+1, I am def. going to be "borrowing" some ideas from this deck ;-)

Thanks! You're more than welcome to borrow some ideas ;-)

You haven't had any problems with all of those taplands?

Which match-ups give you the hardest time?

For me, Abzan Aggro can be a problem and basically every Aggro deck.

But, the deck tends to have like a 40%-50% win rate with aggro decks so it's not too bad.

For me, the super fast red decks are the hardest matchups. Both the atarka-red and mono-red decks are tough matches, but become much easier to handle game 2 after sideboarding.

Other than the red decks, anything fast will always give touble. Abzan aggro is especially tough, because Drown in Sorrow really doesn't do too much in that matchup.

Anyone have any ideas for an extort deck ATM I only have pontiff of the blight til I look through all my other cards

I've played quite a bit of Esper in the past, but recently dabbled in Jeskai and Mardu. This past week I've returned to Esper and plan on taking it to the Open in Indianapolis next weekend. My current build feels heavy on counters and light on removal. I was curious what your opinion of Disdainful Stroke and Crux of Fate. You currently only run 2 Crux (I do as well). Have you considered uping the count to 3? I know there are plenty of times I find myself wishing for it. My local meta is really heavy with collected company at the moment though, and if I don't have a counter for it I quickly fall behind when I'm only using 1 for 1 removal like Downfall or FTI. And Stain the Mind in the side board - does that do work for the cost? Convoke helps, but it isn't like you ever have many creatures.

Sorry, this wasn't an attempt at sounding critical. I've been away from Esper and TappedOut for awhile now and am just hoping for as much feedback as possible this week. With all of the Modern coverage right now, I don't know what kind of meta to expect at the Open.

Here's my deck if you want to take a look.

This is my latest deck idea its called Elder Dragon Highlander

You'd have to go in to my decks since there's slot of these decks around

Very interesting list and I'm curious as to a couple of the decision you've made here. I'm not trying to say any of the choices you've made are wrong, as the may very well be better than the ones I made when putting together my own similar deck. I'm just interested to hear your thought process on why you've made them and how you've found they've worked for you in games:

First is your card draw suite. I agree that four copies of Dig Through Time is absolutely the way to go (and I want to do the same and ditch Treasure Cruise altogether) but what surprised me slightly was that you supplemented that with Dragonlord's Prerogative. Is that not overkill in your experience? Also, only two copies of Anticipate strikes me as a bit odd. I love that card and having it in my opening hand (or at least the first 8-10 cards I see) is fantastic to help smooth out my mana drops and keep giving me the answers I need in the early game until I can really assert control. To me, that's an automatic four copy card.

Also very interested in your sideboard. It seems to me that it is too broad (if there is such a thing). I find that I want to run at least two copies of any card I'd really want to board in to give me a reasonable chance of seeing it. The amount of one copy cards surprises me slightly. Stratus Dancer's inclusion (and as a two copy card) is odd to me. I'd be interested to know what match ups it is usually sided in for. It seems to me that more copies of Negate and/or adding Disdainful Stroke would be a more mana efficient way of counters instant and sorcery spells. The 2/1 body doesn't add much for the extra you need to play the morph. It will (I would imagine) get removed from the board pretty quickly indeed.

I think that there is a balance you have to find between Anticipate & Dragonlord's Prerogative. Early game the former is better, late game the latter is better. Treasure Cruise is definitely out, can't afford to pay for draw on your turn (yes, even a lowly one island, lol), only draw during opponent's end step.

Stratus Dancer: creatures you play are to bash face only, plain and simple. I agree with mindcrush, take this out and add more cheap counters/removals.

haysmafia1 I know what you mean about striking a balance but to me the advantage you gain from being able to Anticipate early in the game is more beneficial in getting to a state of board control than the Dragonlord's Prerogative is later in the game, when you should be less in need of answers (and also have four Dig Through Times to rely on). Maybe it is just personal preference though.

Agree on Treasure Cruise too. I only run it for budget reasons.

mindcrush I am also thinking about the mirror match (or at least against other control decks). Would the opponent sacrifice a counterspell for Anticipate? Probably not. Would they for Dig? More likely. If your late-game Dig is countered it could be the deciding factor. For now, I am going with only 1 Dragonlord's Prerogative & 3 Anticipate, will have to playtest a couple hundred times to see if it is the right balance ;-)

Totally fair. I tend to run Dragonlord's Prerogative in the sideboard because I don't see a lot of other Control decks locally.

There is a lot going on in this deck there are several combos that he has it might seem overpowered but think about when is the right time to use that card I've beaten a deck similar to this deck but this esper deck is set up to go against most decks with ease he did say that fast burn decks and fast mono red can get pretty scatchy

I have this deck in the works only I'm taking dragonlord silmugar out of the sideboard and putting ugin in as a filler til I can find a better replacement for the spot

how many of your counters do you use up during your match ups most often?

@Riensino

How many counters I use depends on how many I draw. I've played games where I use 0, and games where I use all 8. It simply depends on how long the game goes.

An average number would probably be like..2-3? I have no idea, I have never tracked the numbers.

TheHroth i just wanted to ask since i moved from 8 to 6 counters so just wanted to know a right balance.

I'd stay at 8 personally. That seems to be the sweet spot for drawing answers and drawing enough of them.

Is there by any chance you can explain your side board. Like what to take out and put in for the main like 5 decks out there?

Well my sideboard is designed for my meta, which is comprised of a couple Abzan players, several Atarka-Red players, a Sidisi-Whip player, and then just a bunch of new guys still catching on to things, playing random stuff like B/W Warriors.