Played with this a bit more last night - won against an Izzet aggro deck that played heavily on the thievery theme (Robber of the Rich, Brazen Borrower, Mirrormade), but it was much more of a trudge.

A couple of observations worth considering:

Flicker of Fate seems a bit of an underperformer. It gives a cute "gotcha" surprise, but I can't think of a time that I wouldn't prefer to build my board presence with new enchantments. I found that I didn't actually want to reset my sagas - I wanted them in the graveyard ASAP for that Dance of the Manse! I'm considering cutting them for an additional Omen of the Sea and The Birth of Meletis.

Narset, Parter of Veils isn't the all-purpose champion here that she is in Azorius Control. Her draw-denial is critical in some matchups, and useless in others, and her dig ability can actually be quite frustrating - I've found that often what I'm really looking for is either a creature (Dream Trawler usually) or the last land that would let me drop my Trawler or big, murderous Manse. To dig and then see these cards banished to the bottom of the deck incites much gnashing of teeth. I'm considering putting two Narsets to the sideboard and putting two Archon of Sun's Grace mainboard. After much mulling of Archon vs. Trawler, I'm thinking por que no los dos? Let's ramp up the aggression - this deck is enjoyable because of its blend of control and hard hits. Narset can switch back in for the various draw-factory decks.

A nod to the control aspects - the "stymie your opponent's early game" package of Alseid of Life's Bounty, The Birth of Meletis, Teferi, Time Raveler, Banishing Light, Shatter the Sky, and Elspeth Conquers Death are really doing the intended work. AND they ensure you have a couple of enchantments in the graveyard at the perfect time.

I'm interested to see how this plays with a couple more clutch creatures - should add value to Elspeth's step III as well as up the aggression. And with the enchantments bumped up to 17(!), Setessan, Archon, and of course, Dance should all be happy.

I got in some games with this version of the deck and I do really like it. I am also not a huge fan of Narset and I'm happy to see her go. I love Archon of Sun's Grace and she really helps that whole not getting overrun thing. Yes, she comes down a tad late, but the life gain is a big help. Horse + the champ make for a great board state.

I also liked Dream Trawler as a finisher. I like when a deck as a multi-phase strategy with a couple of win-cons and she offers that. She definitely pulled me out of a couple of tight spots against some awkward Dimir and Golgari decks that were running discard that I ran into (I'm back down to Silver tier for now)

I played this version (well, my very slightly different build) twice last.

I absolutely walloped a Jund Midrange deck - Game 1 I ended with like 8 Pegasi in play and Game 2 the other guy just up and left after I Shattered the Sky.

But I lost pretty decisively to Jeskai Fires - Game 1 I didn't have an answer to Fires of Invention and got overrun by a Sphinx of Foresight, a Bonecrusher Giant, and a Cavalier of Flame before I could get my shit together. Game 2, I sideboarded out -4 Alseids and -1 Birth of Meletis for +2 Aether Gust, +2 Dovin's Veto, and +1 Heliod's Intervention. I won Game 2 with a stream of removal/denial and 4 rounds of Trawler attacks. Game 3, my opponent drew 3 Fires of Invention! I cancelled the first two, but had nothing for the third. With 6 untapped lands, my opponent dropped Kenrith, the Returned King and a Cavalier of Flame, juiced and hasted them both, and gave me a 17 point hit to the face. No coming back from that.

I'm not really sure what I could have done better to face that deck. But I definitely felt a bit outclassed.

One thing about me is I rarely play Bo3, so my feedback is a bit skewed by that. Also for that reason, I think I favor cards like Banishing Light in the mainboard, so I don't get stuck against certain cards that I can't answer.

What are your guys views on how much land you want in your opening hand? Do you insist on 3? I tend to really want 3, but I'll settle for 2 with an otherwise great hand.

I like 2-3, but really the key is the rest of the hand. Even if you have 5 land, if the two cards seem like they can set up something good, it may be a keepable hand. There's a lot of theory written on this. It's really a case-by-case thing, but two lands is not unacceptable. Particularly with Omen of the Sea or a few temples. Or The Birth of Meletis. Or any number of other cases.

2 is acceptable if those two lands allow me to play to an acceptable plan for those first two rounds, and I can foresee a good round three or four with an extra drawn land. Having some scry in hand is certainly a factor for me as well.

This reminds me that one thing I wanted to look at was my scryland/painland ratio - I felt like I was drawing way more of the latter when the former would have suited my plan better...

My reasoning is that it's better to have the choice to have an untapped land 9/10 times. With a temple, you have no choice to untap it to have an extra mana, whereas if you don't want to take the 2 damage from a shockland, you can just have it enter tapped. The scry 1 effect is useful, but to me, it's not as useful as having that untapped land. That's my opinion, so feel free to dispute.

I think that's absolutely true in a deck that has a simpler gameplan - aggro, midrange or ramp - if the plan is to just make sure you drop the right 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-turn drops onto the board in a tight sequence. But here, everything is reactive and controlling during the first rounds. There isn't a firm Plan A sequence that you want to hit every time - and sometimes that means that digging for the right card is more important than getting a land out and tappable each round.

It's interesting - this deck plays as full control until the Shatter hits, then with 5-6 mana on board it slides into that Plan A sequence:

1. Setessan or Archon
2. Trawler
3. Elspeth/Banish/Teferi to clear out the post-Shatter plays, first big swing
4. X=6 Dance and kill

But to get there you have to wiggle a bit for the opening turns - not sure if mana availability trumps card selection there.

How to actually break standard in 3 easy steps:

1) make a 3-mana planeswalker.

2) give it an ability that acts as removal and protection.

3) let it generate loyalty absurdly fast and give it an ult that steals things.

ZendikariWol That is sadly true. The ult should be changed to "Wins the game" though. Or perhaps that is the ETB effect because of how often an insta-concede happens when you cast him. I mean, it. Fortunately, we're past that now, right WOTC? Sees Ikoria coming Oooooooooh, dear...

Control decks are always a tough nut to crack. I too would like to break Standard. Having to spend 500+ dollars on a deck is ridiculous. There has got to be another way. Being a pro is a different story.

Frosto Sadly, most of the cost of non-mono-colored Standard decks these days comes from the lands, which every deck needs. In tri-color, you do need more non-basics, but everyone already pretty much needs the playset of most shocklands and definitely of Fabled Passage.

with only 15 enchanment's if you count alseid how do u play 1 per turn that is a very low count in my opinion it looks like setessan champion would not do much sometimes.? unless i am not seeing things right.

mikeb388 for what it's worth, I play this with 18 enchantments including the Alseids in my version (I play a full 4-set of both Omens and Banishing Light), and the Setessans are absolute machines. Their slow but steady growth is great - they become consistently more formidable blockers, and might get some solid attacks in while you set up, but really what matters is the card draw - they turn your cheaper enchantments into cantrips, and help you get that Trawler and or Dance when you need it. When you have two on the board (which happens with some frequency), the card advantage is radical. And when paired with Dance, they frequently mean game over - you Dance for X=6 and pull a pile of enchantments out of your graveyard. You are immediately swinging with the Champion at monster size and you've fully replenished your hand, on top of all the goodness that comes with a high mana Dance.

Another great thing about the Setessans is that once they go off hard in a game, your opponent will often target them with removal, leaving you less vulnerable when you drop Archon or Trawler. I've never felt frustrated with these nice young ladies.

Also. I almost always hang on to my early enchantments unless I need them. Alseid is typically a turn 4 play for me.

I really like this deck and wnat to play it in arens, but can you revamp it for the new meta?

I haven't had a lot of time for MTG recently. I barely know what's in Ikoria besides namesake cards like the companions. I'll see if I can look through and see what needs to be changed sometime in the next week.