Ashiok doesn't care about your gender binary. too busy being a nightmare.

Ashiok is a he. He's just a thin, somewhat androgynous male who most likely left behind any significance about his gender once he became a planeswalker. I mean he has no head, but some ominous vapor floating around. lol

Personally im more of an aggro player but with this recent control deck hype, I began playing some grixis control (moreso because I owned a lot of red/black than anything else). I won a fair share of games but ocontrol isnt for me and grixis is horrible compared to esper and U/B.

with that being said,I def think you need more than 1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death. So many people have sideboarded in cards that can exile him or Ojutai that I think youll run into a lot of problems if you dont have a backup. Youre using Dissipate anf so are they. Ive been using much more Utter End over Hero's Downfall. And a good aggro player will make you block with Silumgar and then Anger of the Gods. Hexproof isnt safe. An exiled silumgar is bad.

Plus, Perilous Vault should be sideboarded. Kolaghan's Command is unrea. The destroy artifact is ita worst ability 90% of the time but it becomes thr best the second a perilojs vault or Whip comes into play. Cpuld be wrong but idk. Your deck is dope though. I juat think 1 more creature could be beneficial.

Oh and the 3rd Ashiok makes a world of difference. Thats an option as well

Ballzanya wizards has stated more than once that ashiok doesn't follow our concept of gender. Don't try to take that away from the character

Femme_Fatale, it will be this list for the Standard tourney. I may make some changes to the list before the 31st, is that okay?

+1. Can you provide some directions about your sideboard (ie conditions for substitutions) for us newbies. Thx. Really love what you put together here and appreciate the effort you took to test and update it.

I dont like pearl lake against control in the sideboard.

What I do like in Risen Executioner

If they dont have an exile threat, they are effectively finished.

I actually don't think that Deathbringer Regent is a terrible card. In a control deck against something super aggro or tokens, dropping the regent would wipe the board and leave you with the only threat.

I also love Silumgar, the Drifting Death. It's such a good card in so many ways.

I am just getting into control and this might just be the way to do it for me. +1

Deathbringer Regent is terrible because it costs too much mana. By the time you have the 7 mana to cast it, it is probably like turn 10. If the opponent has even five other creatures that have lived that long, chances are you are dead. Even Crux of Fate, at 2 less mana than Deathbringer Regent is too slow against the red decks. I usually board them out in favor of Drown in Sorrow.

Deathbringer Regent would be better in a B/U/G sultai control where you have ramp to help cast him and then trigger all your "when this creature dies" abilities at the same time. in some scenarios i do agree he costs too much. but i still think he isn't terrible. he's not fantastic, either, but he sure isn't terrible.

I feel like this deck could use more counterspells. You aren't running Disdainful Stroke.

Silumgar's Scorn and Dissipate are enough counterspells in the main board. 8 is plenty. A few Negate's in the side is enough for any matchup. Disdainful Stroke just isn't necessary.

What do you think of Risen Executioner ?

It is an interesting card. I think I still like Pearl Lake Ancient over it, because of the "can't be countered" clause. Also, they both have a similar benefit of being virtually unkillable, though PLA is slightly more resilient as it can avoid all forms or removal by bouncing it, whereas Risen Executioner can still easily be exiled by Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Perilous Vault, or Silence the Believers.

I feel that Dragonlord's Prerogative should be a one-off, considering it costs 6 mana. A second Foul-Tongue Invocation seems like it would be a good replacement for one of the prerogatives.

6 cmc draw spells have never been an issue for me. With 27 land in the deck, I make land drops consistently enough and getting there isn't really a problem. A second Foul-Tongue Invocation I feel would definitely be good though.

I agree that PLA is better for the bounce effect, as the match will likely go on for some time, but I like executioner because of the clock it provides. The opponent will not have to expect to fight over a threat on t4, they will most likely be setting up lands on t1-t4. Even if they do have a counterspell on t4, we can cast it repetitively until it resolves for good. The exile effect is a threat, but silence is usually sided out in the control matchup, and usually vault. Sure, ugin is still a threat, but if they NEED to find only one card in the deck to stop you, you are in the clear. Also, PLA dies to double removal unless you want to pick up six lands, which will almost never happen.

Sorry for my rant, I just feel that executioner is not getting the praise it deserves. I like casting threats on curve in the mirror, and executioner is perfect example of that.

What's Silence the Believers for? Ashcloud Phoenix? Deathmist Raptor? Seems like a narrow meta-game to need a card devoted to that. Is your FNM situation filled with those cards?

I suppose I could try out Risen Executioner.

I'd never bounce 6 lands to keep PLA in play. I'd counterspell their kill spell and get into a counter war. Only if I lose the counter war will I bounce PLA back. Lands in play are to important in the mirror.

Silence the Believers is great tech against both Ashcloud Phoenix and Deathmist Raptor, as mentionned. Also great against Sultai whip decks, to exile prime targets such as Tasigur and both Sidisi's. All three of those decks are around in my meta so I thought it deserved a slot.

Ah, ok. I saw that you have Perilous Vault in there though, so I was just wondering why not run 2 of those in the sideboard instead?

Because Perilous Vault exiles my own things too. Having more than one kind of forces me to play more conservatively, not wanting to risk blowing up my own board with it as well. Silence the Believers can do just as good a job at exiling the opponents board (thanks to strive and a lot of land), and keeps my own board alive.

Fair enough. What's the highest number of creatures you've ever exiled using the strive ability of the card?

The most I can remember is 4. Well worth the 13 mana.

I suppose it's worth it if you generally get 3-5 creatures each time.