Key Points:
Mainboard
No Karn, Scion of Urza.
The card just isn't where I want to be. It dies easily since turn four you can't fog to protect it and giving your opponent the choice means you never get the card you want on the turn you want it. I've been ecstatic over its replacement though. More on that below.
Cleansing Nova over
Settle the Wreckage
.
There are too many Shalai, Voice of Plenty running around to profitably use
Settle the Wreckage
. Add on to that, some people still play around it anyway, while the ones that don't often flood the board to try and one shot you between fogs. Cleansing Nova punishes them hard for this. Also, it's a mainboardable answer to enchantments, namely Conclave Tribunal.
25 land.
This build sees a million cards and has Gift of Paradise. You can go lighter on land than other lists.
The mana isn't perfect.
Until we get Hallowed Fountain and Breeding Pool there isn't a great way to fix this. Luckily, the mana, though not perfect, is still good and won't let you down often.
Discovery / Dispersal is fantastic.
The front half is so much better than
Chart a Course
or Anticipate. It took me all of two games to realize this after I swapped Anticipate out for it. Then, I swapped the numbers with
Chart a Course
and I couldn't be happier with that decision. Worth noting, there are no more
Chart a Course
in the deck because of Gaea's Blessing. More on that to come. Remember that Gift of Paradise produces black mana, so don't forget about the second half as well.
Gaea's Blessing is still a powerful magic card.
It's a key piece to making sure you always have fogs and counters and it also serves as a way to not deck yourself in the event Nexus of Fate either gets exiled from your library or they were sided out. Always remember to target the first copy as one of the three cards with the second to keep the loop going.
Precognition Field is better than Karn, Scion of Urza; change my mind.
The card does everything you wish Karn, Scion of Urza would do. On top of this, with Gaea's Blessing you no longer need a secondary win con in game one as it can just shuffle Teferi, Hero of Dominaria back in.
Seven "fogs".
A lot of lists are testing four Root Snare! and zero Pause for Reflection, instead choosing to rely on sweepers to get the job done. I am not in love with this plan. Pause for Reflection is still less mana than
Settle the Wreckage
and doesn't come with Shalai, Voice of Plenty baggage. Convoke can also be relevant out of the sideboard, though, I'll concede, not very often.
Mission Briefing, it could even be a boat.
It's no Snapcaster Mage, but it helps you see more cards and acts as fog number eight or sweeper number three; basically anything, save Gaea's Blessing. Never, under any circumstances, target Gaea's Blessing. Just don't do it.
Only two
Search for azcanta
.
Three was just too many with the amount of filtering the deck can do. You basically only ever want to see one and hitting it on turn two isn't nearly as important as it was last season.
Two Negate and one Sinister Sabotage.
This is a tough one. I'd rather have three Negate main because you don't really care about creatures, it's cheaper and easier to cast, but the surveil on Sinister Sabotage is really good, so for now a two/one split it is.
Expansion // Explosion probably isn't good enough.
The front half is very hit or miss. It's felt anywhere from amazing to a bad Mission Briefing. Even against control where it should really shine, you soon realize that it's not a counter when they play Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. The back half hasn't really impressed me at all. As was stated previously, you already get to see a ton of cards and drawing a huge chunk of cards towards the end of the game is mostly win more unless you have a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria emblem, where it just shuts the door.
Sideboard
Carnage Tyrant wins games.
This card is an allstar in postboard control matches. Three is the correct number. Hard stance on this.
Eight card lifegain package.
Mono red is a real deck and can beat you through fogs. Add a significant lifegain suite and the playing field becomes much more even. Probably the hardest matchup.
Three/three split of Knight of Autumn/Shield Mare.
Knight of Autumn is a great card; so versatile that it gets sided in quite often for games two and three. Unfortunately, gaining four life leaves behind a 2/1 that eats a shock. Shield Mare, while harder to cast, is a beating for mono red. Three life when it enters and three toughness, means the worst it does for you is net nine life. Three from entering, three from being targeted and three from eating a Lightning Strike/Wizard's Lightning. If they decide not to kill it, then it blocks extremely well. If the double white requirement is too risky for you, then Centaur Peacemaker is a fine replacement.
I hope this answered many/all questions anyone might have in regards to card choices and such. Enjoy.
