I've been building around a unique interaction involving Faith of the Devoted + Midnight Oil
and it turns out there are a lot of ways to do it and it works in every color combination. This one tackles white and combines a little bit of Cycling as another enabler of Faith and is protected by a lot of removal to buy time to set up the combo.
The other addition to white is the interesting combination of Midnight Oil + Solemnity
to enable the discard combo immediately. Solemnity stops Oil from entering with any counters on it so your hand size is immediately dumped to 0. Because you don't have to give Oil a few turns to wind down, you can wait until you are ready and drop it and Solemnity together (Solemnity first). This means you can spend the first 6 turns disrupting your opponent and killing their stuff, and be left with your combo and a very quick clock. This means you have 6 turns to play your Faith, which is fine by itself or in a pair, and hopefully an Orrery as well. The other bonus to Solemnity is that when you play a 2nd or 3rd Oil it resets what your maximum hand size is based on it's counters. This means you can play another one with 0 counters instead, still discard down to 0, and then draw a third card during your draw step to keep the engine going. You will be netting less life gained in doing this since you'd be taking an extra point of damage, so it's going to depend on the situation.
It's worth noting that Solemnity completely hoses Energy since players can't get counters, and +1/+1 counters can't be placed on things so Merfolk, Gearhulk, and Winding Constrictor strategies are shut down. No Brick counters for Amonkhet artifacts, and no Charge or Landmark counters for Ixalan flip artifacts either. It doesn't stop Loyalty counters for Planeswalkers unfortunately, but you can't have everything. It does stop negative counters though so Soul-Scar Mage in red decks becomes a dead card because damage from spells is converted to negative counters which then can't be placed. Green decks that rely on Channeler Initiate for mana fixing or any other negative counters are done, and Black decks that care about negative counters are out as well. Usually you'd see this in the sideboard, but since we aren't running any of those things and if anything it helps our endgame strategy so a pair of them in the main is fine. Most opponents shouldn't have Enchantment hate in their own mainboard so this could be a game-ending drop against the right opponent that relies on some kind of counters.
Cast Out, Ixalan's Binding, and Angel of Sanctions can all deal with any non-land permanents like creatures, artifacts, and enchantments to really slow down your opponent. Cast Out has the added bonus of being able to be Cycled for one mana which helps dig if you are missing cards, but also triggers Faith. I've since added Thopter Arrest to the list in the 3 cost slot for artifacts and creatures.
Kitesail Freebooter is an honorary enchantment that grabs a card from your opponent's hand instead of the battlefield. Harsh Scrutiny grabs a creature out of your opponent's hand and gives you a scry, so it's a great first turn move. If your opponent doesn't run Flying or Reach, then the Freebooter can also ping your opponent in the air. It's also a chump blocker if you need to.
Spot removal in Standard has a lot of weird restrictions, so there is a good mix to encompass everything. Fatal Push is still the premier removal choice for the early game, but is restricted by the targets CMC. This is enhanced by simple cards like Evolving Wilds and Field of Ruin to enable Revolt and also help fix your mana if needed. Essence Extraction isn't exactly restricted, but it won't kill anything with more than 3 toughness. I chose this over Vanquish the Weak because as a combat trick it can kill something bigger but also comes with a little life gain. Vraska's Contempt isn't restricted but it costs more mana than you'll want to spend as a primary removal spell. Walk the Plank made the sideboard to swap in for Ixalan's Binding as a cheaper means of dealing with creatures. Binding has extended use by stopping further casts of the same card it exiles, but it may be necessary to just have less expensive removal. Except against Merfolk.
I had overlooked Thopter Arrest as another isolation card and in the 3 slot I like it better than Essence Extraction and Vanquish the Weak. This leaves some room for your opponent to get things back, but mass enchantment removal isn't exactly a strategy so it should be safe.
Kambal, Consul of Allocation is a nice 3 drop that saps life from your opponent for doing anything other than playing creatures. At worst it will just get killed to a burn spell or spot removal and drain 2 life which is unfortunate but not terrible. If your opponent doesn't have removal then Kambal has the potential to really do some work. It certainly makes your opponent think about their plays as they have the added cost of paying 2 life to do things.
Oketra's Attendant is only a 3/3 Flying for 5 so it's a little off curve, but add in Cycling to enable the combo while digging and Embalm to be able to replay it and it's actually pretty decent. If your opponent doesn't have Flying or Reach then a 3/3 in the air is actually a solid clock.
Ghirapur Orrery + Midnight Oil
accelerates your draw as you start each turn with 0 cards. This ramps up the potency of discarding to 0 since while Oil and this are both on the board you jump up to 5 cards in hand during your upkeep/draw step. I'm quite attached to this little interaction. I've used this card in so many decks and I've come to the conclusion that allowing other players to play extra land is no big deal on turn 4 and beyond since most of the time they are only able to play one land a turn anyway. I've also rarely run into situations where it drew them extra cards, but even if it did here you will either be able to kill whatever they play or exile it so the threat level remains pretty low.
The sideboard has more hand disruption and includes board wipes. Bontu's Last Reckoning has proven to be a solid way to bail out of situation and can deal with things like Carnage Tyrant. Cataclysmic Gearhulk lets you keep one of each type of thing so it resets the board in a way that leaves you with something useful. This is great against Treasures and is repeatable if you bounce it with Angel of Condemnation.
I've rethought the Gearhulks and decided to lower the CMC of the sideboard a bit. The mother of all anti-artifact cards, Consulate Crackdown, was put in place of Cataclysmic Gearhulk since it is a one-sided effect. I found that with so many enchantments taking things away from your opponent it would be a bad idea to have to destroy all but one of those things and give the rest back. Noxious Gearhulk also got the boot in favor of a third Duress to give more early disruption against your opponent. Hopefully, by the time you could be playing Noxious Gearhulk you are set up and won't need it.
Duress is a great means of hand disruption early on as they can grab counterspells and support spells that help build up your opponent or would otherwise be able to slow you down. It also takes away your opponent's sideboard enchantment removal if they added any. It's the closest thing to a black counter spell we're going to get.
Spot removal options include Forsake the Worldly for artifacts and enchantments, Noxious Gearhulk for single creatures (again, repeatable with the Angel), and Scarab Feast for graveyards.
This version is slower than it's Golgari counterpart, but with better protection as it is surrounded by removal. It does not have a great backup plan other than a few creatures with flying, but that should be fine since the first several turns burn out your opponent and once set up you will drain up to 10 life per turn leaving your opponent almost no time to recover.
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Standard Hobbez9186
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