XxFATMAN247xX: Both of those cards are covered in the description under "omissions".

This has probably been asked already but why no one mana cantrips like ponder/preordain etc.? Don't they generally just raise consistency?

Hey man, I really love the deck. There are a few cards you should consider adding to the deck though : Countersquall- Counters a spell like Negate, but also takes 2 life from the opponent. Havengul Lich- Brings back any of the creatures important to your combo by paying 1 colorless mana more. Oh, and he also let's you cast every creature from your opponents graveyards too (as long as you have the other colors of mana). Massacre Wurm- He's a big body that can sweep your opponents creatures and gain you life as well. Two other considerations would be Rakshasa Deathdealer and Beast Within.

@Dankey: There aren't enough Islands in this deck to make Foil worthwhile. Foil is best played in mono-U or U/X decks, where more consistent access to Islands is likely.

@ooop333: I was wondering for a time what the deck would look like if I switched to Leovold, Emissary of Trest as the commander. Any experience in that field?

@Silverf1sh: It depends. I know that's not a great answer, but control decks must be played contextually, and there are really no hard rules for things like Blue Sun's Zenith. Generally, though, I'll use it as a utility card and leave /X up. I try to cast it when most players are tapped down to reduce the change of interference.

@XxFATMAN247xX: I don't play either of those cards for the reasons stated in the primer. They're slow, expensive, and not impactful enough for their costs.

@Pyromancer999: It's true that cantrips generally raise consistency, but they don't make enough of an impact. In a deck clamoring for tutors, counterspells, and ramp, I'm hard-pressed to include "throwaway" spells that replace themselves for only minor benefit. The amount of raw draw and tutor power, plus the shuffle effects, reduces how important cards like Ponder might be.

@budlaorf: This deck is built on a philosophy of efficient, high-impact cards. The cards you mentioned don't really jive with that.

Countersquall's cost is completely saturated, meaning I must pay to cast it (as opposed to /X). This deck wins through combos, and there's really little reason to ping people for 2 life in the interim.

Havengul Lich is expensive and doesn't really do enough to justify paying . This deck also does not play combo creatures ahead of time, so those cards are rarely in the graveyard. I feel I have sufficient alternatives and recursion in case they do ever hit the yard.

Massacre Wurm is very expensive for a board wipe in these colors, and, as I mentioned above, I don't really need to make opponents lose life before I combo. And because I don't really need to attack with this deck, the fact that it's a 6/5 is kind of irrelevant.

Rakshasa Deathdealer has no utility abilities; it's just a 2/2 that can attack or block.

Beast Within was cut from the deck earlier because it was expensive to cast. It's good enough that it could still see inclusion in variations of this deck, but I never cared for casting it.

@ Epochalyptik Love the deck man!! your primer imo is one of the best i've read.

as to making Leovold, Emissary of Trest your commander, how often do you cast damia? i think that if it weren't for damia being the long-standing figurehead of the deck, I would recommend leovold as an alternate commander, as he can come out as early as turn 2 and dominate the board, while you pile up card advantage.

keep up the good work! i'd hate to see you stop editing this deck and making it even better!

@VraskaTheCursed: Thank you.

Damia and Leovold are both good cards. Both have good abilities. My main problem with Damia all this time has been the cost.

Leovold certainly fixes that issue: it's not prohibitively expensive to cast (or recast). However, I do wonder whether the card advantage is comparable. The reason Damia was successful in this shell is that it replaces the cards spent building advantage in the first few turns. Having not tested Leovold, I'm unfamiliar with how much card advantage it actually generates.

I don't think you can count on Leovold drawing you the 3+ cards that Damia can usually provide (if she sticks). While he will draw the occasional card, and sometimes multiples, most of his power lies in his disruptive ability. Many combo decks don't work with him on the board, and you have plenty of counters to make sure he stays. This anti-draw ability also allows you to generate massive card advantage/disruption with wheel effects. His second ability, however, is great if someone tries to kill you with Tendrils of Agony or Brain Freeze (each storm copy triggers Leovold separately), since you can just draw cards until you find Flusterstorm or Mindbreak Trap.

@ Epochalyptik i agree that damia's ability is grossly powerful and adept at refilling your hand. i think the way leovold generates card advantage is not just drawing you cards (although this he will certainly do), but by limiting your opponents' draws. because your opponents will NEVER draw more than 1 card per turn with leovold out, it's safe to say that you will always have more options, considering the amount of draw in this deck. another reason to consider leovold is that he is an active card-advantage generator as soon as he hits the field, whereas with damia you have to wait a turn to start reaping her benefits.

that being said, this deck could certainly perform incredibly well with both generals, it probably comes down to personal perference

What about Heroic Intervention? It's a good cheap way to protect your permanents from a board wipe.

@budlaorf: Unfortunately, Heroic Intervention is basically a more limited counterspell in that sense. It would be better to play an additional counterspell instead.

Alright, one last recommendation would be Ertai's Meddling. It can really screw with your opponents timing, counters any counterspell for 1 blue and 1 of any color, and is one of the only ways I know of to at least delay a spell that can't be countered such as Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

@budlaorf wouln't a hard counter with a different drawback be better? if x is more than 1 it just is worse than Counterspell or Arcane Denial, considering the amount of mana fixing in this deck. plus Delay is a better version, except for uncounterable spells of course

If you were going to run another counterspell, I would have thought that Unsubstantiate would be the next in the list as it doubles as creature removal.

Would it be viable to stick a Leovold in the 99 of this Damia deck? I know it technically doesn't fit into any of your requirements, but it's nearly guaranteed card advantage on top of disrupting your opponents tempo. You're already running enough counter spells to protect it. It doesn't seem like it's diluting your deck to the point where it slows down your gameplan.

Leovold is an interesting consideration, however, his first ability disrupts the main win condition for this deck, as your opponents will not be able to draw more than one card during your turn, forcing you to find ways to deal with your own creature during or right before the combo-turn. So I believe it's counter-intuitive to play him in this deck at all.

very true - didn't even realize that. that's too bad, leovold would have been beast in this deck

Well, generally you would attempt to draw your own deck to maximize the options you have in hand, then start eliminating opponents. Going that route, you'd more than likely have a way to bounce or otherwise remove Leovold, Emissary of Trest before attempting to combo someone out of the game.

Epochalyptik, I've been using Leovold, Emissary of Trest since it was released in my deck, absolutely love it I find it gives me a great advantage, However, be wary of clones as clones of leovold flat-out shut damia down until dealt with.

I'm not sure if this has been suggested yet, but how about Defense of the Heart? Great way to play your Deadeye Navigator+Palinchron wincon on turn 4 or 5.

budlaorf: Check the omissions section of the primer. There's a write up about why it's not run.

You might try adding Reality Shift from the Maybeboard. It could be that as Prime Speaker Zegana is my general, it feels very consistent drawing my library to hit the palinchrombo, Eternal Witness, Forbidden Orchard, and Reality Shift. but I find that since having it in there, I have been relying on it as my win con even over the typical blue sun's, venser attrition, and otherwise. Not to mention, it's a sweet utility card as is. I tend to use it to pop Linvala, Keeper of Silence and the like outside of the combo.

Silverf1sh, Krosan Grip totally is meta dependent. I agree with Epochalyptik it's usually not worth it. Especially in my meta where people love morph creatures, and Voidmage Apprentice can counter a split second card

Any chance of including Thought-Knot Seer? It's a decent disruptive card and a solid win condition: Flicker it to make your opponents draw their decks. If you stack everything correctly, there are very few ways to interact, even if they draw their whole deck (Time Stop and Summary Dismissal aren't exactly cards you need to play around, but Brain Freeze could become dangerous, as could a way to play Tendrils of Agony at instant speed).
If you have no trouble finding BSZ every time you go infinite, you don't need the Eldrazi as a finisher, but otherwise it might be a decent back-up.

Summoning Trap for counter spell heavy metas? It costs zero while digging 7 and possibly plays a win con for free. Who knows, it might find the combo card you need.

Or is it better to draw a 2 mana counter spell that you may not be able to afford casting?

Dankey: Summoning Trap might fit certain metas, but in the case of this deck, it's high of a possibility to be a dead card. with damia out, you can essentially draw in your win con, with that card in hand. Or you could just never get it's trigger. In my opinion, it's just not efficient enough for this deck.