I'm quite surprised that Ashiok is sparking such a debate. After all, search deniers have been here for ages already, some of which even allowed to be cast from the comand zone (even though, I have to admit, at a higher cost). White has Leonin Arbiter and Aven Mindcensor, aggressively costed but less efficient while Mindlock Orb was there all along, stupidly easy to get (being an artifact) and easy to cast through the crazy mana acceleration of the format.
Narset can be good, but clearly not as good as Leovold. Not having access to black hinders her gameplan a lot, but wheels are still fairly common in blue. Also, walkers are weak to aggro-based strategies that can kill them without having to expend ressources that weren't already deployed for other purposes.
I assume all newly printed commanders will no longer be legal at release, and instead evaluated for how "worthwhile" they are and what they can bring to the format.
Hey Taleran, this right here is an example of a disingenuous argument, for future reference.
So, Carthage, I see you are attempting at reductio ad absurdum, but failing miserably at it. The key difference here is that the rules of the format already allow newly printed cards to be allowed as commanders, so they are legal by default. They are, however, evaluated and banned if needed, like Leovold. Planeswalkers as commanders is not currently allowed by the rules unless they have special text allowing them. This means that allowing it necessarily has a higher bar to clear, as it is a change from the status quo. New cards being printed does not count, as in a collectible card game the printing of new cards, and their legality in all formats, is a built in feature of the status quo. It is the established and expected way in which the format grows that is accounted for in the rules. Allowing a new class of cards as commanders, unbanning cards, banning cards, allowing unsets permanently, those are changes to the status quo, and thus must pass a higher threshold when being considered for adoption. The same would be true, by the way, if the RC were to consider disallowing all pws as commanders including the ones with the rules text allowing them to be used as such. PW commanders were something they werent really backing, but they would have had to make a special rule preventing it as the basic rules of the game allow the "can be your commander" rules text to be employed and overrule the rules of the format (similar to ravenous rats).
That point feels extremely weird as standard-legal sets are clearly not made with EDH in mind. Anyway... when it comes to power level, nothing beats OG Teferi don't you think? His game-winning combo is the easiest to get in the game since Blue has the highest concentration of card selection and artifact tutoring, and it wins on the spot. And he can generate incredible value in grindy games. The more I think about it, the more I'm sure that no matter what the RC says more and more people will just play walkers as their commanders with WotC printing more and more interesting walkers like the last Bolas: after all, this format is a fan made format. Why wouldn't you play an elder dragon planeswalker in your elder dragon highlander game ? Especially as it does not create any kind of imbalance in the game...
[edit] feeling like I kinda misunderstood the context of the message and what Onering wanted to say... but the rest of my comment still stands on its own.
[re-edit] uhm, my point on Ashiok isn't that good now that I think about it since that's an unilateral effect. But I still think it isn't that powerful since Ashiok themselve isn't a combo tool nor a very powerful control tool.
Hi there! I haven't played turns in the past two years, and I'm feeling like I should just return to it instead of investing my time in other new decks.
I've tinkered with several variants (mostly mono U, UR, UR as foretold with restore balance (yeah, that was a wild one) and lastly UG which is the one that I had the most success with), and here's a Allegiance updated version of my last UG build:
Several remarks: I don't think that'll come as a shock to any of you guys, but TiTi (thing in the Ice) is quite the absurd card. Really helps in most of our bad matchups as well as serving as a very potent win condition. It synergizes a lot with Search for Tomorrow's suspend ability, and as we all know lands matter a lot in this archetype. Talking about lands, Growth Spiral is a pseudo time walk (previously Explore but damn the upgrade feels good): it is equivalent to taking a turn for value, which never feels good for 5 or 7 mana but is really reasonable when we're on turn 2 or 3. As for Walk the Aeons, I guess I'm just and old scrub afraid to miss an extra turn, but sometimes you just need that extra turn to deal the killing blow with TiTi. Also, I'm not really into plating Part the Waterveil + Inkmoth Nexus with the very high amount of Field of Ruins running rampant in the format. I might try that delve one one day. Final remark: this version is better against creature based decks, but not as good against control based builds. Against control, the goal is just to try to continuously outvalue your opponent, playing a bit like U-Tron would.
Back to the topic I disrupted, yup', that Kefnet looks really sweet! He feels really like a build-around card, maybe I should consider him one day in that ramp-y build of mine... He is not my favorite spoiler of War for Taking Turns though: that new Teferi might be the link a proper turbo fog list with Wilderness Reclamation and Nexus of Fate (like that one we saw in standard fairly recently) needed to exist in modern. If you guys want to try stuff out on Xmage, I definitely would love to help
@Elpokitolama It's funny you mention that because I had been thinking the same thing .. The only problem though is that getting to Nexus of fate as well as keeping Teferi on board seems extremely difficult..
It would most likely involve cutting down on exhaustions and our card draw effects turning it more into a UW control...
Not sure that is more efficient.. but it would be sweet if someone brewed up a successful list!
Gotta work on that. I'm still brewing a weird miracles deck, but that one's next!
On the Thing in the Ice topic, if anyone's interested here's my good old Titi turbo turns list, still working fairly well:
Just for the KCI topic: always get your first chalice on 0 against them. They often run Explosives, and Mox Opal is what allows them to go off stupidly efficiently.
To the persons who are concerned about Jaya's fate: WotC declared that the story would focus on the evenements that happened beforeJace's landing... and she's most likely the one who greeted the "bookworm". IMO, she will survive the story of the set. Or so I hope.
Being tricolored really helps with explosives, I actually had someone call a judge to do a decklist check after seing mine mainboard...
I'm on definitively with purklefluff on that one: minor splashes do not hurt, yet bring quite a few really useful tools.
@Bradpt: I'm only using one Bog MB, and one Tormod's crypt in side. It certainly is very low, but that's partly because of metagame calls. With Dominaria leaks I learned about a new sideboard card which is going to help against storm so I am unlikely to move from this set-up. An important thing to mention is that both of them can be tutored by Tolaria West.
Damping Sphere, which wrecks amulet and tron by stoping lands from generating more than 1 mana and Storm by making each spell cost one more for each spell cast by its controler this turn. The only downside is that we'll need 4 mana to do the usual AF into LE turn. I'm not even sure I'll run it though, since Storm can still Wipe Away the poor thing, just like any form of graveyard hate.
I certainly don't agree with the this.
The white splash can help in some matches, but saying we NEED Settle the wreckage is ridiculous. I love that card, but we certainly don't need a conditional sweeper that costs 2WW, even if it exiles (and don't forget the ramping, it can be very disadvantageous).
Path is nice, condemn has the problem that it doesn't handle non-attacking creatures like electromancer/baral/Devoted Druid.
Which matchups do you feel are so bad that you need to pack a lot of extra creature removal? Humans, sure, unless we get to living end t3 and they don't meddling mage it before. But remember that all these cards dilute the gameplan.
For the white sideboard cards, Stony silence is not enough for me, Rest in peace would be, but it's awful for us obviously. Being able to cast leylines, maybe, but I think leylines hurt more than they help.
So, just saying, I don't find the UW version more competitive than mono U, at all. And every result ever obtained by this archetype (to my knowledge at least) has been with mono U lists, so your statement seems a bit radical. I'm not dismissing UW, but it certainly hasn't proven itself better than any other version.
Before my first post here (the one with the three different decklists), I iterated around 3 versions: Mono U, Ub, and Uw. I do agree with the first part of your comment, but have to disagree (but only a bit) with what follows...
Let me explain my point of view: many still misunderstand the true nature of the deck, and tend to build/play it like a control deck... which it isn't. It is still, at core, a combo deck which goal is to put pressure on the opponent, not respond to the opponent's pressure. It can be played like that obviously, but from experience combo hands are always better than control ones.
Which brings us back to today's topic: the mono U version is clearly the more epurated/combo version of the deck. However, due to the nature of our combo, we require tons of control elements to survive/protect our win conditions. And, in my opinion, the mono U version of Living Blue don't have the same amount of flexibility the splash versions have... Which is an issue. It worsens bad MU, as it helps with the already good ones. That by itself should be alright if the deck wasn't so polarized in the first place, being really strong against slow decks and absurdly bad against really fast decks like our favorite boogey(hu)man...
Sticking to mono U only restrict our options, especially since Blue is the worst color there is when it comes to sideboards. But you're still right: after the short time under the spotlight the mono U version had, no other versions pulled out their weight on tournaments... I did get my ass handed to me at GP Lyon after all.
So, tl/dr: a mono U core is always better, but small splashs are really important. For exemple, my last iteration only plays 3 copies of path MB and 2 Brutalities SB with a copy of Engineered Explosives MB, that card is absurd with Tolaria West (and I'll probably hate myself quite often for not using Stony Silence). It doesn't need more than this, but it wouldn't be as effective without.
[edit] I also agree with you about the leylines, but mainly because I hate sacrifying 4 sideboard slots for a single card...
I wouldn't go as far as to say that the Mono U version isn't competitive. However, we cannot deny that both the black and white splashes are far too good to be ignored.
Path is just that powerful, even more so in a deck that isn't going to lose the value war by giving lands to its opponent... and deeply cares about its opponent's graveyard.
Stony Silence was, is, and will always be great against an awful lot of decks (one of them being one of the hardest matchups we have, affinity). The other aggro decks can either be dealt with Torpor Orb or slow enough so we can control them. But even the splashs/sideboard tech won't bring these match-ups back to positive winrates. The black splash shouldn't be minimized either, as Collective Brutalityis crazy good at getting value out of our cyclers. Plus, it allowed me to suspend Living End and win games I wasn't supposed to win... Also, it makes Bojuka Bog a bit more relevant.
I'll probably start streaming my games on Twitch next week, using Xmage (under the same username), hopefully that'll help us gather more data on how to improve the deck. My last iteration of the deck feels like an optimized list, but my sample of games isn't wide enough yet...
So, it's been a while since I haven't done one of these, but here I come: tournament report from GP Lyon, which was already one week ago.
I won't go in detail of my matchs, but instead I'll just show you 3 different lists: my disatrous day 1, the PTQ of day 2, and the final optimized list I came up with.
So... this was the list I brought to the GP, and piloted to an heart wrenching 1-4-drop (affinity 1-2, eldrazi Tron 2-0, Abzan Counters Company 1-2, GW Counters Company 1-2, 5 colors Allies 0-2).
I was completly demoralized by these defeats. Despite the awful match-ups besides Tron, I felt that besides the deck not being the best metagame call, it was flawed by conception: it was a mashup of Living End and UW control, just worst at what the both of them are doing.
However, after a friend of mine kocked some sense into me, I realised that it wasn't the archetype's fault, but my take on it which was far too gimmicky relying on Tolaria West eventually losing a lot of speed and consistency. Plus, my piloting wasn't good either: the deck is a combo deck, not a control one. Its control tools are here to protect the combo, and you've got to play proactively and be the aggressive deck to win.
So, we reworked the deck and came up with this instead for the PTQ which came the day after. The only "gimmick" still in the deck is engineered explosive... but the card is so good against every matchup that I don't think I'll ever remove it from the mainboard. Here it is:
This time, I went 2-3-1: Affinity 1-2, GB Tron 0-2 (my first loss against tron with the archetype, ***** happens I guess?), Bant Eldrazi 2-1, Abzan Midrange 2-1, UR Storm 0-2, Grixis Control 1-1, drawing g3 and Luis Salvatto'ing g1 because I stupidly forgot to remove my sideboard after the previous match.
While this doesn't look like a major improvement, the deck really felt good to play when compared to the day before: I wouldn't have won the games I lost with the other decks I considered bringing to the tournament and I could finally understand the deck after 2 months playing it. I could find other issues the new version had and correct them in my last iteration of the deck (mainly consistency, I drew half of the deck without finding a missing combo piece twice).
Here it is:
This version feels amazing and do not seem to have the flaws of the previous iterations. I really underestimated Search for Azcanta: the card is even better in this deck than in any other, and that's only when taking into considerations its first half! I wouldn't play more than two, though. Same goes for JTMS: if I ever was to play him, it would be at Azcanta's spot. I don't think we can run both, but either one is good enough to consider. I do think playing more than two Jaces isn't interesting, as you're likely to draw more than half of your deck in the games which need his presence to close a game.
Also, something I forgot to mention: I am indeed running an esper list, for path is stellar and it's always good to be able to cast your own creatures/suspend Living End (yes, you heard that right). Plus, having access to Collective Brutality in the sideboard is really good.
On another note, I am thinking about starting to stream using the deck (first on Xmage, then on MTGO when I'll have the money required to purchase the deck there (probably in April)). Are you interested in it? If so, let me know. I would do it on week end afternoons, and evening during the week (France time, which is UTC+1).
Hey guys, I'm fairly new on the archetype, and (probably because of my lack of experience) I have a question: why doesn't anybody play Extraplanar Lens? It seems to be pretty good here, as it allows one to buyback Walk the Aeons on a more regular basis while granting the mono blue version the acceleration it desperatly needs.
Here's the brew I came up with after taking a netdeck (Joshua Bova's list) and reworking it:
I also adapted the sideboard by studying a bit the unfavorable match-ups. I'll be receptive to any kind of input you've got on the list. For now, I played mostly against bad decks, at the noteworthy exeption of Naya zoo, Jund dredgevine (featuring the good SOI newcomers), a GR Titan Valakut and maybe a rakdos madness burn that wasn't that terrible (untap's community is not known as a skillful one, so the fact that all of these are victories should not count in the evaluation of the deck).
Narset can be good, but clearly not as good as Leovold. Not having access to black hinders her gameplan a lot, but wheels are still fairly common in blue. Also, walkers are weak to aggro-based strategies that can kill them without having to expend ressources that weren't already deployed for other purposes.
That point feels extremely weird as standard-legal sets are clearly not made with EDH in mind. Anyway... when it comes to power level, nothing beats OG Teferi don't you think? His game-winning combo is the easiest to get in the game since Blue has the highest concentration of card selection and artifact tutoring, and it wins on the spot. And he can generate incredible value in grindy games. The more I think about it, the more I'm sure that no matter what the RC says more and more people will just play walkers as their commanders with WotC printing more and more interesting walkers like the last Bolas: after all, this format is a fan made format. Why wouldn't you play an elder dragon planeswalker in your elder dragon highlander game ? Especially as it does not create any kind of imbalance in the game...
[edit] feeling like I kinda misunderstood the context of the message and what Onering wanted to say... but the rest of my comment still stands on its own.
[re-edit] uhm, my point on Ashiok isn't that good now that I think about it since that's an unilateral effect. But I still think it isn't that powerful since Ashiok themselve isn't a combo tool nor a very powerful control tool.
I've tinkered with several variants (mostly mono U, UR, UR as foretold with restore balance (yeah, that was a wild one) and lastly UG which is the one that I had the most success with), and here's a Allegiance updated version of my last UG build:
4 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
4 Hinterland Harbor
6 Island
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Yavimaya Coast
Turns
4 Growth Spiral
4 Time Warp
4 Temporal Mastery
1 Walk the Aeons
1 Cryptic Command
4 Dictate of Kruphix
2 Gigadrowse
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Remand
4 Search for Tomorrow
3 Serum Visions
Win conditions
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Thing in the Ice
1 Back to Nature
2 Dispel
1 Disrupting Shoal
1 Engulf the Shore
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Laboratory Maniac
2 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Snapback
1 Spell Pierce
2 Sun Droplet
Several remarks: I don't think that'll come as a shock to any of you guys, but TiTi (thing in the Ice) is quite the absurd card. Really helps in most of our bad matchups as well as serving as a very potent win condition. It synergizes a lot with Search for Tomorrow's suspend ability, and as we all know lands matter a lot in this archetype. Talking about lands, Growth Spiral is a pseudo time walk (previously Explore but damn the upgrade feels good): it is equivalent to taking a turn for value, which never feels good for 5 or 7 mana but is really reasonable when we're on turn 2 or 3. As for Walk the Aeons, I guess I'm just and old scrub afraid to miss an extra turn, but sometimes you just need that extra turn to deal the killing blow with TiTi. Also, I'm not really into plating Part the Waterveil + Inkmoth Nexus with the very high amount of Field of Ruins running rampant in the format. I might try that delve one one day. Final remark: this version is better against creature based decks, but not as good against control based builds. Against control, the goal is just to try to continuously outvalue your opponent, playing a bit like U-Tron would.
Back to the topic I disrupted, yup', that Kefnet looks really sweet! He feels really like a build-around card, maybe I should consider him one day in that ramp-y build of mine... He is not my favorite spoiler of War for Taking Turns though: that new Teferi might be the link a proper turbo fog list with Wilderness Reclamation and Nexus of Fate (like that one we saw in standard fairly recently) needed to exist in modern. If you guys want to try stuff out on Xmage, I definitely would love to help
Gotta work on that. I'm still brewing a weird miracles deck, but that one's next!
On the Thing in the Ice topic, if anyone's interested here's my good old Titi turbo turns list, still working fairly well:
2x Forest
4x Hinterland Harbor
6x Island
1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Yavimaya Coast
2x Snapcaster Mage
4x Thing in the Ice
4x Dictate of Kruphix
3x Explore
4x Search for Tomorrow
3x Serum Visions
4x Temporal Mastery
4x Time Warp
1x Walk the Aeons
2x Gigadrowse
3x Remand
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2x Dispel
1x Disrupting Shoal
1x Engulf the Shore
1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Laboratory Maniac
2x Pithing Needle
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Snapback
1x Spell Pierce
2x Sun Droplet
I'm on definitively with purklefluff on that one: minor splashes do not hurt, yet bring quite a few really useful tools.
@Bradpt: I'm only using one Bog MB, and one Tormod's crypt in side. It certainly is very low, but that's partly because of metagame calls. With Dominaria leaks I learned about a new sideboard card which is going to help against storm so I am unlikely to move from this set-up. An important thing to mention is that both of them can be tutored by Tolaria West.
Before my first post here (the one with the three different decklists), I iterated around 3 versions: Mono U, Ub, and Uw. I do agree with the first part of your comment, but have to disagree (but only a bit) with what follows...
Let me explain my point of view: many still misunderstand the true nature of the deck, and tend to build/play it like a control deck... which it isn't. It is still, at core, a combo deck which goal is to put pressure on the opponent, not respond to the opponent's pressure. It can be played like that obviously, but from experience combo hands are always better than control ones.
Which brings us back to today's topic: the mono U version is clearly the more epurated/combo version of the deck. However, due to the nature of our combo, we require tons of control elements to survive/protect our win conditions. And, in my opinion, the mono U version of Living Blue don't have the same amount of flexibility the splash versions have... Which is an issue. It worsens bad MU, as it helps with the already good ones. That by itself should be alright if the deck wasn't so polarized in the first place, being really strong against slow decks and absurdly bad against really fast decks like our favorite boogey(hu)man...
Sticking to mono U only restrict our options, especially since Blue is the worst color there is when it comes to sideboards. But you're still right: after the short time under the spotlight the mono U version had, no other versions pulled out their weight on tournaments... I did get my ass handed to me at GP Lyon after all.
So, tl/dr: a mono U core is always better, but small splashs are really important. For exemple, my last iteration only plays 3 copies of path MB and 2 Brutalities SB with a copy of Engineered Explosives MB, that card is absurd with Tolaria West (and I'll probably hate myself quite often for not using Stony Silence). It doesn't need more than this, but it wouldn't be as effective without.
[edit] I also agree with you about the leylines, but mainly because I hate sacrifying 4 sideboard slots for a single card...
Path is just that powerful, even more so in a deck that isn't going to lose the value war by giving lands to its opponent... and deeply cares about its opponent's graveyard.
Stony Silence was, is, and will always be great against an awful lot of decks (one of them being one of the hardest matchups we have, affinity). The other aggro decks can either be dealt with Torpor Orb or slow enough so we can control them. But even the splashs/sideboard tech won't bring these match-ups back to positive winrates. The black splash shouldn't be minimized either, as Collective Brutalityis crazy good at getting value out of our cyclers. Plus, it allowed me to suspend Living End and win games I wasn't supposed to win... Also, it makes Bojuka Bog a bit more relevant.
I'll probably start streaming my games on Twitch next week, using Xmage (under the same username), hopefully that'll help us gather more data on how to improve the deck. My last iteration of the deck feels like an optimized list, but my sample of games isn't wide enough yet...
I won't go in detail of my matchs, but instead I'll just show you 3 different lists: my disatrous day 1, the PTQ of day 2, and the final optimized list I came up with.
1x Bojuka Bog
2x Field of Ruin
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Irrigated Farmland
4x Island
1x Plains
1x Polluted Delta
3x Flooded Strand
1x Swamp
3x Tolaria West
1x Watery Grave
Creatures
1x Architects of Will
4x Curator of Mysteries
2x Nimble Obstructionist
3x Street Wraith
4x Striped Riverwinder
3x Ancestral Vision
4x Living End
3x Cryptic Command
3x Path to exile
1x Mana Leak
3x Remand
2x Spell Snare
1x Slaughter Pact
Enchantment
4x As Foretold
Artifact
1x Engineered explosives
2x Collective Brutality
1x Detention Sphere
2x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Disdainful Stroke
2x Swan's song
2x Negate
2x Sorcerous Spyglass
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Tormod's Crypt
So... this was the list I brought to the GP, and piloted to an heart wrenching 1-4-drop (affinity 1-2, eldrazi Tron 2-0, Abzan Counters Company 1-2, GW Counters Company 1-2, 5 colors Allies 0-2).
I was completly demoralized by these defeats. Despite the awful match-ups besides Tron, I felt that besides the deck not being the best metagame call, it was flawed by conception: it was a mashup of Living End and UW control, just worst at what the both of them are doing.
However, after a friend of mine kocked some sense into me, I realised that it wasn't the archetype's fault, but my take on it which was far too gimmicky relying on Tolaria West eventually losing a lot of speed and consistency. Plus, my piloting wasn't good either: the deck is a combo deck, not a control one. Its control tools are here to protect the combo, and you've got to play proactively and be the aggressive deck to win.
So, we reworked the deck and came up with this instead for the PTQ which came the day after. The only "gimmick" still in the deck is engineered explosive... but the card is so good against every matchup that I don't think I'll ever remove it from the mainboard. Here it is:
1x Bojuka Bog
2x Field of Ruin
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Irrigated Farmland
4x Island
1x Plains
2x Polluted Delta
3x Flooded Strand
1x Swamp
1x Tolaria West
1x Watery Grave
Creatures
2x Architects of Will
4x Curator of Mysteries
1x Nimble Obstructionist
3x Street Wraith
4x Striped Riverwinder
4x Ancestral Vision
4x Living End
2x Cryptic Command
3x Path to exile
1x Mana Leak
4x Remand
2x Spell Snare
1x Spell pierce
Enchantment
4x As Foretold
1x Search for Azcanta
Artifact
1x Engineered explosives
2x Collective Brutality
1x Nimble Obstructionist
2x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Disdainful Stroke
1x Swan's song
1x Torpor Orb
2x Negate
2x Sorcerous Spyglass
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Tormod's Crypt
This time, I went 2-3-1: Affinity 1-2, GB Tron 0-2 (my first loss against tron with the archetype, ***** happens I guess?), Bant Eldrazi 2-1, Abzan Midrange 2-1, UR Storm 0-2, Grixis Control 1-1, drawing g3 and Luis Salvatto'ing g1 because I stupidly forgot to remove my sideboard after the previous match.
While this doesn't look like a major improvement, the deck really felt good to play when compared to the day before: I wouldn't have won the games I lost with the other decks I considered bringing to the tournament and I could finally understand the deck after 2 months playing it. I could find other issues the new version had and correct them in my last iteration of the deck (mainly consistency, I drew half of the deck without finding a missing combo piece twice).
Here it is:
1x Bojuka Bog
2x Field of Ruin
3x Flooded Strand
1x Glacial Fortress
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Irrigated Farmland
4x Island
1x Plains
2x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
2x Tolaria West
1x Watery Grave
Creatures
2x Architects of Will
4x Curator of Mysteries
1x Nimble Obstructionist
3x Street Wraith
4x Striped Riverwinder
4x Ancestral Vision
4x Living End
2x Cryptic Command
3x Path to Exile
3x Remand
2x Spell Snare
Enchantment
4x As Foretold
2x Search for Azcanta
Artifact
1x Engineered explosives
2x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Collective Brutality
2x Disdainful Stroke
1x Dispel
1x Negate
1x Nimble Obstructionist
2x Sorcerous Spyglass
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Tormod's Crypt
2x Torpor Orb
This version feels amazing and do not seem to have the flaws of the previous iterations. I really underestimated Search for Azcanta: the card is even better in this deck than in any other, and that's only when taking into considerations its first half! I wouldn't play more than two, though. Same goes for JTMS: if I ever was to play him, it would be at Azcanta's spot. I don't think we can run both, but either one is good enough to consider. I do think playing more than two Jaces isn't interesting, as you're likely to draw more than half of your deck in the games which need his presence to close a game.
Also, something I forgot to mention: I am indeed running an esper list, for path is stellar and it's always good to be able to cast your own creatures/suspend Living End (yes, you heard that right). Plus, having access to Collective Brutality in the sideboard is really good.
On another note, I am thinking about starting to stream using the deck (first on Xmage, then on MTGO when I'll have the money required to purchase the deck there (probably in April)). Are you interested in it? If so, let me know. I would do it on week end afternoons, and evening during the week (France time, which is UTC+1).
Here's the brew I came up with after taking a netdeck (Joshua Bova's list) and reworking it:
3x Ancestral Vision
4x Dictate of Kruphix
1x Jace Beleren
1x Elixir of Immortality
3x Extraplanar Lens
Control tools
2x Cryptic Command
2x Exhaustion
2x Gigadrowse
4x Remand
2x Spell Snare
2x Part the Waterveil
2x Temporal Mastery
4x Time Warp
3x Walk the Aeons
Creatures
2x Snapcaster Mage
Lands
1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1x Ghost Quarter
21x Snow-Covered Island
1x Dispel
2x Engulf the Shore
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Laboratory Maniac
1x Snapback
2x Spell Pierce
4x Sun Droplet
1x Vapor Snag
I also adapted the sideboard by studying a bit the unfavorable match-ups. I'll be receptive to any kind of input you've got on the list. For now, I played mostly against bad decks, at the noteworthy exeption of Naya zoo, Jund dredgevine (featuring the good SOI newcomers), a GR Titan Valakut and maybe a rakdos madness burn that wasn't that terrible (untap's community is not known as a skillful one, so the fact that all of these are victories should not count in the evaluation of the deck).