Hello!
A little over a week ago, we say kanister taking the crown in the MOCS. His weapon of choice in the Modern portion was Esper Ketramose, and I had the privilege of helping him with his preparations to this prestigous event. I have a lot of experience with the archetype dating back all the way to Ketramose's release, and I've written a guide in which I share my knowledge.
I won’t pretend that Esper is some slept-on miracle solution to the format, as I simply don't believe that to be the case. What I do believe, however, is that it’s a strong deck with a proactive plan, a wealth of meaningful interaction, and a decent matchup into Broodscale, Goryo’s, and Prowess. In this article, I will go over my suggested list for the coming RCs, which will differ a bit from the MOCS list. This is mostly due to the incredibly small field at that tournament, and the intricacies of metagaming for an eight person event where you can scour each player’s history and predict the exact metagame with a reasonably high confidence. I’ll cover some of the most popular matchups in the format and present various tips on how to approach mulliganing, gameplay and sideboarding while facing each of them.
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/mOKkWr64TU6mZcXTK_OYpg
The guide covers 17 decks (in alphabetical order): Affinity, Broodscale, Devoted Druid, Eldrazi (Trudge/Fight Rigging), Energy (Boros/Jeskai), Esper Blink, Goryo, Living End, Mono U Belcher, Neobrand, Ponza, Prowess, Storm, Tron, UB Frog, UW/Jeskai Control and Zoo. For each of those decks, I've prepared sideboarding plans and notes of both mulliganing and gameplay. To sample the guide, here's the note I've written on the Energy matchup:
Energy (Boros/Jeskai)
In: 2 Wrath, 1 Snare, 1 Push, 1 Dispute (vs Jeskai)
Out: 3 Thoughtseize, 1 Consign, 1 FON (vs Jeskai)
Adjustments on the draw: -2 NML, +2 FON (vs 2+ Moons) or -1 NML +1 Dispute (vs Jeskai)
Mulligan ranges: On the play, the thing you want to see the most is Psychic Frog, ideally with an interactive spell on turn one. On the draw, you’re looking for one mana interaction, ideally multiple pieces, or a Wrath to catch up. Having some way of dealing with Blood Moon is also nice, either by fetching around it or answering it directly, but that’s less of a priority.
Gameplay: While Boros and Jeskai differ from each other a fair bit, I’ve decided to lump them together, since your plan against both is somewhat similar. Your main goal is to stabilise the early game before taking over. This can be done either by answering their plays, or by simply dominating the board with your own creatures. Their only way to go over your engine is Ajani + Bombardment, so try to save some interaction for it. Remember that you can interact with Ajani after it flips but before Bombardment’s ability resolves. The current list doesn’t have any way of doing so, but if you’re running something like Celestial Purge, or if for some reason you have Teferi + Ending against them, it can matter. In the midgame, aside from Ajani + Bombardment, you should plan for either Blood Moon/Legend of Roku or Quantum Riddler, depending on which version you’re facing. Out of these three, I’d say that Riddler and Legend are easier to deal with once you get going, as you’ll be so ahead on resources that trading with it unprofitably won’t matter, while Blood Moon can cause some real trouble even at that point. Esper doesn’t have particularly tough mana requirements, so prioritise fetching basics if possible, even over getting surveil value if you have your next few turns lined up.
If you're intersted, here's the link to the article: https://mystical-teachings.com/esper-ketramose-sideboard-guide/