Yep, some cards are listed under a couple categories because they serve multiple roles. The categories are mostly just to help others modify the list for themselves by finding which cards/ functions they want more or less of, and for myself when I want to replace under-performers.

Archive Trap?Crypt Incursion for lifegain?Avatar of Woe?Jace's Phantasm?Duskmantle Guildmage+Mindcrank combo?Grindclock maybe?Shelldock Isle?

Actually, several of the cards you mention have been in previous iterations of this deck (with the Duskcrank combo being in the current one).

Archive trap got taken out for Traumatize.

Crypt Incursion was useful, but i needed more reliable resurrection and lifegain, hence the Whip.

The Avatar was always a terrible draw before about Turn 5-6, and it's hard to rely on the alternative cost. I added cheaper removal.

The Phantasm is just a French vanilla chump blocker. Nothing really amazing in EDH.

Grindclock is really slow, and gets swept up in boardwipes too often.

The blue Hideland is like ridiculously unreliable in edh. Less than 20? At that point in the game, i can afford most of my cards already.

Thanks for the suggestions, though!

Mabey Grindstone?

Also Malicious Affliction could be good.

Thanks for the tips. I'd rather play Ashes to Ashes over Affliction, given the choice. I think Grindstone is too slow, and it's not reliable against 2+ color decks. I may have included it if Painter's Servant wasn't banned.

replace Murder with Hero's Downfall.

That's in the "Future Changes" section above, whenever it cheapens post-rotation

oh ok sorry about that didn't see it.

Grindstone could be good.

Thanks, Hydra. You've mentioned that before. It's just a bit to slow/ mana intensive for this deck, I think. Plus it's not great against multicolored decks. Appreciated the comment!

Yeah I didn't know if you saw it so decided to try again. But understand your reasoning.

Take out Murder for Hero's Downfall?

Basalt Monolith for ramp and infinite mill with mesmeric orb

put in Temple of Deceit. it is worth barely anything.

Well, if anyone read the 'Future Changes" they would see that Heros Downfall is on its way in after rotation. I'm just waiting for the price to reduce a bit more :) thanks

@illumfolly, that would only mill me infinitely, which i don't want. Plus i don't have a lot of outlets for infinite mana. Thanks, though!

@godofcruelty The downside of Temple of Deceit is that it enters tapped. With the amount of fixing i have now, off rather have a basic than a tapland. Thanks for the suggestion, and i may put it in Phenax, if not just for flavor!

This is a very well made deck. It has almost perfect consistency and a near infinite amount of deadly combos. I only barely defeated it because I top-decked Burn at the Stake in my Goblin Aggro deck. I look forward to seeing more of your decks in the future.

Thanks so much for testing it out against your goblin deck! Your compliments mean a lot to me. Admittedly, though, token/aggro match ups are one of my hardest to beat! They just play the early game a lot better. Thanks again!

may I suggest Underworld Connections? feel like it is perfectly in flavor and very powerful card draw

Well, Underworld Connections was actually in a very, very early version of this build. A bit of history - This deck's inspiration sort of came from the Jace v Vraska duel decks that I bought fresh out of my hiatus. A couple of the mill cards, and stuff like Spelltwine piqued my interest, and I decided to start playing EDH as my main format, eventually settled on Lazav. The deck used to be like REALLY bad, but I believe that it's at least improved a little since its inception.

My concerns with its inclusion are that I run the risk of getting 2-for-1ed if someone wrecks my enchanted land. And getting a land/ draw engine destroyed hurts worse than an enchanted creature. Secondly, is that I run sort of a tight ship with my mana in this deck. Without access to buttloads of ramp, or space for ramp i have to run stuff as efficiently as possible, and that often means I only have access to 8-9 mana by turn 10. If I turn expose my land to extra risk (it's already heavy on non-basics!), or tap my lands for cards rather than mana, then i am at even more of a mana disadvantage.

However, I've been questioning the real utility of a couple cards, specifically Jace, Memory Adept. You're generally supposed to judge a planeswalker by what you can get out of only a single activation and Jace is either 'mill 10' or 'draw 1, mill one' for 3UU at best. I've never gotten him to survive long enough to ultimate, and even then it's not as devastating in EDH as 60-card formats with equal preparation. I think I'll try without Jace, even if it means a bit less milling. I'm sad to see him go (at least temporarily), but the flavor is quite good on Underworld connections too, as you mentioned. Lowering the curve a bit never hurts either.

Thanks for the tip!

Hedron Crab and Glimpse the Unthinkable? Nice deck man! +1