Modern Mayhem: Esper Control (Modern, Magic Online)
Well, I felt like with my performance at #MythicChampionshipII was underwhelming but I learned a lot and I think that's all you can ask for an event like that. I lost my two modern matches due to mana issues so this week I decided to update my decklist from the tournament in London
Gameplan
As you know by now, I enjoy the challenge of playing fair control decks. Our usual game plan is to keep a nice clean board and save counterspells for problematic threats that can never see the light of day. How do we win? Through the dream team of course!
Most of the time we'll be winning with our planeswalkers unless we're getting paired against Death's Shadow. Sometimes they'll go low enough to where our Snapcaster Mage or creature-lands can get us across the finish line. People often underestimate our favorite ghost assassin but Kaya is so well positioned right now in the meta with so many decks needing their graveyards in some shape or form. Not only that, Kaya, Orzhov Usurper has a -1 that hits so many things right now. Lastly, the combination of Nihil Spellbomb and Kaya's -5 creeps up on opponents. You don't often worry about what you have in exile until she's on board. I'm really happy with two Kayas right now. Definitely wouldn't leave the house without at least one in the deck!
I don't think I really need to go too in detail about our blessed pillars of control in Jace and Teferi, but usually, in the late game ,we can use our Esper Charm to aggressively attack our opponent's hand and then Jace or Teferi can do the rest.
What About MTGWAR?!
These are the new cards I've been loving in Modern with the release of #MTGWAR
I'm trying Teferi as a singleton right now but with the amount of games I've had, I might want to add a second one. It seems so clutch in many matches. We've already seen how its a huge deciding factor with standard mirror matches and it's definitely the same here. It can shut down some seriously important things in modern. It can also cause opponents to lose tempo trying to answer them on their turn. The passive does shut down things like Cascade and much more! With more of Lil Teffi in the deck, there's potential room for more cards like Thoughtseize out of the sideboard as it pairs so well with the +1. The -3 has numerous targets and can be quite the nuisance for opponents as we can even reset the number of counters on an Aether Vial or bounce a problematic Animation Module.
Next on our list of cards is Dovin's Veto.
I was concerned with how much the mana cost would hurt us with our three color mana base that also has Field of Ruin but it's been fine. Not to say that there won't be some situations where it can bite us back but the upside of this card is huge. It's nice to be able to cast this against decks that are trying to counter us back with things like Pact of Negation and etc. I don't often try to use this card to fight a counter war as they can always just let the Veto resolve and then counter us again. Instead, I just use it on the threat itself. Right now I've got a 1 and 1 split between Negate in the main deck but after playing, I might just switch over to the full two in the deck and keep the third copy in the sideboard.
The other card from #MTGWAR is more of an oddball inclusion but it's The Wanderer
I'm just trying this for the laughs. I want to see what it can do against burn but in all honesty, I think this card is mediocre at best after filming the video. A card that should definitely be in the sideboard or at least worth giving a shot is Narset. Parter of the Veil
This allows us to dig pretty deep for some of our hate cards while also making it so opponents can't draw more than one card a turn! All the passive abilities on the planeswalkers from #MTGWAR have been absolutely bonkers in some way. At some point, I may even want to try out the new Ashiok as I used to love playing Shadow of Doubt.
Another card choice question I've got recently is, Serum Visions or Opt?
I normally dislike cards like Serum Visions but I threw them back in as maybe the Scry 2 will help us with the mana issues we had. Normally I would play Opt as I like the instant speed but the Scry seems more important right now when card selection is so important as it helps us dig deeper to potentially find us some of our hate cards like a Spellbomb or Unmoored Ego. It also helps us dig deeper to find our win cons to shut the door on opponents.
Matchups
Amulet Titan 2-1 (W): Game ones are always rough if they have a fiery hot start but post-board this feels a lot better. Especially when we have our little Time Raveler. Also Kaya came in handy as she exiled a few Amulet of Vigor
Jund 1-2 (L): Since we took out our Search for Azcanta, we don't have an ace like Azcanta to pull us back into the game after they've put us in topdeck mode. We might have to reconsider playing at least one copy for the future?
Azorius Control 2-1 (W): Wonderful opponent. Though this matchup was a long one, they were amazing games.
Dredge 0-2 (L): Though the record makes this matchup seem abysmal, it was more on me and my loose keeps. I should've been a little more aggressive looking for hate. I definitely deserve this loss.
Jeskai Sram-0's 2-0 (W): We didn't see much from them in game one so we boarded for Jeskai Control in game two but still ended up winning. Lil Teffi backed up by some removal pretty much locked this game for us.
Conclusion
I was so happy to see so many pros play a deck I've been playing in London. I just think Esper Control is the premier control deck right now as having access to black gives us such a huge boost in some matchups like Dredge(yes I'm I aware I got bodied), Hardened Scales, Humans, and a way to fight the unfair decks. Don't even get me started on why Esper Charm is life. The power level of #MTGWAR has been absurdly high and this may be one of the sweetest sets for constructed in a minute. Don't believe me? Neoform is also making waves right now so you'll probably run into me in the queues misclicking my way through games but I'll be misclicking with a bunch of sweet new #MTGWAR cards.
See you at the next one!
-TheAsianAvenger
