What are your win conditions? On a glance, it just seems like a perfect control/troll deck that makes others scream when you blow up every good play they have (which is awesome, btw).

Man land smackdown once control has been established does a good job so far.

That is so cool. Sweet deck!

Thank mate, merry Xmas!

Rune Snag for a good counter and Gifts Ungiven is way better then Steam Augury

Faerie Conclave is another solid man land Mutavault is awesome Tolaria West will help you fetch those man lands

Ajani Vengeant or Gideon Jura would be great in here. Especially Gideon because he can act as a great win con. I really don't like Steam Augury though. Sphinx's Revelation would serve you much better.

I can't believe nobody likes Steam Augury I have never had a bad time using this card. In fact I replaced Sphinx's Revelation with it and haven't looked back. It works so well on the mana curve and gets brilliant synergy with the Snapcaster Mage how can you hate this card? Is there something I'm not seeing? Can you please explain what makes this card sooo bad? It has been nothing but gold for me.

Steam Augury is only the top 5 cards... and you'll prob only get 2 cards out of it. while Sphinx's Revelation you gain life and draw the cards and Gifts Ungiven is almost the exact same thing except you search for 4 cards with different names. get this if you have a Snapcaster Mage in hand then who cares what goes where, you just fished out 4 instant/sorceries to fuel you're game and you can still use all 4 plus they will be the 4 you want. when you play in modern you have to have the mindset "hey this card is good but there is a better card." because it's true for about 70% of the time.

When you run Steam Augury you're allowing your opponent control over what you keep, that alone makes it an iffy card in my opinion. If you don't anticipate, or sort the cards in a balanced fashion you may end up in a poor situation. Consider grabbing 2 Snapcasters in a draw (not that far fetched) you then have to split them between two piles if you want to keep one. Either way you're losing one of your few creatures. This becomes worse when you consider your win con is a man-land. Your opponent has ample oppourtunity to throw away precious win cons. Hence my preference of Sphinx's Revelation .

Another alternative is 2 Jace, Architect of Thought . The -2 ability serves as a Steam Augury but without the loss of cards, instead they go to the bottom of your library. Jace also fits the curve.

I also recommend Restoration Angel , Geist of Saint Traft or Vendilion Clique .

The angel is self explanatory with it's Snapcaster synergy, it also provides a good body to defend and beat down you opponent.

Clique provides great disruption and can swing from some early-mid damage.

Traft is nicely protected via hexproof, and provides great aggression, especially against control match up.

2-3 Restoration Angel can really increase the speed of the deck. 3 evasion damage + recast Snapcaster Mage .

@CanadianSamurai - Steam Augury throws the extras in the graveyard, so you can still cast them with Snapcaster Mage .

@ Saljen yes, but this is only true for instants and sorceries. The risk of losing land, especially Celestial Colonnade which is this deck's only solid wincon is too great a risk. Then you run into the problem of possibly losing a Snapcaster. Losing even a single Snapcaster would spell trouble. My alternative solution would be running 1-2x Crucible of Worlds to avoid the lose of Celestial Colonnade .

However, I stand by Jace, Architect of Thought being a superior choice.

augery is inferior to revelation hands down. revelation helps provide card advantage and helps stabalize later in the game. There is a reason this deck exists and you can thank largely revelation for that.

increase land count to 26 you want to hit all your land drops.

For all of the hate on Steam Augury I'd be really interested to know how many of you have seriously playtested this card. I ran Sphinx's Revelation for a long time before deciding to test Steam Augury After running with it for many many games (against many opponents and decks) I decided that Sphinx's Revelation had no place in the deck anymore. Yes it is a great card but in this deck with my play style Steam Augury came up trumps. Four mana to draw five cards off the top of your library, that's amazing! Especially when you do it on turn four and turn up five lands.....(it has happened more than once) turn four Sphinx's Revelation not so impressive. I do indend to play test Gifts Ungiven thouroughly as it seems to fill the slot well, but only time and many tapped lands will tell if it makes the cut.....

I like it. It's a lot like my own deck, but with some notable differences, most I like, but a couple don't seem cohesive. Playing your tempo card, Remand in conjunction with your burn and removal looks like you have a good early plan: land Geist of Saint Traft and control the board, but 4x Cryptic Command is really not something to play lightly, even more so in a tricolor deck, (at least not on curve). So looking at it from an outsider's perspective I'd do a couple things: trim Cryptic Command to 2, and I would add 2x Sphinx's Revelation mainboard. This is cause you are playing primarily control, with a hint of tempo, and you can get outclassed by early aggro or Faerie hand r*pe if you don't stabilize. Something else to think about is not running both Mana Leak + Path to Exile , as playing an early Path (on say Tarmogoyf or anything outside of Bolt range) will kill your own Mana Leak s later on. Negate is a good alternative, since Path or Electrolyze + Lightning Bolt will already deal with most creatures. I like your sideboard but I would take out 1 or 2 Anger of the Gods and add 1 Counterflux and probably a Wear / Tear . Let me know what you think!

Also since you are playing heavy control I'd run 4x Tectonic Edge , it can kill their manlands, and help lessen the drawback of Path to Exile in grindy games. (Good bye cheap ass Cavern of Souls aka Counter Rape)

@ Surfin_Bro I disagree with your assessment of running 4x Cryptic Command in this deck. I run something nearly identical to this deck and have never run into trouble with mana fixing. The key lies in 7 fetchlands.

However, I suggest that you run some baordwipes mainboard, notably, Supreme Verdict . Furthermore, Remand feels somewhat unnecessary here, I would recommend 1-2 Sphinx's Revelation and either Shadow of Doubt or Think Twice to supplement your deck.

yeah 4 Cryptic Command is sweet no mana issues there. I was running two mainboard Sphinx's Revelation and two Supreme Verdict but because of the current meta where I play I'm happy to sit them in the sideboard. I have been a tad iffy on Remand but haven't taken it out yet as I really like the way it stalls the opponent. Rest assured that if it does come out I will definately replace it with Think Twice .

Also just +1 Electrolyze and -1 Mana Leak for a little more burn and cantrip action.

Oh and +2 Stony Silence to the sideboard.

Izzet Charm could be considered. I feel like you have too many play sets in the deck. You could add some more variety in the instants. Thundermaw Hellkite or Delver of Secrets  ^Flip if you want more creatures.