Now, this is a bit of a slow deck. I tend to build mana quickly with it and can usually do a turn 2 or 3 cranial extraction. Working up to that turn, I can often do a turn 1 extract. I have mana drains and force of wills for turns 2/3.
Wrong answer. If you are going to depend on a Cranial it had better be on turn 1
consistantly. You've got some expensive stuff here - you've either got to dump some of the expensive stuff or go balls-out mana accelleration. Grim Monolith, Lotus Petal, maybe even some Elvish Spirit Guides if you want to keep that many things in your deck >4cc. Proxy off the rest of the moxen.
But again, the whole idea is to cripple a deck before its engine is even drawn.
Not a bad theory (not the greatest, but we'll deal with that later). I guess the only question if what are you going to do if they drop a threat 1st turn? 2xEradicate isn't going to cut it for 4cc. Echoing Truth may serve you well here. DIabolic Edict is ok too, but you need to worry about more than just creatures.
Why
Cranial Extraction: Best card to accomplish this job. Hit all 4 welders at once. If their gone, can hit FoW, or tendrils etc, depending on the deck.
You aren't going to cripple any halfway-decent Teir-1 deck. Not going to happen. At least not consistantly enough to matter. If by some chance you do cripple my win then I'm gonna play the game out and time draw you.
Extract: Its a one shot deal. Turn 1, against most decks, I'm taking their tinker away. Against non-tinker using decks (Oath for example), I'm going for "1 of" win conditions.
A better strategy than the Crainials. Like I said, you can't cripple them, but if you can disrupt enough to take advantage you might be ok. Extract works a whole lot quicker than Cranial and, although Crainial is devastating if you can pull it off, by the time you can pull off a 4cc card your opponent is likely to have a counter for it. Extract is a lot quicker and taking out one copy of a major piece of their deck makes it that much less likely that he'll topdeck it. However, decks like Belcher won't care - it'll just tutor for whatever it wants and spack you around. Feel free to play around, but I would be running Extract before I ran Crainial.
Quash: Countermagic is prevalent in T1 and so many decks rely on FoW or Mana Drain to back up their pieces. Being able quash a FoW and remove all 4 copies of it from their deck has been well worth the mana investment. This plays almost like a Draw-Go deck. I usually have no issues with mana.
By the time you can afford to leave 4 mana hanging out during your opponent's turn he's already going to have a threat on the table. Take a cue from him and have a threat out yourself instead of turtling up.
Boseiju: Again, this is card in there to help with the prevalent countermagic in T1. It helps the quash. It also helps the Cranial Extraction go through.
I guess...I think that I'd rather see wasteland/strip and go on the offensive though. You are going to need massive mana accelleration as it is - a land that comes into play tapped is not likely a wise choice.
Rootwater Thief: He kind of fit the deck idea. Continual chipping away of my opponents resources before they are drawn. But he's played out to be a weak link in the deck. Will probably drop him for brainstorms. -2 Thief, +2 brainstorm
Not a bad call. Ophidian wouldn't be a bad choice either.
Haunting Echoes: There is really only need for 1 of these, not 2. But its graveyard hate at its worst. I know the casting cost is a big reason this doesn't get played in t1 much. But, again, I tend not to have mana issues with this deck. I'm able to control the early game enough to get to the point where this is simply devastating. Will try -1 echoes, +1 Brainstorm
Realistically, it's not going to be able to be played very often. If you really want it, yea drop it down to one (yes, we all do need our toys - I have been known to run some crazy stuff in my control decks too). If you are really concerned about graveyard stuff, a Coffin Purge or Tormod's Crypt is a whole lot quicker.
And finally, -1 swamp, +1 Brainstorm to bring the brainstorm count to 4.
Wait a bit for this - make a few changes to your spell load then decide if you need to mess with your mana.
As for win conditions: DSC/Tinker is there for a secondary win condition. But as stated earlier, most of my wins come from my opponent scooping. Occassionally, I get an obstinate player who stays in until his library is drawn out.
Keep in mind that naturally decking an opponent isn't a viable strategy in tourney play. All it takes is a quick beatdown in game 1 and you can Crainial him all day and he can just sit there taking up time for a draw.
Instead of 4 brainstorms, would it be worth considering:
Memory Jar
Timetwister
Very good cards, but I don't see you winning off them with this deck (Control decks usually don't). Your opponent will win quickly if you don't.
x2 skeletal scrying?
Not a bad call. You need *some* kind of draw engine here somewhere
On the plus side, you don't have to worry about Trinisphere with this deck!
