Against which decks do you bring in the Burials/Terminus?
Resilient creature decks like ‘Melira combo? Creatures that have death triggers? Or just as additional Wrath effects? Wouldnt a Wrath of God be better, specially against Thrun and Elves?
Thanks

Trevor I’ve found that tasigur is probably the best card in my version.

He isn’t a quick beatdown like in grixis though (although he can be against combo efc)

Normally he is a late game drop where you can thin your grave to narrow the selection and just generate massive card advantage.

Some other tech I’m using
Because I have snapcasters, delve, and lingering souls I am running thought scour instead of serum visions. The instant speed theme helps significantly with countermagic early on

To that note my main countermagic is 4 rune snags. These are improved by the thought scours as well

I was worried that they would be worse than mana leak but they proved invaluably powerful.
I was surprised myself but 4 is ALOT more than 3. People start missing a lot of land drops after their 4th. It just… Works.

Having 4 copies of a cheap countermagic that is flexible does wonders in the zoo and combo matchups, and really everything but Tron and Merfolk (which are just… Rough anyway)

The archangel avacyn underperformed in most of my matchups though. Without a way to control her flips it just rarely did enough, so she got filtered out over time

I would post my whole list but it’s full of 1-ofs (I like to run 1 of various removal cards *other than the 4 path*that are about even in power level so that I can avoid odd strategies and am less likely to sit with dead cards)
so annoying to type.

The last thing, I don’t run a full play set of esper charm because it can be a huge liability against the very many decks that don’t care about card advantage. I also only run one mainboard sweeper. I’ve found that path, countermagic, and 2 other removal spells plus snapcaster can deal with almost any field and orevent it from ever being able to actually kill you

The Esper Midrange shell ft Mentor does not work out, as long as there is so much removal (tested it).

However, the Esper Delve version is basically the Junk version of Grixis, which has some slight edges over Junk depending on what meta you are expecting (Jund is the best, followed by either Grixis, Junk or Esper Delve basically).

So, if you want to try to play Esper Midrange, play the Delve version, it is more stable, and better at closing out the game. However, it is not as spiky as Mentor and not as fast.

Greetings,
Kathal

Luminarch ascension as a wincon seems poor. GBx can abrupt decay it and it cant even be countered. Phyrexian crusader seems odd, for esper midrange I like playing a spell heavy mentor build which also works to fuel yard for tasigur and angler

He now has 3 Serums, 3 Twice, 1 Gideon, 1 Elspeth, 1 RiP, 1 Extracrion, and 1 Curse of Death’s Hold as new additions.

Look who strikes again!

Amalek0 here, maintainer of the primer for this deck over on MTGsalvation.

Fast agro matchups are actually generally favorable once blessed alliance drops in from EMN. Previously, we only got to boast a bonkers affinity matchup (4 spell snares does a ton of work, and sweepers + stony silence is pretty rough for them to beat) and then the ability to beat one of burn/zoo/infect and be mediocre at best against the others. Blessed alliance fills the spot of “card good against infect, burn AND zoo” and in my opinion will be the one to push the deck towards even/positive matchups against ALL of the linear agro archetypes in modern.

It may not look like it on paper, but remember that we’re in the three best colors for post-board games in modern, and spell snare is absolutely one of the best spells against all of those archetypes.

I don’t agree with trevor (or most of my fellow esper players over on the salvation forums!) about secure the wastes vs. white sun’s zenith: I still feel that the virtual inevitability having white sun’s zenith in your deck gives is valuable, but I don’t discount the simple fact that there are many games in which secure the wastes can give you the win in which WSZ would do nothing or leave you dead; I just tend to think they are marginal in comparison to the overall percentage points you get in a paper tournament with WSZ. This analysis completely changes on MTGO where abzan co-co is virtually nonexistent and burn/affinity/infect are generally more prevalent, and so secure the wastes becomes more useful, and simultaneously the concerns in paper that make WSZ better are irrelevant because of the chess clock nature of MTGO (opponents will time out first against a skilled esper pilot, so the WSZ inevitability doesn’t matter).

1) I don’t really like the counter suite, especially the Spell Burst. Yes I know, it is great when you are in the super lategame or playing against mana screwed opponents when you can actually use the buy back mode. However, I always like Condescend way more in this setting. The Scry (2) is awesome in this deck, since it smooths the draw out.

2) While I understand, why he is playing that manabase set-up, but I always liked the Shambling Vents split more, than the straight Colonnade. Yes, Colonnades is better to finish the game out, however, Vents is better to stabilize the game and vs Lilli, which can be fairly annoying from time to time.

3) The SB looks interesting to say it this way. I know, that big Else is bonkers vs Midrange decks (I am playing her in UW Control) . However, with the 3 Lingering Souls you already have more than enough tools vs that archetype (+ they are better vs UWR Midrange/Control, since they have a hard time to grind through the tokens). I would rather see a card more vs Aggro decks but not Runed Halo as some people have mentioned. The drawback is just to big (you need to fetch twice on Wx, which is something you don’t really want vs aggro). Hence, either Oust, Condemn (also great vs Infect) or something like Sunlance, which is also good vs dork decks are IMO the better choice.

There are some other smaller stuffs, but those are really minor ^^

Greetings,
Kathal

I’m sorry the comment was poorly received. As you’ve probably seen on this site and others, there are lots of myths about major Modern issues like prices. I was responding to your comment assuming it was, like the vast majority of similar comments, an offhand remark about Modern being problematically expensive. If that was the case, then I stand by my comment; our job as a Modern site is to dispel and/or challenge these kinds of myths. That said, if that was not the case and you were simply making an unloaded, personal statement about you actually not being able to afford the cost, then I’m sorry for assuming the wrong intent and agree that the situation sucks.

Uh… No offense, but that’s like replying to someone who says “I wish I could afford a car so I could look for a better job outside of walking distance” by saying “As someone who bought a car, I can say that it’s a good long-term investment, and way better than if your job required you to buy a Ferrari or pay for cabs all the time.” The original speaker already knows those things; that’s *why* they wish they could afford it. That reply demonstrates the second speaker’s assumption that the norm is for the cost to be inconvenient rather than unattainable, thereby making the first speaker – who doesn’t fit that norm – feel like even more of an outsider than they already did.

I know you weren’t *trying* to be mean or anything, but it was still pretty insensitive. A lack of malicious intent is a great start, but proactive empathy is the goal.

I like UWB draw-go in general, but it isn’t an archetype that treats me well in Modern. Some people might be inclined to speculatively chalk that up to bad matches being prevalent, but I’ll be an adult and just admit that it is because I do not have the time to put into losing and learning how to make lemonade with those bad matches.

Stuff like the Esper Charm soft draw lock are insanely powerful for winning games that one has no business winning. It is simply more appealing to do something similar the easy way with Nahiri, but have crutches for the first game against some of the more demoralizing matches, like burn and infect. I’m sure that UWB will reward anyone who puts in the time though.

thank you, keep streaming, and poptarts are better than toaster strudel, and MORE FOLK

I’m glad you took the time to address my comment, Trevor, and did so in a level-headed fashion. I do think you would do well to make a couple more concessions to aggro – I understand the card pool is limited, and that you don’t want to dilute your lategame juice, but I know that I’d feel more comfortable with an extra Disfigure or Spell Snare to keep the decks I mentioned from jumping my bones, and having to hope that the Esper Charm I cast the turn before is enough to hold them off. I also think the board would benefit from another Timely.

Perhaps you are misinterpreting my comment. The premise is that Esper Control is a deck that looks good in control mirrors and against certain flavors of midrange, because of its mid-to-late-game card advantage engines and uncounterable sweepers. However, it has always struggled badly against aggro due to its lack of early interaction. People have been trying to make the archetype work for years, but they are always held back by the fact that only certain hands are suited to fending off an aggro rush. It also takes forever to close out a game, which often means it can get beat by a perfect topdeck. By championing the deck, Trevor is making the argument that aggro has been suppressed enough to enable the deck’s existence. On the other hand, David Ernenwein was making the point that fair decks were taking a beating in this metagame, and that it was trending back toward hyper-linearity. Granted, these are reads on different metagames, but my own assessment matches what David says more than what the assumption Trevor is operating under. And that bodes very ill for Esper Control. It doesn’t have good answers to Tron, go-wide aggro (don’t say tokens – they don’t come out fast enough), or to combo decks with a backup plan. I’m also unsure whether the Grixis and Jeskai matchups have changed any, given the influx of good cards they just got that Esper doesn’t have access to, namely Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Nahiri (which probably won’t resolve, but will wreak havoc if they do). Overall, I think it’s a read of the metagame that I disagree with, and part of why I disagree with it is because I don’t think the Esper card pool is good enough, and that Guillaume Wafo-Tapa’s success is because he’d be successful with pretty much any control deck.

Oh ok Trevor, so you are sure he is Wafo ? Sounds great 🙂 Great to read an article about this amazing deck by the way 🙂

Apparently, Mr Cafouillette plays lists created by Wafo and his friends including the UR eldrazi control deck in standard and he played the exact same jeskai control list than Erwan Maisonneuve, a friend of Wafo’s a few months before him in late 2015, so this guy could easily be a friend of Wafo’s

I’ve talked to him online about the deck 🙂

I also remember his old alias being WatOo, he must have made a new account. Maybe the old one was getting too popular? He didn’t say anything about trying to stay anonymous when we spoke, and viewers on the stream already knew who we was before the article, so someone somewhere must have already talked about him/one of his decks. Probably GerryT, who knows.

Trevor

As someone who has bit the 300 SnapTax, I’ll say it’s a relatively small price to pay to unlock most blue control/midrange/tempo blue decks, and a relatively long-lasting one. It certainly isn’t the best, but it doesn’t suck nearly as much as it would suck to pay the blue taxes in Legacy, or to have to continually re-buy a deck in Standard.

So, I originally had a Runed Halo in the list but cut it for other options. I could see it making its way back in once I get a better handle on how many cards I need post-board in what matchups, and if the board can be trimmed to fit it.

I think Wall of Denial is a little narrow and really only helps us in areas we’re already strong. Remember, Secure the Wastes can just make two or three guys to chump until we find a Path to Exile or Supreme Verdict. With this much card draw, one of those is coming along every few turns.

Abzan Combo is the matchup I’m least worried about, they have to fight through our counterspells AND our removal and sweepers. With mana birds, they’re often dumping their hand fast enough that Esper Charm on turn three snags their last two cards (which are often some combination of Path/Collected Company/Chord of Calling).

I’ve played against it a few times and the games have never felt close. I don’t think the matchup is auto-win, but it is strongly in our favor.

Trevor