Esper Sentinel

Artifact Creature — Human Soldier

Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

2 hours ago

First a quick introduction. I've been playing magic off and on for years. When this site first started out, I was super active and then I stopped playing. I recently got back into it and plunged deep into the Commander format. I love building decks around interesting concepts and often trying to break cards.

My slightly ambitious goal is to create a series of threads that show my thought process as I build a commander deck. I figure it will serve two purposes: First, it will aid newer players who have some precon decks and perhaps are looking to upgrade them or they see a commander and want to build it, but aren't sure how. The second is purely self-motivated in that more experienced players can fine tune my own logic and make suggestions for my own improvement.

So with that, the first commander deck I'm going to build here is Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds. This is a card that begs to broken and creates for interesting and powerful decks. There are also several different lines you can choose to go with it. You can make it go infinite if you like degeneracy or don't like the people in your playgroup, or you can decide to go the way of building lots of tokens quickly and then turning them sideways and swinging.

So first things first, we need to think about what the commander actually does and what it is going to need to do that effectively. First, it says allows all nontoken creatures to tap and create tokens that I control that entered the battlefield this turn. So a couple things to point out: First is that it is tokens not creature tokens specifically, so treasures, clues, food, etc. is fair game. Secondly, it doesn't have to be my turn that the tokens came in, you can activate the ability at instant speed if you create a token on your opponent's turn. Now Ghired also is only 3 mana in Naya colors with Haste which means he's going to come down early in the game, so we'll want some other creatures out there when he comes down to start building up tokens right away.

With his abilities in mind, there are a couple things that we want to think about: Cards that create tokens, cards that double tokens, cards that untap things, and cards that do interesting things when they're tapped, example Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero, who comes down early as well, and when she is tapped I gain life and draw a card. We will obviously need to consider interaction, ramp, and card draw, but those are secondary in my thoughts. Every deck needs those, but what items you add of those often depends on what your deck is trying to do. In this case, we want to make tokens, tap creatures, make more tokens.

Token Generators

So a couple really good token generators here to start would be things that keep making them rather than one offs. In my playtesting Oltec Matterweaver is hard to beat. It comes in early (turn 2 if you can get a sol ring). When you cast a creature spell you can copy a target artifact or bring out a 1/1 gnome. Turn 1 you play a plains and a sol ring. Turn 2 you bring this out, turn 3 you bring out Ghired, creating a copy of sol ring, tap your Oltec Matterweaver and create another sol ring. You now have 3 sol rings on the field on turn 3... You are now the archenemy, congrats?

Some other standouts are Emmara, Soul of the Accord who when tapped creates a 1/1 soldier with lifelink. So tapping will actually create two tokens. Thousand Moons Smithy  ^Flip is another beast of a card. It comes down turn 4, Ghired is already out along with any other low cost creatures. Let's say you had a Birds of Paradise and Ghired when this comes down and maybe a mana rock. You create a 5/5 Gnome (2 creatures, 2 artifacts, and the gnome itself). Now you tap the bird and Ghired and create two more Gnomes. You now have 3 7/7s, on turn 4...

Honorable mentions here are things like Smothering Tithe who will create treasures each opponent's turn, tap a creature and create another. Rain of Riches, create some treasures, copy them cast something and get cascade.

Also, populate is a thing, I like Growing Ranks and Nesting Dovehawk for that.

Doublers

Ok, so doublers is a pretty easy topic, there are quite a few out there, they are expensive and honestly for this deck you don't need much. I chose a couple that I particularly like for this and by like I mean I own them and didn't have to go out and spend $50-60. Examples are Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Primal Vigor (careful as this one applies to everyone not just you).

Untapping Abilities

Untapping abilites can make it even worse as time goes on. If you have a Seedborn Muse you untap each upkeep so they draw a card, Smothering Tithe creates a treasure, during their end step you tap your creatures creating more treasures. Untap on the next opponent's untap step, rinse and repeat.

This is also where infinite combos begin to happen. Sunstrike Legionnaire untaps everytime a creature enters the battlefield. Make a creature token, tap sunstrike legionnaire, create another creature token, sunstrike legionnaire untaps, rinse and repeat, gg. Midnight Guard works too for one mor mana. Other options include making copies of your own creatures that untap creatures when they enter the battlefield like Hyrax Tower Scout, Zealous Conscripts, Sparring Mummy. Mix that with notable salty cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Molten Duplication, Splinter Twin, Jaxis, the Troublemaker and you're off to infinite again. (Jaxis uses his ability, sparring mummy comes in untaps him, now Jaxis just taps to make a copy of the sparring mummy token (from Ghired) which has haste, it comes in untaps Jaxis, rinse and repeat, swing with a legion of sparring mummies)

Cards that do cool things when tapped aren't super plentiful, but the two I've mentioned already are great for this deck. (Wylie and Emmara).

Interaction, ramp, card draw

Now for the ramp, interaction, and card draw. Ramp is fairly straightforward, since we have the Oltec Matterweaver, I opted to put in some signets, but left some other stones out. Normally when I'm in green I go heavy on green ramp. I opted for cheap ramp spells like Rampant Growth, Farseek, Three Visits and Birds of Paradise (could maybe use more mana dorks since having a body later will help in producing larger tokens).

Interaction is super important in this one. Board wipes are coming, targeted removal is coming, so need to prepare, but we also need to be flexible in taking out our opponents. So to save us from board wipes, we have Heroic Intervention, the ubiquitous and hopefully soon to be reprinted (one can dream) Teferi's Protection, Boros Charm, and Smuggler's Surprise (which is heroic intervention in disguise).

Getting rid of threats is crucial, so Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares are useful, but not as useful as Beast Within, Generous Gift, and Stroke of Midnight. These obviously target more than just creatures, but also produce tokens. There are situations where a well-timed beast within on your own treasure token to create a 3/3 beast that you can copy a bunch of times is the right play. That make it not just removal, but also a token generator.

Finally, we come to card draw. Since we are producing tokens (hopefully most turns) we can include things like Bennie Bracks, Zoologist and Idol of Oblivion. I also like Welcoming Vampire for this deck. It is creature heavy so Guardian Project is great, so is Beast Whisperer and Garruk's Uprising. Esper Sentinel is always good. We already have Wylie from earlier. Getting card draw is vital to the survival of any deck and particularly this one as we need to be producing tokens regularly and you need cards to produce them. I chose to run about 11 card draw engines in the deck to ensure I'm drawing regularly.

Lands... I mean... make sure you have dual lands in the deck and triomes if you can. One noteworthy utility land is Grove of the Guardian which can have a nice payoff when you create an 8/8 with a few creatures out along with Ghired.

I'll post the deck that I built from this thought process on my page in case you want to see the final product. And if you made it this far thanks for joining me on this, I hope it was helpful. Feel free to comment on how you would do it differently or cards that should have been mentioned.

DemonDragonJ on Which Card(s) Should Replace the …

1 week ago

I used to have copies of The Immortal Sun in most of my EDH decks, but I have been replacing those copies with cards that better suit the themes of those decks, so I wish to ask for advice for specific decks.

First, I am wondering about my Sen Triplets EDH deck; that deck is a very controlling deck, so one card that I am considering is Myrel, Shield of Argive, since she is a more powerful version of Grand Abolisher, although I certainly would be willing to hear other suggestions, as well. I was also considering replacing the sun with Esper Sentinel, but I am not certain if I actually need that card in that deck, with all the other sources of card advantage that that deck has.

Second, I am seeking a replacement for the sun in my Teneb, the Harvester EDH deck, but this shall be a more challenging replacement, as there are numerous cards that would work well with that deck. My first choice was Karador, Ghost Chieftain, as this is the only deck in which he would fit, and, with his inherent cost-reducing ability, he would usually cost less then 8 mana to summon, but, as good as he is, he is merely a 3/4 that allows me to cast a creature spell from my graveyard once per turn. I then considered Sepulchral Primordial, but I do not wish to raise the mana curve of this deck, and that creature is only a 5/4 for seven mana. I also am considering either Sun Titan or Angel of Indemnity, as they clearly work with the theme of this deck, but the restrictions on their abilities may limit their utility in this deck, although the encore ability of the angel is nice, as I can sacrifice the tokens that it generates before they sacrifice themselves. Then, I am considering Grave Titan, since it can easily send creatures to my opponents' graveyards, for me to steal, as well as generating tokens for me to sacrifice, so I have numerous options for that deck.

What does everyone else say about this? What cards should I use to replace The Immortal Sun in my decks?

Gleeock on Fuck it, late Outlaw of …

3 weeks ago

Obeka, Splitter of Seconds is intriguing, I will be curious to see what it looks like to optimize the fine line of running the most upkeep trigger items vs. boosting Obeka.

The "Joins up" enchantments pack a punch, & some of them may be nice low-cost singles to pick up. Annie Joins up is a particularly potent mix between kill spell & triggered ability doubler. My Atla burn deck (dmg doublers/triplers) will go bonkers with that.

Roxanne, Starfall Savant is indeed a "titan" in ability. I may actually consider her for my {RG} commander to helm a deck. I like the ability to take out hatebears, Esper Sentinel, and planeswalkers; all this while ramping is pretty slick. Though I am not much for artifacts or extra combats, which I'm guessing she will naturally lean toward in many decklists.

Rakdos, the Muscle is probably most my speed. But, not sure I have a home for him.

Barron Bertram Greywater Haha, that name. My goodness, I will probably just call him "Barron Taintjuice" ... Makes me wonder if that card designer actually knows what "Gray water" is.

None of the "Face" commanders really do it for me. It seems like they often have conceptual troubles settling on a wedge for an archetype... So, is Jund going to be the land/graveyard colors or is Naya going to be?

One little keyword on the cactusfolk token that changes the game for Yuma though is that reach that little additiion to those tokens is a bit of a game-changer.

kirbysan on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 month ago

am3ience : Doesn't look like Guerric has been on in over a year so his list is a little outdated. He also made some budget choices. Depending on the power level of your pod you may want to look at stronger support. I've been playing Giada semi-regularly since release and my list has evolved over time:

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/help-me-giada-youre-my-only-hope/

There a few notable angels in the year since this list:

Inspiring Overseer - while it released the same time as Giada, Guerric didn't include it. When you're going for a blink theme and Sword of Hearth and Home is out then you can essentially gain life and draw an extra card once per turn.

Guardian of Ghirapur - if you have any ETB effect angels then this one can help immensely. Or if you picked up Throne of Eldraine then you can reset it, leaving 4 white up on opponents turns which is typically the magic number for protection.

Metropolis Reformer - It's a cheap angel at 2W, has vigilance as a keyword, provides us hexproof from targeted spells and semi-lifegain from blocks or a Blasphemous Act

Firemane Commando - While it's a 4 drop it provides much needed draw off attacks which you should be doing every turn.

Roaming Throne - Not technically an angel but it doubles all the triggers. If you check my list I have categories of Angel Triggers. Anything with the keywords "At, When, or Whenever" will be doubled. Unfortunately it doesn't double Giada herself as that's a replacement effect but it can still get out of hand very quickly.

Wojek Investigator - Also a cheap angel at 2W with vigilance and usually a free clue every turn I'd consider it a strict upgrade over Angelic Sleuth. However, if you need more card draw support I'd personally pick Esper Sentinel, Archivist of Oghma or The One Ring.

I didn't add Aurelia's Vindicator or Merchant of Truth because their abilities don't justify the mana cost.

If you like Aurelia's Vindicator ability I'd recommend Angel of Serenity as the Disguise cost and ability is the same as Serenity but you don't have to jump through hoops of turning it face up. Also, you can target it with an Ephemerate or Teleportation Circle to get more than one usage out if it.

9-lives on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

2 months ago

wallisface Thanks for your advice and persistence!

Ohhh! Now I see where I went wrong in my thinking. I thought that Assemble the Players would give me a free cast for the card's presence. I literally read it as "Once each turn you can cast a creature spell with 2 mana or less" for free. Huge mistake on my part. Sorry. Nevertheless, I still would like to run it, considering how it will give me a heads up to what is next in the game.

Oppressive Rays I could get rid of for something else. Do you think Lawmage's Binding is much better? What card would you recommend?

I don't mind getting rid of Defiant Strike for something budget.

My budget is to just use cards that you know will be as low as below 3 dollars per card. Even if that is so, I don't want to spend 12 dollars for 4 cards.

I'm really trying to use budget cards for my deck, and I don't know what I should use for an aggro deck that is control. Do you think that I shouldn't run the artifact-creature stuff? I'm really putting my hope into Ethersworn Canonist, Esper Sentinel and Skrelv, Defector Mite. All of these cards are great for me.

9-lives on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

2 months ago

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Mystimechanics

Modern 9-lives

SCORE: 3 | 6 COMMENTS | 96 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

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Artifact-creature deck that is aggro-control. I am also running this deck for the art it has in it; it's some of my favorite!

I know that I'm basically sacrificing ability to cast creatures quickly with the couterspells taking up so much mana.

I do like the control with Ethersworn Canonist. This can work in my favor, especially that this is an aggro deck, so that I will be able to cast as many artifact-creature spells with no problem, and keeping the opponent from casting other spells that aren't artifacts except for one. This magic number of one is that which I can easily counter each turn.

Mana-counter Control with Mana Leak with Esper Sentinel and Oppressive Rays and No More Lies and Spell Pierce.

If they pay the mana, fine, that's good because I am tying up their mana usage. If they don't pay the mana, that's good too, because it will remove it. The fact that it works out for them later in the game isn't a probem; i'll still tie up the mana in usage if they ever want to use it.

Also, Assemble the Players and Sorcerous Spyglass and Mishra's Bauble is really useful in this deck, with that and Peek working optimally to give me the heads up before anything occurs so that I know what to do with my mana if I need to use a counterspell or not.

Is it really worth it to have this hand-awareness?

Also, Peek and Mishra's Bauble and Defiant Strike all give me card draw not to mention their other abilities.

Assemble the Players is just as good as not having it, except for taking up deck space. This card is good if I cast two or more creatures with it, which will most likely happen, and if it only stays on the field for one turn, it will have nothing gained and nothing lost if it casts one 2 CMC creature.

Arcbound Javelineers are to remove creatures with 1 toughness or less while I am starting the game with them.

Skrelv, Defector Mite is useful for its protection from color as well as granting toxic 1. This for a 1 mana card is crazy good.

Pairing toxic with creature power plus Defiant Strike makes for a strong creature.

Tsukimi on Communism Was a Red Herring

2 months ago

Switched up the land base a touch to make room for Hall of Heliod's Generosity and Volatile Fault. Took out a few cards to make room for more/better ramp so now we have Thought Vessel, Gala Greeters, and Wood Elves. Found room for Esper Sentinel as we need more recurring card draw to enable effects like Minn, Wily Illusionist and Ethereal Investigator. We probably still want more ramp, but I'll see how it runs as is while I still look for a spot for Bronzebeak Foragers.

Coward_Token on Murders at Karlov Manor

3 months ago

neo!Massacre Girl: Any good non-symmetrical burn creatures that can take advantage of this in mono-black? (Stuff like Plague Spitter will wear down your own stuff)

Kylox, Visionary Inventor: Very expensive at 7 MV, but seems fun. Works well with token-making spell cards. (Any good Ball Lightning-type token creators?)

Case of the Ransacked Lab: Finally a mono-blue noncreature Goblin Electromancer at this mana value! It turning into a quasi-Archmage Emeritus later on is just the cherry on the top. I like Cases in general too, being obviously very similar to Classes.

Dog Walker: disguise flavor feels kinda weird here

Delney, Streetwise Lookout: AFAIK e.g. Welcoming Vampire doesn't work with stuff like this. At least Esper Sentinel is still good. Also, neat Spark Double imitation with commanders like Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff