The Magic Chest 4: Keeper of the Mind

Blue has a lot of cards that can draw more cards, but I think that, in the right deck, this is one of the strongest. The reason it never saw much play is mostly one of timing. In the Tempest block, speed was too important, forcing blue to race the opponent, which it wasn't very good at. Even the merfolk decks couldn't outrace burn or shadow.

The other option blue had was one of control, something which blue has traditionally been very good at. But control wants to have cards in hand, making the Keeper of the Mind rather useless. The Keeper isn't splashable either, so that rules out most multi-colored decks.

With Mercadian Masques though, came spellshapers. And they work ideally with Keeper of the Mind. They allow you to empty your hand fast and easy. Since we're building a fun deck here, let's splash a second color, just to have access to more spellshapers. The first combination I'd consider is blue and red. Red has Arc Mage and Kris Mage for creature control, a spellshaper for artifact destruction and one for land destruction. That's a lot of destruction. But it's a bit too aggressive and straight-forward for my tastes. I prefer blue and green.

Let's consider which cards to put in:

Waterfront Bouncer: A blue-green deck needs all the creature control it can get. The Bouncer works very well with Keeper of the Mind, because it empties your hand and fills theirs. It also keeps threats off the board until you find a way to deal with them.

Dawnstrider: A Fog every turn easily locks up creature decks. Too bad he is so vulnerable though. All spellshapers are really. You can substitute Constant Mists if you don't have Dawnstriders.

Constant Mists: Even if you have enough Dawnstriders, it'd still help to have a few of these in your sideboard, against decks with a lot of creature removal.

Diplomatic Escort: To protect your fragile spellshapers.

Deepwood Elder: Against certain decks you can use these as a lock. I wouldn't put them in the main deck, though. The sideboard is a good place for them if you have them.

Groundskeeper: These are useful to fuel the constant mists, but more importantly as an additional source of card advantage next to the Keepers of the Mind.

Masticore: With 8 forms of cheap, reusable card advantage in the deck already, these would be a shoo-in, but I don't really like them very much. Still, if you have them and want a stronger deck, add them. The same goes for Cursed Scroll really. It's a rare deck that can fit both the big purple beast and that blasted scroll.

Silverglade Pathfinder: With one of these and a Groundskeeper, you can quickly thin the land out of your deck.

So far, the deck is basically a card advantage engine with a lot of ways to stall creature rushes. Lacking is a way to deal with enchantments, artifacts and lands, as well as a way to prevent you from decking yourself. You could argue you don't have a road to victory yet either, but once we've dealt with the other two problems, a victory path will be easy to see.

Desert Twister: The best removal in the game, because of its versatility, and you should have enough mana to cast it. Still, you already have plenty of creature control from the Dawnstriders and Waterfront Bouncers. It's worth putting four in the sideboard, though, to bring in against decks with a lot of artifacts or enchantments that need dealing with.

Creeping Mold: This is better in the main deck.

Yavimaya Elder: Another card that gives card advantage. This one isn't reusable, but it works great to get the right mana at the start of the game and the extra card boost is always a good thing.

Gaea's Blessing: To make sure you don't deck yourself. Always leave one basic land in your graveyard to use with your Groundskeeper, though. This is also part of your victory path. If it comes to that, start recursing your Creeping Molds on his lands. Eventually, he won't be able to recast his creatures when you return them to his hand with your Waterfront Bouncers and the path is clear for spellshaper beatdown. You only need two for the recursion, but it helps to put two more in the sideboard if you're afraid of counterspells.

Stronghold Machinist: A bit of counter power is good to have. One of these can act as a semi-lock against certain decks.

Stronghold Biologist: No matter how useful the Dawnstriders and Bouncers are, nothing beats getting rid of a creature permanently.

Tranquility: A few of these in the sideboard will help against enchantment-filled decks.

I only added 21 land to the deck, but as they're all basics, they aren't vulnerable to Wasteland and with both Yavimaya Elders and Silverglade Pathfinder in the deck, finding land shouldn't be too hard.

And this is the resulting deck:

The Annoying Weenies of Doom
4 Keeper of the Mind
4 Waterfront Bouncer
4 Dawnstrider
2 Diplomatic Escort
4 Groundskeeper
4 Silverglade Pathfinder
4 Stronghold Machinist
4 Stronghold Biologist

3 Creeping Mold
4 Yavimaya Elder
2 Gaea's Blessing

13 Forest
8 Island

Sideboard:
3 Constant Mists
3 Deepwood Elder
4 Desert Twister
2 Gaea's Blessing
3 Tranquility

Have fun!