sounds like a fun deck. My only recommendations would be a little more removal ( Doom Blade comes to mind, thought I LOVE Drown in Sorrow , death to white weenies!) and maybe some late game board wipes like Cyclonic Rift (in the side board probably).

I really like Mind Rot , it is a really quick way to gain card advantage. As far as anything else I could suggest, maybe Drainpipe Vermin as a chump blocker + discard, but that is really just throwing ideas around and would probably not play well with the Phenax mechanic you are working with. I think you deck will be a lot of fun.

one fun mechanic to consider though would be pairing Nightveil Specter with Hidden Strings , that way you can mill your opponent with two of your walls, do damage with nightveil, and then use hidden strings to untap the walls to use at the end of the opponents turn, overall, that could net you ~26 cards worth of milling each turn.

Really there is nothing wrong with the deck you have, these were simply some brainstorming ideas for fun little options. +1

I've thought about playing Thassa, God of the Sea for survivability. She's only a 3 drop, and five devotion in this deck is not hard to achieve(woot, woot Nightveil Specter ). I'm going to play it at FNM this week, so I have to have an answer for stuff. I do think I'll side Drown in Sorrow though for something else. Maybe the Thassa.

Oh, and for removal am thinking about Devour Flesh as I don't really care about their life total and would be good for those pesky hexproof creatures.

Nice choice!

I did a some play testing. After that, my one complaint is how difficult it is to sometimes get Phenax, God of Deception into your hand.

and you know there is only one guy who knows how to nip that problem! Diabolic Tutor ! Make sure you get that God right when you want him!

Made some adjustments. Dropped the card draw for the Diabolic Tutor and Side boarded Drown in Sorrow for Devour Flesh . Playtested a few times, seems to be much more consistent in getting Phenax out.

No counterspells?

I'd consider toning down the number of planeswalkers to at most 4, especially since once you have one of that type out, they're a dead draw. Counterspells like Psychic Strike cost have the benefit of not requiring a double color mana so can be used more often. Another consideration is replacing devour with Far / Away , allowing you to not only have them sac for only 1 more mana and get no life(unless you're saccing your own walls for life I guess...) and in addition has an instant speed bounce you can use to save your creatures or stop an attacker.

And just a general mill suggestions, Triton Tactics can really speed up your mill. Tap two Wall of Frost with Phenax's ability and in response play Triton Tactics . Their toughness will shoot to 10, milling 20 cards all together and untapping them, meaning you can mill for 40 cards total thanks to 1 mana.

I'm actually trying to switch in 4 counterspells to main from my sideboard. Just haven't locked in my decision yet.

Necrotize, I decided on Devour Flesh because, like you said, in an emergency, can sac my own for some life and it's a defender heavy deck, Additionally, just got back into standard and these cards are the actual ones I'll be using. I don't have much Dragon's Maze right now, but I really do like the ability to bounce when needed. I'll definitely take it into consideration for future tweaking.

I don't run a lot of mill, but when doing a search for a few items, I came across Mind Grind . Maybe something for a sideboard since you have 4 Thoughtseize and don't need that extra one.

Also, I want to thank you, I used your deck as a base to build my own mill deck, something I wanted to do since I saw Phenax, God of Deception . and here it is Here's Your Bill, From the Mill!

Always good to see mill around. +1

Necrotize.......Triton Tactics is stupidly amazing. Consistent turn 6 mill

Been modifying my mill deck I molded from this deck (mentioned above) and I think you would like some of the ideas. with your walls and your creatures all containing blue, Thassa's Rebuff is as good as any other counter spell in most situations.

Also, I like to use, fuse, and abuse Far / Away . I have been play testing too with removing some of my walls and adding in Wight of Precinct Six and Consuming Aberration ...those two can get fatter faster than my Ex at Old Country Buffet.

Anyways, I love that this deck is coming along. Hope to hear details from a FNM soon! (I am hoping to debut it next week).