More importantly, I wanted to talk about potential Mentor replacements. While he did work in some matches (gifts, tutelage), I'd rather have a card that I'm NOT sideboarding out every single game. I've come up a list with some potential replacements that I want to talk about.
Bitterblossom
Pros:
- Comes out a turn earlier. On the play, you can slip under Remand and other two mana counters like Negate.
- Play and forget. Provides value for the whole game. Chump blockers and finishers.
- Hard for most decks to remove game 1 outside of cards like Abrupt Decay.
- Synergy with Solemn Sorin and Vault of the Archangel.
Cons:
- Not very good against burn.
- Spell Snare
- Weak to token hate, which will inevitably be coming in g2 against us because of lingering souls/mentor.
Additional:
- Tribal AND Enchantment. Buffs up Goyf a lot.
Geist of Saint Traft
- Arguably hard to remove in current meta.
- Fast clock, able to close out games quickly.
- Spell Snare proof/same cost as Mentor so we're not raising curve.
- Can be chumped, perhaps not the best in a heavy creature meta, although we do run a lot of removal.
- Snapcaster, ambush viper mode.
- Open to board wipe hate like Damnation and Supreme Verdict which could potentially be sided in against us.
Monastery Mentor
- Gives all of our spells extra value.
- Can end a game very quickly with itself and a monk token or two.
- Synergy with Solemn Sorin and Vault of the Archangel
- Cannot be cast on turn 3 in most cases. It's generally a 4/5/6 drop.
- Weak to token hate/board wipes
Jace, Architect of Thought
- Amazing in grindy games, blanking 1/x cards and providing card advantage.
- Potentially game ending ultimate VS certain decks.
- 4 Drop, we could potentially be dead before then. Not always able to jam it t4 either. Raises curve slightly.
- Not super impact-ful when played.
Liliana of the Veil
- Synergy with our delve spells and Lingering Souls
- Discard ability game winning vs certain decks, ultimate wins against most others.
- Good against hexproof
- 3 drop, curve isn't raised
- Not the best against smite/liege/souls
- BB cost
Pack Rat
- Every draw is now live. A top deck land on turn 10 is fuel for the pack rat fire.
- Can VERY quickly close out a game, as Mono B devotion players will remember.
- Synergy with lingering souls and our other Delve cards
- Spell snare
- Token hate/board wipes
- Especially weak to D-sphere
- Sometimes have to play it as a 5 drop, similar to Mentor.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
- Ultimate VERY GOOD.
- Amazing vs creature decks with a slow start. Tons of removal to keep the board clean to protect Ashiok, plus Lingering Souls tokens.
- Meh against burn.
- Flipping a Tasigur or Angler feels bad.
- Can't protect self although it starts with high loyalty
Timely Reinforcements
- Shaheen Style
- Great against burn and other aggresive decks if we draw one of the copies. Timely -> Snapcaster Timely is backbreaking.
- Anti-synergy with lingering souls
- Does very little in control matchups or combo where life total isn't under duress starting t1.
- Token hate
Sorin, Solemn Visitor
- Potentially game winning ultimate
- Synergy with all our other creatures because lifelink is BOSS
- Protects self, provides a token
- 4 drop
- token hate
- bolt-able after making a token
These cards would be a 1-3 of the mainboard in place of Monastery Mentor.
This is all I can think of right now. What do you guys think? What have you tried? What works well? Anything not listed that's over-performing?
I dont think removing Mentor from the list completely is the answer.
If you are doing that, then Grixis is just the better deck.
I think the answer is having something in the sideboard that you transform into when Mentor is not at its strongest.
Before we remove Mentor from the list, ask yourself what is good about Mentor and why are you playing it in the first place? Mentor is really good against creature heavy, removal light decks; he is able to create blockers/attackers by casting spells making combat math hard for your opponent. Prowess makes this doubly hard, as every spell makes him and his tokens bigger. Where Mentor is poor, is where the deck you are playing against is running threat light but a lot of cheap removal. His 2/2 body and CMC 3 makes him hard to protect when they are playing cards like Bolt for 1 CMC.
I am on the Geist transformative sideboard, bc Geist plays well in situations that Mentor does not. The deck packs enough removal/counters to protect a Geist from creatures on board and most ppl will board in extra spot removal for the Mentors they saw game 1, which becomes useless against Geist.
The other option, would be to have a control sideboard; some planeswalkers and extra board wipes and just turn into a Esper tap-out control deck that wins on the back of Tasigur/Angler.
If you are playing Esper mentor then you need to run 3-4 Mentors mainboard. It seems like you could just be playing the card at the wrong times. Monastery Mentor is like Pack Rat in that they both die to everything, but they are insane when our opponents have exhausted their resources.
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On mtgsalvation people don't want to discuss ideas, so I give people something else to discuss: my controversial opinions.
If you are playing Esper mentor then you need to run 3-4 Mentors mainboard. It seems like you could just be playing the card at the wrong times. Monastery Mentor is like Pack Rat in that they both die to everything, but they are insane when our opponents have exhausted their resources.
This is definately true, but Mentor kills a lot quicker then Pack Rat, while the rat is more resistant to spot removal.
If you are playing Esper mentor then you need to run 3-4 Mentors mainboard. It seems like you could just be playing the card at the wrong times. Monastery Mentor is like Pack Rat in that they both die to everything, but they are insane when our opponents have exhausted their resources.
This is definately true, but Mentor kills a lot quicker then Pack Rat, while the rat is more resistant to spot removal.
YEP and that's exactly why I'm now trying a version with :
Testing Sculler and Mage, they slow our ennemy and take removal instead of Mentor.
I was thinking... What about a random Mutagenic Growth to protect Mentor and Geist?
If you are playing Esper mentor then you need to run 3-4 Mentors mainboard. It seems like you could just be playing the card at the wrong times. Monastery Mentor is like Pack Rat in that they both die to everything, but they are insane when our opponents have exhausted their resources.
This is definately true, but Mentor kills a lot quicker then Pack Rat, while the rat is more resistant to spot removal.
YEP and that's exactly why I'm now trying a version with :
Testing Sculler and Mage, they slow our ennemy and take removal instead of Mentor.
I was thinking... What about a random Mutagenic Growth to protect Mentor and Geist?
I dont think removing Mentor from the list completely is the answer.
If you are doing that, then Grixis is just the better deck.
I think the answer is having something in the sideboard that you transform into when Mentor is not at its strongest.
Before we remove Mentor from the list, ask yourself what is good about Mentor and why are you playing it in the first place? Mentor is really good against creature heavy, removal light decks; he is able to create blockers/attackers by casting spells making combat math hard for your opponent. Prowess makes this doubly hard, as every spell makes him and his tokens bigger. Where Mentor is poor, is where the deck you are playing against is running threat light but a lot of cheap removal. His 2/2 body and CMC 3 makes him hard to protect when they are playing cards like Bolt for 1 CMC.
I am on the Geist transformative sideboard, bc Geist plays well in situations that Mentor does not. The deck packs enough removal/counters to protect a Geist from creatures on board and most ppl will board in extra spot removal for the Mentors they saw game 1, which becomes useless against Geist.
The other option, would be to have a control sideboard; some planeswalkers and extra board wipes and just turn into a Esper tap-out control deck that wins on the back of Tasigur/Angler.
In my opinion, this deck (Esper midrange/control) is like Junk, while Grixis is like Jund. We both play a similar game of 'drop a delved creature backed up counters and hand disruption', but with Esper we get to attack from an entirely different angle through Lingering Souls. I'd go so far as to say Lingering Souls is the reason to be playing Esper right now. With so many decks opting to go for advantageous 1-for-1 or 2-for-1 trades, Lingering Souls generally represents a 1-for-1/4th or 1-for-1/2 trades. That's why I like this deck over Grixis, anyhow.
Maybe it's just me, but my metagame is HEAVILY red/blue slanted. Against the uninteractive decks, sure, Mentor is AMAZING. It can and does win the game alone. But I get maybe one of those games a week, if at all. That's the main reason I'm considering giving Mentor the axe. Why play with a card that I know, 4 matches out 5, will be practically useless. I just don't think Mentor is worth the mainboard slot with how strong and prevalent Grixis is.
If you are playing Esper mentor then you need to run 3-4 Mentors mainboard. It seems like you could just be playing the card at the wrong times. Monastery Mentor is like Pack Rat in that they both die to everything, but they are insane when our opponents have exhausted their resources.
I don't think more than two mentors is correct. Generally you hold onto one till you have 2 or 3 spells in hand where you can chain-cast them for value. Drawing more than one just feels terrible and it oftentimes sits dead in your hand, unless you want to run out an early copy to bait removal.
I've yet to try sideboarding in Geist (no copies) but I love the idea and will try it eventually. Seems pretty good vs Grixis currently, although I'm still very interested in Liliana or Bitterblossom.
In my opinion, this deck (Esper midrange/control) is like Junk, while Grixis is like Jund. We both play a similar game of 'drop a delved creature backed up counters and hand disruption', but with Esper we get to attack from an entirely different angle through Lingering Souls. I'd go so far as to say Lingering Souls is the reason to be playing Esper right now. With so many decks opting to go for advantageous 1-for-1 or 2-for-1 trades, Lingering Souls generally represents a 1-for-1/4th or 1-for-1/2 trades. That's why I like this deck over Grixis, anyhow.
Yep, I added a copy of Runechanter's Pike to give souls more power (not playing delve )
Maybe it's just me, but my metagame is HEAVILY red/blue slanted. Against the uninteractive decks, sure, Mentor is AMAZING. It can and does win the game alone. But I get maybe one of those games a week, if at all. That's the main reason I'm considering giving Mentor the axe. Why play with a card that I know, 4 matches out 5, will be practically useless. I just don't think Mentor is worth the mainboard slot with how strong and prevalent Grixis is.
I don't think more than two mentors is correct. Generally you hold onto one till you have 2 or 3 spells in hand where you can chain-cast them for value. Drawing more than one just feels terrible and it oftentimes sits dead in your hand, unless you want to run out an early copy to bait removal.
I think 3 copies is the best, as you said you never play them ASAP and tend to keep them in hand. Even with 3 we draw enough to play one to bait, with one waiting in hand (Mutagenic Growth makes everything easier, it almost allows us to dodge Dismember on Mentor, also good with Geist to dodge Pyroclasme etc,...).
I've yet to try sideboarding in Geist (no copies) but I love the idea and will try it eventually. Seems pretty good vs Grixis currently, although I'm still very interested in Liliana or Bitterblossom.
And if somebody tried Liliana or BB... i would be interrested by some conclusion as well ^^
PPTQ first place with two maindeck Lilis. I'd be able to test a similar build two or three times a week... if I had any! Will try and get some within a month or two and let you guys know how well they work. I'm pretty hellbent on trying them out.
I tried a deck very similar to that one (with 2 Liliana's) and it's somewhat a mixed bag IMO.
On the one hand she can generate so much card advantage that she can just take the game with little support.
On the other hand her +1 doesn't play nice with our counter suite. And my biggest issue with her is that she really stretches the manabase making us a lot more vulnerable to blood moon, this is not really an issue otherwise as I can cast everything of 1 plains + 1 swamp + 1 island.
First Match-up was against traditional UWR Control (1-0)
What i recall from this particular match is that liliana is an all-star here.
Game 2 lasted forever and he couldn't close the game on top deck mode against my board of Snapcaster mage + 1 monk token + a newly casted Mentor we went to turn without doing much he gained alot of life from the snap+helix and ajani interactions.
Second Match-up against Grixis Twin (2-1)
G1 on the draw, He casts t1 discard and reveals my terrible opening 7 with 4 lands, leak, thought scour x2 he takes the leak and closes the game a couple turns later with a t3 tasigur.
G2 on the play, This time i am the one who starts the game with a t1 discard which reveals a hand full of spells and only 1 land, I take the serum visions he has and pass the turn. the next turn i follow the play with serum visions + discard and remove the terminate he holds in hand. He dies to tas+gurmag beats.
G3 on the draw, he starts really slow and doesnt really get going even tho he went for t3 exarch knowing i have path in hand. I win the game on huge lingering souls beats.
Third Match-up against Naya Burn (Intentional Draw)
We played for fun and he did beat me but i feel like the deck definatly can win in this particular match-up
I am still working on a sideboard but if you want i could post the sb i had for the event!
Had a lot of fun playing this deck and will keep on grinding with it!
Hey guys - I havent played this deck in a while and was just thinking of coming back to it - looking at the recent lists in the thread I have a question (Sorry if its been answered earlier!):
Why no sorin, solemn visitor anymore? Last time I played he was usually a 1 or even 2 of in the main. Does esper mentor no longer need that ace against burn? Timely can get skullcracked so it seems sketchy to put all your lifegain on that card!
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Modern
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
So, after a while of the deck being on the shelf I picked it back up to see if their was anything else to help Monastery Mentor.
I thought it over and raven's crime fit pretty well in the deck's main concept with using thought scour, and using 1-for-1 card advantage to grind the opponent down to nothing.
While also depleting the cards out the opponents hand, you can make safe assumption's whether the opponent has disruptive answers.
This also turns all your land into prowess triggers for monastery mentor
Here's a rough draft of the deck.
The Reason I like the deck is all your cards are very Proactive and reactive to many different board states,
With also having information with cards such as Inquisition of Kozilek Helps you plan your attack on the opponent.
BadMcFadden, I like Sorin but i cant really appreciate a 4-mana hardcast most of the time against blue decks,
While it hasn't put up results I honestly think it's because the deck is relatively expensive which turns people away from trying the deck. As Lantern Control has shown us, just because people aren't playing a deck doesn't mean that the deck can't succeed. Anyways here is my stab at Esper Mentor. It's a little unconventional because my deck uses Trinket Mage as a toolbox to find kill cards/utility/Hangarback Walker to help Mentor and trigger his prowess triggers. It's a rough decklist as I just put it together but I want to fine tune it so I can test it. Let me know what you guys think.
I was just thinking, we should find a way to effectively cast Temporal Mastery. This card with either Mentor or Geist could be really strong (yes Timewalk is strong^^). The problem is the "effectively"... I currently am running 4 Serum Vision, 3 Probes and 2 Remand. This probably is to much draw for miracles. I was thinking on removing the Probes to include something like See Beyond... Thoughts?
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
I'm running a list that uses primarily Bitterblossom and Lingering Souls to deal the damage and play control role using remand, logic knot, path, Supreme Verdict and vendilion clique while running Sorin Lord of Innistrad(primary planeswalker), Ashiok, Narset, Liliana and Elspeth to pump late game advantage.
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
2-1 VS RB Bloodchief's Burn
0-2 VS Affinity
1-2 VS Scapeshift
2-0 VS UR Sphinx's Tutelage Blood Moon
2-0 4c Gifts
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
2 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Gurmag Angler
2 Monastery Mentor
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Instants and Sorceries - 27
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Serum Visions
1 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
4 Thought scour
4 Path to Exile
2 Remand
2 Spell Snare
1 Murderous Cut
1 Dismember
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
2 Negate
2 Celestial Purge
1 Flashfreeze
1 Languish
1 Disenchant
1 Blood Baron of Viskopa
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Stony Silence
More importantly, I wanted to talk about potential Mentor replacements. While he did work in some matches (gifts, tutelage), I'd rather have a card that I'm NOT sideboarding out every single game. I've come up a list with some potential replacements that I want to talk about.
Bitterblossom
Pros:
- Comes out a turn earlier. On the play, you can slip under Remand and other two mana counters like Negate.
- Play and forget. Provides value for the whole game. Chump blockers and finishers.
- Hard for most decks to remove game 1 outside of cards like Abrupt Decay.
- Synergy with Solemn Sorin and Vault of the Archangel.
Cons:
- Not very good against burn.
- Spell Snare
- Weak to token hate, which will inevitably be coming in g2 against us because of lingering souls/mentor.
Additional:
- Tribal AND Enchantment. Buffs up Goyf a lot.
Geist of Saint Traft
- Arguably hard to remove in current meta.
- Fast clock, able to close out games quickly.
- Spell Snare proof/same cost as Mentor so we're not raising curve.
- Can be chumped, perhaps not the best in a heavy creature meta, although we do run a lot of removal.
- Snapcaster, ambush viper mode.
- Open to board wipe hate like Damnation and Supreme Verdict which could potentially be sided in against us.
Monastery Mentor
- Gives all of our spells extra value.
- Can end a game very quickly with itself and a monk token or two.
- Synergy with Solemn Sorin and Vault of the Archangel
- Cannot be cast on turn 3 in most cases. It's generally a 4/5/6 drop.
- Weak to token hate/board wipes
Jace, Architect of Thought
- Amazing in grindy games, blanking 1/x cards and providing card advantage.
- Potentially game ending ultimate VS certain decks.
- 4 Drop, we could potentially be dead before then. Not always able to jam it t4 either. Raises curve slightly.
- Not super impact-ful when played.
Liliana of the Veil
- Synergy with our delve spells and Lingering Souls
- Discard ability game winning vs certain decks, ultimate wins against most others.
- Good against hexproof
- 3 drop, curve isn't raised
- Not the best against smite/liege/souls
- BB cost
Pack Rat
- Every draw is now live. A top deck land on turn 10 is fuel for the pack rat fire.
- Can VERY quickly close out a game, as Mono B devotion players will remember.
- Synergy with lingering souls and our other Delve cards
- Spell snare
- Token hate/board wipes
- Especially weak to D-sphere
- Sometimes have to play it as a 5 drop, similar to Mentor.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
- Ultimate VERY GOOD.
- Amazing vs creature decks with a slow start. Tons of removal to keep the board clean to protect Ashiok, plus Lingering Souls tokens.
- Meh against burn.
- Flipping a Tasigur or Angler feels bad.
- Can't protect self although it starts with high loyalty
Timely Reinforcements
- Shaheen Style
- Great against burn and other aggresive decks if we draw one of the copies. Timely -> Snapcaster Timely is backbreaking.
- Anti-synergy with lingering souls
- Does very little in control matchups or combo where life total isn't under duress starting t1.
- Token hate
Sorin, Solemn Visitor
- Potentially game winning ultimate
- Synergy with all our other creatures because lifelink is BOSS
- Protects self, provides a token
- 4 drop
- token hate
- bolt-able after making a token
These cards would be a 1-3 of the mainboard in place of Monastery Mentor.
This is all I can think of right now. What do you guys think? What have you tried? What works well? Anything not listed that's over-performing?
If you are doing that, then Grixis is just the better deck.
I think the answer is having something in the sideboard that you transform into when Mentor is not at its strongest.
Before we remove Mentor from the list, ask yourself what is good about Mentor and why are you playing it in the first place? Mentor is really good against creature heavy, removal light decks; he is able to create blockers/attackers by casting spells making combat math hard for your opponent. Prowess makes this doubly hard, as every spell makes him and his tokens bigger. Where Mentor is poor, is where the deck you are playing against is running threat light but a lot of cheap removal. His 2/2 body and CMC 3 makes him hard to protect when they are playing cards like Bolt for 1 CMC.
I am on the Geist transformative sideboard, bc Geist plays well in situations that Mentor does not. The deck packs enough removal/counters to protect a Geist from creatures on board and most ppl will board in extra spot removal for the Mentors they saw game 1, which becomes useless against Geist.
The other option, would be to have a control sideboard; some planeswalkers and extra board wipes and just turn into a Esper tap-out control deck that wins on the back of Tasigur/Angler.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
This is definately true, but Mentor kills a lot quicker then Pack Rat, while the rat is more resistant to spot removal.
YEP and that's exactly why I'm now trying a version with :
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
2 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Meddling Mage
4 Monastery Mentor
3 Gitaxian Probe
Testing Sculler and Mage, they slow our ennemy and take removal instead of Mentor.
I was thinking... What about a random Mutagenic Growth to protect Mentor and Geist?
love the mutagenic growth idea
In my opinion, this deck (Esper midrange/control) is like Junk, while Grixis is like Jund. We both play a similar game of 'drop a delved creature backed up counters and hand disruption', but with Esper we get to attack from an entirely different angle through Lingering Souls. I'd go so far as to say Lingering Souls is the reason to be playing Esper right now. With so many decks opting to go for advantageous 1-for-1 or 2-for-1 trades, Lingering Souls generally represents a 1-for-1/4th or 1-for-1/2 trades. That's why I like this deck over Grixis, anyhow.
Maybe it's just me, but my metagame is HEAVILY red/blue slanted. Against the uninteractive decks, sure, Mentor is AMAZING. It can and does win the game alone. But I get maybe one of those games a week, if at all. That's the main reason I'm considering giving Mentor the axe. Why play with a card that I know, 4 matches out 5, will be practically useless. I just don't think Mentor is worth the mainboard slot with how strong and prevalent Grixis is.
I don't think more than two mentors is correct. Generally you hold onto one till you have 2 or 3 spells in hand where you can chain-cast them for value. Drawing more than one just feels terrible and it oftentimes sits dead in your hand, unless you want to run out an early copy to bait removal.
I've yet to try sideboarding in Geist (no copies) but I love the idea and will try it eventually. Seems pretty good vs Grixis currently, although I'm still very interested in Liliana or Bitterblossom.
Yep, I added a copy of Runechanter's Pike to give souls more power (not playing delve )
And also that's why we try to play so many counters/discard (1 Thoughtseize, 3 Inquisition of Kozilek, 2 Tidehollow Sculler, 2 Remand and 3 Mana Leak on my side), to make our opponent uninteractive^^
I think 3 copies is the best, as you said you never play them ASAP and tend to keep them in hand. Even with 3 we draw enough to play one to bait, with one waiting in hand (Mutagenic Growth makes everything easier, it almost allows us to dodge Dismember on Mentor, also good with Geist to dodge Pyroclasme etc,...).
And if somebody tried Liliana or BB... i would be interrested by some conclusion as well ^^
https://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comments/3fhwh7/modern_pptq_win_with_esper_mentor/
PPTQ first place with two maindeck Lilis. I'd be able to test a similar build two or three times a week... if I had any! Will try and get some within a month or two and let you guys know how well they work. I'm pretty hellbent on trying them out.
On the one hand she can generate so much card advantage that she can just take the game with little support.
On the other hand her +1 doesn't play nice with our counter suite. And my biggest issue with her is that she really stretches the manabase making us a lot more vulnerable to blood moon, this is not really an issue otherwise as I can cast everything of 1 plains + 1 swamp + 1 island.
4x Flooded Strand
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Watery Grave
1x Godless Shrine
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Urborg Tomb of Yagmoth
1x Vault of the archangel
2x Island
1x Swamp
1x Plain
4x Serum visions
4x Path to exile
2x Mana leak
2x Spell snare
3x Inquisition of kozilek
2x thoughtseize
4x Lingering souls
1x Dismember
1x Disfigure
1x Dispel
2x Tasigur the golden fang
3x Gurmag angler
3x Snapcaster mage
2x Monastery mentor
I went 2-0-1 with it finishing first out of 8.
First Match-up was against traditional UWR Control (1-0)
What i recall from this particular match is that liliana is an all-star here.
Game 2 lasted forever and he couldn't close the game on top deck mode against my board of Snapcaster mage + 1 monk token + a newly casted Mentor we went to turn without doing much he gained alot of life from the snap+helix and ajani interactions.
Second Match-up against Grixis Twin (2-1)
G1 on the draw, He casts t1 discard and reveals my terrible opening 7 with 4 lands, leak, thought scour x2 he takes the leak and closes the game a couple turns later with a t3 tasigur.
G2 on the play, This time i am the one who starts the game with a t1 discard which reveals a hand full of spells and only 1 land, I take the serum visions he has and pass the turn. the next turn i follow the play with serum visions + discard and remove the terminate he holds in hand. He dies to tas+gurmag beats.
G3 on the draw, he starts really slow and doesnt really get going even tho he went for t3 exarch knowing i have path in hand. I win the game on huge lingering souls beats.
Third Match-up against Naya Burn (Intentional Draw)
We played for fun and he did beat me but i feel like the deck definatly can win in this particular match-up
I am still working on a sideboard but if you want i could post the sb i had for the event!
Had a lot of fun playing this deck and will keep on grinding with it!
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
2 Spell Snare
2 Thoughtseize
4 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
1 Logic Knot
1 Mana Leak
2 Go for the Throat
2 Esper Charm
4 Lingering Souls
2 Cryptic Command
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Plains
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Swamp
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
2 Watery Grave
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Pithing Needle
2 Dispel
1 Negate
2 Celestial Purge
2 Stony Silence
1 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
2 Supreme Verdict
Why no sorin, solemn visitor anymore? Last time I played he was usually a 1 or even 2 of in the main. Does esper mentor no longer need that ace against burn? Timely can get skullcracked so it seems sketchy to put all your lifegain on that card!
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
I thought it over and raven's crime fit pretty well in the deck's main concept with using thought scour, and using 1-for-1 card advantage to grind the opponent down to nothing.
While also depleting the cards out the opponents hand, you can make safe assumption's whether the opponent has disruptive answers.
This also turns all your land into prowess triggers for monastery mentor
Here's a rough draft of the deck.
4x Monastery Mentor
3x Snapcaster Mage
1x Vendilion Clique
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Planeswalkers:2
2x Liliana of the Veil
Sorcery/Instant:26
3x Lingering Souls
4x Path to Exile
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Raven's Crime
1x Thoughtseize
1x Murderous Cut
4x Serum Visions
4x Thought Scour
2x Remand
1x Dispel
1x Spell Snare
4x Polluted Delta
4x Marsh Flats
2x Watery Grave
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Godless Shrine
2x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Vault of the Archangel
2x Swamp
2x Island
1x Plains
The Reason I like the deck is all your cards are very Proactive and reactive to many different board states,
With also having information with cards such as Inquisition of Kozilek Helps you plan your attack on the opponent.
BadMcFadden, I like Sorin but i cant really appreciate a 4-mana hardcast most of the time against blue decks,
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/esper-mentor-toolbox/
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i