Five years ago, in a dusty shop I heard sold cheap collectibles, I discovered the wonder of magic the gathering. The five dollar bundle of random commons and uncommons I bought that day thrust me into a world of creation. Ever since then, I built every possible deck my collection allowed. While later I shifted towards net decking, I never stopped harboring my inner jank. A week ago a sudden realization hit me like a truck. Today, I will unveil a truly busted deck.
I call it Esper Drain.
# Esper Drain
**Creature Spells: (14)**
4x Hero of Precinct One
4x Deputy of Detention
2x Thief of Sanity
4x Twilight Prophet
**Non-creature spells: (20)**
4x Discovery//Dispersal
4x Disperse//Deploy
3x Mortify
2x Warrant//Warden
2x Revival//Revenge
2x Settle the Wreckage
2x Mirari Conjecture
1x Consecrate//Consume
**Lands: (26) \*subject to change**
4x Godless Shrine
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Watery Grave
3x Drowned catacombs
1x swamp
1x Island
1x plains
**Game plan:**
Split cards galore. Essentially, the idea is to run as many split cards as possible for three huge payoffs: The Mirari Conjecture, Hero of Precinct One, and most notably, Twilight Prophet. These also work surprisingly well together.
1.) **The Mirari Conjecture**\- Split spells often have two different casting requirements. One side can be instant speed and the other sorcery, effectively exploiting conjecture's first two sagas to full effect. While the last saga cannot be used as an insta-twenty damage to the face, it can make the back side of the split cards incredibly powerful, especially Revenge. Another cool combination, is to use the second saga to buy back revival to grind out an opponent with Deputy of Detention, Thief of Sanity, and Hero of Precinct One.
2.) **Hero of Precinct One-** It is no mystery how powerful this card is. In this deck almost all the spells are multi-colored, giving it plenty to work with. An early Precinct can spell disaster for any deck unable to answer, and its abuse does not stop there. It enables ascendency quickly! It, along with deploy, is a potent aggro hoser and makes ascendency more consistent.
3.) **Twilight Prophet-** Long ago, a prophecy took root. The story goes like this- Untap with ascendency and ye shall be awarded with draw, damage, and life in abundance. Dispose//Deploy= 6 damage. Discovery//Dispersal= 7 damage. Revival//Revenge= 8 damage. Seriously, look at the rulings on split cards. They take on the converted mana cost of both sides! I am not saying the damage will always be there, rng and all that, but with the amount of split cards in standard it is at least viable!
I am extremely excited to be sharing this brew with the magic community here and would appreciate any thoughts. Lets keep brews alive and well in this Nexus and RDW infested realm!
Game 3 - Rakdos Aggro - Run over by turn 8. Their deck was a little slower, but no chance to really interact. They had answers for everything I could put down and I couldn't draw answers fast enough.
Game 4 - Dega Aggro(with Divine Intervention?) - Kind of a weird token aggro deck they were playing, neat stuff. This deck, again, had little ways to interact with it. Just wasn't working for me at all, and I actually got to make it to close to end game.
Game 5 - RDW - Deck actually worked pretty good for me, was able to make a few good tempo plays, drew out all of my DoD plus an early Hero of Precinct One helped (that and his draws were awful, only 1 burn spell all game). I didn't even win by the premise of the deck, I outaggroed him and won with 8 life remaining. I'm sold, however, that if he'd of spent his lightning strike on my hero and not my face I would have lost.
Game 6 - RDW (burn variant) - Another red player that wants to go directly face instead of playing properly. Turn 6 revenge completely destroyed him, but again, if he'd of used his burn defensively when I was the aggressor I wonder how different the match would be.
There's 6 games on MTGA Play mode (non-ranked...was kind of hoping for a better appropriation of standard with less RDW but you see how that worked out...). It's a really neat idea, but unfortunately it's a coffee table idea, not a standard one. The format is too fast for it to grind the way the deck wants to which makes me sad because Twilight Prophet is really one of those cards that you just wish was good but the Ascend requirement makes it fall on its face. In all 6 games I was able to cast 2 (all in that Dega game) and in that one I wasn't even able to get Ascend up and running.
Just figured I'd take a quick look on it considering I had all the cards except for Hero (which I wanted anyway so I quickly nabbed 'em). Don't think I'll keep up with it in its current shape. I'm not sure what would need to change to make it a bit more viable against red (considering that's what 90% of what I play against on mtga >.<).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Used to be on here as Draconek, since the Twitch takeover...who knows...
MTGO: Draconek
Standard: URW Control UB Control
Modern: BRG Living End GR Aggro GW Value
Legacy:
Currently not playing
Those aren't trying to achieve what he's trying to achieve.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Used to be on here as Draconek, since the Twitch takeover...who knows...
MTGO: Draconek
Standard: URW Control UB Control
Modern: BRG Living End GR Aggro GW Value
Legacy:
Currently not playing
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I call it Esper Drain.
# Esper Drain
**Creature Spells: (14)**
4x Hero of Precinct One
4x Deputy of Detention
2x Thief of Sanity
4x Twilight Prophet
**Non-creature spells: (20)**
4x Discovery//Dispersal
4x Disperse//Deploy
3x Mortify
2x Warrant//Warden
2x Revival//Revenge
2x Settle the Wreckage
2x Mirari Conjecture
1x Consecrate//Consume
**Lands: (26) \*subject to change**
4x Godless Shrine
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Watery Grave
3x Drowned catacombs
1x swamp
1x Island
1x plains
**Game plan:**
Split cards galore. Essentially, the idea is to run as many split cards as possible for three huge payoffs: The Mirari Conjecture, Hero of Precinct One, and most notably, Twilight Prophet. These also work surprisingly well together.
1.) **The Mirari Conjecture**\- Split spells often have two different casting requirements. One side can be instant speed and the other sorcery, effectively exploiting conjecture's first two sagas to full effect. While the last saga cannot be used as an insta-twenty damage to the face, it can make the back side of the split cards incredibly powerful, especially Revenge. Another cool combination, is to use the second saga to buy back revival to grind out an opponent with Deputy of Detention, Thief of Sanity, and Hero of Precinct One.
2.) **Hero of Precinct One-** It is no mystery how powerful this card is. In this deck almost all the spells are multi-colored, giving it plenty to work with. An early Precinct can spell disaster for any deck unable to answer, and its abuse does not stop there. It enables ascendency quickly! It, along with deploy, is a potent aggro hoser and makes ascendency more consistent.
3.) **Twilight Prophet-** Long ago, a prophecy took root. The story goes like this- Untap with ascendency and ye shall be awarded with draw, damage, and life in abundance. Dispose//Deploy= 6 damage. Discovery//Dispersal= 7 damage. Revival//Revenge= 8 damage. Seriously, look at the rulings on split cards. They take on the converted mana cost of both sides! I am not saying the damage will always be there, rng and all that, but with the amount of split cards in standard it is at least viable!
I am extremely excited to be sharing this brew with the magic community here and would appreciate any thoughts. Lets keep brews alive and well in this Nexus and RDW infested realm!
Game 2 - RDW - Completely run over by turn 4.
Game 3 - Rakdos Aggro - Run over by turn 8. Their deck was a little slower, but no chance to really interact. They had answers for everything I could put down and I couldn't draw answers fast enough.
Game 4 - Dega Aggro(with Divine Intervention?) - Kind of a weird token aggro deck they were playing, neat stuff. This deck, again, had little ways to interact with it. Just wasn't working for me at all, and I actually got to make it to close to end game.
Game 5 - RDW - Deck actually worked pretty good for me, was able to make a few good tempo plays, drew out all of my DoD plus an early Hero of Precinct One helped (that and his draws were awful, only 1 burn spell all game). I didn't even win by the premise of the deck, I outaggroed him and won with 8 life remaining. I'm sold, however, that if he'd of spent his lightning strike on my hero and not my face I would have lost.
Game 6 - RDW (burn variant) - Another red player that wants to go directly face instead of playing properly. Turn 6 revenge completely destroyed him, but again, if he'd of used his burn defensively when I was the aggressor I wonder how different the match would be.
There's 6 games on MTGA Play mode (non-ranked...was kind of hoping for a better appropriation of standard with less RDW but you see how that worked out...). It's a really neat idea, but unfortunately it's a coffee table idea, not a standard one. The format is too fast for it to grind the way the deck wants to which makes me sad because Twilight Prophet is really one of those cards that you just wish was good but the Ascend requirement makes it fall on its face. In all 6 games I was able to cast 2 (all in that Dega game) and in that one I wasn't even able to get Ascend up and running.
Just figured I'd take a quick look on it considering I had all the cards except for Hero (which I wanted anyway so I quickly nabbed 'em). Don't think I'll keep up with it in its current shape. I'm not sure what would need to change to make it a bit more viable against red (considering that's what 90% of what I play against on mtga >.<).
MTGO: Draconek
Standard:
URW Control
UB Control
Modern:
BRG Living End
GR Aggro
GW Value
Legacy:
Currently not playing
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/standard-esper-midrange-65610
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/standard-wub-65826
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/instant-deck-tech-esper-tempo-standard
MTGO: Draconek
Standard:
URW Control
UB Control
Modern:
BRG Living End
GR Aggro
GW Value
Legacy:
Currently not playing