Ok, so no one replied to my thread, which is kinda sad, but it didn't dissuade me from trying to play this deck in a slightly more competitive environment than just local FNM so I took it to a GPT London. 20 players means 5 rounds of swiss followed by top8, which promised quite a bit of play.
I somehow managed to win the event which netted me a booster fresh MM15 Tarmogoyf as its first prize so yay me and more importantly, yay faeries!
I went with -Island, -Bident +2 Mistbind for main and
I beat Jeskai midrange, abzan midrange and affinity in the swiss. Then I lost to another abzan midrange (he had everything, I drew really poorly + could've boarded better) and drew into top 8.
In top8 I was playing the affinity from 3rd round again, then Jeskai Delver and in finals Skred red (which is piloted by really poor player, but after t1-3 blood moon, you don't need too much skill to win a game of Magic in modern format).
The deck performed pretty much exactly as planned. First you confuse your opponent, because they never saw the deck, then you gain tempo in the beginning of the game and then ride the wave to victory with permission. It might not look like it, but once it gets going, the deck presents fairly quick clock (2-3 turns). Force of Will in modern is pretty big blowout and when backed up by bunch of tempo/card advantage cards, it will win games. It does restrict sideboarding a bit, so if I can't get good density of desired CMC cards to couple with it, I'll just side it out.
Mistbind Clique is pretty risky card to play with and it can lead to a pretty big blowouts on my side of table. I still think it's correct to have it in the deck as a 2of, but I need to be more careful when to play it and I need to have plenty of backup when doing so. Maybe only 1 and 3 Scions are better.
I might run Ghost Quarter instead of tec edge, because some decks that rely on specific lands (affinity, infect) don't always play their 4th land, but against other decks tec edge is strictly better.
I'm also considering couple of Faerie Conclaves, but further reducing number of islands in the deck might make shackles less reliable. 4 islands should usually be enough though.
As for sideboard, I'm fairly happy with my current configuration. I'll probably replace Wurmcoil with Batterskull. It is turn quicker and generally achieves the same thing.
I want to put couple of J:AT there to help with Abzan and control matchups. Probably instead of Spell Pierces.
Shaving a Negate for another Hibernation is another thing I'll be trying out. I don't recall siding in all 3 negates anyway. The main is so tight, that siding is very difficult.
After ban of Pod, I've been looking for a fun deck to play in FNMs (got Amulet Bloom as competitive deck, but that's not something you'd want to bring to a casual REL tournament imo) and after seeing NinjaBearDelver deck, I was sold.
The deck is fun to play, but I had even more fun in postboard games when I brought in Spellstutter Sprites and Cliques, so I decided to cut the middleman and build a monoU fae tempo deck instead. I'm pretty happy with maindeck, but I'm really struggling with universal sideboard. My FNM meta is very diverse with burn being the only archetype I can be certain to encounter.
As for the maindeck, I'm considering cutting an island and Bident for 2 mistbind cliques.
Bident feels like win more card (when it's great, it's great, but more often than not it will sit in my hand as I need mana open for counterspells. The card draw is very nice when it works though) and the exact land count is still open for discussion. I've added the tec edges recently and 24 lands seems to be flooding out a bit too much to my liking. Meanwhile, t4 or t5 mistbind is pretty huge tempo swing. I'm just afraid about not having enough faeries to champion it on something.
I'm also torn between Mana Leak and Remand, but Remand seems better for the tempo plays I am aiming to do.
Half of the sideboard is just stuff I found in my binder when I was building the deck. The counterspell package feels very suboptimal.
Cards I think should stay there:
Shackles - this card is powerhouse in modern, especially when you pack enough islands to steal stuff like wurmcoil
Negate - Very good versatile counterspell
Wurmcoil - resilient threat against decks with big dumb guys, life gain is nice against burn
Recall, Annul, Hibernation.
Rest of the counterspells, I think some should stay in, just not sure about the exact numbers. And obviously, there are some cards I'm probably missing that should be in there.
I like the strokes they are almost never completely dead like bile blight t. tends to be in most match ups. But since he has the 4 blights and 4 strokes seems ok. Seems like he would have a hard time with 3 mana 4.4s. His 2 /2 split on ugin ashiok is more interesting to me then the no negates. Also feel like he needs another vault in the main
Bile blight is also never dead card. If you get multiples of stroke against UW heroic, you effectively skipped a draw. Against Jeskai it hits only stoke. Against aggro temur or (some builds of) RG, it hits only crater claw or Stormbreath.
If you draw multiple bile blights, you can start killing stuff with them (killed Sarkhan once). It also works in buying you time (reducing incoming damage). Stroke can be a stone cold blank more times than I'd like in a deck that relies on 1for1s.
I'm running 3 ingenuitys, 4 would be too much imo.
4 strokes seem super bad in current meta, even in the top8 it should've punished him pretty hard. If I wanted to run more counterspells main, it should definitely be Negates or Nullifys at worst. Considering the rest of my deck, I'd much rather be able to counter ascendancy, outburst or bolt than rhino or wingmate roc.
After today's gameday I have to concede Perilous vault does have spot in the deck and will be running 3/1 split with crux for now. No murk lurkers in board seems like pretty bold move, though with 3 fountains I can see the reasoning behind that
I also really dislike the lack of cheap removal (read: murderous cut) and some form of lifegain other than fountains from the board. 1-2 rogue temur matchups first day would've ruined his day pretty bad
Ashiok is good in many matchups, but in preboard games, there are better, more universal choices. I board it in for almost every matchup, but the cards I'm bringing out vary. EG: against RW tokens, I bring him only when on draw though, because on play counterspells are much stronger.
I don't run any fatties in board, but if I had to guess, I think PLA is there for control matchup. It's resilient and can't be countered, which is pretty relevant considering the cost of our finishers.
I'm going to change my deck around a little though, cutting one Tasigur (3 is probably overdoing it) and moving 1 Ashiok to main. I'll also cut Liliana, as she is pretty much win more card and put 2 Nullifys to the sideboard slots that I created with this.
Depending on the temur build, disdainful strokes can be quite good.
Also vaults are needed in the 75
Aggro Temur. Midrangey temur is not that bad matchup imo (it's not great, but definitely doesn't feel as impossible as the aggro matchup). Vaults are needed against what exactly?
Finished 2nd in gameday today (list the same as the one from my PTQ top8 -land+ugin: http://deckstats.net/decks/19977/187383-ub-control-ftr)
Beat temur, rw tokens, abzan, lost to temur (slightly different build), then in top4 beat the guy with tokens and lost to the guy with Temur I've lost to already.
I'm very happy with the list overall, but I got no idea how to combat temur. Still not sure how exactly to sideboard against them (thoughtseize seems to be pretty good card) and then how to play. They can do crapton of damage out of nowhere, so tapping out seems bad, but their threats are so fast and plentiful that it's really difficult to keep up with their pace of the game. And post board, when they replace burn with countermagic, it seems entirely unwinnable.
I guess having some number of nullifys as an efficient pseudo removal is probably the way to go, but I don't know where to find spot for them
Draw_Gone: How is the mana treating you? The mana is pretty terrible as it is with bile blight into dissolve and that's with running 1 Radiant Fountain. You are running 4 of them, which seems like way too much considering you put even bigger strain on the manabase by having Nullify in the deck...
1st round Abzan (2-0)
The guy was 4-1, so he probably knew what he was doing. Not sure which build exactly, but had rhinos, fleecemanes and wingmates.
Side in Ashioks and Lili, side out fountain, seizes, bile blight
2nd round GB Constellation (2-0)
He had some wild build with Strength from the Fallen and maggots. First game was pretty straightforward, he overextended to wrath (I think this is pretty big weakness of the deck), G2 he had whip going and everything, but timely crux off the top shut him out of the game again.
In: Drown in Sorrow (this one is questionable and depends on how you feel), Ashiok
Out: Thoughtseize, Bile blight (does exactly the same thing as drown), fountain
3rd round Sultai control (2-0)
This round I didn't really get to play any magic as the guy was mana screwed one game and color screwed the other. The fact he was Sultai and not just UB was revealed to me only after I thoughtseized him in g2 and saw bunch of green cards in his hand.
Out: Cuts, Cruxes, Blights, fountain
In: Ashiok, Lili, Negates, seizes, lurkers
4th round Sultai control (1-2), guy from my car
First game I had pretty much everything and he flooded out slightly, second game I wasn't on top of my game and he had much better endgame topdecks, even though I don't think it'd make much difference considering he had all his haymakers, third game I flooded out completely and he had everything
5th round Mardu aggro (2-1)
He didn't play it very accurately. Second game I lost to mana screw and if I drew a drown anywhere in the game I would still have been miles ahead... I really like this matchup (as well as the straight up RW tokens), as their best cards - the token makers - are still 1-for-1 for this deck which really screws their gameplan of generating card advantage with tokens. The guy also boarded in erases, because his friend apparently plays some enchantments in his version of UB control (and apparently has no clue how to board against mardu as there aren't any decent enchantments to be boarded in) and was promptly punished for doing so when he had 2 stuck in his hand by the end of game 3
Out: some number of cruxes, thoughtseize, flooded strand, some dissolves (depends on build), Ugin is also possible cut
In: some lurkers, drown in sorrow (1:1 with crux), ashioks, possibly negates (depends on build)
6th round RW tokens (2-0)
Much better player, but the matchup is really tough for RW. He also didn't have good sideboard against me, which is pretty bad in this standard. Highlight of this game is me killing Sharkan with double bile blight.
Boarding similar to 5th round
7th round ID for top8 spot
Quarterfinals BG constellation (2-0)
Much better player than the guy from round 2, actually one of big names of local (national) scene, but my draw was too much for him. First game I was chaining Digs like crazy and after I slammed Ugin with hand full of stuff he just conceeded. second game he got out early pharika and started up eidolon draw engine, but timely drown in sorrow stopped all those shenanigans. Eventually I Dug for Ugin, got rid of pharika and proceeded to win the game from there.
Semifinal BG constellation (1-2)
Guy from 7th round, he is playing the terrible BG garbage BBD&co had in Washington Open, at least he managed to fix the most glaring thing with the deck which was missing Whip. First game he never had a chance. Second game I had terrible mana screw and he got Tasigur engine running, so even though I eventually managed to get to 5th mana for Crux, it was too few too late. Third game I kept pretty mediocre hand, my subsequent draws weren't exactly stellar, he got Tasigur running again and even though I ripped crux into lili into crux to stabilize, he then used black soul to get some creatures back to his hand and was drawing much better than me (mono lands + a dissolve turn after he resolved whip when he was on 3 and I had active ugin)...
Some final thoughts about my build:
Tasigur is insane. He is as important addition to this deck as Crux of fate. Big, undercosted body that provides decent clock and a must-answer thing for your opponent. I'd compare his role in the deck to that of Jace, Architect of Thought from last standard.
Delving is not an issue. You should have enough graveyard things fir first couple spells and then you can afford to just hardcast the stuff.
Silumgar is very good threat that just sticks and is almost impossible to deal with. With all the tokens and x/4s running around, his textbox is very relevant. In topdeck wars, we beat pretty much everybody, so the fact his clock isn't exactly fast is not that relevant.
With current meta pushing out Jeskai and UW heroic, this deck is very well positioned. I'd still keep running murk lurkers in sideboard though because all other matchups are really good and I'm not sure what else I'd be cutting from my deck anyway (or even what to actually put into the sideboard)
28 lands is too many and Ugin way too good. I'm cutting one Fountain for 2nd Ugin in my list. Rest stays the same.
Even though I cut Thoughtseize in most matchups, it's pretty good catchall in preboard games.
Sideboarding with this deck is not an exact thing and I'm just feeling what exactly I cut/shave on per opponent basis (it's usually crystal clear which cards you want to bring in).
In very long matchups (some variants of constellation, abzan or control), I'd even cut another land and run 26 (definitely on draw, on play it's not that clear)
I saw someone running the black siege thing and it seemed pretty nice tech for mirror, so if you expect a lot of those, definitely pack a pair. Candidates for shaving are ashiok, negate and murk lurker
To post any result with Gerard's deck, you have to be running hotter than sun. The amount of self milling without recursion while running everything as 2of is absurd and will bite you in your behind if you get anything than above average draws. Only aspect of his deck I like is the satyr.
Also, the mana is terrible and if you don't drop satyr T2 (as he did in pretty much every game I saw him), you are screwed
I've been running 6 fetches + 6 delve spells for most of the format and never had any issues with them, and now Tasigur helps with filling the yard quite a bit.
Too few win cons? Seriously? All the decks that posted any results since the pro tour had either 2 PLAs or 1 PLA and some number (usually 3) Ashioks (which is just terrible with vault imho, but to each his own). I run Ashiok, Ugin, 2 Tasigurs and Silumgar as win cons main deck which is more than any of the UB control decks played ever, I even think it might be too much.
I've played the deck at FNM (granted, that's not too competitive field), and it seems to be doing pretty much what I'd expect it to be doing. Tasigur is winning the games for me and rest of the deck works exactly as it was before FTR with the exception that I get better wrath effect that doesn't kill my planeswalkers and one of my guys. All I want is a way of protecting Tasigur when I drop him early, which will be the negates replacing disdainful strokes in main.
28 lands because Ugin, extra fetches to fuel my delve spells.
Tasigur is busted in the deck and I'm strongly considering running more of him. He provides reasonably fast clock and the activated ability is completely nuts, especially since you get to delve away the cards you don't want to get returned to your hand.
Silumgar is decent backup wincon that's very hard to get rid of. It also makes your bile blights very relevant as it allows you to kill 4 toughness creatures with them and completely negates opposing Elspeth.
Ashiok as another wincon/early game stalling, though I could see cutting it for 3rd Tasigur.
I'm really torn on Ugin, but I'll need to play more games with the deck before I decide if I want to have him in the deck or not. If I don't run Ugin, I'll be replacing him with Vault.
Board is pretty standard, Ghastly Conscription is a fun 1of to fight reanimator decks, definitely a flex slot for whatever. Lili and Ashiok to help with control matchup, negate is really good in the format and obligatory 8 antiaggro/burn cards.
I don't miss Thoughtseize. It's nice to have, but I can live without it.
Negate vs Stroke: In many cases these two are interchangeable, however in vacuum I'd much rather be able to counter siege rhino or Wingmate Roc than hordeling outburst in current meta.
My thought process here is: Usually you are in much more trouble when a big dumb guy goes unchecked couple turns than if you let a small spell slip by.
I will however try to swap these now with Tasigur in main deck as he helps to fix the big dumb guy problem pretty well while Negates help protecting him much better than Strokes
Vault is the only reason U/B is playable. If Crux was in M15 and Vault wasn't U/B wouldn't even be a deck.
If vault is so good compared to crux, why doesn't white play it instead of end hostilities? Is the white removal toolkit so different that it makes vault suddenly worse?
Maybe I'm off base, or missing something, or just completely wrong, but how does this deck win games? So many card choices that I'm just so so confused about.
Either with Sphinx or their guys. I don't really understand it either, but somehow the list seems to work (at least it did for me in the couple of games I played with it. Maybe it was just variance, not sure...). Give it a shot and see for yourself.
I somehow managed to win the event which netted me a booster fresh MM15 Tarmogoyf as its first prize so yay me and more importantly, yay faeries!
I went with -Island, -Bident +2 Mistbind for main and
1 Spellskite
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Vedalken Shackles
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Annul
3 Negate
2 Spell Pierce
2 Relic of Progenitus
for sideboard
I beat Jeskai midrange, abzan midrange and affinity in the swiss. Then I lost to another abzan midrange (he had everything, I drew really poorly + could've boarded better) and drew into top 8.
In top8 I was playing the affinity from 3rd round again, then Jeskai Delver and in finals Skred red (which is piloted by really poor player, but after t1-3 blood moon, you don't need too much skill to win a game of Magic in modern format).
The deck performed pretty much exactly as planned. First you confuse your opponent, because they never saw the deck, then you gain tempo in the beginning of the game and then ride the wave to victory with permission. It might not look like it, but once it gets going, the deck presents fairly quick clock (2-3 turns). Force of Will in modern is pretty big blowout and when backed up by bunch of tempo/card advantage cards, it will win games. It does restrict sideboarding a bit, so if I can't get good density of desired CMC cards to couple with it, I'll just side it out.
Mistbind Clique is pretty risky card to play with and it can lead to a pretty big blowouts on my side of table. I still think it's correct to have it in the deck as a 2of, but I need to be more careful when to play it and I need to have plenty of backup when doing so. Maybe only 1 and 3 Scions are better.
I might run Ghost Quarter instead of tec edge, because some decks that rely on specific lands (affinity, infect) don't always play their 4th land, but against other decks tec edge is strictly better.
I'm also considering couple of Faerie Conclaves, but further reducing number of islands in the deck might make shackles less reliable. 4 islands should usually be enough though.
As for sideboard, I'm fairly happy with my current configuration. I'll probably replace Wurmcoil with Batterskull. It is turn quicker and generally achieves the same thing.
I want to put couple of J:AT there to help with Abzan and control matchups. Probably instead of Spell Pierces.
Shaving a Negate for another Hibernation is another thing I'll be trying out. I don't recall siding in all 3 negates anyway. The main is so tight, that siding is very difficult.
The deck is fun to play, but I had even more fun in postboard games when I brought in Spellstutter Sprites and Cliques, so I decided to cut the middleman and build a monoU fae tempo deck instead. I'm pretty happy with maindeck, but I'm really struggling with universal sideboard. My FNM meta is very diverse with burn being the only archetype I can be certain to encounter.
The list:
4 Mutavault
2 Tectonic Edge
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Scion of Oona
4 Cryptic Command
4 Remand
4 Disrupting Shoal
2 Vedalken Shackles
4 Vapor Snag
1 Bident of Thassa
2 Negate
2 Vedalken Shackles
1 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
1 Hurkyl's recall
1 Hibernation
1 Annul
2 Dispel
As for the maindeck, I'm considering cutting an island and Bident for 2 mistbind cliques.
Bident feels like win more card (when it's great, it's great, but more often than not it will sit in my hand as I need mana open for counterspells. The card draw is very nice when it works though) and the exact land count is still open for discussion. I've added the tec edges recently and 24 lands seems to be flooding out a bit too much to my liking. Meanwhile, t4 or t5 mistbind is pretty huge tempo swing. I'm just afraid about not having enough faeries to champion it on something.
I'm also torn between Mana Leak and Remand, but Remand seems better for the tempo plays I am aiming to do.
Half of the sideboard is just stuff I found in my binder when I was building the deck. The counterspell package feels very suboptimal.
Cards I think should stay there:
Shackles - this card is powerhouse in modern, especially when you pack enough islands to steal stuff like wurmcoil
Negate - Very good versatile counterspell
Wurmcoil - resilient threat against decks with big dumb guys, life gain is nice against burn
Recall, Annul, Hibernation.
Rest of the counterspells, I think some should stay in, just not sure about the exact numbers. And obviously, there are some cards I'm probably missing that should be in there.
Bile blight is also never dead card. If you get multiples of stroke against UW heroic, you effectively skipped a draw. Against Jeskai it hits only stoke. Against aggro temur or (some builds of) RG, it hits only crater claw or Stormbreath.
If you draw multiple bile blights, you can start killing stuff with them (killed Sarkhan once). It also works in buying you time (reducing incoming damage). Stroke can be a stone cold blank more times than I'd like in a deck that relies on 1for1s.
I'm running 3 ingenuitys, 4 would be too much imo.
After today's gameday I have to concede Perilous vault does have spot in the deck and will be running 3/1 split with crux for now. No murk lurkers in board seems like pretty bold move, though with 3 fountains I can see the reasoning behind that
I also really dislike the lack of cheap removal (read: murderous cut) and some form of lifegain other than fountains from the board. 1-2 rogue temur matchups first day would've ruined his day pretty bad
I don't run any fatties in board, but if I had to guess, I think PLA is there for control matchup. It's resilient and can't be countered, which is pretty relevant considering the cost of our finishers.
I'm going to change my deck around a little though, cutting one Tasigur (3 is probably overdoing it) and moving 1 Ashiok to main. I'll also cut Liliana, as she is pretty much win more card and put 2 Nullifys to the sideboard slots that I created with this.
Aggro Temur. Midrangey temur is not that bad matchup imo (it's not great, but definitely doesn't feel as impossible as the aggro matchup). Vaults are needed against what exactly?
Beat temur, rw tokens, abzan, lost to temur (slightly different build), then in top4 beat the guy with tokens and lost to the guy with Temur I've lost to already.
I'm very happy with the list overall, but I got no idea how to combat temur. Still not sure how exactly to sideboard against them (thoughtseize seems to be pretty good card) and then how to play. They can do crapton of damage out of nowhere, so tapping out seems bad, but their threats are so fast and plentiful that it's really difficult to keep up with their pace of the game. And post board, when they replace burn with countermagic, it seems entirely unwinnable.
I guess having some number of nullifys as an efficient pseudo removal is probably the way to go, but I don't know where to find spot for them
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
4 Dismal Backwater
1 Evolving Wilds
5 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Radiant Fountain
4 Swamp
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
4 Bile Blight
4 Crux of Fate
4 Dig Through Time
2 Thoughtseize
4 Dissolve
4 Hero's Downfall
3 Jace's Ingenuity
2 Murderous Cut
Creatures
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Liliana Vess
3 Drown in Sorrow
3 Jorubai Murk Lurker
2 Thoughtseize
3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
3 Negate
1st round Abzan (2-0)
The guy was 4-1, so he probably knew what he was doing. Not sure which build exactly, but had rhinos, fleecemanes and wingmates.
Side in Ashioks and Lili, side out fountain, seizes, bile blight
2nd round GB Constellation (2-0)
He had some wild build with Strength from the Fallen and maggots. First game was pretty straightforward, he overextended to wrath (I think this is pretty big weakness of the deck), G2 he had whip going and everything, but timely crux off the top shut him out of the game again.
In: Drown in Sorrow (this one is questionable and depends on how you feel), Ashiok
Out: Thoughtseize, Bile blight (does exactly the same thing as drown), fountain
3rd round Sultai control (2-0)
This round I didn't really get to play any magic as the guy was mana screwed one game and color screwed the other. The fact he was Sultai and not just UB was revealed to me only after I thoughtseized him in g2 and saw bunch of green cards in his hand.
Out: Cuts, Cruxes, Blights, fountain
In: Ashiok, Lili, Negates, seizes, lurkers
4th round Sultai control (1-2), guy from my car
First game I had pretty much everything and he flooded out slightly, second game I wasn't on top of my game and he had much better endgame topdecks, even though I don't think it'd make much difference considering he had all his haymakers, third game I flooded out completely and he had everything
5th round Mardu aggro (2-1)
He didn't play it very accurately. Second game I lost to mana screw and if I drew a drown anywhere in the game I would still have been miles ahead... I really like this matchup (as well as the straight up RW tokens), as their best cards - the token makers - are still 1-for-1 for this deck which really screws their gameplan of generating card advantage with tokens. The guy also boarded in erases, because his friend apparently plays some enchantments in his version of UB control (and apparently has no clue how to board against mardu as there aren't any decent enchantments to be boarded in) and was promptly punished for doing so when he had 2 stuck in his hand by the end of game 3
Out: some number of cruxes, thoughtseize, flooded strand, some dissolves (depends on build), Ugin is also possible cut
In: some lurkers, drown in sorrow (1:1 with crux), ashioks, possibly negates (depends on build)
6th round RW tokens (2-0)
Much better player, but the matchup is really tough for RW. He also didn't have good sideboard against me, which is pretty bad in this standard. Highlight of this game is me killing Sharkan with double bile blight.
Boarding similar to 5th round
7th round ID for top8 spot
Quarterfinals BG constellation (2-0)
Much better player than the guy from round 2, actually one of big names of local (national) scene, but my draw was too much for him. First game I was chaining Digs like crazy and after I slammed Ugin with hand full of stuff he just conceeded. second game he got out early pharika and started up eidolon draw engine, but timely drown in sorrow stopped all those shenanigans. Eventually I Dug for Ugin, got rid of pharika and proceeded to win the game from there.
Semifinal BG constellation (1-2)
Guy from 7th round, he is playing the terrible BG garbage BBD&co had in Washington Open, at least he managed to fix the most glaring thing with the deck which was missing Whip. First game he never had a chance. Second game I had terrible mana screw and he got Tasigur engine running, so even though I eventually managed to get to 5th mana for Crux, it was too few too late. Third game I kept pretty mediocre hand, my subsequent draws weren't exactly stellar, he got Tasigur running again and even though I ripped crux into lili into crux to stabilize, he then used black soul to get some creatures back to his hand and was drawing much better than me (mono lands + a dissolve turn after he resolved whip when he was on 3 and I had active ugin)...
Some final thoughts about my build:
Tasigur is insane. He is as important addition to this deck as Crux of fate. Big, undercosted body that provides decent clock and a must-answer thing for your opponent. I'd compare his role in the deck to that of Jace, Architect of Thought from last standard.
Delving is not an issue. You should have enough graveyard things fir first couple spells and then you can afford to just hardcast the stuff.
Silumgar is very good threat that just sticks and is almost impossible to deal with. With all the tokens and x/4s running around, his textbox is very relevant. In topdeck wars, we beat pretty much everybody, so the fact his clock isn't exactly fast is not that relevant.
With current meta pushing out Jeskai and UW heroic, this deck is very well positioned. I'd still keep running murk lurkers in sideboard though because all other matchups are really good and I'm not sure what else I'd be cutting from my deck anyway (or even what to actually put into the sideboard)
28 lands is too many and Ugin way too good. I'm cutting one Fountain for 2nd Ugin in my list. Rest stays the same.
Even though I cut Thoughtseize in most matchups, it's pretty good catchall in preboard games.
Sideboarding with this deck is not an exact thing and I'm just feeling what exactly I cut/shave on per opponent basis (it's usually crystal clear which cards you want to bring in).
In very long matchups (some variants of constellation, abzan or control), I'd even cut another land and run 26 (definitely on draw, on play it's not that clear)
I saw someone running the black siege thing and it seemed pretty nice tech for mirror, so if you expect a lot of those, definitely pack a pair. Candidates for shaving are ashiok, negate and murk lurker
Also, the mana is terrible and if you don't drop satyr T2 (as he did in pretty much every game I saw him), you are screwed
Too few win cons? Seriously? All the decks that posted any results since the pro tour had either 2 PLAs or 1 PLA and some number (usually 3) Ashioks (which is just terrible with vault imho, but to each his own). I run Ashiok, Ugin, 2 Tasigurs and Silumgar as win cons main deck which is more than any of the UB control decks played ever, I even think it might be too much.
I've played the deck at FNM (granted, that's not too competitive field), and it seems to be doing pretty much what I'd expect it to be doing. Tasigur is winning the games for me and rest of the deck works exactly as it was before FTR with the exception that I get better wrath effect that doesn't kill my planeswalkers and one of my guys. All I want is a way of protecting Tasigur when I drop him early, which will be the negates replacing disdainful strokes in main.
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
4 Dismal Backwater
1 Evolving Wilds
5 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Radiant Fountain
4 Swamp
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Spells
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
4 Bile Blight
4 Crux of Fate
4 Dig Through Time
2 Disdainful Stroke
4 Dissolve
4 Hero's Downfall
3 Jace's Ingenuity
2 Murderous Cut
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Liliana Vess
4 Drown in Sorrow
4 Jorubai Murk Lurker
3 Negate
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Ghastly Conscription
28 lands because Ugin, extra fetches to fuel my delve spells.
Tasigur is busted in the deck and I'm strongly considering running more of him. He provides reasonably fast clock and the activated ability is completely nuts, especially since you get to delve away the cards you don't want to get returned to your hand.
Silumgar is decent backup wincon that's very hard to get rid of. It also makes your bile blights very relevant as it allows you to kill 4 toughness creatures with them and completely negates opposing Elspeth.
Ashiok as another wincon/early game stalling, though I could see cutting it for 3rd Tasigur.
I'm really torn on Ugin, but I'll need to play more games with the deck before I decide if I want to have him in the deck or not. If I don't run Ugin, I'll be replacing him with Vault.
Board is pretty standard, Ghastly Conscription is a fun 1of to fight reanimator decks, definitely a flex slot for whatever. Lili and Ashiok to help with control matchup, negate is really good in the format and obligatory 8 antiaggro/burn cards.
I don't miss Thoughtseize. It's nice to have, but I can live without it.
Negate vs Stroke: In many cases these two are interchangeable, however in vacuum I'd much rather be able to counter siege rhino or Wingmate Roc than hordeling outburst in current meta.
My thought process here is: Usually you are in much more trouble when a big dumb guy goes unchecked couple turns than if you let a small spell slip by.
I will however try to swap these now with Tasigur in main deck as he helps to fix the big dumb guy problem pretty well while Negates help protecting him much better than Strokes
If vault is so good compared to crux, why doesn't white play it instead of end hostilities? Is the white removal toolkit so different that it makes vault suddenly worse?
Either with Sphinx or their guys. I don't really understand it either, but somehow the list seems to work (at least it did for me in the couple of games I played with it. Maybe it was just variance, not sure...). Give it a shot and see for yourself.