. Then he reloads but I have a second AV coming off in a couple turns and I am able to animate colonnades at this time so he doesn't suicide anything into them. Eventually Elle shows up and cleans up.
Next game was just a massacre. I didn't find AV all game, but instead I found removal and snapcasters. I quickly wrath him out and then deal with his board after he goes to reload and follow it up with a baneslayer. As it usually is, she is a white battle of wits against creature decks and the game ends shortly after.
Round 2: Living end
Living end as a strong deck choice is directly proportional to the number of remands floating around. Luckily for me I decided to run some and that is the typical story against them. In game 1 I don't see any visions so I'm relying on TT to help me hit land drops while I avoid using fetches until they're needed. They cycle a few things and go for a living end with 3 dorks in the yard and I remand it. He goes for it again 2 turns later and I snap remand. The rest of the game goes this way with me finally finding an AV later to push me way ahead and elspeth take it down again.
The next game I get a turn 2 vision and start making land drops while holding up counter mana. I negate a living end and cryptic a second, then he suspends one and I drop a rest in peace right after. With me having a grip full of cards and his empty GY they scoop.
Round 3: 8 Rack
So discard decks are a thing, but so is a free ancestral recall! I get my first AV discarded, I spell snare a small pox and then suspend ancestral on turn 3 and turn 5. After countering a rack and D sphere grabs another the visions come to me and the game closes to 10 very friendly kitties. The next game he gets another strong start of duress into double wrench mind. I manage to stop racks to keep myself afloat, but I have only seen one TT so far and his follow up small poxes do a number on my lands. Eventually I top deck a baneslayer to end it but they get a top deck of their own and drop liliana. I miss a land drop to animate a colonnade so she has to stick around. Eventually they manage to retrace raven's crime to get rid of my permission and start landing racks to kill me.
Last game I get a turn 1 AV and feel ok about my life. They thoughtseize me taking cryptic and then surgical it to snag the second copy in my hand. I manage to sphere an affliction only to be put back in the rack with very few cards left. I start drawing lands and he starts getting wrench minds going and I start taking damage each turn. I start praying for any draw spell, but all I find is counters and land but eventually I find a clique. I target him and I cycle the fresh liliana they found. I untap and start to bash for 3 a turn hoping that's good enough. Once they get low they finally find a removal spell but I get my own top deck this time. Surprise kitties! I get 3 cats that finish the game two turns later. Close one!
Round 4: RG tron
They win the roll and open with tower and map into power plant. Yay. I open with AV and a think twice while staring at 3 verdicts. They cast a turn 3 wurmcoil that gets a path and their turn 4 ulamog gets a snap path. AV resolves finding me the fourth verdict, a land, and a joyous remand. They start cycling relic of progenitus and drop a karn that eats cryptic, an ugin that gets a remand into logic knot. Elle comes down and gets sumarily exploded by oblivion stone. They drop another ulamog that eats another path. I finally get enough lands together so I can rev for 5 and I GQ his loan power plant. He then skillfully draws another off the top, then cycles some eggs, gets a stirrings and then an ugin. Skill game. He bolts me twice before I can do something and upkeep cryptic to bounce it and snap cryptic on the way back down. I find a zenith two turns later and make a few cats to end the game in short order.
Game two he once again has the natural. I path a wurmcoil, negate a karn, suspend vision on turn 5 and cryptic an ugin. At this point I'm sitting on 2 remands and 2 snares and a TT so I'm essentially on empty and I'm really hoping he's out of gas until AV comes down. Then my buddy ulamog shows up eating two colonnades. I float mana and think twice into disdainful stroke. Good thing I didn't find a negate...but he still isn't done yet! Wurmcoil comes down with an O stone. AV resolves giving me the cryptic a turn late. I get punched in the face as I full cycle a TT and find a snapcaster and D sphere and get an elspeth for the turn. I get hit again and end step bounce O stone. My turn I suspend AV and D sphere the engine. He drops the stone again and I snap cryptic. Form there he is FINALLY out of threats and then ancestral comes off which finds a revelation for 8. From there I had so many blue spells in hand that it was elementary to finish. I counter the last 2 relevant spells he finds in the game before the cats come home and clean it up nice and neat.
Closing thoughts
All in all the deck preformed exactly as I wanted it to. I was never short on cards outside of 8 rack, but that's sorta the way it goes against them. My unconventional card choices were coincidentally vindicated tonight as well which was nice and only had mana troubles once which wasn't catastrophic thanks to GQ. Outside of that one hiccup the deck ran perfectly smooth without even a moment of me wondering if card X was a terrible idea. Snares were fine, snaps were fine, remand did what I wanted it to do, and of course Elle is still the love of my life. I'm going to be hard pressed to cut her from the list even though she isn't precisely necessary she's just so strong and such a reliable game ender. So long as my luck doesn't turn to crap this weekend I'm feeling pretty good about the IQ.
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
Hello again, my fellow Esper mages! I would like to thank each and everyone of you who responded back with some advice for what to run at the GPT tomorrow - I apologize for it being short-notice, but I also heard about it literally an hour before I posted on the forum, so thank you for actually responding in a good amount of time, it means a lot to me! I will not go over everything (since I am posting this before I go to bed, and have to wake up in six hours), but I will try to be both thorough and concise.
I am trying out the fourth Cryptic again. I have been only running three for the past three months (insert cries of heresy here), but you all have convinced me to give it another try. I will explain my reasoning to anyone who is interested later. There are some other considerations that I am currently mulling over, and while I will share those thoughts with you, I do not expect nor need an answer for them (that is in part to both pride and necessity). I am going to post a link to the deck on TappedOut, because again, six hours of sleep, and I don't feel like typing the whole thing out again; http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/03-01-16-esper-control-modern/
The changes from the previous list that I posted are -1 Deprive, +1 Cryptic main, -1 Teferi, +1 Baneslayer. Now for my thoughts;
I am still considering putting both Leylines and Disdainful Strokes in the sideboard. As previously discussed, Leylines seem like they will help out a lot in the matchups that I am worried about. I also want to try out the Strokes, since they seem pretty well-positioned in the meta atm, at least to some extent. And I am also considering another Condemn in the side. The possible changes that I am considering are as follows;
Biggest cheap anti-burn card I've found from playing with faeries: vampiric link.
Slap on their dude, and its a removal spell, slap it on your own, and maybe you gain some life, or at worse they bolt your dude (and effectively gain you three life), and slapping it on an eidolon is just great. Otherwise, kalitas, duress, dispel, sword of light and shadow, batterskull, etc are all nice.
The Merciless Eviction is spicy, and I'm excited to see if it's any good. It's mainly there for Lantern (there is a guy at my LGS who has been on lantern for a while) but it seems pretty good against Tezzerator as well if that deck becomes popular. It's probably too slow against something like Boggles, but I might give it a try anyways. Let me know what you think!
The Merciless Eviction is spicy, and I'm excited to see if it's any good. It's mainly there for Lantern (there is a guy at my LGS who has been on lantern for a while) but it seems pretty good against Tezzerator as well if that deck becomes popular. It's probably too slow against something like Boggles, but I might give it a try anyways. Let me know what you think!
I still prefer the teachings plus fracturing gust combo if you want to hate specifically on lantern. Even though eviction is great it still has the problem that they have to let you draw it or get lucky and grab it in a rev or charm. Teachings/gust is basically find either half or get either half milled and you can easily get there for an instant win.
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
Went 0-2 drop last night, losing to white hatebears and then RB vampires :/
Basically in both games aether vial was a big problem. Vampires had turn 1 cavern of souls as well in both losses. Are these two cards as difficult to handle as they seem? In both matches all of my counterspells pretty much turned dead leaving me stuck trying to draw supreme verdict or lose the game - and even verdict wasn't mind blowing since they could still just vial in a new threat afterwards thus forcing me to also have a path to exile.
Basically if you take the counterspells away from this deck its quite terrible and that's effectively what a turn one cavern and vial will do? With merfolk you can still maybe spell snare or remand a spreading seas but otherwise yeah
Against a deck like Vampires or Merfolk you should be pretty heavily favoured. Sure, they can make your countermagic bad or useless, but Cryptic still taps the team, and ultimately you just blow up the board.
Hatebears can be a bit more difficult because they have Thalia which can really muck up your day, but their creature quality isn't that good, aside from the taxing effects.
These matchups revolve around board sweepers, not counterspells.
I think you're wrong about how good any matchup involving vial and cavern is. Once your counterspells go bad you're left with 7 cards in the deck to draw to survive past turn four (3 verdict 4 path). Playing cryptic as a cantriping fog is only useful if your next card is supreme verdict. Add the fact that even if you do verdict they can flash in another attacker at EoT with a vial or just play a land and have a bloodghast back... i cant see any of that as favourable
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Modern
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
Merfolk is definitely a bad match up - I don't see how you can think otherwise. It's wrath or bust, even then a good Merfolk player will simply put enough pressure on the board and hold creatures in his hand.
The problem I have with Teachings/Gust is that they have access to both Pyxis of Pandemonium and Grafdigger's Cage postboard. Gust also lets them rebuild with Academy Ruins, and Gust hits our own Stony Silence/RIP (I think RIP is actually quite good against them). Teachings/Gust is a bit more flexible against decks like affinity/boggles etc. but I think Merciless Eviction hits a lot harder.
I am trying out the fourth Cryptic again. I have been only running three for the past three months (insert cries of heresy here), but you all have convinced me to give it another try. I will explain my reasoning to anyone who is interested later.
I'm interested in hearing since I feel like I kind of share your sentiments about having 3, although that might just be from my own inexperience but I feel like a number of them get boarded out fairly frequently and they can feel slow at times when drawn too early and although it does happen rarely but they can sometimes be hard to cast on turn 4 or even later too. But yes they are powerful and versatile at the same time maybe that just outweighs the times they are awkward.
The problem I have with Teachings/Gust is that they have access to both Pyxis of Pandemonium and Grafdigger's Cage postboard. Gust also lets them rebuild with Academy Ruins, and Gust hits our own Stony Silence/RIP (I think RIP is actually quite good against them). Teachings/Gust is a bit more flexible against decks like affinity/boggles etc. but I think Merciless Eviction hits a lot harder.
The idea is that you get our your colonnades and elspeth or w/e threats you have and hold up until you have lethal in play. Then you end step gust to clear out everything and attack for lethal. It doesn't matter that they can rebuild because it's just a set up for the game ending turn that they are very hard pressed to ever prevent. Since teachings has flash back and can find snap caster it's very hard for them to mill the full combo away.
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
The problem I have with Teachings/Gust is that they have access to both Pyxis of Pandemonium and Grafdigger's Cage postboard. Gust also lets them rebuild with Academy Ruins, and Gust hits our own Stony Silence/RIP (I think RIP is actually quite good against them). Teachings/Gust is a bit more flexible against decks like affinity/boggles etc. but I think Merciless Eviction hits a lot harder.
The idea is that you get our your colonnades and elspeth or w/e threats you have and hold up until you have lethal in play. Then you end step gust to clear out everything and attack for lethal. It doesn't matter that they can rebuild because it's just a set up for the game ending turn that they are very hard pressed to ever prevent. Since teachings has flash back and can find snap caster it's very hard for them to mill the full combo away.
The problem I have with Teachings/Gust is that they have access to both Pyxis of Pandemonium and Grafdigger's Cage postboard. Gust also lets them rebuild with Academy Ruins, and Gust hits our own Stony Silence/RIP (I think RIP is actually quite good against them). Teachings/Gust is a bit more flexible against decks like affinity/boggles etc. but I think Merciless Eviction hits a lot harder.
The idea is that you get our your colonnades and elspeth or w/e threats you have and hold up until you have lethal in play. Then you end step gust to clear out everything and attack for lethal. It doesn't matter that they can rebuild because it's just a set up for the game ending turn that they are very hard pressed to ever prevent. Since teachings has flash back and can find snap caster it's very hard for them to mill the full combo away.
Ah ok I gotcha. But even still they only play 1 pyxis and I'm not sure how popular cage is. Either way eviction is 1 card that you have to draw and if they cage you can't snap it. With the teaching/gust you have several opportunities to set it up before they get the 100% lock on you.
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
Starting to think white is necessary, not necessarily for path, but for leyline and things like planar cleansing etc from the board
Planar cleansing? Spicy, do I dare ask what in god's name that is for? I've thought about it before but jesus 6 mana for a sweeper is ridiculous. List plox?
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
The problem I have with Teachings/Gust is that they have access to both Pyxis of Pandemonium and Grafdigger's Cage postboard. Gust also lets them rebuild with Academy Ruins, and Gust hits our own Stony Silence/RIP (I think RIP is actually quite good against them). Teachings/Gust is a bit more flexible against decks like affinity/boggles etc. but I think Merciless Eviction hits a lot harder.
The idea is that you get our your colonnades and elspeth or w/e threats you have and hold up until you have lethal in play. Then you end step gust to clear out everything and attack for lethal. It doesn't matter that they can rebuild because it's just a set up for the game ending turn that they are very hard pressed to ever prevent. Since teachings has flash back and can find snap caster it's very hard for them to mill the full combo away.
Ah ok I gotcha. But even still they only play 1 pyxis and I'm not sure how popular cage is. Either way eviction is 1 card that you have to draw and if they cage you can't snap it. With the teaching/gust you have several opportunities to set it up before they get the 100% lock on you.
Definitely true, I just wouldn't bank on Teachings/Snapcaster/Gust getting you there 100% of the time.
So, some thoughts on the list first... I didn't know that I had 3 Revs in the deck until the last round when I cast a Rev that found me 2 more Revs (lol). Anyways, I assume my thought process was that I wanted to loop Rev into bigger Rev into WSZ to win. Without another wincon, I wanted a splashy play. That said, I barely noticed the extra Rev, though in hindsight I always had one when I might have wanted it. So, the other elephant in the room -- the sideboard. It was another of those small local tournament deals -- I knew what almost everyone in the room was playing. Here's the meta I faced:
3x BGx (2 Jund, 1 Sultai Thopters)
1x Jeskai Control
1x Tezerrator
1x Grixis Control
1x Abzan Goodstuff (a budget Little-Kid Abzan, not very tuned)
1x MonoG Devotion
1x Unknown [he usually plays Burn, and almost did, but it turned out to be Storm]
1x Lantern Control
1x Me
I knew I wanted both BGx and Thopter Foundry hate, and with so many control decks in the room I knew the 4th Snare was mandatory -- and it definitely paid off. I was able to convince my UWR buddy to play 3 Snares instead of 2, and he said it really paid off. Anyways, I chose Leylines for the discard decks and who I thought would be on Burn (Leyline is good against Storm too, which worked out nicely). In addition, Stony Silence would have been ideal in the room with 3 artifact decks. So those were the core. A lot of the rest was geared at BGx since I historically struggle with the matchup -- so there was an Elspeth 6, a ***, and 2 Purges. I also left in my staple 2x Condemn and 2x Dispel since I suspected Burn might make an appearance (Dispel is great against control too). That left me with an open slot, which Baneslayer was happy to fill. I was considering 2 Rest in Peace and only 2 Stonies, but I didn't know Storm would show. In hindsight, 2 RiP would have been fine too.
Aha! The boogeyman in the room that I felt most comfortable facing -- 4 Snares, 3 Stonies, and 2x Purge meant he couldn't do anything, and Leylines could be there to blank his discard if in the opener. In G1, he played out his hand late on after I slowed him down with a Snare on his Talisman of Dominance, and I counter his payoff Tezerret. From that point, I was solitaring to find a Zenith, and when I did, I Cryptic-bounced his EE on 0 only to counter it, and then slaughtered him with kitties.
G2: I kept a decent, but not great hand with some mid-game stuff and Think Twice+lands to propel it, so I keep on the draw. He plays t2 Foundry, but I can't find the answer, and I had sided out all of my wraths. *facepalm* I was keeping a close eye on what he played throughout the game and quickly determined that he didn't really have anything Dispel would be great against, so I decided to side it out. He also mentioned me purging Tezerret or the T2 Foundry, and I realized I should hve brought that in.
Changes:
Out: 2x Path to Exile, 2x Dispel
In: 2x Celestial Purge, 2x Supreme Verdict
G3: I keep a hand with lands, Purge, Snare, Think Twice (maybe a Logic Knot too?). Anyways, he Inquisitions me on T1 and takes Snare. I topdeck Snare and pass. He plays Spellskite -> Snare it. I topdeck Snare #3. Felt good. Needless to say, I was able to grind him out super easily, and slayed him with kitty+Colonnade beats for the win before time was called.
2-1, 1-0 overall
He'd played Grixis against me before, so I saw Polluted Delta get a Steam Vents and I pretty much knew. I knew he was on UR Control, but I didn't know if he was playing Blue Moon or not. Anyways, I'm able to Remand-Snap-Remand his AV's suspended 2 turns apart. He tosses a few bolts at me, I get him into a counter war on his end step, and untap --> double charm him to 1 card in hand. From then, it's basically goldfishing into WSZ with a few counters to back it up -- textbook Esper control matchup.
Out: 2x Cryptic, 2x Verdict, 1x Halo, 2x Path
In: 3x Leyline, 2x Purge, 2x Dispel
G2: I mull a risky one land hand with Leyline, Path, and Dispel to keep an "eh" 6. He's able to get there with Bolt-Snap-Bolt while I fumble around delaying/countering his AVs. He's eventually able to Goblin Dark-Dwellers back a Bolt through my little remaining counters and kill me with an unanswered Creeping Tar Pit
G3: I should have taken out a Verdict for a Path here, to keep up with his tempo plan. Anways, we only had 10 mins left, and I wanted to try to pull it out, or at least give him a fair chance to get a win, so I decided to play the most time-efficiently and run it back. I mull again, but it's a repeat of game 2; he tempos me out while I try to deal with multiple AVs on suspend. I end up dying to Snap-beats staring at 2x Celestial Purge in hand. Ugh.
1-2, 1-1 overall
I heard from my UWR friend that the guy decided to play Storm instead of Burn, so I knew going in that he was on Storm. I mull a good, but not-good-enough-against-storm 7, into a 6 that has Rev, Verdict, Think Twice, lands on the play. I decide that I'm looking good if I draw a little interaction, so I keep. He plays a T2 Pyro-Ascension, which I Think Twice into an Esper Charm to answer it. He plays an Electromancer, for which I have already found the path, and I start to flashback TTs on his end step. I eventually pull together so much advantage that he can't resolve a thing, and is forced to go for it on a turn that I tapped a little low on. He almost gets there, but ultimately fizzles. From there, I just keep Charming his hand away and smashing with Colonnade/Snapcaster. GG
I'm able to answer a little bit of interaction, but he's able to sting some stuff together with a Past in flames when he nullifies my critical Snap-Snare on his Ritual with a Noxious revival. I'm mostly tapped out after that, so he goes for a risky Past in Flames and it pays off.
Changes:
Out: 1x Cryptic Command
In: 1x Supreme Verdict, 1x Baneslayer (I realized he could be on Empty the Warrens, and time was running lo)]
G3 is super quick, and I have Snares for critical interaction. I end up playing a T7-ish Leyline with some backup in case he goes for an Empty the warrens (he doesn't). We end up going to turns, but I Charm away his hand and Baneslayer+Snapcaster connects a few times to end it just in time.
2-1, 2-1 overall
We played it out for fun, and I got it 1-0. lol He decked himself with Rev and AV after being able to counter my desperation WSZ (I was playing really poorly, since it was casual and we were distracted).
Overall, I found that I really like the 4th Snare right now, and that it my be right to just ignore AV, and let it resolve. They end up going to discard anyways, and you still get to keep your relevant interaction in hand. It's like trying to fight over Thirst for Knowledge or Think Twices -- you can't really afford to, so don't try. playing with only Zenith for once was a nice change of pace, and the sb felt solid (though Leyline realy hated me, and never came out on T0).
I've got just one simple question — why you don't play Ancestral Vision? Because it sucks with Colonnade or what?
It's just not the card that Esper needs. Esper already has a fantastic suite of draw spells in Esper Charm, Think Twice, and Sphinx's Rev, and each of them provide the cards immediately. Oftentimes, you're stuck on draw spells or Wraths/Cryptics while trying to draw into more interaction or more lands -- things that you can't really wait 4 turns for.
The only cards that would really make a dent in the maindeck are Counterspell and another 1-2 mana unconditional "destroy target creature" effect -- Anguished Unmaking came really close, and actually is playable enough to maindeck a copy or so.
For UB your options are pretty limited, but the typical lifelink monsters are still quite good and colorless. But if you just want to give them the finger real bad then jam 4 dragon's claw into your side and call it a day. That combined with counter magic should be all you ever need unless you want to yolo some white leylines. Other than that and lifelinker of choice you're really just down to dispel and negate.
Round 1: Elves
Next game was just a massacre. I didn't find AV all game, but instead I found removal and snapcasters. I quickly wrath him out and then deal with his board after he goes to reload and follow it up with a baneslayer. As it usually is, she is a white battle of wits against creature decks and the game ends shortly after.
Round 2: Living end
The next game I get a turn 2 vision and start making land drops while holding up counter mana. I negate a living end and cryptic a second, then he suspends one and I drop a rest in peace right after. With me having a grip full of cards and his empty GY they scoop.
Round 3: 8 Rack
Last game I get a turn 1 AV and feel ok about my life. They thoughtseize me taking cryptic and then surgical it to snag the second copy in my hand. I manage to sphere an affliction only to be put back in the rack with very few cards left. I start drawing lands and he starts getting wrench minds going and I start taking damage each turn. I start praying for any draw spell, but all I find is counters and land but eventually I find a clique. I target him and I cycle the fresh liliana they found. I untap and start to bash for 3 a turn hoping that's good enough. Once they get low they finally find a removal spell but I get my own top deck this time. Surprise kitties! I get 3 cats that finish the game two turns later. Close one!
Round 4: RG tron
Game two he once again has the natural. I path a wurmcoil, negate a karn, suspend vision on turn 5 and cryptic an ugin. At this point I'm sitting on 2 remands and 2 snares and a TT so I'm essentially on empty and I'm really hoping he's out of gas until AV comes down. Then my buddy ulamog shows up eating two colonnades. I float mana and think twice into disdainful stroke. Good thing I didn't find a negate...but he still isn't done yet! Wurmcoil comes down with an O stone. AV resolves giving me the cryptic a turn late. I get punched in the face as I full cycle a TT and find a snapcaster and D sphere and get an elspeth for the turn. I get hit again and end step bounce O stone. My turn I suspend AV and D sphere the engine. He drops the stone again and I snap cryptic. Form there he is FINALLY out of threats and then ancestral comes off which finds a revelation for 8. From there I had so many blue spells in hand that it was elementary to finish. I counter the last 2 relevant spells he finds in the game before the cats come home and clean it up nice and neat.
Closing thoughts
I am trying out the fourth Cryptic again. I have been only running three for the past three months (insert cries of heresy here), but you all have convinced me to give it another try. I will explain my reasoning to anyone who is interested later. There are some other considerations that I am currently mulling over, and while I will share those thoughts with you, I do not expect nor need an answer for them (that is in part to both pride and necessity). I am going to post a link to the deck on TappedOut, because again, six hours of sleep, and I don't feel like typing the whole thing out again; http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/03-01-16-esper-control-modern/
The changes from the previous list that I posted are -1 Deprive, +1 Cryptic main, -1 Teferi, +1 Baneslayer. Now for my thoughts;
I am still considering putting both Leylines and Disdainful Strokes in the sideboard. As previously discussed, Leylines seem like they will help out a lot in the matchups that I am worried about. I also want to try out the Strokes, since they seem pretty well-positioned in the meta atm, at least to some extent. And I am also considering another Condemn in the side. The possible changes that I am considering are as follows;
-1 Baneslayer, -1 Timely, +2 Leyline
-1 Negate, +1 Stroke
-1 Timely or -1 Negate, +1 Condemn
Those are my thoughts for now. I will post how I did at the GPT sometime this weekend. And once again, thank you to all who gave their input!
Slap on their dude, and its a removal spell, slap it on your own, and maybe you gain some life, or at worse they bolt your dude (and effectively gain you three life), and slapping it on an eidolon is just great. Otherwise, kalitas, duress, dispel, sword of light and shadow, batterskull, etc are all nice.
2x Baneslayer Angel
2x Celestial Purge
2x Condemn
1x Dispel
1x Merciless Eviction
1x Negate
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Thoughtseize
The Merciless Eviction is spicy, and I'm excited to see if it's any good. It's mainly there for Lantern (there is a guy at my LGS who has been on lantern for a while) but it seems pretty good against Tezzerator as well if that deck becomes popular. It's probably too slow against something like Boggles, but I might give it a try anyways. Let me know what you think!
WUBR [url=http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/06-04-17-ad-nauseam/]Ad Nauseam WUBR
I still prefer the teachings plus fracturing gust combo if you want to hate specifically on lantern. Even though eviction is great it still has the problem that they have to let you draw it or get lucky and grab it in a rev or charm. Teachings/gust is basically find either half or get either half milled and you can easily get there for an instant win.
I think you're wrong about how good any matchup involving vial and cavern is. Once your counterspells go bad you're left with 7 cards in the deck to draw to survive past turn four (3 verdict 4 path). Playing cryptic as a cantriping fog is only useful if your next card is supreme verdict. Add the fact that even if you do verdict they can flash in another attacker at EoT with a vial or just play a land and have a bloodghast back... i cant see any of that as favourable
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
BGX Midrange
URX Control
WUBR [url=http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/06-04-17-ad-nauseam/]Ad Nauseam WUBR
2-1 vs boggles, 2-0 vs Jund with AV, 2-1 vs I'm not sure maybe tooth and nail / breach?
I'll post the list after next round when I get access to my laptop.
Grave Titan gets there
I'm interested in hearing since I feel like I kind of share your sentiments about having 3, although that might just be from my own inexperience but I feel like a number of them get boarded out fairly frequently and they can feel slow at times when drawn too early and although it does happen rarely but they can sometimes be hard to cast on turn 4 or even later too. But yes they are powerful and versatile at the same time maybe that just outweighs the times they are awkward.
The idea is that you get our your colonnades and elspeth or w/e threats you have and hold up until you have lethal in play. Then you end step gust to clear out everything and attack for lethal. It doesn't matter that they can rebuild because it's just a set up for the game ending turn that they are very hard pressed to ever prevent. Since teachings has flash back and can find snap caster it's very hard for them to mill the full combo away.
Starting to think white is necessary, not necessarily for path, but for leyline and things like planar cleansing etc from the board
What I'm saying is that Pyxis of Pandemonium and Grafdigger's Cage will likely prevent you from Teachings for Snapcaster/Fracturing Gust anyway.
WUBR [url=http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/06-04-17-ad-nauseam/]Ad Nauseam WUBR
Ah ok I gotcha. But even still they only play 1 pyxis and I'm not sure how popular cage is. Either way eviction is 1 card that you have to draw and if they cage you can't snap it. With the teaching/gust you have several opportunities to set it up before they get the 100% lock on you.
Planar cleansing? Spicy, do I dare ask what in god's name that is for? I've thought about it before but jesus 6 mana for a sweeper is ridiculous. List plox?
Definitely true, I just wouldn't bank on Teachings/Snapcaster/Gust getting you there 100% of the time.
WUBR [url=http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/06-04-17-ad-nauseam/]Ad Nauseam WUBR
4x Celestial Colonnade
2x Ghost Quarter
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Glacial Fortress
4x Flooded Strand
4x Polluted Delta
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Watery Grave
1x Godless Shrine
2x Island
2x Plains
1x Swamp
1x White Sun's Zenith
Counters (12)
4x Spell Snare
2x Remand
2x Logic Knot
4x Cryptic Command
Removal (8)
4x Path to Exile
1x Runed Halo
3x Supreme Verdict
Draw (13)
4x Think Twice
4x Esper Charm
3x Sphinx's Revelation
2x Snapcaster Mage
3x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Stony Silence
2x Dispel
2x Condemn
2x Celestial Purge
1x Wrath of God
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Baneslayer Angel
So, some thoughts on the list first... I didn't know that I had 3 Revs in the deck until the last round when I cast a Rev that found me 2 more Revs (lol). Anyways, I assume my thought process was that I wanted to loop Rev into bigger Rev into WSZ to win. Without another wincon, I wanted a splashy play. That said, I barely noticed the extra Rev, though in hindsight I always had one when I might have wanted it. So, the other elephant in the room -- the sideboard. It was another of those small local tournament deals -- I knew what almost everyone in the room was playing. Here's the meta I faced:
3x BGx (2 Jund, 1 Sultai Thopters)
1x Jeskai Control
1x Tezerrator
1x Grixis Control
1x Abzan Goodstuff (a budget Little-Kid Abzan, not very tuned)
1x MonoG Devotion
1x Unknown [he usually plays Burn, and almost did, but it turned out to be Storm]
1x Lantern Control
1x Me
I knew I wanted both BGx and Thopter Foundry hate, and with so many control decks in the room I knew the 4th Snare was mandatory -- and it definitely paid off. I was able to convince my UWR buddy to play 3 Snares instead of 2, and he said it really paid off. Anyways, I chose Leylines for the discard decks and who I thought would be on Burn (Leyline is good against Storm too, which worked out nicely). In addition, Stony Silence would have been ideal in the room with 3 artifact decks. So those were the core. A lot of the rest was geared at BGx since I historically struggle with the matchup -- so there was an Elspeth 6, a ***, and 2 Purges. I also left in my staple 2x Condemn and 2x Dispel since I suspected Burn might make an appearance (Dispel is great against control too). That left me with an open slot, which Baneslayer was happy to fill. I was considering 2 Rest in Peace and only 2 Stonies, but I didn't know Storm would show. In hindsight, 2 RiP would have been fine too.
Aha! The boogeyman in the room that I felt most comfortable facing -- 4 Snares, 3 Stonies, and 2x Purge meant he couldn't do anything, and Leylines could be there to blank his discard if in the opener. In G1, he played out his hand late on after I slowed him down with a Snare on his Talisman of Dominance, and I counter his payoff Tezerret. From that point, I was solitaring to find a Zenith, and when I did, I Cryptic-bounced his EE on 0 only to counter it, and then slaughtered him with kitties.
G2: I kept a decent, but not great hand with some mid-game stuff and Think Twice+lands to propel it, so I keep on the draw. He plays t2 Foundry, but I can't find the answer, and I had sided out all of my wraths. *facepalm* I was keeping a close eye on what he played throughout the game and quickly determined that he didn't really have anything Dispel would be great against, so I decided to side it out. He also mentioned me purging Tezerret or the T2 Foundry, and I realized I should hve brought that in.
Changes:
G3: I keep a hand with lands, Purge, Snare, Think Twice (maybe a Logic Knot too?). Anyways, he Inquisitions me on T1 and takes Snare. I topdeck Snare and pass. He plays Spellskite -> Snare it. I topdeck Snare #3. Felt good. Needless to say, I was able to grind him out super easily, and slayed him with kitty+Colonnade beats for the win before time was called.
2-1, 1-0 overall
He'd played Grixis against me before, so I saw Polluted Delta get a Steam Vents and I pretty much knew. I knew he was on UR Control, but I didn't know if he was playing Blue Moon or not. Anyways, I'm able to Remand-Snap-Remand his AV's suspended 2 turns apart. He tosses a few bolts at me, I get him into a counter war on his end step, and untap --> double charm him to 1 card in hand. From then, it's basically goldfishing into WSZ with a few counters to back it up -- textbook Esper control matchup.
G2: I mull a risky one land hand with Leyline, Path, and Dispel to keep an "eh" 6. He's able to get there with Bolt-Snap-Bolt while I fumble around delaying/countering his AVs. He's eventually able to Goblin Dark-Dwellers back a Bolt through my little remaining counters and kill me with an unanswered Creeping Tar Pit
G3: I should have taken out a Verdict for a Path here, to keep up with his tempo plan. Anways, we only had 10 mins left, and I wanted to try to pull it out, or at least give him a fair chance to get a win, so I decided to play the most time-efficiently and run it back. I mull again, but it's a repeat of game 2; he tempos me out while I try to deal with multiple AVs on suspend. I end up dying to Snap-beats staring at 2x Celestial Purge in hand. Ugh.
1-2, 1-1 overall
I heard from my UWR friend that the guy decided to play Storm instead of Burn, so I knew going in that he was on Storm. I mull a good, but not-good-enough-against-storm 7, into a 6 that has Rev, Verdict, Think Twice, lands on the play. I decide that I'm looking good if I draw a little interaction, so I keep. He plays a T2 Pyro-Ascension, which I Think Twice into an Esper Charm to answer it. He plays an Electromancer, for which I have already found the path, and I start to flashback TTs on his end step. I eventually pull together so much advantage that he can't resolve a thing, and is forced to go for it on a turn that I tapped a little low on. He almost gets there, but ultimately fizzles. From there, I just keep Charming his hand away and smashing with Colonnade/Snapcaster. GG
I'm able to answer a little bit of interaction, but he's able to sting some stuff together with a Past in flames when he nullifies my critical Snap-Snare on his Ritual with a Noxious revival. I'm mostly tapped out after that, so he goes for a risky Past in Flames and it pays off.
Changes:
G3 is super quick, and I have Snares for critical interaction. I end up playing a T7-ish Leyline with some backup in case he goes for an Empty the warrens (he doesn't). We end up going to turns, but I Charm away his hand and Baneslayer+Snapcaster connects a few times to end it just in time.
2-1, 2-1 overall
We played it out for fun, and I got it 1-0. lol He decked himself with Rev and AV after being able to counter my desperation WSZ (I was playing really poorly, since it was casual and we were distracted).
Overall, I found that I really like the 4th Snare right now, and that it my be right to just ignore AV, and let it resolve. They end up going to discard anyways, and you still get to keep your relevant interaction in hand. It's like trying to fight over Thirst for Knowledge or Think Twices -- you can't really afford to, so don't try. playing with only Zenith for once was a nice change of pace, and the sb felt solid (though Leyline realy hated me, and never came out on T0).
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
It's just not the card that Esper needs. Esper already has a fantastic suite of draw spells in Esper Charm, Think Twice, and Sphinx's Rev, and each of them provide the cards immediately. Oftentimes, you're stuck on draw spells or Wraths/Cryptics while trying to draw into more interaction or more lands -- things that you can't really wait 4 turns for.
The only cards that would really make a dent in the maindeck are Counterspell and another 1-2 mana unconditional "destroy target creature" effect -- Anguished Unmaking came really close, and actually is playable enough to maindeck a copy or so.
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.