STD DEKTEK - "No Durdle" Esper

I’ve always been a far of Esper. Last season I was obsessed with Obzedat, and my love for the necrotic gang of ghouls hasn’t faded. Sure, I play mostly midrange decks, but it’s always nice to have some form of (quasi) control in your arsenal for those pesky mono-U decks and their infinite threats. While we’re at it, having answers to indestructible gods is also pretty good these days. And say! Aren’t Planeswalkers pretty darn decent? May as well run a couple since I’ve been told they’re OP. Hmmm… by that logic if I’M playing planeswalkers, I’ll bet OTHER people are as well… Hero’s Downfall all the shiny things!

Esper seems to have the tools to take down any deck in the format with a combination of card advantage, efficient removal, and life gain. Most of the lists I see run some number of permission spells (counters) as well as 4 Jace AoT, 2 Elspeth SC and an Aetherling. I call those “durdle” builds because they do nothing except try to resolve one of their meager 3x threats and then ride it to victory. They “durdle” around wasting everyones time then just plop out an Elspeth and try to call it a game.

I HATE THOSE BUILDS.

Sure they’re powerful, but eugh, I find playing them tedious and kinda boring for both myself and my opponent (not that I care about my pesky opponent… they’re just a roadblock to my inevitable victory and need to be ground in to the earth asap so I can move onto crushing the next hapless chump who comes my way! lol). So to spice things up a little I’ve been playing a modified build to a T8 at games day (40+ people) and a cool 2^nd at a 30+ person FNM 2 weeks ago (opened a Deathrite Shaman in my price packs! Score!)

Here it is:

CARL SZALICH’S NO DURDLE ESPER DECK

2 Thoughtseize

4 Azorious Charm
3 Omen Speaker
1 Far/Away
4 Detention Sphere
3 Hero’s Downfall
1 Daxos of Meletis
3 Sphinx’s Revelation
4 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Supreme Verdict
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Aetherling
1 Elspeth, Suns Champion

4 Godless Shrine

4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Watery Grave
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Silence
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp

SIDEBOARD

2 Daxos of Meletis

1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Pithing Needle
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 Thoughtseize
1 Sphinx’s Revelation
2 Doom Blade
3 Negate
2 Ultimate Price
 

WHY SHOULD I PLAY THIS?

The main differences are the lack of counterspells and the additional threats. Although many Esper decks have started gravitating towards running 2x Blood Baron main, this takes it to the next level by including the anti-control all-stars that are Obzedat and Daxos as well as the card filtering guru known as Omenspeaker. Let’s break it down by theoretical matchup archetype.

VS AGGRO DECKS

Instead of relying on a few Doomblade & Co. we get Omenspeaker, which is surprisingly relevant in the aggro matchup. Their Precinct Captains and Ash Zealot don’t look so hot when you’ve got a 1/3 to block them all night long. Even if they get burnt out, you’ve still gotten to scry which hopefully put you closer to a Supreme Verdict or one of your other removal spells AND they’ve had to use a card from hand to deal with it and allow their team to keep swinging. Afterall, 3 damage from a Lightning Strike to Omenspeaker is still 3 damage less that’s dealt to you.

The deck also runs a 1x of Daxos of Meletis which I’m unsure as to why more decks aren’t adopting. In the aggro matchup, he gains you life, can block a creature in a pinch, and can use their own removal against them. I play 2x more in my board because aggro decks tend to take out their removal game 2 vs Esper which lets Daxos run rampant. (He’s also amazing vs control as you’ll see in the control writeup).

My boarding typically looks like this:

-1 Elspeth

-1 Aetherlng
-1 Jace, Architect of Thought
-2 Thoughtseize
-1 Supreme Verdict
+2 Daxos of Meletis
+1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
+2 Doomblade
+1 Ultimate Price
 
Basically we’re lowering our curve so that we can make it to late game where all of our “bigger threats” (Obzedat & Blood Baron) just auto-win the matchup. Conveniently, both of those threats also gain life, which is exactly what the aggro matchup hates to see. We’re getting more main deck instant speed removal bringing our “kill all the things” count up to 18!! I take out one Supreme Verdict because I’m replacing it with spot removal that’s a lot faster, as I expect we can’t just chill and relax until T4 in the matchup as by then they could have landed a very high chroma Fanatic of Mogis and we’re dead to their follow-up grip of burn and Chandras Phoenix.

VS CONTROL DECKS

-3 Omenspeaker

-4 Supreme Verdict
+1 Thoughtseize
+2 Daxos of Meletis
+1 Sphinx’s Revelation
+3 Negate

I MAY also choose to bring in the 2^nd Elspeth or Obzedat in this match depending on how I’m feeling.

I LOVE slipping in the 2x bonus Daxos for G2-3 vs control because as I’d alluded to above they normally take out a lot of their removal and are left with basically Hero’s Downfall and Detention Sphere to deal with him. Believe me when I say there is no better feeling than playing Daxos T3, swinging T4 and revealing a Jace off your opponents deck.

“Soooo… I guess I’ll gain 4 life and play your Jace? Totally fair.”

You also get a 3^rd Thoughtseize, 4^th Sphinx and some permission in the form of Negate. Your main deck is already (arguably) a more favorable matchup because of your additional threats. Obzedat and Blood Baron dodge almost all the removal out of opposing Esper decks in different ways, so are both very frustrating to deal with. I like to play 1x Far/Away right now (and may increase the count to 2x) because it’s one of the only ways we CAN deal with a Blood Baron post board.

 

IF YOU LIKE PINA-COLADA…

So if you’re a far of Esper style control decks, but want a few more lines of play than holding up counterspells and waiting to EoT Revelation to find one of your (very) few threats, give this build a try. You’ve got an improved game vs. Aggro game 1 (and let’s face it, a good curve out from an aggro deck is Espers number one worry) and more threats than a standard Esper deck. You’ve also got a few lines of play that they won’t see coming like Daxos out of the board (and main!).

Speaking of Daxos: Even if you DO love permission, at least try running Daxos of Meletis a few rounds to test him out. Maybe I’m crazy, but I think the guy is a house! I need more people to test with him so that I can know for sure tho, so sleeve him up and get playing!

I’ve got a couple other “newish” decks that take an “old” archetype and mess around with it in my arsenal. I’ll try and post a couple little articles like this one in the near future to showcase them once I’ve had a chance to run them through a tournament.

 

Cheers,

Carl Szalich