My concern so far is that, whilst you have 10 ways of doing exile, most of them are 3+ mana. So you're relying on a lot of conditions to get your engine rolling. Some are fairly easy conditions (most decks run creatures for Declaration) whilst others are pretty taxing (relying on having 2 exiled cards turn 4 vs an aggressive meta for Nulifier counter is a big ask). The only other thing without testing it, is the manabase. Running 4 colours (particularly colourless) I've found 26 mana is often best. I'm still not sure if I prefer Evolving Wilds or Warped Landscape. I think in a less aggressive deck, Wilds is ok. But in a more active one that wants TK Seer and Smasher on curve, Landscape wins out. I'd probably cut endbringer for the 26th land as these colours don't need what he provides, he doesn't help with the deck's objective, and he's a curve topper that doesn't earn his place here.

My 2 cents anyway. I'll be running this on Stream tomorrow maybe and any viewers can judge too.

EDIT: I may swap the Vials for Horribly Awry. Extra exile source, great for stifling aggro.

Yeah, 4 color manabase is a pain. Also, the 2-drop creatures are all pretty squishy so they won't hold up against aggro well. The white is basically a minor splash, but all eldrazi decks hurt from lands being non-duals. The deck would love a Caves of Koilos.

I like the addition of Horribly Awry. That spell has gained a lot of targets since the update, and it really punishes wx aggro.

Looking forward to seeing you test the deck, since I don't have all the OGW cards for building it yet!

I'm a little sceptical of reshaper in 4 colors.
If you want more early interaction bounce spells can recicle your eldrazi late game, but that seems slow and situational.

I feel like Esper Control is pretty dead right now. I'll keep trying, but I don't have high hopes that it's going to be competitive with the good decks right now. Objectively speaking, TITI should be an auto include, but it does not play nice with the control style at all and works out much better in tempo. Maybe that's Esper's fate. It might need to move away from pure control and look more like what Caw-Go did in the JTMS days. It was still control, but it didn't look like your average control deck.

I wanted to put esper back on top.

I have the ill list.

If you play on something other than steam i will send it to you.

I constantly win games that i shouldn't.

It looks like a whole bunch of **** cards thrown together, the only way I like it.

Play way less counter spells and have them exactly when you need them people.

I have always believed that to win in magic you have to cheat the game within the rules.

I played Origins for a while when it came out, but I lost interest when I decided that I could not build a creatureless control deck in the manner to which I was accustomed.

I have come back, and I still do not have all my cards unlocked. But I wanted to theory craft anyway. And I want to exhaustively explain my reasoning, hopefully this will spark a discussion. I am including discussion of cards that I do not think are good choices so that other people might spot flaws in my reasoning.

This is how I build a deck: first, start with a list of cards to "draft" from. This is intended to be a list of all cards I reasonably should consider, although some cards I consider obviously bad or duplicative have not been included. I sorted cards into categories, somewhat arbitrarily:
One for one removal - this is spot removal that is intended to kill a creature that has resolved.
Sweepers - pretty self explanatory.
Flex removal - this category includes spells that deal with resolved, non-creature permanents, and can possibly also target creatures as well.
Counters - if it can counter a spell, it goes here.
Draw/ utility - if it draws you cards or provides card advantage in some other intangible way it goes here.
Win conditions- cards that can be used to win you the game. May provide other advantages as well.

Here is the full list. I indicate the number of copies one may run for some of these cards... others I was too lazy to look up their rarity.

One for one removal
4 x dead weight
4 x Celestial flare
4 x Gideon's reproach
2 x declaration in stone
3 x grasp of darkness
4 x reave soul
4 x tightening coils
4 x Claustrophobia
1 x Containment membrane
4 x complete disregard
4 x oblivion strike
1 x fleshbag marauder

We have access to a good amount of removal spells in three different colors. This is a LONG list because there are not many "obvious" spells that do the job here. Some spells are cheap and easy to cast, others expensive, some can hit any target, some only work on itty bitty creatures.

I really focused on the cheap spells here. The goal is to be able to hold mana open for counterspells, and fancy expensive sorceries will not allow us to do that.

dead weight - cheap! Not a terrible choice since it can hobble bigger creatures too... but:
Celestial flare - at the top of the list because it scales REALLY well, and it can deal with hexproof and indestructible. Mixes very well with sweepers, auras that do not prevent creatures from attacking lose value. Sorry dead weight! Main disadvantages: 1) requires creatures to attack 2) If more than one creature attacks, it can be difficult to use properly.
Gideon's reproach - Four damage for two mana, extremely easy casting cost. Works well with celestial flare to kill off smaller creatures so that flare can kill the larger ones.

There are really not many creatures that have scary abilities that do not require them to attack. Off the top of my head: Transformer Jace, Endbringer, and Forgotten Creation - this last one is dangerous with a resolved Sphinx's Tutelage. There are remarkably few "lord" creatures that can sit back and pump their team.

declaration in stone - Easy casting cost and extreme power. It is hard to say no to this card... also excellent against tokens. But you give your opponent a chance to draw a card, for two mana.
grasp of darkness - Superior power, instant speed. Ugly casting cost. Attractive if we put a ton of black mana in this deck.
reave soul - Medium power, easy casting cost. Unfortunately, medium power is only medium and sorcery speed is meh.
tightening coils - Easy casting cost, Excellent power. Major restriction though - a hobbled 0/x creature can still attack, making celestial flare whiff.
Claustrophobia - Excellent power, moderately bad casting cost. If we are spending UU at sorcery speed it is harder to leave counter mana open. Also this compares unfavorably to the enchantments in the "flex" section below.
Containment membrane - potentially very cheap! and great scaling. But like tightening coils, the restriction is that you can effectively only cast this after a creature attacks you. I am not going to put tapdown cards in my deck just to combo with this dude.
complete disregard - Instant speed reave soul - with more exile!
oblivion strike - Maximum power, but sorcery speed and moderate casting cost. This does not look good compared to flex cards below.
fleshbag marauder - OK power, sorcery speed, reasonable cost. The main problem is that this totally precludes the use of any disabling auras that leave creatures "alive" as sacrifice fodder.

Sweepers
2 x Planar outburst
2 x Languish
3 x rising miasma
1 x Biting rain


This is much simpler than the spot removal section. We can strictly rank these cards by card quality:
Planar outburst - run both. Wrath of God plus one more mana... and it can morph your land into a 4/4! Which technically also makes this a win condition.
Languish - run both. It is worth dipping into black for this spell.
rising miasma - this is where things start to get iffy. If you are on the play spending 4 mana for -2/-2 is meh. The mana cost with only B is a plus. Awaken is not good enough to save this card...
Biting rain - I cannot imagine needing more than 7 sweepers, and this card is strictly worse than miasma for this deck, due to the BB cost.

This is pretty obvious: we get 4-7 sweepers depending on whether we require a bear-sized sweeper at sorcery speed.

Flex removal
2 x Anguished unmaking
1 x Angelic purge
4 x suppression bonds
4 x isolation zone
3 x solemn offering
4 x disperse
1 x felidar cub


DIE PLANESWALKER! We need a way to remove those dudes (and dudettes). Plus annoying enchantments. It really isn't necessary for me to list all the terrible terrible ways these cards can kill you. Creatures will generally kill you faster, but this is a slow control deck and so we need to be able to answer... everything.

Anguished unmaking - I balked when I saw this card. This is the most powerful removal printed... ever. Exile ANYTHING that isn't a land. The three life cost is steep, but since it is a rare this is a card we obviously want to run two of.

This card is so amazing... just compare it to its retarded stepcousin...
Angelic purge - This card isn't actually terrible. If we had a way to spit out creature tokens it might even be attractive. But notice it does NOT target planeswalkers. If it did I would seriously consider running it as a singleton, lands be damned, I must destroy them quickly.
suppression bonds - The other way to remove planeswalkers. Enchantment removal or a bounce spell will end it. Just remember - if you are facing a transformer wait until AFTER they transform. Basically as effective as claustrophobia as creature removal. Also works against SOME enchantments. Evolutionary Leap? See ya. But uh oh not fevered visions.
isolation zone - Basically suppression bonds with a few of the drawbacks flipped around. It completely shuts down ANY creature and ANY enchantment. Sorcery speed is a significant drawback though. Unfortunately, planeswalkers are completely immune.
solemn offering - Pretty self-explanatory. The creature-or-enchantment isolation zone is basically better.
disperse - I have a love-hate relationship with this card. It is unbelievably flexible, even moreso than anguished unmaking. Remove any of your opponent's permanents, or remove one of your own permanents! Extremely cheap cost. The drawback is that this is only temporary, a "tempo" play. And this is not a tempo deck. So you need to counter the permanent you just bounced to your opponent's hand. The low mana cost makes this easy, but this is significant card DISadvantage. This card actually has a lot in common with declaration in stone in that it offers a low price and big power with a significant drawback.
felidar cub - Honorable mention. I think this little guy fits better in other decks... he can potentially block and trade, but in my opinion this is just an opportunity to "turn on" my opponent's removal spells.

Conclusion: flexibility is mostly expensive, unless you are anguished unmaking or disperse. Unmaking is an automatic two of. I want at least two other ways of dealing with resolved planeswalkers... disperse and suppression bonds are looking O.K., I might consider slotting in isolation zone as extra spot removal that functions against annoying enchantments.

Counters
2 x Scatter to the winds
3 x broken concentration
2 x Confirm suspicion
3 x Horribly awry
4 x bone to ash
4 x spell shrivel
4 x calculated dismissal
4 x countermand


The base game had terrible countermagic. I remember the day when blue mages considered Counterspell our birthright. Then it was nerfed and replaced with cancel. Then it was further nerfed when Origins was released and we had to pay 4 for Countermand. But BEHOLD!
Scatter to the winds Cancel... with an upside! Fallback win condition. Automatic include.
broken concentration Cancel... with a meh ability. Basically just cancel. Automatic include.

So much like sweepers, we start with good and really obvious inclusions. Next we have to decide which drawbacks are worst.

Confirm suspicion - Remember me complaining about countermand? This dude is even more expensive. And using three investigate tokens is also expensive. But the card advantage here is very, very significant. Countering a spell and drawing cards is exactly what this deck wants to do. Counter one spell and draw three cards at a total cost of 11 mana. But here are some things to consider:
*It is easy to pay the 6 mana to draw cards in installments.
*There are very few other options for hard counters, after we include scatter to the winds and broken concentration we are left only with countermand. Paying 1 more to get three investigate tokens is worth it.
*This card provides four points of card advantage - one counter and three draws. Two spells that "draw two" should be equal, at a cheaper price, right? Nope. A "draw two" spell only nets one extra card. In terms of net cards, the three investigate tokens are as powerful as three inspirations.
So an equivalent cost for this card would be 1UU cancel + 3 inspirations at 3U each, 10UUUUU or 15 total mana compared to 11 for this guy.
*Although it is expensive, this card will usually provide the same amount of card advantage as a sweeper, or usually more, and I do not hesitate to include 5 mana sweepers.

So I want to include this guy as well. That is 7 hard counterspells! Most people do not run that many... but I like counterspells. And I hate planeswalkers. WE HATES THEM. WE HATES THEM PRECIOUS. A hard control deck without inevitability simply isn't a control deck.

So with the remaining cards we have a variety of drawbacks to choose from:
The creature-only twins!
Horribly awry - Low cost is an upside. In terms of cost and power, kinda similar to Gideon's Reproach. Not a bad card, but I dislike that it doesn't scale and I have access to plenty of other sweepers. This ain't no nullify. Finally, dealing with non-creature permanents is kind of a priority for this deck since it can take a long time to win.
bone to ash - Also not a bad card. Scales to hit all creatures. And I like drawing cards.

The conditional countering twins!
spell shrivel - Easy cost, 4 mana is a lot.
calculated dismissal - Easy cost, 3 mana is still a decent amount. I will note that spell mastery is way easy to turn on with this deck. And scry two is roughly 80% as good as drawing a card. I like that it has some utility later in the game.

Finally, the dethroned usurper.
countermand - It is a hard counter. If i really wanted to I could go all the way up to 11 hard counters.

Draw/utility
3 x Telling time
4 x comparative analysis
3 x pore over the pages
2 x Tamiyo's journal
1 x Brain in a jar
4 x pieces of the puzzle
2 x call the gatewatch
3 x possessed skaab
1 x jace, unraveler of secrets


This is how control decks win even when using one-for-one removal: card advantage. I love having a fistful of cards when my opponent is topdecking or holding something useless.
Telling time - Auto include. Looking through your cards early in the game is massively more useful than doing it later because it can help you to find lands. No one will ever say "I lost that game because of telling time" but that is just because people ignore work horse cards. You can't win games without lands people.
comparative analysis - Whee, a minor upgrade to inspiration.
pore over the pages - Competing with comparative analysis for a space. It is hard to make a direct comparison, both cards net you one card in terms of card advantage, but pore allows you to "see" 50% more cards. The drawback is sorcery speed. The mana costs are hard to compare since both cards have contingent costs. Personally I think this is a decision that depends on how badly you want to hold counter mana open, and what your mana curve looks like.
Tamiyo's journal - Inexpensive card advantage, tutoring, combos with confirm suspicions. Actually if you start with a journal you can tutor for confirm, counter a spell, tutor for the 2nd confirm, counter a 2nd spell, and then tutor a third time. This provides card advantage similar to a planeswalker over time but also provides tremendous flexibility. When you have three investigate tokens and the journal, you can answer *anything* at instant speed.
Brain in a jar - I would not have mentioned this card except for one thing: it can be used to quicken sorceries. However, if you are not running many sorceries, it is low-value. Spending eight mana to scry your first three cards is meh.
pieces of the puzzle - Interesting card. If any deck would benefit from this guy, this one would. Seeing five cards for three mana is excellent. The problem is that it will not help you to hit your land drops.
call the gatewatch - Have planeswalker in library? Put planeswalker in hand! Value is somewhat contingent upon number of planeswalkers used. Also I do not like to slam Sorin on the able on turn 6...
possessed skaab - I loved me some Archaeomancer in Duels 2015. This guy is more expensive and has a bigger body. The problem is most of the time I could cast archaeomancer with two mana open for nullify... I am willing to wait until six mana for that combo. Not willing to wait for eight mana to cast this guy with cancel mana open.
jace, unraveler of secrets - I put this guy in the win condition area until I demoted him here. His ultimate is less useful than you think - a good player will save up several spells for one turn in order to play around countermagic anyway. Draws cards and bounces dudes... I think the journal has more utility in the long run and is not so vulnerable, although jace can help to stabilize the board a little bit.

Win conditions
1 x Sorin, grim nemesis
3 x Sphinx's tutelage
3 x rise from the tides
1 x gideon, ally of zendikar
1 x Linvala, the preserver
1 x ob nixilis reignited
1 x disciple of the ring
1 x Alhammarret, High Arbiter
1 x Thing in the ice
1 x westvale abbey
1 x archangel avacyn
1 x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger


I should note - I haven't listed lands here, but manlands are actually a plausible win condition for this deck. Shambling Vent can beat your opponent down over the course of ten turns, and gain you life in the process. Awaken can significantly speed the process up.

Sorin, grim nemesis - The sine qua non of planeswalkers. He eats other planeswalkers and gives you their life force. Or creatures. And he has a hefty amount of loyalty and his ultimate will win you the game the next time you untap. And he does all of this in style. Automatic include.
Sphinx's tutelage - The good ole' standby win condition. It takes a while, but it costs so little mana that it is easy to hold counter mana open. The six mana loot mode is also surprisingly useful.
rise from the tides - Should be an easy alpha strike. Twenty damage is ten zombies, which is ten instants or sorceries. My current build is almost 50% instants/sorceries, so if you are only 20 cards in you should be able to do it.
gideon, ally of zendikar - Rise from the tides makes a ton of zombies at once. Gideon makes one zombie per turn, except he calls them knights or whatever. Honestly I do not feel the need to win quickly / in style so I think Gideon's approach is almost as good... and is generally a more timely defense vs aggro.
Linvala, the preserver - I actually like a sprinkling of lifegain in this sort of deck. It is very common to stabilize with a low life total, and you are in a position where you have to answer everything your opponent does - instantly - or you die. Especially true when it comes to red decks. 5 life and 8 power and toughness worth of flying bodies should help. She is basically timely reinforcements. Now I do not like creatures but her resistance to removal and lifegain make her stand out. I think she will shut down a lot of aggro decks even more effectively than a sweeper, and a three turn clock is very nice.
ob nixilis reignited - Murder! Sign in blood! Underworld Dreams! I love the flavor. I do not like the life loss. I am willing to suffer through Anguished unmaking because... how many other options do we have for removing planeswalkers? Realistically if I do not want to deal with life loss this guy can give me two murders and one card drawn for the price of five mana and one life. I have so many other options to draw cards without paying life...
disciple of the ring - This is a great deck for this lady and she can close out the game pretty quickly. But even though she can counter non-creature spells... she is going to turn on a lot of your opponent's removal.
Alhammarret, High Arbiter - I would love to use him to neutralize Ulamog. But if you spend 7 mana you will be in a position where it is hard to keep counter mana open.
Thing in the ice - This may seem like an auto include but I have a few issues:
1) My sweepers will kill this little guy
2) 0/4 body dies pretty easily to most removal
3) 7/8 body is certainly powerful, but it is no...
westvale abbey Ormendahl, Profane Prince I would take this guy over Ulamog, due to hexproof and lifelink. But spending 5 life, 6 turns, and 30 mana is a bit much. Plus the little cleric tokens are vulnerable to both my opponent's removal and my own sweepers.
archangel avacyn - Very impressive creature. A Serra Angel with flash and... indestructible the turn it comes into play! Flash it into play during combat to beat down aggro. Flash it into play during the end of your opponent's turn in order to leave all(!) of your counter mana open.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger - The biggest, flashiest dude in the game. Comes with two free Anguished Unmaking when you cast him. Nearly unstoppable... in three turns. That is a good clock but consider that you are tapping ten lands. Leaving counter mana open will delay him further.

Actually I played with his brother (uncle?) Kozilek, the Butcher of Truth in 2015 - because he provided uncounterable mill resistance. basically a completely unstoppable (and thus inevitable) win condition. But the main nail in Ulamog's coffin for me is that by the time I get to ten mana the game is usually over. I have control and will win, eventually, as long as I do not do something stupid like tap all my lands!

OK I could go into even more detail, but for those of you who have read this far, I will provide my work in progress decklist. I have listed three clumps... this is more or less the order the cards made it into the deck. The first cards are certain, the last ones are subject to change.

First batch: auto includes
2 x Planar outburst
2 x Languish
2 x Anguished unmaking
2 x Scatter to the winds
3 x broken concentration
1 x Sorin, grim nemesis
1 x Tamiyo's journal
3 x Telling time

Second batch: powerful cards with minor drawbacks.
2 x Confirm suspicion
3 x Celestial flare
3 x comparative analysis
1 x gideon, ally of zendikar

Third batch: I need cards to fulfill these functions, I will have to live with the drawbacks.
3 x Gideon's reproach
1 x suppression bonds
2 x disperse
1 x calculated dismissal
1 x Linvala, the preserver
1 x rise from the tides

Lands: these provides 12U, 12W and 8B not including the evolving wilds.
2 x shambling vent
4 x Evolving wilds
2 x glacial fortress
2 x isolated chapel
2 x drowned catacomb
2 x prairie stream
6 x islands
4 x plains
2 x swamp


I will add more later. I am still unlocking cards and I do not have access to this entire decklist yet. I am very interested in feedback especially from people who can build and test this list.

I don't have a lot of time to respond at the moment but it was a good read. I will make your deck and test it for you on stream if you want. That way you can see any misplays and get more information on how the deck performs in the meta. Or we could steam broadcast whichever is easier for you since I have the full list.

3 x Horribly Awry
2 x Telling Time
2 x Disperse
2 x Declaration in Stone
3 x Sphinx's Tutelage
2 x Scatter to the winds
3 x Broken Concentration
2 x Anguished Unmaking
2 x Comparative Analysis
2 x Languish
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 x Tamiyo's Journal
2 x Unholy Hunger
2 x Planar Outburst
1 x Tragic Arrogance
1 x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1 x Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 x Linvala, the Preserver
1 x Rise from the Tides
1 x Sorin, Grim Nemesis

3 x plains
7 x island
3 x swamp
2 x shambling vent
2 x sunken hollow
2 x prarie stream
2 x drowned catacomb
2 x isolated chapel
2 x glacial fortress


Our decks differ quite a bit as I took spot removal instead of disperse and took more draw cards. I didn't test celestial flare yet, but my reasoning was it was fairy steep casting cost while being weak to decks going wide on me. Horribly Awry gives us something to do in the early turns but it should probably just be Gideon's Reproach as it is a lot easier to deal with a monster after it has been resolved instead of relying on countering it. I have been looking into compelling deterrance as it can possibly discard if our Rise from the Tides resolved, but then again that could make us discard if we try to save a walker or a tutelage. I changed up the 2nd copy of Rise from the Tides that I was running for Tragic Arrogance with only 1 creature and 3 enchants and 1 artifact and 4 walkers in the deck the pros outweigh the cons since its not uncommon for pw decks to have multiple walkers that need to be answered out on the field.

I run Ob Nixilis Reignited just to add to the pressure of tutelage and to get rid of problematic creatures. Another difference is I run Unholy Hunger this card although at a very steep 5cmc 2 of them being bb, it gets the job done at instant speed and hits everything that isn't indestructible or hexproof. I find that with this deck I ran into a problem of battle lands attacking me and turning back in to lands at the endstep. I am fairly sure Gideon's Reproach would do the same thing as Unholy Hunger but would have less of an impact vs better creatures, and Celestial Flare was too conditional for me to use effectively. Let me know what your thoughts are on the differences.

Binderato - thank you for your response. The one thing I am 100% sure of upon seeing your decklist is that you should run the third telling time. It helps to much to smoothe your starting hands.

We have a lot of similarities, here is how I see the differences. You run:
3 Horribly awry instead of 3 Gideon's reproach
2 Declaration in stone and 2 unholy hunger instead of 3 celestial flare and a single copy of telling time.
You have Jace, Ob nixilis, and tragic arrogance instead of a single copy of comparative analysis and 2 confirm suspicions.
3 sphinx's tutelage instead of 26th land, a singleton suppression bond, and a singleton calculated dismissal.

Your curve is higher and you run three fewer instants (21 vs. 18). You run 5! more win condition cards than me.

I think I understand the choices you are making.. your deck can close out the game faster and has more powerful plays at the top of the curve. Your extra sweeper and planeswalkers will generally give you slightly more options to deal with resolved creatures, making it a little easier to run a high curve.

Meanwhile I have more hard counterspells, more "outs" to hard-to-deal-with permanents such as Gaea's Revenge (Celestial Flare) or planeswalkers (suppression bonds). My mana curve is overall lighter which makes it easier to stay in control with mana open. However my deck may "durdle" and take a long time to win, running into some problem I can't deal with.

So while I understand your choices, here is my reasoning:
1) I hate superfriends deck so I wanted more counterspells.
2) More counterspells limits how many expensive spells I can play, so I axed a few things like e.g. Jace.
3) I focus on efficient one for one removal and keeping the board clean. My deck is more reactive and less active than yours. This means I always try to have multiple answers in hand so that I can use them efficiently, rather than relying on top decks. This makes celestial flare easier to use. My sweepers frequently just hit one or two targets.
4) Celestial flare gives me an out against hexproof creatures. The UG hexproof manland would give you a lot of difficulty... I just hit it with flare and it goes away.

Tell me about how you play your deck - I am curious how you time the casting of so many planeswalkers, tamiyo's journal, etc. Do you ever end up with too many expensive cards in your hand? How often do you end up with too many win conditions?

I need more testing to determine if these are the right choices! You have notably more win conditions than me. I already have six win conditions now: Manlands, Awakened lands, Linvala, Gideon, Sorin, and Rise from the Tides, plus the journal to tutor for any win condition I want. Your extras - Ob Nixilis, Jace, and Tutelage, I am not sure if they are really necessary.

I will not have much time to watch your stream... I might be able to next week or late at night between 10pm and 12pm EST. Overall I am interested in any feedback you have re: our respective decklists.

Thank you for your input.

I find ob nixilis and jace can are sometimes stuck in my hand waiting for enough mana to get to a counter spell and drop a planeswalker. Other times I can simply play them use the minus ability to clear the single monster on the board then use open mana to resolve it the 2nd turn leaving me with a weaker walker and killing the monster with a kill card the next turn or a board wipe, it depends on the board state and what I have in hand. I do agree that most of the time I do get trapped with cards in hand. The 4 instants help with the lands which really give me trouble since they can turn into lands at the endstep. I have no real counter to lumbering falls which has been a big a thorn in my side as jund crats deck. Blisterpod and Carrier thrall really give this deck a run for its money. Since it is trade 2 kill cards for a 1 or 2 cmc monster which I prefer not to do, or use a land to block, or use horribly awry. I will probably trade awry for gideons reproach but I might opt for celestial flare instead and test that whilst changing up my mana base.

The way I made the deck was to counter the meta as opposed to counter all possible cards. A lot of people run eldrazi as opposed to the old bombs like gaea and plated crusher, the reasoning was basically to counter what I face more often than what I could face. Otherwise I would have no problems changing to fleshbag marauder + cruel revival to deal with those old school bombs. That still leaves me in a bad position vs lumbering falls though. So celestial flare might be the way to go.

I have added your deck to the collection and will run it when I stream later today. I am making a lot of misplays lately despite sitting at rank 40. So expect to see some epic fails when I run your deck xD.

Well I do not really have much experience with the meta, I am around rank 24 but mostly I am just operating on hearsay.

Exile removal can prevent some of the blisterpod stuff. Complete Disregard is an excellent card and is probably what I would consider the most to replace Reproach. You could also jam more board wipes to deal with little dudes.

I understand what you mean about countering the meta... you may be right with celestial flare but I am curious how you feel this applies to superfriends decks.

I will watch after 10pm if you are streaming then. Don't worry about making mistakes

Edit - I forgot one other reason to run celestial flare: the dreaded reality smasher.

man between Zerris and henwen, if these guys had shown up a month earlier, i bet Hakeem would still be all over these forums. These are some serious high quality brewing posts. Great job, hen.

Nah, he'd still be making a love child with Hearthstone.

as long as he's having fun

Concur

and I mean that in the double-edged sword kind-of-way. Sometimes we leave something for another thing, and aren't even enjoying it but don't realize how much we're hating it. like when I play Halo V instead of playing Magic Duels or something. I'm swearing like a sailor and not having a good time by any stretch.

Fixed.

I'm really glad HenWen is back. Dude is a quality poster/brewer.. and a connoisseur of control.

Tested your deck a bit henwen and it looks like it does perform quite well. You can view my lastest stream about halfway through I switch to yours and it did beat one of the big 3 aka superfriends planeswalker deck with ulamog. I think I do perfer your list and gideon's reproach really seems to outshine horribly awry.

Edit: After testing for a few more games I am finding your list to be very smooth. I have taken out 3 x horribly awry for 3 x gideon's reproach and 2 x unholy hunger for 2 x confirm suspicions and replaced one swamp with a plains in my own deck. I will continue to swap between decks to see what works best. I did find that in my last control vs control match that after the tokens got wiped it almost ran out of win cons since sorin was getting blasted. 2 disperses on sorin brought the game to a close though. I also feel like with confirm suspicions and tamiyo's journal I was able to tutor for cards very quickly especially for a second confirm suspicions. I am not sure jace, unraveler of secrets or ob nixilis reignited would have done much that game though. The mirror was with your deck and I had about a 10 card lead on the opponent.

Thanks guys *sniff* it is good to be back, and good to have a deck I actually want to work on.

Binderato I saw some of your stream. I think the deck is maybe ~5 cards away from being optimal.

You played well but one thing I noticed was that you did not use awaken and manlands as much as you could. Protip - cast awaken on a manland, and you can have your very own 6/7 lifelinked monstrosity at the cost of 0 cards (although you do have to pay the activation cost each turn). Although your land can be chumped, this sort of lifegain usage is a great way to get an edge on decks that constantly swarm the board with tokens.

In one game I wanted you to disperse your opponent's evoleap, but then he transformed westvale abbey and disperse answered his demon prince - ROFL!

Westvale abbey is annoying, but manlands can answer the tokens pretty well and disperse/flare answers the demon.

In my initial decklist I should have swapped disperse for that 1U zombie disperse... if only to make your opponent afraid of zombie synergy you do not actually have. My lands are also not optimal because when I made the list I did not realize that the "two basic lands" lands count as basic lands themselves, or so I hear, I haven't unlocked them.

Rise from the tides is definitely on the chopping block. I would like to see more ways to deal with resolved enchantments and planeswalkers... but suppression bonds is so meh.

Megabeast what is your avatar? You should know that I am basically grinding with origins decks, and your UW tempo list is one I have been using with, ahem, moderate success. Hard to beat those uber ramp/ planeswalker decks.

Yeah I should have used shambling vents and awaken more. I have been playing a bit off lately, I think your decklist probably has the most potential out of the esper lists I have seen so far. I am curious to see what changes you will make and how you will replace rise from the tides. I will stream more with your deck only later today. Let me know what you think the changes should be.