I know it is really useful ah such tough decisions >.< the only thing i can think of doing is taking out 1 Lord of the Unreal and 1 Grand Architect and adding 2 Ponder s. I mean both of those cards are main cards in this deck but having Ponder to either help plan out the next few turns or shuffle your deck is also a major plus.

Maybe one fewer Wurmcoil Engine would help you fit a Ponder in there, and perhaps then you can deal with one fewer Grand Architect or Lord of the Unreal , depending on what you would rather go for.

Yeah there is so many options and combos i can try. I keep playtesting it to see what works best im stiil unsure though. I do draw Wurmcoil a decent amount so that may be the best route.

It's okay XD It happens to everyone when you don't know what to take out =P Maybe you could also take out a Steel Hellkite , since you would search it with the Treasure Mage . Also, you could take out a Phyrexian Metamorph , to keep the mana curve safe, since this guys are worth 4 mana, while the Lord and Arquitect are worth 2 and 3 respectively.

Just my opinion, though. As you say, the best way to find out is playtesting. =)

Phyrexian Metamorph is a good option. I forgot he costs that much !! I'm gonna have to playtest this now. I got a feeling it's gonna work out for the best.

I think you can take out a wurmcoil and a hellkite at least and put in some more defence like manaleak and into the roils. You have 3 treasure mages to fetch them so i don't think you need 5 huge bombs. Consider replacing the cryptoplasms with dismember. Also id +1 the phantasmal bear that guy is great.

Just my experience:

Do not use Xenograft . You may think it can work but when you draw it you'll wish you drew something else. There are just better things you can put in here in my experience.

Do not use Caged Sun . You will never tutor for it over a hellkite or wurmcoil. Even if you draw it normally, you won't want to play it.

Phantasmal Image NEEDS to be a 4 of.

1 more Treasure Mage .

My suggestion:

-3 Xenograft , - 3 Cryptoplasm , -2 Island

+2 Buried Ruin , +1 Phantasmal Image , +1 Contagion Engine (I am a huge proponent of this card, ends stalled board positions), +1 Treasure Mage , +1 Phantasmal Bear , +2 Adaptive Automaton .

Adaptive Automaton gels well with the Buried Ruin . It doesn't fit in my deck, but I would at least try it in yours.

@Leafs_suck I playtested your suggestions a few times and it ran a lot smoother. Im gonna keep playtesting it just to be sure before I order the cards I need but im very happy with the way its running. Thank you for the suggestion and +1 !!

I know a lot of people don't like Contagion Engine , but I have seen it in action and if you remember you have it, it can kick some serious ass.

It really helps when things are stalled out

If you are going to use contagion engine you might as well add something more that will benefit from the proliferate like Tezzeret or Jace

@stu516 its not a removal deck. I use Mana Leak to counter anything that tries to take out my big hitters like Steel Hellkite , Wurmcoil Engine , and Lord of the Unreal and I use Vapor Snag to get rid of anything that could be potentially annoying. Oh and read Steel Hellkite s last ability ;)

@cyberzephyr57 I don't really like using Planeswalkers. Yeah some of their abilities are useful but i'd rather use the mana for something else. Contagion Engine really just helps get rid of any small blocking fodder my opponent may have and weakens any stronger ones they may have.

With all the weenie action, I'd suggest Contested War Zone . :D

I can see why people'd suggest Caged Sun (the +1/+1 to blue creatures, not the mana), but folks probably have a point re: it not being preferable over other artifact bombs.

How much mana do the critters end up generating? Blightsteel Colossus can be grabbed by the Mage and end the game with one swing (11 infect damage)...XD

What happens if someone Memoricide s or Surgical Extraction s the Lord of Unreals?

Contested War Zone is another good possibility to put in. With Grand Architect on turn 4 I can get at least 4 mana to spend on artifact creatures or artifact abilities by using his tap an untapped blue creature to produce 2 mana and then 4 mana with tapped lands.

I've had someone Surgical Extraction Lord of the Unreal and it's not really a big deal. If I wasn't able to counter it then I can still win with either Phantasmal Dragon (make copies of him that is) or Wurmcoil Engine or Steel Hellkite (copy them as well). I mean I don't win every game but i make my opponent work for it and its always a good game.

I'm working on an illusion deck but I went a bit more aggro with it, I'm using a full set of all of the new illusion related cards, 2 adaptive automatons, 2 grand architects, 2 xenografts, 4 phantasmal beasts, and a full set of Aether Figment, and a frost titan thrown in, o yeah and spined thopters, though they aren't illusions. With my deck deck it because an aggro deck, I run about 20 lands and i sideboard removal for aggro decks faster than me using unsummons and narcolepsy and mind control. I use the grandarchitect on turn 3 usually, then turn 4 i tap him to add the 2 mana and tap 1 for another automaton. The aether figments getting buffed like crazy and the dragons typically do the dmg for me and the bears and beast usually just are REALLY beefy blockers, I ended up getting 2nd place at FNM last week, i lost only to tempered steel since in the first game i saw 10 of my 20 land in 14 cards i draw and pondered.

That's how I started but i was getting annoyed with peoples counters and such so i threw some stuff in to make sure it doesn't happen as often and it works really well. It also helps to have just in case the put something out you don't particularly like lol.

What does everyone think about adding Inkmoth Nexus ? Use it with Contagion Engine ? Just something I thought about to make Contagion Engine a bigger threat. Maybe ?

I would lose one Wurmcoil Engine and one Phyrexian Metamorph to put in two more lands. I know your curve realistically caps out at 3 mana, but you never want to have to mulligan away the game trying to get land.

I would also try to get 4x Mana Leak . You don't have any sort of card advantage, so you can't let your opponent Day of Judgment your field before your big swing.

If you think you can play the aggro game, I would go down to just 1 and 1 on Steel Hellkite and Wurmcoil Engine in order to get more speed via Adaptive Automaton perhaps.

Alternatively, if you want to go with control, you need to get some hard countering Cancel s in here and more card advantage. Jace Beleren is a great choice. I personally think both Ponder and Preordain are largely overrated. I consider them the lowest form of card advantage in the sense that you CAN essentially trade your ponder or preordain for a card you need for one mana. However your net gain is ZERO cards. I prefer things that actually gain you multiple cards or set your opponent back multiple cards.

Divination , Distant Memories (fetching Lord of the Unreal would be a tough choice for your opponent to make), or Jace Beleren as I mentioned early. card:Blue Sun's Zenith is an instant, so you can get some huge EOT action with that, drawing up several cards late game. Plus it reshuffles. These cards will give you card avantage late game where it really counts.

It really is key to decide whether you want to play the late game or the early game when making the last few tweaks to a deck. It seems like you are heavy into the aggro right now, so I would make some cuts to streamline your mana curve and focus on speed. Hope this helped =)

I've been thinking about putting Wurmcoil Engine and Steel Hellkite down to one mainly because i have the Treasure Mage in there and i can just search for them to put them in my hand. So that would open up 3 spots that i could fill. I could then +1 Mana Leak and add two lands or two Adaptive Automaton . I've never had a problem with my lands actually the 20 lands and 2 Buried Ruin s have worked really well for me. Im unsure about dropping one Metamorph because there isnt much else i could +1 in the deck if i did. Maybe another Buried Ruin ? What would you suggest ?

One the other hand i could do this:

-1 Steel Hellkite

-2 Wurmcoil Engine

-1 Phyrexian Metamorph

+3 Cancel

well first of all. nice idea but some need to change in here i think. first of all. this deck seems to try two diferents aproaches. beat down and library manipulation. to be honest i think your deck can produce a lot more fast mana if you quit the phantasmal dragon and put aether figment instead or another cheap blu creature. also think like this you need something to prevent your oponent to kill your big guns or your architect.so you're not worryed about his creatures so change mana leak for negate. and you really don't need all that copys of big guns. in my opinion . you should have 1 steel hellkite 1 wurmcoil engine, 1 blightsteel colossus, myr batlesphere, and a mind slaver(just for fun) and maybe a chimeric mass to take advantage from contagion engine. and since you have phantasmal image on the deck you should take out the phyrexian metamorph and put spellskite is good to block early and helps the lord and the architect from beem dismembered.

oh turn aside helps a lot in your deck too. in fact a will make a deck like yours :) really loved the idea

I do agree with the Negate that does sound like a good idea and im gonna try testing that. However Phantasmal Dragon is something i don't feel comfortable with taking out. If i drop a Phantasmal Bear turn one then Lord of the Unreal turn 2 then Grand Architect turn 3 and on turn 4 Phantasmal Dragon he's a 7/7 hexproof flyer. Wurmcoil Engine and Steel Hellkite are most likely gonna be 1 and 1. So this leaves 3 spots open. I could add Negate and keep Mana Leak also. Thoughts ?

Have you thought about Caged Sun ? You could search for it with Treasure Mage and drop it. Giving all your blue creatures an extra +1/+1.

Just a thought I am trying out in my "Blue Weenie" deck.