First of all, I'm a big fan of Mizzium Mortars . With Lightning Strike , though you may consider Magma Jet as an alternative. It offers a bit of scry which you don't seem to have at the moment, and its still pretty good removal. The burn aspect isn't quite as good.

I also second what Sabbath91 says about Gild , I will be changing my Turn / Burn in my SB to Gild .

So far looks really great. I too would like to make use of the RU god, but I'm not changing anything in my deck until it gets closer to release time. Hopefully it plays out well because he seems awesome.

I use Ral Zarek in mine as well, what has convinced you to use him?

I'm using Ral now to help with devotion to Keranos as well as to burn stuff. I don't think Mogis is as good as Keranos so I won't be using him. I will use magma jet again, don't know why I switched that. Also, 1-2 gild isn't a bad idea.

Turn / Burn is about to rotate out and I think Gild is an overall better solution.

I like Mogis, God of Slaughter but he's situational. Some decks he's good against, others, they're just sack their weenies or tokens so he doesn't do alot.I only use him against control where there's no creatures to sack really.

Well I was about to suggest, having looked at this earlier, that thoughtseize has to go main if you are aiming to be more aggressive early on, but you already beat me to it.

Yep. Already on it. lol Can't wait to add the U/R scry land. I'm beginning to like this deck even more! Maybe I'll find a spot to put back Storm Breath Dragon or something. I dunno. Keranos is taking the place of Nightveil Specter.

If you're running Ral Zarek simply for devotion, Jace, Architect of Thought adds the same amount but is still more versatile. I wouldn't make the switch for that as it makes no sense.

Just noticed: Why have you taken out your counter spells? Your controll matchups will be really tough now.

harrydemon117 is right about Jace vs Ral. Also, maybe run a 4th Nightveil Specter if you want to go down the devotion route.

I wouldn't go so crazy over Keranos just now. I have several comments on him:He's wild yeah, he's got amazing art. BUT he has many drawbacks:Pros:Can draw cards.Can deal 3 damage on upkeep.6/5 Indestructible body.

Cons:The draw/3 damage is a 50/50 chance. It can sometimes mean win or lose as you know.Might be a body but without evasion it is fairly useless.High CMC.At best a turn 2 clock (if you connect the 3 damage properly). At worst, well, you can imagine.

I'm really not pumped for him although I do like his idea and think he'd be good in Casual.

I'm thinking about putting a few of Gild in my main.....Yes its somewhat expensive and sorcery speed but it gets rid of any creature just about and it gives ramp that you can use that turn or later. With that you could put out keranos or another 5 drop easier or summon AEtherling on turn 5 if you have him available. Not sure on this yet but I think Gild is pretty underrated.

Personally I really like keranos and will prolli get one, as most of my creatures I run give devotion to his colors. Even without the 6/5 body the ability is nice, either way its good for you.

phaze08, as a tip, never play AEtherling on turn 5 or 6, sometimes even 7 is too soon depending on the opponent.

You are playing controll; you dont need to race. You should play AEtherling when you have extra blue mana spare so you can keep the ability to exile him in your opponent's turn should your opponent be holding removal.

Jace over Ral is wrong ill admit. I've been playtesting and it just doesn't work. Also, i add back the dissolve. I have to disagree about Keranos. Everything I've read shows signs that Izzet an Grixis control can now compete with the other decks. Keranos has an amazing static ability that is useful 100% of the time. You either draw a card or burn to the face for 3. That's powerful. I'm not going all in on devotion but if it happens then cool.

Just got this crazy idea but would like to discuss it with you....What do you think of Tablet of the Guilds o_0

I mean we play a tri-color deck, we can choose black and whichever colour we have present in our hand to pump up the life. All of that for 2 mana.... Might be an interesting "win or lose" 2 CMC but I for example don't play many 2CMC apart from Rakdos's Return and Dreadbore ... I'd love to playtest it but can't get much play nowadays, maybe you could do that for me?

Sorry for the double post just forgot to mention it:

I was thinking maybe you can turn the 3x Nightveil Specter into 1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver and for example a 2x Cyclonic Rift ? Cyclonic Rift has proven to be a great card, early and late game, both states which are important for control. And Ashiok, for the same CMC tho not the same devotion (which, as far as I see, you aren't that interested in) is a much better card to lay turn 3. Big threat, protecting itself with a +2 ability, can steal a creature from top 3 cards. Considering the meta nowadays is built around creatures, whereas with Specs you gotta try for it, I'd pick Ashiok, just my personal opinion tho.

Ashiok is by far the MVP of this deck. I've never been disappointed and I'd actually love to run 4. I just feel that Specter is an important threat that forces people to deal with. I usually lay Ashiok and then nightveil. Might try adding rift into SB but it rotates soon so I won't focus to much on it.

Rift, even as a soon-to-be rotated card is still quite the threat. Most people build a lot and suddenly you have mono-black down to just Mutavault s and maybe a Pack Rat if they discard. 1/1 doesn't threaten that much and you keep their mana down. I like how it can open access for my Master of Cruelties . And at the same time keep them at bay with my Ashiok. He/She's brilliant. An amazing card, full of flavor and ideas. And disruption, which is amazing in these two colours, and even better in our three colours! Rift into SB sounds like an idea, however I'd much rather have it in hand to secure me a few turns to find answers at worst during a game!

Btw what did you think of Hypersonic Dragon ? I was thinking of adding him before I reconstructed my SC/Instant ratio seeing as tapout Grix could've used some extras to it's arsenal, however I didn't get to properly playtest it, swapping my Desac Demons for two of em. How did it fare out?

Ok Sabbath91, even if you don't play your threats early like that, Gild can be used to ramp into any other spell that you might need help with such as Rakdos's Return , Cyclonic Rift overload, or a Mizzium Mortars overload for a semi board wipe.

Thinking of adding in a third Nightveil Specter in my deck RoninVX, Ill second what has been said, Nightveil Specter is a big threat. He can hit for 2 flying, which some decks can't block, and he steals cards. Half the time even if I'm playing a deck the same color as mine I'll play their land just to get an advantage even though I already have plenty of land going. Also when you exile their biggest threat, its just so awesome. And when you take it, even better.

He may not be a big hitter but he's a big threat to anyone, no one wants to lose their stuff that they can't get back lol. Plus, he's just a really, really, REALLY fun card to use.

One other thing you may look into DrFunk27 is that your only win con I can see is AEtherling at this point, is that right? Personally I like to run 2-3 win cons just in case something happens. Like if that Mono Blue deck happens to run 2 Tome Scour and mills your AEtherling or maybe their have 2 removal in their hand and kill AEtherling at the BEGINNING of their end step before your mana uptaps....this can happen if you tap your last mana to blink AEtherling . Since he comes back at the BEGINNING of the next end step, players can cast instants during the end step phase still, meaning if a removal is cast at AEtherling before the end step is finished and it is now your untap phase, you will have no way of blinking AEtherling

Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is in itself a win con. Even if you play against a "creatureless" control deck, you can still mill away their library for the win.

Its ultimate takes care of the cards you've milled so an untimely Elixir of Immortality doesn't ruin your day, AND you get the benefit of dealing with their hand.

@DrFunk27: I don't agree with going to 4. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is legendary and thus you cannot have multiples on the field. It's not very beneficial to use the +2 ability and then cast another to mill another 3. That's setting yourself back as you want to use the -x or ultimate on it. If you have 2 in hand simultaneously, you would have to put "all your eggs in one basket" of using the +2 THIS turn, and then using the -x next turn so that you could cast the 2nd one. No good if you don't hit a decent creature

@RoninVX: Tablet of the Guilds is ONLY good if you start with one in hand so you can get the most benefit from it. Otherwise it's a HORRIBLE top deck card. I for one don't like putting multiple "non win" or "answer" cards in my deck for this reason, and you would assuredly need to run 3-4 to make it a high chance of starting with one.

Better would be to include something like Staff of the Death Magus in the sideboard to help against burn

Hmmm actually I got to thinking about it and Tablet of the Guilds MAY be better than the staffs. I was thinking that I run a bunch of land and therefore would gain the 2 but I think Tablet of the Guilds actually gains MORE as it gains life for each color of the spell cast, and most of my spells are multicolored

hey DrFunk27:

I just updated my sideboard to help deal with Boros Burn and some minor tweak against monoblack as they were about a 50/50 matchup. Let me know what you think!

Exactly my idea with the Two Colours to gain life. Pick what is most prevalent (in your case, @harrydemon117 it's apparently blue and black) and use that to constantly net a small amount of life which will add up against those really fast matchups.

True. I have 8 U/B spells that I can cast turn 3 so it would be a good follow up to gain 2 life per turn. Nice idea!

Tablet of the Guilds is pretty cool tech, but I'm not sure dedicating a spot for it is worth it. With Keranos, the turn clock is faster than normal control. I'm going to leave the deck the way I've built it now because I feel it's strong. I'll probably take out Gild because there are two new cards that work better.

Another option to go against Boros Burn would be to put Duress in the sideboard to start one for one trades on cards so they don't burn you to the face with them. Then take over later with your creatures/'walkers. This gives you more cards to sideboard in vs control or creature light matchups.

The Tablet of the Guilds surprisingly worked well against aggressive strategies IF you curve out with it (turn one tap land, turn 2 cast tablet, turn 3 cast a spell with BOTH colors in the cost gaining 2, and from then on you've stopped the bleeding).

Another route is using Dispel as 99% of the "burn" spells are all instant speed and lowering the curve of our counterspells is a huge plus for that matchup. The problem I have with this method would be that they would NOT be good against a majority of the field (say Monored aggro)