Much Abrew: Esper Processor Blink (Modern, Magic Online)

by SaffronOlive // Apr 15, 2019

Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Right now, we're on Instant Deck Tech hiatus for War of the Spark spoiler season (having a daily spoiler video and an Instant Deck Tech video every day overloads the YouTube channel a bit too much), which means we have a special episode today where we are playing a random deck that I thought looked fun. The deck? Esper Processor Blink, which is sort of a unique take on Eldrazi & Taxes that looks to set up the lock of Rest in Peace, Eldrazi Displacer, and Ulamog's Nullifier, which gives us an infinite number of three-mana counterspells by repeatedly blinking Ulamog's Nullifier (and processing cards back to exile thanks to Rest in Peace) with Eldrazi Displacer. Apart from the lock itself, the deck has some sneaky processor synergies, like exiling cards with Tidehollow Sculler and Spell Queller but then getting rid of those cards permanently by putting them from exile to the graveyard with Wasteland Strangler or Ulamog's Nullifier. Can the strange, synergistic, blink-infused deck compete in Modern? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we can talk more about the deck!

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Much Abrew: Esper Processor Blink

Discussion

As for our record, we played a competitive league with Esper Processor Blink and finished with a 3-2, which is pretty reasonable (although obviously not as good as a 4-1 or 5-0). We managed to take down Jeskai Control, Hollow One, and Tron while losing to Jund and dropping a rematch to Tron. In all honesty, I was thrilled that we managed to go 1-1 against Tron. We don't really have any ways to interact with lands, and our clock is pretty slow, which makes it feel like a pretty difficult matchup on paper.

As for the deck itself, it's actually very disruptive. While the lock of Ulamog's Nullifier and Eldrazi Displacer didn't come up all that often, when it did, it was as good as advertised, basically keeping our opponent from doing anything for several turns, although the bigger reason to play the deck is all of the tricky processor synergies. While the deck isn't often going to overpower an opponent, it can sort of annoy them to death by picking cards from their hand, killing things, and eventually turning all the small bits of value into a win.

The other huge upside of the deck is that it gets to play Rest in Peace and Relic of Progenitus in the main deck. Both graveyard-exiling spells are relevant even in matchups where they are normally bad, thanks to our processors. While several top decks in Modern are soft to graveyard hate, playing these cards normally comes with a risk—in some matchups, they are literally dead cards. However, since in the worst case we can use them to feed Wasteland Strangler and Ulamog's Nullifier, the floor of Rest in Peace and Relic of Progenitus is much higher in our deck than in most decks in Modern.

As far as changes to make to the deck, playing some way to interact with lands is probably worthwhile. Field of Ruin or Ghost Quarter in the mana base would go a long way toward improving the Tron matchup, and since we need colorless lands anyway, the cost isn't that high. Moorland Haunt wasn't all that relevant, which makes it a fairly easy cut, and we might be able to trim back on a Cavern of Souls as well. The other possibility for the mana base is playing some pain lands, like Underground River. In a deck that is essentially four colors (since we need white, blue, black, and colorless mana), these lands are essentially untapped tri-lands, and it's weird to not have any at all in a deck like Esper Processor Blink (this is also a good way to make the deck more budget-friendly—by trading fetch lands and some shock lands for cheaper pain lands).

The other part of the deck that I found strange was the sideboard. The combination of white, black, and blue offers many of the best sideboard cards in Modern. Yet, rather than playing cards like Stony Silence, we're overloaded with token production, with three Timely Reinforcements and two Lingering Souls (which is especially awkward with our main-deck Rest in Peaces). Playing a more traditional Esper sideboard would probably go a long way toward making the deck better in a wider range of matchups. It feels like we have very little to compete with decks like Tron or Hardened Scales while perhaps too much to fight against decks like Burn.

So, should you play Processor Blink Eldrazi? The deck was fun and felt competitive, although it could use some tuning around the edges, especially with the mana base and sideboard. However, even in the deck's current state, the lock is effective, and if you enjoy squeezing value our of synergistic, annoying creatures the deck is a blast to play and could certainly win an FNM if you hit the right matchups. If you like blinking things and annoying your opponent with incremental synergistic value, it seems like a reasonable (although decidedly fair) option for Modern!

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.