All of that actually makes a lot of sense.

In the Blood Pod matchup, a basic Swamp and Confidant can be lifesavers. Good choices. How's Perilous working out?

The more I play it the more I like Perilous Research. Having a 2 mana draw 2 at instant speed feels so good. I initially included it as a draw two effect for Doomsday but now I really like it just as a general purpose card.

I'm excited to grind out games with Confidant, and hopefully the meta shapes up for Massacre since that card is just pure spice. I really dislike having the Swamp though, and I won't add it until it becomes absolutely necessary. Also I can't find an old-bordered swamp with art that I like :(

Yeah, Massacre is so damn good. Wiping all those obnoxious Blood Pod creatures is so fun and rewarding lol. I’m thinking of trying Perilous and Voltaic. The latter seems like a particularly cool piece of tech.

I will say though, that Snow-Covered Swamp can be a lifesaver

Hey so how's Voltaic Key been so far?

Honestly havent been able to test much recently. I will most likely cut it for massacre once the stax decks start to arrive in my meta.

So far Culling and Excavation have been pretty awesome. How’ve they been working for you?

Yea all three recent additions have been amazing. Even Baral feels surprisingly decent as a 2 drop as well, even if it's just a flex slot now.

If I were to list my flex slots now, they'd probably be Baral and Confidant. I could see an argument for Snapcaster or Perilous Research as possible cuts, but I like those cards a little too much for the value they provide.

Do you think Dovin's Veto , Despark , Narset, Parter of Veils , Ashiok, Dream Render , Lazotep Plating , Teferi, Time Raveler , or any of the other new cards from War of the Spark will show up here? Jace obviously, but outside of that.

Jace, Dovin's Veto and Emergence Zone are the only cards that are really worth playing imo, and the rest are generally better in Control Zur.

Glad those cards were put in.

Questions on some others:

Prismatic Vista seems very good, just a nice fetchland IMO.

Silent Clearing seems very good, being instant-speed card draw on a land.

Winds of Abandon seems really strong, not necessarily the best for this deck, worse cyclonic rift, but still a strong inclusion IMO, despite the sorcery speed.

Echo of Eons? I feel like this deck doesn't have the discard to really pull it off, but it is another twister in a way. Probably not worth it? Might be, idk.

Hall of Heliod's Generosity seems much more likely for control zur. It is a recursion engine for enchantments, specifically Remora, etc. This deck may want it.

Nice changes. The Frantic Search one is interesting, and I do agree it has been disappointing as of late. Force of Negation for sure will be in mine, and Emergence Zone has done quite well in my testing.

I think Echo of Eons is a decent replacement for Timetwister if you don't have one, but playing both isn't necessary. Echo of Eons increases the value of Frantic Search though, so its likely you want to cut another 3/4 drop. Watch the average CMC of the deck though, from experience, the deck starts to fall off in consistency around the 1.9 mark.

Winds of Abandon is interesting, and could be worth playing over Toxic Deluge or Pongify depending on the meta. Will hold on that though since Sorcery speed is really painful in this deck.

With the recent inclusion of Emergence Zone, I think we need to be a lot stricter about the color production of our lands. Producing U is crucial to the deck, and I'm hesitant to throw in any non-UB lands. A UB Horizon land would be an instant include, but if lands like Gemstone Mine and Tarnished Citadel aren't making the cut anymore, it's hard to imagine a WB land making the cut regardless of how strong it is.

If you play in a meta that requires a second basic (snow) Swamp because of Blood Moon or Back to Basics etc, I would strongly recommend Prismatic Vista as a upgrade to the second basic Swamp. However, with only 1 basic swamp, again I don't really see it being better than any of the lands we currently play.

Agreed on the colored lands. Emergence Zone has an ABSURDLY high ceiling, so I find its inclusion to be worth it.

I would recommend Pull from Eternity as a way to get back things from exile very useful in both the storm game and as a way to rescue lab man.