Esper Karn (v3)
Standard*
SCORE: 3 | 1 COMMENT | 888 VIEWS
Oct. 30, 2018
Quasiduplicate is pretty good in the deck and might have space in the main as a 1 of. Karn might get struck down before the second -2, but so long as there is one Karnstruct in play, you can keep the pain train going. It is pretty bad with the two legendaries, but in a pinch it can make thopters for blockers which saved me on two separate occassions.
Standard Showdown went 0-2-1. 1-1-1 vs Boros midrange. We timed out in game 3 of match 1, but I think if it kept going, I would have taken it. I did make several misplays which could have won me the match more handily, but I'll attribute it to the learning curve of the deck.
Blink of an Eye did well killing off knight tokens and drawing cards against the boros match up but I think I might have preferred 2 Reclamation Sages instead.
1-2 vs Selesnya tokens. Game 1 I crack under aggressive pressure. Game 2 goes in my favor as I ramp out a t3 Karn. Game 3 loss to their t2 spyglass naming Karn followed by History of Benalia and then later double Loxodon.
Again, reclamation sages would have done well to answer a resolved tribunal, but they were not in my board this time around. River's rebuke probably has a slot in the deck as they're not specifically fast, but they can easily swarm out of control. Chamber Sentry was also fine even as a 2/2 to hold back Adanto Vanguard and knight tokens.
and 0-2 vs Golgari midrange. Game 1 is close. I build an early board of Karnstructs and a Zahid to support, but they holds me back with chupacabras and a timely Vivien Reid before lethal in the air. If I'd drawn my sentinel totem sooner, it would have stopped an Eldest Reborn and two findbrokers that hit action, but vivien and some chupacabras come back and I'm quickly losing to their value train. I find a late spyglass to answer Vivien, but they find big Vraska and remove the spyglass. It's all downhill from there. Game 2 loss as opponent ramps out with elf and then curves small Vraska, Vivien Reid, big Vraska while I flood out with elves and lands.
Overall, I'm impressed with how the deck performs and it's not as bad as would have thought. I still haven't played against red though, but I'm excited to see what the new set has to bring.
-1 llanowar elves +1 druid of the cowl to provide better early game defense and resilience to chainwhirler/shock/firebrand
-1 fountain -1 search for azcanta +2 suspicious bookcase.
search hasn't been particularly impactful and might not fit with what the deck is trying to do as a 1 of. bookcase helps survive early and gets past the clogged board late.
switched the antiquities war and quasiduplicate from main to board for testing. antiquities war is good when it hits twice, especially with sai in play, but it doesnt always hit. quasiduplicate was great last time i ran it; with another target in bookcase, it should have better/more targets than thopters for defense.