The mana base looks fine to me, though of course it's not standard-legal. I particularly like the refuges; they're great budget dual lands, and an earlier version of the Bolas deck ran them. Nicol Bolas, Inc.

Yeah, I'm playing with my friends, and we decided not to care about the manabase since standard legal dual lands are hella-expensive. Though I was afraid that too many refuges would impact the speed of the deck, so that's why I included the painlands as subs.

What's your thoughts on Izzet Guildgate? Of course it's easily the weakest of the dual lands, but I couldn't find any that would pick up speed better. Maybe replacing them with Crumbling Necropolis altogether would be better?

In my opinion, if the choice is between Izzet Guildgate and Crumbling Necropolis, there is no contest. They both come in tapped, yet the Necropolis can tap for three different colours instead of two. Run the Necropolis.

Yes, I would of course do the full swap of those. I was just wondering if there is another dual U/R land that doesn't have a "Enters the battlefield tapped" drawback.

I wanted to run the Shivan Reef that functions like Underground River and that entire cycle of lands, however those are just as expensive as the standard legal dual lands Steam Vents and Sulfur Falls. So I think I will save my money and live with an, at times, slower deck.

Crumbling Necropolis it is!

Drowned Catacomb, Dragonskull Summit and Sulfur Falls are all good alternatives, they become faster when the required land type is on the field, and are relatively cheap (compared to the shocklands) but at the moment you only have 8 lands that cause them to enter untapped (2x Island, 2x Mountain, 4x Swamp)

I am not too good with non-standard cards, so I can't help there.

I did indeed consider those. However they are still quite pricey for my budget. Around 20 dollars for a playset, and currently, all my lands combined have a cost just shy of 19 dollars.

I did change around a bit, dropping the Akoum Refuge in favor of Crumbling Necropolis, as I felt blue was a bit underrepresented in the manabase.I still am counting on this manabase to be solid enough to be playable, and the inclusion of an extra Chromatic Lantern should (hopefully) even out the differences.

Thanks for the help and advice

If I get my hands on some money or a just randomly trip over a playset of either of the lands you mentioned, I would definitely include them.

this deck specializes in removal, you might consider running Prince of Thralls , can lay heavy damage control on your opponent so they can give you their cards or take some damage, and with all the removal here, that can do some serious damage.

bantam1234: Thanks for the suggestion! Prince of Thralls doesn't make the cut because a) My opponent can easily pay for the first 6 permanents, since I don't apply any pressure damage wise, and b) If I have him in play, I can't two-for-1 my opponents with a Barter in Blood .

Going to add in Wretched Banquet . 1 mana kill spells are good.

@KrazyCaley: Would Cruel Ultimatum be worthy of inclusion, or is it just too slow?

Cruel Ultimatum was in this standard deck:

Nicol Bolas, Inc.

Your only hope for Enchantment hate is bounce spells like Boomerang , or Cyclonic Rift followed by a counterspell or discard spell, unless you splash green or white

@Lightman0359: Yeah, I sideboarded Cyclonic Rift to fight troublesome artifacts/enchantments. I also use Slaughter Games quite aggressively towards trouble enchantments/artifacts, rather than getting creatures.

A lot of my meta is cheap creatures that do a lot of things, so I'm thinking of including Consume the Meek , any thoughts on what to put in?

@Lightman0359: Also thanks for the Boomerang suggestion; I went for Cyclonic Rift cause it has overload, and it's less mana saturated.

Life's Finale and Killing Wave are relatively inexpensive board wipes. I also like Reality Strobe Arc Blade and Festering March a bit slow but they give you repeat advantage every few turns and can be manipulated with Clockspinning if needed. Although its a commander and not casual modern, check out Nicol Bolas Planeswalker control for other cards, I do a similar thing

@Lightman0359: Life's Finale is decent, but very slow. Killing Wave had a place in Blood Artist decks, but this deck applies no real pressure, and thus taking, say 6 by turn 4 to keep 3 creatures, is an easy choice for my opponent.

The suspend cards are also very slow, and it would require a far too significant change in the deck to support it, in opposition to what it adds to the deck.

Thanks for the suggestions though! I'll be sure to check out your deck!