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Straightforward Esper control: The idea is to gain serious card advantage with Phyrexian arena, and then to kill with Chasm Skulker while countering everything your opponent does. The mainboard is currently formulated to play against control decks, so if you were playing against an agro or midrange deck you'd want to side in mana leak and silence, and take out some of the pricier counters.Also I need help with land, but I need it to be very budgety. However, any suggestions are appreciated.
Chasm Skulker- I chose this as the finisher for two reasons: 1. It benefits a lot from the card draw of phyrexian arena 2. It will survive through a board wipe (well not actually, but a wiping while I have just that out will get lots of little tokens). Also its just a very powerful card.Nyx-Fleece Ram- life gain and also an nice 5 toughness blocker. I think it will help against agro.Supreme Verdict- I chose this as my board wipe because Im really looking to win against the control matchup, and this can't be countered.Disdainful Stroke- I chose disdainful stroke because it is cheap (both mana and $$$) and it will take card of those powerful spells lurking in my opponents hand.Dispel- I have some dispels because I want to be able to cheaply counter my opponents counters which target my few relevant spells.Dissolve- Dissolve is one of the few solid counters, also scry.Hero's Downfall- removal!Punish Ignorace- this is the Siege Rhino of counterspells (in the sense that its tricolor, it costs 4 mana, and when its cast you gain three life and your opponent loses three life) Also a solid counter which I don't mind paying for because the curve is so low.Rune Snag- this is a spells that obviously gets more powerful as the game goes on. I also really like it against the agro matchup.Utter End- Catch-all removalPhyrexian Arena- possibly the most important card in the entire deck- if you can't get an arena out early, then you're going to have a tough time. But if you can get it out, you will be drawing two cards per turn and getting you severely ahead on card advantage.Reliquary Tower- lets you keep all the cards you draw off of phyrexian arena in your hand.SIDEBOARDbecause the mainboard is so set up for controlish decks, the sideboard is to take out agro decksTidebinder Mage- if you're opponent is playing agro, they're probably playing red, and this will help you neutralize a threat.Mana leak- again against agro decks, they probably won't have the mana which will probably make this a solid counterSIlence- gets them behind on board state, which agro decks desperately need, and gives you another chance to draw another counter (hopefully)Surgical Extraction- this is meant to disable combo decks of any kind (counter the first one and the extract the other one out of the their hand and library)
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I have put together my own version (http://www.mtgvault.com/muktol/decks/wub-control/) of an esper control deck and tried to keep it budgetish. I tried to choose dual/multi purpose cards and tough I don't have any idea if it will work (no games played with it until now), here are some suggestions from this deck:"Consult the Necrosages"... cc3 for draw 2 or discard 2"Treasure Cruise"... since I'm not using many flashback spells ("Think Twice" being the only one) and no Snapcaster Mage (due to budget built) delve serves to convert used cards from my graveyard into mana. Ideal would be to exile 7 cards to play a cc1 for draw 3 ;)"Crib Swap" or "Unmake" costs less (cmc) than "Utter End""Esper Charm"... cmc3 multi purpose card"Forbidding Watchtower"... manland that helps to survive"Shambling Vent"... manland with lifelinkGreetingsMuktol
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Thanks for the comment! Consult the necroses for me would just be used as a discard card because I really feel like I have enough card draw with phyrexian arena, and if I don't I was going to also add some monastery sieges. In the original making of this deck I had four treasure cruises, but fun fact, its banned in modern. I'll definitely use crib swap, I like that far more than Utter End (and its cheaper). Ester Charm Is basically just consult the necroses except it costs one more colored mana and adds the ability to destroy an enchantment, and I feel like I would rather just run a three cost counter that just needs two colors to preemptively destroy that enchantment. Also I feel like I don't need discard in this deck because I want to have a hand full of counters to just counter any threat they present. Forbidding watchtower I might add, Ill see if I need more defense when I playlets this weekend (it also depends on if I feel like I can run a second source that most of the time is giving me one colorless). I would love to run Shambling Vent, its just way out of my price range. Maybe if the price drops Ill invest.
*gmlr* I took the time to look the banlist up (don't know why the last bannings wheren't added) and did what`Right! Add it....
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Thanks for taking a look! Actually the only time I've lost with this deck so far (out of 8ish matches that were all in my favor) was when I didn't draw Phyrexian Arena until around turn 25ish, and I lost soon after I drew it. So yeah if I don't draw Phyrexian Arena reasonably quickly I will lose, but I feel like most matches I can stall long enough with counterspells/removal to draw it in time to save me.Also the sideboard is something I've really struggled with...I know that the seventy five I have there are the seventy five I want, but I really don't know what should be sideboard and what should be mainboard so if you have any thoughts I would love to hear them!
Pretty good deck man :) Now about those lands, they would be alright except most of them enter tapped, and in most cases I find when I am one mana away from excecuting a counteractive spell or a multi-color spell, a tapped land really is a pain in my but. So we should make ammends for this considering you want reliable timing and response as much as possible, without making it too expensive. Give me a moment as I formulate my version of your lands section
Okay so here is my version of what looks good for your lands.4x Arcane Sanctum3x Drowned Catacombs2x Glacial Fortress3x Temple of Silence9x IslandsIf you really wanted to keep the scry aspcet of things, you could always throw in a Mystic speculation or two, but that might weaken the core purpose of the deck. I increased the number of Islands and decreased the number of Temple of scilences. The ammount of Islands you have will help you out with having the Drowned Catacombs and Glacial fortresses enter untapped, and even if they enter tapped, they still have that chance of not doing so. Hope this helps!
This was a major concern for me when I first made this deck, but through play testing, I've found that my curve makes it so that I can play those tap lands and get a little behind early game but then make up for it late game. If I were playing a more normal control deck where my curve peaked like 6 or 7 I would definitely go with that line of thought. However, my curve peaks at four, so after my fourth land drop really extra lands only help me cast multiple spells per turn unless I go with the scry lands, which let me get that scry that will help me search for the chasm skulker/phyrexian arena that this deck revolves around. Thanks for taking look!
Alright dude, I see what you were thinking now, and that makes sense. As long as it works to your liking and things are fun, then you know things are going good!