Iquasi: I'm glad you like the deck! If you find it inspiring or helpful, you're welcome to give a +1 ;)

In answer to your questions :) As a general rule, I don't value top-deck manipulation very highly in this deck, since I generally just...draw through that buffer very quickly.

I probably should be running Ponder and Preordain (as well as Chart A Course), if only to search for lands in the early game. However, they don't draw enough cards to be "good" when I'm in the process of comboing off. The same applies more-so to Sensei's Divining Top: I'd probably run it if I had extra slots, but as-is it detracts from the density of card draw effects that I need to make the deck tick.

If you were building the list as more of a long-game control deck with a combo finish, these effects might be more fitting.

Does that answer your question? :)

So choosing insect with Kindred Discovery and having Locus God out and drawing a card is awesome but you wind up decking yourself :(

I think that Lightning Greaves might be better off as a counterspell of some sort. Probably Arcane Denial or Swan Song. Because if you're worried about targeted removal on the God then the greaves only stops it assuming it isn't Instant speed removal. If its instant speed interaction it just removes the god in response to the equip anyway. Counters force you to have a mana or two extra up to protect your God but also allow you to interact with opposing combos or other troublesome spells.

Got a locust god, not high level comp in regards to win asap. But kindred discovery can just be bounced back to hand once you get enough insects out. I've often been using stuff echoing truths or chaos warp to get rid of it. Swing with coat of arms on field, purphoros, impact tremors triggers ,throne of the god pharaoh, hellrider or goblin bombardment.

I'll answer comments in more detail tomorrow, but I've updated the "Combos" part of the description to reflect the current build :)

Looking for a cut for Firestorm... Maybe Bident of Thassa?

Daedalus19876 thank you for the combo list and breakdown!

Venom_Pistachio: Glad to help! You're welcome to +1 if you like it of course ;) Is there anything I can add to make the deck or description better? :)

rkjunior: Seems reasonable. The card got a lot less good once I stopped running the infinite combo with Breath of Fury.

Daedalus19876 I'll +1 as often as I can! This deck is awesome.

I can't think of anything in particular that you haven't already covered, it's pretty exhaustive as it is. From what i can tell, you've covered must-haves, budget alternatives, win-con breakdowns, synergies, etc.

In my experience, albeit with a budget version of this deck, I've had trouble against control, but I think I need to improve as a player in general. I tend to get greedy and go wheel-crazy once Locust God is out.

In my opinion, Laboratory Maniac is probably the riskiest win-con. I would stress that anyone going for a win with him should have two blue mana and a counterspell ready to fire off against an opponent's Stifle or Snapback. That, or a discard outlet to get Kozilek, Butcher of Truth into the graveyard in a pinch. But like I said before, I'm 100% sure you covered that already, so this is merely a reminder.

How relevant is Jace, the Mind Sculptor in your experience?

Sorry my comments are all over the place, I'm basically at a point where my next cards to buy for this deck are the most expensive ones so I want to make sure I make the right investments!

Venom_Pistachio: Thanks, haha! I do need to update the section about building on a budget, though...

Combo decks in general have a bit of trouble against control, but Defense Grid and your own counterspells help a lot against it :)

Laboratory Maniac can be super risky, yeah. It's worth mentioning that it's a replacement effect, though, so Stifle can't stop Lab Man's effect. However, in this deck, I generally end up with my whole deck in hand if I am going to win with him, which gives access to a lot of free mana and at least two free counterspells (Force of Will and Pact of Negation). Plus, if an opponent aims a kill spell at him, you can respond by casting Brainstorm to win.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor is super handy in the deck, mostly for consistent Brainstorms, but he's not vital. He's good in my meta, because there aren't many creatures, but if you are in a meta with a lot of early creatures he might not be the best choice for you.

I hope that's helpful :)

Daedalus19876 yeah, my sights are set on a few counterspells.Spell Swindle in particular is an attractive option in addition to the ones you have. I may have to leave Defense Grid as a proxy for right now!

Interesting to know about Stifle interaction with Laboratory Maniac. I'll have to look into those rules more. In my last game I think he wound up getting blasted off the table by targeted removal before his effect resolved. in any case, I played it wrong and didn't have a way to free out some blue mana to react, but I know what I have to do now. I'll keep the Brainstorm in mind as well! Thanks again for the tips.

I think I need to play Jace, the Mind Sculptor some more to get a better feel for him on the deck. my biggest issue as of right now is playing cards like Jace, The Locust God, and other critical creatures / planeswalkers into counterspells. Ideally, I'll have more counterspells in the future to respond in those scenarios, as well as some mana to cast them.

In terms of budget updates, I would float Warstorm Surge as a sub-in for Purphoros, God of the Forge for your consideration.

Additionally, Wheel of Fate is an alright substitute for Wheel of Fortune, it allows you to dump the good cards in your hand before they get wheeled and only requires a modest amount of forward planning. Generally speaking, I think there's a lot of budget wheel effects available though.

Venom_Pistachio: The only spell that REALLY needs to resolve in this deck is The Locust God, and he has to resolve as quickly as possible (hopefully with counterspell backup). Spell Swindle might work well in this deck depending on what you're playing against :)

Personally, I think that Impact Tremors is the best replacement for Purphoros, God of the Forge in this deck ;) But to each their own.

The issue I have with Wheel of Fate is that it allows your opponents time to empty their hand before the wheel happens. One of the strongest things about Wheel of Fortune and friends is that you get to choose the timing, so you can disrupt your opponents if you time it right.

I feel like having the near infinite combos that include your commander should be a must for the commander but I've never played this commander out myself.

Just in case if you don't know it's The Locust God + Blasting Station + Murder of Crows or Quicksmith Spy.

It'll be humorous if you could use Altar of the Brood or Sphinx's Tutelage to mill out your opponents.

Besides that your deck looks very solid!

WalkingIllusion: I'm already running most of those combos, if you look in the "Win Conditions" section of the deck description :) I'm running Murder of Crows already, but I prefer to use Altar of Dementia/Phyrexian Altar in place of Blasting Station. Not to mention Skullclamp+ Altar, or Kindred Discovery haha.

Thanks for your comment! You're welcome to upvote the deck if you think it's solid ;)

Maybe you can abuse Nin, the Pain Artist with this deck. I could be wrong

Oh Rip, I didn't notice that my bad man....

The only thing I could think of was maybe Chain of Vapor instead of Chaos Warp?

@ Daedalus19876 (how to properly tag someone? I don't often post here :S)

Thanks for the clarification on your reasoning! I admit that while comboing (chaining wheels) minor selection doesn't offer a gigantic benefit, but I still think that Ponder and Preordain should be here: in early turns they provide invaluable... value by helping one find the stuff you need, be it ramp for the general, removal for Notion thief or counterspell to protect the combo. By shaving one or two combo pieces and adding the cantrips the deck would gain some consistency. Tbh, without fetchlands I'd cut Brainstorm for Ponder even if the former has more synergy with the general. Sensei's Divining Top is awesome but doesn't shine without fetchlands or repeatable shuffle effects so maybe it has no place in this deck.

First cuts you could try in my opinion could be Chandra, Flamecaller and Pyramid of the Pantheon, to me the former seems really clunky and the latter very slow.

In my own version of The Locust God I just have one combo win in addition to the insect beatdown: draw deck with Kindred Discovery, draw trigger with empty library on the stack cast Flash into Laboratory Maniac. Requires some mana but after drawing the deck I'll have Misdirection, Force of Will and Pact of Negation all in hand to protect the combo.

Do you think that a card like The Chain Veil would fit in this deck? It has the benefit of allowing you to power up your Planeswalkers at twice the rate.

WalkingIllusion: Ooh, that's tempting. I could try that, and it would let me get more value from Paradox Engine...on the other hand, if I try to use it during my combo, it lets them bounce The Locust God...

Iquasi: Tagging people is done with double brackets around their name :) I'll definitely consider the Ponder and/or Preordain, yeah. Other than that, I think I am going to keep Brainstorm in the deck. And I too am running the Kindred Discovery combo, but I decided to terminate it with Snapback since I don't need to keep open 3 mana for the Flash cost.

Tosk: I don't think it would be helpful, to be honest. I have very few planeswalkers, the card doesn't help my combo at all, and 4 mana is pretty steep. Thanks for the comment though! :)

Any thoughts on Keranos, God of Storms?

rkjunior: Probably too slow, I'm afraid (most things over 4 mana are). He's more suited towards a long-game control deck where he can accrue passive value over time.

What did you remove for Stifle and Chart a Course ? Also, wouldn't Cyclonic Rift be better than Chaos Warp given it's Overload ability?

Firestorm is the real deal. Proceeded to draw my deck and deal 85 to 5 players and 80 creatures. It was glorious.

I'm curious Daedalus19876, is there any cards that haven't been recommended that you're thinking of adding?

rkjunior: Yes, I've found Firestorm to be fantastic as well! :D My favorite new trick is to cast Firestorm, discard most of my hand, then cast Timetwister. So much value.

If memory serves, I cut Mindmoil for Chart A Course and Bident of Thassa for Stifle. I haven't been liking Chart A Course very much honestly, so I might cut it for something else.

WalkingIllusion: Hmmm. I've been considering adding a Isochron Scepter/Dramatic Reversal combo in the deck as well, since The Locust God is a good sink for infinite mana. Other than that, I'm still looking for slots for Ponder/Preordain.

Daedalus19876 I personally would take out Chart a Course for Preordain besides that it's quite tough...

That combo would be good but I can't see how you would put it in... seems like everything has it's place quite well...