I posted this on Librudder's thread:

Lilbrudder and BarbeChenue, five counterspells is fewer than I am used to seeing for competititive lists. Dan's Doomtide Thrasios plays eight and Skuloth's Zur list uses eleven. BarbeChenue, are you finding that number sufficient in the tournmanent? If I wanted to add two additional counters which cards would you guys remove?

My bad on the count-six instead of five

I'm much more looking for removal than counterspells at the moment. In all three games since the start of the tourney, I've had to deal with Aura of Silence, turn two Null Rod, and (today) turn one Null Rod. The deck can leave one or two mana up, but the proactive plan consisting of laying a bunch of rocks and dorks into play means we don't have that much room for the draw-go plan. I'm really looking for more removal than counterspells, because stax pieces play in your favor when they are left to do their thing before you go off. In all games I've played 1-2 other players were stopped by those stax pieces, and removing them meant risking having them take advantage of my removal, which is what happened in game 1 when I Abrupt Decayed Aura of Silence, only to give the Teferi player a clean path to victory.

What removal will you add and what gets cut? What would you have done differently in the game you lost? You are playing 22 artifacts. How should you have played around the Aura of Silence?

I am assuming Vandalblast has proven itself as one of your edits to the deck.

One of the changes I'm thinking currently is to switch Overgrown Tomb for Taiga. I lost last night's match partly because I drew an Arid Mesa, but couldn't fetch a green source out of it (I had Carpet of Flowers, Arbor Elf and Abrupt Decay in hand). I'm almost certain the added 'just-in-case' utility will outstrip the loss of a second Bayou.

I'm starting to think Natural State mighty be a good addition. I'm not sure what I would cut yet.

Frank_Glascock: I'm now thinking of maybe boarding in Spell Pierce. I've found that there are many mana "narrow straits" during rounds where Spell Pierce becomes unavoidable, or avoidable by abandoning the victory window. Of course, Spell Pierce and Negate both can't hit hatebears or creature wincons, but the round you positively need to stop someone from going off usually involve noncreature spells.

Lilbrudder is up to eight counterspells. He is playing your six plus Spell Pierce and Force of Will in his tournament list (Paradox Scepter Storm). My hypothesis was that in addition to making the deck more interactive the counterspells may increase the speed of the deck. It seems from the Laboratory Maniacs' videos that trying to combo with no counterspells is a tenuous situation. Has that been your experience?

It depends. The problem with too many counterspells on the other hand is that the Paradox Scepter "combo" partially works off of Paradox Engine untapping after each spell cast, then dumping that mana into Thrasios and weaving a win. Counterspells require targets to be put on the stack and cast, so by themselves they can't trigger engine. It's not the only wincon of the deck, but I've used the desperate "play spells, get mana, draw with Thrasios" many, many times with Engine in play.

That sounds very reasonable. I am already playing Force of Will. I may not add Spell Pierce.

Was I right in that you are not updating this list until after the tournament?

Frank_Glascock: Exactly. I'm keeping the list as a reference document during the tourney (before tutoring, etc.).Depending on tiebreakers, I may reach the semifinals, but yesterday's (second) lost against tw0handt0uch's unexpected Tazri list gave me a lukewarm 2-4 record. I had also lost to Tazri last week vs. ShaperSavant.

What made Twohandtouch's Tazri list unexpected?

He was playing Bomberman combo, and I tutored for Abrupt Decay thinking he was going for Food Chain. A pretty big deal.

Yea, I know from communicating with him that he is running a different version than the typical Tarzi deck. I hope you know that me and a lot of the Thrasios players are appreciative of you.

Thanks! Fingers crossed for the tiebreakers to be in my favor, we'll probably have the results on Saturday/Sunday. My goal from the start has been to enter the semifinals (the top 16). I'm expecting that, of the 45 players remaining in the tourney (from the 56 initial), there will be quite a few who have records similar to mine (2-4), so I'm keeping my expectations low to avoid disappointment. If there is another tourney in the upcoming months, I'd love to compete once more.

Update: I'm actually in the Top 16 vs. BigLupu, infiniteimoc and Waxpapers.