The build of Esper Legends Lukas Honnay and Nico Bohny came up with for the European Regional Championship absolutely dominated the tournament. The four players running the list, including them, Thoralf Severin and myself, placed in second, third, 18th and 39th respectively.
I decided to play the deck late in testing. I was high on Mono-White Midrange for a while during preparation, but in the end I wasn’t sure how well it would be positioned, so I ended up on the Esper Legends list Lukas and Nico worked on for two weeks. I didn’t think Esper Legends would be as broken as it turned out to be, I just knew that we had a good list with plans for each matchup. I was pleasantly surprised and Lukas said, “I told you so.” To be fair, he was crushing the Mythic ladder on Arena, keeping rank #1 for most of March. After the first five rounds of Day 1, we had a combined record of 19-1 – a pretty good start. In the end, excluding draws, the four of us went 47-14 for a combined win rate of 77 percent with Nico and Toffel almost meeting in the finals – an absolutely incredible finish.
Standard Esper Legends by Arne Huschenbeth
Creature (26)
Instant (2)
Enchantment (4)
Land (28)
This article will be a little different than a Deck Guide. I’ll be giving you an in-depth Sideboard Guide to provide you with the best of my knowledge on how to play and sideboard in the most important matchups in Standard. Our performance showcased how strong the archetype is, which means if you’re preparing for a tournament like the American Regional Championship, beginning of April, it’s valuable to know how this deck operates. This also matters if you’re not playing Esper Legends, as it’s always good to know what your opponents are up to. The strength of Esper Legends is witnessed best when you curve out on one, two and three. Mulliganing aggressively, especially when on the draw, was our go-to strategy. I mulliganed to five twice in the tournament and won both those games. The incredible individual power level of your cards allows you to win, even when low on cards.
Love the breakdown, as well as the input surrounding each match up. Those details really help highlight the whys behind the SB changes.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on mono white as well, what were you worried about facing to make that switch, and what you think about the mono white list from the canadian regionals with 8 field of ruin.
I am really struggling against jund. Any reccomendation for that matchup?
Love this style of article, would love to see more in depth sideboard guides like this.
THANK YOU for not making this a dumb video