Esper Gifts Control

Modern* Control Gifts Ungiven Reanimator WUB (Esper)

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Creature (6)

• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 4x Snapcaster Mage

Land (25)

• 2x Celestial Colonnade
• 2x Creeping Tar Pit
• 3x Flooded Strand
• 2x Godless Shrine
• 2x Hallowed Fountain
• 3x Island
• 2x Marsh Flats
• 1x Plains
• 3x Polluted Delta
• 1x Swamp
• 2x Tectonic Edge
• 2x Watery Grave

Instant (18)

• 1x Dismember
• 4x Gifts Ungiven
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 3x Mana Leak
• 2x Path to Exile
• 2x Peer Through Depths
• 2x Remand
• 1x Smother
• 2x Spell Snare

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Damnation
• 4x Lingering Souls
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 3x Thoughtseize
• 1x Unburial Rites
• 1x Wrath of God

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Sideboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Inkwell Leviathan

Enchantment (3)

• 3x Stony Silence

Artifact (4)

• 2x Batterskull
• 2x Vedalken Shackles

Instant (3)

• 1x Extirpate
• 1x Purify the Grave
• 1x Surgical Extraction

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Maybeboard

Creature (10)

• 1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
• 1x Ashen Rider
• 1x Blazing Archon
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Empyrial Archangel
• 1x Griselbrand
• 1x Inkwell Leviathan
• 1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 1x Resolute Archangel
• 1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind

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The plan is to stabilize early game with cheap counters and removal. Your main win condition is Gifts Ungiven for Unburial Rites and one of your big creatures (dependent on the situation). The opponent is forced to put those two in the graveyard, and you can cheat out something huge by turn 5.

My Unburial Rites targets are:

• Iona, Shield of Emeria completely shuts down a large portion of your opponent's deck once she resolves. Obviously, the fewer colors your opponent is playing, the better she gets, but even against a multi-color deck, she can cause major headaches for your opponent if you know which color to name.
• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite shuts down creature-based match-ups. She completely wipes out affinity, shuts down Melira Pod's combo kill, and gives you more time against midrange decks. Plus, combined with Lingering Souls tokens she can quickly close out the game.
• Inkwell Leviathan is good to side in against control and BGx attrition decks. Once he gets on the board, he's going to stay there.
• The Maybe section is full of other possible targets. This deck is relatively easy to adjust to your meta by just changing reanimation targets.

Your backup plan is to grind them down in the long game with Celestial Colonnade or Creeping Tar Pit.

There are a few additional Gifts Ungiven packages in the deck for specific situations:

• Damnation, Supreme Verdict, Wrath of God, and Snapcaster Mage if you really need to clear the board.
• Dismember, Go for the Throat, Hero's Downfall, Path to Exile, Smother , and/or Snapcaster Mage if you need to hit couple big threats.

The sideboard also an additional utility packages as well

• Extirpate, Purify the Grave , Surgical Extraction, and Snapcaster Mage for targeted, instant speed graveyard hate.

The sideboard has a transformative element. If you know they're bringing in a lot of graveyard hate, you can side out your Unburial Rites packages, and lower your commitment to Gifts Ungiven. Turn into a more classic control deck by siding in Batterskull and/or Vedalken Shackles.

Date added	11 years
Last updated	9 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 2 Mythic Rares 25 - 8 Rares 16 - 1 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.77
Tokens	Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Spirit 1/1 W
Folders	Modern, Modern playtest, Deck, Modern Deck Ideas, modern