Spreading Seas v.2

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You may recall a recent post (HERE), where we tagged on some ideas as to a land denial / manipulation deck to answer the Jund threat . . . yep - just scroll to the bottom past the Rise of the Eldrazi art spoiler.

Anywhoos - We're having a closer look today after some very excellent eMails to us as well as comments posted to the blog article. The real issue at hand is that whatever one may do to mess up your opponent's land may in turn mess up their game. The bacon, of course, is in Spreading Seas and Convincing Mirage. These change the tricolour (Savage Lands) or two-tone lands into a lovely blue colour. These would be rather fugly in many other situations but as the metagame stands now, have brought them into focus.










Our choice of colours remain in white, blue and black, yer standard Esper tricolour. When one thinks onto the realm of Esper, one thinks artifacts, but this build contains no such cards except for Pithing Needle and Vedalken Outlander in the sideboard. The deck also contains no counterspells that one would expect in a control deck. This build is somewhat more aggro which we will get to.

Righto . . . In order to thin out your deck and get to the bacon, we are going to need that powerful mechanic 'Cascade';

1. Ardent Plea: The placement of this card here is somewhat tenuous. Sure, it does provide a small boost with it's Exalted ability, but we rather like what this can cascade into - namely Journey to Nowhere which is handly against Baneslayer Angel and other fatties. It also may cascade into the very useful Pithing Needle which you can use to shut down any Planeswalkers they have on their side of the table. One may also cascade into Luminarch Ascension and with the solid defence this deck has, we're certain you will be able to puke 4/4 Angel tokens out in short order. Finally, Adent Plea may also cascade out Vedalken Outlander which can go up against burn decks / Jund.

2. Kathari Remnant: This card can pretty much block anything and prompty regenerates for your convenience. This provides a cascade into this deck's hotness Spreading Seas Convincing or Mirage. It also chums out Jace Beleren, Wall of Denial, Ardent Plea, and Esper Charm.

3. Enigma Sphinx: Because it had cool art. Oh - and it is a nice fattie which floats back to near the top of your deck if it gets pwn'd. This of course can always cascade into pretty much everything else in the deck including Day of Judgment and Identity Crisis.

Let's have a look at what we have so far . . .
(check out the linky on MTG Url)

4	Arcane Sanctum
3	Ardent Plea
4	Convincing Mirage
4	Day of Judgment
3	Drowned Catacomb
2	Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2	Enigma Sphinx
4	Esper Charm
4	Glacial Fortress
6	Island
2	Jace Beleren
4	Kathari Remnant
2	Marsh Flats
4	Plains
3	Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4	Spreading Seas
2	Swamp
3	Wall of Denial
Sideboard
2	Identity Crisis
3	Journey to Nowhere
4	Luminarch Ascension
4	Pithing Needle
2	Vedalken Outlander

To move the game tempo from punk to Lawrence Welk there is a full deckset of Day of Judgment will go a long way to bury a mass token threat as well as nail down that very irritating Ranger of Eos. This will buy valuable time to move your agenda forward.

As for Planeswalkers, we have Elspeth and Jace. Elspeth, Knight-Errant is a swiss-knife utility card in this deck - it will pump up an attacker for a big beating (thinking either Sphinx or even the bird skeleton here). Elspeth will also churn out a chump blocker or even give you huge advantage with it's third ability when you decide to start dropping those Day of Judgements. As for Jace, he was












So after you mess up your opponent's mana base, how are we planning to win ?
One word - Sphinx power. Specifically, Sphinx of jwar Isle and Enigma Sphinx. We love Sphinx jwar Isle as it provides a stategic glimpse at our deck's top card so we will know when or when not to drop a cascading card into play. Not only is Sphinx jwar Isle about $120 cheaper than Baneslayer, this sphinx pretty much laughs at most of today's standard removal so you know it will stay in the skies where it belongs.

So drop us a line and provide some improvements !