Glory to Esper

Modern* Midrange Primer WUB (Esper)

SeekerofSecrets

Land (22)

• 2x Drowned Catacomb
• 3x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 2x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Plains
• 4x Polluted Delta
• 3x Shambling Vent
• 1x Swamp
• 2x Watery Grave

Instant (11)

• 2x Countersquall
• 2x Esper Charm
• 2x Fatal Push
• 2x Mana Leak
• 3x Path to Exile

Creature (8)

• 4x Glory-Bound Initiate
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 3x Pack Rat

Sorcery (15)

• 4x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4x Lingering Souls
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 2x Painful Truths
• 4x Serum Visions

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Detention Sphere
• 3x Spreading Seas

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Sideboard

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Detention Sphere
• 2x Stony Silence

Creature (2)

• 2x Spellskite

Land (2)

• 2x Field of Ruin

Artifact (4)

• 2x Damping Sphere
• 2x Nihil Spellbomb

Instant (4)

• 4x Ceremonious Rejection

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Maybeboard

Creature (5)

• 1x Delver of Secrets  ^Flip
• 1x Geist of Saint Traft
• 1x Gifted Aetherborn
• 1x Pack Rat
• 1x Serra Avenger

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Supreme Verdict

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Detention Sphere

Instant (1)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking

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So no. This is not Esper draw go. Or Esper Tempo. This is Esper Midrange

The goal of this list is unique in that it doesn't want to go wide with Monastery Mentor or beat face with Geist of Saint Traft. This list wants to out grind and out attrition our opponent. We do this by abusing the draw power of Painful Truths and Night's Whisper, we mitigate the life loss with Glory-Bound Initiate and starve our opponent of resources through multiple means of hate. This has led to a fun interactive deck that has game against most opponents.

I plan to purchase this list as an entry to competitive magic, I've given myself a $400 budget and then I plan to upgrade it later.

Threats

Glory-Bound Initiate: He has the ability to give us a 8 point swing to mitigate the life loss from truths and then on a clear board gives us a 7 turn clock.

Pack Rat: with all of the extra cards we can draw, rat gives us an outlet as well as very fast win con

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: our other win con, the fact that it comes down on turn 4, is out of bolt range, and has life link is vital to stabilizing late game.

Lingering Souls: just great all around value, can be used as chum, pressure, or a great target for rat

Spell/Utility Package

Esper Charm: this is our Swiss army knife, all 3 modes are useful but the ability to put our opponent into top deck mode around turn 4 is back breaking

Counters:

Mana Leak: just a great early play

Countersquall: a solid 2 mana counter and that life loss is very relevant, we mostly use it to protect our creatures

Removal

Fatal Push: this card is back breaking, it's great for early game removal

Path to Exile: this is a good catch all answer, it does give our opponent additional resources though which we have to be careful about

Detention Sphere: nice to have a main board answer to JTM or Liliana

Hand Disruption:

Inquisition of Kozilek: I chose this over thoughtsieze, I don't realy want to pay aditional life when I'm normally going to make them discard the same card. Also with Esper Charm I feel like 4 discard is enough

Draw:

Serum Visions: is great for smoothing out our draw

Spreading Seas: it replaces itself and can disrupt tron and mana intensive decks

Painful Truths: what can I say, this card just makes the deck click

Night's Whisper replaces one truth to smooth out the curve

Top Ranked	Achieved #20 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 31 - 5 Rares 18 - 8 Uncommons 6 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.95
Tokens	Copy Clone, Spirit 1/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	modern possibilities