Hey what do you think about Duress for decks like Bant Hexproof or the control mirror? I thought about experimenting with it.

I've also thought about using Warleader's Helix for spot removal and life gain too.

I actually constructed this deck and am having a lot of fun play testing it with a friend who plays a pretty competitive Jund Midrange/Control deck. So far I like how it matches up against the meta right now.

The big thing for me is that it feels like it is light on counters for a control-ish deck. I feel like the deck needs Izzet Charm to fuel the graveyard for Obzedat's Aid and maybe could use some more Syncopate .

Also my version of the deck uses Blood Baron of Vizkopa and sometimes Thundermaw Hellkite instead of Obzedat, Ghost Council and Angel of Serenity . I like the lifegain you get from the baron vs obzedat and his prot white and black help from not dying from doom blade, and what not. Thundermaw just beats better than Angel is and much cheaper. Once rotation hits I could see Angel replacing Thundermaw for me.

I'll let you know how the deck feels more as I throughout the week.

Cool, glad to hear. Generally your goal is to slow your opponent down as much as possible, stalling the board till you can turn it in your favor. Since, creature based decks are the thing to beat spot removal and sweepers make them run out of gas. A planeswalker or bomb should than come down and you will ride it to victory. This current version I am testing Lavinia vs Haunted plate mail. Against Jund Lavinia of the Tenth rocks so make sure try her.

If your worried about Bant hexproof Duress is pretty good, generally they will have multiple creatures so sometimes it is hit or miss. Generally in this match up I rely on an early Izzet Charm or Syncopate to stop a mana dork, Farseek , or Geist of Saint Traft and later sweep whatever got through with Ratchet Bomb and Supreme Verdict .

I tried to keep the removal cheap so I did not really consider Warleader's Helix . I like to have the option to remove something early and play a bomb or planeswalker while being able to protect it with removal. I think this is also why the deck is a little light on counter magic. Creature heavy decks are just so strong and popular right now that I find mass removal and spot removal more necessary. Especially when you consider cards like Abrupt Decay and Loxodon Smiter .

If you feel the graveyard interaction a little gimmicky than I would suggest you dropping the Obzedat's Aid for Dissipate , Counterflux , or Syncopate .

I like that you are combating the slowness of this deck with Thundermaw, he is both offensive and defensive. I personally think Blood Baron is pretty overrated and consider Obzedat to be a better creature and more useful overall, specially in this deck. The reasons for so are because the stalled out period of the match can generally take a few turns, in this state even if I have an AEtherling , Angel of Serenity , or Obzedat, Ghost Council they can all still do something to either impact the board by removing creatures, hard to remove creature that blocks for days, or stealing your opponents life. Than once you have a lot of control over their board state they have great offensive power, 5/6 flyer, 8/1 unblockable, and 5/5 haste body. If you grade Blood baron by these criteria he does not make it. His protection form white and black is certainly relevant, but that does not mean he is always good. By the time he hits the field if their creatures are not white or black than you most likely cannot get through since he is a 4/4 and since you are going to take a pretty big initial hit it makes his second ability almost always irrelevant.

Besides that little rant XD I am considering either Lifebane Zombie or Fiendslayer Paladin , so maybe those would be cards to also consider. Lastly I am still currently using a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and not using a 3rd angel and Jace, Memory Adept so maybe you might want to have some fun with Bolas before hes gone again.

Have fun and let me know on your thoughts and developments.

I also did not run the key runes and extra copies of chromatic lantern. I usually had the correct mana open or I mulligannned down to make sure I had the correct lands to match my starting hand. I liked running an extra copy of Assemble the Legion because it can flood a board mid to late game. It has won me more games than not. I like the interaction with Haunted Plate Mail. I've been putting it on Blood Baron and gain a ton of life or just use it after a board wipe when nothing is around.

I was considering an extra Legion myself because when it goes in it is something I really want to see. I like having the security the keyrunes/lanterns provide, some games you are more mana hungry for one color than another. I have liked the interactions between Aetherling and Plate mail.

I am going to be getting Mutavault for my modern deck, so I think I will put two in. Just deciding whether to wait and replace drownyard, or drop two duals. What do you think?

If you were already down 2 lands it wouldn't hurt to have mutavault in place of the rotating drown yards.

My thoughts exactly.

Only other thing I was wondering was why no Sphinx's Rev?

I like Sphinx's Revelation but after testing in this deck I do not feel it really works with this "greedy" control setup. Why? Cause generally you have what you need you just need to slow the game down to get them on the field. I mean I could be overlooking its power a little, but I have played it and other variants like Blue Sun's Zenith . I am also a little hesitant to invest in them because I do not think they will hold their value later on, I think I would rather invest in Snapcaster Mage for modern.

If you have them why not try them out? I am going for a different setup tonight, one that I think better fits sphinx's rev and snapcaster's playstyle better, so who knows maybe that is something to move towards in the future. I am going:

-3 Obzedat's Aid moving +3 Azorius Charm to mainboard

-2 Orzhov Keyrune moving + 2Assemble the Legion to mainboard (I really want to test the power level of this card)

+2 Lifebane Zombie and +2 Mizzium Mortars to the sideboard.

So I opted to not go to an FNM tonight due to the fact that I have work early Saturday morning.

I did however playtest with my friend who plays a lot of Jund Midrange / Control.

What I found is that Assemble the Legion works amazing and I'm definitely mainboarding 2 of them going forward.

Angel of Serenity seemed to close out games pretty decently like you said. I decided to run 2 copies mainboard for most of the games.

Sphinx's Revelation worked well in a couple games and other games I didn't draw it at all. I'm still unsure about it so far.

Azorius Charm worked pretty well for the most part. I ran 3 copies.

I added Mizzium Mortars +2 to the deck and ran those in 3/7 games. they seemed to do a decent job at removing most of his more dangerous threats like Olivia Voldaren and served as a decent backup plan if I didn't have a Supreme Verdict available for a Thragtusk .

Doom Blade against Jund was awful. I cut the card completely. I do see the value in it against other decks and especially in a mirror against other Aetherlings, Angels, etc. I'll probably just board it for now.

I feel like my version of the deck is starting to evolve more into a UWR shell with B splashed into it for cards like Duress , Blood Baron of Vizkopa , Obzedat, Ghost Council , Far // Away, etc.

Thundermaw Hellkite closed out some games for me pretty well. I like him in the deck for now. When he rotates out I will be putting Obzedat, Ghost Council as the main board replacement.

I didn't get chance to test much with Lifebane Zombie . Let me know how he panned out for you.

Well first off tonight I went 3-0-1. I drew round 1 against Esper, If I had 1 more turn I would have had him since I had assemble on board with 3 counters. 2-0 against naya midrange, 2-0 against rug control, 2-0 against Boros humans. I got lucky my last round haing 2 izzet charms to stop a T4 and T5 burning earth and syncopate to stop a T3 Thalia.

As you said above, Mizzium mortars seems to work quite well so I think I will keep it sideboard.

I loved playing Assemble the Legion , I resolved 8 and I enjoyed watching it spit out my cat tokens (was using Sanctuary Cat as my token). They are good and they certainly won me a few games, but just by how it plays it might just be better in the sideboard. I will keep them in for now because they are fun and I just need to use it playing against different decks.

My deck did not seem to really skip a beat without that Obzedat's Aid , so I think playing them would be up to the style of play you prefer. It was nice having some more earlier game options game 1 with Azorius Charm though.

Jund is certainly the worst matchup against Doom Blade . I think you should still keep them in mainboard because they deal with most things for 2 mana at instant speed. If they are bad there are Mortars, Izzet charm, Dreadbore, Azorius charm, Verdict, Detention sphere, and Far-away as other options.

I found Lifebane Zombie to be really good. It destroyed naya and rug. I sided in 2 lifebane and 3 sin collectors game 2 of Naya, Rug, Boros. Since it worked well the first time I tried it again, taking out Haunted Plate Mail and slight variants of other things. I took out the mail because I figured I would now have more creatures and more importantly early game dudes.

But yah the strategy seemed to work quite well, an example against this Rug deck was hilarious. I brought out a lifebane and took a huntsmaster. The next turn he unsummoned my lifebane, and I dropped a sin collector to take the syncopate in his hand. He ended up resolving a Melek, though it was out of the range of the ral zarek I ended up beating him to death with the sin collector and lifebane.

After my experiences with Lifebane I would recommend him as a sideboard option.

You should post the newly revised deck.

I edited the deck and the description. It now shows the exact list I ran last night. I even changed the name back to what it was before I changed it to see what the list might look like after rotation.

Have you been running the memory adept? because I have been running a Bolas in its place.

I forgot to mention that I swapped the far-away last night for forbidden alchemy since I wanted more card draw.

After last night I decided to put Blind Obedience back in the sideboard because I felt everything else seemed to deal with what I would sideboard it in against but better. (except tokens) I did see a lot more control list so I think I will just end up putting in Slaughter Games in that slot.

I have tried to stay away from running cards that will phase out. I agree the deck needs more card draw but it's tough to decide what to cut.

Options that I came up with could include Inspiration and/or Divination .

Izzet charm is okay for card draw and Jace can dig decently as well. I feel however that it could use a couple more of those aforementioned cards for rotation purposes. Theros could be the next time we see another two mana dig card like think twice.

I haven't been using memory adept much lately. I cut the deck down to just the 2 Rals and 2 Architects for right now. I felt like my deck evolved more into a mid-late get beat down deck rather than a mill deck. Was toying with the idea of putting him back in and adding 1 Traumatize for an extra win con though.