Esper value makers

KarnDaddy
Posts: 12
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by KarnDaddy » 4 years ago

I'm building an Oloro deck, my first in 3 colors. sorta pillow fort I guess? lots of counters, removal, board wipes, lifegain, just trying to encourage people to send their attacks somewhere else, while I gain at least 2 life a turn without looking real scary. I play Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe , and I am going to play a few more Treasure cards, but I want a couple more like those two. cards that I can drop early and they gain me resources. tokens that make mana, cards, creature destruction, pinging. just stuff that I can drop and not have to do anything for except play. I don't care if they tax my opponent, I would just much rather play something slow and steady than fast and scary like rituals.

User avatar
RxPhantom
Fully Vaxxed, Baby!
Posts: 1513
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: Southern Maryland

Post by RxPhantom » 4 years ago

Well, if we're talking about sending attackers somewhere else Ghostly Prison and Propaganda can do that. So can Peacekeeper (kinda) if you're willing to pay the tax a while. Sanguine Bond can work well with Oloro. I guess I'm having trouble suggesting too many things, because a lot of the good ones that generate value with no effort tend to have higher CMCs. Tamiyo's Journal springs to mind.
Can you name all of the creature types with at least 20 cards? Try my Sporcle Quiz! Last Updated: 2/18/22 (Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty)

User avatar
toctheyounger
Posts: 3984
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Post by toctheyounger » 4 years ago

Mystic Remora is good value, if you can manage the upkeep. I've seen good use of Solemnity to pair with that and Glacial Chasm, which makes you pretty bulletproof. If you want to get really nasty you can add Decree of Silence to this and lock everyone out of the game.

Revel in Riches is a decent win con.
Dissipation Field I've had decent value from as a control piece.

Creature destruction isn't easy for cheap, but there's some good options here and there; the three that come to mind that you work around really well are Massacre Girl, Archfiend of Ifnir and Ophiomancer. The latter is more of a rattlesnake, pun intended, but it's great value early. Archfiend is one of the only non-zombie cards I run in my Varina build, for good reason. Pair it with any sort of discard mechanic or Windfall variant and it absolutely slays. Can't recommend it enough.

edit - if you don't want to play around discard, Kagemaro, First to Suffer could be a nice easy option for board wipes. Your grip is likely to be full most of the time anyway, it could be an efficient beater and board wipe.
Last edited by toctheyounger 4 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
Malazan Decks of the Fallen
| Shadowthrone/Lazav | Raest/Yidris | T'iam / The Ur-Dragon |

User avatar
Morganelefay
Posts: 87
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: Netherlands

Post by Morganelefay » 4 years ago

Phyrexian Arena is ever the classic and the drawback is negated by Oloro. I'd also say Necropotence but you did say you wanted slow and steady and not, well, THAT.
EDH Decks:

Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis - Arise, Lord Hogaak.
Grumgully, the Generous - The wonderful world of Ferngully.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw Cards Tribal.
Pir, Imaginative Rascal & Toothy, Imaginary Friend - Imaginary Superfriends.
Selvala, Explorer Returned - Taxes, Denial and Fatties.
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - Dinos and Eldrazis, oh my.
Ayara, First of Locthwain - March of the Black Queen.
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh - Chandra Tribal.
Golos, Tireless Pilgrim - Curious Contraptions

User avatar
pokken
Posts: 6281
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 2
Pronoun: he / him

Post by pokken » 4 years ago

I had a lot of fun with dawn of hope in Oloro.

User avatar
darrenhabib
Posts: 1812
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by darrenhabib » 4 years ago

In Esper there are a lot of ways to draw cards statically but not many ways to gain mana.

Card draw for example; Consecrated Sphinx, Nezahal, Primal Tide, Ever-Watching Threshold, Verity Circle.

Mana is trickier, Black Market and Waste Not can do it but sometimes requires you to force opponents into getting the benefits, but you can just play these and get games where they start producing value just from normal gameplay.

Further to this Mind's Dilation, Curse of Echoes, Hive Mind can be used to cast spells (without investing mana) so a sort of psuedo mana effect.

On another level Karmic Justice and Martyr's Bond provide a way to protect yourself from too much opponents removal.

User avatar
Mookie
Posts: 3460
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 47
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: the æthereal plane

Post by Mookie » 4 years ago

There are a lot of options for sweet, sweet value in Esper.

Card draw: Staff of Nin, Kumena's Awakening, Phyrexian Arena, Coercive Portal (sort of), Well of Lost Dreams, Bloodgift Demon... and many, many others.

Creature destruction is a bit tricker - The Abyss is out of most budgets. Porphyry Nodes is really slow. Call to the Grave and Archfiend of Depravity are decent, as is Sheoldred, Whispering One. Doom Foretold is a new option, which may or may not be decent.

Token production: Bitterblossom and Dreadhorde Invasion are the easiest options. Angelic Accord may be good depending on how much lifegain you have.

Not a ton of options for mana outside Smothering Tithe. Black Market and Revel in Riches can be good if things are dying frequently. Esper usually leans more on mana rocks for its ramp.

KarnDaddy
Posts: 12
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by KarnDaddy » 4 years ago

oh wow, there' some really evil stuff in here! thanks everybody!

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Commander”