This tourney field is sad, because Esper is very underrepresented. A shocking amount of tempo decks.

There's a switch in that brain of yours for that "everyone but me must be wrong" mode right?

A lot of us tested it, few of us felt it coped well enough against aggro above 50%.

And if you're wondering "I wonder if Vert thinks our results are because of play errors on ALL our part" the answer is yes, I do think that.

i also think that

I agree, but I was wondering who's deck do you prefer out of the Esperanza decks in the tournament, I am so undecided

Well, please feel free to prove all the doubters wrong in the tournament...nothing like results to shut people down.

The tournament that has already started and to which I am not a member?

Kind of my point...glad you got it.

I'm a pretty perceptive guy. But I'm also a dedicated member of #TeamSideboards so I'll wait for the Afterparty.

I think the same. Sadly i had not enough time to prepare a good esper control this time, but i think that esper is the control deck that requires most time to tune (especially without sideboard).
I feel so bad when i face one in the ladder and it is plenty of no sense cards for a control deck. Maybe in the afterparty if there will be one.

Vert is #TeamSloppySeconds

#TeamFirstIsTheWorstSecondIsTheBest

#SmhWhat

Dusting off this thread bc of this article: http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/deck-of-the-day-esper-control-2/

EFro posts a list that Joseph Carver took to a top 4 finish at a Standard Invitational Qualifier - and that list is very close to the lists we have been running for some time now. For reference; here's Carver's decklist:

Creatures
3 x Torrential Gearhulk
Spells
2 x Dovin Baan
3 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 x Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 x Sorin, Grim Nemesis
2 x Anguished Unmaking
3 x Blessed Alliance
3 x Glimmer of Genius
3 x Grasp of Darkness
2 x Negate
2 x Spell Shrivel
2 x Ruinous Path
2 x Stasis Snare
2 x Murder
Lands
4 x Aether Hub
4 x Evolving Wilds
3 x Prairie Stream
4 x Shambling Vent
4 x Sunken Hollow
2 x Island
3 x Plains
3 x Swamp
Sideboard
2 x Essence Extraction
2 x Negate
2 x Summary Dismissal
2 x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1 x Descend Upon the Sinful
2 x Fumigate
2 x Lost Legacy
1 x Stasis Snare


Main differences from our current lists:
-No Anticipate. Kind of surprising to me to forgo early game card selection.
-No sweepers mainboard. Not that big of a surprise, since Languish is no longer in Standard and 5-mana wraths are too slow at times.
-No Liliana, the Last Hope - turn 3 Walker not good enough.
-Kalitas in the sideboard. So far he hasn't made the cut into most Esper lists for us.

Thoughts?

His deck revolves around targeting things on the spot; which is resonable considering RW-B vehicles and GR aggro is popular. His sideboard lines up well against GB Emrakul and Marvel decks.

Kalitas is probably gas if your opponent has a slow start.

Okay; it seems like I missed the point of what I was trying to say.

My main surprise was that this deck is not running Anticipate. So far, every control deck seen has been running 3 Anticipate - be it Yasookas Grixis, any Jeskai Control, Izzet Tower or whatnot; he's forgoing it for more removal.
Question: Is this correct in Standard; and if so is that maybe also correct in Duels?

My second question would be: So far we have run Liliana as a 3CMC-Walker; even without specific synergy in the deck. Is it time to re-evaluate her position on these lists; especially vs. Kalitas (whose lifelink and zombies have a more immediate impact)?

It's up to a meta-call though; this includes the 3 different platforms for Duels. Personally, I will always run Telling Time until we get something better in its spot. You could easily run T2 card selection and still have open card slots for early removal. Card selection is always powerful; especially with rarity restrictions.



Standard also has direct removal for Planeswalkers, so it makes sense if someone doesn't add her in; not forgetting the fact that they have access to more copies of -Hulk as more ways to win the game.

Duels only has Anguished Unmaking as a "target and got rid of" option for Planeswalkers currently; I'm not including burn spells since most of them don't handle Planeswalkers in one sequence, and enchantment cards like Suppression Bonds and Imprisoned in the Moon will probably get blown up by a Reclamation Sage or Fragmentize. As seen on both livestreams of paper magic and Magic Duels, T3 Liliana can be problematic if not dealt with accordingly, and she's even more powerful in Duels due to the rarity restriction; I think it's still right to run her in control.

Kalitas will eat various removal spells most of the time if you don't plan around it, so I can see why it'll be hard for him to make the cut in almost-creatureless control.

:

Kalitas can almost single-handedly blow out aggro decks.

If it doesn't die immediately, which it often does. I've played lots of games where my first play is Thalia on turn 3, who would otherwise have stopped the aggro deck's attacks, except she dies immediately. Same goes for Gisela, Kalitas, etc.

That's why it's a sideboard card. Because it comes in games vs. decks with minimal removal and usually they'll be pulling that removal after game 1 because you were creatureless.