FLATSO99 - Voidslime had been in the deck previously I believe or was at least discussed and Epoch stated it was too mana intensive though it is a good card.

Not sure if that's the exact quote but it was something along those lines

ok then what about Countersquall, Dash Hopes, or Deprive?

FLATSO99 - Countersquall is too restrictive compared with other available options.

Deprive is a tad too risky. Later in the game losing the land would be no big deal. But in the early game it can set your ramp back too far. Even one land can spell disaster in the kind of meta this deck is designed for.

Dash Hopes - may seem good but life totals rarely (read that as barely ever) are relevant in high power matchups. The life would always get paid and you would be down two mana for no reason. It's honestly just not a very good card.

Negate is in the deck, so the very similar Countersquall is certainly in the realm of possibility, although a little worse than Negate (the lifeloss is completely irrelevant, but the mana cost is more restrictive).
Deprive is a Counterspell with a serious drawback. The deck tries to assemble 7+ mana as fast as possible, making Deprive really unattractive.
Dash Hopes is never going to be anything but a Lava Axe - no way is this ever finding a place in a competitive deck like this.
If you are looking to add more counters or just replace some of the expensive ones with more budget friendly options, Mana Leak and Logic Knot seem like some of the best options to me, but Countersquall is definitly a solid option as well.

@FLATSO99: I agree with Bellock86 and Emzed on those recommendations.

Voidslime was cut from the deck a while ago. It's certainly a good counterspell, and it's very flexible, but the mana cost (specifically, the CMC and not necessarily the colors) makes it difficult to budget for. In a competitive environment, you have to be careful about tying 3+ mana up in a single response because it limits your other options and may not even be used on a given turn.

Countersquall isn't a great spell in competitive environments. Because I win through combo, the loss of life it inflicts on the opponent is irrelevant to my game plan. Therefore, it's just a fully-saturated Negate, which I'd rather not play.

Similarly, Dash Hopes's life loss clause tends to be an easy out for most opponents. I don't generally attack, and most of the damage or loss of life inflicted over the course of a given game is self-inflicted (by all players) from fetches, shocks, Mana Crypts, etc. And in most cases, this loss of life doesn't add up to 35, so an opponent will typically just lose 5 life in order to get their spell to resolve. The reason I have the other pay-to-avoid counterspells in the deck is that they require mana payments, which are much harder to muster in a competitive environment where you're on a tight in-game resource budget. Most people can't actually afford to pay for something like Spell Pierce if they get sucked into the middle of a counter war.

Deprive is good, but it's also risky. I can mitigate some of the risk through Exploration and similar cards, but I have to be careful about losing lands. Losing a land, whether that's because it was returned to your hand or destroyed, is, in practice, a considerable tempo setback.

ok :)

I like the deck +1 from me

Have you also considered Gilded Drake?

If you're considering Mana Leak for the deck (which I really like), have you also considered Miscalculation? While I get it's easier to pay for, it give you the option of turning into another card if it no longer becomes relevant.

So came across this little common. Natural Connection. half of a cultivate at instant speed seems kind of good. expensive for how many lands you get and that they are basic a bit of a bummer but could still be relevant. Allows you to hold up a counter spell if needed.

Have you considered Reverent Silence

For some reason it posted twice

Hey, I have been playing the deck for a while and was wondering what your thoughts on reanimate were. The life loss is pretty irrelevant, and it can return a killed or countered damia, consecrated sphinx, or one of the combo pieces. I realize that there are situations where it is a dead card, but it is cheap and can provide large tempo swings.

Guess I haven't answered questions in a while.

@Regigigas23: Gilded Drake is a good card, no doubt, but I don't think it's that beneficial in this deck. I'm usually not in a position where I want to tie up that mana in a sorcery-speed thief effect, and rarely is there a creature that's worth stealing in the grand scheme of things.

@enpc: I'll add it to the maybeboard. Mana Leak has a better chance of countering the spell, but the ability to cycle a soft counter is appealing.

@knight611: If it could find duals, it would be better. I don't know if I can justify spending on a single basic land, even if it could be cast with unused counter mana.

@Coca-Cola: I could add it to the maybeboard. I think it would be part of the sideboard to be swapped in against Zur or other decks. I don't know that I would play it as part of the 99.

@shiggy1339: I think it's come up in the past, but I can't remember what my argument was against it (besides it not being applicable in every game). Added to the maybeboard.

What are your thoughts on Unsubstantiate and the just spoiled Summary Dismissal?

What about trying Seasons Past in your deck? It's a very slow card, but it gives you enormous late game power to the point where you might be able to counter multiple spells every turn and essentially lock the game (return something like Demonic Tutor with Seasons Past and loop those two every turn). That would probably require 10+ mana, but maybe this deck could pull it off.

Enlighten me as to why an Isochron Scepter is not a good add to this deck?

To me, its a loaded gun aimed directly at the opponent, giving him pause before playing his important stuff.

Maybe it only really affects the player after you, but putting him on blast all the time can only help, except in diplomacy cases.

If nothing else, opponents will attempt to remove the Scepter, which allows you to defend it on your terms, or waste a card.

Isochron Scepter only becomes actually good once you use it least 3 times. That requires a total of at least 8 mana and won't happen before turn 4 or 5, and it can very easily fall to a Nature's Claim or Krosan Grip before that. That seems a little clunky and unnecessarily risky for a deck that will usually try to win on turn 4 or 5.

Have you ever though of adding Command Beacon because could get quite expensive after she has died at least once.

@Silverf1sh: Unsubstantiate has potential, but would require testing. Summary Dismissal is kind of expensive for something that probably won't be relevant all that often. Usually, a single counterspell, well placed, will accomplish the same result as Summary Dismissal.

@Emzed: Seasons Past would be able to return a lot of cards, but that's not necessarily sufficient justification for running it, in my opinion. As you said, it's a very slow and expensive card. It's more of a win-more card than a utility card at that point. I dropped Time Stretch for essentially the same reason. It can be great if recurred properly, but just isn't practical enough to pursue.

@Daeyel: Isochron Scepter is one of those cards I don't like in competitive. It's very good in casual and semicompetitive environments, but it tends to act as a distraction in competitive. You have to budget the extra into your game plan, and you usually don't need to be able to recast whatever instant you're imprinting. In most cases, it's sufficient to just cast Counterspell or whatever else once to get rid of the most pressing threat, then use your remaining resources on something else.

Now, that's not to say that Isochron Scepter doesn't have its perks. If you aren't drawing into countermagic, the opportunity to reuse one of your counterspells across several turns is attractive. But I don't think that Isochron Scepter is economical as part of the deck as a whole.

@lucal13: In most cases, I don't actually need to recast Damia. There are some games in which I don't cast it at all. I don't think the occasional utility from Command Beacon warrants adding another colorless-only land to the deck. Your mileage may vary.

Suggestion: Kiora's Follower #Ramp #Utility

Targets: All your lands, Deathrite Shaman, Arbor Elf, Birds of Paradise, Grim Monolith (6 mana!), Mana Crypt (4 mana), Mana Vault (6 mana!), Mox Diamond, Sol Ring (4 mana).

You forgot the best interaction: drawing extra cards with Sensei's Divining Top. Still, a 2 cmc creature that's not always easy to cast and often is just a Harvester Druid probably has to wait in line behind Chrome Mox, Elves of Deep Shadow, Llanowar Elves and the other 1cmc accelerators. Even Trinket Mage as a tutor for Sol Ring, Mana Vault or Sensei's Divining Top seems like a more reliable way to ramp.

As someone who has run Kiora's Follower for a while, I can tell you that it is very much worth the spot.

Even just the ability to reuse cards like Mana Vault each turn is super strong. It also means that if you need to use a Boseiju, Who Shelters All then you can play it and untap it all in the same turn.

Other little things as well like it's a blue card so it can be pitched to Force of Will all make it just an all around solid card. Not to mention it can still be targetted by GSZ.

"Even just the ability to reuse cards like Mana Vault each turn" - you make it sound like that's the worst case, when it's actually one of the absolute best case scenarios for Kiora's Follower. The card is legitimately great if you happen to have one of a handful of other cards (Sol Ring etc), i am not going to argue that, but that's not always the case. Without those cards, it's mediocre. Also, let's not forget that opponents will see what's going on and can easily Nature's Claim your Sol Ring. It's a swingy card, and the question is, is its average performance better than any of the cards currently in the deck? My experience with the card tells me no.

I'm not saying that's a worst case scenario by any stretch. But I worded it like that becuase you're not trying to do anything fancy with a Sensei's Divining Top or anything.

As for the lower end, at worst it can untap a land which is as good as Arbor Elf. The benefit here is that you can untap any land. And the fact that you paid for it means that yo uat least have access to those two colours.

I said this a while ago, but I honestly think that you can cut Leyline of Anticipation for it. As far as swingy card, leyline is much more of one. Epoch himself said that it basically never gets cast, so it only gets used when it's in an opening hand. Other than that, it's FoW fodder.