Esper Mentor
Recently took this to a 20-man tournament and did a small write up on the deck.
Match 1: JunkThe first game starts off pretty much as how you would expect, he plays creatures, I play kill spells, snap kill spell into lingering souls. Near the end it started to get down to the wire with Lingering Souls going over the top and Creeping Tarpits finding their way through and enough Vault of the Archangel activation to win the race. I did make a misplay in the game by allowing a Loxodon Smiter in to put me down to three for a Rhino kill, luckily he didn't have it.Game 2. Don't be stupid. I turn 1 I Inqusition and see three land, two path, and a Loxodon Smiter and I name Smiter. Easily the worst single play of Magic I have ever made, I don't think anyone will let me live that down for a while. Qucikly scoop and go game 3.Game 3 goes much better to say the least. I lingering souls, he lingering souls, I play zealous persecution clean up his board and swing in. He double lingering souls again, I snap zealous persecutions and the game is over.1-0Match 2 : Tarmotwin Game 1 I Thoughtseize and see land, two goyfs, serum visions, a couple bots and a mana leak. I tried my best to 1 for 1 his removal and he tempo'd me out pretty hard.Game 2, more or less the same as game 1.1-1Match 3 : GW Hate BearsGame 1 he mulls to four, my hand disruption and lingering souls get there before he could really set anything up.Game 2, I land a couple mentors and stop his board pretty quickly when I path + slaughter pact to make my tokens 3/3s to block an attacking rhino.2-1Match 4 : AffinityGame 1 I mull to six and couldn't interact with the quickness of affinity when a welding jar was out to protect every creature against a cut.Game 2, really regretting not having Disenchant in my side, stony silence and removal come in. Mull to six again, no sideboard cards and only a disfigure. Vaultskirge + plating got there, I saw about twenty cards and only had the Disfigure. Oh well.2-2Match 5 : UWR GeistGame 1 was gross, he lands a geist on his turn three, I can't get anything to stick. A hand with mana leak, spell pierce and a couple bolts easily finish me off.Game 2, I start off with a couple inquisitions, and snap inquisition to severly neuter his hand, play a couple lingering souls and close out the game.Game 3, we both stall each other well enough to drag the game on long enough for me to have two mentors out, and a few lingering souls activations while he has a geist equipped to a batter skull. He attacked in with the equiped geist, I block with a couple tokens, kill his angel and thought scour myself to kill it, clearing his board. In turns the mentor tokens quickly closed out the game in a couple swings when he was at 46.Made top 8 off of breakers, just barely.Quaterfinals : TarmotwinWe split and played it out just for fun, it was a much closer set of games but his tempo hit me too hard.Overall, I really liked how the deck played for the most part. If there are some criticisms I could make is that the mana base is pretty greedy and my build seemed very weak to tempo. The deck could use some tweaking but every game that I was able to untap with a mentor I ended up wining.
