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That looks strong. Good mix of enchantments good vs creatures and enchantments good vs spell-heavy decks.

Hopeless Nightmare as wincon+disruption looks strong, although it will not police fast...

Good points. In Standstill, a major consideration is that your 4cmc piece has to also function well under Standstill (triggered/activated ability). The One Ring is terrible there. You can't cast the...

Beanstalk encourages a different direction.

The most successful builds play
Yorion, Sky Nomad
Force of Will
Solitude
Lorien Revealed
Leyline Binding
Forth Eorlingas!

Essentially this. Saga replaced Merfolk with blue Artifacts/Emry Stompy/8cast as the new Fish deck. If you want to play scaleable beatdown backed by FoW and Chalice, that's now the deck to play.
...

That's not the only thing to return. That's just an example of one target you can get as an "I win" button if you've stabilized the game at a neutral position. Control does need a small number of...

Updated list:

Now with more Bandage!

//Lands: 20
2 Urza's Saga
4 Field of Ruin
10 Plains
1 Arid Mesa
1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

Again, this isn't a controversial opinion. Look at top non-Standstill UWr lists or other fair blue control lists. They're on Lorien but 0 Sea Gates & 0 tapped artifact lands. You only see Sea Gates...

Brainstorm + land/Sea Gate vs Lorien + worst blue card:

There are already 23 lands. More lands that don't have a spell-mode lead to flooding, so that option is out. The land needs to be a "spell"....

The GW version alone seems worse than Enchantress.

As Bant Miracles with Yorion, the big advantage is you are always guaranteed a 5 cmc (Yorion) and flickering Beanstalk gives another draw on top...

I suppose they're imagining a Delver midgame where you've been sandbagging lands to return with Brainstorm. Landstill never does that. You keep playing out lands most of the time, so in the lategame...

True. But it only has that mode, while Lorien includes other modes too. They're equivalent on turn 1 but Bridge leads to more flooding late (higher number of non-spell lands).

Edit: Compared to...

So we're on almost identical pre-Lorien mana.

I'm on just 2 Timeless, so only 2 white duals needed. I've found the 3rd Shark better than the 3rd Timeless, though I appreciate Timeless helping...

Bridge enters tapped.

Lorien can get basic or dual, cycles through Standstill (cantrips don't), makes a 2/2 with converter, costs 0 life for the slow control deck, and does "draw 3" late more...

@PirateKing: I used to play 2 Sagas. I cut them for the same reasons Fox mentions.

Early Saga is great when they don't pop Standstill, but most players will pop Standstill immediately these days,...

I tested Court in Standstill and it proved very strong. I think the format is still sleeping on this card.

If you can even hold the Monarch 1 turn, you draw 2 cards + get 1 returned enchantment...

This looks like a good deck for Court of Ardenvale, especially a control build. Sevinne on a white enchantment, with Monarch draw.

If you ever go back to Yorion tokens you may want Staff of the...

If already playing Reanimate, the best draw creature to saw in half is Atraxa.

Makes 2 4/4 flying lifelinks
Draws 8+ cards
Puts Atraxa back in graveyard for future Reanimates

Is that worth an...

Good point. Maybe other creatures are better synergy than trying to cram in Helm combo (no synergy with Saw in Half or scam tech).

Fury works well. So would Caves of Chaos Adventurer.

Is there room to combine it with Helm combo, a busted use of Beseech?


//Creatures: 17
4 Orcish Bowmasters
4 Dauthi Voidwalker
4 Grief
4 Passageway Seer
1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

I like the idea.

I think your biggest obstacle is that Saw in Half costs a lot of mana. The point of scam is to cheat on mana to get the ability and body on turn 1.

If you're spending 2B,...

Overall it's a great primer and good explanation of the deck and matchups.

Like ESG said, just be careful about the history part, especially making bold statements like claiming someone was the...

Have you tried Up the Beanstalk in your deck? It seems a good fit for Green Miracles.

It's a 2CMC cantrip (good for CB curve), then it draws you a card with Force of Will, Terminus, Entreat the...

Updated version:


//Lands: 23
4 Flooded Strand
4 Prismatic Vista
1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
1 Raugrin Triome
3 Island

I tested Court at 2 copies. It took over every game it resolved in.

In one game I hemmorhaged my hand (FoW + FoN) to resolve Court on an empty board, after getting Standstill disrupted. But then...

Court of Ardenvale seems very strong here as a draw engine / Sevinne on a stick. Maybe as a 1-of or 2-of? Maybe it could take the spot of a 4 cmc planeswalker for UWr. It functions as a...