purpleberry

I enjoyed this deck concept so much I've made one of my own! If we could get an open dialogue going on improving our respective decks that would be great. For now, here's the link to the freshly-completed Infertile Lands. http://www.mtgvault.com/EditDeck.aspx?DeckID=367469&DeckCardID=8748106

Another thing which I just realized is that your wincon is based on tapping creatures, however there are only 10 in the deck. To win purely with the stake, you need 7, and even if you deal some damage before then, as you probably will, you could very well not have enough creatures when the time comes to cast. That's another reason the other suggested artifact creatures are better for this deck, as they can help both your wincon and reaching your wincon.

There are still some better cards, again orni comes to mind, as well as a myr (whose name I'm forgetting at the moment, sorry) which makes a token when it dies, making it effective for two sacs. Basically, with some research you can find equally cheap cards which will be better than the ones there.

I hope so, because this deck could honestly become among my all time fav's with some creative improvements.

Believe it or not, I knew already that this was an illegal combo (although not for those reasons, more for less official game-stalling stuff, good on you for knowing the rules for that), it was and is far beyond the pathetic, human concepts of "seriousness" or "legitimacy." But no, it does work. It definitely works. To make it work, you just cast Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect...

Also Control Magic is a control card to consider to add to the counters, help shore up your creature weakness. Damnation is another, quite possibly better, route for that (if you don't go merfolk), especially since it helps against elves and other token decks, which would probably be some of the bigger problems for this deck creature-wise.

OP delivered?

Card recommendations round 2:
Blight and Erosion could discourage/force your opponent to tap the right lands
Evil Presence (sideboard if the deck is black) and Phantasmal Terrain get rid of their best lands and remove mana symbols
Add in sea's claim and between that and phantasmal terrain you could make an islandwalk alternate wincon
You can enchant your own lands with Sunken Field (which, now that I've found it, I'll probably add to many of my own control decks) to offer a chance at countering or at least forcing land tap
Wall of Bone, Wall of Frost are other options for defenders if you don't like gomazoa and decide to go that route. Personally I would remove the faeries, add some of the islandwalk stuff, and add a few merfolk.

Mana Short is really cool both for the base effect and because (take this with a grain of salt, I'm no registered judge or anything so I could be wrong) it can cancel non-instants, even as they're about to be cast, much in the way silence does.
Gulf Squid and Pretender's Claim both give you some ways to add creatures to the mix, although personally I would focus on defending (perhaps some gomazoas, which are in my experience especially effective because your opponent might be afraid to lose a creature he/she relies on to the deck) from your creatures, as this seems like more of a slow deck, but the squids may prove useful. They are also more expensive mana-wise, which is fine because you'll need time to enchant their lands. More counters which can be stopped through mana couldn't hurt either. Round 2 of research coming.

I can't wait for this deck to be finished, this has pretty much all the elements of my favorite decks:
1) Creative
2) Fun
3) Control
Nothing comes immediately to mind in the way of card recommendations, however I'll get right on that.

Though I rarely heed the calls of mere mortals, this I shall do.

*stares intently, challenging you with his eyes* "to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect to redirect Redirect to target Redirect..."

Looks cool, but I see two problems.
1: Slow, a potentially minor issue since your creatures do look like they could deter a weak creature based deck for a while, some other decks for long enough. I wouldn't worry too much about this however unless you go up against good aggro decks.
2: wincon. Are you going to win through 1 damage swings from skeletons? Try looking at a few sac decks and seeing if anything might help. If you're wondering what to take out, engineered plague is more of a sideboard card and plague myr doesn't really mesh with the deck aside from the name. Undying is an awesome mechanic which may turn this deck from fun to fun and awesome.
Overall I love the concept and it looks nice.

I see where you're coming from, and if my friends were better deck builders/built to be competetive rather than for fun, I would probably do that. That said, as long as you can survive until lockdown you're probably fine. they can only play instants (put on the stack before silence resolves) for the rest of the game, and you'll be accumulating counters, and spellskites can steal targets.

Tormod's crypt is a sideboard card, and so is grafdigger's cage. There are other things you could replace crypt with to fill the function of 0 cost artifact, ornithopter being the first example that comes to mind. Devil is an infinitely better mainboard than cage, on account of it being totally and utterly broken. If you're truly so desperate to shut down graveborn decks, add a leyline of the void and mill until you get it. Underhanded, but effective. Other than that looks good.

Kill from mill, thus the name. iso+silence/orim's, plus some counters, and they can't do anything at all for the rest of the gamem, not to mention if you get venser full. You use elixir to not mill yourself to death, and voila. If you wanted to you could almost definitely kill with abolishers, however.

I ever so strongly recommend that you replace cancel with counterspell.

This looks great and rather hilarious. If you'd like to check out my own luminarch deck, perhaps offer some advice, please do. it's http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=352471. Thanks for posting this, it's already given me some cards to add to mine.

If you're looking for more focus it would be easy to remove the delvers in favor of lightning bolts or something like that, making it a bit more focused on the cards it's designed around, which is a double-edged sword.

I cannot concur strongly enough on the mutas, as they have been huge help for my damage (4+ for 2 life, huzzah!) and I'll trust the rite of flame. I do wonder whether they're being used fully. Do you find that the red mana is particularly helpful for combos given your blue dominance? They might be of more use if you had a few more red cards, but that's just my 2c, and I've not played the deck more than a few practice hands so I lack experience with it.