Okay, so this my take on Esper. It play's like a mono white control mixed with a Dimir mill deck. Please playtest this deck. I promise it will surprise you.
I want to know, with all pride aside, how this deck would stack up against your tournament ready deck. I'm willing to accept the fact that it can be beat, just let me know what I should do to account for multiple different play styles in standard.
This deck was designed with domination of mid and late game and the thought that you should never have a problem playing any card in any deck in mind. That is where it kind of differs from the stereotypical Esper type of deck. However, when playing this deck, you shouldn't see a creature out on the battlefield for more than 1 turn on the enemy side unless they are running hexproof.
So now we get to the fun stuff. This deck is full of neat little combo's, most of which are set off by the playset of Strionic Resonator.
Banisher Priest
, Banishing Light, and Detention Sphere are all 3 drops that have the potential to take between 3 and 4 creatures each. This is extremely strong early in the game and that is why 1/3 of your permanents are comprised of white. Being able to consistently remove their creatures, and often on a large scale, removes their combo capability. Forget getting steamrolled by a Mono Green running
Reverent Hunter
+Courser of Kruphix. This is also incredibly strong late game when you have 1 or 2 Strionic Resonator out and 7+ mana. If they somehow manage to have a huge battlefield, Detention Sphere+ 2 Strionic Resonator for 7 mana can completely boardwipe your opponent. It's that powerful.
Consuming Aberration, Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker, and Lazav, Dimir Mastermind.... What can I say? They combo perfectly together in obvious ways, and well placed Mirko Vosk + Strionic Resonator combo can make your puny little Aberration a 15/15 for basically 2 mana. Seriously, Consuming Aberration out when someone mills for, 4/8/12/16 lands.... It's an automatoc game over. If that doesn't whittle their decks down to nearly nothing, you've still got a playset of
Tome Scour
you can count on to pump your Aberration up even higher and proc some more of your neat little mill effects.
Now, that we've figured out how to make any deck sit there and take everything WE throw at them, let's discuss how THEY are going to land the killing blow on themselves. Everything they throw out gets exiled faster than they can use it. Their deck is getting dismantled even faster than that. But that's not enough. That Archangel of Thune they just milled; it's yours with Lazav, Dimir Mastermind. Oh Daxos just exiled a
Hydra Broodmaster
? That's an easy 6 life your way and you can play it if your have
Transguild Promenade
or Realmwright out. Same thing with
Nightveil Specter
. Who needs Ashiok? Not us. Not anymore.
Remeber, EVERY card in here (save
Tome Scour
) can be reverberated by your Strionic Resonator. You don't need it dominate the opponent. But when the combo lands, and it does so very often, it hits very, very hard.
