Hey Nigeltastic- I tested this out between rounds at FNM, and it did alright, but it's a touch too slow. I think what it lacks comes in two flavors- not enough tempo control in the early game (causing fails against aggro in Mardu and Jeskai flavors) and nothing for lifegain (Bow of Nylea wasn't helping stabilize in the late game against everyone). So I put in 3 Jace, the Living Guildpact . The choice between bounce and the Sultai Ascendancy effect was useful, and caused a win when I popped an ultimate in a game against the Jeskai aggro deck I faced, followed by a Villainous Wealth for 7. Likewise, I'd almost say that there should be a way to fill the graveyard a little more, because I was delving Murderous Cuts and having nothing left for Dig Through Time, or vice versa. So, in the interest of speeding up the way this thing locks down the battlefield, I'm going to sub out the Negates to the sideboard, and put in 4 Void Snare . I was considering putting in a single Thassa, God of the Sea to both scry before looking at your two top cards and ALSO drawing two, and fulfill the role of mini-Aetherling, being both unblockable, indestructible, and activated through a Jace and Dictate at the same time. Not sure what to do about faster/harder lifegain. Death Frenzy is too slow, but might work against aggro (so sideboard at most) and Feed the Clan is underwhelming, really. Instant speed is nice, though. At any rate, love it, and I'm going to run my own variant.

TheNinjaJesus -- I took the deck to FNM last night as well, and I agree, it's just a little bit off. It was close, you're right, and I noticed the weakness in both areas you did. It falls behind super aggro decks a little too hard, and the lifegain is just barely not enough.

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My thoughts on which cards felt weak or need adjustment currently:
-- Despise : Felt awful for 3/4 of the game, and was not where the deck wanted to be late game, as all of my opponents simply played their cards out and then I was full of sadness.
-- Sultai Ascendancy : I found myself drawing 2 copies of this far too often, so I think going down to 2x is a good idea. I also felt a touch land light, so I think I'll be putting in another Island .
-- Villainous Wealth : Against mid-range or superfriends opponents, this card is nuts. Against many other decks, it just sat in my hand and did nothing terribly useful. I am going to experiment replacing it with Grindclock as my win con to speed the deck up with less mana requirement. I think this still has a solid place in the sideboard, but that's about it.

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Cards I think I can benefit from:
-- Pharika's Cure : I think some snake oil is just the thing for this deck. The two lifegain seems super relevant, it helps against aggro some pre-board, and post-board it can finish off things of toughness between 2 and 4 after a Drown in Sorrow .
-- Grindclock : This guy will just get there faster and easier than Villainous Wealth . I usually find myself milling my opponent out anyway, so I might as well drop some pretense and just commit to the mill plan.
-- Silence the Believers : So this might solve the problem with too much graveyard hogging, as when I brought this card in from the 'board it felt super sweet. Sure it cost 7 to exile 2 guys, but it didn't compete with the graveyard, and if it's too slow in a matchup, moving some Murderous Cut to the sideboard to bring back in should help. I'm going to update the deck with my current changes, and I'd love to hear what you think afterwards.

Dissolve over Dissipate ?

primalhunted -- It's a consideration, just depends on whether exiling things or scrying is more relevant or valued higher. Usually this deck wants to be filtering most draws anyway, so the extra scry is less valuable in my opinion than the possiblity to exile somethings like Bloodsoaked Champion . It's a relatively small difference, so I think either works.

Nigeltastic- Someone I play with at my LGS saw my deck and thought it was capable, but desperately needed creatures to stabilize and keep the pressure on the opponent, so we played around with the idea and came up with this-

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It performs pretty darn well.

TheNinjaJesus -- It looks quite good. I very much like all of the creatures you've chosen, they're all super strong and good fits. If I find my build is inconsistent or struggling, that's definitely something I'll take queues from, thanks for sharing!