Magic the Gathering

It adds an additional 12 minutes or so to any game where it is present, and they'd rather not games go to time...and that thing it does with miracles.

Deathrender, Quicksilver Amulet, Belbe's Portal, Summoner's Egg, and Tooth and Nail, are options for sneaking.

Hull Breach, and Krosan Grip are good artifact and enchantment removal. Slice in Twain lets you draw after destroying. And as blink said, Beast Within is awesome.

Ah, yeah, I see... and yeah, it's pretty insane with Miracles.

*sigh* I can't make a Quirion Dryad deck work in the current Standard... Losing the phyrexian mana spells hurt. I'm trying all sorts of ways to make some kind of G/U deck that can stand up to the better decks, while still being budgety (Though Snapcaster is always on the list, and Thragtusk is sometimes, which is painful).

Damn... I didn't know there's such a card like Tooth and Nail. Expensive but so good. Now I'm thinking of what to remove darn it.

By the way, which is better for mana ramping, Nature's Lore or Skyshroud Claim?

Yeah, Tooth and Nail is simply incredibly good. Make room for four. Seriously.

I'd say Nature's Claim, because it comes earlier in the game. When ramping, you want to start as soon as possible, so you can go big fast, making aggresive decks have no hope trying to stop you.

EDIT: Btw, how relevant is it to you that those come in untapped? Because Rampant Growth might actually be better because you can get any color. Sure, you can fetch your duals because it specifies a "Forest" rather than a basic land, but if you run out of those, you might be out of luck trying to get your other colors. Since I use most of my mana for my big spells in my mana ramp deck, having it enter untapped doesn't really change anything. Maybe with that untapped Forest you fetch up, you can play a mana guy or something, but otherwise, it doesn't do you that much more good.

EDIT2: Just found an interesting card... Crystal Ball
Kinda had a thought like "Countertop in Modern?" I am curious to see if that could really work out as I'm thinking, even within the constraints of Modern. After seeing the card, I got curious about Joe Lossett's deck again, from that tournament gurall linked.

Hmm, I'm having a hard time deciding what to remove. Which do you guys like better, Tooth and Nail or Elvish Piper?

Personally, I like Tooth and Nail. Elvish Piper can be removed fairly easily, and you have to wait a turn for that summoning sickness to go away before being able to cheat stuff out with the Piper.

This being said though, unless you have plenty of ramp, you may not be able to get to the 9 mana for T&N (You're almost always gonna entwine it).

I have 4 Lightning Greaves in my deck to give Piper a chance.
I don't know if my ramps are enough for T&N

Currently my deck goes like this (It hasn't made its maiden flight yet)

3 Archwing Dragon
3 Balefire Dragon
3 Utavra Hellkite
4 Arbor Elf
3 Dragonspeaker Shaman
3 Elvish Piper

2 Fertile Ground
3 Skyshroud Claim
4 Utopia Sprawl

4 Lightning Greaves
2 Mox Diamond
4 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Stomping Ground
3 Moutain
3 Forest
4 Taiga
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Wooded Foothills
_________
60 in total

Well, Greaves protects the Piper, too. That might work out.

I still like Nature's Lore better than Skyshroud. Again, you want things to do early. But with Fertile Ground and Utopia Sprawl, in the end, I suppose you have the early ramp covered. I'm not a huge fan of Archwing Dragon, but I'd still use it 'cus it is a repeatable burn spell in a way. Surprised you didn't put any of the card-draw spells we suggested. Might help, since you'll want to have your big threats in hand so you can get 'em out through your ramp elements/Piper. There isn't much point in having stuff to cheat things into play/loads of mana if there's nothing of use to put down.

You think I should still add them? Because the Top might work out by itself. Would be sad if I don't draw it though.

Adding them I think would increase consistency. The top helps quite some, but more drawing power is always good. In this deck, you just want to get your threats out, and win by bashing with 'em. More card draw increases your chances of getting to them. Imagine card draw spells as extra copies of those cards. You can only run up to four of them, but, doing this, in a way, you have more than four.

EDIT: Ah, I realized I made a typo earlier. I suggested Nature's Lore to you, but typed Nature's Claim. Those are two very different cards, sorry...

EDIT2: Ah right, Explore is another card that might be pretty great in your deck.
You can even use it just as a cantrip if you really needed to. That's what I love about the card.

Interesting card, Explore. Now I just have to decide between Explore and Harmonize.
Damn, Explore is good for ramping mana up.

I'd think Explore, because it can do two things. Like I said, you can certainly just cycle it, too, if you wanted to.

_________________________________________
Meanwhile, I've been building a Modern Counterball deck on Cockatrice (Kinda like Countertop, but using Crystal Ball instead of Sensei's Divining Top since it's banned), but I'm a little stuck. After testing it a few times (just 3 matches against myself), it's got a pretty bad matchup against aggressive decks. At least, that's how it went against RDW and Affinity.

Here's an unrevised list, copied and pasted from Cockatrice. I may completely rework it, but for now, here it is:

Can you choose 0 to put to the bottom with crystal ball?

Yes. Scrying means when you scry X (whatever X is), you put those cards in any order, and in any combination of top and bottom. In this case, if I Scry 2, don't like one card, but like the other, I can keep that one on top, then ship the other one. I can also rearrange the order of both if I want to keep both on top.

EDIT: Wow, still pretty devastating being set up with a Crystal Ball or two and Counterbalance. Almost impossible for the opponent to resolve anything.

I had the idea to put Norn's Annex before, both to deter attacks and to be able to hit 5 mana spells (like Batterskull, which is usually sideboarded), but took it out... It's looking attractive again, though. I might try that out to go into the 5-slot along with Baneslayer.

Also, it's pretty amusing that I'm able to counter many spells blindly using only Counterbalance. Plenty of two mana stuff out there in Modern.

I spent like 100 some odd dollars to make a Bant/Exalted deck that's pretty OP to never get to try it out 'cause I have noone near me that plays.

Waste of money? Nah. Much like paying 40 bucks for an all holographic Sliver deck wasn't a waste.

Some people get as much enjoyment out of building decks as actually playing the game. My friend that introduced me to MTG is kinda dropping out of it, but he still keeps his eye on new cards since he can get pretty creative with the decks he builds.

It's a shame no one plays the game where you're at, though. It's a fun one, and there are certainly budget options when making decks. There are ways to play online, though, if you're interested.

Lol, did you get the Sliver Premium deck? I was thinking about getting that, too, simply because all the Slivers are very amusing.

Why yes, I did. The deck is insane, I mean some of the slivers you can do without, and if I had replacements I'd replace them, but sadly I don't so I just kept it the way it came.

What upsets me about the deck, is the fact that they are all holo. I kept the deck in a dry cool place to PREVENT warping, yet the entire deck warped regardless of my efforts. It's currently in a deck box under a stack of heavy books. Lmao

Yeah, from what I saw that's in there from the Gatherer database, I can tell there's stuff I's switch out, too. But all preconstructed decks are like that. Regardless, it's a funny deck, I've only ever played against it, and it can get kinda stupid pretty quickly. All your slivers get +big number/+big number, trample, double strike, vigilance, etc. Exactly why I want to build it myself.

You haven't sleeved them up yet? That straightens 'em out, and protects them. And I love foil cards, makes them feel more special. Even foil basic lands.

Oh yes, I like Explore, especially with Kodama's Reach and Cultivate (two other ramp spells I love).

EDIT: Also Oracle of Mul Daya ain't bad at all either.