Testing with a Karn

Innocent Blood + Spell Pierce could be options for the board.

Trinisphere as well.

Lodestone Golem, Wipe Away, Toxic Deluge, and Flusterstorm

Considering downsizing to one Thirst to introduce a mainboard Spellbomb or possibly even an Executioner's Capsule.

Considering going to 1 Damnation main and putting the second in the board, maybe with, or without a Toxic Deluge.  Replacing the slot with a Cpasule or Spellbomb, or perhaps both if 1 Thirst is cut.  Increases early game versatility and introduces another slot for a cantrip + mainboard hate.

Also considering adding a Dimir Charm, probably to the board.

Thorn of Amethyst vs Trinisphere is the discussion at the moment.

Meekstone and The Abyss seem to be strong options.

Looking for a third color source that can be fetched with Trinket to enable EE for 3

Lodestones haven't really done much, considering adding 1 Innocent Blood (Diabolic Edict?) + 1 Misdirection to help with SnT/Belcher/other ridiculous decks.

Lodestone coming out for Deluge

Dread of Night prolly being replaced with Cage

Replaced Cursed Totem with 2nd Cage

Replaced Trini with Lodestone

Running 1 Cage 1 Relic instead of 2 Cage

Probably cutting the Mindbreak/Trickbind for more Lodestones

Still considering testing with Smokestack

-1 Trickbind +1 Wurmcoil

1 land spot open, testing between Darkslick, Delta, Darkwater, and Sunken Ruins

2 Leyline of the Void vs Cage/Spellbomb/Relic?

Cut Trinket Mage??

Considering cutting 1 Force, 1 Chalice, going back to 3 Ancient Tomb 3 City, cutting 1 Signet, adding 1 Thirst, some other stuff

Updates: -1 Force Main +1 Force Side -1 Ratchet Side +1 Ratchet Main

-2 Talisman +1 Hero's Downfall +1 Thirst

Consideration must be taken - perhaps adding 1 Misdirection main and going to 61 cards

The Abyss vs Deluge in board

+1 Chill -1 Clique?  Needs help with burn

-1 Clique +1 Batterskull

Probably -1 Deluge +1 Bridge/Damnation

Hex Parasite
The Abyss

Testing with -1 Ratchet Bomb main +1 Liliana of the Veil

Probably cutting Toxic Deluge for something in the board, maybe a second burn hate spell along with cutting the Relic (Trinisphere/Chill)

The Abyss maybe in that slot as well?

Night of Souls' Betrayal
Coercive Portal

Testing with -1 Darkslick -1 Darkwater 4x Underground 4x Delta (extra fetch as enabler) for 1x Dig in place of 1x Thirst

-1 Relic + 1 Cage since playing Dig now, Cage also hoses Elves and eliminates need for Deluge, allows us to play Night of Souls' Betrayal and replace the Dread of Night with Chill/Trinisphere/Something for Burn matchup

The Abyss/All Is Dust could be as good as Night.  Still testing.

Maybe bring Cursed Totem back in?  Really powerful vs DnT and Maverick/Elves

Potentailly replace downfall with wurmcoil/staff of nin

Potentially replacing Vault with a Swamp/Darkslick (more outs to Choke as a blue source)

Probably replacing the Batterskull with Wurmcoil for more consistency vs BUG, obviously taking a minor hit vs UWR since Batterskull is super consistent vs them and we are already hurt by RIP, but I think it's worth it - we can stall out UWR with Needle/Revoker + a planeswalker.

Replacing the Dig with a Staff of Nin - Staff wins the game, Dig does not, it's just a very powerful enabler.  However, sometimes it is impossible to cast Dig.  Staff is also tutorable, so all in all I think that having a lower cost and generally more powerful effects, it will be the better card.

All Is Dust in board?  Better than Downfall

-1 Trinisphere +1 Sun Droplet for Burn, Goblins, Delver, etc

Testing with Totem again, probably not very useful but still worth investigating

Replacing Lodestone with Spellskite - blanks Abrupt Decay vs BUG, blocks many creatures out of DnT and can help blank an otherwise more important Swords etc

Removed Deluge from board, switched to 2 Damnation side?  +1 Talisman main?

-1 Batterskull +1 Wurmcoil Engine

Spellskite, Etherium Sculptor, Courier's Capsule, Phyrexian Revoker to replace 1x Jace main?

Misdirection
Dimir Charm
The Abyss
In the Eye of Chaos

-1 Lili
+1 Dimir Charm

-1 Thirst -1 Staff +2 Dimir Charm?

Charms seem to provide more utility than Staff and Thirst - the deck isn't lacking late game threats, it's lacking early game interaction.  Thirst and Staff are the exact opposite of what the deck needs more of.  Charm answers most of the problems the deck has while also providing minor card selection.

+1 Night of Souls' Betrayal again

-2 Duress
-1 Thoughtseize

Underperforming cards only doing things in combo matchups really, and sometimes they don't help (i.e. Belcher)

Possibility for replacing 2x Dimir Charm with 1x Misdirection and 1x Thirst for Knowledge

Charm good in pretty much all matchups, allows diversity in removal spells and not being blank in certain matchups (i.e. combo) like Damnation and The Abyss end up being a lot of the time

Chill still remains a powerful option, but Sun Droplet seems to be better seeing as it is tutorable and provides similar quality effects.  Trinisphere also fills the role while being useful against combo decks as well (and it is also tutorable once again)

-2 Dimir Charm?  +1 Thirst +1 Misdirection?

Switching Cage for Leyline of the Void?  Reanimator is probably the worst matchup and with Decay, we can't stick a Bridge, Chalice, Trini, or even Cage.  Needs to be Leyline to dodge Decay and ignore counters.

Moving the 2nd Bridge to the main to replace the 2nd Dimir Charm (-2 Charm +1 Thirst +1 Bridge) - synergizes very well with the acceleration strategy, gives us a bit more early game options, helps give us another way to win game 1 vs Reanimator and SnT while also being excellent vs RUG Delver, Maverick, and BUG (minus the fact that it gets Decay'd, but even with that, two Bridges is better than one).  Also frees up another board slot to play Leyline of the Void

Board: -2 Cage -1 Bridge +3 Leyline of the Void

Trinisphere serves as a pseudo-Chill effect, usually comes down the same turn that Chill would, seeing as Chill requires the extra blue mana.  Trini is also tutorable, but I'm not sure if it's more or less powerful than Chill or some other card that I'd want to tutor vs Burn if I had the option.

Revising mana/acceleration in the deck: -1 Island, -1 Solemn Simulacrum, +1 City of Traitors, +1 Talisman of Dominance.  By decreasing the coloured sources in the lands by one, we are able to supplement with an extra coloured source in the Talisman.  This also serves as a similar evasion to Blood Moon, as well as Wasteland.  The overall consistency of the deck will be superior, due to the ability of the deck to have to mulligan less hands, since most hands will now have access to more accelerants, seeing as we have increased the total count of said accelerants by 2.  The quality of topdecks later on will decrease marginally, but the ability to reliably accelerate out the threats (which also happen to provide card selection to deal with the conundrum that was previously mentioned) that the deck has access to is well worth the marginally inferior ability of the deck to provide powerful threats later in the game.  Furthermore, the ability to be able to cast said threats with reliable mana as well as allow for the possibility of topdecking mana correction, should we fall under a position where more mana is required, or potentially a position where a Blood Moon or Wasteland has set us back, we now open ourselves to that possibility.  We also give ourself access to another mana rock to be used in conjunction with Transmute Artifact.  All things considered, I believe that this change to the deck is highly favourable.  The Simulacrum is the obvious choice to cut because it's high on the curve, provided similar mana fixing, and since the basic was being cut, the Simulacrum will often times be left without a target to hit.  Trinket Mage provides much more utility and can still fill the "mana fixing" slot, while also having a lower CMC.

-1 Vault of Whispers, -1 Trinket Mage -1 Thirst for Knowledge
+1 Swamp, +1 Island, +1 Solemn Simulacrum

The deck needs another land.  It's not consistent enough without it.  That being said, the Trinket Mage is being swapped for Solemn Simulacrum due to the fact that it actually smooths the mana base and allows us some play through Blood Moon.  We also get to play more basics in general vs Wasteland and Blood Moon decks.  Thirst is the card being cut for the land.  Thirst hasn't really performed as well as I really want for a card in the deck - it doesn't do anything in particular.  The deck doesn't offer any manipulation aside from Jace, so often times you're just drawing blind and throwing some garbage away for 3 mana.  It's a big investment that doesn't really contribute aggressively or defensively.  Typically just a waste of a turn that could be better spent on something else.

-1 Trading Post
+1 Trinisphere

For similar reasons, the Trading Post is being cut.  It's a gigantic mana investment that basically does nothing a lot of the time when it comes into play.  Even if it does come into play and we have the mana to use it, it offers almost nothing desirable.  Gaining 4 life is pretty close to being pointless a lot of the time.  The recursion and card draw is nice, but it's on the same level of "slowness" that Thirst is and it doesn't offer any legitmate "defensive" or proactive modes like Jace, Tezzeret, and Liliana do.  Trinisphere offers much more, while also being a legitimate transmute target.  Burn decks are often cold to a quick Trinisphere in G1, which can be huge.  Also hampers Delver quite heavily.  All things considered it's an excellent disruption piece that serves a much more important purpose than Trading Post.

Since the Trinisphere is in the main, some slots in the board can now be freed up.  We can play a pair of Chills to fix up the Burn matchup, since Trading Post did provide a bit of lifegain to assist in that matchup.  Chill is basically Trinispheres 2-3, that can be cast on turn 2 consistently, which is critical vs Burn.  Nonetheless, having a single Trinisphere still offers us a tutorable target to help disable Burn.  Chill is also alright against a few of the Pyromancer decks.  Burn is a very challenging matchup, so it is important that we dedicate resources to disrupting them. 

On the subject of bad matchups, Reanimator and BUG come to mind.  We do not have a tutorable graveyard hate card (Grafdigger's Cage has been considered in the past), we instead opt for 3 copies of Leyline of the Void.  This has proved to be very efficient, as it can't be Abrupt Decay'd, and it can get around Force of Will while also being reasonably castable in the deck, seeing as we have acceleration. 

On the subject of BUG (and Deathblade to a smaller extent), we are going to play an extra copy of Ratchet Bomb in the board.  Ratchet Bomb is excellent vs BUG and Deathblade, as it can hit all of their targets while also being able to be deployed early on in the game to avoid countermagic/targetted discard.  It is also a very strong early play vs Miracles.

Since our goal is to play 2 copies of Chill, a decision has to be made about cutting Sun Droplet.  The power level of the cards is similar, with the clear advantage of Droplet being that it can be tutored.  Chill also can completely disable the player for the entire game, while Droplet sometimes only presents a hindrance that can simply be ran over by Goblin Guide + Eidolon of the Great Revel.  All things considered, the matchups where Droplet matters are Burn and Goblins.  Droplet is often times too slow and if the decks actually manage to build up a commanding board state, it does absolutely nothing.  Chill always presents a reliable disruption piece.  Chill, if one can manage to resolve it, is basically a complete lock over Belcher as well.  They can't really expect to be able to resolve any of their rituals (Desperate, Pyretic, Rite of Flame, Seething Song) and it also shuts off Burning Wish + Empty the Warrens, as they simply will not have enough mana to cast them, even if they do manage to get some Lotus Petals or Chrome Moxen in play. 

Spellskite was often my choice card to bring in vs BUG and Miracles before, as it typically was able to keep a Disenchant or Abrupt Decay off a key card that I needed to keep in play, but I believe that Ratchet Bomb might be better.  Requires testing.

Flusterstorm has been very instrumental in dealing with ANT and various other Storm builds, as well as Belcher and most importantly, SnT.  However, the issue has arised on multiple occasions where I could not use the Flusterstorm to counter a Charbelcher or Sneak Attack.  Or it simply got Duress'd away.  I would really prefer a disruption piece that I could commit to the board and not worry about it being picked out of my hand.  I considered Swan Song as a solution to Sneak Attack, but obviously it turned out to be complete garbage with Chalice in the deck.  Mindbreak Trap is similarly good against Storm and Belcher, hitting the Belcher itself in this matchup, but it's terrible against SnT.  Perhaps there is a balancing act that needs to be committed here.  A different solution to both matchups might exist, but perhaps a split between the cards is actually what is required.

Could turn back to the Thoughtseize/Duress plan to help fix these matchups.

As ridiculous as it sounds, Trickbind also puts a considerable amount of pressure on SnT, Belcher, and Storm. 

Wurmcoil and Notion Thief have been consistently good against BUG.

-1 Needle +1 Revoker for Deathrite situations - Needle has seldom been good against anything else, typically just Sneak Attack if anything.  The same cards that would hit Needle in that matchup hit Revoker.  Both also die to Abrupt Decay just the same.  The only downside is the vulnerability to Path to Exile and Bolt, but we typically aren't bringing the card in against those decks, excluding Deathblade.

Spellskite seems really lackluster with a second Revoker in the board to help deal with Deathrite decks now.  It's pretty much always just been bait for Decay and we typically don't have anything that we want to survive a Decay, aside form Ensnaring Bridge.  Eats some burn spells as well, but we have two copies of Chill now so I don't forsee Spellskite being all that relevant now. 

Lodestone is still a powerful piece to deal with BUG.  Disrupts all of their cards aside from Strix and Shardless Agent while also providing a big dude that trades with pretty much everything aside from 5/6 Tarmogoyfs, which can realistically come out vs us.  It also can't be Decay'd.  All things considered, it's pretty sweet.  Not sure between Spellskite and this guy which I want more.  Probably this guy since he actually can hose a number of other decks if he comes down soon enough.

The board is also a bit lacking on combo hate I feel - we obviously do have 4 Forces, 4 Chalices, and a Trinisphere somewhere in the 75 along with the Flusterstorm out of the board, but I just feel like having a Mindbreak Trap in the board would be a bit of extra insurance.

I've been considering In the Eye of Chaos, but it feels like it's probably just going to be a Trinisphere most of the time.  It shuts off Force entirely and makes decks like RUG a complete nightmare to play, but Trinisphere and Chalice typically do the same thing. 

Between Chalice, Chill, and Thopter Foundry, I think we actually do have enough ways to deal with burn.

The graveyard hate issue is still a bit difficult to answer - it's nice to be able to have a card that can be tutored up to hate on the graveyard decks, but on the flip side of that argument, almost all of those cards, barring Tormod's Crypt, are one drops (Cage, Relic, Spellbomb) and one drops don't play well with Chalice obviously.  Leyline has been sweet since it can still be cast later on in the game and have a quasi-disrupting effect, but the most important thing about it is that sometimes it can sneak in as an essentially uncounterable effect.  It also can't be Decay'd, which is actually pretty important vs Reanimator nowadays.

However, I've been wanting to play a Helm of Obedience alongside the Leylines, but I feel like Helm is just a dead card a lot of the time and I can't ever board it in alone.  The deck does not function in the same way that RIP decks do and we can't get away with the excuse that Leyline hoses delve anymore, because it's not as powerful of a hoser as RIP is, and Treasure Cruise is also banned.  I think I'm going to just skip the Helm and rely on Leylines as just a graveyard hate piece, rather than a secondary combo win.  The Helm would just be cluttering up the board for a tiny bit of advantage in a select few matchups.

Night of Souls Betrayal might not actually be needed with both a Dread of Night and the other board wipes being present in the deck, especially with the extra copy of Ratchet Bomb being introduced.  We should have enough ways to handle DnT between the Dread of Night and the Bomb + mainboard EE and Bomb, as well as the Deluge, since they typically pressure our lands.  The Bomb also provides a way to answer TNN.  It's a slow way, but it's a way. 

Trading Post is actually really good against BUG, provides a way to play around Lili sac effect, provides recursion, can't be decayed, and it also provides another source of life gain vs Burn.  Not sure if it's better to play in the main than Trinisphere.  I'll be playing a 1-1 split of the two cards in the main and board and see if I can determine which is better to have main.  I suspect having the Trading Post in the main is probably better since it's a random silver bullet against a lot of things, but mostly because it provides a relevant single card threat that can be tutored with Transmute.  Trinisphere provides heavy disruption against combo and slows up Burn.  The biggest issue with Post, which also happens to be the reason that it's good against BUG, is the mana cost.  Trying to slam a 4 drop down against Burn that requires an additional mana to gain some life is pretty daunting when Trinisphere basically stops them from doing anything for a while.  However, Post has inevitability that Trinisphere does not have (i.e. a burn player can eventually pay 3 for their bolt and burn you out that way, whereas the Post can continuously gain 4 life a turn to match the draws of the burn player), so after all of this discussion about the two cards, I'm going to actually play the Post main since the game one against BUG really really awful. 

BUG, Reanimator, and SnT make up some of the worst game ones.  Having a the Trading Post there to help recur Ensnaring Bridge to save us in those matchups is actually way more relevant than having the Trini main, seeing as we already have Chalices to help hinder the decks that Trini is good against.

Plus, without the Thrist in the main, having the Post gives us another "engine" to get the deck fueled later on.  Not very conducive to Dig Through Time or Murderous Cut from my testing.  They both can be cast, just not as reliably vs the decks that have Brainstorm and Ponder.  Case closed on that pretty much, since we already have other tutors and draw engines that are significantly more consistent and don't require the same level of input (i.e. Tezzeret, Trading Post)

Plus, now I get another option to bring in vs burn, alongside the life gain from the Post in Trinisphere, so I feel a lot more comfortable cutting the more or less worthless Spellskite now, since it was typically a tool vs burn.

Lodestone might not be needed anymore with the Post back in the deck, since we should actually have enough tools against BUG now.  Cutting the Lodestone actually gives us the opportunity to leave in the Night of Souls' Betrayal, which I'm still not sure about.  It just feels so clunky.  It's a complete miss in a lot of matchups, and is more or less just a concession to TNN, which we can also just answer with the tutorable Ensnaring Bridge.  It probably should be cut since we're playing the Deluge now.  See discussion about DnT, regarding Night of Souls' Betrayal/Dread of Night.  Also turns off my Strixes which can be really obnoxious at times.

There still might be merit to playing 1-2 Thirst for Knowledge.  However, I still strongly believe that the deck does not actually want to be playing the card for many reasons.  It's slow and low immediate impact, but it does provide strong card selection and advantage.  If I ever find room for a Dig, I probably will just play the Thirst again instead.

A third copy of Phyrexian Revoker could be very good, especially against Miracles.  I believe I mentioned before that it's strong against Deathrite Shaman as well as Stoneforge Mystic, which often times present a bit of a problem, so I might end up opting for this instead of the Lodestone Golem.

A few other Tezz players seem to have a massive boner for 1-2 copies of Vendilion Clique in the board, which I'm not a particularly huge fan of.  Might just be one of those things that I disagree with, like Thirst.  However, I will agree that Clique is high impact, it just doesn't feel like a card that the deck wants.  We're not usually looking to pick our opponents hand apart with cards like Duress, Thoughtseize, or Clique.  We want to put a roadblock up that stops them from doing whatever it is they had planned before they can do it (i.e. Ensnaring Bridge, Chalice of the Void)

I've considered The Abyss on many occasions, for similar reasons as Night of Souls Betrayal, especially against BUG and Batterskull decks.  Probably is the best options available. 

More Revokers/Needles, in addition to dealing with Top, can also name Helm of Obedience.

Ultimately decided to shed the Lodestone Golem since we have enough tools to deal with BUG.  Revoker can also name Charbelcher and a few other random mana sources like Lion's Eye Diamond.  Also hits Grindstone, etc.  Pretty much any active win con, it stops cold in its tracks while also not falling prey to the Chalice on one like Needle did.  Typically, with a Chalice out on one will also be able to protect the Revoker from Swords, and to a lesser extent, Bolt.  Typically isn't going to be brought in vs Bolts decks though.

+1/2 Clique in board?  Helps deal with combo matchups and provides a powerful threat?  Might just be better as Duress/Thoughtseize to help fix up bad matchups.  Consideration is as follows: -3 Leyline of the Void, +2 Grafdigger's Cage, +1 Thoughtseize, +1/2 Duress, -1/2 other cards.  Gives more powerful early options to help disrupt a multitude of decks.  Doesn't play nice with Chalice, but it's probably required to allow for enough early plays.

-1 Swamp, -1 Solemn Simulacrum, -1 Trading Post
+1 Darkslick Shores, +1 Trinisphere, +1 Thirst for Knowledge

Not really happy with playing Thirst again, but I don't really know what else to put in the slot.  Maybe Tezzeret the Seeker.

-1 Trinisphere SB
+1 Lodestone Golem

-2 Phyrexian Revoker
+2 Vendilion Clique

Still contemplating the switch between Leyline and Cage/Relic, they both seem to offer a fair amount of power, especially in that Leyline can't be countered early on and can't be Decay'd either, but Cage can similarly be tutored up.

-1 Thirst for Knowledge +1 Damnation

Typically, every deck is playing creatures.  Even Miracles with Entreat, or Clique/Snapcaster, etc.  If they aren't, they're doing something degenerate, hence the slot that Damnation fills is always going to be irrelevant vs non-creature decks, aside from it being Thirst for potentialy drawing the exact card you need in a certain situation or a similar case with Trinket Mage to get a Needle or EE or Cage, etc.

Revoker, Thirst, and Trinisphere are maybe slots, potentially replacing with Tezzeret the Seeker and Damnation.