Not a bunch to do with MTG, but I am sure most of you, just like myself, am a huge fan of the Marvel Universe and just wanted to post this for memory. He will be missed.

But what you asking is comparable to the Trinisphere era. You act as if every game is turn 1 Trini and you don't have FoW. But....it's not. They do not always get lock peice into revoker into waste. For every game they do, they also get workshop, 3 moxen, and 2 ravager. The scenerios your bringing up nothing can beat except dredge or FoW, well, welcome to vintage for the last 15 years. No one can come up with some magical free card that don't exist that obliterates Mana denial affects because it don't exist, so why keep beating a dead horse?

Did you guys see this Elf?!?! It only costs 1 and taps for green. Even pitches to bounty!

Erhmagerd, nothing but shops and mentor lists.....lulz, wait this was a real paper tournament not MTGO. I love this t8, so much diversity, and Merfolk wins, awesome! Great tournament I bet. Thanks for the write up.

If Gush, Mental Misstep, and Gitaxian Probe, were all restricted (and mind you Im 100% a blue player), this would open 9 slots in a lot of decks. These slots would most likely become One cc removal spells (claim, bolt, swords, grudge, fatal push, duress, thoughtseize etc etc), which would help against Mentor, AND help shore up MUD matches, to the point that they could even unrestrict Lodestone. Also it would free up Dark Ritual since Derpstep is gone, and now the Ritual Pillar, whether storm, darkdepths combo, or 4 Hymn/4 Mindtwist.dec, all become viable again. Creating more deck archetypes, adding more removal maindeck to handle Mentors/Lodestones, and making a lot of players happy since they no longer auto lose to turn 1 Gitax Probe/Derpstep seems very good for the Vintage Community. Id much rather my opponent plat turn one Lodestone (without chalice backup, leave that shit restricted), than have some n00b git probe me, derpstep my brainstorm, and go off while I do nothing and the know I cant. Git probe feels very "cheaty". Derpstep was simply a fucking mistake and needs to be erased from all history books.

2001, Im playing 4 color Keeper using Jesters Cap as my win con, using Fact or Fiction and Gaeas Blessing Recursion. My opponent is on MonoBlack LD. I cast Moat. I cap him. No flyers. No disks. I ask him to concede, he refuses. I say fine I am going to exile your entire deck. Commence game. I had 2 cards in hand, I ask him how many cards left in his deck, 7 he says. I braingeyser him for 7, cast balance, zuran orb away my lands, leaving him w no cards in hand, and no permanents, Tormods Crypt his grave, and pass the turn. Why you playing when you got no cards in the game bro?

Happy Father's Day to all the parents out there. May you make your children choose between Workshops or Islands.

Mana Drain on an uncounterable spell stills nets you the colorless Mana of said spell you tried to counter. First time I seen this was at a tourney in 2000ish, right after Invasion. One guy casts Obliterate to wipe the board, guy 2 drains it, guy 1 says can't uncounterable. Guy 2 says I know but I still get 10 colorless Mana. Next turn he drops U Sea, casts Yawg Will into a lotus, moxen, and brain geyser to refill his grip. Was a beautiful play.

#1 magic card?

CONTRACT FROM BELOW.

The rest don't matter because I prolly ante'd it while drawing my deck on turn one off a Dark Ritual.

My point is, if you truly believe you can't cast a 1-2 Mana spell or creature on the draw versus a sphere heavy hand, then there is no answer. More lands, guides, and all the removal spells in magic have literally been named in this very thread. There are no more answers. Just realize your going to lose those 10% of games that happens. It's a random card game. 90% chance to win seems pretty damn good, why complain about the 10% you don't? Even if there was an answer, you'd still have to draw it, your simply not going to win 100% against....well...any tier 1 deck. That's kinda the point of it being a game right? Sometimes you lose and there is nothing you can do about it.

@moorebrother1 Why no Gush/Gitaxion probe?

@moorebrother1 I still suggest testing some number of Snapcasters/Ninja's. I understand Snappy might be counter intuitive to the massive Delve plan, so maybe it isn't great here, but Ninja of Deep Hours can turn an unflipped Delver into 2 dmg and draw a card, and will do so more often than you think.

As far as other options to test off the top of my head:

Guilded Drake/Waterfront bouncer
Magus of the Unseen
Cloud of Fairies
Spellstutter Sprite
Phantasmal Image

I believe all these are mostly meta dependant tho, so will depend on that and testing to see what works. Best of luck! I have enjoyed BBS in all it's forms from Ophidian/Superman to Delver, and hope you do also.

@moorebrother1 Did you ever have issue with the 6 cascade spells, as in not having enough grave fodder? That's A lot of pitch spells, would having a one of Jace or ninja of deep hours or something to give you continuous draw be a consideration? No snapcaster in monoblue aggro feels icky. But I may be biased. Snapcaster into Ninja, into Snapcaster has won me quite a few games with this archetype.

@moorebrother1 Think you were replying to John Cox, not me lol. He asked about Rods, I asked how Abundant Harverst worked out for you overall as a cantrip (vs other blue cantrips I suppose) and how often it was need to either pitch to FoV, or how often you used it in a one land opener to find that 2nd mana source?

How good were the two Abundant Harvest? How often did you keep a 1 land hand with Abundant? I am aware it's probably needed for green count for Vigor, I just wanna know how you feel it compares to other cantrips? Thank you

If I were to try this out in a list it would have to be some Mana Denial strategy with strips/wastes, maybe spheres of some form or another. The idea being that this will continue to mill (exile) all Moxen/Lands it hit's until it hits the CMC requirement. No you may not hit that key combo card, but you are likely to hit 5+ mana sources. Throw in spheres/Thalia's, wastelands, Revokers, Null Rods, Ouphes, etc etc, you can easily mana screw any current list. Just my thought on it.

@moorebrother1 wouldn't Vision Charm just be better in general? More utility, just as much Mill.

Yeah, I would most likely try to go full shutdown and run Null Rod, Ophe, Thorn of Amethyst, and Trinisphere. With 4 Dr. Shaman, and 4 Noble Hierarchs I see no reason not to run Ancestral Recall and Time Walk, and if your talking 3 drop bombs, Hull Breacher, and Energy Flux are both great SB options vs Xerox/Combo, and MUD respectively, and are all easy to splash as they only require 1 blue.

Maybe a Tron Variant with Darksteel Forge, making all your artifacts Indestructible so you can blow disk every turn while keeping all your stuff? Not sure how often Tron hits 9 mana by turn 3-4, I don't play Modern, but I figure if they can consistently cast Ugin, then a disk and a Forge shouldn't be too unreasonable.

edit: I just searched gatherer for artifacts with Indestructible that are in Modern, that's where I personally would start my search, and don't forget Counterspell is getting printed, and we don't know for sure the impact that will have on Moderns Meta yet as well, that's a HUGE change for that format.

So this enchantment + Void Mirror in a deck with Ornithopters, all Moxen, Phyrexian Walkers, Memnites, etc, can make a viable "draw my deck, find win con, win" type of deck? I remember people trying it with Chalice before, but this honestly seems much easier to pull off, maybe? Just a thought I had when I seen this trying to take it in a different direction than "anti-stax" or "psuedo Null Rod".