[EDH] Braids

[Atwa]

I was going to finish the chaos draft I held with some friends next Sunday, but unfortunately one of the guys can't make it. I offered to bring some EDH decks for the other two guys so we can at least play. I am the only one who still plays regularly and has a pretty decent collection, so I have no problem with it. The only problem is that I only have a Sisay deck at the moment, so I started looking through my Legendary collection to see what other decks I could make. I already had build a Dragon deck, so I guess I'll just rebuild that one, but I was really stuck on the 3th one.

I came across Braids, but remembered she was banned, so I didn't bother with her. I was going for Stonebrow, but after looking at the banned list, I was bazzled only the black Braids is banned. I reread the blue one and it's a fricking Show and Tell every upkeep!

Here is the draft I shoved together in half an hour. I would like some comments on the list, although I might not be able to make the suggested changes. I have a nice collection, but blue is a color I never really played outside of competive play (and I tend to avoid it even there, no Jace the Moneyslurper for me), so I don't have much of the casual cards. I have also put a lot of cards in the other 2 decks (I only have 1 Strip Mine for instance), and I won't be able to spend a lot of money on it. I'm just saying because I might not be able to make all the changes.

Here is the list:
General:
Braids, Conjurer Adept

Lands:
27x Island
Wasteland
Maze of Ith
Soaring Seacliff
Tolaria West
Lonely Sandbar
Cephalid Coliseum
Faerie Conclave
Halimar Depths
Academy Ruins
Minamo, School at Water's Edge
Eye of Ugin

Card quality and quantity:
Kami of the Crescent Moon
Arcanis the Omnipotent
Magus of the Future

Ancestral Vision
Sensei's Divining Top
Brainstorm
Ponder
Preordain
Candles of Leng
Mind Spring
Standstill
Concentrate
Foresee
Fact or Fiction

Control:
Ertai, Wizard Adept
Venser, Shaper Savant
Draining Whelk
Duplicant

Pact of Negation
Echoing Truth
Counterspell
Trickbind
Wipe Away
Rewind
Dismiss
Nevinyrral's Disk
Force of Will
Spelljack
Time Stop
All is Dust

Steal/Copy other's stuff:
Gilded Drake
Sakashima the Impostor
Vesuvan Shapeshifter

Vedalken Shackles
Bribery
Treachery
Dominate

General Utility:
Djinn of Wishes

Proteus Staff
Show and Tell
Jace Beleren
Time Warp
Planar Portal
Mindslaver

Making playing Show and Tell worth it:
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Guile
Wurmcoil Engine
Keiga, the Tide Star
Platinum Angel
Goliath Sphinx
Palinchron
Artisan of Kozilek
Pathrazer of Ulamog
Tidal Kraken
Deep-Sea Kraken
Tidespout Tyrant
Darksteel Colossus
Myojin of Seeing Winds
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Any help would be appreciated! Only a few more days to tweak it a little and another one still to build.....

[Offler]

I was trying to imagine similar deck. Any thoughts ended at point when people said that when I play Braids, it will be the opponent who will benefit first.

The cards that are used are pretty nice for such deck. If there are any methods which cause opponent to sacrifice permanent each turn it will be veeery funny. However... In blue? There are cards saying "pay or sacrifice"... Aura flux, Pendrell mists... and so on...

If you get your opponent to state when he cannot pay all the upkeeps for his permanents while you can or you have no upkeep costs at all you will benefit from the Braids Ability.

[Beware]

You can benefit from her first if you can manage to flash her into play. :D

Ward of Bone is pretty awesome in Braids. Knowledge Exploitation is just begging to join the party, especially if he can invite Eye of the Storm to tag along.

[TheArchitect]

Braids and Paradox Haze are amazing. Also if you planning on mostly multiplayer mind's eye and Rhystic Study provide ridiculous card advantage.

And as far as big blue game altering fatties go some other good ones might be Inkwell Leviathan and Stormtide Leviathan.

[RexFTW]

you might try platinum emperion instead of platinum angel. Staying at positive life is better than going into negative but he offers just a little less protection. Might want to include the guy with landfall steal permanents (dont recall the name).

I think minds eye is also a good replacement for candles of leng.