I would strongly consider either of these for the sideboard: Haunted Plate Mail - Grindclock - Perilous Vault - Raise the Alarm.

Haunted Plate Mail is good against abzan and because even when it's activated it dodges Ultimate Price, Bile Blight, and Radiant Purge. When it's not activated it dodges Dragonlord Silumgar's ETB effect. Not to mention that less people are running Perilous Vault in the side.

Grindclock - Because if you are on the play against anything but control resolving an Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver T3 against an empty board state after your opponent's have tapped out and you killed/countered usually means you win. At least I haven't lost yet when i've done that. Grindclock has a similar effect if you're on the draw. You can play it before the opponent has a chance to get out of hand and nobody is main decking artifact hate unless they play Kolaghan's Command. It's also very easy on your lands.

Perilous Vault - Because it dodges Dragonlord Silumgar and most decks can't do anything about it once it resolves.

Raise the Alarm helps you survive by getting you a 2-for-1 in many situations early. It's phenomenal against something like Martin Dang's almost mono and still great against . Often when has nothing else going on they will attack with Elvish Mystic and Rattleclaw Mystic. Just cast this bad boy and watch them cry as a precious mana dork bites the dust.

Something I could use your advice on is how to deal with G/W token/Morph decks. The one running 4x Deathmist Raptor, Fleecemane Lions, Dromoka's Command, Avatar of the Resolute, Servant of the Scale and multiple Den Protectors. Against us the deck sides into Mastery of the Unseen, Ainok Survivalist, Whisperwood Elemental and Inspiring Call which is one of the greatest tempo cards of this set.

I cannot stress enough how important Foul-Tongue Invocation is. You have one in your main and you should have 2 in your SB. I went 3-1 last night with pretty much the same build as yours. My loss came from a series of stupid misplays on my part...otherwise I would've gone 4-0. 2-0 vs Mono Red Aggro. 2-0 vs Naya Dragons. 2-0 vs Temur Dragons and 1-2 vs Mardu Tokens. Foul-Tongue Invocation was a godsend. The life gain it provides is essential and making them sacrifice the one creature they were able to stick is amazing. I also run 2 Bile Blights and 4 Drown in Sorrows in my SB. Anticipate is a good card, but I found myself sideboarding them almost every game. I would reconsider Encase in Ice. I feel other cards may be better like an additional Utter End, possibly a Tasigur, the Golden Fang and another Drown in Sorrow. I've been attempting to play a control deck for awhile now and after playing with this deck last night I am in love with it!

Yeah foul tongue is worth running 3 total I think. I myself ran 2 and 2 Dragonlord Ojutai against my last burn match last night and it helped me stabilize.

This deck looks great, very similar to the deck Shaheen Soorani played in the Richmond invitational. I'm glad to see that Esper is regaining it's momentum as a competitive deck.

Dragonlord Ojutai is not a wincon. Im tired of people thinking this. It looses to EVERY other flyer in competitive magic. And doesn't even get a trade with other dragonlords. Most overrated card in Magic.

rjphilla - Apparently all the pros disagree with you, because DL Ojutai is seriously the real deal.

It looses to EVERY single other flyer in competitive magic. All of them. Waste. Of. Time. How many pro games has it won? Zero. As soon as you attack, it's stoked. Or blocked by stormbreath. And stormbreath has protection from it. You want mine? Selling them.like hot cakes.

How much you want for them?

Any large creature seems good when you have board control. It does nothing in an even board state. Stormbreath Dragon is still the king of all flyers in standard. Dragonlord Silumgar will dethrone her though.

$18.

I am being slightly facetious but in all honesty it doesn't even come close to Silumgar Or Stormbreath. Again, U/W Control clears and maintains boardstate. Any creature on a controlled board is good.

It's the draw function rjphilla. The hexproof and flying are just icing on the cake. It's the fact that it procs an Anticipate when it deals damage that makes it such a good control card.

I sold both of my Ojutai's for over $20 a piece. I am just going to buy them back later when they drop to $10.

Why was utter end taken out?

Um, rjphilla in response to:

"It looses to EVERY single other flyer in competitive magic. All of them. Waste. Of. Time. How many pro games has it won? Zero. As soon as you attack, it's stoked. Or blocked by stormbreath. And stormbreath has protection from it. You want mine? Selling them.like hot cakes."

Have you not seen this? http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=9550&f=ST

That is the reason behind the price spike. Any deck running 4x Stormbreath Dragon without discard loses to control because he's just so easy to deal with. I mean as long as we have Hero's Downfall, Silumgar's Scorn, Murderous Cut, Ultimate Price, Nullify, Dissipate, Dissolve, Disdainful Stroke and even Cancel stormbreath just does not matter to control. So even if we played all white dragons the chances are we have plenty of other answers and if the field is empty and we tap out to play Ojuai, we don't care if the opponent taps out for Stormbreath and swings for 4 with haste because our dragon deals more damage and finds a kill spell or counter.

The pro white was a big deal when Banishing Light was an auto include for nearly every white deck and now it serves to keep everybody from mixing Bile Blight + Valorous Stance but that's about it.

Also any deck running 4x Stormbreath Dragon is very susceptible to Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. I drop her T3 all day against or dragons. Stole some Crater's Claws, Stormbreath Dragon or Thunderbreak Regent? Sweet those can't kill me now.

X Control decks don't need to worry about stormbreath because their man composition is great against it even if they are running 2-3 white dragons. They need to worry about Thoughtseize, Duress and Kolaghan's Command as well as mono .

kengiczar thanks. I know what Black spot removal is.

jamesfiek that's cool. I'm not really selling mine for $18. Got high trade value this FNM (playset of Watery Graves for one)I was really getting on these guys cause they played into it. Just being devil's advocate!

But honestly, now I want to make it my mission to destroy UBW control. And Ojutai for that matter.

The worst match-up for me has been either that sided in 3x Duress and 2x Kolaghan's Command as well as a few Flamewake Phoenix or the time a guy sided in his 3rd Thoughtseize, his 3 Duress and then used a train of Den Protector to keep hitting me with just 1 actual copy of Duress 3 times.

I strongly advise you to run discard against control as it rips up everything we try to do. Getting the answers out of our hands just means it's safe to play threats, and even if we do play a few answers the Kolaghan's Command gets rid of our last kill spell while getting you back another creature. Just make sure you get rid of our Dig Through Time before we can cast it and you'll destroy us all.

TheHroth Two questions; Do you own this deck? and What creatures should I run in my Sultai Control deck? Currently I run; 2x Sylvan Caryatid, 2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang 1x Silumgar, the Drifting Death 1x Sagu Mauler and 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier. See my list here; Bonzai! 2nd @ FNM

Should I drop a Mauler to try to pick up another Silumgar? There are a lot of lifegain decks in my meta that can outrace a 3 power, so thats why I split 1 and 1. Sidisi is tutor for creatures, and can be a threat if needed. The only problem with her and Tasigur is they don't have hexproof.

@Prima

Yes, I own this list. I'll take a look at yours.

Cool. What is the best you have ever done? My FNM is around 35-50 people, so top 4 is a big accomplishment. As the name suggests, I got 2nd place, but that was on a night with only about 30 people.

The deck isn't really a shard anymore...

Right you are but I'm a lazy bastard and havnt changed the name yet. I'd rather build Esper, but I just felt like trying this list at FNM last week instead.

im just saying but i feel it would make it better if dragonlord silumgar was in the main-board and there should be 2 of him at most and you could use jace the living guildpact and liliana vess she would help you get what you want and keep the other player discarding but its just my opinion so

Jace? You mean the 4$ planeswalker ? Never saw competitive play, and for a reason.