This may be a “play/draw” dependant situation. If you are on the play against Affinity, you can get Spyglass down turn 2, before their 2 drop comes down. In my experience playing Affinity, turn 1 2 drops are not anywhere close to as common as multiple 1 drops turn 1 or a 3 drop turn 2. So catching a powerful 2 drop before it comes down is pretty good.

On the draw, this situation gets much worse as Spyglass is likely to come down after the 2 drop you wanted to catch, in which case it is an over costed Pithing Needle that may not even shut down the problem card (such as if Cranial Plating got equipped already).

I see where you’re going with this, but I’m a little skeptical. Hitting the right piece is critical, as you say, but this is also Affinity. They may get their stuff into play and get value before Spyglass can hit, and two mana on a narrow card against Affinity seems weak. I’m thinking that Lantern or some other artifact deck would be a better target.

Yeah, I could see a version of EldraziTron with 4x Chalice, 4x Spyglass, and maybe some number of Pithing Needles. Go hard on the prison pieces.

Like I said, I’ll be interested to see how it plays out.

While it’s true that Legacy (aside from broken combo) can be a bit more durdly, I’m cutting lands and late(ish) game spells and adding velocity, so I really don’t think this slows the deck down at all, especially since Opt is an instant. Now I can represent (and hold) Cryptic, and if my opponent doesn’t play into it, EOT Snapcaster-Opt, or even better, Opt-Snap-Opt. It warrants testing for sure but I really think having 8 good cantrips will help Jeksai builds find the answers they need in time for them to matter, which is where the deck sometimes struggles as is.

I’d never ever replace ghost quarter itself with it though. The thing is I do play aven mindcensor which is not symmetrical making the field better than it would otherwise be

My taxes build likes the fifth copy approach. 5 arbiters (because one mindcensor)
5 flicker guys
5 ghost quarters
5 thalia’s (one wingmare)

The deck can be pretty inconsistent so that extra touch I’ve found useful.

That being said tec edge has some upsides

I see that. I was thinking that it would replace Jace’s Phantasm in Blue Skies.

You may well be right about that, I haven’t tested it. Worth noting that in Legacy almost everyone is cantripping around while Modern has always been about board presence and faster kills. It will be interesting to see how/if Opt affects this.

That seems fine, but if you’re going the SSG route, Chalice is a stronger play. Might be worthwhile as an alternative or backup.