Deck dilemma

[Guillaume]

Iv narrowed my decks for go Manchester down to 2, my esper deck u saw on Monday and a bug control deck iv been testing with that's done pretty well
My esper deck
- 4 divination
- 1 read the bones
- 3 thoughtseize
- 2 brain maggot
- 4 silence the believers
- 4 Hero's downfall
- 1 gild
- 2 ashiok, nightmare weaver
- 4 dissolve
- 3 nullify
- 2 elspeth, sun's champion
- 3 bile blight
- 2 prognostic sphinx
- 4 temple of enlightenment
- 4 temple of silence
- 4 temple of deceit
- 5 swamp
- 5 island
- 3 plains
Sb
- 3 brimaz, king oforeskos
- 2 last breath
- 2 banishing light
- 1 deicide
- 1 thoughtseize
- 2 plains
- 1 bile blight
- 3 annul

My bug deck is
- 4 sylvan caryatid
- 3 courser of kruphix
- 4 reaper if the wild
- 1 divination
- 3 read the bones
- 1 unravel the aether
- 1 Kiora, the crashing wave
- 4 Hero's downfall
- 4 silence the believers
- 4 thoughtseize
- 4 dissolve
- 3 nullify
- 4 temple of malady
- 4 temple of deceit
- 4 temple of mystery
- 4 swamp
- 4 forest
- 4 island

Sideboard
- 2 mistcutter hydra
- 2 unravel the aether
- 3 bassara tower archers
- 2 bile blight
- 3 forest
- 1 Pharika, god of afflictions
- 2 brain maggot

The esper deck has good matchups against mono-black, naya monsters and  most midrange decks. However, it has major card draw issues with divination. I'd like to run more read the bones but with thoughtseize and the overcosted removal the deck does too much damage to yourself. That means that against red deck wins or any unanswered threat (like fleecemane lion or even courser of kruphix) it can't get back in the game until turn 6/7 with silence the believers or elspeth.

By trying to solve this problem I noticed that the only important white cards were elspeth and last breath. So I tried just cutting those period and the deck didn't do well at all. In the end I tried a bunch of stuff and came upon green. The green deck has a much better early/mid game with caryatid and courser which also have the added bonus of add setting some of the damage I'm taking with thoughtseize, which let me play more read the bones over divination. It also has a much better sidebars with bassara tower archers and mistcutter for control and Pharika, unravel the aether  and brain maggot for midrange (it also does a lot better against red deck wins with early brick walls) the issue at hand is that late game it's much weaker than esper without elspeth. It also can't top deck it's way out of a horrible board like esper can. Iv tested it and it's only been an issue once where iv totally lost control over the game but it'll probably happen again.
So the issue at hand is wether elspeth ad last breath are a reason to stay in white, or is the stability of the green cards a better choice?

[fatolaf]

I like the stability of Green and the fact its no where as boring as Esper

Plus you might want to point out G, that this GT is Block format (Theros cards only)

[Guillaume]

Oh yh. But I dont really care about how boring it is for the opponent I just want to win at an event like this


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[fatolaf]

I still vote Green, not convinced the Block Esper is anywhere as good as the standard version.
Too many bad match ups IMO...

[Guillaume]

its not as good as the standard version obviously, but neither are any other block decks except maybe for mono white which is crap in all formats. the esper deck is more powerful, just has unstable draws

[roland murat]

As Esper was the big thing for a while I'm guessing people will bring stuff to counter it. As such, I'd go green

[fatolaf]

As Esper was the big thing for a while I'm guessing people will bring stuff to counter it. As such, I'd go green

On the other hand, you could argue that everyone will think that, hence no Esper, so maybe double bluff and take it....

[Guillaume]

Remember this is block, so no one is going to assume much esper in the meta. The 3 big decks are green red white monsters, mono black devotion, and green black or green black white reanimator. Also, the things people will sideboard in and out are basically the same against either bug or esper

[fatolaf]

  reanimator sounds fun, whats in it?

[Guillaume]

whip of erebos, ashen rider, obhorrent overlord (basically anything overcosted with a cool enter the battlefield effect) and commune with the gods, satyr wayfinder and nyx-weaver as well as a few pharikas and some depending on the build elspeth

[BusiMagic]

I think I like the BUG deck more, looks more consistent with the early drops. Why only 1 Kiora? The deck looks a little weak on outright win cons. (That might be partly because the Esper one is stacked with them)

[Guillaume]

The  esper one has eslpeth and i guess you could count prognostic sphinx, this one has 4 reapers which are absolutely insane in block as the repeated scry on whatever dies is huge. I originally had 3 kiora and 2 reapers but after testing realised that tapping out turn 4 doesnt work when stormbreath dragon and herald of torment is the format, especially if you are on the draw. I have actually completely dropped kiora from the deck for another unravel the aether, which has worked alot better against the more aggressive decks.

I have replaced  a bile blight and 2 forests from the SB to include 3 disciple of deceits which against the other control decks is just a complete blowout ( replacing irrelevant coursers or divinations late game for dissolve or hero's downfall as necessary is huge, especially after they have sided out their bile blights because they are dead cards pre-board.

Im really liking the creature based sideboard which most esper decks aren't running. I have seen 1 person run crystaline nautillus which is a great card in constructed as the sac ability is redundant as anything that would target it in the first place would be killing it anyway, but reaper completely blanks it.

Drown in sorrow is the replacement for my silence the believers to get rid of their brain maggots and eslpeth tokens which doesnt kill my guys (all toughness 3 or morre at least) and bile blight just does not do anything in block because of courser of kruphix being the mainstay of most decks.

Pharika is also ace to respond to whip of erebos. the fact that the deck is light on win cons does not matter because of the absence of wraths which means that basically nothing exept an elspeth minus can really kill reaper unless i have to chump block (in which case im losing anyway). I will have to test some more with and without kiora but im fairly sure shes leaving.

As a side note, As block decks are doing alot of damage to themselves with mana confluence, thoughtseize and read the bones being prevalent it therefore generally only takes a couple of swing from the reaper in order to kill the opponent. really excited and cant wait for the GP, hoping to surprise a few people