izzet treasure midrange control, any advice

{"ops":[{"insert":"The title of your post says it all. Too many archetypes, not enough deck. I don't agree with all of jobroskie's recommendations, but I do agree with this key point: pick a lane.\n\nMost of your counter spells are 3 mana. If you cast them early game, then you're depriving yourself of resources to cast the cards that make the rest of the deck work. If you wait to cast the counterspells until after you make treasures, then you're at a point in the game where you need a win con and budget counterspells aren't it. 1-for-1 control strategies don't scale well to multiplayer. Never mind the fact the fact that a lot of the counter spells you picked are conditional instead of hard counters. Echoing jobroskie again, your deck doesn't have any payoffs for spell slinging. I think the counter magic is actually hindering your deck's playability.\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Aqueous Form"}},{"insert":" is essential for any blue deck that wants to do combat damage. 1 mana, make a thing permanently unblockable is the best value for evasion in the game. Also consider combat tricks like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Crypsis"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"You Come to a River"}},{"insert":" . These let you situationally decide if you need to spend mana to give evasion. Crypsis is also useful for keeping blockers alive.\n\nIf it were my deck, I would lean into more payoffs for the treasures, like sacrificing artifacts for damage. There's "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Makeshift Munitions"}},{"insert":" and Battle for Baldur's Gate has a functional reprint in "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Street Urchin"}},{"insert":" . You just need colorless mana for gas. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ingenious Artillerist"}},{"insert":" also gets you a similar effect to "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Reckless Fireweaver"}},{"insert":" .\n\nEdit: If Pirate tribal is your thing then "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Call to the Kindred"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Reflections of Littjara"}},{"insert":" are both great tribal cards in blue. \n\n"}]}

{"ops":[{"insert":"My biggest problem with this deck is that it really needs to pick a lane. You can't do all of pirates, treasures, and combat damage. All of them are weaker because you don't just focus on it and make it work better.\n\nIf you want to go the combat route then I would strongly consider more evasive creatures. Something like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Cephalid Facetaker"}},{"insert":" that can't be blocked. Then you want to add more payoffs for sneaking damage through. This would be the only style of deck I would include "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Maskwood Nexus"}},{"insert":" in.\n\nIf you want to go pirates, then I would include more of them along with changelings like"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Taurean Mauler"}},{"insert":" . I would also then include the staple tribal artifacts like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Herald's Horn"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Door of Destinies"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Vanquisher's Banner"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Icon of Ancestry"}},{"insert":" . If you want your deck to be about pirates then it is better to actually have things that are pirates then to force in a maskwood nexus you probably won't see most games.\n\nIf you want to go more with treasures then I really think you need more treasure producers and more payoffs. Someone like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Academy Manufactor"}},{"insert":" can be great, or even "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Urza, Lord High Artificer"}},{"insert":" . I would also include "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Kappa Cannoneer"}},{"insert":" as a wincon.\n\nFinally, this just isn't designed to be a control deck. You have no payoffs for casting instants or sorceries. No "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Archmage Emeritus"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Storm-Kiln Artist"}},{"insert":" or even "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Talrand, Sky Summoner"}},{"insert":" . Your commanders just don't give you any payoffs for this playstyle and you would need to completely redesign your deck around that, and if you do that then you would probably be better off building a "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Kykar, Wind's Fury"}},{"insert":" deck or a "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Hinata, Dawn-Crowned"}},{"insert":" deck or something like that.\n\nThe only way I could see the counter spell thing really working is if this is a voltron deck. If that is the case then the counter magic would serve to act as a type of protection. If thats the case then I would add a lot more ways to buff your commander and have less overall creatures to the deck. You want to get your commander big and knock people out fast. With this I would add ways of getting trample to get the damage through. Things like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Power Matrix"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Shadowspear"}},{"insert":" and other things like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Commander's Plate"}},{"insert":" to buff him up\n"}]}