I'm sorry I would like to hear other blue red ramp options. It provides shuffle and late game ramp if he needs it. Worst case scenario he is getting colorless mana. Getting two lands a turn is worth it in control. +1 from me.

thanks dimitri... first positive approach to that card that i have seen... :D

although you did forget to actually +1 it my friend... :P

Seriously, the only thing I would change is drop 2 Rewind and 2 Cancel for 4 Think Twice . Card draw is a blue mage's best friend. Other than that I'm digging the deck and I love that nivix cyclops is seeing some play lol

I actually second the motion to -2 Rewind -2 Cancel for +4 Think Twice . You can never have too much card draw, and you really don't have any other than Jace's -2 ability which isn't really unbound card draw.

Thank you for the deck review!

Love the deck and gives me hope for Izzet haha. I know this isn't very mill based but ever think about Thought Scour for a snipe trigger? 1 mana draw + some card off the top of your opponent's deck cant hurt (most of the time).

I responded to your comment in my deck, Copies and then more copies, if you wanted to check it out.

Maze's End ? Really???

YESSSSS.... really.... lol... I think that I may be one of only a DAMN few people that like the card.... LMAO

Well Maze's End gives you a shuffle effect for Melek, Izzet Paragon right?
Nice deck, +1

Thanks decker... :D and yes. Although I much prefer to exile Melek, Izzet Paragon using Jace, Architect of Thought and his ultimate ability. works better and in that way he cannot be countered with a counter spell... :D

I still vote Elixir of Immortality

wasnt the shuffle that killed me last night. it was the lack of mana and the having really expensive cards in my hand with no way to cast them. every game i dealt massive damage at one point or another. at one point i killed someone off on turn 5 with a combo of 2 Searing Spear for 6 and then swinging for 14 with 2 buffed Nivix Cyclops .

just didnt have the lands i needed to win... :(

whats up with mazes end and gates, optimal use you need 4 mana with maze counting itself on opponents end step to ramp gate and have to play maze again for your land for turn but since you have so many maze and only 4 gates even at the high cost of 4 to farseek you got 4 mazes in the end colorless and a big handful of all your other land you didnt play messing with mazes end. The whole idea seems like a huge mistake.

As I have said countless times already... I like Maze's End and i like gates. It is there for the fact that it is a shuffle effect and a land. its not a mistake when you consider that i only play that card when i already have enough other mana to play a spell so that the fact that it comes in tapped is not a big deal. it works very well.

Too many counter spells in here. All someone has to do is Cavern of Souls and pop in a hexproof creature and this whole deck is basically out the window unless you can destroy them before they destroy you. Cancel is a bit of a joke at the moment with Dissipate around. You should consider taking out the Cancel counters and maybe throwing in Glaring Spotlight to adjust that problem.

You should still consider bringing Maze's End down to 2 is you absolutely must keep it there, as they are borderline useless very early or later when you need to spend that 4 mana on finishing an opponent and not fetching a gate. You might want ways to get rid of opposing land (such as Ghost Quarter ) instead of ways to only search for 1 of 4 gates you have. Also, finding room for Goblin Electromancer will help solve your mana issues.

very true. However. Cavern of Souls will fall out of print i october so it will not be that big of an issue. In addition to that. I have only seen one player at my cardshop that has ever even used that card, and that was in a 2HG match. It has never been an issue in our FNM events.

Now with that being said... Glaring Spotlight is definitely going to be going into the sideboard at the very least as I have been looking for a way around hexproof for a while. Goblin Electromancer is a nice card. but it suffers entirely too much from the fact that it can be killed by just about any burn spell and i dont really want to use my counters to protect a creature that low on the food chain.

Ghost Quarter is definitely an intriguing idea. I have never seen that card before either. may look at getting a playset of those and see what i can do with it... :D

I would look into more removal and less counters, like Pillar of Flame

And move Turn / Burn to the main.

removed Pillar of Flame for the reason that this deck is meant to be played as a control deck not a burn deck. i have Searing Spear and Devil's Play as burn/finishers. Devil's Play can be made extremely powerful as a finisher ESPECIALLY if it is top deck and played with a copy thanks to Melek, Izzet Paragon .

otherwise i can flash it back if i need to to finish off my opponent in a pinch. Turn / Burn is a sideboard card for the simple reason that it is only needed against a few creatures, mainly Boros Reckoner , Thragtusk , and Restoration Angel . With the exception of those 3 creatures and a couple of other random ones. There is simply no need for that card as a mainboard card.

put in Counterspell s instead of the Cancel s

cant use it.... it is a nonstandard card

i am not a fan of Cancel , that could be dropped for Think Twice also dropping the Rewind .

no can do fox... without the counter spells the deck will not do what i want it to do...

i am thinking that what i have just done will work best. i removed 2 Izzet Charm (not my favorite card anyways... lol removed a Nivix Cyclops , and a Devil's Play and replaced them with a playset of Think Twice . this should keep me having my optimum cards in hand at all times without having too great a detriment to overall performance... :D also probably gonna update my sideboard as well since it isnt exactly the strongest of the bunch.... :/

Here are a number of little things to think about... many may simply not work in this deck, or may just not be the direction you want to take it... others you may just not find a way to get these cards in there (or remove them).

Cards to consider Adding:

Snapcaster Mage would significantly increase the versatility of the deck. While it's in your hand, it essentially increases your hand size by one. Reasoning behind this view: He's going to be a 2/1 body that can flash in to block... and at the same time you will be able to reuse one of the many spells you will have in your grave. - If there's going to be a creature in a spell-heavy deck, this is the one to use.

Far / Away , (possibly instead of Rewind s and possibly a couple Cyclonic Rift s), would make for great removal. Then by adding dual lands (Watery Grave and/or Blood Crypt ) in place of a few Mountain s/Island s, you can get added benefits without changing your mana base... - Toil / Trouble could be looked at in the same way, but trouble can only hit players, and Toil probably isn't a great fit in your deck.

Mizzium Mortars should not be overlooked. 2CMC for 4 Damage... it's at a Sorcery speed, but the option to overload more than makes up for that.

Finally... and I can't emphasize how good a couple of these can be in your deck. Hidden Strings . I know you don't have many attacking creatures to cipher this onto, so I would consider it a 1-2 of and no more. But this can be used in many versatile ways. 1) Tap opponents creatures so yours can get through (first cast). 2) Trigger Guttersnipe each time the ciphered creature gets through. 3) Untap mana after combat so you will have it available for burn/counters on opponents turn. 4) Accelerate some spells... i.e.: with 5 mana it's possible to Overload Cyclonic Rift ... 3 Lands if you get 2 Hidden Strings Ciphered (Attack with ciphered creature, tap lands for mana before hidden strings resolves, untap those lands, and tap them again.)

Cards I would suggest removing or reducing:

Cyclonic Rift definitely a card to use, but I think 2-3 is good. You really want to overload this for the win. Bouncing 1 permanent is nice when needed, but it's not permanent removal unless you also have a counterspell... then it's 2 cards to get rid of 1. As well, getting a few of these early may slow you down.

Izzet Charm ... well, it's not that great of a charm. Counterspell is both situational, and avoidable... 2 damage for 2 mana is okay (even good for a charm), but you have better methods for burn... Draw 2 then discard 2... again seems good; a method for cycling you cards in hand, but with spells with such low CMC, you will only ever want to use this ability when you have no cards in hand, at which point it becomes "Mill the top 2 cards of your library". If this is an ability you want, use Desolate Lighthouse . It's repeatable, and since it's only one card you can use it to change lands drawn into spells.

Maze's End - NO! This card should never be use unless you intend to try winning with it. (maybe if you get it in Draft and want it for mana fixing because you have 4 colors and a number of gates.) - If you want to use a land for 'shuffle' effects, Evolving Wilds is a better option. Can be used on Turn one for mana fixing, or later to change what is on top of your library. - Also, the Desolate Lighthouse mentioned above is even better, as it (once again) is repeatable, plus it essentially costs the same as the Maze to use, without returning a land to your hand.

Rewind currently only has 2 uses in Standard. - Combo with Tamiyo, the Moon Sage 's ultimate to be able to counter all spells. - Have Goblin Electromancer reduce it's cost to 2CMC. If you want the utility of untapping land, take another look at Hidden Strings .

Devil's Play should not be a 4-of. Having something to spend mana on later in the game is good, but I would say 2 at most... since it can be flashed back, it would essentially 4 spells anyway. - Bonfire of the Damned would be a great replacement if you've got a couple... as would Mizzium Mortars , as both of them would be board wipes... and perhaps 1 Epic Experiment , since it would play well with the low CMC spells, and works with Guttersnipe and the Nivix Cyclops .

As I said, these may not work for you, but are thoughts I had when looking through what you've got together.

Sorry for writing a book... I guess I'm in a typing mood.

Still a +1 from me. :)

Another thing I forgot to mention... Curiosity on Guttersnipe = almost every time you cast a spell, you draw a card to replace it.