I played in an IQ about two weeks ago with Esper and got 5th place and was in the feature match twice with a 5-1 and lost my match in the top 8. I was going to write up a detailed report but I'm rather busy with school so I will keep it brief. Feel free to ask me to elaborate on anything.
Round 1: G/W with death and taxes flare 0-2
Game one: Hand of 3 fetches into a turn 2 Aven mindcensor
Game two: Destroyed all my lands
Round 2: Death and Taxes 2-0
Game one: Stabilized at one with Sphinx’s Rev, Snap, Rev
Game two: He mulled to 4, showed me 4 Ghost Quarters then conceded
Round 3: Humans 2-0
Game one: Supreme Verdict into Jace/Teferi to win
Game two: Meddling Mage named Supreme Verdict but I had a Settle the Wreckage in hand. Turn four he played a Mantis Rider as a 5th attacker, I wiped him clean and it was smooth sailing from there.
Round 4: U/B Control 2-0
Game one: Souls was good. Baited out counter magic with an Esper Charm, slammed Teferi, then Jace
Game two: Was about to lock him out of the game with Esper charm into Esper charm but he Surgical Extractioned Esper Charm before I could untap and got the other out of my hand. I ripped Elspeth off the top and won
Round 5: Krark-Clan Ironworks 2-0
Game one: Pathed his Myr Retriever, countered all his Ironworks and beat down with Souls tokens
Game two: Slammed a turn two Stoney Silence. He eventually used Nature’s Claim to get rid of it but the damage was already done. He tried for an Ironworks with a Guttural Response backup, but I had both Cryptic and Logic Knot. I had Teferi and Jace going and then ultimated Teferi, following it up with a Rev for 6 and a Brainstorm from Jace, exiling all of his permanents.
Quarter Finals: Titanshift 1-2
The next match after the one against Vengvine
Some thoughts:
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about opt over think twice. On one hand, it is faster and lets me keep riskier hands but it doesn't have the ability to get milled from Azcanta for value. I might try a split and see how that goes.
I was against Lingering Souls for a very long time because of Esper's former dedication to being fully draw-go, but now that we have Azcanta, Jace and Teferi that is no longer the case. Having a threat that can easily be tossed out against control decks and combo decks while also not being dead in a faster match up has been great.
I've been enjoying the Settle the Wreckage as a one-of in the main. Catching people out in game one and then having them hesitate with attacks in games two and three is fantastic.
Settle the Wreckage could be a good replacement for Wrath of God if nothing else. The main reasons to run Wrath over a fourth Verdict are Thrun and Elves. Settle the Wreckage deals with both of those threats equally well, if not, even better. Gives you the option to see if you want to use it until their turn and if elves is holding back their lords from attacking that is a win for us too. We can just kill them with path or push later.
I think the problem is less about whether or not the pure "Draw-Go" deck is good or not, but rather that there is a place for everything. There are other threads that discuss each different flavors of decks and it is better that way. If you want to read about draw-go Esper, you come here. If you want to read about Jund, you go there. If you want to read about midrange Esper, you go to the thread for that. It is a lot easier on everyone if discussion is organized and not all muddled together so readers can find the information they want quickly. Imagine if a library threw organization to the wind, it would be chaos.
I'm surprised to see that no one has brought up this card yet: Supreme Will. While one more mana than each of its parts (Impulse and Mana Leak) it has the added benefit of flexibility.
Leak has been a card that people like to bring up on this forum and even play occasionally. Its strength comes from being a 2-mana "unconditional" counterspell but it suffers by possibly being a blank draw in the late game due to the opponent's larger mana pool.
Impulse is a strong cantrip that has never been legal in Modern. We've had other spells close to it in Anticipate and Telling Time but those only go three cards deep instead of four.
While I understand much of the appeal of Mana Leak comes from its low cost and three mana is a bit much to pay for an Impulse I think this card has potential as a filler card. It curves nicely into finding a Verdict for turn-four versus an aggressive deck while also being a counterspell against slower decks.
Let me know how the Moonlights feel. I'm personally not a fan of them after trying them out at an Open. Most things it counters are also stopped by Negate. If you're looking for a 2-mana cantrip-spell you could try Remand perhaps? It's not as popular as it used to be but it is very versatile.
Thanks for the responses! As for Tragic Lesson it seems rather bad. We're playing X-spells and don't want to bounce lands except maybe to save them from land destruction. So most of the time it is just draw 2, discard 1 which is meh.
So I was playing some games against Living End the other day and got completely trashed. I feel we have valid answers to everything in their deck... except one: Fulminator Mage. I lose almost every game that I see that card and they run 4 of them. They're immune to removal and countering them only delays them until they sneak through a Living End with the help of Ricochet Trap.
What's the best way to get around Fulminator? Just fetch basics and hope for the best?
I'm going to try out both Anticipate and Peer Through the Depths because not having a boardwipe makes everyone salty.
As for people asking the same questions over and over again:
I've read over 150 pages of this thread and that has really helped me to better understand the deck and appreciate the synergies and draw engine. However, reading it took me many hours and I found myself looking for a past discussion and turning up empty-handed, lost in the vast archives. What I suggest is that the primer be updated with links to the different discussions so that way new pilots can see the thought processes without hours of searching though material that isn't relevant to the current meta.
I'm currently playing in a Modern Classic and I just played against Stokpile. Really fun two games. He beat me 2-0 with Elspeth tokens out the wazoo. I'll post about everything later.
Lingering Souls was pretty good here in providing a quick clock, but was not enough.
Overall I was happy with my play and look forward to the next tournament. Lingering Souls preformed better than expected (but doesn't mean that it is better than other options).
Do you suggest 2 mainboard Lingering Souls over 2 mb Cliques?
Previously I was running 1 Clique mainboard and no Lingering Souls but I pushed Clique to the SB in order to test out Lingering Souls. Seeing as I saw no Affinity or Infect but 2 Tron decks I think Lingering Souls will be taking the bench for now and Clique will be coming back in. However, Souls in much better against decks that run 1 for 1 removal and discard, but those decks are also usually GBx decks and we can usually win those anyway.
I went to a small Modern tournament today and went 2-1 overall.
Round 1 vs. Kiki-Cord (2-0 win)
This was a matchup against a close friend of mine and so I've played it quite a few times. Esper is highly favored because it comes down to a grid-fest usually and we can draw cards for days. In fact, in game 1 I won with White Sun's with 7 cards left in my library. I was able to Snap-Cryptic to counter/ bounce Snap 3 times. In game two I won with a swing with Colonnade with 0 cards left in my library. The best card in this match up was Sphinx's Revelation. It stabled my life total well assuring my enough card-advantage to close out the game.
Round 2 vs. Abzan (2-1 win)
A classic Abzan shell with Lilianas, Rhinos and Lingering Souls. An interesting inclusion was Anafenza, the Foremost.
Game 1 I lost because I was not able to get the colors I needed to cast all my spells.
Game 2 was a bit iffy. It started out well when he Thoughtseized me showing only lands and a Think Twice/ Lingering Souls. He brought the beats with Treetop Village and Anafenza until I was at 3. I Sphinxed for 6 finding the Path for Anafenza and the the Ghost Quarter for the Village. From there I was able to stabilize, Cryptic Commanding anything he tried to play.
Game 3 I was able to wipe the board twice after blocking his Tarmogoyf for 4 turns with Lingering Souls tokens. I killed his Liliana with a Colonnade after he minused it to make me sack another Souls token then Sphinx to secure the game.
Lingering Souls as a 3-of proved really good in this match-up and Sphinx was great yet again.
Round 3 vs. Tron (0-2 loss)
My worst nightmare: Tron. My sideboard is not ready for this match-up yet and I got steam rolled game 1. Game two I had him down to 8 with 2 Spirits and Snap on board. He found the O-Stone to stop me from killing him and then proceeded to cast 2 Ulamogs and I lost.
Lingering Souls was pretty good here in providing a quick clock, but was not enough.
Overall I was happy with my play and look forward to the next tournament. Lingering Souls preformed better than expected (but doesn't mean that it is better than other options).
Personally, I don't play MTGO. I know there are quite a few esper pilots out there who also refuse to use MTGO, either because of the cost or the client (or both). If there is enough interest, I'm willing to look into taking the time to get a top-down camera view set up and to record video of testing sessions the same way SCG does their coverage (obviously with none of the production quality or professionalism).
I'm certainly interested but I'm not asking you to spend money on equipment or anything. I'm just saying that if you already wanted to make videos, I'd totally watch them. As for people who stream or post videos on Youtube, could you please post a link?
4 flooded strand
2 hallowed fountain
2 watery grave
3 island
2 plains
1 swamp
2 field of ruin
4 celestial colonnade
1 glacial fortress
4 path to exile
2 fatal push
4 opt
2 logic knot
3 snapcaster mage
2 search for azcanta
2 lingering souls
4 esper charm
4 cryptic command
2 supreme verdict
1 settle the wreckage
1 jace, the mind sculptor
2 teferi, hero of dominaria
1 white sun's zenith
2 surgical extraction
1 celestial purge
3 thoughtseize
1 negate
1 dispel
1 elspeth, sun's champion
2 stoney silence
1 blessed alliance
1 wrath of god
1 spell queller
1 kambal, consul of allocation
Round 1: G/W with death and taxes flare 0-2
Game one: Hand of 3 fetches into a turn 2 Aven mindcensor
Game two: Destroyed all my lands
Round 2: Death and Taxes 2-0
Game one: Stabilized at one with Sphinx’s Rev, Snap, Rev
Game two: He mulled to 4, showed me 4 Ghost Quarters then conceded
Round 3: Humans 2-0
Game one: Supreme Verdict into Jace/Teferi to win
Game two: Meddling Mage named Supreme Verdict but I had a Settle the Wreckage in hand. Turn four he played a Mantis Rider as a 5th attacker, I wiped him clean and it was smooth sailing from there.
Round 4: U/B Control 2-0
Game one: Souls was good. Baited out counter magic with an Esper Charm, slammed Teferi, then Jace
Game two: Was about to lock him out of the game with Esper charm into Esper charm but he Surgical Extractioned Esper Charm before I could untap and got the other out of my hand. I ripped Elspeth off the top and won
Round 5: Krark-Clan Ironworks 2-0
Game one: Pathed his Myr Retriever, countered all his Ironworks and beat down with Souls tokens
Game two: Slammed a turn two Stoney Silence. He eventually used Nature’s Claim to get rid of it but the damage was already done. He tried for an Ironworks with a Guttural Response backup, but I had both Cryptic and Logic Knot. I had Teferi and Jace going and then ultimated Teferi, following it up with a Rev for 6 and a Brainstorm from Jace, exiling all of his permanents.
Round 6: Vengvine 2-0
See the twitch link. I'm on at 5:35:30
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/298895082
Quarter Finals: Titanshift 1-2
The next match after the one against Vengvine
Some thoughts:
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about opt over think twice. On one hand, it is faster and lets me keep riskier hands but it doesn't have the ability to get milled from Azcanta for value. I might try a split and see how that goes.
I was against Lingering Souls for a very long time because of Esper's former dedication to being fully draw-go, but now that we have Azcanta, Jace and Teferi that is no longer the case. Having a threat that can easily be tossed out against control decks and combo decks while also not being dead in a faster match up has been great.
I've been enjoying the Settle the Wreckage as a one-of in the main. Catching people out in game one and then having them hesitate with attacks in games two and three is fantastic.
Leak has been a card that people like to bring up on this forum and even play occasionally. Its strength comes from being a 2-mana "unconditional" counterspell but it suffers by possibly being a blank draw in the late game due to the opponent's larger mana pool.
Impulse is a strong cantrip that has never been legal in Modern. We've had other spells close to it in Anticipate and Telling Time but those only go three cards deep instead of four.
While I understand much of the appeal of Mana Leak comes from its low cost and three mana is a bit much to pay for an Impulse I think this card has potential as a filler card. It curves nicely into finding a Verdict for turn-four versus an aggressive deck while also being a counterspell against slower decks.
What do you guys think?
What's the best way to get around Fulminator? Just fetch basics and hope for the best?
As for people asking the same questions over and over again:
I've read over 150 pages of this thread and that has really helped me to better understand the deck and appreciate the synergies and draw engine. However, reading it took me many hours and I found myself looking for a past discussion and turning up empty-handed, lost in the vast archives. What I suggest is that the primer be updated with links to the different discussions so that way new pilots can see the thought processes without hours of searching though material that isn't relevant to the current meta.
PS. I seen 3 other Esper Control decks already!
Previously I was running 1 Clique mainboard and no Lingering Souls but I pushed Clique to the SB in order to test out Lingering Souls. Seeing as I saw no Affinity or Infect but 2 Tron decks I think Lingering Souls will be taking the bench for now and Clique will be coming back in. However, Souls in much better against decks that run 1 for 1 removal and discard, but those decks are also usually GBx decks and we can usually win those anyway.
Round 1 vs. Kiki-Cord (2-0 win)
This was a matchup against a close friend of mine and so I've played it quite a few times. Esper is highly favored because it comes down to a grid-fest usually and we can draw cards for days. In fact, in game 1 I won with White Sun's with 7 cards left in my library. I was able to Snap-Cryptic to counter/ bounce Snap 3 times. In game two I won with a swing with Colonnade with 0 cards left in my library. The best card in this match up was Sphinx's Revelation. It stabled my life total well assuring my enough card-advantage to close out the game.
Round 2 vs. Abzan (2-1 win)
A classic Abzan shell with Lilianas, Rhinos and Lingering Souls. An interesting inclusion was Anafenza, the Foremost.
Game 1 I lost because I was not able to get the colors I needed to cast all my spells.
Game 2 was a bit iffy. It started out well when he Thoughtseized me showing only lands and a Think Twice/ Lingering Souls. He brought the beats with Treetop Village and Anafenza until I was at 3. I Sphinxed for 6 finding the Path for Anafenza and the the Ghost Quarter for the Village. From there I was able to stabilize, Cryptic Commanding anything he tried to play.
Game 3 I was able to wipe the board twice after blocking his Tarmogoyf for 4 turns with Lingering Souls tokens. I killed his Liliana with a Colonnade after he minused it to make me sack another Souls token then Sphinx to secure the game.
Lingering Souls as a 3-of proved really good in this match-up and Sphinx was great yet again.
Round 3 vs. Tron (0-2 loss)
My worst nightmare: Tron. My sideboard is not ready for this match-up yet and I got steam rolled game 1. Game two I had him down to 8 with 2 Spirits and Snap on board. He found the O-Stone to stop me from killing him and then proceeded to cast 2 Ulamogs and I lost.
Lingering Souls was pretty good here in providing a quick clock, but was not enough.
Overall I was happy with my play and look forward to the next tournament. Lingering Souls preformed better than expected (but doesn't mean that it is better than other options).
I'm certainly interested but I'm not asking you to spend money on equipment or anything. I'm just saying that if you already wanted to make videos, I'd totally watch them. As for people who stream or post videos on Youtube, could you please post a link?