I'm with most of you guys : he's not bad at any means. It's juste that the hype was so strong, like it would be the savior of control decks and turn the tide around every time you'd play it. He's for sure to be included in a control deck, but 1-2 copies mostly. He really needs help and Legacy helps him with the card pool. Having more creatures also is a gambreaker for him (as well as failing the bolt test). But when he works, he works very well. I'm happy at 1 copy, could go up to 2, but I'm satisfied with a 1/1 split with Teferi.
This. No one is saying he is unplayable. His 0 is still the strongest effect printed on walker. The thing is within the context of the format his strength does not shine. I played with Jace in every format he has been legal in and he just feels like a different card in modern. The situation is similar to when he was barely played in standard when jund was the deck. Jace did not become the oppressive beast he was in standard until Alara block rotated out. Currently modern is too creature focused and is based on mana efficiency more so than card advantage and spells. We live in a world where jund is considered clunky and bad because its spells are too expensive.
People are hard on jace, IMO. He's still a fine card to play, and he provides a lot of value if you can keep him in play.
He's fine. But ''if you can keep him in play'' might be the issue. Honeymoon is pretty much over, Teferi took over in several builds. He's still one of the best planeswalker we ever had, for sure. It might just be that we had such great expectations that are now deceived, that's maybe why we feel he's not up to the test.
People who said Jace would wreck modern just did not look at power level in the context of a format. Planeswalkers are generally stronger in slow formats like standard and more non creature spell based formats like legacy and vintage. Tapping 4 at sorcery speed without cheating mana, affecting the board, or having free counterspell backup is just asking to die in modern.
This list is something I've been working on for about a month solidly, I was playing the "Stock" Esper Control list about a year ago, before switching to USA to fight Eldrazi Winter, Then after the banning went back to Esper Control this time adding in Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek as well as support pieces like, Engineered Explosives and Academy Ruins to the main as well as another copy of EE in the board. With Thopter Sword in the deck my win-rate with the deck increased so much so as winning a GPT beating Infect in the finals, Coming in second at a following GPT losing to the mirror that also had Tron Lands and Crucible Of Worlds and proceeded to lock me out with Ghost Quarter. I then played in PA State Championship and finished top 16 of 82... Later that year I took it to GP Charlotte 2016 and finished Day 1 5-4, not bad for a "bad deck" and my very first GP experience. After this, what I felt was a failed deck, I switched to Grixis Control. Then I left Magic earlier this year and am now coming back. With my first love Esper Control W/Thopter Sword combo included. I would like to hear the feedback on this deck. And if any of you fine gentlemen/ladies would make any changes. So far in my online testing I have yet to lose to DS of any flavor, UW Control, Tron, Company.dec, or Eldrazi of any flavor. Of course I take this with a grain of salt as most pilots online aren't top level and also this deck isn't a known quantity as most people forgot Thopter Sword was even a combo... I'd love to hear questions and ideas about my deck... Please please Drill me and tear this list apart! I want to make it as best as I can and would love it if you guys even tested it out to see how it feels to play and give me some feedback. Thanks!
-ECFIII
What you are experiencing is being the one to ask questions rather than only answering those questions. Although I love esper draw go I cannot imagine myself not playing something proactive in an eternal format as diverse as modern. My current go to deck is jeskai copycat for that very reason.
Anyway thopter/sword is a bit better now that abrupt decay is non existant in tier 1 and barely even in tier 2 decks ever since twin got banned and we got passed the eldrazi, and aggro combo nonsense. I would suggest you take your deck into a bit of a more proactive approach and abuse your artifacts more. Also to take your discussion to another thread because at that point it is a totally different deck but it is better than jamming thopter sword into esper draw go.
Playing the land-disruption game is perfectly fine, and I agree about its provided value.
But only when you're associating the mana-denial to a proactive plan. UW does that (playing multiple threats which can be cast in the early turns) so it can capitalize the tempo-game when the opponent is short on colored mana. It's pretty much useless, for a deck like Esper, trying to mess with the opponent's mana base without being able to gain advantage from that. You'll stall him for one, two additional turns... then? If you're under a quick attack, you're already losing. If you're not, you're already winning.
Agreex which is why I play it in a combo deck. I was responding to the merits of the uw list that was asked about. Esper is a complete draw go deck and probably the best of its kind in the format. I just wanted to spread the word on how well spreading seas and land disruption in general is doing in modern. The uw shell is kind of raising up on modo.
Hi everyone. Long time reader and fan of the thread -- you're all doing God's work.
I'm wondering what you all think of this list that just won a Modern Competitive League. Cuts the black, but otherwise very similar to the current Esper lists. How bad is it to lose Esper Charm and Fatal Push? Seems like it might have all the merits of Esper (minus Charm and Push), but with a great land disruption package and smoother mana base.
Eager to hear your thoughts!
Land disruption is probably the best form of control in the current meta. I play jeskai copycat with 4 seas and 1 tec edge and those cards are all stars in this meta. You sometimes get free wins with seas even against burn. The uw lists are doing something smart in using proactive disruption that turns into virtual card advantage by not allowing your oppoent to cast spells. It feels a lot like weisman style control which for the most part was a land destruction deck throughout most of its history.
How is everyone finding the Death Shadow Jund matchup with esper draw go. I have not been able to play it much yet since I am testing jeskai copycat and have not run into Death's shadow much on modo.
Can we talk a little about the Mana base? I'm considering building this deck for my next fnm, I have all the cards, just want to get a feel for how people think of the Mana now. The info in the primer seems a little dated in regards to the mana, it mentions choke and probably doesn't consider Fatal Push much.
Are we still on 2-3 colourless sources? My meta has a fair amount of tron/valakut and I'd like to cram as many Ghost Quarter / Tectonic edge as the list can reasonably support. I have never played an Esper Charm deck though, so I differ to you guys with the experience.
You want 22 u sources 18 white sources and around 12 b if you are not running push or 14 if you are. At most you have 2 slots for utility lands in the 26 land configuration and 1 in the serum visions version. I think 3 to 4 colonnade are where you want to be but I lean towards only 3.
It's exiled, as per the replacement effect of flashback.
Also, to everyone playing Thoughseizes in the board: Might Duress be a substitute? It seems better against burn and still has relevance VS Tron and other control lists, whose most dangerous threats are non-creatures anyway. It's also information plus a card without worrying about your life total VS Bolt decks.
If you feel you do not need to thoughtseize on cast triggers and just want a card for combo and burn just play collective brutality of thoughtseize. In all other cases seize is just better.
Amalek you're an extreme outlier if Ux fair/control decks are prevalent where you play. Suggesting that people are flat wrong for not having GY hate (RIP or Surgicals) in their board isn't actually true. Perhaps people should have some GY hate, but Dredge has fallen off and that was Surgical's best MU. I'd probably rather play Lost Legacy (at this time) if I needed an extraction effect since that is actually good against Combo decks and is serviceable against control. If Dredge comes back then yeah, I'll play Surgicals again.
Most people are going to play against aggressive/burn decks more than Ux control decks. Right now I don't see a reason to not play 2 Collective Brutality in the SB since the card is so damn versatile. It can be a bad disfigure in MU's where that is better than some card's in your MB. It can be a good discard card against Combo decks, and it is probably the best card in the format against Burn. (It's also not bad against Control)
I've decided that GY based decks are pretty low right now (and for me, there is only 1 @ my LGS and he shows intermittently) and I'd rather have colorless hate so I'm running 2 Ceremonious Rejection for Tron, Eldrazi, and Affinity (+ Lantern). My additional "removal" in the SB consists of 1 Blessed Alliance, 1 Night of Soul's Betrayal (I'm playing a Torrential Gearhulk build), the 4th Path to Exile, and the 2 Collective Brutalities (serviceable against stuff like Chord/Company decks, Infect, etc.).
I guess my philosophy for SB'ing is that I want flexible, but powerful cards for the most part. It doesn't mean I have 15 of those, but I generally want at least half my SB to be that way. Blessed Alliance, Path to Exile, Collective Brutality, Disenchant, and Vendilion Clique fill that role for me right now. More narrow stuff like Rejection, Souls Betrayal, Dispel, the 3rd Spell Snare, etc. are very powerful in the right MU's that tend to be our bad MU's (Snare more flexible here since you can bring it in against BGx, Burn (the important one here), Cheeri0s, other Snapcaster decks, & Grishoalbrand).
I have 3 flex spots right now. I could play some GY hate there. For reference these are the 12 cards I'd absolutely bring to a tournament tomorrow:
2 Cer. Rejection
2 Collective Brutality
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Path to Exile
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal (only if you aren't solely relying on Snapcaster and Secure the Wastes)
1 Dispel
1 Spell Snare
1 Disenchant
It's possible I want a 2nd Negate in the board or a Disdainful Stroke. Maybe an extraction effect/GY hate. I don't think the deck really needs Purge since our BGx MU is so good and 4 Path to Exile's is enough to handle the delve threats so they don't come back from K. Command. Maybe some land hate (Spreading Seas/Rain of Tears?). Another disruptive Flash element (Queller/Mindcensor/etc.)? I guess my point is that I'm not big on the enchantment prison pieces sans Betrayal because that's more times just removal that stays on the board (e.g. it actually kills X/1's if they're on the board when it comes down unlike say Runed Halo). It's probably more of a philosophical difference, but I'm big on taking advantage of the way our opponents normally SB by having a flash disruptive element (Clique mostly, but that's not it).
For me G1 against most control opponents my goal is 1) survive to turn 8 with at least 10 life and stable board 2) Play for decking. There are far more answers than threats in the mirror (whether UWR, Grixis, UW, or Esper, etc.) so if you save your answers for the cards that can actually win the game decking should be the main win-con in over 80% of G1's. G2's and 3's are much different and people have different ways to approach those.
Your rejection slot is probably better served as thoughtseize. Better against tron than rejections because discard is the only way to 1 for 1 their best threats against durdling decks. Thoughtseize can also came in against low threat density creature combo decks like infect, and boggles while also being excellent against slower combo decks and blue mirrors. Engineered explosives is also more versatile in more matchups than rejections.
I'm asking because I could see myself playing them over my two Logic Knots (or maybe a singel command and something else). I have two Negate main and an increased amount of early creature removal with the recent addition of Fatal Push, so I feel I'm set for the early turns and not as dependent on having Logic Knot as a 2 mana counter. But I'm lacking the experience to really know if that's a reasonable call.
And my vision is certainly skewed, because I'm playing against Tron a lot and it's usually the Eldrazi cast triggers that wreck me.
Disallow is a trap. It would only be playable if you could you all the effects at once. As it stands you are 2 for 1 yourself everytime you counter a triggered ability because you still have to use another card and more mana to actually kill the creature. That means less cards to answer the next threats and possibly less mana if to respond next turn if you had to verdict the newlamog. The only reasonable way to deal with Tron if you are not playing aggro or combo is to not let them get there. Using shadow of doubt to stop maps and other search effects will do more. Hell even stony silence stopping the maps, and mana rocks is better while you attack their hand. Most of all you should have some kind of land destruction plus extraction post board if it is a huge part of your meta. Also if you cut on your 2 mana counterspelks you will start losing to Karn on the draw.
Edit: A list like this is what I would suggest in a tron heavy meta.
I would like to create an esper deck besides my Mardu Nahiri deck and I wonder why there is no Esper deck with Liliana of the Veil included?
I would like to play her in Esper combined with Esper Charm and Snapcaster.. Are there any experienced players who can give me some advice? I think that the list can not include Cryptic Command because of 2B for Liliana + 2W for Gideon Jura..
Any sorcery speed spell costing more than 1 just interfere with the decks strengths. Having to choose between turning off all your counter magic and draw spells to play lili is just an awkward position to be.
Against Thrun, you should have Blessed Alliance / SB ***.
Torrential Gearhulk is not terrible, some people run it, but it's very slow.
Man, the thought of having to play against someone with 2014 tech like Thrun the Last Troll makes me cry on the inside. I swear these small local Modern tournaments are like a different format. Still, if I had to deal with random creature beatdown decks, I would put 2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Baneslayer Angel, or Grave Titan in the sideboard. Elspeth is going to be best against decks without Path to Exile. Grave Titan is a far stronger card than Elspeth if you're not worried about Path and want block all non-flyers, while also dodging the majority of counterspells against blue decks (assuming Grixis cuts Terminate for Fatal Push). Baneslayer is going to stabilize the best against random aggro decks, but is the only one that straight-up loses to Path/Terminate/Dismember. Worth noting that Elspeth gets "countered" by Siege Rhino and more importantly Reality Smasher. I'm going with Grave Titan on the strength of the Eldrazi matchup. Gideon Jura seems like an option, but in my experience requires a density of spot removal to be able to "-2" creatures and stay on the battlefield. Great card in UWR, but not so hot in Esper.
I played the Ryan list at FNM this week. I lost to Spirits, and Merfolk. A common theme was my dissatisfaction with 4 Think Twice/4 Esper Charm and no Serum Visions. I was either getting mana screwed or flooded and really missed Visions ability to filter. It also felt like not having Vision in the deck hurt the overall potential in early Logic Knots. I'm going to go back to something closer to Wafo-Tapa's original Esper list that featured 2 Serum Visions and trim elsewhere to make room for Fatal Push.
Speaking of Fatal Push; the card didn't feel overwhelmingly powerful to me, but I didn't get to cast it on any Goyfs/Thought-Knots/Grim Flayers.
The main reason Wafo went to Serum Visions (I speculate), was because the format was taken over with blitz aggro, and you needed to really goldfish these creature decks by playing removal spell after removal spell. He could have went to 6-8 spot removal spells maindeck, but Condemn was way weaker than Fatal Push and that tanks your percentages against non-creature decks. If you look at the deck differences he basically cut all the middling filler spells like Remand, Shadow of Doubt, Spell Snare, etc., and built a high-velocity deck that could find spot removal early and play Supreme Verdict on turn 4 maybe 75% of games. With the metagame slowing way down if I had to guess, he'd be on something similar to his 2014 list, with different filler cards that better deal with the deck's tighter matchups, like Eldrazi and maybe Tron. I think he'd be back on 2 Snapcasters again, since having more Paths is no longer so crucial, either a single Secure the Wastes or just plain White Sun's Zenith (Secure for x=2 isn't going to trade with a pump spell nearly as often).
I'm still waiting to get Fatal Push on MODO, so I haven't played any games in the new metagame, but this is going to be the list that I start with:
I still have 3x Snapcaster since I want to at least try Fatal Push maindeck. The other option for me was Runed Halo, but I'm thinking Fatal Push is going to be more consistent at stopping early-game pressure.
Thirst for Knowledge is a 3-mana Brainstorm that I'm hoping helps with a lot of the "auto-lose" scenarios this deck has, where you draw counterspells against creature decks, removal spells against spell-based combo, or more often just 4 lands and you end up losing to a guy that's top-decking. I used to run 1 Careful Consideration, which was too expensive but almost guaranteed you to "go off" on around turn 5-6 when you can play it as a sorcery and still interact. The ceiling on these cards is high, but when you already like your current hand they're admittedly just expensive cantrips. Serum Visions in this deck is basically just a free "Scry 2" and you need to fighting hard for some sort of positional advantage payoff to justify it. I don't think I'm goldfishing for Verdicts and Paths anymore so I'm trying out new filler spells. It's definitely a safer card so I may just go back to them in a week.
Another thing you never see on this forum is 2 Spell Snare in the sideboard. I originally had 2x Dispel, but figure this card is better against blue decks (Snapcaster is by far the best card in those matchups) and Affinity, while being about the same against Burn.
Still haven't gotten to try Blessed Alliance, but it's hard for me to imagine how this card is better than more Fatal Push, just because you can cast it for 4 mana and gain 4 life. I'm thinking Burn is the only matchup where that's the case. Being able to actually "Bolt the Bird" with this deck and play more removal as an instant just seems more flexible. I'm also addicted to playing 2 spells in 1 turn in Magic...
Your last sentence is why Wafo liked serum visions. He commented on the article in the last gp he played esper in about serum visions saying it helped with some curve issues. He also cut down to 3 think twice because he felt that r think twice was causing mana efficiency issues. It might be possible to just run more 1 mana answers rather than more velocity now that we have fatal push and the value of spell snare going up again with less one drop aggro being in the format. I feel both a high number of 1 mana non discard answers or serum visions are both viable ways to go moving forward.
Edit: It also seems like Wafo Tapa felt that 6 spot removal spells were the sweet spot when he switched over to jeskai running 2 bolt and 4 path. In it is yet known if he feels that push is strong enough to have more than six spot removal spells in esper but right now it is proabably my guess to have 3/3 or 4/2 split of path and fatal push.
Theory-wise, I would assume the big-mana/spell based type decks give us the most trouble? I also saw the recent list with the crumble to dust and was wondering how much something like geist of saint traft has been discussed as a card to be a bit more aggressive in those matchups? I've tried to tune the deck to slant more aggressive for these matchups in very subtle ways
I also have been running a smallpox brew with shadow of doubt, and can attest that the card is good right now against those big mana matchups.
This is my first draft with the idea of hedging against big mana with mb shadow which is versatile anyway. How are people on spell snare? Seems too good not to play.
So the geist package includes the tar pits (for the aggressive slant), countersquall (for damage), shadow of doubt (for search effects), ghost quarter and surgical (for the wombo combo).
Do any of these inclusions seem like they would hurt the integrity of the deck at all? It could be possible with the change in mana base due to tar pit, that damnation might be needed over the third supreme? or even a 2/1 split?
I would suggest at least 1 more source of black mana that comes into play untapped on the first turn to support turn 1 fatal push. As for the aggressive plan I like a more flash style of aggression to beat tron. Vendilion Cliques, Aven Mindcensor, mana destruction, stony Silence (tron only), and a few thoughtseize should be a good plan to handle big mana. If you can somehow find a way to fit at least 18 black sources to reliably cast turn 3 fulminator mage I would highly recommend that over any other plan since he is good against ad nauseum too.
Some more information would be needed. Like what you played against and how they went down. Maybe the sample size was just too small and you lost to variance by flooding. The deck is pretty difficult to pilot and takes a lot of practice. There are no true hard answers to some of your questions like with charm or how to utilize snapcaster because those are matchup dependent and two of the most skill testing cards in the deck.
I've played about 25 hands of Ryan's version of this deck (my first Modern Esper deck played). I honestly cannot tell whether it's flat out terrible or if I just cannot find the right lines during games. In the past I've run Grixis and Skred, but I'm having a real hard time picking up this deck.
*note: I have read through the primer and reasoning for specific cards, these are just my knee-jerk reactions.
Here's some of my initial thoughts while playing. 1)I feel like I want more early game disruption, perhaps in the form of discard. Some early way of interacting with my opponent. 2)Understanding that Think Twice is card advantage spread out over multiple turns, most of the time I end up wishing I had something like an Anticipate to enable to me to search for specific cards I need in a situation. 3) I have no idea how to play Esper Charm correctly. It's easily the hardest card in my deck to understand what and when to do with, second to... 4)Snapcaster Mage, specifically with a card like Esper Charm. Do people generally sit back on this to resurrect a counter or proactively go after card draw? 5)What do you do against a Thrun, the last Troll? and 6)Does anyone run the new flashing Gearhulk and what do you think of it?
Thanks so much!
What do you mean by 25 hands? Like gold fish games? You really cannot grasp this deck through gold fishing due to how reactive it is.
As for early disruption you just need enough to not die otherwise just draw cards and reset the board. Unlike those midrange decks a true control deck has more come back from behind cards.
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This. No one is saying he is unplayable. His 0 is still the strongest effect printed on walker. The thing is within the context of the format his strength does not shine. I played with Jace in every format he has been legal in and he just feels like a different card in modern. The situation is similar to when he was barely played in standard when jund was the deck. Jace did not become the oppressive beast he was in standard until Alara block rotated out. Currently modern is too creature focused and is based on mana efficiency more so than card advantage and spells. We live in a world where jund is considered clunky and bad because its spells are too expensive.
People who said Jace would wreck modern just did not look at power level in the context of a format. Planeswalkers are generally stronger in slow formats like standard and more non creature spell based formats like legacy and vintage. Tapping 4 at sorcery speed without cheating mana, affecting the board, or having free counterspell backup is just asking to die in modern.
What you are experiencing is being the one to ask questions rather than only answering those questions. Although I love esper draw go I cannot imagine myself not playing something proactive in an eternal format as diverse as modern. My current go to deck is jeskai copycat for that very reason.
Anyway thopter/sword is a bit better now that abrupt decay is non existant in tier 1 and barely even in tier 2 decks ever since twin got banned and we got passed the eldrazi, and aggro combo nonsense. I would suggest you take your deck into a bit of a more proactive approach and abuse your artifacts more. Also to take your discussion to another thread because at that point it is a totally different deck but it is better than jamming thopter sword into esper draw go.
Agreex which is why I play it in a combo deck. I was responding to the merits of the uw list that was asked about. Esper is a complete draw go deck and probably the best of its kind in the format. I just wanted to spread the word on how well spreading seas and land disruption in general is doing in modern. The uw shell is kind of raising up on modo.
Land disruption is probably the best form of control in the current meta. I play jeskai copycat with 4 seas and 1 tec edge and those cards are all stars in this meta. You sometimes get free wins with seas even against burn. The uw lists are doing something smart in using proactive disruption that turns into virtual card advantage by not allowing your oppoent to cast spells. It feels a lot like weisman style control which for the most part was a land destruction deck throughout most of its history.
You want 22 u sources 18 white sources and around 12 b if you are not running push or 14 if you are. At most you have 2 slots for utility lands in the 26 land configuration and 1 in the serum visions version. I think 3 to 4 colonnade are where you want to be but I lean towards only 3.
If you feel you do not need to thoughtseize on cast triggers and just want a card for combo and burn just play collective brutality of thoughtseize. In all other cases seize is just better.
Your rejection slot is probably better served as thoughtseize. Better against tron than rejections because discard is the only way to 1 for 1 their best threats against durdling decks. Thoughtseize can also came in against low threat density creature combo decks like infect, and boggles while also being excellent against slower combo decks and blue mirrors. Engineered explosives is also more versatile in more matchups than rejections.
Disallow is a trap. It would only be playable if you could you all the effects at once. As it stands you are 2 for 1 yourself everytime you counter a triggered ability because you still have to use another card and more mana to actually kill the creature. That means less cards to answer the next threats and possibly less mana if to respond next turn if you had to verdict the newlamog. The only reasonable way to deal with Tron if you are not playing aggro or combo is to not let them get there. Using shadow of doubt to stop maps and other search effects will do more. Hell even stony silence stopping the maps, and mana rocks is better while you attack their hand. Most of all you should have some kind of land destruction plus extraction post board if it is a huge part of your meta. Also if you cut on your 2 mana counterspelks you will start losing to Karn on the draw.
Edit: A list like this is what I would suggest in a tron heavy meta.
2 Snapcaster Mage
Sorceries: 3
3 Supreme Verdict
Instants:
4 Esper Charm
4 Think Twice
2 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Cryptic Command
2 Shadow of Doubt
2 Remand
2 Logic Knot
2 Spell Snare
4 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
1 White Sun Zenith
3 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Island
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
2 Ghost Quarters
2 Sunken Ruins
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Thoughtseize
2 Negate
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Ravenous Trap
2 Stony Silence
2 Engineered Explosives
You will lose points in slme matchups like burn but tron will be much easier if that is what your meta calls for.
Any sorcery speed spell costing more than 1 just interfere with the decks strengths. Having to choose between turning off all your counter magic and draw spells to play lili is just an awkward position to be.
Your last sentence is why Wafo liked serum visions. He commented on the article in the last gp he played esper in about serum visions saying it helped with some curve issues. He also cut down to 3 think twice because he felt that r think twice was causing mana efficiency issues. It might be possible to just run more 1 mana answers rather than more velocity now that we have fatal push and the value of spell snare going up again with less one drop aggro being in the format. I feel both a high number of 1 mana non discard answers or serum visions are both viable ways to go moving forward.
Edit: It also seems like Wafo Tapa felt that 6 spot removal spells were the sweet spot when he switched over to jeskai running 2 bolt and 4 path. In it is yet known if he feels that push is strong enough to have more than six spot removal spells in esper but right now it is proabably my guess to have 3/3 or 4/2 split of path and fatal push.
I would suggest at least 1 more source of black mana that comes into play untapped on the first turn to support turn 1 fatal push. As for the aggressive plan I like a more flash style of aggression to beat tron. Vendilion Cliques, Aven Mindcensor, mana destruction, stony Silence (tron only), and a few thoughtseize should be a good plan to handle big mana. If you can somehow find a way to fit at least 18 black sources to reliably cast turn 3 fulminator mage I would highly recommend that over any other plan since he is good against ad nauseum too.
Some more information would be needed. Like what you played against and how they went down. Maybe the sample size was just too small and you lost to variance by flooding. The deck is pretty difficult to pilot and takes a lot of practice. There are no true hard answers to some of your questions like with charm or how to utilize snapcaster because those are matchup dependent and two of the most skill testing cards in the deck.
What do you mean by 25 hands? Like gold fish games? You really cannot grasp this deck through gold fishing due to how reactive it is.
As for early disruption you just need enough to not die otherwise just draw cards and reset the board. Unlike those midrange decks a true control deck has more come back from behind cards.