I'm going to try this deck tomorrow at FNM. Though I'm subbing out one Frost Titan for an Iona, Shield of Emeria. A 2-color deck is dead in the water when you cast her, then Venser her for a second time in the same turn. I also took out the 3 Sea Gate Oracle in favor of 3 Augury Owl . The Oracles are pretty useful with their 3 toughness, but I think that a scry-3 every turn would be more handy.

@ trakanon: Nice trakanon, i'm very curious how you do. If you would, could you keep in mind when you play an augury owl, if you had rather drawn a card instead? because i think i'm right on the sea gates. Iona seems nice, but a bit too expensive for my taste (manawise).

good luck!

@ rckclimber: you are reading it right

@ ninja: i have considered it, but decided to stay mainly on non-to-hand-bounce, i will keep it in mind though, for if i find ymself wanting to bounce their planeswalkers or whatever.

I will defer to your judgment and play the deck as you have it here (though I do not have all of the sideboard cards). My thinking on the owl was that I could get through the deck a little bit faster, but the draw and early blocking potential of the oracle is more appealing.

The deck was very fun to play and did pretty well tonight. I got shut out in round 1 against an allies deck. The guy gained something like 100 life in one turn, and I just had 2 bad draws. Rounds 2 and 3 were shut outs in my favor. The Mnemonic Wall/Silence combo made it easy wins. Round 4 was against a UW Jace/Gideon control. We spent the entire 40 minutes on the first hand and it ended in a draw, though if we had more time I would have won.

I did take out the Seachrome Coast (because I don't own any) and used Sejiri Refuge instead. It's only 1 life, but it was at least something to do on several turns when I had no other options.

Good to hear you had fun while playing it, i'm pretty stupid for not having the deck together yet xD.

Would you put in more silences/mnemonic walls to get the party started faster, or is 2 of each good enough?

And maybe instead of the refuge, next time you can add in 2 more Celestial Colonnade s, if you own them and if you didn't already.

I'm going to play it some more and see, but yeah I'm considering putting more silence/walls in because the combo is just too good, though I do not own more than 2 silences at the moment. Maybe sub them for a few wall of omens or spreading seas. They seem to have the least value, depending on what you are playing against.

If you need more things to bounce you can add one or two Halimar Depths . Also works well with Deprive .

Liking the Glimmerpoint Stag along with Venser, the Sojourner 's unblockable ability, although you might want to board it out for something like jace, the mind sculptor in control match ups

What about add Sunblast Angel?

I've played many games with this deck now, and what I am thinking about taking out and sideboarding is the spreading seas. They are great in the first couple of turns, but after that they are pretty useless unless it's a Valakut match-up, but no one I play with ever runs that deck. They are good for a draw, but wall of omens does that. And usually if I'm exiling/returning for an enter-the-battlefield effect, I'm doing it with something other than spreading seas or wall of omens anyway. I'm going to try 3 Jace le Mindsculpters instead of the spreading seas, and maybe drop 1 Venser for another silence because spell locking people makes me smile.

Great deck though man, it's still my favorite.

Meh,. wrote a whole story and then apparently pressed f5 >.>

anywho; glad to see you're still enjoying the deck. I still haven't been able to play it myself, as no one wants to give away their venser these days and i'm still 2 short.

the mind sculptors are ofcourse awesome, but i don't have the money for them.

I have been contemplating taking out the spreading seas too, and i think i will stash them in the SB for now. I have made the following changes, let me know if you agree:

MB

-3x Spreading Seas -1x Mana Leak -2x Island

+1x Silence +1x Mnemonic Wall +2x Halimar Depths +2x Deprive

SB (apparently had only 14 to begin with, hence the additional +1)

-1x Wall of Omens -2x Spell Pierce

+3x Spreading Seas +1x Luminarch Ascension

Yeah I hear ya on Jace, that's why I don't have any in the deck either. Halimar Depths and Deprive is a good combo as well, but I guess it all comes down to what you want the deck to do. If someone is running Jace, or maybe Augury Owl s instead of oracles, then they might not use Depths and Deprive. There's just so many options and so many "enters the battlefield" cards. But I think +1 Silence & Mnemonic Wall is solid. I've won so many games just by silence-locking people at the beginning of their turn.

I've messed around with the deck so much I'm not sure what all I'm running with right now. I think I'm even messing around with Preordain s in there somehow.

I wish there was some way to have Acidic Slime in this deck without causing too many complications with lands. That was be so overpowered.

hey man this looks good whats your thoughts on Sun Titan

if you get a chance check out my deck uw-venser-control-4

@ trakanon:

yes, too bad acidic slime isn't blue or white :P i'd have put it in here no questions asked :)

@ Travis:

The Sun Titan is nice, but i feel that it would not help this deck much. Sure if your cards with enter the battlefield effects die you can bring them back, triggering them again, but once you get to the required 6 mana for that, i think it's time to play other, more controlling stuff (Mnemonic Wall + Silence , or Frost Titan for example). I think the sun titan is unnecessary. but thanks for the suggestion :)

HELP

I'm getting the feeling that the manacurve isn't exactly where it needs to be. What do you guys think of it?

I myself am considering taking out at least a Mnemonic Wall and a Frost Titan , maybe move some more to the 2 cmc slot.

thanks in advance :)

id drop AEther Adept for two Seachrome Coast because venser makes AEther Adept a dead card late game.

then drop three Mnemonic Wall for threeDay of Judgment for more board control.

then cut one Frost Titan for fourth Wall of Omens

I'd personally like to see maybe another condemn and a mana leak along with a fourth wall of omens, in exchange for a stoic rebuttal, aether adept and frost titan. I wish there was a different creature that unsummoned creatures other than aether adept. Maybe even throw in unsummon instead of Adept since you can get unsummon back if you need to with Mnemonic wall. Or just silence them after that.

I'm going to mess around with putting a few besieged cards in here. Switching AEther Adept s for Leonin Relic-Warder s. Also working in 3 Pierce Strider and maybe a Spine of Ish Sah . Also maybe Phyrexian Rebirth in place of the day of judgements in the sideboard.

Nice, thanks for your update, i can see why you would want the Leonin Relic-Warder s, especially with the new set coming out. what will you take out for the Pierce Strider ?

the spine is a good idea for blink fun, but are you sure it's not too costly? You seem to know best, as i still haven't assembled the deck yet...

I've updated the following:

Out:

2x AEther Adept

1x Mnemonic Wall

1x Frost Titan

In:

2x Leonin Relic-Warder

1x Journey to Nowhere

1x Glimmerpoint Stag

One more thing; i have been considering Narcolepsy instead of Condemn , as it allows me to bounce it from creature to creature, much like with journey to nowhere, opinions?

actually, nevermind Narcolepsy , that won't work as it's not an ETB effect..

i dunno if Leonin Relic-Warder is main deck worthy yet of just good sideboard tech

I guess it depends on who you play against, but it's almost guaranteed that everyone I see at my FNM are going be running decks with plenty of targets for the relic-warder, so for me it's worth it for sure.

As far as the spine, I think a 7 drop fits pretty well into a slow-playing control deck. The win conditions come into play pretty late. Titans won't drop until turn 6, and on the same turn you drop the spine you'll still be 1 turn from Venser's ultimate.

As far as making room for the striders, I'm running less stags that your current build, as well as a few less counters.

Oh, also I think I'll replace the Lone Missionary s in the side board with the new Peace Strider s. Costs 1 more mana and gives 1 less life, but it's a 3/3 instead of a 2/1.

I liked this so much i went through the trouble of building it, and i got a box of new besieged cards, and Knowledge Pool with venser is nuts, and once you get that venser ultimate you cast with Knowledge Pool so its really good, im putting together some sort of combo deck with knowledge pool, when you use it you also get the eldrazi cast effects.

I'm expecting to see a lot of people using Shape Anew on their Inkmoth Nexus in order to pull out Blightsteel Colossus . It might be time to mainboard the Spreading Seas back in. We shall see.