If you read my last post then know I was floundering about trying to figure out what deck to play after a pretty bad run with Mono Blue.
I got to watch some very nice videos at channelfireball.com of Luis Scott-Vargas playing Esper Control in a daily event. LSV is always entertaining to watch and listening to him talk through his lines of play and battle back from bad situations put the bug in me to play his deck. I sleeved up LSV's list with 2 main deck differences: 1 Prophetic Prism over 1 Divination and 1 Plains over 1 Swamp. The Prism was just something I wanted to try while the land swap was based on me playing Last Breath over Pharika's Cure in the board.
2 Aetherling
2 Thoughtseize
3 Azorius Charm
2 Devour Flesh
2 Doom Blade
2 Hero's Downfall
3 Dissolve
4 Detention Sphere
4 Supreme Verdict
4 Jace, Architect
4 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Prophetic Prism
4 Island
3 Plains
4 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of BW
4 Temple of BU
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Watery Grave
Sideboard
2 Blood Baron
1 Pack Rat
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Hero's Downfall
2 Gainsay
2 Negate
3 Last Breath
2 Sin Collector
I spent most of the early afternoon sorting Magical Cards with Brian so there was actual zero playtesting before the tournament. I wasn't even sure I wanted to play the deck, after all I fully expected to play FNM with Esper, hate it and then end up running Mono Blue again in the future, so what was the point? In the end Brian convinced me I should at least try Esper, get it out of my system, so I wouldn't wonder.
The turnout was somewhat low, I think just under 20, and there were 4 rounds of happenings.
Round 1 - Brian K w/ Mono Blue
It was pretty funny to get paired up with Brian after discussing Esper with him all afternoon. It was even funnier that up until that tournament we were running the opposite decks, him on Esper and me on Blue.
Game 1 - Brian came out of the gates pretty quickly with a pair of Cloudfins into a Master of Waves that evolved both of them twice. He played very well, not overextending into Supreme Verdict until I had cast 2 of them. Luckily for me I had drawn 3 of them and that was just about all she wrote.
Game 2 - I had a very strong draw with multiple pieces of disruption to snag his counterspells while Brian was struggling to get anything going. I was able to counter both of his Jaces and resolve a mid-sized Revelation before jamming an Aetherling to seal the deal.
Round 2 - Nick M w/ Rw Devotion
After getting clobbered by Nick on Wednesday I definitely hoped pretty hard to get my revenge.
Game 1 - I don't remember a lot about this game but I do know I lost it. I vaguely remember missing land drops but that may not be what happened as the Rw deck is very explosive and the Esper deck has to draw just right to win game 1.
Game 2 - I was able to keep Nick's board small by playing out spot removal as he played guys. This kept his Fanatics unimpressive and prevented any stupidity from Nykthos. Jace kept me in cards and Aetherling brought it home.
Game 3 - I again played my removal spells as Nick played dudes. I jammed Blood Barons on 5 and 6 before Mizzium Mortars overload was possible and then rode them to victory with Dissolve in hand.
Round 3 - Kyle C w/ Naya Burn
Kyle was riding high and ready to burn my face off. His deck is really neat, it runs Young Pyromancer, Boros Reckoner and Loxodon Smiter along with Advent of the Wurm and a metric ton of burn spells. He said he didn't feel good about the matchup but that much direct damage did not leave me feeling comfortable.
Game 1 - Kyle didn't have a blazing fast start and I was able to answer his creatures with my various removals. All the while my life total was slowly ticking downwards as Kyle tossed Magma Jets, Boros Charms and Warleader's Helixes at my noggin. I was able to resolve a Revelation for 4 and Kyle scooped 'em up after a Revelation for 7.
Game 2 - I jammed a turn 5 Blood Baron and was lucky enough to have a Doom Blade for the Advent of the Wurm I attacked into the next turn. Kyle didn't draw a Mizzium Mortars in time and the Vamper did what he does.
Round 4 - Brian H w/ American Spellheart
Brian was smiling just about the biggest I've ever seen when he came over to tell me we were the last undefeated players. We intentionally drew and I was able to continue a commander game with Kyle that had started in the middle of Round 3.
In lieu of the Round 4 report, I'm going to tell you about the 2 Commander games I played with Kyle. I was using Norin the Wary and Kyle had Sedris, Traitor King (The Entertainer).
Game 1 - I played a turn 2 Mind Stone into a turn 3 Ruination and Kyle scooped 'em up. He was pretty annoyed by it because I usually don't cast Ruination in our group games but all's fair in 1 vs 1!
Game 2 - Kyle opened on Sol Ring into Phyrexian Metamorph on Sol Ring which I promptly Shattering Spreed, annoying him again.
Despite stopping Kyle from having access to 7 mana on turn 3 (or really BECAUSE of this) we ended up having a pretty epic game.
Kyle had a Tamiyo and a Jace, the Mind Sculptor going while I had Conjuror's Closet and Siege Gang Commander as well as Kiki Jiki in play for a little while.
I spent quite a few turns dealing with the Planeswalkers before a Living Death cleared the board. Relic of Progenitus turned it into only a wrath but it still worked out well for Kyle.
I had been using Pyxis of Pandemonium since about turn 3 and I finally activated it, netting quite a pile of sweet permanents for Kyle as well as some small, decent, dudes and a Duplicant for me. We both also got a Warstorm Surge.
Luckily for me Duplicant + Conjurer's Closet is kind of stupid and I killed off most of Kyle's dudes and we were back to parity.
Unluckily, Kyle had drawn a billion cards off of Tamiyo before she died and he was able to off me by simply playing dudes and doming me with the Warstorm Surge he got from the Pyxis.
It was really an awesome game, better than just about any 1 vs 1 game I've ever been in on.
So in the end Brian H and I split 1st and 2nd and I absolutely loved my time playing Esper. Despite playing 3 colors and a lot more expensive spells I was never or rarely mana screwed, something I can't say at all for the Mono Blue deck, and I decided I was going to run it back for the SLAM Series Qualifier at Big Easy the next day.
I'll be back as soon as I can with that report, obviously the event is over and I don't want to keep my adoring public waiting too long.
Tune in next time!
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