PTQ Dublin - Esper Control

A friend of mine came for the PTQ and he played with my Jund deck (with some changes) so I had to come up with a different deck. I did not have much choices as I hardly have cards for type 2 decks except for Bant and Esper control decks. Lately I just sell or trade cards but I don't keep t2 cards for myself.

I decided to play Esper Control because Bant without Thragtusk did not seem right. Building a control deck against a meta I hardly saw is difficult and the deck is difficult to pilot (without prior experience). I expected that the field would be aggro and midrange heavy. Esper and UWr would be a minority.

At first I wanted to play a version that runs Snapcaster Mage, Restoration Angel and Augur of Bolas but later switched to running 4x Lingering Souls, Sorin and Jace. I put more or less this list together and played few games against that Jund deck and it was winnable.

[DGM] Esper Control
stsung
Type II

Main Deck:
3 Augur of Bolas
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

4 Azorius Charm
2 Detention Sphere
2 Dissipate
2 Far // Away
2 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Lingering Souls
2 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Supreme Verdict
3 Warped Physique

4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Godless Shrine
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
3 Isolated Chapel
3 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Plains
3 Watery Grave

Sideboard:
2 Appetite for Brains
2 Duress
1 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Negate
1 Pithing Needle
2 Rest in Peace
1 Terminus
2 Tragic Slip
1 Warped Physique
1 Witchbane Orb

Round 1 - Junk Reanimator
I played against Reanimator - a deck I thought I would be facing quite a lot the day before. I main decked cards against it and did not play against a single one. Now with Esper Control having almost nothing against it I had to play against it several times. For the first ten minutes I was trying to figure out what I can do against this deck. I knew that my Revelations would be removed from the game most probably and that my only possibility how to win would most probably be hit by Acidic Slime. Anyway I decided for a plan. Wait for 2 Angels of Serenity on the table and then remove them from the game via Detention Sphere. That backed up by Dissipate saved for Acidic Slime. The game took ages. I was trying to survive and was chump blocking everything with power 5. Obzedat was trying to gain me some life and stall. Eventually my opponent played two Angel of Serenity and I could send them to oblivion. After that I was in full control of the game but was afraid to kill my opponent. When the round ended I simply had to beat him and figure out how. I had 3 turn to do so and I could either mill him or overrun him with my creatures (and his).

In this game I realized that Dissipate is hardly a card I want and I was missing 3x Syncopate that I was usually running before (with Snapcaster Mage)

Round 2 - Gruul Aggro
I played against Klara - the second girl that participated in the tournament. She was playing gruul aggro (with some white?). It was a game I should have not lost but I did not expect somebody to play Brimstone Volley. Attack with 1/1 Noble into my Lingering Soul token seemed wierd but burn spell dealing 3 damage and Rampager would do the job as well. I blocked and was hit with Brimstone Volley when I tried playing Sphinx's Revelation. I facepalmed myself and decided not to do this mistake once again. I won the remaining 2 games.

Round 3 - Junk Reanimator
I played agaisnt Junk Reanimator and that I couldn't do much because of my draws. In game 1 I played Augur of Bolas quite early and hit both Detention Spheres I had in my deck. After this my chances of winning the game were more or less 0. I went aggro mode with Lingering Souls and flash backed both Souls so I could either swing for the win (which could possibly happen) or terribly die (which was most likely to happen). At 8 life my opponent played Sever the Bloodline removing all my 8 tokens and a turn later played Thragtusk.
In game two I saw a perfect Salvage and died rather quickly.

Round 4 - Naya Midrange
Oh this deck was pure evil. I resolved 2 mulligans and my hand was still bad. In game two I tried my best to keep up but without Syncopates I would give anything to have them I was simply screwed. I managed to kill some creatures with Warped Physique and eventually played Supreme Verdict. But Thundermaw Hellkite followed as I feared. I tried playing Tamiyo to keep it tapped but 4 mana open on my opponent's side was quite fearsome. Restoration Angel showed up EOT. I couldn't deal with either flyer and lost the game.

Round 5 - Junk Reanimator
After two different pairings we finally could start playing. I knew that my opponent is a good player and that I could hardly win but in the end it showed up that I could actually win. There are things that I did not even realize. Playing Far//Away in response to Angel of Serenity's trigger is something that did not really dawn on me. Even though I know how rules work and that I've done similar play many times in my life I just did not realize it during this tournament. But at this point I already knew that Far/Away is a card that I want to play 4-of main deck and cut Warped Physique which was really bad. In the first game I quickly died and it was more or less my intention because games against reanimator take ages (in my case^^). In the second game I brought in 2 Jace, Memory Adept, Terminus (what's the plural of this?) and Rest in Peace. I hoped to play Rest in Peace and mill. I had to stay alive till I would draw Jace that did not want to show up and them win. On the last turn in which I could draw that card he finally showed up. In g3 I was completely lost and forgot to counter Restoration Angel. This meant a lost game for me and it was really a hard blow. But it was something I should expect. I can usually concentrate for about 15 minutes at most and then it gets really difficult and if I have to play under pressure I can't make good decisions. I hope that my opponent wasn't angry with me as he had to survive the whole round and additional turns playing against me.
I learned a lot during this game only and that was good. Also after this round I realized that Sin Collector is something I want to play. I missed Slaughter Games and Sin Collector can hit Unburial Rites as well Sphinx's Revelation.

Round 6 - Gruul Aggro
I can't lose this match up. Or at least it does not seem likely.

Round 7 - Naya Goodstuff
Again I played against this annoying Naya deck. I had no idea what to do with it. Anyway I won by playing Lingering Souls and creating Sorin's Emblem. It was not the first time that Sorin showed up to be actually doing something and in this case (and the previous ones) he seemed to be game breaking unlike Tamiyo that proved to be good against not good players but terrible against those who can actually play well. In game two my opponent sided in 2x Ruric. I had to sweep the board but those 6 extra damage simply killed me. In game three I kept rather strange hand. It had enough creature removal but no counterspell or Sphere. I did not mind as I did not expect too many permanents I couldn't deal with. Unfortunately my opponent played Domri Rade on T2 and I was unable to deal with it. Even though he started with 5 cards he won. He always hit a creature card and got Domri to 7. At this time I drew Detention Sphere and removed him from the game but it was too late as my opponent had more cards than me. Few turns later I lost the game. There was no way of getting rid of Restoration Angel on my opponent's hand and that is what killed me. My removal would simply mean 'one more creature in play on opposing me'.

Round 8 - Reanimator with Progenitor Mimic
I played against Justin so it was at least a pleasant match. Justin had a clear plan against me. Play Garruk and keep it on the table. That was all he needed to win both games. My Souls just couldn't get past Restoration Angels and I never had Detention Sphere nor counterspell. I played till the end but I knew that it is useless.

3:5 at this tournament - a score that I expected to be the best I could manage with this deck. So I can't complain. After the tournament I at least figured out what cards I'd like to play and what cards are not good or don't feel right. Sin Collector is an awesome card that will surely go main deck. The same goes to Syncopate as I was missing that card way too much. Detention Spheres were cool and if I would have one more in sideboard I would be happy. Augur of Bolas even though in 3 copies was simply too mmuch. This card should rather be replaced by 4 Collectors. This deck needs more quality draws than looking for something which is a reason I would actually cut those Forbidden Alchemies as well and just leave Azorios Charms which is an awesome card even though Voice of Resurgence is annoying. Far//Away proved to be the best card in the deck (after Sphinx's Revelation I guess^^) so next time I'll run four of these and I'll cut Warped Physique. That card is simply meh and even 2 of those seemed to much in certain games. As for Obzedat vs Aetherling. In the end I decided to play Obzedat over Aetherling but it was a mistake. I'll probably try playing 2x Aetherling and 1x Obzedat (because I like the card not that it would be stellar in this deck). As for Sorin and Jace and Lingering Souls... I'm not convinced. Lingering souls were hardly good against even aggro decks that just ran or trampled past and I hardly managed to race someone with them even with Sorin's Emblem. Jace is a card I still don't like but it is still the best card choice that I can get on this format...

Playing with Esper Control at this tournament was a nice experience. I terribly died due to my mistakes but learned some things at the same time. It reminded me that I still have a lot to learn about Magic: The Gathering and that being a good player still means that you actively play and know what other people play. I played also against quite a lot of Reanimator decks during the past few days and it seems to me that many players don't really know what to do with the deck. It would help me to play more against players that actually know what they are doing. This happened to me at the PTQ and it was completely a different experience. I'll probably try to participate in the upcoming PTQ as well. It was worth it even though my score was really lousy but I expected that.