How does Gifts Ungiven help in getting Platinum Angel or Platinum Emperion onto the battlefield?

Oh it doesn't get them onto the battlefield but because they are being played at 1 copy gifts is a means to tutor them either into hand or graveyard and set myself up to play them safely.

I had a similar-ish list to yours - with moderate success - around hogaak winter (when meta was hogaak + amulet titan).

With no blockers, and only counterspells for ineraction t7 is too slow.

I abused Madcap Experiment to ge around he issue way back then. Frankly in a package like yours Pact of Negation should be THE counterspell as far as free ones go. You have little to no card draw engines - as such pitch spells are an enormous liability.*

And depending on how the meta ebbs and flows (mostly on presence of noncreature removal)) Robe of Mirrors can be backbreaking.

*card selection cantrips are where card advantage is at. Read up turbo xerox principle. T4 JTMS or suspended ancestral vision is not timely enough.

...oh and arguably since Harbinger of the Seas is better blood moon, than blood moon, it should be present in your list.

Mana denial is a great way to hamstrung greedy goodstuff decks and prevent them from overloading your counterspells in a single turn.

haha funny you say that I literally just put Hydroelectric Specimen  ^Flip in here because of the blocker/pitch situation!.... I hear you about Ancestral Vision... ideally i think The One Ring would be the move but i dont have that kinda money to throw at this deck... Im just hoping to troll/cheese a few wins at locals before the year is out is all... splashing red for Madcap Experiment seems like a really good move... Im trying to stay mono-blue just so i can say i finally made a mono blue control deck though. The robes seem like a great idea too thanks! ..... still tinkering/brewing this jank so i appreciate the insight!

love the fish blood moon creature idea too!

Psst, search The One Ring altered on eBay, 5$. Unless the peeps you play with don't approve of proxies, that is.

@Xica... I really wanna thank you for reminding me of Madcap Expiriments existence. I have been playtesting with it and this is just infinitely better. I have the fetch/shock lands to support it and a playset of madcap is like $2 bucks so I really cant justify trying to play on hard mode with Gifts Ungiven/Master Transmuter... I'm a bit mad that I'm no longer a pure blue deck and can no longer run Giant's Amulet but ill get over it.

@Craeter... Unfortunately the LGS has to vote unanimously in favor of proxies to be used for FNM. It used to be a non-issue with people proxying a few cards here and there or just for a functional mana base but it got out of hand over time.

Fringe Jank modern combo? Say no more I'm in. My only thought is to run 4 Subtlety because Subtlety is a wincon plus being interaction it's just phenomenal. And maybe Consign to Memory in the board to protect your stuff from World Breaker and friends?

@capwner yeah my ratios are not set in stone at all yet... before running madcap I was relying on Spellskite for my activated ability problems (my whole sideboard is junk now)... I'll probably have to get me some more subtlety and consign... or maybe I can get away with running Tale's End?