Esper Control for the next GRN standard format. The deck is really an UB Control with white splash for Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Chromium, The Mutable. The mana is pretty tight so we dont have space for lands such as Field of Ruin, but maybe we could cut one Island.
The black removal is not as good as it was with Fatal Push. We are forced to play Vona's Hunger because of all the hexproof creatures available in standard. If those creatures are not so prevalent we can switch to Moment of Craving and/or Murder depending on the meta or we can play more conservative with The Eldest Reborn in the sideboard as the hexproof answer. The blue spells is the usual package of counter spells and draw spells with the nice new addition of Disdainful Stroke and Chemister's Insight (wich has been very good in testing).
As win conditions we use Teferi, Hero of Dominaria with Chromium, The Mutable as the finisher.
The sideboard is pretty simple, the usual discard spell with Thought Erasure and extra counter spells with Ritual of Soot as the answer to all go wide strategies such as a GW Tokens deck.
Thief of Sanity comes in against midrange/control decks that sideboard out their removal.
The deck weakness will probably be fast aggro/burn decks because of the underwhelming black removal we have. Moment of Craving and Blood Operative might end up necessary to fight against those decks. In the end it will all depend on the meta of the GRN standard.
I really like fungal infection as a replacement for where fatal push used to be. Many creature have low toughness in this set, At least early on. It also creates a chump blocker which can come in handy.
I'd probably look at Moment of Craving as a potential replacement for Push as the lifegain can be useful.
To help dealing wirh go-wide decks Golden Demise might be worth a couple of slots in the SB.
Another good draw spell can be Dark Bargain which offers better selection but less cards than Chemister's Insight. Notion Rain is also a good draw spell but is a sorcery.
I'd also consider maindeck'ing Thought Erasure over Essence Scatter which seema too narrow and the deck has plenty of removal anyway.
I've been toying with this deck and have to agree that Thought Erasure is the real deal, I would considering cutting some of the narrow counter spells or Hungers for a playset. I'd also consider some Anticipate to give you something to do when you can't counter on t2. Otherwise, this looks really good. Chromium is an excellent finisher.
I've been toying with this deck and have to agree that Thought Erasure is the real deal, I would considering cutting some of the narrow counter spells or Hungers for a playset. I'd also consider some Anticipate to give you something to do when you can't counter on t2. Otherwise, this looks really good. Chromium is an excellent finisher.
Maybe something like this: (did some other changes too)
I agree about adding cantrips like Anticipate (Opt is also not bad) to have some more card selection.
I'd also probably prefer to maindeck Syncopate over Essence Scatter and Disdainful Stroke.
This counterspell is going to be even better with all the new GY interactions printed in GRN.
There has been some debate over Opt vs. Anticipate does anticipate just work out better for control builds?
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I do agree with posters here that some number of Thought Erasure in the main could be correct - after all, Thoughtseize was. However, just because one was, doesn't mean the other is.
In other articles I've seen, basically the choice comes down to do you want to run WW for Settle the Wreckage or BB for Vraska's Contempt. General consensus is that Contempt is probably better, for now. A mana base as below will give 18U / 16B / 8W plus two Field of Ruin, which isn't a bad start. Yes, it's a little slow for T3 UU, T4 BB (would need 19U and 18B), so potentially one could switch out a couple of the Islands for Dimir Guildgates if things are slow enough in your meta. I'm tempted by one Arch of Orazca or Memorial to Genius as more card draw, but we'll see.
I do agree with posters here that some number of Thought Erasure in the main could be correct - after all, Thoughtseize was. However, just because one was, doesn't mean the other is.
Because of the Surveil mechanic, I think Thought Erasure and Sinister Sabotage largely nullify the need for Opt or Anticipate.
I'd consider them automatic 4-ofs for this reason alone. You can always Surveil away excess Thought Erasure's late game if needed...
In other articles I've seen, basically the choice comes down to do you want to run WW for Settle the Wreckage or BB for Vraska's Contempt. General consensus is that Contempt is probably better, for now. A mana base as below will give 18U / 16B / 8W plus two Field of Ruin, which isn't a bad start. Yes, it's a little slow for T3 UU, T4 BB (would need 19U and 18B), so potentially one could switch out a couple of the Islands for Dimir Guildgates if things are slow enough in your meta. I'm tempted by one Arch of Orazca or Memorial to Genius as more card draw, but we'll see.
I'm not sure the mana is good enough to support a T4 double-white sweeper.
I'd probably go with Ritual of Soot and Vraska's Contempt to stick with BB mana base.
Field of Ruin is great but very tough on the mana base.
I'd maybe advocate hating out problematic lands with Unmoored Ego and playing 2-of Evolving Wilds instead.
I do agree with posters here that some number of Thought Erasure in the main could be correct - after all, Thoughtseize was. However, just because one was, doesn't mean the other is.
In other articles I've seen, basically the choice comes down to do you want to run WW for Settle the Wreckage or BB for Vraska's Contempt. General consensus is that Contempt is probably better, for now. A mana base as below will give 18U / 16B / 8W plus two Field of Ruin, which isn't a bad start. Yes, it's a little slow for T3 UU, T4 BB (would need 19U and 18B), so potentially one could switch out a couple of the Islands for Dimir Guildgates if things are slow enough in your meta. I'm tempted by one Arch of Orazca or Memorial to Genius as more card draw, but we'll see.
I think not having Doom Whisperer in the deck is a big mistake, or a Lyra Dawnbringer.
Double white costed cards are very hard to cast with the manabase we have so i'd rather not even try to play them. I don't think that Doom Whisperer is needed, Chromium, The Mutable is good enough as a finisher.
In respect of the manabase presented by Greentea83, i like the idea of adding Evolving Wilds so we can have at least one Plains so we don't get screwed by Field of Ruin in some games.
Double white may be tricky for now, but not being able to cast stuff like Settle and Cleansing Nova will be a problem going in the new meta. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of Carnage Tyrants, Vine Mares, Tokens and fast aggro decks where I'd want two Settle in the main. But yeah, need the mana to be better
My current Esper deck has double mana cost cards in each colour hehe. People will probably say it's stupid, but it's the deck I've won the most with and actually only rarely have mana problems with. But losing Aether Hub and stuff like that will suck for sure.
I think Doom Whisperer was made for this deck. Five mana cost for a creature with those stats and the ability to surveil at will (for a life cost, but still) It's the best replacement for Gearhulk as a finisher.
I love Chromium, but we gotta' survive until we can cast him. Doom Whisperer clears the path and potentially takes some removal out of their hands so Chromium doesn't need to become a 1/1.
My mistake... Soorani was off on Radical Idea, not Chemister's Insight. I managed to get the link to work, and here's his first list. Interestingly, his mana base is only 15U/15B/8W.
I also re-read Frank Karsten's colored mana source article last night. In it, he says to "count any cheap scry [read as Surveil] cards as 0.2 sources." So, with a total of four, possibly five Surveil cards with CMC 2 in Soorani's list (Searches, Discovery, and Price of Fame if it targets a legendary), that throws one extra colored source out for a T3 UU, rounding up. However, this doesn't count for the fact that Discovery is Surveil 2 and draw one, so that's a bonus there. So, we could probably survive on 17-18 blue sources. This number obviously changes if we mainboard Thought Erasure. It's almost tempting to add it in just to further improve the mana base...
Moving up to Surveil cards costing 3 or less, we are now at ten, again not counting the Surveil 2 AND draw 2 on Notion Rain. If you count each of those separate, then you are up to the equivalent of 3-4 sources. This drops our need for BB on T4 from 18 to at least 16.
With an additional 3 CMC 4 surveil cards, this time counting Price of Fame here, then we are at 12 surveil cards that could help by T5, not counting repeated ones from a resolved Search, or a Notion Rain. That would drop the needed W sources by just over 2, so let's round that down. That means a T5 Teferi can survive on 8 white sources.
Based on my (probably incorrect) maths, I'm thinking that we should be aiming for 17-18U/16B/8W as our minimums for a mana base. I also think that 27 land isn't a bad place to start, with the ability to Surveil away, and pitch late game to Insight, it's probably better to err on the heavy side than try to force out numbers with 26 land.
My mistake... Soorani was off on Radical Idea, not Chemister's Insight. I managed to get the link to work, and here's his first list. Interestingly, his mana base is only 15U/15B/8W.
I also re-read Frank Karsten's colored mana source article last night. In it, he says to "count any cheap scry [read as Surveil] cards as 0.2 sources." So, with a total of four, possibly five Surveil cards with CMC 2 in Soorani's list (Searches, Discovery, and Price of Fame if it targets a legendary), that throws one extra colored source out for a T3 UU, rounding up. However, this doesn't count for the fact that Discovery is Surveil 2 and draw one, so that's a bonus there. So, we could probably survive on 17-18 blue sources. This number obviously changes if we mainboard Thought Erasure. It's almost tempting to add it in just to further improve the mana base...
Moving up to Surveil cards costing 3 or less, we are now at ten, again not counting the Surveil 2 AND draw 2 on Notion Rain. If you count each of those separate, then you are up to the equivalent of 3-4 sources. This drops our need for BB on T4 from 18 to at least 16.
With an additional 3 CMC 4 surveil cards, this time counting Price of Fame here, then we are at 12 surveil cards that could help by T5, not counting repeated ones from a resolved Search, or a Notion Rain. That would drop the needed W sources by just over 2, so let's round that down. That means a T5 Teferi can survive on 8 white sources.
Based on my (probably incorrect) maths, I'm thinking that we should be aiming for 17-18U/16B/8W as our minimums for a mana base. I also think that 27 land isn't a bad place to start, with the ability to Surveil away, and pitch late game to Insight, it's probably better to err on the heavy side than try to force out numbers with 26 land.
It seems we ended on somewhat similar lists. The main difference would be Notion Rain instead of Thought Erasure. Only playing the new format will tell us what are the best cards i guess.
You know it's good when multiple people come up with similar lists. My initial run through had Thought Erasure where Soorani has Discover // Dispersal, but I almost think the flexibility plus extra Surveils may be correct. I also have four Nexus of Fate in my list, because I've been running that for a while and it's hilarious fun. Based on the list I posted above, mine is currently -1 Teferi (I only own 3), -2 Essence Scatter, -1 Moment of Craving, +4 Nexus, plus a little different in the lands. I'm thinking of adding a second Syncopate, but not sure what to cut. My logic with cutting Essence Scatter is that if I'm surveiling/drawing early (i.e. casting Search or Discover), I'm not likely to be holding up Essence Scatters, and will be looking for removal. It might even be worth considering dropping to 5 or 6 total card draws to make room for more removals.
Unsure of the finishers, so Thief and Eldest Reborn are basically "use your own stuff against you" and recursion. I think this will be great against green with Nullhide Ferox, Vine Mare and Carnage Tyrant, until the mana is good enough for white sweepers. Also, The Eldest Reborn is the best Edict effect we have now, but it can also be a win con.
If there are a lot of small aggro decks, The SB Murder could be Ritual Of Soot, but I want to focus more on beating midrange and Green Aggro, which I think there will be more of early in the format, as red looks shaky.
EDIT: On second thought, maybe 1 or 2 Ritual Of Soot should be there. If I'm in a situation where I need it, something went wrong, but better to have it than to not and lose.
Has anyone thought about Dire Fleet Poisoner? It's in essence an instant that says "1B: Destroy target attacking creature without flying". Could be useful against Ferox and Tyrant, leaving Vine Mare as the only problem card, allowing us to save edicts, counters, hand disruption, and digging for Detection Tower for that...
EDIT: And for that matter, is it not worth considering Ravenous Chupacabra again? If we're thinking about more 4 mana removal, it could be worth it. Although, at that point, do we just go to including Murder?
The current format is faster than i thought and token decks have been pretty hard to beat so Ritual of Soot is needed in the main deck with the other 2 copies in the sideboard. Maybe Golden Demise orPlague Mare could be better options.
Lyra Dawnbringer comes in against aggro/burn decks. Burn in this standard format is much better, especially because of Risk Factor, so the lifegain Lyra Dawnbringer bring is very much needed.
I don't have enough tokens in MTG Arena for Vona's Hunger so i've been playing with Moment of Craving instead and it has been ok. I also don't have all the lands so the testing has not been as good as it could have been.
Double black and double blue on turn three seems pretty tough for our mana so i would not play many copies of Murder.
Esper Control will probably be MUCH better with RNA, where we would have a much better mana base with Hallowed Fountain and probably a better removal pack than we have now.
The current format is faster than i thought and token decks have been pretty hard to beat so Ritual of Soot is needed in the main deck with the other 2 copies in the sideboard. Maybe Golden Demise orPlague Mare could be better options.
I don't have enough tokens in MTG Arena for Vona's Hunger so i've been playing with Moment of Craving instead and it has been ok. I also don't have all the lands so the testing has not been as good as it could have been.
Double black and double blue on turn three seems pretty tough for our mana so i would not play many copies of Murder.
Esper Control will probably be MUCH better with RNA, where we would have a much better mana base with Hallowed Fountain and probably a better removal pack than we have now.
I've choose esper control to play also especially because winning with chromium/teferi is so awesome.
Few notes about my list.
I removed also Thought Erasure from the main board because it didn't help too much with aggro that plays on the curve.
Since reading control is easier for me i focused on a faster draw with Notion Rain(i thought about Secrets of the Golden City but i prefer something that can turn Azcanta faster and don't need ascend), so i tunned Chemister's Insight down a notch put some Notion Rain and Moment of Craving and focused on drawing what i could since is a more general need against anything.
Syncopate and Disdainful Stroke really helps against lots of stuff. The first helps fighting curve warriors and the later gets really awesome late game against aggro and control since most of the relevants threats fall on 4 CMC or more.
At first i put some Ixalan's Binding solely 'cause they are uncommon and they didn't mess the curve or the mana base but they were a very awesome surprise. Yeah Vraska's Contempt is faster and probably better but if you dont have a better option Ixalan will probably do the trick.
It became so awesome to Ixalan stuff that i was thinking about runnig Settle the Wreckage and Cleansing Nova instead of vraska since the meta is a bit more Aggro than Planeswalkers in Arena. I don't have enough wildcards on Arena yet to test but it is worth a run or two since Disdainful Stroke and Ixalan already work so well against control.
I also think that Unmoored Ego is worth a SB slot but i don't have the Wildcards. Removing Nexus from some guys == insta scoop. Thief of Sanity is awesome against control that remove their removals but i also lack Wildcards.
My mana base is lacking a lot since i don't have enough rares but i get by. Arch of Orazca and Field of Ruin definitely worth some mention.
I think Nexus of Fate really hard to pass by especially on ultra long games. You can loop chromium damage and teferi in some cases and not having to worry about decking yourself is really useful in some matches. Even 1 single copy make a diference, some people scoop just at the sight of it. My next move is removing 1 teferi ( im really flooding on those lately) and pushing another nexus.
I played all day on Arena today, and I came to a few realizations. First, I ran through most of the day just testing the deck in casual constructed. A lot of aggro decks fill this void so it really put the list to the test, as I knew it generally already had a strong control mirror game more often than not. FOr my final run tonight, I delved into the Competitive Constructed run. Most Casual runs net me about 3 wins (3 losses and you are done), sometimes less. My Competitive Constructed run was a 5-1 record (2 losses and you are done with your run). I ran my competitive run with 0 SB cards.
Notion Rain is a rough card. It is handy when you are in the clear to cast it, but against proactive decks, it is the last card I ever wanted to see. Too often I was cornered and it was a dead card from the start. I think the deck really needs this 3cmc slot filled though, as a lot of the time I felt I was just waiting on that turn and doing nothing. Notion Rain was sometimes left in hand on turn 3 and I really did not like that. I think running more Chemister's Insight is actually, more than likely, correct.
All in on Vraska's Contempt was also pretty painful in my Casual Constructed games. The matches I was facing were pretty aggressive token or RW aggro builds. For my Competitive Constructed run I added 2x Settle the Wreckage and 1x Cleansing Nova. I went down to 3 Contempt. Overall, the sweepers did a lot of work when I needed them to. I don't think I will be going back to a sweeper-less build. Contempt also had me wondering if Ixalan's Binding is possibly better. It is hard to say, but I will touch on this in a bit.I did run Ritual of Soot in a couple of runs, and the card was pretty sub-par.
As for Essence Scatter, I dropped these in favor of Syncopate. Initially, I was pretty skeptical. Syncopate can sometimes just be a dead spell, and I confirmed this in a number of games. But it actually turned out to be better than Scatter when it was played. It did pick me out of a few tight spots where Scatter would have missed and killed my chance at untapping into a Teferi.
On Chromium, the Mutable, I dropped this card. I liked the idea of it, but boy did it feel bad tapping mana for it on the rare chance I was stable on 7. My games with Lyra Dawnbringer were much more stable. I also ran a 1x copy of Nexus of Fate in my Competitive Constructed run, and man that card did a crazy amount of work. There were a few times where it won me the game by simply going infinite. I had actually started running this in my last Casual Constructed run, and I was lacking any sweepers to deal with Carnage Tyrant, but I got to the point where I had just gone infinite and my last 2 cards in my deck were Lyra + Nexus and I just beat him down. I think a single copy of Nexus is a pretty solid failsafe for any match that may go long. I am not entirely sold on it, but I was completely surprised at how much heavy lifting it did sometimes.
Revisiting my remarks about a 3 drop, and about Ixalan's Binding... I wonder if Vona's Hunger is playable. Part of the problem I have with cards like Price of Fame is how narrow it actually is in practice. Things like Seal Away and Baffling End give you an increased pip count towards the City's Blessing. It fills the 3 drop slot in a very strong way and it scales well in the late game.
I look forward to making some adjustments to my Esper list on Arena and doing another run tomorrow. But those were my thoughts after my run. Below is the list I ran for the 5-1 record in Competitive Constructed event.
Overall, the deck felt decent. I think some of the conventional choices are probably a little loose, but I am not sure how paper will pan out compared to Arena. I faced a fair amount of GB decks, UB Surveil decks, UR Counterburn decks, GW token decks, and RW aggro decks. Esper seems fairly stable with Lyra in it, but I will unlikely ever go back to Chromium outside of maybe a SB role.
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STANDARD|UW Control MODERN| UBG Midrange PAUPER| UG Fog COMMANDER| UBG The Mimeoplasm
On Chromium, the Mutable, I dropped this card. I liked the idea of it, but boy did it feel bad tapping mana for it on the rare chance I was stable on 7. My games with Lyra Dawnbringer were much more stable.
I don't understand the problem with "tapping" for Chromium, The Mutable, he haves flash so that is not a problem. I would argue that a 7 CMC is the real issue in this kinda fast meta.
I don't know if the mana is good enough to support Settle the Wreckage turn 4 consistently so that could be a problem.
3x Cast Down
3x Vona's Hunger
4x Vraska's Contempt
Blue Spells (18)
4x Essence Scatter
2x Disdainful Stroke
2x Syncopate
4x Sinister Sabotage
2x Search for Azcanta
4x Chemister's Insight
4x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Esper Spells(2)
2x Chromium, The Mutable
Lands (26)
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Watery Grave
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Isolated Chapel
6x Island
4x Swamp
2x Disdainful Stroke
3x Negate
3x Thought Erasure
3x Ritual of Soot
1x The Eldest Reborn
3x Thief of Sanity
Esper Control for the next GRN standard format. The deck is really an UB Control with white splash for Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Chromium, The Mutable. The mana is pretty tight so we dont have space for lands such as Field of Ruin, but maybe we could cut one Island.
The black removal is not as good as it was with Fatal Push. We are forced to play Vona's Hunger because of all the hexproof creatures available in standard. If those creatures are not so prevalent we can switch to Moment of Craving and/or Murder depending on the meta or we can play more conservative with The Eldest Reborn in the sideboard as the hexproof answer. The blue spells is the usual package of counter spells and draw spells with the nice new addition of Disdainful Stroke and Chemister's Insight (wich has been very good in testing).
As win conditions we use Teferi, Hero of Dominaria with Chromium, The Mutable as the finisher.
The sideboard is pretty simple, the usual discard spell with Thought Erasure and extra counter spells with Ritual of Soot as the answer to all go wide strategies such as a GW Tokens deck.
Thief of Sanity comes in against midrange/control decks that sideboard out their removal.
The deck weakness will probably be fast aggro/burn decks because of the underwhelming black removal we have.
Moment of Craving and Blood Operative might end up necessary to fight against those decks. In the end it will all depend on the meta of the GRN standard.
To help dealing wirh go-wide decks Golden Demise might be worth a couple of slots in the SB.
Another good draw spell can be Dark Bargain which offers better selection but less cards than Chemister's Insight.
Notion Rain is also a good draw spell but is a sorcery.
I'd also consider maindeck'ing Thought Erasure over Essence Scatter which seema too narrow and the deck has plenty of removal anyway.
Maybe something like this: (did some other changes too)
3x Cast Down
2x Moment of Craving
1x Price of Fame
4x Vraska's Contempt
Blue Spells (15)
3x Essence Scatter
2x Disdainful Stroke
4x Sinister Sabotage
2x Search for Azcanta
4x Chemister's Insight
4x Thought Erasure
Blue-White Spells (4)
4x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Esper Spells(1)
1x Chromium, The Mutable
Lands (26)
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Watery Grave
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Isolated Chapel
6x Island
4x Swamp
2x Disdainful Stroke
3x Negate
2x Moment of Craving
2x Vona's Hunger
2x Ritual of Soot
3x Thief of Sanity
1x Chromium, The Mutable
I'd also probably prefer to maindeck Syncopate over Essence Scatter and Disdainful Stroke.
This counterspell is going to be even better with all the new GY interactions printed in GRN.
-Stay Frosty
I do agree with posters here that some number of Thought Erasure in the main could be correct - after all, Thoughtseize was. However, just because one was, doesn't mean the other is.
In other articles I've seen, basically the choice comes down to do you want to run WW for Settle the Wreckage or BB for Vraska's Contempt. General consensus is that Contempt is probably better, for now. A mana base as below will give 18U / 16B / 8W plus two Field of Ruin, which isn't a bad start. Yes, it's a little slow for T3 UU, T4 BB (would need 19U and 18B), so potentially one could switch out a couple of the Islands for Dimir Guildgates if things are slow enough in your meta. I'm tempted by one Arch of Orazca or Memorial to Genius as more card draw, but we'll see.
Finally, what are thoughts on Etrata, the Silencer is as an alternate win con?
Because of the Surveil mechanic, I think Thought Erasure and Sinister Sabotage largely nullify the need for Opt or Anticipate.
I'd consider them automatic 4-ofs for this reason alone. You can always Surveil away excess Thought Erasure's late game if needed...
I'm not sure the mana is good enough to support a T4 double-white sweeper.
I'd probably go with Ritual of Soot and Vraska's Contempt to stick with BB mana base.
Field of Ruin is great but very tough on the mana base.
I'd maybe advocate hating out problematic lands with Unmoored Ego and playing 2-of Evolving Wilds instead.
Too unreliable to be a win con imo. Is a really cool card otherwise though.
Here's my esper control build.
The SB will definitely require some tuning...
3x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Creatures (2):
2x Chromium, the Mutable
Instants (17):
4x Sinister Sabotage
3x Vraska's Contempt
3x Cast Down
2x Vona's Hunger
2x Syncopate
1x Essence Scatter
1x Price of Fame
1x Mission Briefing
Sorceries (10):
4x Thought Erasure
2x Ritual of Soot
2x Notion Rain
2x Secrets of the Golden City
2x Search for Azcanta
Lands (26):
4x Watery Grave
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Isolated Chapel
3x Island
3x Swamp
2x Plains
2x Evolving Wilds
4x Negate
3x Moment of Craving
2x Ritual of Soot
1x The Eldest Reborn
1x The Mirari Conjecture
1x Vraska's Contempt
1x Price of Fame
1x Vona's Hunger
1x Unmoored Ego
I think that Chemister's Insight is better than Notion Rain in this deck, getting tapped out early game might lose us the game and the life lose is pretty relevant. I also think that we don't need Opt or Anticipate thanks to the surveil on Thought Erasure and Sinister Sabotage.
Etrata, the Silencer is not a finisher we would want to play.
Double white costed cards are very hard to cast with the manabase we have so i'd rather not even try to play them. I don't think that Doom Whisperer is needed, Chromium, The Mutable is good enough as a finisher.
In respect of the manabase presented by Greentea83, i like the idea of adding Evolving Wilds so we can have at least one Plains so we don't get screwed by Field of Ruin in some games.
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Watery Grave
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Island
3x Swamp
1x Plains
2x Evolving Wilds
We end up with 18 blue sources, 17 black sources and 11 white sources (a bit better than the previous mana).
My current Esper deck has double mana cost cards in each colour hehe. People will probably say it's stupid, but it's the deck I've won the most with and actually only rarely have mana problems with. But losing Aether Hub and stuff like that will suck for sure.
I think Doom Whisperer was made for this deck. Five mana cost for a creature with those stats and the ability to surveil at will (for a life cost, but still) It's the best replacement for Gearhulk as a finisher.
I love Chromium, but we gotta' survive until we can cast him. Doom Whisperer clears the path and potentially takes some removal out of their hands so Chromium doesn't need to become a 1/1.
1 Chromium, the Mutable
Planeswalkers (4)
4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Lands (27)
4 Island
1 Plains
4 Swamp
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Field of Ruin
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Isolated Chapel
1 Memorial to Genius
4 Watery Grave
3 Cast Down
2 Chemister's Insight
4 Essence Scatter
1 Moment of Craving
1 Price of Fame
4 Sinister Sabotage
1 Syncopate
4 Vraska's Contempt
2 Search for Azcanta
2 Discovery // Dispersal
4 Notion Rain
3 Thief of Sanity
2 The Eldest Reborn
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Moment of Craving
3 Negate
1 Arguel's Blood Fast
2 Thought Erasure
I also re-read Frank Karsten's colored mana source article last night. In it, he says to "count any cheap scry [read as Surveil] cards as 0.2 sources." So, with a total of four, possibly five Surveil cards with CMC 2 in Soorani's list (Searches, Discovery, and Price of Fame if it targets a legendary), that throws one extra colored source out for a T3 UU, rounding up. However, this doesn't count for the fact that Discovery is Surveil 2 and draw one, so that's a bonus there. So, we could probably survive on 17-18 blue sources. This number obviously changes if we mainboard Thought Erasure. It's almost tempting to add it in just to further improve the mana base...
Moving up to Surveil cards costing 3 or less, we are now at ten, again not counting the Surveil 2 AND draw 2 on Notion Rain. If you count each of those separate, then you are up to the equivalent of 3-4 sources. This drops our need for BB on T4 from 18 to at least 16.
With an additional 3 CMC 4 surveil cards, this time counting Price of Fame here, then we are at 12 surveil cards that could help by T5, not counting repeated ones from a resolved Search, or a Notion Rain. That would drop the needed W sources by just over 2, so let's round that down. That means a T5 Teferi can survive on 8 white sources.
Based on my (probably incorrect) maths, I'm thinking that we should be aiming for 17-18U/16B/8W as our minimums for a mana base. I also think that 27 land isn't a bad place to start, with the ability to Surveil away, and pitch late game to Insight, it's probably better to err on the heavy side than try to force out numbers with 26 land.
It seems we ended on somewhat similar lists. The main difference would be Notion Rain instead of Thought Erasure. Only playing the new format will tell us what are the best cards i guess.
4 Watery Grave
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Isolated Chapel
2 Field of Ruin
4 Island
4 Swamp
1 Plains
Spells
3 Syncopate
3 Essence Scatter
4 Sinister Sabotage
4 Chemister's Insight
2 Search For Azcanta
3 Cast Down
3 Moment Of Craving
4 Vraska's Contempt
3 Teferi, Hero Of Dominaria
2 Thief Of Sanity
2 The Eldest Reborn
2 Murder
1 Detection Tower
1 Chromium, The Mutable
2 Invoke The Divine
2 Unmoored Ego
3 Thought Erasure
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Negate
Unsure of the finishers, so Thief and Eldest Reborn are basically "use your own stuff against you" and recursion. I think this will be great against green with Nullhide Ferox, Vine Mare and Carnage Tyrant, until the mana is good enough for white sweepers. Also, The Eldest Reborn is the best Edict effect we have now, but it can also be a win con.
If there are a lot of small aggro decks, The SB Murder could be Ritual Of Soot, but I want to focus more on beating midrange and Green Aggro, which I think there will be more of early in the format, as red looks shaky.
EDIT: On second thought, maybe 1 or 2 Ritual Of Soot should be there. If I'm in a situation where I need it, something went wrong, but better to have it than to not and lose.
EDIT: And for that matter, is it not worth considering Ravenous Chupacabra again? If we're thinking about more 4 mana removal, it could be worth it. Although, at that point, do we just go to including Murder?
The current format is faster than i thought and token decks have been pretty hard to beat so Ritual of Soot is needed in the main deck with the other 2 copies in the sideboard. Maybe Golden Demise orPlague Mare could be better options.
Lyra Dawnbringer comes in against aggro/burn decks. Burn in this standard format is much better, especially because of Risk Factor, so the lifegain Lyra Dawnbringer bring is very much needed.
Three copies of The Eldest Reborn come in against hexproof creatures such as Carnage Tyrant and Nullhide Ferox and it's also good against some midrange decks.
I don't have enough tokens in MTG Arena for Vona's Hunger so i've been playing with Moment of Craving instead and it has been ok. I also don't have all the lands so the testing has not been as good as it could have been.
Double black and double blue on turn three seems pretty tough for our mana so i would not play many copies of Murder.
Esper Control will probably be MUCH better with RNA, where we would have a much better mana base with Hallowed Fountain and probably a better removal pack than we have now.
3x Cast Down
3x Moment of Craving
4x Vraska's Contempt
2x Ritual of Soot
Blue Spells (16)
4x Essence Scatter
2x Syncopate
4x Sinister Sabotage
2x Search for Azcanta
4x Chemister's Insight
4x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Creatures(2)
2x Chromium, The Mutable
Lands (26)
4x Drowned Catacomb
4x Watery Grave
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Island
3x Swamp
1x Plains
2x Evolving Wilds
4x Negate
4x Thought Erasure
2x Ritual of Soot
3x The Eldest Reborn
2x Lyra Dawnbringer
If the format is fast, perhaps you should have a cheaper win con? Even with flash, Chromium is a liability vs. fast aggro.
4 Sinister Sabotage
3 Essence Scatter
2 Syncopate
2 Chemister's Insight
2 Moment of Craving
2 Cast Down
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Vraska's Contempt
Sorcery:
3 Ritual of Soot
3 Notion Rain
3 Dimir Guildgate
Enchants:
2 Ixalan's Binding
2 Search for Azcanta
1 Isolated Chapel
2 Memorial to Genius
3 Forsaken Sanctuary
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Swamp
5 Island
1 Plains
3 Meandering River
Win Con:
1 Chromium, the Mutable
4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
1 Nexus of Fate
1 Ixalan's Binding
2 The Eldest Reborn
3 Thought Erasure
3 Negate
2 Price of Fame
1 Chemister's Insight
1 Moment of Craving
1 Thief of Sanity
I've choose esper control to play also especially because winning with chromium/teferi is so awesome.
Few notes about my list.
I removed also Thought Erasure from the main board because it didn't help too much with aggro that plays on the curve.
Since reading control is easier for me i focused on a faster draw with Notion Rain(i thought about Secrets of the Golden City but i prefer something that can turn Azcanta faster and don't need ascend), so i tunned Chemister's Insight down a notch put some Notion Rain and Moment of Craving and focused on drawing what i could since is a more general need against anything.
Syncopate and Disdainful Stroke really helps against lots of stuff. The first helps fighting curve warriors and the later gets really awesome late game against aggro and control since most of the relevants threats fall on 4 CMC or more.
At first i put some Ixalan's Binding solely 'cause they are uncommon and they didn't mess the curve or the mana base but they were a very awesome surprise. Yeah Vraska's Contempt is faster and probably better but if you dont have a better option Ixalan will probably do the trick.
It became so awesome to Ixalan stuff that i was thinking about runnig Settle the Wreckage and Cleansing Nova instead of vraska since the meta is a bit more Aggro than Planeswalkers in Arena. I don't have enough wildcards on Arena yet to test but it is worth a run or two since Disdainful Stroke and Ixalan already work so well against control.
I also think that Unmoored Ego is worth a SB slot but i don't have the Wildcards. Removing Nexus from some guys == insta scoop.
Thief of Sanity is awesome against control that remove their removals but i also lack Wildcards.
My mana base is lacking a lot since i don't have enough rares but i get by.
Arch of Orazca and Field of Ruin definitely worth some mention.
I think Nexus of Fate really hard to pass by especially on ultra long games. You can loop chromium damage and teferi in some cases and not having to worry about decking yourself is really useful in some matches. Even 1 single copy make a diference, some people scoop just at the sight of it. My next move is removing 1 teferi ( im really flooding on those lately) and pushing another nexus.
Notion Rain is a rough card. It is handy when you are in the clear to cast it, but against proactive decks, it is the last card I ever wanted to see. Too often I was cornered and it was a dead card from the start. I think the deck really needs this 3cmc slot filled though, as a lot of the time I felt I was just waiting on that turn and doing nothing. Notion Rain was sometimes left in hand on turn 3 and I really did not like that. I think running more Chemister's Insight is actually, more than likely, correct.
All in on Vraska's Contempt was also pretty painful in my Casual Constructed games. The matches I was facing were pretty aggressive token or RW aggro builds. For my Competitive Constructed run I added 2x Settle the Wreckage and 1x Cleansing Nova. I went down to 3 Contempt. Overall, the sweepers did a lot of work when I needed them to. I don't think I will be going back to a sweeper-less build. Contempt also had me wondering if Ixalan's Binding is possibly better. It is hard to say, but I will touch on this in a bit.I did run Ritual of Soot in a couple of runs, and the card was pretty sub-par.
As for Essence Scatter, I dropped these in favor of Syncopate. Initially, I was pretty skeptical. Syncopate can sometimes just be a dead spell, and I confirmed this in a number of games. But it actually turned out to be better than Scatter when it was played. It did pick me out of a few tight spots where Scatter would have missed and killed my chance at untapping into a Teferi.
On Chromium, the Mutable, I dropped this card. I liked the idea of it, but boy did it feel bad tapping mana for it on the rare chance I was stable on 7. My games with Lyra Dawnbringer were much more stable. I also ran a 1x copy of Nexus of Fate in my Competitive Constructed run, and man that card did a crazy amount of work. There were a few times where it won me the game by simply going infinite. I had actually started running this in my last Casual Constructed run, and I was lacking any sweepers to deal with Carnage Tyrant, but I got to the point where I had just gone infinite and my last 2 cards in my deck were Lyra + Nexus and I just beat him down. I think a single copy of Nexus is a pretty solid failsafe for any match that may go long. I am not entirely sold on it, but I was completely surprised at how much heavy lifting it did sometimes.
Revisiting my remarks about a 3 drop, and about Ixalan's Binding... I wonder if Vona's Hunger is playable. Part of the problem I have with cards like Price of Fame is how narrow it actually is in practice. Things like Seal Away and Baffling End give you an increased pip count towards the City's Blessing. It fills the 3 drop slot in a very strong way and it scales well in the late game.
I look forward to making some adjustments to my Esper list on Arena and doing another run tomorrow. But those were my thoughts after my run. Below is the list I ran for the 5-1 record in Competitive Constructed event.
2 Lyra Dawnbringer
Planeswalker
4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Instant
3 Syncopate
4 Sinister Sabotage
2 Moment of Craving
2 Cast Down
2 Settle the Wreckage
3 Vraska's Contempt
3 Chemister's Insight
2 Anticipate
1 Nexus of Fate
2 Notion Rain
1 Cleansing Nova
Enchantment
2 Search for Azcanta
Land
27 Lands
Overall, the deck felt decent. I think some of the conventional choices are probably a little loose, but I am not sure how paper will pan out compared to Arena. I faced a fair amount of GB decks, UB Surveil decks, UR Counterburn decks, GW token decks, and RW aggro decks. Esper seems fairly stable with Lyra in it, but I will unlikely ever go back to Chromium outside of maybe a SB role.
STANDARD|UW Control MODERN| UBG Midrange PAUPER| UG Fog COMMANDER| UBG The Mimeoplasm
Dream Eater is the New Torrential Gearhulk. Thoughts?
I suspect that this card is actually quite underrated.
STANDARD|UW Control MODERN| UBG Midrange PAUPER| UG Fog COMMANDER| UBG The Mimeoplasm
I don't understand the problem with "tapping" for Chromium, The Mutable, he haves flash so that is not a problem. I would argue that a 7 CMC is the real issue in this kinda fast meta.
I don't know if the mana is good enough to support Settle the Wreckage turn 4 consistently so that could be a problem.
Literally unplayable