This deck is born out of the idea that Sultai control is viable based out of the removal. If we think about a main black, splash green, splash blue manabase, then look at the removsl options we have on 2.

Cast Down, Assasin's Trophy, Price of Fame, Syncopate, Negate.

This covers everything with two mana up. Additionally, we can play sinister sabotage (as covered in jeskai UU isn't extremely difficult) and Chemister's trick, which is better than notion rain as we go bigger and play at instant speed. We know the manabase is good, and this allows us to get away from Vraska's contempt, which I feel is just not what we want to be doing at four mana. Yes it is very good, but cheaper and more efficient is where it's at. This deck can also play Discovery/ Dispersal, Status/Statue, Arguel's Blood Fast, Thought Erasure, and Search for Azcanta. It will also be neccessary to run some kind of sweeper, which ritual of soot, golden demise, and Phyrexian scriptures all do well. Eldest Reborn also seems like an optimal choice, and then naturally doom whisperer feels like the best threat alongside a Vraska. Being a somewhat surveil heavy deck allows us to use blood operative, which seems decent in a control shell. Thief of Sanity is to fun. Muldrotha is a huge payoff to Sultai, and is a better loop than find broker. Muldrotha also incentives us to play dead weight, which is allready pretty good. Looping any saga but especially phyrexian scriptures is very good, might be better than the eldest reborn. Ramping with gift of paradise or chromatic lantern seems very good. Jadelight ranager is a consideration, as is demonic vigor.

Something that's possible as I discussed before is the addition of a fourth lite splash. If we splash white, we could play Teferi with the ability to recurr it and instant speed tricks. T4 Teferi with 3 mana up of most colors is what gifts of paradise let's us do.

We could also play Arcades. There are interesting defenders in thoughtbound phantasm, barrier of bones, and gleaming barrier in particular that seem well suited to the deck already, and arcades turns all those cards up a notch. Playing status alongside those cards to is also particularly powerful.

This is where I see the format heading at the pro tour. This is the deck I want to land on by time we get to the Grand Prix in November. If I get it tuned right, it will be an absolute shut out.

It's a bit over the top, but moldrotha and a transformed argils bloodfast do some sillly things. Like instant speed dream eater out of the graveyard to bounce, surveil,swing 4, sac to gain 3 life, do it again? Or same loop but with Pelakka arm to swing 7, gain 10, and draw a card every turn? GG!

I figured the mana base out for the above. Needs a little testing to hone in on the exact numbers. Because the deck is almost entirely blue black, these were the requirements of our mana:
1.) Have untapped mana on T2, T3, T4.
2.) Have U/B/G available by Turn 3.
3.) Have UU Available on T3.
4.) Have BB on T4.
5.) Have W available by turn 5.

With these requirements, I decided that every land should either tap for U or B. This way we cast our single spell removal sweet on time, and we can double into T3 and T4 of either color. Shock Check manabase makes it so all our lands don't come into play tapped as long as we have 10 sources that check each land. We have a total 13, with lowest being 6 for glacial fortress. Some adjustment needed there. We have 9 sources of green, should have by T3 easily. We have six sources of white, which is about 1 out of 10, but should be easier than that with card selection and the ramp. Will ned to check for reliability. Might be beneficial to split between notion rain and chemister's trick. One forest is a nod to consistency and field of ruin/assasin's trophy. May not be necessary. Memorial to folly is an important redundancy piece with Muldrotha.

The next stage is to take the engine of the deck and the manabase and sleeve it up with space holders for the removal suite. to see if the engine works reliably with the mana base. Final step will to be hone on the removal suite and final numbers.

Trying to strip away the removal options does not create as much space as I expected. The engine is too big for this deck. I pulled out the Muldrotha package (Which a clear appeal for the deck) to be added back in and still at 50 + cards. I guess we first need to really hone in on what our engine is first. There is the Teferi/Search/Assasin's trophy/Doom Whisperer package. This is the truth, and a deck that cast's them all reliably will be a winning list. Supplementing that is Arguel's Blood fast and Chemister's trick for card draw, and the super awesome sinister sabotage. These number's will need adjustment. Then there is the Ramp suite, which I'm not is essential or not. It makes everything awesome mana wise, and getting ahead on mana is very good for our control deck. It's 6 cards, bad top decks, and curving into Doom or Teferi on 4 is both really good and kinda not what you want to be doing as tapping out on 3 and 4 is not awesome for a control deck. Muldrotha loops seem like an awesome parallel plan with saga's and recurring our threats. Pleakka wurm is a great catch up/win con/recur option, and I really like the interaction with doom whisperer and Arguel's bloodfast. Carnage tyrant is a one card engine, and pretty sweet of it's own accord. I guess without white sweepers I need to hone in how I'm locking up the battlefield. No matter what I need to be playing 16+ instant speed interaction spells, no matter what engine I'm using, and not be stumbling on mana. Going to do some research on the Bant Nexus list from last season and the old Jeskai Black for crafting inspirations.

Just took a quick look at Todd Anderson's Jeskai Black list. The mana is vastly different, fetch "shock" manabases are intuitively easier. I think I need to build pretty deeply with surveil to compensate to make my mana as easy, or a fixing mechanism. If the mana is right, 26 land, 12 permanents, 22 Instant speed effects. 4-7 ish card advantage.

I'm getting pretty despondent about the four color task, but the hope of casting the ultimate control package is still too appealing to throw in the towel on it. I tried an approach of picking my removal suite, then filling in around it. I have no idea if the above configuration is playable, but it's a start. I really need to assess if this sweeper package is enough. The catch up mechanisms are lacking, which means that I need to be able to keep pace or stay above water, which is a tall order. I'll try it out and see how it goes.