“Oops!” Is what I was thinking when my Grave Titan resolved game 3 against Tony Chu the Legacy Champion’s Illusions deck during an early round in the Standard Open. My Grave Titan was signed by Guillaume Matignon, so it has magical powers. Stormtrooper tokens go great with this guy.
In the current metagame, if you can survive long enough to cast this guy against the aggro decks, the Grave Titan will close the game on the spot. The Sun Titan had its time in the Sun, but it seems excessively greedy to try to chainPhantasmal Images with so many people playing Doom Blades, Day of Judgments, and Sword of War and Peace. Grave Titan passes the Vapor Snag test, which is becoming an important test for creatures in Standard.
Mana Leak kind of sucks right now in control decks. In control versus control, it tends to become a dead card. With aggro decks having access to Mana Leak, it can be the card that tempos you out of the game. I was comfortable running three, since it is good against Wolf Run and G/W decks. You already have decent game against those decks anyway though. The one Consecrated Sphinx is quite good right now too. If the Delver decks don’t see it game one then hopefully they will sideboard out their Vapor Snags. Against Thompson Control and Wolf Run, the Sphinx is a house because they don’t have efficient answers. The 4-Color Control deck can’t kill this guy until they go through at least one draw step, and against Wolf Run, Consecrated Sphinx gives you enough cards to answer their threats while allowing you to survive the Inkmoth Nexus plan.
I was pretty happy with my deck throughout the day. I predict that the metagame will call for more aggro, and I think you should adjust accordingly. You need to have a plan against all the U/W aggro decks. I played against various aggro decks six rounds during the Swiss on Saturday and again in the top 8. On a side note, I believe my decklist online should have been summited with 26 land and one fewer Go for the Throat. This is not the type of deck that can afford to go below 26 lands. If you start missing land drops, you fall too far behind; however a good thing is that the deck is well-suited to make use of extra lands because you run Zeniths and tend to flashback spells frequently. For reference you can see my list of what I ended up playing in SCG Atlanta.
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (25)
Spells (29)
There are several changes that I will be making to this deck to adapt to the new metagame. First of all, the Batterskull is nice, but without Stoneforge Mystic it is a little slow, and Vapor Snag answers the Germ easily, so I decided to cut the Batterskull.
Next I plan on cutting Mana Leak down to just two. In Standard it just isn’t getting the job done right now. Luis Scott-Vargas recently did the same thing with his Esper Control deck, and I think it was a good call. Another thing is you can run all Doom Blades as kill spells with three Oblivion Ring and four Day of Judgment main; you can kill most black creatures after they resolve anyway, so the drawback on Doom Blade is reduced. Porcelain Legionnaire gets around Go for the Throat, which is relevant because the Legionnaire could be a new problem card for control to deal with.
A second Snapcaster Mage would be nice to have, though sometimes he is just a 2/1 bear with flash, especially since graveyard hate is already decent against this deck.
Putting one Timely Reinforcements in the maindeck is justifiable now. Timely Reinforcements is a good card to find with Forbidden Alchemy, and typically one maindeck will not hurt you too much against Wolf Run and the other control decks. A one-of Sensory Deprivation could be a pretty big game in the sideboard. I like the planeswalker split because both are powerful and versatile in this deck. Geist of Saint Traft gets by Gideon Jura, but Elspeth Tirel can put out a road block of soldiers against him. I have considered adding a second Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite to the sideboard, but you never want to draw multiples of a seven-drop in your starting hand against aggro. Here is my updated list of Esper Control that I recommend playing.
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (27)
Matchups
U/W Delver decks
This matchup seems to keep going back and forth for me. They sometimes hit their nut draws, and those are difficult to beat; however there are plenty of times where an early Pristine Talisman or resolving a Day of Judgment puts you far ahead. Against these decks, I ended up with a 3-2 on the day. I lost to one in round 8 and one in the first round of top 8.
The biggest problems I faced were Porcelain Legionnaire and too much countermagic on my key spells. The equipment package was never an issue, since having access to Oblivion Rings and Divine Offering gives you plenty of ways to answer whatever equipment they are running. Silvergill Adept is always a pain to deal with (Snapcaster + Gitaxian Probe). Play around Mana Leak if you have time, and if they ever tap out, then play your best threat. If you can’t get them to tap out or don’t have time to play around Mana Leak, then play your least powerful spells into countermagic first to bait it out.
For this matchup I would sideboard like this:
-2 Mana Leak -3 Dissipate -1 Forbidden Alchemy -1 Consecrated Sphinx
+3 Timely Reinforcements +1 Oblivion Ring +1 Sensory Deprivation +2 Phantasmal Image
Depending on how fast their deck is and how many equipment they have, Divine Offering and Negate are okay.
Other Control decks
This matchup only came up once on Saturday, but it is always nice to win control mirrors, and as a control player it generally feels very rewarding to beat other control decks. This is a matchup that requires a lot of practice and can be tricky.
Against other control decks, you want to sideboard something like this:
-1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite – 1 Timely Reinforcements -3 Day of Judgment
+1 Ghost Quarter +1 Negate +1 Dissipate +1 Karn Liberated +1 Blue’s Sun’s Zenith
Depending on the creatures and planeswalkers, it is okay to bring in another Oblivion Ring and take out a Doom Blade.
Wolf Run
This match is solid now; when I was just playing U/W Control at the Invitational in Charlotte, I felt like I didn’t quite have enough card draw and ways to kill Inkmoth Nexus. I needed more of an edge, and Esper provides that needed edge; Forbidden Alchemy is good to have in this matchup too.
Typically I would sideboard like this for Wolf Run:
-2 Pristine Talisman -1 Timely Reinforcements -1 Elspeth Tirel -1 Gideon Jura -2 Day of Judgment
+1 Ghost Quarter +2 Phantasmal Image +1 Dissipate +1 Negate +2 Divine Offering
Blue Sun’s Zenith is good here, but usually I can’t fit it in; also the fourth Oblivion Ring is fine if they have a lot of planeswalkers.
U/W Humans
This matchup plays out similarly to the U/W Delver matchup, but they are a little bit slower and typically run less countermagic and Snapcasters. This is usually a close matchup; here is a matchup where Consecrated Sphinx really shines.
For sideboarding I would go like this:
-2 Mana Leak -3 Dissipate -1 Forbidden Alchemy
+1 Oblivion Ring + 2 Phantasmal Image +1 Sensory Deprivation +2 Timely Reinforcements
The fourth Timely Reinforcements is fine, but it is sometimes hard to fit in this matchup; if they are on a Shrine of Loyal Legions plan or are an equipment-heavy deck, bringing in Divine Offering is good.
Sunday
The Legacy event went okay. I went 5-3 just barely missing out on top 32. I was playing U/W Stoneblade, probably the best deck in Legacy overall. If I had played a little tighter and sideboarded better in my last match against Reanimator, I think I could have top 16ed. My brother Phillip Braverman probably could have top 8ed if he had gone, since there were only around 190 people in the tournament, and he has made at least top 32 at every Legacy Open he has played in.
Legacy is a hard format, and it seems best to pick one deck in the format and keep practicing with it to be able to play tight and know sideboarding for all the matchups. My buddy Mike Greene was able to top 16 with his sweet Mono-Black deck. Overall, the weekend was successful; I met some cool new people and had fun adventures with Dale McKinney and Mike Greene.
I won’t be going any to big events this weekend. I am looking into going to the Super IQ in North Carolina to try this updated listed out and will hopefully be able to make it to the SCG Open in DC in a few weeks. Good luck to everyone going to the GP and the SCG Open this weekend. I am curious to see how control decks continue to evolve during these events in such heavy aggro fields.
Thanks for reading.
Magic Online- Mikebrav