Trying to abuse Notion Thief within a control shell, aswell as trying to be able to play him as a response as soon as possible. 4 Forces and 2 Misdi's protect him the best imo, since it's a cmc4 spell. With only 14 lands, i can't rely on Flusterstorm to do the job. Maybe at 19 lands, though ;)
He's pretty good against blue/combo decks by himself already, but combining it with Dack Fayden (+1 targeting my opponent), who is a good anti Stax card and an insane filterer (multiple Dacks, Thiefs, Wheel of Fortune etc to discard), or Timetwister (fine against Dredge)/Wheel of Fortune/Windfall is insane.
The finisher in this deck is Upheaval. It deals with everything and usually leads to you (re-)playing Notion Thief into Your draw 7s or Windfall, which usually gets you close to drawing cards from an empty library ^^ As a result, obviously, your opponent has no cards in his/her hand, aswell as on the battlefield, while you have 7 counterspells in hand to protect your... win, basically.
...
"Mindtwister"
"Wheel of Torture"
"Handfall"
...
...
"Hymn to Fayden"
"Forcedirection"
...
To support your ^plan, you have:
All the broken Vintage-only mana rocks + Lotus Petal and Tolarian Academy
Card quality:
Brainstorm, 4x Preordain, Ponder;
4x Dack Fayden [ => Treasure Cruise & Dig Through Time]
(No Yawg Win because of Timetwister, Delve spells and a high permanent- aswell as a counterspell count... Just in the sideboard against control.)
... Helping you to replace multiple unneeded cards with fresh cards.
... Of course supported by Ancestral and Demonic/Vampiric
Counters:
4x Misstep to mostly counter early cantrips, Swords to Plowshares/Lightning Bolt and Red Elemental - /Pyroblast
4x Force of Will\
} many copies of pitchable cards
2x Misdirection/
2x Mana Drain just to be able to Nothion Thief + Dack (4 specific colored sources needed) or a draw 7 (3 specific colored sources needed) or Upheaval.
Upheaval is here instead of the [Tinker+Voltaic Key+Time Vault+Blightsteel Colossus] 4-card win condition package. You instead win with this catch-all (also hits dredge, Shops, Mentor, Hate Bears, Landstill... everything) in combination with Notion Thief and a draw 7, Windfall or even Dack Fayden with something like a Time Walk or multiple Dacks. In the optimal case, your opponent ends up with 0 cards in his/her hand and 60 cards in his/her library (Timetwister) whereas you have 10+ permanents in play and a hand full of counter magic. This particular plan is your only out when the board state doesn't allow you to attack with your 3/1s for the win.
This sounds optimistic, I know, but you don't have any problems executing this plan, as long as you don't lose early and use your counters carefully. Remember that Notion Thief is a good permanent counter aswell, which, in the right matchup, allows you to draw the game out long enough.
... And there are still ways to win on turn 1 or 2 with the same end result as Upheaval-ing late, especially against uninteractive decks.
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Vendilion Clique
Winds of Change
Gush