Magic Making in the Arena – Esper Hero

Another session in the arena, and another deck type too try out. This time, we pilot another variant of the Esper deck: Esper Hero.

You can find the decklist here.

First off, I’m disappointed that I lost my cool like that in the middle of the stream. In hindsight, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the deck itself. Rather, the problem was that I was piloting a midrange deck in a best-of-one format, which isn’t conducive to the strength of the deck.

The real magic of a midrange deck occurs in the sideboard, during a best-of-three. While the first match in a best-of-three can be a bit of a tossup, midrange decks excel and their ability to transform themselves in between the rounds of a match.

When going up against an aggressive deck, they can slot in more draw cards, lifegain, and board clear to change themselves in a more control-oriented setup. This lets them withstand the initial surge and swoop in for the win through sustaining themselves. Likewise, doing up again a control deck can let them switch in cards to force a more aggressive strategy.

In a best-of-one matchup, the pilot doesn’t have the ability to make this pivot. And as a result, their performance suffers. This is what likely happened during my session.

So, lesson learned. The next time I show off a midrange deck, I’ll need to enter a best-of-three to really show off what it can do.