Can anybody convince me as to why this deck is better in anyway to traditional control? I enjoy combo control decks and am currently playing BTL Scapeshift. BTL Scapeshift is really nice because if you have BTL in hand you just win usually by turn 6, but Sultai Reclamation does not have an "I Win" card like BTL Scapeshift. It also seems nearly impossible to win if Wilderness Reclamation gets thoughseized and surgicaled, as opposed to BTL Scapeshift which can side in a creature package and Madcap expecting the surgical. I am interested in this deck because it seems a lot more consistent to hit your Cryptics than BTL Scapeshift, but that is about it. Any insight would be very appreciated.
BUG Teachings is a pretty niche deck and it does have weaknesses, especially to aggro and tempo/tax based decks. Coming to the deck from UW/Esper control I have noticed a few advantages though.
The ramp from Growth Spiral and the pseudo-ramp from Wilderness Reclamation means that Teachings gets to its endgame state faster than UWx, although not as quickly as a more combo oriented deck like Scapeshift. Unlike Scapeshift, though, Teachings does not need its combo to win. Without Reclamation it functions as a normal control deck, and even when it does have Reclamation out, there's a lot of matchups where Snapcaster Mage and Creeping Tarpit beats will close out the game without extensive use of Nexus of Fate. Often the effective wincon is just resolving Blue Sun's Zenith for a large amount and completely shutting your opponent out of the game.
Because of this it's better to think of BUG as a synergistic control deck that uses a combo as one of its wincons. The Nexus/Zenith combo is still very powerful, though. Once you reach a critical mass of mana there's very few gamestates that cannot be overcome by drawing your entire deck and taking unlimited turns.
Another advantage is the consistency and versatility of a deck that's full of cantrips, tutors and graveyard recursion. Being able to maindeck Surgical Extraction or Consume the Meek and pack your sideboard full of narrow but powerful 1-of hate cards is nothing to scoff at.
It's also a lot of fun to play in my opinion, but your experience may vary depending on how often you like going to time at paper tournaments.
It's been pretty smooth in testing. I think Jace and Opt alongside core Esper cards is enough to enable it. I went with 3 copies because it can be awkward in some matchups and it doesn't *really* kill the creatures, so in long games having access to a normal wrath main and side should keep too many creatures from popping back up.
It's been pretty doom and gloom around here lately, but I definitely understand where people are coming from. I took a pretty stock list to FNM last week and did about the worst I'd ever done with the deck: 2-3, with my wins coming from a Merfolk player who mulliganed to 5 in game one and then to 4 in game two, and a player with a very unoptimized Rakdos deck who conceded the match after game one because he didn't want to play against control. My own luck didn't seem overly terrible, the deck just wasn't getting there. The fact that I never resolved Sphinx's Revelation the whole night probably had something to do with it. Overall a very disheartening experience.
Anyway, I've been thinking about all the discussion surrounding Search for Azcanta, and while I think the card is roughly playable in any build of this deck, I definitely see how it becomes better in conjunction with high impact spells or permanents that provide positional advantage. It's probably at its strongest in some kind of combo-control deck, like BtL Scapeshift, but it's definitely worth figuring out what the card is capable of in Esper.
So, applying a bit of what Cipher's been advocating, I came up with this:
It's not that large a departure from the stock list, but I think it's a good starting point for this kind of build. Cutting back Cryptics for other kinds of card advantage, and adding more prison cards to the sideboard might be the next step, but I've only had a little time to test it so far.
One of the things I really felt at that last FNM was that 5 two mana counters and 4 Cryptics was clunky against a lot of popular decks, and running 8 spot removal spells makes the deck too inflexible, so I brought back Spell Snare. It's the best cheap interaction we have besides Path/Push, and it shores up a lot of our weakest matchups (Burn, Storm, hyper-aggro) while still countering important cards like Snapcaster and Chalice of the Void against other archetypes.
After cutting the usual x-spells, the next best win-con package seemed to be the Gideon Squad that UW Control runs. With the new Legendary rule for planeswalkers, tag-teaming Gideons can provide a surprising amount of board control and inevitability, mostly due to the Gideon of the Trials emblem.
In the sideboard I have pretty standard disruption and anti-aggro packages, alongside 2 Runed Halo and 2 Rule of Law. I started with those enchantments because I think they provide the best coverage against Modern's spread of big combo decks -- Storm, Ad Naus, and Valakut, alongside the discard and extractions that help beat G Tron (which unfortunately seems to be making a resurgence), Lantern, and most rogue combos. I specifically went with Rule of Law because it shuts down Storm completely, most lists only seem to run one or two Echoing Truth to remove it, and when it's down we can easily counter those. It also seems very strong against Ad Nauseam, because it forces them to go off via Unlife, and stops them from using their Pacts against us.
As far as other options for lock pieces, I've been looking at Nevermore, Night of Soul's Betrayal/Curse of Death's Hold, Pithing Needle, and maybe even Ghostly Prison or Teferi's Moat, alongside the usual Stony Silence and Rest in Peace. Unfortunately Modern doesn't have the heavy hitters like Humility, Solitary Confinement, and Moat, which make decks like Enchantress and Parfait tick.
Edit:
@Cipher I didn't see your latest post while I was typing all this, but it looks like I came to the same conclusion as you about which lock pieces we want.
This is what I settled on for now. Probably gonna start jamming some leagues with the list in the near future. Possibly considering cutting the elspeth for something else, but happy with the rest of the list.
I agree with what BadMcFadden said, your list looks solid, but 3 Ghost Quarters is too many. Specifically, you need more than the 14 white sources you're currently running to support cards like Runed Halo, WSZ and especially Verdict. Getting double white for Verdict is critical in a lot of matchups because often if you can't cast it on curve you just lose. As a general rule I try to hit 21u/17w/13b in my mana base, give or take a few based on land count and the number of cantrips.
So with everyone saying that search is not as good as in UW control in this deck and I would agree, however this is my esper azcanta build. Added Elspeth for two targets.
If you test that list, I would like to know how it goes. I would be worried that without the extra cantrips to fuel your yard, it will be hard to flip Azcanta early enough, and there will be more conflict between Azcanta, Logic Knot, and Snapcaster. Azcanta will also whiff slightly more with less noncreature spells in the deck. On the other hand, with 25 lands, you still get to play Colonnades and utility lands to protect your Azcanta from enemy lands.
Hello guys im trying to play esper control and i need to ask a few things
FIrst of all why most of you play 2 revelations 4 think twice and 4 charm? Isnt that too much draw for a deck?
Moreover why care playing baneslayer angel or something like huge cruge creature?
and last but not least how about playing Anguished unmaking and settle the wreckage?
There's really no such thing as too much card draw in a deck like this, it's more a question of how much you can get away with running while still interacting enough to stay alive. That's because our whole game plan revolves around chaining card draw spells to generate an insurmountable advantage. 4TT/4Charm/2Rev is the core of classic version of the deck, but it might be worth trimming 1 TT if you're running a lot of Visions/Opts and Snapcasters to go with them. If you're building around Search for Azcanta then the numbers could change more.
A lot of mainboard configurations of this deck are already loaded up on removal, so instead of sideboarding even more removal against aggro decks, Baneslayer gives you an extra win-con that can get you out of burn range and take over the game on its own. It shines against Burn, Dredge, Affinity, Hatebears, and Company decks, alongside Dispel or Clique to protect it and your face from burn spells, or counter Chords and Companies.
Unmaking is definitely playable in the sideboard (although I prefer Celestial Purge, Disenchant, or Cast Out), and I feel that Settle is decent but ultimately not worth running over a full set of Verdicts. When I played it as a one-of most of the times I drew it I would rather have had a Verdict for the uncounterable clause or to sweep up mana dorks and other creatures that don't attack.
Elspeth feels like the perfect card to take advantage of falling behind early while drawing cards. I like Secure the Waste as a payoff here as well since it scales nicely. I'll state my bias against Rev up front, but I don't think Rev fits what you're trying to do. Getting to 6 mana is going to be tough enough for your payoff in Elspeth, and X=5 on Secure is going to be decent. But x=3 on Rev as a late game spell that also rots in your hand early is going to be very underwhelming, especially when you're using it to draw into such a limited number of high impact spells. I might recommend Sorin, Grim Nemesis as that additional payoff over Rev. Huge loyalty, can kill most threats, card advantage+wincon on the +. I don't think this card is too far behind Elspeth in power level. Maybe 2x Elspeth is better, but I also like having a diversity because of legend rule and extraction effects.
My other concern is that Serum Visions seems bad in a deck with 9 Fetchlands and 2 Azcanta. It doesn't play particularly well with either side of Search for Azcanta. You might be better off running Sleight of Hand. I don't think I've ever made the suggestion of Sleight over Serum in a control deck, but I think it's right here.
Thanks for the feedback.
I thought about running 2 Elspeths, but outside of really grindy matches I found she was usually a win-more, and in a lot of situations it was risky to resolve her (like against unfair decks that Secure could help you race). Also, aside from Extractions and hard GY hate (which rarely show up in G1), Secure is the more "durable" win-con because you can Snapcaster it. That's why I went to two Secure and Elspeth in the side, like a more traditional list. It might be better to run some kind of 'walker package though, because they do provide continuous advantage that Secure cannot.
The single Rev has actually been pretty great. You will still hit plenty of land drops with 22 lands and ten cantrips (you just have more control over when those land drops come), and I think 1 Rev is a better bet than a third Azcanta, because after a certain point it is the best topdeck, and the lifegain is very important, while Azcanta is pretty weak in multiples.
I hadn't thought about running Sleight instead of Serum. There are times where the scry from Serum isn't that great (moreso because of Azcanta than fetches though, it's easy to fetch around Visions) but Serum is much better on its own and when digging for a specific card.
Anyway, on to the match report:
I played the following list at FNM yesterday to a 3-2 finish. The deck ran smoothly, but I made more play errors than I'm used to because of all the scrying and sequencing sorcery-speed spells around my other spells. I should probably stop keeping one landers that only have one cantrip, too. Both my losses were to the only two GDS players in the room, while the other matches were to more janky decks, but not ones that would necessarily be easy matchups.
R1 - 7 Land Belcher (2-1 W):
G1: I kept a hand with Verdict/Snap/Path/Cantrip/3 Lands and he was able to thin his deck and stack it with Recross the Paths before I could find a counterspell. There was no way I was beating every threat in his deck one after another so I scooped.
SB: I cut Pushes and Verdicts and bring in TS, BA, and Cast Out.
G2: He has two Defense Grids but I manage to kill them with Disenchant/Snap-Disenchant and take over the game from there.
G3: I take out his initial threats with Esper Charm discard, he topdecks a few creatures which I manage to kill while basically flooding out. Eventually we're both topdecking when I cast a big Secure for the win.
R2 - Grixis Death's Shadow (0-2 L):
G1: He lands LotV on T3 and I can't deal with it fast enough. By the time I've stabilized with Azcanta up, he ults her and cuts me down to 3 lands, while continuing to drop threats.
SB: I cut Pushes, Remands, and 1 Cryptic, bring in BA, Verdict, Purge, 1 Dispel, 1 Baneslayer.
G2: I keep a risky 1 Island 1 Serum hand and only find another Island and a Watery Grave, he kills me on T4 with two shadows swinging for 20.
R3 - Gr Ponza (2-1 W):
G1: I counter his early land destruction and pull ahead with a well timed Verdict that wipes out his mana dorks.
SB: I think I trimmed a few removal spells and one verdict and brought in Seizes, Cast Out, and Purge. My main fear is getting locked out turns 2-3 with Blood Moon followed up by LD on my basics.
G2: He keeps a weak hand and I Thoughtseize his main threat (Inferno Titan), but he draws a Choke the next turn. I play out lands without casting anything to get to 4 for Cast Out, while he attacks me with some dorks. I think I'm safe when I Cast Out his Choke, but he has Beast Within for my Cast Out, and I'm never able to draw out of Choke again.
G3: Pretty similar to G1. I flip Azcanta early, but even though he kills it a few turns later I'm already so far ahead I win easily.
R4 - Grixis Death's Shadow (1-2 L):
G1: I stabilize at two life after getting hit with an Angler and a 5/5 Shadow in the same turn. He burns me out a bit later with K Command.
SB: Same as last time
G2: We both durdle for a bit, I path his first threat (Tasigur) and set up Azcanta. I think I lost a counter war over Lili the Last Hope (he was running 2 Deprive in addition to Stubs), and then shortly after that he went all in trying to overload my removal, dropping Young Pyromancer, Angler, and a big Shadow. At the end of that turn I rip a Verdict of Azcanta and he scoops right there (in the interest of time I guess?).
G3: This game starts slow as well, I get Azcanta up and things are looking good, but he Thoughtseizes and then Extracts my hand with two Verdicts. This time when he goes wide my only out is a big Secure to try to race him. I'm lucky enough to draw it, but he has a Deprive.
R5 - Living End (2-1 W):
G1: He draws 3 Fulminators and cuts me off Verdict mana, I get killed by the first Living End.
SB: Pushes and Blessed Alliance out, Surgicals and Verdict in.
G2: I let him resolve a LE, extract it, then wipe the board. He durdles around until I finally kill him with a Warrior swarm.
G3: Similar to G2 except it takes longer because he went back to his sideboard and got Slaughter Games, which he then used on my Secures, so I had to kill him with Snapcaster beats.
As I feared, Remand was pretty useless (except against Living End) and I did have trouble against Death's Shadow's discard, so going forward I'm going to try Think Twice in the mainboard again. I'm also going to test out the Token sideboard plan again, because I think Lingering Souls would be nice against GDS. I'm going to use Sorin, Lord of Innistrad this time though, because he's better on his own and his emblems can still buff my spirits and warriors after he dies.
I've lurked this thread for a long time and played several different versions of the deck (classic builds with Snare, a Ryan Hovis inspired build, and most recently a relatively stock Serum Visions build) since I started playing Modern. Over the years I've run several other decks in the format, but I always come back to Esper Control and I'm always looking to make it better.
I was excited to test with the new cards from Ixalan, and even more excited when my new build seemed to be very strong, so I thought I should share what I came up with. Below is the version of the new build that I've played with the most; earlier versions were 1-2 cards off this 60 and had a more traditional sideboard.
The Theory:
My plan with this list was to see what would happen if I fully committed to the Turbo Xerox plan without sacrificing too much late game power. To do that I lowered the land count significantly, and removed all the Colonnades. The only MU where I really wanted them was Death's Shadow, which was already favorable, and in situations where I needed to cantrip early to hit land drops I thought they would be a liability. To make up for the loss of the back-up wincon, I added Elspeth to the main to ensure at least two different but powerful wincons outside of the flimsy Snapcasters. Cutting Think Twice was another risky move, but I thought that it would be necessary with the addition of all the other cantrips, and that those same cantrips - along with the reduced land count - would provide the card quality to make up for it (ie, why run TT when I can have more effective Esper Charms by making the deck smaller). I went down to one Rev because of the lower land count and because Search for Azcanta could also provide game ending CA without the huge investment up front.
Previously I had found the most success with a mostly Blue/White sideboard focused around hate enchantments and other "lock" pieces like Baneslayer Angel, with Cliques and cheap interaction like Dispel as support. Because Search for Azcanta required me to have a graveyard, I knew I couldn't run Rest in Peace, and so instead I built my sideboard to make better use of Surgical Extraction. The Souls/Sorin package is something I always liked in theory as a way to provide board control and lifegain without going all in on an easily removed creature. It had tested lukewarm in the past, but I thought that the more low-to-the-ground nature of this deck might be a better fit.
The Results:
I was very surprised when this list provided late game power matching and sometimes surpassing previous Esper lists, while having an improved early game due to the card selection and cheap interaction. The card that most over-performed was easily Search for Azcanta. The front half contributes to the critical mass of card selection, and with all the cantrips and fetches it flips easily, even through several Logic Knots. The CA it provides takes over the game more reliably than an average Rev, as it always draws gas (instead of occasionally "wiffing" into 3 lands and a removal spell) and it just keeps churning out cards the longer you stay alive. In awkward situations (like digging for a Cryptic to bounce a PW that's about to ult) a few activations of Azcanta will usually turn up an answer. Even without it though, the density of card selection often allowed me to "go off" by chaining Esper Charms and Snaps into one of the big spells. Overall I feel the deck more reliably reaches that late-game stage of having 15-20 cards in your deck and a full grip, where you can pretty much answer anything given a turn or two of digging though your deck.
However, there's a few drawbacks I've noticed with the Xerox engine. You're more vulnerable to grave hate and land destruction, especially now that there's no Colonnades to draw GQ activations. Chalice on one out of Eldrazi Tron is also a huge pain, where before it could be played through reasonably (although I've won both matchups I've played against ETron so far, it still feels like a miracle). Without Think Twice to bin for value and grind out CA, you can be weaker in grindy MUs unless you get Azcanta going or dig into one of the big spells. This is similar to the problem old lists would have with randomly flooding out. Supporting so many mana and color intensive spells puts a huge strain on a 22 land manabase, so there's really no option to run any utility lands (which sucks because I think Field of Ruin is perfect for Esper). I think this will also make the the UW "mirror" a lot tougher, as a smart player will easily kill our Azcantas and cut us off black, but the one time I played the matchup I was ahead both games until I threw them to stupid misplays.
Going Forward:
The only card I've been unhappy with in the maindeck is Remand. On paper it's the perfect card for its slot (a cantrip that also provides some cheap interaction) but it feels horrible in the meta right now; I constantly find myself holding it up only to counter nothing and screw up my curve, or firing it off at one mana spells just to get it out of my hand. I'm going to test Shadow of Doubt and Censor, but the correct move might be to bring back 2-3 Think Twice, and maybe trim a Push or a Serum Visions to make room.
The Token Package in the sideboard has been great sometimes and terrible other times. I might be boarding it in against the wrong decks, though. It's been tight against Affinity and "small" aggro like Humans and Goblins/8Whack, but against Company decks or BGx decks that can more easily fight through, it might be better to just keep my Cryptics and what not in. The other problem is that while Sorin, Solemn Visitor is amazing with tokens already on the board, he's pretty bad at defending himself. I think I'll test Lord of Innistrad with the Souls and Kitchen Finks alongside some Gideons or something, but it might just be better to load up on more removal for the aggro part of the sideboard. I hate playing a lot of basic interactive spells in my board, though, because then it just feels like I'm shuffling around slots for a small advantage instead of playing hard-hitting cards.
I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on this build, or on the new cards in general. So far my testing has only been on Xmage, but I'm going to pick up my Search for Azcantas tomorrow so I should be able to start running this at FNM.
BUG Teachings is a pretty niche deck and it does have weaknesses, especially to aggro and tempo/tax based decks. Coming to the deck from UW/Esper control I have noticed a few advantages though.
The ramp from Growth Spiral and the pseudo-ramp from Wilderness Reclamation means that Teachings gets to its endgame state faster than UWx, although not as quickly as a more combo oriented deck like Scapeshift. Unlike Scapeshift, though, Teachings does not need its combo to win. Without Reclamation it functions as a normal control deck, and even when it does have Reclamation out, there's a lot of matchups where Snapcaster Mage and Creeping Tarpit beats will close out the game without extensive use of Nexus of Fate. Often the effective wincon is just resolving Blue Sun's Zenith for a large amount and completely shutting your opponent out of the game.
Because of this it's better to think of BUG as a synergistic control deck that uses a combo as one of its wincons. The Nexus/Zenith combo is still very powerful, though. Once you reach a critical mass of mana there's very few gamestates that cannot be overcome by drawing your entire deck and taking unlimited turns.
Another advantage is the consistency and versatility of a deck that's full of cantrips, tutors and graveyard recursion. Being able to maindeck Surgical Extraction or Consume the Meek and pack your sideboard full of narrow but powerful 1-of hate cards is nothing to scoff at.
It's also a lot of fun to play in my opinion, but your experience may vary depending on how often you like going to time at paper tournaments.
This is how I've been trying out Terminus:
2 Snapcaster Mage
Instants: 24
4 Opt
4 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
1 Spell Snare
2 Logic Knot
2 Think Twice
1 Negate
4 Esper Charm
3 Cryptic Command
1 Secure the Wastes
Other Spells: 10
2 Search for Azcanta
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
3 Terminus
3 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Watery Grave
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Drowned Catacomb
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Thoughtseize
1 Dispel
2 Rest in Peace
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Negate
1 Celestial Purge
1 Disenchant
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Wrath of God
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
It's been pretty smooth in testing. I think Jace and Opt alongside core Esper cards is enough to enable it. I went with 3 copies because it can be awkward in some matchups and it doesn't *really* kill the creatures, so in long games having access to a normal wrath main and side should keep too many creatures from popping back up.
Anyway, I've been thinking about all the discussion surrounding Search for Azcanta, and while I think the card is roughly playable in any build of this deck, I definitely see how it becomes better in conjunction with high impact spells or permanents that provide positional advantage. It's probably at its strongest in some kind of combo-control deck, like BtL Scapeshift, but it's definitely worth figuring out what the card is capable of in Esper.
So, applying a bit of what Cipher's been advocating, I came up with this:
4 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
3 Supreme Verdict
Counterspells: 9
3 Spell Snare
3 Logic Knot
3 Cryptic Command
Card Advantage/Filtering: 11
4 Opt
3 Search for Azcanta
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Esper Charm
Wincons: 4
2 Gideon of the Trials
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Gideon Jura
2 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Runed Halo
2 Rule of Law
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Cast Out
1 Supreme Verdict
3 Thoughtseize
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Dispel
1 Negate
It's not that large a departure from the stock list, but I think it's a good starting point for this kind of build. Cutting back Cryptics for other kinds of card advantage, and adding more prison cards to the sideboard might be the next step, but I've only had a little time to test it so far.
One of the things I really felt at that last FNM was that 5 two mana counters and 4 Cryptics was clunky against a lot of popular decks, and running 8 spot removal spells makes the deck too inflexible, so I brought back Spell Snare. It's the best cheap interaction we have besides Path/Push, and it shores up a lot of our weakest matchups (Burn, Storm, hyper-aggro) while still countering important cards like Snapcaster and Chalice of the Void against other archetypes.
After cutting the usual x-spells, the next best win-con package seemed to be the Gideon Squad that UW Control runs. With the new Legendary rule for planeswalkers, tag-teaming Gideons can provide a surprising amount of board control and inevitability, mostly due to the Gideon of the Trials emblem.
In the sideboard I have pretty standard disruption and anti-aggro packages, alongside 2 Runed Halo and 2 Rule of Law. I started with those enchantments because I think they provide the best coverage against Modern's spread of big combo decks -- Storm, Ad Naus, and Valakut, alongside the discard and extractions that help beat G Tron (which unfortunately seems to be making a resurgence), Lantern, and most rogue combos. I specifically went with Rule of Law because it shuts down Storm completely, most lists only seem to run one or two Echoing Truth to remove it, and when it's down we can easily counter those. It also seems very strong against Ad Nauseam, because it forces them to go off via Unlife, and stops them from using their Pacts against us.
As far as other options for lock pieces, I've been looking at Nevermore, Night of Soul's Betrayal/Curse of Death's Hold, Pithing Needle, and maybe even Ghostly Prison or Teferi's Moat, alongside the usual Stony Silence and Rest in Peace. Unfortunately Modern doesn't have the heavy hitters like Humility, Solitary Confinement, and Moat, which make decks like Enchantress and Parfait tick.
Edit:
@Cipher I didn't see your latest post while I was typing all this, but it looks like I came to the same conclusion as you about which lock pieces we want.
I agree with what BadMcFadden said, your list looks solid, but 3 Ghost Quarters is too many. Specifically, you need more than the 14 white sources you're currently running to support cards like Runed Halo, WSZ and especially Verdict. Getting double white for Verdict is critical in a lot of matchups because often if you can't cast it on curve you just lose. As a general rule I try to hit 21u/17w/13b in my mana base, give or take a few based on land count and the number of cantrips.
If you test that list, I would like to know how it goes. I would be worried that without the extra cantrips to fuel your yard, it will be hard to flip Azcanta early enough, and there will be more conflict between Azcanta, Logic Knot, and Snapcaster. Azcanta will also whiff slightly more with less noncreature spells in the deck. On the other hand, with 25 lands, you still get to play Colonnades and utility lands to protect your Azcanta from enemy lands.
This is the list I've been running with Azcanta:
4 Opt
4 Serum Visions
2 Remand
Removal: 10
4 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
1 Blessed Alliance
3 Supreme Verdict
Countermagic: 6
3 Logic Knot
3 Cryptic Command
Card Advantage: 10
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Esper Charm
1 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Secure the Wastes
Lands: 22
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Drowned Catacomb
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Dispel
2 Collective Brutality
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Celestial Purge
1 Disenchant
3 Lingering Souls
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
There's really no such thing as too much card draw in a deck like this, it's more a question of how much you can get away with running while still interacting enough to stay alive. That's because our whole game plan revolves around chaining card draw spells to generate an insurmountable advantage. 4TT/4Charm/2Rev is the core of classic version of the deck, but it might be worth trimming 1 TT if you're running a lot of Visions/Opts and Snapcasters to go with them. If you're building around Search for Azcanta then the numbers could change more.
A lot of mainboard configurations of this deck are already loaded up on removal, so instead of sideboarding even more removal against aggro decks, Baneslayer gives you an extra win-con that can get you out of burn range and take over the game on its own. It shines against Burn, Dredge, Affinity, Hatebears, and Company decks, alongside Dispel or Clique to protect it and your face from burn spells, or counter Chords and Companies.
Unmaking is definitely playable in the sideboard (although I prefer Celestial Purge, Disenchant, or Cast Out), and I feel that Settle is decent but ultimately not worth running over a full set of Verdicts. When I played it as a one-of most of the times I drew it I would rather have had a Verdict for the uncounterable clause or to sweep up mana dorks and other creatures that don't attack.
Thanks for the feedback.
I thought about running 2 Elspeths, but outside of really grindy matches I found she was usually a win-more, and in a lot of situations it was risky to resolve her (like against unfair decks that Secure could help you race). Also, aside from Extractions and hard GY hate (which rarely show up in G1), Secure is the more "durable" win-con because you can Snapcaster it. That's why I went to two Secure and Elspeth in the side, like a more traditional list. It might be better to run some kind of 'walker package though, because they do provide continuous advantage that Secure cannot.
The single Rev has actually been pretty great. You will still hit plenty of land drops with 22 lands and ten cantrips (you just have more control over when those land drops come), and I think 1 Rev is a better bet than a third Azcanta, because after a certain point it is the best topdeck, and the lifegain is very important, while Azcanta is pretty weak in multiples.
I hadn't thought about running Sleight instead of Serum. There are times where the scry from Serum isn't that great (moreso because of Azcanta than fetches though, it's easy to fetch around Visions) but Serum is much better on its own and when digging for a specific card.
Anyway, on to the match report:
I played the following list at FNM yesterday to a 3-2 finish. The deck ran smoothly, but I made more play errors than I'm used to because of all the scrying and sequencing sorcery-speed spells around my other spells. I should probably stop keeping one landers that only have one cantrip, too. Both my losses were to the only two GDS players in the room, while the other matches were to more janky decks, but not ones that would necessarily be easy matchups.
4 Opt
4 Serum Visions
2 Remand
Removal: 10
4 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
1 Blessed Alliance
3 Supreme Verdict
Countermagic: 6
3 Logic Knot
3 Cryptic Command
Card Advantage: 10
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Esper Charm
1 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Secure the Wastes
Lands: 22
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Dispel
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Thoughtseize
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Celestial Purge
1 Disenchant
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Cast Out
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
R1 - 7 Land Belcher (2-1 W):
G1: I kept a hand with Verdict/Snap/Path/Cantrip/3 Lands and he was able to thin his deck and stack it with Recross the Paths before I could find a counterspell. There was no way I was beating every threat in his deck one after another so I scooped.
SB: I cut Pushes and Verdicts and bring in TS, BA, and Cast Out.
G2: He has two Defense Grids but I manage to kill them with Disenchant/Snap-Disenchant and take over the game from there.
G3: I take out his initial threats with Esper Charm discard, he topdecks a few creatures which I manage to kill while basically flooding out. Eventually we're both topdecking when I cast a big Secure for the win.
R2 - Grixis Death's Shadow (0-2 L):
G1: He lands LotV on T3 and I can't deal with it fast enough. By the time I've stabilized with Azcanta up, he ults her and cuts me down to 3 lands, while continuing to drop threats.
SB: I cut Pushes, Remands, and 1 Cryptic, bring in BA, Verdict, Purge, 1 Dispel, 1 Baneslayer.
G2: I keep a risky 1 Island 1 Serum hand and only find another Island and a Watery Grave, he kills me on T4 with two shadows swinging for 20.
R3 - Gr Ponza (2-1 W):
G1: I counter his early land destruction and pull ahead with a well timed Verdict that wipes out his mana dorks.
SB: I think I trimmed a few removal spells and one verdict and brought in Seizes, Cast Out, and Purge. My main fear is getting locked out turns 2-3 with Blood Moon followed up by LD on my basics.
G2: He keeps a weak hand and I Thoughtseize his main threat (Inferno Titan), but he draws a Choke the next turn. I play out lands without casting anything to get to 4 for Cast Out, while he attacks me with some dorks. I think I'm safe when I Cast Out his Choke, but he has Beast Within for my Cast Out, and I'm never able to draw out of Choke again.
G3: Pretty similar to G1. I flip Azcanta early, but even though he kills it a few turns later I'm already so far ahead I win easily.
R4 - Grixis Death's Shadow (1-2 L):
G1: I stabilize at two life after getting hit with an Angler and a 5/5 Shadow in the same turn. He burns me out a bit later with K Command.
SB: Same as last time
G2: We both durdle for a bit, I path his first threat (Tasigur) and set up Azcanta. I think I lost a counter war over Lili the Last Hope (he was running 2 Deprive in addition to Stubs), and then shortly after that he went all in trying to overload my removal, dropping Young Pyromancer, Angler, and a big Shadow. At the end of that turn I rip a Verdict of Azcanta and he scoops right there (in the interest of time I guess?).
G3: This game starts slow as well, I get Azcanta up and things are looking good, but he Thoughtseizes and then Extracts my hand with two Verdicts. This time when he goes wide my only out is a big Secure to try to race him. I'm lucky enough to draw it, but he has a Deprive.
R5 - Living End (2-1 W):
G1: He draws 3 Fulminators and cuts me off Verdict mana, I get killed by the first Living End.
SB: Pushes and Blessed Alliance out, Surgicals and Verdict in.
G2: I let him resolve a LE, extract it, then wipe the board. He durdles around until I finally kill him with a Warrior swarm.
G3: Similar to G2 except it takes longer because he went back to his sideboard and got Slaughter Games, which he then used on my Secures, so I had to kill him with Snapcaster beats.
As I feared, Remand was pretty useless (except against Living End) and I did have trouble against Death's Shadow's discard, so going forward I'm going to try Think Twice in the mainboard again. I'm also going to test out the Token sideboard plan again, because I think Lingering Souls would be nice against GDS. I'm going to use Sorin, Lord of Innistrad this time though, because he's better on his own and his emblems can still buff my spirits and warriors after he dies.
4 Opt
4 Serum Visions
Removal: 9
4 Path to Exile
2 Fatal Push
3 Supreme Verdict
Countermagic: 6
3 Logic Knot
3 Cryptic Command
Card Advantage: 13
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Think Twice
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Esper Charm
1 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Secure the Wastes
Lands: 22
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Thoughtseize
2 Blessed Alliance
3 Lingering Souls
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
I was excited to test with the new cards from Ixalan, and even more excited when my new build seemed to be very strong, so I thought I should share what I came up with. Below is the version of the new build that I've played with the most; earlier versions were 1-2 cards off this 60 and had a more traditional sideboard.
4 Opt
4 Serum Visions
2 Remand
Removal: 10
4 Path to Exile
3 Fatal Push
3 Supreme Verdict
Countermagic: 6
3 Logic Knot
3 Cryptic Command
Card Advantage: 10
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Esper Charm
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Secure the Wastes
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Lands: 22
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
2 Negate
1 Celestial Purge
3 Lingering Souls
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Cast Out
The Theory:
My plan with this list was to see what would happen if I fully committed to the Turbo Xerox plan without sacrificing too much late game power. To do that I lowered the land count significantly, and removed all the Colonnades. The only MU where I really wanted them was Death's Shadow, which was already favorable, and in situations where I needed to cantrip early to hit land drops I thought they would be a liability. To make up for the loss of the back-up wincon, I added Elspeth to the main to ensure at least two different but powerful wincons outside of the flimsy Snapcasters. Cutting Think Twice was another risky move, but I thought that it would be necessary with the addition of all the other cantrips, and that those same cantrips - along with the reduced land count - would provide the card quality to make up for it (ie, why run TT when I can have more effective Esper Charms by making the deck smaller). I went down to one Rev because of the lower land count and because Search for Azcanta could also provide game ending CA without the huge investment up front.
Previously I had found the most success with a mostly Blue/White sideboard focused around hate enchantments and other "lock" pieces like Baneslayer Angel, with Cliques and cheap interaction like Dispel as support. Because Search for Azcanta required me to have a graveyard, I knew I couldn't run Rest in Peace, and so instead I built my sideboard to make better use of Surgical Extraction. The Souls/Sorin package is something I always liked in theory as a way to provide board control and lifegain without going all in on an easily removed creature. It had tested lukewarm in the past, but I thought that the more low-to-the-ground nature of this deck might be a better fit.
The Results:
I was very surprised when this list provided late game power matching and sometimes surpassing previous Esper lists, while having an improved early game due to the card selection and cheap interaction. The card that most over-performed was easily Search for Azcanta. The front half contributes to the critical mass of card selection, and with all the cantrips and fetches it flips easily, even through several Logic Knots. The CA it provides takes over the game more reliably than an average Rev, as it always draws gas (instead of occasionally "wiffing" into 3 lands and a removal spell) and it just keeps churning out cards the longer you stay alive. In awkward situations (like digging for a Cryptic to bounce a PW that's about to ult) a few activations of Azcanta will usually turn up an answer. Even without it though, the density of card selection often allowed me to "go off" by chaining Esper Charms and Snaps into one of the big spells. Overall I feel the deck more reliably reaches that late-game stage of having 15-20 cards in your deck and a full grip, where you can pretty much answer anything given a turn or two of digging though your deck.
However, there's a few drawbacks I've noticed with the Xerox engine. You're more vulnerable to grave hate and land destruction, especially now that there's no Colonnades to draw GQ activations. Chalice on one out of Eldrazi Tron is also a huge pain, where before it could be played through reasonably (although I've won both matchups I've played against ETron so far, it still feels like a miracle). Without Think Twice to bin for value and grind out CA, you can be weaker in grindy MUs unless you get Azcanta going or dig into one of the big spells. This is similar to the problem old lists would have with randomly flooding out. Supporting so many mana and color intensive spells puts a huge strain on a 22 land manabase, so there's really no option to run any utility lands (which sucks because I think Field of Ruin is perfect for Esper). I think this will also make the the UW "mirror" a lot tougher, as a smart player will easily kill our Azcantas and cut us off black, but the one time I played the matchup I was ahead both games until I threw them to stupid misplays.
Going Forward:
The only card I've been unhappy with in the maindeck is Remand. On paper it's the perfect card for its slot (a cantrip that also provides some cheap interaction) but it feels horrible in the meta right now; I constantly find myself holding it up only to counter nothing and screw up my curve, or firing it off at one mana spells just to get it out of my hand. I'm going to test Shadow of Doubt and Censor, but the correct move might be to bring back 2-3 Think Twice, and maybe trim a Push or a Serum Visions to make room.
The Token Package in the sideboard has been great sometimes and terrible other times. I might be boarding it in against the wrong decks, though. It's been tight against Affinity and "small" aggro like Humans and Goblins/8Whack, but against Company decks or BGx decks that can more easily fight through, it might be better to just keep my Cryptics and what not in. The other problem is that while Sorin, Solemn Visitor is amazing with tokens already on the board, he's pretty bad at defending himself. I think I'll test Lord of Innistrad with the Souls and Kitchen Finks alongside some Gideons or something, but it might just be better to load up on more removal for the aggro part of the sideboard. I hate playing a lot of basic interactive spells in my board, though, because then it just feels like I'm shuffling around slots for a small advantage instead of playing hard-hitting cards.
I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on this build, or on the new cards in general. So far my testing has only been on Xmage, but I'm going to pick up my Search for Azcantas tomorrow so I should be able to start running this at FNM.