So this started out as a U/B Underhanded Designs control deck, which was total trash, then it became a U/B Torrential Gearhulk deck, which was alot better, but I found that it was very weak to wide creature decks or token decks. since there's absolutely nothing good in the way of actual board wipes in standard right now in black, I decided to go with a new colour to get the next best thing: Radiant Flames.
This changed a lot since I had to drop all of the double black cards to make sure my mana would work out. I replaced Grasp of Darkness with Galvanic Bombardment, which I would argue is an okay substitution since the second one is a Lightning Bolt and the other two after that are.... better than Lightning Bolt? I often find myself grasping 1 or 2 toughness creatures anyways out of necessity, so I don't feel like its too bad.
Then I subbed out the 2 copies of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and one Ob Nixilis Reignited for 2 copies of Chandra, Torch of Defiance and a 26th land. The mana will be slower and slightly less consistent but at least now we have a turn 3 board wipe, we can keep the Ruinous Path in the sideboard, and we can replace Murder with Unlicensed Disintegration, which will deal 3 damage to our opponent if we flash it back with the Torrential Gearhulk etb effect.
running 4 Take Inventory, 4 Anticipate, 2 Glimmer of Genius and 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance seems like a good way to keep the cards flowing... I feel like Painful Truths might have a spot but losing 3 life in a deck with no lifegain mechanics and also having my 3 drop slot be even more stuffed isn't where I want to be. As it stands, turn 1 Galvanic Bombardment turn 2 Take Inventory turn 3 Radiant Flames turn 4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance seems like it can handle at the least most creature decks.
SIDEBOARD
Keeping 2 copies of Make Obsolete in the side for help against Selfless Spirit and Mausoleum Wanderer and Nebelgast Herald, allowing us to neuter a spirits deck. It's also particularly good on turn 3 against white humans, or any fabricate/servo decks.
2 Dead Weight and 2 Harsh Scrutiny against aggro decks replaces Scatter to the Winds since 3 mana counter-spells will almost always be a mana loss in that scenario. Harsh Scrutiny has a variety of applications, I just like to keep hand disruption in my side until I know exactly what I'm facing. For example against B/W control, Harsh Scrutiny is largely dead, making it a sub-optimal mainboard card.
3 Negate helps us against other control decks, as well as vehicle decks and decks with alot of planeswalkers. Even feel like it might be good against the green energy builds that run a ton of pump spells.
2 Ruinous Path is a must have for the opponent's planeswalkers.
2 Transgress the Mind just a good card to have.
1 Summary Dismissal good against Prized Amalgam decks or emerge builds.
I have another slightly different build with 4 Painful Truths instead of 4 Take Inventory, but I won't post that unless it turns out better in testing. It also involves Overwhelming Denial to surge on turn 4 after turn 3 Radiant Flames, but the same number of instants and sorceries, so the gearhulk still gets to do stuff.
