Fantastic deck! +1

My only suggestion would be to consider an instant-speed draw spell (Inspiration ?) over Divination . Costing one more mana is not a huge hindrance in a deck like this, and the instant speed enables you to keep mana open for a counter and draw on their end step.

But really, this deck is great as-is.

Thanks Gorgosaurusrex!

I had thought about Opportunity as an instant speed draw but it was too expensive. I will try it with the Inspiration instead of Divination . Thanks!

What are your thoughts of adding 1 Inspiration and 1 Thassa, God of the Sea for the extra scry/unblockable late game instead? I CAN get her to her devotion with a couple of blue creatures out, but would only consider that a bonus

It looks pretty good to me!

A somewhat glaring issue to me though seems to be the lack of draw engines. With all of this scry, sometimes you just really want to grab that card the same turn you see it. That's why instant speed draw like Inspiration would be pretty good, but It's also a bit costly for just one extra card advantage. I've found Read the Bones to be a really good way to do this; the life loss is almost negligible, especially if you get more lifelink from stuff like Deathrte and the Whip. That's your opinion, though. I haven't tested the deck, so maybe that extra scry isn't even relevant you already have so much. If not, Underworld Connections might be a bit better mainboarded; you can attack with Prognostic Sphinx to scry, see a removal spell, then immediately tap the land to get the removal and prevent a possible blocker that turn. Then repeat next turn. And again, and again!

Other than that, the deck seems pretty good! Just a small note, though; if the scry doesn't help you filter through all of your one-ofs in the deck, to make it more consistent I would pull Polukranos, World Eater . I've just never had great experiences with him.

Final note; Putrefy has taken a backseat to Hero's Downfall recently, and with all the planeswalkers running around, I would just swap the two completely.

Love the deck! +1

Thanks for the suggestions!

The Putrefy are in there mainly because I don't have the Hero's Downfall s yet, but as soon as I get them they will go in instead.

I have 2 x Divination and Jace to help me gain cards (especially off of scry), but I MAY go to Inspiration after I test it with both to see which is better.

With your focus on scry have you considered Duskmantle Seer ?

Jace, Memory Adept =/= Jace, Architect of Thought . Memory Adept can grant some card advantage but Architect is WAY better for digging through your deck. If you are considering using Jace, Memory Adept as an occasional alt win con via mill then I would keep him. Otherwise he really should be upgraded to Architect. I know you mentioned that you are looking to upgrade, and I would make this a priority for the deck.

I would recommend running additional Underworld Connections over Divination . Continued draw is fantastic for this deck and the cost of life is minimal.

Thanks for taking the time to look it over and comment guys! I really appreciate it and please +1 if you haven't already done so (if you like it)

@bluephoinex1: Duskmantle Seer would give me too much life loss I think wouldn't it? I mean yes I can gain an extra card each turn, but I have a chance of losing 4-6 life in doing so.

@Gorgosaurusrex: I would love to do that but alas I do not have them lol. There are a few "tweaks" the deck needs to get it to where I want I'm thinking of adding one more Underworld Connections and some more removal. Putrefy will probably get replaced by Hero's Downfall if I can get someone to come off of them

Deck is looking even better now than before! I don't know what other suggestions to make. Maybe take your mana curve into account? You've got a surplus of two drops and five drops, but a slight lack of four mana ones; ideally, you hit Sylvan Caryatid turn two and a four drop turn 3, which gives you an even greater edge on those aggro decks that you've been dealing with lately. Just a small suggestion though, if the deck has been working fine in your experience there's no need to change it

That's probably a good idea. I'll have to drop an Omenspeaker and maybe a Prognostic Sphinx and put in 2 more Desecration Demon s when I get them

to many win cons and not enough removal imo, but my meta is saturated with aggro so im a bit biased when building decks

I thought about dropping 2 x Omenspeaker for some more removal. What would you suggest? I like keeping things a bit versatile until game 2 (meaning split my removal up into a mix of things like Abrupt Decay , Hero's Downfall , Putrefy , Doom Blade , Far / Away , etc)

and on that note, I thought about dropping Omenspeaker altogether. Maybe some more draw or counterspells like Syncopate ?

Omenspeaker is really good against aggro as the 1/3 will be able to block quite a few times or soak up a Lightning Strike for you, Abrupt Decay is such a good card against aggro i would main a full set.

What decks are most abundant in your meta?

Mono Red (not the blitz version...more of the "normal" aggro with BTE), Esper Control, and Monoblack devotion

Abrupt Decay hits almost every problem card in there decks (d-sphere underworld, specter, all the mono red creatures -fanatic and stormbreath(?) and ashiok) so i think it is an easy 3 of if not 4 of, i would side the lifebanes to make space, also i would cut either sphinx or reaper because you have to many win cons as it is without enough support

No way Reaper of the Wilds gets cut as she is a 4 drop that can gain hexproof after the turn it hits (or the same if you don't drop her until 6 mana). Prognostic Sphinx would probably be the first to be cut.

I agree on the amount of Abrupt Decay . Thanks for the tip!

Read the Bones is better than Divination even though you lose two life it allows you to dig for what you need when you need it.

You don't think it would be too much life loss against aggro with Read the Bones , shock lands. And Thoughtseize

Na not really, but if you don't like it that's fine haha just play test it perhaps?

Yeah i'm going to playtest it tonight to see how it goes. I REALLY need to tweak this before the GPT this Saturday

Hey i just made my first bug deck and well first control deck and it seems like you have a good idea and understand of bug and where i would want my deck to be like one day. If you could check out my deck NEED HELP...Bug control and let know what you think

thanks and +1

I don not believe ashiok or lifebane should be main board, ashiok is no good against that pesky blue white or blitz decks, and well life bane is only half decent against anything that isn't green or white. take those out and throw in 4 dreg manglers, all of a sudden you have worse case scenario a 3/3 blocker that you can scavenge. That not to mention its best case scenario which is deal with me fast or im going to outrace you. Also after analyzing the meta numerous times while creating my unposted secret bug deck ive concluded that 4x abrupt decay main board is just dirty as hell.

Thanks for the comment @Deckgodmaster!

I agree that Abrupt Decay is good, but since 75-80% of the "most played decks" right now run Mutavault I don't like overloading on them. It is also subpar against Gruul Midrange (RG Monsters) as it only hits a few things.

I had toyed with the idea of Dreg Mangler due to the haste ability, but I'm more of a midrange decks that wins through gaining card advantage over time, not socking my opponent repeatedly in the face the first few turns.

Lifebane Zombie does 3 things REALLY well: Lets me see my opponent's hands (the ONLY information you don't know besides what's on top of their library), exiles a creature from it that could give me problems (Blood Baron of Vizkopa , Obzedat, Ghost Council , Fiendslayer Paladin , etc), and being unblockable vs any creature that isn't black. Elspeth, Sun's Champion can try to throw things in front of her, but he slips on buy and slaps her around

I will test it out both ways to see how it plays out, as I don't like to rule anything out completely without testing. What would you suggest I drop from the sideboard to put the Lifebane Zombie s in there?