I think with the new addition of of EM, a creature base deck is not viable since red got their lightbolt back, I can see a list with bruna and giesla, some combo of PW (narset, jace, ob, sorin and maybe Liliana) plus oath of liliana.
I think with the new addition of of EM, a creature base deck is not viable since red got their lightbolt back, I can see a list with bruna and giesla, some combo of PW (narset, jace, ob, sorin and maybe Liliana) plus oath of liliana.
when you say 'red got their lightbolt back' which card are you referring too? Incendiary Flow is the closest thing to Lightning Bolt (which is what I assume you mean by lightbolt) and it's no where near as good being both one mana more expensive and sorcery speed
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Currently Playing:
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
I'm brewing Esper right now, but I ditch every brew that can't get a 50% winrate vs white humans post-sideboard. Even with 3 dead weight, 4 silkwrap and 4 languish post-sideboard, I struggle against the human deck. Gisela is powerful (more so than Kalitas even) if she can stick, which she never can due to the opponent almost always has a Declaration in stone on hand, removes the Gisela and then swings for the win.
imo, if you're going to run creatures you need to run primarily blue in order to protect them via counter magic or flickering. Anticipate is your friend. In any control style deck with blue I run 4, it allows you to dig for answers. Currently, however, I feel three color control might not be resilient enough to survive early against humans. WB control might, as it is very removal heavy, but in the end I don't know.
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Currently Playing:
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
Yeah I might have to drop this idea. I'm brewing with cards that need all three colors, but I might be able to make an adjustment to cut it to UW. The black tech I use could possibly be cut for less efficient cards in blue. My deck plays much like BW control with some specific blue splash.
Gisela is an excellent substitute to Kalitas, and I could possibly use bounce or tapdown instead of -x/-x effects from black.
What is everyones winrate against W/r or mono W humans ingame 1? In my testing, my winrate in game 1 is very bad. I win maybe 1 out of 6 games at most.
I also can't decide on what to sideboard in. Lifelink? Sweepers? spot removal?
I don't think Esper Control has been played much. From when I played it, it really depended on how quickly you could get Languish or Outburst. I think we will see control take a back seat again once EMN comes out, but I have a couples ideas that might work.
I definitely like Blessed Alliance over Unsubstatiate. Alliance becomes an excellent 2 for 1 at 4 mana. There's also the corner case of activating and untapping a tapped Shambling Vent for the surprise block. I ran something very similar until about a month ago. I had to add Read The Bones to keep up, especially against B/W, and other matches where they can deal with Planeswalkers. Anticipate is also good, but I also found it lacking against G/W to not run out of gas. From that and Anguished Unmaking, I ended up playing Ojutai's Command just for the life gain. Blessed Alliance kills two birds with one stone (answers Lumbering Falls and Gaea's Revenge too), plus Take Inventory gives us painless (albeit less powerful at first) card draw.
EDIT: Also, if you're relying on Unsubstatiate to keep you alive until your 5 and 6 drops come online, you will probably flat out lose to Humans or any fast aggro deck if you miss Languish. Killing is usually better than bouncing in control.
There some new list emerging since SCG last weekend of Shaheen Soorani list esper control (8-0) also the miracle man (Joe Losett) himself is also playing the deck https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/462455#paper this might be the comeback of esper?
Liliana is amazing in the deck, and since there alot of discard outlet and way to dump cards to the grave it seem jace VP going to shine as he was in khan block, but otherwise how imprison in the moon working for you?
Let me preamble by saying that Shaheen Soorani's is probably the best Esper build out there. Shaheen and Joe both did excellent in a highly competitive event (Invi's are no pro tour, but they are no walk in the park either), and you can't argue the numbers. But, I'm much more a fan of draw-go than tap out strategies, so I whipped together this deck. It's competitive, and has game against the big bad boys (Coco, UR Fever, and various Eldrazi decks like Delirium or Emerge). It's also good vs BW control if you play it right (i.e. leverage the countermagic advantage and stop their walkers from hitting the board; resist tapping out as much as possible).
Some card choice explanations:
1) Ojutai's command exists mainly as a source of lifegain to offset the life loss from spells like unmaking and succumb to temptation.
1b) Tmeptation is actually pretty good in this context, as you can keep open grasp or a counterspell, and if the opponent plays nothing relevant you can draw extra cards EoT.
2) Peace of mind is good against UR fever; worst case scenario, each turn you pitch to PoM the card visions makes you draw. It buys loads of time until you can eventually anguished unmaking the visions. I even leveraged PoM to come back form 1 life vs an opponent that played 3 visions.
3) For extra PW removal options I was looking to board in quarantine field, but wasn't quite sure what to take out. 4+ mana walkers are not the big deal, but the 3 mana walkers can (and will) sneak under your permission if you don't aggressively mulligan to an opener with negate (which I don't recommend, as we only have 2 post board negates, 4 if you count clash as negates 3 and 4 for the early turns).
If you enjoy draw-go control more than tap-out, give this version a try. Again, not sure if this is better than shaheen's deck (probably not) but it fits better with the decks I'm used ot playing.
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when you say 'red got their lightbolt back' which card are you referring too? Incendiary Flow is the closest thing to Lightning Bolt (which is what I assume you mean by lightbolt) and it's no where near as good being both one mana more expensive and sorcery speed
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
I'm brewing Esper right now, but I ditch every brew that can't get a 50% winrate vs white humans post-sideboard. Even with 3 dead weight, 4 silkwrap and 4 languish post-sideboard, I struggle against the human deck. Gisela is powerful (more so than Kalitas even) if she can stick, which she never can due to the opponent almost always has a Declaration in stone on hand, removes the Gisela and then swings for the win.
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
Gisela is an excellent substitute to Kalitas, and I could possibly use bounce or tapdown instead of -x/-x effects from black.
I definitely like Blessed Alliance over Unsubstatiate. Alliance becomes an excellent 2 for 1 at 4 mana. There's also the corner case of activating and untapping a tapped Shambling Vent for the surprise block. I ran something very similar until about a month ago. I had to add Read The Bones to keep up, especially against B/W, and other matches where they can deal with Planeswalkers. Anticipate is also good, but I also found it lacking against G/W to not run out of gas. From that and Anguished Unmaking, I ended up playing Ojutai's Command just for the life gain. Blessed Alliance kills two birds with one stone (answers Lumbering Falls and Gaea's Revenge too), plus Take Inventory gives us painless (albeit less powerful at first) card draw.
TL;DR - Unsubstantiate is meh, Blessed Alliance is really good.
EDIT: Also, if you're relying on Unsubstatiate to keep you alive until your 5 and 6 drops come online, you will probably flat out lose to Humans or any fast aggro deck if you miss Languish. Killing is usually better than bouncing in control.
the usual esper manabase
Creatures (4)
4 Jace, Vryn's prodigy
Sorcery (6)
3 Languish
2 Planar Outburst
1 Descend upon the sinful
Walkers (2)
2 Sorin, grim nemesis
Instnt (22)
2 clash of wills
4 grasp of darkness
4 void shatter
1 scatter to the winds
2 anguished unmaking
2 succumb to temptation
2 Scour the Laboratory
2 Fortune's Favor
2 Ojutai's Command
1 Silumgar's Command
1 dispel
2 Negate
3 Transgress the mind
2 Peace of Mind
1 Liliana, the last hope
1 infinite Obliteration
3 Summary Dismissal
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Some card choice explanations:
1) Ojutai's command exists mainly as a source of lifegain to offset the life loss from spells like unmaking and succumb to temptation.
1b) Tmeptation is actually pretty good in this context, as you can keep open grasp or a counterspell, and if the opponent plays nothing relevant you can draw extra cards EoT.
2) Peace of mind is good against UR fever; worst case scenario, each turn you pitch to PoM the card visions makes you draw. It buys loads of time until you can eventually anguished unmaking the visions. I even leveraged PoM to come back form 1 life vs an opponent that played 3 visions.
3) For extra PW removal options I was looking to board in quarantine field, but wasn't quite sure what to take out. 4+ mana walkers are not the big deal, but the 3 mana walkers can (and will) sneak under your permission if you don't aggressively mulligan to an opener with negate (which I don't recommend, as we only have 2 post board negates, 4 if you count clash as negates 3 and 4 for the early turns).
If you enjoy draw-go control more than tap-out, give this version a try. Again, not sure if this is better than shaheen's deck (probably not) but it fits better with the decks I'm used ot playing.