Esper Control in Modern with Narset and Teferi with Sideboard Guide

Jeremy Langevin
June 07, 2019
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By now it’s no secret: War of the Spark has had a tremendous impact on the modern format. Whether you’re Neoforming for Griselbrand, activating Karn, the Great Creator to grab a Mycosynth Lattice from your sideboard or messing around with the bevy of sweet planeswalkers provided by the new set; an arms race has begun.

   

WAR has given one of my favorite archetypes, control, a bounty of new toys. This is easily apparent when looking at the numerous UW shells popping up both in paper and in MTGO results. But today I want to talk, not about my typical UW go to: instead let’s talk Esper.


I want to give credit where credit is due. I first decided to try Esper Control after seeing the success Zach Allen had at SCG Open Cleveland in April. I used his list as a jumping-off point:



This list takes a different approach from the common terminus-dominated control decks. Instead of relying on expensive or unreliable sweepers, it relies on cheap spot-removal in the form of Fatal Push, Cast Down, Collective Brutality, and the ubiquitous 4 copies of Path to Exile. I liked that his deck could interact earlier and more often than the Terminus builds, as the problems I often face when playing control in modern result from being run over without time to stabilize and push towards the late game. Terminus is incredible, but I think it has become too clunky for the current meta. With that in mind, shifting to two Supreme Verdict amidst the improved black removal suite is a very welcome change.

   

Another reason I like the shift to Esper is the Dredge matchup. I don’t care how many Rest in Peace you have in the sideboard: this is a rough one. Opting for a deck with more cards that are good against Dredge in the pre-sideboarded games may seem like going overboard but the truth is that Dredge is good at powering through hate and a few sideboard Rest in Peaces won’t do the trick. With cheaper removal, Nihil Spellbomb (which can also cycle), and access to four Snapcaster Mage to rebuy Paths, Pushes, and Surgical Extraction, this matchup has become much closer.


So War of the Spark….well, let’s take a look at the list I took to an 11th place finish at the SCG Classic in Syracuse:


 

Three cards from War of the Spark may not seem like much of a shake-up for the whole format, but they have really powered up the UW/UWx Control decks. Teferi and Narset offer 3 mana proactive plays for the deck to make and aim to slam the door earlier in the game. Dovin’s Veto is the ultimate ‘no’ and gives the deck another fantastic Counterspell to add to its suite.

The most obvious note when comparing this list to Allen’s is the lack of Esper Charm. Although I like the card’s versatility quite a bit, I’m happy to cut it in favor of more planeswalkers. Long term and repetitive advantage is something I value heavily in this deck. Esper Charm serves as a way to generate additional  value in one way or another but I feel planeswalkers do this more effectively. Teferi 3 and 5 do a good job of filling in the Disenchant option on Esper Charm and all 3 of our walkers can draw cards to keep the cards flowing. For a lot of decks, looking across the table to find us with multiple planeswalkers in play can be game over.

Before I go further, let’s look at the changes I’d make to my configuration moving forward:

 

The noteworthy changes here are: +2 Narset, +1 Dovin's Veto,+1 Island, -1 Nihil Spellbomb,  -1 Cryptic Command, -1 Negate, -1 Collective Brutality 

   

I LOVE Narset, Parter of Veils and wanted to find room for more. If you’ve seen the lists UW players are running, she has been making waves all over the control archetype. In the current build of Esper, we don’t have Search for Azcanta which is common in UW. Narset can potentially act as 2 Search activations, and also be put into play as a pseudo enchantment to stifles strategies like Phoenix and UW Control that rely heavily on drawing cards. Be careful not to minus usually against Izzet Phoenix, they are really cold to a 5 loyalty Narset. I think that upping the number of walkers in the list is the right way to go. Chaining into more walkers off Narset puts us so far ahead and makes running the first Narset out without protection feel more free.

 

I’ll be honest, Ashiok, Dream Render is a speculative addition. I’ve seen popping up it in numerous lists. Although I’m not sold, I want to give them a fair shot. Although it is a turn slower than Rest in Peace, it  preserves the utility of our Snapcasters and has the added fetch hate bonus that can neuter decks like Amulet, Tron or Chord decks. It’s also notable that it cannot be hit by Nature’s Claim, which most Dredge decks will board in against you.

 

Teferi, Time Raveler has splash utility against many decks; many instant speed outs from your opponent will be checked off your list of worries. It can always be a handy reset on your own Snapcaster Mage. Little Teferi is the most important and annoying card in the control mirror and it completely warps the game. Rendering the opponent’s counterspells useless while you can stick planeswalkers without disruption is often game ending.

 

At first I still wanted a single Negate in the main for mana concern reasons, but the uncounterability is just too strong against combo and in the ever-more popular mirror. Dovin’s Veto is a much better answer than it is at forcing through your own spell, as they can still target the spell you are trying to protect.

 

I cut the third Nihil Spellbomb to up the Island count after including more copies of Narset, the third Veto, and in an attempt to lower the risk of getting cut off of fetchable sources in control mirrors, where both sides have Field of Ruin. Don’t underestimate the power of more basics!

 

Now that we’ve covered some of the recent Esper revisions, let’s take a look at sideboarding:

Vs. Izzet Phoenix

Out:

x1 Dovin’s Veto

x1 Collective Brutality

x2 Supreme Verdict

x1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

 

In:

x2 Surgical Extraction

x1 Ashiok, Dream Render

x2 Celestial Purge

 

Normally, our deck is able to out grind Izzet Phoenix and besides really fast Arclight draws, Pyromancer Ascension is their best plan. It’s tempting to bring in countermagic in this matchup, but it often isn't worthwhile since they don’t have a lot of important spells to counter besides Pyromancer Ascension and we can get better answers for the pesky quest. Between Teferi and our 2 Celestial Purge, we have enough answers to the opposing engine and our deck is set up well to deal with Phoenixes and Things in the Ice, so as long as you are careful with your answers, the matchup is solid.  I don’t think the second Teferi, Time Raveler out of the board is worth it, but I don’t hate having access to the one copy. I tend to board out a JTMS in matchups that are lightning fast as it’s hard to keep him on the board and hard to tap out on turn four.

 

Vs. Humans

Out:

x1 Dovin’s Veto

x2 Nihil Spellbomb

 

In:

x1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

x1 Surpeme Verdict

x1 Teferi, Time Raveler

 

Humans is another matchup where our redundancy of one and two mana removal spells gives us a favorable bump over UW. Sideboarding here is fairly straight-forward; board out the useless cards. Keep in mind that counterspells quickly become dead with a lack of targets and plentiful Vials, Cavern of Souls, and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. So use them whenever you can. Don’t be afraid to kill a turn one Noble Hierarch. Remember that they usually only play a Plains and an Island so look for spots to take them off of their colors with Field of Ruin if possible. And respect Gaddock Teeg in boarding, he can be really obnoxious.

 

Vs. Tron

Out:

x3 Fatal Push

X2 Nihil Spellbomb

x1 Collective Brutality

 

In:

x2 Dovin’s Veto

x2 Surgical Extraction

x2 Thoughtseize

 

Tron is classically a bad matchup for control decks. We can help our game-plan of going long by disrupting them early, either with Thoughtseizing an Expedition Map or big mana payoff, or by casting Surgical on a land from an aggressive Field of Ruin. Just keep in mind that although they may be cut off of Tron, we are still looking to go long and their top end is better than ours. I’d also consider boarding in Unmoored Ego if I’m on the play, to name a Tron piece that is not in play, but on the draw it can be too slow if they land turn 3 tron and there aren’t many options to name if Tron is already established. Although I’m not positive this is right. If you choose to make that move I’d board out a Supreme Verdict and the Kaya.

 

Vs. Dredge

Out:

x1 Collective Brutality

x1 Teferi, Time Raveler

x1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

x1 Dovin’s Veto

x2 Narset, Parter of Veils

x1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

 

In:

x1 Supreme Verdict

x2 Surgical Extraction

x1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

x1 Ashiok, Dream Render

x2 Celestial Purge

 

This is another matchup where I feel Esper is an upgrade from UW. The greater amount of spot removal allows us to set up a late game more frequently. Killing a Prized Amalgam is less than ideal but it buys a lot of time for you and your planeswalkers, especially if they are only dredging once per turn.  Surgical extraction is often pointed at Creeping Chill or Conflagrate because these are the hardest cards for us to interact with, and require us to leave mana up on our opponent’s turn, making it hard for us to stick one of our planeswalkers.

That said, a lot of the walkers feels clunky, so we keep just enough in to help us pull ahead later. Of note, Narset does not interact with dredge the way we want it to. Dredge requires our opponent to have drawn a card to turn off additional draws. As long as they choose to always dredge in a turn when Narset is out, they won’t face any repercussions. However, if at any point in a turn they choose to draw a card, they are no longer allowed to dredge for the remainder of the turn because of Narset’s passive ability.

 

Vs. UW Control

Out:

x3 Fatal Push

x1 Cast Down

x2 Supreme Verdict

x1 Collective Brutality

 

In:

x1 Ashiok, Dream Render

x1 Teferi, Time Raveler

x1 Dispel

x2 Dovin’s Veto

x2 Surgical Extraction

 

Ah, the control mirror. Making land drops is the name of the game. You don’t necessarily need to crack your first few fetches at their end step as one might be accustomed. We don’t mind having the extra lands in our deck to draw. When you do fetch, make sure to get non-basics if you can, since we only have six basics. Traditional UW has eight to nine, and we don’t want their field of ruins to be strip mines with upside, or ours to be Ghost Quarters when we get to the late game. They also usually keep in a certain number of Path to Exiles as catch-alls. It’s often right to sit and wait for someone to make a move.

This line of play is common in control mirrors, but it has become harder now that Teferi, Time Raveler is legal. Little Teferi flips the terms of engagement if it lands and just the threat of locking out counterspells forces your opponent to leave up their counter magic and deny you a window to resolve him. The best way to force Teferi through is to try to play multiple planeswalkers into their open mana in a single turn, forcing them to have interaction for each piece. This is one of the reasons I’m considering siding out 2 Paths to Exile bringing in 2 Thoughtseize out of the board. It allows you to make a double spell turn earlier in the game with just Thoughtseize and a 3 mana walker.

 

Surgical Extraction is a card my opponents often have mixed opinions of. The reason I like it versus UW is two-fold. First, it’s a way to fizzle opposing Snapcasters while seeing their hand all  for the cost of 2 life (and we also have black mana) that can easily be flash-backed with our Snapcasters. Second, cards like Celestial Colonnade (particularly early in the game while only one is on the battlefield), Snapcaster Mage, and Dovin’s Veto are very juicy targets to Extract that will hinder their inevitability of the opposing control player’s deck by stripping their threats or their ability to protect their threats or counter your’s.  

I’m sure I could go on about this matchup forever, so here’s one last piece of advice: play at a reasonable pace and make sure your opponent’s do the same. When I play hard control, I am a hawk on the clock. I have drawn (and effectively lost or been knocked out) too many times against slow opponents. Don’t be afraid to (politely) nudge your opponents on. I know it may feel awkward, but remember you can always call a judge to watch both you and your opponent for slow play at any point in your match. They are there to help. These games are inherently slow, just remember to be cautious. Don’t concede too soon, but keep the entire match in mind if your opponent pushes past you early in the game.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my breakdown of what I feel is on the most fun decks to play in modern right now. If you like control, like activating multiple walkers in one turn, or just want to try something new: I highly suggest giving Esper Control a whirl. The format was shaken up by War of the Spark and Modern Horizons will probably do the same, but Esper Control will still be a force in the metgame. Feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or Twitter if you have any questions, or just want to talk Esper. See ya!