I'm not sure if its as strict a mill deck as you'd like and it could obviously stand to gain some money cards: Ashiok for the awesome planeswalker action, more temples for fixing, and some fetchlands for further Altar synergy and fixing, but it looks solid to me. You hopefully have tur 1 Altar and you mill them out by playing permanents and having a good control game. Mill makes Aetherspouts even better, your stuff will die so you have delve fuel, the inspired guys love convoke and Phenax. Hope it helps your friend.
P.S. Have not played a single game with this deck I just threw it together, so it might be heavy by 2-3 delve cards maybe put some Grindclocks in place of those.
There are 2 problems here with your theory:
1. Zurgo doesn't have lifelink
2. No where does any current source mention anything about Zurgo's blade being forged from a dragon's tooth, let alone the former khan of the Sultai.
@rangerwickett: If you can't activate Yisan for 1 and get a card, then he isn't going to pull his weight. That ability to search up Elvish Mystic while bluffing a flash creature/instant is invaluable, as is the ability to get some value if they try to kill him. It seems insane to run Yisan and not have a 1-drop to find seeing as 1-3 is about as high as Yisan gets before you've basically either won or lost the game.
Also I didn't see this thread when I made my own so I'll post my decklist here for you guys consideration.
My only major changes to Reid's original list have been to make Caryatid a Rattleclaw Mystic, because in my experience in the Jeskai and UB Control matchups when they keep killing all your guys, Sylvan Caryatid is the worst topdeck, while Rattleclaw Mystic beats for 2. Kiora has been pretty good. The value she makes while a Courser is in play is pretty bonkers. The rest seems pretty standard.
Yes the above deck is (for obvious reasons) not Standard legal. What did it lose though? 6 cards: 1 Scavenging Ooze, 1 Burning-Tree Emissary, 1 Plasm Capture, 1 Aetherling and 2 Prime Speaker Zegana. These cards are not the engine of the deck. These cards are not necessary for the actual deck to function because Reid Duke stumbled upon one thing: Yisan is an incredible card.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, has the power to singlehandedly win any game given enough time. This is important because he gives the deck something it used to only get from planeswalkers, a card type that has started to become more vulnerable than it used to be. Yisan is so powerful in fact that we are running 8 creatures just to enable him, in the form of 4 Prophet of Kruphix and 4 Kiora's Follower. While these creatures aren't inherently bad, most decks need their creatures to be more efficient than a 5 mana 2/3.
Most people wrote this deck off as cool and no one seems to have thought of pursuing it. I thought the deck looked fun and when rotation came around I swapped out the following maindeck cards:
4 Elvish Mystic
-Turn 1 manadork is still a premium play even with the stock of sweepers rising (and rising and rising )
4 Kiora's Follower
-Turn 2 mana dork is almost as good as turn 1 manadork, and the added utility of untapping anything can't be ignored. Untap to block, untap Yisan to use him multiple times in a turn cycle, untap Nykthos to make more mana than you can count. (Personal Record: 78)He's the swiss army knife of mana dorks and he deserves more respect.
4 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
-When you resolve a Yisan it becomes a sort of minigame with the opponent. A turn 2-3 Yisan is usually fast enough to race any developing board an opposing midrange player can make, and he has the benefit of doing this on your opponents turn. Also if I untap with Yisan he is finding an Elvish Mystic every time (adding the counter is a cost and not part of the effect so LKI sees the counter and says I can find a 1 cost creature). The fact that he makes you spend no resources except mana once he's in play make him an incredible engine. He's also resilient to all the Magma Jets and Drown in Sorrows flying around which is relevant when the primary way decks attack a devotion deck is a small sweeper or efficient burn spells.
4 Polukranos, World Eater
-If Yisan is an engine just churning up cards and mana, Polukranos is the most effective sink in the format. I can not advocate playing less than 4 Polukranos. Polukranos is one of the most powerful threats you can play because every time your opponent can't answer Polukranos you win. Play 4. When you see one "stranded" in your hand look at the one you currently have on board that is smashing their face in and smile at your backup plan.
4 Prophet of Kruphix
-Prophet turbocharges this deck. Taking two turns for every one of your opponents is not getting enough credit, because people aren't building to take advantage of it. When your permanents are all tapping each turn Prophet is akin to multiple Time Walks. She does this while turning your creatures in hand into Ambush Vipers. Multiples aren't that hot until you realize that like Polukranos and Yisan, they have to kill her or you just win. In fact that's the biggest thing about this deck, it plays so many must-kill creatures that most decks just aren't prepared to handle it.
Other cards
-The 1-of's Reclamation Sage, Nylea, her Disciple, and Arbor Colossus, all serve a powerful function against some deck but underperform against another, but in a deck with as much searching as this one they usually show up when needed.
-Courser is universally good, but Yisan is better and there's only so much room.
-Kiora is a good engine card and does a good job of granting me card advantage if the opponent is even slightly behind.
-Chord is incredible for being an instant tutor and the convoke has been incredibly relevant, however they are clunky in multiples and I have felt no need to add or subtract from Reid's original 2.
-Genesis Hydra was added to replace Zegana when I realized no card drew as many cards as Zegana did. They have worked well, and as a 2-of they show up often enough to matter, but never so much that they clutter your hand.
The sideboard has been through a lot of iteration and feels really tight right now.
-Disciples are for aggro decks or any deck where I feel my life total is under to much pressure. Some variants of Jeskai make me bring in Disiple some don't
-Negates are for matchups where I fear some noncreature spell. Current decks are Jeskai Combo, Sultai Walkers, Sultai Villainous Wealth, UWx Control and any deck where I fear End Hostilities or Elspeth. I don't always bring in all 3 but against decks where I need 3 I need them so bad I'd never cut one from the board.
-Sedge Scorpion means that Yisan's first activation can be Ambush Viper, killing unsuspecting Siege Rhinos, Brimaz's, and other large ground creatures. It does a lot of work and it only takes up one slot.
-A 3rd Kiora for matchups where planeswalkers are better and creatures are worse such as control decks.
-A 2nd Reclamation Sage against any deck where I feel I want more of the effect. It's a pretty game to game SB card, but it has pulled it's weight.
-Phyrexian Revoker combats Jeskai combo. It needs to be flashed in, and I often waffle between it and a Naturalize, but sometimes he can proactively cripple their mana and he also has the ability attack for 2 in a matchup where you just want to kill them asap.
-Sagu Mauler is against these Sultai and Mardu decks that move to run targeted removal. He has proven effective, if narrow in function, because he still dies to the same sweeper as everything else.
- Pearl Lake Ancient is my anti-control card and I have yet to play a game where I found it before they took complete control. In theory though it is unstoppable
-2nd Nylea is there as a resilient way to give my guys evasion as well as that boosting ability. +2/+2 seems poor, but it when you can activate it more than once it makes combat a nightmare, just the way I like it. Often brought in vs control and Abzan. Decks where I only want to have 1 creature at a time and Nylea allows me to make everything a threat.
-2nd Arbor Colossus is for the Jeskai matchup as he blocks everything the deck can do and only dies to a handful of their burn spells. He also denies Stormbreath Dragon and Sarkhan very handily.
-Nissa is yet another resilient threat against End Hostilities decks. Also good in the Abzan matchup. Basically any attrition-y matchup is her cup of tea.
If you've made it this far I thank you for reading and look forward to your feedback. Thank you.
Neither. Battalion cares about how many attackers you declare, which in your example is 2. Tajic never attacks, he just enters tapped and attacking. Battalion won't trigger. Sad but true.
I regularly win through Domri Ults :/ I guess I'm just not phased by Xenagod like you guys are. I just know they always have another haste creature and play with it in mind. I guess Xenagod is like a small castable Domri ult and that might catch people off guard, but I've gotten pretty good at micromanaging my fogs. I'm just not seeing the same threat you guys are I guess.
Mana Confluence is life payment and would not be doubled by Dictate of the Twin Gods, City of Brass would though. I still don't recommend it due to the whole life loss in a control deck seeming worse.
We have fogs though. How does Xenagos attack us from an angle we aren't already defending? I decided to forego Detention Sphere and the new Banishing Light due to its nonbo with Planar Cleansing. It's this same nonbo that makes me love it when they hit a Jace with it.
-On the topic of Keranos he is always doing something. Thassa is never drawing a card and I think a glorified Think Tank isn't worth the slot. Into the Wilds seems bad too. Keraos probably isn't good enough, but he certainly offers more card advantage than either of those 2. In fact it might become part of the core of my black deck plan. Keranos, counterspells, and Bow/Elixir. They have this bad tendency it let themselves get extremely low vs us and Keranos is an indestructible foil to that.
-Riot Control is a matter of not wanting to have too many 3 drop fogs, because you only start getting ahead when you can Fog+another spell in the same turn. It's not an iron-clad rule though, because I'm always thinking how helpful the life-gain and Stormbreath/Fanatic/Burn Spell countering is.
-Merciless can't get everything though. Planar Cleansing stops the Underworld Connections, the planeswalker, the creatures, and anything else I'm missing, all at the cost of being blanked by Boros Charm, and Gods. You only care about some gods anyways. Keranos, Purphoros, Mogis, and Phenax off the top of my head. I've found that making the opponent pick up all his threats and engines has just been better than Exiling some of them.
-The thing with Dissolve is that they can counter it back. If you aren't quite at the point where you can ignore a Sphinx's Revelation, a Stormbreath Dragon, or something else, Counteflux makes sure it won't resolve. The stretch for red is not very far if you focus your mana base, and it does have quite a few rewards. If there were a counterspell immune to discard I would play that first, but if we're gonna play a counterspell in our 5-color deck why not play the most un-answerable one?
I have been following this deck since BotG came out, and have been steadily modifying it as I could. As of now this is my list. A few points that I'll cover since my list differs some from those of the general consensus on here:
-I play some singleton gates, and yes it does make me weak to Ashiok and Nightveil Specter. The bright side is that with the advent of Dictate of Kruphix causing your UB opponent to just draw all his cards is a true possibility. Not a good answer but it's what I've got. Generally if you even suspect your opponent is on the exile plan you use Maze's End to find the singleton gates and hope you get through unscathed, but having a bit more legitimate plan B helps.
-Conversely, the ability to play a land untapped as necessary really, really helps against a lot of the field. Some turns we can afford to be a turn behind, and some turns you really need to get Verdict mana now, and thanks to Shocks you can.
-Jace over Kiora. Kiora draws 1 card and might ramp you. Jace looks 3 cards deep and has a good chance to draw you 2 cards unless you really need the 1. Kiora starts at 2, Jace starts at 4. Jace can survive against 2 creatures, whereas Kiora really just can't. I've just been much more impressed by Jace than Kiora and this comes from experience with both.
-4x Counterflux in the main is an odd choice, but it really does come in handy to be able to just say no to some cards. Gray Merchant (though good luck with all the hand control floating in black), and Sylvan Primordial being the 2 that are the most counter me or be set behind. Stormbreath Dragon and Gods also tend to meet their end at the hands of this counterspell. It is the end all be all for saying "NO" and I've slowly moved from 2 copies in the board to 4 copies in the main.
-In this standard most decks are winning through combat. 14 Fogs may seem like a lot, and sometimes it feels like it too, but once you drop all these random card draw spells and go all in on Dictate you really want to be drawing one ever other card or so. Which leads to my next point...
-Dictate of Kruphix is the real deal. It helps mitigate the effects of black's hand control, control's Revelation's and Jace's, GR's Domris and Coursers, and all the other little card advantage engines rolling around. Drawing two cards to your opponent's 1 is great, drawing 3 to your opponent's 2 less so, and the effect of their engines just diminishes over time.
-Planar Cleansing is an odd choice I'll admit, but it's become a bit of a posterboy for me. It just wipes out your opponent's devotion no questions asked. Boros Charm destroys you, but, hopefully, you learn to see those coming. It's also a nonbo with Dictate now that that's in the list, but generally if you resolve a Cleansing after a few turns under Dictate(s), you have a pretty sculpted hand. Cyclonic Rift has been staring at me wondering why I don't use him instead and I have tried it a few times. It just doesn't suit me I guess, everytime I had it I wished it were a Cleansing.
-Keranos is just a 5th Dictate/Alt Wincon/cool card. He's in testing right now.
-The sideboard is based on answering the cards we can't answer in the main and shoring up the really super fast aggro deck matchups. Negates and Swan Song Help with Control in general and problem cards such as Rakdos's Return and Ashiok specifically. Anger and the last Verdict piss on the aggro decks cheerios when Planar Cleansing is too slow. Cyclonic Rift is a random catch-all, Revoke and Deicide help against Pithing Needle and Gods when Planar Cleansing falls short.
Notice that Krenko mentions an Azorius Hussar, a good sign that the guilds are still in full swing though I am aware that it is still inconclusive evidence.
3 AEtherspouts
1 Murderous Cut
1 Silence the Believers
2 Endless Obedience
2 Set Adrift
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Singing Bell Strike
4 Disciple of Deceit
4 Siren of the Silent Song
3 King Macar, the Gold-Cursed
2 Phenax, God of Deception
4 Dismal Backwater
1 Temple of Deceit
4 Evolving Wilds
7 Swamp
8 Island
Total Cost at TCGPlayer Low: $14.71
I'm not sure if its as strict a mill deck as you'd like and it could obviously stand to gain some money cards: Ashiok for the awesome planeswalker action, more temples for fixing, and some fetchlands for further Altar synergy and fixing, but it looks solid to me. You hopefully have tur 1 Altar and you mill them out by playing permanents and having a good control game. Mill makes Aetherspouts even better, your stuff will die so you have delve fuel, the inspired guys love convoke and Phenax. Hope it helps your friend.
P.S. Have not played a single game with this deck I just threw it together, so it might be heavy by 2-3 delve cards maybe put some Grindclocks in place of those.
1. Zurgo doesn't have lifelink
2. No where does any current source mention anything about Zurgo's blade being forged from a dragon's tooth, let alone the former khan of the Sultai.
I mean I would play 5 Elvish Mystic if I could...
Also I didn't see this thread when I made my own so I'll post my decklist here for you guys consideration.
1 Arbor Colossus
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Kiora's Follower
1 Nylea's Disciple
4 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Reclamation Sage
3 Courser of Kruphix
4 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Hornet Queen
1 Rattleclaw Mystic
2 Genesis Hydra
2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
2 Chord of Calling
1 Negate
Lands:24
6 Forest
4 Island
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Yavimaya Coast
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
3 Thornwood Falls
3 Negate
3 Nylea's Disciple
1 Sedge Scorpion
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Sagu Mauler
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
1 Arbor Colossus
1 Pearl Lake Ancient
My only major changes to Reid's original list have been to make Caryatid a Rattleclaw Mystic, because in my experience in the Jeskai and UB Control matchups when they keep killing all your guys, Sylvan Caryatid is the worst topdeck, while Rattleclaw Mystic beats for 2. Kiora has been pretty good. The value she makes while a Courser is in play is pretty bonkers. The rest seems pretty standard.
4 x Temple of Mystery
4 x Breeding Pool
3 x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
6 x Forest
3 x Island
4 x Yavimaya Coast
Creatures
4 x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
4 x Kiora's Follower
2 x Courser of Kruphix
1 x Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 x Sylvan Caryatid
1 x Nylea's Disciple
1 x Arbor Colossus
1 x Reclamation Sage
4 x Prophet of Kruphix
4 x Polukranos, World Eater
4 x Elvish Mystic
1 x AEtherling
1 x Burning-Tree Emissary
2 x Prime Speaker Zegana
1 x Scavenging Ooze
1 x Negate
1 x Plasm Capture
2 x Chord of Calling
1 x Setessan Tactics
2 x Mistcutter Hydra
3 x Nylea's Disciple
1 x Skylasher
2 x Jace, Architect of Thought
1 x Jace, Memory Adept
3 x Negate
1 x Reclamation Sage
1 x Dispel
What?!?!?
Yes the above deck is (for obvious reasons) not Standard legal. What did it lose though? 6 cards: 1 Scavenging Ooze, 1 Burning-Tree Emissary, 1 Plasm Capture, 1 Aetherling and 2 Prime Speaker Zegana. These cards are not the engine of the deck. These cards are not necessary for the actual deck to function because Reid Duke stumbled upon one thing: Yisan is an incredible card.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, has the power to singlehandedly win any game given enough time. This is important because he gives the deck something it used to only get from planeswalkers, a card type that has started to become more vulnerable than it used to be. Yisan is so powerful in fact that we are running 8 creatures just to enable him, in the form of 4 Prophet of Kruphix and 4 Kiora's Follower. While these creatures aren't inherently bad, most decks need their creatures to be more efficient than a 5 mana 2/3.
Most people wrote this deck off as cool and no one seems to have thought of pursuing it. I thought the deck looked fun and when rotation came around I swapped out the following maindeck cards:
Out:
-4 Breeding Pool
-1 Sylvan Caryatid
-1 Scavenging Ooze
-1 Burning-Tree Emissary
-1 Plasm Capture
-1 Aetherling
-2 Prime Speaker Zegana
In:
+3 Thornwood Falls
+1 Island
+1 Rattleclaw Mystic
+1 Courser of Kruphix
+2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
+2 Genesis Hydra
And so the following deck was born:
1 Arbor Colossus
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Kiora's Follower
1 Nylea's Disciple
4 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Reclamation Sage
3 Courser of Kruphix
4 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Hornet Queen
1 Rattleclaw Mystic
2 Genesis Hydra
2 Chord of Calling
1 Negate
2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Land
6 Forest
4 Island
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Yavimaya Coast
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
3 Thornwood Falls
3 Negate
3 Nylea's Disciple
1 Sedge Scorpion
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Sagu Mauler
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
1 Arbor Colossus
1 Pearl Lake Ancient
Lets start at the core:
4 Elvish Mystic
-Turn 1 manadork is still a premium play even with the stock of sweepers rising (and rising and rising
4 Kiora's Follower
-Turn 2 mana dork is almost as good as turn 1 manadork, and the added utility of untapping anything can't be ignored. Untap to block, untap Yisan to use him multiple times in a turn cycle, untap Nykthos to make more mana than you can count. (Personal Record: 78)He's the swiss army knife of mana dorks and he deserves more respect.
4 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
-When you resolve a Yisan it becomes a sort of minigame with the opponent. A turn 2-3 Yisan is usually fast enough to race any developing board an opposing midrange player can make, and he has the benefit of doing this on your opponents turn. Also if I untap with Yisan he is finding an Elvish Mystic every time (adding the counter is a cost and not part of the effect so LKI sees the counter and says I can find a 1 cost creature). The fact that he makes you spend no resources except mana once he's in play make him an incredible engine. He's also resilient to all the Magma Jets and Drown in Sorrows flying around which is relevant when the primary way decks attack a devotion deck is a small sweeper or efficient burn spells.
4 Polukranos, World Eater
-If Yisan is an engine just churning up cards and mana, Polukranos is the most effective sink in the format. I can not advocate playing less than 4 Polukranos. Polukranos is one of the most powerful threats you can play because every time your opponent can't answer Polukranos you win. Play 4. When you see one "stranded" in your hand look at the one you currently have on board that is smashing their face in and smile at your backup plan.
4 Prophet of Kruphix
-Prophet turbocharges this deck. Taking two turns for every one of your opponents is not getting enough credit, because people aren't building to take advantage of it. When your permanents are all tapping each turn Prophet is akin to multiple Time Walks. She does this while turning your creatures in hand into Ambush Vipers. Multiples aren't that hot until you realize that like Polukranos and Yisan, they have to kill her or you just win. In fact that's the biggest thing about this deck, it plays so many must-kill creatures that most decks just aren't prepared to handle it.
Other cards
-The 1-of's Reclamation Sage, Nylea, her Disciple, and Arbor Colossus, all serve a powerful function against some deck but underperform against another, but in a deck with as much searching as this one they usually show up when needed.
-Courser is universally good, but Yisan is better and there's only so much room.
-Kiora is a good engine card and does a good job of granting me card advantage if the opponent is even slightly behind.
-Chord is incredible for being an instant tutor and the convoke has been incredibly relevant, however they are clunky in multiples and I have felt no need to add or subtract from Reid's original 2.
-Genesis Hydra was added to replace Zegana when I realized no card drew as many cards as Zegana did. They have worked well, and as a 2-of they show up often enough to matter, but never so much that they clutter your hand.
The sideboard has been through a lot of iteration and feels really tight right now.
-Disciples are for aggro decks or any deck where I feel my life total is under to much pressure. Some variants of Jeskai make me bring in Disiple some don't
-Negates are for matchups where I fear some noncreature spell. Current decks are Jeskai Combo, Sultai Walkers, Sultai Villainous Wealth, UWx Control and any deck where I fear End Hostilities or Elspeth. I don't always bring in all 3 but against decks where I need 3 I need them so bad I'd never cut one from the board.
-Sedge Scorpion means that Yisan's first activation can be Ambush Viper, killing unsuspecting Siege Rhinos, Brimaz's, and other large ground creatures. It does a lot of work and it only takes up one slot.
-A 3rd Kiora for matchups where planeswalkers are better and creatures are worse such as control decks.
-A 2nd Reclamation Sage against any deck where I feel I want more of the effect. It's a pretty game to game SB card, but it has pulled it's weight.
-Phyrexian Revoker combats Jeskai combo. It needs to be flashed in, and I often waffle between it and a Naturalize, but sometimes he can proactively cripple their mana and he also has the ability attack for 2 in a matchup where you just want to kill them asap.
-Sagu Mauler is against these Sultai and Mardu decks that move to run targeted removal. He has proven effective, if narrow in function, because he still dies to the same sweeper as everything else.
- Pearl Lake Ancient is my anti-control card and I have yet to play a game where I found it before they took complete control. In theory though it is unstoppable
-2nd Nylea is there as a resilient way to give my guys evasion as well as that boosting ability. +2/+2 seems poor, but it when you can activate it more than once it makes combat a nightmare, just the way I like it. Often brought in vs control and Abzan. Decks where I only want to have 1 creature at a time and Nylea allows me to make everything a threat.
-2nd Arbor Colossus is for the Jeskai matchup as he blocks everything the deck can do and only dies to a handful of their burn spells. He also denies Stormbreath Dragon and Sarkhan very handily.
-Nissa is yet another resilient threat against End Hostilities decks. Also good in the Abzan matchup. Basically any attrition-y matchup is her cup of tea.
If you've made it this far I thank you for reading and look forward to your feedback. Thank you.
-Riot Control is a matter of not wanting to have too many 3 drop fogs, because you only start getting ahead when you can Fog+another spell in the same turn. It's not an iron-clad rule though, because I'm always thinking how helpful the life-gain and Stormbreath/Fanatic/Burn Spell countering is.
-Merciless can't get everything though. Planar Cleansing stops the Underworld Connections, the planeswalker, the creatures, and anything else I'm missing, all at the cost of being blanked by Boros Charm, and Gods. You only care about some gods anyways. Keranos, Purphoros, Mogis, and Phenax off the top of my head. I've found that making the opponent pick up all his threats and engines has just been better than Exiling some of them.
-The thing with Dissolve is that they can counter it back. If you aren't quite at the point where you can ignore a Sphinx's Revelation, a Stormbreath Dragon, or something else, Counteflux makes sure it won't resolve. The stretch for red is not very far if you focus your mana base, and it does have quite a few rewards. If there were a counterspell immune to discard I would play that first, but if we're gonna play a counterspell in our 5-color deck why not play the most un-answerable one?
-I play some singleton gates, and yes it does make me weak to Ashiok and Nightveil Specter. The bright side is that with the advent of Dictate of Kruphix causing your UB opponent to just draw all his cards is a true possibility. Not a good answer but it's what I've got. Generally if you even suspect your opponent is on the exile plan you use Maze's End to find the singleton gates and hope you get through unscathed, but having a bit more legitimate plan B helps.
-Conversely, the ability to play a land untapped as necessary really, really helps against a lot of the field. Some turns we can afford to be a turn behind, and some turns you really need to get Verdict mana now, and thanks to Shocks you can.
-Jace over Kiora. Kiora draws 1 card and might ramp you. Jace looks 3 cards deep and has a good chance to draw you 2 cards unless you really need the 1. Kiora starts at 2, Jace starts at 4. Jace can survive against 2 creatures, whereas Kiora really just can't. I've just been much more impressed by Jace than Kiora and this comes from experience with both.
-4x Counterflux in the main is an odd choice, but it really does come in handy to be able to just say no to some cards. Gray Merchant (though good luck with all the hand control floating in black), and Sylvan Primordial being the 2 that are the most counter me or be set behind. Stormbreath Dragon and Gods also tend to meet their end at the hands of this counterspell. It is the end all be all for saying "NO" and I've slowly moved from 2 copies in the board to 4 copies in the main.
-In this standard most decks are winning through combat. 14 Fogs may seem like a lot, and sometimes it feels like it too, but once you drop all these random card draw spells and go all in on Dictate you really want to be drawing one ever other card or so. Which leads to my next point...
-Dictate of Kruphix is the real deal. It helps mitigate the effects of black's hand control, control's Revelation's and Jace's, GR's Domris and Coursers, and all the other little card advantage engines rolling around. Drawing two cards to your opponent's 1 is great, drawing 3 to your opponent's 2 less so, and the effect of their engines just diminishes over time.
-Planar Cleansing is an odd choice I'll admit, but it's become a bit of a posterboy for me. It just wipes out your opponent's devotion no questions asked. Boros Charm destroys you, but, hopefully, you learn to see those coming. It's also a nonbo with Dictate now that that's in the list, but generally if you resolve a Cleansing after a few turns under Dictate(s), you have a pretty sculpted hand. Cyclonic Rift has been staring at me wondering why I don't use him instead and I have tried it a few times. It just doesn't suit me I guess, everytime I had it I wished it were a Cleansing.
-Keranos is just a 5th Dictate/Alt Wincon/cool card. He's in testing right now.
-The sideboard is based on answering the cards we can't answer in the main and shoring up the really super fast aggro deck matchups. Negates and Swan Song Help with Control in general and problem cards such as Rakdos's Return and Ashiok specifically. Anger and the last Verdict piss on the aggro decks cheerios when Planar Cleansing is too slow. Cyclonic Rift is a random catch-all, Revoke and Deicide help against Pithing Needle and Gods when Planar Cleansing falls short.
1 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Golgari Guildgate
3 Azorius Guildgate
1 Selesnya Guildgate
1 Simic Guildgate
4 Temple Garden
2 Izzet Guildgate
1 Orzhov Guildgate
4 Maze's End
2 Gruul Guildgate
1 Dimir Guildgate
2 Boros Guildgate
1 Hallowed Fountain
3 Steam Vents
3 Supreme Verdict
3 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Dictate of Kruphix
1 Keranos, God of Storms
4 Fog
3 Riot Control
4 Druid's Deliverance
3 Defend the Hearth
1 Elixir of Immortality
4 Counterflux
4 Negate
2 Cyclonic Rift
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Revoke Existence
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Deicide
1 Swan Song
I think I'm making real progress, but I want to hear your guys' opinions, so tell me what you think.