I was tinkering around with some BG lists to see "how big" you can go for the mirror and stumbled upon this forgotten gem. Originally designed by Huey Jensen with Reid Duke and then piloted by Jon Finkel to the Top 8 of Pro Tour Shadows Over Innistrad, this is a deck that is as glacially slow as it is sweet. With the immense pressure to play buckets of spot removal, creatures are a little dangerous as win cons these days. Combine that with unlicensed disintegration making them actively bad to help stabilize I decided to revisit this archetype and see how it might fare in the current standard meta.
Overview:
This is a control deck through and through with your massively over the top end game being a DIY, build your own sphinx's revelation by combining nissa's renewal alongside seasons past, diabolic tutor, and piles of removal. You have a surprisingly low curve with your interaction and you have a decent amount of card draw to keep your head above water while building to your end game. Here is a link to the original deck tech as done by Reid and Ian Duke from Pro Tour Shadows Over Innistrad.
Why this archetype failed after the PT and why that no longer matters.
At the time there were three cards that gave the deck fits: collected company, secure the wastes, and sylvan advocate. CoCo and Secure were problems because they put out a huge amount of power on the board at instant speed which required you to use a discard spell to force them to be cast on your turn so you could answer them with sorceries. These are not a problem because, well, they aren't legal in standard anymore.
The reason that sylvan advocate was a problem is that your removal was so taxed that you needed to use your sweeper (languish) to keep your head above water and it was not able to kill an advocate past the early game. Languish isn't around and we have an even less useful sweeper, but we gained something far more important. Fatal Push. This card is our cheap answer to a 2 mana 4/5 at instant speed. Before the only way to kill an advocate was with a ruinous path or a murder, both of which were needed to handle planeswalkers and assorted value creatures (such as tireless tracker) respectively. On top of that you were still down mana on the exchange while having to be fearful of lumbering falls crashing in for a massive amount that you couldn't interact with.
In today's standard and the current metagame, there are very few cards that will be a tremendous hurdle for you to overcome which is why I have begun testing this deck as a legitimate contender.
EXAMPLE LISTS.
The original. No longer standard legal, but relevant in that you get a good idea of what the shell looks like when finely tuned.
The first note to make is that this list is currently 62 cards as I have not finished tuning it just yet. I am looking to cut a single land and a single spell, but have yet to decide what to move around and where.
It is not unreasonable to cut the blue entirely. You would need to include a bit more discard and/or removal for walkers and instant speed vehicle answers. It would make your mana base absolutely rock solid, preventing any potential hiccups but also removing the three card draw potential from painful truths. There are pros and cons for the third color, but since you are already incentivized to play a full set of evolving wilds the splash is especially easy to make work.
I am very interested to see how a copy of Lost Legacy would work in the main as a value tutor target. This is usually a very poor choice, but there are times where this can give you the 100% check mark in game 1 against unprepared opponents. I have yet to formerly test it so I cannot comment on whether or not it is as bad of an idea as it probably is.
Yahenni's expertise is a fine card and one I certainly want to have access to in the main, but it isn't as good of a sweeper as you would want. This is further compounded by the fact that you rarely take advantage of the freebie spell you get as the only time I have ever utilized this was to kill off some knight tokens and cast a free ruinous path to kill the Gideon that made them in a single turn. The situation where you have to spend 2-3 turns setting up the seasons past loop and using only your life total buffered by nissa's renewal comes up often enough that I want to have one to clear out the dorks that have cluttered up the board.
Flaying tendrils is aggressively mediocre as expected. It can help buffer an early rush of tool craft exemplars and inspectors or clean up some plant tokens, but that's about the extent of it. I'm considering trading it in for a second copy of complete disregard. It is nice to be able to exile a pair of scroungers, but that is rare enough that the instant speed nature might make it a better choice. Not to mention the fact that this is almost a complete black against BG decks and is absolutely blank against control while complete disregard can at least interact with the saheeli combo. Regardless, I want to have at least 2 exile effects in the main.
I have gone back and forth on painful truths and shoving aether hubs into the mana base and building energy with live fast over truths as my draw spell of choice. I'm not sure which is correct and the main appeal of aether hub is that it is an untapped dual land on turn 1 and turn 20.
Why play this deck?
The greatest selling point of this deck is that by design you render as much as a quarter of your opponent's deck obsolete. Removal and spells that interact with artifacts, enchantments, or even planeswalkers are merely blank pieces of cardboard. You can build the list in such a way that you are LITERALLY a pure spell deck without a single nonland permanent in your deck. With BG decks trying to work in more removal and control decks also trying to get in more spot removal and radiant flames along side of ways to interact specifically with planeswalkers, a massive part of both their main deck and side board are going to be 100% worthless against you. The percentages you gain from that level of virtual card advantage cannot be understated. Not to mention the value you get from most opponents having no clue what you are up to and assume that you're a run of the mill BG midrange deck for the first several turns.
With emrakul being banned, this is the biggest end game that you can build towards unless you count the saheeli combo as "big." You have a giant mess of 1 and 2 CMC spot removal which means your average hand will be a nightmare against any creature based aggro or midrange deck. You have access to exile effects to handle scrapheap scrounger and you even have the absurd card advantage to simply kill it 10 times until it runs out of food without breaking a sweat.
Your removal means that saheeli is unlikely to ever combo you off and your discard prevents them from interacting too well with your engine or protecting their combo. You have painful truths which can go toe to toe with glimmer of genius easily and are well set up to beat anybody playing slow and fair.
Also noteworthy is the mana base. Even though it is technically 3 colors you are actually mono black with green spells that you cast on turn 8 and two blue cards that also are not likely to be needed until the late game as well. As such having 11 swamps and only 6 tapped lands your mana will be on time, on color, and untapped allowing you to cast all of your interactive spells on curve.
The last reason this deck is fine to pick up is that it is cheap. Very cheap. You're looking at a giant stack of 50ish commons, uncommons, and bulk rares that nobody wants. Your most pricey card is likely to be collective brutality and possibly an Ulamog if you even chose to run it. Outside of that you can pick up this entire deck for an insanely low price with even the smallest amount of bargain hunting.
Why would seasons past be a bad idea?
Clock. Time. This is quite possibly the slowest control deck ever designed aside from the original mono blue draw go deck popularized by Randy Buehler. If you do not get in the reps, your turns will take several minutes each and you will either go to a draw or an 0-1 loss, especially when playing online.
Reason number two is your are soft to decks that are heavy on counter magic, especially void shatter. I don't mean the typical 1-3 negates and 2-4 disallow you might find in jeskai control, I mean the 12-16 pieces of permission some psychotic UB players or devoted UW players might be cramming into their lists. The deck is predicated on being able to loop seasons past indefinitely and it is a complete shutdown of your end game if that gets stopped. Not to mention that exile effects prevent you from recurring specific pieces so if your only win condition gets exiled you're reduced to decking your opponent through their draw step.
The final reason why this deck would be a bad choice is that you get absolutely trashed by lost legacy. You are completely reliant on the seasons past engine to own the late game and you have so very few win conditions that you can easily find yourself without a way to end the game depending on your card selections. If seasons past gets sniped with lost legacy you get turned into a bad control deck without any form of inevitability.
Card Choices
The essentials
Seasons Past - The namesake card and your late game engine. You do not need to play two copies main or even two in your 75, but a second is nice to have available to draw for when you are forced to break up the chain. This can happen by needing to tutor for an exile effect for some scroungers instead of restarting the loop and searching for the seasons past or your opponent top decks a gideon when the 3 mana spell you brought back was a painful truths. This isn't a common occurrence, but it not rare either so bear that in mind. The primary reason to run a second copy aside from being more likely to draw one is in case the first gets countered or discarded. If that happens and you are only running a single copy you will be in for a world of hurt, especially in the first game.
Nissa's renewal - This is the second half of the build your own revelation plan. The life gain is incredibly important as it affords you the time to tutor for it, cast it, and then be able to untap. The lands allow you to cast all the spells you have all at once and once you start to loop seasons past you can cast several spells on the same turn after you've already spent 6 man. You can expect to have 15-18 lands in play and still be tapping out every turn if you so choose.
Diabolic tutor - This is how you keep the engine running. It finds the seasons past that was just put back into your deck or lets you find the "timely" ruinous path to handle a gideon or to "luckily" draw one of your exile effects for a scrounger or "top deck" a grasp of darkness to stop a saheeli combo.
Transgress the mind - Some essential discard to help fill out your curve that helps to either protect your engine against permission or to greatly disrupt your control opponents. This is also a proactive way to handle a gideon that could come down on curve. It lets you play a wilds on 1, gasp on 2, then a fatal push on 3 with a transgress to get rid of the gideon they had several turns to draw into. Not to mention the fact that the control decks of the format are ill equipped to deal with discard effects in the first game. The fact that it exiles is also important as sniping a glimmer of genius prevents them from being able to flash it back with a torrential gearhulk.
Collective brutality - A versatile spell that can either handle an early grim flayer or veteran motorist while still being a very live spell against control for the discard half. When you have extra cards that you might not want you can still escalate it to bolster your life total which is a very relevant effect. It is quite common to escalate this on turn 2 with a land against vehicles to kill an early threat and drain them to give yourself time to get the engine running.
Painful truths - A simple draw spell albeit a little dangerous against vehicles, but it is completely necessary against every other deck you'll see on the opposite side of the table. Seasons past is a late game draw engine and you need something to give you the velocity required to get there.
Live fast - Another card draw option. While weaker than painful truths it does give you two energy which affords you the luxury to run multiple copies of aether hub in your mana base and not cry when you draw two in your opener. Painful truths is a better option on the surface, but having a little more flexibility in your lands is never a bad thing.
Succumb to Temptation - Another card draw option, this one with instant speed and double black in the cost. The black mana should never be a problem and the speed is likely better if you have no use for the energy gained by live fast.
Removal and interaction.
Appetite for the unnatural - While not traditionally a main deck level card, disenchants are not the worst thing you can be doing in today's standard. This is listed as a consideration for main deck play because you have no way to handle artifacts or enchantments that resolve. If you see a marvel or metallurgic summonings across the board you are going to be in for a rough time and this allows you to have an out to tutor for at will. This is surely a metagame consideration, but as with any tutor based deck these kinds effects are the first ones to consider if they warrant inclusion or not.
Natural Obsolescence - One of many cards that is typically confined to the sideboard that is worthy of main deck play currently. This is a great option for the pseudo-exile effect for scroungers, a hard removal spell for gearhulks that isn't a mopey murder, and an answer to things like dynavolt tower or metalwork colossus. The main selling point here is that it is two mana and helps conserve deck space filling the roll of both an exile effect, artifact removal, and clean answer to instant speed blue gearhulks.
Fatal push - The best 1 mana removal spell in the format and with a set of evolving wilds you can keep revolt turned on as extra insurance against saheeli.
Grasp of darkness - The best two mana removal spell in the format, kills almost everything that you care about.
Ruinous path - Because we can't have nice things. You'll want at least 3 in your main deck because you won't be attacking planeswalkers anytime soon.
Murder - Sadly the worst removal spell in the format, but it is still a necessity. You want to be able to kill a blue gearhulk that has resolved at instant speed or handle a green hulk that you didn't have the grasp on time for. You'll want at least one copy in your main.
Oblivion strike - Clearly this is not a fantastic card. It is however a no-strings-attached and permanent answer to any creature. Be it as simple as a scrounger or something more serious like world breaker or ulamog this card will get the job done. Play at your own peril of course, but should world breaker decks become popular again this will be worth some serious consideration.
Dead weight - For those times when you really, really /want more one drop removal this is your option. If you are going with a delirium sub-theme this is a good way to help you get there.
Yahenni's expertise + flaying tendrils - You want access to some form of sweeper and sadly these are our best options. Yahenni can clean up an early board and be followed up with a ruinous path to take out gideon and his supporting cast. Tendrils is good against the energy decks when cast on turn 3 and is able to exile multiple scroungers at once. Neither are particularly amazing but you still want to have some number in the main to tutor for. Do keep in mind that you don't want to follow up an expertise with a painful truths and expect to draw cards. You will be disappointed.
Complete disregard - It exiles scrapheap scrounger at instant speed and is also an answer to the saheeli combo. But it is also 3 mana and your typical list is going to be heavy on 3s so if you choose to run it you likely don't want more than one or two.
Negate - In the current format negate is a perfectly reasonable main deck card even though it always feels a touch awkward. You'll want some permission in your main so that you're not completely reliant on discard to protect your engine against control. Luckily enough every deck has something important to tag so you'll never be especially sad to draw one.
Harsh Scrutiny - Another 1 CMC card to work with seasons past that can interact with your opponent's hand. While the scry 1 means the card is never dead, the downside is that it only can take creatures which the entire deck is designed to handle already.
Battle at the Bridge - Another removal spell that can kill anything theoretically while acting as a massive lifegain spell. It is also another 1 CMC to return with seasons past. Be aware that you must have a legal target to gain the life so this cannot be cast on an empty board to gain life and will fail if your target is killed in response to the spell.
Essence extraction - Kills a decent number of creatures and does so at instant speed all while giving you some extra life to work with. This may be more desired by people who are not comfortable running 4x painful truths in a slow control deck with the only life gain spell being 6 mana. The main downsides to this card are the mana cost and being unable to kill a felidar guardian. That being said it is still a good card and there is nothing wrong with running it.
Win conditions.
Dark salvation - The best mana sink you have available. It can still kill an X/1 on turn 3 with added value so it's not a blank card in the early game. Also sometimes casting it for XX=3 is a real problem on many board states and allows you to swarm around blockers to kill off a walker. It is also a CMC=1 spell for seasons past and once you're ready to win you can keep getting more discard, removal, and tutors while having a threat.
Coax from the blind eternities - A wish effect for any eldrazi card that has been exiled or lurks in your sideboard. Although the card does nothing on its own, the versatility is incredible. It can grab you a thought-knot seer to act as hand disruption or a blocker/threat, it can snag a world breaker if you need to creeping mold something and help stabilize the board, or it can grab ulamog, the ceaseless hunger to just end the game. With this as your win con, you don't have to worry too much about main decking disenchants or excess discard because this can wish for all of them if you're fine with it being a bit slow. There are a number of eldrazi creatures that you can grab for various utilities or finishers. If you're in blue and want to maximize your tool box this is the way to go.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - An incredible value creature that can get out of had very fast when supported by a mess of removal spells. The lifelink is very important against aggro and the bonus zombies can put out heaps of pressure once you untap with several kill spells in hand. The obvious downside is that he has the hidden key word "dies." As the only proper creature in the deck, your opponents blank harnessed lightning, unlicensed disintegration, and so forth will suddenly have a fantastic target. Once again, the fact that this is a creature in a format that is currently revolving around removal spells makes this a less optimal choice in the main deck.
Ulamog, the ceaseless hunger - Indestructible gets around all of the common removal spells you'll see while having what I refer to as "the battle of wits effect." That is to say it has the effect on the game when you're able to untap with this still in play, you win the game. It does have the massive downside of being soft to permission if you are relying on it coming out and is a completely blank card until you have the game on lock. Fine as an alternate wincon, slams the door incredibly fast, but lacks versatility.
Metallurgic summonings - Another resilient win condition that simultaneously avoids creature removal while being entirely self-contained which is the theme of this deck. Your deck is literally nothing but spells and lands so this will get out of hand in just a turn or two. The obvious downside is that it is double blue which is incredibly difficult to achieve on time, but if you want a win con that is resilient to the common answers in the format this is a great choice. It is worth mentioning that the mana cost, while still a concern, isn't a deal breaker for this card as its primary purpose is to end the game at which point you are certain to have double blue.
World breaker + Drownyard Temple - A two card "combo" that gives you another resilient win con that doesn't rely on the seasons past engine as it has its own recursion built in. Obvious downside is that you have to also run a colorless land that has no utility outside of recursion and it is still a creature. The main upside is that it is castable before you have the game on lock, and if it survives, it tends to instantly stabilize the board immediately. While it is still a creature, it does dodge the majority of common removal such as push and grasp. The main reason you might choose to go this route is the on-cast effect gives you a lot of utility in the main. Reasonable choice.
Planeswalkers - Your main options are Ob Nixilis Reignited and Nissa, vital force as walkers that double as win cons. The Ob Nixilis emblem will kill your opponent very fast and also fills the role of card draw and removal so this would likely be your first choice due to the flexibility. Nissa can also end the game quickly when uncontested and has an easy emblem which works very well with an evolving wilds mana base, but her minus is likely blank in the average list making her less appealing. Even though the deck is technically blue, the best blue walker you can play is jace 5 and the double blue cost makes him far too difficult to cast to be a viable option in addition to the fact that he doesn't actually kill your opponent.
Dynavolt tower - You are a pure spell deck so you will never be short of fuel for the lightning rod. Rarely will you find artifact removal in the main, and when you do it won't exile the tower so it can either be tutored for again or rebought with seasons past. It also comes down early, allowing you to use it as interaction against aggro and can prevent manlands from being a problem. It can keep walkers in check, is an on board answer to the saheeli combo, and of course goes to the face to actually end the game. It also has the minor upside of being an artifact to prevent it from being hit by a lost legacy. There is a lot to like here.
Mana base.
Basics! - You want to have a large number of basics (around 14+) to support nissa's renewal and keep ramping yourself throughout the game. You are also running a number of evolving wilds so you absolutely must have a large number to support your deck. The biggest upside to having a mana base that is heavy on basic lands is that it lets you show off your favorite basic land art of course. I like Urza's Saga swamps, Portal: Second Age islands, and 7th edition forests myself. They even come in black and white borders for added flexibility!
Evolving wilds - These act as tri lands and allows you to play only a single island to support the main deck negates. They are also a CMC = 0 to rebuy with seasons past which lets you keep hitting your land drops each turn while thinning your deck if you don't have a nissa's renewal just yet.
Man lands - Your only options are lumbering falls and hissing quagmire. I prefer lumbering falls due to the hexproof letting them harass walkers when supported with your spot removal. Your opponents will be gagging on their removal spells so the quagmire will never be able to attack or block. The main argument in favor of quagmire though is that it is a black dual land as opposed to a blue one which is a legitimate consideration in addition to the fact that early on your opponent might not have the spare mana to hit them.
Various plain duals - You really want your fast lands to produce black mana as you always want that early and the splash colors don't need to be online in the first few turns outside of a 3 card painful truths. You aren't casting anything green until the late game and you rarely need a negate early on, though sometimes you might be interested. It's recommended to bias yourself towards black lands that always come out untapped early on.
Blighted Fen - A simple colorless land that acts as an edict effect. Currently there aren't many creatures around that demand an edict to remove outside of the corner case with gideon. It is also a nice CMC = 0 to return with seasons past, but you can and will get borked by the colorless mana.
Sideboard options.
Alternate win conditions - You absolutely 100% want some number in the side to deal with a potential lost legacy taking out the only one you have in the main or the seasons past engine getting shut down making you unable to recur them. See the recommended cards section for ideas, but do try and include at least one. This is also the best place to put value creatures such as Kalitas or Glint-Sleeve Siphoner as they are unlikely to ever stay in play for a single turn in game one.
Hope of Ghirapur - A great piece of tech for anybody heavy on permission. It comes down quickly and can begin to pester them or sit back until you're ready to start the seasons past loop. You can hit them with it, pop it to silence them for the turn, cast seasons to rebuy + replay it and go about your business. If you don't want to go discard heavy or dip your toes into blue this is a great option. Keep in mind that the pseudo-silence effect persists until your next turn. This means if they want to drop a gearhulk they just get the body without the value. If they activate a manland after you use it they cannot do anything to protect it.
Gifted aetherborn - Great card to stem the tide against aggro and even BG in post board games when you can reasonable expect it to stick around for a little. You can think of it as the removal spell that keeps on giving when it can threaten to block something and survive combat.
More removal! - Extra copies of yahenni's or edict effects are great to have. You rarely need the edict from to the slaughter, but extra copies of murder and the final copies of ruinous path are still recommended. Vehicles tend to go walker heavy post board so you'll want access to more ways to take care of them. Even though you're unlikely to hit delirium, to the slaughter is a choice if you expect ulamog to be cast against you. Highly metagame dependent, but it's important to remember it is an option. Additional copies of flaying tendrils or complete disregard are also recommended in some number as when you need these effects, you really need them. I like to have two exile effects in the main and an extra in the side, but if you don't expect any scroungers then you shouldn't bother. Another solid option is a couple copies of essence extraction. The card can be bad to blank against a decent portion of the field and since the life gain is the primary selling point the side board is probably where it belongs.
Tireless Tracker - We all know this is a great card in a deck with 4x evolving wilds. Having some number in the side allows you to expect to have them around for several turns if your opponent takes out all of their removal. With as many lands as you typically put out they get out of hand much faster than one might expect. If you want to include some number of these in the side, 3-4 is suggested to ensure that you get them early enough for their value to matter.
Lost legacy - Yes this is a legitimate option for this deck. Even though these effects are typically awful it is fairly common for you to be across from a deck that has exactly one card that you care about. Against saheeli if you remove all of their glimmers they have zero card advantage to keep up with you and are forced to expend permission on your 3 mana draw spells allowing you to protect seasons past and tutors with ease. Against black green you also have the option to bring this in to simply nab their copies of lost legacy if you are worried about being incapable of bringing them to zero life.
Against vehicles post board you only care about their walkers, specifically their full playset of gideons. Everything else they have can easily be handled with the rest of your main. I am not advocating bringing this in against them, but depending on your opponent's style this card is always live because of your recursion engine letting you screw your vice ever tighter on the match.
More discard and card draw - Extra copies of transgress, collective brutality, and live fast are great to have in the side. They allow you to have even more card draw than the average U/x/x control decks will and you will need the discard to get through their permission and snag gearhulks before they can be cast.
Permission - Negate and dispel are your only viable options here, but they are both solid. This is also the primary reason to have a light blue splash so that you can interact on the stack. Having a few extra copies of negate in the side makes your saheeli match infinitely better.
Disenchants - There are a number of different effects to handle artifacts and enchantments. You have appetite for the unnatural which is the best catch all as it always destroys one or the other while getting a bit of life. Creeping mold is also an option that can also hit lands such as westvale abbey if that is a concern of yours. Natural state is instant speed costing a single mana while only hitting the cheap things like dynavolt tower. Lastly is Natural Obsolescence which is a pseudo exile effect for scrounger and can also tag gearhulks at instant speed. Since BG doesn't play much in the way of giant monsters that require murder to answer outside of hulks this can help you condense sideboard space.
Island and value lands - If you plan on boarding in permission you will need a second island in the side to bring in along with them. This lets you search up two blue sources with wilds or nissa's renewal so you can cast two counters in the same turn when you decide to start a battle. You also have the option to board some number of blighted fen or blighted cataract based on your needs. An extra mana source that can draw you some cards or act as an expensive edict are good to have available. They might not be great, but it is easy to be in a metagame where they go from 'meh' to desirable.
Noteworthy Exclusions.
5 drops? - In the original version of the seasons past deck, the 5 drop of choice was the superior demonic tutor while ours costs 4. This means that our seasons past does not have a great 5 drop to return, but there are still options. The best of the bunch are all double blue which is too hard to achieve. Things like baral's expertise, jace 5, confirm suspicions, and confiscation coup.
Bring to light - As a potential 5-drop this one is barely fine, but you can only cast it for 2 or 3 without a hub in play to bump it up to 4 and even then it is only an expensive removal spell. The main benefit that it has is that it can get either a complete disregard for a scrounger or a ruinous path for a gideon in a single card. Since it doesn't work well with painful truths it can't even help dig you to a better answer if one of those doesn't fit.
Double Blue permission - As I have discussed many times already, spells that require two blue mana are just not feasible. You are lucky to have a single blue on turn 5 and are not likely to hit a second one until turn 10, especially with only a single island to search up with a wilds or nissa's renewal.
Rise from the Tides - This may seem like a home run since you are almost certain to get at least 4 tokens out of the card when cast on curve, but it falls short of playable for a few reasons. First of course is that it's our splash of a splash color meaning we aren't likely to have the mana to cast it on turn 6. The second reason is that it is only for winning the game as it offers no utility before you're ready to start attacking. The final nail in the coffin though is that the tokens all come out tapped. This means that not only is it a very slow 6-drop, it doesn't offer the instant stability that you would need for a card that is purely a win condition.
From Under the Floorboards - In the same vein as Rise from the tides, the real problem here is the tapped tokens. This is a 5-drop however which is something the deck does not have available to rebuy with seasons past and the life gain is always welcome in a deck this slow, so it does have that going for it. A big issue is that there are no worthwhile madness outlets outside of discarding to hand size at the end of your turn. And if you're at the point of the game where you have to discard down to 7 with mana available you are either at the point that you can win the game with a ham sandwich or you are on 8 lands in hand. In both scenarios the game is over one way or another.
Alternative Splash Options.
While blue is a great choice to run as your soft third color, red and white also have some things to bring to the table that you might prefer in certain situations.
Red.
Devour in flame - If you don't like ruinous path as a way to deal with planeswalkers 5 to the head is usually enough to take one out, namely gideon of course. The bounce a land part is a real downside even if it turns on revolt for the turn.
Nahiri's Wrath -You are going to end up with a lot of cards in your hand and this can act as a nice clean up effect when you dump a nissa's renewal and some excess evolving wilds or removal spells. While you are bringing back answers to threats this can handle multiple threats of different types in a single card so you won't have to wait to untap or break the seasons past loop and tutor for a different card. Being able to clear out several threats and walkers at once is a fine option.
Radiant flames -A sweeper that is much more valuable than the ones that black has to offer. It won't tag vehicles or walkers, but every early game rush gets cleaned up nicely with this one. This is one of the best reasons to make red your splash color.
Burn from within -It's a fireball. It exiles. It hits planeswalkers. It ends games. What's not to love? Something that is not inherently visible is that this option can also help you conserve deck and sideboard space. It can replace your exile effects and your primary win condition allowing you to go 100% creature free. This is likely the best reason to go red after radiant flames.
Release the gremlins -For when you absolutely must kill every last artifact you see. Should improvise decks become a real threat this will be your go to tutor target.
Tormenting voice -An alternative card draw alongside drownyard temple. This is a sweet option if you are on the world breaker plan as a win condition hearkening back to the days of goggles. Not a great option as you do want all of your cards early on, but an option none the less.
White.
Blessed alliance -Kills stuff and gains life, everything you want in removal. The fact that it is also an edict effect can be a blessing or a curse. Being forced to kill a thraben inspector is nothing to brag about, but being able to snipe an animated gideon absolutely is.
Angelic purge -Only 3 mana to exile something of note is quite a powerful effect, but the lose a card part is something to be wary of as an early play. Though if you look at this as a mid game spell that answers anything left over for good is quite nice since your lands are all going to be in play and eventually recycled anyway.
Declaration in stone -A potent exile effect that is online early to deal with a turn 2 scrounger on the draw while still answering giant monsters like green gearhulks. Even though it does give them a card, by the time they are able to cash it in without adding to their board you are ready to leap miles ahead as seasons past comes online.
Decommission -A disenchant effect with upside, a fine card but the green version doesn't need revolt to give you extra value.
Descend upon the sinful -A full and proper wrath that you can plan on having the mana for on curve with some effort. Even if you won't get the angel token out of it, simply eating everything in play makes it worth considering.
How it works TL;DR:
You start with your basic removal spells, just point and click kill everything that is dangerous. Use your painful truths to keep cards flowing and tutor for an answer to anything that managed to slip through. Then tutor for either nissa's renewal to thin your deck while getting a massive life boost or start looping seasons past with tutors to draw 3+ removal spells and a land every turn.
Play your seasons past to rebuy all of your removal and discard which puts seasons past back into your deck so that you can tutor it back and repeat the process again. Do this until your opponent is hellbent and boardless then casually cast dark salvation for XX = Many and giggle when they read the card before scooping.
General tips and tricks
For those of you who want some upfront tips to keep your game play smooth.
Know thyself.
As with any deck that runs a number of tutor effects, you want to know your list very well. The worst thing you can do is cast diabolic tutor just to figure out what you should get. You want to know what you need before you cast it. Also on the subject of tutoring, you should learn to shuffle very fast and efficiently because you will be doing that a lot with this deck. It is very ill advised to make last minute changes to your tutor targets as it is far too easy to forget that you made the change and not search them up or to remove something that you forgot was essential to a certain match up.
Know thy format.
It is always important to know your format well in order to play at a high level, but tutors complicate matters even more. You want to know what your opponent could possibly have in their colors and what you have to potentially answer it. Do they have scroungers? You might want to tutor for an exile effect in advance. If they cast a gideon am I cold to it? Should I just get painful truths and dig myself to answers the old fashioned way? What happens if they cast Ishkanah, Grafwidow? Know the format well enough and you won't even have to ask these questions.
Learn to short cut!
Since time is of the essence, if your turn 1 play is to fetch with evolving wilds, don't wait until EoT to do it. Just crack your wilds right away and say go. The only time to ignore this is if you want to represent revolt with a fatal push. Another way you can save a lot of game time is during your long turns of looping seasons past cast your tutor effects all at once, one after another. This way you won't have to tutor, shuffle, cast a spell, use evolving wilds, shuffle again, and so forth. This simple manner of combining tutor short cuts can save you several minutes in the round all on its own.
Vs. Proper control.
This will take a lot of getting used to for most as you are indeed playing a control deck, but not like the typical ones you have seen in past seasons. You still have card draw, removal, and a huge end game but the way you go about it is much different. Also the most common control deck has an infinite combo to beware of as well. The interesting part is that you have far more card advantage than any other control deck in the format. As such if you use your discard to hit their first glimmer of genius you can very easily pull ahead. In the post board games if you tag them with lost legacy you are a huge favorite to win. Understand that you are the control deck and that they are the beat down. They are the ones that have to kill you, not the other way around.
That's a "combo."
Although your cards are powerful on their own, there are some situations that they cannot handle alone and you can combine them to get you out of trouble. You can use multiple grasp of darkness to take out giant indestructible creatures or shrink down a world breaker enough that it gets exiled by flaying tendrils or complete disregard. You can force your opponent to act on your turn to either draw cards or put things into their hand to allow you to remove that value with your discard. Nobody likes to 2 for 1 themselves, but you gotta do what you gotta do as they say. The more you play the more you'll notice the small things you can do to get out of a sticky situation.
Sequencing, Sequencing, Sequencing.
Seasons past cares about CMC so you want to make sure that in the turns leading up to casting one you use spells of different mana costs. This may sound obvious, but it is not always intuitive. It may seem natural to use grasp of darkness on turn 2 and turn 4 to save fatal push or ruinous path, but doing so will prevent you from getting an extra card out of seasons past when you use it. That isn't to say that you should always do this of course. It is important to think a few turns ahead and know what you can answer and what might come off the top for your opponent.
Be prepared.
In the same vein as "know thy format," you want to ensure that you are prepared for everything you can reasonably expect to face. You can think of this as a prison deck so you are required to have your opponent completely locked down with answers before you can start to end the game. This means have an edict effect somewhere in your 75 if you expect hexproof creatures to be around. Nothing feels worse for a creatureless deck to see your opponent go lumbering falls into lumbering falls knowing full well that you do not have a single sacrifice effect in your list. With 4 tutors you have access to every card in your deck every game and seasons past allows you to cast your singletons several times over. Remember this and diversify your answers to have one for each potential threat you will encounter somewhere in your list.
White border basics? Random foils? Gross!
I'm sorry, but I have to actually recommend this. Once more this is to save you a lot of time throughout a match. You will be casting nissa's renewal several times over in order to get all of your basics out (not to mention using evolving wilds up to 9 times in a single game) and you don't want to have to flip through your whole deck two or three times in a row to make sure you didn't miss any. Having the only white bordered cards be your basic lands means that after a single pass you know if there are any leftover so the next time you cast it you don't even have to pick up your deck.
Playing with random foils may seem like an odd suggestion, but it follows the same rational as white border basics minus the "tilt your opponent" value. For each of your singletons if you can get them in foil it will make it much easier to find them when you tutor them up. Cards like dark salvation, basic island, nissa's renewal, and appetite for the unnatural are good ones since you'll never run more than one copy and they're some of the most common cards you'll want to be searching for. It cannot be emphasized enough that time savers are deeply important to your success with this deck. Any chance you get to save a few seconds will add up over the course of a 50 minute round and even more so over the course of a GP or SCG open.
When in doubt, the answer is swamp. Or seasons past.
When you cast nissa's renewal and are unsure of what combinations of lands to get you almost always want to get three swamps. Unless you want a second green for seasons past or have an IMMEDIATE use for blue mana just keep piling up black mana. When you cast a tutor and are unsure of what to get and don't foresee needing a specific answer, just go for a seasons past because you will always need that. It will be incredibly tempting to grab a nissa's renewal because of how good it feels to untap after casting it. Resist the temptation. The only time where this could be the correct "in the dark" tutor target is if you are able to follow it up with two painful truths that get three cards each. But more often than not you should just get the engine running.
What is the most amount of zombies you have made in a single cast of dark salvation?
10. They gave a lowly Thraben Inspector -10/-10 until end of turn. With negate back up.
Thank you for having taken the time and effort into this great post. A promissing deck concept, although many players would find the deck to slow to play against/with, as time is indeed a factor in competitive rounds.
I feel that the blue splash is not necessary, as it complicates the mana while not giving much benefit in Negates. As you elaborated, you can run Hissing Quagmire as your man-land and enjoy the solid BG mana. The one blue card that might be of interest is the Eldrazi wish that you can recur with Seasons, bringing in TKS, Ulamog, and World Breaker depending on the situation.
Also consider Wildest Dreams for cases when you feel Seasons might get exiled. Another SB option against permission is Hope of Ghirapur (soft lock control out of the game by recurring with Seasons). And against aggro you could try Commencemment of Festivites for a fog effect every turn.
As for the maindeck, a disenchant effect might be worth running to help against vehicles/tower/gearhulk.
Thank you for having taken the time and effort into this great post. A promissing deck concept, although many players would find the deck to slow to play against/with, as time is indeed a factor in competitive rounds.
I feel that the blue splash is not necessary, as it complicates the mana while not giving much benefit in Negates. As you elaborated, you can run Hissing Quagmire as your man-land and enjoy the solid BG mana. The one blue card that might be of interest is the Eldrazi wish that you can recur with Seasons, bringing in TKS, Ulamog, and World Breaker depending on the situation.
Also consider Wildest Dreams for cases when you feel Seasons might get exiled. Another SB option against permission is Hope of Ghirapur (soft lock control out of the game by recurring with Seasons). And against aggro you could try Commencemment of Festivites for a fog effect every turn.
As for the maindeck, a disenchant effect might be worth running to help against vehicles/tower/gearhulk.
Coax from the blind eternities is the wish you were thinking of. It's a great win con that obviously has a lot of versatility in it. It can nab you hand disruption, a creeping mold effect or just get an ulamog to close the game. Hope of ghirapur is a great catch, I had completely forgotten that it was a card! Solid against control to ensure that your engine has 100% up time and from there you can grab whatever you need to lock them out of the game. I don't believe that wildest dreams is worth it because it exiles itself. Since the main way to get real value from it is to either grab a seasons past or cast for XX = 2 you're likely better off with it as another copy of seasons. Granted that loses the ability to rebuy a 1/2 CMC spell on turn 3, but I don't think that would be worth it.
Lost Legacy.
I managed to get in a few test games against UWR saheeli and vehicles with a legacy in the main just to see how it worked out. To but it plainly, I was very impressed. Since you have time to get your mana set up and find your 1-of off color basic to fuel painful truths at 3 cards you can keep up very well in card count. The kicker is that the games where I resolved a legacy on turn 3 naming glimmer of genius they had to completely shift gears and go beatdown. They are down to only gearhulk for card advantage and truths kept me miles ahead, being able to answer all of their threats with gas still in the tank. Casting it later in the game it was much less exciting sad to say. But at that point it still acted as another discard spell so it was still something I actively wanted to draw. Against vehicles it was either awesome or awful with the names being either gideon or unlicensed. If I could take a turn off to cut their gideons it offered me a ton of flexibility in my tutors and seasons piles and when I cut unlicensed I was able to use dark salvation or manlands to stabilize much earlier than I typically would. Still needs a mess more testing which I should be getting in in the next couple days, but it seems like a real card.
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
You need ramp to help your speed. Any ramp will do. I'd probably recommend Hedron Archive since it can draw cards if needed. My pet ramp card has been Corrupted Grafstone, but I'm not sure it fits here. Maybe it does.
You need ramp to help your speed. Any ramp will do. I'd probably recommend Hedron Archive since it can draw cards if needed. My pet ramp card has been Corrupted Grafstone, but I'm not sure it fits here. Maybe it does.
The issue of speed isn't related to playing your big spells faster, but ending the game and match within 50 minutes. A single cast of nissa's renewal is all the mana ramp you need, all the others are just to accelerate your engine loops so hedron archive and the sort aren't needed. This is especially with the deck being heavy on colored requirements, black specifically, and not having any colorless utility.
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
Wouldn't having some cheaper ramp in addition to Renewal make the deck faster and get you in under the 50 minutes? Which is the point I'm trying to make. Ramp to Renewal, Renewal feeds the engine. Given your color need, a different ramp card would probably be better than Archive, but I think Archive will help.
Out of curiosity, what do you do if Salvation gets exiled? Scoop?
How has kalitas been? I'm constantly in the situation where I cast it and he instantly dies and against vehicles I take an extra 3 damage for my effort. And when I wait to at least get a zombie with a removal spell the extra body rarely helps matters.
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
How has kalitas been? I'm constantly in the situation where I cast it and he instantly dies and against vehicles I take an extra 3 damage for my effort. And when I wait to at least get a zombie with a removal spell the extra body rarely helps matters.
At only 2 copies, it's been fine. It comes down when I need it, it's still good VS the Delirium Decks. Necessary Life Gain. Works really great with Ballista and Fatal Push.
I would suggest some Authority of the Consuls sb or even mainboard if Copycat and mardu are really good in your area...
Honestly; with all the removal the Copycat Matchup is pretty cake.
The ones that can be a problem are the ones that shift off the Combo and become Planeswalker Control decks, but even those tend to not be too bad but they can ultimately out grind.
Typically you see this in the 4 Color Variations of Copycat, they shift to a completely different style of deck, and if you guess wrong and sideboard wrong, you can lose just off that mistake.
Mardu is also not that bad at all with the updated list my buddy took.
The main deck that has been giving me the most trouble with my lists is Jund Energy, or the other Energy types of decks like GR Pummeler and such.
But with the newest list that my buddy Ran, I think it'll be better VS that even.
Hey what about having a blue splash build using Baral, Chief of Compliance. Having stuff cost 1 less can really help you get those Diabolic Tutors and Seasons Past fire off quicker, and let you drop your hand faster after a seasons past so that you can clear more targets before repeating the loop.
I agree that seasons past is a great card, and with MAardu vehicles slowing down and becoming a "midrange-y" thing after bord, a slower control deck might be in order. And nothing is slower than the durdle master "seasons past".
I did something a bit different than you guys. I took a classic UB control shell, and splashed for SP. Here is what I played last FNM and what I plan to take to FNM again this friday.
The counterspells are on a curve so that you can get negate+dissalow+suspicions after a seasons past.
Tezzeret is great at ramping you so that you can cast your seasons past AND keep counter mana up.
Essence extraction is a bad card, but the lifegain is necessary, so that's that...
Glad I ran across this thread. I toyed with a WB control shell like this with some success but it morphed into the mid range Brisela, Voice of Nightmares control. I really never thought to try Seasons Past with Diabolic Tutor. Great combo.
The deck does really well against BG, fairly well against Mardu Vehicles. I have gone back to a creatureless deck in order to negate all of the removal people are packing. Having your man land popped with an Unlicensed disintegration and the damage directed onto the walker you were shielding sucks. So now I do my land damage with Lumbering Falls. Thing is almost impossible to get rid of. I keep all of the other man lands in to force the opponent not to side out all of the removal.
Onr card that can be beastly is Tamiyo's Journal The card is a monster but it requires the right circumstances. A really slow plodding deck. Once it is down it just passively generates free Diabolic Tutors. this deck is perfect for it. Needless to say pulling what ever card you want at instant speed for 0 cmc makes you hard to beat.
I do think about making more of a tool belt approach to the control. Perhaps a single counter to pull at just the right moment. I have actually tutored for the Journal in a game.
Here is the deck I am going to play going forward. It wins with a walker or a land.
I'm really glad you made this thread OP, as I'm a huge fan of Seasons Past, which is essentially the best card draw engine in standard right now. After doing some testing I found 2 issues with the boiler plate approach to the deck.
1st, there is no card filtering and no mana fixing. The best we can do is Painful Truths which I'm actually not a huge fan of. Turn 3 is usually too late if we're mana screwed, and the 3 points of damage for a card draw is relevant in a lot of matchups. Also, Seasons Past is our card draw engine, so having a 3cmc spell that's by design a super efficient card draw spell, just doesn't seem worth it, we're basically using a powerful card draw spell for card filtering, so getting none of the benefits from a card like truths, while suffering all of the drawbacks.
My other issue with the list is the tempo loss for needing to cast Diabolic Tutor at 4 mana, then Seasons Past at 6. This is a 2 spell combo, so that's 2 turns in the mid - late game where you're essentially doing nothing, for the payoff of drawing around 5 cards (which is be fair is a pretty absurd payoff). The original last ran Dark Petition which worked a lot better because, despite the tempo loss suffered on turn 5, the 3 extra mana the next turn would help make up for it. My solution was to add blue and go Sultai.
Between Anticipate and Oath of Jace I have all the filtering I need and some. Oath of Jace was a nice synergistic find, leaving cards I want to cast now in my hand, and putting the cards I'd like later on in the GY after I seasons past.
The other huge addition from blue was Baral's Expertise which is just what this deck needs to be competitive. Being able to bounce 3 things and cast a free tutor to get seasons past is a huge tempo gain, and really helps with the tempo loss normally resulting from the t4 tutor into t6 seasons past.
Other than that the list is a pretty straight forward control list with lots of 1 of's which all work well with 4 copies of tutor. The list is a little leaner than most, with nothing costing 6 CMC besides seasons past and no ramp, so there's no crazy 7 for 1 late game seasons past, the most you could get is 5 cards and a land. Still, it's a fun deck to play.
I HIGHLY recommend running a single nissa's renewal in the deck because it does just so much for you, every piece of the buffalo gets used. The life gain is absolutely massive, especially with dynavolt towers running rampant, as it lets you ensure that even a random threat you don't have an immediate answer for won't force you to break up your loop because you can life gain out of it. The thinning is a big deal since you do so much of it and the lands are of course the biggest importance. The extra lands allow you to cast an answer, tutor, and seasons in the same turn.
While this may seem like "oh whatever, I'm already winning now" this is not the case against black green. They always bring in a large amount of discard and even distended mindbender which can shut down your game plan right there. So against them you never want to have seasons in your hand unless you are casting it that turn and renewal is what lets you do that.
Those of you approaching this as a UB control shell splashing seasons past are definitely correct in the sense that you run so few green spells, but the games play out much different. You don't have the glimmer into hulk into glimmer etc so you are absolutely going to play much longer games. So while you won't kill them as fast, you are certainly able to be 100% to win regardless of their deck. Just be sure that your build is capable of getting you there!
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
Honestly BG was not the problem, Mardu Vehicles was. They run more threats then I run answers. And there is no breathing room from sweepers. You are right about Nissa's renewel . I took out Tamiyo's Journal for it. I also found Providence to be a huge bonus. You don't lose a lot of games it is in your opening hand.
Still my list which is now remarkable like your. Except I started playing around with Pacification array to set them up for a sweeper.
I keep tweeking trying to find a passable Mardu matchup but it eludes me. A well tuned well played Mardu wins about 75-80%. I dont know how to beat them without changing so much that the good GB match goes away.
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I was tinkering around with some BG lists to see "how big" you can go for the mirror and stumbled upon this forgotten gem. Originally designed by Huey Jensen with Reid Duke and then piloted by Jon Finkel to the Top 8 of Pro Tour Shadows Over Innistrad, this is a deck that is as glacially slow as it is sweet. With the immense pressure to play buckets of spot removal, creatures are a little dangerous as win cons these days. Combine that with unlicensed disintegration making them actively bad to help stabilize I decided to revisit this archetype and see how it might fare in the current standard meta.
Overview:
This is a control deck through and through with your massively over the top end game being a DIY, build your own sphinx's revelation by combining nissa's renewal alongside seasons past, diabolic tutor, and piles of removal. You have a surprisingly low curve with your interaction and you have a decent amount of card draw to keep your head above water while building to your end game. Here is a link to the original deck tech as done by Reid and Ian Duke from Pro Tour Shadows Over Innistrad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-NLF4_960Q
EXAMPLE SEASONS PAST PILES
Basic on curve value:
0 - Evolving Wilds
1 - Fatal Push
2 - Transgress the mind
3 - Painful Truths
4 - Diabolic Tutor
Late game lock:
0 - Evolving wilds
1 - Dark Salvation
2 - Negate
3 - Complete Disregard
4 - Diabolic Tutor
6 - Nissa's renewal
Why this archetype failed after the PT and why that no longer matters.
At the time there were three cards that gave the deck fits: collected company, secure the wastes, and sylvan advocate. CoCo and Secure were problems because they put out a huge amount of power on the board at instant speed which required you to use a discard spell to force them to be cast on your turn so you could answer them with sorceries. These are not a problem because, well, they aren't legal in standard anymore.
The reason that sylvan advocate was a problem is that your removal was so taxed that you needed to use your sweeper (languish) to keep your head above water and it was not able to kill an advocate past the early game. Languish isn't around and we have an even less useful sweeper, but we gained something far more important. Fatal Push. This card is our cheap answer to a 2 mana 4/5 at instant speed. Before the only way to kill an advocate was with a ruinous path or a murder, both of which were needed to handle planeswalkers and assorted value creatures (such as tireless tracker) respectively. On top of that you were still down mana on the exchange while having to be fearful of lumbering falls crashing in for a massive amount that you couldn't interact with.
In today's standard and the current metagame, there are very few cards that will be a tremendous hurdle for you to overcome which is why I have begun testing this deck as a legitimate contender.
EXAMPLE LISTS.
The original. No longer standard legal, but relevant in that you get a good idea of what the shell looks like when finely tuned.
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Value:
4 Dark Petition
1 Infinite Obliteration
1 Nissa's Renewal
4 Read the Bones
2 Seasons Past
Discard:
2 Duress
2 Transgress the Mind
4 Languish
3 Ruinous Path
4 Grasp of Darkness
2 Ultimate Price
1 Dead Weight
Mana Base:
3 Evolving Wilds
5 Forest
4 Hissing Quagmire
2 Llanowar Wastes
12 Swamp
3 Dead Weight
2 Duress
1 Infinite Obliteration
1 Ultimate Price
1 Clip Wings
3 Naturalize
1 Orbs of Warding
2 Virulent Plague
Plain BG for solid mana with an off color basic for painful truths.
1 Dark Salvation
Value:
4 Diabolic Tutor
4 Painful Truths
1 Appetite for the Unnatural
1 Nissa's Renewal
1 Lost Legacy
2 Seasons Past
Removal:
1 Complete Disregard
4 Fatal Push
4 Grasp of Darkness
2 Murder
3 Ruinous Path
1 Yahenni's Expertise
3 Collective Brutality
3 Transgress the Mind
Mana base.
3 Blooming Marsh
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Forest
3 Hissing Quagmire
1 Island
10 Swamp
1 Complete Disregard
1 Dynavolt Tower
1 Flaying Tendrils
4 Hope of Ghirapur
2 Live Fast
1 Lost Legacy
1 Murder
1 Ruinous Path
1 To the Slaughter
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Yahenni's Expertise
My list for current standard.
1 Dark Salvation
Value:
4 Diabolic Tutor
4 Painful Truths
1 Nissa's Renewal
2 Seasons Past
Removal:
1 Complete Disregard
4 Fatal Push
4 Grasp of Darkness
2 Murder
1 Flaying Tendrils
3 Ruinous Path
1 Yahenni's Expertise
2 Negate
Discard:
3 Collective Brutality
2 Transgress the Mind
Mana Base:
3 Blooming Marsh
1 Botanical Sanctum
4 Evolving Wilds
3 Forest
1 Island
2 Lumbering Falls
2 Sunken Hollow
11 Swamp
1 Appetite for the Unnatural
1 Complete Disregard
2 Dispel
1 Island
2 Live Fast
2 Lost Legacy
1 Murder
1 Ruinous Path
1 To the Slaughter
1 Transgress the Mind
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Yahenni's Expertise
Thoughts on this list.
It is not unreasonable to cut the blue entirely. You would need to include a bit more discard and/or removal for walkers and instant speed vehicle answers. It would make your mana base absolutely rock solid, preventing any potential hiccups but also removing the three card draw potential from painful truths. There are pros and cons for the third color, but since you are already incentivized to play a full set of evolving wilds the splash is especially easy to make work.
I am very interested to see how a copy of Lost Legacy would work in the main as a value tutor target. This is usually a very poor choice, but there are times where this can give you the 100% check mark in game 1 against unprepared opponents. I have yet to formerly test it so I cannot comment on whether or not it is as bad of an idea as it probably is.
Yahenni's expertise is a fine card and one I certainly want to have access to in the main, but it isn't as good of a sweeper as you would want. This is further compounded by the fact that you rarely take advantage of the freebie spell you get as the only time I have ever utilized this was to kill off some knight tokens and cast a free ruinous path to kill the Gideon that made them in a single turn. The situation where you have to spend 2-3 turns setting up the seasons past loop and using only your life total buffered by nissa's renewal comes up often enough that I want to have one to clear out the dorks that have cluttered up the board.
Flaying tendrils is aggressively mediocre as expected. It can help buffer an early rush of tool craft exemplars and inspectors or clean up some plant tokens, but that's about the extent of it. I'm considering trading it in for a second copy of complete disregard. It is nice to be able to exile a pair of scroungers, but that is rare enough that the instant speed nature might make it a better choice. Not to mention the fact that this is almost a complete black against BG decks and is absolutely blank against control while complete disregard can at least interact with the saheeli combo. Regardless, I want to have at least 2 exile effects in the main.
I have gone back and forth on painful truths and shoving aether hubs into the mana base and building energy with live fast over truths as my draw spell of choice. I'm not sure which is correct and the main appeal of aether hub is that it is an untapped dual land on turn 1 and turn 20.
Why play this deck?
The greatest selling point of this deck is that by design you render as much as a quarter of your opponent's deck obsolete. Removal and spells that interact with artifacts, enchantments, or even planeswalkers are merely blank pieces of cardboard. You can build the list in such a way that you are LITERALLY a pure spell deck without a single nonland permanent in your deck. With BG decks trying to work in more removal and control decks also trying to get in more spot removal and radiant flames along side of ways to interact specifically with planeswalkers, a massive part of both their main deck and side board are going to be 100% worthless against you. The percentages you gain from that level of virtual card advantage cannot be understated. Not to mention the value you get from most opponents having no clue what you are up to and assume that you're a run of the mill BG midrange deck for the first several turns.
With emrakul being banned, this is the biggest end game that you can build towards unless you count the saheeli combo as "big." You have a giant mess of 1 and 2 CMC spot removal which means your average hand will be a nightmare against any creature based aggro or midrange deck. You have access to exile effects to handle scrapheap scrounger and you even have the absurd card advantage to simply kill it 10 times until it runs out of food without breaking a sweat.
Your removal means that saheeli is unlikely to ever combo you off and your discard prevents them from interacting too well with your engine or protecting their combo. You have painful truths which can go toe to toe with glimmer of genius easily and are well set up to beat anybody playing slow and fair.
Also noteworthy is the mana base. Even though it is technically 3 colors you are actually mono black with green spells that you cast on turn 8 and two blue cards that also are not likely to be needed until the late game as well. As such having 11 swamps and only 6 tapped lands your mana will be on time, on color, and untapped allowing you to cast all of your interactive spells on curve.
The last reason this deck is fine to pick up is that it is cheap. Very cheap. You're looking at a giant stack of 50ish commons, uncommons, and bulk rares that nobody wants. Your most pricey card is likely to be collective brutality and possibly an Ulamog if you even chose to run it. Outside of that you can pick up this entire deck for an insanely low price with even the smallest amount of bargain hunting.
Why would seasons past be a bad idea?
Clock. Time. This is quite possibly the slowest control deck ever designed aside from the original mono blue draw go deck popularized by Randy Buehler. If you do not get in the reps, your turns will take several minutes each and you will either go to a draw or an 0-1 loss, especially when playing online.
Reason number two is your are soft to decks that are heavy on counter magic, especially void shatter. I don't mean the typical 1-3 negates and 2-4 disallow you might find in jeskai control, I mean the 12-16 pieces of permission some psychotic UB players or devoted UW players might be cramming into their lists. The deck is predicated on being able to loop seasons past indefinitely and it is a complete shutdown of your end game if that gets stopped. Not to mention that exile effects prevent you from recurring specific pieces so if your only win condition gets exiled you're reduced to decking your opponent through their draw step.
The final reason why this deck would be a bad choice is that you get absolutely trashed by lost legacy. You are completely reliant on the seasons past engine to own the late game and you have so very few win conditions that you can easily find yourself without a way to end the game depending on your card selections. If seasons past gets sniped with lost legacy you get turned into a bad control deck without any form of inevitability.
Card Choices
The essentials
Nissa's renewal - This is the second half of the build your own revelation plan. The life gain is incredibly important as it affords you the time to tutor for it, cast it, and then be able to untap. The lands allow you to cast all the spells you have all at once and once you start to loop seasons past you can cast several spells on the same turn after you've already spent 6 man. You can expect to have 15-18 lands in play and still be tapping out every turn if you so choose.
Diabolic tutor - This is how you keep the engine running. It finds the seasons past that was just put back into your deck or lets you find the "timely" ruinous path to handle a gideon or to "luckily" draw one of your exile effects for a scrounger or "top deck" a grasp of darkness to stop a saheeli combo.
Transgress the mind - Some essential discard to help fill out your curve that helps to either protect your engine against permission or to greatly disrupt your control opponents. This is also a proactive way to handle a gideon that could come down on curve. It lets you play a wilds on 1, gasp on 2, then a fatal push on 3 with a transgress to get rid of the gideon they had several turns to draw into. Not to mention the fact that the control decks of the format are ill equipped to deal with discard effects in the first game. The fact that it exiles is also important as sniping a glimmer of genius prevents them from being able to flash it back with a torrential gearhulk.
Collective brutality - A versatile spell that can either handle an early grim flayer or veteran motorist while still being a very live spell against control for the discard half. When you have extra cards that you might not want you can still escalate it to bolster your life total which is a very relevant effect. It is quite common to escalate this on turn 2 with a land against vehicles to kill an early threat and drain them to give yourself time to get the engine running.
Painful truths - A simple draw spell albeit a little dangerous against vehicles, but it is completely necessary against every other deck you'll see on the opposite side of the table. Seasons past is a late game draw engine and you need something to give you the velocity required to get there.
Live fast - Another card draw option. While weaker than painful truths it does give you two energy which affords you the luxury to run multiple copies of aether hub in your mana base and not cry when you draw two in your opener. Painful truths is a better option on the surface, but having a little more flexibility in your lands is never a bad thing.
Succumb to Temptation - Another card draw option, this one with instant speed and double black in the cost. The black mana should never be a problem and the speed is likely better if you have no use for the energy gained by live fast.
Removal and interaction.
Appetite for the unnatural - While not traditionally a main deck level card, disenchants are not the worst thing you can be doing in today's standard. This is listed as a consideration for main deck play because you have no way to handle artifacts or enchantments that resolve. If you see a marvel or metallurgic summonings across the board you are going to be in for a rough time and this allows you to have an out to tutor for at will. This is surely a metagame consideration, but as with any tutor based deck these kinds effects are the first ones to consider if they warrant inclusion or not.
Natural Obsolescence - One of many cards that is typically confined to the sideboard that is worthy of main deck play currently. This is a great option for the pseudo-exile effect for scroungers, a hard removal spell for gearhulks that isn't a mopey murder, and an answer to things like dynavolt tower or metalwork colossus. The main selling point here is that it is two mana and helps conserve deck space filling the roll of both an exile effect, artifact removal, and clean answer to instant speed blue gearhulks.
Fatal push - The best 1 mana removal spell in the format and with a set of evolving wilds you can keep revolt turned on as extra insurance against saheeli.
Grasp of darkness - The best two mana removal spell in the format, kills almost everything that you care about.
Ruinous path - Because we can't have nice things. You'll want at least 3 in your main deck because you won't be attacking planeswalkers anytime soon.
Murder - Sadly the worst removal spell in the format, but it is still a necessity. You want to be able to kill a blue gearhulk that has resolved at instant speed or handle a green hulk that you didn't have the grasp on time for. You'll want at least one copy in your main.
Oblivion strike - Clearly this is not a fantastic card. It is however a no-strings-attached and permanent answer to any creature. Be it as simple as a scrounger or something more serious like world breaker or ulamog this card will get the job done. Play at your own peril of course, but should world breaker decks become popular again this will be worth some serious consideration.
Dead weight - For those times when you really, really /want more one drop removal this is your option. If you are going with a delirium sub-theme this is a good way to help you get there.
Yahenni's expertise + flaying tendrils - You want access to some form of sweeper and sadly these are our best options. Yahenni can clean up an early board and be followed up with a ruinous path to take out gideon and his supporting cast. Tendrils is good against the energy decks when cast on turn 3 and is able to exile multiple scroungers at once. Neither are particularly amazing but you still want to have some number in the main to tutor for. Do keep in mind that you don't want to follow up an expertise with a painful truths and expect to draw cards. You will be disappointed.
Complete disregard - It exiles scrapheap scrounger at instant speed and is also an answer to the saheeli combo. But it is also 3 mana and your typical list is going to be heavy on 3s so if you choose to run it you likely don't want more than one or two.
Negate - In the current format negate is a perfectly reasonable main deck card even though it always feels a touch awkward. You'll want some permission in your main so that you're not completely reliant on discard to protect your engine against control. Luckily enough every deck has something important to tag so you'll never be especially sad to draw one.
Harsh Scrutiny - Another 1 CMC card to work with seasons past that can interact with your opponent's hand. While the scry 1 means the card is never dead, the downside is that it only can take creatures which the entire deck is designed to handle already.
Battle at the Bridge - Another removal spell that can kill anything theoretically while acting as a massive lifegain spell. It is also another 1 CMC to return with seasons past. Be aware that you must have a legal target to gain the life so this cannot be cast on an empty board to gain life and will fail if your target is killed in response to the spell.
Essence extraction - Kills a decent number of creatures and does so at instant speed all while giving you some extra life to work with. This may be more desired by people who are not comfortable running 4x painful truths in a slow control deck with the only life gain spell being 6 mana. The main downsides to this card are the mana cost and being unable to kill a felidar guardian. That being said it is still a good card and there is nothing wrong with running it.
Win conditions.
Dark salvation - The best mana sink you have available. It can still kill an X/1 on turn 3 with added value so it's not a blank card in the early game. Also sometimes casting it for XX=3 is a real problem on many board states and allows you to swarm around blockers to kill off a walker. It is also a CMC=1 spell for seasons past and once you're ready to win you can keep getting more discard, removal, and tutors while having a threat.
Coax from the blind eternities - A wish effect for any eldrazi card that has been exiled or lurks in your sideboard. Although the card does nothing on its own, the versatility is incredible. It can grab you a thought-knot seer to act as hand disruption or a blocker/threat, it can snag a world breaker if you need to creeping mold something and help stabilize the board, or it can grab ulamog, the ceaseless hunger to just end the game. With this as your win con, you don't have to worry too much about main decking disenchants or excess discard because this can wish for all of them if you're fine with it being a bit slow. There are a number of eldrazi creatures that you can grab for various utilities or finishers. If you're in blue and want to maximize your tool box this is the way to go.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - An incredible value creature that can get out of had very fast when supported by a mess of removal spells. The lifelink is very important against aggro and the bonus zombies can put out heaps of pressure once you untap with several kill spells in hand. The obvious downside is that he has the hidden key word "dies." As the only proper creature in the deck, your opponents blank harnessed lightning, unlicensed disintegration, and so forth will suddenly have a fantastic target. Once again, the fact that this is a creature in a format that is currently revolving around removal spells makes this a less optimal choice in the main deck.
Ulamog, the ceaseless hunger - Indestructible gets around all of the common removal spells you'll see while having what I refer to as "the battle of wits effect." That is to say it has the effect on the game when you're able to untap with this still in play, you win the game. It does have the massive downside of being soft to permission if you are relying on it coming out and is a completely blank card until you have the game on lock. Fine as an alternate wincon, slams the door incredibly fast, but lacks versatility.
Metallurgic summonings - Another resilient win condition that simultaneously avoids creature removal while being entirely self-contained which is the theme of this deck. Your deck is literally nothing but spells and lands so this will get out of hand in just a turn or two. The obvious downside is that it is double blue which is incredibly difficult to achieve on time, but if you want a win con that is resilient to the common answers in the format this is a great choice. It is worth mentioning that the mana cost, while still a concern, isn't a deal breaker for this card as its primary purpose is to end the game at which point you are certain to have double blue.
World breaker + Drownyard Temple - A two card "combo" that gives you another resilient win con that doesn't rely on the seasons past engine as it has its own recursion built in. Obvious downside is that you have to also run a colorless land that has no utility outside of recursion and it is still a creature. The main upside is that it is castable before you have the game on lock, and if it survives, it tends to instantly stabilize the board immediately. While it is still a creature, it does dodge the majority of common removal such as push and grasp. The main reason you might choose to go this route is the on-cast effect gives you a lot of utility in the main. Reasonable choice.
Planeswalkers - Your main options are Ob Nixilis Reignited and Nissa, vital force as walkers that double as win cons. The Ob Nixilis emblem will kill your opponent very fast and also fills the role of card draw and removal so this would likely be your first choice due to the flexibility. Nissa can also end the game quickly when uncontested and has an easy emblem which works very well with an evolving wilds mana base, but her minus is likely blank in the average list making her less appealing. Even though the deck is technically blue, the best blue walker you can play is jace 5 and the double blue cost makes him far too difficult to cast to be a viable option in addition to the fact that he doesn't actually kill your opponent.
Dynavolt tower - You are a pure spell deck so you will never be short of fuel for the lightning rod. Rarely will you find artifact removal in the main, and when you do it won't exile the tower so it can either be tutored for again or rebought with seasons past. It also comes down early, allowing you to use it as interaction against aggro and can prevent manlands from being a problem. It can keep walkers in check, is an on board answer to the saheeli combo, and of course goes to the face to actually end the game. It also has the minor upside of being an artifact to prevent it from being hit by a lost legacy. There is a lot to like here.
Mana base.
Basics! - You want to have a large number of basics (around 14+) to support nissa's renewal and keep ramping yourself throughout the game. You are also running a number of evolving wilds so you absolutely must have a large number to support your deck. The biggest upside to having a mana base that is heavy on basic lands is that it lets you show off your favorite basic land art of course. I like Urza's Saga swamps, Portal: Second Age islands, and 7th edition forests myself. They even come in black and white borders for added flexibility!
Evolving wilds - These act as tri lands and allows you to play only a single island to support the main deck negates. They are also a CMC = 0 to rebuy with seasons past which lets you keep hitting your land drops each turn while thinning your deck if you don't have a nissa's renewal just yet.
Man lands - Your only options are lumbering falls and hissing quagmire. I prefer lumbering falls due to the hexproof letting them harass walkers when supported with your spot removal. Your opponents will be gagging on their removal spells so the quagmire will never be able to attack or block. The main argument in favor of quagmire though is that it is a black dual land as opposed to a blue one which is a legitimate consideration in addition to the fact that early on your opponent might not have the spare mana to hit them.
Various plain duals - You really want your fast lands to produce black mana as you always want that early and the splash colors don't need to be online in the first few turns outside of a 3 card painful truths. You aren't casting anything green until the late game and you rarely need a negate early on, though sometimes you might be interested. It's recommended to bias yourself towards black lands that always come out untapped early on.
Blighted Fen - A simple colorless land that acts as an edict effect. Currently there aren't many creatures around that demand an edict to remove outside of the corner case with gideon. It is also a nice CMC = 0 to return with seasons past, but you can and will get borked by the colorless mana.
Sideboard options.
Alternate win conditions - You absolutely 100% want some number in the side to deal with a potential lost legacy taking out the only one you have in the main or the seasons past engine getting shut down making you unable to recur them. See the recommended cards section for ideas, but do try and include at least one. This is also the best place to put value creatures such as Kalitas or Glint-Sleeve Siphoner as they are unlikely to ever stay in play for a single turn in game one.
Hope of Ghirapur - A great piece of tech for anybody heavy on permission. It comes down quickly and can begin to pester them or sit back until you're ready to start the seasons past loop. You can hit them with it, pop it to silence them for the turn, cast seasons to rebuy + replay it and go about your business. If you don't want to go discard heavy or dip your toes into blue this is a great option. Keep in mind that the pseudo-silence effect persists until your next turn. This means if they want to drop a gearhulk they just get the body without the value. If they activate a manland after you use it they cannot do anything to protect it.
Gifted aetherborn - Great card to stem the tide against aggro and even BG in post board games when you can reasonable expect it to stick around for a little. You can think of it as the removal spell that keeps on giving when it can threaten to block something and survive combat.
More removal! - Extra copies of yahenni's or edict effects are great to have. You rarely need the edict from to the slaughter, but extra copies of murder and the final copies of ruinous path are still recommended. Vehicles tend to go walker heavy post board so you'll want access to more ways to take care of them. Even though you're unlikely to hit delirium, to the slaughter is a choice if you expect ulamog to be cast against you. Highly metagame dependent, but it's important to remember it is an option. Additional copies of flaying tendrils or complete disregard are also recommended in some number as when you need these effects, you really need them. I like to have two exile effects in the main and an extra in the side, but if you don't expect any scroungers then you shouldn't bother. Another solid option is a couple copies of essence extraction. The card can be bad to blank against a decent portion of the field and since the life gain is the primary selling point the side board is probably where it belongs.
Tireless Tracker - We all know this is a great card in a deck with 4x evolving wilds. Having some number in the side allows you to expect to have them around for several turns if your opponent takes out all of their removal. With as many lands as you typically put out they get out of hand much faster than one might expect. If you want to include some number of these in the side, 3-4 is suggested to ensure that you get them early enough for their value to matter.
Lost legacy - Yes this is a legitimate option for this deck. Even though these effects are typically awful it is fairly common for you to be across from a deck that has exactly one card that you care about. Against saheeli if you remove all of their glimmers they have zero card advantage to keep up with you and are forced to expend permission on your 3 mana draw spells allowing you to protect seasons past and tutors with ease. Against black green you also have the option to bring this in to simply nab their copies of lost legacy if you are worried about being incapable of bringing them to zero life.
Against vehicles post board you only care about their walkers, specifically their full playset of gideons. Everything else they have can easily be handled with the rest of your main. I am not advocating bringing this in against them, but depending on your opponent's style this card is always live because of your recursion engine letting you screw your vice ever tighter on the match.
More discard and card draw - Extra copies of transgress, collective brutality, and live fast are great to have in the side. They allow you to have even more card draw than the average U/x/x control decks will and you will need the discard to get through their permission and snag gearhulks before they can be cast.
Permission - Negate and dispel are your only viable options here, but they are both solid. This is also the primary reason to have a light blue splash so that you can interact on the stack. Having a few extra copies of negate in the side makes your saheeli match infinitely better.
Disenchants - There are a number of different effects to handle artifacts and enchantments. You have appetite for the unnatural which is the best catch all as it always destroys one or the other while getting a bit of life. Creeping mold is also an option that can also hit lands such as westvale abbey if that is a concern of yours. Natural state is instant speed costing a single mana while only hitting the cheap things like dynavolt tower. Lastly is Natural Obsolescence which is a pseudo exile effect for scrounger and can also tag gearhulks at instant speed. Since BG doesn't play much in the way of giant monsters that require murder to answer outside of hulks this can help you condense sideboard space.
Island and value lands - If you plan on boarding in permission you will need a second island in the side to bring in along with them. This lets you search up two blue sources with wilds or nissa's renewal so you can cast two counters in the same turn when you decide to start a battle. You also have the option to board some number of blighted fen or blighted cataract based on your needs. An extra mana source that can draw you some cards or act as an expensive edict are good to have available. They might not be great, but it is easy to be in a metagame where they go from 'meh' to desirable.
Noteworthy Exclusions.
5 drops? - In the original version of the seasons past deck, the 5 drop of choice was the superior demonic tutor while ours costs 4. This means that our seasons past does not have a great 5 drop to return, but there are still options. The best of the bunch are all double blue which is too hard to achieve. Things like baral's expertise, jace 5, confirm suspicions, and confiscation coup.
Bring to light - As a potential 5-drop this one is barely fine, but you can only cast it for 2 or 3 without a hub in play to bump it up to 4 and even then it is only an expensive removal spell. The main benefit that it has is that it can get either a complete disregard for a scrounger or a ruinous path for a gideon in a single card. Since it doesn't work well with painful truths it can't even help dig you to a better answer if one of those doesn't fit.
Double Blue permission - As I have discussed many times already, spells that require two blue mana are just not feasible. You are lucky to have a single blue on turn 5 and are not likely to hit a second one until turn 10, especially with only a single island to search up with a wilds or nissa's renewal.
Rise from the Tides - This may seem like a home run since you are almost certain to get at least 4 tokens out of the card when cast on curve, but it falls short of playable for a few reasons. First of course is that it's our splash of a splash color meaning we aren't likely to have the mana to cast it on turn 6. The second reason is that it is only for winning the game as it offers no utility before you're ready to start attacking. The final nail in the coffin though is that the tokens all come out tapped. This means that not only is it a very slow 6-drop, it doesn't offer the instant stability that you would need for a card that is purely a win condition.
From Under the Floorboards - In the same vein as Rise from the tides, the real problem here is the tapped tokens. This is a 5-drop however which is something the deck does not have available to rebuy with seasons past and the life gain is always welcome in a deck this slow, so it does have that going for it. A big issue is that there are no worthwhile madness outlets outside of discarding to hand size at the end of your turn. And if you're at the point of the game where you have to discard down to 7 with mana available you are either at the point that you can win the game with a ham sandwich or you are on 8 lands in hand. In both scenarios the game is over one way or another.
Alternative Splash Options.
While blue is a great choice to run as your soft third color, red and white also have some things to bring to the table that you might prefer in certain situations.
Red.
Nahiri's Wrath -You are going to end up with a lot of cards in your hand and this can act as a nice clean up effect when you dump a nissa's renewal and some excess evolving wilds or removal spells. While you are bringing back answers to threats this can handle multiple threats of different types in a single card so you won't have to wait to untap or break the seasons past loop and tutor for a different card. Being able to clear out several threats and walkers at once is a fine option.
Radiant flames -A sweeper that is much more valuable than the ones that black has to offer. It won't tag vehicles or walkers, but every early game rush gets cleaned up nicely with this one. This is one of the best reasons to make red your splash color.
Burn from within -It's a fireball. It exiles. It hits planeswalkers. It ends games. What's not to love? Something that is not inherently visible is that this option can also help you conserve deck and sideboard space. It can replace your exile effects and your primary win condition allowing you to go 100% creature free. This is likely the best reason to go red after radiant flames.
Release the gremlins -For when you absolutely must kill every last artifact you see. Should improvise decks become a real threat this will be your go to tutor target.
Tormenting voice -An alternative card draw alongside drownyard temple. This is a sweet option if you are on the world breaker plan as a win condition hearkening back to the days of goggles. Not a great option as you do want all of your cards early on, but an option none the less.
White.
Angelic purge -Only 3 mana to exile something of note is quite a powerful effect, but the lose a card part is something to be wary of as an early play. Though if you look at this as a mid game spell that answers anything left over for good is quite nice since your lands are all going to be in play and eventually recycled anyway.
Declaration in stone -A potent exile effect that is online early to deal with a turn 2 scrounger on the draw while still answering giant monsters like green gearhulks. Even though it does give them a card, by the time they are able to cash it in without adding to their board you are ready to leap miles ahead as seasons past comes online.
Decommission -A disenchant effect with upside, a fine card but the green version doesn't need revolt to give you extra value.
Descend upon the sinful -A full and proper wrath that you can plan on having the mana for on curve with some effort. Even if you won't get the angel token out of it, simply eating everything in play makes it worth considering.
How it works TL;DR:
You start with your basic removal spells, just point and click kill everything that is dangerous. Use your painful truths to keep cards flowing and tutor for an answer to anything that managed to slip through. Then tutor for either nissa's renewal to thin your deck while getting a massive life boost or start looping seasons past with tutors to draw 3+ removal spells and a land every turn.
Play your seasons past to rebuy all of your removal and discard which puts seasons past back into your deck so that you can tutor it back and repeat the process again. Do this until your opponent is hellbent and boardless then casually cast dark salvation for XX = Many and giggle when they read the card before scooping.
General tips and tricks
For those of you who want some upfront tips to keep your game play smooth.
Know thyself.
As with any deck that runs a number of tutor effects, you want to know your list very well. The worst thing you can do is cast diabolic tutor just to figure out what you should get. You want to know what you need before you cast it. Also on the subject of tutoring, you should learn to shuffle very fast and efficiently because you will be doing that a lot with this deck. It is very ill advised to make last minute changes to your tutor targets as it is far too easy to forget that you made the change and not search them up or to remove something that you forgot was essential to a certain match up.
Know thy format.
It is always important to know your format well in order to play at a high level, but tutors complicate matters even more. You want to know what your opponent could possibly have in their colors and what you have to potentially answer it. Do they have scroungers? You might want to tutor for an exile effect in advance. If they cast a gideon am I cold to it? Should I just get painful truths and dig myself to answers the old fashioned way? What happens if they cast Ishkanah, Grafwidow? Know the format well enough and you won't even have to ask these questions.
Learn to short cut!
Since time is of the essence, if your turn 1 play is to fetch with evolving wilds, don't wait until EoT to do it. Just crack your wilds right away and say go. The only time to ignore this is if you want to represent revolt with a fatal push. Another way you can save a lot of game time is during your long turns of looping seasons past cast your tutor effects all at once, one after another. This way you won't have to tutor, shuffle, cast a spell, use evolving wilds, shuffle again, and so forth. This simple manner of combining tutor short cuts can save you several minutes in the round all on its own.
Vs. Proper control.
This will take a lot of getting used to for most as you are indeed playing a control deck, but not like the typical ones you have seen in past seasons. You still have card draw, removal, and a huge end game but the way you go about it is much different. Also the most common control deck has an infinite combo to beware of as well. The interesting part is that you have far more card advantage than any other control deck in the format. As such if you use your discard to hit their first glimmer of genius you can very easily pull ahead. In the post board games if you tag them with lost legacy you are a huge favorite to win. Understand that you are the control deck and that they are the beat down. They are the ones that have to kill you, not the other way around.
That's a "combo."
Although your cards are powerful on their own, there are some situations that they cannot handle alone and you can combine them to get you out of trouble. You can use multiple grasp of darkness to take out giant indestructible creatures or shrink down a world breaker enough that it gets exiled by flaying tendrils or complete disregard. You can force your opponent to act on your turn to either draw cards or put things into their hand to allow you to remove that value with your discard. Nobody likes to 2 for 1 themselves, but you gotta do what you gotta do as they say. The more you play the more you'll notice the small things you can do to get out of a sticky situation.
Sequencing, Sequencing, Sequencing.
Seasons past cares about CMC so you want to make sure that in the turns leading up to casting one you use spells of different mana costs. This may sound obvious, but it is not always intuitive. It may seem natural to use grasp of darkness on turn 2 and turn 4 to save fatal push or ruinous path, but doing so will prevent you from getting an extra card out of seasons past when you use it. That isn't to say that you should always do this of course. It is important to think a few turns ahead and know what you can answer and what might come off the top for your opponent.
Be prepared.
In the same vein as "know thy format," you want to ensure that you are prepared for everything you can reasonably expect to face. You can think of this as a prison deck so you are required to have your opponent completely locked down with answers before you can start to end the game. This means have an edict effect somewhere in your 75 if you expect hexproof creatures to be around. Nothing feels worse for a creatureless deck to see your opponent go lumbering falls into lumbering falls knowing full well that you do not have a single sacrifice effect in your list. With 4 tutors you have access to every card in your deck every game and seasons past allows you to cast your singletons several times over. Remember this and diversify your answers to have one for each potential threat you will encounter somewhere in your list.
White border basics? Random foils? Gross!
I'm sorry, but I have to actually recommend this. Once more this is to save you a lot of time throughout a match. You will be casting nissa's renewal several times over in order to get all of your basics out (not to mention using evolving wilds up to 9 times in a single game) and you don't want to have to flip through your whole deck two or three times in a row to make sure you didn't miss any. Having the only white bordered cards be your basic lands means that after a single pass you know if there are any leftover so the next time you cast it you don't even have to pick up your deck.
Playing with random foils may seem like an odd suggestion, but it follows the same rational as white border basics minus the "tilt your opponent" value. For each of your singletons if you can get them in foil it will make it much easier to find them when you tutor them up. Cards like dark salvation, basic island, nissa's renewal, and appetite for the unnatural are good ones since you'll never run more than one copy and they're some of the most common cards you'll want to be searching for. It cannot be emphasized enough that time savers are deeply important to your success with this deck. Any chance you get to save a few seconds will add up over the course of a 50 minute round and even more so over the course of a GP or SCG open.
When in doubt, the answer is swamp. Or seasons past.
When you cast nissa's renewal and are unsure of what combinations of lands to get you almost always want to get three swamps. Unless you want a second green for seasons past or have an IMMEDIATE use for blue mana just keep piling up black mana. When you cast a tutor and are unsure of what to get and don't foresee needing a specific answer, just go for a seasons past because you will always need that. It will be incredibly tempting to grab a nissa's renewal because of how good it feels to untap after casting it. Resist the temptation. The only time where this could be the correct "in the dark" tutor target is if you are able to follow it up with two painful truths that get three cards each. But more often than not you should just get the engine running.
What is the most amount of zombies you have made in a single cast of dark salvation?
10. They gave a lowly Thraben Inspector -10/-10 until end of turn. With negate back up.
I feel that the blue splash is not necessary, as it complicates the mana while not giving much benefit in Negates. As you elaborated, you can run Hissing Quagmire as your man-land and enjoy the solid BG mana. The one blue card that might be of interest is the Eldrazi wish that you can recur with Seasons, bringing in TKS, Ulamog, and World Breaker depending on the situation.
Also consider Wildest Dreams for cases when you feel Seasons might get exiled. Another SB option against permission is Hope of Ghirapur (soft lock control out of the game by recurring with Seasons). And against aggro you could try Commencemment of Festivites for a fog effect every turn.
As for the maindeck, a disenchant effect might be worth running to help against vehicles/tower/gearhulk.
Coax from the blind eternities is the wish you were thinking of. It's a great win con that obviously has a lot of versatility in it. It can nab you hand disruption, a creeping mold effect or just get an ulamog to close the game. Hope of ghirapur is a great catch, I had completely forgotten that it was a card! Solid against control to ensure that your engine has 100% up time and from there you can grab whatever you need to lock them out of the game. I don't believe that wildest dreams is worth it because it exiles itself. Since the main way to get real value from it is to either grab a seasons past or cast for XX = 2 you're likely better off with it as another copy of seasons. Granted that loses the ability to rebuy a 1/2 CMC spell on turn 3, but I don't think that would be worth it.
Lost Legacy.
I managed to get in a few test games against UWR saheeli and vehicles with a legacy in the main just to see how it worked out. To but it plainly, I was very impressed. Since you have time to get your mana set up and find your 1-of off color basic to fuel painful truths at 3 cards you can keep up very well in card count. The kicker is that the games where I resolved a legacy on turn 3 naming glimmer of genius they had to completely shift gears and go beatdown. They are down to only gearhulk for card advantage and truths kept me miles ahead, being able to answer all of their threats with gas still in the tank. Casting it later in the game it was much less exciting sad to say. But at that point it still acted as another discard spell so it was still something I actively wanted to draw. Against vehicles it was either awesome or awful with the names being either gideon or unlicensed. If I could take a turn off to cut their gideons it offered me a ton of flexibility in my tutors and seasons piles and when I cut unlicensed I was able to use dark salvation or manlands to stabilize much earlier than I typically would. Still needs a mess more testing which I should be getting in in the next couple days, but it seems like a real card.
The issue of speed isn't related to playing your big spells faster, but ending the game and match within 50 minutes. A single cast of nissa's renewal is all the mana ramp you need, all the others are just to accelerate your engine loops so hedron archive and the sort aren't needed. This is especially with the deck being heavy on colored requirements, black specifically, and not having any colorless utility.
Out of curiosity, what do you do if Salvation gets exiled? Scoop?
Manlands and the derpy deck them by looping seasons past and killing everything indefinitely.
Undefeated during the Swiss Rounds on Game Day.
2nd Place a few weeks in a row at FNM.
I've since splashed in WHITE for a few spells though and finished 2nd again today, only dropping the Final Round to Jund Energy. Close Match though...
2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4x Tireless Tracker
4x Walking Ballista
Spells (22)
3x Transgress the Mind
2x Yahenni's Expertise
2x Ruinous Path
2x Murder
4x Grasp of Darkness
4x Fatal Push
2x Succumb to Temptation
2x Diabolic Tutor
1x Seasons Past
1x Nissa, Vital Force
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
Land (26)
1x Blighted Fen
4x Blooming Marsh
4x Evolving Wilds
4x Forest
4x Hissing Quagmire
9x Swamp
4x Appetite for the Unnatural
3x Collective Brutality
2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2x Lost Legacy
2x Ruinous Path
1x Transgress the Mind
1x Yahenni's Expertise
This week I added a WHITE splash though like I mentioned, here's that list... very little WHITE.
2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4x Tireless Tracker
4x Walking Ballista
Spells (22)
3x Transgress the Mind
1x Fumigate
2x Yahenni's Expertise
1x Anguished Unmaking
2x Ruinous Path
4x Grasp of Darkness
4x Fatal Push
2x Succumb to Temptation
2x Diabolic Tutor
1x Seasons Past
1x Nissa, Vital Force
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
Land (26)
4x Blooming Marsh
4x Concealed Courtyard
4x Evolving Wilds
1x Forest
2x Hissing Quagmire
1x Plains
4x Shambling Vent
6x Swamp
1x Greenwarden of Murasa
2x Lost Legacy
1x Transgress the Mind
3x Collective Brutality
1x Fumigate
1x Yahenni's Expertise
2x Ruinous Path
1x Appetite for the Unnatural
1x Decommission
2x Fragmentize
At only 2 copies, it's been fine. It comes down when I need it, it's still good VS the Delirium Decks. Necessary Life Gain. Works really great with Ballista and Fatal Push.
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4x Tireless Tracker
2x Walking Ballista
Spells (24)
1x Collective Brutality
2x Transgress the Mind
1x Fumigate
1x Yahenni's Expertise
1x Anguished Unmaking
3x Ruinous Path
1x Murder
1x Blessed Alliance
1x Declaration in Stone
4x Grasp of Darkness
4x Fatal Push
1x Appetitie for the Unnatural
2x Diabolic Tutor
1x Seasons Past
1x Nissa, Vital Force
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
1x Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Land (26)
2x Blooming Marsh
2x Concealed Courtyard
4x Evolving Wilds
2x Forest
4x Hissing Quagmire
2x Plains
4x Shambling Vent
6x Swamp
I forget what the Sideboard was, he made some adjustments to what I had, but for the most part it was pretty close.
Honestly; with all the removal the Copycat Matchup is pretty cake.
The ones that can be a problem are the ones that shift off the Combo and become Planeswalker Control decks, but even those tend to not be too bad but they can ultimately out grind.
Typically you see this in the 4 Color Variations of Copycat, they shift to a completely different style of deck, and if you guess wrong and sideboard wrong, you can lose just off that mistake.
Mardu is also not that bad at all with the updated list my buddy took.
The main deck that has been giving me the most trouble with my lists is Jund Energy, or the other Energy types of decks like GR Pummeler and such.
But with the newest list that my buddy Ran, I think it'll be better VS that even.
I did something a bit different than you guys. I took a classic UB control shell, and splashed for SP. Here is what I played last FNM and what I plan to take to FNM again this friday.
4 botanical sanctum
4 choked estuary
4 hissing quagmire
4 sunken hollow
6 island
5 swamp
Instants
4 fatal push
4 grasp of darkness
4 anticipate
2 negate
4 disallow
2 to the slaughter
1 essence extraction
4 glimmer of genius
1 confirm suspicions
2 Ob Nixilis reignited
2 Tezzeret the schemer
Sorceries
1 Nissa's renewal
2 Seasons Past
2 dispel
2 negate
2 shielded aether thief
1 sphinx of the final word
3 flaying tendrils
1 lost legacy
2 ruinous path
2 kalitas, traitor of ghet
The counterspells are on a curve so that you can get negate+dissalow+suspicions after a seasons past.
Tezzeret is great at ramping you so that you can cast your seasons past AND keep counter mana up.
Essence extraction is a bad card, but the lifegain is necessary, so that's that...
The deck does really well against BG, fairly well against Mardu Vehicles. I have gone back to a creatureless deck in order to negate all of the removal people are packing. Having your man land popped with an Unlicensed disintegration and the damage directed onto the walker you were shielding sucks. So now I do my land damage with Lumbering Falls. Thing is almost impossible to get rid of. I keep all of the other man lands in to force the opponent not to side out all of the removal.
Onr card that can be beastly is Tamiyo's Journal The card is a monster but it requires the right circumstances. A really slow plodding deck. Once it is down it just passively generates free Diabolic Tutors. this deck is perfect for it. Needless to say pulling what ever card you want at instant speed for 0 cmc makes you hard to beat.
I do think about making more of a tool belt approach to the control. Perhaps a single counter to pull at just the right moment. I have actually tutored for the Journal in a game.
Here is the deck I am going to play going forward. It wins with a walker or a land.
1 Tamiyo's Journal
Instant
3 Essence Extraction
3 Fatal Push
4 Grasp of Darkness
4 Murder
3 Anguished Unmaking
2 Succumb to Temptation
Land
4 Lumbering Falls
3 Evolving Wilds
4 Hissing Quagmire
1 Island
2 Forest
6 Swamp
1 Plains
4 Shambling Vent
3 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Sorcery
1 Seasons Past
2 Diabolic Tutor
4 Ruinous Path
3 Yahenni's Expertise
1 Transgress the Mind
Instant
4 Appetite for the Unnatural
Sorcery
3 Transgress the Mind
3 Flaying Tendrils
3 Lost Legacy
2 Collective brutality
1st, there is no card filtering and no mana fixing. The best we can do is Painful Truths which I'm actually not a huge fan of. Turn 3 is usually too late if we're mana screwed, and the 3 points of damage for a card draw is relevant in a lot of matchups. Also, Seasons Past is our card draw engine, so having a 3cmc spell that's by design a super efficient card draw spell, just doesn't seem worth it, we're basically using a powerful card draw spell for card filtering, so getting none of the benefits from a card like truths, while suffering all of the drawbacks.
My other issue with the list is the tempo loss for needing to cast Diabolic Tutor at 4 mana, then Seasons Past at 6. This is a 2 spell combo, so that's 2 turns in the mid - late game where you're essentially doing nothing, for the payoff of drawing around 5 cards (which is be fair is a pretty absurd payoff). The original last ran Dark Petition which worked a lot better because, despite the tempo loss suffered on turn 5, the 3 extra mana the next turn would help make up for it. My solution was to add blue and go Sultai.
4 Fatal Push
4 Anticipate
4 Grasp of Darkness
2 Negate
1 Natural Obsolescence
1 Murder
2 Ruinous Path
2 Oath of Jace
4 Diabolic Tutor
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
3 Baral's Expertise
2 Seasons Past
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Lands (27)
2 Lumbering Falls
4 Sunken Hollow
3 Choked Estuary
2 Blooming Marsh
4 Evolving Wilds
7 Swamp
3 Forest
2 Island
2 Contraband Kingpin
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Lost Legacy
1 Natural Obsolescence
1 Negate
1 Appetite For the Unnatural
3 Transgress the Mind
3 Void Shatter
1 Yahenni's Expertise
Between Anticipate and Oath of Jace I have all the filtering I need and some. Oath of Jace was a nice synergistic find, leaving cards I want to cast now in my hand, and putting the cards I'd like later on in the GY after I seasons past.
The other huge addition from blue was Baral's Expertise which is just what this deck needs to be competitive. Being able to bounce 3 things and cast a free tutor to get seasons past is a huge tempo gain, and really helps with the tempo loss normally resulting from the t4 tutor into t6 seasons past.
Other than that the list is a pretty straight forward control list with lots of 1 of's which all work well with 4 copies of tutor. The list is a little leaner than most, with nothing costing 6 CMC besides seasons past and no ramp, so there's no crazy 7 for 1 late game seasons past, the most you could get is 5 cards and a land. Still, it's a fun deck to play.
While this may seem like "oh whatever, I'm already winning now" this is not the case against black green. They always bring in a large amount of discard and even distended mindbender which can shut down your game plan right there. So against them you never want to have seasons in your hand unless you are casting it that turn and renewal is what lets you do that.
Those of you approaching this as a UB control shell splashing seasons past are definitely correct in the sense that you run so few green spells, but the games play out much different. You don't have the glimmer into hulk into glimmer etc so you are absolutely going to play much longer games. So while you won't kill them as fast, you are certainly able to be 100% to win regardless of their deck. Just be sure that your build is capable of getting you there!
Still my list which is now remarkable like your. Except I started playing around with Pacification array to set them up for a sweeper.
3 Pacification Array
// 17 Instant
4 Fatal Push
4 Grasp of Darkness
3 Anguished Unmaking
3 Succumb to Temptation
3 Blessed Alliance
// 25 Land
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Hissing Quagmire
2 Forest
8 Swamp
2 Plains
2 Shambling Vent
2 Blooming Marsh
3 Concealed Courtyard
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
// 12 Sorcery
1 Seasons Past
2 Diabolic Tutor
3 Ruinous Path
1 Nissa's Renewal
1 Dark Salvation
1 Fumigate
1 Yahenni's Expertise
1 Flaying Tendrils
1 Providence
I keep tweeking trying to find a passable Mardu matchup but it eludes me. A well tuned well played Mardu wins about 75-80%. I dont know how to beat them without changing so much that the good GB match goes away.