Saint Traft is nice against deck with a lot of spot-removal, few creatures and few sweepers, since it catches them unaware. Things like, ironically, Esper Control have more difficulties fighting it. However, most of the decks in the meta run a lot of creatures that trade favorably with Geist, be it Thraggy, Centaur Healer, Loxodon Smiter, Olivia, Nighthawk, the list goes on. Let's just say he isn't well-placed in this meta.
but still its price is $30 a pop i wonder why..oh yeah btw guys wth happen on sphinx's revelation from $6 rose up to $21 a pop...
I literally thought zombies would be auto-scoop but I beat it 2-1 tonight. As long as they don't get 4 messengers on turns 3-6 I can win. The tempo from charm + snap + vanishment is just ludicrous. They can't kill you because attackers go to top and they can draw answers cuz everything goes on top.
Best play I had IMO (game 3) turn 2 charm, turn 3 charm, turn 4 snap charm, turn 5 vanishment. Once you get to hardcast Terminus range its entirely too much for them to come back. The point isn't to put stuff on top then mill it, the point it to just tempo them until your late game is just better. Pretty much if I don't die by turn 5 I don't lose to zombies.
i miss my snappy i wish i didnt trade it for entreat
your deck feels like esper midrange without resto...
It's actually been quite good. I am well aware Snapcaster beats won't "get me there" very often so yes, my only real win condition is Drownyard mill. I actually got it to this point and thought, "auto-scoop to Zombies" but it has worked AMAZINGLY well against Zombies. just charming and vanishing crawlers/diregraf/cackler what have you slows them down so much giving me time to miracle or even hardcast terminus.
I know that sounds quite un-synergistic with my main win condition being mill but it works. Vanishinment on a turn 1 play is the best things I've seen in a long time. Against everything without haste it means you wont even be attacked until turn 3, when your spooky ghosts are already up.
The sideboard is heavily geared towards stopping more aggro decks. Purify is the only thing I could see that helped me against zombies that also stopped reanimator. Rest in Peace hurts me as much as many other decks so I couldn't use it and tormod's crypt was too one-off for me.
Clone is stricly there to kill legends and let me play in the Thragtusk wars. There's no easy way to deal with it so an even trade works for me. Gravepurge + Snapcaster Mage or Clone is SO USEFUL.
The alchemy's right now, though my favorite standard card, are lacking in utility I think until GTC comes out. I intend to either replace them with more jaces, Jace, Memory Adept or Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. Not sure yet.
Other cards I'm considering: Psychic Spiral (as a one off) Banishing Stroke (only it doesn't hit pw's ) Angel of Serenity (as a 2-off to just win with beats looping snapcasters and removing their stuff)
if your going for mill psychic spiral and jace memory adept must be in this deck... drownyard as your wincon is err kinda slow mill you need a faster mill anyways how did you deal with fast aggro decks like zombies?
What does everyone think about a running one Liliana and one Intangible Virtue?
Here me out here! Personally i find most of my games usually come down to me playing a bucket load of planeswalkers that they just cant kill them all fast enough (my meta is very mid rangy) before i just wipe their board etc. Then being able to just slap down a Liliana and lock them down seems far to good. that and against control it would be vital. I'd only run one though, no more (in the main)
The intangible Virtue is relatively straightforward. we're doing very little turn 2 unless its holding a syncopate or a charm etc so being able to boost the tokens that come later is a great help, and against agro instead of making chump blockers we can actually trade against more creatures.
That and one Runechanters Pike is phenomenal, mid-to late game it just does disgusting things
Also testing Keyrunes now, i like it in theory. In practice we shall see....
liliana is good imo in esper superfriends....adding 1 would be a good idea maybe ill try playtesting and see how it goes..thanks for the idea dude
EDIT:
playtested it with my friend's b/g zombie i added 2 proxies of those...went 2-2 in 4 games we played problem with it is his abrupt decay which in instant speed a terror for my liliana...hmm ill try playtesting in other decks im still waiting for players to come to this shop so i could playtest this to them...liliana did great in 1 game when he didnt have abrupt sideboarded but when he sideboarded it..liliana became useless most of the time because when i played it before i use her -2 ability he immediately abrupt decay it...instant speed in a zombie deck sucks T_T...
sadly, i can't get any, it's above mythic in rarity at my place. Maybe it's not above mythic, but people own them, don't want to sell.
O-Ring, D-Sphere, Abrupt Decay, Vraska. And sorcery speed.
Syncopate is too narrow right now, easily outclassed against ramp deck, and almost all decks ramps now, So, sadly no syncopate (It's good, but only if played 3-4 to counter early things), but with 3 dissipate I can hard counter anything, and add some field control, rather than stack control.
Vanishment has some synergy, while played at instant speed. I was playing O-Ring and it's good. But playing something that have synergy with the rest of the deck, while adding some mana is quite sweet.
Vanishment and O-Ring are good in different ways of playing.
Btw, do you have a cockatrice account? I would like to play against your Esper version.
how much does terminus cost in your place... why not try feeling of dread to stall or unsummon and cyclonic rift...
I understand there isn't much interest in my tournament reports?
congrats dude...nice list btw...
been busy these days in school and kinda felt down when i went 1-3 in my fnm 2 weeks ago...
i felt down when the shop owner of the store i played told me that esper control in this current meta would not be competitive.. and i felt really down when he said that bec i lost then he said that...
anyways im happy for you guys who still having fun and winning...im still fixing my deck to be competitive and have my revenge...
here's my fnm 2 weeks ago...
1st round: mirror match esper
went 0-1-1
he won against me by milling me using adept...and on the 2nd game we draw because of time limit
2nd round: v/r vamp without falken
i won this round on my first game against this deck milled her out by nephalia...
2nd game won by entreat she scooped when i miracled for 14 angels...
witchbane saved my ass bec she has many cheese spells and she cant use it...
3rd round: b/g zombies
lost to it 0-2 it was just too fast for me to be able to setup
1st game lost to him for 5 turns terminus and verdict with no avail...
2nd game still within 5 turns gravecrawler keeps popping up and unluckily terminus is in my hand but couldnt cast it T_T...
4th round: 4c rites
i forgot on how i lost to him but i could remember he murdered me with behemoth...
thats my fnm report feel free to laugh at me T_T...
i'll try to buy entreat the angels next month(Christmas time :D)
entreat is really a threat yeah problem is if it is in my opening hand i need to mulligan and also if it breaks out at turn 3 i cant miracle it -_-...ill play test my deck with proxies and ill give my analysis on friday....
oh yeah btw guys off topic Q: how to make my foil cards flattened i just brought foil lands and my problem is it curves any ideas guys?
btw guys about cyclonic rift what are your thoughts about it im thinking adding 1 on my deck(i got lucky got 1 from a booster :D)...so hmm any thoughts
See I like this list, but my meta is a lot faster due to the abundance of red deck wins. I have been thinking about possibly getting the third feeling in the main deck and would really like a playset of lingering souls main but can't find anything to cut. My list is near identical to chaam's except i have mained a verdict over a terminus.
I don't really like tapout as it allows their Thragtusk to resolve and he is resilient to sweepers.
dude can i see your list? maybe i could still improve my deck...i was thinking adding staff of nin because i saw 1 playing in azorius control and it was cool...and btw dude where did you get your sig?
I have 2 verdict and 3 terminus main. It seems to work, but I don't rate doomed traveller in control, he just takes up a slot I don't want to use. I was thinking about dead weight.
The game just becomes so much harder if they get you down to 8 or so. I do win, but it is still a struggle. feeling of dread has been my MVP.
Snapcaster mage for me was just not working out
here's my current build dude you might get the idea...
the mechanics of my deck is to have a good amount of lands at turn 5 and have terminus by that time or verdict...digging cards through think twice stalling my opponents creature by FOD then snappy supports for reuse of other spells like charm and sweepers...snappy can also be a good blocker and has a good combo on charm...5 sweepers is good if you have a good amount of diggers...i dont rely much on forbidden but sometimes i need to dig for sweepers most of the time it really helps dig...im a big fan of miracle thats why i use think twice to utilize miracle on my opponents turn...jace helps me protect my self from aggro and also dig cards as much as possible... i have only 1 tamiyo so thats much of it...i use evolving wilds again because most of the time i mana flood it helps me to shuffle my deck in need and also fetching basic land is good to fix mana problem...i sideboarded all my counterspell because sometimes it is a dead card in my hand and mostly my opponents in my local fnm are aggro type and midrange type...
btw i remove desecration demon and vamp because i felt my deck is getting far from control and felt like midrange instead of control so i removed it and browse other esper control deck online to look for concepts and thats where i got my current build....
Has anyone thought about lone revenant for the control match-up.
Sorry I have been lurking for a while and am currently running esper control at my local FNM, but I have one issue with these lists, how do you deal with hyper aggro?
If they curve out with Cackler into Chainwalker/zealot or Stromkirk and Cackler it is almost impossible to stem the bleeding before you can wrath. I have tried this match-up so much and narrowly win thanks to feelings main deck, but unless we hit a terminus of the top we're in burn range by as early as 4th turn.
how many wraths do you have in main?
lone revenant imo is not that good because you need to maintain your opponents board clear enough for lone to establish its ability but it might have a good synergy for feeling tap then atk..imo i would be comfortable having multiple threats than having 1 threat...kudos to hexproof btw its awesome but for a 4/4 body kinda short for the current meta with ridiculous creep power...
lone would be great in a right deck like Home Alone...but in esper i dont think so...
but still its price is $30 a pop i wonder why..oh yeah btw guys wth happen on sphinx's revelation from $6 rose up to $21 a pop...
i miss my snappy i wish i didnt trade it for entreat
your deck feels like esper midrange without resto...
if your going for mill psychic spiral and jace memory adept must be in this deck... drownyard as your wincon is err kinda slow mill you need a faster mill anyways how did you deal with fast aggro decks like zombies?
liliana is good imo in esper superfriends....adding 1 would be a good idea maybe ill try playtesting and see how it goes..thanks for the idea dude
EDIT:
playtested it with my friend's b/g zombie i added 2 proxies of those...went 2-2 in 4 games we played problem with it is his abrupt decay which in instant speed a terror for my liliana...hmm ill try playtesting in other decks im still waiting for players to come to this shop so i could playtest this to them...liliana did great in 1 game when he didnt have abrupt sideboarded but when he sideboarded it..liliana became useless most of the time because when i played it before i use her -2 ability he immediately abrupt decay it...instant speed in a zombie deck sucks T_T...
how much does terminus cost in your place... why not try feeling of dread to stall or unsummon and cyclonic rift...
here is my current list....
2x Evolving Wilds
4x Glacial Fortress
2x Hallowed Fountain
4x Island
3x Isolated Chapel
2x Nephalia Drownyard
4x Plains
1x Vault of the Archangel
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
4x Azorius Charm
1x Cyclonic Rift
2x Dissipate
3x Feeling of Dread
1x Forbidden Alchemy
1x Sphinx's Revelation
2x Syncopate
4x Think Twice
4x Lingering Souls
1x Supreme Verdict
4x Terminus
2x Ultimate Price
2x Supreme Verdict
2x Sever the Bloodline
1x Witchbane Orb
2x Rest in Peace
2x Nevermore
1x Essence Scatter
it's like you're going miracle control here...
congrats dude...nice list btw...
been busy these days in school and kinda felt down when i went 1-3 in my fnm 2 weeks ago...
i felt down when the shop owner of the store i played told me that esper control in this current meta would not be competitive.. and i felt really down when he said that bec i lost then he said that...
anyways im happy for you guys who still having fun and winning...im still fixing my deck to be competitive and have my revenge...
here's my fnm 2 weeks ago...
1st round: mirror match esper
went 0-1-1
he won against me by milling me using adept...and on the 2nd game we draw because of time limit
2nd round: v/r vamp without falken
i won this round on my first game against this deck milled her out by nephalia...
2nd game won by entreat she scooped when i miracled for 14 angels...
witchbane saved my ass bec she has many cheese spells and she cant use it...
3rd round: b/g zombies
lost to it 0-2 it was just too fast for me to be able to setup
1st game lost to him for 5 turns terminus and verdict with no avail...
2nd game still within 5 turns gravecrawler keeps popping up and unluckily terminus is in my hand but couldnt cast it T_T...
4th round: 4c rites
i forgot on how i lost to him but i could remember he murdered me with behemoth...
thats my fnm report feel free to laugh at me T_T...
what a deck @_@ too imba...why do few people do it?
anyways ive just brought two entreats problem is what will happen with my drogskol reaver ~_~ here's my current list...
4x Drowned Catacomb
2x Evolving Wilds
4x Glacial Fortress
3x Hallowed Fountain
4x Island
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Plains
1x Vault of the Archangel
Planeswalker (5)
2x Jace, architect of thought
2x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
4x Azorius Charm
2x Feeling of Dread
1x Forbidden Alchemy
1x Sphinx's Revelation
4x Think Twice
Sorcery (13)
2x Entreat the Angels
4x Lingering Souls
3x Supreme Verdict
4x Terminus
Enchantment (3)
3x Detention Sphere
Creature (2)
2x Snapcaster Mage
2x Ultimate Price
2x Dissipate
2x Sever the Bloodline
1x Witchbane Orb
1x Negate
2x Tragic Slip
2x Curse of Death's Hold
3x Syncopate
2x Drogskol Reaver
entreat is really a threat yeah problem is if it is in my opening hand i need to mulligan and also if it breaks out at turn 3 i cant miracle it -_-...ill play test my deck with proxies and ill give my analysis on friday....
oh yeah btw guys off topic Q: how to make my foil cards flattened i just brought foil lands and my problem is it curves any ideas guys?
dude can i see your list? maybe i could still improve my deck...i was thinking adding staff of nin because i saw 1 playing in azorius control and it was cool...and btw dude where did you get your sig?
here's my current build dude you might get the idea...
the mechanics of my deck is to have a good amount of lands at turn 5 and have terminus by that time or verdict...digging cards through think twice stalling my opponents creature by FOD then snappy supports for reuse of other spells like charm and sweepers...snappy can also be a good blocker and has a good combo on charm...5 sweepers is good if you have a good amount of diggers...i dont rely much on forbidden but sometimes i need to dig for sweepers most of the time it really helps dig...im a big fan of miracle thats why i use think twice to utilize miracle on my opponents turn...jace helps me protect my self from aggro and also dig cards as much as possible... i have only 1 tamiyo so thats much of it...i use evolving wilds again because most of the time i mana flood it helps me to shuffle my deck in need and also fetching basic land is good to fix mana problem...i sideboarded all my counterspell because sometimes it is a dead card in my hand and mostly my opponents in my local fnm are aggro type and midrange type...
btw i remove desecration demon and vamp because i felt my deck is getting far from control and felt like midrange instead of control so i removed it and browse other esper control deck online to look for concepts and thats where i got my current build....
4x Drowned Catacomb
2x Evolving Wilds
4x Glacial Fortress
3x Hallowed Fountain
4x Island
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Plains
Sorcery (9)
4x Lingering Souls
1x Supreme Verdict
4x Terminus
Enchantment (3)
3x Detention Sphere
4x Azorius Charm
2x Feeling of Dread
2x Forbidden Alchemy
1x Sphinx's Revelation
4x Think Twice
2x Tragic Slip
Planeswalker (5)
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Creature (4)
2x Drogskol Reaver
2x Snapcaster Mage
1x Witchbane Orb
3x Syncopate
2x Ultimate Price
1x Negate
2x Sever the Bloodline
2x Dissipate
2x Curse of Death's Hold
2x Supreme Verdict
oh yeah btw about pacifism and sensory dep i rather use FOD i could stall the game for 2 turns in 1 card...problem is hexproof creatures...@_@
how many wraths do you have in main?
lone revenant imo is not that good because you need to maintain your opponents board clear enough for lone to establish its ability but it might have a good synergy for feeling tap then atk..imo i would be comfortable having multiple threats than having 1 threat...kudos to hexproof btw its awesome but for a 4/4 body kinda short for the current meta with ridiculous creep power...
lone would be great in a right deck like Home Alone...but in esper i dont think so...