“Wait, you’re playing Vesperlark?” you sputter. “That card’s, like… from some draft chaff pile, right?”
Wrong.
Welcome back to Fun & Jank! It’s Plum here, and today I’m here to shine a spotlight on a card that’s been flying under everyone’s radar: Vesperlark You know, that unassuming little orange blob with wings that doesn’t look like much at first glance—but trust me, If you’ve been sleeping on this card, it’s time to wake up, grab your Faithless Lootings, and start brewing.
I want to talk about why I believe that Vesperlark is criminally underplayed, and how my recent testing leads me to believe there is still plenty of room in the Historic format for new decks to arise. So grab your coffee, your Spirit tokens, and maybe a pillow for your opponents—because they’re about to get snoozed.
You might recognize this little critter. For some of you it might trigger flashbacks to your opponent casting Davriel's Withering on it while they had a Blood Artist out before it got nerfed.
We talked about Vesperlark way back in Episode 5 where we actually played it in a similar strategy to the one we’re discussing today. At first glance, Vesperlark might not seem like much—it’s a three-mana 2/1 flier that brings back a creature with power 1 or less when it leaves the battlefield. But once you start digging deeper, you realize the sheer versatility it brings to the table. Vesperlark is one of those sneaky-good cards that often flies under the radar but has the potential to do some seriously broken things in the right shell. Body Double Reanimator from Episode 5 used Lark as copies 5-8 of Persist to power out Ulamog via Body Double. Body Double is definitely an “all in” kind of card. If we’re playing it, its because we’re trying to do something broken. However, with the the additions of the last few alchemy sets, there are some other strong reanimation targets for Vepserlark to bring back.
There’s actually a lot of strong creatures with power one or less that can be cheated out through the means of Vesperlark, but the ones above are the most notable in my opinion. Usually when we discuss “build-arounds,” we talk about how individual cards perform “in a vaccuum.” For example, if we take Trostani at face value, just looking at the card on paper, is she good all on her own? With no other creatures, spells, or board state, is she worth a slot in our deck?
Sometimes this can be hard to evaluate because cards often need a proper board state or sequence of plays to get the most value out of them. The cards above are strong, but not the most impactful in a vaccuum by themselves. However, playing a decently strong card (but not off-the-charts crazy) can be justified if we have a way to get its full power ahead of schedule.
Teysa is sweet little design from the OTJ: Alchemy set. And if you’ve got a huge wrinkly brain like mine, you might also immediately recognize similarities between her and Obzedat, Ghost Council. They both exile themselves at the end of turn, come back with haste, and create some sort of effect when they enter the battlefield. I actually prefer Teysa’s enters-the-battlefield ability because it advances your board state at the same time as providing a growing threat that dodges sorcery speed removal. It’s also the reason I went straight into a Obzedat’s Vengeance style deck as our initial draft. We don’t have Goryo's Vengeance but that’s where our little Vesperlark friend comes in. Teysa has 0 power, which means we can scoop her out of the graveyard with our fuzzy elemental.
(not gonna lie, the other reason we started in Esper colors was because the name rhymed)
We slotted our Lark + Teysa package into an Esper midrange shell. We modeled our list very close to the modern version but used substitutions where we had to. This list focuses more on individual card quality rather than trying to force the reanimation as quick as possible. We can discard Teysa to cards like Rona, Herald of Invasion and Collective Brutality or even mill her into the grave with Consider. We’re definitely trying to play the long game until we can leverage Teysa to take over.
I was also a bit giddy about this list because we get to play frickin’ LINGERING SOULS in 2024! It’s a great way to not lose a card or tempo to our discard outlets, provides early blockers, aaaannnnnddd the Spirit tokens get buffed by Teysa.
We spent a lot of time testing this list to mediocre results, ending with a 57% win rate. The deck could do powerful things with Teysa, but the supporting cards didn’t seem to be the right fit to get us to the late game like we wanted. At this point I knew we wanted a shell that included Lingering Souls along side our Lark package, but I wanted to hunt for a better enabler.
And guess what the best graveyard enabler is in Historic (Hint: its not Gravebreaker Lamia you silly goose]
So we dropped blue and replaced it with red for Looting, which could enable the following:
Turn 1: Land, cast Looting -> Discard Teysa + Random Card Turn 2: Land, Evoke Vesperlark and bring back Teysa
Mardu has strong tools, but the addition of an early reanimation enabler like Faithless Looting means we can have explosive turns where a Teysa can take over the game way earlier than normal and immediately put the pressure on our opponent with suite of removal to back it up.
With that in mind we tried a few variations of the deck, including this Mardu Pyromancer version, but we ended up with the following for now.
This deck is like that chaotic friend who shows up to the club with a mismatched outfit, a bottle of hot sauce, and somehow manages to be the life of the party. You’ve got the classic troublemakers like Thoughtseize and Fatal Push, blending seamlessly with popular picks like Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury and Hearth Elemental, who’s just here for the snacks.
And don’t get me started on Vesperlark—it’s like the quiet friend in the corner that suddenly swoops in to reanimate a Teysa, Orzhov Scion leaving everyone wondering, “Wait, how did this happen?” All this chaos, tied together with the magic of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, makes this deck a strong mix of grindy value and recursion. Magmatic Channeler is probably my favorite inclusion here. It plays a similar role to Rona from the original version for us, a discard engine that can become a late game threat. I like that it also provides card selection and gets reanimated by Vesperlark if we don’t have any other reasonable targets for it.
Key Elements
Core Synergy: Recursion and Value
Vesperlark: A centerpiece of the deck, enabling reanimation of creatures like Teysa of the Ghost Councilto dominate the game. Its ability to bring back small utility creatures is particularly powerful, especially when paired with cards that provide immediate value.
Teysa of the Ghost Council: Teysa is a one-woman wolf pack. She’s a sticky threat that can quickly roll over opponents after just a few turns of blinking in and out.
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker: The Swiss Army knife of midrange decks, Fable provides ramp, card selection, and eventually a Kiki-Jiki-like effect to copy your threats. This is crucial for keeping up with other grindy decks.
Disruption
The deck runs a robust suite of disruption to keep opponents in check:
Fatal Push, Path to Exile, and Murderous Cut: Efficient removal spells to handle opposing creatures. Molten Collapse adds flexibility to deal with small permanents or planeswalkers.
Graveyard Synergies
Cards like Faithless Looting and Ransack the Lab enable graveyard filling for escape cards like Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury or value from Vesperlark.
Lingering Souls: A great way to generate board presence from the graveyard, Lingering Souls provides resilient threats that synergize well with the deck’s grindy plan and Teysa.
Powerful Finishers
Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury: A big, recurring body that burns your opponent and gains life. Its escape mechanic works perfectly with the deck’s graveyard synergies, allowing it to come back repeatedly to pressure the board.
Hearth Elemental: A dual-purpose card that can filter your hand and then later drop as a massive, cost-reduced threat. It bridges the early-game setup with late-game payoffs.
Gameplay
I’d like the deck to just speak for itself this week. Here’s a Best-of-3 match with commentary against UW Control while we were testing an earlier draft on stream. (come brew with us if you haven’t already!)
Closing Thoughts
I really love what this deck is doing but I believe we’re still far from the right shell. Finding the proper balance between the combo, supporting interaction, and other threats has been tricky but I’m very excited to continue working on the list. This Mardu midrange shell showcases just how powerful Vesperlark can be as a value engine in Historic. The synergy between its reanimation ability and the rest of the deck’s grindy components creates a resilient, disruptive game plan that can go toe-to-toe with a variety of strategies.
That said, while I think this deck is a strong and viable shell, I’m also excited to explore other ways to abuse Vesperlark. Its unique ability to reanimate low-power creatures opens the door to countless synergies and archetypes. Whether it’s finding a home in sacrifice-heavy decks, combo strategies, or even different midrange builds, I believe Vesperlark is waiting for its chance to shine in this format. I’m already brewing new ideas to see where this little elemental can truly spread its wings, and I can’t wait to share the results in future articles.
Thanks for reading.
As always feel free to comment and leave any questions you have below! Make sure to come back next week for even more Fun & Jank!
If you want to see these decks in action, come hang out with me on stream where we test, refine, and have a ton of fun together!
Happy Brewing!
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Plum is the creator of the Jank Tank.
He started playing at the ripe old age of 12 and immediately fell in love with the infinite possibilities that deck building could lead to.
He truly understands that jank is a mindset, and spends most of his free time brewing and concocting new and exciting deck lists to help inspire and promote creativity within the MTG community.
