Esper Sentinel

Artifact Creature — Human Soldier

Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

dr.kronski on

2 months ago

Going 100% Angel tribal is clearly a challenge, not only because of the high average CMC, but also due to the strategic limitations. A broader card pool would allow you, among other things, to streamline the deck and make it faster and more consistent (Bishop of Wings, Esper Sentinel, Mother of Runes, Selfless Spirit, Starnheim Aspirant, etc.). That said, there are a few other (not many) options worth considering, such as Lightstall Inquisitor or Inspiring Overseer, just to name a couple.

Pariah seems like a good idea to me, although I personally prefer Mithril Coat, as it’s more solid and less restrictive, to accompany it. If Pariah is staying, then Metropolis Reformer should definitely be taken into account.

I believe the creature count should be significantly reduced and replaced with more cheap interaction and possibly some assorted stax pieces (Aura of Silence, Ghostly Prison, Rest in Peace, among others — white has no shortage of options). This would slow down faster decks (which is almost all of them) and help you manage the game until you can either set up board wipes or reach the point where your Angels are established and fully online on the battlefield.

On top of that, Folk Hero would fit here like a glove. The same goes for Archaeomancer's Map, Akroma's Will, The Seriema (even if it strays a bit from the theme), and Throne of Eldraine.

Feel free to check out my Giada's deck as well if you'd like on my profile's page.

Go for it — cheers!

theNeroTurtle on Ratadrabik of Urborg: Legends never die

2 months ago

I don't know how you feel about Esper Sentinel, but I think it would have potential here. Great concept. 1+

RufusTheGrufus on Anikthea's Enchanting Recycling Plant [Primer]

2 months ago

Hey, Idoneity, fair enough and grain of salt taken; I'm just happy for the engagement and thought exercise(s)!

I think you and I have fairly similar deckbuilding philosophies; and for that reason I think I'd agree that Fertile Ground is definitely not optimal, it is sweet Anikthea tech though. And I think we’d both also agree that it's also not just stand alone card value, but also deck synergy that factors into deckbuilding choices; especially for EDH.

Between Ajani's Chosen and Archon of Sun's Grace, I'd definitely agree that the archon is stronger. But, it seems like I value these cards much higher than you for this specific deck/build. Oftentimes I see Ajani's Chosen and Archon of Sun's Grace almost like backup/adjacent commanders to Anikthea. They're additional token generators that reward me for playing into the themes of the build, and offer an avenue to close out games either after my graveyard is wiped and/or before I get good targets in my graveyard for Anikthea's ability. They can and will get out of hand without Anikthea needing to be played, and can force opponents to need removal before I even utilize my commander; which can then be followed up by falling right back into the main gameplan with Anikthea. Sure, by themselves and without the context of the decklist, they aren't going to be doing much; but when they offer additional value for a majority of the plays being made with this list, I think they become a lot stronger of effects/includes.

I have similar opinions regarding Mirkwood Bats, Grim Guardian, and Bastion of Remembrance. Outside of pure game-ending combo packages, and B4+ decklists, I typically consider cards that I categorize as ‘Finishers’ as the cards that will win the game if you have already gotten your gameplan going. They're not cards that are supposed to end the game just by themselves, in my opinion, but more-so win the game once I’m already doing a lot, by capitalizing off of my deckbuilding choices. To that end, I would argue that adding the drain/ping effects like Mirkwood Bats and Grim Guardian are actually raising the power cap, relative to a more alpha strike-based gameplan, especially since they ping when my enchantment tokens ETB; which is why I started to transition them into the list. Unfortunately Bastion of Remembrance is probably the weakest option since it triggers off creatures dying. But the fact that it's an enchantment, that also provides a token body on the side, has kept it in the list up till now. Ideally I'd have a much bigger suite of on-theme ETB drain effects; I'm just waiting for them to be printed! I'm trying to maximize the value I can get from the tokens produced by Anikthea ASAP; especially since exiling your own enchantments to make token copies is a fragile strategy. The pinger effects guarantee some sort of payoff that's headed towards winning the game without having to worry about attacks.

Palantir of Orthanc... I know I should cut it for something more on-theme, I do love this card though lol… If I were to cut it, I'd want to replace it with another piece of card advantage; this deck can be really resource hungry. Similar thoughts for Mindwrack Harpy: I'd want to replace it with a different piece of on-theme card advantage if anything. I actually really like Mindwrack Harpy and sure, relative to something like Rhystic StudyGC or Esper Sentinel it's lower power; but it also puts in consistent work, especially in B3. I particularly like it because it typically offers card advantage during the same turn that it's played, and in my local meta having creatures with flying to block has been invaluable. I'm also a bit biased because I very rarely have had to worry about Mindwrack Harpy giving my playgroup card advantage as well, because up until recently I've primarily been the only one capitalizing off of my graveyard; and there is a good number of decks in my playgroup that care about topdeck manipulation so milling everyone has been almost all upside for me (we will see what the future holds since graveyard synergies are starting to become more common in my meta). In my experience Mindwrack Harpy has also gotten a disproportionate amount of removal thrown at it in my playgroup, so it also acts as a lightning rod to draw removal away from key pieces.

I think I'm going to hold off on adding Familiar Ground to the formal decklist right this second, but I am going to swap it in for Flowering of the White Tree and do a bunch of playtesting in the meantime! Thank you again for taking the time and energy to check out the decklist and offer your insight, I appreciate it!

SaberTech on Utopian Prosperity

4 months ago

To help illustrate some of the things I was talking about regarding Jenara, this is an oooooold Jenara list I used to run. I took it apart 9 years ago. Sky Queen of Bant

If I were to rebuild it there are a number of changes that I would make, but I think that it still generally shows what my design philosophy was around her at the time. I was getting in more 1v1 commander games so it's a bit more geared towards dueling, as opposed to brawling in a multiplayer setting, but I made efforts to try to reduce how much mana I had to invest into Jenara to ramp up her damage. Various ways to give double strike, cards with exalted so I could build my board while still increasing her damage output, cards that could pump power as an option or could pump power in addition to doing something else, and various protection options.

The rest of the deck became a bit of a control build. Roon of the Hidden Realm and Crystal Shard helped me get extra value out of creatures with ETB effects. Sun Titan helped me get back cheap utility creatures. The planeswalkers had useful effects while staying on the board after a wrath wiped away creatures. The main plan was always to try to out-tempo my opponent and kill them with commander damage but the deck at least had a backup plan if the game went longer.

I remember Mother of Runes, Simic Charm, and Vines of Vastwood being pretty standout cards at the time.

Some more modern cards I know off the top of my head that I would consider if I were to rebuild it are Duelist's Heritage, Loran of the Third Path, Esper Sentinel, Tocasia's Welcome, and Welcoming Vampire. The deck would need more card draw engines if I was adapting it to multiplayer games.

Goretast on [Primer] Karametra's Short-Term Memory | V-DSK

8 months ago

No worries!

I've playtested the deck quite a bit and there is a good amount of card advantage from playing from the top of the library or focusing creature tutors on cards like Regal Force, Nissa, Resurgent Animist, Esper Sentinel, etc. If you count tutors, playing creatures from the top effects (easier with 41 total creatures and lands being pulled), and draw spells then there are 19 total refill cards.

No defense for the removal comment though lol. I will look to make some cuts for 4-5 more interactive cards. This deck is made for mid-high bracket 3, so I am purposely keeping the power a bit lower. Thanks for checking it out- it's been fun remaking the deck!

Caerwyn on

10 months ago

Sephara, Sky's Blade gives you some redundancy with your commander, and you very likely can cheat on her mana cost given your fliers.

There are a few more wraths you could add - Day of Judgment and Armageddon come to mind.

White struggles with card draw, so Esper Sentinel is a pretty solid choice.

Also, just a personal pet peeve, the title of your deck properly should be Revelation 16:16 - using the plural “Revelations” is a pretty common mistake.

kamarupa on LongLegs

11 months ago

Just to be "clear" (lol), Silent Clearing is not card advantage. It would have to draw at least 2 cards to qualify as card advantage. I'd probably go with with Sword-Point Diplomacy or Night's Whisper. Esper Sentinel would probably come in as a very distant 3rd choice for me, being too conditional and easy to remove for my taste.

Given how integral The Sibsig Ceremony is to your deck, I would count on opponents sideboarding every enchantment removal spell they have in the second game. In my experience, getting a Hall into play makes opponents feel completely defeated before they can even cast enchantment removal.

DemonDragonJ on Should I Put the New …

11 months ago

I would like to put Elsha, Threefold Master into my Numot, the Devastator EDH deck, but I am not certain which creature I should remove, to make room, for her; Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is very expensive, but she is one of my favorite creatures in the game, and she has great synergy with numerous other cards in this deck, including both version of Aurelia: Aurelia, the Warleader, and Aurelia, the Law Above. Medomai the Ageless is not the most powerful of creatures, but I always enjoy being able to take additional turns, and I can take even more, if I combine him with either True Conviction and/or the aforementioned Aurelia. Wall of Denial is merely a blocker, but it is an amazingly excellent one, so I would like to keep it, in that deck, as well, and Esper Sentinel is not essential to this deck's identity or strategy, but I would prefer to avoid raising its mana curve, if I can help it. I feel that I may not need to keep either Iroas, God of Victory *list* or Keranos, God of Storms in this deck, since reaching seven devotion to two colors is not always easy to achieve in a three-colored deck, and, between those two creatures, I believe that Keranos is the least essential to the deck, since the deck originally did not have a very strong central them, but it gradually has evolved to have a focus on combat, so Iroas is more essential to the deck's theme and strategy than is Keranos.

What does everyone else here say, about this? Should I put the new Elsha into my Numot deck, and, if so, what card should I remove to make room, for her? I certainly am eager to receive your feedback!