Puschkin

Yes and no. You don't have to discard after you drew your first card. However, then you have to discard before you draw the second (Chains), then draw again (Anvil) and discard again (Anvil) which is a net gain of 0. However, as explained, if the first card drawn is an instant, you could play it before Anvil is resolved.

You WOULD net 1 card if you could resolve Anvil first and then draw your regular card. However, this isn't possible anymore because of this errata for Anvil of Bogardan:

"4/15/2013: The triggered ability is put onto the stack after you have already drawn your card for the turn."

At some point in the past the regular draw was put on the stack, too, so you could stack Anvil first and draw second, but that's no longer the case.

Then he should tag his deck properly. Besides, Aura of Silence and most importantly Grand Arbiter Augustine have been reprinted and are Modern legal now.

Consider:
* Mystic Remora or Rhystic Study to draw cards.
* Drain Power to get your fatties into play.
* Aura of Silence
* Slow Motion instead of some of the Oppressive Rays/Cowed with Wisdom
* Powersink, Counterspell, Dissolve or basically any other counter that is cheaper than Rewind (instead of Rewind)
* GRAND ARBITER AUGUSTIN IV !!!

High Tide? That one usually requires a combo of sorts or at least some cards that work together with, which would require to alter the entire deck structure. If you just toss a High Tide randomly into a deck like this, then it isn't very impressive:
Turn 1: Does nothing
Turn 2: Does nothing
Turn 3: Nets you a single extra mana for the cost of a card
Turn 4: Now it's a blue Dark Ritual (assuming you didn't miss a land drop)
Turn 5+: Finally it does something impressive, surpassing a Dark Ritual, IF you have 5 or more lands ready by this time.

Note that it's useless the first couple of turns which happen to be the crucial ones against any opponent other than the mirror matchup (comtrol). High Tide is only good in combo decks or decks that plan to do something awesome in turn 5-6 that will turn the game upside down. But this deck is neither one, all that High Tide would do is allowing to play one of those CC6 creatures on turn 4 (but leaving him without mana to protect it) or on turn 6 with UU open during opponent's turn to protect the fatty with counterspells. However, since neither of these creatures are gamebreaking and since Northy refuses to add more than just 4 counterspells, both of these plans aren't good enough to justify adding HIgh Tide, a card that is otherwise useless early on.

Actually if you imprint Accumulated Knowledge on a Iso Scepter, it gets exiled, so that's one less copy in the graveyard. And the copies you create with the Scepter won't go to the graveyard either. It's not as great as it sounds.

I didn't mention lands ;)

Also, not exactly - there were two types of traditional blue decks, what you refer to applies to the "Big Blue" branch which ran counterspells, bounce and big flyers (that had enough lands to ensure a landdrop every turn up to at least turn 6) while the regular one didn't have many big hitters besides Morphling and the rest was counterspells, utility, card draw and small guys like Ophidian and Fog Bank. That one ran regular amount of lands. This deck is a mix of the two which fits the bill of "traditional" quite well with the exception of the lack of counterspells.

Anyway, the bumpy mana curve is my concern, not the amount of mana sources.

So? This has 23 lands. I didn't complain about the mana-to-spells ratio, I pointed out that the mana curve is off the track with mostly cc2 spells and only 3 each for cc1 and cc3 (of which the cc1 one, Pongify, will probably not be used first turn). Of all the people here I expected YOU to be the first one to agree, knowing all your experiments regarding mana curves you should agree that this deck won't run smooth and waste mana every second turn.

And while I am full aware that you and me are the dinosaurs of magic, nobody here said "oldschool" - the term is "traditional" and blue had more countermagic than just 4 for an eternity. And the chosen format is Legacy, not Modern. Also, while I suggested some oldschool cards, I only did so where they fix problems this deck has. If there are updated versions that do the same thing but better, fine, bring them on.
Besides, blue has been watered down (pun not intended) in the past tremedously regarding key spells. Best example being counterspells, they just wont print hard counters for 2 mana anymore. This means, while magic cards have become more powerful overall, the core elements of blue haven't. So, it's not surprising to see many oldschool cards being mentioned in traditional blue decks - not because of nostalgic memories, mainly because there simply are no newer alternatives.

Card suggestions (in that order ;) ):

Redirect
Nuisance Engine
Angry Mob
Hunted Troll
Hunt Down
Decree of Justice
Path to Exile
Imprison

1) As has been said, for a traditional blue control deck, there should be more countermagic. And since this is Legacy, it should run the original Counterspell. It has been reprinted countless times and can be picked up for less than a dollar. Not running it in a "traditional blue" is blasphemy ;) I understand your budget concept, but you run things like Frost Titan that cost a dollar each even though they are neither traditional nor irreplaceable like Counterspell.

2) A traditional blue control deck would run Ophidian or Thieving Magpie instead of Azure Mage, especially when combined with bounce. They are trickier to use but don't cost you mana to operate.

3) Your entire defence is against creatures only. Even your bounce can only bounce creatures. This will become a problem in the long run - and control decks WILL generate long games! It's especially an issue as long as you run only 4 counterspells (and those beaing Mana Leaks - as great as they are early game, they won't work reliably mid and end game!). Traditional blue decks had Capsize which I recommend instead of Voyage's End. They can bounce whatever you want and later in the game if you can afford the buyback they will turn out to be very annoying for your opponent, especially combined with what I said in 2).
Also, consider replacing AEtherize with Wash Out, which is both traditional and more flexible than AEtherize.

4) Please have a look at your mana curve! You'll have nothing to do on turn 1 and waste a mana on turn 3 (or basically any uneven turn) since you lack 1-drops and 3-drops. If you insist on bounce, Seal of Undoing is a great way to do something on turn 1 or 3, you just drop it and use it later. Another one that was traditionally used for this slot was Soothsaying. The 3-drop could be the mentioned Ophidian.

5) Jace's Mindseeker seems a bit random here since you have zero way to manipulate the opponent's library, so it's pure luck to find something decent with it. Possible replacements:
- Draining Whelk. Would double as both a big flying beater and more countermagic.
- Quicksilver Dragon. Nice protection and can also help to fix the mana curve because you can play him morphed on turn 3.
- Sphinx of Magosi


All cards suggested are below 1 dollar (Soothsaying may be slightly above).

Yeah, I noticed that the redirecting mostly happend on deck of the HOT page.

The problem is that you don't play against a goldfish, you play against an opponent. Opponents tend to have removal spells that kill your dudes. And all your card drawing only works if you have an active critter ... and you don't see where the problem is? This tells me you have never played this deck in real life.

If at lest it would redirct to Rick Astley's "Never gonna give you up", then it would be remotely funny the first few times ...

... but I am actually glad that everyone is having the same issues. My first thought was that I caught some nasty viruses, browserhijackers or similar.

How is this going to work? I mean, with just 8 creatures, 4 of which are just 1/1 without any protection and therefore easy to kill?

Escape Artist might be worth adding and of course True-Name Nemesis if you can afford those. Azorius Herald is also a nice option for this deck. To make room I would cut on the enchantments and equipment you want to pile on those creatures ... right now you have 17 (!) cards to enhance your 8 creatures, the ratio should be the other way round ;) And the first ones to go would be the Fireshrieker and Flail because they don't do much on a power one creature.

Okay, you are right about the Tempest - it's just that Tempest wasn't always part of the deck/plan, Jessie pushed cards around alot. I agree that with haste the Preyseizer is very viable. But as you said, that requires a lot - Tempest in play, enough tokens, Preyseizer in hand plus enough mana to fuel all of that. Good catch, though.

A counterspell stops both of them dead, however, if the opponent got any kind of removal (could even be sorcery speed) then the Preyseizer will have dealt zero damage! Also, you don't have to cast it for those big numbers, sometimes you just need 4 damage to kill off a nasty creature in between. Voracious Dragon does so 2 turns quicker (which is an eternity) and for sure.

I don't say Preyseizer is a bad suggestion but he just isn't such an obvious replacement you say he is. It also depends on Jessie's metagame of course - the less removal the opponents run and the slower they are, the more viable Preyseizer becomes.

The problem is that it needs to attack in order to deal those 8. See, between cating Preyseizer and attacking with him is an entire turn where your opponent can neutralize him whereas nothing sans a Counterspell or some freak cards like Torpor orb will stop the damage from the Voracious.

Coldersoul, the creature decks you'll face will also have pump (on top of having bigger creatures with combat abilities), you'll never gonna win that fight. IF you are going with ramp, then at least switch to an approach with walls: Vine Trellis, Wall of Roots, Axebane Guardian and the excellent Overgrown Battlement. And even then I'd say you'll have trouble to survive. A single creature swiper (say, Wrath of God) will both ruin your defense AND your manabase!

As Necrumlsice said, Helix Pinnacle belongs in a defensive control deck where you use all your resources to stay alive. And at the end of opponent's turn you dump all mana that you didn't need into the Helix until you win.

Of course, if you want to combine Helix with nothing but mana ramp than that's your thing. I only posted in the first place because of the pretentious deck title "How to run Helix Pinnacle".

I don't think this is the way to run Helix ... if all you do is ramping mana but not defending yourself, you will be dead before you can put 100 counters on it. Since all regular creatures are beefier than your mana dudes (and since you can't afford to block with them if they would die) I don't see how this would work.

I considered Bloodghast but after looking closer I decided against him. See, when the Chains/Anvil combo is in place, I won't get any cards anymore, not even lands. So I will run out of methods to reanimate him soon. Moreover, he is neither a knight (Haakon) nor a zombie (if he was a zombie he would be an alternate way to enable Gravecrawlers). AND he cannot block, which is kind of a problem in multiplayer when everybody is angry with you :)

Why Gather the Townsfolk? Tokens don't recur via Renewal, don't untap the Station and they aren't enough to mill the opponent.

Then Serra's Sanctum - I don't see it accelerating anything given the fact that you only run 9 enchantments and all of them cost 3 or 4!
Personally I don't like Rest of the Weary, it doesn't improve board position. If you replaced it with a defensive enchantment, for example Nyx-Fleece Ram, Blind Obedience, Greater Auramancy or Journey to Nowhere, then Serra's Sanctum might be useful.

I know having 3-ofs is your schtick but in a combo deck you should have the combo cards 4 times, in this case missing out the Enduring Renewal is a no-go.

Be aware that Enduring Renewal has the drawback that you won't draw creatures anymore. So you need to have at least one Vessel in hand/play by the time you play the Renewal. This also means Enlightened Tutor will not get you a Vessel in hand.

Okay, so we finally did all colours as mono-mill and can move to something else? ;) Jessie, check out my newest creation, you'll love it:
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/chained-to-the-anvil/

It can act as a mill-deck, too, but is actually nastier than that :P