Quote Originally Posted by phazonmutant View Post

What do you guys think of the sideboard plans that I proposed?

1. Painful Truths. This is the typical complement with Esper Mentor, but it has the problems of being 3 mana (already clogged with Mentor), vulnerable to the spell hate people tend to bring in (Flusterstorm, Daze etc), and still ahem painful.
2. Stoneforge Mystic + Batterskull. Stoneforge is ETB card advantage, and BUG decks have a real tough time beating a Batterskull in play. Miracles also has trouble with a recurring 4/4 if the game gets to that point. It's great against creature / tribal decks where Mentor isn't necessarily. Equipment helps the token plan. Very promising, but most likely needs a third white source.
3. Counterbalance. Yes. It's a huge bomb against Miracles especially since I can power it out turn 1 with Lotus Petal and doesn't get hit by either removal or Flusterstorm. It also allows me to cut Flusterstorms for my anti-combo slots, leaving more room for other matchups. It isn't great against Delver though. I think this is better in the right metagames, but overall weaker.

Potential sideboards:
4 Monastery Mentor, 2 Stoneforge Mystic, 1 Batterskull, 3 Swords to Plowshares, 1 Dread of Night, 2 Flusterstorm, 2 Serenity (and -1 Sea, +1 Tundra maindeck)
4 Monastery Mentor, 3 Counterbalance, 1 Sensei's Divining Top, 4 Swords to Plowshares, 2 Disenchant, 1 Serenity
Interesting. I was playing Esper Mentor for a while - and I honestly liked both Fact or Fiction and Esper Charm significantly more than Painful Truths. Instant speed is big game unto itself. That said - Painful Truths is far easier to cast in a deck of Dark Rituals than Esper Charm is. However, all of these are vulnerable to cards that our opponents are likely to bring in: spell pierce, flusterstorm, etc. That's why I was tending to like Bob, as he is usually harder for them to interact with post board.

I've had a few local people ask me about Stoneforge + BSkull as well. Had been meaning to test that, but never really got around to it. Because of the mana in this deck, I was tending to lean towards a more aggressive configuration of Bobs and Mentor to hedge against wastelands and such. Could easily be wrong though.

Counterbalance is fascinating. I've played it as a tempo card in a few other decks, but hadn't really thought about it here. That sounds like a hilarious sideboard transformation. I would just worry that we're too threat light then.

Cool ideas! And good work on the T4!