First of all, excellent primer! However, you do contradict yourself. In your list you're currently running 3 Snapcaster Mage, whereas your primer explicitly specifies to not run more than 2.

Nixin72 Thank you for pointing that out! I'll explain the difference here briefly before I update the primer:

Back when the Esper archetype played White Sun's Zenith, more Snappys weren't necessary because you had such a strong late game by casting more and more Zeniths as the game went on. The issue was that Zenith isn't a great early-game card. Enter Secure the Wastes. This is a mini-Zenith with comparable power-to mana ratios in a general sense, but it can be cast very early, which is welcome in a number of matchups. The issue is sacrificing the inevitability of Zenith's repeated use. Thus, in order to make up for that loss when casting earlier Secures, more Snappys are necessary to rebuy Secure in the late game; allowing it to act as both a stabilising tool and a finisher at the same time.

I have been hoping to discover a control deck that can be good in my meta of Jund, Burn, UW control, Merfolk, Scapeshift, Tron, Affinity, and Abzan Collected Company Combo. Do you have an updated list for modern season and any suggestions for the above meta? The deck looks like it is a ton of fun to play. I also run into a lot of random aggro decks. Should I play more spell snare? Thanks!

I am also wondering if Condescend could have a place in the counter suite in some small number and if Torrential Gearhulk has a place as an alternate win condition on the basis of his instant speed body and the ability to replay spells from the yard. Sorry to forget the card tag in the previous comment. Sideboarding for my meta seems a little overwhelming, especially since the deck has an obvious learning curve to start with due to its unique play-style. All help is greatly appreciated as I know you've been playing this deck for a long time. I don't have much experience with control, but I'd like to see it get more respect with all the aggro and combo around. Thanks for the primer and for playing the deck! Also, please shoot down Telling Time and Sphinx of Jwar Isle for me. I just need to hear it.

swansodr Thanks for looking! This actually is my current list. As for your meta, Esper has a lot of game there -- I'd play at least 3 Snares for sure since Affinity/BGx/Control/Burn all play a high density of 2 mana spells, some Runed Halos in the side for Scapeshift/Affinity/Burn/AbCo, prolly some Thoughtseizes and Surgicals in the side for the combo/control/Tron matchups, a few Leylines for Shift/BGx/Burn, and an Elspeth, Sun's Champion for the creature matchups. Don't trim any of the 4x Verdicts in the main (they're key to the Merfolk/Affinity/AbCo matchups). You prolly don't need both Condemns mainboard, so I'd cut one for another Snare. The sideboard as is is pretty much good to go for that meta too, though I'd swap the 3rd Surg for the Condemn we dropped from the main (which you want against Merfolk, Burn, and AbCo).

Condescend is ok, but very mana inefficient and bad on the draw. It's much better in UW Tron. If I were to play another counter in the main (other than the 3rd Snare) it would be Remand.

Gearhulk isn't bad, but it's super clunky in Esper -- it adds another 4+ mana card to the curve and there's a lot Gearhulk actually can't target: Knot, Secure, Rev, Verdict, Snappy, and Think Twice (I mean, I guess you COULD target Think Twice... Not sure why you would. xD).

As for Telling Time and Sphinx, Sphinx is way too slow and dies to our own Verdicts. Telling Time is actually a fine include, as it plays the draw-go game very well. It can find the Verdicts or sideboard bombs in fair matchups and it can filter out removal in unfair matchups. That said, I don't really see a need to make room for it.

swansodr I could also write up some sideboard plans (with the augmented list) for those matchups if you like.

That would be great! I am going to proxy up the list. All of that makes a lot of sense.

Sorry for the slow reply, and thanks for the sideboarding tips. I've been working a lot, and I have family in town. I see what you mean about the above cards, and I have read the first and last 30ish pages of your salvation primer (even before my first post here) so I have considered a lot of ideas on Esper Control. A lot of posters there are working on different brews though so I'm not sure how much more I can learn from that thread. I was also wondering if the deck would benefit from a slightly higher density of wincons (either an additional cipt land in Creeping Tar Pit, or a 2/1 split of Secure the Wastes and White Sun's Zenith, or just 3 total Secure the Wastes since it is good early and late). Is White Sun's Zenith too clunky for the list now or is the inevitability that it provides (and the 2/2 bodies) worth occasionally drawing it early? I also worry about decks that are able to recover after we verdict. Speaking of that, would I ever want a 5th board wipe in the sideboard? e.g. Wrath of God. I was also strongly considering Blessed Alliance for Burn, anything with Emrakul, and Infect. I don't see Dredge very often, but I'm wondering what I would do if I did. Sorry to be a control noob, but I would appreciate more insight into how I should play the deck in various match-ups. I just want to make sure that I understand the deck's ins and outs before I shell out for it only to get crushed.

The UW Control player was using Dragonlord Ojutai with Silumgar's Scorn. He seems to be a pretty good control player so I was also still thinking about the singleton Remand for the edge in counter wars. I went 3-1 at a different LGS's modern night with my Abzan Liege Rhino deck the other night and, oddly enough, ran into both Jeskai Control and Grixis Control. Those match-ups seem like they would be decent for you, but I have no experience playing a control deck against a control deck. I'm going to watch some videos.

Also, the decklist still doesn't reflect the 3rd Snapcaster Mage that you said you added in the July 25th 2016 update.

@swansodr I had updated it at the time, but I'm no longer playing a 3rd Snappy. Not that it's bad or anything, but I just didn't really find it necessary. I'm actually also considering switching back to Zenith too, which would be a reason to only play 2 Snappys.

I went deeper into the other primer and found the pages where you talk about how you play the deck and the comments on tactics and playing to "not lose." I also watched some videos. It looks like it's very easy to ride the struggle bus with lots of tough decisions, but it is clearly a capable tier 2 deck. Thanks for the insights.

Mindbreak Trap 1 of main or side at all ? I know it can be a very clunky "counterspell" but other than the obvious implications against Grapeshot, which is seeing play after Aether Revolt both in the cheerios and storm deck. It is really unique in that it exiles, and does not counter. Now maybe I'm overthinking it and valuing it higher than I should, but it can: Counter Emrakul, and they just get a fifteen mana time walk. Counter Abrupt Decay (not that this deck cares). Nab random affinity draws where they play multiple spells in a turn as a free counter. The exile clause can be just randomly good vs. a Sword of the Meek and Grixis decks. It can come up in a counter war.

Now I may be over valuing the card, and I think it's also better in a Remand deck, because sometimes you can just chain a couple Remands into a trap (or just one if they plan on playing two spells). The main value I see in it is the gotcha effect for unfair decks while also having a legitimate effect on graveyard strategies, thoughts ?

@kameenook You could definitely play a Trap in the side, as it's good against Storm. I personally prefer Summary Dismissal at this point (despite the mana cost) since it can be used to exile Tron's cast-trigger threats and their cast triggers too. Overall, though, I consider both cards to be too narrow, unfortunately. Neither is really worth it as a 1-of. It is a possibility tho.

I'm fairly new to Esper, and couldn't help but see a few things that I thought were off. Feel free to tell me I'm stupid:)

4 Verdict send like too much. Whenever I test a playset, I always draw them way to often . I feel like 3 is a good number for the deck.

WSZ is IMO worse than Secure the Wastes. Secure can be used as a stabilization tool, but WSZ is mostly a win condition.

I'd try a 3/3 Push/Path split.

Otherwise I like it. I would remove the Blessed Alliance, but IDK what to put in for it.

@AtomicEmpire Yo, welcome to Esper! I can certainly talk about those points:

Playing 3 Verdict is totally fine, but I prefer 4 because it hedges way better against Lingering Souls decks (like Abzan midrange/Death's Shadow, Esper Shadow/mirror), Eldrazi, Merfolk, and GW Creature decks. Against all of the creature/synergy decks, you need some kind of boardwipe to stabilize (and oftentimes multiple, hence why I'm playing the set), and against Edlrazi you can typically afford to tap out for Verdict since they're likely on a one-threat-at-a-time type of gameplan (or they're on Bant and commit multiple Heirarchs, Skyspawners, Reshapers, Drowner+tokens etc.). It's also worth noting that Verdict is the only uncounterable removal spell in the decks against the opponents with blue, and thus dodges Negate and more fringy-but-relevant options like Unified Will/Stubborn Denial.

Again, playing 2x Secure the Wastes over Zenith is also totally servicable (it's actually still being debated over on the MTGS forum literally right now), but Zenith has a few advantages over Secure that break the argument for me:

• Zenith isn't at all graveyard reliant. Part of the utility of Secure is playing it early and Snapping it back later, but it's a much weaker wincon if your opponent plays Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage -- cards which Esper with Zenith can literally just ignore. I've won so many games without my graveyard I can't keep count.
• Zenith takes up 1 less mainboard slot than playing 2x Secure would, and Esper doesn't actually have a lot of free slots. By the way, if you play Secure I highly recommend you play 2.
• Zenith shuffles back in, meaning you literally have infinite shots at winning with it, within reasonable time. (For the same reason, you also can't deck, by the way. I've won multiple games against Abzan CoCo opponents at infinite life by simply casting Zenith every turn to make a physical roadblock while decking them.)
• Zenith is more resilient to hate such as Night of Souls' Betrayal and Jace, Architect of Thought, cards that do crop up from time to time.
• Zenith produces more power in the late game than Secure does, so a topdecked Zenith is usually far better.

The first 3 are my main reasons for playing Zenith, mainly the recasting part and dodging grave-hate part.

As for Path-v-Push split, I am solidly in favor of 4x Path/2x Push because Push can't effectively answer Kitchen Finks, Wurmcoil Engine, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, World Breaker, Voice of Resurgence, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Gurmag Angler, Bloodghast, Prized Amalgam, Reality Smasher, Matter Reshaper etc. These types of cards pop up so often that there's no doubt in my mind that 4x Path is correct. Also, Kolaghan's Command is much less of a problem when you're exiling their creatures.

As for why I play Blessed Alliance instead of the 3rd Push, it's mainly for diversity -- BA can answer a few of the above-listed cards that Push can't (mainly the Eldrazi and delve threats), but it also serves as lifegain/creature removal against Burn to mitigate drawing the "wrong side" of the deck. If I could make room for a 2nd, I would. (In fact, I actually usually play 2x Snapcasters and 2x Blessed Alliance.)

Hmm. You may have tipped me on the WSZ vs Secure the Wastes idea. Do you mind taking a look at my list? Thanks a ton!

The Dark Side Of The Moon

Modern AtomicEmpire

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Shouldn't Surgical Extraction be in the board?

God, playing this deck is tilting me beyond belief, I can't believe it's possible to make so many mistakes in one game LOL!

Why do you run so much removal? And you mentioned that you usually run 2 Snaps and 2 Blessed Alliance instead of a 3/1. I feel like 3 is the optimal number.

Honestly, 4 Path, 3 Verdict, and at least 2 Fatal Push is fairly common. I run 2x Blessed Alliance because it helps the Burn and Eldrazi matchups for G1. I am on 3 Snaps now, and have been for a few weeks, but I forgot to change it. I removed the 4th Verdict.

@AtomicEmpire

So, you're saying that BA is not primarily there for removal.

Though it's taking up flex slots, it is removal. It's also lifegain, and sometimes both. But I could see changing it if something better comes along.

I'm considering modernizing my previously standard UW control deck and I've been currently drawing a lot of inspiration from various control decks that include blue and white. I think White Sun's Zenith is a good backup but I don't think I want to rely on it. So I'm including 3x Geist of Saint Traft and Thing in the Ice  ^Flip. Thing in the Ice serves moreso for protection than win condition but it might turn out. I'm also only running 1 Cryptic Command since I'm a poor college kid lol

However, with that said, what are your thoughts on Azorius Charm Instead of Blessed Alliance? I also might use Eternal Witness to help me reuse cards from grave because I can't afford Snapcaster Mage.