DedWards

@wickeddarkman, can you perhaps use your numbermancy on the viability of Mind Funeral? I understand what TheVanished is saying about having a vendetta against it as I have personally seen it fail more often than I believe it should from a statistics standpoint. I've not tun the numbers on Mind Funeral itself, but comparing how it's worded to other cards I've done number crunching on, it feels like it should be more consistent than either TheVanished or myself have seen.

Dam, didn't realise how expensive Remand is. That seems to happen a lot with cards I've had for a long time...

We need to remember that Reckless Bushwhacker requires {R}, so Burning-Tree Emissary must be played before Reckless Bushwhacker. Any combination of Hidden Herbalists and Burning-Tree Emissary can be played before the last Burning-Tree Emissary.

I actually calculated two scary possibilities using Burning-Tree Emissary, Hidden Herbalists, and Reckless Bushwhacker:

> Turn two 20 damage:
T1:
Temple Garden
Champion of the Parish

T2:
Crack Fetch land
Hidden Herbalists
Hidden Herbalists
Burning-Tree Emissary
Burning-Tree Emissary
Reckless Bushwhacker
Swing for 20

> Turn one 14 damage:
Crack Fetch land
Exile Simian Spirit Guide
Burning-Tree Emissary
Hidden Herbalists
Hidden Herbalists
Burning-Tree Emissary
Reckless Bushwhacker
Swing for 14

> Mesmeric Orb: A deceptively powerful Mill card. In addition to being colourless, it Mills everyone just for playing stuff. Sure, it Mills you too, but when every card in your deck is mill, it hurts the opponent way more than it hurts you. If you're really worried about it, the self mill can also be lessened by playing cards like Dimir Aqueduct and Lotus Bloom.
> Shelldock Isle: This may enter tapped, but getting a free mill card once the opponent has 20 or less cards left often closes the game.
> Mind Funeral: Arguably the best 3 mana mill card. It's unpredictable as to how much will be milled, but it hits a lot of cards at once. At worst it Mills 4, but 4 is a very rare case.
> Surgical Extraction: Very good in mill for removing cards you do NOT want the opponent playing. Mill one, extract the rest. Also hits nonbasic lands, like fetch lands and Valakut.
> Infinite Obliteration or Lost Legacy: A must have sideboard against cards like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn which can shuffle the whole graveyard back into the library. Surgical Extraction may help here, but the opponent still gets to shuffle back at least once.

I can see two ways to do this:

The all in Mine route:
> Howling Mine: Draws everybody cards.
> Dictate of Kruphix: A 3 mana Mine effect and it has flash, letting you control who draws the first extra card.
> Temple Bell: Similar to the Mine, except you have control over when everyone draws a card.
> Fevered Visions: Keep it in. The extra damage is important and the end of turn draw helps fuel:
> Ebony Owl Netsuke: Deals 4 damage to the opponent in their upkeep if they have 7+ cards in hand.
> Runeflare Trap: If the opponent drew 3+ cards, this costs {R} to deal damage to him/her equal to the number of cards in hand.

The Puzzle Box route:
All / Some of the Mine effect above. Don't bother with Ebony Owl Netsuke though.
> Teferi's Puzzle Box: Draws people a lot of cards without actually putting extra cards in hand, which helps trigger Runeflare Trap and fuels:
> Cerebral Vortex: You should already know how good this is.
> Runeflare Trap: Is not as good as in the Mine build, but is still good as Teferi's Puzzle Box triggers it easier.
> Molten Psyche: If you're heavy on Artifacts, this is Runeflare Trap + a Teferi's Puzzle Box trigger in one card.


The biggest problem with Mine effects is you're allowing the opponent to actually draw cards, thus giving them access to their powerful cards. There's a few ways to combat this:
> Boomerang / Eye of Nowhere: {U}{U} to return any permanent to its owners hand. You can bounce lands with this, slowing down the opponent's plays.
> Exhaustion: {2}{U} to keep the opponent tapped for a turn. This is a pseudo extra turn, but it does allow for the Mines and Owls to trigger.
> Ætherize: Bounces all attacking creatures.
> Hibernation: Sideboard against green. Bounces all green permanents to their owner's hand.
> Any mass burn: Just burn the annoying masses.
> Cheap Counters: By cheap I mean 2 mana. Remand is good as it not only draws you a card, it keeps a card in the opponent's hand.

And the best part about all my suggestions, they're all Modern legal :P

My Orzhov deck got a new tool from Amonkhet: Trespasser's Curse. But that also means that decks like this got another thing to worry about...

Not really, just felt like pointing out another option. If this wasn't Pauper, I'd have suggested Outpost Siege, but alas this is a Pauper deck.

-47 Relentless Rats
+47 Shadowborn Apostle

Shadowborn Apostle is cheaper in both casting cost and $

Just had an idea. Using Liquimetal Coating, you can copy anything with Phyrexian Metamorph.

The Mycosynth Lattice idea actually requires a different build. Maybe something similar to this:

4 Arbor Elf + 4 Utopia Sprawl (and maybe 2-4 Birds of Paradise) to ramp into Mycosynth Lattice, Hellkite Tyrant, and Vandalblast's Overload.
4 Ancient Stirrings to "search" for Mycosynth Lattice.
4 Faithless Looting to dig for any missing combo pices.
4 Mycosynth Lattice
3 Hellkite Tyrant
4 Vandalblast
4 Lightning Bolt, because Lightning Bolt.
4 Mizzium Mortars to do a one sided board sweep while assembling the combo.

Firstly, I avoid playing with blue like the plague, but I've faced off against a lot of blue decks over the years. That said, I have a few observations about your cars selection:

1) You've only got 5 finishers (I'm not counting Wandering Fumarole). I know control runs few finishers, but this feels too few even for control, especially in such a removal heavy format.
2) I'm not sold on the 4 mana counters. As I said, I've faced off against a lot of blue and baiting out the counters is a big way I get around them. 4 mana is a little expensive when baited / forced into countering.
3) Only 1 sweeper? I know you're big on your counters and single target burn, but there's going to be stuff that gets through. Sweepers are good for getting the board back under control.

My suggestions:
1) While Torrential Gearhulk and Glorybringer are awesome finishers, you may want to consider these:
> Thing in the Ice // Awoken Horror: In addition to being a decent 4 toughness blocker, once transformed it's an excellent attacker. You could even use the bounce effect to return Torrential Gearhulk to hand, allowing you to reuse it's enter the battlefield ability.
> Glyph Keeper: Costs the opponent 2 removal spells to get rid of it, and it comes back via Embalm. Dies to Sweltering Suns though.
> Sphinx of the Final Word: Complete immune to targeted removal and survives Sweltering Suns. Also gives you protection against opponent's counters.

2) I'm aware that the 4 mana counters have added bonuses, but for the sake of consistency I suggest the following:
No 4 mana counter.
4-6 3 mana counters. 2-4 Disallow and 2-4 Void Shatter
6-7 2 mana counters. 3-4 Censor; 2-3 Negate; and 1-2 Essence Scatter, with the remainder Essence Scatter and Negate in the sideboard.

3) Going up to 3 Sweltering Suns should do. It's too bad Torrential Gearhulk can't target sorceries like Goblin Dark-Dwellers can. Would be nice to reuse the Sweltering Suns, especially if you choose to cycle them.

Was looking at the death side of things as your creatures will likely die very quickly. Hissing Iguanar, while sadly a creature itself and not an enchantment or something, deals damage whenever your creatures die.

Ancient Stirrings is the best green search for colourless. At best it can get you either Liquimetal Coating or Voltaic Key, at worst it gets you a land (lands are colourless)

Ancient Grudge is one of the best Artifact hate cards for a deck like this.

Myr Landshaper is a worse Liquimetal Coating, but it could help to include a few for redundancy purposes.

Firstly, a Description would be useful, helps people to give appropriate advice / suggestions.

Now onto a few card choices I don't quite understand:
> Treasure Mage: This can only fetch Wurmcoil Engine as the Eldrazi are not artifacts, and Aetherworks Marvel & and the Puzzleknots cost less than 6.
> Sanctum of Ugin: You're not ramping into the Eldrazi, so this doesn't help much.
> Both the above: Aetherworks Marvel only casts the cards from the library, not the hand. Why include stuff that puts hard to cast things into your hand?

I like the idea. Here's my take on Evershrike using looting instead of Dredge:
http://www.mtgvault.com/dedwards/decks/ever-aura/

Coat of Arms runs the risk of boosting your opponents stuff.

You're forgetting a strong one for the early game: Wrangle. Sure it's limited to power 4 or less, but the same mana as casting Kari Zev's Expertise, you can steal a creature and sacrifice it to Bone Splinters. And Unless you're playing against GB counters, there's a high probability of having a legal target.

Reminds me of my BW Stronghold Discipline deck.

> Hissing Miasma: Helps against the go wide strategies.
> Vampiric Link: Does not grant lifelink. Because of the way it's worded, the controller of the enchantment gains the life, not the controller of the creature. Put this on an opponent's creature and you'll gain life equal to the amount it deals to you.
> Batwing Brume: The pay {B} part makes the opponent lose 1 life for each creature they're attacking with.

Multiple forms of Nissa looks like they would fit this deck.

> Nissa, Steward of Elements: Works well with the ramp. Her [-6] animates two lands into two big fliers. Her [+2] is a good scry engine.
> Nissa, Vastwood Seer: Flipping her is easy. Once flipped into Nissa, Sage Animist, her [+1] becomes a good draw / ramp engine. Her [-7] finishes games.
> Nissa, Worldwaker: Her first [+1] permanently animates a land. Her [-7] ramps all your basics out of your deck and permanently animates them.
> Nissa, Vital Force: Her [+1] animates a land until the start of your next turn.

To stick with the land punishment theme of Zo-Zu:

> Manabarbs: Deals damage to a player whenever they player taps a land for mana. More nonland mana sources for you can lessen it's effect on you and destroying opponent's nonland mana sources increases the effect on them.
> Citadel of Pain: Kind of the opposite effect of Manabarbs, damage for untapped lands. Effect on you is reduced the same way, as is it increased to the opponents in the same way.
> Burning Earth: Manabarbs effect, but only for nonbasic lands. Good against multicoloured decks.
> Invader Parasite: Exiles a land, then deals damage each time a land with the same name is put into play.
> Obsidian Fireheart: Puts Blaze counters on lands, then deals damage in the upkeep equal to the number of lands with Blaze counters on them.
> Tunnel Ignus: Punishes multiple land plays.