Thanks to the massive number of unbans that took place on Monday, it’s no surprise that Modern is drawing a ton of attention. Players are eager to see how things shake out in this new environment.
However, this doesn’t mean that innovation isn’t taking place in other formats. Even Standard, which was completely unaffected by the ban announcement, is seeing some unique archetypes pop up.
One of the most intriguing decks to put up a strong result seemingly out of nowhere is none other than Esper “bounce.” This deck utilizes a high density of potent enchantments with strong enters-the-battlefield effects.
By coupling them with ways to bounce them back to your hand, it’s amazing how much value you can generate. If you enjoy winning attrition battles by creating incremental advantages every turn, this Esper shell could be right up your alley.
An Enchantments Theme
- Mana Value: B
- Rarity: Common
- Card Type: Enchantment
- MTG Sets: Wilds of Eldraine
- Card Text: When Hopeless Nightmare enters the battlefield, each opponent discards a card and loses 2 life. When Hopeless Nightmare is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, scry 2. 2B: Sacrifice Hopeless Nightmare.
Before we dive into the array of synergies that make this deck poised to win grindy games, we first need to take a look at all the value-oriented enchantments that make their presences felt. At the top of the list, we have two important one-drops: Stormchaser’s Talent and Hopeless Nightmare.
Stormchaser’s Talent has become a Standard all-star, showing up in Temur Prowess and Simic spell decklists. The powerhouse serves a similar purpose here. The creature token with Prowess presents a decent amount of pressure when played on turn one. Once you start bouncing and replaying Stormchaser’s Talent, though, you’ll realize just how fast you can close games.
Hopeless Nightmare, on the other hand, does an excellent job whittling away your opponent’s resources. Over time, the life loss that Hopeless Nightmare brings with it will start to add up for the opponent.
To further keep the opponent off-balance, Nowhere to Run can clean up any creature your opponent plays in the early game. Preventing Ward abilities from triggering also comes up a surprising amount, especially when facing down Sheltered by Ghosts. Even Bottomless Pool/Locker Room can give you temporary reprieve against opposing threats.
All of these enchantments work perfectly with Optimistic Scavenger. If left unchecked, Optimistic Scavenger will run away with the game. This deck is built to win grindy games, but Optimistic Scavenger and Stormchaser’s Talent still demand answers or the opponent risks simply getting run over.
Generating Value
- Mana Value: 4U
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Type: Instant
- MTG Sets: Outlaws of Thunder Junction
- Card Text: This spell costs 3 less to cast if it targets a permanent you control. Return up to two target nonland permanents to their owner’s hands.
All of these enchantments are decent cards on their own, but they get significantly stronger when you can play them multiple times. Just like Temur Prowess and Simic spells, this deck makes great use of This Town Ain’t Big Enough as a tempo element, value engine, and way to protect your most important threats from removal.
This Town Ain’t Big Enough is hardly the only way to maximize your enchantments with triggered abilities. Nurturing Pixie is a super efficient beater that fills a similar role. With so many cheap enchantments to bounce, Fear of Isolation even makes an appearance.
Both of these creatures have the added bonus of synergizing with Spiteful Hexmage. After playing Spiteful Hexmage, you can cast either Fear of Isolation or Nurturing Pixie, pick up the Cursed Role token, and unlock your three-power attacker. Add on Sheltered by Ghosts as a way to push damage, and your opponent will be on the backfoot in no time.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Mana Value: 2UU
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 4/3
- Card Type: Enchantment Creature- Cat Glimmer
- MTG Sets: Duskmourn
- Card Text: Flash. Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card. When Enduring Curiosity dies, if it was a creature, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control. It’s an enchantment. (It’s not a creature.)
Overall, while this archetype is a relatively new phenomenon, there’s definitely some appeal to playing it. Probably the deck’s biggest strength is its versatility. Against slower strategies like Domain, this deck’s speed can be a real problem. Between Optimistic Scavenger, Stormchaser’s Talent, and Spiteful Hexmage, you have a decent number of assertive plays to make in the first couple turns.
At the same time, when you’re playing versus aggressive shells like Gruul Prowess, you can easily take a more controlling role. Nowhere to Run and Hopeless Nightmare do a great job running the opponent out of resources when you continuously bounce them and replay them. From there, winning the game becomes trivial.
As one player describes, this deck has a lot in common with Boros Synthesizer decks in Pauper. They also gave Hopeless Nightmare specifically a shout out, as the card is especially brutal to see replayed over and over as a midrange aficionado.
All that being said, this deck does still have its share of weaknesses. One of them is consistency. Many cards in the deck, such as Nowhere to Run and Sheltered by Ghosts, shine in some matchups while being rather mediocre in others. Obviously, these cards are necessary to allow you to stabilize against red aggro and Convoke. By contrast, if your opponent is playing control or Domain, these cards risk being dead.
You also don’t exactly have clean answers to Enduring Curiosity, one of the best cards in Standard. Sure, Sheltered by Ghosts can exile it, but Sheltered by Ghosts is a bit vulnerable to Go for the Throat and other removal spells out of Dimir midrange.
Finally, it should be noted that this deck’s mana base is far from ideal. The cards here are very color intensive, and you really need your lands to enter untapped as often as possible in the early turns. As such, you’ll find a ton of “Painlands” in the mana base, all of which make you more susceptible to fast starts and burn spells from mono-red.
Regardless, this deck’s gameplan is robust, and you have game against nearly every archetype in Standard. We’re excited to see if Esper bounce continues to make some noise in the format moving forward.
