The Wandering Emperor

Legendary Planeswalker

Flash

As long as this entered the battlefield this turn, you may activate this planeswalker's loyalty abilities at any time you could cast an instant.

+1: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature. It gains first strike until end of turn.

-1: Create a 2/2 white Samurai creature token with vigilance.

-2: Exile target tapped creature. You gain 2 life.

Tokens

• Samurai 2/2 W w/ Vigilance

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (18)

Swing4Lethal on Esper Control 2.7

1 month ago

I am very excited to hear you have been playing my list and enjoying it! I still believe the deck is very powerful and consistently better than straight Azorius Control.

I'll address Oath of Kaya first - It is way too slow. You can't afford to be tapping out for a single target sorcery speed removal effect. Especially not with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord + Vein Ripper dominating like it is. You need to have 2-3 mana available for counter spells the turn they can drop Sorin. Temporary Lockdown is good enough in the 3 mana removal slot and clears most of the things you care about early.

Second, Get Lost is a great catch all option that bridges the small gaps in utility amongst Fatal Push, Vanishing Verse, and Void Rend. The map tokens the opponent gets are mostly irrelevant with only the Amalia Combo decks caring about them. Theoretically you should be able to control the board enough that they never get to use them. With that said, Vein Ripper presents a threat with a protection ability this deck has not had to deal with before, so you could get away with a second copy of Void Rend over Get Lost you just lose an effect that can hit land creatures.

Third, I agree whether you like the card or not, Reckoner Bankbuster is a great card. It gives the deck extra reach that it desperately needs. Deduce is fine, if you absolutely do not want to play Bankbuster but you lose the imminent body and damage threat that Bankbuster gives. The token would give you revolt, but you'd need to run 4 copies for that to be consistent and casting a 3 mana Fatal Push feels not great. Mazemind Tome is far too little impact to make it in the list. Your life gain is handled by The Wandering Emperor and Shambling Vent. Search for Azcanta  ^Flip is too slow and is really bad in Pioneer due to all of the graveyard exile effects being used.

Fourth, If you personally prefer to run 1 basic and 1 Otawara, Soaring City that's fine too. It's really just personal preference and relevant to your area's meta. I find that Dovin's Veto and Void Rend are good enough in the control match up that Otawara is not necessary. The biggest drawback is that Otawara always costs 4 mana game 1 and has a small chance to cost less in games 2/3. The very first iteration of the deck had both Otawara and Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire but I found I was being wastelanded by Field of Ruin too often and utilizing the channel abilities so rarely that I just cut them in favor of basics.

Finally, yes The End made it into the deck. It is the best possible removal option against so many creatures that decks rely on to win. Greasefang, Okiba Boss, Arclight Phoenix, Mayhem Devil, Vein Ripper (if you can pay the ward), and Amalia Benavides Aguirre are all game winning targets for it. Honestly I have even been considering cutting the Rest in Peace for a second copy of the end. I also swapped Make Disappear out for No More Lies. It is just a far better card in every way.

itsbuzzi on

8 months ago

1) You totally need some type of draw engine. Most of the time you'll want to go land pass and have instant speed interaction. It hurts from the aggro side if you don't need to cast any interaction and instead draw some more cards. Memory Deluge is kind of the best one at the moment at instant speed because you can cast it twice. 4 may be too many, I'd try 3.

2) The Wanderer is also a great interaction piece. It's removal at instant speed and leaves behind a body. If they attack with something small enough you can flash it in and make a blocker thus holding off against aggro. The removal set also can gain life which can be important. I'd put in maybe 3 of these as well. The instant speed is the key with her.

3) 3 board wipes sound good as well. You don't have a sideboard so you can move a few things there. Some Silence and Syncopate can move there as they seem not as strong as other pieces you can play.

4) For lands I usually use this site: http://https://www.channelfireball.com/article/How-Many-Lands-Do-You-Need-in-Your-Deck-An-Updated-Analysis/cd1c1a24-d439-4a8e-b369-b936edb0b38a/ With your current deck it looks like it should be about 25.

5) I don't play much control but if you have draw spells I wouldn't run 4 copies of Teferi. You may be able to run more Shark as you can cycle them away. The thought behind 3 Teferi is you will get to late game and draw him.

6) The sorcery speed is what hurts that card. You are looking for more instant speed interaction.

From all this I would remove: 4x Silence and 4x Syncopate and put in 3x Memory Deluge, 3x The Wandering Emperor, 1x Doomskar, 1x Deserted Beach and my personal idea is swap 1x Censor, 1x Make Disappear and 1x March of Otherworldly Light for 3x Disallow. Can be cast with Lotus and can counter abilities as well. You can put the removed cards in the sideboard.

Delphen7 on Is there a way to …

9 months ago

The usual templating for this would be something that gives you the ability to do effects at instant speed. Cards like The Wandering Emperor or Forge Anew explicitly state that you can take some game action at instant speed, while others like Necromancy or Lightning Reflexes again use the word instant as the word for changing their timing, but an oracle search for "abilit" and "instant" reveals nothing that allows you to change the timing of abilities. "abilit" and "flash" gives nothing relevant either.

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pssst. Down here. Yeah you. You could just cheat. Activate the ability during combat. It's their fault if they don't know what your card with tiny text in a hard to see place does. Who reads the cards anyways...

legendofa on "Tribal" is being replaced by …

9 months ago

_Moonie_ It's not like gendered language has been completely removed from the game. Planeswalkers still use him/her/etc. Dakkon, Shadow Slayer, pretty much every Gideon, The Wandering Emperor, Rowan, Scholar of Sparks  ^Flip, and more all refer to the character in the rules text.

For referring to players, again, there's no harm in the "his or her" -> "their" switch. Aside from the benefits of inclusion, it saves space on the card and is quicker to parse. No cards have ever been banned because of gendered language, and I don't think that was ever a suggestion. They've had their official rules text updated from using three short words to one short word.

fg_cutts on Standard soldiers

1 year ago

Hey Knighty knight,

I've play tested your deck a few times and I think it's solid. My only feedback is that you have too many lands for what you need. You're often getting flooded when you need interactive cards. I would recommend dropping 2-4 lands and adding 2 copies of Wedding Announcement  ^Flip (helps you go wide and buffs your creatures), and 2 Skystrike Officer. I also think Harbin, Vanguard Aviator would be a better fit than guardian of new benalia

The Wandering Emperor is worth considering too.

TheOfficialCreator on In defense of Veil of …

1 year ago

I agree. It's very hard to actually interact with Teferi in any meaningful way, except in mirror matches. And with The Wandering Emperor to back him up, it's become a serious issue.

Nemosama on Esper Sheoldred

1 year ago

Combat Research and Security Bypass are both soo strong. they're both things ive used in my esper build. Have you considered Shore Up as an additional option? Aside from the obvious combat trick potential, it works just as well to save your creature from alot of the meta removal being ran.. theres been numerous instances in which the +1/+1 hexproof Untap both saved my thing from exile by a The Wandering Emperor it also can get your thing over the first strike barrier depending on the circumstance. This said though in my build i run only 1-2 Raffine, Scheming Seer, instead running 2-3 Zur, Eternal Schemer and 2-3Vesuvan Duplimancy..

hiiii on I'll Just Play During Your Turn

1 year ago

Hey! I'm trying to look into interesting 1CMC counterspells you could replace Remand with. Mana Tithe, Spell Pierce, Miscast, Swan Song or An Offer You Can't Refuse could be interesting, tho they all have different drawbacks. If you want to stick to 2CMC, I'd say Dovin's Veto and Counterspell are always good options. The former is noncreatures only, but it is uncounterable, and the latter of course costs {U}{U} so it's harder to cast on multicolor.

As for other cards, perhaps Lair of the Hydra could interest you. It's very similar to Celestial Colonnade, except you can make it bigger if you've got the means to do so. Sadly it's {G} only, but it can enter untapped if played early. Upsides and downsides.

Apart from that, I don't see anything I'd personally change in your deck, it seems really solid!

If you want to add insult to injury you could always play Teferi, Time Raveler. If you're looking for creatures that are harder to get rid of, you could always get Gideon Blackblade. You could also run The Wandering Emperor for flavor points.

Hope this helped! It's awesome to see an older deck still being worked on 6 years later :D