What's the time in round? [Esper Control Primer]

Modern TheAnnihilator

SCORE: 67 | 88 COMMENTS | 9419 VIEWS | IN 21 FOLDERS

6-3 at SCG Louisville Open —Feb. 22, 2016

Round One: Slivers

I mulled to five, kept a marginal hand that couldn’t do anything against the horde. (0-1)

Kept a decent hand, got to wrath his board twice in the game before I played a Batterskull, followed by Baneslayer Angel, and equipping Slayer with said Batterskull. Lol. (1-1)

We played a longer game involving Paths and Condemns into Wraths before Esper Charm began to slowly clear away his hand. After he began aggressively activating Mutavaults into snap-blocks and Condemn, he was on 3 lands and no cards in hand. Time was about to be called in 10 mins, so I picked up the pace and got there with Colonnade beats. (2-1)

1-0 overall

Round Two: UW Control

Thinking about this match makes me laugh even now. xD

Game one took 40 mins, which is pretty good considering I had no cards left in deck by the end of it. After a long stint of draw-go action, we started to get into some fights. He’d cast Restoration Angel, and I’d Path it. The issue was that he had three Ghost Quarters on the field, so I couldn’t try to win by Colonnades – and all of my wincons were in the bottom 4 cards of my deck. I was casting Revs for 4-5, which he let resolve because he believed I would deck myself – which I did. However, I kept casting White Sun’s Zenith for 3-4 while holding up counter backup to have a card left in deck. I did this about three times. We even had to have a judge randomize my 2 card deck of Colonnade and Zenith since neither he nor I could shuffle it in good conscience. He got pummeled to death by cats. I had always heard about using Zenith to stop yourself from decking, but I never thought it would actually happen. Best. Game. Ever. (1-0)

Draw-go for a little while, until I Surgical Extraction’d his Resto Angels (so I could save my few paths for his Colonnades). He was stuck on lands for a while, so I thoughtseized him seeing Rest in Peace, Kitchen Finks, Mana Leak, and Cryptic Command. I took Leak, and main-phased an arbitrarily large Zenith. He scooped. (2-0)

2-0 overall

Round Three: Kiki Chord

We hit the grind for a while, with counters and removal flying, but at the end of the day I lost to the combo with no answers left. (0-1)

It was grindy again. I remember I cut most of my counters in sideboarding (except Logic Knot, so I could counter Chord of Calling) so that I could race in a topdeck war. It eventually came to my Ghostly Prison and Baneslayer Angel against his Blood Baron of Vizkopa and useless board of creatures. An eventual White Sun’s Zenith ensured I had enough damage for lethal. (1-1)

After a Ghostly Prison on turn 3, the game came to a screeching halt. He was getting in for chip damage while I was drawing blanks (lands). I played a Baneslayer that got path’d, had to activate my Colonnades into Ghost Quarters and Paths to block. In the end, he had enough removal to get through – even with both Ghostly Prisons on board at the end of the game. My buddy, who was watching from my opponent’s side, said he got really lucky by topdecking 2 Paths to stop me from blocking with Colonnades. (1-2)

2-1 Overall

Round Four: Azban Company with Lingering Souls

After some back and forth and removal/counters, I slam a Batterskull to ride away with the game. He Collected Company's into a Melira, Sylvok Outcast (with Viscera Seer already in play), and plays Kitchen Finks and Blood Artist from hand to finish up the combo and kill me on the spot. (0-1)

Again, we grind for a while until all he has left are a few Spirit tokens, a Viscera Seer, and a Voice of Resurgence against my Baneslayer Angel. After swinging in with the Slayer and going to 18, he sacs his Voice for an Elemental token, plays three (!) more Lingering Souls while commenting how badly he’s overextending into a wrath, and swings for exact lethal against my open one mana (I played a Path and flashbacked Think Twice on my turn to avoid Voice triggers). My top card was a Verdict. (0-2)

2-2 Overall

Round Five: UG Infect

I kept a sketchy hand of Logic Knot, Esper Charm, Gideon, and lands on the draw. It went from bad to worse when he played Windswept Heath, fetched into a Forest, and a Noble Hierarch. I knew instantly in my mind that he was on Infect, and I was in bad shape. He played an Infect dude (Viridian Corrupter), pumped it up, and I died. (0-1)

I mulled to 5 and kept a hand with two lands (Watery Grave and Ghost Quarter) because it had T1 Thoughtseize into Spell Snare. I cast Thoughtseize, and he said his hand was "Thoughtseize-proof" as he smiled and showed me this: 2x Inkmoth Nexus, Forest, Breeding Pool, Vines of Vastwood, Glistener Elf, and Blighted Agent. I took the Glistener and passed. He plays Inkmoth and says go. I untap, draw Watery Grave #2 and play it tapped before passing. He plays Blighted Agent, which I Snare, and I topdeck… SURGICAL EXTRACTION. Hell yeah. I play GQ and destroy his Inkmoth, then Extraction it mainphase (to avoid counters) getting the other one out of his hand. He’s left with no threats, and I topdeck lands into Baneslayer on turn 5. He can’t come back from it. Thoughtseize-proof indeed. (1-1)

I mulled again, getting stuck on lands, but this time I didn’t have everything I needed. After some back and forth, I'm at 9 infect while he has a Blighted Agent and 2 Noble Hierarchs on the field. It was really frustrating, because I had a Thoughtseize and Go for the Throat (but not enough black mana to cast both – I was on Island, Mystic Gate, Watery Grave), so I had to try the Go for the Throat without any protection for it. He had the Vines. Even more frustrating, I also had a Supreme Verdict in hand but I couldn’t get another land. Even my opponent said it was extremely lucky that he faded a land for multiple turns, since he'd seen my hand via Gitaxian Probe. (1-2)

Overall 2-3

Round Six: UW Enchantment Prison

My opponent had a weird mix up with seating arrangements and got a game loss for being at the wrong table. (1-0)

I kept a 2 land hand with a Godless Shrine and a fetch on the draw, but he plays a turn 2 Suppression Field. Long story short, he’s making 6 mana with a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx before I hit a 2nd usable land while he also has a Sigil of the Empty Throne on the field. I couldn’t recover. (1-1)

I’m on the play with Remand, Thoughtseize, Spell Snare (I kept them in due to Luminarch Ascension and Runed Halo; I knew he had them even though I didn’t see them G1 since I’ve seen QTwelve’s video against W Enchantments – thank you Q!) and lands. I Thoughtseize away a Sigil and draw a Surgical Extraction to take care of it. I then Snare his Luminarch Ascension, and Snap-Surgical that too. A bunch of remands later, I draw another Surg and counter+Surg his Runed Halos. He was so pissed. I played a Baneslayer Angel, and Cryptic -- bounce Baneslayer and draw -- in response to 2 different Supreme Verdicts. Swinging in with it through 3 Ghostly Prisons got me the win. (2-1)

Overall 3-3

Round Seven: No Show

My opponent didn’t show up after 10 mins, so the judges told me I got it 2-0. Having the break was definitely nice.

Overall 4-3

Round Eight: Colorless Eldrazi

I had dodged the boogeyman up until this point, and was a little tense to see T1 Eldrazi temple. Little did I know that he’d kept a hand with T1 Matter Reshaper and a pile of Simian Spirit Guides/Dismembers thinking it would be good enough. I was able to deal with the Reshaper, three Mutavaults, and a Blinkmoth Nexus, then counter some really late game threats and play Batterskull three times, each time drawing out a Dismember and 4 life from my opponent. I saw that he had both Wastes out, so I used GQ proactively to keep him off of Eye of Ugin mana. I won G1 easily off of an arbitrarily large White Sun’s Zenith and Batterskull. Did you know that a 4/4 germ with lifelink favorably blocks Thought-Knot Seer, Matter Reshaper, Mutavualts, and the usual Eldrazi Mimic? =D (1-0)

He plays a T2 Thought-Knot Seer revealing lands, Ghostly Prison, 2x Baneslayer Angels, and a Cryptic (I kept the hand because I thought that Ghostly might slow him down enough for me to draw into it. He takes the Prison so I couldn’t untap and slam it during my turn 3, but he durdles a tiny bit with Relic of Progenitus and such and my Baneslayer double-team hits the board. I keep attacking with one Slayer while keeping the other up to block. He played an Endless One for five, triggering a mimic to attack with it into my open Baneslayer – he didn’t realize that Baneslayer has first strike. xD He couldn’t find an answer to either Slayer, so it was a very easy 2-0, which seemed extremely unusual to me. (2-0)

Overall 5-3

Round 9: Abzan Midrange

It’s the usual grind into White Sun’s Zenith. I answered his Tarmogoyf on 2 with a Snare, Logic Knotted his Lingering Souls, and took beats from the other two Spirits while he had a pile of removal in hand (so he claimed after the match). I remembered the forum’s advice against mind rotting a BGx opponent in game one, so I used Charms to draw 2 instead. I got there off of the back of 3 Cat tokens and some disruption. (1-0)

We both got stuck on lands, but I drew out of it first. I was able to trick him into swinging with his 4th land (a Stirring Wildwood) by clicking my mechanical pencil like I was about to take the damage from it – my Condemn sent it away. From there, a Gideon Jura into a Baneslayer took it home, mopping up every creature he played and putting my life total far out of reach. (2-0)

Overall 6-3

Post Thoughts

Ironically, I never played against Affinity when I had decided to play 3x Stony Silence in my board specifically for that matchup. I didn’t side them in the whole day – not even against the Aether Vial deck (Slivers). I also elected not to play Elspeth, Sun's Champion or Celestial Purge in the board, and I must admit that I don’t really miss them. Ghostly Prison seemed OK; it definitely shores up enough matchups (Kiki Chord, Eldrazi, Aggro) that I think I’ll keep using it. I was impressed very much with Batterskull, and not so impressed with Gideon Jura even though it was great against BGx. It felt like I would always cast Gideon into a lethal board to buy a turn, or he’d take 3-4 damage, and I couldn’t minus him if I wanted to keep him alive. He also has a non-bo with Ghosly, as the opponent doesn't have to pay 2 mana to attack Gideon (since Prison says "attacks you", not "you or a planeswalker you control") He was also terrible to have in the control mirror. I might start playing the 4th Wrath or a 2nd Batterskull over him.