Competitive EDH - Blue White Control in French EDH?

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I used to play The Mimeoplasm (combo) at local tournaments and I usually won those tournaments as well. But I could see that the metagame actually calls for a different kind of deck. One with either more disruption or playing a completely different deck. The majority of decks that place well here are Vendilion Clique decks or Geist of Saint Traft decks. In general blue based decks are everywhere. Also with the printing of Anafenza playing reanimator does not seem the best thing to do. So what should I play?

Some time ago...two months ago? I put together some kind of Grand Arbiter Augustin IV deck. I was trying to find the decklist but it seems that I never wrote it down (I remember writing a report from the tournament but it seems that it is not on this blog). I placed well in the tournament even though playing very badly but I found out that it is actually enjoyable to play even though the games take ages. I chose GAA because it seemed as a good choice. But what does the general do? Well most of the time for me it gave me one more turn to do something. When I managed to play it from time to time I usually had to play some kind of wrath effect the turn later. That is something I did not really like much. But Esper generals are just meh and UWR is something I did not want to play. Because when I tried these colors I found out that the more efficient way to win is by bashing my opponent with creatures.

I wanted to try UW control deck because it would be fair and it would follow a normal game of magic. It wouldn't warp the format in anyway. Would such a deck be good enough? The deck is good enough, that is for sure but sometimes it feels like my deck is not really well prepared against some other generals. This deck cannot counter or deal with Narset, Prossh or Geist all the time. It needs to find a win condition fast in order to end the game. The general itself is not good enough for that and that is the reason I wanted to include Helm of Obedience and Rest in Peace. Before including this I had to draw Elspeth, Jace or Gideon in order to win but sometimes I just couldn't draw it and died to a opposing general.

Helm/RIP takes up some slots (because I need to find the combo pieces as well) but does that matter? Or rather how much does that matter? The first time I came to play with GAA deck I wasn't really sure what kind of counterspells or card drawing cards I want in the deck. There were about ten cards I did not consider good and played them and even though they were not really good in the deck the deck in general worked fine...so I tried swapping those with some other cards (and I messed that up once again, the decklist is not ideal yet and won't be for a while).

Instants
1 Remand
1 Absorb
1 Miscalculation
1 Disenchant
1 Exclude
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Negate
1 Force Spike
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Force of Will
1 Spell Snare
1 Cryptic Command
1 Mental Misstep
1 Mana Leak
1 Impulse
1 Memory Lapse
1 Repulse
1 Condescend
1 Into the Roil
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Dissolve
1 Forbid
1 Dismiss
1 Dig Through Time
1 Spell Pierce
1 Logic Knot
1 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Jace's Ingenuity
1 Counterspell
1 Repeal

These are the instants I played the last time. There are cards I would not normally play in a highlander deck - Exclude, Jace's Ingenuity, Dismiss and Repulse. Exclude and Repulse hit a creature and in a game of EDH each of us has a general that is usuallly a creature so I thought that these cards would actually be ok. But after staring at Cliques and Geists in play/command zone I might reconsider this and play Dissipate/Hinder or something like that instead of it. I don't want to play Daze because it usually makes no sense to play it for its alternative cost and 2 mana Force Spike is not something I want. Even Rune Snag would be better in that case. Mana Tithe is a card I might actually include but I never missed it. Muddle the Mixture is there to tutor Rest in Peace primarily.
One of the cards that I'm not really convinced about is Cyclonic Rift. In 99% of the time I'm not happy seeing it in my hand and many times I need to bounce something of my own and this card just can't do it. The overload mode seems nice, but well...I used it once? Against an opponent that should have killed me no matter what I tried to do? This card will get few more chances but I will most probably cut it in the end...

Sorceries
1 Preordain
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Wrath of God
1 Serum Visions
1 End Hostilities
1 Terminus
1 Ponder
1 Day of Judgment
1 Fabricate
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Portent
1 Supreme Verdict

This deck runs white so it means that it can run global removal. I added End Hostilities and do not regret it. I'm not sure about Serum Visions. I never liked the card but in german Highlander this card is better than many others because it just costs 1 mana and it still allows some kind of library manipulation. I decided to try more expensive spells next time. One of them is actually Jace's Ingenuity that I added. I cut Deep Analysis but I might try to put that back in and cut something else (Fabricate). I do not want to play sorcery speed card draw but I might play Compulsive Research and Think Twice is coming back in too if I find place for it.
There is one more sorcery that could actually make it in - Armageddon. This card just wrecks everything and is usually efficient in a completely different decks. But certain decks will just kill this one when they reach a certain amount of lands and if this can land a walker and play geddon it can win. I don't really like the thought of me playing Armageddon in this kind of deck, but I see it's worth even in such a deck.
I hardly killed anyone with Entreat the Angels. Even though Mystical Tutor -> Entreat the Angels look sweet in reality it does not work that much probably because of the starting life total.

Artifact [2]
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Helm of Obedience
Enchantment [3]

1 Oblivion Ring
1 Rest in Peace
1 Detention Sphere

As for artifacts and enchantments I don't know why I play Shackles. The card was always good in a control deck but with all those wrath effects and generals with shroud or some that I can hardly steal (because they can become way bigger or kill themselves) why play them? I will keep the combo in probably. I'd like to include Future Sight and see if I can manage to play it. The card is just too good. I wanted to keep this deck relatively fast but against all those other blue decks the games usually take ages and this is something that can simply win the game. The other card I was considering playing was Oblivion Stone but I think that the deck does not need the card.

Creatures is something I wouldn't bother playing but in the end I played Venser, Shaper Savant and Snapcaster Mage. If I would play any other creature it would be Vendilion Clique.

Planeswalkers
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Gideon Jura
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Jace Beleren
1 Jace, Architect of Thought

Planeswalkers is what usually kills my opponent. Jace Beleren is on the watch list to go out. I would replace him with a more expensive card - Karn (or just a card draw). I considered Ugin but in all the games I managed to play it Ugin was more or less useless. I don't really like Jace, AoT but he showed to be actually quite good and I really like Elspeth Tirel. I never thought that I would play this card anywhere but she's good.

I played 39 lands and I have no idea if that number is ok, good or bad (I usually had enough lands). I would include Flagstones of Trokair and probably added a land or two. I ran quite a lot of utility lands (Maze of Ith, Wasteland, Tectonic Edge etc...and I should not really take those in account).

I came back from the last tournament convinced that this deck would do better with Geist in its lead even though the deck is not built around it (I might actually try that). What I don't like about Geist of Saint Traft is that he warps the format. The card is simply too good. Same goes to other cards or generals but this one annoys me quite a lot because it reminds me of Delver of Secrets. So that's about it...for now. ^_^. Maybe it is time to play Geist as well and see what it can do in a control deck^_^.