[Deck Article]Reflection Weirding

[Methuselahn]

Team Reflection would like to reveal another deck that we started working on back in November of 2003.  This deck is based around a card which has been a pet card for many, been scoffed at by most, but mostly ignored by all.  I'm talking about Zur's Weirding.  It is not degenerate by any means.  However, if set up and resolved it can break backs.   Sometimes Weirding just lets you win games that the archetype just normally shouldn’t.  Not nearly as extensive as a normal primer, we will touch upon some history, evolution, the deck, and the whys and why-nots of certain card choices.  Following will be a brief match up analysis of this fully powered budget deck.  I will go out on a limb and call it budget as it doesn't run Drains, Workshops, Bazaars, or Masks.

Zur's Weirding is one of the most interesting and game altering sleepers to come out of the Ice Age block set.  Much like it's bastard cousin, Necropotence, it uses your life total as a resource, except it goes for both players.  When the Weirding resolves and hits the board, both players then must decide how they are going to play out the rest of the game.  In many cases, it is easy to determine the outcome.  You must decide then what you should deny and what should be allowed.  This decision really is based on board position, resources available, your life total, and disruption, be it proactive or reactive control.

The best time to play Zur's Weirding is when you have the advantage or when you can obtain it.  Playing a Weirding 'blind' is a fine art made easier by packing your deck full of countermeasures that also grant you an advantage, be it life gain or a damage source.  Given the swingy nature of type one, this can be rather difficult.  

Looking back into the history of Zur's Weirding is somewhat limited.  It goes back a long way, yet has never been seriously considered by the Magic community.  Printed first in Ice Age, then reprinted in 5th, 6th, and now current in 8th edition, it seems that Wizards of the Coast wants players to use this card.  This seems logical as it affects both players, can work in Limited and Constructed, and is easy to understand. (for a replacement effect).  So why play the Weirding?  Because the card acts very much like a blue Nether Void or Chalice of the Void or other devastating effect that seals a lead and thus a victory.  That is what Weirding is designed to do.

One of Zur's Weirding's biggest promoters was George Baxter, as seen in Dominating Dominia, published by Wordware Publishing, Inc., circa 1996.  Mr. Baxter used a number of different archetypes to exploit this card.  Now, while Baxter's articles should be taken with a grain of salt because of the general card choices, they serve a useful purpose as showing how to create synergy with the card.  The decks he listed were type 2 at the time but were, in fact, similar to some modern day type 1 decks in their driving goal.  The first example, much like Keeper today, used massive control elements like counterspells, creature removal, Blinking Spirit, (Morphling's weak uncle) The Rack, Disrupting Scepters, and life gain.  Another theme, like today's Nether Void decks abused black/red aggro discard.  It also utilized graveyard recursion that works around the Weirding via Nether Shadow and Ashen Ghoul.  Yet another Red/Green build incorporated Elkin Bottle, Sylvan Library, burn, tactical weenies, and monsters like Lhurgoyf.  Mr. Baxter went on to develop a deck he coined "The Engine."  The foundations of "The Engine" were identical to modern day keeper and founded on Zur's Weirding.  

Fast forward to present day.  We had first discussed building a suicide-esque build that included acceleration and blue power.  We liked the effect that Nether Void has in it's ability to seal the deal and let your creatures ride home to victory, but Nether Void and Solomoxen were found to be sub-optimal together.  We pressed on to find a replacement.  Weirding was brought up, the mana was right at 3 colorless and 1 blue and it provided the seal.  The theory was to apply early beatdown and disruption, drop the Weirdness, and ride the threat out.  Great in theory, but unrealistic in testing.  This experiment taught us an important lesson: utility dorks are better than brutes with Weirding.  Instead of  beating down, the goal was to force them into submission via card advantage.   So why not just use Weirding in Keeper?  Because of the lack of actual threats in Keeper.  The opponent will simply deny your win conditions if you drop Weirding early.  Building the deck to drop it late is counter intuitive to creating the lock that Weirding provides.  The build we came up with is remarkably similar to Nick's (a.k.a. Bill the Duck on TheManaDrain) Eon Blue Apocalypse deck.  A good mixture of threats, answers to threats, and brokenness seems to be the ideal configuration for Weirding.dec.

Maindeck Choices

While there are cards that are no-brainers, there are cards that look like no-brainers but in fact, they are poor choices.  The following section will list many that didn't make the cut as well as ones that just have to go in.

Zur's Weirding
Players play with their hands revealed.  If a player would draw a card, he or she reveals it instead. Then any other player may pay 2 life. If a player does, put that card into its owner's graveyard. Otherwise, that player draws the card.

Zur's Weirding decks in general have the most problem with aggro decks because they pack the most amount of threat cards in a deck.  With Weirding, you have to look at the amount of threats and not the potential size of the threat.  Look at the EBA decks.  Once they got out of the random.dec tables, they have a better shot at winning.  Knowing how to read an opponent is very helpful in determining when to play Zur's Weirding.  If the deck could run 2.5 Weirdings, it would probably do that, but since it has Force of Will, the suggestion is three.

Stifle, Strips, and mana denial
Mana denial is huge with Zur's Weirding.  If you can get the early edge and drop a Weirding, sometimes you can just deny a certain color and ride that plan out to victory as you will have to deny less cards than your opponent.  Stifle becomes even stronger as a pseudo sinkhole.  Catching an opponent who is mana screwed and laying down Weirding ends games even if you have no threats.  As long as you have enough mana to cast threats that are revealed via Zur's, you should be able to outrace them.

Meddling Mage and Ophidian
These cards make it into the deck because they perform multiple functions very well.  Meddling Mage is a virtual counterspell, Ophidian is a draw engine.  This is clearly obvious, but remember that all you need is a slight advantage (a creature with power greater than zero) to take advantage of Weirding.

Phyrexian Negator
He is really bad in this deck.  Negator deserves mention because it was used in EBA often.  It was good against Keeper when Keeper wasn't using Decree of Justice.  Even then, it was poor against the rest of the field.  Not only is it bad due to the current metagame trend, but it is bad because it taxes your already fragile manabase.  Negator, 3 colors, and no Dark Rituals is horrible.  

Exalted Angel
She is Negator's replacement.  She also hard locks your opponent out of drawing cards with Zur's Weirding.  Exalted is great versus aggro, which is the deck's worst matchup.

Mana Drain
One of the downsides to playing the must have Duress is the need to go with the 3 color mana base.  This is but one reason to cut Mana Drain.   The deciding factor on Mana Drain is that this is an Aggro-Prison deck, and holding back mana for Drains slows the deck.  It turns the deck from a proactive threat machine into a reactive deck.  Intuition tells us that Mana Drain and Weirding have decent synergy together.  Reality and playtesting shows us that you must decide when to play a Zur's Weirding.  You do not want to play a Weirding based on whether or not you have Drain mana.    

Impulse
Impulse should be considered as a maindeck card.  At first sight, one may wonder why Impulse is used over Brainstorm.  Brainstorm may be better on it's own, but with Weirding, the opposite is true.  The right choice is splendidly simple.  Brainstorm is draw and Impulse is search.  The smart player will deny an Impulse and allow a Brainstorm under a Weirding.  If you Brainstorm under a replacement effect, you still have to put 2 cards back on top of your library.  So, if your three draws are denied, you end up losing 2 in hand.  That's a poor bargain.  Impulse is grand for finding answers and setting up the board before Weirding comes down.  An Impulse in hand when Weirding comes down is incredibly strong, letting you find the best solution, now that you can see your opponent's hand.

Fact or Fiction
The casting cost can be daunting, but it's ability to pseudo-search around Weirding is too good to pass up.  Keep it maindeck for the control and rogue matchups for sure.  Matchups such as small aggro, ponza, Workshop prison and others that either deny you mana or are built to win in the first couple of turns warrants sideboarding it out in place of quick answers.

Balance
It is painful to not have such a broken card in the deck.  This deck aims to create the smallest advantage then seal it with Weirding.  Balance just undoes all the work.  This is why it is not listed in the standard build below.

Disenchant, Seal of Cleansing
Deserving of mention, this card has been put in and taken out so many times.  Blood Moon and Workshop decks can really be a problem.  If you have chosen to play this deck, then most likely you will see both.


Zurs.dec

3 Zur's Weirding
3 Exalted Angel
4 Meddling Mage
4 Ophidian

4 Force of Will
4 Duress
4 Swords to Plowshares

2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will

7 Solomoxen
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
3 Scrubland
2 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Plains

Suggested sideboard choices

Blue Elemental Blast
Seal of Cleansing
Coffin Purge
Perish
Stifle
Chalice of the Void
Damping Matrix
Skeletal Scrying
Vindicate

Various Matchups

Keeper
Not much to side here. If the Keeper deck runs a high amount of resource denial, you will have more problems. Mana Drain is almost always the first choice to name with Meddling Mage before a Weirding would come down. Siding in Chalice and setting it to 1 is a strong play with this deck. The deck tends to split matches fairly evenly with most Keeper decks.  Isochron based Keeper is the more difficult of the Keeper matchups before sideboarding.  

Tog/Gro
These are tough, I'm not going to lie. They are damn good decks. All you have to do is look at the last TMD open to look at the match up here. Perhaps Weirding would have taken the tournament if it was in the EBA cardlist. Team Reflection would like to think so anyway. Again, not much sideboarding here.  If you have Chalices, then use them at x=1 and x=2

Workshop decks
Go Turbo-Weirding and take out the Goblin Welders. This is key. Welders work around Weirding and are a fundamental part of running the deck. Trinisphere is also brutal. Side out Duress first, then Ophidians if you have to. Exalteds if it is not versus TNT. BEBs, Seals, and rarely Purge will come in vs Anger and TnT.  You have Duress, Force of Will, and strips but your best bet is to go first against the monster known as Trinistax.

Dragon
As if Dragon wasn't already hated. This deck and sideboard is jam-packed with WDragon hate. Go turbo-Weirding. Side out Angels then 'Phids.

Goblins
Goblins are tough. So many threats in one deck hurts your strategy. Plus, your mana base is fairly fragile, so this is going to be a tough row to hoe. Take out the Weirdings for BEBs, Duress can come out nowadays vs gobbos. Chalice of the Void is good if you have them in the side.

Madness
Not only is Madness a tough matchup because it is a fast tempo deck, it packs cards like Roar and Deep Analysis to get around the Weirding. Sideboarding suggestion is to take out Weirdings, Seals, then Duress. If versus O. Stompy, then side out Weirdings and Seals, Duress can still hit crucial things like Survival and Hidden Gibbons. Side in your grave hate and creature hate here.

Long, TPS, other combo
Combo is a favorable match up for you, not as much as Dragon, but you should still be siding in Crypts for relatively dead cards like Ophidian.

Mask
There are various iterations of this archetype being played, but your playstyle here is essentially the same.  Naming Mask with Meddling Mage and protecting him over all other creatures should be the most obvious answer.  Attack the combo with Weirding after Duress has shown you that it is safe.  Mask decks can always just go broken on you.  As always Mulligan aggressively against Mask.  Damping Matrix is one of a few options that can save you if your metagame warrants putting it in your sideboard.

Gayness
Fish, Gay/R, and Landstill are tough. You may be able to go 50% here. Against Gay/R you could side in BEBs. Fundamental deck design shows that these decks are very much like Zurs.dec

There you have it. This deck is a blast to play.  One of the strongest arguments for playing Zurs.dec is that it is a solid choice for a player with little power in a 5 proxy environment. If so, we suggest proxying the 3 on color Moxen, Lotus, and Ancestral. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this deck is the fact that it is a rare breed of AGGRO-PRISON. Play the deck aggressively and practice reading your opponent to know when to play Weirding and the deck will reward you.

by Brad Granberry and Jeff Rieck
Thanks must go out to the other Team Reflection members for testing and input.
Al Dubuc (wuaffiliate)
Matt Hargis (matt)
Andrew Lambe (Hyperion)
Josh Silvestri (Vegeta2711)

Very special thanks must go out to:
Nick, (Bill the Duck) for insight on his personal creation, EBA, which is so fundamentally similar.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Very interesting. Did the team consider putting the Weirdings in the sideboard and only siding them in for the good matchups?

[Wizbane]

Reflection Weirding...weird enough.  

I don't have a clue about who or what team reflection is (if there are cheerleaders I might get interested...), but know that Zur's Weirding is my signature card. Since the Ice Age (literally).  

And I'm a very disappointed retired gamer/lurker/deck builder, because my signature card rather than become an established bomb in time, has always been somewhat ignored, even reprinted in basic sets...basic...what an offense by WotC. This card alone deserved the status of Enchant World, because nothing as this card has the ability to !change! the game as we know it. Regardless of time, regardless of metagame. I'll not even mention what I think about the new art in 8th edition. My wet dreams about having a brand new foil Zur's Weirding in my sleeves has been abruptly formatted as soon as I saw the art. But enough ranting.

I like your tentative deck. But having splashed Zur's Weirding in nearly every deck of the last xx years (just slightly more used to it than just everyone else), I'd say that your deck suffers a lack of focus. I mean: there are elements of all of the three mainstays of every Zur deck...Life, Putting Cards in your Hand, Controlling the hand of your opponent. But as experience has showed me, a deck with all these three aspects is less focused and less competitive than others. You are forced to stick with two at most usually.

Life is there...altough Exalted Angels are not my first choice. A Zur's Weirding deck without at least 1 Ivory Tower is not a Zur deck. Think about it...it's the most cool lock of the world when you're lucky. And i'm very fond of Balance and Zuran Orb too. Old school here.

Putting Cards in your Hand. Nice intuition about Impulse but I don't see them maindeck. However the black is already there but where are Necro and the mandatory 4 Dark Rituals? And Mind Twist? For the sake of all things black put Mind Twist in!

Wait, I understood the premise of your deck building. I'm just inviting you to think about something new (old..) rather than altering a surpassed bluish deck.
I like Mind Twist, but I play Mana Drains. Then I play a lot of blue, so I play Future Sight...etc. I have a completely different concept of a Zur deck.
Ophidians??? mah  

I don't give a list , but will gladly lurk around to see some comments.
An idea I can give if you want an alternative Zur deck...splash it in Eastman control (Keeper with Chains) and watch the fun begins...

Cheers
Wizbane

[Attmore]

Why no Future Sight?  This card compliments Weirding so well!  You are running 18 blue cards, there should be no reason not to include this.  All in all the deck seems pretty cool, Competitive?  I'm not sure.  Do you have any match results?

[The Atog Lord]

Nice, a new spin on an old favorite. I could be wrong, but this deck looks like a fish variant. Fish plays fast, early creatures backed up by inexpensive disruption. Then, once it has a superior board position, it drops Standstill to seal the deal and make it more difficult for the opponent to dig himself out. It appears that this deck follows a similar strategy, establishing an early board and then locking with Zur’s Weirding.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Nice, a new spin on an old favorite. I could be wrong, but this deck looks like a fish variant. Fish plays fast, early creatures backed up by inexpensive disruption. Then, once it has a superior board position, it drops Standstill to seal the deal and make it more difficult for the opponent to dig himself out. It appears that this deck follows a similar strategy, establishing an early board and then locking with Zur?s Weirding.

Fish, Gay/R, and Landstill are tough. You may be able to go 50% here. Against Gay/R you could side in BEBs. Fundamental deck design shows that these decks are very much like Zurs.dec

[Rico Suave]

Very interesting. Did the team consider putting the Weirdings in the sideboard and only siding them in for the good matchups?

The good match-up's include all non-aggro decks.  I'm not sure why the SB would be a better place because it would come in for a large majority of the matches.  Could you explain in more detail?  

I like your tentative deck. But having splashed Zur's Weirding in nearly every deck of the last xx years (just slightly more used to it than just everyone else), I'd say that your deck suffers a lack of focus. I mean: there are elements of all of the three mainstays of every Zur deck...Life, Putting Cards in your Hand, Controlling the hand of your opponent. But as experience has showed me, a deck with all these three aspects is less focused and less competitive than others. You are forced to stick with two at most usually.

The focus of the deck is on having a threshold of cards that control the game.  Just like prison decks gather enough lock parts to lock the game, so does this deck.  It was said earlier in the first post, but if you treat this like an aggro-prison deck you'll have a better understanding of where it is focused.

Life is there...altough Exalted Angels are not my first choice. A Zur's Weirding deck without at least 1 Ivory Tower is not a Zur deck. Think about it...it's the most cool lock of the world when you're lucky. And i'm very fond of Balance and Zuran Orb too. Old school here.

Ivory Tower is a terrible card in this deck.  Really.  Zuran Orb is in the same boat.  They do not deal with threats, and they disrupt the playing of your other cards.  It's a lot harder to cast your spells when you need a certain number in hand to keep Tower active, or if you don't have enough land to cast them.

Angel isn't used to make a lock, it's used because it destroys aggro.  It just so happens to be a hard lock with Weirding out, but that doesn't stop it from being good on it's own.

Balance was touched on earlier.  

Putting Cards in your Hand. Nice intuition about Impulse but I don't see them maindeck. However the black is already there but where are Necro and the mandatory 4 Dark Rituals? And Mind Twist? For the sake of all things black put Mind Twist in!

Firstly, without Dark Ritual this deck doesn't have enough black mana to support Necropotence.  Even with Dark Ritual, that is a clumsy 2 card combo.  Considering permanent mana is so much better here than one-shot mana, and most of the cards don't benefit from Ritual anyway, neither are going to find a spot.  

Mind Twist is expensive.  For 2 mana it is bad.  For 3 mana, this deck would rather play Phids and Angels.  For 4 mana, it'd rather play Weirding.  At 5 mana, Mind Twist's usefulness has passed.

Wait, I understood the premise of your deck building. I'm just inviting you to think about something new (old..) rather than altering a surpassed bluish deck.
I like Mind Twist, but I play Mana Drains. Then I play a lot of blue, so I play Future Sight...etc. I have a completely different concept of a Zur deck.
Ophidians??? mah

I don't give a list , but will gladly lurk around to see some comments.
An idea I can give if you want an alternative Zur deck...splash it in Eastman control (Keeper with Chains) and watch the fun begins...

That's nice you have a completely different concept of a Zur deck.  Perhaps you'd like to explain why it's better.

Why no Future Sight? This card compliments Weirding so well! You are running 18 blue cards, there should be no reason not to include this. All in all the deck seems pretty cool, Competitive? I'm not sure. Do you have any match results?

Future Sight is expensive.  This deck usually tops out at 4 mana, which is where Weirding is at.  Weirding is enough, and Future Sight is like overkill.

The card does complement Weirding...but it doesn't complement a deck with higher casting cost cards and a good number of land.  It is awfully slow, in a deck that doesn't really want to slow down.

Also, the deck only has 12 U sources, not counting Lotus.  That is not enough for UU, let alone UUU.

What kind of match results are you looking for?  Depending on what you SB, matches change around.  You can always adjust it around to achieve better results against your metagame.

[Dr. Sylvan]

The good match-up's include all non-aggro decks. I'm not sure why the SB would be a better place because it would come in for a large majority of the matches. Could you explain in more detail?

On my first reading of the mini-primer, it sounded like the Tog/GAT/Gro matchups was weaker than for EBA, because of the Weirdings. Suggestion withdrawn upon restoration of my eyes.

[Wizbane]

That's nice you have a completely different concept of a Zur deck.  Perhaps you'd like to explain why it's better.

Hi! No, no don't worry I don't think mine is better, just...different.

Rather than aggro-lock (does it fit?) I prefer the control-lock route. That's why I quoted cards such as Necro, Future Sight, Ivory Tower (I know...waaay slower), or referred to Eastman control. I don't have a definite list sorry. I'm the kind of builder that favors coolness over brute efficiency...and in fact I never won a tournament in my days.

Ophidians seemed odd to me because once Zur is in play you stop drawing. But in the aggro route they can make sense.
I recognize the usefulness of threats once Zur has landed in your build.
For the same reason opponent threats are so annoying when playing a control-lock version...

The only point I'm in disagreement is the Ivory Tower one (well ok, in your build it would actually be a wasted slot).

Once the lock is in play you don't have to "mantain" anything. 6 cards in hand, Zur and Tower in play and if your opponent don't have a way of killing you already in play or in hand it's game (90% of the times, there are other factors).

My usual play: 1) Ivory tower  2) Carefully timed Zur's Weirding
It's like a two card combo, but it's situational.  Playing with many reactive counters/disruptions in a control-lock build makes the timing of playing Zur's Weirding and having 6 cards in hand easier. If your disruption > opponent's threats, you win.
But this statement don't apply to the whole decks as in a common control vs aggro matchup, but just to the moment in which you play Zur.
This open the possibillity to an immediate victory but also to tragic losses.
This is also why I like this card.

ciao
Wizbane

[Rico Suave]

Ophidians seemed odd to me because once Zur is in play you stop drawing.

What do you mean?  You still keep drawing, which forces them to stop twice as many threats as you would normally have.  

Once the lock is in play you don't have to "mantain" anything. 6 cards in hand, Zur and Tower in play and if your opponent don't have a way of killing you already in play or in hand it's game (90% of the times, there are other factors).

One of the problems we encountered was that if you try to maintain a large number of cards in hand, you're either not dealing with the opponent's threats or you're winning without the need for Weirding.  

Ideally, yes, that would be a good situation.  I think Zuran Orb is better at that to some degree, since it doesn't require a certain hand size.  However, I think that a threat or an answer (preferably both in one) are better than Orb.  A lone 1/1 will outrace Zorb, but it can't race, say, removal.  I think it's paramount to keep every threat off the board, which is why Orb/Tower don't quite cut it.  They aren't removal.

[Methuselahn]

I'm not sure how important it is to have 6 cards in hand when dropping the weirding anyway.  Theoretically, if you both have no threats and no cards in hand, save your own Ivory tower, then your opponent will have to automatically deny every card once they have permitted the first 4.  By permitting any after that, they are screwing themselves because you will start to gain life after that.

The problem with zur's in general is that the rest of the deck MUST NOT rely on Weirding.  If so, your whole deck concept becomes too fragile. (at least in any sort of competitive Type One)  For this reason, you really have to look at Zur's Weirding as an independent threat on it's own and try to build around it with cards that are good on their own.  

That, and what Rico said.

[Plainswalker]

Without the Mana Drains I would think Shadow Mage Infiltrator would be better for this deck since it does damage which is very important with the Zur's Wierding. I don't know how much harder it would be to cast, but I can't see if being to difficult. The fear on Shadow Mage is another bonus as well that might pull through a couple of games.

[Methuselahn]

Without the Mana Drains I would think Shadow Mage Infiltrator would be better for this deck since it does damage which is very important with the Zur's Wierding. I don't know how much harder it would be to cast, but I can't see if being to difficult. The fear on Shadow Mage is another bonus as well that might pull through a couple of games.

Finkelmages were tested.  They simply don't fit the mana base scheme.  First off, this is a 3 color deck, white being the primary color because of the Exalted morphing.  Ophidian is just better with all the off color moxen in the deck and the 5 strips.  As far as damage goes, 'Phid can still do 1 damage without Weirding.  Under a Weirding he essentially does 2 due to the extra drawing you are doing.  It just isn't worth the hassle of having in the casting cost.  Finkelmages have always treated me great in 1.5 tho.

[Lockdown]

Some cards you may have missed, or if you chose not to include them, mind explaining why?

-Words of Worship
-Enlightened Tutor

[Methuselahn]

Some cards you may have missed, or if you chose not to include them, mind explaining why?

-Words of Worship
-Enlightened Tutor

Not missed, or looked over.

Words of Worship I could only see in some sort of extreme Weirding combo where you essentially 'go off' in one turn.  This deck doesn't do that.  It is our belief that that avenue is a poor choice.  Words of Worship is a dead card without Weirding, and when you do manage to get both Weirding and Words in play, Words is really just a win more card.

What would you enlightened tutor for? Weirding?  If so, we would probably just run an extra Weirding.  This tutor is so horrible after a Weirding is on the table.  Why waste a card and mana to put something on top of your library for them to just deny away?

[Redman]

I have a freind who is quite obsessed with Zur's Weirding. He had a deck back sometime last summer that went for a much more combo-like route, with Intution/AK/Replenish, along with the Future Sight and Words of Worship mentioned above as a lock, and things such as Moat or Humility to stop opposing threats. Interestingly enough, he had a transformational sideboard that had Angels, Mages, and Phids, in fact making it something very similar to what you have here, except two colors instead of three. He thought of it as playing something like Pandeburst but with a more stable mana base and castable win conditions, though lacking the power of a single-turn lethal kill.

We also tried a R/U deck that dried to get ahead in life with burn and creatures, and using Zur's something like a Nether Void, much as you mentioned, and like you, found no success. I also tried it in a U/B/W deck I had that was similar to EBA, only much more aggressive (creatures and Psi Blasts over counters), and again found it lacking. The Replenish combo route definitely seemed to have some merit, however.
 
If you think it worthwhile, I could try contacting my friend and look up any notes or decklists from back then.

[Ezechiel]

Since your deck is white based first and you have trouble reaching sometimes UU, would you consider playing 3-4 Academy Rector and only one Zur's Weirding ?
Against Agro deck, Academy rector is as good as Moat, since they really have to think twice before killing one.
At the same time, it will allow you to play one Future Sight and one Yawgmoth's Bargain.
Since the Rector definitely help against aggro deck, to squeeze four of them, I would do something like:
-4 Swords/Exalted Angel (since they are more efficient against aggro)
-2 Zur's Weirding (it is dead after the first one is in play)
+4 Academy Rector
+1 Future Sight
+1 Yawgmoth's Bargain.

The other advantage is that the second Zur's Weirding is dead, whereas the second Academy Rector can go fetch Future Sight or the Bargain.

It also allows you to have more silver bullet in the sideboard (Form of the Dragon for example - nice synergy with the Weirding as you will always replenish your life).

By the way, I don't know if Pursuit of Knowledge is a win more card or a nice way to break the symetry of the Weirding. Since it is a replacement effect, you forgo the next three draw phase, then you can draw 7...

That's my tiny contribution. By the way, I have to admit I am speaking without having tested the deck

Ezechiel