Start typing a card name and use the auto-complete feature to quickly select the card you're trying to add. Enter a quantity and add that card to your sideboard!
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.
When I first learned to play competitively it was with an esper control deck in a meta that was almost exclusively control. I often miss that old meta and will occasionally go back to my roots and surprise myself in both my construction and play skills with this archetype. I am not a fan of control having board presence until it is ready to win if at all, that is why this is call "hard" control. I don't mess around with walkers or beat sticks.
This deck rivals turbo fog when it comes to patient decks. I hear jokes about "draw, go" every night I play this.When playing this deck you really have to ask yourself if each of your opponent's moves is worth countering. In most cases having the counterspell or kill spell in your hand does not actually make it appropriate to use. What you telegraph to your opponent and how you use your resources is of utmost importance when playing a hard control deck like this.That's only game one though.Game two a whole new world is opened to you. Esper Blitz, as my team has taken to calling it, is available in the sideboard and will blow people out all day long. In most cases people's game one against epser control is not very good, but game two cards like Sin Collector, Voice of Resurgence, Strangleroot Geist, and Geist of Taint Traft really make that second win difficult especially when time is short. Hyper aggressive and oppressive cards like Traft and Blood Baron create a very different game two. The extreme lack of creatures game one also prompts the opponent into siding out most of their creature answers like Mizzium Mortors leaving your game two strike force free to smash face.I need to make special note of the little worm Woodlot Crawler. This card was added almost as a joke using some extra sideboard slots the week it came out. Since then it has served as the perfect blocker for naya blitz, planeswalker removal for jund, excessive damage for junk and naya midrange, as well as a slightly unsettling card for more "competitive" players to see. That unsettling effect comes from not accounting for this card to actually being seen on turn two into your shockland forest when most of your answers are in the board.The Syncopate vs. Dissipate conundrum for control decks is answered very well by this deck. Run 3 and 3 and sideboard into the more appropriate numbers game two. Syncopate is amazing on low curve decks trying to sneak under your dissipates and verdicts with early plays and damage. It also works better when you plan to tap out more for Traft and Baron since it only takes two mana and some planning to exile something juicy. Dissipate is generally the better answer against decks that ramp at all since they can usually just pay for Syncopate. Rest in Peace makes a good swap for Think Twice and Snapcaster Mage leaving easy room whatever else needs to come in. This shuts of Voice, Blood Artist, and of course rites.
This deck has been viewed 3,737 times.