Less land and tidehollow strix. More Etherium Sculptor and esperzoa. The borderposts are basically lands anyway. You're basically running 25 lands in a super aggro deck. You could get by on 22. Shave 3 lands. IN their place, bring in etherium sculptor, esperzoa and elsewhere flask. All those cards make glaze fiend better, etherium scupltor makes esperzoa and elswhere flask better, as well as your borderposts. The sculptor actually turns your posts into mana acceleration, since you can play them without paying 1. You get to tap a land in play for mana, put the borderpost into play for 0 and return the tapped land, drop the newly bounced land and tap it again for extra mana. Not bad. And this slew of increased speed in dropping your artifacts, espescially elsewhere flask which draws you more artifacts to drop onto the field, makes master of etherium that much better. Also - those cards all make your deck that much faster - and a card draw engine with esperzoa and elsewhere flask (as well as setting up potential mana fixing) - also known as the onesided howling mine - is just awesome for any deck... Espescially beatdown.
I was also inspired by the "Esper Stoneblade" deck at PT Honolulu, and have been testing an Esper Aggro deck since then. I've found the Glaze Fiend + Thopter Foundry trick to be largely unnecessary. For every game you'll win because of it's explosiveness, you'll lose a game because of your deck's inconsistency. The manabase provides enough sketchy moments on it's own, so I would suggest sticking with the best creatures and quality spells rather than gambling on the combo portion of the list. On a positive note though, kudos on running multiple Ethersworn Shieldmages. That guy is such a blowout, and I was shocked at the number of decks in Honolulu that were running him as a singleton.
The deck skips the cute tricks to provide powerful beats, strong synergy between your cards, and efficient gameplans against all of the premium decks in the format. Zealous Persecution is immensely powerful and makes your matchups much better against major decks like Tokens and Faeries.
I would reccomend considering countermagic in some more, perhaps Negate or Broken Ambitions, due to the issue of board over-commitment. While the Shieldmage works great against damage-based sweepers, having a plan in the event of Wrath of God, Infest, or Lavalanche may prove useful. At the very least, you can use it to protect against removal and deal with plainswalkers and Spectral Procession
I was also inspired by the "Esper Stoneblade" deck at PT Honolulu, and have been testing an Esper Aggro deck since then. I've found the Glaze Fiend + Thopter Foundry trick to be largely unnecessary. For every game you'll win because of it's explosiveness, you'll lose a game because of your deck's inconsistency. The manabase provides enough sketchy moments on it's own, so I would suggest sticking with the best creatures and quality spells rather than gambling on the combo portion of the list. On a positive note though, kudos on running multiple Ethersworn Shieldmages. That guy is such a blowout, and I was shocked at the number of decks in Honolulu that were running him as a singleton.
The deck skips the cute tricks to provide powerful beats, strong synergy between your cards, and efficient gameplans against all of the premium decks in the format. Zealous Persecution is immensely powerful and makes your matchups much better against major decks like Tokens and Faeries.
Just something to think about.
-Dave
I have thought about running a version like yours.
I've been playing a similar deck recently with a few changes.
In way of creatures I have no Esperzoas but include a playset of Meddling Mages and 3 Reveillark. In way of other spells, I have the playset of Path To Exile, but in lieu of other removal I play 4 Sage's Dousing and 3 Broken Ambitions. The dousings are pretty great as for the first 5-6 turns of the game they are usually as good as a hard counter, and every creature in the deck save for the Scullers are wizards. This means that you get the most common modes of a Cryptic with a much easier mana commitment. The ambitions and dousings are both quite great with an Ethersworn Canonist in play, meaning you almost always get the last laugh.
As for the Meddling Mages, while they aren't artifact creatures they play nice with most of the key players in the deck. They are a terrific 1,2 punch with the Scullers, they turn on Stormblades, they allow you to get full value from the dousings, they are always nice to bring back with the lark, and are a great defense against Volcanic Fallouts.
The Larks are also a great addition, in that they can bring back just about, if not everyone. In many cases where the lark is needed, i.e. after a board sweeper, you will have 2 or less borderposts in play meaning you can grab Master of Etheriums.
Since I'm being fairly new to the game, I have a question. Why would you want to run Esperzoa in this deck since the only real use I can see is that you're able to return a shieldmage after use, or else you have to return Esperzoa again?
How about a Sharuum the Hegemon or something similar to have something put excessive pressure on the enemy and thereby providing a finisher?
Well most of us do run Sanctum Gargoyle in the sideboard. Sharuum the Hegemon is a great card, but it's mana cost is way too big for this deck.
In some decks, people run either Kaleidostone or Elsewhere Flask to draw a card and then they use Esperzoa to bounce them back to your hand.
Quote from Tromack »
I've been playing a similar deck recently with a few changes.
In way of creatures I have no Esperzoas but include a playset of Meddling Mages and 3 Reveillark. In way of other spells, I have the playset of Path To Exile, but in lieu of other removal I play 4 Sage's Dousing and 3 Broken Ambitions. The dousings are pretty great as for the first 5-6 turns of the game they are usually as good as a hard counter, and every creature in the deck save for the Scullers are wizards. This means that you get the most common modes of a Cryptic with a much easier mana commitment. The ambitions and dousings are both quite great with an Ethersworn Canonist in play, meaning you almost always get the last laugh.
As for the Meddling Mages, while they aren't artifact creatures they play nice with most of the key players in the deck. They are a terrific 1,2 punch with the Scullers, they turn on Stormblades, they allow you to get full value from the dousings, they are always nice to bring back with the lark, and are a great defense against Volcanic Fallouts.
The Larks are also a great addition, in that they can bring back just about, if not everyone. In many cases where the lark is needed, i.e. after a board sweeper, you will have 2 or less borderposts in play meaning you can grab Master of Etheriums.
Actually if you have 2 borderposts in play, wouldn't Master of Etherium come back as a 3/3. Plus if you one multi-colored permanent in play, Esper Stormblade would come back as a 3/2.
I thought about running Meddling Mage, but then I kinda changed my mind about that card. I'm only running Tidehollow Strix until I get my Ethersworn Canonist. Ethersworn Canonist would probably be a better fit for this deck than Meddling Mage would be.
Since I'm being fairly new to the game, I have a question. Why would you want to run Esperzoa in this deck since the only real use I can see is that you're able to return a shieldmage after use, or else you have to return Esperzoa again?
How about a Sharuum the Hegemon or something similar to have something put excessive pressure on the enemy and thereby providing a finisher?
sharuum is only good in transmuter or control type builds.
Esperzoa + etherium sculptor x2 + elsewhere flask = one free extra card per your turn
Let's be real here, nobody in their right mind is running that card. Far too dead against most of the format. If something like Austere Command were to become prevalent again, say in U/W Lark's SB, then Negate is probably in order.
Actually if you have 2 borderposts in play, wouldn't Master of Etherium come back as a 3/3. Plus if you one multi-colored permanent in play, Esper Stormblade would come back as a 3/2.
I thought about running Meddling Mage, but then I kinda changed my mind about that card. I'm only running Tidehollow Strix until I get my Ethersworn Canonist. Ethersworn Canonist would probably be a better fit for this deck than Meddling Mage would be.
Yes, if you have 2 in play then master of Etherium would be a 3/3 upon entering play, but it would only be a 2/2 in the yard and thus Larkable. In fact, one game I had 2 border posts, 2 etheriums in the yard, and an empty board on boths sides (He had just wrathed). I larked and suddenly had 2 4/4's. The game ended pretty shortly after that.
I think that both Meddling Mage and Ethersworn Canonists are much better cards than the Strixes, the Esperzoas, the Glaze Fiends are. Whether the Canonists or the Meddling Mages are better than the other is debatable, as the both serve different purposes.
The Canonists are great against Cascade and guarantee that my version (which packs counterspells) always gets the last say in a counter war, they also are pumped and pump Master of Etherium.
The Meddlers have excellent synergy with the Scullers, are great at protecting your board against sweepers, and turn on Stormbaldes.
Yes, if you have 2 in play then master of Etherium would be a 3/3 upon entering play, but it would only be a 2/2 in the yard and thus Larkable. In fact, one game I had 2 border posts, 2 etheriums in the yard, and an empty board on boths sides (He had just wrathed). I larked and suddenly had 2 4/4's. The game ended pretty shortly after that.
I think that both Meddling Mage and Ethersworn Canonists are much better cards than the Strixes, the Esperzoas, the Glaze Fiends are. Whether the Canonists or the Meddling Mages are better than the other is debatable, as the both serve different purposes.
The Canonists are great against Cascade and guarantee that my version (which packs counterspells) always gets the last say in a counter war, they also are pumped and pump Master of Etherium.
The Meddlers have excellent synergy with the Scullers, are great at protecting your board against sweepers, and turn on Stormbaldes.
I actually took the Glaze Fiends out. I really didn't like that card. No the deck looks like this:
I actually thought about taking out the Esperzoa. Probably for another fliers. Esper Cormorants might be a good choice or I could always go with Parasitic Strix, but with only 12 black permanents in the deck it might be a little hard to pull off that card.
Any suggestions on how to improve the deck to be more efficient against Bant Exalted decks? I have quite a lot of difficulties due to Pridemages being able to destroy artifacts and their charms are just evil against Esper.
Ethersworn Canonist could probably help against Bant. I really have faced any Bant decks with this deck yet. I faced a Jund Cascade deck and I was still able to win without having Ethersworn Canonist.
Ethersworn Canonist could probably help against Bant. I really have faced any Bant decks with this deck yet. I faced a Jund Cascade deck and I was still able to win without having Ethersworn Canonist.
I've noticed the same thing. My build is closer to midrange, but I never seem to have trouble against Jund Cascade.
And canonist is perfect against bant, good call.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Currently running:
Standard GWUBant EnchantmentsUWG BR Dos Rakis RB UW Mill WU
I've noticed the same thing. My build is closer to midrange, but I never seem to have trouble against Jund Cascade.
And canonist is perfect against bant, good call.
I'm just waiting til I get paid to grab the 4 Canonist I need. I rather spend $24 on 4 Canonists instead of spending $48 on 4 Meddling Mages. Yeah, the Mages are going for $12 a piece where I live because everyone wants them.
I tried going Midrange with my deck, but it really didn't work out for me. So, I went beatdown aggro with Esper Stormblade, Sculler, and Esperzoa and it's been working out great.
Zealous Persecution is a great card for this deck because you can use it to pump all your guys and decrease your opponents. Or you can do my little trick. Some of my opponents love to play Volcanic Fallout when they have a bunch of creatures with 3 defense and I have a bunch of creatures with 2 defense. So I keep the mana open and play Zealous Persecution when they play Volcanic Fallout, killing theirs, but saving mine.
(since I'm pretty new), I still don't get the reason why to play Esperzoa. Is the only reason to bounce the Shieldmages when they are used? or else bounce itself back up? (It's not critique, I would just love to know how it is worth it)
Furthermore, how are the Canonists going to help against bant decks? I've seen a few Argent Pleas (being their only Cascade card), but that's about it.
Canonists help out against Bant because Bant can play a lot of fast effectives creatures and spells. They've got Rhox War Monk, Jhessian Infiltrator, Deft Duelist (yes, I've this in Bant decks), Bant Sureblade, Shorecrasher Mimic, Path to Exile, Negate (when they try to counter your counter), and Noble Hierarch.
Sometimes I don't always bring back a Shieldmage. I also bring back a creature that was trapped from a Pacifism. Also if I had a creature that had some -1/-1 counters on it and it was still alive, I would bring it back to my hand. I also bounce back a Sculler to give them the card back and look at their hand again when I drop the Sculler again. That can be a nasty little trick to stay ahead of the game. So at least you know what your opponent has.
Plus I forgot the favorite card to go with Esperzoa, and that is Sanctum Gargoyle. If you have a lot of artifacts in your graveyard and you want them back, just have Esperzoa and Sanctum Gargoyle and play the Gargoyle one turn, then next turn bounce him back to your hand and keep doing it.
I would consider myself a noob, if you will, so I ask: Why not include Scourglass? One-sided board wipe is awesome, but is 3WW to much to pay?
It does cost way to much. If I decided to play a sweeper, I would probably play Infest. But there is no room in the sideboard for it.
Right now the sideboard is this:
3 Sanctum Gargoyle: Returns any artifact in your graveyard to your hand. It also provides great card advantage.
3 Soul Manipulation: Another card that provides card advantage plus it is a counter as well.
3 Countersquall: Another counter (but for non-creature spells) and your opponent loses 2 life.
3 Esper Charm: Another card advantage card. Plus it could also take care of any enchantments in play. Pluss you can your opponent discard 2 cards.
3 Celestial Purge: Basically this is Path to Exile #'s 5, 6, and 7. But it can only take care of red and black creatures.
Believe it or not, i've been running this without black to some success. The main core of the deck is the same but instead it mainly stays UW with a splash of green for behemoth sledge
There is always something to equip thanks to the thopter foundry, and it does wonders in the race against other aggro decks. My only quandary is the last creature slot. Maindeck vedalken outlander is okay, but I wonder if I should stretch for the black, or try ethercaste knight or maybe even maindeck meddling mage...
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
04 Arcane Sanctum
04 Island
05 Plains
04 Swamp
Creatures: 26
04 Tidehollow Strix
04 Tidehollow Sculler
04 Esper Stormblade
04 Ethersworn Canonist
04 Master of Etherium
03 Ethersworn Shieldmage
03 Esperzoa
04 Mistvein Borderpost
04 Fieldmist Borderpost
04 Path to Exile
03 Thopter Foundry
02 Sleep
04 Vedalken Outlander
04 Celestial Purge
03 Countersquall
02 Soul Manipulation
02 Sanctum Gargoyle
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Island
6 Plains
3 Swamp
Creatures (23):
4 Esper Stormblade
2 Esperzoa
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Ethersworn Shieldmage
4 Master of Etherium
2 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Tidehollow Strix
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Path to Exile
4 Zealous Persecution
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Celestial Purge
4 Countersquall
4 Sleep
3 Vedalken Outlander
4 Swamp
5 Plains
4 Island
4 Arcane Sanctum
Creatures: 23
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Glaze Fiend
4 Master of Etherium
4 Esper Stormblade
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Ethersworn Shieldmage
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
3 Thopter Foundry
3 Path to Exile
3 Harm's Way
3 Sleep
4 Pithing Needle
4 Vedalken Outlander
1 Path to Exile
4 CounterSquall
2 Celestial Purge
Remaking Magic - A Podcast for those that love MTG and Game Design
The Dungeon Master's Guide - A Podcast for those that love RPGs and Game Design
Sig-Heroes of the Plane
Here's what I run currently. (Just for reference)
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Swamp
7 Plains
2 Island
4 Master Of Etherium
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Court Homunculus
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Esper Stormblade
4 Ethersworn Shieldmage
2 Esperzoa
4 Path To Exile
1 Terror
1 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Wall Of Denial
2 Pithing Needle
1 Celestial Purge
3 Esper Charm
1 Thoughtseize
1 Deathmark
1 Wispmare
1 Terror
2 Infest
The deck skips the cute tricks to provide powerful beats, strong synergy between your cards, and efficient gameplans against all of the premium decks in the format. Zealous Persecution is immensely powerful and makes your matchups much better against major decks like Tokens and Faeries.
Just something to think about.
-Dave
Check out Odds//Ends - My articles on Quirky Cards and Oddball Builds
Long-time PucaTrade member and sometime author. Send me cards!
Currently playing Knight of the Reliquary - Retreat to Coralhelm Combo
I have thought about running a version like yours.
4 Arcane Sanctum
6 Plains
4 Swamp
3 Island
Creatures:
4 Court Homunculus
4 Esper Stormblade
4 Tidehollow Strix
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Ethersworn Shieldmage
4 Master of Etherium
3 Esperzoa
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Zealous Persecution
4 Path to Exile
3 Soul Manipulation
3 Countersquall
3 Celestial Purge
3 Sanctum Gargoyle
3 Esper Charm
Tidehollow Strix is taking the place of Ethersworn Canonist is I don't hve any at the moment.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
What?? Double negative confusing me here. do you want them or not?
On a serious-ish note the deck seems pretty solid.
Old School Like the Old school
:evillol:Thanks to .toRRent for the awesome Avi and Piet for the Banner:evillol:
I don't want them.
In way of creatures I have no Esperzoas but include a playset of Meddling Mages and 3 Reveillark. In way of other spells, I have the playset of Path To Exile, but in lieu of other removal I play 4 Sage's Dousing and 3 Broken Ambitions. The dousings are pretty great as for the first 5-6 turns of the game they are usually as good as a hard counter, and every creature in the deck save for the Scullers are wizards. This means that you get the most common modes of a Cryptic with a much easier mana commitment. The ambitions and dousings are both quite great with an Ethersworn Canonist in play, meaning you almost always get the last laugh.
As for the Meddling Mages, while they aren't artifact creatures they play nice with most of the key players in the deck. They are a terrific 1,2 punch with the Scullers, they turn on Stormblades, they allow you to get full value from the dousings, they are always nice to bring back with the lark, and are a great defense against Volcanic Fallouts.
The Larks are also a great addition, in that they can bring back just about, if not everyone. In many cases where the lark is needed, i.e. after a board sweeper, you will have 2 or less borderposts in play meaning you can grab Master of Etheriums.
Well most of us do run Sanctum Gargoyle in the sideboard. Sharuum the Hegemon is a great card, but it's mana cost is way too big for this deck.
In some decks, people run either Kaleidostone or Elsewhere Flask to draw a card and then they use Esperzoa to bounce them back to your hand.
Actually if you have 2 borderposts in play, wouldn't Master of Etherium come back as a 3/3. Plus if you one multi-colored permanent in play, Esper Stormblade would come back as a 3/2.
I thought about running Meddling Mage, but then I kinda changed my mind about that card. I'm only running Tidehollow Strix until I get my Ethersworn Canonist. Ethersworn Canonist would probably be a better fit for this deck than Meddling Mage would be.
sharuum is only good in transmuter or control type builds.
Esperzoa + etherium sculptor x2 + elsewhere flask = one free extra card per your turn
I actually have them in the sideboard already.
And even if you don't counter, the deck is fast enough to regain board control in no time.
Standard
GWUBant EnchantmentsUWG
BR Dos Rakis RB
UW Mill WU
Legacy
RGoblinsR
Yes, if you have 2 in play then master of Etherium would be a 3/3 upon entering play, but it would only be a 2/2 in the yard and thus Larkable. In fact, one game I had 2 border posts, 2 etheriums in the yard, and an empty board on boths sides (He had just wrathed). I larked and suddenly had 2 4/4's. The game ended pretty shortly after that.
I think that both Meddling Mage and Ethersworn Canonists are much better cards than the Strixes, the Esperzoas, the Glaze Fiends are. Whether the Canonists or the Meddling Mages are better than the other is debatable, as the both serve different purposes.
The Canonists are great against Cascade and guarantee that my version (which packs counterspells) always gets the last say in a counter war, they also are pumped and pump Master of Etherium.
The Meddlers have excellent synergy with the Scullers, are great at protecting your board against sweepers, and turn on Stormbaldes.
I actually took the Glaze Fiends out. I really didn't like that card. No the deck looks like this:
4 Arcane Sanctum
6 Plains
4 Swamp
3 Island
Creatures:
4 Court Homunculus
4 Esper Stormblade
4 Tidehollow Strix
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Ethersworn Shieldmage
4 Master of Etherium
3 Esperzoa
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Zealous Persecution
4 Path to Exile
3 Soul Manipulation
3 Countersquall
3 Celestial Purge
3 Sanctum Gargoyle
3 Esper Charm
I actually thought about taking out the Esperzoa. Probably for another fliers. Esper Cormorants might be a good choice or I could always go with Parasitic Strix, but with only 12 black permanents in the deck it might be a little hard to pull off that card.
Ethersworn Canonist could probably help against Bant. I really have faced any Bant decks with this deck yet. I faced a Jund Cascade deck and I was still able to win without having Ethersworn Canonist.
I've noticed the same thing. My build is closer to midrange, but I never seem to have trouble against Jund Cascade.
And canonist is perfect against bant, good call.
Standard
GWUBant EnchantmentsUWG
BR Dos Rakis RB
UW Mill WU
Legacy
RGoblinsR
I'm just waiting til I get paid to grab the 4 Canonist I need. I rather spend $24 on 4 Canonists instead of spending $48 on 4 Meddling Mages. Yeah, the Mages are going for $12 a piece where I live because everyone wants them.
I tried going Midrange with my deck, but it really didn't work out for me. So, I went beatdown aggro with Esper Stormblade, Sculler, and Esperzoa and it's been working out great.
Zealous Persecution is a great card for this deck because you can use it to pump all your guys and decrease your opponents. Or you can do my little trick. Some of my opponents love to play Volcanic Fallout when they have a bunch of creatures with 3 defense and I have a bunch of creatures with 2 defense. So I keep the mana open and play Zealous Persecution when they play Volcanic Fallout, killing theirs, but saving mine.
Canonists help out against Bant because Bant can play a lot of fast effectives creatures and spells. They've got Rhox War Monk, Jhessian Infiltrator, Deft Duelist (yes, I've this in Bant decks), Bant Sureblade, Shorecrasher Mimic, Path to Exile, Negate (when they try to counter your counter), and Noble Hierarch.
Sometimes I don't always bring back a Shieldmage. I also bring back a creature that was trapped from a Pacifism. Also if I had a creature that had some -1/-1 counters on it and it was still alive, I would bring it back to my hand. I also bounce back a Sculler to give them the card back and look at their hand again when I drop the Sculler again. That can be a nasty little trick to stay ahead of the game. So at least you know what your opponent has.
Plus I forgot the favorite card to go with Esperzoa, and that is Sanctum Gargoyle. If you have a lot of artifacts in your graveyard and you want them back, just have Esperzoa and Sanctum Gargoyle and play the Gargoyle one turn, then next turn bounce him back to your hand and keep doing it.
It does cost way to much. If I decided to play a sweeper, I would probably play Infest. But there is no room in the sideboard for it.
Right now the sideboard is this:
3 Sanctum Gargoyle: Returns any artifact in your graveyard to your hand. It also provides great card advantage.
3 Soul Manipulation: Another card that provides card advantage plus it is a counter as well.
3 Countersquall: Another counter (but for non-creature spells) and your opponent loses 2 life.
3 Esper Charm: Another card advantage card. Plus it could also take care of any enchantments in play. Pluss you can your opponent discard 2 cards.
3 Celestial Purge: Basically this is Path to Exile #'s 5, 6, and 7. But it can only take care of red and black creatures.
4 Court Homunculus
4 Esper Stormblade
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Master of Etherium
3 Ethersworn Shieldmage
4 Vedalken Outlander
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Path to Exile
4 Thopter Foundry
3 Behemoth Sledge
4 Wildfield Borderpost
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Arcane Sanctum
7 Plains
6 Islands
1 Forest
There is always something to equip thanks to the thopter foundry, and it does wonders in the race against other aggro decks. My only quandary is the last creature slot. Maindeck vedalken outlander is okay, but I wonder if I should stretch for the black, or try ethercaste knight or maybe even maindeck meddling mage...