This is my version of Esper that won the DTK Game Day tournament.
Deck list:
Narset Transcendent: This card was a powerhouse. More than I thought it would be. Against control it netted me a ton of card advantage and the ultimate ability is game-breaking. Against midrange It helped me stabilize really well by rebounding End Hostilities.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion: Pretty straight forward, a solid finisher in control.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: Again an amazing finisher. I usually prefer to have Ugin over Elspeth because his -X is a really good catch all.
End Hostilities: A really solid board wipe. Never had it come up but it can deal with bestow and equipment. I prefer this over Crux of Fate because it catches everything. You're never caught between dragons or non-dragons.
Hero's Downfall: An amazing removal spell. We've all seen it before and doesn't need much explanation.
Utter End
: Another awesome catch-all removal spell.
Haven of the Spirit Dragon
is huge in my meta to bring back dragons and Ugin. Being able to just completely remove Ugin from the game was awesome.
Ultimate Price: I decided to run the full set of Ultimate Price. This card was a much better choice than Bile Blight. From time to time there were situations where a multi-coloured card was causing me grief but it was rare.
Dissolve: Pretty straight forward. Again just standard in every control deck and doesn't need much explanation.
Disdainful Stroke: In such a midrange heavy standard environment this is a great card to have in the main.
Weave Fate
: I decided to play this instead of Anticipate. I used to play Anticipate but I found that card selection on turn two wasn't as great as I thought. I also tried Divination for a while but tapping out on turn three or four wasn't something I wanted to do. Now I am able to hold up counter mana and still get Instant speed card draw.
Jace's Ingenuity: An awesome Card draw spell. When rebounded with Narset, it can completely fill your hand.
Dig Through Time: Pretty standard in every control deck. My go-to spell to rebound with Narset because I can cast it for two and hold up counter mana.
Sideboard:
Resolute Archangel: I have this to bring in against fast aggro and burn decks.
Daxos of Meletis: I decided to try this guy against midrange and he was awesome. Against GW devotion I was able to snag his
Whisperwood Elemental
among other things.
Negate: Comes in against control and token/burn decks.
Grindclock: I play this against control. It's very hard for UB to remove right now but it just wins games on it's own.
Nyx-Fleece Ram: Comes in against red aggro.
Pearl Lake Ancient
: Comes in against control. They side out a lot of their removal after they see I play creature-less control. Just icing on the cake he can't be countered.
Drown in Sorrow: Comes in against red aggro and token strategies.
Game Day matches:
Match one: against
Temur Ascendancy
combo
In game one he was pretty slow out of the gate keeping a hand with three Sylvan Caryatid and one large threat in Polukranos, World Eater. An End Hostilities dealt with that board and I quickly took over with Ugin.Game two he got a hand that went lower to the ground and I was on a mulligan to five. I was short on lands and could't dig myself out. Game three he was able to get down two
Temur Ascendancy
and a Eidolon of Blossoms netting him a lot of cards. But as soon as I could jam an Ugin the game was mine.
1-0
Match two: against Esper Dragon control
I won the first two games in this match up. I have a pretty solid game against dragon control. This match was all about making plays at the right time. I tried to get a Narset out as soon as possible in both games and she drew me a lot of cards. In game two I was able to get her emblem and he scooped to that.
2-0
Match three: against GW devotion
Again this was a really good match up for me. End Hostilities was awesome. This was the match where Daxos let me steal some of his bigger cards. The real trick here was dealing with the
Den Protector
and
Deathmist Raptor
combo. The other thing that caused a small problem was
Mastery of the Unseen
. To deal with that I used Narset to rebound End Hostilities to get me to
Utter End
as my answer.
3-0
Match four: against Temur midrange (dragons)
Game one was pretty decisive, I was able to stay alive with End Hostilities and Ultimate Price finally jamming an Ugin and riding that to victory. Game two was really bad for me. I had to mulligan to five and he creamed me by turn five or six with Mistcutter Hydra. A card I wasn't expecting but knew needed to be dealt with in game three. Game three he had to mulligan and I took it down with the usual game plan. He was a little slow so I was just able to trade one for one with his threats then use Dig Through Time to pull me ahead.
4-0
Match five: against BR aggro
Game one he played Mountain into Zurgo Bellstriker. After that he made no plays then eventually scooped. I was assuming red aggro that just had a bunch of Dash creatures in hand and side boarded to that. Game two I found out that he was going more mid rangy with
Thunderbreak Regent
and Strombreath Dragon. He won game two. When I figured out what he was playing I was able to sideboard correctly. In game three he left my Elspeth unchecked, trying to kill me instead and fell to her ultimate.
5-0
All in all I am very happy with how the deck played out. I was a little skeptical about how good Narset Transcendent was going to be but she is amazing.
Weave Fate
worked out exactly as I wanted it to, allowing me to still get ahead on cards but keep mana open for counterspells. In the end I won the playmat which I love. The colours on it are amazing and I just really like Sarkhan as a character. Next I would like to try some sort of Temur control deck with Sarkhan Unbroken as my win condition. Thanks for reading folks.
