Ummmmmmm... Did you ever consider Victim of Night and/or Tragic Slip? Victim is less mana than Murder And hits 90% of big threats in the current meta, of course without other removal as this deck seems to lack (If Naya Humans See's Esper, they would, probably hold back mana for Boros Charm on your t4 sweep). I find running a bit more spot removal and less land seems to work better. It also depend on your luck however. I run an esper midrange/control deck Hey, Remember that Time When You Were Winning?

What about a matchup against Grixis?

@OutspokenFerret

First off, thanks for reading. Now, onto the question.

Victim of Night is a highly versatile card, but there are a few things it cannot hit: Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip, Olivia Voldaren and Falkenrath Aristocrat for example. These are all problem cards that need to be answered, and Victim simply can't do that.

Tragic Slip is an entirely different story. It has no casting flaw, like Victim, but it does have the flaw of Morbid. -1/-1 cannot hit more than Falkenrath Aristocrat out of the problem cards listed above. Everything else continues to roam free, as the only other removal we have is board-wipes.

As for Naya Humans, we honestly have Terminus And Detention Sphere for that, not to mention Dissipate.

The land count is up to 26 due to our wincon being, in fact, a land. I checked your deck, and noticed it did not run Nephalia Drownyard. Drownyard is the primary win-condition in this deck, and as such we cannot afford to miss land-drops.

If you have any more questions, please reply to this, if you like the deck, please +1 it at The Current Esper.

• Matt

@Denial048

When I wrote the matchup list and sent it to Owlus, I didn't realize Grixis was a top deck. Do you mind sharing a list, and I'll give a review in the comment section?

• Matt

I don't really know whether Grixis is a top deck, I've never really followed what is a top deck, but Grixis certainly can be strong. I'll point you to KrazyCaley Bolas deck, and my own Grixis mill, but there may be better Grixis decks out there.

About the Gideon, Champion of Justice, you side it out more often than keep it. Worth of removing a card from mainboard.

@Gridlok

He's in there primarily for Control decks, as he's hard to get rid of. What would you recommend adding in, should he be removed?

I'm curious as to why you specifically separate Naya Humans out of the aggro decks as being a worse match-up.

The slower curve out style aggro decks like that seem even more prone to stumbling to your early removal, where as at least some of the other aggro decks running Burning-Tree Emissary all but force you to have the sweeper or just die.

@Slycne

I personally put Naya Humans into it's own category because of the ability it possesses to grind out the game. It mainboards 9 Silver Bullets against this deck in the form of Boros Charm, Frontline Medic, and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. A Flipped Mayor of Avabruck  ^Flip also forces a 1-for-one with a Boardwipe, meaning our typically gained card advantage is nonexistant. I took these into account when I put the matchup list together, as after sideboarding, the matchup is even less in our favor than it was before.

If you're interested, our next article will be based on Naya Humans, and there will be a far more detailed explaination in that.

Hope this clears things up,

• Matt

Grixis control is definitely an Ugly matchup

Grixis has great responses to our many planeswalkers, namely Dreadbore, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and Slaughter Games. Unlike most control mirrors, where our planeswalker based late game is stronger than our opponents, Grixis has a better late game than us, and the potential to completely lock us out.

In:

2x Witchbane Orb

2x Negate

1x Psychic Spiral

Out:

3x Terminus

2x Supreme Verdict

@Denial048

Thanks for reading, I like your grixis list, and have some suggestions for it(ill post them on the deck itself))

@ Salazar968

The decklists that Denial048 posted are a little unorthodox; mine uses a Bolas win condition and is kind of my own personal style; his is a mill control deck.

A more mainstream Grixis Control deck looks like my deck, only with Snapcaster Mage, some burn spells, maybe Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and some sort of Liliana or Jace, maybe Forbidden Alchemy, and almost certainly some Vampire Nighthawk or even Olivia Voldaren.

@ KrazyCaley

I will have to agree with Owlus's comment posted above on Grixis. It's an ugly matchup if there ever was one.

Salazar968 I guess I'm just surprised you have such favorable match-ups with the Burning-Tree Emissary decks pre-sideboard with only the 4 Azorius Charm and miracle a Terminus to interact with them before 3 mana gets down.

Certainly interested in seeing more articles though.

@ Slycne

It's favorable because they HAVE to kill us before Turn 4, or else we just wipe and they're, in lack of a better term, screwed.

I crushed an Esper Control Deck last night with my U/W/R Flash. He got me game one, but after siding in Witchbane Orb and some more counterspells, he had no chance. His list was slightly different than yours, but it seems like Witchbane Orb is a pretty good silver bullet. You have no way to interact with it outside of Negate, and in a long game like this matchup, I'm gonna wait for Counterflux back up to cast it.

Excellent article, really accurate with the metagame I've seen thus far.

-BuLLZ3Y3

@BuLLZ3Y3

Gotta Agree with you, U/W/R Flash is a tough deck to fight. We're lucky enough to have an answer in the form of Detention Sphere still, luckily. We've still got a weak point against Counterflux that we've gotta shore up though, thanks for the input and thanks for reading.

• Matt

Here's my version of Esper, A Superfriendly Walk on Esper. Owlus you've already seen it. It's pretty similar to this deck actually.

there are two types junk decks that can be commonly played being reanimator, or aggro (usually running tokens), and the less common midrange. how would those deck compare to esper control?

also how would my Junk Control deck fare in the match up.

Ah, I missed the mainboard Detention Sphere. That would probably mean you are fine, actually. With as much draw as your deck has, you'll see one or both copies fairly easily. My opponent didn't have any of those.

-BuLLZ3Y3

I really find this kind of articles useful, even more when you don't have the chance to live in a big city with a consistant magic players community. Definitely will help building up better sideboards!

I run a Grixis deck on my own, Grixis dream, that I find pretty resilient to Esper, and which I've built assembling the best ideas I've read here and there. Really hope Grixis to be considered as a top deck, but I would be fine if it weren't the case, as it would keep it less predictable, which is quite convenient too!

Awesome article. I just recently put together Esper Control and have only played it in a couple small tournaments so far. One question: Why board Psychic Spiral against Naya Midrange? I figured Spiral was more for the mirror match, when both players are milled down to 30 and you can cast it to refill your library while mostly finishing off theirs.

Comments, lots and lots of comments...

@SwiftDeath

Junk Midrange/Control has a decent match against Esper, as unless they run Planar Cleansing (I.E. not the superfriends version), you can just drop 'walkers until they die. The reanimator matchup isn't as good, as graveyard hate is easy to find with the massive amount of card draw in this deck...I haven't tested against Junk Reanimator, I'm afraid.

If you're interested in a full rundown against Junk Reanimator and Midrange, as well as sideboarding for this deck, please let me know, and I'll get on that.

@CyRRdaR

I say the term top deck as in the ones that rank high in the opens, the GP, PT's, etc. It could very well be a top deck that has yet to see play in the tournaments, keep with it, I really like the way it works and will be dropping comments in there.

@ CharonSquared

If you have ever played with or against midrange, you know the games can take forever. They can keep spitting out things we have to tap our mana to respond too, making it harder for us to drop an unanswered Jace, Memory Adept or mill them out with Nephalia Drownyard. A late-game Psychic Spiral gives us more answers to their threats, and mills most of their threats we need to answer, basically sealing the game.

Thanks for reading

Hey good idea doing breakdown on standard Meta. Although I agree think that your deck type is a top deck, an agree with your breakdown of your top deck vs the Meta, I don't think your superfriends version is as effective as the creature version of the deck.I think you should have covered the creature version of the deck.

Also I think I have a pretty good Naya Humans decklist. It has been 13-3 in competitive home games vs FNM top 9 players. An it 10-3vs FNM decks between FNM rounds during playtesting. It has gone 2-2 in 5 player multiplayer games vs EDH, and modern format decks, in playtesting. The deck is mostly done, with only the shocklands an Reckoner, as the only proxys. When that done, will play in tourneys.The deck is slightly unorthodox, as has Wolfir Silverheart, Boros Reckoner, Domri Rade, O rings, Fiend Hunters, in it. But the list is mostly Naya humans, with a effective list, sideboard, an maybeboard.

Here is deck link name(can't get link to show up right, even tho use [ brackets right.(please help)

Naya Domri's Silver HUrtMAN,Wolf Hunt Reckoning+9!

Mike

Naya Domri's Silver HUrtMAN,Wolf Hunt Reckoning+9!

I have a huge problem with gideon being in this list.A. He's always terrible.But mainly because obzedat does anything you want gideon to do but better.

He's better in the aggro match up, actually being able to block, gaining you life. And he's better in the control match up given they have maybe 1 or 2 spells in the deck that deal with him if any at all.

Also on liliana, she's usually just a target opponent sac's a guy, and then gains you at least 2 life, and then she only needs to roll up when you think you need to use the -2 again or against control where she just dominates the game. People have this idea that they have to use liliana every turn and that's just not the case. If you need the cards in your hand then you keep them.

@SirNips : Lili -2 is fine and all, but her +1 just hurts you as much as it hurts them, unless its late in the game and you can discard a land or something useless, but then your opponnent also will have useless cards to discard or will be top-decking, depending on his deck. Not sure I would give her a go in this kind of deck.

Agreed on Gideon though, he IS terrible, as the only thing he does is ending the game when you have already won it. Not worth a slot to me.

@ MikealDH1

I agree with the fact the creature version is better(I run that version myself), and I am sorry we didn't cover that. The original plan was to write about both versions, starting with Superfriends, and finishing with the creature-based. However, when we finished the Superfriends part, we decided people wouldn't like to read through a whole other part.

I'll check out your list, but I think Salazar968 already has a list he wants to use.

@ CyRRdaR and SirNips

There are a lot of mixed opinions on Gideon, Champion of Justice. On one hand, hes bad. He gives little to no support and his only function is to win the game. However, he does win games, and with so much mill hate in peoples sideboards, hes sometimes needed. Some lists are even mainboarding things like Psychic Spiral just for Esper. And almost every sideboard has an answer to Obzedat, Ghost Council.

Thanks for reading, and criticism is always as welcome as compliments.

@Owlus : That's why I would put him SB, as it would help you have an alternate wincon game 2 & 3 vs control or slowisher decks, after they unleashed the Pithing Needle and the Slaughter Games on other targets, because they don't expect him. And it wouldn't be a nearly dead draw vs aggro or mid-rangy decks. Just my 2 cts though ;)

When do you plan to release your next article? Can't wait for it!

@ CyRRdaR

Gideon SB sounds good, probably should have thought of that. In that case, I might put another Detention Sphere and Think Twice in, I don't know though, I would have to test. We plan to publish an article every Friday, I'm glad you're looking forward to it!

Thanks Owlus for responding, commenting on my comment, and for checking out my list. If you use Salazar's or someone's else list that may might maybe probably be equal to or better tthen my list, then ok, since your article. Whether its my or someone else's list, I just want the best possible Naya human list covered, and the following points covered(which you will probably cover).

1. The synergy between Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip, Mayor of Avabruck  ^Flip, Silverblade Paladin, Wolfir Silverheart. Many don't run huntmaster, Silverheart, or if do, don't run em all together as should.

2. The importance of a good removal package. I run fiendhunter, O rings, Reckoner, huntmaster, Domri Rade.

3. The importance of a good pump package. I run Silverheart, Mayor, rancor, kessig wolf run.

4. The importance of Frontline Medic, an Boros Charm in protecting from spot an board wipe removal.

5. The importance of doublestrike using Silverblade Paladin an Boros Charm.

Many Naya humans decks I see on the site don't do all 5 points. Most just run 30 to 37 humans with no huntmaster, or no mayor, or no Silverheart, or no silverblades, an not running them together, an almost no removal, an almost no pump, an no Boros charm, an no medic, all of which makes for a bad losing deck, unless their local meta's are weak.

Mike

@ MikealDH1

Based on those 5 points, I think you will be very pleased with out list and the article. The list we are using covers all of these points, except we don't run Wolfir Silverheart.

@MikaelDH1

Okay, First off, thanks for reading and commenting.

Now, onto the points.

1. the list I'm running and writing about runs 3 Huntmaster, 3 Silverblade, and 4 Mayor. I do not believe Silverheart is necessary, mostly because he's a 5-drop.

2. In my 75 I have 2 Oblivion Rings, 2 Searing Spear, 2 Fiend Hunter, and 3 Selesnya Charm. Of that, the Spears and Hunters are mainboard, while the other 5 are sideboard. Reasoning: Domri Rade is all well and good, except he is fragile against flyers, as my deck runs exactly 3 flying creatures. Oblivion Ring is useful, except control decks these days are running Planar Cleansing, which makes Oblivion Ring Useless. As for Reckoner, I'm trying to keep this deck Tribal, and he's not a human, so he's out. I find it more consistent to keep with the human theme, maximizing the use of both Champion of the Parish and Mayor of Avabruck.

3. Out of your pump package, I run Silverblade Paladin, Mayor of Avabruck, and a singleton Kessig WR. with my 2 Mainboard Thalia, and creatures cycling as they do in my deck, I could not find space for Rancor. Wolf Run is a singleton, as my curve tops at 4, and I normally don't get more than 5-6 mana a game.

4. I run 4 Frontline Medic and 3 Boros Charm mainboard. I completely agree with you here.

5. 3 Silverblade 3 Boros Charm, because unfair combat is unfair.

Hope this helps, and tune in friday for my 8-9 page speel on Naya Humans!

• Matt