The sorry current state of Magic: The Gathering’s Standard format has been well-documented by this point. In many ways it’s essentially a one-deck format, with Vivi Cauldron riding roughshod over everything else. It doesn’t look like that’ll be changing any time soon, either. In the meantime, the format’s best hope is experimental new brews from players. This week we saw another valiant effort in this space, as an Esper Oculus deck put up results in an MTG Standard League.
Oculus as an archetype isn’t totally new to Standard, of course. We’ve seen Jeskai variants perform pretty well in the past. This new Esper take is fairly innovative, however, playing like an unholy hybrid of Control and Reanimator. If it can’t crush your opponent with a chunky Flier in the air, it can probably do so through sheer card advantage. It also borrows some of Vivi Cauldron’s best tricks. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, after all.
Esper Oculus In MTG Standard
Phil_emc2 is responsible for bringing Esper Oculus to MTG Standard this week. Their list went 5-0 in Tuesday’s MTGO Standard League. They also achieved the same results in last Saturday and Monday’s Leagues, with near-identical lists each time.
In many ways, the core gameplan here is the same as that of the Jeskai Oculus decks of old. Your plan is to get Abhorrent Oculus into play, and to leverage its immense power for an aggressive win. Casting Oculus normally is tricky, since it demands six cards exiled from your ‘yard, so this deck prefers to reanimate it instead. If you can get it into your graveyard, both Helping Hand and Return Triumphant can bring it back for cheap, no exile required.
To this end, the deck runs a lot of looting and self-discard effects. Bitter Triumph is one of the few hard removal spells left in Standard, and it lets you discard Oculus to boot. Steamcore Scholar is a fantastic Flying looter, which actually lets you go positive in card advantage if you pitch Oculus to it. Phil_emc2 also runs Three Steps Ahead, which is a total multi-tool here. It serves as a way to discard Oculus, a counterspell, and a way to copy your Oculus in play, all in one card.
Once it’s out, Oculus is both a terrifying threat and an ongoing value engine. It swings for five in the air, and it also Manifests Dread each turn. This allows you to cheat out additional copies of Oculus from your deck, and to fill your graveyard in the event that you need to cast one normally. It also keeps your board well-stocked with 2/2s, which is relevant given that most of Vivi Cauldron’s creatures are ground-based.
On The Draw
Supporting the classic Oculus core here is a bit of a ‘card draw matters’ theme. Phil_emc2 runs both Proft’s Eidetic Memory and Duelist of the Mind: two cards that provide scaling power boosts based on the number of cards you draw each turn. They both offer minor draw effects in themselves, but they get really juicy when you start looting.
We’ve talked about Steamcore Scholar and Three Steps Ahead above, and both play fantastically with this pair. The big hitter, however, is Winternight Stories. Drawing three cards is massive with either of the above pieces out, even if you have to discard two afterwards. You’ll likely be able to pitch an Oculus to this, too. Vivi Cauldron has fully adopted the Memory/Stories package, and it’s just as effective here.
Since every creature in the deck has Flying, the counters from Memory go a lot further than usual. They even turn Deep-Cavern Bat, usually a pure disruption piece, into a legitimate game-swinging threat. With the right start, it’s very possible for this deck to present lethal damage in the air early on in a game.
Rounding out Esper Oculus we have a couple of bangers, starting with three copies of No More Lies, one of the best counterspells in MTG Standard right now. This is a great answer to Vivi, since it keeps it out of the graveyard, thus avoiding Cauldron shenanigans.
Phil_emc2 also throws in a curveball with a three-of Jace Reawakened. The early casting restriction makes this one a bit weird, but it does do a lot for the deck. More looting is obviously great, and getting to Plot any card in your deck is also very powerful. This can lead to huge swing turns where you ‘store up’ a Winternight Stories until the perfect moment.
All Eyes On Me?
Right now, Esper Oculus is such a niche deck that we don’t really have any MTG Standard matchup data for it. That said, we can estimate based on the tools it has available.
At the moment, there are really only two matchups that matter: Vivi Cauldron and Dimir Midrange. Everything else is a small enough part of the meta that it’s not hugely relevant. Against Dimir, Esper Oculus is actually fairly well-positioned. While Dimir does have a lot of cheap Fliers to hold off your threats, it’s also much slower than you on average. Getting an early Oculus here is very likely to translate into a win, in other words. Oculus is also very resilient against the deck’s removal suite, due to its reanimation package.
Vivi Cauldron is another story. While you do have a fighting chance in games where you draw well, Cauldron’s raw aggression will often overwhelm you in the early game. Keeping pace with Marauding Mako/Fear of Missing Out starts is no joke. They also run Into the Flood Maw, which is a brutal answer to Oculus that can totally ruin your day when it lands. While a well-timed No More Lies can deal with Vivi itself, the rest of the deck is problematic enough to keep you on the back foot.
With Cauldron taking up so much of the metagame right now, it’s sadly unlikely that Esper Oculus breaks out much more beyond its current position. It is a very powerful list, however, and definitely one to watch if Wizards comes to its senses re: Vivi Cauldron emergency bans.
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