I read about this from Burning Ice's ToC 4 match reports, and made an modified version of the deck. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
3 Morphling
3 Rootwater Thief
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
4 Standstill
1 Soothsaying
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Psionic Blast
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Powder Keg
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
14 Island
SB: 4 Back to Basics
SB: 3 Gainsay
SB: 4 Chill
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 Masticore
SB: 1 Misdirection
Vegeta2711
By Kirdape3, the Court Jester of Beatdown (Kirdape3) on Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 02:09 am: OK. Here's what I'd cut and why:
2 of the Morphlings: You really don't need that many guys at the 5 slot (you are after all an aggro-control deck). Superman's great, but he's overkill in a deck that's supposed to apply pressure.
4 Standstill: Even though you need the card-drawing, I can picture Sligh hitting you with a 2/1 for awhile until you're either quite dead, topdeck a Mishra, or pop it on your own and die. This card seems superfluous to me here.
1 Soothsaying: This card is really unnecessary to me, simply because you have better things you could be doing with the mana (like casting a threat)
1 Powder Keg: To me, you'd need either 2, 4, or 0 copies of this card. Either take it out or add more. I'm going to take it out. Sideboard these.
Mox Pearl, Mox Jet: These are your call. I don't think that 14 Islands is enough for you in the deck. However, the acceleration might make up for this. I'm uncertain what to do with these.
Here's what I'd add:
1 Misdirection: The strongest point of this deck is the ability to lay beats while protecting your threats with pitch counters. All 8 are needed. Not 7, nor 9, but 8. ;-)
1 Rootwater Thief: This guy's AWESOME against control decks. Since you'll probably have the mana to activate him (the smart play is to just play one guy and make them deal with it in this deck), he gives you a very nasty autowin scenario against control (here, find your Morphlings NOW or die).
2 Masticore: He's big, he wrecks aggro, and he regenerates. Downside? Oh, nothing, he just eats your hand for the rest of the game. Good thing that the rest of the game when he hits is measured in a handful of terms. He's a messy part of your deck, but a very good mess indeed.
4 Ophidian: Here's the controversial part. Your deck really really wants to run a mess of card-drawers. Ophidian's better than Standstill because he bashes for 1 whenever you feel your hand's full and blocks annoying 2/x guys forever without dying.
1 Windfall: This is another broken-ass card drawer. Against control, you refill your hand for 2U. Against aggro, you side it out.
1 Wasteland, 1 basic Island: Mana is an issue in your deck, what with all the high casting costs. 5 Strips are almost required for aggro, regardless of the number of basics in your area. They are just that needed for the decks that you'd need them against.
Ice Blue Zoo is a really good deck that I'd love to get the cards to play. Have fun with it.
By Burning Ice, the Elementalist (Burningice) on Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:13 am: Here's my current version.
1 Windfall
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
4 Misdirection
4 Psionic Blast
4 Rootwater Thief
4 Serendib Efreet
2 Morphling
1 Sol Ring
1 ZOrb
1 Powder Keg
1 Lotus
5 Moxen
14 Islands
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
SB:
2 Chill
4 BEB
2 Gainsay
2 Masticore
4 Back to Basics
1 Tormod's Crypt
I tried out Standstill a little, but didn't really find space in the deck for it. However, against a less controllish Metagame, perhaps you could replace some of the Misdirections with Standstills.
About your comments.
The 1 Powder Keg is good. I don't know, but it works well, and I've never had a problem with it, so it stays at 1 until I'm proved wrong.
About Ophidian, it's a possibility, one I haven't tested, but I'm worried about the deck becoming too controllish.
Core is good for games 2 and 3, but he isn't good against every deck and thus stays in the sideboard.
Thanx for the interest in the deck though guys 
By Magimaster (Magimaster) on Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:43 am: I was recently getting interested in this deck myself...and was musing of tinkering with a build a while back. this is what it would look like now after reading the above posts.
4 Ophidian
4 Rootwater Thief
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Force of Will
4 Misdirection
4 Psionic Blast
1 Windfall
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Zuran Orb
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
16 Island
there's a roughy. I'll have to test it, but that's what I'll be testing. too tired to make a sideboard :D
thnx fer reading
By Vegeta2711 on Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 07:20 pm: Ice Blue Zoo V. 1.02
2 Morphling
4 Rootwater Thief
4 Serendib Efreet
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection
3 Standstill
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Psionic Blast
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Windfall
1 Powder Keg
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 ZOrb
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
14 Island
-1 Soothsaying
-1 Standstill
-1 Morph
for
+1 Rootwater Thief
+1 Windfall
+1 ZOrb
Ok your right in that Sooth is pretty bad, Windfall is good. I traded a Standstill for a chance against burn in ZOrb. And cut a morph for another thief.
To defend the current card choices, Standstill is some good with a active Thief or a Serendib out. Besides even when I ran 4 and half ended up as FoW or Mis-D fodder usually. When they do work, they work great, if I happen to lay it and have to set it off myself, well then I misplayed it and I will lose more then likely.
Ophid I will test, but don't have high hopes for, usually I like a threat... This deck is threat lacking as it is, even if the Ophid does allow me to draw cards. This deck does not have enough counters just to drop ophid and try to start drawing counters and Morph and try to outcontol a control deck. Aggro simply will run me over while I'm trying to draw cards with it, or it will be bolted.
Basically it comes down to wether you want something where if misplayed you will lose the game. Or something that you will have to fight for just to get working.
The mana base is not going to change odds are, I'm very comfortable with this mana base, and have gotten mana screwed once or twice out of every twenty games or so.
The SB will either stay the same, or i'll simply adopt Burning Ice's.
Vegeta2711