Narset Transcendent as a 2 of and Liliana of the Veil as a 3 of. Remove Disfigure and 1 Slaughter Pact for 2 Dismember. If you are going to run a cantrip, you should run Serum Visions. Thought Scour doesn't actually work unless you are HEAVY into delve (ie: if Dig Through Time was still legal).

Also, Lower Snapcaster Mage down to 2 and Tasigur, the Golden Fang up by one. Run 23-25 lands. Do a split between Celestial Colonnade and Creeping Tar Pit. Esper Charm and Cryptic Command are very fun.

Sideboard needs work. Illness in the Ranks must go. I prefer Suppression Field over Stony Silence because of the applications it has against Tron and Twin as well. Also works against rogue Naya builds. Keep 2x Vendilion Clique in the sideboard. Try some Leyline of Sanctity's or something like Kor Firewalker for burn hate.

Femme_Fatale could you explain your reasoning behind Lili? She never struck me as the type of Walker to run in this sort of deck.

You might be better of with a Gifts package, rather than the Monastery Mentor route. In case you're unfamiliar with it, it generally includes 4x Gifts Ungiven, 1-2x Unburial Rites, 1x Iona, Shield of Emeria, 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, 1 of each of these board wipes: Supreme Verdict, Wrath of God, Damnation (or Day of Judgment for non-black sources). How it works: When you cast Gifts Ungiven your given the option to search "up to" 4 cards, but you can search out less. In this case, you want to search out 2 cards, namely Unburial Rites + Iona or Elesh Norn. You can do this at instant speed, meaning at the end of your opponents turn, which allows you to keep mana open for counters. Then on your turn, you cast Unburial Rites from the graveyard and target the creature you just put into the graveyard. Gives you a turn 3-4 Iona or Elesh Norn, which is hard to beat. The reason for the board wipes, is you can select all 3 (1 of each name) and then they have to let you have one of them. You don't really care which one, but it lets you fetch a boardwipe on-demand which is very powerful.

Saljen I know how a Gifts deck works. This isn't supposed to be that. gnarlicide and I were spit balling after we saw the original deck list that won an event in Japan and decided it might be more efficient with Mystical Teachings. Did you look at the original list that I linked in the description?

Play a single Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. It makes fetches tap for mana in the late game, and is also generally a good card.

I always preferred just straight up esper control over esper gifts.

And Liliana of the Veil is the best card to use in any black deck that is slower than aggro. There is no reason NOT to run her, as she can single handedly control the entire board.

Actually, if you are going to go with planeswalkers, don't use Suppression Field.

You cheeky bastard... Lol.

Thanks for the name drop, though.

Now onto some possible suggestions:

I know the Esper teachings of old wanted a singleton copy of White Sun's Zenith in it. You know, a teachings target. I feel like we could almost make a pod style "toolbox function" with instants and flash creatures.

And in the SB, they ran a single or pair of Teferi. But I do feel like Venser might be better.

What are your thoughts against Mana Leak?

Call me crazy... But is a card like Leyline of Singularity a better token hoser? I mean, twin would have absolutely no answer for it. Affinity would have to only have 1 of each dude out at a time. We wouldn't die to multiple goyfs. And if in our opening hand, we could play it for free, thus removing most chances to counter/destroy it.

Twin has answers to it gnarlicide. They don't care too much about it.

And Worship functions better if you want to prevent creatures.

Sorry, gnarlicide it was bugging me and I had to post it.

Anyway, what do you think the deck should function as? I agree that Teachings is more of a toolbox deck than a straight up control deck. And with that sort of deck I'm not sold on LotV.

White Sun's Zenith seems to be an interesting win con. I haven't any idea how Twin would deal with a Leyline that hasn't been hard casted, so that suggestion might be one for the sideboard also. Anyway, Esper Teachings was never my strong suit, though I've seen it once or twice.

Twin can just straight up beat you to death. One of the strongest suits about Twin is that it never needs its combo. Another thing is that Cryptic Command can bounce it.

Here is what I am brewing CanadianShinobi.

Teaching you how to be controlled.

The thing is IF the twin player tries to cryptic command the Leyline, i feel like we would be ready with our own counter shenanigans.

And with all the non creature stuff we got going, I can see us being able to race the twin player with mentors or tasigurs. Obviously, we would need to test it out. But it looks like it could work.

I am on the toolbox plan, myself... After Pod left, people stopped respecting the toolbox.

But I could be doing it wrong, I forgot about some key spells... Updates are coming by the end of the week

Being a 3 color deck, I see no reason not to run Engineered Explosives in the SB. Flashfreeze could replace a Negate or Celestial Purge as Flashfreeze hits a lot of things like Tarmogoyf, Siege Rhino, Splinter Twin, Scapeshift, Thundermaw Hellkite, Keranos, God of Storms, Blood Moon etc.

I like it. Well played, good sir.

Celestial Purge is very useful. I wouldn't cut it. It can get rid of Splinter Twin, Siege Rhino, Liliana of the Veil and Tasigur, the Golden Fang.

Femme_Fatale this will be the deck list I use for the T/O League.

Interesting...