Draw / Counter / Burn Deck

[chadochocinco]

I have a deck from long ago that I am trying to redesign to keep the same concept but use better cards. The objective of the deck is to counter and burn any threats that my opponent plays and eventually outdraw them such that I can do that and burn the player into oblivion at the same time. Very roughly, I dedicate 1/3 of my spells to each of the three functions. I would like to choose 8-10 cards that help to increase my draw rate, but have many options, all of which have circumstances in which they are most useful.

• Arcanis The Omnipotent - This guy is just awesome, and if I had more copies I would use them.
• Archivist - This is not so good. Since Arcanis only costs one more, is three times as effective, and is slightly harder to kill, the Archivist seems like a good candidate for removal.
• Blue Sun's Zenith - This is good late in the game when I have plenty of mana, but too expensive in the early and middle game.
• Heightened Awareness - Not having to do anything to get an extra card each turn is nice, but if I get this when I already have a hand full of useful cards I am not going to play it.
• Rayne, Academy Chancellor - This is dead against creature-based decks, but would be a good sideboard candidate.
• Rhystic Study - This really shines in multiplayer games, but even against a single opponent the fact that I do not need to do anything to trigger it is nice. Unfortunately, it ends up being fairly useless when my opponent has plenty of mana available.
• Treasure Trove - I used to like this, but the activation cost is quite expensive. On the other hand, enchantments are harder for my opponents to kill than creatures such as Archivist.

I also want to use around 8 counterspells, and there are also choices to make here.

• Counterspell - Obviously, this will take up four of those slots. The only things better than it are ludicrously expensive.
• Rewind - Having my mana available after the stack unwinds for further countering and/or burning is very nice, but this is useless before I get to the point of having 4 mana available at all times.
• Quash - Getting rid of all copies of a spell is great, but again this is expensive. It should probably be sideboarded.
• Stoic Rebuttal - With metalcraft this is as cheap as a normal Counterspell, but this deck will almost never have metalcraft.
• Dissipate - This has the advantage of exiling the card, but I rarely find circumstances where that matters.

Then comes the choice of 12 or so direct damage sources.

• Beacon Of Destruction - Being reshuffled into the library does not matter much for this deck, but 5 damage for 5 mana at instant speed is pretty good.
• Earthquake - This is basically a worse version of Starstorm (see below), although it can also be used to finish off a player.
• Fanning The Flames - I absolutely love this card, but the fact that I should be drawing replacements quickly makes the buyback less useful, and I am trying to avoid sorceries as much as possible.
• Fireball - The ability to split this is nice, but being a sorcery makes it a poor choice.
• Ghitu Fire - This is ok, but I would rather be able to cast as an instant without paying 2 extra.
• Incinerate - I'll take 3 damage for 2 mana at instant speed any day. The inability of targets to regen is a nice, though rarely useful, bonus.
• Lightning Bolt - It gets no better than this.
• Starstorm - This is useful for killing lots of creatures, and should probably be sideboarded.
• Volcanic Geyser - This is my preferred instant for X damage.

Then there are utility spells that do not fit directly into one of these categories but enhance their effects:

• Chandra Nalaar - Basically more burn.
• Echo Mage - The ability to cheaply copy my spells sounds great, but I have basically never managed to use this effectively.
• Elixir Of Immortality - Drawing lots of cards could potentially lead to self-milling, but these keep my deck going forever as long as they are not countered / discarded / etc.
• Fire Servant - Doubling the damage on all of my burn spells is a great ability, but I fear this is a bit too expensive to be as useful as I thought it would be.
• Gelectrode - Because I tend to play a lot of instant and sorcery spells, this becomes a nice secondary source of damage.
• Leyline Of Anticipation - I do not use many sorceries, but the ability to play permanents on my opponents' turns after I know that I do not need to counter anything is useful. Is it useful enough to be worth the space it takes up?
• Library Of Leng - When drawing many cards, being able to hold lots of cards is nice. Then again, I should be able to play those cards ...
• Mana Flare - At a time when this deck used a lot of X-based burn and Treasure Trove this was great, but I have moved away from those and this.
• Platinum Emperion - He does not fit into this deck specifically, but can make the game unlosable if the opponent does not have a way to kill it. Given the proliferation (no pun intended) of infect-based decks recently, it is probably not so useful.
• Psychosis Crawler - This makes all of my drawing cards function as damage sources as well, which is very nice. In multiplayer games they become even more ridiculous.
• Quicksilver Dagger - This seems to be designed just for this deck, but it is only useful if I have creatures in play that do not already have better tap abilities, and that does not happen the way this deck is currently built.
• Reiterate - See Echo Mage above.
• Shattering Pulse - Although I prefer to counter them before they are played, removing artifacts is often useful.
• Terrain Generator - If I draw more than 2 lands in a turn, it can be nice to have the ability to play both of them.

So which of these many options do you think are best? My current deck is as follows:

• 10 Island
• 10 Mountain
• 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1 Archivist
• 1 Beacon of Destruction
• 2 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Chandra Nalaar
• 4 Counterspell
• 2 Echo Mage
• 2 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Fire Servant
• 1 Gelectrode
• 1 Ghitu Fire
• 4 Incinerate
• 1 Leyline of Anticipation
• 2 Library of Leng
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 1 Platinum Emperion
• 2 Psychosis Crawler
• 1 Reiterate
• 2 Rewind
• 4 Rhystic Study
• 1 Starstorm
• 1 Volcanic Geyser

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[theboatcandream]

Drawing:

I think right now you're looking for cards that let you draw "in bulk". You can draw more, or you can draw better by clearing away the junk.

Magma Jet is awesome for this. So is Ponder. Brainstorm is another great card for shaping your hand.

Cards like these also work great in combination. Let's say you have two cards in your hand that you don't like. You can put them on top of your deck with Brainstorm, then you can scry them away with Magma Jet.

Another reason these cards are great is because they don't cost very much mana.

Intuition is a great spell, but it's hard to get. Fact or Fiction is good too.

The problem with the cards you posted is that they need a lot of mana, and some are very conditional. I think you'll be happier with cards that have a low mana cost and that you can use right away.


Counter Magic

I think these are good choices:

Counterspell
Daze
Cursecatcher
Spell Snare
Force of Will (Hard to get)
Mana Leak

Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top are often combined to lock down the game.


Direct Damage

I already mentioned Magma Jet. Lightning Bolt is good, Incinerate is OK. If you want targetted removal, you should think about splashing white for Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, or Oblivion Ring.

You should only have one or two cards in your deck that have X in their casting cost. They're useless early in the game. Earthquake can be good, but it should be compared to more efficient cards like Pyroclasm, Firespout, Pernicious Deed, and Wrath of God.

Cursed Scroll is a good card if you need a reusable source of damage. If you splash white, Lightning Helix is awesome. You might like Browbeat.


Just some ideas for you. I'd personally stay away from anything that costs more than three mana, unless it's something that can win the game for you on its own. Although I like the idea of combining Platinum Emperion with Sulfuric Vortex.

Ivory Tower is a good life gain spell if you think you'll have a lot of cards in your hand.

[chadochocinco]

Wow, Magma Jet is awesome; I'll definitely replace all my copies of Incinerate as I am able to acquire them. I am indeed more interested in drawing in bulk than drawing just the right thing, although I can see the obvious advantage. I generally dislike single-use spells such as Ponder and Brainstorm because drawing an additional card every turn seems so much better than once replacing an existing card in my hand with the most useful of the top 3 cards in my library.

I also hate cards that are only effective counterspells if the opponent is using all of his mana each turn. They are great on the first or second turn, but become less and less useful as the game progresses. Plain-old counterspells, on the other hand, become more useful with each passing turn (assuming you are able to survive what has been played early).

I do like Browbeat; thanks for the tip.