Maybe something like Consuming Vapors would be awesome here. It would let you get rid of your own Persecutor and also any of your other creatures if you want to imprint them on the Vat. Plus, it gives you life and holds off your opponent a little bit better until you plop down your own big guys.
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Ok, so I've run some practice hands and whatnot with the deck a bit. Turns out, I was actually fairly wrong about Elspeth in many situations. In a pinch, she can ultimate, but at her best, she makes 3 tokens EVERY turn. -2 for tokens, then venser her out and back to 4, all the while you get blockers and venser gets closer to his ultimate! I honestly think that trinket mage may just slow the deck down now. When you're going white in control I've already got Wall of Omens essentially filling that role instead but a little bit better, I think. Plus, a couple more planeswalkers for variety. I'll still keep it in the back of my head as an idea but for now, I think I'm actually liking it as is.
The format as a whole maybe isn't, but I feel like the local FNM is unfortunately... The best decks aren't so much but they also cost over $500 to build which isn't too reasonable for your average FNM player. But beyond that, trinket mage seems good but takes up a lot of space I think. I wouldn't need/want Voltaic Key honestly but the Chalice, Elixir, and Effigy seem good. Maybe Chimeric Mass, too. Preordains are kind of like my extra jaces that I don't own... Mostly late game selection for what I need most at the time. Wall of Omens is kind of like white's situationally better version of it. Again, Elspeth is an experiment. Anyways, if then I go with the trinket package, what should I swap those in for instead?
Ok, thanks. Yeah, I personally don't like Elspeth at all (the new one) but I figure it is worth a shot at least. If I land it early enough against some slower decks, I can just wait until they drop something good and blow it up. If it's a quick aggro deck, 3 blockers for a turn could help a lot! Idk, she will likely have to go but for now, it's just in for experimental purposes. The Wurmcoil it there mostly to fight other titans and removal. Right now, the threats are mostly experimental too which is why they're all one-ofs. Any other ideas? Sideboard options or such?
Definitly gets a lot better if you add a few Venser!!!
Unless you actually plan to mill the opponent, getting rid of 10 cards doesn't typically do much. Sure, there's a chance you just eliminated all their best cards, but there's an equally good chance you just put them 10 cards closer to those cards as well. I would cut all 6 vampires. Speed is not the job of the control deck. The purpose is to slow the game down. Cut the 2 swords. They're mana intensive and don't help much honestly, especially on a big threat like your titans. Liliana is a trap. She seems really good on the surface, but she's secretly just too much mana for too little of an effect, especially in a control deck. If you ever tap out, it better be winning you the game. Liliana just can't do that. So, basically I would suggest the following (after the changes you've already made): -3 Guul Draz -2 Sword of Body and Mind -2 Mystifying Maze -2 Liliana -1 Doom Blade -1 Deprive -1 Cancel (-12 Cards total) +4 Mana Leak +1 Jace's Ingenuity +1 Disfigure +2 Duress +2 Tectonic Edge +2 Consume the Meek/Into the Roil (I would go with some combination of these to round it out) (+12 Cards total) As for the Deprive/Cancel, they seem just fine as 1-ofs. I don't know if you need or should have more than 8 counters maindeck. 6-8 seems about right. Mana Leak is much more definite than negate, and is beyond exceptional in the early game, which is the point of control again. You want to slow the game down, take control of the game, and drop your bomb later when the coast is clear for the win. Mana leak helps you do just that. Sure, it won't always be perfect but often it's worth countering something against another control deck just to force them to tap out. Anyways, those are my suggestions. You can take them however you want, I suppose. The 1-ofs are often actually quite nice but I can understand if you want the deck a bit more streamlined. Next step is a good sideboard. I'd look at memoricide for sure as a start.
Oh, almost forgot... Sword of Body and Mind also is a waste of a card-slot in this deck. Control decks don't need many creatures and keeping 1 or 2 on the field alone is all you should need to win. You really shouldn't need the equipment.
Naturally, some of the best cards for this deck are going to be pretty non-budget (Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Frost Titan) so I'll just try to mention some other options for your deck. If you can somehow pick up one or more of those 2 cards, put them in for sure. Anyways, Mystifying Maze seems slightly worthless to be honest. Most of the big threats that would normally be worth stopping with it all have comes into play abilities (the 5 titans and cards like Avenger of Zendikar and more). I would swap these for Tectonic Edge instead. They tend to be much better against taking out opposing man-lands like Raging Ravine. Mana Leak is probably the best counter you could play in this deck, a definite 4-of. Because the deck is built to be control, you do not need all the little creatures or even that many creatures at all. I would remove all the vampires (maybe moving the nighthawk to the sideboard if keeping it at all). I would also increase the preordain count to 4. Also, I would maybe swap 1 Doom Blade for 1 Disfigure. It actually helps against a lot of creatures currently used in standard right now. The only big things it doesn't stop are the big threats you can/should counter instead. I'd also recommend using 4 Duress or Inquisition of Kozilek, depending on your metagame. Personally, I often like a 1-of Jace's Ingenuity as well. If you want more examples of other similar directions to take this, take a look at Nick Spagnolo's UB control deck. He has won multiple major tournaments in the past month with his list which is slightly different but very good (he runs 4 JtMS, though so you may just want to base your list around it and turn it more budget). Sorry if this was a bit much... Best of luck!
Sure.. In theory of course. But I would never go as far to say Ancestral Recall is back. Not even close! The golems are soo easily wipe form the board or just flat out counters. I don't think they stand a chance in this format, as is. Against valakut, they play a mountain. Wipe out your vampire, then crush every golem with ease (assuming they don't just burn you for 12 to the face...).
Wouldn't Preordain be almost strictly better in a combo deck that Twisted Image for card drawing power? Seems pretty good to me anyways... Also, you're combo seems easy enough to disrupt and hard to put together. It needs more ways to set it up and disrupt the opponent I think. Duress could be quite helpful for turn 1, along with Inquisition of Kozilek.
Overall it seems pretty good. However, Venser doesn't seem to really benefit from this deck a whole lot besides basically drawing a card here or there. You're better off then with more Jace or just even Jace's Ingenuity. That would also lighten up the mana base a bit, too. Also, Lava Axe seems entirely pointless in a deck like this and should not be in it. You should maybe replace it with a 4th Lightning Bolt and maybe another burn spell like Burst Lightning.
Unlike most decks I tend to find on this website, I believe you actually have too much land. Your goal is to go off in 3 turns or less and you use a lot of your mana based off dark ritual. I'd take out 3 swamps and add in more cards to help your combo along. Maybe some form of disruption like Thoughtseize. This will help get rid of any counters your opponent may have.
Updated again for liliana's specter with the vat. Also, changed the sideboard a lot as well. Let me know what you think.
Interestingly enough, your combo really doesn't even really require blue mana. To speed things up a bit I'd look at maybe adding a bunch of black/red ritual cards. With dark ritual, seething song, and others like this you could easily pull off your combo by turn 4, and possibly even turn 3.Manamorphose would even allow for you to use tinker off of a red ritual and draws a card in the process. This could be usefull for something like turn one, mulitple right of flame, manamorphose, tinker into Mirror, pay remaining 5 to activate. Also, artifact lands like seat of synod from mirrodin would work really well with Tinker. Hope some of this works out ok for you. Just some ideas. Any suggestions for my TempoVat deck?
many* dual lands
Interesting. I considered the Assassin actually, but it was another 3-drop and I felt like I already had enough of those. It is actually pretty surprisingly easy to drop the shade on turn two and the deck, due to the mana dual lands, can really pretty easily play out as if it were mono black or mono blue even. Plus, I was thinking about adding more Nantuko's because they help apply a lot of early game pressure. Any other ideas?
I can see why others may not like it. Haha. To really make them mad, add counterspell and a few other counters like mana leak.:) Also, when all their creatures are being bounced, Scroll Theif is great because it lets you draw into more bounce spells.
I like it overall but I think the Quest is totally worthless. It won't be active until it hardly matters. I would definitely add some basilisk collar to the sideboard for heavy creature decks with your sparkmages. Beyond that, in the sideboard I'd look at also having Mark of Mutiny against Primeval decks and add 4 teetering peaks to the main. They're basically like playing another burst lightning on the opponent at worst but if you can steal a primeval titan, you can easily attack for 11 or more trampling damage with Mark of Mutiny!
Darksteel Juggernaut isn't very good honestly. Elspeth really doesn't seem all that great in this deck, and the Dispense Justice would probably be better as another 2 Journey to Nowhere. Work on the sideboard to make the cards actually improve the deck against certain matchups. Like with Steel Overseer... What would you want to side it in against that it wouldn't be good against otherwise? I would instead focus on beating specific decks with your sideboard. For example, Kor Firewalker is AWESOME against a pure red deck (fairly popular now days). Even if it doesn't fit the main theme it is worth the sideboard slots because it will still make the deck that much better against red. Leonin Arbiter would be great against a ramp/valakut deck. Luminarch Ascension is great against slow control decks. The list goes on and on. The configuration you currently have doesn't seem to help in very many matchups, let alone against some of the more popular deck choices in standard.
Also, since you don't run any equipment, I'd try memnite over Ornithopter. It's almost strictly better without equipment or something like that.
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