Have you considered Altar of the Brood and Darksteel Citadel ? Citadel to help keep Thopter Spy Network active and that way every token will also contribute to the mill. I'd probably take out Alchemist's Vial for altar and swap some basic lands for citadel...

We have a little while before Theros block is rotated out, and the set has a lot of cards that would work well in this deck. I think it would be best to build the best deck you can with the two blocks and core set that are available to you.

Sidisi, Undead Vizier you could exploit the creature enchanted with Fruit of the First Tree then tutor what you need. she is high mana but essentially she would finish the game.

maybe swap out fruit of the first tree for talent of the telepath and herald of the pantheon swapped with jace's sanctum. that why its only two colors in the deck

Talent of the Telepath didn't work out in my testing.

Also, why no Treasure Cruise?

Thanks for all the great feedback folks!

@Krytan31 Decided to take out Thopter Spy Network. It just wasn't work. Couldn't get it out quickly enough to make a difference when playing quick decks.

@frogkill45 I've put that in my Maybeboard! Nice card. There is also a vulture creature in Origins that has exploit and is much cheaper. Right now, I have Murderous Cut for my spot removal. But if that doesn't work, I'll definitely think about it!

@Saberxbro I would love Treasure Cruise, except that I already have a delve card -- Murderous Cut and might not have room for more delving. But if Read the Bones doesn't play well, i.e. it kills me faster, then I'll definitely think about swapping those 2 out for Cruise.

Vulturous Aven its from dragons of tarkir, and yea he would be useful.

Just thought about Profaner of the Dead looking at your walls it may be a more control type of card you would like

If you're not running Thopter Spy Network, there's no need for Guardians of Meletis anymore. Replace them back for Dragon's Eye Savants.

As long as you have no lifegain options, Alhammarret's Archive seems like a worse version of Monastery Siege. I'd suggest replacing it for at least two Taigam's Scheming. That's the best card to get your single win-con and the best option to feed graveyard in the way you want it to happen. This and Commune with the Gods, but as long as you wish to keep this deck for post-rotation, stick to Taigam.

@Wiktul Ok, I think I'll finally put Dragon's Eye Savants in to the deck!

If I understand Archive correctly, it counts for every card drawn, not just draw step. There is just a specific clause for draw step to clarify.

Thanks for your comments! I'll think about adding additional tutor / control if Fruit of the First Tree doesn't work out.

Some things:

-Not playing 4 Treasure Cruise is 100% incorrect. It's literally the reason Sphinx's Tutelage is a playable card. Play all 4, always, or you're making your deck strictly worse by not spending $1. You say you don't want to because you already have Delve spells...killing their creatures won't matter if you can't actually win the game. If it's a problem, play a better removal spell. Bile Blight and Ultimate Price come to mind. You need early interaction or you will just lose to mono red aggro and green midrange decks.

And you're playing Dark Deal which fuels Delve very well. This should also be a 4-of alongside Treasure Cruise. You do not have infinite time to sit there and mill 2 cards out at a time, you need to be triggering Tutelage multiple times in a turn or you will just die because you sat there and let them kill you. This is the second most efficient card in your colors to fuel your deck engine.

Dark Petition is really, really slow. I like that it can find and cast a Dark Deal, but 2 is too many. Run 1 or 0.

Alhammarret's Archive is backbreaking. When you cast it on curve, your opponents usually die next turn (IF you've built a proper deck). When you draw 2 of them ever, you usually lose the game. Run one, and only one. You don't need it and you never want to see more than one under any circumstance.

Crippling Chill is literally an unplayable. You're playing black, so you have 0 reason to run weak creature tap spells, ones that cost 3 mana at that. Drawing a measly card is not enough. If you insist on playing inferior removal, Send to Sleep is better in every way. Taps down 2 dudes for one less mana (you should always have Spell Mastery in this deck). You should just play black removal, but at least this buys you a considerable amount of time in most situations.

1 maindeck Negate is probably ok, but 3 is absolutely too many. Really, they should all be in the side; the effect is too narrow and you really only need it in the control matchups.

Herald of the Pantheon makes absolutely no sense in this deck. One of the strengths of decks like this is it severely punishes decks that pile in creature removal by making their cards dead. All you're really going to accomplish by playing this card is guaranteeing that Mono Red's Searing Blood, UB/Abzan's Bile Blight and Hero's Downfall, GR/Mardu's Draconic Roar, etc. etc. etc. will actually do something relevant whereas they would have sat in hand otherwise and did nothing. Playing this card is essentially casting a Time Walk for your opponent. And you only have 9 enchantments anyway, which is not nearly enough to make him worth it.

Which brings me to my next point. Cute things like Guardians of Meletis + Fruit of the First Tree are really really bad. If you don't have the Fruit, you've basically paid an extra mana for a worse version of Nyx-Fleece Ram. The extra toughness isn't relevant 99% of the time, but the CMC and lack of value are relevant almost 100% of the time in this deck.

If you draw the fruit and no Guardian, then the Fruit does absolutely nothing. And though it has the phrase "draw cards" on it, there are plenty of cards, such as the ones I suggested, that don't need other things to work. You cannot have dead cards in a deck like this, they need to always do something or you will too often just die before you really do anything.

Also, two scenarios. You get the Fruit and the Guardian, play Guardian on turn 3, and try to enchant in on turn 4. Opponent responds with removal spell. You get no value at all, Time Walked yourself not once, but twice essentially, and now, since you've done nothing at this point in the game to get your engine online, you're pretty much a dead man unless they draw 10 lands in a row. Terrible.

Now, let's say you actually successfully enchant it. Decks with creatures are simply going to just keep attacking. Yeah, you can block one each turn, but since Guardian has 6 toughness, almost nothing in standard can actually kill it in combat, and your opponent will simply just continue to swing and ignore it. You get 0 value for Fruit, and, once again, double Time Walked yourself.

The only way you will ever get value off of the Guardian is to spend one of your own spells to kill it (unless you play with newbies/unskilled players). I don't think I need to elaborate on why this is bad. Neither of these cards has any business being in the deck for this reason. Turn 3 you need to either be dropping a Sphinx's Tutelage or drawing cards and playing removal spells, not playing cards that don't actually do anything to further your game plan.

The only creature you should play is Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip because he furthers your gameplan and fits in the curve where you can play him without forcing you to choose between setting up your engine and doing other things. And though he will almost certainly not flip a majority of times, the payoff for him flipping is usually winning the game within 1 turn if you have your engine online. I can understand not wanting to shell out $120 dollars to finish off your set, that's fine. The deck will play fine without him, and in a metagame where we are sure to see a lot of Searing Blood for awhile, he can objectively be considered a poor choice. Simply plays spells in place of the other copies.

Finally, Dig Through Time. You need one. Why? It doesn't draw you cards, so why would you choose this? Simple. Because you literally can't win the game without a Sphinx's Tutelage. This is a concession to that fact.

"But I already have Dark Petition!"

And you're correct, but here's the thing. You won't be able to Petition out Tutelage and cast it until turn 6, and if you do it on turn 6, you will have only a black mana to keep playing with. If you tutor on turn 5 to drop it on 6 and have mana to do stuff, you just paid an extra mana for a Diabolic Tutor with better artwork. If you build with fetchlands and take out green (it's not doing anything but slowing you down with excessive taplands) however, you can usually Dig on turn 5 for 2 mana and hopefully find a Tutelage PLUS the next best card in your top 7 and play the Tutelage. Now on turn 6, you untap with full mana ready to go nuts. Turns 4-7 are key in Tutelage decks; if you stumble you usually will not catch back up. Consider this as a one-of. You're gonna like the way it plays. I guarantee it.

And a sideboard. You need a sideboard. NEED it. Duress for control matchups, Reality Shift/Silence the Believers for Ensoul Artifact + Darksteel Citadel and other hard to kill things, Negate for control matches, Drown in Sorrow against mono red and other aggro decks, etc.

I would drop all the green, maybe throw in some ashiok, clash of wills and another jace; and stick with two colors and pick up some polluted delta's and x2 bloodstained mires to filter out your lands. Counter spells in my opinion are more effective than using the herald or the aura you have here, great start though, you could even up to creature count with master of the feast 5/5 flyer 3 drop very hard to deal with.

You're not running red and white. This isn't a true Skittles deck. Hate to blow the whistle, but it's true.

BUT: if you want to play the Cranial Archive, dropping the centaurs could free you up for it. The curve you're playing makes 23 lands plenty.

Also, Ashiok won't hurt much, just for the next couple of months. Dropping First Tree would do it for you.

@reverendvile777, @frogkill45, @ArmyJM07, tisueboxcandy: Thanks for the comments. Just finished making a lot of changes! Please refer to the top of my deck description re: green. Keep it coming!

Also if you really want to take advantage of sphinx's tutelage, and want three colors try running red instead of green, red will give you dragons flyer's draw and discards, to be utilize delve and proc tutelage.

I'm not sure what those Send to Sleep are for, you should probably get some Clash of Wills

Some number of Ultimate Price seems very good in this deck. I would also add some Crux of Fates. Languish is obviously a really good card, but it doesn't kill a Rhino or a Taisgur, and both of those are relevant threats right now. Going up to four copies of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip is probably a good idea as well, since that's the type of card you want to see every single game.

I would also put an Encase in Ice in the sideboard. Without the likes of Bile Blight and Drown in Sorrow you're super weak to aggro strategies.

@jlbotbyl Great ideas! I think I'm going to add Ultimate Price in my side. Only thing I don't like is that it is only for monocolored creatures. I have a feeling we are going to see a lot more multi-colored with Zendikar.

The Crux of Fate is something I've considered adding. Perhaps I'll play 2x Languish and 2x Crux of Fate. That way I don't have to kill my few creatures I have on the board unless I really need to.

What do you think of Encase in Ice vs Claustrophobia? The latter is 1 more mana, but more versatile.

I think you don't really need Claustrophobia. You're mostly worried about Red and Green when it comes to creatures, and it being Instant speed and costing one less is huge against aggressive decks.

I would -2 Negate +2 Duress (or Thoughtseize) and maybe drop the last negate for a Despise. Have you thought about Ashiok?

I know you tried it before, but Calculated Dismissal seems to be so much better then clash of wills. Clash is really inconsistent in letting you counter stuff past turn 2 and a two mana counter unless opponent pays 1 with no upside is not good. Past turn two the only time that clash is good is when your opponent taps out and aside from red/green devotion, not many standard decks tap out past turn three or four, by which time calculated is almost strictly better for the one extra mana. I would really suggest switching them for calc.

You seem to assume he's only able to pay 1 into Clash of Wills each turn. Clash actually is useful beyond the first few turns, unlike Mana Leak. Leak is obviously superior the first few turns, but in a slow format like standard, Clash is much better because it can actually do something late game, unlike Mana Leak.

Calculated Dismissal on the other hand, is good at almost no point of the game because unlike Mana Leak, it costs 3, so it loses a lot of the early game power (ESPECIALLY on the draw) while retaining the same late game weakness. Literally any blue counter in standard is a better choice than Dismissal.

@jreno13 I'll definitely think about the Duress. I think it could offer me some flexibility. Only thing that makes me nervous is someone getting a good card on their turn and playing it, and I only have a Duress and not a Negate. Especially if it's an enchanted wipe or a Displacement Wave. For now, I want to keep Despise in my side.

I have to agree with reverendvile777 on the Clash of Wills. I've won many games only because of that card and lost games because I had Calculated Dismissal in hand but no utility.

Now that you've seen my deck again, @reverendvile777, I'd love to get your thoughts.

I've won all my games, but haven't tested aggro or pure control yet.

very nice deck, i like the idea, but i felt mana starved. i play tested it against my More Life=More Tokens deck. felt way to slow may have just been the hand i got. i dunno but also gotta keep in mind mine is a casual deck not standard so some of my cards are a little much.

@Horrendous That is something that happens on occasion. I find myself having to mulligan every now and then, but I've never been particularly mana starved on a regular basis. I am considering putting in 1 more mana, but I'm waiting until all the fancy land from Zendikar before I make any decisions. My curve should be able to play most cards. Basically, counter and destroy until I have the mana to put my engine in place.