The point of the deck is to rush the two set pieces of this deck (Whispering Madness and Notion Thief) onto the field by turn 5 without any hitches. Everything else in the deck is built around these cards.
Evasive creatures (Invisible Stalker and Horizon Chimera) to make optimal use of the Whispering Madness cipher mechanic.
Destruction cards to keep the field clear.
Omenspeaker
to get the cards you want out earlier and provide a stalwart defense against early aggression.
Scry lands provide some extra card advantage.
Clutch of the Undercity and Diabolic Tutor for tutoring. Clutch of the Undercity gives the side bonus of bouncing a permanent and damaging an opponent.
Laboratory Maniac makes self milling a win con.
The Notion Thief + a ciphered Whispering Madness is a powerful control combo. It forces the opponent to top deck for the rest of the game while you get double the cards off of Whispering Madness. Having a Horizon Chimera and/or a Psychosis Crawler on the field makes this an extremely dangerous combo. However, this is a self-destructive combo, for you risk milling yourself out.
As it stands I really like the deck's concept. When the strategy starts working it gets really fun. The Whispering Madness + Notion Thief combo gives so much card advantage. It allows the player to take large chunks of the deck and select cards that best fit the situation.
If the opponent can set up his/her side of the board with some aggro by turn 5 then this deck is finished. If not, this deck quickly capitalizes on the opponent's inability to provide early game pressure, shutting the opponent's game down completely. Five turns is more than enough time to acquire the cards needed for the main strategy, especially with the tutor in the deck. However, because of this required wait and stall until turn 5 scenario the deck is extremely weak early-mid game.
So I'm mostly looking for suggestions to help the deck survive a brutal early game without compromising the main combo.
Suggestions for optimizing the combo are more than welcome as well.
Trying to keep this deck around $60. Already own a Breeding Pool so I'm not factoring that into the price.
