The Esperience

Modern Competitive Control Discard Midrange WUB (Esper)

Zakkaery

Land (21)

• 2x Concealed Courtyard
• 2x Darkslick Shores
• 4x Flooded Strand
• 2x Godless Shrine
• 2x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 2x Plains
• 4x Polluted Delta
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (17)

• 2x Collective Brutality
• 4x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4x Lingering Souls
• 2x Serum Visions
• 2x Thoughtseize
• 3x Unearth

Instant (5)

• 3x Fatal Push
• 2x Path to Exile

Creature (14)

• 2x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
• 2x Geist of Saint Traft
• 3x Meddling Mage
• 2x Reflector Mage
• 3x Thief of Sanity
• 2x Tidehollow Sculler

Planeswalker (3)

• 3x Teferi, Time Raveler

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Sideboard

Instant (3)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 2x Disenchant

Planeswalker (3)

• 3x Gideon of the Trials

Creature (2)

• 2x Kambal, Consul of Allocation

Enchantment (4)

• 2x Rest in Peace
• 2x Stony Silence

Artifact (3)

• 2x Damping Sphere
• 1x Engineered Explosives

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Maybeboard

Instant (5)

• 1x Archmage's Charm
• 1x Esper Charm
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Lazotep Plating
• 1x Surgical Extraction

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
• 1x Liliana of the Veil

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Bitterblossom

Creature (3)

• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Tasigur, the Golden Fang

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The Esperience

When talking Black midrange people usually say the main problem with Sultai and Esper is they try to both be proactive and reactive at the same time. They don't know if they wanna tap out or hold up mana for a counter spell. The Esperience decides to go one route and taps out. We still play disruptive spells, but not counter spells. This allows us to go in on one gameplan and not be pulled in two directions. Welcome to the Esperience.

Mainboard

I am still currently tinkering with this deck, so if you have any suggestions or critiques please share as it'll help make the deck better (Please don't say it's a waste of time though, keep it constructive.)

Threats

• Brimaz, King of Oreskos : Brimaz is one of our threats. Vigilance and a 3/4 body are both relevent. He also comes with the handy ability to produce vigilant cats everytime he attacks and blocks too, adding extra value to the deck. Sadly he is legendary so we can only have one on the 'field at a time

• Geist of Saint Traft : Traft is a strong threat being immune to most forms of removal and producing a 4/4 flyer everytime he attacks (it is exiled EoT sadly.) Sadly legendary prevents us from playing more then one at a time.

Control

• Meddling Mage : Meddling Mage can be a powerful control card being able to completely remove any nonland card from being played. However she is able to be removed as well as you need knowledge of the meta and whats in your opponents deck.

• Reflector Mage : Reflector mage can seem a bit odd here as he is generally a bit more of a tempo card. However he has a decent body and can help delay our opponents threats from being threatening. Late game he can sometimes also act as removal as we might have drawn a dead discard card.

• Fatal Push : Premier removal in black, being able to remove most creatures in the format. This card doesn't come with much of a drawback, with revolt being easily triggered by fetches. This is why we play more copier over Path.

• Path to Exile : Powerful removal that permanently gets rid of any threat. However it has a large drawback in ramping the opponent. This is why we play more Path over it.

• Teferi, Time Raveler : Teferi is a card I am excited to try in this deck. The static effect shuts down some strategies and tempo for the opponent. His plus ability turns all our sorcery's into instants and allows for some fun shenanigans. Lastly his minus ability provides us with some card advantage.

Discard

• Tidehollow Sculler : The first part of our discard package. We use Tidehollow to help maintain board control and remove threats to us. Tidehollow is the weakest discard as the opponent and recur their card. But it does have the advantage of exiling the card being able to get rid of some graveyard shenanigans.

• Inquisition of Kozilek : Being a proactive black deck we want a lot of discard. This is our main discard source being only able to hit 3cmc, however modern being a fast format a large chunk of our opponents cards are 3cmc or lower.

• Thoughtseize : The strongest discard card in the format. Thoughtseize is able to hit any nonland card with the cost of losing 2 life. The extra shock damage on top of our mana base can whittle us down quite a bit. This is is why we play more IoK.

Utility

• Collective Brutality : Brutality is a strong utility card with the ability to pitch souls or extra lands to escalate it. All modes can be relevant in most match ups which is why we maindeck some.

• Lingering Souls : Lingering Souls is a powerful source of card advantage, being able to be cast twice. Souls also has a nice synergy with brutality. You're able to discard it to cast it for it's cheaper flashback cost and escalate the brutality.

• Phantasmal Image : Phantasmal Image is a good card for our deck which utilises creatures to control the board. Image is able to copy a control piece to establish a stronger position depending on what we need. We are also able to use image to copy a opponents threat.

• Serum Visions : Serum Visions is included for a small bit of card advantage, but more importantly for the ability to dig for threats or answers.

• Thief of Sanity : Thief of Sanity is a card I want to try out in the deck in order to generate card advantage. The biggest advantage to this card is it has built in evasion which makes it easier to trigger.

Sideboard

• Anguished Unmaking : We include a single copy of Unmaking as a extra form of removal for any nonland permanent. The life loss and cmc is not pleasant but it does allow us to remove PWs and Enchantment that are posing a issue.

• Damping Sphere : A card included to hose combo decks and big mana decks like storm and tron.

• Disenchant : Enchantment/Artifact removal.

• Engineered Explosives : Another form of removal. This is especially effective against token decks and decks like Merfolk and DnT.

• Gideon of the Trials : The reason for this card's inclusion is that his emblem provides us with some control and protection against combos. He also provides a threat and damage prevention to help close the game faster.

• Kambal, Consul of Allocation : A form of hate against spell based decks and burn. The repeated drain effect can help end a game quickly if Kambal can stay on the board.

• Rest in Peace : Efficient graveyard hate that shuts off any deck that utilises the graveyard extensively.

• Stony Silence : Hate against artifact decks such as Affinity and Scales.

Maybeboard

• Bitterblossom : Bitterblossom is a great way to generate value over the game as well as close it out. However the incidental life loss and the fact it doesn't impact the board right away is why I've failed to include it. Strong contender to replace something though.

• Celestial Colonnade : Is a great manland with strong abilities. However the cost to turn it into a creature is a little high for our land count.

• Dark Confidant : BoB is another great way to generate card advantage over the game allowing you to draw extra cards. However with a good chunk of our cards being 3cmc it is a bit to painful.

• Esper Charm : Esper charm is a great utility card being able to remove enchantments, draw and more importantly force the opponent to discard at instant speed. However at 3cmc the cost is a bit to expensive right now.

• Jace, the Mind Sculptor : Jace is another strong control card to be considered. With the brainstorm ability and ultimate he can definitely be useful. But at 4cmc and a blue control style I don't think he is currently right for the deck.

• Lavinia, Azorius Renegade : Lavinia is a strong early hate card that can shut down certain strategies, most notably tronlands. However it also can hit 0 costed cards, as well as cards like Whir of Invention and Hollow One . Unfortunately right now the card is too narrow to be played in this deck. Also Damping Sphere deals with tronlands practically the same way.

• Lazotep Plating : This is a strong card to protect our creatures from removal. It also helps us survive a turn against burn and combo decks giving us time to attack. However with our deck being mostly sorcery speed, we don't leave mana open often as we'd rather play a spell then hold mana just for plating.

• Liliana of the Veil : Liliana is in a similar spot as Jace. She is extremely powerful and is a strong card. However her main abilities we have covered in most of our deck already, as well as we don't wanna pitch every turn ourselves. Strongly considering adding her to the sideboard though as her ultimate is game winnning.

• Snapcaster Mage : Snappy is a amazing card and a blue staple. However this deck is already full of cards we want to be playing over snappy. He is a great card value engine giving flashback to any spells. But since most of our spells have redundancies. We play a good chunk of removal and discard. Snappy's flashback would be decent however other cards are better in this case. However if the deck morphs in a way that increases the value we will add him in.

• Surgical Extraction : Extra hate against graveyard decks and a way to remove main combo pieces in combo decks.

• Tasigur, the Golden Fang / Gurmag Angler : Tasigur and Gurmag are great cards with their delve often allowing us to cast them for 1 mana. However with the amount of mainboard graveyard hate in the meta right now I believe there are more cons then pros at the moment for their use.

Top Ranked	Achieved #35 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #2 position in Modern 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern Control 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern Discard 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 6 Mythic Rares 30 - 5 Rares 17 - 2 Uncommons 3 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.00
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Cat Soldier 1/1 W, Emblem Gideon of the Trials, Spirit 1/1 W
Folders	Modern Decks, Other popel's cool decks, esper, EDH card lists