MTG Salvation

Quote from Ym1r »

Electrolyze is not good against a creature and tokens which can dodge with a single cantrip.

If they don't know what cards you have in hand, they'll just play it when you're tapped out, in response to prowess triggers, or they'll appoint one extra damage if you have open mana and they suspect you have an instant at hand.

Quote from Yumhi12 »

How do you guys feel about 1 Cavern of Souls? I was going over the deck and realized that Snap, Mentor and The Banana King are all humans.

If you can make room for a colorless land, it should probably be Vault of the Archangel, to alleviate our bad burn-matchup.

Quote from Galerion »

Quote from toroks »

Quote from CorwinOfAmber »

good afternoon guys,

i've been checking this deck for a while, and as soon as i get myself some missing cards i would really like to test this deck. however there's one thing i can't figure out myself:

Geist of Saint Traft vs. Monastery Mentor : why mentor over geist?

i mean geist is hard to remove, 4-6 damage guaranteed each turn, while mentor is just 3-4 damage next turn with 1-2 tokens, and you have to cast another 1-2 spells next turn to swing for some decent damage... or am i getting it wrong?

Because some guys did well in some tournaments with Monastery Mentor, and then everyone followed

Besides it's not like Geist of Saint Traft is even remotely insane currently.
He dies to pretty much every creature including Snapcaster Mage being played as an Ambush Viper.

If you're facing a Snapcaster deck (Twin, Delver, Control etc.), you want Geist over Mentor. Lightning Bolt, Electrolyze and Snapcaster>Bolt can be pretty ugly against Mentor. However, Geist, Tasigur, Snapcaster and Lingering souls are all excellent cards in such matchups. Against removal heavy decks you generally don't get much out of Mentor, although you might be lucky with your discard and counters. Another thing - Monastery Mentor turns on their Abrupt Decays. With a creature package of Geist, Tasigur/Gurmag, Souls and snap that is a pretty dead card.

Geist or Mentor is meta dependant. I prefer Geist against many popular decks, like Burn, Twin, Delver, Tron, Scapeshift, UWR Control/Midrange. Against Abzan/Jund/ they're probably pretty even. Geist dodges Abrupt Decay, but Mentor can be good against Liliana if you manage to get the tokens online. I think I prefer Mentor against Wilt-Leaf Abzan, Affinity and Merfolk because they play so little removal that Mentor often gets out of hand. But it's not black and white. Mentor can be good against removal-heavy decks if you draw the right sequence of discard, counters etc., and Geist often wins games against creature heavy decks if you draw the right removal spells for the situation, be it point removal like path/Murderous Cut/Slaughter Pact, or Zealous Persecution to sweep away their Spirit tokens or trick their blocking.

Quote from CorwinOfAmber »

good afternoon guys,

i've been checking this deck for a while, and as soon as i get myself some missing cards i would really like to test this deck. however there's one thing i can't figure out myself:

Geist of Saint Traft vs. Monastery Mentor : why mentor over geist?

i mean geist is hard to remove, 4-6 damage guaranteed each turn, while mentor is just 3-4 damage next turn with 1-2 tokens, and you have to cast another 1-2 spells next turn to swing for some decent damage... or am i getting it wrong?

Because some guys did well in some tournaments with Monastery Mentor, and then everyone followed

Quote from Hert79 »

Not sure whether to cut the Myths for more permission yet. I don't love the 2 mana counterspells as keeping those up in the turns that matter is hard, but dispel and spell snare are so narrow. Spell pierce might be the way to go but we aren't delver fast so this might become irrelevant pretty quickly. I don't really like remand even though it can be nuts with a mentor out (remand your own spell if need be). Negate or Countersquall (probably too greedy) still seem like cards you need to play to have a fighting chance against some decks. I'm going to test some more on Xmage.

I prefer thoughtseize/IoK over counterspells in this deck. They work better with both Mentor and Tasigur/Gurmag, as you will always be able to cast them to fill the grave or create monk tokens. And we have a lot of sorcery speed spells and creatures, so we will often not be able to keep countermana up. I have some counters in the sideboard for certain matchups, though.

Quote from Thirtydirtybirds »

toroks's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
artifact 4 mishra's bauble creature 2 delver of secrets 4 monastery mentor 2 snapcaster mage 2 tasigur, the golden fang enchantment 2 myth realized 2 mana leak 3 spell snare 4 path to exile sorcery 4 gitaxian probe 4 inquisition of kozilek 2 lingering souls 3 serum visions	land 3 creeping tar pit 2 darkslick shores 2 flooded strand 3 glacial fortress 2 godless shrine 2 hallowed fountain 1 island 1 isolated chapel 1 plains 3 polluted delta 1 swamp 1 watery grave	sideboard 2 liliana of the veil 2 pithing needle 1 detention sphere 2 disenchant 2 dismember 3 remand 3 thoughtseize

This deck is super interesting to me and lots of fun. I have been testing around with this list the last few days, and so far I really like it. I'm not sure about lingering souls and the sideboard is a mess, but overall I think its a pretty fun deck. If I take out souls, I'd probably add 2 more delver of secrets. Its a great turn 1 play here, as it starts the pressure and keeps the opponent punching off their heels early in the game. It is usually enough to allow a safe monastery mentor casting. Myth realized is another card I am unsure of. It is great early game and can grow really fast, it dodges sorcery speed removal for the most part and is a great mana dump later. Late game; however, it is not so good. If I've boarded in Liliana its a no brainer discard most of the time if I need to plus her. definitely worth more testing though.

Any thoughts on this list? I'd like to get it where I am comfortable with it before I start spending the money on the cards I don't have (been testing on cockatrice).

Very interesting! I think you can cut 2 lands (from 22 to 20)when you play full sets of Probe and Bauble, like Patrick Chapin played 19 lands with a similar curve (he had Thought Scour in addition, though). I'd probably switch those lands with some more removal spells. Both Slaughter Pact and Zealous Persecution is great with the Monastery Mentor plan, and Murderous Cut is also great here. You can also consider adding some Thought Scour and switching out Myth Realized with some more delve creatures (Tasigur or Gurmag Angler), which is great with Probe/Bauble too and often come down turn 2. I imagine the mana cost to activate Myth Realized will be a real setback for that creature's effectiveness.

Galerion: Darktutor included the Esper Delve variant in this primer, yes. Patrick Chapin's decklist is in the primer. The other thread you're refering to isn't a primer.

Quote from MattT »

Hey guys, I´m also interested in Esper. My favourite build is Chapins Delver in PT Fate Reforged. It was critized for being to threat light and a tad inconsistent, so I am trying to tweak it. My thinking goes that the deck needs at least 10 threats and the 6 cmc guys are better, as the odds of getting them out T2 are so much better than the 7cmc Angler. I believe he might be better as threats 9-10. Further Chapins build was critized for having trouble protecting the critters.

I think that Judge´s Familiar might fix part of that issue alongside Soulflayer. Soulflayer is Another 6cmc drop, but suffers from being BB, yet a T1 owl offers the same protection with the added bonus that the same owl offers evasion to Soulflayer. Thus does have two jobs: chump or sac followed by being delving food and give evasion.

Post next release might be exchanged for Myth Realized. Sure it dies to Decay, but grows for free and doesn´t get stuck in hand.

All that boiled down to this:

toroks's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Creatures (14): 4 Judge's Familiar 4 Soulflayer 4 Tasigur, the Golden Fang 2 Gurmag Angler Spells (27): 4 Gitaxian Probe 2 Stubborn Denial 4 Thought Scour 4 Serum Visions 1 Darkblast 2 Thoughtseize 2 Inquisition of Kozilek 3 Liliana of the Veil 4 Path to Exile 4 Mishra's Bauble	Lands (19): 4 Darkslick Shores 4 Polluted Delta 2 Flooded Strand 1 Marsh Flats 2 Watery Grave 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Godless Shrine 1 Plains 1 Island 2 Swamp

Interesting. Did you consider switching out some Lilianas for Geist of Saint Traft for more synergy with Soulflayer?

Quote from TheNoob »

I am thinking of trying Azorous Charm as a 1 or 2 of. I feel like the deck needs some life gain and the other two modes are not bad 2 mana cantrip/prowress trigger/make a monk or bounce a guy to get in extra damage.

Vault of the Archangel is another option. Ichikawa played one in his winning list.

I really like Monastery Mentor with the delve package (Gitaxian Probe, Mishra's Bauble, Thought Scour etc.) A replay video here (MTGO) showing the explosiveness of Monastery Mentor in such builds:
Video: Esper Delve (with Mentor) VS Merfolk
Decklist:

Quote from darktutor »

I've been working to keep up with this thread and revive it post bannings, since it can become something. Unfortunately I have been extremely busy lately to rework the primer, update the cards and make a real core for the deck that can be competitive. I hope I can find some time this week to rework the primer and post the decklist I'm testing. I am at work atm, maybe I will be able to post the decklist later on, but I will only be able to update the primer in a few days.

That would be great Monestary Mentor and Tasigur should mentioned as possible creature inclusions.

Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Monastery Mentor was in the winner deck and another top 8 deck, both Esper Midrange and similar builds, in a Japanese 214 man tournament 22.feb.: http://www.happymtg.com/decks/search/Format.name:Modern/Deck.tournament_id:T035478 Murderous cut looks very nice here with all the 1-drop sorcery and instant spells. The synergy between Monestary Mentor and Slaughter Pact also looks nice. I'm a bit worried Mentor would just be quickly removed, but these guys obviously made it work, so I must try this.
Winner deck:

Tasigur, the Golden Fang and (if we play enough black lands) Soulflayer gives some possibilities for high toughness goyf-style cards in an Esper Midrange deck. Soulflayer could get hexproof with a Geist of Saint Traft in the graveyard. No good synergy with Dark Confidant though. They both survive Lightning Bolt and Abrupt Decay, so pretty resilient.