@Kozelek: Counterspell is one of the best in the business short of Mana Drain or Force of Will . And most decks who run the other two run Counterspell too. Especially in a mono-blue deck. As for BSZ, the instant speed of it is incredibly powerful, as is the reshuffle.

Well if I had Mana Drain I'd use it and I do use my FoW I just said that Counterspell is vanilla and I like my counters to do something else like scry1 like Dissolve or put the card on bottom of the deck like Hinder or exile it like Syncopate or draw a card like Exclude but that is just me and BSZ costs UUUX to draw X cards so you spend 4 mana to draw 1 card or 6 mana for 3 cards at that ratio those cards I mentioned will get you 4 cards for the same 6 mana plus get you 2 drakes and yes the instant speed allows you to save it till the end of your opponents turn but being that high casting cost it will leave you vulnerable to counterspells yourself so personally I'd rather cast a 3 mana spell on my turn to draw 2 then keep 3 mana to counter on their turn and if you want to shuffle your deck just add in a Myr Mindservant but like I said that's just me and my two cents worth

@Kozelek: As a general rule, I totally agree. Its good to use counterspells that provide additional functionality. Having a look that your deck though I just don't understand why in a monoblue deck you'd run Remove Soul but not Counterspell . It just seem like you're shooting yourself in the foot. For all the other ones you recommended though, they're all good counterspells.

The trick with a Talrand, Sky Summoner deck though is that you want your countspells to be cheap to play. And there's a reason for that. Your deck should be mainly instants and soceries to get as much value from Talrand as possible. But at the same time, you need to have counter-control otherwise one wipe and all of those cantrips become useless. Not to mention the fact that at some point the bigger decks will start out-pacing you, so you need control to keep them in check. What this menas though is that you need to be playing spells every turn. You can't just rely on counterspells to build your army. That measn you either use lots of instants, or your counterspells have to be as cheap as possible to compensate for the fact that you're playing stuff on your turn too.

From personal experience having a exeedingly large amount of counterspells main board causes me loads of trouble.

The earlier builds of my deck consisted of around 36% counter magic, this left me with hands that were way too reactive. I really like counterspells that do more like Dissolve and Exclude . Having the odd spell like Blue Sun's Zenith to replenish my hand has saved my butt more then a few times, not to mention the card shuffles back in. However, cheaper counterspells like Counterspell for instance although bland are also universal and can get any blue player out of a pinch.

I think having the cards that help your deck perform in the way you design it to is the key to enjoying and having it play out the way you want.

Loving the feedback guys! keep it coming!!!!

Ok the only reason I still have Remove Soul in there is cause it's my only textless "player rewards" card I got before they discontinued them but I'll probably take it out for something else I just bought online last night

And the Force Spike is a FMN foil that I won

I feel like you should probably swap Minds Aglow out for something like Mind Spring - the problem with Minds Aglow is that with it being sorcery speed, you effectively let your opponent sink a lot of mana into the spell for lots of cards only to untap said mana on their turn with a huge hand. With a card like that you're actually enabling your opponent much more than you are yourself. Also, a Boseiju, Who Shelters All wouldn't be out of place in the deck. Expedition Map will let you fetch it or another utility land.

Ok took your constructive criticism to heart and changed out everything that was not as good as Counterspell for something better so please re look at my deck and read the last update and post and give me feed back on it now

enpc I'll be sure to swap out Minds Aglow for Mind Spring I had the former in there as an interesting multiplier experiment.

Gauntlet of Power same effect as caged sun, just another way to make sure you get that double mana and buffs

Gauntlet of Power does however help everyone. Its a good card but you have to be careful because you are helping ramp the other blue players.

Hey man, I like the Neurok Stealth Suit, that was a pretty interesting find =)

If you're gonna play all those mana doublers you could play Palinchron as an easy way to make infinite mana.

Also, have you thought about picking up some tutors like Mystical Tutor (which is only like $5 on ebay, the oracle price is a lie), Fabricate , Merchant Scroll , and Personal Tutor (if you feel like spending $15)? It never hurts to have extra copies of Curse of the Swine, Cyclonic Rift, and Caged Sun in your deck.

Some cards I could easily see in this deck are Bribery , Knowledge Exploitation , and Blatant Thievery , they're some of the most powerful spells in EDH, and you get a 2/2 tacked onto them. Granted, they're a lot slower than most of your spells you already have, but reaching 5-7 mana shouldn't be a problem considering all of the doubler artifacts and draw card effects to help you hit lands you play.

Just a few of my humble suggestions =)

Funny thing is, I just got Mystical Tutor , Merchant Scroll etc in the mail like, an hour ago.

Really digging Bribery , Knowledge Exploitation . Maybe in time I will get some copies of the more expensive cards. This deck has a long way to come yet, that I am sure of.

I really appriciate the suggestions everyone, I am about to up date the deck in a bit with the cards I got today.

Hi, did you think about Archetype of Imagination ?

I would also suggest Polymorph , since you are not running too many creatures and those you have are high cmc.

You should add in Talrand's Invocation for the theme of deck. Then you should really think about adding in Day of the Dragons & Gravitational Shift.

I have never thought of adding Day of the Dragons before, I will defiantly consider it. Talrand's Invocation is a little slow and Gravitational Shift is a very good suggestion as well. Thank you!