I really enjoy the surveil mechanic but also trying to keep the deck under 100 for now. Enhanced Surveillance is key to this deck to be able to run through the deck quickly and pull the cards required. Most cards such as Sinister Sabotage, Thought Erasure, Nightveil Sprite and Notion Rain Surveil whilst being able to maintain decent control on the board. Dimir Spybug and Thoughtbound Phantasm will benefit hugely from the counters and running 2x Etrata, the Silencers with surveil can help mill through to get that secondary win condition quicker.
Overtime, I'm thinking of adding 2x Crucible of Worlds to work with surveil discard, as well as adding Vraska's Contempt and Doom Whisperer if needed for another win con. I've added Arguel's Blood Fast
and Curious Obsession for some card draw that is heavily needed as my only card that draws with surveil is Notion Rain. Lots of counter spells for optimum control, however the only issue is there is no actual board removal, which is why I've sided 2x Cast Down if the matchup requires it.
Most of the sideboard is situational,Thief of Sanity can be sided for Etrata, the Silencer for a more reliable body that can stay on the field if needed against the matchups. Running through some playtest matchups, this deck seems to do well against most others, however I'm foreseeing issues with other control decks especially Aggro-Controls and Burn decks.
I have no way to stall the game efficiently except for Arguel's Blood Fast
in which I don't have any big bodies to sac for lifegain. Another issue I foresee is dealing with opponent graveyards. This is clear as a lot of the new set include many graveyard mechanics, including my own. The cards that can deal with graveyards that I know of in standard are Sentinel Totem and Silent Graveyard however, these will also nullify my graveyard usage with Enhanced Surveillance. Despite this though, I do not rely on my graveyard as much as something like G/B, in which I may consider fitting those two cards in.
If anyone can make some suggestions on where to improve in the deck, what weak points they see and what the strong points are, I am very open to all considerations.
