I've always seen the deck as one that just outgrinds everyone else. Gaining life, giving you a 1 time blocker that gives you a card back, can be bought back by Liliana--it seems like it fits.
Declaration + Transgress was the plan to have a lot of T2 exiling interaction to make Strangler a pretty good tempo T3 play. The deck has a lot of pressure with all the angels, so the clues are less of an issue than with the more control heavy builds.
Though, maybe Strangler isn't worth it to begin with? Not sure we can do a lot about Delerium. We either kill stuff with Grasp or we exile and return it to the graveyard with Strangler. They tend to enable their own graveyards quick enough that I'd rather just kill their Grim Flayer T3 with Strangler after a Transgress. With Emerge, I think killing their early creatures is a good thing. Makes it harder for them to start the emerge chain. Being able to kill Pilgrim's Eye without necessarily having to waste a full card on it seems alright to me.
Haunted dead, Prized Almagam, scab, payoff cards such as as Deep-fiend or Gryff
Transgress is great because it exiles them. Players cant run grapple and get something back. Liliana can't bring the cards back.
But if you put them into the GY, you're helping their cause.
Declaration is a blowout facing down 3-4 Almalgams, but other than that, you're better off running stasis snare.
But the strategy of the decks is to keep bringing back guys from the GY. Your best play is to exile key cards. Taking a key card out of exile to put another gy engine card into the gy--is just not effective.
Here's the list I've been testing. Personally I've preferred the creatureless heavy control version over the angel / eldrazi midrange, so that's the direction I went.
With the new addition of vehicles, and the threat they pose to walkers, plus with Languish gone, Blessed Alliance really helps deal with creatures at instant speed, and gives me something to do with 4 mana now, killing a vehicle and gaining 4 life on turn 4 is really huge, so this card has actually been performing quite well. It is soft to Thermo-Alchemist and mana dorks, but there are plenty of other removal spells in the deck, and there are very few games where opponents choose not to attack on an empty board while I have open mana, so I'm usually killing a creature worst case, which is a fine floor, and killing a powerful creature while gaining life best case, which is a really high ceiling.
With the new additions of Blessed Alliance and Fumigate, as well as Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Noxious Gearhulk in the sideboard, plus Sorin and Shambling Vent, There is a lot of life gain in the deck now. And it's incidental life gain which is awesome, so you are now consistently effecting the board and gaining life a few turns in games now. With all the life gain I am comfortable running 4 copies of Anguished Unmaking maindeck, and in a world of artifacts, enchantments, and graveyard synergistic creatures, Unmaking is looking to be among the most powerful and versatile removals in standard.
Succumb to Temptation is certainly not as good as Read the Bones, but it does have the added benefit of being able to cast at instant speed so in slow games when on the draw you don't have to discard to hand size with a turn 3 RtB.
Noxious Gearhulk and Fumigate have both been performing really well, these are probably the 2 best additions to the deck from the new set.
The deck does really well against aggro and mid range, but the biggest weakness is still Fevered Visions and ramp strategies into Emrakul, The promised End and Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger so a lot of hate against them in the SB. Diabolic Tutor is so Lost Legacy and Call the Bloodline can both be down to 1 copy, as they both loose a lot of value when you draw multiples. It looks like more traditional ramp is gone, but the new Aetherworks Marvel combo ramp is actually really tough to deal with, so I'm not sure if more Lost Legacies might be ideal to help deal with this deck, which usually has both Emrakul and Ulamog.
Other than that this deck is still very powerful, and seems to be more than competitive even with the loss of Languish
I've always seen the deck as one that just outgrinds everyone else. Gaining life, giving you a 1 time blocker that gives you a card back, can be bought back by Liliana--it seems like it fits.
4x Filigree Familiar
2x Blighted Fen
6x Swamp
4x Transgress the Mind
2x Stasis Snare
4x Shambling Vent
2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4x Concealed Courtyard
2x Succumb to Temptation
4x Grasp of Darkness
4x Anguished Unmaking
1x Ruinous Path
4x Forsaken Sanctuary
3x Liliana, the Last Hope
4x Gideon Ally of Zendikar
2x Ob Nixilis Reinited
2x Sorin, Grim Nemesis
2 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
4 Wasteland Strangler
3 Gisela, the Broken Blade
3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Thalia's Lancers
4 Archangel Avacyn
1 Linvala, the Preserver
1 Bruna, the Fading Light
Spells (15)
4 Declaration in Stone
4 Transgress the Mind
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Anguished Unmaking
1 Succumb to Temptation
2 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
2 Blighted Fen
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Forsaken Sanctuary
4 Plains
4 Shambling Vent
4 Swamp
2 Lost Legacy
2 Ruinous Path
2 Stasis Snare
2 To the Slaughter
2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
4 Fumigate
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
This is my partner's deck. So I'm not super solid on this archetype. Suggestions welcome.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Though, maybe Strangler isn't worth it to begin with? Not sure we can do a lot about Delerium. We either kill stuff with Grasp or we exile and return it to the graveyard with Strangler. They tend to enable their own graveyards quick enough that I'd rather just kill their Grim Flayer T3 with Strangler after a Transgress. With Emerge, I think killing their early creatures is a good thing. Makes it harder for them to start the emerge chain. Being able to kill Pilgrim's Eye without necessarily having to waste a full card on it seems alright to me.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
You're wanting to deny them certain cards:
Haunted dead, Prized Almagam, scab, payoff cards such as as Deep-fiend or Gryff
Transgress is great because it exiles them. Players cant run grapple and get something back. Liliana can't bring the cards back.
But if you put them into the GY, you're helping their cause.
Declaration is a blowout facing down 3-4 Almalgams, but other than that, you're better off running stasis snare.
But the strategy of the decks is to keep bringing back guys from the GY. Your best play is to exile key cards. Taking a key card out of exile to put another gy engine card into the gy--is just not effective.
3 Liliana, The Last Hope
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Spells (23)
4 Grasp of Darkness
3 Transgress the Mind
3 Blessed Alliance
3 Succumb to Temptation
3 Oath of Liliana
4 Anguished Unmaking
3 Fumigate
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Shambling Vent
4 Forsaken Sanctuary
4 Plains
8 Swamp
2 Blighted Fen
1 Transgress the Mind
2 Fragmentize
3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Flaying Tendrils
2 Noxious Gearhulk
1 Call the Bloodline
1 Lost Legacy
2 Diabolic Tutor
With the new addition of vehicles, and the threat they pose to walkers, plus with Languish gone, Blessed Alliance really helps deal with creatures at instant speed, and gives me something to do with 4 mana now, killing a vehicle and gaining 4 life on turn 4 is really huge, so this card has actually been performing quite well. It is soft to Thermo-Alchemist and mana dorks, but there are plenty of other removal spells in the deck, and there are very few games where opponents choose not to attack on an empty board while I have open mana, so I'm usually killing a creature worst case, which is a fine floor, and killing a powerful creature while gaining life best case, which is a really high ceiling.
With the new additions of Blessed Alliance and Fumigate, as well as Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Noxious Gearhulk in the sideboard, plus Sorin and Shambling Vent, There is a lot of life gain in the deck now. And it's incidental life gain which is awesome, so you are now consistently effecting the board and gaining life a few turns in games now. With all the life gain I am comfortable running 4 copies of Anguished Unmaking maindeck, and in a world of artifacts, enchantments, and graveyard synergistic creatures, Unmaking is looking to be among the most powerful and versatile removals in standard.
Succumb to Temptation is certainly not as good as Read the Bones, but it does have the added benefit of being able to cast at instant speed so in slow games when on the draw you don't have to discard to hand size with a turn 3 RtB.
Noxious Gearhulk and Fumigate have both been performing really well, these are probably the 2 best additions to the deck from the new set.
The deck does really well against aggro and mid range, but the biggest weakness is still Fevered Visions and ramp strategies into Emrakul, The promised End and Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger so a lot of hate against them in the SB. Diabolic Tutor is so Lost Legacy and Call the Bloodline can both be down to 1 copy, as they both loose a lot of value when you draw multiples. It looks like more traditional ramp is gone, but the new Aetherworks Marvel combo ramp is actually really tough to deal with, so I'm not sure if more Lost Legacies might be ideal to help deal with this deck, which usually has both Emrakul and Ulamog.
Other than that this deck is still very powerful, and seems to be more than competitive even with the loss of Languish
This is my initial draft:
4x Concealed Courtyard
4x Forsaken Sanctuary
1x Blighted Fen
7x Swamp
6x Plains
2x Harsh Scrutiny
3x Grasp of Darkness
1x Blessed Alliance
2x Transgress the Mind
2x Anguished Unmaking
3x Read the Bones
4x Liliana, the Last Hope
2x Skywhaler's Shot
4x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1x Diabolic Tutor
4x Fumigate
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1x Archangel Avacyn
2x Duress
2x Authority of the Consuls
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Ultimate Price
2x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Noxious Gearhulk