Bolt is clearly a better card than either Push or Path for the very flexibility you mentioned. But Modern is a format dominated by creatures, and unless that changes anytime soon (which it may, as it seems linear combo decks are picking up some steam in the wake of the Infect nerf), the permission deck with the most efficient removal spells will be king of blue.

Living End is great against fair creature decks, and terrible against other combo strategies. So it’s very meta-dependent.

Agreed, I just find it funny because this style of combo deck is generally what earns a collective groan from players. You are talking to a guy who entered constructed playing Mind’s Desire in extended!

Modern has a way of self-regulating. If Tron starts to show up in frightening numbers, Infect will surely reclaim its lost metagame shares.

I do respect that you just wanted to focus on reactive Control decks, but wanted to make sure players understand that it’s not the only viable way to play Esper competitively going forward, especially because of Fatal Push. Thanks for a great article, regardless.

The deck plays very few counters and is very disruptive. It’s also resilient to removal, unlike BGx. It’s like a Blue Abzan, but leaning more towards the Control end of the spectrum. The hyper aggressive decks have been fine for this deck with positive %’s vs Affinity, Infect (discard is very good vs them, as is Blessed Alliance and Lingering Souls), Zooicide, etc. The addition of Fatal Push only improves the deck as it does for Draw Go, making Walkers easier to resolve and stabilize post-disruption/removal. The sideboard also turns the corner and pressures with Geist of Saint Traft alongside Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, etc. in the main.

Its proactive design + the ability to pressure makes it a viable approach to Control vs the anticipated shifting meta leaning more towards Combo and Control decks, including Tron (attacking its lands isn’t the only approach to Tron. Disruption + Pressure is another way and Tron players will tell you this, too), while still being exceptionally good vs Midrange (70/30 vs BGx, for instance) and Aggro archetypes.

Its weakest MU was Dredge, Bant Spirits, and U Tron, followed by RG/GW Tron. RG/GW Tron has improved, and Dredge is likely to lose steam. U Tron will likely remain a problem unless the deck incorporates more counters and Clique.

Not at all! I know plenty of players who love running decks like Eggs, AN, and Storm. As a Stubborn Denial aficionado myself, I’m also personally itching to pair with these strategies. Grow as an archetype emerged in the first place to destroy linear combo decks, which explains its lackluster performance in a midrange-dominated format like Modern that’s hostile to combo decks by design.

I think Push is great in this deck, but probably in numbers smaller than 4. IMO we are likely to see lists in the coming months.

Oops! Yes they do. Fixed.

I wanted to focus specifically on purely reactive control decks, as those are the kind Modern’s playerbase has clamored for over the last few years. I’ll also say that I would never call the Narset Transcendent builds “proactive” and consider this qualifier misguided. They’re still firmly reactive and offer very little in the way of proactivity compared with fellow midrange decks like Jund and Abzan, let alone Modern’s slew of hyper-proactive aggro decks.

What are your thoughts on Grixis Control utilizing Fatal Push as well? I haven’t seen any lists pop up yet.

Without the intent to promote what I, and many in my community have been playing successfully (which finished 1st and 5th at two IQ’s two weeks ago and was featured by Ross Merriam in a Daily Digest on SCG), this direction has merit in this format moving forward, especially with all the variance in Modern, and at bigger tournaments like GP’s. Fatal Push is excellent here as well.

I think Esper Control can, and will be, viable reactively and proactively – if designed correctly.