catmint
03-20-2012, 08:29 AM
I have been thinking about Esperblade since Innistrad, but never liked the mana issues involved playing thoughseize, swords & brainstorm. The recent success proves me wrong (altough lingering souls could be enough power to sacrifice consistency), however I think on the long run UW(r) is stronger because of it's mana consistency. We will see if Matell’s take on Esperblade will remain on the top.
I came to the conclusion that it would be nice to have something grinding like Nic Fit with a much better combo matchup and came up with that. The idea is basically: Grind out non-linears with planeswalkers, tokens, snapcaster, jitte,... and win against linear decks by surviving until turn 3 and locking the game with the support of a powerful Enlighten Tutor Package from the SB.
I did not really test a lot or analyze certain matchups, but it would be nice to hear some thoughts/ideas nevertheless.
This is my first take:
//Manabase
2 Wasteland
2 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
2 Scrubland
2 Swamp
2 Plains
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Marsh Flats
3 Flooded Strand
//Removal & Disruption
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Innocent Blood
3 Vindicate
4 Thoughtseize
2 Liliana of the Veil
//Utility
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
3 umezawa's jitte
1 Intuition
3 Snapcaster Mage
//Win conditions
2 Bitterblossom
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Lord of Innistrad
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Lingering Souls
//Sideboard
3 Surgical Extraction
4 Spell Pierce
3 Enlightened Tutor
1 Energy Flux
1 Arcane Laboratory
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Humility
Some choices:
No SFM: Very debateable. It would of course eat removal most of the time, but tutoring up jitte should be enough value. I opted not to and increase the numbers of jitte instead. Having multiples can suck (thank god there is brainstorm), but having it among the flying tokens is so important that I rather have a jitte equiped for 4 mana than 6 with SFM but loosing redundancy and batterskull therefor. Also other decks jitte's are a problem so multiples are golden in these matchups. This could easily be -1 Jitte, -3xy + 1 Batterskull, +3 SFM
3 Sorin: also debateable.
I would like to try it, since it supports the token theme best and I want test -6 versus Maverick. The number 3 only to make it tutorable with intuition. It is also easier to cast than jace and Elspeth altough these are probably more powerful in a vacuum.
Removal:
Creature matchups should be favourable G1. Vindicate to support versus opponents planeswalkers.
SB Strategy:
The idea is to see if 4 thoughtseize, 4 Spell Pierce, 3 Surgical is enough to survive until turn 3 where I hope the enlighten tutor package is enough to have an edge over linears like storm, burn, affinity, forgemaster, enchantress, dredge,… It could play 4 enlightened tutor since they are not dead after the hate is found by tutoring up bitterblossom/jitte, which also help to make up for the ET card disadvantage.
Manabase:
I think it is conservative, but since reaching 4+ mana is key, making land drops anf fetching basics should be the way to go.
No mass removal.
EE, Perish, Wrath/Damnation are the options. I opt not to use them, because I feel jitte and Sorin's - 6 can surve that purpose and Vindicate is a better catch all instead of EE.
Thoughtseize
Life loss hurts, but jitte should be involved in most of the games. Beeing able to take Force of Will, Batterskull and Jace is more important than saving life with inquisiont since the deck does not play Force of Will.
Other card considerations
Phyrexian Arena could easily go in there as a one of.
Dystopia seems good, but I decided for Humility.
Chill instead of COP: Red since slowing down burn could be enough to get going with jitte and does not require to have mana open...?!
I came to the conclusion that it would be nice to have something grinding like Nic Fit with a much better combo matchup and came up with that. The idea is basically: Grind out non-linears with planeswalkers, tokens, snapcaster, jitte,... and win against linear decks by surviving until turn 3 and locking the game with the support of a powerful Enlighten Tutor Package from the SB.
I did not really test a lot or analyze certain matchups, but it would be nice to hear some thoughts/ideas nevertheless.
This is my first take:
//Manabase
2 Wasteland
2 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
2 Scrubland
2 Swamp
2 Plains
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Marsh Flats
3 Flooded Strand
//Removal & Disruption
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Innocent Blood
3 Vindicate
4 Thoughtseize
2 Liliana of the Veil
//Utility
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
3 umezawa's jitte
1 Intuition
3 Snapcaster Mage
//Win conditions
2 Bitterblossom
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Lord of Innistrad
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Lingering Souls
//Sideboard
3 Surgical Extraction
4 Spell Pierce
3 Enlightened Tutor
1 Energy Flux
1 Arcane Laboratory
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Humility
Some choices:
No SFM: Very debateable. It would of course eat removal most of the time, but tutoring up jitte should be enough value. I opted not to and increase the numbers of jitte instead. Having multiples can suck (thank god there is brainstorm), but having it among the flying tokens is so important that I rather have a jitte equiped for 4 mana than 6 with SFM but loosing redundancy and batterskull therefor. Also other decks jitte's are a problem so multiples are golden in these matchups. This could easily be -1 Jitte, -3xy + 1 Batterskull, +3 SFM
3 Sorin: also debateable.
I would like to try it, since it supports the token theme best and I want test -6 versus Maverick. The number 3 only to make it tutorable with intuition. It is also easier to cast than jace and Elspeth altough these are probably more powerful in a vacuum.
Removal:
Creature matchups should be favourable G1. Vindicate to support versus opponents planeswalkers.
SB Strategy:
The idea is to see if 4 thoughtseize, 4 Spell Pierce, 3 Surgical is enough to survive until turn 3 where I hope the enlighten tutor package is enough to have an edge over linears like storm, burn, affinity, forgemaster, enchantress, dredge,… It could play 4 enlightened tutor since they are not dead after the hate is found by tutoring up bitterblossom/jitte, which also help to make up for the ET card disadvantage.
Manabase:
I think it is conservative, but since reaching 4+ mana is key, making land drops anf fetching basics should be the way to go.
No mass removal.
EE, Perish, Wrath/Damnation are the options. I opt not to use them, because I feel jitte and Sorin's - 6 can surve that purpose and Vindicate is a better catch all instead of EE.
Thoughtseize
Life loss hurts, but jitte should be involved in most of the games. Beeing able to take Force of Will, Batterskull and Jace is more important than saving life with inquisiont since the deck does not play Force of Will.
Other card considerations
Phyrexian Arena could easily go in there as a one of.
Dystopia seems good, but I decided for Humility.
Chill instead of COP: Red since slowing down burn could be enough to get going with jitte and does not require to have mana open...?!