It'd be neat to see more coverage of the deck and how it plays, of course, pierakor's videos are great, but I'm always interested in seeing more matchups.
Here's the playlist of the coverage for the event, it'd be neat to see more coverage of the deck and how it plays, of course, pierakor's videos are great, but I'm always interested in seeing more matchups.
Here's the playlist of the coverage for the event, it'd be neat to see more coverage of the deck and how it plays, of course, pierakor's videos are great, but I'm always interested in seeing more matchups.
That's for last year's event
Whoops! Link removed, looks like they haven't put it up yet... Note to self, specify year in search as "2016" after the new year.
The Eye of Ugin in place of Treasure Mages was one of the most intriguing things about the list for me. I'd love to hear how it plays out because Treasure Mage is constantly in and out of my lists because he's often so clunky and risky to tap for. It can't get Mindslaver but we can get through our deck pretty quickly at that point in the game.
R1 twin w
R2 zoo L
R3 merfolk w
R4 jund L
R5 merfolk w
R6 junk w
R7 podless w
R8 affinity w
R9 storm w
R10 burn L
R11 ur delver L
R12 bloom w
R13 rg aggro w
R14 twin w
R15 infect L
Ill try to write up a more detailed report later, pretty bummed to lose to infect and ur delver with never seeing a chalice but had a game against twin where I stuck a chalice on 4 to win which was pretty funny.
I do have a situation puzzle/question on the round where I lost to jund.
He has swamp twilight mire and blood crypt with a dark con and 5/6 goyf.
He's missed land drops and only known card is a terminate.
You are casting an ulamog with no followup, and are at 5 lofe and he's tapped out. What 2 things do you exile and why?
I personally chose his filter and crypt to keep him off bolt and lily and he alpha'd me I blocked his goyf and two turns later before I could slaver lock he flipped a land to bob to bolt me dead. Was unsure whether it was better to just nix his two guys and be at the mercy of a lily(which he might not even have) or to hit goyf and crypt to prevent getting double bolted out and so lily isnt lethal of he hits a land, or to hit dark con and crypt to play around double burn and no lily. Just one of the more tough decisions I felt I had during the tournament that I wanted to share and get insight on.
Really tough decision to make. I'd personally hit at least the Confidant (I played Jund for a while and that card is just nuts). The more conservative decision is Bob + Goyf since your life total is low, but a Lili would just reset the board anyway (although that would buy you a couple turns). Bob + Mire/Crypt would probably be my choice (Mire to avoid Lili, Crypt to avoid Bolts).
I'm more of an old school player that generally prefers consistency too. I think you have the correct mindset in regards to how the deck plays out.
I like O-Stone because sometimes all you need is that "reset button". It's not the most flashy card nor it's a silver bullet, but it's more of a necessary evil.
The new Ulamog is really sweet. Maybe you should try that too.
What do you think about Compulsive Research? It's a sorcery, but as a 1-of it should be just what the doctor ordered.
We can't play around both Lili and Bolt there.
Bolt is only lethal if we don't remove either creature. Lili is lethal if we don't remove Goyf.
If you don't want to have any possibility to die on the next turn, exiling Goyf and a land is correct.
If you want to maximize your chances to win the game through a Lili and Bolt in hand, it may be correct to exile Bob and Blood Crypt. It temporarily plays around both Bolt and Lili, though it turns on Blackcleave Cliffs and any land off the top -> Lili kills you.
If you think you can win the game through a Lili(you probably can, our topdecks are much better), exile both dudes.
Good to see that spatial distortion is working well.
I am trying to work out how you have space for such a streamlined list so many 4 ofs instead of all the weird 1-3 ofs I have.
:/ snapcasters :'(.. the reason I play this deck is because I don't have snapcasters and therefore can't play any other blue deck.
they torment me at every turn.
Jester's cap? the only card that matters is Ulamog, the other large creatures will run into a counter even if they get value. They aren't super fast typically, just another mid range deck. I have 2 ghost quarters now so many targets including the eldrazi lands.
If you manage to land a mindslaver without a relic on board its game over for them.
R1 twin w
R2 zoo L
R3 merfolk w
R4 jund L
R5 merfolk w
R6 junk w
R7 podless w
R8 affinity w
R9 storm w
R10 burn L
R11 ur delver L
R12 bloom w
R13 rg aggro w
R14 twin w
R15 infect L
Ill try to write up a more detailed report later, pretty bummed to lose to infect and ur delver with never seeing a chalice but had a game against twin where I stuck a chalice on 4 to win which was pretty funny.
I do have a situation puzzle/question on the round where I lost to jund.
He has swamp twilight mire and blood crypt with a dark con and 5/6 goyf.
He's missed land drops and only known card is a terminate.
You are casting an ulamog with no followup, and are at 5 lofe and he's tapped out. What 2 things do you exile and why?
I personally chose his filter and crypt to keep him off bolt and lily and he alpha'd me I blocked his goyf and two turns later before I could slaver lock he flipped a land to bob to bolt me dead. Was unsure whether it was better to just nix his two guys and be at the mercy of a lily(which he might not even have) or to hit goyf and crypt to prevent getting double bolted out and so lily isnt lethal of he hits a land, or to hit dark con and crypt to play around double burn and no lily. Just one of the more tough decisions I felt I had during the tournament that I wanted to share and get insight on.
I would ALWAYS hit his creatures, because in that situation if you are relying on mana screwing him, your chance of doing so are slim because a.) he plays alot of lands in his deck and b.) he is drawing 2x with dark confidant.
If you die to double bolt, so be it - but the chances of him having 2x bolt are slimmer than topdecking the land that he needs with confidant draw in play. If you exile his creatures, the onus is on HIM to provide an answer or he's dead to Ulamog.
Also - quick question about your decklist - I see you've nixed Remand in favor of Mana Leak. Can you explain why and if this was the correct decision for this tournament?
@mtg-fan I've nixed Remand for Mana Leak since aggro has become more of an issue as more and more people start playing Zoo-like strategies. Remand is nice in a slower format where you expect to face a lot of BGx and other decks such as Living End but against affinity you'll need to be packing mana leaks for them to have a use in the match.
@little_fancy The only issue I would have with a list such as yours is that against any of the decks that can put out multiple spells in the early game(burn, zoo, aether vial and others) you have no way of catching back up when on the draw outside of 1 Ugin and 1 Cyclonic Rift which are only ever going to be active with tron online, while having an oblivion stone will let you power through disruption such as ghost quarter and spreading seas or what have you to be able to wrestle a board back. Some other spot removal I think is essential to the format right now given all of the aggro decks as well as being incredible against twin where they try to neuter our blue sources to win counter wars but having something like dismember is just such a surprise to them it'll win games on its own.
@Adun_Oakenshield I personally will be moving up to 4 chalices in the main deck as I think that card is insane and will test out your theory on dropping the maps from the deck(I boarded them out in several match-ups as it was). I am still unsold on spatial being stronger than dismember but I am in full support of adding some to the board to supplement the removal package. As far as the Mono Black Eldrazi deck is concerned I'm pretty sure that deck is going to be the ruin of modern in a week or so, with them gaining the 5/5 trample haste protected creature and the 4/4 pseudo-v clique it'll be a nightmare for a lot of decks to deal with.
@Themis I dropped the treasure mages awhile back in favor of the eye of ugin package as I just wanted a higher threat density while also giving myself more slots to play with in the deck, the eye takes up 1 slot but provides 5 cards in deck(the maps as well) that can bring end game threats to play while 2 mages were only 2 mages so it freed up a slot which I just put as an Eldrazi in the main deck, use to be Kozi but the new Ulamog is just so insane that he got the bump. I play an Emrakul in the side board to fight the grindy control match-ups as you'll both play draw go forever and eventually you'll take an extra turn with an emrakul and be on the offensive with all your counterspells and more mana and be able to end the game almost every time. Having the ability to find spellskites to start protecting a platinum angel is also pretty huge and comes up often. More on the mages I just hated spending 3 mana at sorcery speed in that deck for a pretty small creature.
@bloodinside First off welcome to the format and the deck! Do not ever feel as though any question or thought is "silly" as we're all here to discuss as many things as possible to all learn together and I'm sure ever veterans like shoktroopa still learn a thing or two from people on the forums :D.
Against Twin I use to board out chalice as they would be bringing in artifact removal for your spellskites already and you would want to strand cards in their hand as its a counter match-up and card advantage is huge. You want to lean on your dismemebers being the breaker of the match-up just try not to run them into counterspells and always keep the board clear of any of the combo creatures when possible even if you feel safe against the splinter twin as them having creatures will apply pressure to your life total as well as give them a higher chance of locking you out of a blue source with later deceivers as you won't be able to answer a second creature on board as easily now with the same amount of mana. They've recently moved to having vandalblast in their board so chalice on 1 is very strong now against them however I still like to lean heavily on spellsnares and dispels to fight them so you can have a little control over snapcaster as well that way. The last issue I have with chalice in that match-up especially on the draw is that its a sorcery speed card in a match-up where having as many resources and mana as possible available at all times is crucial.
Short version is chalice on 1 is great on the play, but pretty weak on the draw as you'll be open to a remand on 2 and then the threat of combo on 3 means you can't deploy it again and its wasting in your hand. This also changes wildly depending on the twin, Grixis don't play chalice, Tarmo try to play chalice on 2, u/r you can either have them for chalice on 1 or none at all(although situations do come up when you'll deploy them on different numbers).
Gonna test this list at the usual WNM tourney tomorrow I think.
I shaved a fabricate, a chalice of the void (down to 2 main), and something else somewhere to bring myself back up to two wurmcoils main and to include the Eye of Ugin / Newlamog package.
What this does I think is allow me to repeatedly tutor threats and be able to act a little more like RG Tron(nonstop threats) once I assemble tron mana etc etc. It slightly weakens my toolbox approach with only have 2 fabricates main, and I think also makes me a little more reliant on my creatures for wincons, but the addition of Newlamog and the ability to turn all my maps into a repeatable tutor lategame is a good thing I think.
Waaay back when I first started running U Tron I ran with Kozilek + Ugin, which was also very powerful as it gave me a nice fatty with which to end games. I was also on a more budget Mana Leak version compared to the Remands, so my hand would often be lowish when I cast him - his draw 4 always helped to refill my hand which was nice. I think with Newlamog, he's not refilling our hand, but the cast trigger is backbreaking and he'll close out the game no matter what extremely quickly against most decks.
I always liked the inclusion of Eye of Ugin as being able to reliably tutor wurmcoil/angel saved me a few times.
I'm not sure on the sideboard, that's sorta a WIP. Obviously the 3rd chalice would go there, unless I can find something maindeck to remove.
I tested a 2 Anticipate version cutting a single Remand/Thirst iirc and really didn't like it at all; it felt much weaker. After testing, I can't really bring myself to shave any remands/repeals; at least in my meta and who I play against, they're 11/10 and at worst a free cantrip in conjunction with chalice on 0. While I find myself boarding out remands often against some decks, I really really miss the 4th for the counterspell density/cantrip option against others.
Still haven't been able to find an Oblivion Stone(don't want to order online), and still in the process of saving for snaps(longterm thing).
One thing I've been kicking around in my musings is splashing green for the new Oath of Nissa. If we ran 4 Oath + 1 Mycosynth Lattice (haha EDH card, but it's actually modern legal to my surprise) and used blue's card filtering/selection, do you think it'd be doable to drop a Bolas Planeswalker in the deck?
His +3 is almost Karns -3, his -2 can be also be strong even against a decent hostile board, and his ult is better than an Emrakul swing (**** your hand, not just 6, but 7 permamanents, and take 7 on top). I feel like he would be impactful at any point in the game, whereas Karn is at his most impactful ~t3.
We could tutor up Mycosynth lattice per our usual tutors worst case, and ofc hitting an Oath of Nissa instead makes it easier (while digging for land, altho we run a high concentration of spells so it might occasionally brick, we also run a very high land count and we'd be +4 Nicol Bolas to run alongside the usual Ugins.)
Not exactly sure what I was doing here with this decklist (I wasn't sober at all when I played/made this, but I remember winning a few games in testing with both Ugin and Bolas in play for style points) and I never felt like Bolas was a dead card in hand. I feel like it needs a lot of tweaking, and our Burn matchup becomes much worse, but on the other end, we end up with a truly disgusting top end even better than anything RG Tron runs.
An extra bonus point with Mycosynth is that it makes Ancient Stirrings hit literally every card in the deck, which is only slightly busted.
One big difference, and as it turns out, a very influential difference, is that basically every game you want to lay down a Crucible of Worlds. It's so strong with the stone rain lands and it's so strong against all the land hate people board in against tron. All-star player, and occasionally a wincon on its own.
Another difference is that I run Serum Visions and Anticipate, instead of Thirst for Knowledge and the like. I find visions to be better than Thirst or other card selection/draw in this shell, especially since it's not conditional in any way, and you can play less artifacts.
One big difference, and as it turns out, a very influential difference, is that basically every game you want to lay down a Crucible of Worlds. It's so strong with the stone rain lands and it's so strong against all the land hate people board in against tron. All-star player, and occasionally a wincon on its own.
Another difference is that I run Serum Visions and Anticipate, instead of Thirst for Knowledge and the like. I find visions to be better than Thirst or other card selection/draw in this shell, especially since it's not conditional in any way, and you can play less artifacts.
I can definitely get behind crucible of worlds as it is a wincon, a lock and a way around GQ, but serum visions nope, I feel so much better drawing three discarding one to TfK, I fell we have blessed deck to be able to run such a card! I'll leave serum for twin players. I find myself not wanting to counter a non critical spell and just thirsting EoT often and three mana is just a really worthy waste of my mana at instant speed. That being said I look forward to know how uniformed I am with successful reports of that different build of yours, wish you much success!
Another thing about Serum Visions is that 1) It's a 1 Drop which nonbos with chalice (we can at least pitch maps to Thrist profitably) and 2) It's a sorcery in a deck with 8+ counter spells that often has to operate on 1 blue source. When considering both points I think Serum Visions loses a lot of value for us. Those slots would be much better served as Anticipates or Thirsts (or Opt if it were legal?). That said, regarding the original post, Thirst For Knowledge is definitely the best draw spell available to us, much more powerful than Visions for us.
That's for last year's event
Can't wait to get a tournament report, especially on his matches with Amulet Bloom and Merfolk.
Well done Thomas!
Whoops! Link removed, looks like they haven't put it up yet... Note to self, specify year in search as "2016" after the new year.
I wonder How You liked mainboard Eye with Newlamog. Can You share Your thoughts?
R2 zoo L
R3 merfolk w
R4 jund L
R5 merfolk w
R6 junk w
R7 podless w
R8 affinity w
R9 storm w
R10 burn L
R11 ur delver L
R12 bloom w
R13 rg aggro w
R14 twin w
R15 infect L
Ill try to write up a more detailed report later, pretty bummed to lose to infect and ur delver with never seeing a chalice but had a game against twin where I stuck a chalice on 4 to win which was pretty funny.
I do have a situation puzzle/question on the round where I lost to jund.
He has swamp twilight mire and blood crypt with a dark con and 5/6 goyf.
He's missed land drops and only known card is a terminate.
You are casting an ulamog with no followup, and are at 5 lofe and he's tapped out. What 2 things do you exile and why?
I personally chose his filter and crypt to keep him off bolt and lily and he alpha'd me I blocked his goyf and two turns later before I could slaver lock he flipped a land to bob to bolt me dead. Was unsure whether it was better to just nix his two guys and be at the mercy of a lily(which he might not even have) or to hit goyf and crypt to prevent getting double bolted out and so lily isnt lethal of he hits a land, or to hit dark con and crypt to play around double burn and no lily. Just one of the more tough decisions I felt I had during the tournament that I wanted to share and get insight on.
I'm more of an old school player that generally prefers consistency too. I think you have the correct mindset in regards to how the deck plays out.
I like O-Stone because sometimes all you need is that "reset button". It's not the most flashy card nor it's a silver bullet, but it's more of a necessary evil.
The new Ulamog is really sweet. Maybe you should try that too.
What do you think about Compulsive Research? It's a sorcery, but as a 1-of it should be just what the doctor ordered.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Bolt is only lethal if we don't remove either creature. Lili is lethal if we don't remove Goyf.
If you don't want to have any possibility to die on the next turn, exiling Goyf and a land is correct.
If you want to maximize your chances to win the game through a Lili and Bolt in hand, it may be correct to exile Bob and Blood Crypt. It temporarily plays around both Bolt and Lili, though it turns on Blackcleave Cliffs and any land off the top -> Lili kills you.
If you think you can win the game through a Lili(you probably can, our topdecks are much better), exile both dudes.
I stream Modern events semi-regularly at http://www.twitch.tv/nezeru
I am trying to work out how you have space for such a streamlined list so many 4 ofs instead of all the weird 1-3 ofs I have.
:/ snapcasters :'(.. the reason I play this deck is because I don't have snapcasters and therefore can't play any other blue deck.
they torment me at every turn.
Jester's cap? the only card that matters is Ulamog, the other large creatures will run into a counter even if they get value. They aren't super fast typically, just another mid range deck. I have 2 ghost quarters now so many targets including the eldrazi lands.
If you manage to land a mindslaver without a relic on board its game over for them.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
I would ALWAYS hit his creatures, because in that situation if you are relying on mana screwing him, your chance of doing so are slim because a.) he plays alot of lands in his deck and b.) he is drawing 2x with dark confidant.
If you die to double bolt, so be it - but the chances of him having 2x bolt are slimmer than topdecking the land that he needs with confidant draw in play. If you exile his creatures, the onus is on HIM to provide an answer or he's dead to Ulamog.
Also - quick question about your decklist - I see you've nixed Remand in favor of Mana Leak. Can you explain why and if this was the correct decision for this tournament?
@little_fancy The only issue I would have with a list such as yours is that against any of the decks that can put out multiple spells in the early game(burn, zoo, aether vial and others) you have no way of catching back up when on the draw outside of 1 Ugin and 1 Cyclonic Rift which are only ever going to be active with tron online, while having an oblivion stone will let you power through disruption such as ghost quarter and spreading seas or what have you to be able to wrestle a board back. Some other spot removal I think is essential to the format right now given all of the aggro decks as well as being incredible against twin where they try to neuter our blue sources to win counter wars but having something like dismember is just such a surprise to them it'll win games on its own.
@Adun_Oakenshield I personally will be moving up to 4 chalices in the main deck as I think that card is insane and will test out your theory on dropping the maps from the deck(I boarded them out in several match-ups as it was). I am still unsold on spatial being stronger than dismember but I am in full support of adding some to the board to supplement the removal package. As far as the Mono Black Eldrazi deck is concerned I'm pretty sure that deck is going to be the ruin of modern in a week or so, with them gaining the 5/5 trample haste protected creature and the 4/4 pseudo-v clique it'll be a nightmare for a lot of decks to deal with.
@Themis I dropped the treasure mages awhile back in favor of the eye of ugin package as I just wanted a higher threat density while also giving myself more slots to play with in the deck, the eye takes up 1 slot but provides 5 cards in deck(the maps as well) that can bring end game threats to play while 2 mages were only 2 mages so it freed up a slot which I just put as an Eldrazi in the main deck, use to be Kozi but the new Ulamog is just so insane that he got the bump. I play an Emrakul in the side board to fight the grindy control match-ups as you'll both play draw go forever and eventually you'll take an extra turn with an emrakul and be on the offensive with all your counterspells and more mana and be able to end the game almost every time. Having the ability to find spellskites to start protecting a platinum angel is also pretty huge and comes up often. More on the mages I just hated spending 3 mana at sorcery speed in that deck for a pretty small creature.
Against Twin I use to board out chalice as they would be bringing in artifact removal for your spellskites already and you would want to strand cards in their hand as its a counter match-up and card advantage is huge. You want to lean on your dismemebers being the breaker of the match-up just try not to run them into counterspells and always keep the board clear of any of the combo creatures when possible even if you feel safe against the splinter twin as them having creatures will apply pressure to your life total as well as give them a higher chance of locking you out of a blue source with later deceivers as you won't be able to answer a second creature on board as easily now with the same amount of mana. They've recently moved to having vandalblast in their board so chalice on 1 is very strong now against them however I still like to lean heavily on spellsnares and dispels to fight them so you can have a little control over snapcaster as well that way. The last issue I have with chalice in that match-up especially on the draw is that its a sorcery speed card in a match-up where having as many resources and mana as possible available at all times is crucial.
Short version is chalice on 1 is great on the play, but pretty weak on the draw as you'll be open to a remand on 2 and then the threat of combo on 3 means you can't deploy it again and its wasting in your hand. This also changes wildly depending on the twin, Grixis don't play chalice, Tarmo try to play chalice on 2, u/r you can either have them for chalice on 1 or none at all(although situations do come up when you'll deploy them on different numbers).
Gonna test this list at the usual WNM tourney tomorrow I think.
I shaved a fabricate, a chalice of the void (down to 2 main), and something else somewhere to bring myself back up to two wurmcoils main and to include the Eye of Ugin / Newlamog package.
What this does I think is allow me to repeatedly tutor threats and be able to act a little more like RG Tron(nonstop threats) once I assemble tron mana etc etc. It slightly weakens my toolbox approach with only have 2 fabricates main, and I think also makes me a little more reliant on my creatures for wincons, but the addition of Newlamog and the ability to turn all my maps into a repeatable tutor lategame is a good thing I think.
Waaay back when I first started running U Tron I ran with Kozilek + Ugin, which was also very powerful as it gave me a nice fatty with which to end games. I was also on a more budget Mana Leak version compared to the Remands, so my hand would often be lowish when I cast him - his draw 4 always helped to refill my hand which was nice. I think with Newlamog, he's not refilling our hand, but the cast trigger is backbreaking and he'll close out the game no matter what extremely quickly against most decks.
I always liked the inclusion of Eye of Ugin as being able to reliably tutor wurmcoil/angel saved me a few times.
I'm not sure on the sideboard, that's sorta a WIP. Obviously the 3rd chalice would go there, unless I can find something maindeck to remove.
I tested a 2 Anticipate version cutting a single Remand/Thirst iirc and really didn't like it at all; it felt much weaker. After testing, I can't really bring myself to shave any remands/repeals; at least in my meta and who I play against, they're 11/10 and at worst a free cantrip in conjunction with chalice on 0. While I find myself boarding out remands often against some decks, I really really miss the 4th for the counterspell density/cantrip option against others.
Still haven't been able to find an Oblivion Stone(don't want to order online), and still in the process of saving for snaps(longterm thing).
One thing I've been kicking around in my musings is splashing green for the new Oath of Nissa. If we ran 4 Oath + 1 Mycosynth Lattice (haha EDH card, but it's actually modern legal to my surprise) and used blue's card filtering/selection, do you think it'd be doable to drop a Bolas Planeswalker in the deck?
His +3 is almost Karns -3, his -2 can be also be strong even against a decent hostile board, and his ult is better than an Emrakul swing (**** your hand, not just 6, but 7 permamanents, and take 7 on top). I feel like he would be impactful at any point in the game, whereas Karn is at his most impactful ~t3.
We could tutor up Mycosynth lattice per our usual tutors worst case, and ofc hitting an Oath of Nissa instead makes it easier (while digging for land, altho we run a high concentration of spells so it might occasionally brick, we also run a very high land count and we'd be +4 Nicol Bolas to run alongside the usual Ugins.)
Here's the WIP List I put together:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/simic-bolas-tron/
Not exactly sure what I was doing here with this decklist (I wasn't sober at all when I played/made this, but I remember winning a few games in testing with both Ugin and Bolas in play for style points) and I never felt like Bolas was a dead card in hand. I feel like it needs a lot of tweaking, and our Burn matchup becomes much worse, but on the other end, we end up with a truly disgusting top end even better than anything RG Tron runs.
An extra bonus point with Mycosynth is that it makes Ancient Stirrings hit literally every card in the deck, which is only slightly busted.
4 Serum Visions
4 Remand
4 Repeal
4 Condescend
2 Anticipate
1 Spell pierce
1 Negate
Artifacts
4 Expedition map
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Oblivion Stone
1 Mindslaver
Dudes
1 Karn Liberated
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Academy Ruins
3 Polluted Delta
7 Island
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Tower
4 Urza's Power Plant
2 Spellskite
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Aetherize
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Mana leak
1 Vapor Snag
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Platinum Angel
One big difference, and as it turns out, a very influential difference, is that basically every game you want to lay down a Crucible of Worlds. It's so strong with the stone rain lands and it's so strong against all the land hate people board in against tron. All-star player, and occasionally a wincon on its own.
Another difference is that I run Serum Visions and Anticipate, instead of Thirst for Knowledge and the like. I find visions to be better than Thirst or other card selection/draw in this shell, especially since it's not conditional in any way, and you can play less artifacts.
Another thing about Serum Visions is that 1) It's a 1 Drop which nonbos with chalice (we can at least pitch maps to Thrist profitably) and 2) It's a sorcery in a deck with 8+ counter spells that often has to operate on 1 blue source. When considering both points I think Serum Visions loses a lot of value for us. Those slots would be much better served as Anticipates or Thirsts (or Opt if it were legal?). That said, regarding the original post, Thirst For Knowledge is definitely the best draw spell available to us, much more powerful than Visions for us.
So powerful, and gives you something to do turn 1 when you don't have map. There's a reason every other blue deck plays a playset.
I ran it as a test one day about a month ago and I haven't cast Thirst for Knowledge since. Don't plan to in the future, either.
Don't knock it before you try it!
hows your burn/naya aggro match up with that list?