Comments on: Rising Deck Alert: Esper Mentor Midrange

By: Timothy Patullock

Timothy Patullock — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 00:29:32 +0000

I’m kind of surprised to not see Darkblast as a 1-of in this archetype.
It is recurrable, instant, fuels delve, souls and snapcaster, turns bad trades into decent/good ones as well as nearly single-handedly nullifying affinity and infect.

I may be a bit biased due to its use in my Dredgevine list, but I have very few bad times when I see this card.

By: Darcy Hartwick

Darcy Hartwick — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 20:58:14 +0000

In reply to Sheridan Lardner.

makes sense I guess. I know for the original delve/angler list there are no ETB tapped lands, as its too important to have untapped lands if you want the turn 2 tas/angler with stubborn denial protection up (and just generally you’re not looking to go past 4 lands nor tap out on your turn).

What about anticipate? I expected this card to make some waves in snapcaster/control lists – so far havent actually seen anyone using it (I assume its going into scapeshift at least)

By: Sheridan Lardner

Sheridan Lardner — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 18:31:00 +0000

In reply to Darcy Hartwick.

@Sam
Good idea. I’ll probably do a followup or check-in article on the deck in the next months. At that time, I’ll add in some ideas on beating the deck. A lot of the anti-Abzan strategies will apply here. Esper Mentor is good at answering threats one-for-one, but can’t deal with redundant threats and/or massed threats.

@Darcy
The issue with CC seems to be manacost. The deck only runs 22 lands and it’s hard to support reliably CC activations with that. You would really want 24-25 lands for that. With Tar Pit, the deck can do everything with just 4 mana (including Tas activations). But with CC, you need 6 lands in play.

By: Darcy Hartwick

Darcy Hartwick — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 18:07:25 +0000

I saw the esper mentor deck and have been tinkering with chapin’s esper delve (gurmag angler) deck. There is a tonne of overlap here and I’ve been trying to squeeze mentor into the angler list with minimal modification – he can be pretty slick with probe/bauble as you say – and the rest of the delve deck is very similar.

Why tar pits over colonnades? Or at least a mix of the two? Bolt might be lower on the radar but it certainly still exists!

By: Sam Riley

Sam Riley — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 07:37:23 +0000

I would have loved a section on ways to combat the deck. Great write up though!

By: Sheridan Lardner

Sheridan Lardner — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 02:25:49 +0000

In reply to David Maynard Moore. Good catch there. I was trying to stick with the last name for the rest of the article, but missed it when I typed out his whole name. Will edit the article and put in a note; thanks!

By: David Maynard Moore

David Maynard Moore — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 01:24:21 +0000

Great write up on an interesting new deck. One thing I would like to point out though is that Yuuki is his given name and Ichikawa is his family name. In Japanese, you say a person’s family name first. Just a minor style note.

By: Sean Ridgeley

Sean Ridgeley — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 00:18:55 +0000

In reply to Blake Joachim. It'll rotate from Standard before too long and the price will likely tank. I love rotation for this reason.

By: Blake Joachim

Blake Joachim — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 23:50:14 +0000

Now if only Mentor’s price dropped……Then I’d be so hyped on this deck

By: Roland F. Rivera Santiago

Roland F. Rivera Santiago — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 19:18:17 +0000

Interesting article. I had been trying Monastery Mentor out in a couple of different shells, but he never really stuck. This may be the sort of chassis needed to make the most of him.