So I 4-0'd with Esper Walkers last night, somehow managing to go 2-0 in every game! It was a great time, and I think the deck is very well-suited to the aggro-heavy metagame at my LGS. Here's a list, and I'll go ahead and run through the matchups:
Game 1 vs U/W Humans:
In the first game, he severely overextended in the first 4 turns due to Lingering Souls tokens, and Day of Judgment netted me a huge advantage. I had a Go For the Throat ready for his Silverblade Paladin pairing the next turn, and then drew lands for 5 turns as he beat me down with a Nearheath Pilgrim and a Wingcrafter (?). Finally, I topdecked Entreat the Angels, made 9 angels, and took the game the following turn. Game 2, his creatures just weren't strong enough to deal with Gideon Jura, and then board wipes + swinging with Gideon took the game.
Game 2 vs U/B Heartless Summoning:
In the first game, I kept a hand with three lands, Entreat, two Go for the Throat and one Tragic Slip. He was very creature-light this game, so I easily took out his threats one-by-one until a hardcast Entreat was too much power to handle. Game 2, he dropped a Treacherous Pit Dweller followed by a Torpor Orb and a Demonlord of Ashmouth. His combo had worked, and it looked like I'd be stuck getting beat down by his undercosted undying creatures. Luckily, Lingering Souls and Tamiyo bought me time for Terminus (a complete all-star against these decks) and a Tamiyo Emblem + Entreat for 3 every turn quickly won me the game from there.
Game 3 vs Myr Combo:
This was a strange deck. It ramped into Myr Battlesphere and used Myr Turbine to try to deal 20 direct damage as quickly as possible, but it also played Tempered Steel so that a beatdown plan was also viable. Game one, I got somewhat lucky thanks to Gideon (who promptly died to his 10+ myr tokens), followed by Tamiyo to tap down his Myr Battlesphere, so he decided to tutor up another one with Myr Turbine. By now he had 20+ myrs on the battlefield, and I still had not drawn a board wipe. On my next turn, I had seven land in play and a Forbidden Alchemy in hand. I mainphased the Alchemy, prayed for Day of Judgment, and found it. From there, he was completely out of gas and another Gideon + Tamiyo lock beat him down. Game 2, my sideboard was very relevant for the first time. Curse of Death's hold and Divine Offering replaced Liliana and Go for the Throat, and his deck was completely shut down by a Curse, followed by Karn to exile his Tempered Steel.
Game 4 vs U/G Self-Mill:
These were some interesting matches. Both of wanted to reach the mid- to late-game to win, but my deck was much more suited for it than his. Game one he resolved two early 2/2 Splinterfrights, but failed to mill creatures with them on his next turn. He attacked into three open mana, so I flashed in a Snapcaster Mage to block, and then used Tragic Slip with morbid to kill the other. I played Sorin, Lord of Innistrad next turn, followed by Lingering Souls to protect him until I drew a win condition. Eventually, he had Ghoultree and Splinterfright in play, but Sorin's ultimate swung the game hugely in my favor. He was up to 70 life at one point due to Gnaw to the Bone, but his Ghoultree and two hardcasted Entreats took the ge after I swung for 20 three times in a row. Game 2 went similarly; Karn came down and exiled all of his relevant threats, and I had to beat him down from 60 life with Angels. My boarded-in Nihil Spellbomb never showed up, but he revealed that he had been holding Mental Misstep in anticipation for it anyway.
Luckily enough, top 2 ended up being me and a good friend of mine playing B/W tokens, so we split the top prize
and got a booster box with our store credit, which we'll be drafting from soon enough. The LGS I played at definitely has a pretty large amount of homebrews, so I didn't get to play against some of my worse matchups (RG aggro.. Turn 2 Sword of W&P makes me want to scoop on the spot). I mostly just wanted to share my success with this really fun deck, but I'm open to deck list questions/suggestions!
