Our creatures are essentially our win conditions. We're only playing 5 in the deck, 3 of which constitute our rare/mythic allowance of 4, because we want these single cards to be very powerful and robust. To start off, we have two copies of the uncommon Aerial Responder. I feel like his combination of keywords is invaluable. Flying let's us hit face most of the time, while healing with lifelink in the process (to recover from early aggression). Vigilance is also amazing against all those 1 and 2 power creatures opponents may play, that you can then still block after attacking. In fact, this seems like one of our better cards against aggro and token strategies, since we may only be able to kill one of their weenies a turn, but it does also heal us in the process. I'm not sure if I should play more copies of Aerial Responder or not. They are still vulnerable to removal, though are thankfully out of range of spells like Shock and Magma Spray.
Kefnet the Mindful is cheap to play and hard for our opponent to get rid of. Even when he's not active, so to speak, he still acts like a permanent enchantment as the Theros Gods would, but instead of having a passive effect, he has an ability to trigger. When I first read the card, I thought "7 cards in hand at all times will be too hard to achieve", yet in playtesting, I've found it's much easier than it seems. We have card draw, usually don't play many spells since we're often waiting to just counter our opponent, and Mr. God here enables himself quite easily. Note you can also just draw your card for the turn to have 7 in hand, attack with him, and then play your lands and spells in your second main phase when you don't need him to be active anymore. For an indestructible guy with card draw that puts your opponent on a 4-turn clock, the measly mana cost seems quite okay to me!
Glyph Keeper is honestly just a new sphinx I want to try out, but he seems very good because he's so persistent. His downside is opposing flying/reach creatures that block him with his lowly 3 toughness, but we have removal like Stasis Snare and Cast Out to get rid of them. Opponents that do end up being able to burn him down, will then have the absolute pleasure of going through all that trouble for a second time when we embalm him from our graveyard (also great card advantage, by the way).
Sphinx of Magosi is a creature that, to my knowledge, is 100% overlooked since he comes from the welcome decks, and what card from a welcome deck could actually be any good, right? Yet this guy fits snugly into a control deck. A flying, expensive finisher: that's the standard job description. 6 toughness resists a lot of pain, and we can always sink mana into him to increase this even further. Opponents that aren't careful can see this enter the battlefield and then swing at the dome for 8 damage or so the turn after. But the counters aren't the main thing that attract me to this sphinx. It's the aforementioned card draw on a stick. This guy isn't indestructible like Kefnet the Mindful is, and can be dealt with by any "destroy target creature" effect, which is why I'm not completely sold on him yet, but every time I've played him the card draw has provided so much value.
A possible replacement for either of the sphinges is Sphinx of the Final Word, who is an amazing control finisher because he is so resilient (can't be countered, hexproof and flying). and in control mirror matches he stops the rest of our spells from being countered, though that clause doesn't trigger too often. Replacing Sphinx of Magosi would make all three of our real finishers (Kefnet the Mindful, Glyph Keeper and Sphinx of the Final Word) very difficult to deal with. Indestructible, a once-per-turn shield + embalm and hexproof are not things our opponents want to see. In that regard, I've even considered dropping the two copies of Aerial Responder, simply to void any creature removal cards in our opponent's deck. After all, making some of your opponent's cards useless is a form of control by itself. What do you think in that regard? It's probably too dangerous considering our weakness to early aggression, right? Also, who gets your vote for the end of the curve: Sphinx of Magosi or Sphinx of the Final Word? I may add that there is of course another extremely popular option: Torrential Gearhulk. Outside of his real-life cost, though, he's also hindered slightly by our removal being mostly enchantments, and him not having flying.
