If you want to make the deck a bit quicker, you could add Geist of Saint Traft instead of the Drogskol Reaver. You can use the Sundial of the Infinite's ability to keep your Angel tokens.

Also, is Ray of Revelation better than Demystify in your sideboard? You could change a few of your basic lands to Hinterland Harbor/Razorverge Thicket/Sunpetal Grove.

Just realized how amazing the Dissipation Field is. It would also bounce any damage doing curses attached to you.

@arahdial: Geist of Saint Traft doesn't play well with the other Venser/Sundial combos. With Geist you have to end your turn at the end of combat, instead of the beginning of the end step (which everything else uses). So, you'd either be able to keep your Angel token or do all the other shenanigans.

Well, you'd have the option until Venser got out there.

True, true.

wouldnt you lose the angel tokens unless you used the sundial at the end of every combat step?

No, it's a delayed trigger. It will only trigger once. If the St Traft said- "Exile at the end of every combat", then he would. Because it only says to do it once, if you Sundial it, the trigger is exiled and will not occur for that token again.

awesome lol i might have to work that into my deck then

Blade Splicer+venser= spamming token 3/3 first strikers

actually this is similar to my deck All Your Bases Belong to Us

I've been running a variety of this on MTGO. No DKA cards of course, so no curse or reaver.

I am pleasantly surprised. I'm running three Geist of Saint Traft, two Mana Leak and two Dissipate right now. Titan bringing back the adept, snapcaster or geist is fantastic. Dissipation Field sits there and prevents any attack, forcing the opponent to build up his army until he/she is lethal. This of course gives you more time to get your gamebreaking combos online.

with all the etb effects you cold abuse mimic vat pretty effectively and with sundial you can keep it's tokens.

Neurok Invisimancer?

Dissipation Field is pretty bad against Snapcaster Mage or any other creatures with ETB effects. Ow. I've had to Disperse numerous times against myself.

However, I believe Curse of Exhaustion breaks Snapcaster's graveyard flashback ability. I can't wait for DKA to be available on MTGO.

@ arahdial:

Yeah, the ETB guys can complicate things a bit. I found that a prematurely released Shrine of burning rage can also be a pain in the arse. Had a person use it much earlier than I expected, did 4pts of damage to me, then dropped it again.

With ETB guys, I change up the way I handle them. I put block priority on them when they attack, and I try to avoid vapor snagging or dispersing them, unless I am baiting. If I have a dissipate in hand or a snapcaster with dissipate in the graveyard, I'll drop the removal card so I can follow up with a counter on the next turn. Otherwise, the ETB guys are the number one target for Oblivion rings.

Can't be perfect against everything, or even great for that matter. Best thing to do is sideboard as you can and make sure your battle plans are malleable. :)

This is a great control deck, but there aren't very many good combos in here (that's why you have Sundial of the Infinite, right?). First of all, the sundial/venser combo mentioned in the description doesn't work, because Venser, the Sojourner's first effect must be used on a permanent YOU OWN, so unless you want to perma-exile your permanents, that won't work. I like the Oblivion Ring/sundial/venser combo, but what else is sundial for? I'd like to see more cards like Fiend Hunter and Mimic Vat and Geist of Saint Traft in here. The venser/etb combos are good, but not game-winning, so I would suggest putting in one of the above-mentioned cards (especially the geist) to give sundial a larger role in this deck.

Sorry, I didn't realize you mentioned Oblivion Ring in there as well. :S Also, maybe Sudden Disappearance would be better than the geist if you want to use other combos in the same turn requiring you to end your turn on your end step. It's true that this is mainly a control deck, but I'd rather see you use sundial more than just in a 3-card combo or take it out.

I've been mulling over adding a Sudden Disappearance, but I have not decided on it, or how. Some are real adamant about staying at 60 cards, but I have never had a problem with 61. However, going above that is even beyond my comfort levels.

Due to its high mana need and the sheer amount of damage it could cause, I would prefer to just have one in there, because if I need to use it twice, something went seriously wrong anyway. It should be a late game card that leads to a win con within a few turns.

I've been doing play tests with a better set of sleeves and have had much better results. I have new Ultra Pro sleeves on the way that are excellent for shuffling. I plan to get in on FNM again and see how the deck performs with better shuffling. Hard to blame the deck for failures when you are getting consistent clumping, particularly in excessive lands or lack of lands all together. I need to see how it does on its own merits before committing to changes.

Ihat's one of the reasons I play without sleeves when the deck is in prototype phase, shuffles easier for me. Then when I nail down the exact mix I sleeve it. I will say though a set of ultra pro matte finish sleeves have spoiled me, SO slick.

Don't they have to sac Shrine of Burning Rage as a cost to using it? I thought it would be in the yard before it does damage and therefore wouldn't bounce because of Dissipation Field. Or does it not matter what zone it's in when the damage is done?

You know, I assumed so, but I just went digging around.

Sacrificing is paying a cost, so it cannot be responded to. When you pay a cost, the action is done, it completes itself before anything else may take place. Sacrificing specifically says that the card must go to the graveyard. Upon entering the graveyard, all costs are paid, and the damage is done.

Cards that are in the graveyard are not permanents. Therefore, when Shrine of Burning Rage does its damage, it is not a permanent, and therefore does not go back.

Wish I would have thought of that last week. Thanks for getting me thinking about it. :)

Sweet.

You know, I actually think Mimic Vat would be a little better in here, because it lets you end the game more quickly. If you don't add either, though, I suggest you take out the sundial.

For a long time, it's always struck me as odd that most tournament-style control players don't use bounce effects. THIS deck, however... takes the cake. Then bounces it. This is excellent.

You should add Sudden Disappearance. Here's why: Sundial of the Infinite. When the second part of Disappearance triggers, you activate Sundial, exiling that ability from the stack. All your opponent's stuff stays in exile permanently. It's the control player's kill switch. DO IT.

Seriously, this deck is awesome.

With how much token decks plague me(if I don't get the board locked down hard and early, it is a going to end badly), I am really going to look at Sudden Disappearance after this Friday. I want to get a good set of games in to see how it is working out mechanically, before I make any changes. My sideboard deals with tokens well enough, but so much of the sideboard is more or less there because of token poopers. It would be nice to have some kind of answer to overly abundant token droppings all over the field, without having to entirely rely on the sideboard.

It would help open up the sideboard a bit for other cards that may be needed. :)

Anyway, if you think my deck is awesome, give it some love with a +1 :D