Grixis Surveil Disruption (midrange control) (Standard)

I like hand disruption spells. We have to look all the way back to Khan's to see consistently good hand disruption in standard. Part of the reason for that is we have been dominated by aggressive decks for a while now. In week 1 the top deck was mono red (big surprise lol), as aggro is always a week 1 favorite. This deck would struggle in a field full of pure aggro, however I expect that the diversity of this format will pull ahead soon and we will see many midrange decks move to the front of the pack. When that happens, this type of deck can be very strong.

This deck also takes advantage of the surveil mechanic to constantly fix our top deck. An issue with hand disruption is there comes a point in a game where it is no longer as useful. With surveil we simply move it out of the way.

Step 1: Curving out with hand disruption.

a) Thought Erasure
*this is where it all begins for us, disruption on turn 2 that can get any non-land target. We can easily plan out our turn sequences from here.

b) Disinformation Campaign
you do not choose the card they discard, but getting to cantrip is a major card advantage shift.
the deck main boards 12 cards that can return this to hand, if this is played on turn 3 you are getting it back throughout the game.

c) Nicol Bolas, The Ravager
*what is likely left in hand for an opponent by the point you play Bolas on curve will be a major threat (or they have no major threats left, also a win for you).

d) The Eldest Reborn
slower working disruption, but it has a massive payoff even if there hand is empty.
the sacrifice trigger is big to help clean up the threats our opponent got down in the early turns.
*the reanimator effect is even bigger when we spend the game making the opponent discard their most powerful threats.

e) Discovery // Dispersal
Dispersal is the perfect late game play for us as it will get their biggest threat, and in all likelihood make them discard it on the spot since we have been ripping their hand apart all game.
Discovery really makes the card playable as it gives us an alternate use in the early game and against lower curve decks. (also triggers Disinformation Campaign)

f) Plaguecrafter
if the opponents board is empty then it is discard.
an amazing answer in smaller board states.

Step 2: Counterspells.
*we know the majority of the opponents hand at all times, counterspells in the midgame is the clear path to go.

a) Sinister Sabotage
*it counters whatever threat we want to plan for and fixes our top deck.

b) Syncopate
*great in the early game, while also allowing us to plan for a threat we need to exile.

c) Disdainful Stroke
*we know what they are playing on turn 4, now we have the answer.

d) Essence Scatter
*the large majority of threats we will be facing are creatures.

Step 3: Removal
*some of the discard spells can also double as removal.

a) Ritual of Soot
*we can disrupt set up counters for the mid game, but in all likelihood there are going to be creatures that hit the board in the early turns. This is my bail me out card.

b) Ravenous Chupacabra
kills almost any threat we will face (hexproof excluded of course).
Lyra and Aurelia are real threats that our deck has trouble answering at a low cmc, so at least Chupacabra leaves a body behind for 4cmc.

c) Hostage Taker
*main board exile effect for Rekindling Phoenix and graveyard decks.

d) Cast Down
*great cheap removal, but legendary's are so important right now.

e) Dream Eater
*in this case bounce is also removal since we are playing counterspells and discard.

Step 4: Mana Base
*not all that complicated...
-you need access to 16 black, 18 blue, and 11 red. The deck does this consistently before you take into consideration all the surveil triggers.
-no turn 1 plays in the main board, so no concerns with making sure we can play a certain card turn 1. Tapland turn 1 every game.

Step 5: Sideboard
we have a few substitutions for dead removal (Duress, Negate)
catch all creature removal (Essence Scatter, Vraska's Contempt)
aggro help (Ritual of Soot, Cast Down)
answers for larger threats (Unmoored Ego, Disdainful Stroke)

*Phyrexian Scriptures needs its own comment section since it serves many purposes.
a) It is a sweeper that will hit everything on the opponents side of the board.
b) It leaves us a jacked up creature, in most cases we probably would only have the one.
c) It stalls the opponent for a turn from playing an important creature, this is great since we can play our board wipe and not deal with the immediate pressure next turn. Instead we get an opportunity to force them to discard that threat or counter it.
d) There is a lot of graveyard tricks out there right now, and this wipes away an opponents opportunity to do too much.
e) The downside is that it weakens The Eldest Reborn. The good part is there only has to be one quality threat in either graveyard.

Concerns I have with this deck:

1) How strong is aggro going to be moving forward? Hand disruption and counterspells are not the greatest tools against pure aggro.

2) Do I draw enough cards? The deck has very little card draw. It will take some reps before I get a real feeling for if surveil filtering can take the place of quality card draw.

3) Can Bolas, The Eldest Reborn, and Dream Eater finish games with little other help? I feel they are all extremely powerful cards and I hope that our opponents will not have answers in the late game due to all the hand disruption and counterspells we have to set things up.

4) Where are the planeswalkers? This deck is set up awesome to deal with planeswalkers, but there are very few of them in the format that will see play.

5) How much play will Nullhide Ferox see? This card is a problem. We must sequence our turns perfectly to counter a Ferox against Stompy. It is bad news for us if the opponent is on the play and drops Ferox turn 3 and we do not have a 2cmc counter available.