I tried making an Illusion deck too but yours seems so much better. I think I need a win condition like Steel Hellkite in mine :)

This has happened more then a few times:

Step 1: Me and my opponent both have a crap load of creatures on the field of somewhat even power.

Step 2: I drop Contagion Engine , do the double proliferate, and I win, no questions asked.

Also I have Negate over Mana Leak is because I want a sure fire counter over mass removal spells if I encounter them. I have Steel Hellkite to kick the crap out of any creature that gets in my way.

took my copy of this deck to fnm and went 3-3 last night losing to burn 2-1 eldrazi elves 2-1 (should have one but I accidentally said go before i summoned my last blocker) and to kuldotha rebirth 2-0 (probably my worst match up cause he kept on burning my lords and architects and swinging for insane damage on turns 2-4)

Gitaxian Probe over Preordain maybe? Let's you know for sure if you want to activate Jace's ARchivist.

Yea Gitaxian Probe is good if you have an archivist variant.

The only solution to burn decks I can think of is Platinum Emperion . If you can make your illusions hexproof and have Platinum Emperion on the field, it would be extremely hard for a burn deck to do anything. If they have to spend 8 damage to emperion that should take care of most cards in their hand anyways.

For Kuldotha decks, make sure you guys sideboard some Mental Misstep s to make sure they don't get that early game going. Again, for creature based decks like this, Contagion Engine is an invaluable weapon.

Also against burn decks, use Mindslaver to make them use all their burn on their own creatures, or themselves.

Went out and tested my built earlier to the shop and play-test it to semi-mirror match.

Here's my list:

4 Grand Architect 4 Phantasmal Bear 4 Lord Of The Unreal 4 Phantasmal Image 2 Phantasmal Dragon 2 Wurmcoil Engine 1 Steel Hellkite 3 Kraken Hatchling 1 Myr Battlesphere 2 Phyrexian Metamorph 3 Treasure Mage

3 Preordain 3 Negate 1Contagion Engine

3 Buried Ruin 19 Island

I won the first game via Myr Battlesphere's critters. I produced 8 myr 1/1's and my two grand architects lead the way for them to become 3/3 blue creatures. :)

Second game I went on for all my SB's and took out all my illusions. This is my funny SB:

4 Hedron Crab 4 Tome Scour 4 Archive Trap 2 Jace Beleren 1 Soul Conduit

HAHAHAHA! Hedron Crab for the win! My opponent went nuts when my Jace went on to 9 loyalty counters with a breeze. For a finale, I went to cast Contagion Engine and proliferate, proliferate again for Jace to become 11 in one turn. Boom. Conceded when he saw his graveyard was packed with his own grand architects.

(Apologies for the post. I just started my account here due to this awesome deck of yours! )

Kraken Hatchlings and Plated Seastriders are monsters when it comes to aggressive decks like Kuldotha Red and Tempered steel.

That's what I saw on these matches I experienced.

I built one similar to yours after being inspired by yours. I added Caged sun into the deck and found that it works pretty well. A turn 3 caged sun makes it so that on Turn 4 I play pretty much everything in my hand.

I tested the mono blue version of my build and it ran pretty smoothly but again I ran into problems with my Grand Architect and Lord of the Unreal getting killed or O-ring-ed before I can make full use of them. So I thought about it and decided to throw in some Seachrome Coast , Glacial Fortress , 1 Venser, the Sojourner and Stave Off MB to see how things go, I don't have the Venser and a couple of the lands still so I can't test it yet, maybe in a week or so I'll buy em up and run it to see how things play out.

+1 for a great deck idea, been playing this at FNM & casual games since M12 came out.

My thoughts so far:

-I didn't find wipes to be that big a problem, I usually got my creatures back as fast/faster than my opponent. I never felt the need to bring in negates from my sideboard.

-I found Molten-Tail Masticore to be much more useful than Phantasmal Dragon for most match-ups.

-I don't like copy creatures against red/black, more than once I had to copy their creatures because they had killed all of mine, which made my Grand Architect sad. I think I might sideboard Kraken Hatchling and Plated Seastrider to use instead of metamorphs and images for those matchups, like Indak mentioned.

Added Masticores to the SB.

If you're using Contagion Engine , what about adding 1 or 2 Inkmoth Nexus ?

It has the added synergy of becoming a blue creature with Grand Architect

Sorry, almost forgot...Ratchet Bomb in the SB? This deck is pretty, pretty, pretty...pretty good. Except against extant Kuldotha decks

Nim Deathmantle ? Batterskull

Why is Contagion Engine in here?You currently have nothing to proliferate except the opponent's creatures. I say swap it for another Wurmcoil Engine .

Also I would add in Mana Leak , its the best counter in standard at the moment and you could use it to protect your big creatures, and disrupt the opponent's plans.

Might throw in an inkmoth or two. I'll think about it.

I'm not going to justify Contagion Engine anymore. i have explained it multiple times.

@explodingzeb

When both you and your opponent each build an army of creatures, Contagion Engine is the card you would tutor. One of this deck's best assets is the ability to search and play whatever you need most atm, so there's also no need for duplicates.

I love your deck. I never really thought of using Buried Ruin but it makes a lot of sense putting it in.

Have you thought about Solemn Simulacrum

Xenograft- an absolutely bullshit crap-rare in any other deck. but in this deck, you might consider it to help protect your lords and your Architects just sayin'

Hey man, I've been changing my deck around and it's getting a lot better. It's not like it is on the site anymore but it is still pretty similar. I'm thinking of following your advice and giving Grand Architect a bigger role.

I like your deck a lot better the way it is now. Has taking out counterspells helped your board tremendously?

Sorry, more questions. You never found creature removal necessary? And have you considered Prototype Portal?

If I need creature removal I tutor Contagion Engine and wipe their field. I'd rather give myself the means to get my engine or another flyer then just have single card removal.

In my current build I am playing with my friends I am using 1x Karn Liberated and 2x Shape Anew . Just for lols mainly and it switches it up.

I find not having counter spells isn't really a big deal. For Aggro you want to just smash face, not beat around the bush with counter spells and draw out the game, which doesn't really benefit this deck too much.

I played my build deck:my-grand-illusion-current-build at the local FNM and I went up against a few challenging decks. Inkmoth Nexus x2 were awesome, alot of the time I used the Inkmoth Nexus with a Grand Architect + Phantasmal Image on Grand Architect , made Inkmoth Nexus into a 3/3 flying infect then I dropped Contagion Engine for the win. Time and time again I was saved by my counters, Mana Leak and Spell Pierce won me quite a few of my games.