Everyone has been talking about Control in the new format and everyone has their own ideas of which will be the best. UB, UWR, BWR, etc. all have their supporters because of various good control cards in all of the colors. Hero's Downfall, Utter End, Dig Through Time, Anger of the Gods, End Hostilities and Kiora for example.
As one brave little Mexican girl asked when faced with a problem that would tear apart her family, "Why not both?"
I present 5 Color Control.
The basic premise, as I have explained, is taking all of the strong control cards and bringing them under one roof.
Mana-fixing with legs - Courser and Caryatid
Pretty obvious inclusions and the combination will likely seen a lot in the coming months. They're mana fixers, blockers, lifegain to help compensate for the wild mana base, and Courser helps dig for answers. Courser can also get in there if need be.
Permission and Spot Removal - Dissolve, Downfall, Utter End, Sultai Charm
Straight forward here. Utter End is great and get deal with Sarkhan pretty well and pretty much anything else. Sultai Charm is a bit of a flex spot. Dissolve is better than Dissipate for the scry but I have a couple in the side to add more counters if need be or if there's some pesky stuff I don't want in the yard when countered, like Bloodsoaked Champion.
Sweepers- End Hostilities, Anger of the Gods and Perilous Vault
End Hostilities and Anger of the Gods were pretty easy auto-includes but I wanted another sweeper. They don't deal with non-land permanents and End Hostilities doesn't really deal with graveyard synergies which seem to be plentiful post-rotation. After almost giving up on the deck, I remembered Perilous Vault. It seems to be flying under the radar but the card is a great sweeper. Yeah, they see it coming but with delve running around and all the strong planeswalkers, it would be nuts not to put it in the deck. Not to mention it's colorless!
Card Draw - Dig Through Time
This card really is the bees knees. While it doesn't provide the massive card advantage Sphinx's Revelation did, the card selection it provides is great. If you don't have a counterspell in your hand or are engaged in a counterspell war, you can cast it and try to find whatever you need. The card is just so flexible. Definitely the all-star of the deck.
Win Conditions - Kiora, Keranos and Chromanticore
These are very flexible slots. Chromanticore is in there because why not. It helps recoup some of that lost life, especially in the late game. I've found Keranos to be a little slow but he does provide card advantage and Courser + Fetchland +Him seems like a solid synergy. Might be moved to the side.
I put Kiora under the win conditions but she is excellent in a lot of categories. She is very flexible. She can draw you cards, help you stay alive and close out the game pretty quickly if allowed to ultimate. If Dig Through Time is the best card in the deck, Kiora is the second best.
The Mana Base!
I'll admit, I'm not the best with mana bases. I think it's ok but there can certainly be tuning. There's definitely a want to put all the fetchlands in there but that takes up so much space and the scrylands are just so valuable for a control deck. There's definitely a billion permutations you can have.
Sideboard
There really isn't much to say with so little information about the format but what I can tell is that rabblemaster can be a pain and Bloodsoaked Champion even more so. He keeps coming back and is a major pain to deal with, so I think a few Magma Sprays are necessary. I just kind of put Anafenza in there but seems alright under the right circumstances.
What can be improved:
There might be a need for more card draw or at least cycling. Unfortunately, Azorious Charm and Quicken aren't around anymore.
Elspeth might need to be put in because she can answer big threats and provide a huge threat on her own. One of the best planeswalker in Standard so I would be remiss to not keep her in mind.
One thing people often look over when evaluating Sphinx's Rev is the lifegain. It allowed you to go from 5 life to 10 pretty easily and avoid dying especially against aggro and burn. As much as I love DTT, it doesn't do that. Chromanticore can help stabilize the life but it isn't instant and it can just die pretty quick to removal. I'm not suggesting to put lifegain cards like congregate in the deck but it's definitely a problem the deck can face.
