Yes, I had the "fortune" of losing to it in the very first round of the tournament. Still, it's a great deck and my opponent played very well so all the credit to him for making top 8 with it

Also, nether spirit is a house against any deck winning with non-evasive creatures, and with the new smallpox I really think it's a deck that wil see more and more play.

One of the other decks in the top 8 was Raffinity with atogs and fling. He lost in the quarters to Pox...

Very true, the point about CS, against a good CS player winning is pretty difficult, although putting a chalice @ zero turn 1 seriously screws them over. Still, this is probably the main reason why I'm planning on playing B2B in my sideboard, since it's also obviously great against stax (another matchup I find pretty hard). One of the other reasons I don't put it main is because I play with factories as a win condition, which doesn't really work well with B2B 

And about the storm; Long and IT are pretty much non-existant here. TPS is played a lot (usually about 40% of the top players play it), but builds vary. Next to regular TPS there is also drain TPS and Dark TPS (with maindeck confidants).
This deck has an easy matchup against all of those, because chalice>storm in every way possible, and the disruption is overall too much for storm to handle (and with labs in the side it becomes even easier)

I actually played 3 MD stifles for quite some time, but like Kelme said that is more a question of what strategy best suits your playstyle. I found that I'd rather use the slots for more cardraw and utility (like TfK and CoW), but stifle is defenitely MD-worthy as it is a great tempo-boost. Combined with B2B you could play the mana-denial role excellently I think.

The reason I don't play Ophidian is because here in the Netherlands storm combo is extremely popular, and it takes 4 turns to see the same amount of cards with a Phid than with a TfK. Though obviously better in the late game, going against storm the impact TfK has on the game immediately I think beats the long-term effect of an Ophidian. Also, since these decks are unpowered, you rarely ever end up discarding mana, the only time I ever discard lands is if I have enough or I have a crucible out. Also, TfK functions as a means to get DSC back in the library, without having to rely too much on a BS + fetch.

As for Deep analysis, the fact that it's a sorcery really hurts, since you don't want to tap out on your own turn. Meaning you'll only be able to play it after draining something. Also, you don't really have any other way than playing it to get it in your graveyard, so you'd be spending 6 mana an 3 life for +3 card advantage on your own turn. Also, the first time you play DA, it is strictly worse than TfK. All of that and the fact that is is a big drain target for me in enough reason to not include it. If I had to cut TfK's I would rather go for intuition/ak, which I've chosen not to play because it uses more slots and is more mana-hungry.

@ Kelme
I will try and play with B2B, since there were some good points about B2B having impact immediately, but CoW should not be underrated. It functions great with a fetch-land to thin you deck and doubles as a lock with a waste/strip. The only problem I think is that it is quite a bit slower than B2B, so I think I'll test it and see which one I like best.

Hi, I've read TMD for so long now I thought it about time to actually post something.

Since I've played unpowered mono-blue for a few years now I thougth I'd share some of my ideas, maybe
they'll be helpful in some way. My list is quite different though.

Chalice of the void is amazing in this deck, especially when playing unpowered in an powered metagame. You can drop it for zeroon the play or at one to seriously damage some much-played decks. It greatly improves storm-matchups, especially with all the disruption you're already packing, and is also good against the rogue aggro decks @ one.

The mana base as it was (with 21 islands and 1 sol ring) could be greatly improved. Like Kelme posted, fetchlands are great to thin your deck and thus improve your draws. Also, since you're mono-blue, 1 strip mine and 4 wastelands don't hurt you're manabase all that much and they are great against almost every deck. Lotus petal is also great to get first turn mana drain online.

For draw, 4 brainstorm is an auto-include, as is 1 fact of fiction. For other draw I currently play 4 Thirst for knowledge, they dig pretty deep and you can discard late game chalices (or colossus), also they are a good drain outlet. My mono blue is more artifact heavy (with 2 crucibles, kegs & more) which make it possible to play tinker+colossus, which is always great (though not as cool as morphling beats).

Back to basics is very metagame dependant I think. In my meta everyone plays at least a few basics which make it a lot less spectacular.
For reference, here is the list I currently play:

4 Chalice of the void
4 Mana leak
4 Mana drain
4 Force of will

4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for knowledge
1 Fact of fiction

2 Powder keg
2 Crucible of worlds

1 Mystical tutor
1 Echoing truth
1 Rushing river (may become cunning wish)
1 Tinker

1 Morphling
1 Darksteel colossus

1 Lotus petal
1 Sol ring
1 Mana vault
1 Strip mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's factory
3 Flooded strand
9 Island
1 Library of alexandria


//Sideboard
3 Energy flux
3 Arcane laboratory
2 Vedalken shackles
2 Nevinyrral's disk
2 Tormod's crypt
1 Platinum angel (great card for sideboard!)
2 Echoing truth


Hope this helps and good luck with the deck!