Potentially. Mana Vault enables a lot of spells in the early game, and I don't need to untap it after I use it. The untap ability is nice, but it isn't really necessary every time. I think I would rather have Mana Vault than Gilded Lotus, to be honest.

Gilded Lotus has become somewhat expensive for your decks general game plan, even if the colored man it gives you is nice. Would you use a first turn Mana Vault to cast Damia, Sage of Stone turn four or would you wait until you could defend her better?

Control is very situational, so it is almost impossible to give a solid answer to a general question. However, I usually find myself playing Damia as soon as my ramp gives me the luxury. If she survives the turn cycle, I replenish all the resources I used for the early cast. Ideally, I'd be holding a counterspell the entire time, but each game presents a different situation and therefore a different amount of leniency.

Then it may be worth trading Gilded Lotus out for Mana Vault. I've played with control players who would refuse to play a mana intensive card engine like Damia without some way to protect her the same turn. The largest benefit that Mana Vault offers you is the chance at an early Damia so if that's an open game plan for you then you're probably right about switching it in.

sorry if i have somebody has already suggested this, but would Cruel Tutor be a good tutor for this deck?

I would rather play Grim Tutor in this list. I can only really afford tutors that put cards on top of my library if they're instant speed and/or very cheap to cast. A 3-drop sorcery that puts the card on top is too slow.

take out Time Stretch for Time Warpand take out Arbor Elf for Tezzeret the Seeker

I've been thinking about swapping Time Stretch for a cheaper spell, but I would go with Temporal Manipulation before Time Warp. The former can't be redirected.

Tezzeret the Seeker doesn't fit the curve of this deck. He's a bit too slow and expensive to really shine, even though his abilities are good.

Maybe take out Rhystic Study for one of the cards in your maybeboard? It isnt a bad enchantment, but in my experience Rhystic Study doesn't net enough cards to be that useful.

My friend cut Rhystic Study from his variant of this list for essentially that reason. While it's a good card, it costs 3 and often only serves as a tax effect. What would I add, though?

Grim Tutor is the same converted mana cost and casting speed as Rhystic Study, so you aren't affecting much with that switch. The Pongify might be another card to consider though. I think that the deck's removal package is a little sparse and it wouldn't hurt to have another quick answer. You already have a decent amount of tutoring at this point, so I think I would push my vote a little further towards the Pongify.

how is Palinchron and Phantasmal Image a infinate combo?

you play Palinchron then you copy it with Phantasmal Image and so you untap up to 7 lands with the copy, then you bounce Phantasmal Image copying Palinchron and replay it untaping the lands again slowly getting 1 mana at a time. i think that it is that way and if it isn't i will feel very stupid.

That's exactly how it works. It costs 6 mana to play and bounce the Phantasmal Image copy of Palinchron, and you untap 7 lands each time, so those two go infinite together.

Have you considered Minamo, School at Water's Edge? I know you don't have a lot of legendaries, but it allows the untap of ANY legendary (including lands) and could be some fun tech since you can target opponents as well.

Doesn't come into play tapped so it doesn't slow you down and, unless you need the threshold ability, could easily replace Cephalid Coliseum.

Minamo, School at Water's Edge is effectively useless in this deck; the only viable targets are utility lands that don't really even need the untap. Cephalid Coliseum at least provides draw power and hand filtering, which is why I include it over another basic land.

I'm sorry i need some clearification on how you bounce Phantasmal Image. As i understand it.. any attempt to target Phantasmal Image will trigger its sacrifice ability, which as i also understand it will activate before the spell effect that targeted it will resolve, hence the sacrifice which is quicker then the spell and operates on the speed of a mana ability would send Phantasmal Image to the grave yard for such an attempt. Or am i incorrect on this assumption?

@Anthrax: In his example Phantasmal Image is a copy of Palinchron. The ability on Palinchron doesn't target, it is an activated ability of the creature but nowhere in it's text does it say "target."

Assuming you have a Phantasmal image copying a palinchron on the battlefield, and assuming you have 7 Island untapped, you can tap all 7 using 4 to return the Image to your hand leaving 3 mana in your pool. Then you use 2 of the 3 to recast Phantasmal Image copying Palinchron which untaps your 7 islands when he enters. You still have 1 mana in your pool. Then you tap your 7 lands for a total of 8 in your pool and do the process again. Each time you do you gain 1 mana in your pool and "infinite" number of times.

Yes i see that now, sorry late night for me im looking at things cross eyed.

I just tabulated everything; the deck comes to $2800 with all current foils included. With the ones I still have to get, it'll be at least $3000. That's not counting fetch foils or judge promos.

What are your views on Cavern of Souls in here?

I initially considered it because it does have applications, but I decided it was too limited. The fact that it can only tap for colorless except in very specific instances made me rule against it. Additionally, I run several creatures of varying types. The only two I would even bother calling are wizard and illusion.

Just out of curiosity, When you play the Phantasmal Image + Palinchron infinite mana, do you have to keep playing the Phantasmal Image for real or do you just float infinite mana?

If someone asks me to actually play out the combo, I demonstrate it once and then pick an arbitrarily large number of times to shortcut the repetition.

Ok. That makes a lot more sense than playing it repeatedly.

Thanks and +1