You are absolutely right. We'll see when I get crazy enough to get it :D

Is there a reason you're running Dark Confidant over Phyrexian Arena? you have enough 0-1 drops that you can still play arena turn 2 and the amount of life loss is much less. Not to mention not having to reveal is really beneficial for combo control.

Main reason is that Dark Confidant is a lot faster and easier to cast than Phyrexian Arena. Getting Dark Confidant in play one turn earlier than Phyrexian Arena has a big impact and the double black mana cost on Phyrexian Arena can be a problem occasionally. The mana cost is also relevant when thinking about Ad Nauseam, as I need to keep the mana curve as low as possible. This is also why the loss of life from Dark Confidant isn't a big issue.

Considering all the advantages from Dark Confidant, the revealing of cards is negligible in most cases.

(Still, too bad that Phyrexian Arena is not for this deck, since I have a beautiful 9th edition foil in my binder :D)

Are you satisfied with how the deck plays with the new mulligan rule? In worst cases I find it only sets me back a turn or two.

I haven't yet had the chance to test the deck along with the new mulligan rule, but looking back at the past games I've been primarly satisfied with the first hand I've drawn.

The partial paris method surely helped with optimizing your first hand, and I'm sure I'll notice a little throwback with the new rule. I'm still mostly positive about the change. It encourages people on more consistent deckbuilding and balances the format.

Maybe these will be useful:

• Blue Sun's Zenith
• Tezzeret the Seeker - the best walker for artifact combo decks
• Buried Ruin
• Trinket Mage - good for fetching rocks or Sensei

Blue Sun's Zenith won't really be that useful for me. The amount of mana I have to pay for a proper card advantage is too high. The triple blue mana cost is also quite challenging when attempting to win the game, as I'm trying to keep enough blue mana open if I need to cast a couple of counterspells. Stroke of Genius is a win condition with infinite colorless mana, and it works well because it only requires one blue mana.

Tezzeret the Seeker was originally in the deck but was cut out. Essentially it was a five mana, sorcery speed, artifact-only tutor. It overall wasn't efficient enough and the mana cost is a problem when considering Ad Nauseam. Tezzeret had its advantages and the cut was hard to make, but all in all I think it was for the best.

Im trying to have as many colored mana sources as I can (when comboing out the blue mana is extremely valuable for win conditions and counterspells), and that is why many of the great colorless-only producing lands are not in the deck. Buried Ruin is certainly a good card, but I haven't noticed much need for it as I even use Academy Ruins very rarely.

Trinket Mage has been under consideration, but it doesn't seem like a good replacement for any of the cards in the deck. I definitely wouldn't like to raise the deck's mana curve by cutting something under 3 cmc for it. I need to test the deck a lot more to find out if Trinket Mage really could be worth it.

Thank you so much for your suggestions, appreciate the help :)

You're welcome! :)

Do you like to play with Jace, the Mind Sculptor? I use this card in many decks. And I often face with the fact that in decks that can't effectively protect him (especialy in competitive meta), he is just a brainstorm or "bounce creature" for . I have not decided yet to cut it from some of my decks, but I'm getting closer to that decision.

Planeswalkers are generally too slow and too hard to protect in decks like these. I would't use them.

We have pretty much the same mana base. I have started using less and less utility lands and more basic ones to deal with frequent pests like Blood Moon and Ruination. It's working better than I had anticipated. You might want to consider doing the same.

Just curious. How is Stroke of Genius a win con? It only hits one player.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor's brainstrom ability is really good if you can do it even for a couple of turns, but it's true that the lack of protection I have for it is a problem (especially when my meta is quite creature-oriented). I'm not so sure what to do with it. Jace can be a massive help especially in the first turns, but maybe it could be replaced with some cheaper card-draw effect (Frantic Search, Thirst for Knowledge or Night's Whisper perhaps?)

Blood Moon and other nonbasic hate haven't been such a big trouble. Admittedly, those kinds if cards haven't been seen in many games I have played (Altough one guy from our playgroup really likes those cards and other mass LD's. We just love playing with him.) If I start to notice a problem I will consider cutting some nonbasics out.

I cast Stroke of Genius targeting myself so that I will draw almost the whole deck in my hand. After that I can pretty much do everything I want :)

I see. But, with infinite mana, Oona should be able to win you the game though. I might be missing something but it just seems a bit unnecessary.

I understand that it might seem a little odd, but from experience I have noticed that I rarely have enough colored mana to cast Oona and use it's ability while having infinite colorless mana. Getting the combo pieces out and backing it all up with counterspells really eats up your mana. That is also a reason for Staff of Domination being in the deck. I have won many games thanks to it, as I don't need colored mana to be able to use it.

This all can be seen as rather inefficient, but it works well. Of course, sometimes Oona itself is enough if I have enough colored mana or if I already have it on the battlefield on the turn I attempt to win the game.

Do you mind giving a mini "Primer" over the uses of Chain of Vapor and Helm of Awakening in the deck? I can see their benefits but I want to make sure I'm utilizing them properly.

Yeah. I was having the same problems back then so I decided to replace it with a storm combo instead.

I did see a deck that used Candelabra of Tawnos to help with mana fixing. Not sure if that is any better or worse than Stroke of Genius but it might be worth considering.

Megalomania: Candelabra of Tawnos along with Imperial Seal are cards which I would like to add to the deck. I have just been a little hesitant about investing so much in two cards, and at the moment I'm saving up money for different things. But you're right, Candelabra probably would cut Stroke of Genius from the deck.

Rhilis: Chain of Vapor is an excellent bounce effect, mainly to be used on nasty permanents that would otherwise disturb my combo (Pernicious Deed, Null Rod etc.). It also works well as a way to ramp mana from mana rocks. For example, you can bounce your own tapped Mana Vault and cast it again, and since you can just sacrifice your own land that you tapped for Chain of Vapor you can do it again. It's a cheap, versatile card.

Helm of Awakening can be quite a challenging card. You don't really want to cast it until you are attempting to win the game, or can just some other way gain lots of advantage with it. This is obviously because you don't want the card to help your opponents more than it helps you. I haven't had the chance to use Helm of awakening very much, and I'm still not sure whether I want to run it or not. But I do remember games where it helped me win. I think it works best after Ad Nauseam when you have tons of resources in your hand. In those situations it might very well save you like 3-6 mana.

Actually Thirst for Knowledge is a very good replacement, but I would suggest Fact or Fiction - it is one of the best blue spells for card advantage.

How do you feel about Grand Architect and Pili-Pala as an infinite colored mana combo?

Matrixxx999: Fact or Fiction is a great card and it could maybe replace Jace, the Mind Sculptor, but I think the four mana cost is a little too slow and would prefer cheaper alternatives (that would also help with Ad Nauseam). As you mentioned, Thirst for Knowledge is a replacement worth considering and it needs testing.

Storm_Theif: Grand Architect and Pili-Pala don't basically do anything for me on their own, and the combo itself is too slow as Pili-Pala is affected by summoning sickness and cannot be used until your next turn. It is a cheap combo for sure and the fact that it makes colored mana is great, but it isn't suitable for this deck. For more artifact-themed deck it could work well, if you build around it.

Just so you know Pili-Pala can activate that ability the turn it's summoned because the Grand Architect's ability makes it tap (which can be done on summoning sickness) and then Pili-Pala can untap on the turn it's summoned as well. But I understand they can be dead cards otherwise.

Pili-Pala can't use its ability the turn it comes into play. It still has summoning sickness regardless if it is tapped or untapped.

I have been reading the comments and i saw that people were talking about infinite any-color mana combos but you thought they were too mana heavy.

How about Grand Architect + Pili-Pala? It's low mana, for infinite mana.

Also, Peregrine Drake is a good substitute for Palinchron if your worried about Ad Nauseam. You could use Deadeye Navigator with him instead?

Cole6000: Check out the last few comments above your comment :D

Even though Peregrine Drake has a lower CMC than Palinchron, adding it to the deck along with Deadeye Navigator raises the deck's overall mana curve too much. Losing 5 or 6 life from one card when using Ad Nauseam hurts really much. Also those two cards won't really do any good for me on their own, so they would have a negative effect on the deck's consistency. Especially if one them goes to exile.

For converting colorless mana to colored I found Gemstone Array works wonders. Not only does it turn infinite colorless into infinite colored, it doesn't require any colored mana to cast, so it can be cast once the infinite mana has been achieved. You can also fetch it with Beseech the Queen, or any other card, really, while only paying the colorless. Gemstone Array is also just fantastic for saving some of that mana that you had up for a counter when your turn comes back around and it still is unused.

dude....where is the Mind Grind ???