MTG Salvation

Quote from Roscoe »

I've been running this version of Esper hatebears for a long ass time now, like over a year. It's interesting to see someone start using the meddling/sculler package I thought would be the place Esper wanted to be. It's pretty clear that if Esper wants to be a midrange deck like Jund or junk that it needs to have some aolid two drops, just like them. And these are our guys.

Unfortunately, the deck always lacked oomph and was always terrible against other creature decks. I like your enthusiasm for the package. I was very enchanted with it when I brewed it a while ago, but I'm thoroughly convinced after many different versions that it does not have what it takes. Maybe tasigur added something to it, but I just want to warn the masses that it's a giant headache of a deck. Meddling Mage lacks the structure for it to be great. Modern is too creature centric for this kind of deck to be anything other than a pain. Mentor could at least deal with threats by overloading on removal and because mentor allowed you to easily go wide to block and then crack back with a flurry of spells. Esper has a fundamental problem that it's creatures are wholy and entirely outclassed by green's. It always pushes esper and blue generally to either tempo delver or bigger control to go over the top of the green creatures.

I hate to be a downer, but as someone who played this type of deck for a year, I just have a lot of experience with these downfalls. Might be good in this meta, though. It always crushed any kind of deck that didn't rely on beating you with creature bashing.

Quote from TheNoob »

Quote from Tengu Drum »

So with Esper Twix what do we even side out against burn? I've done some testing and I kind of suspect meddling mage would be the cut in some number. It just feels like their deck is so redundant it doesn't do enough.

You have to remember even if they remove Meddling Mage, that means it is one less burn card going at you. If can also force awkward plays by your opponent.

I have found that some of the more expensive removal is what I remove, since casting a CMC 3 or 5 on a CMC 1 or 2 creature is not where I want to be.

Quote from Yumhi12 »

Two maindeck negate with no Remand or Mana Leak? Seems loose.

Quote from darktutor »

Quote from The_7ranshuman »

That being said, Esper Twix is an entirely different beast and has been referred to as Esper's version of Junk. Ali Aintrazi recently interviewed me about my brew and the article is available on TCG Player. The updated list can be found on Facebook.com/EsperTwix

I'm taking it to Charlotte this weekend.

Wish you the best at GP, don't be afraid of posting links about the archetype. It looks like a sweet spin to the Esper midrange builds we've been seen lately, so I'll include it in the primer when I update it any time I can this week.

Esper Twix Article @ TCGPlayer

Keep up with the brews!

Quote from Tengu Drum »

I decided to take this Esper Trix deck with me to FNM yesterday and managed to make the top 4 and split. My list was mosrtly just copied aside from the sideboard which was just thrown together last minute and actually wasn't too helpful in some matchups last night.

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Lands 2 Island 2 Plains 1 Swamp 3 Hallowed Fountain 2 Godless Shrine 1 Watery Grave 3 Flooded Strand 1 Marsh Flats 3 Polluted Delta 1 Celestial Collonade 2 Creeping Tar Pit 2 Ghost Quarter Creatures 3 Snapcaster Mage 3 Meddling Mage 3 Tidehollow Sculler 1 Vendillion Clique 3 Geist of Saint Traft 2 Restoration Angel	Planeswalkers 2 Elspeth, Knight Errant 1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor Sorceries 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 2 Thoughtsieze Instant 4 Path to Exile 1 Spell Snare 3 Mana Leak 1 Slaughter Pact 3 Esper Charm 1 Murderous Cut	Sideboard 1 Spellskite 2 Kor Firewalker 1 Sower of temptation 1 Jace, Architect of Thought 1 Engineered Explosives 2 Leyline of the Void 1 Surgical Extraction 2 Timely Reinforcements 1 Dispel 2 Negates 1 Dismember

Round 1 RG Burn: 2-1
Game 1 I drew poorly and just outright lost sideboard games I drew into hatecards and kept him off skullcrack and won.

Round 2 Mono Red Burn: 0-2
Just got beat down game 1 and sideboard game all I drew was Spellskite which almost stabilized me but skite doesn't do anything against Lava Spike when I'm at 2.

Round 3 U/R Storm 2-1
Game 1 I kept a hand with tons of disruption and only one land and decided to risk it because I knew he was on storm. Never drew the second land to start laying Tidehollow and Meddling Mage. Games 2 and 3 I was able to get the ball rolling with hate cards and he scooped after I took some rituals with extraction and had Giest on board.

Round 4 Affinity 2-1
I didn't expect anyone to actually have this at my shop but this week it finally happened and got caught with no hate. Managed to win a game off of Explosives for 1 wiping most of his board.

Round 5 B/R Vampires: 2-0
Not much to say here because budget deck in construction.

Top 8 Jeskai Control 2-0
I played tons of discard spells and tore apart his hand faster than he could stabilize with Revelation. Meddling mage on Cryptic and Tidehollow scullers slowed him down long enough for me to resolve Elspeth and Giest and end game 1. Game 2 he kept a land heavy hand to blank my early tidehollows and discard spells and we had a long game. He decided to EoT electrolyze me and went to 1 mana so I flashed in a Resto and started the beatdown as i continued to try and pick apart his hand. At one point he Edged my second white source so I couldn't play an Elspeth I drew. Eventually he had to wrath my lone Angel so I pathed it to get a plains and resolve Elspeth who closed out the game alongside a Creeping Tar Pit.

Top 4 Split because we needed to be responsible. My possible opponents were on Anafenza Company, Bant Midrange company and B/g Obliterator aggro homebrew.

Overall I liked this deck a lot though I do need to actually sit down and make a better sideboard. I mainly want a little more hate for burn and something to help with collected company decks which are popular at my store. I do think I finally need to make some concessions to affinity as well.

Quote from TheNoob »

Played the Twix version of Esper tonite at a ~50 person event

Here is the list

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Land (23) 1x Celestial Colonnade 1x Darkslick Shores 3x Flooded Strand 1x Ghost Quarter 2x Godless Shrine 2x Hallowed Fountain 2x Island 2x Plains 4x Polluted Delta 1x Swamp 2x Watery Grave 1x Seachrome Coast 2x Creeping Tar Pit 3x Inquisition of Kozilek 3x Thoughtseize 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant 1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad 3x Esper Charm 1x Go for the Throat 3x Mana Leak 1x Murderous Cut 4x Path to Exile 1x Slaughter Pact 1x Spell Snare	3x Geist of Saint Traft 3x Meddling Mage 2x Restoration Angel 3x Snapcaster Mage 3x Tidehollow Sculler 1x Vendilion Clique	2x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver 1x Spell Pierce 1x Gideon Jura 1x Smother 1x Jace, Architect of Thought 2x Negate 2x Spellskite 1x Sphinx's Revelation 2x Kor Firewalker 1x Timely Reinforcments 1x Supreme Verdict

Here is a quick summary and my feelings on the deck:

Went 2-2 at the event
To be fair, I had never played the deck before tonite (literally sleeved it up 10 minutes before start time). I will do a brief recap below:
Match 1 - Esper Control (2-0). Opened with discard into Geist into Elspeth into Meddling Mage naming Verdict, that was game. Game 2 involved a lot of discard/Scullers finished with Snap/Mage beats.
Match 2 - UWR Twin (1-2) Game 1 was a lot of back and forth. He played 2 Geist throughout the game, while I played none. I was able to win with Snap/Mage/Angel beats. Game 2 He was able to combo off with Twin, which I did not see in match 1 so was extremely not expecting. I am not sure if it is a sideboard plan or what. Game 3 was my first big mistake/super lucky top decks from my opponent. I had him down to 8 life with a Resto on the board and nothing on his side. I cast Thoughtseize and see the following: Pestermite, Keranos, Splinter Twin. He is on 3 lands and I have Creeping Tar Pit and Resto. I have him dead in 2 turns if I take the Pestermite, 3 if I don't. I figure he has to hit non-shock land (in a 3 colour deck) and a Deceiver/Mite on his next two draw steps to win. I go greedy and pick the Mite. He proceeds to top deck Plains into Deceiver...... While I draw nothing but 4 lands in a row (with 3 more coming). Bad Beats.
Match 3 - UWR Control (2-1). Game 1 - Discard into Geist gets me there. Game 2 - is super grindy until he top decks a Crucible with 2 GQs on the table and 3 of my basics already out. He cuts me off White first, and I proceed to draw Kor Firewalker > Geist > Resto. Game 3 I rip his hand apart, land Sorin LoI and beat down with Vampires/Creeping Tar Pit.
Match 4 Grixis Delver (0-2). Game 1 He lands some early YPs while I find no removal and have a Geist that cant attack. He is able to burn me out for 12 damage and some Tasigur beats. Game 2 I dont draw more than the 2 lands I have in my opener over 10 turns. I do draw all 3 of my Geists though. The second game I felt like if I had drawn some lands early I could have won

I liked the deck, there is just so much disruption between Scullers, Mages and IoK/Thoughtseize. My only issue with sometimes I felt like I wanted card draw: all the decks I played against were running Serum Visions (as well as Think Twice/Thought Scour) and I felt like I did not have the selection/draw they did. Even after ripping apart there hands, I felt like I was relying on my top deck and they could draw out of it. My manabase needs some work; I was stuck without WW sometimes for Elspeth or Firewalkers; but that was my fault.

I am a huge proponent of small, repeatable life gain against Burn. Now that most decks are running 8 spells that prevent life gain, I dont want to rely on a) them not having Skullcrack/Command when I want to cast my Timely/Rest b) getting to turn 3 with enough of a life cushion that I can cast a lifegain only spell. Firewalker does so much work against Burn/Zoo and can even come in against Grixis Delver and other decks that I want to burn you out for 6-12 damage every game.
I think I want to try to find room for 3-4 Visions/Anticipates though I have no idea what to cut/trim.