For the moment i think tolaria west is doing good in the deck under testing. Hexmage is the reason the deck have black, i don't feel like cutting that atm. i tested vampiric tutor, it's not super good, and gets boarded out a lot-consultation is the better card here. Top is very good in testing so far, helps progress under standstill.
Mindbreak trap is solid in the deck and hardcasting it is a real thing as well, also took a Dromoka with it in a game.
Preordain is doing a descent job at digging cards out.
I dont like a basic svamp, because Urborg, makes all basic islands into Underground Sea. having 3 Island is really good vs Shop, since our shop hate in sb are blue.
I don't like Leyline of the void in this build, since you need to have it in your opening hand to be good. It's difficult to cast when drawn later in the game, and loses some of it value at that moment. nihil spellbomb is castable after its drawn, and we have a good amount of digging. I considered Ravenous Trap earlier, it's a fine card, but goes down to duress and cabal theraphy, and doesnt draw a card like spellbomb. Jailer is fine as  well, but as a 2 drop creature, it might be too slow vs Dredge on the draw in g3, and it doesnt have any value in other other matchups like the spellbomb does.

Null rod is a solid card, and can easily be played in this deck, with a little adjustment. What would you cut, besides sensei's top, if we added lets say 3 copies? I like the idea of slowing down the game even more, and it hurts some of the best decks in the meta.
I would miss the EE the most, which have been good in the testing(practice rooms)
This is the current list:

4 Standstill
1 Black Lotus
4 Vampire Hexmage
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
3 Dark Depths
4 Thespian's Stage
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Underground Sea
3 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
3 Mindbreak Trap
4 Preordain
1 Tolaria West
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Spell Pierce
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Dig Through Time

SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 4 Steel Sabotage
SB: 3 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 2 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Crucible of Worlds

Thanks guys! yeah i know blue is not your favorite cup of tea @whitedragon, but don't worry i havent forgotten Shop Depths

Xouman@ the Shop matchups are definitely the most tricky ones, and you'll need a little bit of luck to beat a 5 wasteland deck. the sb helps a lot ofc, specially with EE, but perhaps a third Crucible wouldn't hurt the deck. I might go down to 3 copies of Dark depths, since it can be frustrating at times to be stuck with multiples in hand.

The blue matchups are pretty good i think with the heavy countersuit and 5 ancestrals the deck is better vs blue control, pyromancer/mentor and oath decks. TPS decks that maindeck defense grid can be a problem though.

Update.

Just went 4-0 in the daily with a refined list. I cutted the demonic consultation and added a Crucible maindeck.

Round 1: 2-1 over Uba Stax

Round 2: 2-1 over Painter URb

Round 3: 2-1 over DPS

Round 4: 2-0 over Ravager Shops

4 Standstill
1 Black Lotus
4 Vampire Hexmage
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
4 Dark Depths
4 Thespian's Stage
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Underground Sea
3 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
3 Mindbreak Trap
4 Preordain
1 Tolaria West
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Spell Pierce
1 Crucible of Worlds

SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 4 Steel Sabotage
SB: 3 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 2 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Crucible of Worlds

Yeah, i don't think that this deck want a tertiary color, that will just make a very bad mana base, which will result in a lot of mulligans. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Hello Nikolai, good observations you made, they are valueable, will take them into account.

Mana Drain still got game!

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=48332.0

Thanks for the feedback guys! i might have went a little over the top with traps, i could see going down to 2 copies and adding some other disruption to the deck.

I also added 2 engineered explosives to the sb, after discussing the deck with a guy who also played the list on mtgo.

I have steel sabotage vs ensaring bridge, which only uba stax run i believe, and jace is difficult to get down vs MUD.

Vampire hexmage is not ideal with standstill i agree, it's just an essential part of the combo, and can also deal with planeswalkers and has game vs dredge.

I would love to have a single misdirection in the deck, but since it's 107$ i cant justify buying it on magic online.

so after messing around with depths for a few years, i came up with this idea, that a Standstill would be a good shell for it. Instead of running the usual 2/2 Mishra's Facotory, we have our 20/20 flying, indestuctable Marit Lage.

I made the list after the first power9challenge were i made top8 with Shop Depths, which is a great deck. This is another way of making use of the deadly combo(one of many possibilities)

Dark depths and Thespian's stage is good against a lot of decks in the meta and my thought process was, that even though my opponents is rarely capable of stopping me from assembling the combo and win, i need to be able to stop them from winning as well. This is were force of will and company enters the scene.

This is the prototype: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/344299#online

I've tuned the deck since then, to what i think is a better version, here is the current lists:

2 Underground Sea
3 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Dark Depths
4 Thespian's Stage
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire

4 Standstill
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
3 Flusterstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
4 Mindbreak Trap
4 Preordain

SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 4 Steel Sabotage
SB: 3 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge
SB: 2 Energy Flux

I could write why each of the chosen cards are in the deck, but i think it's very obvious, so i wont bore you with that, but feel free to ask any question though.

Would like to hear any thoughts, ideas, constructive criticism.

I think mana crypt deserves the slot, mainly because you can do a turn one oath of druids with forbidden orchard.(It's an extra Mox) it also makes it possible to do a turn 2 Jace tms.

These two things make it worth running imo, despite the risk of taking 3 damage each turn, you just have to decide whether this card is crucial enough for your gameplan considering the downside and ocasional losses.

I'm up for that challenge 

Trap is amazing against TPS ofc, specially when they are going for their big bombs, because they need to accelerate to do it.

It's also quite effecient against other decks as well, because shop can play a pair of moxen before they throw out their golem etc. and the same go for blue decks, its nice to take mentor, oath/SaT or a planeswalker on the early turns. Or after misstepping an cantrip or something else, they misstep back, and you just exile all their spells

I don't see many people playing around it, probably because it's a card that are not considered maindeck potentiel in many decks, and here we have the whole set waiting.
I find it soothing to have some action on the draw to respond with, so the opponent cant do a turn 1 kill on me.

Looking forward to this event, after finishing 17'th in the last one and 33'th in the one before it, i'm really hoping to make a comeback to the top or close to it atleast. interesting how the meta is going to look this time.

Thank you The mindbreak traps have been really good in testing so far, only take them out vs Dredge. And it's nice to able to tutor for academy with Map, for hardcast Trap

note* my opponent in round 1, was a little unlucky to missclick his oath trigger, when he could have decayed my cage, while on the stack.

Just 4-0 the daily with this list:

4 Lodestone Golem
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Jet
4 Tangle Wire
1 Mana Crypt
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Expedition Map
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Dark Depths
4 Thespian's Stage
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal
4 Mental Misstep
4 Mindbreak Trap
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Karakas
1 Black Lotus

SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 2 Dismember
SB: 2 Ghost Quarter
SB: 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge
SB: 2 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 1 Crucible of Worlds

Round 1 Grisel oath 2-1

Round 2 Dredge 2-1

Round 3 Uba Stax 2-1

Round Tezzcast UR 2-0

This was the second time i played this list in the daily, the first time i went 2-1, because i fell asleep before the last round, because of the danm timezones

I think for an unknown meta, you always start with 4 grafdigger's cage, anything else is just irresponsible. For the reason you mentioned, it takes care of the 2 worst MU for this deck.

then you add some number of GY removal, i prefer Relic of Progenitus, because you draw a card and can eat a card once a turn, the downside is removing your own GY if you have an active crucible, but you can play around this.

You want as many SB cards in the mirror, as the number of spheres in your deck, since they do nothing but make your ravager bigger. Dismembers are very good, specially after all spheres are gone, with Triskelion, i think 2 is enough, another removal can be Duplicant(no life loss, and take anything above 5 toughness)

Wurmcoil is also a card to consider, the lifegain is relevant, and in the mirror its brutal.

My sb, is a little different, because i have maindeck phyrexian metamorph, so i already feel favored in the mirror, haven't seen anyone else play them besides lampalot.

yeah, i been taking a small break with Shop Depths and played aggro MUD for a while, doing 5-2 in the last P9C.
can't remember when i last played it, but think i cashed out once in december with it, but unfortunately, not all results get put up on mtggoldfish.

I still think the decks is very strong, nothing has changed much, still competitive in the meta so far.

I can see thopter tokens beeing a problem, like narcomoeba. ratchet bomb or engineered explosvies could be a solution. i like illness in the ranks too, but that is black ofc and get hit by chalice of the void.

I dont know what is the best list right now, if there is one, but i might try without missteps next time and more thorns.

whitedragon, i like nihil spellbomb in the sb, i'll probably try a couple of those as well.

I came in as number 17, the lowest with 5-2 record due to bad tiebreakers, for loosing round 1 and 3. so im pretty happy with my "comeback" and overall it was a fun tournament. I played this list:

4 Arcbound Ravager
2 Hangarback Walker
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Triskelion
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Black Lotus
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 Tangle Wire
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Sphere of Resistance

SB: 3 Crucible of Worlds
SB: 2 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 3 Witchbane Orb
SB: 4 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 Karakas
SB: 2 Ghost Quarter

The final was won by Oath over my friend lampalot(Michael) with close to the same list as mine. he had wurmcoils and dismember in sb.

I really liked this article. thank you for including my list. I'm really happy with how the deck have turned out so far. I couldn't have tuned it, to what it is today, without TheWhiteLotus thread, with the original list. I'm really grateful for this forum, for all the things it brings to vintage and to me as a player.

Good job putting all this together, it's nice to have it all in one place

I mean I am two cards off having the list. I have ordered them (Wanted the old ones) and will play this out. I like Thiims list and that's the one I will start with. Likely messing around with the intention of adding in the single Not if this world... Wow. Love that idea.  

Also, cutting the Cage to the side and moving Chains into the main. Local meta. It makes me want to add a swamp over one of the Spells in the main. Also, thinking of adding a Toxic Deluge or two to the side.
[/quote]

It was actually a dredge player, that gave me that idea about; Not of this World (DOOMfinite)

Yes, please add Toxic deluge to the sb, i've been playing it for the last week or so, and i think it's an awesome card against aggro.

I just returned from italy, where I played my list at Nebraskas War, to a 19'th place out of 78 players in total. Change one loss with a win, would have meant top 8 with Shops Depths.

out of 7 rounds, this is how it went:

R1: 0-2 loss against BUG splashing white for mentor and stp. My opponent, had some really strong opening hands, and i played to my outs, but wasn't enough.

R2: 2-0 win over Vault-key deck.

R3: 2-0 win GW hatebears.

R4: 1-1 draw vs. BUG. if we had not gone into time, i think i would have won the third match.

R5: 1-2 loss vs. Golden Gun Oath. I win game 1. game 2, i get 2 Witchbane Orb out, destroy some lands, dont draw much, have karakas too, and he wins with tinker.. Game 3, i have cage and waste some lands, he plays lotus, channel, emrakul. Not much to say about this

R6: 2-0 win vs. MUD forgemaster.

R7: 2-0 win vs. Griselbrand Oath.

Sorry for the lack of details, but didn't write any notes, so this is from memory.

I'm very happy that my list, could do so well in a real life competitive vintage tournament and not only online. Marit Lage did what it do best, and if some things had went a little different, i'm sure, that i could have finished higher. I'm definitely playing this deck in the future, since i like where it's at currently and how it fits into the meta.

I could see cutting 1 tangle wire, to make room for another card. I really missed Dismember maindeck.

I like the idea of having trinisphere and chalice to board in vs. TPS, but i'm satisfied with the 2 Witchbane Orb. although i didn't get to play against it there.

I'm certaintly going to play in this! I hope to make top8 again, that was awesome. It's pleasure to see, that they increased the prize pool a little

I'm excited to see what people bring to this big event. I suspect the majority will be on Mentor decks with tiny Jace, also a lot Dredge and i have a hunch that MUD will make a comeback as well(perhaps not T8) but still present. I dont expect to see a lot of Oath's, but it will be there as well along with other combo decks(storm)

The two lists seemed identical to me, with chancellor of the annex, library, 4 fow, 4 misstep, 4 mindbreak trap. They never got to combo off in our matches, either because they lacked the one of the two lands or both, or I wastelanded them or I was faster at comboing due to mana acceleration. I boarded in Karakas in case they they would assemble the combo. Initially it's for Oath and MUD(metamorph's) but I guess it was good in these matches as well, though it didnt play a role.

I believe that s4mmich only ran the pair of Blightsteel Colussus to troll theatoglord and brassman.

I think the biggest weakness for my deck, that was actually played during this tournament a lot was: Swords to Plowshares, that's why I ran the 2 Spellskite.

This was how my tournament went:

R1: 2-0 win vs. Uwr Mentor
R2: 2-0 win vs. Dredge(transform sb)
R3: 2-1 win vs. KellyOath
R4: 2-0 win vs. Dredge(transform sb)
R5: 2-1 win vs. Dredge
R6: 0-2 loss vs. Affinity MUD(lost to my mana crypt, the turn I had the kill in g1 & mulled to 4 in g2. but tiny robots probably isn't my best MU anyway.)
R7: 2-1 win vs. Dredge

top 8 Lost to LSV on Mentor 0-2.

I was surprised by the number of dredge decks I faced and really happy with the two main cages which helped me win three g1 vs Dredge.

That's why I said he should run 4 missteps himself, to protect his combo. I didnt say it was perfect, but just proposed it as another way to bring the combo in play.

Besides the argument of not running 1 drops, because your opponents have access to and plays mental misstep isn't a valid argument for not running one drops, I think this is a bit narrow way to look at things and not the right approuch to attack a meta, because your afraid of one specific card.

Loosing a land is worth it, if you win the game in my opinion.

I think you should run the full set for more consistently going off with the combo, which is the main priority with this deck.

You mention Sylvan scrying being good for the deck, I suggest trying Into the north + Crop rotation, they are quite effecient. Expedition map is another good solution.

Considering a lot of deck in the meta is currently Uwr builds, the most dangerous card for your deck is swords to plowshares, I propose 4 Mental Misstep to deal with this. Spellskite is another approuch.

Since you run Demonic tutor, you might as well go the full distance and run, vampiric tutor, imperial seal and demonic consultation.
Bonus: Urborg might be a good addition. It serve several funtions it makes your combo faster and suplies a healthier mana base. And if you choose to run vampire hexmage, makes it more castable.
In addition you could add a cavern of souls to make hexmage uncounterable.

And like mentioned already in the post, add 4 Wasteland, they are super strong for obvious reasons.

Is cardhoarder still the best dealer to sell your cards too? any bot in particular?

I played against Pablo in Rome. He have a really cool deck(all japanese foil) and is nice guy too. Happy to see him in the top4

https://www.magiccardmarket.eu/MKMSeries/main.php?tag=20&idev=9

Some statistic for those interested

yeah, there is missing 4 Tangle Wire in my deck, kind of important

This tournament was a lot of fun, and very competitive. I hope there will be more for the next one in London.

the only downside was, that in the trial, top 8 was given italian boosters as prizes... and no byes for the main event, this made no sense to me.

Nice too see Antonio win this. I played against him at BoM. He is a good player and deserve it