This past weekend I got to play some new Standard! I played in a semi-local team event and of course I sleeved up as many Nexus of Fates as I could. I wasn't sure what shell I wanted to play. I had written about a Bant Nexus deck and an Esper Nexus deck but Nexus and The Mirari Conjecture Nexus were all possible things. I loaded up MTG Arena and played in their competitive Standard league with Esper Nexus. I ended up going 7-2 online. That was enough for me to justify playing the deck and I really did not have any more time to test other decks out, so I sleeved the deck up! Our team ended up splitting the finals of the event. The deck's personal record only had one loss in the swiss round, but I won every other match.

Today I'd like to talk about the deck I played. Explain some card choices and what my overall impression of the deck was. First, let's go ahead and look at the list.

Esper Nexus -- Magic 2019 Standard | Ali Aintrazi

• Creatures (1)
• 1 Chromium, the Mutable

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

• Instants (25)
• 1 Blink of an Eye
• 1 Commit // Memory
• 1 Essence Scatter
• 1 Settle the Wreckage
• 2 Cast Down
• 3 Disallow
• 4 Fatal Push
• 4 Glimmer of Genius
• 4 Nexus of Fate
• 4 Vraska's Contempt

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Fumigate

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Search for Azcanta

• Lands (27)
• 1 Island
• 1 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Field of Ruin
• 2 Aether Hub
• 4 Drowned Catacomb
• 4 Fetid Pools
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Irrigated Farmland
• 4 Isolated Chapel

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Fungal Infection
• 3 Essence Extraction
• 1 Forsake the Worldly
• 1 Jace's Defeat
• 2 Negate
• 1 The Eldest Reborn
• 1 Mystic Archaeologist
• 3 Duress
• 1 Arguel's Blood Fast
• 1 Torrential Gearhulk

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The reason why I went with Esper instead of just straight is because I found had a lot less answers to the Red decks early. You basically only had Seal Away and countermagic. I'm telling you right now though that countermagic looks bad against 1-drops. It's crappy to play that Disallow Cancel on your opponent's Bomat Courier, Soul-Scar Mage, or Ghitu Lavarunner but you must, and you are going to lose a ton of tempo for doing so. Instead Black offered Fatal Push, Cast Down, and even Fungal Infection if I wanted it, which are all great answers against Red deck early.

You'll also see that I have a Chromium, the Mutable main deck and a Torrential Gearhulk in the Sideboard. I decided to play Chromium main deck because I did not want to turn on my opponent's removal spells or turn on their Essence Scatters. Chromium is also a three-turn clock and he has evasion, couple that with Nexus of Fate and your opponent could just die out of nowhere. I also have a split on Settle the Wreckage and Fumigate. I do this because keeping your opponent guessing is huge. Sometimes they'll play around that Settle the Wreckage because you cast it Game 1 and you won't even have it, so you will fire off a Glimmer of Genius and take less damage since your opponent did not alpha strike you. I was also struggling not playing any battlefield wipes. Sometimes you don't draw the countermagic you need early game and your opponent is able to swarm the battlefield with creatures, I found it rewarding to have access to a battlefield clear in my main deck.

As far as Sideboard goes I wasn't fully aware what to expect going into weekend one of a new metagame but I just wanted to be ready for Red. My only loss throughout the entire swiss and top eight was to Mono-Red. I played against Red four times and beat it three out of the four times, not too shabby for an "Ali deck." The Eldest Reborn is solid way to answer a planeswalker and then get one back on your side of the battlefield. I got to ultimate a Sarkhan, Fireblood that I stole from my opponent and then, immediately after, cast Nexus of Fate to kill my opponent with his own dragons, that was sweet. Mystic Archaeologist did a ton of work against grindy matchups when it showed up. It quickly got out of hand if it was not dealt with swiftly. Everything else in the sideboard was Standard.

Tricks of the Trade (Nexus of Fate edition)

If you have an active Teferi, you can just cast it as a Time Warp and get ahead on mana and card advantage. The more and more turns you take, the closer you get to taking infinite turns and slamming the door shut on your opponent's face.

Try to use your Nexus of Fate for as much value early on. For example, with Teferi or Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin out you gain card advantage. With Fumigate you get to wipe the battlefield then draw a card and pass with all your mana up. Use it as another combat step with Chromium to get your opponent that much close to death. At the very least, try to use it as an Explore. What I mean by this is try to at least play a land on your extra turn to jump ahead of your opponent on mana advantage. You don't want to cast Nexus of Fate to just draw a card and pass the turn back, so try to set yours up.

Late game it's the opposite. Make sure you are casting all your Nexus of Fate from your hand before you start cycling lands, casting Glimmer of Genius, upticking Teferi, or using Azcanta. During the late game, you'll just be casting Nexus of Fate as often and as much as you can. The concept is simple, you have a better chance of drawing Nexus of Fate if you have more in your deck.

I plan to take this deck to SCG Philadelphia for the team even with Justin Parnell and Harlan Firer. So, if you'll be in attendance make sure to stop by and say hello! I'll hopefully be taking all the turns, or at least enough to top eight and win the event.

As always, thank you for reading.

I'll see you all next Friday,

Ali Aintrazi

Follow me @AliEldrazi

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