Attacking a Shard – Esper Control
I love wide open formats and I’m a control player at heart. My favorite standard deck of all time is Dralnu du Louvre. I play the exact same deck in EDH. I slam burn spells in Legacy (what??). Needless to say, Snapcaster Mage is my favorite card from the past several years. Forbidden Alchemy is pretty close as well. So since the advent of this format, I’ve been crashing through standard with a consistently morphing Esper Control variant.
That’s nice Geo, but why should we care?
Well, I feel like this is the best deck in the format and that it matches up well with pretty much every deck. I’m not claiming to have broke the format. Rather, I’m presenting you with what I believe is a powerful option to take to your next big Standard Tournament and opening a discussion with the community about some specific card choices.
My first major tournament (not counting lending a pretty stock variant to a friend the first weekend of the season) was States. I don’t have a ton of notes from that far back, but I have my list and we can use that as the starting point, and a testament to the constantly shifting metagame.
Solar Flare
Going into the specifics of this deck is pretty irrelevant because it is months old and the numbers were based on our projected metagame and some basic knowledge from the previous week’s SCG event (Louisville, I believe). We expected a lot of Red and a lot of the Mirror (without Mana Leak. THANKS MEDINA!)
I got 20th place, going 6-1-2. Gained twice as many Planeswalker Points going 3-3 drop at the PTQ the next day than I got for the strong finish, but that’s a problem for another day. I could’ve made a run at top 8 had my opponent round six conceded to me rather than taking the draw (he was x-2, so he had no chance at prize at x-2-1). I don’t blame him though, as if I remember correctly, it was his first big tournament, and had I played better/faster it wouldn’t have been a draw, and I should’ve mullioned better round four. Not saying I would’ve got top 8 with the record, but I would’ve for sure been in the higher end of the top 16 at x-1-1 (my first draw was against a player who got top 16 and my next two opponents made it as well).
There were a ton of lessons to learn from this tournament about the deck. The most important thing I gained from the experience was confidence in my ability to play the deck. There has been a ton of discussion recently on playing the deck you’re most comfortable with rather than simply taking the best deck to the tournament. By the end of that day, I felt like I not only had the best deck, but was the most comfortable playing that particular archetype.
So when I got home and in the months since, I’ve been tuning that list. Adjusting the numbers and establishing as much of a hold on my local metagame as possible. The majority of the Ohio grinder scene know each other, and I’d consider Dayton to be the hotbed of skill; it is particularly closely connected with Southern Ohio’s metagame, so feel like my build will be among the stronger brews by the time SCG Cincinnati rolls around. Below is the current build and some comprehensive notes.
Flare-Control
I feel like the deck has naturally evolved of the course of its lifespan, and while it is a lot like some of the Esper-Control decks that have been popping up over the past few weeks, I don’t think it is all that similar. The miser’s Unburial Rites gives the deck some reach and explosiveness that a lot of builds really lack. Playing real cards over Liliana of the Veil is something I feel is correct because in anything other than a dedicated Flare deck turns the card into nothing but an edict. Her Ultimate is irrelevant and her plus one ability is actively bad in a more reactive deck.
Every creature in the deck is there for its capability to produce card advantage in different situations. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobyte is actually the best creature in standard. Lady Gaga shuts down every line of play attacking decks have. She makes it tough for Wolf-Run to make good plays. Sun Titan is a card that is losing favor to either more spells or more Consecrated Sphinxs. I like at least one in the 75 as he is a powerful value play in most matchups. Even if all he does is Rampant Growth, that’s still card advantage. The explosiveness of the Phantasmal Image synergy is still one of the most powerful things you can do in standard today. U/W tempo aggro decks can’t reliably deal with him for more than a turn with Vapor Snag before the advantage you gained from resolving him becomes overwhelming. Three Snapcaster Mage is correct in my opinion even though I’m only running 19 mainboard targets. A 2/1 blocker who oftentimes provides either card advantage or a solid removal spell is as good as any other removal spell. They are also candy to Sunny. Grave Titan and Consecrated Sphinx are powerful creatures on their own and are tough to beat versus aggro and versus control respectively.
The spells are a varied concoction of power and value. Cards like Forbidden Alchemy have been mainstays since Innistrad was spoiled. Others have varied in number in reaction to the format. I could have (and may have been better served to have) walked you through my logic when selecting the numbers and specific cards but I’ll sum it up some general examples. Mana Leak is bad on the draw versus most control decks and is worse against aggro. Its surprise factor depending on the game, matchup, and player is what gives it such value. I’ve been bouncing between 2 and 4 for the entirety of the format. I’ve settled on 3 for now, but I’m leaning towards two moving forward and wouldn’t argue with any decision on the card. Nobody is surprised by the Zeniths anymore. They’re powerful, instant-speed, and, in a deck that accelerates through cards as fast as this one while simultaneously digging deep towards the late game, they have the added utility of preventing decking. I’m currently playing a one-of Pristine Talisman as some utility versus Aggro and as a nice Sun Titan target to help take the late game further out of reach. Unburial Rites is a card that’s fallen out of favor among the U/B/W players but hasn’t lost all of its value. Reanimation is a powerful effect, and having one available to give the deck some extra reach versus other, more dedicated control decks has proven invaluable.
One portion of the deck that could be controversial is the Planeswalker configuration. It’s not that Gideon Jura isn’t great or that Jace, Memory Adept doesn’t transition from a powerful value play to a potent finisher in a hurry. It’s that Jace isn’t something that sees main deck play that often. Many of you will agree that he’s the actual worst against Illusions/Delver and against tokens. Those are fair and valid arguments. He’s the first card that gets sided out against the aggro decks, but in a control/Wolf Run heavy format, he is truly devastating when cast with protection. Jace either absorbs an attack or two versus Wolf Run or just clocks them quite fast. And drawing one-and-a-half cards each turn against control is always valuable.
The Sideboard is one part of the deck that I’m not as happy as I feel I could be. I’m absolutely torn on Ratchet Bomb. It has been underwhelming in the matchups it’s supposed to be good in. It’s weird. The only matchup it’s supposed to be good in where it’s impressed me has been against Moorland Haunt. Against G/W it doesn’t do enough. Garruk doesn’t flip against our creatures unless we’re losing anyways and the tokens don’t come at the right time for this to be viable. The other cards that aren’t as strong are Surgical Extractions. The plan is to cut this for some better utility card. Against a good player, Extraction is dead. They’ll just play around it and embarrass you in the process. Taking Mana Leaks away from the opposing control deck and getting information on their hand is usually the best you’re going to get from an extraction against someone who is experienced. Possible replacements have been suggested as Elspeth Tirel and Curse of Death’s Hold to help shore up the tokens matchup. I feel as though Curse is too slow and Elspeth is worth testing. The rest of the cards are pretty straightforward. Sever the Bloodline is still an interesting choice (though it isn’t totally out there or anything) and is sweet versus Tokens and is decent in the Mirror. It provides an excellent answer to Cat Sun’s Zenith provided you get to untap, and forces the opponent to Doom Blade their own Sun Titan if they have a Phantasmal Image chain going.
Moving Forward
No list is definitive nowadays. Below are some observations about specific cards. Rather than go in-depth on my reasoning on each of these potential changes, I’m going to leave this open to discussion for you, the readers. There are a ton of discussion points below, and getting your opinion on these types of things is important to me as a deckbuilder.
Main Deck Uncertainties
Jace is cool in the control mirror and I’d consider moving him to the sideboard. However, he’s AWFUL against a lot of the popular decks. He is actually the worst against tokens/humans.
Sun Titan and Phantasmal Image are sweet cards, but if you draw more than one Sun Titan he’s bad, and just isn’t that powerful in the deck. His targets are too few and far between to really warrant too many slots. Image is a great value play but do we need two? I’d play the second Image over the second Titan, however.
Grave Titan is my second cut from the main deck. I feel like the first Grave Titan is better than the first Wurmcoil Engine in this format due to the blockers it immediately generates but I don’t know that either of them are really needed in the deck. I think we need to see what is better against tokens and devote this particular slot to it.
Dismember is better than Go for the Throat by a mile, but we should test this slot with several things. Vapor Snag, GftT, Doom Blade #3, O-Ring #3, DoJ, etc. This is going to be an interesting slot but isn’t going to be make-it-or-break-it.
Mana Leak is bad on the draw, but I don’t like going over two Dissipate. I feel like this is solid, but there are some cards to consider like Negate or something. I am REALLY happy with three versus four or zero (and draw/removal in its place) though.
Think Twice is easily the weakest card in the entire deck, but if we’re playing Mana Leak, I like it better than something like Ponder or Divination.
Sideboard Slots that need fixed:
Surgical gets worse the more comfortable you get with this deck. I consider this card to be a pair of training wheels. It was a cool blanket for early in the format, but I don’t even bring it in anymore. None of the graveyard cards are relevant enough to play, even in an environment full of Flare.
Ratchet Bomb doesn’t do enough against tokens or Humans to keep. I feel like if I’m devoting a slot to something like this, I’d rather have another DoJ/spot removal instead.
Sever is good, but has less impact than a wrath at 4 mana. A good player will blow you out in a lot of the situations where this is good. If there are a bunch of good Undying creatures, this could gain a ton of value.
Divine Offering is a weird slot anyways. It’s never been terrible, but I don’t find myself bringing it in against anything but RDW and in games where the opponent brings in a sword.
Where to go from here?
Like I said, your opinion is important to me and I want to hear what you, the readers have to say. I held off as much as I could on the Dark Ascension, but there are some cards spoiled already (as of 1-11-12) that are worth noting. The new Sorin is sweet and could provide a lot of value leading into a powerful ultimate. Drogskol Reaver is an interesting card that reminds me a lot of Consecrated Sphinx when it was released. I don’t believe it will find a home just now, as the format isn’t built for it. It has the same pitfalls as the sphinx and costs one more mana. It does combo well with Pristine Talisman and possibly with Sorin. I don’t think any of the spoiled cards so far will find a home in this build, but it’s always worth noting them and testing.
I’m excited to hear your opinions and to interact with people outside of my crew when it comes to the list. I hope you got as much from this article as I did in composing it. Building an article like this is challenging in that you have to be critical of yourself and your choices and I feel as though that is the best way to get improvements in constructed. I’ll see you in the comments guys!
-Geo Thornton
Wait, who are you and where did you come from? Needs moar introduction.
I don’t know why people don’t play exclusion ritual and venser. Those two together are absolutely devastating. I know the 6 mana for exclusion is steep but it is such a powerful card.
The new sorin might be a good replacement for sorin. Just creating tokens seems fine. Great article. I can’t wait to see more from you as this is exactly what the site needs.
Err sorin for jace that is.
Have you guys seen Havengul Lich yet? If I’d have written this article about 12 hours earlier, the entire 2500 words would just be on that card. :)
For our crew’s testing purposes, I’m cutting 1 Sun Titan and the Unburial Rites for 2 Lich.
We’ve definitely been testing the New Sorin since yesterday. He does a good job hedging against Tokens and getting attacked. Players instinctively don’t want him to go ultimate. My only concern (which wasn’t one about 45 minutes ago, prior to me learning of the Lich) in cutting Jace now is that Sorin doesn’t fuel Lich. But there is still a month between now and SCG Cincy to test, and the rest of the set hasn’t been spoiled.
@JoshW: Ritual Costs 6. I like the synergy with Venser, but it tends to be too slow, and Venser doesn’t have enough impact on his own, especially in an aggro environment. I agree that that synergy is very powerful though and always worth keeping in mind.
@Nick D: Not sure if serious.
yo geo your shit be ight, keep it up
I’m going to test this thing today. Looks for real but can it beat delver consistently?
The Delver matchup with this exact list can be rough. From what I’ve picked up watching GP Orlando, I feel like playing either a curse or another wrath is very important. I like Elspeth over Jace (moving him to the board) and cutting one of the fatties for something that is a little more relevant in that matchup would help a lot. When I get a chance, I’ll post another comment on here with my current (post-GP) list.