Wouldn't control prefer Pearl Lake Ancient to Gaea's Revenge? I understand Haste and basic Hexproof, but the toughness at 5 is pretty weak. I don't think you want all those pain lands either in a control deck. Maybe 4 can be replaced with Polluted Delta and the other four with some combination of basics and Opulent Palace?

Sigh... I just wrote out a long explanation of my thoughts on Pearl Lake Ancient versus Gaea's Revenge and then Flash crashed -.-

The short of it: I'm not sure. Flash is better than haste, but pseudo shroud is better than bouncing lands. As for toughness, I'm not sure it is relevant enough to justify running a removal target that makes me bounce lands over something that is basically shroud unless my opponent wants to give it a buff. Also, by turn eight or nine when I should have seven mana to cast these things, the flash will be less important than haste. And against control, Gaea's revenge is just better.

And as for the lands, I would surely go with Polluted Deltas if I wanted to spend $120 lol. As for the opulent palace, I'm not sure. I don't want too many taplands. How I prefer to see my land base happen:

T1: Temple/gainland.

T2: Note that all my taplands produce blue mana? Anything that won't enter tapped for a hopeful Clash of Wills on their turn. If none are in hand, tapland.

T3: Not a tapland. Access to Sultai Charm, downfall, dissolve, drown in sorrow- all relevant.

So, since I only run thirteen lands that enter untapped as it is, I don't really want to lessen that number. But what do you think of dropping Dismal Backwater for palace? I haven't really had much of any problems with mangoes, but it is possible.

I understand your thoughts on Gaea's Revenge. Seems fair. I wouldn't drop Dismal Backwater for Palace because you need the life gain as a control build. If the pain lands aren't hurting you too much, then I would just leave it as is. Don't fix what isn't broken, ya know?

I've got a few recommendations for the deck.

First off, you might want to consider Sagu Mauler instead of Gaea's Revenge. He's a decent blocker, and he stands up pretty well as a 1-of creature in the deck. He doesn't have the non-counterable upside that Gaea's Revenge does, but he's a more solid creature that simply does a good job.

Second, I'd highly recommend Opulent Palace, with it in the maybeboard I'm sure you've considered it. However, having a land that taps for all 3 colours is invaluable in a 3-color deck. If you decide Opulent Palace isn't for you, you may want to consider Mana Confluence. Either way, it's vital to have a land that can be used for any of your colours, and it will surely help with mana-fixing.

I'd also recommend dropping Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver for a third creature, whether it be Sagu Mauler, Gaea's Revenge, or Silumgar, the Drifting Death. I could even see a potential 1-of Dragonlord Silumgar in your deck.

Replacing Dragonlord's Prerogative with Anticipate may also be a good idea. You've got late-game card draw with Dig Through Time, and so Anticipate might be better, as it lets you draws the card you want, instead of drawing 4 cards. This is especially important at 2 mana.

I really dislike Anticipate. I would rather have almost anything else than it. Used to run a playset. I find that replacing those with some latergame draw and an extra counter was a great move.

Why are you suggesting dropping Ashiok for a creature specifically? I may drop her for a sagu mauler all the same, but are you suggesting that one would rather run creatures over planeswalkers? Quite to the contrary, since players can be made to sacrifice creatures.

I think I will throw in some opulent palaces. I already own a playset. What would you recommend I remove for them?

Anyway, thanks for reminding me sagu mauler exists! Ashiok is a card that I've always kind of had problems with. She is good, but I seldom use her -X. Sure, she's won plenty of games for me, but mainly through the sheer power of her -10 and/or a slow milling by exile death. Another problem with her -X is the same reason I only run Hexproof/shroud/some variation thereof creatures- my opponent always has removal in hand. If I take their immensely powerful creature, they are always on spot to kill it. Also I have considered having her against TurboFog which a good friend of mine runs, but once I get Kiora's emblem all I need to do is counter a couple fogs one turn and hit with a few krakens and game.

So, changes: -1 Ashiok, +1 Sagu Mauler.

And to reiterate: What do you suggest about my land base with the palaces? What would you remove?

For Opulent Palace, I would remove two temples and two painlands of opposing colors. This'll keep the landbase relatively the same as before. This also ensures that you're just as likely to draw either pain or scry.

If you still want to run Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, I'd recommend you put two to three of them in your sideboard for the slower, grindier matchups against certain decks (I.E, Control, Devotion).

I think I'll just cut Ashiok, thanks.

Alright, changes:-2 llanowar wastes

-1 island

-1 Temple of Mystery

+4 oppulent palace

+1 from me.

I recently switched to Sultai Control from Esper Dragons. I really like how Sultai feels right now.

Looking at your list, I was wondering why you don't run any copies of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip? I love him personally. The looting is great, and you never have to flip him if you don't want to - Dig Through Time and tasigur are both great ways to keep your yard emptied out. Sometimes his plus ability is great though, and his neg three is like having 5 or 6 copies of Hero's Downfall or whatever else.

Also, I know you said you don't have mana issues much, but have you considered 1-2 Courser of Kruphix mainboarded? I'm experimenting with it now, and so far its great. Smooths out my draws, allows me to gain a little life (while still playing temples over gain-life lands), and provides a good body to block against aggro decks.

As far as your sideboard goes, I love that you run 2 Virulent Plague. So often I see people with one or none, yet it shuts down Elspeth, Goblins, Thopters... I would maybe recommend Bile Blight or Ultimate Price. I would maybe try Ultimate Price over Encase in Ice, just because Encase in Ice only stops attacks, it doesn't stop the triggers - Courser of Kruphix for example, they still can play their top card, and still gain life when they play lands. How do you feel about Self-Inflicted Wound? I haven't played with that one personally.

Thanks! I'll try to address this respectively:

Why don't I run any copies of Jace? He is 32 dollars, that's why lol. Same reason I don't have polluted deltas.

I actually have unusual thought on courser. I like when my opponent controls one, and really would hate to control one myself. The life gain and minimal deck thinning is nice, but letting my opponent know what's in my hand is, I think, a relavent enough drawback to make the assets less appealing. There is also the matter of his cost.

I KNOW! WHY DOESN'T EVERYONE SB VIRULENT PLAGUE?!?!?! There are so many totally meta decks that run lots of tokens! Hangarback walker bcomes a high cost lousy thing with a lame ability, goblins and RDW lose the use of their playsets of Dragon Fodder and Hordeling Outburst, etcetera.

Bile blight. Never known how to feel about that. Seems best against token decks, and that is what virulent plague is for.

I definitely love encase in ice. Here's why: People see that it is an "Anti-Atarka" card so they visualize big swingy things in ramp decks. What people fail to realize is that is also locks down RDW. It doesn't hit rabble master or piledriver, but it totally hits almost anything else. it is practically 2 mana removal against RDW. It functions, for me, as SB against RDW, Abzan (Siege Rhino), Ramp, and some other off-color mid-y range-y decks.

There is the issue of self inflicted wound. If it were an instant I'd be all over it. It usually comes in against Abzan and Atarka/Ramp decks, since against mono-white aggro it would just hit a token. The biggest problem I see with it is that it doesn't get along with encase in ice, since they will just sacrifice the tapped down creature if it is green. Maybe I should drop it for another virulent plague and something else?

Kind of on a side point, I run UG Morph in Standard, and I splashed black almost solely to have access to Virulent Plague in the side. Lol.

I like the updated mana base a lot more; it seems much more consistent on paper. Perhaps a 1-of Crux of Fate would be nice to get rid of Siege Rhino and Tasigur, the Golden Fang? In most games, you won't have a counter for every spell.

I think that while Sagu Mauler is resilient, you would benefit more from a second Silumgar, the Drifting Death or Dragonlord Silumgar because this would allow you to reduce the spike in your three drop by playing Silumgar's Scorn as a 1-2 of, replacing 1 Disdainful Stroke and 1 Dissolve. Perhaps I've been playing too much modern, but a 2 mana counter is irresistible to me.

I don't really like crux that much. Five mana seems heavy to me, and I think I run sufficient removal to deal with most things that aren't within Languish range. I do like Silumgar, the Drifting Death a lot. But even if I were to run him as a 2-of, I still probably wouldn't run a counter in three color which is Force Spike unless I have the 1/30 cards in my deck that are draconian.

But yeah, that plague. I don't want to be running a playset since more than one on the field is redundant. There is one other thing though: Orbs of Warding. Lets break this down:

Pros:

I gain hexproof. To hell with Psychic Rebuttal, against some decks a serious portion of their deck is just dead.

Most tokens are 1/1 anyway. Yes, sure, I would rather just kill them but this also locks down a plum lot of things in additions to tokens. 1/1 goblins, thopters, warriors, soldiers, etcetera may just as well be dead. Just chump blockers.

No colored mana requirements.

I just feel like there are a lot of decks that will be practically unable to win against this.

Slightly harder to remove than Virulent Plague. Mostly the same cards will hit them, but there is Erase.

Cons:

It has a converted mana cost of five.

Notes:

When I side against aggro, I drop all my wincons other than my 6 drops and replace them with Rakshasa Deathdealer. Is this solid enough with all my counters and removal to stall long enough for the orbs to actually see the field?

Obelisk of Urd would be problematic when it comes to tokens. Make them all 3/3. Problem. But I do run a maindeck playset of Sultai Charm which could kill it, as well as a playset of Languish. Also though, virulent plague would then leave all their tokens still alive anyway, not to mention the orbs are still blocking out other stuff.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think I should main deck 1-of Orbs of Warding.

Lets rundown some meta:

RDW: Orbs stops tokens and burn.

Thopters: Stops thopters. Hangarback walker becomes pretty bad with out that death ability, which it basically takes away. Makes Thopter Spy Network irrelevant.

Mill/TurboFog: Sphinx's Tutelage clearly says "target" opponent. So does Grindclock.

Ramp: Stops Crater's Claws and damage from dorks. Would still be sided out though.

Abzan midrange: Side it out. It does do anything, sure, but really lackluster.

Control: Beats Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. Prevents Garruk from using his ultimate. Also, I run hexproof in excess for obvious reasons on my creatures; but Foul-Tongue Invocation still hits my things. Well, not anymore.

I'm going to try dropping my 1-of main deck Disdainful Stroke for it. My local meta, I should add, is heavily aggro. There is a good splattering of other things, but aggro is most prevalent. I often side stroke out anyway.

I also think I'll drop Self-Inflating Mattress from my sideboard for a fourth SB stroke and something else. Maybe an extra orbs.

The problem with Orbs of Warding is two-fold. First-off, this card comes out pretty late. At turn 5, you don't really want to tap out for such a small effect. Especially if it means your opponent gets to dump their hand all over the board, and then the effects of Orbs of Warding don't matter at all. If you really want to deal with aggro, I'd recommend Displacement Wave, as it forces them to slow down, while not leaving yourself open to harassment by them when you pass the turn.

You might also want to consider dropping Gaea's Revenge entirely. By no means is this a bad card, but you might want to consider a 2nd Silumgar, the Drifting Death, or Sagu Mauler. Both of these have a controlling presence on the board, aren't blocked as easily, and still do enough damage to win you the game. Gaea's Revenge is easily chump-blocked, costs double green (Which is harder to hit than the other two creatures), and easily dies to any kind of solid board-state.

I mostly agree on both accounts. I am going to keep the 1 main decked Orbs of warding, but I'll drop the one in the side for gaea's revenge and replace her MD with another silumgar. Or maybe Ashiok? I prefer silumgar to sagu mauler mainly for the flying, but I don't want to run more then two of a legendary lest it be dead in hand. Plus running a three of in control is begging for an Infinite Obliteration. So I'll keep one mauler in the maindeck and throw in either a second silumgar or an Ashiok.

Thank you for reminding me of Infinite Obliteration. This card deserves to be in your control deck for how volatile it can be for your opponent. Playing Elves? Goobye Shaman of the Pack. Abzan? See you Siege Rhino! Remember that this card lets you not only exile an entire playset of creatures, but also allows you to Peek at your opponents hand, and look through their entire library! This card will very quickly tell you what your opponent is playing, which is so strong in a control deck.

Moving on. I am really hating Orbs of Warding in this deck. As a 1-of, it's hard to draw into, and the decks where it might be useful, it'll never survive past one turn cycle. Your opponent will most likely see this, and in comes Smash to Smithereens or Destructive Revelry to eat it up and spit it back at you.

I'd also highly recommend playing a Crux of Fate two in your mainboard. This card is a Tragic Arrogance for black, which lets you decide how to boardwipe, and still keep your boardstate on top. The downside is you might accidentaly hit Sagu Mauler, or not hit all the cards on the board.