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Esper Grave Knights

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 12:30 am
by Cyberium
Hello! I'm trying to modernize an old Esper deck of mine, a deck that focuses on graveyard synergy.

The core cards are Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, Necrotic Ooze, and Cairn Wanderer. In short, fill the graveyard with various creatures and reanimate/copy their effect via Haakon, Ooze, and Wanderer. The deck only utilizes roughly twenty creatures (many being knights by default) and 20+ instant/sorcery partly due to Dralnu, Lich Lord/Morphling being in the deck as well. River Kelpie and Secrets of the Dead provide tremendous amount of card advantage.

Some may recognize this deck idea by now. It came from Scoeri at MtGSalvation thread six years ago. He used Ertai, the Corrupted as his commander, while I modified it to suit Chromium, the Mutable. Recent cards like Maskwood Nexus, Guardian of Faith, Nymris, Oona's Trickster, Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools, Gravebreaker Lamia, Vile Entomber, and Oriq Loremage are all potential upgrades to his idea, Eldraine also provided many more knights for the theme.

I'd love to hear everyone's ideas on this direction. Some might suggest Zur the Enchanter and Varina, Lich Queen being better commanders for it, but I want to stick with Chromium and Ertai, or Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant/partners.

EDIT: Forgot to add, There's also Nameless Inversion and Crib Swap to further Haakon's power.

Re: Esper Grave Knights

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 1:24 am
by Ulka
I had worked with scoeri on that list way back when. I havent updated the old list in ages but here is my list and thread.viewtopic.php?f=35&t=18100

Re: Esper Grave Knights

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 1:53 am
by Sinis
This is uncanny! I had a similar idea recently and even put it together for a few games, though I couldn't get it to work with my group. I used Oloro, Ageless Ascetic as my general, since it provides a benefit without any real cost (except to play Esper in particular, and not play other Esper generals). Not saying you should pick Oloro, that's just who I gravitated to for a generic Esper shell.

The only thing I really remember was keeping Pull from Eternity to retain Haakon after graveyard hate.

Re: Esper Grave Knights

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 4:54 am
by Cyberium
Ulka wrote:
2 years ago
I had worked with scoeri on that list way back when. I havent updated the old list in ages but here is my list and thread.viewtopic.php?f=35&t=18100
Thank you! And applause for your continuous upgrading. I will study it right away.

Re: Esper Grave Knights

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 12:48 pm
by Dunharrow
With Maskwood Nexus is it worth putting Rooftop Storm + sac outlet?

Re: Esper Grave Knights

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 5:04 pm
by Cyberium
Dunharrow wrote:
2 years ago
With Maskwood Nexus is it worth putting Rooftop Storm + sac outlet?
Nexus is good for multiple reasons, same as Arcane Adaptation in this deck. It allow creatures to be knights and soldiers and other relevant creatures types.

As for Rooftop Storm, I'm not sure, while I see the combo potential it'd be less useful alone, but infinite is infinite.

Re: Esper Grave Knights

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 5:37 pm
by Dunharrow
Cyberium wrote:
2 years ago
Dunharrow wrote:
2 years ago
With Maskwood Nexus is it worth putting Rooftop Storm + sac outlet?
Nexus is good for multiple reasons, same as Arcane Adaptation in this deck. It allow creatures to be knights and soldiers and other relevant creatures types.

As for Rooftop Storm, I'm not sure, while I see the combo potential it'd be less useful alone, but infinite is infinite.
There is also Liliana, Untouched by Death that can replace rooftop storm and has a beneficial +1.

Re: Esper Grave Knights

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:29 pm
by Cyberium
Dunharrow wrote:
2 years ago
Cyberium wrote:
2 years ago
Dunharrow wrote:
2 years ago
With Maskwood Nexus is it worth putting Rooftop Storm + sac outlet?
Nexus is good for multiple reasons, same as Arcane Adaptation in this deck. It allow creatures to be knights and soldiers and other relevant creatures types.

As for Rooftop Storm, I'm not sure, while I see the combo potential it'd be less useful alone, but infinite is infinite.
There is also Liliana, Untouched by Death that can replace rooftop storm and has a beneficial +1.
Liliana, Waker of the Dead would fit better with her mutual discard and less zombie-centric reanimation, and alongside her would be Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound. Scoeri's ideas originally started out with Knight tribal instead of zombie tribal, which is why the emphasis was to get Haakon out as soon as possible.