A couple of things i wanted to just run by you (and a deck i've been working on)
First of all, for anyone who say's the combo shouldn't be banned, and we are not "pro worthy enough" I started reading Shaheen Soorani's article today and here's how it began
"I was a huge advocate for a banning that would cripple Mardu Vehicles and destroy the "Copy Cat" combo a month ago. We are now approaching a banning cycle where the decision not to ban will be revisited. The explanation given by Wizards was almost laughable last time around due to the clearly outdated examples they used. Having both Standard decks still at full strength at the launch of Amonkhet would be an absolute disaster for not only the players competing in Standard events but for the company that creates it as well.
If nothing is done in terms of banning, the Top 8 at Pro Tour Amonkhet could easily be six Mardu Vehicles and two Four-Color Saheeli decks. This would syphon the excitement out of a great new set, deter people from staying in or entering the format, hurt sales, and be an overall hit to the brand. I am not advocating for specific bans this time around, nor am I lightning up the Twitter world with doom-and-gloom predictions. I am just confident that Wizards will remove the cancerous cards from their most-promoted format and clear the way for Amonkhet excitement.
Speaking of Amonkhet excitement, let's talk control cards! Let's go through the top ten preview cards released so far for control brewers out there. "
Yes the combo and mardu vehicles are a cancer on the format .... for anyone who thinks that they are fine to leave as is, I would argue mardu vehicles had hate cards printed, but Saheeli combo was virtually "unhated".
Now that doesn't mean I can't brew my favorite 2 color combinations together
This is currently the 75 I'm running with
// 60 Maindeck
// 4 Artifact
4 Heart of Kiran
// 21 Creature
2 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
2 Archangel Avacyn
4 Lambholt Pacifist
3 Rhonas the Indomitable
2 Noose Constrictor
2 Tireless Tracker
4 Glory-Bound Initiate
2 Honored Hydra
// 4 Enchantment
4 Cast Out
// 23 Land
4 Canopy Vista
3 Scattered Groves
2 Evolving Wilds
8 Forest
6 Plains
// 8 Planeswalker
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
// 15 Sideboard
// 5 Enchantment
SB: 2 Stasis Snare
SB: 3 Gideon's Intervention
// 5 Instant
SB: 2 Dissenter's Deliverance
SB: 3 Renewed Faith
// 5 Sorcery
SB: 1 Descend upon the Sinful
SB: 1 Fumigate
SB: 3 Approach of the Second Sun
As you can see its pretty much a g/w tokens build and it has a relative modicum of success so far in testing. Funnily Enough although its a control card, Approach of the Second sun does amazing things when your opponent is just casting counterspell's/Negates, and the like. I've run across a ton of people trying to play draw/go control decks online, and found that if I just play out my threats, eventually they'll use their disallow on one of them, and thats when you resolve one or 2 approach of the second son's and just win the game, sure counter it; its kind of funny how often it's worked.
I'm thinking about cutting the stasis snares for something like a second fumigate and a either another honored hydra or a maybe the 4th rhonas.
Some of the obvious cards are great from g/w tokens here
Heart of Kiran - Assuming it doesn't get banned this is the best card in the deck, and allows you to turn on both Rhonas, and provide a resilient enough threat to sweepers, I don't know if the deck would work without this card, and aethersphere might be better, I would have to test it, but as of now I'm always happy with Heart of Kiran.
Gideon/Nissa - Gideon is obviously one of the most dominant cards in standard, but I don't think I would lose a TON by moving to the smaller gideon, or hell even the planeswalker deck one, but If Heart/Gideon do get the axe i would have to re-evaluate the deck. My inherent problem with people saying gideon needs to get banned is that he's not an inherently UNFAIR magic card, he's just really really good at what he does, much like Elspeth in a way. Gideon get's blanked by Torrential Gearhulks, and if the opponent has any flyer's then he's kind of dead meat, the problem is that he's really good against control ...... an archetype that just got a TON of new options if you take him and Heart of Kiran out of the format sweepers become alot better, as in almost unbeatable for alot of decks. If they ban him they ban him I guess.
Glory-Bound Initiate - Pull's double weight against both aggro decks, and as a 3/1 beater for 2 that benefits alot from nissa's -2, and also get's under essence scatter/censor on the play, you need a 2 drop in this format, and 8 of them might not be enough. The lifegain can also be huge against the red decks.
Lambholt pacifist - Might be the best card in the deck, and I'm not joking. Turns on Rhonas, Crew's heart of Kiran, and forces the control players to play spell's on their turn or take 4, also get's under essence scatter on the play, and allows you to threaten early, and becomes a big threat late with Rhonas +2+0 and trample.
Tireless Tracker/RIshkar - 3 drops that provide a ton of value, if your short on mana playing Rishkar, and holding up Avacyn is a thing, and help's you ramp out to some of your bigger cards, Tireless Tracker is invaluable in the control matchups and allows you to keep drawing cards when you would run out of gas. The problem is in different matchups you want different ones, and with scattered groves getting to 3 mana can be a little tough. I could probably change the numbers around on both of these cards and feel ok about it ; some days you want 4 trackers, and some days you want 4 rishkar's (not in the same hand though.
Archangel Avacyn - Too many in one hand is bad, but when she is good, she's really freaking good, clear's out token's protects your board from a wrath, and is a solid beater, through gideon's +1/+1 on her and she get's out of range of grasp of darkness and is hart to kill.
Noose Constrictor/Honored Hydra - I'm not going to lie this package is in here because a 6/6 trample for 4 that is uncounterable is good in the meta right now, and barring a void shatter there's not much they can do to stop you from eventually getting a 6/6; I would love a deck that played 4 of each, and was more reliably getting Honored hydra in the graveyard to get cast on turn 4 but I put in the 2 honored hydra's in place of verdurous gearhulks which i had been running until an hour ago. It might be correct to just run verdurous over the hydra though and open 2 spots up in the deck where noose constrictor would be, Maybe Channeler's Initiate, thought the reach is nice.
Cast out - Good removal, that you can hold up on a turn or cycle it early, and it hits planeswalkers, in game one you kind of see where everything ends up and where it has to be used; hitting anything on the board is worth the extra mana over stasis Snare.
The sideboard -
Gideon's Intervention - Name Torrential gearhulk against control, Any type of combo/I win deck will have a hard time winning with this on the field, and it normally comes down in time to save you, It's funny that the second ability works against things like Aetherflux Resevoir, Felidar Guardian; You never know what its good for, but it gives you an answer to things you otherwise couldn't in these colors; or if you need to protect your creatures bring it out naming the removal spell you don't want to face.
Approach of the Second sun - You want to play the control game .... ok ...... I'm just going to sit here, try to play my threats, tax your counter spells and removal, and late game if all your doing is drawing cards, I'm just going to play this turn 7, and say you have 7 turns to kill me. Assuming i dont draw 1 of the 3 i've sideboarded in. The fact that only 1 or 2 cards out of control decks can answer this is kind of the point of it, since its a cast trigger, not a resolve. It's a suprisingly easy win condition, and in other decks i've tested it in, like aetherworks marvel its really hard to stop. This is a card i think being undervalued right now.
Renewed Faith/Dissenters Deliverance - Mardu vehicles hate, there have been some red aggro decks and getting some of my 2 drops down early and gaining 6 life has been enough to stabliize, the deliverance is also good against the torrential gearhulk decks since they normally try to flash torrential in to block a creature, and then a 2 mana answer that kills it and gets in your 5 or 6 damage is important.
Fumigate/Descend - Aggro decks or decks that overwhelm the board, I like descend more because it works better against the all in discard amalgam decks, but the aggro decks the life gain can be important.
Card's not in the deck
Prowling Serpopod is not an answer to any control decks in the format, they easily kill it, and then just counter your shit anyways, I don't know what deck this fit's in but in this deck it's not doing enough (which is kind of weird, because you look at it, and it should).
Channeler Initiate dies too easily to removal when you want to ramp, and the counters are a real cost, though a trick that some people seem to not understand with this card is that the counters come on after it enters, so before the counters hit it you can crew heart of kiran, I honestly think when I was testing it the first time i wasn't using it right, so I might come back to this gain.
Declaration in stone - There are some token strategies out there, and 2 mana exile is pretty good right now, its just giving your opponents cards is sooooo not a good feeling. It might be better than stasis snare though, and would help the aggro matchup a bit more.
I don't know just my deck I'm playing around with right now, if any of you guys have suggestions go ahead, I'm sure there's cards from old sets i forgot about.
One deck that I really want to get working in some form is a Naya deck. The interactions of Samut/Glory Bringer, Nahiri/Honored Hydra, and having access to sweltering sun's and Ajani out of the sideboard all sound like things I want to be doing, if I could figure out the deck to use them in.