Esper Mentor Control I have been testing in modern. Deny them anything and everything and grind out value with
Monastery Mentor
s, Lingering Souls and Snapcaster Mages. Heavy early hand disruption with 5 Inquisition of Kozilek/Thoughtseize, lots of spot removal, mainboard Zealous Persecution for one-sided board wipes against a variety of decks.
Beats:
Affinity - mainboard Lingering and Zealous are heinous. Being able to board in Surgical, Stony, Fragmentize more than seal the deal
Grixis Control - Lingering, path, blessed and rev are better than their bolts, kol commands and the like
Death's Shadow - Plenty good against it mainboard, sideboard condemns and more pushes make it better
Burn - Enough mainboard healing and important creature bolt targets to get them hellbent early, early hand disruption, enough creatures that swiftspears and guides don't get in. Eidolons are primary removal targets. Post-sideboard, bring in Fragmentize and be sure to be able to fetch a basic plains for Blood Moon. Also be ready to heal in response to Skullcrack/Atarka's Command since you will be seeing them. Board in Kor Firewalkers and Sugricals to greatly improve your matchup as well. Spending 2 life to exile a Bolt could save you 9 life later.
Storm - Hand disruption and better countermagic will do ok but the matchup improves much more in our favor post-board. Fragmentizes for Blood Moons, more targeted removal (Condemn) and all of the Surgicals give you one hell of a leg up. If you can Surgical a Manamorphose, you're half the way there already. Be ready for Madcap Experiment into Platinum Emperion postboard.
Dredge - Zealous is basically a one-sided board wipe against them. Creature parity is easy to maintain, healing and removal give you more time to rev your engine harder than they can. Post-board your matchup improves greatly with Surgicals and Condemns in exchange for your hand disruption whereas they get nothing better against you.
Difficult:
Eldrazi Tron/Bant Eldrazi/Green Eldrazi - You should have enough removal against them to run about equal odds of winning mainboard, especially if you can get an early board presence to race them. Hand disruption is key to keep them off Tron. Post-board, Stony, Condemn, Spreading Seas and Surgical should all come in to keep them off Tron for longer if possible and give you more solutions if they get it. Karns can be hard to deal with but Ugins are back-breaking if they run them. Your Disallow is your friend against Eldrazi decks.
Knightfall - Keep their Knights, Voices and Scoozes at bay and you can do fine. Zealous hits them harder than most and as always, hand disruption is your friend. Post-board they get some scary things like Izzet Staticaster, Unified Will and Ethersworn Canonist so you will need more removal in the form of Fatal Push and Condemn. Very much a thinking matchup.
Ad Nauseam - Have multiple counterspells ready post turn 3 or lose. Stony and Fragmentize can help slow them, Surgical can simply beat them post-board. Make sure you pressure their life total so that they can't sit around and wait for the perfect time to combo.
