Awesome! Looks like its only noteworthy decision is more Lingering Souls and no Liliana of the Last Hope anywhere in the 75. Really a statement about the value of Souls in fair match-ups, I think.
That might sometimes happen, true. With a non-fetch, fetchland, and Thought Scour, you can afford a Tasigur but not a Gurmag on T2, which in classic Grixis strategies (I played Delver for 2 years) is very standard. But this deck runs 11-12 fetchlands AND Street Wraiths. If both lands are fetches, Gurmag is active with a Thought Scour. Street Wraith improves those odds. And really, I don't think we're desperate to stick a turn 2 threat, especially in Esper. Holding up Path and Fatal Push or playing discard on turn 2 is often the play anyway.
I still think the 5/5 body against opponent Tasigurs and Tarmogoyfs (these 2 are all over the place, at least where I play) is a larger boon than late-game activations that almost never happen. I'll just have to playtest and check back!
I agree about waiting until five mana. And five mana happens so infrequently in an 18-19 land deck that it makes me think running only Gurmag Angler just for the 5/5 body is reasonable. I played a Tasigur on Friday into a Grixis Control player's Tasigur, and if mine had just been Gurmag I would've basically won on the spot. Deckbuilding around that situation feels more beneficial than hoping for a meaningful Tasigur activation in our deck.
I took Esper to FNM and the deck played pretty well. Having access to Path and Souls felt incredible in the mirror. But I have a question to pose for those running any flavor of Shadow: Are you all activating Tasigur with any real frequency? I found that the 4/5 body was a huge detriment against opposing Gurmags and Tarmogoyfs. The extra delve cost can sometimes matter, but I'm considering cutting my Tasigurs for all Gurmag next time. Thoughts?
I would stick with 3 Surgical Extraction over the Spellbombs, personally. Seems great in so many matchups, and with 4 Snapcasters we only have to keep up 2 mana to flash it back.
I've always been a bit skeptical of Ashiok in modern--I get why it can be good, but having no impact on the turn you play it really hurts. I think in its place I'd run some sort of catch-all answer like Echoing Truth, Detention Sphere, or Anguished Unmaking.
I'm deciding whether to run Grixis or Esper Shadow, and Path to Exile, Lingering Souls, and Stony Silence seem like great reasons to try white. Having read this thread though, it seems like a lot of people have been waffling between incorporating Delver of Secrets or sticking with Street Wraith like the other Shadow shells. I find this confusing.
Do those running Delver find adequate self-damage/card-filtering more difficult to achieve? With no Wraith (and no incidental self-damage options like Lightning Bolt and Kolaghan's Command) isn't Death's Shadow a turn or two later to the party than we'd like? With no reach that red offers, it looks like the Esper lists will precipitate grindier, longer games. Delver doesn't seem like the sort of card suited for that style of play to me, but I haven't sleeved up the deck yet.
I am worried about having a mere goodstuff deck (although the only GU commanders that look like they gravitate to a specific theme, offhand, are Vorel and Kraj--and I'm not too interested in +1/+1 counter themes these days), and I'm actually a bit fearful that focusing on EtB effects might be a surefire route there. My original plan was to deal in tempo wreckage, but I'm not sure there's enough cards in GU, at least not without severely slanting the deck towards blue. (q.v. Temporal Spring, Set Adrift, Submerge, Plow Under, etc.)
That said, EDHRec isn't recording that many scry cards in Rashmi decks. Which leaves me wondering what else everyone is using to ensure the likelihood of fully triggering Rashmi's ability. (Or maybe I'm overloading on scry in the first place...)
If you're interested in cards that will help you gain knowledge of/manipulate your library to maximize your Rashmi triggers, there are a ton of great options. I run quite a few of them:
Managed a 4-0 last night with a pretty standard list, and I actually never won with the combo. All-Stars were Spell Queller and Voice of Resurgence.
2-1 Grixis Delver
2-1 Skred
2-0 Burn
2-1 Esper Control
I will note that Unified Will came up huge for me in the Esper matchup (was able to counter a Elspeth, Sun's Champion that would have effectively ended our game 3 on the spot). My guess is that Fatal Push will make these draw-go strategies much more playable, so the 2-of in my sideboard seems highly justified. We'll have to see how the meta reacts, but I know my LGS is full of blue mages who have been dying for years to sleeve up proper control decks.
2. New lines for Collected Company hits. With Revolt activated, hitting Rallier at instant speed gives the deck more play.
3. Valuetown: For Eldritch Evolution builds, play evolution saccing Voice of Resurgence to trigger Revolt, tutor Rallier, return Voice. In grindy matchups--especially when we board out the combo against 1-for-1 removal decks (I anticipate a lot more of this happening given Fatal Push)--this interaction specifically seems like a great way to generate value to maintain a tempo advantage.
It's too bad the revolt clause is 2 cmc instead of 3, as that would likely make him an auto-include. Even so, this card seems worth testing.
Here's my most recent iteration. The deck has been playing quite smoothly. I've opted to steer away from adding too many big cmc spells that can be played for free merely to get a Rashmi trigger. Rather, my focus is to jam some of the best Simic midrange/control elements and use library manipulation for extra value. Right now, my biggest gimmick is Panharmonicon. It can win games, honestly.
Returning the opponent's stuff is a fine baseline, but if you run a bunch of permanents with strong cast/ETB effects (and you probably will), you can return your own stuff and instantly recast it with Rashmi. With such a high cmc, this will work on a majority of the deck's permanents. Heck, you could even you could do something funky like sac Glen Elendra Archmage to emerge Lashweed Lurker, stack the triggers so that persist resolves first, return the persisted Glen Elendra to the library with Lurker, and recast Glen Elendra with Rashmi's trigger for a fresh, non-persisted Glen Elendra. Not really that powerful, but at least fun
edit: actually that might not that work. But you get the idea!
All of that actually does work. Could definitely see utilizing the Lurker to set up some value town plays.
Does it? My thought was that you would have to declare a target for Lashweed while stacking the initial triggers, and that when Glen Elendra persisted it would come back as a new permanent, so the Lashweed target would fizzle. I am far from a judge though!
I still think the 5/5 body against opponent Tasigurs and Tarmogoyfs (these 2 are all over the place, at least where I play) is a larger boon than late-game activations that almost never happen. I'll just have to playtest and check back!
2 Ceremonius Rejection
2 Collective Brutality
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Stony Silence
2 Path to Exile
1 Stubborn Denial
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Ranger of Eos
I would stick with 3 Surgical Extraction over the Spellbombs, personally. Seems great in so many matchups, and with 4 Snapcasters we only have to keep up 2 mana to flash it back.
I was thinking I'd run Damnation, but Flaying Tendrils actually seems great for Dredge, Voice of Resurgence, Elves, etc. I guess this one's meta-dependent.
I've always been a bit skeptical of Ashiok in modern--I get why it can be good, but having no impact on the turn you play it really hurts. I think in its place I'd run some sort of catch-all answer like Echoing Truth, Detention Sphere, or Anguished Unmaking.
Really like your mainboard, btw.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/772523-esper-death-shadow?page=3
Do those running Delver find adequate self-damage/card-filtering more difficult to achieve? With no Wraith (and no incidental self-damage options like Lightning Bolt and Kolaghan's Command) isn't Death's Shadow a turn or two later to the party than we'd like? With no reach that red offers, it looks like the Esper lists will precipitate grindier, longer games. Delver doesn't seem like the sort of card suited for that style of play to me, but I haven't sleeved up the deck yet.
Any insight?
If you're interested in cards that will help you gain knowledge of/manipulate your library to maximize your Rashmi triggers, there are a ton of great options. I run quite a few of them:
Sensei's Divining Top
Mirri's Guile
Sylvan Library
Scroll Rack
Oracle of Mul Daya
Courser of Kruphix
Brainstorm
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Halimar Depths
Here's my full list:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/10-09-16-Vkn-rashmi-eternities-crafter/
I'll also be adding Vizier of the Menagerie next week!
If it's their printed cmc, this is going straight into my deck. With Leyline of Anticipation or Vedalken Orrery this thing is insane.
2-1 Grixis Delver
2-1 Skred
2-0 Burn
2-1 Esper Control
I will note that Unified Will came up huge for me in the Esper matchup (was able to counter a Elspeth, Sun's Champion that would have effectively ended our game 3 on the spot). My guess is that Fatal Push will make these draw-go strategies much more playable, so the 2-of in my sideboard seems highly justified. We'll have to see how the meta reacts, but I know my LGS is full of blue mages who have been dying for years to sleeve up proper control decks.
We play plenty of fetchlands, so this can provide inadvertent ramp. But there's plenty else to do:
1. Given that we're a semi-toolbox deck, this thing can rebuy key cards in a pinch, whether hatebears from the sideboard or protection for the combo (Qasali Pridemage, Selfless Spirit, Spellskite, Kataki, War's Wage, Burrenton Forge Tender etc.)
2. New lines for Collected Company hits. With Revolt activated, hitting Rallier at instant speed gives the deck more play.
3. Valuetown: For Eldritch Evolution builds, play evolution saccing Voice of Resurgence to trigger Revolt, tutor Rallier, return Voice. In grindy matchups--especially when we board out the combo against 1-for-1 removal decks (I anticipate a lot more of this happening given Fatal Push)--this interaction specifically seems like a great way to generate value to maintain a tempo advantage.
It's too bad the revolt clause is 2 cmc instead of 3, as that would likely make him an auto-include. Even so, this card seems worth testing.
Here's my most recent iteration. The deck has been playing quite smoothly. I've opted to steer away from adding too many big cmc spells that can be played for free merely to get a Rashmi trigger. Rather, my focus is to jam some of the best Simic midrange/control elements and use library manipulation for extra value. Right now, my biggest gimmick is Panharmonicon. It can win games, honestly.
Let me know what you think!
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/10-09-16-Vkn-rashmi-eternities-crafter/
4 Aether Hub
4 Inspiring Vantage
8 Plains
6 Mountain
CREATURES
4 Inventor's Apprentice
4 Toolcraft Exemplar
4 Bomat Courier
4 Master Trinketeer
3 Glint-Sleeve Artisan
3 Chief of the Foundry
3 Salivating Gremlins
2 Pia Nalaar
1 Angel of Invention
4 Inventor's Goggles
4 Servo Exhibition
2 Cogworker's Puzzleknot
2 Declaration in Stone
My list is more of a RW tokens list that happens to play artificers and Inventor's Goggles. I like some of the token synergies available. Servo Exhibition turns on our 1-mana artificers, but it also plays quite well with Master Trinketeer, Chief of the Foundry, and Salivating Gremlins.
Other options could be Visionary Augmenter and Reckless Bushwhacker.
Does it? My thought was that you would have to declare a target for Lashweed while stacking the initial triggers, and that when Glen Elendra persisted it would come back as a new permanent, so the Lashweed target would fizzle. I am far from a judge though!
But yeah--returning something like Prime Speaker Zegana would be just lovely.
edit: grammar