Spirit of the Lab is really one of those cards...slows down most other decks and trades with Lodestone Golems.  I feel like you almost need to make room for Dark Confidant if you are on Spirit because they allow you to stay ahead.  By that time though you are almost playing a different deck, like black white fish with vault key.

Ah, the "your opponents control" part was clearly what I was missing.  Yay for reading...thanks again for the help!

Is it correct that if I have Aegis of the Gods and Dack Fayden in play I cannot +1 targeting myself?

Appreciate the clarification!

Especially in shops, where generic mana costs you either 2 life, a waste effect or a factory activation.

Do you get to sacrifice hagerback and then sacrifice the tokens? I don't think it works like that, but even if it did, if Shops has 5 creatures on the board have they not already won the game? I mean if your opponent has a moat or an army of Monks *maybe* not but still...

Allen,

I know these events always start at 1PM, but has there ever been any discussion about starting them at noon?

I like this a lot despite not having hexproof itself.  Maybe a "win-more" for Mentor Decks but real nice for anything with Deathrite and Thalia.

Tasigur was the 61st card in this deck and ended up back in my binder.  I do not have a great reason though...If Thirst for Knowledge does not work out in place of Vamp & Tinker I may give Tasigur a fair shot.  I play two of them in BUG just for the body, in this deck it does serve double duty. 

I have recently sleeved up the following and had some success over the weekend before I had to drop from an event to run errands for my pregnant wife (priorities, ya know..)

Mana:
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
Creatures:
2 Dark Confidant
3 Trinket Mage
2 Auriok Salvagers
Other Spells:
1 Sensis Top
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoths Will
1 Tinker
1 Dig Through Time
2 Fact or Fiction
2 Jace The Mind Sculpter
2 Swords To Plowshares
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
1 Mindbreak Trap
60 Cards
SB - Sorta threw it together last min based on some scouting
1 Path to Exile (Great against shops and Void Winnower, pretty lousy otherwise for me)
2 Supreme Verdict (MVP)
1 Inkwell Leviathan
2 Disenchant
2 Hurkyls Recall (should be serenity, I think, but I do not own any and did not feel like proxying)
3 Grafdiggers Cage
1 Tormods Crypt
1 Rest in Peace
1 Aegis of the Gods
1 Ethersworn Cannonist

Some notes on the matchups I saw

Oath: This was my one loss in 5 matches with this deck.  In G1, he mulligans to 6 on the play so I aggressively force his Ancestral but that leaves me vulnerable to a turn 2 Orchid-Oath.  He Oath's on his upkeep and although I am happy to see him mill Time Walk AND Yawgmoths Will, he Oath's up Iona, and he smartly names white, preventing me from Plowing.  Griselbrand comes next turn and I am quickly defeated. 

G2 He gets down an early Oath without an Orchid, so I am able to sculpt my hand including a bonkers FoF of: Time Vault, Salvagers, FoF, Jace TMS, Trinket Mage.  He has no choice but to split the vault and the trinket mage, not knowing that I already had another trinket mage in hand.  I assemble vault key shortly after that.

G3 He was again able to force through an Oath & Orchid, turn over an Iona again naming white.  I was able to assemble vault key staring down lethal damage, but he had the ancient grudge in his yard to break it up.  Unfortunately I did not have time to find a counter or grafdiggers cage with Iona and Griselbrand and me under 10 life, I had to go for it and hope that he would forget about grudge.

Blue Moon:
G1 is spent mostly countering each others business, which takes roughly 30 minutes.  The highlight is an extensive counterwar over a fact or fiction that we won by missteping a copy of my fluster and then dropping a fluster of his own with me 1 mana off paying for it.  He is eventually able to beat me down with a trinket mage.
G2 is much faster, despite him resolving an early top he is unable to generate much action and I set up vault key after I drain his Force on my Trinket mage, then fact or fiction in my second main phase. 
G3 we are low on time  and again he is seeing a ton of mana but little action.  We go to turns and on turn 4 I am able to go infinite with Salvagers, lotus and Nihil spellbomb, but with no way to actually win...vault key is fairly useless on turn 4 with out lethal damage available.

Worldgorger Dragon Combo
My opponent goes t1 Bazzar pass, so I automatically assume he is on dredge.  I fortunately draw a mana crypt with my first draw which allows me to trinket mage for Nihil spellbomb.  I was initially surprised to see him force my Trinket mage, but I force back and the spellbomb sticks.  He bazzars EOT discarding Griselbrand and another fatty, so now I know this is some sort of re animator dragon combo deck.  My spellbomb keeps him from doing much of anything while I chip away with Trinket Mage and assemble vault-key.

G2 my opponent goes for an early kill but I have force +fluster.  He spent most of his gas on this effort and I am able to pull and stay ahead for the win

Mentor x2:

Both of these Matches were played outside the tournament, so the games sort of blended together on me, but in one of the games I topdecked either valut or key with the other in hand, and won with FOW backup.  Another game I wont with Confidant/Trinket Beats.  I will say the games I lost I lost due to an early mentor that got out of control before I was able to find a swords or EE.  Post board, Supreme verdict is an absolute house in this match up.  Many of the Mentor decks in my area are either not on Mindbreak trap or did not have it handy when the time came.  I try to play supreme verdict similar to how others play pulverize vs shop...wait until the absolute last moment and let it rip.   

Some overall comments on the deck...

Dark Confidant is really a pet card for me, I have tried to work it into any deck I play that is on Black and part of me wished I was on 3 instead of 2.  The games where it stuck I was able to pull so far ahead on cards, then combined with either a Jace or a Top forget about it...either your opponent answers it fast or you can stack your hand with counters and play defense.

Supreme verdict, again...such a house.  I wish I could justify a main deck slot but its nearly un-castable against shops and you want to have as few dead cards as possible.

Flusterstorm should most definitely be mana drain #3, and I would make room in my board for the second fluster

Vamp Tutor and Tinker are the two big IF's for me here...Vamp is great for finding answers post board, but I am not sure how many times I actually cast it without having to protect it with a misstep, where misstep was also my blue card to pitch for force of will...perhaps that was just poor luck but at least once I vamped, misstepped, and then got the vamped card countered because I had nothing to pitch to FoW.  Next tournament I may try two Thirst For Knowledge in these slots.

Nihil Spellbomb v Pyrite Spellbomb: The Match i could have won in turns stings, but I do not know if I can run Pyrite if my only red sources are ruby and Lotus.  Both have stand alone utility in their applicable matches, and I do not want to go 4 colors for one card. 

Fact or Fiction is such a great card, especially when you fact into another fact.  Dark confidant is the only reason I would not consider a third in this list.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Viewing a card like this based on existing deck structure is probably a mistake at this point.  Depending on what new madness cards are coming this could be part an engine for a totally new BUG deck, who can really say at this point.  I will reserve judgment until more madness cards are spoiled. 

I do know that I have a set of Foil Rootwalla's that I have been DYING to dust off 

Friday and Sunday at Depot...Nice.

I will be there Friday playing Leyline of Anticipation Food Chain. 

To your point on Undiscovered Paradise, it is currently broken online.  And by broken I mean it picks and chooses when it wants to return to your hand or not (tapped/untapped/whatever) it was very frustrating to both me and my opponent in a 2man queue last night.

I have been running this configuration + a natures claim online for a couple of weeks now, and have really liked the results.

If you look on Morphling.de (which seldom if ever sees updates anymore) you see the Nebraska tournament results all over.  Through me off the first time I saw it as well.

p3temangus on MTGO.  They say that winter blizzards lead to summertime newborns but since we are already expecting, this blizzard resulted in a new MTGO player.

looking forward to some games!

I agree with your point on needing to play black to support that sort of strategy, but if I am going black in a Gro sort of deck I would make room for Yag will/Tendrils before Stormchaser.  This is the sort of card I would usually give a twirl but I have had such underwhelming experiences with other vertical cards lately, including Myth Realized and Managorger (and i LOVE Managorger) that I can see the let down a mile away.  Delver is just a better card in my opinion.

I am actually curious about wizards stance on the blank gold border cards they put in every Worlds deck that they used to sell.  They literally provided us the means to make our own proxy's, unless I am completely missing the point of these cards.

Although there was a time in my life where I was Proxy Free I now have to proxy any P9 in my current deck but I do own all the duals and other cards to put together basically any blue deck I want. 

Although I have no formal statement from someone at Wizards to share, I was at a local store last night that runs Modern Tournaments and specifically asked if the owner had heard anything about this.  Some weeks back he received the equivalent of a cease and desist from Wizards regarding running tournaments with Proxys.  He said that the notice was timed suspiciously after a player in an event got especially salty about losing to a younger player with several Proxy's in his deck, despite allegedly agreeing to allow several players to compete with proxy's beforehand.  Please keep in mind this event was advertised as no proxy, leaving wizards no reason to assume any impropriety.  

Moral of my story is that generally, in the vintage world proxy's are almost always assumed (number allowed perhaps varies, but you get my point..).  That is not the case in Modern at all.   I would go as far as to say Sanctioned Vintage needs to be more clearly advertised than Proxy vintage these days. Although anything can happen, I find it unlikely that a fully powered regular at your local store would suddenly decide to snitch on the store owner because someone sharpied up their lotus.

Even though I have now seen a local example of this crack down, the circumstances by which it happened makes me feel better that my local vintage scene is not in immediate danger.  

I am in full agreement.  When stores start seeing "secret shoppers" showing up for Proxy Vintage Events I will become concerned. 

What is to stop your local store of advertising vintage tournaments, with no mention of Proxy's whatsoever and a simple "call the store if you have any questions" wink wink.  My point is this is the internet, people will find creative ways to sell/advertise things,  Just ask any "Ski Equipment" add on craigslist.  Wizards hasn't profited from the sale of a black lotus since the last sealed box of unlimited left their shelves the better part of 25 years ago, if this is some preemptive attempt at an attack on the reserved list I highly doubt this is the route they would take

Planning to come down with three others! See y'all tomorrow!

Rich your commentary was HILARIOUS last night.  "By not saying anything we are fully describing Kai's board" + "He has played around Tangle wire expertly" = My wife asking "what the hell are you giggling at?"

Steve,

Curious as to why you don't run abrupt decay?  I notice in this list, and the 4C list you ran at Champs you chose not to run any despite being on B/G.  Just not enough room or has it not tested well for you?   

I admit to not reading the whole thread, so perhaps this has already been suggested but what about Arcane Lab?  It serves double duty against both Mentor & storm, and should provide ample time to dig for a more "permanent" solution should a mentor hit the table (abrupt decay, dismember, sudden shock, ect...)

If there was an award for shear rule ignorance this post may win it, but here I go...

If you Brain Freeze for more cards than in your opponents deck do you win on the spot or do they have to "draw" a card to actually lose?

I plugged a single Painful Truths into my 4C Pyro/Tendrils list to replace the second Dig Through Time and loved it so much that I have since dropped a 4th Preordain for a second one.  My list runs a full suite of Moxen, so turn two Painful Truth for 3 is extremely realistic.  Painful Truth has also allowed me to play my Pyromancers more aggressively, especially when paired with Gushes.  Needless to say the synergy between Gush and Painful Truth is really bonkers...even if your turn 3 Gush is countered, it will still allow you to float the correct mana, replay a land and Painful Truth for 3. 

I'm a huge fan of this design, and would be the fastest way to get thirst for knowledge re-restricted 

Looking forward to it!

Lets assume the player you mention was aware of the ruling given out in Roland's Match, this raises an interesting question that may or may not have been addressed elsewhere.  let me preface this by saying that I am neither an attorney nor someone who would pretend to understand the law more than any other average joe so all you lawyer folk out there please excuse any potential mis-use of the lingo  here...

Magic is a game of rules and regulations, the intent of which are to be as absolute as possible yet we are so often forced into case by case rulings of "tough" calls.  Is there any precedence in sanctioned MTG for "case law" where a previous ruling is used to make a decision later on? I am not arguing that this should be the way things are handeled, just saying that a judge at the highest profile Vintage tournament made a "controversial" ruling that has become well known and discussed (at least in this forum...).  Could the player  in Tribet's example above have been like "pump the break there, judge...this situation was already ruled upon in August blah blah blah" and appealed that way?  Most would qualify that as abhorrent sportsmanship and rules Lawyering, but still, is this something that Judges take into account?