Pioneer: Esper Greasefang Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Some time ago, I was looking for a deck in which I could invest resources in addition to wanting to compete with the current decks, but I couldn't find one that could really stand a chance. It was then that, testing several, I found this Midrange/Combo that made my eyes shine, and I felt comfortable, as in addition to having the Combo option, they have proved to be quite malleable, and in several games I managed to win without seeing the main pieces.

The version we'll discuss today is more Midrange, and can manage to win games without the combo, if necessary.

This is not an easy deck to pilot and can end up punishing bad decisions. The player must have good knowledge of the Metagame, in addition to needing a comprehensive reading of the game, knowing the right time to make certain moves and dealing with the available information.

The motto of the Obscura (Esper ) has never been truer than here: "Information is power".

Our "Plan A", like all variants of Greasefang, Okiba Boss decks, is to perform a quick combo. We manage to play Parhelion II to the graveyard on turn 1 or 2 and then on turn 3 Greasefang revives it and attacks, normally dealing 13 damage while keeping two 4/4 tokens on watch.

This will put you well ahead in the game, but we must remember that this deck only does this from turn 3 onwards, and does not end the game on the spot, so although it is possible, it must be planned beforehand. The opponent probably still has the next turn to do something.

If we don't find the combo the first time, don't worry. Our "Plan B" is to generate value with the other creatures, while keeping the opponent's field under control - either with removals or counterspells, while leaving them thinking about whether the combo can be done on the next turn. Having a Vehicle in the graveyard causes a reactive stance to the opponent, who can often try all or nothing, making bad choices.

One of the reasons I chose this version is to interact and respond. As this is not a Combo that will guarantee you victory when done, I prefer to use it as a good interaction, but not depend 100% on it.

Maindeck

Although the core of the deck is the combo, we have a card that deserves to be highlighted:

Raffine, Scheming Seer has excellent board presence and interacts very well with the deck. In addition to growing your creatures while filtering what you need, it makes Evangel of Synthesis gain Menace. When Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is on the battlefield with it, it brings back many games by gaining 2 life with each draw.

This all makes the option of putting the vehicle into the graveyard for the combo to become one of several possible interactions. In addition to these, Raffine has evasion with flying, and his ward can even catch players off-guard, since targeting and not paying the ward, the spell or ability will be countered.

Evangel of Synthesis has great evasion and interacts well with other cards that give you the second draw on the turn, making it a 3/3 creature most of the time for 2 mana.

As his ETB looting ability does not require a non-land as connive, he often serves to exchange an unwanted land from your hand for a resource without affecting your other discard outlets. It can also be used to play Tainted Indulgence at instant speed on the opponent's turn, making our creature gain +1 power (since you'll draw 2 cards), and maybe trade it for an opponent's creature on the block.

Raffine's Informant is good, but depends on the connive to be relevant. Discarding a land, it's just a 2/1 creature with no additional abilities. One of its benefits is its cost, alleviating the need for a combo to play it a bit. When well-used, it is one more creature to attack, counts as the second draw for Evangel of Synthesis and filters with its ETB.

In addition to creatures, we have two instant spells that can find what we need, or make the combo card go to the graveyard.

Although many players runs Consider, I chose to exchange it for two copies of Otherworldly Gaze for two reasons:

1. Even though it doesn't draw, it filters more cards from the top.

2. The flashback option gives us virtually +2 cards, in addition to being able to play the card to the graveyard with some connive or other discard without losing resources, since we can use it from there later in the game.

Tainted Indulgence is an excellent filtering, plus I tried to optimize the deck to have an equal amount between the costs.

Brazen Borrower is a two-in-one card, it counts as a bounce, but it is also a creature that enters with flash and its 3 power can be a great finisher which can catch players off-guard if played on the pass. Despite not having as much interaction with other cards, it comes in as a response option against graveyard hate on certain occasions.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse has an excellent body to attack or defend, generating a position that makes the opponent race against time to win or remove it, since every turn.

We have some good planeswalker options to interact with this deck, but after some testing I chose these two.

Liliana of the Veil is very useful to stop Auras and Atraxa Neoform, or any deck that focuses on a single creature, serves well to generate advantage (discarding the opponent's resources) while gaining advantage by discarding our vehicle to the graveyard.

In the late game and against Control/Midrange focused decks, it is a powerful weapon as well. Another good turn 3 planeswalker option is Kaito Shizuki that interacts well with this deck, but it focuses more on the combo spectrum As my idea was to make the deck two in one, I opted for Liliana.

Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord might not seem like a big deal and I thought about trading it for The Wandering Emperor, but it ended up generating a lot of value even against some bad matches like Mono Red, in addition to reanimating any creature from our deck.

Despite starting with 4 copies, I ended up choosing to leave only 3 Thoughtseize and replace it with 1 Collective Brutality. Collective, especially in the late game, has extra uses, working like a Swiss army knife, it allows you to gain life, eliminate a creature in addition to being used as a discard against the opponent, or for our combo to be done without interruption.

Stubborn Denial wasn't my first option, I tested Spell Pierce, but the current option ended up being a better fit. As a very efficient protection for Greasefang, Okiba Boss, we have Sheoldred who has 4 power and also enables the spell to be a permanent Negate for just . Other ways we also have to enable it is to increase the attack of other creatures with Raffine.

Fatal Push: We have 2 on the maindeck, and you will see 2 more in the sideboard. As the format has some non-creature decks like Lotus and UW, we don't want these to come in the opening hand. But it can also be relevant for attacking man lands or tokens.

Vanishing Verse has proven to be great at handling what Push can't. In addition, it is worth remembering that we have some decks with only one color in the format, such as Mono Green, Mono Blue Spirits and Mono White, so it has a wide array of targets.

Path of Peril is here because it's important to remove low-cost creatures on the main deck. Our main villains are the decks that make plenty of creatures fast.

As we've seen, we have some occasional removals to take out key cards, but many low-cost creatures with powers of 2 and 3, such as Mono White, are difficult to deal with. It's just a copy, but with multiple filters and the opportunity to likely have no response against the combo on Game 1 against Aggro decks, it's a glimmer of hope.

On this list, the combo almost feels like an extra:

Greasefang, Okiba Boss can be a good creature in a Midrange stance, with 4 power, and can grow with Raffine. Don't just think of it as a combo piece.

Parhelion II and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship close out the list as the vehicles we want to bring to the battlefield. Skysovereign still manages to be slotted into a late game, for 5 mana, in addition to being a removal.

Here's a very interesting interaction with Sorin on the board: When put on the field, in response to the damage it deals with ETB, you can turn it into a creature, so the 3 damage will also add to the lifelink, and if you bring it with Greasefang, there will be a total of 12 lifegain on the turn, in addition to attacking with a 6/5 creature which kills two opposing threats.

Manabase

Our mana base is composed mainly of fastlands. Our normal curve is 3 mana, this we can do effortlessly since we have several filters, which also help the playing them untapped.

I couldn't fit basic lands, as we have many specific color spells, like on turn 2. There were rare times when not having a basic deck land to bring made a difference. Since we also have the filters, 21 seems like a good number, even with two four mana cards. Takenuma, Abandoned Mire can be used to recur planeswalkers.

Sideboard

Our sideboard is divided into 3 parts, basically: stop decks that fill the board with small creatures or small permanents, increase the amount of control of the deck and fight back with opponent's hate pieces.

More Removal. As our main worst matchups do their game plan well by default (creatures that hit fast), we need to buy time to build our game.

We've increased copies of Fatal Push because we now want it to come on turn 1, as well as increasing low-cost sweepers. Doomskar can also be used on other decks like Gruul, and Temporary Lockdown is great for removing just about everything from Auras.

More Control. In case we get Combo decks like Creativity or Neoform, which focus on using a specific card, we need to interact, and nothing better than Dovin's Veto to counter them.

Disdainful Stroke can be used in several scenarios where the deck has a high mana curve, like in games against Mono Green, Creativity, Lotus and 5C.

Ashiok, Dream Render is as an option against other graveyard decks, like mirror or sacrifice.

Finally, Obscura Charm. I'm always in doubt whether I should put one or two copies of the main deck due to its versatility. It can be added to multiple games.

A lot of the side that is added against our deck tends to be permanents that will take your graveyard out of play, or removals against Greasefang.

For removals, we have discards and counterspells that can handle it, but against severe hate we have few options. Hence, the addition of these two cards. Fracture can also be used to remove planeswalkers.

Here are some tips for Mulligan:

- We cannot start with less than two lands, preferably of different colors.

- The deck doesn't have shuffle effects, so what we put down will probably stay there.

- While 2 lands is the minimum, 4 lands in hand without filter options on turn 1 are usually disastrous beginnings.

- 5 or more lands in hand = Mulligan.

Our game posture is to follow the motto of Obscura: information is power, and we must exploit it to the fullest. Our opponent (almost always) won't know what we have in hand, so giving them the right information at the right time will make a difference. An example is using a card that throws our vehicles to the graveyard in the pass at the end of his turn, or maybe even waiting a turn for the combo to be done safely.

Sometimes the opponent has already spent the turn compromising his game plan by waiting for me to do the turn 3 combo, and I could, but when I decide to pass, it can give the opponent a false sense of security that “he doesn’t have the card in hand, I need to play something to kill him fast”.

What's more, if we do it on turn 4, we can leave one mana open for the counterspell or for a Thoughtseize to remove a possible answer.

Rakdos Midrange

Option 1:

OUT:

IN:

This is a close match, but not impossible. In fact, in almost all games I got good results, but it is necessary to think a lot about each choice - Rakdos ends up generating too much value with their threats if they stay on the field too long, and the longer they remain, the harder it gets to win the game.

In this option, I chose to keep the combo, after all, if well-fitted and protected, Rakdos won't be able to come back easily. However, if you opt for the combo, you must prioritize the counterspells to protect Greasefang. Another point that can favor us is to spend the opponent's turns making them hold resources, and if they overextend, punish them with the combo.

But be careful: only go for the combo if you can respond with a counterspell or if you have discarded something important. One of the most important cards here is Obscura Charm, as it can counter an important spell, destroys planeswalkers and all Rakdos' creatures (except Sheoldred), and can also be a way to bring Grease or Raffine from the graveyard in the End Step.

Option 2:

OUT:

IN:

In this option, we remove the main pieces of the combo, Parhelion II, but I don't remove all the Greasefang, as we only have 15 creatures, and without them, we would be left with 11.

Our attitude here should be more midrange, controlling what we can and removing the most important threats. Remember, they don't know you took out the combo, so use that to your advantage.

Fracture removes planeswalkers and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker even after flipping. If the removals are in large numbers and there is a chance of a game 3, we can remove the 2 Fracture and return 2 Greasefang, Okiba Boss.

An option is also to merge these two options, invalidating a possible opponent's strategy on game 3.

Nykthos Ramp

OUT:

IN:

Quiet game if the combo comes in game 1, as we can go off before Mono Green if we are in play. If we are on the draw, we need to be careful.

Fatal Push should focus on dorks. This is the best way to hold the opponent's deck.

As a Midrange, we don't have much of a chance, as they can generate a lot of mana quickly, and our removals, in addition to a small amount, don't take everything, so in game 2 we add all our counterspells.

Post-side, in addition to eliminating dorks, we discard key pieces with Thoughtseize.

Fracture should target the various planeswalkers. As the opponent doesn't have many draw options, if we manage to eliminate the first spells they attempt to do by extinguishing their resources in the hand, we get a chance to advance with our creatures or fit the combo.

Mono White Humans

OUT:

IN:

Matches against Aggro are pretty similar. We have difficulty, since our deck can't be that fast and against Mono White in particular we still have a tormentor: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Her taxing manages to delay us a lot. That's why we bring you all of our post-side removal arsenal.

While Thoughtseize is good for removing an Adeline, Resplendent Cathar that we have difficulty dealing with, or a chance to remove a severe hate, we lose 2 life and that makes a lot of difference.

Avoiding untapped shocklands is vital. Try not to worry about a Rest in Peace if you have Temporary Lockdown as it will also be removed.

Abzan Greasefang

OUT:

IN:

In this archetype mirror, we have the opponent more focused on the same combo as ours, but ours is better at responding and interacting.

Don't follow the option of the one who goes off faster, as they will be way ahead of us. Instead, bet on the answers.

Fatal Push are out as it does not take out the main target and instead, we have answers to remove the opponent's Greasefang, Okiba Boss or exile/destroy their vehicles.

Fracture should be used wisely, as it doesn't prevent them from reanimating the vehicle on the next turn.

Lotus Combo

OUT:

IN:

If we have problems with fast Aggro decks, against combos, things are different: we usually have a certain ease.

Here we have room to play, and we need to be careful to eliminate key pieces like Pore Over the Pages. We usually have space to finish, if not with the combo, with our creatures, as there are few or no blockers, while holding a counter to delay or kill the opponent's strategy.

Against Lotus, if you have the combo in hand, don't think twice: execute quickly, they will hardly have anything to stop us.

The opponent's only answers to our combo would be 1 or 2 Boseiju, Who Endures plus 1 or 2 artifact destruction in the post-side; 4 cards out of 60, the math is not in our opponent's favor. As well as several creatures attacking them.

Izzet Creativity

OUT:

IN:

Another matchup we can handle well. Usually, Creativity will only be able to execute their combo from turn 4 onwards, this gives us an opening to play 3 turns with some freedom, and we must exploit this to create a favorable position.

The opposing deck basically only wins here in one way and tries to execute the plan at all costs: Indomitable Creativity with two tokens on the field to bring Xenagos, God of Revels + Worldspine Wurm.

We should focus on countering their main spell and that's it, or make them unable to use it by removing it with a discard.

Our plan then should be to generate as much value as possible at the beginning and from the 4th turn, if we haven't closed the game, we must counter or focus on Creativity while dealing damage with our creatures.

Azorius Control

OUT:

IN:

Against Control decks, we don't have much to do. You can win in the first game, as well as in the post-sides, but it's a battle of who has more resources available.

Here the Planeswalkers are essential, but be careful: not playing a spell thinking that the opponent will counter it will give more time for them to really find a counter or have more mana available.

Focus on dealing with Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and having them spend counterspells. Here, using Thoughtseize at the key moment makes a huge difference.

I don't take the Fatal Push, as they manage to destroy man lands and shark tokens that are normally the attacking forces, in small amount.

If you have any suggestions or ideas you'd like to share about the deck, feel free to talk in the comments!