Took this deck to a 41 person, 6 round PPTQ at Dragon's Lair Austin, last night. The plan: kill Ojutai and other control players. Past experience has shown that while Temur decks have all sorts of struggles, the one thing they can do well is make control players cry.
Sadly, even though the field was full of Esper Dragon Control players, I, personally, never faced one. My results, in summary:
Sultai Reanimator 0-2.
Jeskai Tokens 2-1.
Bant Heroic 0-2.
Atarka Sligh 1-2.
Drop.
I went in knowing that my Bant matchup was not good at all, and gambled that I'd not face one. Sultai was not even on my radar. My Rg aggro matchup went about as expected: got run over game one, but post sideboard had a the tiniest of edges. It was not my best night; several misplays, and more than once got stuck on three land. The deck I think still has a shot if Ojutai Control continues to dominate, but it needs shoring up versus other decks. I might just give in and play control myself, going forward, though.
As an aside, my teenage son went in with an interesting Mardu deck that was also heavily tuned to headshot Dragon Control decks, and he did much, much better. His record versus control was excellent, and he did well versus Bant. Game 5 went really long for him, sadly, and he went into round 6 with a 3-1-1 record, needing to win to make the top 8; he went 1-2 that round. But his deck was really sweet, with one kinda janky card choice that probably cost him the edge he needed. There was only one other Mardu deck in the field of 41, and it drew into top 8. In my opinion, if you are looking for something to tackle the Esper Dragon Control world, then Butcher of the Horde, tokens, and (most importantly) Crackling Doom should get you excited.
