Any blue card with cmc<=4 could push this deck to heaven. With a cmc3 instant we could even cast a howling mine in opponent EOT!
Unfortunately you still have to cast the card, not just put it into play so you couldn't cast a Howling Mine at instant speed (correct me if I'm wrong)
If it is a cycle, and the blue one is on the same power level, it could be very interesting. But the thing I'm even more excited about is the potential for the format to slow down a bit and people to start playing 4-drops.
I mean it's not going to be favorable against everything, particularly decks like Burn and Infect (although it looks like purklefluff has made a lot of progress in that regard) but pretty much everything besides aggro you feel like you're in God mode. Don't buy it if you're looking for a tier 1 deck, it's really more of a Johnny deck at heart.
You could actually make a pretty good budget-ish version of the deck (see below) and then add things like Cryptics and Snaps later. Is it strong against the meta? It depends, but it is a solid deck. Somewhere on the level of Stompy, Skred, etc. If more people played it I could see it spiking a big tournament.
I think the 4th Dictate is always correct over Howling Mine. I would also move the 4th Serum Visions to the main deck, especially on 23 land and no Remands. The Spell Pierce can be cut and you can probably also go down a Snapcaster Mage. Some number of Hurkyl's Recalls should go in the side. Ancestral Vision is pretty good against attrition decks (I prefer them in the side). Spell Pierce for discard and Liliana and even an extra non-artifact "mine" effect like a Jace Beleren can also be helpful.
My sideboard includes a bunch of cheap counterspells for a variety of reasons including combo: 3 Dispel, 2 Spell Pierce, 1 Swan Song. They're also part of my 4x Thing in the Ice sideboard plan against Burn and Infect. Gigadrowse and Exhaustion come out vs Ad Nauseam.
The kid inside me who was 11 when Tempest came out and was super excited about cards like Propaganda, Capsize, Time Warp and Whispers of the Muse, would be very happy to see a present day Sapphire Medallion reprint for his Taking Turns deck. Alas, I don't see that one coming any time soon.
How exactly do we stop ourselves from helping Dredge win a game off of our own Mine effects? Dredge is now a really big deal at my LGS and I expect that it will stick around for a while. Does Gigadrowse work against them? Do we lose if we can't find an Exhaustion?
1. Don't play Howling Mine (IMO)
2. Cryptic/Exhaustion for the win. Thing in the Ice also good here if that's your flavor.
MaRo stated on his podcast that they want the power level of new Magic sets to be like the M.C. Escher "infinite staircase". Basically they periodically (every few years) shift the power between creatures and spells so that new sets feel more powerful in different ways without actually resulting in overall power creep. Their planning goes out many years in advance so I wouldn't be surprised to see more powerful spells eventually return, they just have to set the bar lower so you really feel the difference
Drawing Emperion is only bad if you only have 1 in your deck. If you have 2, drawing a hand with Madcap and Emperion is not a "bad" draw, you just have 1 basically dead card.
^That seems decent, Wall of Omens is also better mid-combo because you can just play it and draw a card (one of the things I liked about Spreading Seas when I was running it). Also good with TiTi. I don't think I will ever leave my Remands at home again though, I just can't feel good about myself as a Blue mage if I can't hold up a 2 mana counterspell
Got super excited to see Frank Lepore played this deck (UR version) for his Modern Monday series but watching the games I don't think he could have played the deck any worse
Side note, sitting at FNM with mono U 2-0 against Tron and Mardu Nahiri. Time to fade the aggro decks.
Unfortunately you still have to cast the card, not just put it into play so you couldn't cast a Howling Mine at instant speed (correct me if I'm wrong)
MTG Goldfish
Spike Feed
Top Level Podcast
Freshly Brewed
So Many Insane Plays
Turn One Thoughtseize
Drive to Work
4x Howling Mine (or Thing in the Ice)
4x Serum Visions
4x Remand
4x Time Warp
4x Part the Waterveil
4x Temporal Mastery
4x Exhaustion
4x Gigadrowse
4x Radiant Fountain
20x Island
Ancestral Vision is pretty good against attrition decks (I prefer them in the side). Spell Pierce for discard and Liliana and even an extra non-artifact "mine" effect like a Jace Beleren can also be helpful.
1. Don't play Howling Mine (IMO)
2. Cryptic/Exhaustion for the win. Thing in the Ice also good here if that's your flavor.