Legacy: Esper Aggro - Deck Tech and Sideboard Guide

Greetings, Legacy fans! Modern Horizons 3 has been in this format for some time now, so many of us thought it had given us everything it had to give. Well, we were surprised again! In the same week, not only one but two decks that used a trio of white MH3 creatures (Guide of Souls, Ocelot Pride, and Ajani, Nacatl Pariah) showed up in a few Top 8s in Magic Online Challenges.

One of them, the Esper Aggro we'll discuss today, won Challenge 32 on August 4th. The other, a variation of Monowhite Initiative, lost the Challenge 64 finals on August 4th, and made it to the top 8 of the August 7th Challenge. At the end of this article, I'll show you what this second version looks like, but, first, let's see what these three white MH3 creatures do.

Before we dive right into the deck, let's understand what these 3 cards do and how they interact with one another.

Guide of Souls gives you life and energy any time one of your creatures enters the board, which both Ocelot Pride and Ajani, Nacatl Pariah interact with. The life points the Guide gives you, in turn, interact with Pride, which will give you more tokens, and so you won't even need to attack with it to get them.

Finally, Pride and your tokens help you transform Ajani, which in turn keeps creating more tokens - which you can even copy with Ocelot Pride as soon as you got City's Blessing - or just boost your Cats' stats. Even though they're not directly connected to each other, these 3 cards play really well together - they're just a great definition of "synergy", and, if we consider this deck's results, they seem to be well-positioned in Legacy.

Let's see the deck PushingWaterfalls used to win (though, I, on principle, disagree on using 62 cards):

Besides the trio above, there's also, straight from MH3, Psychic Frog and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student in this list. Yeah, almost a third of the deck, 20 out of its 62 cards, are from Modern Horizons 3.

Psychic Frog has been, for some time now, the most relevant aggressor in the format (there's an argument that Grief is still the most relevant creature, so…), as it does everything very efficiently: it draws you a card whenever it deals combat damage, it is difficult to remove through damage alone, and has evasion if you need it to. It can also become quite powerful strength-wise if you invest some resources into it.

Tamiyo is still searching for a permanent home in Legacy, but it is difficult to argue against just using her as a 1-mana Planeswalker. This deck seems to be the perfect place to showcase her abilities.

An unusual card in this list is Geist of Saint Traft, which is definitely a relic from the past, but plays really well with the counters Guide of Souls creates. I confess I still have doubts about whether this card is viable in Legacy or not, but it is tough to argue with these results.

The rest of the deck is just the good, old Azorius Legacy base: Brainstorm, Ponder, Force of Will, and Swords to Plowshares, as well as some tempo elements, like Daze and Wasteland. Prismatic Ending is the last card in this list, and serves as a generic answer for anything you might face.

Like any great tempo deck with Brainstorm and Ponder, this deck lets you keep a great variety of hands, as it has many was to manipulate your card draws and find the right answers. This means you won't have to go after a specific starting hand. A hand with some interaction and enough mana should be enough.

For example:

This is a relatively slow hand with a few too many lands, but it has basically everything you need to play. On turn 1, you can use Wasteland on an enemy land, and put Tundra in play to access Swords to Plowshares and Psychic Frog on turn 2. Then, you can defend yourself against some threat through Force of Will using your Frog as payment and put Marsh Flats in play on turn 1, looking for Meticulous Archive to filter your next card draw. Verdict: You can keep it, but be careful.

This hand is quite aggressive, though it's light on lands and has zero interaction. Against an aggressive deck, it can simply go through them, but it will struggle against combo lists. Knowing which deck your opponent is playing or which metagame you're playing in will help you decide whether to keep it or not. Verdict: Quite risky in a vacuum, but, right now, I believe there are many decks vulnerable to this strategy, so it's fair to keep it. Mulligan if you know you're facing a combo deck.

This hand is justifiable, as it has 2 counters and 1 removal, but you'll have to rely on Brainstorm to find a way to put the Frog in play. Verdict: Risky keep - if Brainstorm can't find you anything, the game will be short. But that's the drawback of playing a tempo deck with cantrips.

This is another risky hand, one that is heavily dependent on your cantrips. Anyone who has ever played Delver and other similar decks has, a few times, faced a hand like this one. And you often end up keeping it because you know this is how the deck works. Verdict: risky keep for the same reasons as the last hand.

The sideboard of the list we presented is the same as every standard blue aggressive deck: there are many options for several situations, as you'll rely on your cantrips, Psychic Frog, and even Tamiyo to help you find these cards while they also increase your options overall.

Surgical Extraction is still one of the best options against graveyards, particularly against decks that don't use Chalice of the Void. Stony Silence is still a great bomb against decks that rely on artifacts to get mana.

Containment Priest gives you more answers against Reanimates, but they'll also deal with cards like Natural Order and Show and Tell. Abiding Grace is perfect when you need to win through attrition. March of Otherworldly Light is another broad-spectrum removal.

Consign to Memory has become one of the best answers against the Eldrazi threat. Lavinia, Azorius Renegade and Flusterstorm will help you deal with combo decks. Celestial Purge can answer from Psychic Frog to Blood Moon.

Finally, we have Harbinger of the Seas, which deals with multiple decks that rely on the strong interactions their lands have, like Dark Depths and Lands.

Scaminator

As this deck relies a bit less on specific cards, Grief punishes them a bit less, but this also affects Force of Will's effectiveness.

After game 1, you can add more effective answers. Geist can be dangerous if your opponent Reanimates it, so you should swap it for other cards.

In:

Out:

Grixis / Dimir Delver

You have ways to gain a lot of life and create big boards, and your opponent isn't prepared to deal with either of these. Post-side, you'll swap your copies of Force of Will, which aren't useful, for direct removals and Abiding Grace, which can create resources indefinitely.

In:

Out:

Red Stompy

This deck is a true array of things that make your life difficult: Chalice of the Void locks down just about 20 cards in your deck, and Blood Moon may destroy your entire game plan; even if you do draw one of your basic lands, your game flow will be impacted. To complete, Fury can obliterate your entire board.

On the other side, this deck is incredibly vulnerable to Psychic Frog, and a well-played Force of Will or Daze can derail their entire game plan.

In:

Out:

Eldrazi Aggro

As most lists around use Cavern of Souls, your counters will probably be useless, unless you get the Wasteland you need. Speaking of which, as they also use this land, you can expect games in which both players don't have a great mana base. They also struggle to deal with boards full of creatures, so that's often your best game plan. Put that Ocelot Pride to work!

Post-side, Harbinger of the Seas will help you scoop their mana base, and Consign to Memory is incredibly efficient when Cavern of Souls isn't involved. Your 2-mana lands, Lotus Petal, and Eldrazi Spawn tokens make Daze way less efficient.

In:

Out:

Cradle Control

Your main worry is to stop Natural Order from resolving. Your second main worry is whether Wight of the Reliquary (and, albeit way less worrying, Elvish Reclaimer) somehow loses its summoning sickness, as then the possibility your opponent finds Talon Gates of Madara will get in the way of your removals.

Wasteland has one clear target: Gaea's Cradle.

Be careful with an Endurance ambushing a Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student.

In:

Out:

If you keep up with my work, then you know I'm an Initiative fanboy and that a meta in which Scam Grief is so strong is not so great for my dearly beloved Boros archetype. That's why I'm unsurprisingly happy to see a deck like this one performing well this past week.

For the reasons I've already discussed, I won't be able to review that deck in detail, so I'll leave the list down below so you can take a look.

I confess, I was caught off-guard by these decks with this trio of white cards. That's proof that, in a format as vast as Legacy, there's always space for innovation. I also believe that these decks are not refined (as someone who works with stats in the real world, 62 cards is not something I can condone), and so we're probably still not even close to seeing these archetypes' final forms. We'll soon get a new ban and restricted announcement, as well, and that may shake up the format even more.

For now, let me say goodbye to you for some time, as I'm about to enjoy some well-deserved vacation days! I'm travelling 5,000 km by car to take my dog to the snowy peaks of the Andes!

I hope you enjoyed reading this article! See you next time!