Hi folks, didn't post for a while, but I spontaneously decided to bring my take on Esper Control to a 7 round 68 player tournament yesterday (opting for the control deck instead of my Izzet Breach list). I want to share a quick report on the matchups and my list. Bear in mind that I didn't know the meta, so I tried to adress a broad variety of decks with my SB choices. Major conclusion of the day in advance:
Drown in the Loch really was the card of the day, it did all the heavy lifting, from killing key creatures to countering Ugins and Ulamogs (with support from
Thought Scour). Here is the list:
Quick report on the matches as far as I can remember:
Match 1 vs. Bant Stoneblade (Loss 1:2)
Cannot remember much of this MU. I lost G1 to a resolved
Geist of Saint Traft on turn 2, powered with a
Sword of Fire and Ice. G2 I could keep the board clean although he resolved a RiP, shutting off my Drowns. However, I drew the right portion of my deck and resolved Jace and T5feri for the win. G3 I kept a sketchy hand lacking interaction. I cannot remember what exactly killed me but his creatures outclassed what I could bring up.
Match 2 vs. Titanshift (Loss 1:2)
This was a buddy of mine who travelled with me. I won G1 due to him drawing only lands, me countering the few key spells and resolving Jace and T5feri. G2 I rather instantly scooped to
Chandra, Awakened Inferno. I could not imagine a single scenario in which I am able to race this Chandra, it was just backbreaking. Sadly, I did not even board in
Celestial Purge. G3 I kept a 2-lander and did not draw any land in the following 5 turns, rendering my whole hand useless. He finished me with Valakut and
Prismatic Omen.
Match 3 vs. Jund (Win 2:0)
This match undeniably was the dream. G1 I drew literally all my Drowns and killed and countered everything he did. G2 went the same way, he resolved a few discard spells which I could draw out of. The discard mode on
Esper Charm did the rest. My PWs and manlands did the rest.
Match 4 vs. Tron (Win 2:1)
G1 was a resemblance of my former Tron experiences. I could counter many threats he deployed and path resolved Wurmcoils. However, once I ran out of counterspells, he eventually resolved an Ugin, to which I instantly scooped. Classic. G2 I could bring in all the goodies. Fielding and extracting his Tron lands. Thoughtseizing early Expedition Maps. From there on, I could counter all his stuff and won with Jace/T5feri. G3 was an iteration of G2. Take that, Tron, my nemesis!
Match 5 vs. Bant Vizier Combo (Win 2:0)
What can I say, creature-based combo decks are a delight, at least for my list. Drown did the heavy lifting here. T3feri forced him to do his things sorcery speed, making it pretty easy for me to disrupt him. G2 was actually a pretty close one. He tutored a
Thrun, the Last Troll with
Eladamri's Call and resolved it. From there on it was a race, which I won with Colonnade beats since I did not take any damage from attacks or shock lands until this point.
Match 6 vs. Abzan Vizier Combo (Draw 1:1)
G1 was comparable to G1 versus Bant Vizier. Killing creatures and resolving planeswalkers seals the deal. G2 I had to experience the downside of
Drown in the Loch. I mulled once, getting a hand with 3(!) Drowns in it, putting one on the bottom. However, he started off with basic into
Giver of Runes into second giver, putting no cards in his GY. Thus I was not able to kill them right away, forming a serious threat. They beat me to 6 life and I really had to get creative. I did not find a Verdict and he could manage to resolve a
Vraska, Golgari Queen, which created too much value. G3 we went to turns and drawed. Unlucky, since I think Esper should beat this kind of deck any given day.
Match 7 vs. Simic Whirza (Loss 0:2)
Jeez, this is one hard matchup. I lost both games clearly and rather fast. Even though I extracted his Urza and Whir in G2, he won with help of
Oko, Thief of Crowns and
Emry, Lurker of the Loch. The deck is called Whirza and functions without the namesake cards with ease. I mean, come on. Oko is a BIG pain for Esper, I really had a rough time trying to answer him, leading my to Cryptic Bounce him hoping I could counter him on the way back down. However,
Metallic Rebuke and his own Cryptic Commands shut off my whole plans. Ultra hard matchup, I really would appreciate some advice and/or experiences on this one!
Final score: 3-3-1, ranking 30th
Okay, the short report got a bit longer than expected. Thank you for reading and advice, tips or questions on card choices/matchups are welcome!
Cheers from Germany
PS: Resolved planeswalkers are VERY hard to handle, at least from my experience. I am considering some hard removal for PWs and adding a few more clocks to be able to pressure them (e.g. Tasigur and/or SFM package). More Tarpits could also help.