Multi-color Suicide

[Guli]

Im not understanding why you wouldn't just run the Fastbond+Gush combo over Confidant.  Yes you want your life to be low, but you also want to be able to control it.  Unless you have top or sylvan +2 lands on top, you will die. Fastbond + Gush will get you to a descently low life total asap, and probably draw you into more than 1 Death's shadow.  This knocks out the cities and tarnished citidels, but you can just play a tons of fetchs. 

Like you state in your response, Gush needs islands. This threads wants to explore the possibility of rainbow lands as a concept. I am not saying that your idea isn't better though, I don't know... If the access to 5 colours would proof unnecessary and would not add serious power to the deck, then going with blue+splash and Gush might be more appropriate.

[tony3]

How is this for a start to make this thread more concrete: (we can explore other directions later)

Lands:
4x Tarnished Citadel
4x City of Brass

Clock:
4x Death's Shadow

Draw engine:
4x Dark Confidant
4x Sylvan Library

Tutor:
4x Lim-Dul's Vault

I like everything but Citadel.  I'm not sure it's really necessary, beyond just theme.  3 damage is a lot for one mana each turn.

[Fraggle]

Do not overlook Pox.

Solid T1:
Fetch --> Land (u. sea?) -->Dark Rit --> Pox

In the end that nets you (20 - 1) * (2/3) = 12.6 repeating --> Rounded down 12.

That makes Death's shadow cast-able t2 @ 1/1 (or better with T2 fetch / pain lands)

It is true you also loose the T1 land and 1/3rd of your remaining hand. but...

Pox also disrupts your opponent.  They will be at no higher than 13 life.  If it was on the draw you could nab their turn 0 creature, and they loose 1/3 of their hand (opponents choice) , and their only land.

Back up moves like that with Thoughtseize and Bob, and you should have your opponent reeling.

[madmanmike25]

Death's Shadow can't be the only card that you want low life for, or the deck won't work; he doesn't have evasion or haste.

This.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think Death's Shadow is good enough to build a deck around.  The obvious question is:  What happens when you significantly lower your life total and don't even see Death's Shadow?  Compound that with the fact that if you do cast Deaths Shadow he may meet with removal, leaving you low on life and close to losing the game.

If Deaths Shadow could be cast t1 and 'grow' like Goyf does it might be a different story.  When you are at 12 life he is a 1/1.  Why is this card good again?

There are plenty of other creatures that can fit in a 5c manabase.  Focusing on that would help the deck out more.

Solid T1:  Fetch --> Land (u. sea?) -->Dark Rit --> Pox

If my math is correct that would leave you with 2 cards in hand (with no land in play) to your opponents 4 cards in hand.  I'm not sure that's a solid t1 in vintage.

[Fraggle]

When you are at 12 life he is a 1/1.  Why is this card good again?

Agree that's why I would prefer to play him in known good decks as a 2 of that already run Vault as an alt (sub par) tinker.

Solid T1:  Fetch --> Land (u. sea?) -->Dark Rit --> Pox

If my math is correct that would leave you with 2 cards in hand (with no land in play) to your opponents 4 cards in hand.  I'm not sure that's a solid t1 in vintage.

I didn't spell it out, but I was thinking the pox player was on the draw if not I would Thoughtseize.

also, why would you grab a dual when you know you're goign to Pox, Hehe

If Pox was on the draw I was making the following assumptions.

Opponent played a land (if MUD hopefully Shop) and at least 1 other card, preferably a creature (golem / gorf?). leaving them with (5) However it is likely more like land 1 solomoxen --> something (4)

You draw so you have 8 - fetch - dark rit - pox. = (5)/3= 2 rounded leaves you with 3.  ...and your deck is built for it.

Your opponent looses their land and 1/3rd of life and is left with 2 or 3 cards.

Is is "solid"? I dunno... It is the creative thread right?  I think it would be okay. 

If the option is not favorable use your Thoughtseize /Duress/ Inquisition of Kolizek and hope for the best.

 

[Guli]

I agree, building a deck around Death's Shadow is wrong. And that is exaclty what I am suggesting. I see shadow as a clock. There are not a lot of rainbow lands available. It just happens to be that Shadow works well with city and tarnished. The attempt is too try combining life points with clock in a rather unique way. But why should aggro control not use their life points as a resource next to fetchlands? Just because tendrills is printed we have to leave our life total above 15? You are trading life with specific colour of mana, how can this be transformed into pressure and control? What creatures can do this? Death's Shadow does this by saying tick tock.

A nice thing about Death's Shadow is their swings at you seem less relevant. You feel more relaxed and you can ignore some cards like Tarm and Golem because they become inferieur the more they beat you. It feels like a trap your are setting. You give them the feeling that they are winning but the more they beat the faster their own life will go down when Shadow goes for the counter. Shadow also has another benefit. It is good against some Tinker targets. Inkwell loses against Shadow, if you add STP in the deck alongside Shadow, you can take care of the rest of Tinker targets. Basically it comes down to the fact that Shadow has enough body, when they attack, to win the race easily. If the tinker target is target-able you can take care of it with removal.

In between this the real strategy must still be discussed. Just forget about Shadow for a second and see what options their are available with a 5 color mana base. Should we go artifact heavy and use Mox Opal? Should we go for Mox Diamonds and things like crucible or Life from the Loam/Bazaar? Or go for a Null Rod strategy? Or go with a massive creature count and use Aether Vial?

Should the deck have extra slots for clock?

EDIT: I don't think that Lim-Dul's Vault is good enough, 2 mana in order to top deck something (tempo loss) is huge.

[TopSecret]

This thread has more innovation than perhaps any other I have ever seen on the manadrain

For an aggressive version of a death's shadow deck, you can play a manabase including something like
Tarnished Citadel
Fetchlands
RAVNICA DUALS
City of Brass

Ravnica Duals are the key to dropping your life total fast enough without needing to resolve lifechanging spells asap
because when you play a fetchland you Lightning Bolt yourself.
Broken.

[Fraggle]

This thread has more innovation than perhaps any other I have ever seen on the manadrain

I know that's what gets me excited!

Well if you go the pain land route you have to count the non-basic land hate.

So you will have to beat them to the punch by keeping all of your converted mana costs with 1 on color like   or   (when used with jewelry)
...and pack tons of hate for Chalice and Counterbalance

Don't want to be land locked early (aye' matey)

Oh and nothing says "eat it Tendrils" in this deck like Angel's Grace. EDIT: or maybe not since Tendrils is loss of life...

However, if I can convince people to go the heavy black route I love Pox here and the heavy land to get by.

There is nothing more fun than hand hate for me.

...and as long as you are running extra lands might as well run a full set of Bloodghasts.  Pitch 'em to to Pox and get 'em out on your landfalls.


EDIT:

I don't think that Lim-Dul's Vault is good enough, 2 mana in order to top deck something (tempo loss) is huge.

Well I think it would be okay in a deck with Mana Drain and duals.

If you choose not to drain then you just top deck via vault EOT for your card of choice on the following draw.

[Dr.KnowMaD]

Im not understanding why you wouldn't just run the Fastbond+Gush combo over Confidant.  Yes you want your life to be low, but you also want to be able to control it.  Unless you have top or sylvan +2 lands on top, you will die. Fastbond + Gush will get you to a descently low life total asap, and probably draw you into more than 1 Death's shadow.  This knocks out the cities and tarnished citidels, but you can just play a tons of fetchs.  

Like you state in your response, Gush needs islands. This threads wants to explore the possibility of rainbow lands as a concept. I am not saying that your idea isn't better though, I don't know... If the access to 5 colours would proof unnecessary and would not add serious power to the deck, then going with blue+splash and Gush might be more appropriate.

Anyone who has fallowed any of my post probably knows that I am a HUGE fan of Gush.  I play the engine probably more than I should at times (is there such a thing?).  If the direction that I saw taken was a UB shell with force and so on, playing 4-2xDeath as a focus I would consider adding green and Grow my guy with Fastbond, fetch Berserk, swing.  Is he better than Tog, dryad, Lorescale, or Goof?  I don't know, maybe, I have played with all of those cards and they rock, the coatl has mad bite to it.  

Anyways, The deck in discussion is a Five cc Manlock looking deck to me.  That's why both the Damage Land and S.Library are very interesting to me.  The question still is if the synergies of shadow, confidant, library, and to a lesser extent the land for its 5c coolness, are going to prove better than goyf. and spells.

With the way this is played, softlocking, Death's Shadow seems like a good choice as a finisher.  Its good for attacking, especially with vial.  And he is a much better blocker in the end game.  He is cheaper, in a better color, and harder to disrupt than Tarmogoyf.  He is not necessarily faster unless you want to kill yourself, but speed is only need after the lock because it is only soft, hence the need to finish the job Right Now and not give your opponent time to breakout and win.

The thing about this type of deck much like stax is that it wants more specific cards for more specific times.  That is why they tend to be redundant in the nature of the build.  I like the Library because it helps this out a lot.  You are not made to draw the cards so you can control your life total.  Like Divining Top it makes Dark Confidant even better than it already is.  Unlike top it has grove and guile with this list.  

Although the land is more susceptible to Wasteland than gushbond, crucible is in and , loam, regrowth, ex. are also fine cards in regards.  The Damage on the land can be put to good use while easily opening up Five colors.  Playing a lot of Five color (even my Commander is 5c.), accessing all the card in the deck accurately, meaning being able to play any card within requirements in the deck at any time. (excluding opponents gameplay of course) is the hardest and most important function.

On the other hand Fetchlands/shoclands are better with the library (shuffling),  than the damage land.  With 2x/crucible, yeah I like this. The mana base gets much more tricky , which never stopped me before.

Later, DrKnowMaD  

ps. You know what creature I have wanted for a long time, a growing Triskelion.  You know(mad), Gushbond with a colorless growing creature that removes ++ counters to shoot people or creatures.

I used modulators to get the effect but its not the same and a bit cumbersome  

[Fraggle]

accidental double post

[Guli]

Combining effectivenes and synergy

Tinker into Blightsteel Colossus or Sphinx needs an effective and targeted response. The thing is Inkwell can not be answered like this. Trying to stop Tinker is also an option. I Believe from this threads perspective, the answer to Inkwell should simply be muscle power. Inkwell is not that big, in fact our clock, Deaths Shadow is bigger. I bellieve Gilded Drake fits in well here. Normally the 3/3 body you give the opponent matters but

AND

Gilded Drake is also a way to decrease life total. And both do well against creatures plus their is synergy.


I am also impressed with Sylvan Library. The best turn 1 this deck can play is land/mox/sylvan followed by drawing 2 extra cards the next turn with 3 mana with 7 cards in hand and 11 life. Ideal to play Death's Shadow here, because it is cheap. You can use the 2 mana to drop something relevant. I believe canonist might be good here to slow things down. Null Rod might also be a nice option here. In any case this deck wants to open with sylvan or confidant and work from their.

[TopSecret]

At this point I think Lim Dul's Vault and Sylvan Library are really good in this deck if we are going for the aggressive approach.
I think Plunge into Darkness could also be added to this deck concept if people wanted to go for the throat.

There are a lot of routes to go with this concept, actually.
I guess if we are going with the Sylvan Library/Vault Version some disruption should be picked that can be cast quickly,
like Force of Will or Pact of Negation. Pact of Negation combos with Angels Grace. You could also add Stifle Nought.

Cause Stifle combos with Pact of Negation.
This thread has inspired me so much.

[Fraggle]

Well with the group locking into the 5 colors as a given I'd like to add that we should consider running 4 x Runed Halo.  If you know what you are playing against Runed Halo stops just about every Vintage win outside of Vault Key.

It gives you protection from Inkwell it does not allow Oath to target you, it does not allow Tendrils to target you on and on...  there may be better, but just thowing it out there it's a good staler.

Lim duls Vault loves blue.  It's best played on the opponents EOT so that means you have your mana untapped during your opponents turn.  That works well with Mana Drain.  ...and if your running drain that puts Yawgmoths Bargin into the realm of possibilities.

So you could start off with a Sylvan Library T2: Draw 3 go down to at least 11.  and leave drain up.  If you need to set off drain and look for the mana for Bargin.  If you don't need to drain you Vault into a Death's Shadow @ 2 life or so. ...and you still have drain.  

If you drained loose the counter war, you could just give yourself protection from the issue with Runed Halo

Thoughts?

[bun]

I think blue black is the most attractive way to go.

I think Tarnished Citadel is... less attractive, unless you can fill the deck with sufficient cards that have generic mana in their costs.  I also am not a huge fan of city of brass if the deck is only two colors: I think the ravnica duals are a super techy idea.  I think normal duals should be run too, and a couple basics.

Lim-Dul's Vault is amazing, I think.  It is a mini doomsday, not just a topdeck tutor.  And if you run Necropotence, Dark Confidant, and top, it shouldn't matter if you have to wait occasionally.

Force of Will and Thoughtseize are also two non-subpar cards that fit in with this whole theme.

[tony3]

Emo Fish.Dec  UBg

4 Polluted Delta
4 Misty Rainforce
3 Watery Grave
3 Underground Sea
2 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
1 Overgrown Tomb

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Dark Confidant
3 Death's Shadow

4 Force of WIll
4 daze
4 gush
3 Sylvan Library
3 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall

1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Fastbond

SB:
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Trygon Predator
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Stifle
1 Oxidize
3 Leyline of the Void

[Guli]

Emo Fish.Dec  UBg

4 Polluted Delta
4 Misty Rainforce
3 Watery Grave
3 Underground Sea
2 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
1 Overgrown Tomb

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Dark Confidant
3 Death's Shadow

4 Force of WIll
4 daze
4 gush
3 Sylvan Library
3 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall

1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Fastbond

SB:
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Trygon Predator
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Stifle
1 Oxidize
3 Leyline of the Void

This would be a good start list with the Gush approach. I am not sure why cobra is in the deck though. It feels like something else would fit better.

@TopSecret/ Plunge into darkness
I like this card more than I like vault. Simply because the card goes to your hand without the help of other cards like top or street wraiths. Good find!

I am also looking into Ank of Mishra/Pyrostatic Pillar type of approach.


I suggest to look into multicolored or double mono coloured cards that would normally never work in 1 deck because of the colour llimitations. Tidehollow Strix, Gaddock Teeg, Tidehollow Sculler, True Believer, Leonin Relic-Warder, Vexing Shusher, Meddling Mage, Qasali Pridemage, Samurai of the Pale Curtain, Vampire Hexmage, Withered Wretch, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Voidmage Prodigy, Eight-and-a-Half-Tails. Of course creatures that aren't double or multi coloured can be considered too.

[Fraggle]

...in that case he does not need his own archetype he can go in anything that runs vault, or anything that can run vault.

I think for each of us it is just going to come down to play style.

I think blue black is the most attractive way to go.

I think Tarnished Citadel is... less attractive, unless you can fill the deck with sufficient cards that have generic mana in their costs.  I also am not a huge fan of city of brass if the deck is only two colors: I think the ravnica duals are a super techy idea.  I think normal duals should be run too, and a couple basics.

Lim-Dul's Vault is amazing, I think.  It is a mini doomsday, not just a topdeck tutor.  And if you run Necropotence, Dark Confidant, and top, it shouldn't matter if you have to wait occasionally.

It performed the same function very well for me at the time of Alliances in a Mirror Universe deck, back when that still worked.  Granted it's a very different meta.  

...Remember it is instant speed life loss no matter when you cast it.  ...I'm not a rules guru, but couldn't you do it in response of him not being blocked?

Although I think shock duals would be funny, I don't think it's practical.  Not only do you have to get below 13 for Death's Shadow to not die upon casting, you ideally have to get your opponent into Death's Shadows Strike range.  That would be somewhere in the 12 or below range.  So Pox, or Pox-like cards could be very effective.

Also, the black "hand peek" discards are almost a must. (Duress, IoK, Thoughtseize)  It will let you know when it's safe to go for it.

edit:  Here is a deck list that showcases a quick Death's Shadow

4   Plunge into Darkness
4   Dark Ritual
4   Duress
4   Daze
1   Ancestral
1   Time Walk
2   Lim-Dul's Vault
1   Vampiric Tutor
1   Fastbond
4   Gush
1   Denomic Tutor
4   Death's Shadow
4   Force of Will
2   Chain of Vapor
1   Tinker
1   Inkwell Leviathan
1   Time Vault
1   Voltaic Key
   
2   Flooded Strand
4   Polluted Delta
4   Underground Sea
1   Mox Jet
1   Mox Sapphire
1   Black Lotus
2   Tropical Island
4   Watery Grave


 

[tony3]

This would be a good start list with the Gush approach. I am not sure why cobra is in the deck though. It feels like something else would fit better.

I felt with the dedication to fetches into duals, that cobra would be worth it.  It's mana accel and a body to beat with.   I suppose it could be better as a maybe duress/teeg/other beats.  I really like the gush/bond/cobra/daze grouping, and it fits very nicely in this deck with so much attention in fetches.  i could even add more fetches.

with my list, i was actually really surprised at how strong death's shadow was.  i could get my life down to 8 without a problem or major effort by turn 3 and it was a 5+/5+ for b and i could lay some serious hurt down with goyfs.  my only concern was confidants are especially risky with FoW and you getting your life down so low to begin with. 

[Guli]

Ok recap,

I have tested the multicoloured and monocolored artifact creatures to enable Mox Opal and Glimmervoid.

I also noticed Sylvan Library is the best way of losing life while letting the deck run smoothly by getting additional cards. So multifunctional, so nice...

If Gilded Drake is dead in your hand, then this means they either have Inkwell, which is weak against this deck, or they have no serious threats. Just see it as a STP in your hand, but better especially with Vial. With Welder this gives 7 answers to Tinker/Blight.

4 Tarnished Citadel
4 City of Brass
4 Glimmervoid
4 Aether Vial
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
5 Pearl, Emerald, Ruby, Jet, Sapphire
2 Mox Opal

4 Death's Shadow

4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Master of Etherium

4 Gilded Drake
3 Goblin Welder

4 Sylvan Library
4 Thoughtseize

[TopSecret]

I am wondering if Vedalken Certarch is overall stronger than Drake in that deck.

Drake is certainly amazing against any Tinker target,
but Certarch also owns before they resolve Tinker, too.

Plus, Drake makes it so that they have a way to hit you in the air, which can be detrimental due to all the life loss from Death's Shadow, even if you do steal their Tinker target.

Don't get me wrong, I think Drake is very strong, especially with Vial on two. Vial on two might make him better than Certarch.
But I just think Certarch is worth consideration.

Maybe Welder could come out for Certarch. No clue.

[Guli]

I don't want to play on the metalcraft mechanic. Feels like leaving the deck vulerable too much. Glimmervoid only needs 1 artifact and this seems more acceptable to me. Also 1 copy of Mox Opal seems ok to take a risk.

- Need more than 12 land, also Gimmervoid is a good 3th rainbow land: Gemstone Mine
- Need a way to deal with Bridges, Welders, Confidants, Kataki: Plagued Rasulka
- Thoughtseize competes with turn 1 plays (Library, Vial, Canonist) and can be replaced by walking versions: Meddling Mage
- Its good to have a 'comes into play' bear that has an disenchant effect: Leonin Relic-Warder

4 Tarnished Citadel
4 City of Brass
4 Glimmervoid
2 Gemstone Mine
4 Aether Vial
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
4 Pearl, Emerald, Jet, Sapphire
1 Mox Opal

4 Death's Shadow
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Meddling Mage
4 Leonin Relic-Warder
3 Gilded Drake
3 Plagued Rasulka

4 Sylvan Library
1 Demonic Consultation

[MaximumCDawg]

Howabout this thing

Strumming my pain with his fingers (14)
-----------------
4 Duress
4 Spell Pierce
4 Nature's Claim // Null Rod
4 Mental Misstep

Singing my life with his words (4)
------------------
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

Killing Me Softly (18)
-----------------
4 Tarnished Citadel
4 City of Brass
2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
4 Plunge Into Darkness
4 Dark Confidant

With His Song (13)
----------------
4 Death's Shadow
1 Mirror Universe (or NPH version)
1 Near Death Experience
4 Tainted Strike
3 Berserk

Etc (9)
---------------
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
1 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland

Obviously, the idea is to find a Death's Shadow as fast as possible, killing yourself along the way, and then winning with Berserk or Tainted Strike.  Probably dies to MUD and Tendrils, methinks.  Against Blue, it might actually be not half bad; ithey stop kill spell, they're still usually dealing with a big fattie.

EDIT: Fixed! Thank you, next poster! With that correction the deck is probably ready to go, what do you think?

[Blue Lotus]

this deck list is terrible, its strumming my pain with his fingers!

[madmanmike25]

Howabout this thing (decklist)

It seems you aren't trying to make a 'good' deck, but rather a deck revolving around Deaths Shadow.  This is evident by the lack of Ancestral Recall and Time Walk in a deck that is essentially every color.  Change your focus because you have tunnel vision.  For example, wouldn't Tinker + Bot be better than Near Death Experience and Mirror Universe?  You aren't even running Yawg Will.  This looks like a bad Psychatog list.

Do you realize that Tainted Strike and Berserk do little to nothing without a Deaths Shadow in play?

Look, I'm not trying to come off as an ass or anything, but I'm starting to think that Death's Shadow is either a terrible card or belongs in a terrible decklist.

I like the concept of playing every color, but surely there is a way to make a rainbow deck that is good.  The strategy of killing yourself for a highly deceptive 1cc creature seems like a bad foundation to build a deck around.

[Guli]

I agree on the last two posts. Said it before, will say it again, stop focussing on Death's Shadow. The card will do it's job, like Tarmogoyf does, it will narrow opponents options by giving them less turns/less time. This deck does not hold the title "[Single card discussion: Death's Shadow]".

The real question is:

What cards can be played on the first three turns as an aggro control player without being limited by colour restrictions?

What do we need in a deck?

Do we need a draw engine? How many slots? Or should we play on tempo entirely?
Without acceleration things will get stuck in your hand. There are some options out there but what to pick? Mox Diamond or Mox Opal?
Should their be a mana denial strategy or not?

I find this concept extremely challenging because the options are really vast.

My intuition tells me to go for heavy disruption while swallowing damage from cities and citadels and then when they are down, hit them hard with your fat shadow before they get a chance to recover. If the cards that you are using to hit them hard have legs, the shadow will be way more effective because you have done some preliminary damage.

Cards that disrupt mana or other stuff with tempo without having to sacrifice them and have legs are:

Disrupting board:
Leonin Relic-Warder
Phyrexian Revoker
Qasali PrideMage
Hex Parasite
Gorilla Shaman
Kataki

Disrupting hand:
Tidehollow Sculler
Ethersworn Canonist
Meddling Mage
Gaddock Teeg
True Believer

I like Leonin Relic-Warder the most because he snaps something on the move. Same goes for Revoker. While I am writing, it came up to me. Tin Street Hooligan has a similar effect. This is a very anti MUD approach and at the same time very tempo based. Who needs null rod if you can take care of almost any artifact they cast?

4x City of Brass
4x Tarnished Citadel
4x Ancient Ziggurat
4x Reflecting Pool/Gemstone Mine
4x Black Lotus, Lotus Petal, Mox pearl, Mox Emerald
4x Elvish spirit Guide

4x Leonin Relic Warder
4x Phyrexian Revoker
4x Tin Street Hooligan
4x Qasali PrideMage

4x Death's Shadow
4x Dark Confidant

4x Mental Misstep
4x Chalice of the void/Engineered Explosives

4x some creature? strip effects?

This is the direction that I am thinking at this moment.

[TopSecret]

Leonin Arbitar seems good in that last slot, since it helps the mana denial theme while also slowing down Tinker.
Also it can help against combo since it slows down tutors, I think.
If you're questioning the slot a lot, it's probably a metagame slot of something. Or put in some power nine if that's your thing.

[Guli]

Leonin Arbitar seems good in that last slot, since it helps the mana denial theme while also slowing down Tinker.
Also it can help against combo since it slows down tutors, I think.
If you're questioning the slot a lot, it's probably a metagame slot of something. Or put in some power nine if that's your thing.

Maybe cut some lands for waste strip effects since the land count is very high. And then I might consider Arbiter as additional mana denial. However I sense it is not the right card. Need something that is free and useful. (Mental Misstep is awesome)

4x City of Brass
4x Tarnished Citadel
4x Ancient Ziggurat
4x Black Lotus, Lotus Petal, Mox pearl, Mox Emerald
4x Elvish spirit Guide
3x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

4x Leonin Relic Warder
4x Phyrexian Revoker
4x Tin Street Hooligan
4x Qasali PrideMage

4x Death's Shadow
4x Dark Confidant

4x Mental Misstep
4x Chalice of the void

4x Leonin Arbiter

[TopSecret]

This seems pretty effing good, actually.
Do you think it's worth adding Ancestral/Timewalk? I've been debating if they warrant inclusion.

[Wagner]

This seems pretty effing good, actually.
Do you think it's worth adding Ancestral/Timewalk? I've been debating if they warrant inclusion.

What kind of dumb question is that? What deck playing blue does not benefit from those 2 cards?

There is no reason not to add Demonic Tutor and even Demonic Consultation.

[Guli]

There are no dumb questions

But I have to agree, the blue should be added. Not sure about the demonic. Consultation is strong but need the slot.

Dismember seems interesting to deal with Golems and Hellkites.
Surgical Extraction is nice to protect your manabase from wastelands, while giving game against dredge. Would also be strong with Qasali and god knows what else.

Other free/cheap useful cards that don't get in the way of your tempo play?

EDIT:
Summoning Trap's seem pretty good with a high creature count. Can take advantage of opponents chalice and is a silver bullet against blue. Deck seems weak against wasteland/spheres. Sure once you get the mana you can nail their key cards with your heavy artifact destruction but who says MUD is going to let you play fire your bullets every game? Vial seems cute and all but this list wants to sligh.

Discovered a nice card, Shadow Guildmage, to replay Tin Streets and to do the bounce trick with Relic-Warder. It also works very nicely with Death's Shadow and gets rid of Welders, Confidants, Noble Hierarchs. Can also save a critical creature like Death's Shadow against STP or the likes. Plus of you are really dying from Confidant (which is almost impossible) you can bounce it. It can kill confidant, tin street or himself which removes bridges. Also it can get rid of Revokers and allow your power 2 beats to block Golems to death.

Testing the blue traps now, since their is a lot of artifact kill and additional mana acceleration, the match against Shop should be fair with the main board hate. Mind Break and Mental Missteps should be a nice counter package against early broken plays.

4x City of Brass
4x Tarnished Citadel
4x Ancient Ziggurat
4x Reflecting Pool
5x Black Lotus, Lotus Petal, Mox pearl, Mox Jet, Mox Sapphire
4x Elvish spirit Guide

4x Leonin Relic Warder
4x Tin Street Hooligan
4x Qasali PrideMage
4x Death's Shadow
4x Dark Confidant
4x Shadow Guildmage

4x Mental Misstep
4x Mindbreak Trap
3x Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Demonic Consultation