Let's Talk About Esper
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Dec. 24, 2017, 2:50 p.m. by SketchyScribbler
Yo! Okay, so a little bit of a background to the question first.
My goal in Magic the Gathering is to make an EDH of every color combo possible, which I've done the mono and dual colored generals now, and now I'm moving on to the three colored generals.
Now I wanted to start with Esper, but to be honest the colors are really hard to sell for me and I have no idea who to build.
So I ask the following questions, what does Esper do well and who is your favorite general in the colors with the current border style?
(By current border style I mean this, Sydri, Galvanic Genius or Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, as opposed to this, Merieke Ri Berit)
You could do something janky like Clone/Shapeshifter tribal but my preference is certainly control. You can bring in all the best control elements of spells, hands and boardstate in these colours and can lean heavily into artifact based ramp to support the combinations weakness. Sen Triplets is a great commander; cheeky and nasty in the same breath
December 24, 2017 3:16 p.m.
If you want to try something kind of unique I think you could try Tymna the Weaver and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept. I could see it being good in a artifact storm type deck running Ad Nauseam. It probably won't be as good as zur but in the right meta it might work.
December 24, 2017 3:49 p.m.
Go Esper storm plus Doomsday. The is the perfect commander for it. I played ad nauseam oloro for a while and it was quite a lot of fun
December 24, 2017 5:57 p.m.
Merieke Ri Berit is my girl. She's the best in the color combination IMHO... does her old border matter for some reason I don't know about? I have my MBR deck on my profile page if you're interested..
December 24, 2017 6:32 p.m.
SketchyScribbler says... #7
It's mostly due to my dislike of the old bordering style.
That's mostly my personal preference to be honest.
December 24, 2017 6:56 p.m.
Postmortal_Pop says... #9
Entrei that combo also turns lands into 0/0s, perfect land destruction. you can do it en mass with March of the Machines
December 25, 2017 4:41 a.m.
Yeah but instead of destroying all lands, you just target all of your opponents lands
December 25, 2017 8:43 a.m.
SketchyScribbler says... #11
March of the Machines and Mycosynth Lattice, talk about a lockout!
December 26, 2017 12:07 a.m.
Nah fam.
Drop lattice, all lands are artifacts
Use sydris first ability, targeting their lands. They become 0/0 artifact creatures, and promptly die.
You now have an activated ability: :destroy target land
December 26, 2017 12:11 a.m.
Postmortal_Pop says... #13
SketchyScribbler, throw Chief of the Foundry in and it becomes very one sided.
December 28, 2017 4:08 a.m.
Esper is good at three things: Grinding value via premium removal/card draw options, janky combos because esper artifacts, and playing reanimator with high value creatures as opposed to the big dumb threats that BGx favors.
For control: Oloro and Sen Triplets are good options.
For combo: Zur doomsday, Sidri Doomsday/lattice-lock, and Sharuum Eggs are good options.
For reanimator: Sylas + Tymna Reanimator and Sharuum Reanimator are both powerful options.
As a predominantly esper player, I recommend Sharuum reanimator as its highly customizable and powerful, yet rarely oppressive/unfun to play against.
As far as power-level, the doomsday combo decks will top that curve, chased closely by sidri lattice-lock and Sharuum eggs.
McSleuthburger says... #2
Popularity wise other than Sydri / Oloro you have Zur the Enchanter and Sen Triplets. Other than those I would say maybe run partner commanders?
December 24, 2017 3:09 p.m.