great idea, if you could add 4 Mana Leak and change Niblis of the Mist with Niblis of the Urn it could be faster!

also Geist of Saint Traft would be great!

I would add some kind of heavy hitter like Sun Titan bring back your creatures with bounce for a clean hit... or Consecrated Sphinx possibly draw some more bounces and also hit clean in the airlike the idea too

I was trying to stay mana light with the creatures, but Sun Titan seems like a good idea, given the lesser amount of creatures in this deck. It would be good to get back some of the creatures who are good bouncers, or to grab Honor of the Pure who might have been blown.

I will give the Niblis of the Urn a try, and see how it pans out in play tests. Mana leak is always nice to get in there, just have to find the space, I really don't want to get much larger in the deck- 62 I can do, but going as high as 65... youch.

I'll play around with it and see what I come up with.

-Thank you

You could put in some Snapcaster Mage so you could re-use your spells.

The irony here is going to be that I have had Snapcaster Mage three different times, one in fact was a foil- every time, I traded them in for other cards I needed. That foil snagged me almost $50 in store credit; but, that is an aside.

I never thought of Snapcaster for this deck before, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. Especially with Venser, being able to bounce a Snapcaster to get flashback on a previous spell card to get rid of problem cards seems brilliant.

I will definitely have to figure out a way to get him in there. Thank you for the suggestion!

Took out mana leak. Testing shows that when they are forced to one spell a turn, they are able to bypass a mana leak easily. However, for one cost more, I can counter a spell and get it exiled, keeping it out of the graveyard as well. Win/Win in my book.

Honor of the Pure and Mentor of the Meek are counter productive IMO.

I personally would use hard draw cards. I wouldn't know off the top of my head the best standard card drawing card but IMO even Divination would be better than Mentor of the Meek. Mentor of the Meek, if he gets blow up before you can use him that is bad (due to no card draws off of him). And you are not likely to get a draw out of him the turn he comes out therefore the turn he comes out is a wasted turn where you likely could have played something else or left mana open you needed for something else.

Thanks for the comments. Play testing is showing mentor of the meek to be less than useful, his potential combo rarely comes into play. Honor of the pure, however, has been an essential piece, because this deck runs few creatures at a time, and those few are low powered. I have found that having a one or two Honor of the Pure makes all the difference in both offensive and defensive strategies.

But I do agree, Mentor of the Meek is proving worthless, and will be gone. I'll give divination a try.

Very cool deck, Curse of Exhaustion is brillant with this set-up! I do think that you should drop a Silent Departure for another Vapor Snag, as it is much, much better. I also don't think that Inquisitor Exarch is doing too much in here, especially compared to the rest of the creatures, it may be a good idea to drop it and get 2x more of the other creatures.

Also, you're at 61 cards, which is typically not good. I'd recommend dropping one card to get it to 60, but that's just me, if it is working fine, by all means, leave it.

+1! Love the concept!

I personally always put a great amount of work into my decks (and love). I never ran an archetype deck and I rarely stuck to the 60 card minimum that everyone seems to do. I usually would run 72 card decks, this isn't always inherently bad but requires more tweaking and play testing than a 60 card deck does. Also gives you the potential to have more answers, there is a delicate balance between the minimum and going higher than 60 cards.

With that said I did play a black / green deck with tutors so not hitting the right card didn't kill me as I could tutor for it. You could possibly bump up the deck to include more cards but would need to improve the card drawing package if you did.

I know how much you seem to be in love with Honor the Pure but I really feel as if more creatures would be better or some Oblivion Ring's with Venser in there if you had the o rings and found room for Sundial of the Infinite you could get rid of their creatures and they would never get them back.

When I get the time, I am going to be doing some test runs with removing the Inquisitor and adding another Snapcaster and Aether Adept, which will drop down the white creature count and make the Honor of the Pure more of a space waster than benefit. If I like that setup, then Honor of the pure will end up going.

Now, Oblivion Ring, Venser, and Sundial- that is a fantastic combo! Never thought of that before, and it ties in well with what I am trying to pull of here- I will definitely have to play around with that as well.

I hear you on going against the arch types- everyone at FNM always talks about running this or that deck, modeled almost entirely after what some pro-player is having luck with this week. I prefer to brew my own stuff up, and take the credit for my own work (which, unfortunately, has not been work worth taking credit for, but hey, I'm learning. :P )

+1 =)

Please rtf on the below deck(s):

deck:the-mimeoplasms-dredge-return

deck:grand-arbiter-augustin-iv-tunnel-vision

Playtesting under this particular build has so far been largely successful. Multiple combos pull together, allowing for the deck to control outcomes until eventual win cons, matches ranging from a few minutes to more than 20min. I have been able to squash several high rated decks on here, but HEAVY token popping decks give it fits, if they get a good run of cards and this one does not.

Sideboard obviously is going to need to address this, so I am looking for good suggestions. I have some standard answers in there, but any others? Especially things with multiple uses (so I am not just burning slots to counter one kind of deck).

You've already got Ratchet Bomb which is the best against tokens. You could throw in Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite to, at the very least, keep all their tokens really small. Some enchant removal would be good too, something like Demystify or day of revelation, in case they've got Parallel Lives out.

Smart deck. +1

Very nice. +1 You've inspired me to make Stonehorn Dignitary and Sundial of the Infinite work in my U/W Control deck:locking-it-down. Let me know what you think please!

Now I do have a suggestion for yours. I would add one more O-ring and the reason is that you can combo it with Venser and the Sundial. If you use Venser's bounce during your second main phase on the O-ring, you can then Sundial in response to O-ring's triggered ability, meaning they never get their permanent back. Also, since Venser's ability isn't a "Until end of turn" ability it actually still resolves, but the next end step would be your opponent's! Which would mean anything they play on their turn you would be able to target with the incoming O-ring! Sick? I'm afraid so. I didn't see this combo until I saw your deck, and I must use it in mine now, haha.

Drogskol Reaver would also be mean in this type deck, drawing extra cards, swinging for 6 in the air every turn, and if you have the Curse of Exhaustion in play they can either deal with it with a kill spell, or deal with the next 12 point life swing.

Drogskol Reaver isn't very good. Too small of a creature for 7 CMC, and the abilities aren't amazing.

I appreciate the +1s and the comments everyone. I am not so sure on the Drogskol Reaver either, because of the high mana cost. He seems like he could be a brutal card if the field is clear for him to swing, but that also relies on someone not having kept a card to get rid of it tucked away in their hand.

However, I will give it a try on here using the simulator, and get a feel for how it works out. Maybe it works, or maybe it works as a sideboard creature for times where I need a bit more muscle, I'll have to experiment with it.

As for the O-Rings- it is a nasty combo, one intentionally in there. I use three, because I want to stick to the 60 cards if possible, but also because Venser can only bounce one a turn anyway. Putting three in there assures I will get it in decent time, be able to get a couple out most likely, and then can 'ricochet' them around to get rid of other problems.

I'll take a look at your deck. :)

I would love further help with sideboard suggestions- anything I missed, any weaknesses others might see that I haven't spotted.

I appreciate all the help guys. :D

instead of using Divination, why not try using Ponder instead? you may be able to draw 2 cards for divination, but ponder only costs 1 blue and enables you to choose what to draw...

i think you have a problem with your mana pool... since your running a control based deck, i suggest that you have more of lands as much as possible. i tried to draw a sample hand and got mulligan 2 out of 3 time.

Ricochet Trap :D

I know it isn't Standard, but I love suggesting cards with people's deck name in them.

I've been thinking about adding another land or two, just wasn't so sure on it, because on the tester, the land situation is so hit and miss- and I find that with any deck I test. I love the program, but I think some of the algorithms used for the randomization could use some work.

As you said though, it is control, and it would probably help to bump the lands. The best way to know for sure is to get the cards (ordered them, on the way, hopefully soon __) and I get to run some hands in person.

I think I might have had ponder in there at one point, but I don't remember why I switched it. Not a bad idea though, it will cut costs, make it easier to snapcaster back, and if the next three cards are all not helpful in my situation, I can shuffle and take a random card.

@ Kotapprentice- Funny find :)