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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Eternal Esperzoa
March 1, 2010

Hello good day Sir!

I've been wanting you to review my deck. Well, this might be a little too late since we are now in WWK block but please do help.

The deck is focused on the synergies with Esperzoa, hence the name. The deck looks like this.

Lands

 2 Arcane Sanctum

 6 Island

 4 Plains

 4 Swamp

 4 Fieldmist Borderpost

 4 Mistvein Borderpost

Creatures

 4 Etherium Sculptor

 4 Esperzoa

 3 Ethersworn Shieldmage

 3 Glaze Fiend

 3 Parasitic Strix

 3 Sanctum Gargoyle

 2 Glassdust Hulk

Other spells

 2 Sleep

 2 Kaleidostone

 2 Thopter Foundry

 4 Doom Blade

 4 Negate

There you go. So maybe it was working nicely for quite a long time, but it still lacks power to finish the enemy. And long games are a problem too, not to mention it also does not perform well in 2-headed games. I really can't decide whether to stay midrange or go aggro or go control. In terms of aggro, I actually don't want mine to be a replica of the famous Esper Stoneblade that placed 8th in Honolulu Pro-tour. In terms of control, I don't wanna use Master Transmuter.

Please help!!!

So here are my conditions. The revisions and card additions...please keep it standard at least, because I have a difficulty looking for older cards. Also, my casual group includes these deck archetypes : Orzhov Control, MonoW Life Gain, UW Control, Boros Wins, RG Zoo, MonoG Elf Tribal, RB Pinger, MonoR Chandra.

Thank you very much Sir! Hoping for your quick reply!!

- Muchi 

Well, Muchi, you say that the decks lacks power, runs out of gas in long games, and can't handle two-headed matches? It sounds to me like you definitely need to make some major corrections to your play style, which means abandoning the midrange tack.  We'll switch to control, since you wanted to avoid becoming an Esper Stoneblade clone, and I'm better at building control decks with Esper anyway.

Now, the trick with control is that you want to build up lots of incremental advantages over your opponent. Eke out that little extra wherever you can, and wait for the other guy to run out of steam, before progressing to your inevitable victory. Using Kaleidostone in concert with Esperzoa is useful here, since you get to draw two cards a turn while your opponent draws one. Since it's common for players to "trade" during matches (not literally-- in this case, "trading" means using one of your cards to kill or counter one of your opponent's cards) drawing extra cards gives you an advantage.

Kaleidostone is a useful tool to do that with, but you should also add Everflowing Chalice. Why? Well, not only is it good for ramping your mana, it's also a 0-cost artifact. You can bounce it to your hand and replay it for free, if you don't need it to tap for mana anymore. Or, if you dropped it on turn two with one counter, and now you have more mana and an Etherium Sculptor or two, you can bounce it with the Esperzoa and replay it to increase the charge counters. Remember, you can then tap it immediately after playing it if you have other spells to cast that turn.

Another card that works well with Esperzoa is Faerie Mechanist. Not as easy to cast turn after turn as Kaleidostone or the Chalice could be, but you get to Ponder for an artifact when it comes into play. Even without a way to repeatedly bounce and replay it, that's a very big advantage-- a 2/2 flier and another artifact of your choice in your hand. Since we're running this as a control deck, the Mechanist can replace Glaze Fiend.

It's also important to have the right card for the job, and luckliy there's a card in Standard that can ensure you have the right card for the job. Take out one copy each of any four cards you choose that you already have four of, and add in a playset of Fabricate. With Fabricate, you no longer need to run 4x any artifact, since the reduced odds of drawing the card are mitigated by the fact that if you draw a Fabricate you can go get the card.

Note that this doesn't apply to Borderposts, since you'll likely need them before you can cast a Fabricate. Or to Etherium Sculptor, because its effect stacks and you might enjoy actually having four.

Speaking of what to remove, I'd suggest Sleep, since we're no longer really concerned with alpha strikes, and Parasitic Strix, since we've got Faerie Mechanist filling the role of artifact creature with ETB ability.

Finally, you probably want some sort of crippling super-play, the kind that if it resolves will devastate your opponent. Most Sphinxes of Esper qualify, especially Sphinx of the Steel Wind or Sharuum the Hegemon. Enigma Sphinx can gain you a much subtler advantage, as not only does it get you a second spell right out of your deck, if it dies it can be re-drawn into, and recast, for a... second second spell. If you're not interested in Sphinxes, you could also try Open the Vaults, to immediately replay every artifact in your graveyard. Sure, your opponent may benefit too, but not nearly as much as you will!

Good luck!

~BMoor