Ice Cauldron is an option I've been considering for a while for my Damia deck. My pods are not as competitive as yours, and help especially if you find yourself mana-bricked a bit (Without such an elegant land base as yours).

And I cannot give Carpet of Flowers enough praise. Is an amazing 1 drop.

Ice Cauldron is kind of vulnerable. I don't know if I would run it even in noncompetitive pods because it represents too much of an investment of time and resources to use.

I think I'm going to drop Rhystic Study for Carpet of Flowers . I'm effectively guaranteed to play against blue decks in competitive pods, and Rhystic Study is a tad too slow and expensive.

I just updated the MTGS thread if anyone wants a more detailed explanation of my choices and play style.

have you thought of Elves of Deep Shadow are did you not include it because it only tapped for black...

My friend plays Elves of Deep Shadow , but I'm not sure it's worth including. It's not as flexible as Birds of Paradise , Arbor Elf , or Deathrite Shaman .

What are your thoughts on Capsize ? I recognize that in this deck it acts as an alternate wincon, but lately I've been finding myself choosing not to play it do to the expensive buyback cost. What do you think?

I haven't cast it in a while, although I don't often draw into it. It does seem unnecessary in light of the recent changes to this deck; I'll often use Venser, Shaper Savant or Blue Sun's Zenith instead.

Thats my thinking too. I'm in the process of changing my deck around as well and Capsize is on a short list of things to cut. Its effect isn't worth 3 mana and its prohibitively expensive to play with its buyback unless you have infinite mana.

What do you think a suitable replacement would be?

As far as bounce spells go, I'm a big fan of Echoing Truth because of the mana cost and the ability to stop token swarms which are prevalent in my meta. And the nonland item shouldn't be a problem because thats what cards like Strip Mine are for.

I know you mentioned earlier you weren't a fan of it but Beast Within is solid removal to take its spot as well.

Beast Within is still in the deck. However, I don't think Echoing Truth is good enough in my situation. I almost never encounter token decks, so I might opt for Pongify or some other cheap removal spell to actually kill a target.

Fair enough. Echoing Truth is in my deck for my meta. Pongify is solid.

I'm just wondering if Pongify is the right option. This deck is now at the point where even the slightest change can drastically alter performance. I wish I had a consistent group around for some playtesting.

I think it comes down to what you think you'll face in your pods. If you're in doubt, maybe another counter spell? You have a lot in here already but its better to deal with a threat before it even hits the board then to not have the right type of removal to deal with it later

Pongify is not as good as Rapid Hybridization , but... I feel like Echoing Truth is better, not just for tokens, but also for anti-combo, bouncing their key piece.

Echoing Truth allows the opponent to retain access to nontoken targets, though. At least Pongify would kill it outright. I would like to use another counterspell, but I don't know if there are any more counterspells worth including.

Spell Crumple is a great one, basically another Hinder

Spell Crumple is good, but it's also a 3-drop. I would rather run a 2-drop counterspell if possible - Hinder is even pushing it as a counterspell. I include it because it is very strong against generals, but I'm unconvinced that redundancy is worth raising the mana curve.

Negate is classic and I've never really had a problem with it. Ya it doesn't counter creatures, but if you're in a pod focused on combos, its good protection and will probably still be able to hit all the spells you'd want it to.

There's also Deprive , but its probably only going to be beneficial when Azusa is in play.

Muddle the Mixture could be good. It's useful against other counterspells, and it transmutes for a lot of relevant cards.

I'm also considering Green Sun's Zenith as a ramp spell and Misdirection as a counterspell.

Just thought I'd say that your deck has helped me tremendously. I knew I wanted to play Damia, but I had no idea where to begin. Your deck has given me many ideas and suggestions. I am only a casual player so I have a lot of cards I thought would be fun, but I have enough of the good ones to win if I want to. So thank you, for your indirect deck-building assistance :P

Not a problem; it's always a pleasure to help a fellow EDH player. What is your meta like?

I have really only played against my friends; they do play at my LGS after standard but I haven't had enough time to join a game yet. I have seen Doran, Niv-Mizzet 2, an esper artifact commander (whose name I cannot remember), and Kaalia. My friends play Riku, Kaalia, and I am helping my friend build a Glissa deck. In my deck I added cards like Redirect , Willbender , and Gather Specimens because they are just hilarious.

I think I might give Leyline of Anticipation another chance. At this point, it seems more relevant than either Rhystic Study or Capsize .

i thought that Capsize was a wincon... i forget, why did you drop the leyline in the first place?