The Gold Standard

Standard AngelOfDivinity

SCORE: 126 | 338 COMMENTS | 29596 VIEWS | IN 82 FOLDERS


ESPER AGAIN! —Oct. 4, 2015

Yup. My meta slowed down with the release of BFZ, so I no longer found Red mandatory for Radiant Flames.

Errast says... #1

If you're going Grixis, Kolaghan's Command and Brutal Expulsion might be right up your alley, otherwise seems fine.

September 26, 2015 12:47 p.m.

Kolaghan's Command: Totally. Also $10. If I can trade for one I will.

Brutal expulsion: What should I take out for it?

And do you have any SB suggestions?

September 27, 2015 12:41 a.m.

Totek1nG says... #3

hi, nice deck! i think im gonna play this with the rotation but i think are too much Languish and a lot of creatures of the new expansion are up to 4 of thougness do u think is a good idea put some copy of Crux of Fate a really hard removal for non-dragons, another one i think will be very usefull with dragons is Foul-Tongue Invocation that can be very usefull in early game destroying a creature and gain some life, and Exquisite Firecraft to finish against other control decks? what do u think!?

September 28, 2015 1:09 a.m.

Totek1nG says... #4

some Ultimate Price against aggro decks in SB, maybe...

September 28, 2015 1:10 a.m.

Crux might be a good idea, my meta is currently anyway almost exclusively aggro, so unless that dramatically changes I'll be sticking with Languish myself And Foul-Tongue Invocation has the opposite of synergy with Encase in Ice, which I usually side in (hence the playset) because my meta is, again, mostly aggro and therefore practically every deck has red, most are mono-red. As for exquisite firecraft, there are literally like three control players in my entire city (And it isn't a small city! Like maybe 20,000 people!) so SBing against Control is kinda pointless, but I do have 2 Sphinx's Tutelage just in case. Plus Tutelage is more inevitable than firecraft, which is what I'd prefer in a mirror.

And at least for now I'm going to stick with Roast over Ultimate Price. Once I see how much Devoid has an impact on my meta I may or may not replace Roast with it. If if weren't for almost all rare+ creatures in the next set being either Eldrazi or dual-colored allies, I'd be all over it lol.

September 28, 2015 1:25 a.m.

sapphi7 says... #6

my meta has a heap of abzan midrange what can i slot in to kill rhino

September 28, 2015 2:46 p.m.

lordmalphas says... #7

Murderous Cut, or just hold up counterspell mana and/or board wipes

September 28, 2015 2:57 p.m.

sapphi7 says... #8

what about + 2x Ob Nixilis Reignited -1 Horribly Awry -1 Silumgar's Scorn

i just think ob nix is just too good to pass up if you are in color

September 28, 2015 2:59 p.m.

lordmalphas says... #9

suggestions as to the dragons: you could look at the 3 mana black instant where opponents sac a creature and you gain 4 life for revealing a dragon, that's usually like a time walk against aggro lists. for the life of me i dont remember what it's called though. in red? Kolaghan's Command is pretty good, usually you just ping a creature and discard though getting back a fatty or destroying an artifact can be relevant too.

September 28, 2015 3:09 p.m.

sapphi7: Roast is also solid against Siege Rhino. I'd play it over murderous cut, just because it competes with delve. An opinion choice. And as for Ob Nixilis Reignited, I don't want to buy one but I'll be all over that if I come across it for trade.

lordmalphas: the card is Foul-Tongue Invocation. I've actually run it a lot, but I always run into little things with it like the fact that I almost always side in a playset Encase in Ice and they negate each other, and more often than not it just hits a Goblin token or in the case of the extremely few non aggro deck in my meta (Which means ramp) it'll just kill off a dork, not useful if I'm seeing threats. But really, my meta is like 85-90% aggro. It is definately a good card though. IDK, I just feel like as is it doesn't quite make it. But I ran it for months, and I'm just now cutting it as rotation happens. And Kolaghan's Command I'll pick up if I see one for trade. I prefer not to buy cards over $5.

What do you guys think of Brutal Expulsion? I pulled one from one of my 12 reward packs from taking first at prerelease.

Got a total of 21 packs Saturday! Most of which were prize things!

September 28, 2015 5:26 p.m.

Kenthris says... #11

First of all, sick deck!! +1!

I have to admit, that I waited many expensive cards in here. I believe that you are an experienced player, so go play some draft-tournaments. There are ALWAYS cards that are useful. At my last draft, I won and took a foil kolaghan's command. Traded it for 2 non-foil ones.

I highly suggest that you put into sidedeck Virulent Plague .

You also play with dragons. the best removal is Crux of Fate. You will leave them unharmed , while when casting Languish will affect your dragons.

A very nice card, that has proven its worth(at least for me) is Psychic Rebuttal. With this in your side-deck, you are kinda relieved from many dangers.

Last , but not least, can you explain me , why you play 4x Dig Through Time ? I would definitely put one out for a Part the Waterveil .

Sorry if I busted your nuts. Hope you annihilate your opponents xD

September 28, 2015 8:24 p.m.

@Kenthris Not at all! Thanks a lot!

Respectively:

Alright, sure! Why not?

Virulent Plague? Alright, over what? Orbs of Warding pretty much lock out tokens anyway now that Obelisk is out, but I could do both.

Gottcha there! Check all my creatures- Every Single One has 5 or greater toughness! Believe me, this is not accidental. I believe that wincons surviving Languish is a strong edge of Grixis over Esper where most everything does die to Languish! This had a very large impact on my decision to go Grixis instead of Esper. And since my meta is basically all aggro, I'll be keeping Languish.

Psychic Rebuttal? Seems good, but again, Orbs is kind of 2-birds-one-stone by nixing burn and tokens/wienies of any sort.

I Love Dig, and since it's my only card draw I'll be sticking with it. Not that Part the Waterveil isn't amazing! But yeah, card draw is totally necessary.

Thanks a lot!

September 28, 2015 9:02 p.m.

Obviously I like Part the Waterveil -.- you could probably tell that. At the very least it has fantabulous art.

September 28, 2015 9:24 p.m.

Totek1nG says... #14

in my city a lot of people play abzan, mono red and control, i think u can w8 it with the horribly awry in hand to prevent lose 3 life and make him gain 3, if the rhino landed the effect apply and in late game that can be serious, against aggro decks with a lot of creatures of low thougness radiant flames do a really cool work, but another card that can do a really good job in rearly game is Fiery Impulse that card can do a really good work think, and against control deck i think SB Dispel can help us to counter for only 1 mana, and against ramp deck with high mana cost creatures we can SB Transgress the Mind so they are gonna to do the ramp but we exile the creature to cast :P i really want to play this deck looks awesome!

September 28, 2015 9:31 p.m.

Totek1nG says... #15

im testing the deck and sometimes i end with my hand empty, maybe can put a card to draw, dragonlord prerogative looks good, or something like that!

September 28, 2015 10:43 p.m.

Yay! I'm glad you like it! Yeah, I can't decide between the double Lightning Strike of Draconic Roar or the Shock-Lightning Bolt of Fiery Impulse! They both have assets.

September 28, 2015 10:46 p.m.

I used to run prerogative. Honestly, the reason I'm just running 4 Dig is that that's what I see a lot of decks running.

September 28, 2015 10:49 p.m.

Little trick I've been using that is getting anyone delving right now is a lone sideboard Learn from the Past. It also serves the purpose of recycling spells since you aren't running Jace.

October 2, 2015 12:43 a.m.

Ok, well, my meta slowed down literally overnight. Here's FNM last night, first time in months I hadn't seen near exclusive aggro:

1: 5-color-collected company: Loss: 1-2:

2: Azourious control: Win: We agreed preemptively that we were going into rounds inevitably, and that if it was in game two the loser of game 1 would concede and if it were in game 3 we'd roll for it. It was game 3, and I won the roll.

3: Gruul ramp: win: 2-0

4: Gruul ramp: Loss: 1-2

So I think I'm going to slow this down with my meta, think I'll go Esper because I was mainly in red for Radiant Flames. Or else just Dimir. Thoughts?

October 3, 2015 2:17 p.m.

Esper's amazing. I got 3rd of around 60 last night. Here's my build if you're curious Esper is gonna be ridiculous

October 3, 2015 6:21 p.m.

LordOfDispair says... #21

I would play Ultimate Price or Kolaghan's Command over Draconic Roar. Since you're playing control and you don't have consistent pressure to put on, you'll typically win the game after your opponent is drained of resources and unable to deal with your threat, which means direct face damage does essentially nothing. The utility of the command or the surefire kill of Ultimate Price seems better than the 3 damage of draconic roar. However, if your meta is aggro enough it might be a good choice.

October 3, 2015 7:11 p.m.

Thanks a lot Chainer_the_Dementia_Master, what do you think of this?

October 3, 2015 9:08 p.m.

Since you're running dragons, I'd say go up in Silumgar's Scorn. Both of my buddies running dragons have agreed it's the better counterspell. Maybe drop 2 Clash of Wills for 2 scorn? Other than that, it looks like a great list. Dragonlord Ojutai is such a force to be reckoned with.

October 3, 2015 9:14 p.m.

I really, really like the turn 2 counter on clash of wills, but I will up the scornful count. What I don't really like is Murderous Cut. I think I'll try dropping it for another scorn and another Foul-Tongue Invocation.

October 3, 2015 9:31 p.m.