I made some reasonable calls and some wild assertions as co-author of the Esper First Impressions article, but do I have the decks to back up my claims? You be the judge as I present three Standard decks: one casual, one competitive, and one combo, all featuring Sharuum the Hegemon.

My goal in this article is to demonstrate that one of the cards I really liked in the First Impressions series is either fun in casual, good in competitive, or maybe even both! When deciding on which card to run through the wringer, I started with my top picks from the Shard called Esper. This meant first considering Tezzeret, the Seeker. The problem with attempting to prove that Tezzeret is a good card is that he is already universally accepted as decent and fun, so it's not much of a challenge. On the other hand, second in line in my pick order has had mixed reviews, which makes it perfect for my purposes: Sharuum the Hegemon!

When working with the Hegemon in Standard, I was faced with three obvious choices:

• Maximize the card advantage potential of Sharuum, by creating a deck full of artifacts to reanimate.
• Combo Sharuum the Hegemon with Hissing Iguanar or something similar. Arbitrarily large damage can be yours if you play a Sharuum while having a Hissing Iguanar in play and another Sharuum in the Graveyard. The two Legendary Sphinxes can repeatedly reanimate each other by coming into play, while state based effects continually send the two identical Legendary permanents to the graveyard. Sharuums going to the graveyard mean triggered damage from the Iguanar to target player.
• Be more creative. Okay, this isn't really obvious, more vague than anything else, but it technically is an option.

Being part of the slacker generation, I opted to start by cramming a deck full of artifacts and see what happened. What I came up with certainly proves that Sharuum the Hegemon can be lots of fun:

That's right, it's a Riddler reference - Sphinxes do like their riddles, you know. With all the sacrifices and reanimations, this deck showcases the entertainment value of Sharuum the Hegemon. Etherium Astrolabe quickly becomes MVP of this particular deck, since you can use it to activate Deathrender, pulling big stuff into play as well as drawing a card. It's not uncommon to get crazy recursion plays like Deathrender on Bottle Gnomes, gain three life into another Bottle Gnomes, gain three more life into Sharuum, returning Sanctum Gargoyle from the graveyard to play, and finally returning the original Bottle Gnomes back to hand.

Now is as good a time as any to point out that the Panoramas are better than I initially thought they were. That they only initially produce colorless mana is often unimportant, unless you have lots of double- and triple-color cost spells.

A little primer on bringing multiple Sharuum the Hegemons in play: When you bring a second Hegemon into play, two things happen. First, state-based effects are generated and resolved, which means the two Legendary Sphinxes both go to the graveyard. It is only after all state-based effects have been resolved that triggered effects are put on the stack. Guess what - that means that the triggered comes-into-play (CIP) ability of the second Hegemon can target either of the Sphinxes that just went to the graveyard. If you want to, you can always bring the last Hegemon back to play.

Why is this Sharuum CIP ability relevant? Well, in this deck, it means that you can attack with Sharuum, reanimate another Sharuum in the graveyard with Scarecrone, and, when the dust settles, end up with an untapped Sharuum in play.

So, I established the fun aspect of the Hegemon. However, is the big Sphinx any good? I decided to kick it into high gear and ramp the power level on this sucker. While creating the first deck in the article, it fared acceptably well against the random decks I use for development and testing, but it was a complete dog to the one deck you are certain to see in Standard: Faeries. This first Sharuum deck didn't just lose - it lost pathetically, over and over.

I set out to make changes, always returning to the stock Faeries deck as a benchmark for success. I made sure to add instant speed spells to the deck, to meet the Fae on their own field of battle. I streamlined and upgraded the draw component. I eliminated the gimmicky combo elements that were fun, but didn't really accomplish much. In short, I got creative and a little ruthless. Along the way, the deck became better and better against my random testing decks, now outstripping them both in power and monetary cost. Finally, I reached a point where Fairies were no longer an automatic loss, but the Hegemon had a fighting chance to take the game:

The plan for this deck is clear: control the board and attack. Sharuum lives up to the hype in this deck, ranging from tricks as mundane as drawing a card (by reanimating a Mind Stone), to those as fancy as reanimating a second copy of itself to "remove" a Mannequin counter. Makeshift Mannequins not only run double duty as draw with Mulldrifters, but they provide an important service in being able to put creatures into play while control opponents are tapped out.

I know that MDV is the site for the casual player, but I recommend investigating this deck as a possible deck for less casual situations. My testing has shown it at least competes with Faeries, which is what it was designed to do. It also plays a mean game of "flinch" with the new Cruel Ultimatum decks, as both decks can play control for a long time into the game. With a little tweaking for your metagame (the decks you expect to see), it could surprise you.

There are some things you will immediately notice and may wonder about in this deck:

• Expensive cards: If the goal here is to prove Sharuum can be good, I'm going no holds barred to accomplish that goal.
• A lower creature count: This is because the early game is no longer spent ramping to a Deathrender, but rather it is spent hindering the opponent from creating a board presence.
• Fewer artifacts: Changes had to be made to accommodate the different pace and goals of the new deck. What utility artifacts are left in the deck are concessions to Sharuum's ridiculous ability. It's not unusual to pull off the end-of-turn Mannequin into Sharuum, into a second Sharuum, into the first Sharuum again (now without any Mannequin counter) plus a Scourglass to bust at upkeep.
• No Shriekmaw with Makeshift Mannequin: Shriekmaw was tested and discarded, because those darn Faeries do everything at instant speed. After many games of countered or just plain irrelevant Shriekmaws, they got the boot in favor of Nameless Inversion.

After playing with this deck for a while, I can't even begin tell you how good Esper Charm is. If we did a "First-and-a-half Impressions" series, Esper Charm would be getting an "A-" from me, only getting the minus because of the tricky mana cost.

Razormane Masticore is quite possibly one of the best creatures in Standard, and gee whiz, he's an artifact, which means he's good buddies with the mighty Hegemon! Esper Charms, Mulldrifters and Mind Stones help keep the Masticore in play and wreaking havoc.

Mind Stones should also be traded in for cards in the mid and late game, when the extra mana is less relevant. Obelisks can't do that!

I've demonstrated that Sharuum can be fun in a decent casual deck with lots of artifacts, and I showed he can be competitive in a mean little control deck. However, I couldn't shake the feeling that it would be a glaring omission to ignore the combo potential of Sharuum the Hegemon. Not able to leave well enough alone, I started building a combo deck with Sharuum the Hegemon, Hissing Iguanar, and Where Ancients Tread. Unfortunately, this was easeir said than done. I quickly eliminated the Iguanar as being too fragile, but I persisted with Where Ancients Tread. After many failures, I finally cobbled together a decent casual deck which displays Sharuum's combo potential:

The general plan is to stall until you get Where Ancients Tread on the board and at least one Sharuum in the graveyard, plus a way to put another Sharuum into play. Because of the aforementioned trick with Sharuum, you can continuously reanimate your two Sphinxes for as long as necessary to win the game with Sphinx treads.

Sculpting Steel plays a role as pseudo-Hegemons. When reanimated from the graveyard by a Hegemon, you can have Sculpting Steel come into play as a copy of the Hegemon, causing the same loop as previously described. If one is sitting in your hand, frequently you can copy a Mind Stone and trade it in for a new card.

Mind Spring is often how you find your combo pieces, and it is also one way to get copies of the Hegemon into the graveyard, because you frequently need to discard at end of turn after Mind Springing.

It occurs to me that a larger card pool such as Legacy may hold a better framework for comboing out with Sharuum the Hegemon. I will leave that particular task as an exercise for the reader.

Its pretty clear to me that Sharuum the Hegemon is a fairly interesting and powerful card. Personally, I think this was an easy call, and I'm surprised it received mixed reviews from several sites. I'd love to hear about the performance of and improvements to these decks, as well as other ways to use the Hegemon, not just in Standard, but Extended, Legacy, and beyond. Sound off in the forums about the potential of the ruler of Esper!

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.
Find other articles by this author here.
Find other articles from this series here.

[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ] [ Next ]

Articles Spotlights from 2008:
A Fresh Perspective: Stasis - Part One.
The Apprentice Magician - Part Six.
Design on a Dime: The Lunch Meat Edition!
Fit the Flavor 2008 - FINALE!
The Games People Play - Market & EDH.
Sarpadian Empires, Vol VII: Foreword.
More Evil Than Evil.
Pauper Chronicles: Top O' the Morningtide to You!
Words from the Streetz: Uncommon and Common Magical Treasures.
The Writers Guild: The Inside Scoop.