Adam Haggerty's Esper Mystic Mill regionals 10/19
 
Type: Deck Idea
Format (legal 👍)
legLegacy
Approx. Value:
$335.87
Buy

0 Likes 0 Comments
Avg. CMC 3.08
Card Color Breakdown
Card Type Breakdown

Final Fantasy
releases on June 13, 2025!

Preorder now on CardKingdom Preorder now on TcgPlayer

Final Fantasy
releases on June 13, 2025!

Preorder now on CardKingdom Preorder now on TcgPlayer
Main Deck - 60 cards, 23 distinct
Columns
Name  Edition $ Type Cost
Rarity Color
Creature (2)
2 God-Eternal Kefnet
$2.60 Legendary Creature - Zombie God
Instant (32)
4 Archive Trap
$0.65 Instant - Trap
2 Censor
$0.17 Instant
4 Cryptic Command
$4.74 Instant
4 Drown in the Loch
$1.05 Instant
4 Esper Charm
$0.46 Instant
2 Fatal Push
$1.40 Instant
2 Into the Story
$0.13 Instant
2 Kaya's Guile
$1.20 Instant
4 Path to Exile
$1.18 Instant
4 Thought Scour
$0.30 Instant
Sorcery (1)
1 Supreme Verdict
$1.71 Sorcery
Land (25)
2 Celestial Colonnade
$0.19 Land
2 Field of Ruin
$0.18 Land
4 Flooded Strand
$11.75 Land
2 Hallowed Fountain
$8.77 Land - Plains Island
1 Misty Rainforest
$24.18 Land
3 Mystic Sanctuary
$1.36 Land - Island
4 Polluted Delta
$14.71 Land
3 Snow-Covered Island
$0.95 Basic Snow Land - Island
1 Snow-Covered Plains
$0.29 Basic Snow Land - Plains
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
$0.52 Basic Snow Land - Swamp
2 Watery Grave
$14.75 Land - Island Swamp
Sideboard - 15 cards, 9 distinct
Name  Edition $ Type Cost
Rarity Color
Creature (3)
2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
$3.29 Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
1 Kefnet the Mindful
$0.38 Legendary Creature - God
Instant (8)
2 Disdainful Stroke
$0.09 Instant
2 Fatal Push
$1.40 Instant
1 Force of Negation
$53.30 Instant
1 Kaya's Guile
$1.20 Instant
2 Surgical Extraction
$2.24 Instant
Enchantment (2)
2 Porphyry Nodes
$0.28 Enchantment
Planeswalker (2)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
$17.31 Legendary Planeswalker - Jace
Scratchpad - 0 cards, 0 distinct
Cards in the scratchpad represent cards that you are considering for this deck, but are not actually in the built deck. They do not count towards the in built decks count shown in your inventory. If you are using the Auto Trade feature, they will be still be marked for trade although cards in your main deck and sideboard will not.
No cards here. :(

Notes
 
Regionals was excellent, if a little frustrating. I finished 39th out of like 230 with a 6-3 record.

R1 2-0 Devoted Devastation
R2 1-2 Jund Death's Shadow
R3 2-1 Amulet titan
R4 2-1 Devoted Devastation
R5 1-2 Paradoxical Urza (Sram/Nexus)
R6 2-1 Esper Mentor (Devin conceded otherwise would have been a draw)
R7 0-2 Jund
R8 2-0 Mardu burn (featuring skelemental)
R9 2-0 Devoted Devastation

After the deep dive this last month and the work into refinging this list the week of I am very pleased with the 75, and mostly would alter only about 5% of the list. I feel pretty proud about this, because I basically finalized my list the morning of. It was a really wild ride. I particularly oscillated on the win condition, fearing that my assessment of archive trap being correct was more based on my bias than truth. i am happy to say it was not.

This is the apex of mill. Over my years of playing mill I have learned that you are not a slower burn deck. And may seem like that, which is why so many builds are trying to just max out on mill options, but ultimately that just makes you a worse burn deck. You are not a clocking deck. You can have some decent draws, but they all revolve around archive trap. Your advantage in playing mill is punishing fragile deck configurations and using your opponent's graveyard to gain advantage. Ultimately, you are an Archive trap deck, and this is the best Archive trap deck.

Archive trap busts this angle of control way open. It is a win condition you don't need to sink any mana in, allowing you to double spell while holding up interaction. In this way it is more effective than planeswalkers or creatures. It is also recurrable with mystic sanctuary, which is the key point of why these two archetypes are actually married together. Every fetch land is another option for archive trap. At any point that your opponents decks gets to twenty or less and you've grinded them into dust you can archive trap the rest of their options away. It also enables every drown in the loch at every point in the game to be a hard counter/ removal spell, all into the story to being just 4 mana draw 4. The other versions work to make this happen, this version just has it. People don't think about what the JtMS ultimate does anymore, they just short cut to I Win. But it reduces their deck to a few cards, then you mill them out. Archive trap is just simply a more efficient version of this.

My version's reaction package is based off the wafo-tapa control list. I consider him the best control player in the world, because when you look at lists they are super clean and straight forward and are naturally built to avoid "drawing the wrong half". Control in modern is about having better card quality on average than your opponent, not the perfect answers, but broad and powerful ones. In this fashion my core interaction is Cryptic, esper charm, kaya's guile, drown in the loch, and path to exile. One of each of these spells represents 14 modal options in four cards in almost infinite permutations. I played my cards differently through the whole of the tournament, but the always did exactly what I needed. Wafo-tapa believes in planeswalkers, but ultimately I like Sam Black's idea that a powerful enough spell can be your planeswalker. Resolving an into the story effectively ends the game, and it's easier to do than casting a planeswalker and getting mileage out of it. Also esper charm gives you so much gas, and making them discard two is SO huge! A common line was control to T4, charm on there end step to make them discard, fetch a sanctuary, and charm in their draw step to hellbent them.

A place of contention is snapcaster mage. In one sense snapcaster mage is the ultimate modal spell, giving me access to any previously played spell, but I already have access to this effect in mystic sanctuary. Snapcaster mage cost 2 and exiles your spell, cutting off from future recursion, and mostly being particularly effective with one and two mana spells, which I'm a bit light on. It's fail rate of being a 2/1 ambush viper has uses, particularly pressuring walkers, but the games where you are forced to play it as such you usually lose, as the decrease in card quality is palpable. I can be wrong about it of course, but I don't believe snapcaster is doing me any favors.

Some spice in my list, all of which was correct and over performed. Two censor and cantrip 5-6 was trully excellent. The deck just needs at least 6 2 mana counterspells for early interaction. I censor a lot of things. Primeval titan, Urza, Karn Liberated, hour of devastation being the spiciest ones. And whether I cast it or cycle it, they think about it. Most of the time they play around it so they don't get blown out, WHICH GIVES ME MORE TIME. Once I start cryptic commanding people I win, and this card makes that more likely. People hate getting blown out by force spike. This little mental loop cost people so much, especially in a long tournament where mental energy is not infinite. Having a a cantrip that can do this over scry 1 is just better, and it paid dividends. Meanwhile, I always side it out on the draw, and usually in G3 unless I really need the lower curve. As an aside, maximizing my narrower counterspell options out the side to lower my curve seems like the right way to maximize. Censor is an easy sideboard slot, costing me less mental energy to figure out how to configure post board. And 6 cantrips is the mininum anyway (what are you doing if you only play 4?). I realized that Kefnet's were sick on the ride there. and got them at the vendor. God-eternal is exactly what Fredo said it was: A win condition in it's own which recurs itself and card advantage. Kefnet's ability with sanctuary is also just absolutely absurd. I know I said I didn't want to tap out, but this is worth casting on T6. I cast into the story off a kefnet trigger after sanctuarying it on top. I drew 4 for 2 And put into the story in my hand. I still had cryptic up afterwards! Also, when you have the cryptic lock with kefnet in play, for 7 you get to recur the infinitely, still get your draw step, and have cryptic up for the rest of the game. Kefnet out the side was much more lackluster, and probably is only great in jund games, which I didn't get to see. Kambal was fucking dope out the side, he always over performs. Porphry nodes was INSANE. I finally feel like it actually fits my deck and I understand it's purpose, which feels like achievement unlocked. If your on the draw against a low to the ground aggressive deck whose line of play is to put as much pressure on you before you can cryptic, nodes just straight punishes that. One of my opponents tried this with flooding his board with hierarch's and birds. I played the nodes and kill a string of creatures with it of 4, then he held his creature in his hand so the nodes would die. I end step guiled to gain 4 and make a spirit which the nodes killed. His next turn he drew a card and passed. My nodes died the next turn...but I esper charmed the two cards he left in his hand. This is a great example of how powerful the vast amount of modal options gives us. Also, guile locking aggro decks basically gives us 70% against burn and it's kin.

In terms of changes, the cheap counter sweet as noted above, and more force of negation (needed it against nexus). JtMS was very lackluster which seems obvious now. Search for Azcanta seems better, and also helps the jund matchups, which I should have never lost. One of the spots where my lack of testing was apparent, as I think if I prioritize hitting their graveyards, I'd have won. Similarly, super over the top poerful instant and sorceries are worth exploring as alternative angles of attack, such as command the dreadhorde. Other grindy options include trade routes and fathom seer. Also, I need more answers to planeswalkers as they were a problematic permanent. I think Hero's downfall or utter end may be worth it, but I could also see a case for Vraska's contempt as the 2 life is not irrelevant. Blast is a one-of in wafo-tapa list for these kinds of weakness's.

The deck way over performed, and it was very forgiving. This is only the beginning for this archetype. I felt dominant with this deck in a way I haven't felt in modern before. I got to do some messed up stuff to people, and there was little to be done about it:) I definitely want to run this deck so much more! I am confident with enough reps under my belt with this deck that is going to be very, very hard to beat me.
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