Originally Posted by
benthetenor
I think there are a few things in your (last) list that aren't quite optimal, but that's okay. I think you want at least 6 fetchlands to interact with Brainstorm and to thin out your deck, and I've been testing 7 to no real ill effect since there just aren't as many Lightning Bolts running around anymore, but either way 4 is probably not enough. I also think that if you are playing a Force of Will deck, you need the full 4; I understand how the card disadvantage is rough, and it's something that has been discussed with this deck in particular for a very, very long time but consensus is that it's a card that you need to play, and you need to see it in the matchups where you really need it. Now, there's nothing wrong with sideboarding it out in matchups where you don't need it. As for maindeck Spell Pierce/Flusterstorm, it's not a bad thing, but I think you're going to find it hurting your consistency too much. In Spiral Tide, you can afford to run 4 extra counterspells because you can always just cast Time Spiral to make up for all of that lost card advantage, but in this deck you want to have as few dead cards while you're going off as possible, because every one you draw is pretty devastating. Even Remand is not a good card to draw when going off just because it's really inefficient as far as cantrips go. If you like what Spell Pierce and Flusterstorm do for you, I'd put a few in the sideboard to bring in for Remands or Force of Wills, depending on what matchup you're talking about. Spell Pierce instead of Force of Will is a great board plan against Jund, for instance. I've also talked at length about Opt's place in this deck, but I guess my time away from it has mellowed my opinion. I think if you like it, play it, but I've found that Visions of Beyond is more often going to be better, particularly in your build as you have so many dead cards mid-combo.
What I've come to realize about this deck in years of playing it is that the cards you can play all exist somewhere on the continuum between speed-------resilience. That's true of whole combo decks in general, but this deck is so flexible that you can cater it to your playstyle or to what you expect the metagame to look like, pretty much on a tournament-by-tournament basis. For instance, if you think there's going to be a lot of control, or if you want to play a slower version of the deck, you can play cards like Remand and Peek, play an 18th (or 19th) land, play Think Twice and Flash of Insight, play extra Brain Freezes in the sideboard. If you want to go fast, you can play Snapcaster Mage and Snap and Twincast. If you want to be as consistent as possible, you can play Snapcaster/Snap instead of Remand, you can run Visions of Beyond instead of Peek, you can run fewer lands with more cantrips. It's been my experience that I'm good at playing this deck when it's running the fewest "dead" cards possible, and when each card is as efficient as it can possibly be. Using the most efficient cards (like Snap and Visions of Beyond and Twincast) lets me play either fast or slow depending on what I need to do, and helps keep me more safe from cards like Spell Pierce and Daze because I know I'm being as efficient as possible. But I do think it's important to be able to play with all of the cards available to you, and to adjust your deck to the metagame that you're expecting. And, most importantly, to have a backup deck for a hostile metagame.
