Psychic Intrusion will most likely make it's way in after RTR rotates out. It has some good things working for it. Steam Augury will probably make it's way in as well. I played today and went 3-2. Didn't have the best of games. I'm going to go back to divination over pilfered plans because I lost 4 games to giving the opponent the top deck card they needed. That sucked. Also pilfered plans is really, really bad against monoblack or anything that uses whip of Erebos. Other than that I lost to G/W Aggro and a janky RDW deck. Good time and I liked the additions I've made. Pack Rat won me the game against Esper and RWB control.

Omphaloskeptic Thanks! I couldn't have done this without the input from everyone and the hours of playtesting and trial and error. I've lost some games really badly but that's what you get when trying to find a good balance.

I don't like Steam Augury for the simple fact that it can mill your Elixir of Immortality . They will NEVER give you that card, but I guess if you put it so it's in the 2 slot with a subpar card and put 3 GOOD ones in the other side they have no choice but to give it to you. It's a gamble and I'm all about consistency lol.

It just seems to me that if you can use a Thoughtseize early and see their hand, you can disrupt whatever plan they may have at stopping the Psychic Intrusion from resolving. At the least, you make them discard a GREAT card and then follow up with Psychic Intrusion to exile it and cast it yourself LATER. At the very worst you take out something that hinders your plan, but in a "mirror" it's all about attrition and card advantage. I just wish Reap Intellect wasn't so god awful expensive in the CMC

Have you thought about Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker ? If he sticks he is a big milling threat.

xxINS4NExWoC This deck isn't designed to mill. Mirko Vosk isn't a very good fit for this deck. He is awesome in mill though, I agree.

harrydemon117 You know me man, I hate Steam Augury but after RTR rotates this deck is going to take a huge hit. I'll lose the backbone of the deck and I'm not sure it can recover. We will see. Hopefully JOU brings in new cards that help, and I'm already excited to tryWaste Not in the deck to synergize with Thoughtseize Duress and other discards spells.

Finally a deck where you can respond to a revelation with a return

I heard a rumor that Jace, Architect of Thought was going to see a reprint...maybe in JOU or M15

I bet they are gonna do something crazy with the original planeswalkers

How does Ultimate Price work for you compared to Doom Blade ?

Or Devour Flesh in this case.

I know I'm spamming it up here but I have one more question I thought of and I am unaware of any way to edit a post. DrFunk27 How do you feel about Soul Ransom ? I think its a great control card and if they do pay ransom you get a 4 card advantage, also you can just Devour Flesh at that point to kill their creature.

You would only want to do this IF a) you have plenty of life and b) they don't have a "butt load" of cards that they can just discard. It's also dead in a control matchup as you won't be able to get AEtherling with it.

It's kind of an iffy card, but without extensive testing I won't know for sure. You should test it out and let us know :)

phaze08 Ultimate price kills Desecration Demon and doom blade does not. lol That's why. Plus it kills Polukranos, Stormbreath, etc.

Soul Ransom isn't a terrible card but it's not really great. Domestication costs the same and it's not used much. Plus, soul ransom wouldn't work on Blood Baron which is the only card that gives this deck problems. When I think of new cards I basically compare whether it would help against esper control which is what I struggle against.

I think I'm gonna try and work Soul Ransom into my deck. There's no blood baron in my meta so I don't have to worry about that right now. Domestication seems cool but you can't steal big creatures. I just kinda like anything that's mind-game-ish I guess. Plus, if they do pay ransom you get a big advantage and if you can sacrifice just kill their creature. Also gonna throw Quicken into mine cuz it is really great.

Lemme ask you this phaze08: What's to stop them from using enchantment removal on your card after you cast it? They get their creature back, untap and attack again. You just wasted a turn probably tapping out (or close to it) using 4 mana.

Yeah thats a good point harrydemon117 it may turn out to be useless but nonetheless I like the card.It may turn out to be a fruitless venture lol...There isn't a WHOLE lot of enchantment destruction in my meta but you never know. I'll play with it at FNM and see.

That's the best place to test it. With cards like Unravel the Aether , Golgari Charm , Revoke Existence , etc it could be bad

Could you guys comment on my deck? Cruel Grixis Control just let me know what needs to change. Anything in maybeboard is basically what I want to acquire. Also I know my lands suck but theyre really expensive so thats another future thing. Aside from that, feel free to make suggestions for main and sideboards. :D

@DrFunk27:

The math for "top decking" is damn near identical whether you use Pilfered Plans or not. (If they have a 4 of in the deck that you haven't seen yet, dropping two cards from their deck doesn't change the % chance that they draw it by that much)...I think you just got unlucky. Besides, that's what your counterspells are for! ;)

I could see it making it easier on the mana if you go with Divination over Pilfered Plans though. I am using mill as a main deck win con so it just benefits me (and it saved my put milling out the last two cards from somebody's deck time and time again)

hey!

I just had a thought... Gainsay should be in the sideboard. It's GREAT vs monoblue, but it is also good against control decks as it can counter an opposing AEtherling , Jace, Architect of Thought , Detention Sphere , Sphinx's Revelation , or any counterspell that they have.

Yes it doesn't counter Elspeth, Sun's Champion but we have other answers for her already. This helps out as their 1 of AEtherling can be countered more easily if we don't get a Slaughter Games early. Not to mention it makes managing our mana more easy against monoblue

Oh and my playtesting of Notion Thief was a dud. He doesn't draw cards against Jace activations and Esper players draw at our end step usually anyways. This causes us to respond with Notion Thief and sets yourself up for 2 for 1's due to Supreme Verdict

I have to second the recommendation of gainsay. When Esper was rarer and Azorius Control more prominent, I ran two Stormbreath Dragons. But now that Esper is more common, I replaced them with two Gainsay for all the benefits harrydemon117 lists.

I've always had a Gainsay vs Negate mental debate going on:

Most of the time Gainsay will be sideboarded in vs controll, this is because most if not all of their spells contain blue. However, most of their of their spells are non creatures so Negate is also viable. it comes down to countering walkers vs countering AEtherling .

So what about outside controll match ups? Negate hits a lot more targets in general than Gainsay but Gainsay wrecks mono blue. However, is mono blue enough of a problem to need a specific counter? Hero's Downfall and Doomblade beat Master of Waves , notion theif beats Bident of Thassa , Guild beats Thassa, God of the Sea , Anger of the Gods beats ... well everything.

What do you guys think? i just keep going back and forth in my head.

I think right now monoblue (either true monoblue or monoblue splashing white) is a HUGE part of the meta and deserves some respect. Personally, I think that Gainsay is a significant upgrade over Negate due to being able to counter AEtherling .

Yes you cannot counter an Elspeth, Sun's Champion , but as I said above Hero's Downfall , Dreadbore , and damage redirected from Rakdos's Return can deal with her if you don't draw another counterspell. usually I am ADDING another counterspell against control decks and taking out removal so adding in Gainsay is bonus for me.

Against other non-aggro decks (Orzhov Control, Naya/Gruul midrange,) hand disruption and removal are going to win you the games there. The only thing I can see myself wanting to counter is a Stormbreath Dragon , Domri Rade , Xenagos, The Reveler , or Xenagos, God of Revels . Dissolve or Psychic Strike are good enough to deal with these and even then it's not the end of the world if they resolve. AEtherling on the other hand dodges removal if he resolves and will require at least 2 kill spells to deal with thus giving your opponent card advantage.

It all comes down to attrition and who can land a threat and keep it in control matchups. I would rather be able to counter the "hard to remove" threat and let an Elspeth, Sun's Champion resolve