[SCD] Elspeth Knight Errant

- pretty much dead against all kinds of combo-matchups (-)
- against fair decks:
Very strong if they cannot interrupt her (+), however there are several cards that, in fact, are able to do so (-):
• Red: Lightning Bolt, Punishing Fires (Jund, Thresh)
• Vendilion Clique (Esper, Miracle)
• Lingering Souls (Esper)
- if they can infere with her Elspeth ends up soaking up a chunk of damage, which as a worst case scenario is pretty good (+)

Elspeth on a scale 1-6 (1 = best)
against
1. Jund: 3+ or 2-
2. Esperblade: 2-
3. Thresh: 3
4. U/W Miracle: 2+
5. all kinds of combo (TES, S&T, Reanimator, Elves): 6 or 5

So yeah, rather mediocre? What do you think?

I use to run it as a one of in my bant list for the control and miracles matchup.

however with my package of FOW, spell pierce, teeg, and cliques, and jaces main deck, I don't see the point of running it.

Its pretty lousy against RUG and Esper.

Rug, you dont' usually get the mana to 4, they have fliers, and they have bolt.

Esper, I am just not all too familiar with it, but based on what i see, i don't think i would board it in anyways.

As always, contextuality is important.

What is Elspeth doing in the deck? If it is jumping Geist of St Traft or Mirran Crusader, then it means damage. In other decks it mostly supplies blockers. I am testing a kind of Geist Control UWr build, with 4 Geist and 2 Elspeth along with 2 Jaces in the high-end. I like it, but besides that, I haven't played Elspeth in a long time...

I like Sorin better than Elspeth in a lingering souls deck. Lifelink matters. The -2 ability means usually more damage then elspeths +3/+3, but most importantly a planeswalker where stalling to ultimate is an option to turn an unfavourable board state around. Ultimate happens earlier and has a bigger impact than with Elspeth. Starting with 4 instead with 5 loyalty counters like elspeth does matter as well though.

I think the key cards that should go along Elspeth are Moat and Humility.

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Originally Posted by (nameless one)

I think the key cards that should go along Elspeth are Moat and Humility.

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Especially Humility.

Humility and sweepers break Elspeth. In a Jace infested meta, you will find that Elspeth is going to be smacking a lot of Jaces in the face. Elspeth is well capable of finishing Jace just by her own (without any additional spell/support) but Jace would require a host of cards and board position to deal with an active Elspeth.

Amazing finisher in a UWr countertop/terminus deck. The chump blockers buy you time and eventually serve as a win condition. That deck can run a variety of options as its game winning card, but I think Elspeth is especially nice as a trump in the control mirror.

Zoo used to run her. It was amazing. In fact, overall she's pretty good in aggro decks vs. blue decks.

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Originally Posted by wcm8

Amazing finisher in a UWr countertop/terminus deck. The chump blockers buy you time and eventually serve as a win condition. That deck can run a variety of options as its game winning card, but I think Elspeth is especially nice as a trump in the control mirror.

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This. In the mirror, the only way to stop an active Elspeth is either managing to sneak in a Clique and have her attacking twice the PW, or Entreat the Angels for X being at least 3 (because pre-board one Angel is very likely to take that dead Plow in hand not Brainstormed away or kept for a Clique). UWr Miracle also used to run Sulfur Elemental in side when Maverick used to be big (and Lingering Souls which has now made an expecteable comeback), but that card has become more and more rare.


Besides winning against Jace and Liliana all the time, I'd also like to point out how Elspeth can be devastating against BUG decks, as they have no outs to her besides the miser Maelstrom Pulse. Jund partially mitigates this by having Punishing Fire, but if you are able to get rid of that (and of Deathrite Shaman), she provides an excellent tool of enduring BBE and Goyf beats while buying time to stabilize board and then switching gears to use soldier tokens offensively. She's also quite hard to put down as her starting loyalty is 5.

I think that, nowadays she should be an automatic 1-ofs in the maindeck or in the sideboard of every UWx control deck, either Stoneblade (especially with Geist) or Miracle. It is also really good in Maverick-esque builds to bypass Terminus and other sweepers.

I been running Elspeth in Esper blade as the 3rd Lingering Souls/ 4th Jace. Very good in both control and aggro match ups. Bad vs Combo. Not all that good vs mana denial decks as its tough to get to 4 mana sometimes.

I like Elspeth but her big problem is that she dies to Delver of Secrets in only two hits and cannot protect herself from it.

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Originally Posted by kirdie

I like Elspeth but her big problem is that she dies to Delver of Secrets in only two hits and cannot protect herself from it.

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Yeah but you usually win when she lands, RUG has to answer her or they die on the spot (it's not, oh they can bolt her, it's, They have to bolt her or die) pretty much a turn or two after.

Although, resolving 4 mana permanents against tempo is a good sign your winning anyways....or they have the most insane tech ever.

To me Elspeth is probably the best designed PW ever printed in term of equity. She's powerful, deserves its 4 cmc, is even game breaker in some cases, is solid enough to stick the board 1 turn while taking benefit of its abilities, but she's never broken.

As some others said before, I consider that Elspeth is probably also one of the best (if not the best) weapon in mirror control matches, and so she almost always deserves to be considered in a UWx control build. Depending of the meta, especialy how fast and how combo it is, but there are few cases where she simply is not a good choice if you're running UWx and expecting to deal with others UWx control build.

I've been testing her in Maverick (trying a couple options for this slot including her, Sublime Archangel, and Rafiq) and so far I like her a bit more than the Archangel because of the immediate impact she has on the game and her potential to stick around for awhile. Most of my games with the deck tend to be really grindy in my meta, often going to time, so I'm curious to see just how effectively I can actually get her ultimate off. The only time I got to her between my last tournament Saturday and a few practice rounds with my friend was during one of those practice rounds and she got promptly countered, though had she stuck around she would've made a tremendous impact on the game where Sublime Archangel wouldn't have (though Rafiq might've). I'll probably test her some more over the next few weeks and see what I think of her.