We’re currently in a lame duck format with the presence of Nadu tainting Modern. Luckily there are plenty of decks to try once it has left the format in the meantime.
Today I’m going to talk about my current favorite deck in Modern- Esper Goryo’s. Matt Sperling piloted the deck to a perfect 10-0 finish in the constructed portion of Pro Tour: Modern Horizons 3; this is a very difficult feat. In fact, when I feel like I have the best deck in the room at a Pro Tour I’ve only picked up a few 7-3s and a single 8-2 record. Things go wrong in games against the best players in the world so you need a great deck and things break the right way.
Only a handful of players managed to obtain eight or nine wins in the constructed portion of Pro Tour: Modern Horizons, but Esper Goryo’s was the lone perfect record. This archetype is well positioned while Nadu remains legal, but has favorable matchups against other top decks as well. A proactive strategy that can scam Grief is a great place to be.
Esper Goryo’s looks to add Atraxa or Griselbrand to the graveyard and reanimate with Goryo’s Vengeance or Priest of Fell Rites. Goryo’s Vengeance exiles the legendary creature at the beginning of the next end step so it can be reset with Ephemerate.
A strong curve of discard outlet into Goryo’s Vengeance and Ephemerate will close the deal in most cases as there’s plenty of free interaction to draw.
Atraxa is the primary haymaker.
It can be pitched to Force of Negation, Grief, and Solitude. It’s not unreasonable to hardcast Atraxa in games that stall if the opponent draws too much interaction to break up a reanimation line. The single green source in the manabase offers a late game plan.
Griselbrand is similarly deadly when reanimated, but harder to cast and can only be pitched to Grief. A total of six monsters ensures a level of consistency to reanimate without having an egregious amount of dead draws. Griselbrand is a reasonable card to board out as I look to diversify away from the primary combo versus a swath of interaction.
Fallaji Archeologist and Tainted Indulgence are the primary ways to dump monsters into the graveyard. I’ve missed grabbing a spell with Archeologist a few times so far, but it’s the glue to help justify four copies of Ephemerate. I’m willing to board out an Archaeologist as post board games revolve less around the reanimation plan. Remember this is a blue card for Force of Negation.
Tainted Indulgence is not only a card-neutral filtering option, but can easily satisfy the requirement to avoid discarding once the monsters are in the graveyard. The mana values of Esper Goryo’s are fairly diverse; this is the best of both worlds.
A key innovation in this build of Esper Goryo’s is excluding Faithful Mending. Spending a card to loot two is card disadvantage; it’s only valuable when going all-in on the reanimation turn. The best way to make a gimmick strong enough to stand up to interaction is including more generically powerful cards.
Another draw to Esper Goryo’s is not having to invest in too many Modern Horizons 3 cards. Psychic Frog is the only new card in the maindeck and more than pulls its weight. Not only does it just feel good to cast, but serves as a discard outlet.
Psychic Frog is able to participate in Esper Goryo’s primary game plan of putting a monster on the battlefield, but is also a great standalone threat. Most opponents will board out removal because the graveyard is the most profitable interaction point which allows the Frog to sneak through extra cards. Once Esper Goryo’s boards in targeted interaction the game will go longer as well.
It’s possible to discard down to hand size to enable the reanimation combo, but I haven’t had the situation arise quite yet. I felt the same way when piloting Living End; the tempo loss of not casting spells to beef up the graveyard isn’t worth it.
Grief is another creature to justify playing four copies of Ephemerate. The ability for some games to begin with scamming a Grief not only increases the average power level of the deck, but also makes it tougher to sideboard against the multiple angles of attack. Remember you cannot Grief yourself to discard a monster. The most likely outcome of the August B&R announcement is that Nadu alone is banned in Modern and the rest of this deck will remain intact.
Solitude offers free interaction against Nadu, but falls short against a majority of other decks in the metagame. While the rest of the deck’s interaction misses large creatures it’s less necessary to answer every threat when working toward a game-ending combo.
Force of Negation is a singleton that can be found with Atraxa and Griselbrand to help seal the game. I’ve been very impressed with Force of Negation as it stops most hate cards as well as Necrodominance and Blood Moon.
Prismatic Ending serves as a white card for Solitude and can exile problematic permanents that prevent the reanimation combo. I’ve liked two copies of Prismatic Ending as an additional sorcery for Atraxa has also come up at times.
Teferi, Time Raveler is another way to deal with noncreature permanents that helps force through the combo. Again, having two colors to pitch cast has come up as well as offering an additional type for Atraxa.
Teferi gets even stronger in post board games as hateful interaction like Endurace and Surgical Extraction threaten to break up the combo at instant-speed. Bouncing big threats like Murktide Regent is also relevant as decks with ample interaction and large standalone threats have been difficult.
Teferi can even bounce Nihil Spellbomb or Soul-Guide Lantern because Goryo’s Vengeance can be cast at instant speed if the opponent is threatening to exile a monster. The +1 ability can enable the fabled draw-step Thoughtseize that feels so broken to execute.
Thoughtseize is the cream of the crop when it comes to interaction, but is even better in Esper Goryo’s since it can double as a way to dump a monster into the graveyard.
Priest of Fell Rites may appear like an easy cut at first glance, but has been very impressive. Esper Goryo’s sees a good amount of cards each game, but this creature offers redundancy for reanimation. Priest isn’t limited to just legendary creatures making it great with Grief and Solitude.
The unearth ability on Priest of Fell Rites can help increase the amount of relevant cards milled from Fallaji Archeologist. Note that unearth cannot be countered so there are matchups where this is one of the top threats. In a pinch you can discard Priest and a monster with Psychic Frog to reanimate against potential counters. This is an important aspect of the deck as it creates another layer of reach not often seen in these types of strategies.
The manabase is a draw for Esper Goryo’s. It’s very simple with ten fetch lands and ten fetchable lands. There are even ample sources to cast your monsters if the game goes long.
The two drops are very colorful, but they can all be cast by starting with Swamp and an Azorius dual land since cutting Faithful Mending. For this reason, the black fetches are preferred. Beginning with a Thoughtseize can be painful making the Swamp an ideal basic land to begin.
A whopping four surveil lands provide opportunities to put a monster in the graveyard on the first turn which can enable a fast Goryo’s. Remember that a second turn monster means there won’t be a white mana available for Ephemerate. Goryo’s Vengeance exiles the creature at the beginning of the next end step so this can be mitigated by casting at the end of the opponent’s second turn to get an untap step.
I prefer Underground Mortuary to Hedge Maze as it can be found with all ten fetchlands. Overgrown Tomb is able to make green mana the turn it enters the battlefield which makes it better for hardcasting Atraxa, but I prefer the Surveil ability of Mortuary. Green mana also enables more robust Prismatic Endings.
Esper colors mean Blood Moon can be painful. Luckily most spells in the deck can be cast with the three basic lands. Psychic Frog is the go-to plan B when the manabase is under attack which can lead to me prioritizing Island and Swamp. Plains can break up Blood Moon with Celestial Purge making all of the basics valuable against red decks. Boros Energy plays plenty of below-rate cards, but is able to close a game with the power of Blood Moon. Makes me think Rakdos Scam still has a chance in this metagame.
Waterlogged Teachings is another option for the final land, currently occupied by the second Flooded Strand, as it pitches to Grief and Force of Negation. The front side can assist with consistency in slower games. I prefer Matt’s manabase, but this land has potential.
Another interesting option for Esper Goryo’s is to play Overgrown Tomb and Raugrin Triome to enable Leyline Binding while still casting all of the two-drops. I plan to test this in the coming weeks as Binding can exile Necrodominance and serve as a new card type for Atraxa. The cost to this approach is a slightly weaker manabase and fewer removal spells that can be cast on the first turn.
Celestial Purge fights Blood Moon, Leyline of the Void, and Necrodominance.
I have found two copies to be sufficient as it can be asking a lot to leave up two mana to prevent the problematic enchantments entering the battlefield depending on your draw.
Drannith Magistrate is a haymaker against Storm and Cascade. I like these matchups regardless and both decks are on the downswing so I can see playing a single copy in the near future.
Nihil Spellbomb is strong against Storm, Cascade, and the mirror. Moving forward I would expect the mirror to be more prevalent and would like to play a Surgical Extraction as it pitches to Grief and combos with Thoughtseize and Grief. It’s more targeted interaction at the expense of being boarded in less frequently.
Consign to Memory can assist with Tron decks, but I don’t want three copies as they don’t represent a large amount of the metagame. Luckily Consign has a proactive option as a pseudo-Ephemerate to stifle sacrifice and exile triggers on evoke creatures and Goryo’s Vengeance.
Wrath of the Skies is great against Nadu and creature decks with swarms of cheap threats. I prefer a Supreme Verdict to clean up expensive threats like Murktide Regent as well.
I would like to play up to four Psychic Frogs in the seventy-five. It’s reasonable to mix and match to your liking, but they do get stronger after board. Remember the ability to grant flying can counter an opposing Surgical Extraction.
Force of Negation is the strongest sideboard option because it acts as glue to support some of the more targeted hate cards. Rather than play three Consign to Memory I can play two and have two Forces to augment. This is a great way to avoid building a sideboard that’s too targeted in a more diverse metagame. Adriano Moscato has come to a similar conclusion and made the top 4 of the 75k that took place at Pro Tour: Modern Horizons 3.
Subtlety is another piece of free interaction that helps against Nadu as Endurace is their primary form of graveyard interaction. This is a strong card against other strategies after Nadu is banned as I expect Endurance will still have a home.
Here’s the list I would propose:
Modern isn’t in a healthy state, but Esper Goryo’s can compete ahead of the August B&R announcement which will almost assuredly remove Nadu. Esper Goryo’s takes a strong proactive game plan that lines up well in the metagame and adds top tier interaction making this a great choice for the upcoming RCQ season.
