I'm curious how you've been doing on the different rungs of the ladder. I've made Gold I with my current list after shifting to BO3, but I am in a 2 steps forward, 1 step back right now, and have managed to tilt myself back to Gold 3 on occasion... I can't really tell if the streaks are me, Arena, or the deck. It just seems odd that I can go 5 matches in a row with the opponent drawing perfectly...
Well I'm also only in Gold... 2, I think? But don't take that to mean the deck is bad. It has something like a 65%-75% win rate right now. It's just that I keep switching to BO1 Ranked to do quests and end up dropping back down. I'm confident that with a day or two of serious play I could make at least Platinum, if not higher, with my deck.
Fair point. My goal is to get out of Gold and into Diamond. My highest placing is one win from Gold 2. I've gotten there several times, and then had a string of losses in a row to crater back to Gold 4 baseline. Its really frustrating with a deck where the wins are slow and the progress is wiped out in half an hour.
Well the biggest thing I can see in your list is the lack of draw spells. Not a single copy of either Chemister's Insight or Precognitive Perception in the 75? And only 2 copies of Teferi? I can't say I'm a fan. I can't say I'm a fan. How do you pull ahead after trading resources early?
This is a solid point. I often find UWx matchups to be difficult as they pull ahead and filter bad cards using Chemister's Insight. I'm not sure how I feel about Precognitive Perception - thats a very expensive draw spell!
The two copies are partially because I like to run different wincons and partially because I feel gross playing Teferi tbh. Running two instead of four is like a middle ground that I feel happy with.
I pull ahead mainly using Azcanta and Dawn of Hope. So those decks where I can 1-1 them long enough I do fine. But those control decks with better draw end up pulling ahead of me and locking me out.
I mean I see the Dawn of Hopes but honestly they seem pretty loose to me. They're slow, take forever to start providing any extra cards, and even when they're finally 'on' they're extremely mana-intensive. Are they actually good for you?
Yes. I feel Dawn of Hope is a very strong card. It works well in this deck as I end up going into draw-go mode late game, and using the surplus mana for tokens. It also triggers draw off of many of my removal spells and Kaya. It is slow to get going, but this is a slow deck that goes late so I'm not feeling too bad about that. I love that I can drop it safely with counters up, long before larger threats like Teferi can do so.
I don't really do the Constructed Events so I can't tell you how well it does there, but I've been pretty steadily climbing the BO3 Ranked queue since I started playing this list. It is unfortunate that Mono-Blue Tempo just won the Pro Tour because I think that's the only significantly unfavorable match up I've run into so far.
As a long time U-Tempo player, I feel like this match comes down largely to luck. If they have the nuts any control deck is just screwed that game. I will use some of the ideas from this deck when I rebuild the list I have - love seeing another player running Kaya!
How do you feel your matchups vs Jeskai control, Gates or the Nexus deck are? Those are my biggest weaknesses at the moment and I feel your counter/draw heavy build is a better match for them.
Also, how is Ethereal Absolution in the SB? I have considered it due to the synergies with Dawn of Hope. But it just feels so big and clunky and often does nothing the turn it comes down.
As I said, I've not been impressed with [Dawn of Hope] in the mirror. The creatures turn on removal and it also gives Mortify a target.
I feel that if your opponent is using removal on tokens, your probably in a good place, and not really giving them 'much' of a target for it. As for Mortify, it has targets in Azcanta and Eldest Reborn already. We can't fully shut that removal off. Neither of these feel like strong reasons for me personally not to run it or for it being a weaker card. Its probably worse than Teffers in the mirror, but that card is friggen Legacy playable so pretty much everything is worse than it all the time =/
tune to a specific match-up (something you face more of - a real effect based on time of day on Arena)
Is there a guide to this somewhere or a rule of thumb? I play at different times, have noticed I sometimes randomly get strings of the same matchup or play against much better or worse players, but haven't figured what *time* is likely to get what opponents.
Not being sure of your budget, it's also hard to make specific suggestions, but Sorcerous Spyglass isn't going to be as good as The Immortal Sun (especially with Dawn of Hope in your deck). I would not waste time on Unmoored Ego in BO3. Thief of Sanity is much better. 4x Thought Erasure is well worth it as it disrupts and smooths your early draws. I prefer 2x Search for Azcanta as I really don't need the 2nd. Nexus isn't worth it to stop mill. You'll win before it gets to that point or you could use 2x Devious Cover-Up as mill protection. Mastermind's Acquisition is probably too slow, too. You are better off going for greater consistency. I mean, I get being used to it from EDH, but in constructed queues, the return will be greater on consistency. That's how the RDW guys make it to Mythic, right, the same thing, over and over and over and over again reduces their variance...
Budget isn't an issue.
Is sun worth it with Teferi in the deck? I have been disappointed with Spyglass so far, partially because of the same question - I keep not bringing it in.
I have found myself bringing Unmoored Ego in less and less, even for the supposedly clutch matchups. I will give the Thieves a try. I know that card is kill on sight when my opponent drops it and that it is a frequent game 2 appearance from UBx control matches, so will probably work well here.
Nexus started as mill protection, but I have found that I get good value from the single copy.
3x Azcanta is because I desperately need the draw, will cut to 2x after adding some chemisters insight.
Mastermind is coming out. Was fun while it lasted =/
I will try 4x Erasure in the maindeck. I forget about the surveil, which would go a long way to solving the mana problems this deck sometimes has. Also can't help but notice every other deck on the last page is running four so seems like I've made a bad call cutting it out!
Cheers to you guys for the suggestions, will make some alterations and see how we go
EDH RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
This is a solid point. I often find UWx matchups to be difficult as they pull ahead and filter bad cards using Chemister's Insight. I'm not sure how I feel about Precognitive Perception - thats a very expensive draw spell!
The two copies are partially because I like to run different wincons and partially because I feel gross playing Teferi tbh. Running two instead of four is like a middle ground that I feel happy with.
I pull ahead mainly using Azcanta and Dawn of Hope. So those decks where I can 1-1 them long enough I do fine. But those control decks with better draw end up pulling ahead of me and locking me out.
I've been pretty impressed by Precognitive Perception. I originally had a 4-1 split favoring Chemister's Insight but after playing with it a bit it's won me over and now I have a 3-2, still favoring Insight. If you're in a bad spot you can main phase it to dig 6 cards deep for a sweeper or whatever else you need. And if everything is fine it's a good end-of-turn test spell to see if you can bait out some countermagic before playing Teferi. Most people will just let a Chemister's Insight go without fighting over it, but drawing 3 instead forces them to at least consider spending their countermagic. And against any other fair deck when each of you are just topdecking after the early trades it reloads you with 3 fresh cards and because of the scry you're almost guaranteed to get a lot of gas. I definitely recommend trying out at least one copy, especially if you're not going to run the full set of Teferi.
As for 2 Teferi instead of 4, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. But I think we all know he's the best card in the deck. If your goal is to win consistently, 4 Teferi is automatic.
Yes. I feel Dawn of Hope is a very strong card. It works well in this deck as I end up going into draw-go mode late game, and using the surplus mana for tokens. It also triggers draw off of many of my removal spells and Kaya. It is slow to get going, but this is a slow deck that goes late so I'm not feeling too bad about that. I love that I can drop it safely with counters up, long before larger threats like Teferi can do so.
I don't know, I just imagine you playing Dawn of Hope, they counter, you counter back then they just untap and play Teferi and tuck your Dawn and now you're in some serious trouble. I mean if it works for you go for it but I'm not convinced.
As a long time U-Tempo player, I feel like this match comes down largely to luck. If they have the nuts any control deck is just screwed that game. I will use some of the ideas from this deck when I rebuild the list I have - love seeing another player running Kaya!
How do you feel your matchups vs Jeskai control, Gates or the Nexus deck are? Those are my biggest weaknesses at the moment and I feel your counter/draw heavy build is a better match for them.
Also, how is Ethereal Absolution in the SB? I have considered it due to the synergies with Dawn of Hope. But it just feels so big and clunky and often does nothing the turn it comes down.
I think other people are going to catch on to Kaya, apparently she did pretty well on camera at the Pro Tour or whatever they call it now. She's quite versatile.
I don't know if I've run into any Jeskai control since RNA came out, so I can't really say. It's been almost entirely other Esper decks as far as control goes.
The Gates decks are pretty favorable in my opinion as long as you have an answer to an early Gatebreaker Ram. A lot of Gate decks don't have a way to get rid of Ixalan's Binding game 1 either so that's a free win basically if you eat either Ram or Gate Colossus. They're already pretty threat light to begin with. It can get ugly if they stick an early Guild Summit and you have no way to remove it, but short of that I think it's definitely in our favor. And post-board the Thief of Sanitys are brutal for them.
Nexus is a weird match up and kind of a coin-flip. It's really just hope you have the disruption at the right time and they don't have the nut draws of T3 Wilderness Reclamation proceed to go infinite. Thought Erasure is great here and this match up is the sole reason I still have Unmoored Ego in the SB. This is also another matchup where Thief of Sanity does a ton of work.
Regarding Ethereal Absolution I haven't really gotten to see it in action yet. I put it in mainly for any of the White Weenie variants running around and it seems good in theory against most of the current creature decks. But it hasn't shown up yet when I get a chance to put it in, so I can't say for certain if it's worth or not.
Hi everyone,
I've been running this deck for a little while with mixed success. I have a few questions about card choices.
Anyone running Anticipate?
It seems to me to be a pretty handy 2-drop to even out land drops early, or find what you need mid-game before you have the field under a soft-lock. I'm only running two in my list but I'm always happy to see them.
So why is no one using this card?
Or Plaguecrafter? I find this card to be useful from the side, specifically VS Mono-Blue, the mirror (think dodging Negate etc.) Anyone else running this?
So how are you all liking the new set for Esper? What cards have you tried on Arena and what are you planning on using?
I only tried a couple of matches last night, but I got to try the new Teferi, Time raveler in a mirror match and it was insane. I ended up having Hero and Time Rave Teferi on the table with an Azcanta. It was pretty sick hehe. Nice with a game like that since I usually get my ass handed to me 90% of the time hehe.
The new set has given us a new win-con in Ashiok, Dream Render to test out. I think this card is more powerful than it looks.
Ashiok & Kaya, Orzhov Usurper combo is tempting, but it's not all that resilient.
What combo between Ashiok and Kaya, Ozhov Usurper do you mean? Ashiok exiles the opponent's graveyard every time it mills. It seems like an anti-synergy.
Yeah, not really seeing the Ashiok thing hehe. Unless you're doing a mill deck.
I think Narset's Reversal has a spot in the 75. One or two copies to make a nice tempo swing in a mirror match. Thinking about having Narset, Parter of veils in the sideboard against other control decks.
Also been testing out running two Liliana, Dreadhorde General and she's ******* amazing! Especially with a Teferi on the board too. They're close to unstoppable together.
I also think having one Liliana's Triumph in the deck is great too. I kinda see it like... if legacy control decks that run black have a Diabolic Edict in their main decks, then my standard deck sure as ***** can run one too hehe.
I realize it's not sexy or exciting, but the real pickup in this set is likely Augur Of Bolas. Speed bump vs all aggro but blue that finds spells, that also pressures planeswalkers. Gives you a profitable use of new Teferi's -3. For those not old like me, it was absurd the last time. Test 3 or 4. Teferi, Time Raveler is the new tool in the Control Arms Race (TM TripleAgent 2010)
What combo between Ashiok and Kaya, Ozhov Usurper do you mean? Ashiok exiles the opponent's graveyard every time it mills. It seems like an anti-synergy.
It works but you have to +1 Kaya while they have cards in their graveyard then -1 Ashiok for this to work. You can only +1 Kaya if there is a card in a grave yard. That being said you can +1 targeting a card in your own grave yard then use the +5 against an opponent after milling them a couple of times.
What combo between Ashiok and Kaya, Ozhov Usurper do you mean? Ashiok exiles the opponent's graveyard every time it mills. It seems like an anti-synergy.
It works but you have to +1 Kaya while they have cards in their graveyard then -1 Ashiok for this to work. You can only +1 Kaya if there is a card in a grave yard. That being said you can +1 targeting a card in your own grave yard then use the +5 against an opponent after milling them a couple of times.
No you don't. Kaya's +1 says "up to two cards". You can choose zero cards.
What combo between Ashiok and Kaya, Ozhov Usurper do you mean? Ashiok exiles the opponent's graveyard every time it mills. It seems like an anti-synergy.
It works but you have to +1 Kaya while they have cards in their graveyard then -1 Ashiok for this to work. You can only +1 Kaya if there is a card in a grave yard. That being said you can +1 targeting a card in your own grave yard then use the +5 against an opponent after milling them a couple of times.
Can +1 her even with 0 zero cards in grave because of the wording stated above.
Even still, Ashiok, Dream Render isn't good here.
Funny then that there must be a bug in Magic Online because it won't let you +1 if there isn't any cards in their graveyard you have to target yourself. The text for Kaya, Orzhov Usurper actually reads "Up to two target cards in a single graveyard". No cards means nothing to target and the ability can't be activated.
It actually gives you the option. If your oppo's 'yard is empty it shows you yours as it is the only option with legal targets, but you can select 0 cards. This rally matters if you are running Search for Azcanta.
This deck is actually really, really good. I am on a 16-3 run in BO1 right now. It's quite different from the traditional Esper Control though. In fact, I came here looking for other people playing it, but haven't found anything. The combo is solid, but even if you can't make Kaya work you can still deck out your oppo.
I'm running 4 Ashiok and 3 Kaya for the combo, then a bunch of removal and draw/lifegain. Considering the prevalence of RDW on Arena, I decided to go with Dovin's Acuity and Revitalize rather than a full boat of Chemister's Insights. I only run 2 Teferis as you just don't need him. Kaya also gives you a little lifegain against RDW. It's incidental, but relevant. Right now this is my favourite deck in the new standard. I am building it in paper.
Rough list
4 Ashiok
3 Kaya
3 Dovin's Acuity
4 Revitalize
2 Chem's Insight
2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
3 Kaya's Wrath
2 Vraska's Contempt
3 Mortify
2 Cast Down
2 Cry of the Carnarium
4 Thought Erasure
1 Ixalan's Binding
25 Land
I'm really close to settling on Esper control (previously played Sultai pre-WAR) but I'm having a few problems. My first is that I can't seem to win true mirrors (vs Esper) and Pseudo mirrors (vs non esper control decks). Can anyone give me sequencing/line of play tips for that?
How hard do you mulligan with this deck? I find myself shipping the hands with my only lands being the support/check lands since I find them too risky but I'm not sure if it's correct
Don't blink first? Its hard to say for certain without seeing first hand. In regard to checkland hands, in slower matchups theyre fine as you generally wont be using your mana until turn 3, though youd rather have untapped sources if youre looking to Azcanta/Erasure on 2
r1 beat Boros angels, which is probably outdated now. Games 1 and 2 we swapped mulls to 5. Game 3 he was on the play and dropped t2 adanto vanguard. I thought erasure him on my 2 and have the option between Lyra and Aurelia. I take the Lyra so I can hopefully get him to play into my t4 wrath. he draws a second vanguard which makes the wrath a bit awkward. I contempt a vanguard on his 4 then he plays the Aurelia and I wrath. He saves the vanguard which i expected then he plays a knight of grace. I draw a cry of the carnarium and figures it's a fine time to cast it.
1-0
round 2 I 2-1 some ramp deck. I grind him out on 1 and he scoops without me having a win. game 2 I didn't read nullhide ferox right ad didn't reali\e I could remove hexproof. I the grind him out enough for Lily to get there
2-0
R3 I run over WW. It wasn't much
r4 I lose to mono red 1-2. Game 1 he runs me over. game 2 Lyra gets me there. G3 I mull to and put up a fight but Tibalt prevented me from gaining the life I needed
3-1 and got a showdown pack
for anyone who reads face to face articles, John Rosum posted a great article and I basically played his second list except I dropped the 3rd vito for a Lily which is great
Do we want to talk about Esper Superfriends here as well? I'd be happy to have the threads be the same place rather than continue to have threads thrown every which way whenever a variant comes out.
As an Esper Control player; Does anyone have an idea what the general game plan is to win vs Jeskai Superfriends? I find this matchup extremely hard as we only have so many answers for their load of walkers. The only basic thing is Contempt which comes in from turn 4 onwards, and that's where they often already have 1 resolved 3-mana walker. Cast Down doesn't work against the Sarkhan plus ability as they're still legendary. So it's basically just Contempt and Mortify. With 3-Feri in play this is just hell. Do we need to load up on The Elderspell? Any other thoughts?
went into an MCQ yesterday feeling less than confident with the deck and took it to 4-3
round 1 got paired against someone at their first competitive events, he was on some big redish style deck. Deck wasn't good and neither was he really. Game 1 he played poorly and I won off a Liliana, Dreadhorde general after digging deep to draw her when he was dead a while ago, he just didn't realize when to scoop. Game 2 Lyra dawnbringer got me there.
1-0
Round 2 I lose a tight match to mono red 1-2. Game 1 he steamrolled me. Game 2 I kept a hand of 4 lands, duress, thought erasure and baby tef, everything else just fell into place and he scooped to big tef emblem. Game 3 I stripped the tibalt from his hand early due to the no life gain ability. I was getting close to stabilizing but then he got a second tibalt right before I dropped my Lyra and couldn't get there in time.
1-1
round 3 I lost to bant midrange pretty quickly, mostly due to me not knowing how to play it. Played right into his stuff 1 then just couldn't make my way through how to win in game 2.
1-2. probably needed to win out from here
Round 4 I beat UW mill 2-1. He milled me out game 1, I got my Liliana milled out early and didn't really have a way to win that game from there. post board I took on the role of the aggro deck with 3x dreadhorde invasion, 2x Lyra. I swapped the removal for those and more permission. Highlight of post board was drawing out a negate on my turn 2 of game 3 (he was on the play) with a thought erasure, then slamming dreadhorde invasion when he tapped out on his 3.
2-2, looking better.
Lost to gruul warriors 0-2. He curved out really well g1, then I mulled low g2 and got run over
2-3, dead to top 8 and need to get lucky to prize.
round 6 got the no show to go 3-3. Probably not gonna prize after that kind of win
round 7 I win a nail biter against grixis control/midrange 2-1. g1 he basically drew only his copies of nicol bolas, dragon god and nicol bolas, the ravager. I couldn't answer them all. game 2 I duress away his discard spell in hand and jammed dreadhorde invasion on 2, then I ran away with the game. g3 I was stuck on 2 or 3 lands for the longest time after a mull to 5. He got a nicol bolas dragon god and a liliana which he ticked up twice. I drew an elderspell to kill both. I then essentially sacrifice my first baby tef to bounce a token, then bounce the second token with my second baby tef. I was then able to get enough lands to cast my liliana, get it up to 9 and also have a dreadhorde invasion. He was the able to kill my lily and big tef with bedevils. He then casts a Nicol bolas, the ravager and flips it right away. he minuses it to get his other bolas and kill my last walker, which i believe was the baby tef. I finish his walkers off with zombies, holding a vraska's contempt for whatever creature or walker he had. It was over from there.
4-3, finished 44th out of 120ish, prizing was to top 32. there were a lot of 12 pointers in prizing but I was the second from the bottom of 12 pointers.
I know I didn't play perfectly but I think the mistakes I made were mostly minor
Fair point. My goal is to get out of Gold and into Diamond. My highest placing is one win from Gold 2. I've gotten there several times, and then had a string of losses in a row to crater back to Gold 4 baseline. Its really frustrating with a deck where the wins are slow and the progress is wiped out in half an hour.
This is a solid point. I often find UWx matchups to be difficult as they pull ahead and filter bad cards using Chemister's Insight. I'm not sure how I feel about Precognitive Perception - thats a very expensive draw spell!
The two copies are partially because I like to run different wincons and partially because I feel gross playing Teferi tbh. Running two instead of four is like a middle ground that I feel happy with.
I pull ahead mainly using Azcanta and Dawn of Hope. So those decks where I can 1-1 them long enough I do fine. But those control decks with better draw end up pulling ahead of me and locking me out.
Yes. I feel Dawn of Hope is a very strong card. It works well in this deck as I end up going into draw-go mode late game, and using the surplus mana for tokens. It also triggers draw off of many of my removal spells and Kaya. It is slow to get going, but this is a slow deck that goes late so I'm not feeling too bad about that. I love that I can drop it safely with counters up, long before larger threats like Teferi can do so.
As a long time U-Tempo player, I feel like this match comes down largely to luck. If they have the nuts any control deck is just screwed that game. I will use some of the ideas from this deck when I rebuild the list I have - love seeing another player running Kaya!
How do you feel your matchups vs Jeskai control, Gates or the Nexus deck are? Those are my biggest weaknesses at the moment and I feel your counter/draw heavy build is a better match for them.
Also, how is Ethereal Absolution in the SB? I have considered it due to the synergies with Dawn of Hope. But it just feels so big and clunky and often does nothing the turn it comes down.
I feel that if your opponent is using removal on tokens, your probably in a good place, and not really giving them 'much' of a target for it. As for Mortify, it has targets in Azcanta and Eldest Reborn already. We can't fully shut that removal off. Neither of these feel like strong reasons for me personally not to run it or for it being a weaker card. Its probably worse than Teffers in the mirror, but that card is friggen Legacy playable so pretty much everything is worse than it all the time =/
Will take a gander.
Is there a guide to this somewhere or a rule of thumb? I play at different times, have noticed I sometimes randomly get strings of the same matchup or play against much better or worse players, but haven't figured what *time* is likely to get what opponents.
Budget isn't an issue.
Is sun worth it with Teferi in the deck? I have been disappointed with Spyglass so far, partially because of the same question - I keep not bringing it in.
I have found myself bringing Unmoored Ego in less and less, even for the supposedly clutch matchups. I will give the Thieves a try. I know that card is kill on sight when my opponent drops it and that it is a frequent game 2 appearance from UBx control matches, so will probably work well here.
Nexus started as mill protection, but I have found that I get good value from the single copy.
3x Azcanta is because I desperately need the draw, will cut to 2x after adding some chemisters insight.
Mastermind is coming out. Was fun while it lasted =/
I will try 4x Erasure in the maindeck. I forget about the surveil, which would go a long way to solving the mana problems this deck sometimes has. Also can't help but notice every other deck on the last page is running four so seems like I've made a bad call cutting it out!
Cheers to you guys for the suggestions, will make some alterations and see how we go
RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck
RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
Arena Standard
UUUU Tempo, since before it was cool
Various Wx decks running Fountain of Renewal and Day of Glory
Anything I can cram Chaos Wand in to
As for 2 Teferi instead of 4, I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. But I think we all know he's the best card in the deck. If your goal is to win consistently, 4 Teferi is automatic. I don't know, I just imagine you playing Dawn of Hope, they counter, you counter back then they just untap and play Teferi and tuck your Dawn and now you're in some serious trouble. I mean if it works for you go for it but I'm not convinced. I think other people are going to catch on to Kaya, apparently she did pretty well on camera at the Pro Tour or whatever they call it now. She's quite versatile.
I don't know if I've run into any Jeskai control since RNA came out, so I can't really say. It's been almost entirely other Esper decks as far as control goes.
The Gates decks are pretty favorable in my opinion as long as you have an answer to an early Gatebreaker Ram. A lot of Gate decks don't have a way to get rid of Ixalan's Binding game 1 either so that's a free win basically if you eat either Ram or Gate Colossus. They're already pretty threat light to begin with. It can get ugly if they stick an early Guild Summit and you have no way to remove it, but short of that I think it's definitely in our favor. And post-board the Thief of Sanitys are brutal for them.
Nexus is a weird match up and kind of a coin-flip. It's really just hope you have the disruption at the right time and they don't have the nut draws of T3 Wilderness Reclamation proceed to go infinite. Thought Erasure is great here and this match up is the sole reason I still have Unmoored Ego in the SB. This is also another matchup where Thief of Sanity does a ton of work.
Regarding Ethereal Absolution I haven't really gotten to see it in action yet. I put it in mainly for any of the White Weenie variants running around and it seems good in theory against most of the current creature decks. But it hasn't shown up yet when I get a chance to put it in, so I can't say for certain if it's worth or not.
I've been running this deck for a little while with mixed success. I have a few questions about card choices.
Anyone running Anticipate?
It seems to me to be a pretty handy 2-drop to even out land drops early, or find what you need mid-game before you have the field under a soft-lock. I'm only running two in my list but I'm always happy to see them.
So why is no one using this card?
Or Plaguecrafter? I find this card to be useful from the side, specifically VS Mono-Blue, the mirror (think dodging Negate etc.) Anyone else running this?
I only tried a couple of matches last night, but I got to try the new Teferi, Time raveler in a mirror match and it was insane. I ended up having Hero and Time Rave Teferi on the table with an Azcanta. It was pretty sick hehe. Nice with a game like that since I usually get my ass handed to me 90% of the time hehe.
Ashiok & Kaya, Orzhov Usurper combo is tempting, but it's not all that resilient.
I think Narset's Reversal has a spot in the 75. One or two copies to make a nice tempo swing in a mirror match. Thinking about having Narset, Parter of veils in the sideboard against other control decks.
Also been testing out running two Liliana, Dreadhorde General and she's ******* amazing! Especially with a Teferi on the board too. They're close to unstoppable together.
I also think having one Liliana's Triumph in the deck is great too. I kinda see it like... if legacy control decks that run black have a Diabolic Edict in their main decks, then my standard deck sure as ***** can run one too hehe.
It works but you have to +1 Kaya while they have cards in their graveyard then -1 Ashiok for this to work. You can only +1 Kaya if there is a card in a grave yard. That being said you can +1 targeting a card in your own grave yard then use the +5 against an opponent after milling them a couple of times.
No you don't. Kaya's +1 says "up to two cards". You can choose zero cards.
Can +1 her even with 0 zero cards in grave because of the wording stated above.
Even still, Ashiok, Dream Render isn't good here.
This deck is actually really, really good. I am on a 16-3 run in BO1 right now. It's quite different from the traditional Esper Control though. In fact, I came here looking for other people playing it, but haven't found anything. The combo is solid, but even if you can't make Kaya work you can still deck out your oppo.
I'm running 4 Ashiok and 3 Kaya for the combo, then a bunch of removal and draw/lifegain. Considering the prevalence of RDW on Arena, I decided to go with Dovin's Acuity and Revitalize rather than a full boat of Chemister's Insights. I only run 2 Teferis as you just don't need him. Kaya also gives you a little lifegain against RDW. It's incidental, but relevant. Right now this is my favourite deck in the new standard. I am building it in paper.
Rough list
4 Ashiok
3 Kaya
3 Dovin's Acuity
4 Revitalize
2 Chem's Insight
2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
3 Kaya's Wrath
2 Vraska's Contempt
3 Mortify
2 Cast Down
2 Cry of the Carnarium
4 Thought Erasure
1 Ixalan's Binding
25 Land
How hard do you mulligan with this deck? I find myself shipping the hands with my only lands being the support/check lands since I find them too risky but I'm not sure if it's correct
r1 beat Boros angels, which is probably outdated now. Games 1 and 2 we swapped mulls to 5. Game 3 he was on the play and dropped t2 adanto vanguard. I thought erasure him on my 2 and have the option between Lyra and Aurelia. I take the Lyra so I can hopefully get him to play into my t4 wrath. he draws a second vanguard which makes the wrath a bit awkward. I contempt a vanguard on his 4 then he plays the Aurelia and I wrath. He saves the vanguard which i expected then he plays a knight of grace. I draw a cry of the carnarium and figures it's a fine time to cast it.
1-0
round 2 I 2-1 some ramp deck. I grind him out on 1 and he scoops without me having a win. game 2 I didn't read nullhide ferox right ad didn't reali\e I could remove hexproof. I the grind him out enough for Lily to get there
2-0
R3 I run over WW. It wasn't much
r4 I lose to mono red 1-2. Game 1 he runs me over. game 2 Lyra gets me there. G3 I mull to and put up a fight but Tibalt prevented me from gaining the life I needed
3-1 and got a showdown pack
for anyone who reads face to face articles, John Rosum posted a great article and I basically played his second list except I dropped the 3rd vito for a Lily which is great
Let me know your thoughts.
--lugger
round 1 got paired against someone at their first competitive events, he was on some big redish style deck. Deck wasn't good and neither was he really. Game 1 he played poorly and I won off a Liliana, Dreadhorde general after digging deep to draw her when he was dead a while ago, he just didn't realize when to scoop. Game 2 Lyra dawnbringer got me there.
1-0
Round 2 I lose a tight match to mono red 1-2. Game 1 he steamrolled me. Game 2 I kept a hand of 4 lands, duress, thought erasure and baby tef, everything else just fell into place and he scooped to big tef emblem. Game 3 I stripped the tibalt from his hand early due to the no life gain ability. I was getting close to stabilizing but then he got a second tibalt right before I dropped my Lyra and couldn't get there in time.
1-1
round 3 I lost to bant midrange pretty quickly, mostly due to me not knowing how to play it. Played right into his stuff 1 then just couldn't make my way through how to win in game 2.
1-2. probably needed to win out from here
Round 4 I beat UW mill 2-1. He milled me out game 1, I got my Liliana milled out early and didn't really have a way to win that game from there. post board I took on the role of the aggro deck with 3x dreadhorde invasion, 2x Lyra. I swapped the removal for those and more permission. Highlight of post board was drawing out a negate on my turn 2 of game 3 (he was on the play) with a thought erasure, then slamming dreadhorde invasion when he tapped out on his 3.
2-2, looking better.
Lost to gruul warriors 0-2. He curved out really well g1, then I mulled low g2 and got run over
2-3, dead to top 8 and need to get lucky to prize.
round 6 got the no show to go 3-3. Probably not gonna prize after that kind of win
round 7 I win a nail biter against grixis control/midrange 2-1. g1 he basically drew only his copies of nicol bolas, dragon god and nicol bolas, the ravager. I couldn't answer them all. game 2 I duress away his discard spell in hand and jammed dreadhorde invasion on 2, then I ran away with the game. g3 I was stuck on 2 or 3 lands for the longest time after a mull to 5. He got a nicol bolas dragon god and a liliana which he ticked up twice. I drew an elderspell to kill both. I then essentially sacrifice my first baby tef to bounce a token, then bounce the second token with my second baby tef. I was then able to get enough lands to cast my liliana, get it up to 9 and also have a dreadhorde invasion. He was the able to kill my lily and big tef with bedevils. He then casts a Nicol bolas, the ravager and flips it right away. he minuses it to get his other bolas and kill my last walker, which i believe was the baby tef. I finish his walkers off with zombies, holding a vraska's contempt for whatever creature or walker he had. It was over from there.
4-3, finished 44th out of 120ish, prizing was to top 32. there were a lot of 12 pointers in prizing but I was the second from the bottom of 12 pointers.
I know I didn't play perfectly but I think the mistakes I made were mostly minor