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WOE Esper Legends Guide by Mogged
Wilds of Eldraine: A new Standard
The Wilds of Eldraine Standard is here. For the first week, I entrusted an old build of mine with a few upgrades to Flash Esper Legends. In my opinion, it was the best week 1 deck because there was a major reset. Consequently, some decks will naturally forget to include enough cut downs and Lithomantic Barrages to show adequate respect to Esper Legends.
INickStrad had the same idea and split the first challenge of WOE Standard with a traditional build. I reached the top 4 in the Sunday challenge playing a more control-oriented build of Esper Legends.
$543/138.6 Tix
Maindeck (60)
| Creature [28] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Skrelv, Defector Mite | $5.49 | |
| 4 Faerie Mastermind | $13.99 | |
| 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben | $0.99 | |
| 3 Dennick, Pious Apprentice | $0.69 | |
| 2 Rona, Herald of Invasion | $1.79 | |
| 3 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar | $13.99 | |
| 1 Lord Skitter, Sewer King | $3.49 | |
| 4 Raffine, Scheming Seer | $5.99 | |
| 3 Ertai Resurrected | $0.99 | |
| Instant [4] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2 Go for the Throat | $1.49 | |
| 2 Make Disappear | $0.49 | |
| Planeswalker [1] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 The Wandering Emperor | $27.99 | |
| Land [27] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 Plains | $0.01 | |
| 2 Underground River | $2.79 | |
| 3 Caves of Koilos | $0.69 | |
| 4 Seachrome Coast | $4.99 | |
| 3 Darkslick Shores | $1.99 | |
| 2 Shattered Sanctum | $21.99 | |
| 4 Plaza of Heroes | $9.99 | |
| 3 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire | $10.99 | |
| 3 Otawara, Soaring City | $24.99 | |
| 2 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire | $12.99 | |
| Sideboard [15] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2 Loran of the Third Path | $5.49 | |
| 2 Lord Skitter, Sewer King | $3.49 | |
| 3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse | $79.99 | |
| 4 Cut Down | $1.49 | |
| 2 Disdainful Stroke | $0.35 | |
| 1 Go for the Throat | $1.49 | |
| 1 Virtue of Persistence | $18.99 | |
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Similar Decks
Proxies
Archetype Analysis
Magic online format
Apprentice and MWS .dec
https://mtgdecks.net/Standard/esper-legends-decklist-by-mogged-1747097
In this guide, I will be going through my card choices for what I consider to be the best deck for the first few weeks. I will also provide a sideboard guide for the decks that are starting to gain popularity.
Card choices
Raffine Scheming seer
There's not much to say; this card is a powerhouse. It's the deck's mascot, a mere 3 mana threat that can always carry the game, if it doesn't get answered. Surprisingly, its high toughness and ward 1 give it some resiliency.
Adeline Resplendent Cathar
Budget Raffine.
You can only play Adeline in a very aggressive shell that's always guaranteed to have a creature before you cast it. Adeline's 4 toughness avoids some removal tactics, like Virtue of Persistence and Lightning Strike.
Faerie Mastermind
This card has been great against all the decks that aren't aggressive. It's a must-kill threat with flash speed, which helps with timing your removals and counters better.
Ertai, Resurrected
Just what this deck needs to prevent any early leads from being taken away. Compared to other 4 drops like Sheoldred, Ertai will solidify a winning position if you are already on board, without running the risk of getting hit by Wrath of God effects or similar ways to stop our plan. This card has so much utility; it works great with Mastermind as it triggers it when Ertai's effect is used on the opponent's turn. It's a legend to help with channel and can act as either a removal counter or even counter your own Skrelv's trigger to get an extra card for free.
Skrelv, Defector Mite
Primarily, it acts as removal protection and occasionally a way to get damage in. It fills that precious 1 cmc slot, making our trademark high-roll one-two-three play possible on the first turns.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Thalia is very powerful but restricts our ability to play more answers. However, I think we can get away with this because our lands and Ertai's act as answers.
Make Disappear and Go for the Throat
I would normally play more copies of these, but I think they are poorly suited with Thalia. The possibility of only having a reactive play available early can be detrimental in some scenarios. Therefore, I choose to only run the minimum number of these in order to either have some removal options for targets that must be eliminated, or to find that single counter for an effect like Sunfall.
Sheoldred, the apocalypse
It is not considered heresy to include Sheoldred in the main deck. However, it may not significantly contribute to your plan. This is because Sheoldred is more effective at stealing a game rather than adding pressure that you have already built. In most matchups, the life side of it doesn't matter too much preboard. Despite this, Sheoldred remains a powerful card and is crucial to winning in the postboard phase. This is especially true when opponents load on efficient answers like Lithomantic Barrage for your other stuff. It becomes less likely for you to win with a 1-2-3 creature curve pressure. Therefore, it is acceptable to gamble with whether or not Sheoldred gets answered.
Tips and tricks
Mulliganing
In most matchups, keeping hands with a curve is very important. If you don't exert enough pressure, all your creatures degrade significantly and you won't have enough responses for the enemy's strategy. Therefore, the idea is to force them to react to your plan.
On the play, be even more aggressive with mulls. If you have a good start like Skrelv, Thalia, and Raffine, nothing in the format beats that.
On the draw, your pressure plan is inherently worse, so hands with high value and medium speed may be able to compensate.
Pro Tricks
Trick #1
You can use Eiganjo during the damage step to avoid being blown out by removal.
Trick #2
Takenuma, as well as other mill effects, can trigger Dennick, Pious apparition.
Trick #3
Ertai can provide you with an opportunistic card draw. You can use it to kill the creature your opponent is targeting, or perhaps counter your own ability. Usually, Skrelv's abilities are the least costly.
Trick #4
If you have Raffine attacking Sheoldred, you might want to prevent the life loss by killing the creature you are targeting, perhaps a 1/1 token.
Trick #5
Be careful about attacking with a Raffine trigger on open blue mana; your opponent might play a Faerie Mastermind and get a free card.
Trick #6
Keep track of Sheoldred's answers and try to hold onto one. For example, think twice about using your last Otawara. The more you are winning, the more you should be thinking about this, because that’s a way your game can get stolen away.
Sideboard guide
Golgari Midrange
Tough matchup. Managing to spawn a single token will significantly weaken their Lilianas. Also, you have to find a way to counter Sheoldred.
On the play
On the draw
Monored
This is a very good matchup, largely about survival. Then, one of your four-toughness creatures will get the job done. After switching the board, you can survive more effectively, but you must be more cautious about losing to threats like Koth. Therefore, maintaining your presence on the board is crucial.
Ramp Cascade
This is a very easy matchup. They will fold to the first counter and they don't have enough answers for your creature curve.
Ramp Atraxa
A good matchup; only Sunfall has to be countered, but they have more interaction to fight you.
Esper Midrange
It's a tough matchup; they have lots of removals and they are better on defense than you are. This puts the pressure on you to win through tempo.
On the play
On the draw
Dimir Faeries or Dimir midrange
Tough matchup, similar to Golgari but tougher because of how good Faerie Mastermind is against us. Depending on how many Fae they have on their list, you should be bringing some Cutdowns instead of Virtue and Ertai's.
On the play
On the draw
Monowhite Aggro
You are still ahead in this matchup because Legends is very good at handling aggro decks, but it gets a lot tougher when they have laid down arms.
The Mirror
Both players tune into midrange post-board while playing the most boring game of keeping their Sheoldred alive.
Final Words
The World Championship is this weekend. Honestly, I feel so jealous of the players competing there. I was close to qualifying myself, but it's going to be exciting regardless. I'm sure Esper Legends will show up in some form since it keeps overperforming.