I'm not doing the best with this deckbuilder (never have).
Instant/Sorcery:
3path to exile
3fatal push
4inquisition of kozilek
2censor
1negate
1sphinx's revelation (trying this and pull from tomorrow as a 1 of. Pull is in sideboard when life doesn't matter -- so far it has been good for me) The reason is because I don't use Jace. I end up sometimes stalled on board with tons of land. I actually have only cast Pull from sideboard. Drew me 4 cards and I discarded a land.
^ trials have been amazing everytime. the cartouche brings them back once zur is live. First Strike and the 1/1 dude come up as well. One of feels right.
Thassa, God of the Sea hasn't been impressing you because it's from the versions with Spreading Seas and creatures like Meddling Mage. You are able to easily turn her on and attack, in your version you may be better served byMonastery Siege if you like looting or play against a lot of burn in your local meta.
I'm not sure if Snapcaster (over Jace, Vryn's Prodigy) and Remand are right for this deck and still think that Spell Queller would be really good here and that Lingering Souls should be in the maindeck. Detention Sphere is one of the best enchantments in the deck so having only one copy in the 75 is a strange decision imho.
Btw, in the upcoming set Ixalan there seems to an interesting SB card for the deck in Ashes of the Abhorrent which is like a powered up enchantment version of Grafdigger's Cage (except against CoCo/Chord).
I have always been a fan of Zur. I recently played this deck with the Solemnity lock to little success. There are strong things going on in the deck, but you need to be able to live long enough to do them. I would look to Saffron Olives deck (Esper Solemnity) as inspiration and see what improvements you want to make. For example, I think Lingerig Souls is really good in the deck and he doesn’t have it in the list.
Esper Solemnity really is a different style of deck than I was thinking. In my opinion winning with the Solemnity and Phyrexian unlife combo is a really LOW way of winning a game. It's the type of magic I hate playing against.
I was thinking to use Zur and the rest of the deck more as an AGGRO style deck. Kind of like the rest of the decks on this list. Mainly using Geist of Saint Traft as a closer and snapcaster mage with alot of removal to keep the coast clear.
The Esper Solemnity is more a deck that just sets up lock pieces to shutdown the opponents every way they can and then slowly wins over time. Just not my style.
Instant/Sorcery:
3path to exile
3fatal push
4inquisition of kozilek
2censor
1negate
1sphinx's revelation (trying this and pull from tomorrow as a 1 of. Pull is in sideboard when life doesn't matter -- so far it has been good for me) The reason is because I don't use Jace. I end up sometimes stalled on board with tons of land. I actually have only cast Pull from sideboard. Drew me 4 cards and I discarded a land.
Enchantments:
2detention sphere
1ghostly prison
1steel of the godhead
1thassa, god of the sea (haven't been impressed, but scry is surprisingly helpful. Haven't really needed for no blocks)
1cartouche of solidarity
3trial of ambition
^ trials have been amazing everytime. the cartouche brings them back once zur is live. First Strike and the 1/1 dude come up as well. One of feels right.
4lingering souls
4geist of saint traft
4zur the enchanter
1blood baron of vizkopa (1 in sideboard as well, white/black comes up a lot for me on MTGO -- haven't cast him once unfortunately)
24 lands/manlands
Sideboard:
Nothing out of the ordinary that I haven't already mentioned (rest in peace, stony, etc.)
Probably not, it is too slow.
Here is another build of the deck:
https://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-calebd-modern-esper-zur/
I'm not sure if Snapcaster (over Jace, Vryn's Prodigy) and Remand are right for this deck and still think that Spell Queller would be really good here and that Lingering Souls should be in the maindeck.
Detention Sphere is one of the best enchantments in the deck so having only one copy in the 75 is a strange decision imho.
Btw, in the upcoming set Ixalan there seems to an interesting SB card for the deck in Ashes of the Abhorrent which is like a powered up enchantment version of Grafdigger's Cage (except against CoCo/Chord).
I was thinking to use Zur and the rest of the deck more as an AGGRO style deck. Kind of like the rest of the decks on this list. Mainly using Geist of Saint Traft as a closer and snapcaster mage with alot of removal to keep the coast clear.
The Esper Solemnity is more a deck that just sets up lock pieces to shutdown the opponents every way they can and then slowly wins over time. Just not my style.
Creatures:
4x Geist, 4x Zur and 4x S.Queller (I prefer it to other options)
4x L.Souls
Disruption:
6x discard spells, 5x removal spells (PtE, Push)
Enchantment package:
3x D.Sphere, 2x S.Seas, 2x SotG (these can be different but they seem like a good mix to me)
3x Flex slots:
Can be either: Snapcaster, Jace VP, S.Copter, Thassa or maybe PW's like: Liliana of the Veil, Gideon of the Trials, Liliana, the last Hope or maybe Ashiok.
Maybe 4-cmc PW's (mainly Jace and Gideon) would also work but with 4x Zur already I wouldn't want to add more 4-drops.
23x Lands