Standard: Esper Pixie - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

The current Standard is one of the most diverse in the format's recent history. There is a deck for each archetype subcategory, and most of them are competitively viable and perform well in tournaments or ranked matches, to the point that today, if you ask what a healthy format is, pointing to Standard seems like the most assertive option among all competitive Magic formats.

Amidst this diversity, a new strategy has emerged in recent weeks, the Esper Pixie, which uses the interaction of Nurturing Pixie and Fear of Isolation with ETB effects to generate value. In many ways, this strategy is reminiscent of the classic Boros Synthesizer from Pauper, which uses the same interaction with Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher.

In this article, we delve deeper into this new Standard competitor and present a guide to the main matchups in the current Metagame!

This is the decklist I used in Magic Arena ranked matches the past week.

The above version is the classic Esper Pixie shell, with the only addition being The Witch’s Vanity as another answer to Aggro or the mirror, two common matchups in Magic Arena, in addition to some changes in the Sideboard that support the play style that this deck seems to propose a little better.

As mentioned above, Esper Pixie is very similar to Pauper’s Boros Synthesizer - that is, in fact, one of its biggest draws. Fear of Isolation is the blue Kor Skyfisher and Nurturing Pixie is very close to Glint Hawk, so we try to extract the maximum value from them with low-cost permanents, and where Synthesizer is commonly classified as Midrange in Pauper, the Standard Metagame puts this deck close to Tempo.

Maindeck

Nurturing Pixie and Fear of Isolation have the sole function of reusing our cards while putting good evasive bodies on the board. Just like Pauper, a 2/2 for or a 2/3 for make a difference in some games, whether to increase the initial clock or to hold off the attack of creatures like Faerie Mastermind.

This Town Ain’t Big Enough is the other engine of the deck: with it, we can return two of our cards to generate value, bounce an opponent’s creature and one of our permanents, or protect our creatures from sweepers like Sunfall or Gix’s Command.

Our targets.

Stormchaser’s Talent is one of our main ways to win games. Every time we play it, it creates a 1/1 token with Prowess, and since we have several noncreature spells and ways to cast them repeatedly, these tokens can grow quickly in a turn.

Hopeless Nightmare is a mix of Burn and Disrupt that works for its low mana value. Like other cards, reusing it repeatedly drains the opponent’s resources and/or can lead to lethal damage with other cards of ours.

Nowhere to Run and The Witch’s Vanity are both cheap removals against small creatures, ranging from Heartfire Hero to Enduring Curiosity.

Optimistic Scavenger plays very well with our strategy and is often one of our main win conditions. It is sometimes difficult to protect against cheap removals like Go for the Throat, but its fast clock helps complement other creatures and paves the way for closing games with Hopeless Nightmare.

Spiteful Hexmage has an ability that not only puts an enchantment into play, but it is also relevant to cards like Optimistic Scavenger or Nurturing Pixie, and a 3/2 body for one mana has a history in Magic with Delver of Secrets, helping to establish a relevant clock.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares allows us to reuse Fear of Isolation or Nurturing Pixie while putting a powerful and difficult-to-deal-with Planeswalker on the board. In some games, it becomes a win condition and often opens the way for our creatures to attack.

Sheltered by Ghosts is my least favorite card on the list because it interacts counterintuitively with our original game plan and makes cheap sweepers a more favorable trade for the opponent, but Ward 2 and Lifelink make a difference against more aggressive matchups.

Sideboard

In addition to extra copies of Sheltered by Ghosts and The Witch’s Vanity, we have Pest Control as an answer against Jeskai Convoke, Azorius Aggro and also in the Mirror since many of our cards have a one-mana value.

Authority of the Consuls is an experimental slot against Red Aggro and Convoke, but it can also make a difference in the mirror or in other games with aggressive archetypes with creatures because it helps us to secure an advantage in the clock.

Loran of the Third Path fits in the Mirror and also in games against Four-Color Zur or any Domain variant, besides being another efficient answer against Artifact lists like Azorius Aggro.

Destroy Evil is the standard answer against large creatures in Standard today, besides dealing with unwanted pipes like Unholy Annex or Leyline Binding.

Negate and No More Lies provide stack interaction, which is essential for dealing with sweepers like Sunfall or cards that give the opponent too much of an advantage if they come into play and against which we have no more efficient answers other than trying to deal with in the combat, like Planeswalkers.

Dimir Midrange

IN

OUT

Gruul Prowess

IN

OUT

Jeskai Convoke

IN

OUT

Four-Color Zur

IN

OUT

Esper Pixie

IN

OUT

That’s all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!