So I'm a fan of Control. I like the more brutal versions of control that kill everything before eventually finishing you off with their gigantic threat. Think UW from RTR Standard. This deck is meant to do just that, kill everything before ending the game with artifact titans, er, gearhulks. A Chandra emblem also gets the job done quite nicely. Blue is really just a sideboard splash for some extremely powerful counter magic, the meat of this deck is black-red. Now, on to the deck composition.
Main Deck:
Aether Hub is the only land I'm going to mention, it works in tandem with Harnessed Lightning to create both a very strong burn spell, and what is essentially an untapped triple land. It's good, play it if you're in at least two colors.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance is absolutely a red JtMS. Her power level is extremely high and I can't think of a good reason not to jam 4 in here. All 3 normal abilities are incredibly strong and her emblem isn't hard to get to if you have board control.
Galvanic Bombardment looks a bit odd, I know, but it's good. Being able to find a random 1-2 toughness creature to kill with the first one isn't hard, and after that it's a 1 mana kill spell for a relevant creature every time. Hugely underrated card.
Grasp of Darkness I'm playing black. If you don't know why this is in the deck stop reading now.
Harnessed Lightning combos well with Aether Hub as previously stated, other than that just an ok card, nothing special here.
Noxious Gearhulk and Torrential Gearhulk are both incredibly powerful and can easily end games or stabilize boards on their own. I'm only playing 2 of each because they do cost 6 mana, which is quite a lot. Get used to seeing gearhulks in every new Standard deck, by the way, because the cycle really is that good.
Oath of Chandra
and
Oath of Liliana
are both very good single removal spells, while also benefiting from the fact that there's 8 planeswalkers in the deck.
Oath of Chandra
in particular with Chandra herself and Saheeli Rai's +1 do an excellent job of keeping opposing planeswalkers under control without having to rely on card's like Ruinous Path.
Painful Truths should require little explanation. I'm in three colors and my removal is pretty much all 1 for 1. It's a fantastic card.
Saheeli Rai is a 3 mana planeswalker, and those have all been good so far. It's +1 is great because card filtering is always good and you can redirect the ping to planeswalkers. The -2 is hilarious because it's always targeting a gearhulk, which is an extremely powerful interaction, especially if you're copying one you just played to get an extra effect and bash your opponent or one of their planeswalkers in the face. Great card, I'm expecting to see a lot of it in new Standard.
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
is just a solid card. You can usually crew it with zombie tokens or a gearhulk that just entered the field. Bolting creatures and planeswalkers is just an absurdly powerful effect. I would play 2, but it's really hard to get rid of and if I draw multiples it's terrible. The gearhulks are also a little more powerful, without being legendary or requiring crews.
Unlicensed Disintegration
is a strictly better Murder that's also a little easier to cast. Being able to go face or hit a planeswalker with the damage if you have a gearhulk or Skysovereign in play is just great. I am going to go down to 3 copies once the red gearhulk is spoiled to fit that into my deck, but this card really is awesome, play at least 3 of them if you're in Black-Red
Sideboard:
Ceremonious Rejection kills lots of artifacts, as well as Emrakul and Elder Deep-Fiend (and devoid spells), great card, play at least 3 in your 75 if you're in blue.
Dispel is for any deck that shows me a meaningful number of instants in game 1.
Negate gets rid of planeswalkers mess free, as well as hard removal that gets cast on my gearhulks. There's some artifacts worth countering as well. Fun Fact: Vehicles aren't actually creatures ;)
The third Painful Truths in the board is for the grindier matchups where card advantage is more important and life totals are less relevant. Having the third is just nice in general.
Radiant Flames is in here due to the fact that all of my main deck removal is one-for-one. There are match-ups where I need a board wipe, and Radiant Flames is the best one available right now, since literally everything has 3 toughness.
Transgress the Mind is a fun card. Hand disruption is good, so is exiling giant Eldrazi before they hit the field. Might find space for a third one as I do more testing with the deck.
