Oath of the Gatewatch has brought some pretty sweet cards to the Standard format, and it is really awesome to have seen many great cards for such an uncommon archetype. Tempo decks are the king of constructed formats, as they reward skill and provide flexibility that is simply powerful. Oath of the Gatewatch has brought a few cards that I think are worth noting enough to boast an Esper Tempo/Midrange deck over the classic Jeskai Black we have been seeing these past few months, and I am of the opinion that this deck can be a real contender in the meta. So let me explain a few of the new cards, why they are fantastic, and why Esper Tempo/Midrange is a viable option moving forward.
These three new additions to Standard, are phenomenal. They may not appear as such at first glance, but the ability to accumulate large tempo gains in a short period of time, is powerful. Bearer of Silence is an efficiently cost aggro creature with a midgame option to swing even more back in your favor and the evasiveness of the body means that it is capable of getting in a good amount of chip damage over the course of the game. Reflector Mage is going to give you a follow up to keep momentum going, or even help manage your target for a turn 4 Bearer of Silence. These cards feed off each other in a fantastic way. Reflector Mage also gets in some extra value for Thought-Knot Seer , who can turn around and rip the bounced target right out of your opponent's hand. The best part is that Thought-Knot Seer gives you sweeper protection when you are playing aggressively on curve. The 4/4 body may not be all that impressive in the face of a Siege Rhino, but you have options to dealing with Rhino in both Reflector Mage and Bearer of Silence. Bouncing a Siege Rhino is not always a bad thing, as you delay the beefy body for another 2 turns and you have U and B options to deal with it on top of Thought-Knot Seer. So cards like Despise, Transgress the Mind, and Disdainful Stroke are cards that are already in your arsenal to some capacity. There is also the Flying factor, where you just fly over it to recoup the damage.
Here is my current test list.
The deck has a lot of angles it can take to progress its board position while stifling the momentum of your opponent, and creature strategies are going to have a difficult time keeping up a good portion of the time - often forcing an opponent to decide between taking more damage and playing another creature into Bearer of Silence, and Reflector Mage, or using removal on one of your creatures and giving you a window for Dragonlord Ojutai. Perhaps one of my favorite positions to be in, is one where you untap with a Dragonlord Ojutai and get to cast a Thought-Knot Seer before combat. This line allows you to not only protect Dragonlord Ojutai, but it also advances your board with a 4/4 body that also took any removal that could target itself. Warping Wail is a card I am currently testing over Silkwrap, as it allows me more opportunities to ramp into a turn 4 play on turn 3, but has some added flexibility of killing and countering various things. While this is very much a midrange deck, its greatest strength is the ability to effectively leverage the pace of the game two-fold.
Here is my current sideboard.
VS Eldrazi Ramp
This match is a fair match. Most of it is going to come down to how well you prioritized your spells, but you have a lot of cards that are really relevant in this match, and if properly timed, can significantly increase the chances of you winning. Cards like Despise, Thought-Knot Seer are your clutch cards that will help you both advance and protect your game state against Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. The problem with Eldrazi Ramp is that they only have a couple real payout cards, and the rest is essentially non-interactive filler. So this gives you a lot of time to just play the aggressive game and slip in some hand disruption when you can, or when they are about to actually spend a turn doing something. If you fall behind, you are still in pretty good shape thanks to Bearer of Silence, and Dragonlord Silumgar, and they both do a great job at attacking the two payouts their deck has.
Dealing with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is not very hard. Because they are not really doing much in the early game, you can set up an aggressive board and curve into Dragonlord Ojutai. This play generally forces them to either cast Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, or wait another turn and take 5+ damage and let you sift through 3 cards on your library and take the best. Often times, they will take the former option and cast Ugin. The problem with this play is that they have to -5 him in order to deal with Ojutai. This means you can untap and kill Ugin on a swing back with your devoid Bearer of Silence or Eldrazi Skyspawner. Ticking up and shooting something is the best play they can make if they are casting an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon in the face of your Dragonlord Ojutai, because it can harm your board, and get Ugin out of range of dying. It also gives them a strong follow up of casting Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger the following turn and then getting rid of your Dragonlord Ojutai. Fortunately, this is not a common reaction made by the Eldrazi Ramp player.
Dealing with Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is a bit more challenging. Unlike Ugin, Ulamog can get rid of your lands to crush your tempo and make sure you cannot just Dragonlord Silumgar them on the return. Your best way to combat Ulamog is to play an aggressive game and try to get Wingmate Roc or Dragonlord Ojutai out as soon as you can. Bearer of Silence can allow you to rid yourself of the monstrosity and prevent you from swinging at you, and you can always Reflector Mage it back in a pinch to keep getting damage in. You can always hold on to Reflector Mage to late game combo it with Despise or Thought-Knot Seer. You have some additional tools out of the board to help with this match up, and there are even some tech cards that will help you if you need to hedge more for this match up a bit more.
For the sideboard, I would look more towards hand disruption than anything. Counterspells are great, but with Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger's on cast trigger, it is not going to do much. Cards like Duress, Despise, Transgress the Mind, and Thought-Knot Seer are going to crush problems before they even become problems. You also want to account for possible cards coming in like Gaea's Revenge, where counterspells and removal is not going to do a whole lot. I am a fan of sticking in extra Thought-Knot Seer in the sideboard as well, because they are also handy against Control, as it most of your sideboard discard is going to be. If you really want to tackle the Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger/Gaea's Revenge problem, you can use Infinite Obliteration if you need to, but I suspect that is not necessarily better than just adding more of cheap discard that can either stop them from ramping, or take what they are ramping into out of the equation all together.
VS Abzan Aggro
This match is pretty easy, and should be rather favorable. Abzan Aggro has an aggressive curve that can really pack a punch, but it is not really equipped to be disrupted by creatures. It can prove resilient in the face of spot removal, but when a deck is removing their threats and pivoting to an aggressive role while doing it, Abzan Aggro can struggle. This match is also where having flying bodies can do a lot of work because they simply cannot block even if they do have a creature on the board. As long as you are able to remove Siege Rhino before it attacks, you are able to race them effectively.
Being on the draw is not much different than being on the play. You want to focus on controlling the early game. Turns 1-3 are spent on disruptive maneuvering. Early plays using a turn 2 Bearer of Silence are the plays that are going to cost you the game. You want to spend the first few turns casting Despise, Silkwrap, Stasis Snare, or Reflector Mage. Once you are able to get to turn 4, you can start pivoting to an aggressive role using Dragonlord Ojutai or Wingmate Roc off an Eldrazi Skyspawner, or getting down a Thought-Knot Seer or Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. Sometimes you may need to spend it answering Siege Rhino though, as the key to this match is to never let Siege Rhino attack you - it can drain you however many times they want it to, but just don't let it attack you. Being on your back foot against a Siege Rhino is often going to be a losing proposition, because blocking it means you are not attacking them and you are falling behind in the racing game by virtue of losing the attrition game. On the play is essentially the same, you will often find that they are unable to cast Dromka's Command to get back early creatures, without having to throw a counter onto one of your creatures.
There is not a whole lot to sideboard here, as the match is rather favorable. You will likely be going pretty darn deep if you are feeling like you need to hedge this match up. Utter End is some extra removal if you need it, it is flexible enough to hit Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, although you have a lot of flying already, that should have no problem slaying him on a swing back. Self-Inflicted Wound is a great card, but I am not entirely sure it is necessary due to matches where it is good, being already favorable. Tragic Arrogance is a great SB option for picking you back up from behind and is more relevant than many of the other options out there. Most of the effective sideboard cards you are going to want to bring in are going to be any extra copies of Thought-Knot Seer, Despise, or Wingmate Roc. A tech card you can use in this match up that is versatile, flexible, and probably pretty darn good, is going to be Clever Impersonator, who will give you some extra Thought-Knot Seer and Wingmate Roc action, while still being able to copy their Gideon, Ally of Zendikar or even Siege Rhino.
VS Prowess
This can be a difficult match sometimes. They have a lot of burst damage, and if you do not have enough disruption in your opening hand, game 1 can be a real doozie. You really want to leverage the fact that your opponent is unlikely to put you on an Esper deck that is plum full of creatures. Use your early removal and try to use your top end of fliers to secure the rest of the game. In games 2 and 3, the match is more fair. You get a lot of tools out of the sideboard that can help you stem the amount of damage they can do early on, giving you the ability to let them tire themselves out.
Dispel and Negate over Duress is an important note. You do not want to proactively try to remove potential blank cards, when you can instead just let them play it and counter it. You do take extra damage from prowess, but you save more damage by guaranteeing that you are trading your card for a pump spell rather than letting it blank. Surge of Righteousness is going to let you hold that early game better by giving your more critical mass in early removal. Being an instant speed spell gives you a leg up from Silkwrap, but you probably want to still keep all of them in. You can also use Flaying Tendrils to knock out some of their smaller creatures, leaving you a Stormchaser Mage to deal with, saving you from losing to a wide prowess board. It is important to remember that this match can be tough, and you need to play it tight until they are out of gas - know the worth of each of your cards and do not make any unnecessary trades, and this match is quite winnable.
VS 4 Color Rally / Company
This match is all about tempo. Your primary cards are going to focus on taking their advantage cards away while building a board that can begin to outpace them. Reflector Mage, Silkwrap, Stasis Snare, and Thought-Knot Seer are your cards that need to be timed well. You do not want to waste their precious abilities on things that do not matter. Use your Reflector Mages to keep their board clear in the early and mid game. Use Silkwrap, and Stasis Snare to cripple their value creatures, such as Nantuko Husk, Liliana, Heretical Healer, and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. Fortunately, you can use these two cards on any creature without really being punished, but you do want to pick your battles accordingly. Thought-Knot Seer is all about taking their payout cards, Rally the Ancestors and Collected Company. Once you take these cards, even if they bounce your Thought-Knot Seer you are in pretty good shape because you can easily outclass their creatures if you keep them bottle-necked.
This match is fairly favorable, so there are not many cards you need to hedge for it. But if you do, start with Dispel. This card will allow you to focus on hitting other creatures with Thought-Knot Seer and saving the single U for a sneaky Dispel to stop them from trying to build a board to race you with. Flaying Tendrils is nothing spectacular in this match, but bringing in a copy or two will allow you to keep a sac outlet off their board and time a sweep to rid them of getting value out of the yard with Rally the Ancestors. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet will allow you to set up more racing opportunities as well as provide a body with great abilities all around, that they will eventually have to answer in some way. It is unlikely to happen, but you may run into a situation where you get to play Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet + Flaying Tendrils and your opponent would give you tokens, but given that they have the option - it is likely to never happen.
Have you tried your deck? I think you might have some troubles getting C online for your Thought-Knot Seer and Bearer of Silence. You have, mechanically speaking, a 4-color deck and, with 8 sources of C (not counting Scions since they are not reliable), I think you are going to be mana-screwed out of C often by turn 4, the turn you want to cast your 2 Eldrazi.
Other than that, I don't think much of Warping Wail. Yes, it's flexible, but I saw several players die with it in hand during the pre-release. I would rather run Silkwrap in that spot 90%+ of the time.
Have you tried your deck? I think you might have some troubles getting C online for your Thought-Knot Seer and Bearer of Silence. You have, mechanically speaking, a 4-color deck and, with 8 sources of C (not counting Scions since they are not reliable), I think you are going to be mana-screwed out of C often by turn 4, the turn you want to cast your 2 Eldrazi.
Other than that, I don't think much of Warping Wail. Yes, it's flexible, but I saw several players die with it in hand during the pre-release. I would rather run Silkwrap in that spot 90%+ of the time.
I have worked with this deck over 3 iterations and approaching 300 games with just over a 75% win rate with the deck. I have had few problems with not having and I can count them on one hand, and most of that was with only 6 sources. The deck has enough density to where you are not often cornered into needing to make a play on turn 4. Granted, this new iteration has Warping Wail, which I have not had extensive playtesting with, but it is what warranted the +2 sources.
The reason Warping Wail is worth the testing slot, is that it kills a lot of cards that prove troublesome for this deck, and while Silkwrap also effectively answers those cards, it does not give you the option to simply go bigger against those decks - which often times is enough to win you the game even if you are not removing their creatures. I am not sure if it will stick over Silkwrap, but I know that I have not really been missing Silkwrap since I removed it from the list.
Seems like Eldrazi Displacer would be a better fit than the Skyspawner. Not to mention all the crazy stuff you'd be able to do with it.
The problem with Eldrazi Displacer is that outside of Wingmate Roc and Reflector Mage you do not have any targets. It is also dependent on those cards being in play, where Skyspawner is not. I think you also severly underestimate the ability to play a turn 4 Ojutai or turn 4 Wingmate.
Seems like Eldrazi Displacer would be a better fit than the Skyspawner. Not to mention all the crazy stuff you'd be able to do with it.
The problem with Eldrazi Displacer is that outside of Wingmate Roc and Reflector Mage you do not have any targets. It is also dependent on those cards being in play, where Skyspawner is not. I think you also severly underestimate the ability to play a turn 4 Ojutai or turn 4 Wingmate.
You can target Wingmate, Reflector, Thought-Knot, Gideon and Silumgar (if a better creature or planeswalker comes out)
Seriously, This is the deck I am building minus 1-2 card choices. That's twice now in the last week =p.
I have to agree with d0nnoo, Eldrazi Displacer is so strong in this deck. To increase his usefulness I went with slightly more ETB creatures. I would drop Ojutai down to a 2 of and run Whirler Rogue in its place. In addition to abusing ETB effects it also acts as a tapper and a free blocker from 2C. I also might suggest running Sea Gate Wreckage instead of the Mirrorpool. Take that with a grain of salt, I havent played with the Mirrorpools so I dont know how they play, but the deck lacks any sort of card draw, and the Wreckage is a nice mana sink too.
Hi, i'll definitely playing this next FNM. You say that you include the warping wail because it answers some problematic cards. What cards are troublesome? Is the card worth it? I can imagine having some trouble casting this at T2 because of the colorless requirement.
I think i like silkwrap more, because it is easier to cast and answers more creatures. But i am interested in your testing with the card. Having a maindeck counter (to sorceries) seems fine as well.
Warping Wail has been a decent card. Silkwrap is probably a better slot for the most part. I have found Wail to be really handy against aggro, but meh elsewhere. The same kind of applies to Wrap, so this slot has been pretty flexible imo. There is probably a better use in having Stasis Snare than either Wrap or Wail. Wail was really just there for more turn 4 Ojutai, which I have found to be really good, but not enough to have Wail. Idk, I am impartial to Wail - it was suggested over Silkwrap by a friend and I told him I would test it since he said he was having good results with it in Esper Midrange.
Black definitely gives you a lot of extra disruption through discard spells. I have not tried the straight UW list in your link, but it has a lot of very similar stuff going on. The Esper variant went X-2 yesterday at a PPTQ here, but did not make the top 8 :/
Bearer of Silence can be underwhelming these days. When I initially started the deck, GR Ramp was a really popular choice and it does so much work in that match by allowing you to clear an Eldrazi and smack an Ugin that had to -5 on you. Let me know how Reality Smasher goes, we ended up cutting it after a short bout of testing because Wingmate and Ojutai were better and we were getting a little top heavy. We did not use it in conjunction with Warping Wail though.
I have gone 3-1 in a couple dailies with the deck, but have not gotten to a PTQ on MODO with it just yet.
Other than that, I don't think much of Warping Wail. Yes, it's flexible, but I saw several players die with it in hand during the pre-release. I would rather run Silkwrap in that spot 90%+ of the time.
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
I have worked with this deck over 3 iterations and approaching 300 games with just over a 75% win rate with the deck. I have had few problems with not having and I can count them on one hand, and most of that was with only 6 sources. The deck has enough density to where you are not often cornered into needing to make a play on turn 4. Granted, this new iteration has Warping Wail, which I have not had extensive playtesting with, but it is what warranted the +2 sources.
The reason Warping Wail is worth the testing slot, is that it kills a lot of cards that prove troublesome for this deck, and while Silkwrap also effectively answers those cards, it does not give you the option to simply go bigger against those decks - which often times is enough to win you the game even if you are not removing their creatures. I am not sure if it will stick over Silkwrap, but I know that I have not really been missing Silkwrap since I removed it from the list.
The problem with Eldrazi Displacer is that outside of Wingmate Roc and Reflector Mage you do not have any targets. It is also dependent on those cards being in play, where Skyspawner is not. I think you also severly underestimate the ability to play a turn 4 Ojutai or turn 4 Wingmate.
You can target Wingmate, Reflector, Thought-Knot, Gideon and Silumgar (if a better creature or planeswalker comes out)
Seriously, This is the deck I am building minus 1-2 card choices. That's twice now in the last week =p.
I have to agree with d0nnoo, Eldrazi Displacer is so strong in this deck. To increase his usefulness I went with slightly more ETB creatures. I would drop Ojutai down to a 2 of and run Whirler Rogue in its place. In addition to abusing ETB effects it also acts as a tapper and a free blocker from 2C. I also might suggest running Sea Gate Wreckage instead of the Mirrorpool. Take that with a grain of salt, I havent played with the Mirrorpools so I dont know how they play, but the deck lacks any sort of card draw, and the Wreckage is a nice mana sink too.
Warping Wail has been a decent card. Silkwrap is probably a better slot for the most part. I have found Wail to be really handy against aggro, but meh elsewhere. The same kind of applies to Wrap, so this slot has been pretty flexible imo. There is probably a better use in having Stasis Snare than either Wrap or Wail. Wail was really just there for more turn 4 Ojutai, which I have found to be really good, but not enough to have Wail. Idk, I am impartial to Wail - it was suggested over Silkwrap by a friend and I told him I would test it since he said he was having good results with it in Esper Midrange.
I am going to class for the night, but I will try to chime in later.
I have updated the list to what I have been running for the last week and a half. I have also added some match up summaries as well.
I have gone 3-1 in a couple dailies with the deck, but have not gotten to a PTQ on MODO with it just yet.