Love this thing.

Working on my own build, using your list as heavy inspiration. I love it, and can't wait to kick ass with it. Do you have any budget options for some of the higher priced cards? If you'd be so kind to check my deck out, I'd appreciate it. It's Dirty Shapeshifting Tactics.

What are your thoughts on Archmage's Charm could be handy as a utility counter spell. What about Dimir Charm , which can be used to get rid of pesky, small creatures, take care of a sorcery, or manipulate either your or your opponents top deck. And Force of Negation seems like a perfect card to have in the deck.

Hi!

As far as budget alternatives, here are my suggestions:

• Mana Crypt : you can either go with a Thran Dynamo or the upcoming Arcane Signet . You do lose the option to kill a player on turn 3/4, but those rocks will serve you well in the mid to late game.

• Ancient Tomb and Minamo, School at Water's Edge can be easily swapped with basic lands.

• Rhystic Study can be replaced by Mystic Remora , but it is a little suboptimal. You could consider Necropotence , but the cost is quite hard to achieve.

• Training Grounds has a weaker, but less expensive alternative in Heartstone .

• As for the more expensive tutors, like Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor , you can go with their cheaper counterparts like Diabolic Tutor , Beseech the Queen , Dark Petition and Final Parting .

• Cyclonic Rift : you can go with an Evacuation .

• Damnation and Toxic Deluge : these are hard to replace because we don't have too many options that do what they do for the same mana cost. You could consider something like AEtherize or Whelming Wave .

• Mana Drain : you don't really need it, as you can safely go with Countersquall .

• Force of Will , on the other hand, is very hard to replace. Whatever you choose to include instead of it won't be the same. You want Will because you can tap out and still have a response, therefore something like Arcane Denial would be suboptimal. At the same time, another "free" counterspell like Foil won't be ideal because it rips two cards from your hand instead of one. The only decent option, I think, would be Pact of Negation , even though it's more useful as a protection for game-winning combos instead of player-OTKs.

• Intuition is another card that is incredibly hard to replace, as it's one of the 2/3 best cards in the deck. You could go with a Corpse Connoisseur , but I recommend you to get a copy as soon as possible if you enjoy the deck as it is one of the best upgrades you can make.

• Phyrexian Dreadnought , unfortunately, cannot be replaced. It's the key card of the deck. No other creature is that powerful for such a low CMC. Nyxathid and Eater of Days are a few options, but they pale in comparison with the Dreadnought.

As for your suggestions, I kind of like Archmage's Charm for the utility of its second mode. The only problem I have with it is its mana cost which can sometimes be awkward, making the spell not always consistent. I don't really like Dimir Charm . It's first mode is rarely useful as oftentimes we want to counter removal spells directed to Lazav during our turn, and those are almost always instants. The second and third modes are okayish, but other spells do the same things better. I do get that this is a versatile spell, giving you the option to do three different things, but I believe that dedicated spells will serve you better. If the first mode gave you the option to counter an instant spell I would consider it, but as is it's not ideal. Also, I'm not a huge fan of Force of Negation in this deck. The moment you want to be able to counter spells is often during your turn, when you are trying to kill a player and that player is trying to disrupt you. In that case, Force will be useless as it won't be free. On the other hand, it's also true that if you manage to kill an opponent, chances are you are forced to tap out. This leaves you vulnerable to disruption during the other players turns, and in this case Force will come in handy. I don't know. I'm not fully convinced, but I could change my mind.

I will be checking your own deck and give you some feedback!

What do you make of the new Hypnotic Sprite , if not optimal, as a budget option. Works well as a counter spell with evasion attached once it's in the yard.

Have you seen anything else spoiled that got you excited in Eldraine previews?

Hypnotic Sprite is too cumbersome for what it does. If you use the the adventure part, the creature goes into exile instead of into the graveyard. From that point, you have to cast it and then have it die for Lazav to copy it. This is too much work for a card that just gives Lazav flying for , as we have better options that cost less mana. Even the counter ability of the adventure mode is suboptimal, as it costs three mana and only targets three-or-less CMC spells. I think a handy, cheap creature with evasion or one of the more classic counterspells will serve you better, even if you are on a budget.

As for the other spoilers from Throne of Eldraine, I haven't seen anything particularly good so far. Clackbridge Troll got me a little excited because it has both trample and haste stapled on a single card, but five mana is a little too much for us and our opponents can just tap him with little to no effort. Let's hope WOTC prints something playable, but we won't get another Phyrexian Dreadnought . The deck works well as is, therefore we would need something really incredible to be even considered.

Good points. Completely forgot that it goes into exile after sending it on an adventure.

Also one of the downsides of Necropotence other than casting cost here is it makes all your discard outlets worthless.