Serious question.
Standard forum
Posted on April 26, 2015, 10:13 p.m. by gnarlicide
Which is better UB control or esper Dragons?
I have both, and I know UB inside and out. I am just wondering what the allure is for the dragons.
Gimme your thoughts.
gnarlicide says... #3
I have been running UB "pure" control, like the one from FRF. The one with only a couple win cons. To great success locally to boot.
I had a bunch of foil icefall regents, but I traded them for some other stuff today.
In testing, esper is pretty nuts. But it can get fucked by UB straight control pretty hard. The good news is, nobody plays it much anymore.
April 26, 2015 10:32 p.m.
I run something like the UB Dragons list Yasooka ran at the last PT. Works pretty well.
April 26, 2015 11 p.m.
The main draw to esper is the ability to simply kill your opponent. One of the biggest flaws of the old U/B decks is their lack of inevitability. Ojutai reduces the necessity for it. You can simply play it on turn 5 and get your opponent dead. Counterspe---Sorry, I mean Silumgar's Scorn is also a very powerful magic card. It's good early as a Force Spike, and fantastic later as a hard counter.
April 26, 2015 11 p.m.
I'm more of a fan of esper. Even if you don't play the esper dragons list, you could run an amazing esper control right now. my sultai control list has still been wrecking the UB for the most part, but some of the esper lists are just stronger
April 26, 2015 11:22 p.m.
The real question is do you want to play Dragonlord Ojutai or not he is fantastic but very pricey I would say esper is better just because of hhim but thats just me
April 26, 2015 11:34 p.m.
It's very easy to run Esper control with just 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion and two Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. As others have hinted at having the dragon can just end the match a lot faster.
I went 1-1-1 against the only Sultai deck at last FNM and the second match I lost because I didn't think to side in End Hostilities until I started running out of cards. Third match we went to time. First match I bassically milled with Ashiok, the person said "let's just go to the next round" when he only had 5-6 cards left in deck. Mwahahaha! It took me 34 minutes, but nothing lived for more than one turn.
April 27, 2015 1:44 a.m.
Hjaltrohir says... #9
I am a fan of Dragons as it gives you an alternate route as the aggro player whether in UB Control you have no option of doing that. Options, thats what a control deck needs
April 27, 2015 1:53 a.m.
U/B's mana base has 1-2 fewer ETB tapped lands and a source or two more of black and island mana, so a small bit faster and more consistent. That's pretty much the only thing U/B has over Esper.
Esper has two insanely strong spells, Silumgar's Scorn and Dragonlord Ojutai. With Ojutai sometimes games are far from traditional control and a turn 8-9 ain't unlikely.
In the end I'd say Esper dragons is stronger against the field but that U/B is favored against Esper. IMO the only reason traditional U/B is favored against esper dragons is because of Pearl Lake Ancient.
April 27, 2015 2:47 p.m.
To those of you talking about Silumgar's Scorn as a purely Esper card, UB control runs it too. Icefall Regent does just as good a job as Dragonlord Ojutai of making it just Counterspell.
April 27, 2015 2:55 p.m.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #12
I splash white for 2 Narset Transcendent and 1 Dragonlord Ojutai because that's how I roll. Narset's -2 ability is nothing to overlook. And Ojutai is just a fantastical creature further improving your board position when necessary. It is weak to enchantments though. But if you know what you're up against, you can always just save that 1 enchantment hate counterspell. Or just be sure to kill them before they do nasty things or just keep their board clear. In order to do kill them first, Ojutai definitely helps in that aspect.
JWiley129 says... #2
really the debate is keep your mana consistent and run Icefall Regent, or splash white for Dragonlord Ojutai. It all depends on what you prefer.
April 26, 2015 10:15 p.m.