No one is playing this deck right now because there are a ton of answers to it's key components. Don't get me wrong, I love reanimator, but it's not going to be Tier one until after the rotation when Ooze, R.I.P. Syncopate, D-Sphere, etc are gone.
You're right....Esper Control seems to be a thing.
But only one of the five Top16 Esper Control decks played Ashiok mainboard, two played a single copy sideboard and two don't have a single one in their 75.
So these decks obviously don't really need this card to be a thing - in contrast to Elspeth and Jace - moreover they seem to be more successful when not playing Ashiok.
3/5 TOP Esper decks play this card, that's not good enough for you? Talk about backpedaling. This card has a place at the highest levels (you can't question that). How many decks do we have to show you that use this card as a win con??:D
Could also point out that Esper dropped from 10.77% to 6.08% from Day 1 to Top 115. That is significant drop considering a couple other decks gained in that time period. I'm not pinning all of Esper's faults on this specific card either. It might not even be the best deck for Ashiok, but the numbers are dropping quickly after the initial flare when this Standard season started.
Actually GP Louisvlle seems to say you are wrong, a ton of high placing Esper decks with guess who ...ASHIOK
Asiok was played by quite a few pros this weekend. More than half of the Esper control decks. It is a thing and is quite good. No longer can people say it isn't a good card. If it was just ok it wouldn't fill multiple copies of the mainboard in Esper control.
Your argument is that Ashiok is bad against aggro because aggro wins on turn 4 or turn 5 and Ashiok does little to stop that. Well, Elspeth, Sun's Champion does even less in that scenario. Does that make Elspeth bad?
When comparing cards you have to apply the same standards.
I love it when people can't admit they're wrong. Top decks that performed well over many rounds ran this as a 3 of and it performed well. Some strong players said it was a mistake not to run more.
So no, we aren't going to listen to these no nothings saying this card isn't playable. As of now IT IS.:D
But I do know the card will pass the bend test, therefore it is tough enough.
You don't see the connection between play-testing and finding out if a card is tough to deal with?
If you're unsure about a card's usefulness you can test it against good decks and see if it gives them trouble, if it does than it very well will see play as very few cards in standard see play and any useful ones tend to get found out at some point, Planeswalkers sooner rather than later.
There's no reason this card wont see a ton of play. It might be a card which comes in from the sideboard at the rate of 3-4 copies for game two.
As has been said by many already, most decks will be running a healthy portion of creatures. Snapcaster Mage is gone, no more being super reliant on extra spells from the graveyard. Restoration Angel is gone. Those decks with few creatures are going to (most-likely) be adding more. Even if they don't, having a Drownyard effect with loyalty tick +2 is going to be fine, the final is great versus that match-up.
This card will be very strong against midrange. Often it will take control of the entire game if you cast it on the play, ex: Mill a strong creature, they aren't quite able to get rid of it. Steal the creature, attack them while up ticking and find another, game.
It will have trouble against some aggro builds on the draw specifically but there doesn't seem to be as much early haste in this new set and there are many ways to protect this in B/U.
Some appear to be trying to speak from a position of authority on this matter, when all of us (including me) are throwing out speculation.
I will say that from hundreds of games in play test with a group of very strong players this card is very tough.
Three mana planes walkers are in position to be good as long as their loyalty abilities are focused and can be made useful. This walker does things that control likes to do.
+2 loyalty on this guy is really important and seems to be getting less recognition than it should be getting. Against midrange this card is going to be a challenge to deal with and/or you may have to over-extend towards the walker to keep afloat.
Milling three cards is already something control likes to do (win con).
The second ability has incredible synergy with the first ability (again, this spells a powerful 3 mana walker).
The final is obviously fine.
So what exactly is the problem here? Of course you don't want to be caught with this guy against aggro, they very well ignore it and just kill you.
But it appears to be VERY strong tech against Midrange, control, mirror.
Weak FNM, is Weak FNM.
No one is playing this deck right now because there are a ton of answers to it's key components. Don't get me wrong, I love reanimator, but it's not going to be Tier one until after the rotation when Ooze, R.I.P. Syncopate, D-Sphere, etc are gone.
This deck is a huge dog to Esper and isn't a Tier One deck. A lot of the time it just gets blown out by any control deck.
3/5 TOP Esper decks play this card, that's not good enough for you? Talk about backpedaling. This card has a place at the highest levels (you can't question that). How many decks do we have to show you that use this card as a win con??:D
Actually GP Louisvlle seems to say you are wrong, a ton of high placing Esper decks with guess who ...ASHIOK
This is very, very true.
So no, we aren't going to listen to these no nothings saying this card isn't playable. As of now IT IS.:D
You don't see the connection between play-testing and finding out if a card is tough to deal with?
If you're unsure about a card's usefulness you can test it against good decks and see if it gives them trouble, if it does than it very well will see play as very few cards in standard see play and any useful ones tend to get found out at some point, Planeswalkers sooner rather than later.
As has been said by many already, most decks will be running a healthy portion of creatures. Snapcaster Mage is gone, no more being super reliant on extra spells from the graveyard. Restoration Angel is gone. Those decks with few creatures are going to (most-likely) be adding more. Even if they don't, having a Drownyard effect with loyalty tick +2 is going to be fine, the final is great versus that match-up.
This card will be very strong against midrange. Often it will take control of the entire game if you cast it on the play, ex: Mill a strong creature, they aren't quite able to get rid of it. Steal the creature, attack them while up ticking and find another, game.
It will have trouble against some aggro builds on the draw specifically but there doesn't seem to be as much early haste in this new set and there are many ways to protect this in B/U.
Some appear to be trying to speak from a position of authority on this matter, when all of us (including me) are throwing out speculation.
I will say that from hundreds of games in play test with a group of very strong players this card is very tough.
+2 loyalty on this guy is really important and seems to be getting less recognition than it should be getting. Against midrange this card is going to be a challenge to deal with and/or you may have to over-extend towards the walker to keep afloat.
Milling three cards is already something control likes to do (win con).
The second ability has incredible synergy with the first ability (again, this spells a powerful 3 mana walker).
The final is obviously fine.
So what exactly is the problem here? Of course you don't want to be caught with this guy against aggro, they very well ignore it and just kill you.
But it appears to be VERY strong tech against Midrange, control, mirror.