Cool deck man! I don't get what the point is of some of the weaker and small-effect cards. I also don't really understand the mill sub-theme you have going on. For these reasons I would drop Pilfered Plans , Syphon Soul , Survival Cache , Death Grasp , Psychic Strike , Cancel etc. Instead, you should add more big-effect powerful things like Archangel of Thune and Vizkopa Guildmage .

Also there are some better removal / control cards out there, such as Hinder , Swords to Plowshares , Spell Crumple , Cyclonic Rift , Austere Command are all DEFINITE inclusions in an EDH deck like this. Others worth considering are Decree of Pain , Nevinyrral's Disk , Life's Finale , Victim of Night , Eyeblight's Ending , Go for the Throat , and Doom Blade (usually better than Dark Banishing ).

Another thing you need is more card draw, especially since you're playing Blue and Black the two best colors at drawing cards. Consider Phyrexian Arena , Necropotence , Consecrated Sphinx , Rhystic Study are some of the best, other decent ones are Mind Spring , or Rush of Knowledge . Also Standstill is usually great in a control deck, and has interesting political effects... but your opponents will hate you.

Next, here is a short list of mana rocks that are all much better than Ashnod's Altar , Krark-Clan Ironworks , and Obelisk of Esper ... Azorius Signet , Dimir Signet , Orzhov Signet , Coalition Relic , Astral Cornucopia , Mana Vault . Pick your favorites.

One other thing to think about is tutoring. You definitely don't wanna overdo it with the tutors, but thanks to black and white you have access to things like Demonic Tutor , Increasing Ambition and Enlightened Tutor (which can help you find... well, I'll keep it a surprise). Even Rune-Scarred Demon is tons of fun. There are plenty of others but most of them break the bank pretty hard, and Diabolic Tutor probably isn't playable.

Finally, I think you have to find a focus to turn your life-gain into something. Life gain alone will not win you an EDH game because people will kill you with commander damage. You need more cards like Archangel of Thune , Sanguine Bond , and Vizkopa Guildmage that turn your life gain into your opponents' loss (or other things, e.g. card draw like with Well of Lost Dreams )

And last but certainly not least, the one card that you DEFINITELY forgot to add: Test of Endurance drops mic

Thanks for the comment! The deck is still a very rough work in progress, and right now its kind of all over the place. In the end, I'm not looking for a strict lifegain deck, I'm aiming more for a control super friends deck, cuz planeswalkers are fun. Most of the removal/counter package I currently have in isn't the best, but I'm working mostly with cards I already have to save a few bucks and time/energy. I will definitely look at a few tutors and some more card draw. As far as the mana rocks: both Ashnod's Altar and Krark-Clan Ironworks can go infinite with Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek , which is why they're in there. Just another secondary win-con, although I don't know how long I'll keep it. My biggest issue right now, aside from slight improvements in removal and counter, is which creatures to keep and which to dump. I tried to make a short list of creatures that would wreck games, but unfortunately its a little too long at the moment. So I'll have to spend some time thinning that down, and any advice you have in that regards would be greatly appreciated!

I'm going to suggest Felidar Sovereign as a win con you could tutor for. also a cool infinite life combo is having something like Suture Priest or Soul's Attendant out playing Leonin Relic-Warder , then playing Phyrexian Metamorph , targeting the relic warder and bouncing infinitely, and infinite life. Those few cards are pretty good on their own as well, but could also be a win con tutored for if you have Felidar Sovereign or Test of Endurance already. It would also make an infinitely big Ajani's Pridemate or Archangel of Thune if either of them are out. THEN, if you -1 Venser, the Sojourner after gaining infinite life and having Archangel of Thune buff all your creatures, you might attack for the win, yay!

also , i always liked Hindering Light , nice inclusion.

I've actually tried to stay away from cards like Felidar Sovereign because I think they are very "unfun". I want to win games, but above all, I want to have fun doing it. I'm very competitive with my other constructed decks, but I try to be more relaxed with EDH. I've also tried to stay away from building a lifegain deck, for similar reasons. It just gets old and boring to play against after a while.

I've really found that the superfriends idea is a lot of fun, and with so many different walkers who can impact the game in different ways, you almost never play the same game twice.

I've had a few infinite combos in here at one time or another, but I've found most of them to be clunky, and again, not very fun. I will play around with a couple of those cards however, since I've been looking for fun shenanigans to use with Venser.

Thanks for the comment and the +1!

no Swords to Plowshares?

Yeah, I decided to go for more counter spells and board wipes rather than spot removal. I have a couple spot removal cards, but in general I prefer boardwipes in EDH.