Esperzoa

[The Doctor]

As the name implies, I am trying to build a legacy deck based on Esperzoa. The idea is to use Esperzoa's "drawback" with the individually good Shardless Agent and Baleful Strix. With artifact acceleration, the deck also attempts to toss out turn three Jaces and Tezzerets which stand momentarily protected by Agents and Strixes. It only takes a few turns for Jace or Tezzeret to get out of control and bury your opponent in card advantage, not to mention Tezzeret's ultimate.


4 Esperzoa
4 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent

4 Metalworker
3 Dimir Signet
4 Prophetic Prism
2 Mox Opal
2 Chromatic Lantern

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Force of Will

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
3 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand


Metalworker is a powerhouse in this deck. Thanks to the many cantrip effects along with Esperzoa bouncing your artifacts back to hand, Metalworker remains relevant even in the late game. Luckily, thanks to not having many expensive cards, the deck still functions without an active Metalworker, so it isn't terrible if Metalworker dies.

Don't immediately laugh at Prophetic Prism. It isn't excellent at anything, but it fulfills many niche purposes such as being a card advantage engine with Esperzoa, converting colorless mana to useful blue/green/black mana, and not being a horrible cascade thanks to the draw trigger.

I would like to add some removal such as Abrupt Decay or even Swords to Plowshares, but I am unsure of what to cut. Also, they can make for some awkward cascades. The deck performs fine against midrangy creature decks, but when the other deck has a swarm of creatures, it has huge problems.

Sooo, any suggestions? :)

(& I am still working on the sideboard)

[Sinister2]

I think you will have the same problem as Affinity and other artifact heavy decks has; hate.

Kataki, War's Wage, Energy Flux, Null Rod etc. all make major problems for the deck.

[WorldslayerGuy]

Seems if you're running Shardless Agent, you want some more good stuff to cascade into. Ancestral Vision, Hymn, etc. You know, besides Signet and Mox Opal.

[MGB]

Esperzoa is so much better in Vintage than it is in Legacy.

In Vintage its drawback is an asset. (Tangle Wire, tons of Moxen and other cheap artifact mana that can be replayed)

In Legacy there just aren't enough cheap artifacts like the Moxen / Crypts in Vintage. Neither are there Workshops to power out other powerful artifacts like the aforementioned Tangle Wire (which is insanely good in Vintage, but only "bleh" in Legacy because of Workshop ban).

[Mr. Safety]

I think Trinisphere would be a decent idea for the deck, and I can't help but think that cascading every turn into more mana seems really underwhelming. Oftentimes you will end up having a surplus of mana but nothing to do with it. You will also cascade past your PW's you want to draw fairly often.

Just some thoughts.

[Wanderlust]

4 Esperzoa
4 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent



I REALLY like this combination of cards. Totally brilliant idea!

I'll test your list it and report back.

Edit: Okay, played a few matches on Cockatrice with this. It was extremely powerful against both decks I played against (which were both slow and plodding). However, as others have said above, I wanted Shardless Agent to have more good things to cascade into! I also wasn't at all sold on Chromatic Lantern or Prophetic Prism. Especially Chromatic Lantern. I also felt a little weird about Metalworker - it forced me into awkward decisions about whether to play things to maximize my resources this turn, or hold them back to have Metalworker mana next turn. Since there are no bombx > 4 mana in the deck right now, the answer was usually to play things sooner, making Metalworker worse. So I'm inclined to suggest cutting him.

Okay - I have an idea. Decklist coming in a few minutes.

[Wanderlust]

It's untested, but here's what I'm thinking:

4 Esperzoa
4 Baleful Strix
3 Shardless Agent
4 Vault Skirge
1 Master of Etherium

4 Cranial Plating
1 Umezawa's Jitte

2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

4 Force of Will

3 Dimir Signet
2 Mox Opal
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp

SB: 4 Chalice of the Void
SB: 3 Trinisphere
SB: 2 Lodestone Golem
SB: 2 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 2 Pithing Needle

I think Jitte is a solution to your stated issue with swarms of creatures. Cranial Plating + Vault Skirge also does a fantastic impression of Batterskull, known to be awesome against aggro strategies.

Cascading into Jitte, Plating, Vault Skirge, or Baleful Strix sounds pretty great to me. But testing will tell!

EDIT: Originally not enough mana sources for all that expensive stuff. Added a couple more lands to make it work better.

[Megadeus]

I think you will have the same problem as Affinity and other artifact heavy decks has; hate.

Kataki, War's Wage, Energy Flux, Null Rod etc. all make major problems for the deck.

These cards do not see regular play in anyones sideboard at the moment so I don't see why these could be too relevant...

[civet five]

I think you will have the same problem as Affinity and other artifact heavy decks has; hate.

Kataki, War's Wage, Energy Flux, Null Rod etc. all make major problems for the deck.

These cards haven't seen maindeck or sideboard play in what, 2 years?

@Doc - what's Metalworker like without haste? Seems like you have in to invest a bunch to get him online (and with only 2 Mox, you don't have much early acceleration). If he's largely there as bolt-bait, why not cram more of the traditional U/B Tezz-Controll shell in with the added utility of Esperzoa-Shardless?

[No_Life_No_Future]

Could you fit in thoughtcast?

[The Doctor]

Sorry for the late reply everyone. I actually came back to check the thread a few times the first few days after I posted, and no one had replied, so I just thought it was going to be buried under other threads.

@Sinister2, as Megadeus & civet five said, I'm not too worried about those cards. Besides, I wouldn't be able to beat them even if I tried.

@WorldslayerGuy, I think Hymn is a bit too mana intensive for me to want to normally cast. Nooow Ancestral Vision on the other hand...I actually did have that in an earlier version of the deck. The thing about it was that I already draw so many cards with the deck, that it strangely feels like a win more. That is, if I have an esperzoa or walker engine going, I am drawing tons of cards anyways, so the extra 1.5 that it draws over stuff like prophetic prism does not matter as much as you would think. That said, it is very good on the first turn, but I am not sure that outweighs how bad it is late game :/ It does feel great to brainstorm it back on top then cascade into it, but when I already have an active jace, that cool play isn't what won me the game. All of that said, I AM looking for other cascade targets. If there were some other cantrip artifact like baleful strix, that would be perfect for the deck. Too bad that doesn't exist :(

@MGB yes, that is completely true. Fortunately, legacy in general is weaker than vintage, so hopefully bouncing back cantrips and cascades each turn could be decent enough. Also, let's not completely ignore Mox Opal ^_^

@Mr. Safety, the obvious thing about Trinisphere is that it turns Shardless Agent into a 6 mana card. That said, I think I would still sideboard something like it for combo matches. You'd also be surprised by how mana starved this deck is. In addition, constant cascading doesn't feel bad, because it quickly thins the deck, and more importantly, after each one you have the opportunity to use a fresh Sensei's Divining Top. Seeing 5 or 6 new cards a turn makes finding a planeswalker not all that difficult :)

@Wanderlust, that is the reason I made the deck ^_^ I'm not sold on Chromatic Lantern either. I actually really like Metalworker and Prophetic Prism though :/ I actually tended to just cast the artifacts because my hand would be full of cards anyways, so even when I "maximized resources", I'd still have artifacts left in hand. The thing about cutting Prophetic Prism is that once you do, I think you'll see how difficult it is to even cast spells, so there needs to be something else that can create colored mana. Interesting idea with the Vault Skirge and Cranial Plating. I had considered Master of Etherium and Etched Champion, but now that I think about it, Cranial Plating doesn't seem like the worst idea in the world. It lets me be very agressive, but also makes random shardless agents and skirges just kill creatures that attack into them or try to block them...

@civet five, I had thought about lightning greeves, but it does so little with anything not named metalworker. But now that you mention haste, I just realized that Thousand-Year Elixir could be cool. It has the benefit of giving the important part of haste and even letting me tap a freshly cast metalworker in the face of instant speed removal. Plus, it can untap stuff...The question is if the one extra mana is worth that.

@cooldude254 I would put it in if I could fit it. I just don't know where :/

Thanks for the replies everyone! Some interesting ideas.

[Wanderlust]

@Wanderlust ... The thing about cutting Prophetic Prism is that once you do, I think you'll see how difficult it is to even cast spells, so there needs to be something else that can create colored mana.

I actually agree with you. I spent 6-8 hours yesterday on Cockatrice with the deck, tweaking between each match. Without Prophetic Prism, I was finding it difficult to consistently cast Shardless Agent, and not worth the effort even when I did. So I wound up cutting Shardless and thus green entirely. That allowed for an artifact-land-heavy manabase, improving Mox Opal, Cranial Plating, and Tezzeret. The deck I wound up with is fairly far removed from your OP, so won't post the whole list here - suffice to say, it is like UB Tezzeret control's more aggro/midrange cousin, with Esperzoa, Vault Skirge, Baleful Strix, and Master of Etherium as beaters.

Something else I was finding while testing both your list and my proposed list from above was that, because the deck plays so many bombs, I rarely wanted to throw mana into spinning Top in the early turns; by the later turns, I already had Tezz or Jace as better card selection engines. Top was usually very relevant only if I kept a bad (esp. land-light hand) or if I was in Hail Mary mode. So I think cutting it for something like Chalice of the Void might be better.

Esperzoa has been consistently awesome - totally an underplayed card imo. My favorite thing I did with it yesterday was against OmniShow (I'm on the play game 2):

Turn 1: Tomb, Chalice for 1
Turn 2-3: lands/opal, Dimir Signet, Baleful Strix, Esperzoa
Turn 4: Esperzoa trigger bouncing Chalice, replay it at 3.

This shut off both Cunning Wish and Show and Tell, putting them on the "I must cast Dream Halls and I must win with Emrakul" plan. They didn't get there. Obviously this was risky in that it opened up losing to FoW, but the risk paid off. I had another Chalice waiting in my hand for next turn (if I got a next turn) just in case.

[FTW]

Turn 1: Tomb, Chalice for 1
Turn 2-3: lands/opal, Dimir Signet, Baleful Strix, Esperzoa
Turn 4: Esperzoa trigger bouncing Chalice, replay it at 3.

This shut off both Cunning Wish and Show and Tell, putting them on the "I must cast Dream Halls and I must win with Emrakul" plan. They didn't get there. Obviously this was risky in that it opened up losing to FoW, but the risk paid off. I had another Chalice waiting in my hand for next turn (if I got a next turn) just in case.

Why would you risk bouncing Chalice @ 1 if you had a 2nd Chalice? Why not bounce the Strix (for draw), then cast the 2nd Chalice @ 3 and if that gets Forced you can bounce+replay the other Chalice @ 3.

[Wanderlust]

Why would you risk bouncing Chalice @ 1 if you had a 2nd Chalice? Why not bounce the Strix (for draw), then cast the 2nd Chalice @ 3 and if that gets Forced you can bounce+replay the other Chalice @ 3.

Haha yeah... good point... I must have drawn the Chalice the next turn. Or I must not be very good at this game.

[The Doctor]

Bump... (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/cards/magic-2015/23237-chief-engineer)

I had given up on this deck, but now I have some hope. As mentioned in the thread, colored mana is a real problem for this deck. I may even add more artifact creatures and start testing this deck when I have free time.

[Madmankevinx]

Where is The Abyss?