Alchemy Ladder: Esper Tasha Midrange Gets Top #10 Mythic!

In this article, I wanted to share my Esper Tasha Midrange list that I used to make the top #10 in best-of-three Alchemy on the ladder this past season.

Explanation of Card Choices

First off, I want to give credit where credit is due. Initially, I took crokeyz Esper Tasha list precisely as he made it. I used it to make it to top #100 mythic and had a great run! However, the Jund Trapfinder decks started showing up, and I noticed other weaknesses for the deck in the sideboard particularly. His version had Undercity Plunder included in the main deck, but after playing over one hundred games with it, I found it one of the weaker cards in the deck and chose to run more copies of Mind Spike instead.

esper-tasha-midrange

After a while, I noticed that Graveyard Trespasser was underperforming for me in the deck, with abundant Void Rend’s in the mirror-match and most decks having plenty of removal spells. There weren’t many graveyard-reliant decks on the ladder, so its exile effect wasn’t always relevant either. I added one Archon of Emeria to replace one of them to have more of a strategy against the combo decks.

Once the Jund Trapfinder decks became more prevalent on the ladder, I had to bring in four copies of Strict Proctor for the sideboard. They have multiple ETB effects in that deck, and I had tried four Archon of Emeria before that, but it was never enough. The rest of the card choices evolved as I progressed through the mythic ladder. With over two hundred matches played, I’ve managed to maintain a 70% win rate with the deck so far.

The Strategy of the Deck

The strongest card by far in the deck is Diviner of Fates. It lets you tutor through your deck, which is why you don’t have to run four copies of every card. For example, having two Vanishing Verse and two Infernal Grasp makes sense as it allows you to ditch one in the hopes of finding the other with the connive trigger from Diviner. You may face a multi-colored creature at some point and Vanishing Verse won’t help you much.

This deck is essentially a control deck. You want to control the board in every aspect, using your removal to clear the way and over-power the opponent with a beatdown from all your conniving creatures. Almost every card in the deck is a two-for-one, so don’t be afraid to discard a powerful card in search of the card you need at any given moment. You have helpful counter spells, channel lands, discard, and endless draw, so you usually can find an answer to whatever you’re facing.

Good Matchups/Bad Matchups

Surprisingly I’ve found that the mirror match is typically a good matchup. Not that I haven’t lost in a mirror, but it feels fair, so I’ll count it in the good matchup category. Other good matchups I’ve felt were creature-based decks like angels, other control decks, or other midrange decks that rely more on creatures than control. There are versions of Esper Tasha around running the dungeon package with more of a creature backbone and fewer spells. Still, I’ve found them weaker overall than versions like this list that include more flexible spells. Bad matchups would be Rakdos Anvil, burn decks, or the Jund Trapfinder/Combo decks. It is tough to beat the combo decks; you need some luck, your removal needs to line up perfectly, and you need to draw your Strict Proctor’s and Archon of Emeria on time and dodge their removal.

Thoughts for Improvement

Overall, I’ve found this to be the most potent deck I’ve played on Arena. It has so much draw; it feels like you can almost pick and choose what you’d like to draw out of your deck. Once you get a feel for it or have played it for a while, I think you’ll see what I mean. As far as improvements go, there have been several cards I’ve taken out and others I’ve put in while grinding the ladder.

The core package to me seems to be Diviner of Fates, Calim, Djinn Emperor, Tasha, Unholy Archmage, Herald of Vengeance, and Mind Spike. These feel necessary to the deck, and I would not remove them, but the rest of the deck could easily be changed to honestly whatever you’d like. The removal spells are essential too, but you could experiment with those as well. I hope to be able to improve this list even more before Alchemy Rotates with Standard this fall!