Damn... all i can say to that is wow... lol... i think i have learned more in the last 5 minutes of reading then i have in a while....

to wit though... Snapcaster Mage is too g*n expensive for me to use... believe me i want him in my deck but i simply cannot afford 120 bucks for 4 cards... :( especially when they will be falling out of play in october with no guarantee that he would be reprinted in one of the new sets... :(

I have already reduced Devil's Play to 3 to make room for Think Twice . as far as splashing other colors... that is a no go. i cannot use tricolor decks... i have tried... and many times i have failed... lol.

i will be honest... i adore the Maze's End card. and the chief reason i have them in the deck is becuase initially i believed (falsely) that they could be tapped for any color. Evolving Wilds is DEFINITELY a better option... and one that i like a little better. i like having the ability to pull land without having to splash green for Farseek so i kinda just came up with my own way of doing it... lol

Cyclonic Rift has saved my ass on more than a few occasions so i really dont wanna see it go... :/ plus... the ability to use it as a copy if it gets hit with melek is pretty nice as well... :D

also... how would you be able to OL CR with Hidden Strings that is something i am definitely curious about... :D

Because Cyclonic Rift is an instant, you can cast it during your combat phase.

As such, after you have attacked, and the cipher version(s) of Hidden Strings is/are on the stack, you can tap your land before each resolves.

Assuming you have 3 land, and 2 Hidden Strings in hand:

• Tap 2 land, cast Hidden Strings , untap those 2 land, and cipher it onto a creature.

• Tap those 2 land again, cast a second Hidden Strings , untap those 2 land again, cipher onto a creature.

• Combat Phase: Attack with ciphered creature(s)... (assuming it appears it/they will get through)

• After damage, 2 Cipher triggers go on the stack. - Before they resolve, tap all your land. (3 mana in mana pool)

• Resolve 1 Hidden Strings , untap 2 land. - Tap those 2 land again (5 mana in mana pool)

• Resolve 2nd Hidden Strings , untap 2 land. - Tap those 2 land again (7 mana in mana pool)

• Cast Overloaded Cyclonic Rift

.... of course, doing this on T3 is sometimes a waste, as your opponent may not have much to bounce, but aggro decks may be slowed, and it may be all you need.

Turn 5 is often the best time to do this, and only one Hidden Strings is needed to do this if you have 5 Lands.

youd be better off doing that with Devil's Play rather than making them pick up their stuff, unless they had a royal butt ton of permanents out.

Izzet Charms are great because they can be a counterspell (for anything that isn't a creature), OR burn spells, OR Card filtering. Hidden Strings is only useful if you're turning creatures sideways early on, which this deck is not.
If you're facing decks that don't win by turning things sideways, try Scatter Arc and Reverberate (which can counter counterspells or Mimic bombs like Sphinx's Revelation ). I've also seen people use Charmbreaker Devils to amusing effect, constantly refilling their hand with win.
If you find yourself wanting to Ramp up to something big, then running out of cards, Izzet Cluestone is what you want. Ramp when you need it, draw when you don't. Izzet Keyrune is better if you're thinking about obliterating the other side. If you're facing decks that DO win by turning things sideways, you'll probably want something like Fog Bank , Blustersquall , Mizzium Mortars s, Sleep , and Inaction Injunction to freeze the field. Homing Lightning if you're running into tokens, or Sire Of Insanity .
For any deck, since your Snipes are so squishy and your walls are your only real defense, you may want to consider Ring of Evos Isle . It turns any of your creatures into a Mistfolk and will make any of your Weirds grow over time.

I, personally really, really hate think twice. I do. It doesn't do anything. It's a self-exiling Inspiriation for 5. If it works for you, great, but I hate it.

Lunar Mystic in a deck with 22 instants would make sense.

Alchemist's Apprentice is card draw that can block.

You love Gates, so the blue & red gatekeepers may actually be a half-decent idea. They'll absorb early removal, and have a big enough back side to keep you alive midgame, while having decent (draw or threaten) effects late game.

Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius would also work as late-game card draw engine. You can also use the Curiosity -Guttersnipe combo to turn any instant into a cantrip.

Hope these help.

all great opinions... i greatly appreciate them all... :D as for Hidden Strings ... that sounds way too damn complex for my taste.... lol also it puts a lot of emphasis on ONE solution... personally i hate having only one answer... lol i like to control things... so i like to have LOTS of answers.... :D

Question: Have you considered Goblin Electromancer ? I know he is a creature which there isn't much room for in a burn and control deck. But it drops the mana cost for instants and sorceries by a colorless, which doesn't seem like much, but it can really make a difference. That's dropping Cyclonic Rift and Searing Spear down to one drops, and can really come in use with Overloading a spell! Also, it makes your Devil's Play one mana less for the same effect. It is amazing if you get two out there! I play with both Goblin Electromancer and Guttersnipe , and combined with a Melek, Izzet Paragon or Ral Zarek can be game winners. Just a thought, maybe give it a try and let me know what you think!

So if someone casts a Skullcrack on you, you can redirect that damage to a Planeswalker you control?

P.S.: Does that also work for every spell that targets a player?

whoever cast the Skullcrack . not you. and yes i would assume so... the Guttersnipe trigger can also be redirected to an opponent's planeswalker as well....

That is freakin awesome, I had no idea. I knew Planeswalkers had similarities to players like how a creature can attack one directly, but I didn't know targeting a player could also mean targeting a Planeswalker. Too bad that doesn't work in reverse. (i.e. Dreadbore - Destroy target player. XD)

lmao.... yeah now that would be pretty frakking awesome.... lol

only reason that i found out was because i was playing against a guy in fnm that had been playing since the beginning of the game(never played him in a tourney before) and when i had a Guttersnipe on the field i cast a spell to cancel something and he asked if i would like the trigger to hit him or the jace that he had on the field.... judge informed me that anything that hits a player for damage can be redirected to a planeswalker instead... i was like holy shit.... lol

I read your update about adding white to the mix and I am similarly working on a deck I call American Zarek. Another control based spell with that option is Render Silent . Feel free to use my deck for any ideas as I will do the same with yours :-). Hopefully we will each will come up with something crazy fun.

i had forgotten about that one.... might have to try that out... :D

hmmm... first time that i have been told that i lack control elements... lol....

i dont have a problem with countering things... honestly the only trouble that i really run into is not having a viable board wipe option after turn 5 or so. i love my Cyclonic Rift but i need to be able to actually destroy everything. not just bounce it. beyond that though i have not really run into a situation where i needed more spot removal (like pillar or mortars)

Guttersnipe does not HAVE to be on the field for me to win. i have won multiple games with him being in my hand or not in play at all. and Nivix Cyclops is there as a defender. i dont typically use him to do anything but defend. i will use something to pump him while on the opponents turn and then use him to kill off any creature that might be attacking(essentially making him expendable in certain situations). i dont swing with him except in situations where i would have enough in my hand to end the game then and there.

my primary focus is on countering creatures and spells and keeping the board clean. that is why i dont have any more burn than i already have.

last friday i think was a one off... i have beaten multiple aggro decks with the deck as it is right now..... i just do not know what happened or why i lost friday night. i think a lot of it was due to stress with some personal issues honestly but i beat several tier one aggro decks. gruul, naya blitz, among others... .

I agree with RedZebraTape you have a lot of control elements but nothing that really benefits from stalling the game out, you add in multiple AEtherling and you present another win con. Your win conditions in this deck are not strong enough, AEtherling is probably one of the best win con's for control decks in standard right now.

So on the subject of AEtherling , how many should go into a control deck? I wouldn't think more than 2.

psychoza if you look at the top 8 protour decks most were running 2/3 AEtherling mainboard, and if they were running two they had 1 in their sideboard. The semi finalist control deck player had 2.

@donpianta Thanks for the info.

No probs bro. psychoza

@donpianta.... do you have a link to these decks? i would love to look at them... :D

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/ptdgm13/Top_8_Decks Here ya go. :)

if you are to use guttersnipe, Tandem Lookout or Curiosity could be really useful =D

Why is Maze's End in here?