@rathalos3000: I tested Brainstorm , but it was unimpressive. In theory, it looks good because of the shuffle effects. However, there are better cards that could be using its slot.

quick question about mana rocks; between Mana Vault , Grim Monolith and Mana Crypt which one do you find gives you the best bang for buck (ignoring price)? Do you ever find you sink the mana to untap the two? Also, with Ancient Tomb , how does the life loss go? Do you find you burn yourself a lot with it?

@enpc: It's a hard choice. I really like both Mana Vault and Mana Crypt , and it depends strongly on the first turn. Mana Crypt is always free, but Mana Vault provides a little extra if I've got a spare mana after my opening plays (say, for example, I go land, Exploration , land).

I usually don't pay to untap either Grim Monolith or Mana Vault , but, depending on the situation, I might untap them once every few games. It's a very situational play, especially with Mana Vault .

Generally speaking, Ancient Tomb doesn't do too much damage to me. I obviously can't go infinite with it, but the acceleration it provides means I usually don't have to suffer for too many turns.

I was wondering your thoughts on Mox Diamond in this deck when you can? When you compare it to Chrome Mox , it doesn't seem as bad. It taps for any color, unlike chrome (the chances of you're exiling a multicolored card doesn't seem likely). The downside could be pretty bad. Normally, discarding a land isn't the worst, that being said with the 4 Exploration effects it could hurt. I could see the diamond doing some serious work, but is it worth it?

Flusterstorm or Mental Misstep ?

also what about Soul Manipulation and why no Daze ?

I've never been a fan of Mox Diamond . In a vacuum, it seems like a good card. But in practice, I just haven't seen many opportunities for it to truly shine. I generally start with some kind of land-per-turn accelerator, so I can get by without burning land cards. I suppose the counterargument is that this deck plays Crucible of Worlds , but if you look at the set of games in which Mox Diamond 's acceleration makes up for its downside by a relevant magnitude, it's smaller than the set of games in which Mox Diamond 's downside and vulnerability as a potential 2-for-1 artifact are liabilities.

Of course, that's all rather theoretical, and playtesting data is still the main factor, but I haven't pulled the trigger on that inclusion.

@atgarnett: Flusterstorm is ok, but I haven't tested it yet. It would always be a "Pay 3" minimum, but I'm not sure how well it would work. I'll test it next time I get a chance.

Mental Misstep is meh. I don't see it being a game-changer, and I don't know that it makes a strong enough case for itself to warrant serious testing. What are your thoughts?

Soul Manipulation is pretty bad in comparison to the cards I already run. It's expensive and limited.

Daze is also very unimpressive. It doesn't act as a hard counter unless my opponent is completely tapped out. I'd sooner run Flusterstorm .

If you're not running Spell Pierce , then i'm not sure that Flusterstorm is worth it. Whilst Flusterstorm generally hits 3-ish, (it can be 2 if you're the one trying to stop the combo), Spell Pierce is more versatile, hitting mana-rocks and planeswalkers. Mental Misstep is really good for winning counter wars if cmc 1 counters are really common. It's quite restrictive, but being free, it means people don't expect it. It may or may not be worth it in here, depending on what types of counter spells people play. Also: countering a turn 1 Sol Ring is quite nice.

Mental Misstep is allmost allways a free counter spell (and you know how powerful Force of Will is) it can count Land Tax , Thoughtseize , Sol Ring , 1 mana tutors, many elves, Phyrexian Dreadnought , Sensei's Divining Top , Swords to the plowshares, Mana Vault , Exploration , etc it's amazing.

Fair arguments, to be sure. I'll need to test Spell Pierce , Flusterstorm , and Mental Misstep .

Unfortunately, I have few opportunities to playtest anymore. Maybe I'll start driving up to FNM and looking for games.

Worldly Tutor for comboing off?

The problem is the reveal. Black tutors are much better as they don't know what you're getting. Sure, it's an instant, but if they know what you're going to do next turn, it's far easier to play around. It's also just less versatile than vampiric, as if you have a combo in hand, it can get Force of Will or Swan Song . If you have 8 mana it can get Tooth and Nail . If you're mana screwed you can grab a Sol Ring . (Probably better than birds). Or, if you're screwed for coloured mana, you can still grab birds. But if you reveal that you're getting birds, the opponents will go: "Guys, he grabbed birds off a tutor, he either needs the coloured mana, or is low on mana, let's kill them." I think the tutor is a good card, but i'm sure as hell that it has been considered/suggested before.

I forgot about that part. :/

Makes sense in a competitive environment.

9 i meant for tooth btw.

Technically you want 10 for TaN. Nine for the cast, untap seven with Palinchron , tutor for Deadeye Navigator with Rune-Scarred Demon , then play Deadeye Navigator for six, and finally two to flicker Palinchron to start the combo.

True. However much you need, the point stands.

Technically technically, you want more than that. You don't cast a Tooth and Nail without having countermagic available (even if you use Boseiju, Who Shelters All ).

Why did you remove Chromatic Lantern , I understand Glen Elendra Archmage and Delay , Flusterstorm is obviously better,

I have been on the fence about Chromatic Lantern for a while. It's an alright card, but it's better in less optimized decks. It's more of a bandage for suboptimal (a term I use inoffensively here) land bases because it provides color fixing and (minor) acceleration. However, I didn't really find it necessary in playtesting. I might slot it back in, but it doesn't serve a vital function. The 3-3-9 land split allows me to color fix basically whenever I want, and I would very rarely find that Chromatic Lantern provided me with something I needed and didn't have.

I was effectively paying 3 for a Birds of Paradise , and it was ok, but not great.

how did the Flusterstorm work out?

As I said, I rarely have the opportunity to playtest. I only just put Flusterstorm into my paper deck, and I probably won't have the opportunity to do some serious testing until several weeks from now.

okay

I don't know if this has been asked before but have you considered Chord of Calling . I appreciate it can seem expensive but when you have things like Oracle of Mul Daya or Azusa, Lost but Seeking or even just Damia, Sage of Stone herself in play you can take advantage of the convoke. Then you can fetch things like Snapcaster Mage or Eternal Witness at instant speed or just play Venser, Shaper Savant straight from your library. I know you run GSZ already but the power to fetch anthing at instant speed, even if to fetch a Birds of Paradise at the end of your opponent's turn is solid.

Also, a quick question about Necropotence - I know its a really powerful card as you try to get Damia down as fast as possible but do you ever run into issues where you're suffering from the exile ability? Are cards like Mind Twist and Thoughtseize common in your meta? I've always been hesitant about it running a slower deck, it seems really good but without the proper setup it feels to almost slow the deck down in some ways. Thoughts?

So Stifle is just there for now, you haven't tested it yet