can't recast it from the graveyard is the only thing I can think of. 3 mana is a lot to pay if you aren't tucking a general though.

wouldn't Dissipate work better, besides on commanders? unless that's the exact reason you mentioned that card.

@Orbrunner: I don't like Tainted Pact . I don't want to exile cards without knowing whether I'll hit what I want. If I find a combo piece I don't need at the time, I'll have to exile it or take it without needing it. I'd rather run a better tutor.

Hinder is my Spell Crumple . I don't like that Spell Crumple shuffles itself back into my deck because that means it probably won't be available again. Because Hinder goes to my graveyard, I can recur it with Eternal Witness or Snapcaster Mage .

Remember, I play this deck at the highest level of competition. I want every card to be an efficient solution to a problem. I already have Hinder , so Spell Crumple is unnecessary. I'd rather run another one-drop or two-drop counterspell.

To clarify: why not run Spell Crumple alongside Hinder ? Not only would you have access to the ability more often, this is a deck made for multiplayer, and there's often more than one commander that needs tucking. Though, yes, the recursion is a possibility, it won't always be there when you need it. I'd say it's a consideration to sub in over Glen Elendra Archmage as far as countermagic goes.

I explained in post #74: I don't need two of them. One is sufficient, and I'd rather use another one-drop or two-drop counterspell instead of Spell Crumple . Remember, countering a general with a normal counterspell still makes the general more expensive to recast. It will normally delay the opponent at least a turn or two.

How do you feel about the fact there aren't foil printings of some cards you run?

ever tried Joraga Treespeaker ? in place of Utopia Sprawl ? u dont really need the colors form Utopia Sprawl do u?

Joraga Treespeaker gives 2 acceleration for 3, Utopia Sprawl gives 1 acceleration (and fixing) for 1 and doesn't require haste in order for said mana to be used that turn.
A better suggestion with the would be Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary , but, in my opinion, there aren't enough Forests for him to be truly effective.

What do you think of Personal Tutor ? It can get several notable cards, be they boardwipes, other tutors or Tooth and Nail .

@CallMeCrazy: I'm indifferent about it. I've seen some people with foil ABUR proxies, and I don't personally think those are necessary. I do like that Lim-Dul's Vault and Arcane Denial got some awesome new art in C13, and I've acquired the new printings of those cards specifically for that reason. I have alters of other cards (Counterspell , Sensei's Divining Top , Sol Ring ), and I can always get non-foils altered if I prefer.

@jamiepeter6: I don't like Joraga Treespeaker . It requires you to reinvest 1G at sorcery speed before it even taps for mana. Utopia Sprawl is immediately useful (unless played on the first turn on your only land), and it color fixes as well as ramps.

@Orbrunner: Personal Tutor is decent, but it's severely limited by the fact that it's a sorcery that only finds other sorceries. If it were an instant, or if it were more flexible, it might have been included already. I currently play only ten sorceries, and I don't know whether they're worth including a special, sorcery-only tutor to find because they aren't all the most flexible cards in the deck.

I play-tested your Dreamcrusher against my Stax deck and I got off a turn two Smokestack . The dreamcrusher had a Vampiric Tutor and Swan Song to protect the tutor but I couldn't find anything to tutor up to get rid of the Smokestack. What about Deglamer ? Does Dreamcrusher just lose to a resolved Smokestack ?

Sydri, Galvanic Genius - Where are the Creatures?

I've been thinking for a while that Pithing Needle could be great for the deck. It's basically an auto win against Hermit Druid , as the deck can easily race the secondary win con(s), and they only run 1-3 answers to it. Also, it can take out a lot of common commanders, I know you've mentioned a Jarad deck in your meta, as well as other major decks like Scion of the Ur-Dragon , Captain Sisay , etc. If nothing else, it can just serve as a one mana Jace kill spell.

Although Pithing Needle is good, a lot of the time you'll have to name a card blindly and hope to hit. In multiplayer its not very effective. I'm the player of the Jarad deck and I have answers to Pithing Needle but Epoch doesn't have a way to pull it out of the graveyard effectively. Its a one-time spell that can very easily get removed and doesn't make a huge difference in the game.

What do you think of the medallions (jet, sapphire, emerald)? Is the gradual advantage of the cost reduction enough to warrant an inclusion, or is the fact that they only work on spells (no synergy with deadeye navigator) and only a specific color of spell (in a tri-color deck) too much of an issue to make the cut?

Also, in lieu of Delay , would the bypassing of uncounterable spells be enough to warrant the inclusion of Ertai's Meddling ?

Your deck mig not be the best place for it, but what are your thoughts on Vendilion Clique ?

Since you need Palinchron for your infinite mana, why not use Great Whale also?

Great Whale only combos with Deadeye Navigator and not Phantasmal Image . It's considerably worse because of that. He'd have to cut something else for a card that pretty much does nothing on its own. While it is a combo deck, you do want your cards to have as much usefulness on their own, and synergy with others as possible. Even if your combos don't go infinite, smaller things like Rings of Brighthearth (I know it isn't in this deck, just an example, since it is another infinite mana combo peice) + a fetch land can potentially win you games if they go unchecked.

Palinchron can also double as a flying blocker. He can return to hand before taking damage if you're really in trouble for some reason. Palinchron just has so much more utility than Great Whale , and including both doesn't really help the deck too much, because it is one of the higher CMC cards included in the deck. Time Stretch is a good card, but it's CMC means it is a dead card until you build up that much mana, and probably still dead until a turn or 2 after that, because you actually need it to resolve to be useful (it's prob top 5 most countered spells in EDH).

Say you have a medium range budget for a deck like this (800-100$). What are some of the cards that could be replaced to make this deck a little more accessible while still holding most of its power?

Imperial Seal , Three Visits , Jace, the Mind Sculptor , Mana Drain and the mana base. To list the top price offenders.

Possibly Yawgmoth's Will .

@ YerpyMoose What could those be replaced with?

@coleman984: Some cards do pose a problem. I go light on removal spells because I primarily use counterspells to get rid of threats. Do you think it's worth reevaluating that strategy?

@Blakkhand: I wonder if Pithing Needle is worth including, but it does serve as a strong answer to many threats. Smith_and_Tonic brings up a good point about its effectiveness being reduced in multiplayer, which is what this deck was designed for.

@YerpyMoose: The medallions are decent cards in some decks, but they aren't worth including here. Their effectiveness falls off as you add more colors to the deck, and they don't really do enough for me in a three-color build to warrant inclusion.

Delay is better than Ertai's Meddling , in my opinion. They cost the same to cast (Ertai's Meddling can only be cast for a minimum of 1U), but Delay gets rid of the spell for longer. Actually, Delay isn't even in the current build. I forgot what I cut it for.

@alexsmith21: Vendilion Clique is alright as a commander or a support card in some decks, but I don't think it's worthwhile here. This deck is designed for a multiplayer environment, and Vendilion Clique 's power decreases significantly once you start adding opponents.

@TheGamer: Great Whale doesn't go infinite without Deadeye Navigator . Palinchron can. The redundancy is nice, but not worthwhile considering how many other cards I could be including.

@Arcaedion: To be honest, you'll have to cut a significant amount of power from this deck to build a budget version.

A lot of the price tag comes from the land base because it uses the 3-3-9. I invested a lot in lands because they are the foundation of the deck. I have perhaps one of the most consistent mana platforms possible in BUG.

Additionally, as YerpyMoose mentions, Imperial Seal , Jace, the Mind Sculptor , and Mana Drain are expensive. Mana Crypt , too.

There are several cards in the $15-25 range that perform vital functions.

You'll have to decide what's worth including. If you have a budget of $800-1000, you can afford to include most of the $25 stuff, and maybe even some of the $100 stuff. Imperial Seal is an obvious cut, and you'll probably need to make some sacrifices when it comes to the land lineup. You can use pain and check lands instead of some of the duals and checks (I would at least keep the shocks). Filter lands are another possibility.

You'll basically be trying to downgrade most of the expensive cards, which will probably be hard. Those cards are in the deck because they do their jobs so well.

@Epochalyptik No I don't think running less counter magic is the right move. And personally I wish there was a better exile / tuck counter to stop problems that are likely to recur. As far as I'm aware there are 3 counters that either tuck or exile that cost 1UU but none that cost less. But depending on your meta I think Deglamer might warrant a spot. I believe it to be superior to Krosan Grip on two fronts; mana cost and tucking. I personally run a Purphoros, God of the Forge list and if he doesn't get disrupted he can win very quickly. But aside from the gods to many things stop something from being destroyed or what not or can recur things from the graveyard easily so therefore I would rather put it back into the library.