Looking for card suggestions to help fill out a list based on the following inspiration/deck philosophy!
One of my favorite archetypes/playstyles in MTG is the draw-go control deck, which leaves all it's mana up, passes the turn, and does most of the decision-making and action-taking during the opponent's turn, just before uncapping and starting it all over again.
Wydwen, the Biting Gale provides one of the few opportunities to translate this playstyle well into multiplayer EDH, and this deck derives it's inspiration from her three abilities:
(1) Flash - We aim to play mostly at instant speed, giving us access to more decisions and more information with which to make said decisions. Thus, cards like Jace's Ingenuity earn a spot in lieu of the more mana-efficient Ancient Craving.
(2) Flying - We aim to play evasively, setting up just the right opportunity to get in for a massive strike of commander damage. Hatred is the real all-star here, though Empyrial Plate can be picked up for a big bash, as well.
(3) UB, Pay 1 life: Return Wydwen, the Biting Gale to its owner's hand - We aim to maintain the upper hand in critical situations by judiciously using removal, counterspells, and tricks to blank our opponents' big plays while setting up our own. For just one mana Darkness can leave an opponent with their pants down after a big Overwhelming Stampede play.
As a result of these conditions, this deck plays relatively few permanents, and few to none at all that have to stick around on the board a long time to accrue value. The exceptions are a few important equipments and Propaganda-type enchantments to help shore up our early game.
Last Update 1/23/13]Deck stats. Current avg. cmc = 2.64.
looks nice... a few things I might look at though...
Basilisk Collar with a low creature base you are going to be putting it on wydwen. At gaining 3 life a turn I dont know if it will do enough for you and generally I wouldnt give up Wydwen to kill a random beater. You might have more success if you are looking for some lifegain / deterrants to go with... Batterskull, Wurmcoil Engine, Darksteel Sentinel.
Devastation Tide if you cast it for its miracle cost it isn't bad but I just get this feeling that 6 mana is too much to pay at sorcery speed for what you get here.
It looks fairly good though. Just try to minimize the amount of expensive sorcery speed things you have. I usually try to blow up the board or take an extra turn if I am tapping good mana down at sorcery speed with wydwen.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
looks nice... a few things I might look at though...
Basilisk Collar with a low creature base you are going to be putting it on wydwen. At gaining 3 life a turn I dont know if it will do enough for you and generally I wouldnt give up Wydwen to kill a random beater. You might have more success if you are looking for some lifegain / deterrants to go with... Batterskull, Wurmcoil Engine, Darksteel Sentinel.
I mostly had Basilisk Collar in as a Trinket Mage-able equipment to slap on Wydwen so that if I cast a 21-point Hatred on her, I can gain the life back when she connects, and can then afford to Snapcaster MageHatred again to knock someone else out next turn without killing myself. Seems good, but perhaps there are better options, as you say.
Devastation Tide if you cast it for its miracle cost it isn't bad but I just get this feeling that 6 mana is too much to pay at sorcery speed for what you get here.
It looks fairly good though. Just try to minimize the amount of expensive sorcery speed things you have. I usually try to blow up the board or take an extra turn if I am tapping good mana down at sorcery speed with wydwen.
Hmm... I kind of view it as a 5-mana fail safe akin to Oblivion Stone, given that those are really the only two options for globally dealing with enchantments, artifacts, and planeswalkers in these colors. Ripping it for its miracle cost is nice, but resetting the board for 5 mana is something I'm totally willing to do... at least in theory. We'll see how I feel when playtesting it.
Might I suggest Mystical Teachings? Lets you toolbox and has great utility to it
It's definitely a card I had in mind, along with whatever the card is that lets you dig four deep and put one in your hand that also has flashback. Anything stick out as a card that you would gladly cut to make room for Teachings?
Forbidden Alchemy the one you were thinking of? And looking at your list, i'd say Doom Blade could be cut, unless your meta is super black-light, I feel its too narrow of a removal spell. Or the Exoskeleton, my experiences with it are that its just too expensive to use effectively.
Forbidden Alchemy the one you were thinking of? And looking at your list, i'd say Doom Blade could be cut, unless your meta is super black-light, I feel its too narrow of a removal spell. Or the Exoskeleton, my experiences with it are that its just too expensive to use effectively.
That's the one I was trying to think of. I'll take both Doom Blade and Exoskeleton into consideration as potential cuts. Regarding the former, the lack of versatile spot removal in U/B is kind of... unfortunate. And concerning the latter, I'm trying to keep ways to potentially 1-shot people around, and infect plus some other pump is definitely one of those ways. It is perhaps an overly expensive piece of equipment, though...
Contemplating purchasing the cards for this deck as it stands. But before I do so, I wanted to see if I could get some more opinions :). In particular, I've been thinking about whether Innocent Blood and Barter in Blood might be good effects to help keep the board clear of pesky critters.
Contemplating purchasing the cards for this deck as it stands. But before I do so, I wanted to see if I could get some more opinions :). In particular, I've been thinking about whether Innocent Blood and Barter in Blood might be good effects to help keep the board clear of pesky critters.
That depends on what your opponents are piloting. Against decks that run one or two creatures out, yeah they're great. But, against decks that throw everything on the field, or token producers, not so much.
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Amazing Avy & Sig by mchief111 @ Rising Studios [4/22/11]
I'd definitely run Mystical Teachings, it allows you to fetch an answer to your hand at instant speed and it gets flash creatures, including Wydwen, as well. I tutor for it quite often. Secondly I think you need some more mana rocks. This deck plays out as a slow control deck and those need a lot of mana. Hitting land drops is great but the ramp helps you get to the late game faster. Talisman of Dominance and Mind Stone are 2 that come to mind. Everflowing Chalice is another option. Other than that it looks like a great start.
Imo, if you're looking for more removal i'm partial to Diabolic Edict if youre looming for a sac, and maybe Decree of Pain if you encounter swarm or token decks in your area.
I'd definitely run Mystical Teachings, it allows you to fetch an answer to your hand at instant speed and it gets flash creatures, including Wydwen, as well. I tutor for it quite often. Secondly I think you need some more mana rocks. This deck plays out as a slow control deck and those need a lot of mana. Hitting land drops is great but the ramp helps you get to the late game faster. Talisman of Dominance and Mind Stone are 2 that come to mind. Everflowing Chalice is another option. Other than that it looks like a great start.
Any ideas what you might cut to make room for these? The list isn't tight yet by any means, but I still have a hard time finding things that stick out as auto-cuts at this point.
For mana rocks I usually view them as half spells and half lands. Best to err on the side of caution with mana, this deck really likes having a lot of mana in play so I'd cut 1 land and 2 spells for 3 rocks or 1 spells and 1 land for 2.
These are some cards that I wouldn't want to play in my build. They aren't bad and some might be a good call for your metagame but they stood out to me as cards that can be upgraded.
Redirect - I ran Misdirection for a long time in my list and eventually cut it because it was too narrow. This deck has very little board position and a commander that can protect herself so you just aren't being targeted with removal very often. Of the few things that people do like to blow up, like utility lands and equipment, the removal often comes in permanent for which this doesn't help against. Now if you see a lot of Time Warp style cards in your group this card becomes much better and I'd leave it in, otherwise it would be an easy cut for me.
Time Stretch - I have quite a bit of counter magic in my group and if this got countered (or worse like Wild Ricochet) the flood gates would be open which is usually how you get killed. Additionally this deck does very little other than attack or maybe equip during your main phase so it's hard to get much extra value from having all those turns. You can probably kill someone with Wydwen but by the time you get to this stage of the game waiting a turn probably won't hurt. 10 mana is a lot for a spell that doesn't win you the game.
Faerie Trickery - I'm only running 6 counters. Counterspells aren't all that good since you can't counter every scary spell someone casts and they are 1 for 1 trades. However you need to always give the illusion of having a counter and I eventually settled on 6 though I've considered adding in Arcane Denial many times. This is the weakest one you run and I think you can cut it pretty easily.
Yawgmoth's Will - A great card but sorcery speed really kills it. This deck runs a lot of instants (many are situational) which are inefficiently costed when cast as sorceries so you usually won't be getting very good value for your mana. I run very little recursion in my build and instead use Elixir of Immortality to shuffle everything back in and then tutor for what I need. Equipment is nice to recur but Academy Ruins can do that job just fine.
Mnemonic Wall - It can stop little utility beats but other than that being a creature is not a good thing. It makes the card more expensive and harder to tutor and recur than a sorcery so if you want this effect just run the sorcery version.
Your manabase needs a lot of attention. My mana has been working for me pretty well so instead of me listing everything I'd just go take a look my manabase.
For mana rocks I usually view them as half spells and half lands. Best to err on the side of caution with mana, this deck really likes having a lot of mana in play so I'd cut 1 land and 2 spells for 3 rocks or 1 spells and 1 land for 2.
These are some cards that I wouldn't want to play in my build. They aren't bad and some might be a good call for your metagame but they stood out to me as cards that can be upgraded.
Redirect - I ran Misdirection for a long time in my list and eventually cut it because it was too narrow. This deck has very little board position and a commander that can protect herself so you just aren't being targeted with removal very often. Of the few things that people do like to blow up, like utility lands and equipment, the removal often comes in permanent for which this doesn't help against. Now if you see a lot of Time Warp style cards in your group this card becomes much better and I'd leave it in, otherwise it would be an easy cut for me.
Time Stretch - I have quite a bit of counter magic in my group and if this got countered (or worse like Wild Ricochet) the flood gates would be open which is usually how you get killed. Additionally this deck does very little other than attack or maybe equip during your main phase so it's hard to get much extra value from having all those turns. You can probably kill someone with Wydwen but by the time you get to this stage of the game waiting a turn probably won't hurt. 10 mana is a lot for a spell that doesn't win you the game.
Faerie Trickery - I'm only running 6 counters. Counterspells aren't all that good since you can't counter every scary spell someone casts and they are 1 for 1 trades. However you need to always give the illusion of having a counter and I eventually settled on 6 though I've considered adding in Arcane Denial many times. This is the weakest one you run and I think you can cut it pretty easily.
Yawgmoth's Will - A great card but sorcery speed really kills it. This deck runs a lot of instants (many are situational) which are inefficiently costed when cast as sorceries so you usually won't be getting very good value for your mana. I run very little recursion in my build and instead use Elixir of Immortality to shuffle everything back in and then tutor for what I need. Equipment is nice to recur but Academy Ruins can do that job just fine.
Mnemonic Wall - It can stop little utility beats but other than that being a creature is not a good thing. It makes the card more expensive and harder to tutor and recur than a sorcery so if you want this effect just run the sorcery version.
Your manabase needs a lot of attention. My mana has been working for me pretty well so instead of me listing everything I'd just go take a look my manabase.
Thanks for your suggestions. I've incorporated nearly all of them. With regards to my manabase, I don't plan on dropping money on duals, shocks, fetches, etc. in the near future, I don't particularly like the karoo lands, filter lands, storage lands, etc., and the pain lands don't seem like a good fit here. What seems like the biggest problem - lack of utility, or color fixing?
Thanks for your suggestions. I've incorporated nearly all of them. With regards to my manabase, I don't plan on dropping money on duals, shocks, fetches, etc. in the near future, I don't particularly like the karoo lands, filter lands, storage lands, etc., and the pain lands don't seem like a good fit here. What seems like the biggest problem - lack of utility, or color fixing?
Both are always a problem with control decks.
You really should look into maximizing your land-base as much as your wallet can handle. This is especially true for control/tempo decks.
Speaking of - Sword of Feast and Famine is great for these sorts of decks. It lets you defend during combat tricks, and the untap to keep control of a game while making someone discard!
Basilisk Collar is a poor option here. You don't ever want the lifegain or deathtouch to be relevant.
You really should look into maximizing your land-base as much as your wallet can handle. This is especially true for control/tempo decks.
Speaking of - Sword of Feast and Famine is great for these sorts of decks. It lets you defend during combat tricks, and the untap to keep control of a game while making someone discard!
Basilisk Collar is a poor option here. You don't ever want the lifegain or deathtouch to be relevant.
Basilisk Collar is basically in as a relatively reliable way to offset Hatred kills so that I can knock out a player or two with a 21-point Hatred buff. You're the second person to suggest cutting it, though, so maybe I'm looking at it wrong.
Damnation is currently in the list. I plan on stripping it and all my other good cards from my Kaalia deck if I actually construct this one :).
Well... how big do you want to go... The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is really good though for control especially considering how few creatures this list usually runs. I am tempted to pull out wydwen just to play mine again
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Well... how big do you want to go... The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is really good though for control especially considering how few creatures this list usually runs. I am tempted to pull out wydwen just to play mine again
Yeah, that's the thing. I love to know what cards actually make good inclusions, and I'll try to get the most relevant and reasonable of them ASAP. It seems reasonable to conclude, however, that not everyone has access to a Tabernacle, and that having one puts you in the "you lucky SoB" category :p.
Manlands are really useful. Spawning Pool can act like a crappy Kor Haven, Mishra's Factory is a solid 3/3 on defense and Creeping Tar Pit carries equipment pretty well. Blinkmoth Nexus is another option. After that you're looking for utility. Riptide Laboratory is great as is Academy Ruins. With budget constraints you're going to be looking at ETB tapped lands which isn't too bad for this type of deck. The karoo and filter are solid fixing and the storage land is fantastic for a slow deck like this. I'll third the Basilisk Collar cut.
Manlands are really useful. Spawning Pool can act like a crappy Kor Haven, Mishra's Factory is a solid 3/3 on defense and Creeping Tar Pit carries equipment pretty well. Blinkmoth Nexus is another option. After that you're looking for utility. Riptide Laboratory is great as is Academy Ruins. With budget constraints you're going to be looking at ETB tapped lands which isn't too bad for this type of deck. The karoo and filter are solid fixing and the storage land is fantastic for a slow deck like this. I'll third the Basilisk Collar cut.
Haha, so Basilisk Collar is definitely getting cut. Can you just never count on getting more than 1 kill out of Hatred, then?
I agree, if you are going to hit someone for poison do it with inkmoth. You sort of want to keep your commander on that 21 dmg route. If you swap to infect and hit someone for 8 and they remove your outlet you will regret not just going for that 21 to begin with.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
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One of my favorite archetypes/playstyles in MTG is the draw-go control deck, which leaves all it's mana up, passes the turn, and does most of the decision-making and action-taking during the opponent's turn, just before uncapping and starting it all over again.
Wydwen, the Biting Gale provides one of the few opportunities to translate this playstyle well into multiplayer EDH, and this deck derives it's inspiration from her three abilities:
(1) Flash - We aim to play mostly at instant speed, giving us access to more decisions and more information with which to make said decisions. Thus, cards like Jace's Ingenuity earn a spot in lieu of the more mana-efficient Ancient Craving.
(2) Flying - We aim to play evasively, setting up just the right opportunity to get in for a massive strike of commander damage. Hatred is the real all-star here, though Empyrial Plate can be picked up for a big bash, as well.
(3) UB, Pay 1 life: Return Wydwen, the Biting Gale to its owner's hand - We aim to maintain the upper hand in critical situations by judiciously using removal, counterspells, and tricks to blank our opponents' big plays while setting up our own. For just one mana Darkness can leave an opponent with their pants down after a big Overwhelming Stampede play.
As a result of these conditions, this deck plays relatively few permanents, and few to none at all that have to stick around on the board a long time to accrue value. The exceptions are a few important equipments and Propaganda-type enchantments to help shore up our early game.
Last Update 1/23/13]Deck stats. Current avg. cmc = 2.64.
1 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
//Creatures (5)
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Trinket Mage
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
//Instants (34)
1 Brainstorm
1 Darkness
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Suffer the Past
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Arcane Denial
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Flash of Insight
1 Go for the Throat
1 Impulse
1 Into the Roil
1 Lim-Dûl's Vault
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Capsize
1 Dissipate
1 Dream Fracture
1 Faerie Trickery
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Hinder
1 Murder
1 Recoil
1 Spell Crumple
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Cryptic Command
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Memory Plunder
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Rewind
1 Evacuation
1 Hatred
1 Sunder
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Damnation
1 Time Warp
//Enchantments (2)
1 Telepathy
1 Necropotence
//Artifacts (14)
1 Expedition Map
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Dimir Signet
1 Empyrial Plate
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Runechanter's Pike
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Vedalken Shackles
//Planeswalkers (1)
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
//Lands (40)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Inkmoth Nexus
12 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Sunken Ruins
6 Swamp
1 Tolaria West
1 Underground River
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Mana Drain
1 Force of Will
1 Capture of Jingzhou
1 Temporal Manipulation
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
1 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
//Creature (6)
1 Baleful Strix
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Trinket Mage
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Notion Thief
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
//Instant (32)
1 Brainstorm
1 Darkness
1 Howl From Beyond
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Suffer the Past
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Go for the Throat
1 Malicious Affliction
1 Mana Drain
1 Dissipate
1 Faerie Trickery
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Hinder
1 Murder
1 Spell Crumple
1 Succumb to Temptation
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Cryptic Command
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Glimmer of Genius
1 Reins of Power
1 Memory Plunder
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Evacuation
1 Hatred
1 Jace's Ingenuity
1 Mystic Confluence
1 Silumgar's Command
1 Sunder
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Damnation
1 Capture of Jingzhou
1 Temporal Manipulation
//Artifact (9)
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Dimir Signet
1 Empyrial Plate
1 Runechanter's Pike
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
//Enchantment (2)
1 Propaganda
1 No Mercy
//Planeswalker (1)
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
//Land (38)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Command Tower
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Flooded Strand
1 Inkmoth Nexus
10 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Sunken Ruins
9 Swamp
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
Basilisk Collar with a low creature base you are going to be putting it on wydwen. At gaining 3 life a turn I dont know if it will do enough for you and generally I wouldnt give up Wydwen to kill a random beater. You might have more success if you are looking for some lifegain / deterrants to go with... Batterskull, Wurmcoil Engine, Darksteel Sentinel.
Evacuation is an instant btw.
Devastation Tide if you cast it for its miracle cost it isn't bad but I just get this feeling that 6 mana is too much to pay at sorcery speed for what you get here.
It looks fairly good though. Just try to minimize the amount of expensive sorcery speed things you have. I usually try to blow up the board or take an extra turn if I am tapping good mana down at sorcery speed with wydwen.
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I mostly had Basilisk Collar in as a Trinket Mage-able equipment to slap on Wydwen so that if I cast a 21-point Hatred on her, I can gain the life back when she connects, and can then afford to Snapcaster Mage Hatred again to knock someone else out next turn without killing myself. Seems good, but perhaps there are better options, as you say.
Fixed.
Hmm... I kind of view it as a 5-mana fail safe akin to Oblivion Stone, given that those are really the only two options for globally dealing with enchantments, artifacts, and planeswalkers in these colors. Ripping it for its miracle cost is nice, but resetting the board for 5 mana is something I'm totally willing to do... at least in theory. We'll see how I feel when playtesting it.
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
It's definitely a card I had in mind, along with whatever the card is that lets you dig four deep and put one in your hand that also has flashback. Anything stick out as a card that you would gladly cut to make room for Teachings?
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
That's the one I was trying to think of. I'll take both Doom Blade and Exoskeleton into consideration as potential cuts. Regarding the former, the lack of versatile spot removal in U/B is kind of... unfortunate. And concerning the latter, I'm trying to keep ways to potentially 1-shot people around, and infect plus some other pump is definitely one of those ways. It is perhaps an overly expensive piece of equipment, though...
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
That depends on what your opponents are piloting. Against decks that run one or two creatures out, yeah they're great. But, against decks that throw everything on the field, or token producers, not so much.
Any ideas what you might cut to make room for these? The list isn't tight yet by any means, but I still have a hard time finding things that stick out as auto-cuts at this point.
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
Here's more targets for Trinket Mage.
O-Naginata in particular, as well as Sai of the Shinobi and Darksteel Axe.
Sigil of Distinction too, now looking at it. Cheers!
These are some cards that I wouldn't want to play in my build. They aren't bad and some might be a good call for your metagame but they stood out to me as cards that can be upgraded.
Redirect - I ran Misdirection for a long time in my list and eventually cut it because it was too narrow. This deck has very little board position and a commander that can protect herself so you just aren't being targeted with removal very often. Of the few things that people do like to blow up, like utility lands and equipment, the removal often comes in permanent for which this doesn't help against. Now if you see a lot of Time Warp style cards in your group this card becomes much better and I'd leave it in, otherwise it would be an easy cut for me.
Time Stretch - I have quite a bit of counter magic in my group and if this got countered (or worse like Wild Ricochet) the flood gates would be open which is usually how you get killed. Additionally this deck does very little other than attack or maybe equip during your main phase so it's hard to get much extra value from having all those turns. You can probably kill someone with Wydwen but by the time you get to this stage of the game waiting a turn probably won't hurt. 10 mana is a lot for a spell that doesn't win you the game.
Faerie Trickery - I'm only running 6 counters. Counterspells aren't all that good since you can't counter every scary spell someone casts and they are 1 for 1 trades. However you need to always give the illusion of having a counter and I eventually settled on 6 though I've considered adding in Arcane Denial many times. This is the weakest one you run and I think you can cut it pretty easily.
Yawgmoth's Will - A great card but sorcery speed really kills it. This deck runs a lot of instants (many are situational) which are inefficiently costed when cast as sorceries so you usually won't be getting very good value for your mana. I run very little recursion in my build and instead use Elixir of Immortality to shuffle everything back in and then tutor for what I need. Equipment is nice to recur but Academy Ruins can do that job just fine.
Mnemonic Wall - It can stop little utility beats but other than that being a creature is not a good thing. It makes the card more expensive and harder to tutor and recur than a sorcery so if you want this effect just run the sorcery version.
Your manabase needs a lot of attention. My mana has been working for me pretty well so instead of me listing everything I'd just go take a look my manabase.
Thanks for your suggestions. I've incorporated nearly all of them. With regards to my manabase, I don't plan on dropping money on duals, shocks, fetches, etc. in the near future, I don't particularly like the karoo lands, filter lands, storage lands, etc., and the pain lands don't seem like a good fit here. What seems like the biggest problem - lack of utility, or color fixing?
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
Both are always a problem with control decks.
You really should look into maximizing your land-base as much as your wallet can handle. This is especially true for control/tempo decks.
Speaking of - Sword of Feast and Famine is great for these sorts of decks. It lets you defend during combat tricks, and the untap to keep control of a game while making someone discard!
Basilisk Collar is a poor option here. You don't ever want the lifegain or deathtouch to be relevant.
Damnation, if you can get it. Infest or Black Sun's Zenith works as well.
EDH:
RNorin the WaryR <-Link! (Primer - Mono Red Control)
GUEdric, Spymaster of TrestUG <- Link! (Mini-Primer - Dredge)
Duel Commander:
WUGeist of Saint TraftUW <- Link! (Aggro-Control)
BGSkullbriar, the Walking GraveGB <- Link! (Aggro)
BUGDamia, Sage of StoneGUB <- Link! (Extinction Control)
Church of the Wary
Good to know about the lands. Underground Sea, Watery Grave, Flooded Strand, and Polluted Delta are probably out of the question at the moment (Misty Rainforest and Scalding Tarn are the only blue fetches I currently own, although the Rainforest is in my Azusa deck at the moment). Are there any utility lands that are pretty clutch for Wydwen? Academy Ruins? Vesuva?
Basilisk Collar is basically in as a relatively reliable way to offset Hatred kills so that I can knock out a player or two with a 21-point Hatred buff. You're the second person to suggest cutting it, though, so maybe I'm looking at it wrong.
Damnation is currently in the list. I plan on stripping it and all my other good cards from my Kaalia deck if I actually construct this one :).
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
Well... how big do you want to go... The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is really good though for control especially considering how few creatures this list usually runs. I am tempted to pull out wydwen just to play mine again
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[Modern] Allies
Yeah, that's the thing. I love to know what cards actually make good inclusions, and I'll try to get the most relevant and reasonable of them ASAP. It seems reasonable to conclude, however, that not everyone has access to a Tabernacle, and that having one puts you in the "you lucky SoB" category :p.
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
Haha, so Basilisk Collar is definitely getting cut. Can you just never count on getting more than 1 kill out of Hatred, then?
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
Speaking of which, I took out Tainted Strike and Grafted Exoskeleton, as getting there with infect just seemed to sporadic with Wydwen. Concur?
R.I.P. Sundering Titan (6/20/12) and Braids, Cabal Minion (9/12/14)
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies