I don't know why you don't have Faith of the Devoted mainboard, in some ways it's a bit better than drake haven because it's cheaper and it's a 4 point life swing each time. I would suggest adding it mainboard even if you only add one.

@pickelchu: It isn't mainboard because it doesn't make blockers. 4 point life swing is great up until you're swarmed out by any number of creature based decks. Our board wipe is extremely limited and so we need to be able to play defense against their creatures. Against non-creature based decks they come in but as creature-based dominates the meta currently, I'll stick with the blockers.

I think BB is a bit much to ask for for Grasp of Darkness as it either forces you to play lands in an order which may throw out later plays or even stall you. I would trade out for 2x Fatal Push and 1x something else - even another Collective Brutality.

Finally, you have exactly 2 cards which can affect plainswalkers before turn 6 and Chandra. I would suggest you find a way to either return them to hand or destroy them, even at sorcery speed.

I would love to not play Grasp of Darkness, but as Felidar Guardian and Heart of Kiran are still the dominant cards... Its a necessity. Especially if Hazoret the Fervent is as big as he looks to be.

As for walker control... There's just nothing good enough. Ruinous Path and Never / Return just aren't fast enough imo... If my meta is still filled with Gideons then I'll consider it, but as of now I'd rather focus on outvaluing them.

Would you consider playing Murderous Compulsion or Sinister Concoction vs Grasp of Darkness, both can be instants, but, Grasp of Darkness is less synergic and cost 2B, but I understand that gods... Consider also Bedlam Reveler, it sould be easy to cast with your actual version.. Not sure about trepasser's curse, I think you can already deal with creatures, maybe Fevered Visions or Cataclysmic Gearhulk instead for control matchups... For Essence Scatter, you'll use it for big creatures, I suggest, you Grasp of Darkness go there or better would be Unsubstantiate or Deny Existence...

Grasp is good against hard to kill creatures, such as Avacyn, the new gods, and with archfiend of ifnir's -1/-1 counters, even an activated Gideon.

@Drakender:

Murderous Compulsion is a good card, but I don't have near enough discard outlets at instant speed to include it. It also doesn't deal with the gods or Gideon as Thylian1 pointed out. Trespasser's Curse is to deal with Copycat combo, yes they can remove it but it usually gives me the extra couple turns needed to gain a firm control of the board. Fevered Visions was very seriously considered, but it's already bad in control shells because of how long the games go and I'll rarely get the upside with so much of the meta switching to Heckbent Strategies featuring Hazoret the Fervent. I'd sooner run Horribly Awry than Deny Existence but Essence Scatter is just such a cleaner answer even if it fails to exile the card. Unsubstantiate is decent, but I still think the current list is stronger. Grasp of Darkness is difficult to cast, but it still just does so much that I can't afford to cut it.

I'll firstly admit I'm not sure where to cut unless you were to remove the demon (maybe) ,but has anyone suggested Nahiri's Wrath or Avacyn's Judgment?

Additionally, would you say an aggro form of this deck, using the same creatures you mention being excluded, would be possible? I've never been big on control myself and I figure if I was to try this strategy I'd rather go a midrange route. Possibly Jund or Sultai I imagine since Noose Constrictor + Shadow of the Grave could be a thing right?

I don't like Nahiri's Wrath in this deck, despite the discard theme, that is actually the deck's least favorite thing to do. That's why pretty much every discard spell also comes with draw attached to it. It is first and foremost a Control deck and that means spending most of the game with a full hand. Avacyn's Judgment suffers from the same problem as Murderous Compulsion of not having enough instant speed discard outlets. Adding more of those hurts the control package and so I've elected to leave them out.

As for turning it into a midrange/aggro deck... I mean maybe you could... But why? Control is so much more fun xD In all seriousness, if you want to go the aggro route I wouldn't use Drake Haven or Faith of the Devoted. They're too slow, instead look to things like the new heckbent cards and the old R/B madness decks from Shadows over Innistrad