I think that turn 1 ingest creature is crucial in making the ulamog's nullifier at least become a potent threat, plus the infinite obliteration exiling key win condition in some decks.
Dispel mainly is for protecting your small creatures from opponent's removal spells and key spells which are instant.
Ghostfire Blade helps power up your somewhat tiny processors which happens to be colorless creatures too.
Reality shift is our main answer for Commander General Jura, opposing hangarback's plus other problematic bigger creatures, you can actually target your own small creature to make a 2/2 colorless that can be equipped with the blade, at least an option when you want to counter swing the turn after an opponent attack.
Would really appreciate any ideas/opinion about it. =)
Is there by any chance darkblast useful in this deck? You can abuse the prowess trigger with this card(upkeep -1/-1 target creature, delve 3 return to hand -1/-1 again for a total of +2/+2 on all your prowess monks and 2x monk tokens) and at the same time dumping cards in your graveyard helps with the delve on some of your powerful cards.
This might be a crazy crazy idea but I would never want to board out Geist of Saint Traft on any match up. Hitting 4 damage in the air is kind of relevant adding to that the burn spells package plus Snapcaster Mage has in this deck. We only need to find a way to make Saint Traft attack without getting into trouble. I find Temporal Isolation very exciting. It acts as Saint Traft's protection by making it unblockable(Who plays shadow anyways) netting 4 damage with the Angel doing its job. It can work on opponent's creatures also. They can't block Saint Traft ever(assuming that is the only blocker they have). A potent removal spell early on and late game combo piece. Have not tried yet but might be worth mentioning.
Also, I am considering cutting 2 Geists temporarily (to the side) for 2x Isochron Scepter. Seems fun in game 1, as the opponent will likely not have an answer to it, and it has 18 possible Imprint options (at least in my build). Board them out to finish the 4 Geists for game 2.
Aqueous Form has only one purpose. Temporal Isolation can be used against opponent's creature to halt the attack until the opponent finds a solution or removal for enchant creature in which by that time you should be able to capitalize on that free turns of a potential no creature attack pressure.
This might be a crazy crazy idea but I would never want to board out Geist of Saint Traft on any match up. Hitting 4 damage in the air is kind of relevant adding to that the burn spells package plus Snapcaster Mage has in this deck. We only need to find a way to make Saint Traft attack without getting into trouble. I find Temporal Isolation very exciting. It acts as Saint Traft's protection by making it unblockable(Who plays shadow anyways) netting 4 damage with the Angel doing its job. It can work on opponent's creatures also. They can't block Saint Traft ever(assuming that is the only blocker they have). A potent removal spell early on and late game combo piece. Have not tried yet but might be worth mentioning.
vs creature base :
- Affinity, Infect, UR delver, pod, DnT, merfolk, etc : I play a total of 4 board wipes plus two semi-board wipe in the form of zealous persecution that can help me catch up whenever I feel behind and needing to clear the board. 4x PTE's a must. Against zoo though it's tough match up because of their heavy hitter early drop and burn reach plus board wipe protection boros charm
vs combo/control :
- generally, I would disrupt their hand and land The Saint Traft early and hope to win from there. Zealous works to buff any threat I have in play and sometimes can get me there. Tron though is a different approach. It has the inevitability and has better control vs control decks. First game is a struggle to land threat early and protect it. Discard can help with setting up the big turn but can't wait longer as they assemble the tron quick enough that casting multiple spell during their turn hurts our ability to counter. The Charm is quite helpful when they try to cast stuff and become vulnerable to 2 hand discard.
I think capitalizing in an opponent's inability to fight the control aspect at least even for 2-3 turns is vital in winning our match up. I choose to play low cost conditional heavy hitter to help me close out games that is sometimes takes long if we play too few win condition in the deck and the winning turn slowly slipping away our reach as other decks has incredible way of clawing back to the game if we stumble or unable to close out games quickly.
In my opinion, it is nearly impossible to control every opponent completely as spells/creatures get printed to be pretty good at what they do to fight the hate, controlling aspect of the game.
I understand why having Esper charm (and potentially discard + hard removal) makes us have better answers to midrange and combo cards. My main issue is whether or not the fact that we win games much more slowly (no burn to ocasionally snapcast/throw at their face) costs us games that were already basically won.
I found that in the Pod matchup I basically could not ever win since at least with UWR you could burn their creatures well enough to stall. And against Tron I felt that since we had no burn plan, we got into a late game scenario that we cannot win against that deck -- maybe the answer to this problem is a better sideboard for the matchups. Maybe a geist plan for Tron? Cage for Pod since we rely less on Snapcaster than UWR? I honestly want Esper to be a thing
The problem I always had against pod with UWR was that none of my red removal killed anything and electrolyze was almost always a dead card. All of that caused me to very quickly fall behind and if they ever resolved a pod it was game over. With esper there is more than enough card draw to keep up with a pod that gets activated every turn and 3 main deck wraths do a lot more work than bolt and helix ever could.
As for closing speed it's only a problem if you play slowly and that's the entire reason that I have a grave titan in my list. I can spam DTT to find it and then end the game in just 2 combat steps. But if you and your opponent go at a reasonable pace you shouldn't have any problems ending the game. UWR loses games they had under control not because they can't close, but because they are not capable of keeping it under control. Playing with a set of esper charms in addition to our other card draw spells (not just cantrips like shadow of doubt) means that as soon as the game is stable, we're a lock to win. All that matters at that point is the clock.
I strongly agree with this. I think that UWR should play a different approach and maybe focus more on burning the opponent like in Jeskai Standard decks. Removal spells in Esper are very good at doing what it does, killing creature in one shot. Add to the fact that Esper has discard suites to fight combo and opposing control decks.
I did win some matches but most games I played against the Jeskai deck I felt I was always behind with all this burn removal spell. WARNING ! Rabblemaster wins the game fairly quickly. With zero removal in main deck it is the most powerful creature hitting a bunch, at least from what I experienced battling against the jeskai. Them playing second turn Seeker is also annoying while sitting with burn in hand and for 2 a piece from the seeker. If I have creature in play I had to spend two protection spells only to be charmed back on top of my library. The most humiliating way to be beaten by this deck. Can't explain how hard and painful it is to play against this deck.
One way that we might beat this deck is to be one turn faster at deploying our creatures and having good amount of protection. With that said, I think playing 3cc spells and up is not an option really. On our 3rd turn we should have enough threat in play already and sitting with protection in hand. Battlewise in place of the seeker, -3 eidolon for something else. -2 fabled hero for more protection or stubborn. -4 shieldmate for something else or maybe this is the slot for the battlewise.
This helps with Delver Match ups, mana creature powered decks like pod and ascendancy combo, infect, affinity, lingering tokens, and bob too. It won't work against zoo though except a turn 1 lynx.
Battle Mastery is like the Ajani, Caller of the Pride and has that surprise oops I win scenario. You can hold on to the Mastery or play it outright if you feel no 2 for 1's from opponents removing your creature. Plus you don't over extend if your creature has double strike hitting a bunch at opponent's life total.
fair enough, one advantage i can see with seeker though is it's mana cost that is more consistent on turn two as opposed to battlewise at UW. Lifegain seems relevant to some match up. It may allow us to race the opponent while gaining precious life. Like TrappedUnderIce said battlewise retains it's counter though. I think both are playable but not both of them together in the main. I anticipate anger of the gods, early removal spells that will come up game 2 that playing counter spell like stubborn denial will make them stumble i little and can possibly hard counter in no time.
4 fathom feeder
4 ulamog's nullifier
4 salvage drone
2 wasteland strangler
2 dominator drone
3 murderous cut
2 reality shift
2 infinite obliteration
4 dispel
2 transgress the mind
4 flooded strand
4 sunken hollow
5 island
6 swamp
I think that turn 1 ingest creature is crucial in making the ulamog's nullifier at least become a potent threat, plus the infinite obliteration exiling key win condition in some decks.
Dispel mainly is for protecting your small creatures from opponent's removal spells and key spells which are instant.
Ghostfire Blade helps power up your somewhat tiny processors which happens to be colorless creatures too.
Reality shift is our main answer for Commander General Jura, opposing hangarback's plus other problematic bigger creatures, you can actually target your own small creature to make a 2/2 colorless that can be equipped with the blade, at least an option when you want to counter swing the turn after an opponent attack.
Would really appreciate any ideas/opinion about it. =)
I would love to use this equipment also and maybe increment Vendilion Clique for a more formidable threat in the air.
Aqueous Form has only one purpose. Temporal Isolation can be used against opponent's creature to halt the attack until the opponent finds a solution or removal for enchant creature in which by that time you should be able to capitalize on that free turns of a potential no creature attack pressure.
4 snapcaster mage
1 vendilion clique
1 elspeth, knight errant
2 mana leak
2 remand
3 cryptic command
4 path to exile
1 far
2 zealous persecution
2 engineered explosives
1 wrath of god
1 supreme verdict
2 thoughtseize
4 esper charm
3 polluted delta
4 marsh flats
2 watery grave
1 hallowed fountain
1 godless shrine
2 darkslick shores
4 celestial colonnade
2 island
3 plains
1 swamp
2 mystic gate
2 stony silence
2 disenchant
1 pithing needle
1 far
1 zealous persecution
1 engineered explosives
2 spellskite
1 vendilion clique
1 go for the throat
2 relic of progenitus
1 batterskull
Gameplay
vs creature base :
- Affinity, Infect, UR delver, pod, DnT, merfolk, etc : I play a total of 4 board wipes plus two semi-board wipe in the form of zealous persecution that can help me catch up whenever I feel behind and needing to clear the board. 4x PTE's a must. Against zoo though it's tough match up because of their heavy hitter early drop and burn reach plus board wipe protection boros charm
vs combo/control :
- generally, I would disrupt their hand and land The Saint Traft early and hope to win from there. Zealous works to buff any threat I have in play and sometimes can get me there. Tron though is a different approach. It has the inevitability and has better control vs control decks. First game is a struggle to land threat early and protect it. Discard can help with setting up the big turn but can't wait longer as they assemble the tron quick enough that casting multiple spell during their turn hurts our ability to counter. The Charm is quite helpful when they try to cast stuff and become vulnerable to 2 hand discard.
I think capitalizing in an opponent's inability to fight the control aspect at least even for 2-3 turns is vital in winning our match up. I choose to play low cost conditional heavy hitter to help me close out games that is sometimes takes long if we play too few win condition in the deck and the winning turn slowly slipping away our reach as other decks has incredible way of clawing back to the game if we stumble or unable to close out games quickly.
In my opinion, it is nearly impossible to control every opponent completely as spells/creatures get printed to be pretty good at what they do to fight the hate, controlling aspect of the game.
I strongly agree with this. I think that UWR should play a different approach and maybe focus more on burning the opponent like in Jeskai Standard decks. Removal spells in Esper are very good at doing what it does, killing creature in one shot. Add to the fact that Esper has discard suites to fight combo and opposing control decks.
4 hero of iroas
4 seeker of the way
4 fabled hero
3 eidolon of countless battles
4 ajani's presence
2 feat of resistance
1 triton tactics
4 aqueous form
4 ordeal of thassa
2 battle mastery
4 temple of enlightenment
4 island
8 plains
I did win some matches but most games I played against the Jeskai deck I felt I was always behind with all this burn removal spell. WARNING ! Rabblemaster wins the game fairly quickly. With zero removal in main deck it is the most powerful creature hitting a bunch, at least from what I experienced battling against the jeskai. Them playing second turn Seeker is also annoying while sitting with burn in hand and for 2 a piece from the seeker. If I have creature in play I had to spend two protection spells only to be charmed back on top of my library. The most humiliating way to be beaten by this deck. Can't explain how hard and painful it is to play against this deck.
One way that we might beat this deck is to be one turn faster at deploying our creatures and having good amount of protection. With that said, I think playing 3cc spells and up is not an option really. On our 3rd turn we should have enough threat in play already and sitting with protection in hand. Battlewise in place of the seeker, -3 eidolon for something else. -2 fabled hero for more protection or stubborn. -4 shieldmate for something else or maybe this is the slot for the battlewise.
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/29498_Daily-Digest-We-Need-A-Hero.html
List in testing :
4 hero of iroas
4 seeker of the way
4 fabled hero
3 eidolon of countless battles
4 ajani's presence
2 feat of resistance
1 triton tactics
4 aqueous form
4 ordeal of thassa
2 battle mastery
4 temple of enlightenment
4 island
8 plains
Have not thought of sideboard yet. But i'm thinking stubborn denial, disdainful stroke as counter suite to tempo my opponent.