Vert invités me to a "fun" match last night and then plays this garbage, ugh

On the bright side it isn't undefeated anymore, I played a trash deck

Via the miracle of Barney drawing great and then refusing to play a best of 3, sure

Why would I play again against that thing? We're just playing for fun.

Lol, you two are adorable.

Esper is fun though.

Fun is a relative thing.

This is an experiment, possibly a silly one…after trying UW control I wanted to try out an Esper version of the deck with better early removal and runs as many life gaining control pieces and exile pieces as I can fit. I skipped using spell shrivel because this deck is in it for the truly long game and I feel that card will lose it’s strength for most of the game that this deck is trying to play. I only have 4 win cons, 1 that I don’t expect to survive long after he is played. Using exile effects and memory and hoping to eventually get a win con to stick is the plan. I have thought about adding more gy exile cards, maybe even that cat but I am just starting testing so we will see where this goes.

Esper Control aka Pull from Memory

Creature(2)
1 x Disciple of the Ring
1 x Torrential Gearhulk


Planeswalkers (2)
1 x Liliana, the Last Hope
1 x Sorin, Grim Nemesis


Instant(21)
3 x Fatal Push
3 x Blessed Alliance
3 x Censor (considering Awry here, I just like that cycle so much)
2 x Pull From Tomorrow
2 x Scatter to the Winds
2 x Essence Extraction
2 x Anguished Unmaking
2 x Glimmer of Genius
2 x Confirm Suspicions


Sorcery(4)
2 x Declaration in Stone
2 x Languish


Split(2)
2x Commit // Memory

Enchantment(3)
3 x Cast Out


Land(26)
1 x Plains
3 x Islands
3 x Swamps
2 x Shambling Vents
2 x Sunken Hollow
2 x Prairie Stream
2 x Drowned Catacomb
2 x Isolated Chapel
2 x Glacial Fortress
3 x Aether Hub
4 x Evolving Wilds


Is this a terribad idea?

I'm starting today with control. How often do you guys play Memory with hulk in this kind of deck?

I think I am the only trying to game plan to use it and no one wants to comment on my deck so that gives you an idea

Honestly I don't see memory as the good part of the card. Commit is where it's at giving a lot of flexibility and puts the card out of immediate reach and makes them miss a draw. Memory in my deck serves as a way to make sure I can run few win cons and hopefully not deck myself. It is also part of the defense against Mill but you sill have to draw your answers to their enchants hopefully before you cast memory or you will likely only have extended the game 2 or so turns.

I have played/am playing Control this season, but still haven't figured all of the stuff out (also I haven't had as much time this season due to RL). Another thing is that my perspective seems to greatly differ from the forum's consensus; and since I have been proven wrong in quite some estimates I am a lot less sure about the correctness of my ideas in general.

With that being said, I should at least comment in your deck.

-4 wincons seems a bit light. I'd add a fifth, maybe a sixth; pretty much the usual suspects (Jace, Obi). The cut should be one Confirm Suspicions.
-I'm not very high on Essence Extraction; it's the weakest of your removal spells, yet strains your manabase.
-Only two 3-mana counterspells don't seem to be enough in my mind. Personally I'm still pretty high on Spell Shrivel; 4 mana is a good threshold and the exile clause is relevant. The mana is good enough to Run Broken Concentration as well.
-Commit // Memory is a really weird case. During Spoiler season I was incredibly high on it while others talked it down; right now I seem to be lower on it than most people. I just found 4 mana to be too expensive, and the fact that you have to devote another resource to the card you bounced/countered makes ist worse than I originally thought.

Others than that, the list looks good to me.

I appreciate the input, especially yours. You are upfront about your opinion and how you may need more time but still I would take your's over several others as I find you have a good sense of what a deck needs.

So I finally got tired of playing token decks, and since control seems to be the only archetype that's viable in this wide-open meta without sideboards, I busted out Esper this morning and spanked a couple poor souls trying to play Revolt decks and similar jank. Man, I feel filthy. I hate you for bringing me to this, Wizards/Stainless.

I've been pretty happy with my esper control deck. I won't bother posting the list, it's very similar to everything else here (26 lands, 5 wincons, counter-spell, draw, and removal taking up the rest of the slots).

I did want to start a bit of a discussion about draw effects. I have been loving Pull from Tomorrow and my current build is 2x Pull and 2x Glimmer. What do people think about Hieroglyphic Illumination vs Glimmer for us?

In a deck with 4x gearhulk the early cycling on Illumination is really nice because you don't have to worry about holding a gearhulk because all you have in your GY are counterspells. For us... that's less of an issue and the scry 2 can be huge (effectively lets you dig 4 deep looking for a specific answer).

That being said... could we get away with 25 lands and running an extra illumination (in my case, 3 illumination instead of 4 glimmer)?

There's only 3 Glimmer and 1x Torrential Gearhulk in the game. I think you're getting Standard mixed in there somewhere. With that being said I would much rather have Glimmer than Hieroglyphic in these builds.

I think the cycle on HI has value. I think scry 2 has more value in duels. I wouldnt fault someone for going with HI esspecially if there are other synergies in the deck like drake haven or the cycle demon.

Sorry, I should have said 4 illumination instead of 3 glimmer.

Anyone else finding Disciple of the Ring a bit lackluster as a wincon these days? She's exhausting to protect because all the opponent's creature hate has built up in their hand. Since we don't play her until late (because we don't want to tap out) she needs to exile quite a lot of cards to self protect. Wondering if anyone has tried kefnet instead. He self-protects somewhat, acts as an engine if needed, and can come out a turn faster. Lategame I have had no issues whatsoever having 7 card hands.

Disciple is amazing and wins games single handedly

Perhaps on Xbox against random opponents it does, but at rank 30-40 on steam she has been by far my least reliable and hardest to protect finisher (asside from gearhulk but he comes with other perks).

If you do wait to play her (to still have mana open), actually protecting her from hate is generally more efficiently done via counterspella than her own ability; it's a lot of mana and exiled cards required to leak down an opponent with 8 or 9 lands. At least PWs do something instantly when they land and are vulnerable to far less in the way of direct removal. I'd much rather keep my opponents creature hate dead (virtual card advantage) and if I'm protecting my finishers from my hand anyway, her other abilities just aren't relevant that often in esper control.

Don't get me wrong, she's great and I love her in other decks, but I'm not feeling her here.

I can tell you that it's same on steam, the best control card and best wincon for blue (wondering why she hasnt seen much standard play, maybe because of the dragons). Anyway if you dont consider her much while building your deck she loses some value, i mean using lot of pws and maybe enchantment sac removals.

You only have to find the right spot to play her. I usually play her with 2 or 3 mana left when opponent is tapped out, or i use hulk to bait my opponent and make him use his mana.
Also consider what could be a threat for her before you play her. Red has lighning axe that is the cheapest removal for her, white has dec in stone really cheap, black has sac removals also as creatures. The best removal for her (that luckily see almost 0 play) is the black eldrazi that makes you sac her on cast. But once she is on the board and you untap you have probably won, using well your resources in graveyard.

Idk why you feel that it's different in esper rather than azorius or other combinations of colors, if you opponent is trying to use removals for her he will probably spend his whole turn doing nothing. Also there are occasions in which using a counter from hand is more relevant that countering with her ability. But imo she is better than any pw as wincon in draw go control, and even more this season with commit, cast out and never. But it depends how you build it. Haven't touched esper yet, but the first idea i want to try is to cut Ob and Jace having as wincon only Disciple, Sorin and 2 Pulls.

Definitely dragons. Not only is Dragonlord Ojutai an arguably better wincon than Disciple (doesn't cost anything to protect him, gives you card advantage (+selection) on attack), he also allowed the deck to run pretty much Counterspell and an actually good Edict effect (Also, an amazing draw spell for control mirrors in the sideboard).
Also, Reflector Mage was everywhere (no less thanks to this friggin thing), and Ojutai matched up against that WAY better than Disciple or any other card, really.