My store is yet to hold a standard event since the release of FRF so I was wondering how you have felt the deck performed versus various strategy's.

The matchups I expectto see are Mono Red, Mardu Tokens, Abzan And Mardu Midrange, Temur Monsters and Possibly Heroic.

4 Radiant Fountain? I like the for as they represent a possibility to recur lifegain and buy some extra turns.

How has Siege been for you? I like it in concept but yet to see it executed.

Banishing Light has been worrying me with Reclamation Sage and Sultai Charm becoming more popular.

2 Polluted Delta in replace of two lands to help dig?

my current actual list is a bit different than what I have here. If you expect weenie agro decks, I would not recommend the siege, as it is just too slow. I would replace it with Nyx-Fleece Rams and Jeskai Sages (I currently have 2 of each, and I may go up on the sage because he is amazing).

I also agree about Banishing Light, which I normally side out against green decks. but very few decks can deal with it game 1, and it happens to be our best answer to planeswalkers after they resolve. the Polluted Deltas were originally there to help dig (and the sideboard Treasure Cruise that I bring in against Thoughtseize decks), but I am currently running 1 Swamp and 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang, which is fantastic against weenie decks, and decent against temur (who can generally only remove threats through combat).

so here is the basic concept for each matchup:

mono red: resolve Nyx-Fleece Ram2, stay alive till you resolve Elspeth
mardu tokens: same concept, but you may want to side in some Whelming Waves. I run 2 in my board for mardu and jeskai tokens. it is fantastic.
temur monsters: a lot of there threats have aste, so this can be a difficult matchup. I actually find the siege to be great here. the other notable thing is all of their creatures die to Elspeth's minus, and End Hostilities kill bestowed Boon Satyrs as well.
Abzan/Mardu midrange: you have a huge advantage here. game 1 is almost impossible to lose thanks to the slow nature of the current midrange strategies. End Hostilities is a beating, as is the siege. other than that, they have a lot of dead removal, which is fantastic for us. this is where I bring in extra Disdainful Strokes and Treasure Cruise.

I think I answered all of your questions, but if I missed any or you have more, let me know! I am always happy to help

so this is a bit closer to what I am actually playing. the Nullify makes midrange matchups amazing. I also run some Evolving Wilds right now because I am missing some Temple of Enlightenment, which is really the only reason I can run Tasigur. if I were to fix that, I would take out tasigur a plains, and the swamp for another Radiant Fountain, and 2 Last Breath

Thoughts on Last Breath and Nullify?

1 Black source seems iffy without a way to search for it.

I was thinking of swapping Divination for Jeskai Sage thoughts?

sorry. I thought I updated everything, but apparently I missed a bunch. I currently run 2 Polluted Delta and 3 Evolving Wild which can search for the swamp. I play 4 Nullify, and I would play Last Breath, but my meta is full of abzan midrange and sultai control. if I were to go to a gp or scg open, I would definitely run 2 Last Breath in the main.

as far as swapping divination out for more jeskai sage, it really depends on meta again. since you are expecting red agro and mardu tokens, it seems like a good decision to me. as far as going to a big event, I think I would move the rams to the side, and put 2 more sages in their place.

Ok all makes sense. I will try an obtain the necessary black lands and play Esper eventually.

Thankyou for your help.

absolutely, any time. if you ever have more questions or just want some advice on a deck, don't hesitate to ask

So game day was today, I went 3-1 playing UW Control.

I felt that my deck was very strong and was well suited to the metagame that i expected, partly due to testing into the wee hours of the morning the matchups i expected to play.

Round 1 I played Abzan Whip, I felt extremely favoured in this matchup as i am fairly certain this deck was the deck Jim Davis built to beat the whip decks. Whiped board, countered some stuff then won with Elspeth once i ran them out of rsources.

Game 2 was my only lost, Sultai Control. Game 1 I stumbled on mana and got thoughtsiezed a bunch, i stabilized but didnt have enough resources to defend a wincon and got decked. Game 2 he Siezed ad answer out of my hand and resolved Ashiok and got 3/4 wincons in the first 2-3 turns of milling.

Game 3 Mardu Midrange, relatively easy matchup, Banishing Lighted early and made him open up to a few brutal End Hostilties.

Game 4 Sultia Villainous Wealth, relied on devotion for mana so this matchup was a breeze.

I played Jeskai sage over Divination, It hate removal and was hilarious.

Haha im glad to hear that it went so well! I have also found u/w to be a bit difficult in the control matchups. Ashiok is hard to beat. My meta doesn't have much in the way of control, though, so I am not really worried about it for gameday (which is today for me)

Good luck dude!

Considering going into Esper to get Ashiok and Thoughtssizeseize aswell as some better removal.

So I played a deck very similar to this one today, and I managed to get a top 8 finish (not first, unfortunately). the only thing I lost to was a weird mardu agro deck. it had Monastery Swiftspear, Gurmag Swiftwing, Shaman of the Great Hunt, and Mardu Scouts. I wasn't really prepared to play a full on agro deck, and I kept a poor hand game 2 (it was fine in most respects, but didn't have any real interaction for his creatures). I ended up losing with a Resolute Archangel in hand (I had 7 lands on board, 1 was a Flooded Strand, though, and I was at 1 life)

Ahahah, Alwell the deck is obviously powerful in the right hands but is Esper or UB just better?

I think esper is better. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is just the best finisher out there for control right now. maybe a u/b shell that only has white for Elspeth? I don't know for sure. worth some testing

Thats what I was thinking.

My only loss was against Sultai Control partly due to Ashiok and Thoughtseize.

Yeah. I was able to power through ashiok thanks to 4 negates post board, but ashiok is hard to beat. I am going to another game day today, so I'm gonna try for that mat again

I wasn't.

Well good luck today! We only have 1 Game day.

My lgs only has 1, but there is another store not too far from mine that had theirs today. Anyway, I top 4d this time. I lost to a burn deck, mostly due to mulligans.

Bugger, How is Burn in a normal game.

Is this your current Standard list?

yes it is. there are a few pieces missing that are pretty obvious (Temple of Enlightenment is the obvious one). but colored mana has never been an issue anyway