I am still waiting for the meta shift to aggro enough that I can bring back Willbreaker.

this is what I've been running since kaladesh released, looking for some pointers though as it's struggling to get passed rank 15 for some reason...

gist is to stall out and abuse etb effects, I tend to keep 3 lands or 2 with a castable telling time and a genreal plan of what to do

1x essence flux

3x blessed alliance
3x telling time
1x disperse (thinking of swapping to unsubstantiate 'cause of the sped things seem to be going)

2x eldrazi displacer
3x pilgrim's eye
1x murder
2x essence extraction
2x anguished unmaking
1x lilliana, the last hope

1x suppression bonds
2x insidious will
2x languish
3x diabolic tutor

1x cataclysmic gearhulk
1x possessed scab
1x planar outburst
1x Jace, unraveler of secrets
1x ob nixilis, reignited

1x linvala the preserver
1x torrential gearhulk
1x noxious gearhulk
1x sorin, grim nemesis

2x plains
2x island
2x swamp
2x waste
2x shambling vents
2x sunken hollow
2x prairie stream
2x drowned catacomb
2x isolated chapel
2x glacial fortress
1x crumbling vestige
3x evolving wilds

I agree. I feel like Unsubstantiate doesn't get the respect it deserves currently.

Pushing a T2 or T3 play back a turn can be a pretty serious tempo shift, as can just waiting out the play and using it as a bounce spell instead to blank an early attack. It also works well on a bunch of things in the meta that get +1/+1 counters (like the stuff being run in the Energy decks). I feel like it also plays well with Thing in the Ice if you want to go that route.

It isn't perfect of course, there are a lot of things in the meta we don't really want to bounce, and late game most decks will have enough mana to just play the spell again, making the pseudo-counterspell effect less consistent. We should have enough other removal/counterspells to deal with stuff we don't want to bounce though.

I feel it still has uses in the late game. I feel like it pairs particularly well with other removal options like Blessed Alliance and Oath of Liliana to help narrow down what gets sacrificed. Bouncing your own Gearhulks/Bruna/Avacyn or whatever doesn't seem the worst, and being able to save your limited win-cons by blanking removal with bounce isn't terrible either.

Aether Hub is an auto 3-of for me.

Glimmer of Genius is too damn good; I'm running the max 3.

What is the cut for it?

Also running the full 3 Glimmer; have to denote that I moved towards an Azorius base that runs Black for Sorin+Unmaking (and Shambling Vent). So no Lili, Languish or Obi.

Yeesh, LiLi, Languish and Ob are hard cuts for me. Unanswered LiLi can win the game single-handedly, and both Planeswalkers draw fire away from our face, which is very important in such a reactive deck. Languish is also an auto include, as it answers so many aggro decks.

I'd need to see a list, but this seems like it makes the deck significantly weaker.

My current list is pretty much one that BBB posted earlier; the only thing I added in was a Westvale Abbey.

Creatures (3):
1 x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 x Archangel Avacyn
1 x Torrential Gearhulk

Planeswalkers (3):
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1 x Sorin, Grim Nemesis

Instants and Sorceries (28):
2 x Fragmentize

3 x Gideoon's Reproach
3 x Blessed Alliance
2 x Declaration in Stone
3 x Telling Time

2 x Skywhaler's Shot
2 x Scatter to the Winds
3 x Broken Concentration
2 x Anguished Unmaking

3 x Glimmer of Genius

2 x Planar Outburst
2 x Confirm Suspicions

Lands (26):
2 x Plains
3 x Island
1 x Swamp
2 x Shambling Vent
2 x Praerie Stream
2 x Sunken Hollow
2 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Drowned Catacomb
2 x Isolated Chapel
1 x Westvale Abbey
3 x Aether Hub
4 x Evolving Wilds


Of course Reproach < Grasp and Skywhaler's < Murder, but the difference is small enough that I'll take the easier to cast spells.
Languish is not necessarily a must IMO seeing how this deck runs an increased number of spot removal, which is needed for the Vehicles (these also make Languish a lot worse).
Lili is good, but again BB is a stretch. Obi gets replaced with the third Glimmer.
Maybe some of the Broken Concentration should be Spell Shrivel instead to exile Scrapheap Scrounger and stuff.

I don't understand your decklist. I'm not running into nearly enough vehicles to run Fragmentize. Instead I find I often lose to planeswalkers: so for example I T4 Languish against a Black / Green deck, and then on T5 they play Nissa, Vital Force and wipe me out (or I simply don't draw counterspells, or I have to use stuff like Blessed Alliance to survive their beatdown). Esper is fortunate enough to have two Anguished Unmakings, but I don't find that to be enough. I'm actually running Imprisoned to the Moon right now, I really dislike that card but there's no other alternative. Your deck also has seven creature removals and three planeswalkers only, which seems like you will lose to control decks (Westvale Abbey after all can be sniped out by Liliana's +1 ability).

Having said that I'm struggling between ranks 20-30 with my own decklist, so maybe I don't understand deckbuilding. Will post that decklist later, but in brief, it's based on the synergies between Take Inventory, Oath of Jace and flip Jace.

Why would you say Murder > Skywhaler's Shot? The only 2-power or less creatures I can imagine I really want to kill would be stuff like flip Jace and flip Nissa, which is a valid thing, but they are 2- or 3-mana creatures to which you get no tempo out of using a 3-mana removal on. Skywhaler's Shot is generally better against the big creatures as well thanks to the scry. Glimmer is really good especially with Torrential Gearhulk, but having energy with no way to use it makes me a little itchy.

EDIT: OK so here's what I've been playing:

Creatures (4):
1x Jace, Vyrn's Prodigy -- combos with Oath of Jace
1x Gisela, the Broken Blade
1x Archangel Avacyn -- Flash creature, but also an angel that can be brought back by Bruna
1x Bruna, the Fading Light

Planeswalkers (5):
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar -- I dislike this card, would run Chandra instead if she were white
1x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
1x Sorin, Grim Nemesis

Sorceries (8):

4x Take Inventory
2x Languish
2x Planar Outburst

Enchantments (4}:

2x Imprisoned in the Moon -- will switch to Skywhaler's Shot if I see more creatures
2x Oath of Jace -- I find this card to be quite good; the scry is relevant if you are able to stick a planeswalker and the discard isn't too bad (discard Take Inventory, angels for Bruna, excess lands or win conditions, board clears against control decks, etc)

Instants (13):

3x Blessed Alliance
1x Skywhaler's Shot
2x Anguished Unmaking
2x Scatter to the Winds
3x Broken Concentration
2x Spell Shrivel

Lands (26):

3x Plains
4x Swamp
4x Island
2x Shambling Vent
2x Sunken Hollow
2x Prairie Stream
2x Isolated Chapel
2x Drowned Catacomb
2x Glacial Fortress
3x Aether Hub

Overall Esper feels less powerful compared to before KLD. Then I surged above rank 30 with hardly any problems; now I'm having lots of issues even making rank 30. Not sure if I'm building wrong or if the meta has just shifted too much for the deck to handle.

Fragmentize does not only deal with Vehicles but also with other troublesome artifacts/enchantments. Dynavolt Tower, Fevered Visions, Key to the City and the occasional Thopter Spy Network are some possible targets; pretty much every deck I see nowadays runs at least 1-2 good targets for it. You never want too many of them which is why I only run 2.
Vs. planeswalkers you have 2 Anguished Unmaking as well as counterspells. Tapping out is something I very reluctantly do; as there are multiple things that can screw you over when you are tapped out; Planeswalkers or Fleetwheel Cruisers being the most common things right now (though burn spells and Fevered Visions certainly count as well).
Imprisoned in the Moon is a card I actually have run in Esper Control during EMN, but I was very underwhelmed by it because it didn't solve your general problem - if you have to use Imprisoned t5 you still practically tap out (thus giving your opponent another turn to do things; and in this case you even give him an additional mana).
How does my deck only have 7 creature removal spells? Let me count: Gideon's Reproach, Blessed Alliance, Declaration in Stone, Skywhaler's Shot, Anguished Unmaking, Planar Outburst and Sorin for a total of ... 15 removal spells not counting counters.




Murder's extended range is more important than a scry IMO. You already named flip Nissa and flip Jace that you can't target with Skywhaler's; off the top of my head I'll add Sylvan Advocate (early), Longtusk Cub, Kytheon, Thopter Engineer, Thermo-Alchemist and Chief of the Foundry. Also, sometimes you just want to murder Gideon's 2/2 token so that your Torrential Gearhulk can take that dude out.



Think about it this way: Before we had Glimmer, Esper Control played Comparative Analysis because instant-speed carddraw is so huge. Glimmer is a huge upgrade to that card for the scry 2 alone; the energy are just gravy (except they sometimes fuel an Aether Hub).
As to why instant-speed carddraw is so good: It gives you something to do when you held up a counter but the opponent didn't play something. Main reason to use Glimmer over Read the Bones.

Regarding your list, I dislike Bruna/Gisela in Esper as they have to be played at sorcery speed limiting what you can do on your opponent's turn, while not immediately gaining value and being rather easy to remove.
Gideon is amazing; one of the very few cards I am oftentimes okay with tapping out for t4. He's everything Esper needs: immediate card advantage, a big tempo swing in your favor and a way to pressure the opponent.
Oath of Jace gives you some amount of card selection comparable to Telling Time. However, Telling Time is both cheaper and instant speed; and when you would already rather play Glimmer of Genius than Read the Bones (1 mana cheaper, but sorcery speed), that is a problem. Synergy with Take Inventory only applies when discarding the first copy; every other copy you'd rather cast.
Take Inventory is not the worst draw engine despite being sorcery speed because it's cheap enough. However, you really need to see the second or third copy for that card to be any good - Glimmer and Telling Time are both amazing from the first copy onward.
What your list lacks is another way to interact with the opponent early. Blessed Alliance is okay on the draw, but these three copies are your only 2-mana removal spells as opposed to the 8 I'm running.
Also: Your manabase NEEDS 4 Evolving Wilds; that card helps you get UU for your counterspell, BB for Lili and WW for Gideon; and you generally don't have a t1 play anyways.

About the various things ...

Fragmentize: I just got annihilated by a mill deck that landed Sphinx's Tutelage on turn 3. Maybe I'll start running some too.

Take Inventory / Oath of Jace: After trying it out a bit more I tend to agree with you that the sorcery speed is too big a drawback. Take Inventory at sorcery speed is OK, but 3 mana for Oath of Jace is pricey. There are many times for example where I want to cast it on turn 4 but can't do so safely.

Planeswalkers: I don't understand how you can NOT tap out. For example another game I had recently had the other guy go Elvish Visionary on T2 and T3, and then Recruiter on T4. Clearly I have to Languish right? But that lets him play Nissa on T5 uncontested.

Removal spells: I forgot how I counted 7 removal spells, but that wasn't actually what I meant to say either! What is troubling is that you have so many removal spells that you will have a lot of dead cards against decks not running many creatures (like the Sphinx's Tutelage deck earlier).

Gisela: I find this card has both strengths and drawbacks. Main strengths are that she has three big keywords, and she only costs four mana. All three keywords are important. I find I often drop low on health early (like the Elvish Visionary turns I described earlier - adding an Anguished Unmaking on top of the beats would easily take me below 10), and Gisela's lifelink is a strong way to recover. First strike is also important; as long as Gisela stays in play for example the Scrapyard Scrounger that's causing you grief will not be a problem. Finally only costing 4 mana means she's one of the quickest win conditions to hit play while still leaving up counterspell backup. The drawback with Gisela is that she turns on opponent removal, and she's liable to die immediately to a card that costs less than 4 mana, losing even more tempo. Finally she requires Bruna, who otherwise is not very good. Without Gisela I don't think Bruna would be playable.

Gideon: What I dislike about this card is that it effectively only has one mode. I have attacked big Nissa before after chumping the 5/5 land, but that's the only time. Usually if I'm attacking with Gideon I've typically already won, and of course the emblem is close to useless in a deck with so few creatures. Still kind of have to run him though, since there are no replacements in his slow. If Narset Transcendent were in Duels I'd probably run that instead too.

Glimmer of Genius: This card is obviously strong and would see play even without the energy, but what makes me itchy is that I have energy with no way to use it. I would be tempted for example to splash red for Harnessed Lightning, something like that. After all, the deck already has Aether Hub and Evolving Wilds.

Evolving Wilds: Speaking of this card I tried putting it in and didn't see much of a difference. There ought to be some difference, but I didn't detect it. Even without it I am seldom colour screwed. I would expect the deck-thinning to have some effect, but I didn't detect much difference either in how often I'm mana flooded. Very weird. The only thing Evolving Wilds has done for me is get Awoken by Planar Outburst, and then sacrifice itself to trigger Avacyn.

Anyway as I mentioned it feels like Esper is less powerful right now compared to before KLD, when the deck won as much as 90% of the time. Do you not feel that way? I want to get really good at a deck, but I'd also rather play a tier-1 deck (also playing Esper tends to feature me spamming on the "stop timer" button only to have it not respond a bit too often).

EDIT: Think I'll just steal your deck ... nothing I'm making seems to be working ...
EDIT #2:

So very first game I run into a burn deck with Dynavolt Tower. He spends the first few turns doing nothing and I do nothing as well. Then on turn 4, he throws Collected Defiance at me and makes me discard my hand. I decline to counter since I have no lands. On turn 5, he does the same thing, and again I decline to counter since I had lots of creature removals that would do nothing against his deck. However this lands both Gideon and big Jace in the graveyard. After this exchange he tries Gearhulk on T6, which I counter of course. His hand is now all burn, which he doesn't do anything with since I have no creatures.

At the end of one of his turns, I attempt Archangel Avacyn, which resolves. The next turn he attempts to Twin Bolt Avacyn, and I exile his Dynavolt Tower with Anguished Unmaking in response. He throws Galvanic Bombardment at Avacyn, and I decide to counter. The angel stays in play, hits him for four and I tap out to play flip Jace, since I had no more counters in hand + only had two lands untapped anyway. Then he burns the angel out on his turn and plays Hanweir Garrison. The Garrison gets to attack once before I draw Sorin and the -3 kills the Garrison. Jace flips and he concedes.

Thing is, he didn't have to concede. He could deck me out. I had drawn fourteen cards via Collected Defiance, and three of my win conditions were in the graveyard. With Sorin at 3 loyalty, even if he doesn't have the burn to kill Sorin, it would be a very long time before I can ultimate him, and all that time the +1 would be burning through my deck even faster. If even one burn spell connects with Sorin I'd be in even more trouble. The only other win condition in the deck is Torrential Gearhulk, but that can also be burned out, or at worst chumped with stuff like Hanweir Garrison tokens, and that's assuming I draw the Gearhulk early enough for it to be able to attack enough times to win. I certainly didn't feel like I was winning, in fact that I was losing. But that shouldn't be. I had answered all his threats, I ought to be winning instead of losing.

Either I'm terrible at post-KLD Esper or the deck is something I don't understand.

Yeah, Esper nowadays is generally card-choice based. Depending on your card choices, you'll be in favor and at the same time, have multiple dead cards.

If sideboards were in ladder; the deck would be much more dominant across multiple builds.

This has me thinking though; how do y'all feel about Tragic Arrogance? Seems decent against Enchantment/Artifact/Vehicle type decks and it could be a game changer against cluttered boards if you're behind.

Might try 1x copy in place of an Outburst.

Tragic Arrogance is a great card and has so much value as a 1 of, its something I am surprised that more esper players don't play as like you said its great when you are behind and that is exactly when we would cast it. What are peoples thoughts on Confirm Suspicions I see many builds play it as a two of, I really like this as a one of as it feels like its such a tempo hit to our opponent that I have yet been needing a second?

The obvious reason is that we aren't trying to leave both parties with one creature. We're trying to leave both parties with zero creatures. And cutting Outburst for a card that could still leave Gaea's Revenge beating our face is no bueno.

I second this, we should never ever be cutting Planar Outburst for Tragic Arrogance, the two effects aren't comparable at all. I know your probably giving a worst case scenario for Tragic Arrogancem but if we are leaving Gaeas Revenge on the table from an arrogance then this person shouldn't be playing Esper at all or needs to learn the situations that arrogance gains us value, as its never ever when our opponent has one creature and that creature is Gaeas Revenge.

The issue for me is how few outs we have against cards like Gaea's or even Bristling Hydra. I like the certainty that comes with a card just says "**** it kill everything"

We need that Planar Cleansing reprint frfr.

I posted the Dimir version of this a few weeks back, but I found it was struggling to deal with planeswalkers with limited ability to do direct damage. I tried adding red in at first with mixed results, but found white offered all of the things I needed to make this version a nightmare for most decks to deal with. The main problems I've had is with speed aggro red decks and Superfriends, but I'm not seeing as many of those anymore.

The Sorceries:
3 x Murderous Compulsion
2 x Languish
2 x Biting Rain
2 x Diabolic Tutor
2 x Oblivion Strike
2 x Pore Over the Pages
3 x Rise from the Tides
16 Total

The Instants:
2 x Blessed Alliance
3 x Artificer's Epiphany
3 x Essence Extraction
3 x Murder
2 x Anguished Unmaking
13 Total

The Artifacts:
2 x Brain In a Jar
2 x Dynavolt Tower
4 Total

The Enchantment:
2 x Imprisoned in the Moon
2 Total

The Land:
4 x Plains
4 x Island
6 x Swamp

2 x Shambling Vent
2 x Sunken Hollow
2 x Prairie Stream
1 x Westvale Abbey
2 x Drowned Catacomb
2 x Isolated Chapel
25 Total

The goal is simple. Spend the entire game killing everything that hits the deck, preferably waiting to the last second to do it so you make them waste any enchantments or instant effects, Then, when you have 10 - 15 spells in the graveyard, drop RFtT at the end of their turn using Brain in a Jar. Use Brain during the buildup to easily cast sorceries on their turn or keep mana under control. In extreme cases, use Ormendahl, Profane Prince to finish the job.

That strategy works well with all the traditional deck strategies because they all rely on creatures. Superfriends is tough because getting rid of walkers is not a strength of the deck, but the Imprisoning and Unmaking them does the trick well enough when Dynavolt can't finish them.

Thoughts and suggestions/play experience appreciated!