I played Sultai Midrange at SCG Baltimore. The deck was great and I wanted
to make people beat me and learn from it. But Sultai Midrange is far from
my favorite thing to do in the format.
- Thought Erasure is the best Thoughtseize since, well, Thoughtseize
- Thought Erasure is the best card in every deck that plays it
- Thought Erasure might be the best card in Standard
General Usage
One of the other strong contenders for best card in Standard is Hydroid
Krasis. A lot of the discussion early this week was how to exploit it.
Angrath, the Flame-Chained, Entrancing Melody, and Hostage Taker were all
brought up and “we feel smart” pats on the back were had all around.
Thought Erasure is just the best answer to Hydroid Krasis.
I’ve cast Hydroid Krasis into all the above “super answers,” and in the end
two things happen. The Krasis player remains close to card parity if not
ahead, and the opponent was forced down a reactive longer path against the
pile of two-for-ones deck. If you don’t draw Hydroid Krasis, only Hostage
Taker of those cards is actually great against Sultai Midrange. Angrath,
the Flame-Chained is fine but partly winmore, and Entrancing Melody is just
beyond awkward.
Thought Erasure forces the Hydroid Krasis player down your path from the
start of the game. You can plot out the game as fast or slow as your other
cards want. And it isn’t just good versus Hydroid Krasis. It handles all
the other immediate value threats in the exact same way, most importantly
Vivien Reid and Find (even if the best mode of Find is recurring Hydroid
Krasis).
The other important threat category in Standard is the hard to answer one.
There’s a lot of strain selecting how many Vraska’s Contempt, Mortify, and
Consume you want to filter into relatively few slots. Too few specific
answers and you just die to some weird card, too many and Sultai just runs
you over with raw cardboard gained on each trade.
Thought Erasure also handles all those threats. With Thought Erasure in
your deck you can afford to be a bit short on answers for resolved copies
of those cards because they just won’t resolve.
Creatures (6)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (22)
Spells (31)
If a Grixis deck is going to succeed in Standard, Thought Erasure is going
to be a big part of it. One of the traditional Grixis issues is an
inability to answer enchantments, and there are a large number of those in
the format. You can only play so many Negates against these red decks, and
you can’t afford to tap out for a Crackling Drake for a long time if you
need to protect against their best end game.
One of the normal issues with discard spells is that it costs you mana but
not them. This was part of why Grixis Death’s Shadow fell out of favor
against Humans in Modern: you would Thoughtseize, they would just play
spells anyways and you would die.
Standard curves are not as resilient. Unless they have a second copy of
their one on-curve card, Thought Erasure often forces them to just not play
good Magic for a turn. They don’t spend mana up front on the exchange, but
because they don’t get to spend mana effectively, you’re virtually fine on
tempo.
In a format of miserable to answer cards on every axis, Thought Erasure
covers the field.
Control Applications
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (26)
Spells (30)
- 4 Absorb
- 3 Mortify
- 2 Negate
- 3 Vraska's Contempt
- 2 Search for Azcanta
- 2 Moment of Craving
- 1 Cast Down
- 4 Thought Erasure
- 3 Chemister's Insight
- 2 Precognitive Perception
- 4 Kaya's Wrath
Sideboard
The biggest challenge for Esper Control is ensuring the mana works out. Not
that the mana is bad and unreliable, but Magic can punish you just for
trying. Sometimes you miss your fourth land or draw four Dimir sources and
only one white source. Thought Erasure is there to help. It also has light
synergy milling Chemister’s Insight, if you play that card, though the
games where you’re going to cast a draw two but only want the jump-start
half of the draw two are not normal.
Seriously, hands with Thought Erasure and without are night and day for
Esper Control. If you cast it on turn 2, it feels like nothing can go
wrong.
Or, to quote my pitch for this article, Esper Control is now a Thought
Erasure deck, not a Teferi deck. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria is just a means
to an end, Kaya’s Wrath is just one of many sweepers; Thought Erasure is
the unique linchpin in getting the game to unfold your way.
I would also like to give a special shout out to Jadelight Ranger here, aka
the card I probably should take with Thought Erasure more.
Every removal spell in the Esper deck has some issue with Jadelight Ranger.
Moment of Craving misses it as a 4/3, Mortify and Vraska’s Contempt gain no
tempo and lose explore value, the card is large enough to force action and
bait Kaya’s Wrath before you can also have your Absorb shields up. If you
Thought Erasure it, none of that happens. They might even draw bad cards
and give you a window to establish a win.
Threat Protection
With Esper Control you can often get value from Thought Erasure going long
thanks to the nature of your deck. Esper Control has few threats, but they
are must-answer threats. This is especially true after you sideboard in
Thief of Sanity. Your opponent will have some kill spells, and over a long
game they will get stuck in their hand. Thought Erasure drawn late lines up
as a preemptive counterspell for these, being cast right before you go for
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria to clear the path.
Creatures (22)
- 2 Hostage Taker
- 2 Lyra Dawnbringer
- 3 Thief of Sanity
- 4 Deputy of Detention
- 3 Seraph of the Scales
- 4 Basilica Bell-Haunt
- 4 Hero of Precinct One
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (12)
On the other side of Esper spectrum is Esper Midrange, and this is
literally the deck’s entire strategy. Beating midrange opponents with
Basilica Bell-Haunt is only technically possible. You win by sticking
something that provides cascading advantage, namely Hero of Precinct One or
Thief of Sanity.
Sticking a fragile creature? Sounds like a job for Thought Erasure. Extra
points if that fragile creature is something that immediately starts
churning out absolute value like these two Esper options.
Honestly, even if the threat isn’t fragile Thought Erasure is great. If
only a specific answer hits your threat, being able to take that out away
is everything you want to do.
In this respect, Thought Erasure is performing the same role as a Dive Down
split card, where the other half is removal. Again, just showing how
absurdly powerful the card is.
Creatures (9)
Lands (19)
Spells (32)
Creatures (12)
Lands (21)
Spells (27)
Spells (24)
- 4 Opt
- 2 Spell Pierce
- 2 Entrancing Melody
- 1 Chart a Course
- 3 Dive Down
- 4 Curious Obsession
- 1 Blink of an Eye
- 4 Wizard's Retort
- 1 Quench
- 2 Essence Capture
Sideboard
I think there’s a good lesson to be learned comparing Thought Erasure and
Dive Down. Not a hard one, just a good one. There’s a turning point on the
blue threat curve where these two flip in quality.
Thought Erasure is much better backing up Niv-Mizzet, Parun than Dive Down
because seven mana for Niv with protection is way more than six mana
because seven cards spent on lands is way more than six. It’s way better to
preemptively Thought Erasure, take their relevant removal, and surveil into
your sixth land.
Dive Down is way better with Pteramander because two mana is not that much
more than one. Well, it is, but Thought Erasure costs two mana anyways, and
Standard is a format where raw power outweighs efficiency unlike older
formats.
I think the turning point is dead center between Enigma Drake and Crackling
Drake. If your deck is more Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Crackling Drake, you’re
trying to be a Thought Erasure deck. If your deck is more Pteramander,
Enigma Drake, or Goblin Electromancer, you want to be a Dive Down deck.
There might be some weird spot you want both, but then you start having
weird mana issues like Sultai Midrange does to support Llanowar Elves.
On that note, a lot of people have asked about playing Thought Erasure in
Sultai Midrange. I elected not to this weekend because I wanted to just
stock list it up, but I think there’s both merit to it and issues it
causes.
The biggest upside comes from the increased answer diversity. Sultai has
good threats, but they are largely raw value threats and not hard to answer
or cascading advantage ones like Thought Erasure is best with. Where Sultai
gets the most value from Thought Erasure is coverage against alternate
threats from a number of decks. Duress is good, but it doesn’t hit Thief of
Sanity from Esper Control sideboards or Niv-Mizzet, Parun or Hydroid Krasis
from Wilderness Reclamation decks. Having a discard spell that can hit
their main noncreature components but also cover whatever sideboard
nonsense people cooked up this week is really absurd.
The problem is just the cost. You’re a deck with tons of Forests and
Llanowar Elves. This card costs blue and black mana and you want to cast it
early. That just doesn’t math out.
Surveil Synergy?
One of the weird parts of Thought Erasure is that people aren’t really
taking extra advantage of the surveil part of the card more than they would
a scry. Cards go to your graveyard, isn’t that worth something? There’s
even like seven cards that do something with surveil!
The issue with graveyard synergy is related to the same issue a million
other similar cards have in the format. You can play some cool enable-y
cheap spell that filters cards, or you can play a cool enable-y cheap spell
that filters cards with power and toughness because it’s just an explore
creature. If both players do this, your opponent is just always the beat
down and you’re always the control. If you’re Esper Control with Kaya’s
Wrath, that’s fine. Or at least its fine until they also have discard and
counterspells and all their stupid game 1 threats too.
If you’re some Izzet Drakes deck, your life is miserable, hence why it took
so long to iterate and find the right build of that deck in Guilds of Ravnica Standard. There might be some deck that does
cool graveyard stuff that uses Thought Erasure to dig to it, but if you
want to go down that road, expect to slam your head into the Sultai wall
for a long time figuring it out.
What about being an active surveil deck? The payoff is really just
Disinformation Campaign, which is reasonable, but wow are the next four or
eight surveil cards not good. Discovery is everything wrong in the Merfolk
Branchwalker comparison. Lazav, the Multifarious is kinda okay, I guess? I
would rather have multiple power or immediate effects on my two-drops. Doom
Whisperer is basically out of the question because five-mana 6/6 flier that
Vampiric Tutors is not a synergy card, it’s a just “go kill them” card.
Once you start getting to Sinister Sabotage you start wondering why you
aren’t just playing normal cards that gain three life like Absorb or
whatever. Absorb even makes a 1/1 with Hero of Precinct One!
Having some incidental upside with Thought Erasure is nice, but I wouldn’t
worry too much about using it on levels beyond just making them discard
cards and hit land drops.
Why Didn’t I Play Thought Erasure?
In the end I still didn’t play Esper of any variety at #SCGBALT. And I’m
not trying to cover secret Pro Tour technology. I played stupid Sultai
Midrange with no technology beyond putting the same old Plaguecrafters in
my sideboard.
Why?
-
I beat Seth Manfield who played Esper Control. I beat Edgar
Magalhaes who played Esper Control. I won a game after getting hit
by Esper’s Thief of Sanity three times. -
It turns out if every card in your deck is a two-for-one, the math
is eventually in your favor. -
It turns out if every card in your deck is a stupid two-for-one,
taking one with Thought Erasure doesn’t matter.
Even if Thought Erasure is the best card in Standard, it still has all the
same failings as Thoughtseize did when it was good. If every card in your
opponent’s deck is a similar level and type of threatening, taking one
specific one just doesn’t matter that much.
So there I was. I wasn’t sure I could beat my Sultai Midrange opponents
with Esper Control, so I just made them try to beat me and see what I was
doing wrong. They all failed, but it wasn’t Thought Erasure’s fault. If all
their cards were Thought Erasure they might have actually won, but instead
they had Thought Erasure for one card and died because they had to Mortify
the next three.
Of course, half the Top 8 was playing Esper Control, and half the bottom
part of Day 2 was Sultai Midrange.
Maybe I was wrong the whole time.
Or maybe I was right? The Standard Classic was also won by Sultai, and
Esper Control was not nearly as big of a top end presence there.
At the least, I’m going to spend another week trying to beat people with
Thought Erasure. And I’m probably succeeding when I draw the card and cast
it on turn 2.