Generally speaking, the idea of the deck is to get maximum value out of creatures and enchantments with ETB effects by means of flickering them in and out of the battlefield with cards such as Thassa, Yorion and Charming Prince. At the same time, the deck also plays a tempo game, stalling the opponent until the value engine comes online. Against aggro, this means surviving the early turns by bouncing, exiling and chump blocking the opponent’s creatures, and against control this means getting a bit of early pressure with small creatures while trying to grind out more value than the opponent in the late game. It has been excellent for laddering: I reached #77 on the Mythic ladder as of this writing.
Strengths:
Absolutely demolishes aggro decks, especially post-sideboard
You can get absolutely ridiculous amounts of card advantage
The deck is extremely resilient and is capable of coming back from very dire situations
There is lots of incidental lifegain and card selection
Blinking is super fun and if you disagree you hate happiness
The mana base is almost never a problem
Weaknesses:
The match-up versus the Growth Spiral decks is not terrible, but it is highly reliant of having counterspells at the right time
The deck has a tendency to flood sometimes
Hasty creatures can be a problem sometimes, especially when they have evasion (QB, Ceratops, etc.)
Sideboard plan
The SB plan is not very subtle: more removal vs aggro, more counterspells vs control/ramp. The only real difference between being on the play or on the draw is whether you’re playing Barrin, though certain situations might warrant siding out a land on the draw. Some of the cards will shift around between the main and the sideboard, depending on the expected meta.
Temur, Bant, Sutai :-2 Barrin, -3 Simulacrum, -1 Time Wipe, -1 Thassa, -1 Heliod’s Punishment, -1 Omen of the Sun
