In this tournament I boarded in Engineered Explosives in all matches and Gideon Jura also except against Jund.
One could argue that Ghost Quarter should be colored sources. So far, I was happy with them to remove Tron lands, man lands or tapped Tec Edges/Ghost Quarter of my opponent to clear the coast for Celestial Colonnade.
Last week I won a Dark Confidant and a couple of other cards at small event with our lovely Esper Draw-Go deck
Round 1: Bye
Round 2: BW Tokens, 2-0. Game 2 was very difficult and I was a bit lucky.
Round 3: (Midrange/classic) Jund, 2-0. It was a slaughter. The combination of Path to Exile and Fatal Push (personally, I run a 4-2 split) kept his early threats at bay and without much pressure I was able to draw a million cards and out-value him.
Round 4: GW Humans, 2-0. Game 1 was tight because he had a fast start. I could stabilize at 1 life thanks to cryptic tap-draw until I found Supreme Verdict.
Top 4
Semi-Final: Bogles, 2-0. He drew poorly in game 1. Game 2 was a demonstration of our excellent sideboard and the deck's ability to draw and find answers: Engineered Explosives, Blessed Alliance and Gideon Jura sealed the deal.
Final: Against the Jund player. We decided to split the pot because it was already late.
In conclusion, the deck handles creature-based decks that don't go to wide very well. Also, I like my 26 land (no Serum Vision configuration), I had to mulligan only once in 8 games and the hand was even playable but not ideal against the opposing deck.
I played at a new store in my town with 2 Secure the Waste & 26 Lands Draw-Go list and went 3-1.
Match 1: Lantern Control 0-2
Both games, he was able to establish a soft-lock (Lantern of insight plus 2 Mill artifacts) within the first 2 turns. Normally, I can "out draw" Lantern but he was too fast. Maybe I should have mulliganed into more action? I consider this clear loss as variance.
SB: All creature removals out.
Match 2: Mono B 8-rack 2-0
Poor fellow, I think I never went below 3 cards. Think twice is almost unbeatable for them. Keep counters up for Liliana of the Veil and this should be an easy match-up.
Match 3: GW Elves Company with Vizier Combo 1-0
G1: He brought me down to one life until I could keep the board clean while also keeping counters up for Collected Company. I needed about 6 more turns to find Sphinx's revelation. He should have conceded to save time at this point. Instead I had to find Secure the Wastes and win with 12 tokens.
SB: Engineered Explosives and 2 Dispel in, 2 Negate and my 1-of Spell Pierce out.
G2: I couldn't beat him within 5 extra turns. We continued to play a few more turns for fun and I was clearly winning but then we had to go to the last match.
Match 4: Affinity 2-1
G1: I forgot that he was playing Affinity and kept a hand with some draw spells, Negate and Supreme Verdict. He killed me in turn 4 thanks to 2 Steel Overseer. Maybe I should have taken a mulligan since I was on the play.
SB: 2 Negate, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Cryptic Command out. In: 2 Blessed Alliance, Engineered Explosives, Gideon Jura.
G2: An epic attrition battle because he was able to land a turn 2 Cranial Plating into turn 3 Ghirapur Aether Grid. This made all of his draws except for lands dangerous. Life gain from BA (saved me from Etched Champion as well) and Sphinx's kept me alive and I was able to destroy the Grid with Esper Charm. I kept control until I found Secure the Wastes for the win.
SB: Anguished Unmaking in for another Cryptic to deal with Plating and Grid
G3: He played a couple of unimpressive 1/1 creatures into my sweeper and I was able to finish him off in 5 min + 5 extra turns.
I was placed 4th of 18 players in a unknown meta. The list felt great but I started to think about including Stony Silence since I encounter a lot of combo-ish artifact decks lately.
Which cards from Lantern do you prioritize to counter? Lantern of Insight is obviously the enemy number 1. But what about the mill pieces vs. Ensnaring bridge?
This is my current build and I am quite happy with it. I needed a lot of exercise to get a hang of the deck but I am slowly getting there
Main board is quite standard except for the 1-of Spell pierce. I like it so far because my friends/meta often play prison decks and it proved to be a surprise answer to an early Blood moon and the like.
Lately, I was thinking about switching Gideon to main for 1 StW because I switch him in quite often (my meta is also quite midrangy).
The Relic in the SB should probably be a Nihil Spellbomb or Rest in Peace.
Why do some of you play Elspeth, Sun's Champion in the SB? Aren't we alread favored enough against midrange decks?
How much grave hate do you play? I have the feeling 3 to 4 pieces are necessary because of the presence of Living End and Dredge.
I played some games against a friend with his new Eldrazi Tron and Grixis Shadow decks. I have the impression does are good matchups. For some reason I find Jund Shadow more difficult because of Lili of the Veil.
Match 2 against Jeskai Geist: 0-2
The opponent is an experienced player and the organizer of the event. I had a couple of misplays and in G1 I was also a bit land screwed. G2 he played Blood Moon and I couldn't recover.
I think I boarded super badly Weird . Should I take all Cryptic Command? How good is Blessed Alliance?
Cryptic Command is a super-nuisance against a counter-burn deck which lives on Dispel/Leak/Negate/Knot/Snare. Blessed Alliance is very good, because it answers both Geist and the multiple burn spells in their deck.
Yes, that was my feeling after the match. BA against Geist requires me to cast it in response to the angel token trigger, right? If I'd cast it later he could sac the angel token?!
Went 3-1 in a ~20 people modern event last Wednesday.
I played the list that I posted recently.
Match 1 against UR Storm: 2-0
Remove his cost reducing creatures and keep counters (or bluffs) up.
SB: Board wipes out, grave hate in. I learned to keep in spot removal and added even Engineered Explosives from the SB in case he casts Empty the Warrens. Surgical Extraction on Past in Flames was brutal for him.
Would you use the discard on Esper Charm against Storm on their draw? I tried it and he was able to cast a couple of instants, then found and cast a Gifts Ungiven. Didn't change the course of the game much, but I got scared a bit.
Match 2 against Jeskai Geist: 0-2
The opponent is an experienced player and the organizer of the event. I had a couple of misplays and in G1 I was also a bit land screwed. G2 he played Blood Moon and I couldn't recover.
I think I boarded super badly . Should I take all Cryptic Command? How good is Blessed Alliance?
Match 3 against Lantern: 2-1
We are quite annoying for Lantern because we have so much card draw and many answers. G1 he was able to deny my mana and I couldn't prevent him from playing his mill artifacts. To conserve time I conceded even though I still had a tiny chance to win. G2 and G3 were much better since I boarded out all my creature removal (9 cards). Therefore, most of my cards were threatening in some way to him and I was able to stop him from playing to many lock elements. G2 I played Snapcaster Mage as ambush viper and prevented him from playing bridge. G3 I was able to extract his Lantern of Insight in response to academy activation
Match 4 against Living End: 2-0
He stumbled G1 so I was able to play enough lands to keep multiple counters up when he was ready to cascade.
G2: Did I mention that I love Surgical Extraction as sideboard card? First, I extracted his Fulminator Mage, then his Living End.
A small note: In game 1 I played a Snappy as ambush viper to avoid discarding to 7 while he had a suspended Living End on 3. I should have discarded it in order to let it reanimate with Living End (I had a Supreme and removal in hand to deal with his creatures). It could potentially have provided some value.
I love the deck! Super fun because it's so interactive. I was very tired after 4 matches though because you need to be super focused all the time.
Looking forward to the next tournament
Thanks for the feedback! Cryptic Command and Esper Charm have some many applications... but they're also difficult to "master".
Your right with Celestial Purge. I will put it instead of AU.
Big Elspeth is on my To-acquire .
Apparently, the meta of the store is changing quite regularly. My friends told me (they're on Ad Nauseam and Jund Death's Shadow) that there's a high change to encounter some Eldrazi decks, blue-based control (last week there was a UW Ojutai control build) but almost no one is playing Affinity.
I have two question:
- Is my sideboard reasonable?
- Should I play 4 Think twice? Maybe I could play one more Logic Knot or Serum Visions. I even thought about kicking SV out completely on go up on Logic and lands (Drowned Catacomb)...
I went undefeated 4-0 in the first tournament: 2-0 vs affinity, 2-0 vs living end, 1-0 vs eldrazi tron, 1-0 vs uwr control and went 2-1-1 (should have been 3-1 but a player just didnt concede the draw even if I had lethal on the board and he couldn't respond in any way) the second one (0-2 vs grishoalbrand, 2-1 vs burn, 1-1 vs scapeshift, 2-0 vs DS jund).
Then I made some on-demand 8-man where I continuosly faced burn (like 5/5 matches against burn...that was just incredible...) and lost 2-3 against them.
The list seems quiet ok so far, but I think I'm going to modify my SB, even if I dont know how yet. Burn is just one hell of a matchup, it is really luck-dependent and skill-testing at the same time. Still practising on it.
I'm quiet tierd now, so I'm not entering into a report now. If you want some insight on any game or the list I played just ask (not too mach to tell anyway)
Congratulations!
Your list looks similar to the one I am running except for Spell Snare. How did it perform?
I like the list as it reminds of Esper transcendent - without Narset . Would Sorin, solemn vistor be an option as you have quite a bit of tokens? Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is pet card of mine but I left him out in my Esper Narset build. How does he fare for you?
Many thanks for the feedback. I see the Negate vs Countersquall argument. EE is supposed to be a catch-it-all because some of my friends play Chalice of the void or Lantern. I will test it.
I've been playing Esper Transcedant for a while now but Esper draw go looks very appealing to me.
Inspired by Great Nate's list (and by Craig Wescoe's) I want to try Draw go. Is Nate's list a good starting point to do so? It looks coherent to me but I am happy to hear other opinions before I trade for the missing parts.
Hello everyone, I'm pretty new to the deck and have gone through a lot of the posts here but wanted to ask about Dark Confidant.
What are the advantages / disadvantages to playing it in midrange? It seems to work quite well with cheap discard and removal as well as Monastary Mentor as a two of, as a finisher alongside manlands. Is it just because of Tasigur, the Golden Fang?
Thanks!
Hey!
Yes, delve creatures are a major concern when you run Dark Confidant. I don't have experience with Bob but I don't think that he's unplayable, it sounds actually very reasonable to run him alongside with Monastery Mentor. The question is only, how good those two are with the soon to be available Fatal Push because both creatures don't generate value immediately. Of course, both can take over the game if left unchecked, but they enable our opponents' removal (similar to Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in my list). My concern would be that we shouldn't run too many creatures that are susceptible to common removal and that don't generate immediate value.
On the other hand, if Tron and Valakut decks gain more popularity due to the recent B&R update, that could very well be an option. Dark Confidant puts more pressure on non-interactive decks than Jace, Vryn's Prodigy (although I think the latter is more flexible and well suited for the delve plan). Instead of Mentor you could also try Geist of Saint Traft. He should become better in BUW with Fatal Push available.
That Lilly tech is so hot and honestly never occured to me before. Dose everything we want and recurs our threats.
Geist is so bad right now though. With all those cards dumping in to the graveyard have you considered replacing them with 2 zombie fish a snappy and a four manna Walker like Sorin or the alley of Zendicar to pump souls?
Yes, Liliana, the last Hope was great against creature based or grindy decks and I can really recommend her.
I agree that Geist of Saint Traft has a wide spectrum from being awesome to being almost useless. But why do you think he's particularly bad at the moment? Anyways, I like your suggestions, although I wouldn't want to focus too much on GY interactions but 1 Gurmag Angler or +1 Snapcaster Mage should be fine. One of the strength of this deck is the diversity of the threats such that GY hate doesn't cripple it completely. Maybe 2 Vendilion Clique and a 4 cmc walker?
Sure. It's basically my go-to list without any experiments:
Lands
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Godless Shrine
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
1 Spell Pierce
4 Think Twice
2 Negate
2 Logic Knot
4 Esper Charm
4 Cryptic Command
2 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Secure the Wastes
Sorceries
3 Supreme Verdict
Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Runded Halo
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Gideon Jura
2 Dispel
1 Timely Reinforcements
In this tournament I boarded in Engineered Explosives in all matches and Gideon Jura also except against Jund.
One could argue that Ghost Quarter should be colored sources. So far, I was happy with them to remove Tron lands, man lands or tapped Tec Edges/Ghost Quarter of my opponent to clear the coast for Celestial Colonnade.
Last week I won a Dark Confidant and a couple of other cards at small event with our lovely Esper Draw-Go deck
Round 1: Bye
Round 2: BW Tokens, 2-0. Game 2 was very difficult and I was a bit lucky.
Round 3: (Midrange/classic) Jund, 2-0. It was a slaughter. The combination of Path to Exile and Fatal Push (personally, I run a 4-2 split) kept his early threats at bay and without much pressure I was able to draw a million cards and out-value him.
Round 4: GW Humans, 2-0. Game 1 was tight because he had a fast start. I could stabilize at 1 life thanks to cryptic tap-draw until I found Supreme Verdict.
Top 4
Semi-Final: Bogles, 2-0. He drew poorly in game 1. Game 2 was a demonstration of our excellent sideboard and the deck's ability to draw and find answers: Engineered Explosives, Blessed Alliance and Gideon Jura sealed the deal.
Final: Against the Jund player. We decided to split the pot because it was already late.
In conclusion, the deck handles creature-based decks that don't go to wide very well. Also, I like my 26 land (no Serum Vision configuration), I had to mulligan only once in 8 games and the hand was even playable but not ideal against the opposing deck.
I played at a new store in my town with 2 Secure the Waste & 26 Lands Draw-Go list and went 3-1.
Match 1: Lantern Control 0-2
Both games, he was able to establish a soft-lock (Lantern of insight plus 2 Mill artifacts) within the first 2 turns. Normally, I can "out draw" Lantern but he was too fast. Maybe I should have mulliganed into more action? I consider this clear loss as variance.
SB: All creature removals out.
Match 2: Mono B 8-rack 2-0
Poor fellow, I think I never went below 3 cards. Think twice is almost unbeatable for them. Keep counters up for Liliana of the Veil and this should be an easy match-up.
Match 3: GW Elves Company with Vizier Combo 1-0
G1: He brought me down to one life until I could keep the board clean while also keeping counters up for Collected Company. I needed about 6 more turns to find Sphinx's revelation. He should have conceded to save time at this point. Instead I had to find Secure the Wastes and win with 12 tokens.
SB: Engineered Explosives and 2 Dispel in, 2 Negate and my 1-of Spell Pierce out.
G2: I couldn't beat him within 5 extra turns. We continued to play a few more turns for fun and I was clearly winning but then we had to go to the last match.
Match 4: Affinity 2-1
G1: I forgot that he was playing Affinity and kept a hand with some draw spells, Negate and Supreme Verdict. He killed me in turn 4 thanks to 2 Steel Overseer. Maybe I should have taken a mulligan since I was on the play.
SB: 2 Negate, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Cryptic Command out. In: 2 Blessed Alliance, Engineered Explosives, Gideon Jura.
G2: An epic attrition battle because he was able to land a turn 2 Cranial Plating into turn 3 Ghirapur Aether Grid. This made all of his draws except for lands dangerous. Life gain from BA (saved me from Etched Champion as well) and Sphinx's kept me alive and I was able to destroy the Grid with Esper Charm. I kept control until I found Secure the Wastes for the win.
SB: Anguished Unmaking in for another Cryptic to deal with Plating and Grid
G3: He played a couple of unimpressive 1/1 creatures into my sweeper and I was able to finish him off in 5 min + 5 extra turns.
I was placed 4th of 18 players in a unknown meta. The list felt great but I started to think about including Stony Silence since I encounter a lot of combo-ish artifact decks lately.
Which cards from Lantern do you prioritize to counter? Lantern of Insight is obviously the enemy number 1. But what about the mill pieces vs. Ensnaring bridge?
Main board is quite standard except for the 1-of Spell pierce. I like it so far because my friends/meta often play prison decks and it proved to be a surprise answer to an early Blood moon and the like.
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Plains
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
3 Supreme Verdict
Counters (9)
1 Spell Pierce
2 Negate
2 Logic Knot
4 Cryptic Command
Card Advantage (10)
4 Think Twice
4 Esper Charm
2 Sphinx's Revelation
Win condition (2)
2 Secure the Wastes
Swiss-Army Knife (4)
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Dispel
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Gideon Jura
2 Thoughtseize
2 Runed Halo
Lately, I was thinking about switching Gideon to main for 1 StW because I switch him in quite often (my meta is also quite midrangy).
The Relic in the SB should probably be a Nihil Spellbomb or Rest in Peace.
Why do some of you play Elspeth, Sun's Champion in the SB? Aren't we alread favored enough against midrange decks?
How much grave hate do you play? I have the feeling 3 to 4 pieces are necessary because of the presence of Living End and Dredge.
I played some games against a friend with his new Eldrazi Tron and Grixis Shadow decks. I have the impression does are good matchups. For some reason I find Jund Shadow more difficult because of Lili of the Veil.
In case you missed it: Merriam Ross' had a run with a BW Eldrazi (non E & Taxes list).
Though, I prefer the Blight Herder list.
Yes, that was my feeling after the match. BA against Geist requires me to cast it in response to the angel token trigger, right? If I'd cast it later he could sac the angel token?!
I played the list that I posted recently.
Match 1 against UR Storm: 2-0
Remove his cost reducing creatures and keep counters (or bluffs) up.
SB: Board wipes out, grave hate in. I learned to keep in spot removal and added even Engineered Explosives from the SB in case he casts Empty the Warrens.
Surgical Extraction on Past in Flames was brutal for him.
Would you use the discard on Esper Charm against Storm on their draw? I tried it and he was able to cast a couple of instants, then found and cast a Gifts Ungiven. Didn't change the course of the game much, but I got scared a bit.
Match 2 against Jeskai Geist: 0-2
The opponent is an experienced player and the organizer of the event. I had a couple of misplays and in G1 I was also a bit land screwed. G2 he played Blood Moon and I couldn't recover.
I think I boarded super badly . Should I take all Cryptic Command? How good is Blessed Alliance?
Match 3 against Lantern: 2-1
We are quite annoying for Lantern because we have so much card draw and many answers. G1 he was able to deny my mana and I couldn't prevent him from playing his mill artifacts. To conserve time I conceded even though I still had a tiny chance to win. G2 and G3 were much better since I boarded out all my creature removal (9 cards). Therefore, most of my cards were threatening in some way to him and I was able to stop him from playing to many lock elements. G2 I played Snapcaster Mage as ambush viper and prevented him from playing bridge. G3 I was able to extract his Lantern of Insight in response to academy activation
Match 4 against Living End: 2-0
He stumbled G1 so I was able to play enough lands to keep multiple counters up when he was ready to cascade.
G2: Did I mention that I love Surgical Extraction as sideboard card? First, I extracted his Fulminator Mage, then his Living End.
A small note: In game 1 I played a Snappy as ambush viper to avoid discarding to 7 while he had a suspended Living End on 3. I should have discarded it in order to let it reanimate with Living End (I had a Supreme and removal in hand to deal with his creatures). It could potentially have provided some value.
I love the deck! Super fun because it's so interactive. I was very tired after 4 matches though because you need to be super focused all the time.
Looking forward to the next tournament
Cryptic Command and Esper Charm have some many applications... but they're also difficult to "master".
Your right with Celestial Purge. I will put it instead of AU.
Big Elspeth is on my To-acquire .
Got my list together and takin' it for a ride
Unknown meta and I'm a beginner with the deck but I guess we have to start somewhere.
This is what I will be running:
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
4 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
2 Serum Visions
2 Logic Knot
4 Think Twice
2 Negate
4 Esper Charm
2 Sphinx's revelation
3 Supreme Verdict
4 Cryptic Command
2 Secure the Wastes
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless shrine
2 Watery Grave
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Thoughtseize
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Gideon Jura
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Lingering Souls
2 Runed Halo
2 Dispel
Apparently, the meta of the store is changing quite regularly. My friends told me (they're on Ad Nauseam and Jund Death's Shadow) that there's a high change to encounter some Eldrazi decks, blue-based control (last week there was a UW Ojutai control build) but almost no one is playing Affinity.
I have two question:
- Is my sideboard reasonable?
- Should I play 4 Think twice? Maybe I could play one more Logic Knot or Serum Visions. I even thought about kicking SV out completely on go up on Logic and lands (Drowned Catacomb)...
Congratulations!
Your list looks similar to the one I am running except for Spell Snare. How did it perform?
I like the list as it reminds of Esper transcendent - without Narset . Would Sorin, solemn vistor be an option as you have quite a bit of tokens?
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is pet card of mine but I left him out in my Esper Narset build. How does he fare for you?
I've been playing Esper Transcedant for a while now but Esper draw go looks very appealing to me.
Inspired by Great Nate's list (and by Craig Wescoe's) I want to try Draw go. Is Nate's list a good starting point to do so? It looks coherent to me but I am happy to hear other opinions before I trade for the missing parts.
This is how I would build it:
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
4 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
2 Serum Visions
2 Logic Knot
4 Think Twice
2 Countersquall
4 Esper Charm
2 Sphinx's revelation
2 Supreme Verdict
4 Cryptic Command
2 Secure the Wastes
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless shrine
2 Watery Grave
1 Steam Vents
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Crumble to dust
2 Thoughtseize
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Collective Brutality
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Stony Silence
2 Runed Halo
1 Dispel
Thanks!
Hey!
Yes, delve creatures are a major concern when you run Dark Confidant. I don't have experience with Bob but I don't think that he's unplayable, it sounds actually very reasonable to run him alongside with Monastery Mentor. The question is only, how good those two are with the soon to be available Fatal Push because both creatures don't generate value immediately. Of course, both can take over the game if left unchecked, but they enable our opponents' removal (similar to Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in my list). My concern would be that we shouldn't run too many creatures that are susceptible to common removal and that don't generate immediate value.
On the other hand, if Tron and Valakut decks gain more popularity due to the recent B&R update, that could very well be an option. Dark Confidant puts more pressure on non-interactive decks than Jace, Vryn's Prodigy (although I think the latter is more flexible and well suited for the delve plan). Instead of Mentor you could also try Geist of Saint Traft. He should become better in BUW with Fatal Push available.
Yes, Liliana, the last Hope was great against creature based or grindy decks and I can really recommend her.
I agree that Geist of Saint Traft has a wide spectrum from being awesome to being almost useless. But why do you think he's particularly bad at the moment? Anyways, I like your suggestions, although I wouldn't want to focus too much on GY interactions but 1 Gurmag Angler or +1 Snapcaster Mage should be fine. One of the strength of this deck is the diversity of the threats such that GY hate doesn't cripple it completely. Maybe 2 Vendilion Clique and a 4 cmc walker?