Just the worst thing ever. The Apex of Blue annoyance. Satan's deck list.
I've gone through all the counterspells (I believe there are 180) and I've essentially compiled the ones of which I think are the best including those that are relegated to sideboard and maybeboard.
Abjure and Familiar's Ruse can easily be paid by sacrificing a talrand token. Familiar's ruse can also bounce Augur of Bolas and Snapcaster Mage.
Isochron Scepter and Mana Drain = infinite mana drain. Really any lowcost counterspell with Isochron scepter is powerful.
Riptide Laboratory works well with augur of bolas and snapcaster mage.
Arena of the Ancients is extremely powerful in this deck; Arcanis the Omnipotent is about the only one it gets in the way of. This card is broken in low legendary decks.
A concern going into a counterspell deck is draw, so I tried to make a lot of the counters cycle themselves by having a draw modifiers like Arcane Denial, Dismiss, Disrupt, Dream Fracture, Exclude, Teferi's Response, and Confound. In addition there is arcanis, Jace, The mind sculpter, Ancestral Vision, augur of bolas (with riptide laboratory = draw engine), Temporal Mastery & Temporal Manipulation & Time Warp (psuedo draw + drake), Metallurgic Summonings (pseudo draw), Bident of Thassa, Scrying Sheets, and card:consecrated sphynx there to help.
Veldalken Shackles
, Wash Out, and Extraplanar Lens are broken in a mono blue deck.
1 mana Card:Ceremonious Rejection vs an eldrazzi... the eldrazzi loses.
As for Finishers
1) Metallurgic summonings: In addition to Talrand's token creation, you should have enough muscle with this to win. If you can also pay the additional cost and have an unlimited hand size through reliquary or thoughtvessel then you can bring back all your counters which is also pretty much gameover.
2) Runechanter's Pike: Slap it on one of your flying tokens and you'll have some decent damage going pretty quickly early game which they might not be able to block. Late game you'll be able to create something like a 12/2 every time you equip it. The example 12/2 can discourage any big creatures from attacking.
3) Veldalken Shackles: As soon as it's out and you can start covering it with counterspells, the game is pretty much over.
4) Bribery: Take their biggest threat, like an Eldrazi and use it to beat them.
5) Rise from the Tides: Instant token army late game.
6) Land Warfare: Take out their land base early. I have all the good land, land removal cards. Combo with crucible of the worlds and you have infinite land removal. Even without crucible, sniping a few vital lands can just straight up end the game early. Overburden (with 6 creatures it minimally effects) and Land Equillibrium will also help kill enemy ramp.
7) Jace: Get Jace on the board, do his plus 2 until he can ult and use counterspells to make sure he gets there. Once he ults its essentially over.
8) Talrand's tokens: It should be obvious why I picked him as commander of this deck. If you can get him out early and start generating, the army could get growing fairly quickly and add up maybe enough damage to win.
9) After three turns of As Foretold being out you essentially have free counterspells which is pretty much game over.
10) Guile (cue the themesong). As a a replacement for Ulamog, Guile is not nearly as strong offensively, but then again Ulamog is expensive anti-mill overkill. Guile boasts a much cheaper summon price, a semi-unblockable 6 strength attack, and massive amounts of utility through his ability to give you free emergency counterspells. I don't recommend using his ability if you don't need to though, as having spells in the graveyard helps proc other cards like rise from the tides and snapcaster. Maybe his most useful aspect is being able to invest him on the board without sacrificing defense for that turn, because if you used all your mana to summon him you can still use his ability to emergency counterspell something.
Extermely good the less people your going against, I wouldn't play it unless you are sadistic and actually want your friends to stop playing with you. Nothing really beats a counterspell except maybe some extremely bad luck that somehow leaves you with no mana or something. Just threaten to use this deck and focus them if they don't stop spamming something as annoying as mass land removal. Rather if you want an extremely fun viable political deck for 4+ groups, check out my Political Suicide deck.
One last Note: This deck is a bit pricey; A budget version would at the very least make the landbase simple blues, take out mana drain, take out crucible of the worlds, and any other high price items. Then substitute in some of the good three mana counter spells I took out, some of the card draw instants, and silver myr.
Remember... when your opponent becomes too afraid to play anything, you've won.
/////Suggestion Edits //////
NV_1980 suggestions: Upon this user's suggestion I've added bident of thassa because the synergy was a bit too good to ignore and the mana cost not too high. However even at the time of suggestion I had a bit more than 4 ways to draw and currently I feel my draw sources are fairly plentiful. As such I think I'mma pass on brainstorm, ponder, and preordain. I'm kind of a net effect guy and while I understand scry is great, one mana for one card is not very attractive to me. I still have a few scry mechanics in my deck and if I want the ultimate scry engine I'll edit in Sensei's divining top.
MiamiPizza suggestions: Upon this user's suggestion I've replaced insidious will with Fabricate. My deck does benefit pretty well from an artifact tutor. Inisdious will gives some good options but a faster way to a win condition is probably better. In regards to tempo, yes my playgroup usually is a bit slower/greedy but against faster decks I feel my deck does have some early game options to keep it alive if not put it ahead. In regards to how I might lose the board, let me address each point.
"Drawing specific counterspells that won't affect the current situation": While I did have some fairly niche counterspells at the time of the comment and even now, I've since traded out one of my most niche counterspells, squelch. To deal with having specific counterspells, save up the generic ones that counter everything while using the specific ones liberally as they apply to instill fear in your opponent to not take action. I feel the idea that you won't be able to use any of the specific counterspells is exaggerated, it's not like a "counter creature spell" card isn't going to get play fairly quickly. The most niche card I still have is Teferi's Response which I feel is a wonderful F off to a person trying to attack your lands, and it gives a draw plus 2.
"Getting flooded the moment you try to build up a win condition (your deck lacks the ramp to play something and actively defend it before the later turns)": Even at the time of the comment, most of my deck costed and still does around 2-3 mana. If I absolutely need to put out a high cost win condition and use all my mana, I had and still have Force of Will and Pact of Negation for an emergency. At the time of the comment I did have extraplanar lens, sapphire medallion, sol ring, teferi's isle, scrying sheets, myriad landscape, and temporal mastery to ramp myself + land warfare cards to anti-ramp the enemy. Now in addition I have Time warp, temporal manipulation, as foretold, and overburden to either help ramp or anti ramp. Aside from a few cards, I simply don't think mono blue has way too many more options for early game ramp. I'm open to suggestions for more early game ramp to help summon expensive items, though I feel I'm not in too bad spot right now.
"Facing someone who techs against counterspells (yes, many people play cards like Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Cavern of Souls, Grand Abolisher to name a few)": Grand Abolisher can be countered or removed so not too worried about him. Cavern of Souls requires you name a creature types, so in most cases only somewhat limited protection. Boseiju is pretty powerful against my deck if the opponent is lucky enough to have thought to run it and is able to draw it. In both cases of the anti-counter lands, at the time of the comment and still now I run Ghost Quarter, Strip Mine, Wasteland, and Tectonic Edge which would deal with them.
In regards to the jace's sanctum suggestion, for now I'mma barely pass on it because it doesn't really help summon my higher cost non-spell win conditions and sapphire medallion does it's job for less. I think I'd also put in Baral before the sanctum since it is only two cost and would make more sense for early game ramp.
I did appreciate the suggestions and did find them fairly useful to think about while editing.
Profet93 suggestions: Upon this user's suggestions I replaced squelch with ancestral vision, replaced desertion with savor the moment, replaced dissolve with time warp, replaced faerie trickery for as foretold, replaced glen elendra with overburden, and rhystic study with card:land equillibrium. The most amount of edits I've made upon suggestion so far because I found the extra turn argument fairly persuasive although I already did have temporal mastery at the time of the comment and the other suggestions really synergize well. Squelch was a bit niche so I don't regret much trading it for a better source of card draw in ancestral vision. There are better card stealers than desertion for around the same price or lower, so I was ok trading it for the low cost extra turn. Dissolve and faerie trickery are essentially just 3 mana counterspells which isn't bad, but the extra turn I think is better and as foretold is amazing. Glen elendra is essentially the creature version of two 3 mana counterspells in one card and a bit too clunky to combo with riptide; additionally less creatures the better in this deck so wasn't a hard trade for overburden which was an excellent suggestion to help anti ramp the enemy. I find rhystic study while a good card, doesn't draw me as much as I like; additionally I like to be lazy and not have to ask every time whether the person is going to pay 1 mana; as such land equillibrium is excellent replacement for making sure your opponent doesn't get a comfortable land lead and completely messes up ramp decks which I went against often with my friends.
I'mma pass for now on:
kindred discovery: because bident of thassa costs 1 less to summon, does half of what it does, and has a decent mana ability. Having it in addition would make the deck even more reliant on talrand for which I don't want it to be.
future sight: because it's expensive, a double edge sword, and I have enough card draw as is. Also don't want too many enchantments which don't synergize with the rest of my deck.
Capture of Jingzhou: because I've taken the others and I think I have enough extra turn cards.
Caged Sun: because I'm more concerned with early game ramp than late game ramp. 6 mana is high and while the anthem is nice I'd rather put a win condition down rather than ramp at that point. Was a hard decision to pass for now.
Sky diamond: because I think I'd rather just put in another snow covered island if need be. If for Land removal protection, it shouldn't be too much a concern for a counterspell deck.
Gilded Drake: because more creatures are detriment to the synergy of the deck. Super tempted to put it in though because it is really powerful, but can't bring myself to do it at the moment. I rather have the ultimate defense of fog bank for now.
Torrential Gearhulk: Again, really don't want more creatures. Torrential's flash and stats to me do not justify the high mana cost. Snapcaster I think does his job better.
Blatant Thievery: because the more people the more value, but this deck is definitely not built 4+ groups. Definitely would add in if still planning to go against a big group. Idk what to replace for it, maybe one of the extra turn cards.
Fetch Lands: While great in multi-color decks, they have a fairly minimal impact in mono color decks according to some people I've seen research it and show the math. Additionally, would mess with my snow synergy.
Did look at your deck which is how I found savor the moment and academy ruins. It's a somewhat similar deck though I think we diverged a bit in some respects. Overall, thanks a buch for the awesome suggestions.
Harvey_Burly-Allsack suggestion: The recommendation to put in guile is a good one, I used to have him in there during the first drafts of the deck but took him out at some point for whatever reason I can't remember. He's good offense and his synergy is insane. The difficulty was finding what creature he would replace as I'm not messing with the spell count anymore. It was between Ulamog and Fog bank. I went with replacing ulamog because the anti mill isn't that useful when you can just counterspell a mill attempt. Although, Ulamog is also a nice closer if all else fails; It made the decision tough. I didn't want to lose fog bank because it's a great creature to keep you alive early on when the deck is most vulnerable.
glintzy suggestion: Tbh, not favoring either boseiju or the stfu sphinx. I think boseiju is especially a pretty good card, but I'm thinning out the usefulness of my snow-covered lands as it is and boseiju is going to drain my life pretty quickly if I need to rely on it early since ramp is one of the weaker aspects of my deck. I can always just counter the counterspell if I want to be cautious about something I'm throwing out. Big creatures are probably going to have the toughest time of any card variant for getting into the deck now and additionally I feel it's more important to have guile in than the sphinx. Feel free to keep making suggestions though.
Most Recent Edits: Changed out Savor the Moment with Unwind (more good counterspells). Changed out dissipate with Wizard's Retort (with talrand or any other wizard, it's essentially another vanilla counterspell which is alright with me.) Just noticed both these cards are illegal atm because I believe they are brand new, if this doesn't change then I will swap them back.
In general I'm fairly open to suggestions but I'm a little picky in which ones I'll use to edit. If your suggestion is not an instant or sorcery, it's going to have a tougher time getting in because I'm pretty adamant about keeping synergy and making sure this stays a high number counter spell deck. I don't think I'm gonna go lower than 35 instants.
Mini Note: recently tried to put in the card links to make things a bit easier to view, some wouldn't work for whatever reason and some I didn't put to not be overly redundant
