Esper Sentinel

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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

Esper Sentinel

Artifact Creature — Human Soldier

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

9-lives on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

3 weeks 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

3 weeks ago


Mystimechanics

Modern 9-lives

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


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

1 month 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

2 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

orcopollo on Angels We Have Heard On High

2 months ago

Thanks for your suggestions and your interest in my deck, Hexapod! Those are all excellent cards, I even originally considered some of them (Esper Sentinel and Urza's Incubator above all), while I didn't think about the others. Unfortunately, as my budget is limited, these are a bit out of range for me, but maybe with time I will manage to get my hands on some of them! :) Also regarding lands, even though I agree that Kabira Crossroads can slow me down a bit in the early game, it can be quite useful to gain two extra life and trigger either some token producing effect or Dawn of Hope. The reason for Bant Panorama is that it's not a tap land and, if I need it, I can always replace it with a plains and get to shuffle my deck, which I found being quite useful if I'm getting horrible draws haha! Thank you again for engaging and if you have any other suggestions I would be happy to read them! Cheers!

Hexapod on Angels We Have Heard On High

2 months ago

I love an old-fashioned, straightforward tribal deck!

I see this is a budget deck, my suggestions may be out of the price range.

I would venture that Mangara the Diplomat is a slow card and could be replaced with Esper Sentinel.

You have some interesting lands in there, some that I will consider for my own lists. I don't get why you would want Bant Panorama, and I find Kabira Crossroads and Idyllic Grange have the potential to slow the early game. I would favor Kor Haven and Eiganjo Castle instead.

That Cloud Key wants to be an Urza's Incubator. Akroma's Memorial could be a nice thematic piece.

Hope this helps!

DemonDragonJ on Has WotC Been Doing a …

2 months ago

In the past, some players were complaining about how white had the least emphasis on card advantage and mana acceleration of all the colors, so WotC has recently printed a number of cards that address those issues, with some prominent examples being Archaeomancer's Map, Smothering Tithe, Boreas Charger, and Esper Sentinel, so I would like to ask the members of this forum how they feel about those cards.

Do you believe that WotC has done a good job of providing white with both card advantage and mana acceleration, while still remaining true to white's philosophy and not undermining that color's purposeful weaknesses? What does everyone else say about this subject?

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