Esper is my favorite color combination because of the powerful control cards you have access to. I've been ranking up on the MTGA historic ladder a lot recently with this deck. Not only is it fun to play, but has really great matchups against many decks. While it struggles against the most aggressive burn decks and the most controlling control decks, any deck that doesn't lean 100% into its theme will have an even/unfavorable matchup against this deck.
NOTES
This deck is difficult to pick up and play. The deck has many different ways to operate depending on the matchup, and because of the numerous win conditions in the deck, it can be difficult to choose and pace your threats. The deck is also not very good against "all-in decks" in best-of-one, and relies on the sideboard to hate against those extreme decks.
WIN CONDITIONS
-
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
x 2
-
Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer
x 1
-
Crawling Barrens
x 2
-
Cavalier of Gales
x 1
-
Doom Whisperer
x 1
-
Castle Ardenvale
x 1
All creatures in the deck work with
Kaheera, the Orphanguard
, not only speeding up your clock on the opponent but allowing you to be aggressive while still staying defensive.
EARLY GAME
The early game should be spent setting up your mana and either: Disrupting your opponent's hand, setting up
Search for Azcanta
. Getting scry-lands out of the way first (
Temple of Deceit
,
Temple of Enlightenment
,
Temple of Silence
) to set up draws and give you access to more options later down the road. If possible, try to preserve your life-total by having shock-lands enter the battlefield tapped (
Hallowed Fountain
,
Godless Shrine
,
Drowned Catacomb
).
MID GAME
This deck struggles to pull ahead of your opponent with card advantage until the late game. However, virtual card advantage can be obtained through the use of
Search for Azcanta
or the two omen enchantments (Drawing, scrying, and creating tokens). You can also time board wipes well to earn card advantage that way. Additionally, you can start setting up your win-conditions in the mid-game if you are feeling confident or have just gained a huge tempo advantage.
LATE GAME
Take over the game with your win-conditions and value-engines.
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
is the slowest win-condition in the deck, however is also a value engine, proving invaluable in many games. Make sure to protect your win-conditions with counterspells, however, don't be afraid to let some of them go, as the deck has many ways to win, and saving a counterspell for an opponent's threat is oftentimes more valuable than keeping your threat alive.
DECK REVIEW
Historic Esper Control is a control deck that focuses on adapting its control style to stop what its opponent is trying to do. Every time you play the deck, you get a better understanding of each niche role each card plays, and most importantly, how to pace your threats and yourself to pull ahead of your opponent. It also never gets boring to play, seeing as how many different ways there are to play this deck. I strongly recommend this not only to play competitively on MTGA, but also as a pretty powerful control deck to use in kitchen-table magic.
Complexity - 8/10
Fun Factor - 9/10
Aggro - 0/10
Midrange - 3/10
Control - 9/10
Combo - 0/10
Replayability - 10/10
