Esper Control - Witty Name -

by Hymmnos on 04 January 2017

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

Creatures (1)


Sorceries (3)


Planeswalkers (1)


Enchantments (2)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

Probably the most reactive deck in modern.

How to Play

Visit the Esper: Draw, Go thread on mtgsalvation.

Deck Tags

  • Esper
  • Control
  • Draw
  • Modern
  • Competitive

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

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This deck has been viewed 826 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

2536500

Deck Format


Modern

NOTE: Set by owner when deck was made.

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Esper Control - Witty Name -

I see a few potential problems in this deck.

26 lands is way too high for what you need going on in here. I know you want to run the collonades as your win conditions, but 26 lands is good enough to choke you out in the opening and keep you drawing dead lands in the middle and endgame, even with the 8 fetch lands. I would trim out 1 ghost quarter and at least 1 colonnade.

As your deck stands, the early game control balance is close to nonexistent. You have blessed alliance, spell snare, and path to exile, all of which are conditional responses (though not bad at all), and just aren't enough to ensure that you can stop the opponent's development or fast agro, both of which should be able to shut you down once he gets up and running.

Logic knot is a conditional mana leak that wont help you in your opening hand basically at all, and this deck will absolutely flounder if it doesn't have something to do turn 2. I would suggest 4 mana leaks as they dominate the opening and aren't complete dead draws in late game competitive as good players run fetch lands and have decks that get by on 3-4 mana. Remand is another spell that would work well in that spot as its never a dead draw and buys you an extra turn if you drop it in the first few turns.

Cryptic command has never worked for me in bulk in tri-colored modern decks. It's super hard to get the 3 blue you need in time for the card to help you in the opening or middle game, and having it sit in your hand as a brick just isn't worth the lategame gain. I never run more than 1, because you don't want it in your opening hand or really to draw it at all until you have 4 available lands. Also, in order to make it work quickly, the balance of your hand is just terrible. You will have it available turn 4, and if you play first, that means of the 10 cards you have available at that point (7 off the start and 3 draws for turns 2, 3, and 4), 4 of them are lands and 1 of them is command, which leaves only 5 for other control in the opening. And that's if you get the lands that give you 3 blue and don't have to mulligan.

Think twice has never really worked for me either as it doesn't generate you advantage until the middle/late game, so in terms of control its a dead draw. Running 4 means you have a good chance of pulling it in the opening hand which just kills your control of the early game which is essential.

Sphinx's revelation has a similar themed problem as above as its a dead draw in the opening and isn't really worth the effort until you get at least 6ish mana, so it will be a brick in your hand until the late middle/end game. I never run more than 1, but running 1 is a great idea.

4 esper charm seems a bit much as it gives you conditional advantage and many decks in modern don't care about the enchantment destruction and will already have enough on the field turn 3 to not be destroyed by the discard outlet. I would run 2 tops, which gives you more spots for fast control elements like remand or some 1 drop discard options like inquisition of kozilek/thoughtseize.

Mainboarding leyline of sanctity is a risky move in modern. Sure it stalls out burn, mill, and a few combo builds, but it does nothing against the rest of the tier 1 and borderline nothing against tier 2, the odd custom job, or anti-meta. Running 2 in the sideboard is a fantastic idea, but putting them in game 1 is just too risky. I would even consider a third in the side as they do devastate the decks it designed to work against. You would get more advantage out of cards that work on every deck.

Please don't take this feedback the wrong way. I'm not trying to put you down or insult your deck. These are just honest thoughts about control builds in modern and the advantage you can get from maximizing what you can do in the early game and going into the middle game with a good position. If you let the opponent win the development state when you're playing a control build, the game is pretty much over.

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Posted 04 January 2017 at 22:56

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Also, you have some of the best color combinations for sideboard options, so if you want suggestions on that let me know.

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Posted 04 January 2017 at 22:57

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Thanks for the input. This is a baseline Esper deck that I've copied and will soon adjust to fit my specific needs. I got this idea from the Primer in MTGSalvation. It's a very good read which explains nearly all of the card choices.

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Posted 05 January 2017 at 10:17

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