@pnutbutrsangwich
When you are playing the deck, you need to pick a lane. The deck usually has 3 main win conditions in Mentor, Blightsteel Colossus, and sometimes Tendrils of Agony. The match ups against the deck will dictate how you play out the game.
I found that playing any combo deck against control requires 2 modes of play. You are either pushing into everything to exhaust them or you wait for a critical mass and beat them on the stack. If you are against Shop or Aggro you need have to race their tempo or disrupt it. If you are in a combo mirror you have to time it out very carefully.
I know these are very generic tips but there is no one size fits all with this deck. This deck is full of nuance that makes each hand different and difficult to play. I personally find that you must be very careful when you mulligan because losing any cards really hurts this deck.
When you commit to a strategy you need to fully commit. If you are going to race a deck you cannot take your foot off of the gas. If you are going for the battle on the stack you must read every card played on the stack and be very tactically about your goal.
I found at SCG Con I lost games where I lost my focus and changed my strategy. I had outs in my matches that I lost and I did not commit to those outs and I ended up losing winnable games.
The good thing about this deck is that you are rarely out of the game even against Stoney Silence and Energy Flux. Against Stoney Silence your Tolarian Academy is critical and you need have a mix of Fragmentize and Disenchant or a bounce spell. I personally played one Echoing Truth and one Fragmentize main deck.
Disenchant on the sideboard does cost one more and this is a big deal but it cannot be Mental Misstepped so it is a good card to use against decks that depend on Null Rod/Stoney Silence. The Echoing Truth helps a lot against multiples which players will stack against you.
There are always going to be hate cards you have to play through and every player that is trying to stop you will name some card that they will use to stop you. You must just commit to playing through and have a clear strategy to do so.
last edited by moorebrother1