I need to make this deck a faster. Although it's strong as-is, there are some dead cards that I can drop for more ramp and low-cost answers.

why the Deathrite Shaman and no Phyrexian Arena?

Phyrexian Arena is just too slow. Although it's a good card, it just doesn't do enough for its cost.

Deathrite Shaman is a strong ramp card in a fetch-heavy meta. It exiles other players' fetch lands and turns off Crucible of Worlds as a result. It's not ideal if I need to exile my own fetches, but that option exists as well.

okay then, now looking deeper into the update, why dropping Thran Dynamo and adding Brainstorm (all of the sudden)

Thran Dynamo is similarly slow, but I'm giving Brainstorm a shot to impress me. I suppose I have a bit of a reputation for telling players Brainstorm isn't great in EDH, but it's contextual. I play 9 fetches and several tutors, so it has potential; most other decks don't use as many shuffle effects.

What other ramp spells have you considered? Cards like Into the North or even Farseek are cheap two-drops. Cultivate and Kodama's Reach have awesome synergy with Explore and Azusa, Lost but Seeking.

Also, have you tried Forbid? It does stupid things with Damia, Sage of Stone and will lock someone down as another win condition.

I also play BUG, but I'm still looking for fetches and revised duals. I play it more like reanimator. Dropping Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur on turn one or two is a very scary thing for my opponent(s) to deal with.

Since you're running so many fetches/other land ramp spells, Khalni Heart Expedition seems good here: 2 mana to put out 2 lands, and the landfall triggers could very easily all happen on the same turn that you play it.

I'm adding Burgeoning once again because I have space.

I thought about Farseek, but I don't like that it forces the land to come in tapped. I suppose it doesn't matter if I find a shock with it, but it's still not as good as Nature's Lore. I'm debating whether another 2-drop ramp spell is worth it.

Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are certainly good cards in EDH, but they're just a bit expensive for this deck. They only find basics, and the one that goes to the field has to come in tapped.

Forbid seems to get suggested often, and I never see enough reason to include it. The mana cost is a bit problematic (I don't like running 3-drop counterspells, but I have to make exceptions for Hinder and Voidslime because of their power), and the buyback is expensive. Although Damia does work to reduce the impact of the discard, I still don't think I'll ever be in a position where I'd want to pitch two cards.

BUG does very well in a reanimator role. The shock/fetch/dual lineup is obviously the ideal land base for a tri-color deck, but you can sometimes make due without them.

I never considered Khalni Heart Expedition. It may have some serious potential. I wish the lands came in untapped or that it only required two quest counters, but fetching two lands just from landfall is strong and reasonably doable. I might test this out.

i actually think that Forbid will be very good in this deck, helping you drop excess lands you don't need.i think that Khalni Heart Expedition will be explosive with Azusa, Lost but Seeking.

Is there any reason you have not considered Black Sun's Zenith?

Forbid is just too slow and costly. I rarely find myself with extra cards of any kind; even multiple lands can be useful because of cards like Azusa, Lost but Seeking.

I was bouncing the idea of Khalni Heart Expedition off this deck's codesigner, and he feels that the three quest counters, slower speed, and "onto the battlefield tapped" clause are marks against this card. I may still try it, but he has reconfirmed the potential weaknesses of Khalni Heart Expedition.

Black Sun's Zenith is, like Forbid, too slow. X would need to be equal to at least 2 or 3 for Black Sun's Zenith to kill most important support creatures, and the mana cost at that point would be prohibitive. Additionally, the sorcery speed further limits it.

Great comments so far - keep posting, everyone!

There are 2 things that i feel you are missing in this deck and I'm not sure if its by design or unintentionally that they have been ignored, and perhaps even if its totally unnecessary to consider and they are a sac outlet and a graveyard removal card. Many decks have graveyard strategies, including yours have you considered the possibility of mirror match up?

I know Deathrite Shaman is in the deck and for that reason i question its reliability for graveyard removal. It gives the added bonus of giving mana and life however it is easily dealt with by any deck you might play against

I don't think the deck needs a sac outlet; I don't have any reason to include one.

Graveyard hate isn't really relevant. Often, cards good at graveyard hate are only good at graveyard hate, and that means I would need to give up utility in other areas just to run them.

I wouldn't say this deck has a graveyard-based strategy. There are only a few cards in the deck that even interact with my graveyard, and none of them are critical unless a combo has failed.

This deck is most often played in the mirror match, and it does very well in that setting. Part of that is possibly player skill, and another part is luck. Mirror matches with combo-control decks often come down to who has the best opener.

Deathrite Shaman was included not for its graveyard hate abilities but for its ramp abilities. It's more important that I'm getting mana of any color than it is that I'm exiling cards from graveyards, although disabling other players' Crucible of Worlds+fetch recursion is a nice touch. If an opponent wants to kill my mana dork, then he or she is welcome to. They'll just have one less removal spell that can interrupt my combo.

Dropped Maelstrom Pulse for Burgeoning.

I'm considering dropping Beast Within for Pongify.

You may want to keep Beast Within. You don't have many answers for permanents that have managed to make it onto the battlefield and Beast Within is both an instant and versatile, even if it does cost three mana. If you are going to limit the ways you have to interact with an opponent's board then the more versatile your options are the better.

I definitely agree with SaberTech. Pongify is great creature removal, but Beast Within deals with all nasty permanents, especially enchantments and planeswalkers.

I'm curious, do you still use this deck in group matches or is it primarily used 1v1?

The deck is meant to be played in tournament pods (4-player games), but most of my playtesting has been the 1v1 mirror and 1v1 against Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. I probably wouldn't fare well against 1v1 generals like Zur.

I really don't like the CMC of Beast Within, but I do acknowledge the need for more rounded removal. It'll stay in until a better option surfaces.

I've been play testing this deck and I don't particularly care for Burgeoning.

Sometimes I luck out and, assuming I'm running the deck in a pod, I drop it first turn and get to drop three more land. Unfortunately the deck doesn't run many proactive cards that can take advantage of the accelerated land drops and doesn't have lots of strong draw power before the third turn to resupply my hand with more land to drop. After dropping those four land I often spend the next couple of turns not drawing more land or aggressive plays, so by the time the third turn comes around I'm not in a much better position than if I was just dropping a land per turn. Cards like Nature's Lore and the mana artifacts often feel like the higher quality plays. Burgeoning does have the potential to make for some amazing first few turns, but I think that with this deck's current build those sorts of amazing plays will be an infrequent occurrence.

I also haven't been getting counters and other control cards at a rate that would make me feel comfortable in a pod match.

Take my feedback with a grain of salt though, I'm notorious for having abysmal luck with the Tapped Out playtest program.

Burgeoning is hit or miss. It's great in pod environments, but it isn't always consistent.

I'm thinking about adding Delay to this deck. It isn't amazing in the first few turns, but it's effectively a hard counter if I start nearing my combo. The game will be over before the card is cast from suspend.

Delay isn't a horrible option. Holding off an opponent's early game mana ramp or forcing a commander centered deck to decide if they want to wait three turns or let Delay be a hard counter are viable options too.

The issue I have with playing counters in a group game is that if I am the only one running counters as my main answer to problems, then I am the one who is frequently going to have to be the first to decide if I want to deal with a particularly threatening spell. If that's the case, then I'll be using up my defensive spells to save not only myself but everyone else from those spells while the other players can sit on their own answers that may be turned towards my own stuff later.

If you are only looking to stop an opponent's game enders and ensure that your own combos get through then you don't need a lot of counters in the deck, just enough that you are likely to have one or two in hand by the time you have set up your board that way you want. If you focus your defense more on instant speed kill and destroy spells then you give the other players a chance to decide if it is worth it to them to destroy a particular threat and you can hold on to your own answers until the last minute.

Of course, that philosophy doesn't hold up if opponents are relying on instants and sorceries as their game enders so that will have to be a meta call on your part.

Pods at major events tend to see a lot of combo-control because it's the most consistent and powerful option available in multiplayer. Counterspells are a necessity if you intend to survive in these environments, and it's highly likely that other players will also be using countermagic. The trick is to have enough counterspells and also to have a resilient deck; if you can deflect most hate and survive the disruption that does hit you, you stand a good chance of winning.

Added Delay over Fact or Fiction because the latter was too slow.

I've decided this is the month I'm buying an Imperial Seal. I dropped Fabricate for it.

You have a lot of life loss cards.. is that ever a problem?