{"id":519,"date":"2012-12-15T23:27:50","date_gmt":"2012-12-16T04:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/?p=519"},"modified":"2012-12-15T23:28:04","modified_gmt":"2012-12-16T04:28:04","slug":"yes-im-still-playing-money-finish-with-esper-flash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/2012\/12\/yes-im-still-playing-money-finish-with-esper-flash\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, I’m Still Playing: Money Finish with Esper Flash"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know, I haven\u2019t posted in a long time\u2014a really<\/strong> long time. I\u2019ve been really busy at work and with both kids in sports, my evenings have been pretty taken up. But the semester is over (yay) and fall sports are over (both kids went to the postseason, too, so great but long seasons). I really have played since August, but I haven\u2019t actually played since mid-November. Prior to rotation, I played some mono-Green Infect and some ZombiePod and a very fun Izzet control list with a one-of Lone Revenant<\/a> and some Titans\u2014that was a fun list.<\/p>\n

Post-rotation, we did a month of draft, and for Game Day I played Grixis Control, which was OK but had trouble with Zombies (probably a bad metagame choice) and then a UWR midrange list that I couldn\u2019t draw well with at all (and made a couple mistakes)\u2026 and that\u2019s it. So, this was my third time out for RTR standard and I basically hadn\u2019t touched a Magic card in a month. So, what to play? I like the style of the UW Flash lists but they always felt to me like something was missing. That is, until I saw an Esper list with Lingering Souls<\/a> in it. That\u2019s the stuff! Here\u2019s the list I played:<\/p>\n

[deck title=Esper Flash]
\n[Creatures]
\n4 Augur of Bolas
\n3 Snapcaster Mage
\n3 Geist of Saint Traft
\n4 Restoration Angel
\n[\/Creatures]
\n[Spells]
\n3 Thought Scour
\n2 Runechanter’s Pike
\n3 Azorius Charm
\n2 Ultimate Price
\n4 Lingering Souls
\n2 Dissipate
\n1 Forbidden Alchemy
\n1 Supreme Verdict
\n1 Rewind
\n2 Syncopate
\n1 Sphinx’s Revelation
\n[\/Spells]
\n[Land]
\n4 Hallowed Fountain
\n4 Glacial Fortress
\n4 Drowned Catacomb
\n2 Isolated Chapel
\n1 Cavern of Souls
\n1 Plains
\n1 Swamp
\n4 Island
\n1 Evolving Wilds
\n1 Moorland Haunt
\n1 Vault of the Archangel
\n[\/Land]
\n[Sideboard]
\n1 Sphinx’s Revelation
\n1 Azorius Charm
\n3 Detention Sphere
\n2 Appetite for Brains
\n1 Negate
\n2 Purify the Grave
\n1 Supreme Verdict
\n1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
\n1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
\n1 Dispel
\n1 Sever the Bloodline
\n[\/Sideboard]
\n[\/deck]<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s a little goofy with a lot of one-ofs and three-ofs, but sometimes that\u2019s actually OK. For example, the mix of counters (2 Syncopate<\/a>, 2 Dissipate<\/a>, 1 Rewind<\/a>) seemed exactly right. I haven\u2019t seen this exact list anywhere, but of course it\u2019s not really all that different from the other \u201cEsper Midrange\u201d lists you can find on TCGPlayer.<\/p>\n

Round 1: Ryan, playing BR Zombies<\/strong>
\nGame 1 was all about Lingering Souls<\/a>. I drew many of them, and he had a somewhat slow opener, though he did have a turn 4 Aristocrat. I eventually got a Pike on one of the Spirit tokens and while he was able to chump with the Aristocrat and sac a Gravecrawler<\/a> to it, then re-cast the Crawler, when I got the second Pike it was all over. Game 2 he got a fast start and I didn\u2019t have much early and I pretty much got run over. Game 3 was a little more back-and-forth, but again, he came out quickly. I was able to stop some of the beating with a Purify, but eventually he got ahed of me. I had to equip a Pike on a Resto just to stay alive, holding back a Revelation, but he top decked a burn spell so I had to use the Revelation for only two life just to stay alive, and of course drew 2 lands off of it. Just not quite enough.
\n0-1 matches, 1-2 games<\/em><\/p>\n

Round 2: Bye<\/strong>
\nOdd number of people at FNM, someone with a loss gets a bye in round 2. It was me.
\n1-1 matches, 1-2 games<\/em><\/p>\n

Round 3: Chris, playing BR Zombies<\/strong>
\nOne of the guys I chatted with before the tournament started commented to me that BR had taken over the store meta, and clearly he was right. I had turn 2 Augur in both games, which is a nice roadblock for Cackler and Gravecrawler<\/a>. One of those drew me a Lingering Souls<\/a>, too, which is about as good as it gets. He had trouble getting red mana both games, too, which didn\u2019t help his cause. Game 2 I cast a Verdict to 3-for-1 him with two Lingering Souls in my graveyard, that was pretty much that game right there.
\n2-1 matches, 3-2 games<\/em><\/p>\n

Round 4: Dave, playing BW Exalted<\/strong>
\nGame 1 was pretty much the perfect opener: turn 1 Thought Scour<\/a>, putting two live cards in the yard, turn 2 Pike, turn 3 Geist. He went all the way. Game 2 he came back with a turn 2 Knight of Infamy<\/a> and I all had were Spirit tokens. He kept drawing exalted guys and removal so he was winning the race. I finally put my foot down and cast Verdict with a Pike on the board and two Lingering Souls<\/a> in the graveyard, and that sealed the deal.
\n3-1 matches, 5-2 games<\/em><\/p>\n

Quarterfinals: Dillon, playing Grixis control<\/strong>
\n3-1 was good enough for the top 8, so in I went. Dillon is one of the stronger players in the store, and this was a Grixis build aimed squarely at the store meta, meaning three<\/em> main deck Curse of Death’s Hold<\/a>. Not fun. He managed to stick one of them when I had 4 Spirits on the board. I got out a Resto, got a Pike on it (though only for +1) and then he stuck a second Curse. My next draw was, of course, a Geist. Grr. He eventually killed the Angel with a Pillar and eventually killed me with a Snapcaster and a Rakdos Keyrune<\/a>. I boarded in The three Spheres, both Appeties, the Dispel, the Negate, and the Tamiyo. I took out two Lingering Souls<\/a>, the Verdict, all three Charms, 1 Scour, and 1 Ultimate Price<\/a>. I\u2019m not 100% sure if that\u2019s right, but I think it\u2019s close. Anyway, Game 2 was one of the best games of Magic I\u2019ve been in for quite a long time. Here\u2019s the kind of game it was: turn 2 I cast Appetite for Brains<\/a>, and whiffed. Ugh. I got out some Spirits and a Pike, he kept generating answers, and I kept answering his answers. We eventually were both down to zero cards, just working off the tops of our decks. Most critically, I did draw all three Detention Sphere<\/a>s from the sideboard (and got all of them to stick), nabbing a Tamiyo, a Curse, and a Desecration Demon<\/a>. That last one allowed me to swing for lethal with my Piked token. Absolutely great game, though it did take like 40 minutes. Good thing no time limit in the top 8. Game 2 I again had an Appetite on turn 2, but this time I nabbed a Jace. I had a Resto in my hand along with a Dispel<\/a>, so a the end of his sixth turn I went for Resto into an empty board, he Dissipate<\/a>d, and I countered with Dispel<\/a>. He tapped down for something else the next turn, and I came back with another Resto. From there I just rode the Angels all the way, trying to counter and disrupt anything he did, and the winged ladies got me there.
\n4-1 matches, 7-3 games<\/em><\/p>\n

It was getting late and the rest of the top 4 decided they just wanted to split prizes and go home, and that was OK with me. <\/p>\n

So, it was nice to come back after a hiatus and a losing streak with a good night. The deck is solid in concept if a little sketchy in execution; Lingering Souls<\/a> is just amazing in this shell; that was definitely my MVP card. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d take it to a PTQ or anything, but even there it\u2019s probably not awful. Obviously it\u2019s bad against Thundermaw Hellkite<\/a> and the more Zombies players that run Knight of Infamy<\/a> the worse off you are, but otherwise it feels like most matchups are sound. I\u2019m still just loving Augur of Bolas<\/a>. It\u2019s awful when you whiff, but it\u2019s so great when he pulls a key card like Lingering Souls<\/a> or a counter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know, I haven\u2019t posted in a long time\u2014a really long time. I\u2019ve been really busy at work and with both kids in sports, my evenings have been pretty taken up. But the semester is over (yay) and fall sports are over (both kids went to the postseason, too, so great but long seasons). I … Continue reading Yes, I’m Still Playing: Money Finish with Esper Flash<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[15],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":520,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions\/520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}