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By: CalmLittleBuddy, Christopher M. Dansereau
May 06 2015 12:00pm
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Standard Format has a big problem ion its hands. It has E.D.

You've all seen the commercials with the girl who'd rather curl up with her favorite man than a good book, right? She's urging men to do something about their E.D. Standard Format may not have that kind of E.D., but there is something going on that's making a lot of decks limp.

ESPER DRAGONS

I think that's going to be my stage name. "Hello, ladies! My name is Esper Dragons, but you can call me E.D." Or maybe I can stick to writing and show you the decklist. Here's one version of Esper Dragons that's pretty close to a typical 75.

 

I'll cut right to the chase. 5 flying hexproof creatures plus counter magic in an already solid control shell. The deck also has multiple available sweepers, access to the best Planeswalker in the format (and a solid way of surviving to cast it), plus a two mana counter spell that transforms from a great early counter into a super-efficient late hard counter.

Did I mention the 3 mana edict that can gain 4 life as well? Oh, and 4 possible card draw spells, one of which can't be countered if they have a Dragon in hand or on the board. How about the sweeper that can conveniently skip over those 5 hexproof flyers. Of and one of those flyers draws a card when it hits and the others give -1/1 for each dragon attacking.

I erased the original longer rant I had here, about how the deck will probably turn off newer, less experienced players who test the waters of competitive Magic. This includes the more casual Friday Night Magic events at stores and community centers. Come on, you know Captain Sweatpants will be rocking this deck next week, making all the kids at your local group quit Magic to play a more fair sport. As an average, amateur player advocating for other players like me to jump into competitive Magic with both feet, I have say something about it. The deck is not unbeatable at the highest level of play, but it's darn close to unbeatable against less experienced players. And it is no fun at all to play against if you're not 100% all in and prepared to face it multiple times during a competition. I'm not sure this is the most healthy direction for the game, as Standard seems to be where new players gravitate to, but whatever makes the important players happy...

Full Disclosure: I actually like the deck and would play it if I wasn't so heavily invested in the paper version of my Abzan list. It's not as easy to convert cardboard as it is to bang out tickets. I even enjoy playing against the deck. All I'm saying is it's probably going to push some new or inexperienced players away.

And that was the short version of the rant. 

Esper Dragons. What makes this control deck different than all the hundreds of other Control decks to get to Tier 1 in Standard? Ease of play, and a lock out win condition.

What do I mean by ease of play? It's not easy to master, but the basic plan of the deck is actually straightforward for a Control deck. Let's look at the typical game plan.

Turn 1:

Play a Blue Black land. If you don't have one, play the land that lets you cast your turn 2 play on time.

Dismal Backwater

Turn 2:

Play your second land. If you can play an untapped land that gives you access to Silumgar's Scorn mana (if you have it in hand), do that. Or play another Blue Black land. Or set up Anticipate. Obviously, keep your mana up until you need to cast scorn, or until the end of your opponent's turn. Cast Anticipate if you're short lands or important removal/counter spells. Sometimes, it pays to hold that Anticipate until you know what you need later in the game.

Turns 3 through 8:

Hopefully you hit 6 of your 8 land drops at least. Keep your mana up at all times to counter opponent's spells, and remove their creatures. Play everything slow. Don't immediately remove creatures if it's not necessary to do so. Spend your time controlling the board in the most efficient mana. Sculpt your hand with card draw on your opponent's end step. Try to draw into a Dragon and hold it.

Dig Through TimeJace's Ingenuity

Turn's 9 through game over:

Once your opponent is in top deck mode, refill your hand one last time and play Dragonlord Ojutai. As soon as you have enough counter magic to squash any removal spells, attack with the Dragonlord and start filtering and drawing cards. Then cast Silumgar, the Drifting Death. This is you win condition:

Silumgar, the Drifting Death

Always try to hold at least one counter spell for an opposing Crux of Fate, End Hostilities or edict effect like Foul-Tongue Invocation. Only attack with the dragonlord if you are 100% positive there's no combination of removal that could pass through your counter magic. If you have a second one in hand, it may be possible to trade one for the opponent's last removal spell.

Dragonlord Silumgar is a nice hedge if your opponent sneaks a powerful threat past you. Steal their threat and use it against them. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon provides another powerful win condition and ultra-removal tool/late game reach.

There's not much else to it. There are many subtleties to master, such as what to take with your Dig Through Time, when to play your Thoughtseize, how to line up your Dragonated cards for most effect, and of course how to correctly sideboard. Even failing to master these won't completely cripple you the same way small slips punish other control decks. If you can survive to play one of your hexproof creatures with sufficient counter magic, you're probably in good enough shape to win. The only time you will really suffer from a minor slip is in Control Mirrors.

Okay, so what do I mean by a lock out win condition? Look at these two Dads.

Silumgar, the Drifting Death

These Dads are not like your Dads. They has some hexproof. They can't be removed, except by edicts (cards that make the opponent sacrifice their own creatures) or non-targeted sweepers. Ojutai loses the hexproof ability if it becomes tapped. Usually, that means it has to attack. You can't force it to tap with targeted abilities either, and there are very few non-targeted 'tap creature' abilities. Torrent Elemental comes to mind as a pretty sick beating against Ojutai, but not everyone plays Blue, and Blue is where the tap abilities seem to live.

Get both of these Dragons on the board and your opponent is going to have a huge task trying to remove them or slow them down. Notice, when you attack with both, your opponent's creatures get -2/2 and probably can't block profitably. Even large flyers like Dragonlord Dromoka end up becoming poor blockers when the -2/2 hits them, and most single creatures can't race both of them at once.

As stated, the only reliable outs against these Dragons are non-targeted sweepers and edicts. 

All things considered, the deck can't win on autopilot. You have to make some tricky decisions. But the deck itself isn't a spider web of un-intuitive plays like some control decks. You only need one valuable skill to play this deck: Patience. You have every answer. You have 3 to 10 win conditions. You will beat any other deck given enough draw steps. The only concern is can they do enough damage to kill you before you are set up for the win. With enough practice and study, you can play this deck and play it well. The only major hurdle to this deck being user friendly is the horrendous mirror match versus any Blue based Control decks, and even some Abzan lists. It's 'land go, land go,land' (hereafter referred to as Lango Lango Land)

I don't often direct folks to other sites because of my undying love and loyalty to puremtgo.com, but SCG had a Standard Open Series in Cleveland a few weekends ago, and in Round 10 Gerard Fabiano (Esper Dragons) faces off against Robert Beatty (GW Aggro). If you watch one video this week, it should be this one. Skip ahead to the 42 minute mark and watch Game 3. 

Towards the end, around the 46 minute mark, Beatty has a monstrous Fleecemane Lion and is at 19 life. Fabiano has nothing on the board, but he does have a Dragonlord Ojutai in hand and the mana to cast it. He plays it. Beatty has a copy of Valorous Stance in hand. Fleecemane Lion can attack through Dragonlord Ojutai. Fabiano does not chump it and he falls to 4 life. For good measure, Beatty drops a (High Sentinels or Arashin) at the end of his turn, just in case Gerard plays a Foul-Tongue Invocation and forces Beatty to sacrifice a creature.

What happens next is one of the most remarkable swings I have witnessed in Standard this year, and there have been a lot! Fabiano checks his hand, sees a Silumgar's Scorn, and a Dismal Backwater. He does some math. He attacks with Dragonlord Ojutai. He gets to look at 3 cards and keep one. He finds a Hero's Downfall. He plays the Downfall on the Sentinels. Beatty casts Valorous Stance to protect his Sentinels. Fabiano casts Silumgar's Scorn, countering the Valorous Stance. The Sentinels die. He plays Dismal Backwater and gains 1 life.

Phase one completed. Now, a Foul-Tongue Invocation for Fabiano will most likely win. He has earned himself another turn, another draw step, another Dragonlord Ojutai trigger, and a shot at finding that Foul-Tongue Invocation he will get to see 4 cards at least. Beatty topdecks a land, and attacks Fabiano to 1 life.

It's now Beatty at 13 life presenting almost definite lethal next turn, and Fabiano at 1 life. Gerard draws a card we can't really see, but it's not the edict. So, he attacks, looks at 3 cards, and finds... lands. Only lands. He's dead right? Nope. The card he drew for the turn was?

Dig Through Time

Fabiano gave himself one extra turn, plus the correct board state to make Foul-Tongue Invocation by using Dragonlord Ojutai to find a Hero's Downfall, and playing Dismal Backwater. How many of us would not have attacked? How many of us knowingly go to 1 life with almost nothing in hand? Well, if you've been playing Esper Dragons, you probably make the same play Fabiano does 10 times out of 10 because you know the deck is so strong it could win from that state if you see enough cards.

Predictably, after getting to see 11 cards for the turn, and keep a total of 4 of them, Fabiano finds his edict, forces Beatty to sacrifice his indestructible Lion, gains 4 life and has a 2 turn clock. Did I mention he pulled an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon from that Dig as well? Game over.

Back up to the point where Beatty does not Valorous Stance the Dragonlord Ojutai, holding it instead to try and save his High Sentinels of Arashin from any removal. This is correct. But, if you're saving Valorous Stance to save your Sentinels from removal, why not get one extra bit of value out of them and block the Dragonlord Ojutai?

I don't know about you but with the world renowned Gerard Fabiano at 4 life, in game 3, where I have lethal and he has zero blockers, I'm not going to even let him sniff the free card. I'd block, Valorous Stance to save my Sentinels, he counters that with the Silumgar's Scorn and we are basically in the same situation, BUT I have 5 more life, and Fabiano never gets to that Dig Through Time as he would have to draw one of the 3 cards he saw with Ojutai. He's at 1 life, draws a dead card instead of Dig Through Time. He probably still makes the attack, finds the Dig and casts it. he'd be drawing the 3 dead lands he saw on the next Ojutai trigger plus 4 of the 7 he drew in the real game. Was one of those the Foul-Tongue Invocation? It looks like it was, but maybe with the higher life total for Beatty, the useless draw for Fabiano, maybe it ends different.

Would I have seen all this in game? No, but I still would have made the block. Why? You can't let Esper Dragons off the hook by seeing more cards. Against ED, we need that little blue pill. If the game lasts longer than 4 hours, we will need to seek medical help IMMEDIATELY.

What does Doctor Buddy recommend for folks struggling with E.D.?

There's the old fashioned way of reacting to a new dominant deck. Find what causes you the most problems and get some cards to deal with it. This along with a healthy dose of strategy and a lot of Practice Therapy you'll be well on your way to having that healthy game you did as a teenager! Okay, what is that Strategy then?

What is Esper Dragons weak against? Enchantments. Burst Damage. Hand disruption. You can either build a deck (or do what I do and copy one then tweak it) that centers on these aspects, but still has game against the other popular decks, or you can add cards to your current deck that push in that direction.

I have a few enchantments in mind, but I'm keeping some of my tech on the down low until it shows up in someone else's list and wins. It's not hard to figure out. Hop on MtGO and set your search to show all Standard enchantments (set quantity to 0) and start reading! One that keeps gaining mention is Mastery of the Unseen.

It seems to be more use for the Manifest/Morph interactions than for the crazy lifegain of the old GW Devotion decks from this winter. Mastery of the Unseen is big game with a megamorph plan. It's cheap so it can come down early and stay on the board. Once it's on, it makes manifests. Manifests from Mastery of the Unseen cannot be countered. It turns many of their cards off. 

There are two creatures that make this enchantment particularly appealing.

If, after reading these cards, you aren't quite getting the point, when these guys un-megamorph, cool stuff can happen. Den Protector returns cards from the graveyard to your hand. Any card. Including lands. Including another Den Protectors. Deathmist Raptor comes to the battlefield from the graveyard anytime anything turns face up on your team. 

This is great against E.D. because almost all of their removal and counter spells send creatures to the graveyard. (Deathmost Raptor) never really dies. The longer the game goes on, the more of them end up in your graveyard. The dream is to return 4 of them at once when your opponent is out of sweepers like Crux of Fate. The pair of Greenies is good enough that we could see the return of main deck Perilous Vault. Heck, I'm even considering playing it in my Abzan Control list. It so good with all the horrifyingly powerful graveyard stuff happening these days.

And you don't need to be playing Mastery of the Unseen to rock these almonds. Most Green shells can toss in 4 and 4 and be done with it. Raptor is especially nice with devotion strategies, and both cards can be cast face up and do okay.

The real sweet trick with these two buddies is to completely avoid summoning sickness. Flipping a card face up happens at instant speed, and can be done at the end of your opponent's turn. If you have 3 Raptors in the graveyard, and you un-megamorph a Den Protector, all three Raptors jump back onto the battlefield, plus you get to return a card to your hand.  This would give you three 3/3's and a 3/2 ready to attack. That's 12 power of damage.  All you have to do is slip the one morph past a counter spell. One for one removal isn't good enough. They play Ultimate Price? You morph at instant speed. They would have to play a second removal spell to kill the morph before it flips. That's 2 for 1 in your favor.

Which brings me to the second vulnerability of Esper Dragons: Burst Damage. For our purposes, Burst Damage is any large amount of damage that can be done simultaneously. The above example is likely to end the game.  Like any other Control deck, E.D. will use life points as a resource to buy time and draw steps. Frequently, the player on the Control end will drop below 10 life, get the spells they need lined up, then stabilize. If you can find a way to cause double digits of damage right before they turn that corner, your chances of winning skyrocket.

Crater's Claws

There's one example! A solid Fireball effect can screw up the opponent's math, especially from a deck they do not expect it from. It's not easy to get this past their counter magic, but I've found you can pay your way through all of that counter trash if you limit their card draw. That's not easy either, but it's the third leg of our E.D. cure-all.

Hand disruption is by far the best tool available against E.D. They can't play what they don't have. When playing against E.D., I follow my usual guidelines on hand disruption, but many times it's a toss-up between 3 or 4 cards in their hand that you can make a case for taking away. So, I have a fallback order of priority. Bear in mind, I do not play Blue so my advice is more for these decks with no counter magic at all.

If there's no immediate and game ending card in their hand, depriving them of card draw spells is the way to go. All things being equal, letting them keep their Dig Through Time is basically giving them two extra cards, with a high chance of those cards being relevant. Plus they jump forward 7 draw steps, skipping the ones they like the least. Dig is too powerful to skip over. Remember, the card is banned in Modern and restricted in legacy. You'd better have a darn good reason to choose any other spell to take.

The last thing I want is to remove one card with Thoughtseize from their hand, only for them to get two cards back with a Dig Through Time I left behind. Many times they end up getting back the same card you took (or an equivalent one) with Dig. I'm serious as a pair of Depends on this point. I don't care if they're 5 turns from casting that big card draw spell, I know they will get there eventually. I'll definitely take that Dragonlord's Prerogative or that Jace's Ingenuity unless there's a very clear and concrete advantage to taking anything else. Anticipate is less concerning, but still a worthwhile target if their flooded out or tight on mana.  Remember, they can Dig Through Time in response to your Thoughtseize so try to do it early or when they're short the mana to cast it.

Second priority: their counter spells. Counter spells can be at a premium if you have creatures like Siege Rhino, which have an effect when they enter the battlefield. I'm fine with having my Rhino killed with Hero's Downfall. I'm less fine with it being Dissolved and losing out on the life drain. It all depends on what I have in hand, and what I want to get past the Blue Wall of Denial.

Many of their critters are hexproof, so those are high value targets, especially late game (or if they turn on a Dragon powered card like Silumgar's Scorn). The value of that creature can swing wildly depending on what turn, what mana, what cards I have vs what card they have, so these are definitely cards that become exceptions to the rule many games.

Last is their removal. There's too much removal in their deck to gain value when taking only one card away. Too much. Way too much. Games 2 and 3 they may back off versus a control deck, so their value goes up a bit after side board. I play enough worthy targets that I can slip past the removal, or return creatures and dragons from the graveyard. I have totally bashed 'return from the graveyard'  effects in past articles. Usually they are very low impact in Standard (unless they return them to the battlefield). In a control heavy environment, though, they become very important to slog through all that removal.

So, you can tune your deck to focus on the weaknesses of Esper Dragons, either in the main deck or in your sideboard. That's one route you can take. Find answers and add them to your deck. Maybe you prefer changing deck entirely? What's well positioned in the metagame that has the wins on E.D.? If I were to switch to one deck for one tournament with a lot of Control and Esper Dragons, I'd go with Atarka Red.

 

It's an obvious choice. Mono Red is already great. Add Atarka's Command, and there's another level of greatness on top. Being able to pop an opponent for 3 damage, then give you 5 goblin tokens +1/1 on a board light on blockers is brutal. Preventing life gain is a bonus mode if it's needed. The typical list of Atarka Red contains a plethora of 1 and 2 mana spells. E.D. can't one for one trade spells early on, and has a tough time getting to 5 mana for a sweeper to clear the board.

Typically beating aggressive red decks means blocking or gaining life. Esper Dragons gains some life off of its lands, but will need to rely on the draw of both decks. If the Bile Blights trade one for one, or if all the removal and counters cost 3 mana, E.D. could end up in serious trouble. Red Aggro is capable of killing on turn 3 against a deck with no early blockers. Also, the Dash mechanic can sneak around Crux of Fate.

Thoughtseize and Duress lose a lot of value in this match up. The damage from Thoughtseize is often a heavy price to pay, and there are times where Duress has no targets. Both can end up rotting in the hand after Red has dropped its deployment in a few turns. There's also Outpost Siege which gives Red a form of card draw that keeps them from being stuck on the top of the deck, or in rare cases makes removal cost a ton of money.

The games post board get better for Esper Dragons, but it is by no means an easy win. So if finding a whole new way of doing business appeals to you then Mono-Red, or Red with the Green splash for Atarka's Command is certainly one way to go. There's a ton of Green based lists running the Den Protector Deathmist Raptor combination which also have game against the field. Many players are making their bones with Abzan Aggro. There are good choices in the world of the Dragon.

The question becomes, how long will the popularity last? As the lists adapt to a control heavy format, folks will lose with decks like Esper Dragons and get impatient. There are a lot of players going way outside of their comfort zone right now to try the deck out. Just like that Green White devotion deck which took 11 hours to play, Esper Dragons will bore the skit out of some folks. The wins all come the same way. Grind out card advantage, play Dragons, win. For some, the intricate dance to get to that point is what they love. The end is almost an afterthought. They get almond oil be telling folks 'no, can't play that', and being able to say 'I still have seven cards' on turn 11,000. I know, they are very refined and as such, better people than the lower class damage dealers like myself. I'm super impressed.

The dominance will only last a few weeks, then someone else will break some other archetype. Maybe Mardu for a change. That's the truly great thing about Magic the Gathering. It never stays in one place for very long. I'm still betting on a flood of Red based decks to rival the popularity of E.D. There are way more lunkheads who just want to mash face than there are master crafters of deprive and deny. Once Red wins a few more high profile events, we will be back to Bile Blights and Drown in Sorrows in the main until Abzan rises again.

Rock. Paper. Scissors.

Until next time.

CLB

4 Comments

@CalmLittleBuddy - hey, got by Procrastination at Mon, 05/11/2015 - 23:28
Procrastination's picture
5

@CalmLittleBuddy - hey, got your comment about the contest. I won't be around much this week (we are moving this weekend), but next week I should be on in the evenings.

Also, nobody on the site nails the entertaining bitter rant the way you do. : ) Just know that somebody else found the 'E.D.' references worth all of the chuckles!

I really appreciate that!!! by CalmLittleBuddy at Sun, 05/17/2015 - 15:39
CalmLittleBuddy's picture

I really appreciate that!!! Sometimes I think I'm writing to a room full of crickets!

If you see me in game, hit me up for your prize. This week your deck gets spotlight.

Another Thing About Morph... by Fred1160 at Tue, 05/12/2015 - 16:59
Fred1160's picture

Since morphing doesn't use the stack, one of my favorite tricks was using Willbender. When someone casts a card with Split Second you can still flip the Willbender to change the target.

Yeah, I kinda punted the by CalmLittleBuddy at Sun, 05/17/2015 - 15:38
CalmLittleBuddy's picture

Yeah, I kinda punted the morph thought. Was more trying to say Morph happens before any removal no matter what. A second removal won't stop it.

Morph happens!