Standard Esper Planeswalkers by Eliott_dragon – Featured Deck

With almost two weeks behind us since the release of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, competitive events featuring cards from the new set are starting to pick up. It’s a new format, and there’s a lot that can be learned from the results of these meta-shaping early tournaments.

Over the weekend, several of the events that took place on Arena offered qualifications for the upcoming Streets of New Capenna Set Championship, and hundreds of players brought their best to fight for their spot. Always on the lookout for interesting decklists and highlights, we found one deck in particular from among the Top 8s that stood out to us for both its success and its relative obscurity.

Decklist

Esper Planeswalkers by Eliott_dragon

by Paul

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Standard

Control

best of 3

14 mythic

43 rare

1 uncommon

2 common

0

1

2

3

4

5

6+

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Planeswalkers (14)

4

Kaito Shizuki

$13.96

2

Niko Aris

$1.98

4

The Wandering Emperor

$119.96

1

Sorin the Mirthless

$5.99

2

Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset

$10.98

1

Lolth, Spider Queen

$6.99

Creatures (1)

1

Kotose, the Silent Spider

$0.49

Instants (9)

2

March of Wretched Sorrow

$0.98

4

March of Otherworldly Light

$7.16

1

Negate

$0.35

2

Vanishing Verse

$0.98

Sorceries (8)

1

Sunset Revelry

$0.35

3

Doomskar

$2.97

4

Farewell

$35.96

Lands (28)

1

Plains

$0.35

4

Deserted Beach

$25.96

4

Hengegate Pathway

$37.96

4

Brightclimb Pathway

$17.96

4

Shattered Sanctum

$87.96

4

Clearwater Pathway

$27.96

4

Shipwreck Marsh

$27.96

2

Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

$19.98

1

Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

$12.99

60 Cards
$468.18

Sideboard

1

Sorin the Mirthless

$5.99

1

Edgar, Charmed Groom

$1.99

2

Kotose, the Silent Spider

$0.98

1

Disdainful Stroke

$0.35

2

Negate

$0.70

1

Siphon Insight

$0.49

4

Duress

$1.40

1

Doomskar

$0.99

2

Life of Toshiro Umezawa

$0.70

15 Cards
$13.59

Deck Information

This deck was entered into the $5k Crokeyz Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Tournament on Saturday by Eliott_dragon, who managed to take the deck to an impressive third place finish with an 11-3 record. Esper Midrange and Control decks were fairly popular at the event, but most of them had more in common with the Orzhov Token/Orzhov Sacrifice decks with Wedding Announcement and friends. While those and other Midrange decks in the format usually run a handful of planeswalkers, Eliott_dragon’s deck was unique in that its entire gameplan revolves around them.

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Niko Aris and the new Kaito Shizuki allow the planeswalkers to start coming down on turn three, and an assortment of four and five-drop planeswalkers keep the value coming through the mid and late game. Out of fourteen total ‘walkers in the maindeck, all but four of them are capable of generating one or more creature tokens the turn they come down – a particularly useful effect in a deck that can either use them as a clock or hold them back on defense to help keep the planeswalkers on the field.

Meanwhile, a suite of efficient removal spells partner with seven maindeck sweepers to keep aggro decks at bay, and cards like Negate and Duress can come in from the sideboard to battle other control and midrange strategies.

In the previous Standard format, a deck like this would have struggled against a meta where the dominant Alrund's Epiphany combo decks were capable of consistently going over the top of midrange, and the fast aggro decks built to stop them would make it difficult to keep any planeswalkers on the field. Now however, Epiphany is banned and Neon Dynasty has put midrange very much back on the menu – and these planeswalkers can grind.

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Eliott_dragon’s third place deck has plenty of cards that are typical fare for Esper control at this point – Vanishing Verse is still a great removal spell, Doomskar and Lolth just make sense – but there are some unusual choices as well. The deck not only has four copies of March of Otherworldly Light, but also two March of Wretched Sorrow for a removal option that can gain some life at the same time.

There’s even a few spicy one-ofs in there, including a Kotose, the Silent Spider to use the opponent’s deck against them. I’m personally partial to the single Sunset Revelry, which can gain life and generate tokens to protect the planeswalkers or work with the plus abilities on Kaito and the Emperor.

This deck seems like it’s well positioned to take advantage of the Orzhov and other midrange decks that have been running wild since the Epiphany ban. In the grindier matchups, getting a planeswalker to stick around is sometimes key, and this deck is full of them while many comparable decks only run a few. It’s still early in the format, however, and it’s hard to say if this style of deck will remain viable.

The Jeskai deck built around Hinata, Dawn-Crowned for example, was the most popular archetype at the tournament and doesn’t seem like it would be a great matchup. Similarly, Hullbreaker Horror seems like like it might be a nightmare for the planeswalker deck to keep up with.

However, it’s certainly hard to argue with a third place result at a tournament with over 500 players, and I think Standard is probably in a pretty good place if a planeswalker deck like this can exist and compete in the meta.

Source

Elliot_dragon (who is also known as Hagera on MTG Arena) is consistently ranked in high Mythic on the ladder. He has recently reached as high as #45 Mythc, and he took this deck to a third place at the Crokeyz Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Tournament. Other players have also taken this list to flawless runs on the Standard Metagame Challenge!

crokeyz kamigawa: neon dynasty tournament

19 February, 2022 - standard - 585 players

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win
rate

vs

esper midrange

vs

orzhov midrange

vs

jeskai hinata

vs

naya runes

vs

Mono White Aggro

vs

Mono Green Stompy

vs

izzet control

vs

azorius control

vs

Mono Red Aggro

vs

selesnya enchantments

esper midrange

129 matches

global 57.4% [48.7%-65.6%]

-

56.7%

30 matches

60.0%

15 matches

60.0%

5 matches

60.0%

5 matches

66.7%

3 matches

66.7%

12 matches

85.7%

7 matches

0.0%

1 matches

57.1%

7 matches

esper midrange

129 matches

global 57.4% [48.7%-65.6%]

orzhov midrange

366 matches

global 56.0% [50.9%-61%]

43.3%

30 matches

-

43.5%

46 matches

42.9%

21 matches

68.4%

19 matches

48.0%

25 matches

58.6%

29 matches

36.4%

22 matches

76.9%

13 matches

87.5%

16 matches

orzhov midrange

366 matches

global 56.0% [50.9%-61%]

jeskai hinata

210 matches

global 50.5% [43.8%-57.2%]

40.0%

15 matches

56.5%

46 matches

-

43.8%

16 matches

83.3%

6 matches

53.8%

13 matches

46.2%

13 matches

70.0%

10 matches

25.0%

4 matches

50.0%

10 matches

jeskai hinata

210 matches

global 50.5% [43.8%-57.2%]

naya runes

86 matches

global 57.0% [46.4%-66.9%]

40.0%

5 matches

57.1%

21 matches

56.3%

16 matches

-

50.0%

2 matches

50.0%

4 matches

100.0%

6 matches

50.0%

2 matches

100.0%

3 matches

50.0%

2 matches

naya runes

86 matches

global 57.0% [46.4%-66.9%]

Mono White Aggro

85 matches

global 48.2% [37.9%-58.7%]

40.0%

5 matches

31.6%

19 matches

16.7%

6 matches

50.0%

2 matches

-

33.3%

3 matches

66.7%

3 matches

60.0%

5 matches

75.0%

4 matches

40.0%

5 matches

Mono White Aggro

85 matches

global 48.2% [37.9%-58.7%]

Mono Green Stompy

88 matches

global 48.9% [38.7%-59.1%]

33.3%

3 matches

52.0%

25 matches

46.2%

13 matches

50.0%

4 matches

66.7%

3 matches

-

40.0%

5 matches

0.0%

1 matches

66.7%

3 matches

25.0%

4 matches

Mono Green Stompy

88 matches

global 48.9% [38.7%-59.1%]

izzet control

143 matches

global 46.2% [38.2%-54.3%]

33.3%

12 matches

41.4%

29 matches

53.8%

13 matches

0.0%

6 matches

33.3%

3 matches

60.0%

5 matches

-

33.3%

3 matches

33.3%

12 matches

37.5%

8 matches

izzet control

143 matches

global 46.2% [38.2%-54.3%]

azorius control

85 matches

global 50.6% [40.2%-61%]

14.3%

7 matches

63.6%

22 matches

30.0%

10 matches

50.0%

2 matches

40.0%

5 matches

100.0%

1 matches

66.7%

3 matches

-

50.0%

2 matches

50.0%

2 matches

azorius control

85 matches

global 50.6% [40.2%-61%]

Mono Red Aggro

68 matches

global 45.6% [34.3%-57.3%]

100.0%

1 matches

23.1%

13 matches

75.0%

4 matches

0.0%

3 matches

25.0%

4 matches

33.3%

3 matches

66.7%

12 matches

50.0%

2 matches

-

0.0%

1 matches

Mono Red Aggro

68 matches

global 45.6% [34.3%-57.3%]

selesnya enchantments

68 matches

global 47.1% [35.7%-58.8%]

42.9%

7 matches

12.5%

16 matches

50.0%

10 matches

50.0%

2 matches

60.0%

5 matches

75.0%

4 matches

62.5%

8 matches

50.0%

2 matches

100.0%

1 matches

-

selesnya enchantments

68 matches

global 47.1% [35.7%-58.8%]

vs

esper midrange

vs

orzhov midrange

vs

jeskai hinata

vs

naya runes

vs

Mono White Aggro

vs

Mono Green Stompy

vs

izzet control

vs

azorius control

vs

Mono Red Aggro

vs

selesnya enchantments

Eliott_dragon also has a YouTube channel where he uploaded a video showing off the deck in a match with the eventual tournament winner Zan Syed. The video is in French, but non-speakers can still at least get the gist of what he’s saying thanks to YouTube’s auto-generated subtitle translations.