I got a few packs that had two rares, one of which (in each pack) was timeshifted. One of the judges said that that's normal, timeshifted cards are supposed to work that way. I'm skeptical, but I guess that it fits in with the crazy theme of the set.
Dream Stalker is much more powerful with the vanishing mechanic. Aven Riftwatcher is a lot of fun to bounce after you get in its last attack. The stalker also comboes well with Stormfront Riders, provided that you have another cheap creature to bounce.
Thallid-based strategies also get a bost with the influx of new thallids with better abilities- Psychotrope Thallid and Pallid Mycoderm come to mind. I'm not sure if they will all be playable because of the weak 1/1 bodies that many of them have, but Sporesower Thallid should be an even higher pick than it already is regardless.
The Tainted lands are fantastic when you're playing black splashing another color, but subpar when the other color is more dominant than black. Needing to play a swamp and then Tainted Wood (if you have no forests) prevents you from doing many of your early plays and makes otherwise decent hands poor. You can't play a first-turn Thallid or a second-turn Thelon of Havenwood with a hand of swamps and a Tainted Wood. You'll also be prevented from playing your double-green cards if you have a forest and a Tainted Wood, but no swamps (you're only playing 10 swamps). I'd play a basic forest instead- you'll find it more effective 90% of the time. Potentially sacrificing your early game is not worth a little bit of late-game versatility (if you draw the Tainted Wood late).
The problem with using the Honden and the Bringers is that you really create a "win more" effect. If you have enough Hondens for Paradox Haze to be more effective than another Honden (and you'd need at least 3 already in play for that to be the case), you're already winning and by a significant margin. Without enough Honden, Paradox Haze is useless. The same with the Bringers- you need at least 2 already in play for Paradox Haze to be better than another Bringer, and even then you're already winning.
I think that Thallids is a far more sensible option. You can play a GU aggro-control deck with Thallids and some countermagic in addition to Paradox Haze.
Your deck seems decently mana-hungry, and especially for blue mana. You're playing Patron Wizard, Counterspell, and mana other things requiring double-blue, in addition to needing to cast Shrieking Drake as many times as possible each turn. Are you sure that play 4 colorless-producing lands is a good idea? I'd play Islands instead of at least 2 of them, and maybe cut a few other cards to bring the Island count up to 22.
If all of your creatures are soldiers, Shared Triumph is almost always better than Glorious Anthem, unless your opponent is playing a soldier deck as well. I'm assuming that that's a rarity.
Fallen Angel is far more effective as a win condition than Krovikan Horror, even if the Horror fits the theme better. Carrion Feeder can actually be better sometimes, though, especially if you have a blocking recursion engine going. Each time that you use it you get another counter, and the Feeder gets big quickly. You can always play it early to capitalize on your Nethers dying, which you can't do with Fallen Angel. The difference is that Fallen Angel can be played on turn 3 with a Dark Ritual and makes a very fast clock, while Carrion Feeder does not. You could try playing both.
I'm not sure how you typically fare against an early creature rush- your only mass removal is 2 copies of Living Death. You might want to try to play some Mutilates if you can get your hands on them, but if not, Bane of the Living is very effective as well.
I would play two more basic swamps and basic mountains instead of Tainted Peak. With only 7 swamps in your deck, it'll tap for colorless more often that not. Sulfurous Springs would really be ideal.
I would take out Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and add another Seshiro the Anointed, because Seshiro's effect is both more immediate than Kamahl's (topdeck it and you can swing with huge snakes immediately) and costs no mana, allowing you to do much more on your turn than just attacking.
Hymn to Tourach is one of the best discard spells ever printed, even though it doesn't fit well into your mana curve as you want to play a shadow creature on your second turn and swing on the third. It's a consideration, though.
Pain's Reward doesn't seem to me like it will be very effective in this deck. You have too many things to do with your mana, especially on turn 3, than cast a spell with this kind of delayed effect. Playing a Marauder, a Golem, a Sword, or a Wargear will help you much more. If it's late in the game enough for you to really need the refill you're in bad shape anyway because your opponent should be dead by that point. If they're playing some kind of control deck and managed to stabilize at low life after killing all of your creatures the card can be useful, but that's a bit too narrow of a use to warrant inclusion.
Carrion Feeder is insane in this type of deck. It's a good early drop and a manaless sacrifice trigger, so you can use it whenever you want to trigger the Symbiotes, Penumbras, Savra, etc. It's better than Nantucko Husk because you can get it out early instead of on the third turn when you have better things to do, and the pump ability is relevant even when you're not in combat or dodging removal at the time. Additionally, when used with the Symbiotes and Penumbras it can get very big very quickly, all while one of your cards is trading for two or more of your opponents'. Get 4, you'll want every one.
A friend of mine has a BW Pestilence deck that's loads of fun to play. He plays Phyrexian Arena and Pestilence (to kill off creatures and players once his life is the highest by a significant margin), and more than half of his deck is lifegain (Renewed Faith, Congregate, Pulse of the Fields, etc.). Even though he loses a lot of life per turn, he almost always draws a card that gives him more life than he lost- he trades life for cards than cards for life at a much more efficient ratio. It's multiplayer- it has enough removal to scare off most early aggression. Pillory of the Sleepless is useful in that sort of deck- if someone attacks you, you stop them from doing it again and leave behind a nasty reminder. I can see why something like No Mercy would be excellent in decks like that too.
I suggested Air Elemental because I assumed that he was on a budget and it's a more effective win condition than Giant Octupus. If he can get the Morphlings and Keigas, though, it's obviously not optimal.
I don't think that Ninja of the Deep Hours really makes sense in your deck. It's too impractical without being able to Ninjutsu it- on the fourth turn you don't want to tap out to play a 2/2 that gets blocked by everything under the sun.
You should definitely cut the Reminisce. It doesn't actually gave you any card advantage and is more often than not a useless draw compared to another piece of countermagic or a win condition. Yes, it can improve your average card quality late game, but that's too slow and situational an effect to be worth a card. It has some merits in multiplayer- prevents decking, and because games go on so long the improvement in card quality will matter- but not in your deck.
You don't need 9 pieces of Control Magic- play at most 6. All of them have merits, but in a choice between Dream Leash and Confiscate I'd say that Confiscate is more versatile. Get some Vedalken Shackles- it's stronger than Persuasion most of the time, sorry I didn't mention it earlier. Its target can be switched, so you can steal a creature, use it to block another, then take another, and in a monoblue deck you should not have trouble with finding enough islands. 4 Vedalken Shacklse is probably your best bet for stealing, but you could play 2 Confiscate as well for noncreature permanents.
20 lands is still too few. Bring the number up to 22 at least.
Domineer is extremely situational and probably not worth playing, unless more than half of your metagame plays creature-based artifact decks. You'd be much better off with Confiscate or Persuasion.
Tap effects are generally weak unless they're reusable or your deck is heavily tempo-based. In your deck Gigadrowse is more or less an inefficient Fog. Early Frost basically trades a card and a turn for a turn of your opponent's, a mediocre trade.
Most of your creatures are poor and make lousy win conditions. You have no really way to abuse Djinn Illuminatus (it's best in control decks that use burn) and your other creatures are too small to really help. I agree with Morphling, Keiga, or Meloku the Clouded Mirror if you can get your hands on them, but really any fat flyer (4/4 or greater) will do. You'd be surprised how effective a simple Air Elemental can be... much more so than Storm Crow and Giant Octupus, anyway. The others might be cheaper, but you shouldn't be playing anything that early regardless- you'll need to leave mana open to counter anything that your opponent plays.
Definitely bring the mana count up to 22-24, 18 is way too low, especially in a control deck.
You don't have enough basic swamps for Tainted Isle to be reliable. It's only really good when you're using a mostly black deck splashing a second color.
A single copy of Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni is not much of a win condition. You either want to get around 2 more or some other UB beaters. Adding some Blizzard Specters might be nice, as has been already suggested. Nezumi Graverobber is also a fine idea. I'd take out the Duresses for them. It's a great card in competitive magic, but in casual it is very often a dead card because random creature decks are all too common and decks that have a heavy reliance on spells are rare (in my metagame, anyway, I don't know about yours). Keep Duress in the sideboard.
Thallid-based strategies also get a bost with the influx of new thallids with better abilities- Psychotrope Thallid and Pallid Mycoderm come to mind. I'm not sure if they will all be playable because of the weak 1/1 bodies that many of them have, but Sporesower Thallid should be an even higher pick than it already is regardless.
I think that Thallids is a far more sensible option. You can play a GU aggro-control deck with Thallids and some countermagic in addition to Paradox Haze.
Devouring Light is much more versatile than Chastise.
Roar of the Kha is generally an inefficient combat trick. Charge Across the Araba accomplishes a lot more.
Catapault Squad's ability can be much more effective than Kjeldoran Outrider's, even if it's more fragile. So can Longbow Archer's, which is a far more efficient creature besides.
I'm not sure how you typically fare against an early creature rush- your only mass removal is 2 copies of Living Death. You might want to try to play some Mutilates if you can get your hands on them, but if not, Bane of the Living is very effective as well.
Hymn to Tourach is one of the best discard spells ever printed, even though it doesn't fit well into your mana curve as you want to play a shadow creature on your second turn and swing on the third. It's a consideration, though.
Pain's Reward doesn't seem to me like it will be very effective in this deck. You have too many things to do with your mana, especially on turn 3, than cast a spell with this kind of delayed effect. Playing a Marauder, a Golem, a Sword, or a Wargear will help you much more. If it's late in the game enough for you to really need the refill you're in bad shape anyway because your opponent should be dead by that point. If they're playing some kind of control deck and managed to stabilize at low life after killing all of your creatures the card can be useful, but that's a bit too narrow of a use to warrant inclusion.
He also uses Lashknife Barrier and Daunting Defender to make his own creatures (all of them clerics) totally immune to Pestilence.
I suggested Air Elemental because I assumed that he was on a budget and it's a more effective win condition than Giant Octupus. If he can get the Morphlings and Keigas, though, it's obviously not optimal.
I don't think that Ninja of the Deep Hours really makes sense in your deck. It's too impractical without being able to Ninjutsu it- on the fourth turn you don't want to tap out to play a 2/2 that gets blocked by everything under the sun.
You should definitely cut the Reminisce. It doesn't actually gave you any card advantage and is more often than not a useless draw compared to another piece of countermagic or a win condition. Yes, it can improve your average card quality late game, but that's too slow and situational an effect to be worth a card. It has some merits in multiplayer- prevents decking, and because games go on so long the improvement in card quality will matter- but not in your deck.
You don't need 9 pieces of Control Magic- play at most 6. All of them have merits, but in a choice between Dream Leash and Confiscate I'd say that Confiscate is more versatile. Get some Vedalken Shackles- it's stronger than Persuasion most of the time, sorry I didn't mention it earlier. Its target can be switched, so you can steal a creature, use it to block another, then take another, and in a monoblue deck you should not have trouble with finding enough islands. 4 Vedalken Shacklse is probably your best bet for stealing, but you could play 2 Confiscate as well for noncreature permanents.
20 lands is still too few. Bring the number up to 22 at least.
Tap effects are generally weak unless they're reusable or your deck is heavily tempo-based. In your deck Gigadrowse is more or less an inefficient Fog. Early Frost basically trades a card and a turn for a turn of your opponent's, a mediocre trade.
Most of your creatures are poor and make lousy win conditions. You have no really way to abuse Djinn Illuminatus (it's best in control decks that use burn) and your other creatures are too small to really help. I agree with Morphling, Keiga, or Meloku the Clouded Mirror if you can get your hands on them, but really any fat flyer (4/4 or greater) will do. You'd be surprised how effective a simple Air Elemental can be... much more so than Storm Crow and Giant Octupus, anyway. The others might be cheaper, but you shouldn't be playing anything that early regardless- you'll need to leave mana open to counter anything that your opponent plays.
Definitely bring the mana count up to 22-24, 18 is way too low, especially in a control deck.
A single copy of Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni is not much of a win condition. You either want to get around 2 more or some other UB beaters. Adding some Blizzard Specters might be nice, as has been already suggested. Nezumi Graverobber is also a fine idea. I'd take out the Duresses for them. It's a great card in competitive magic, but in casual it is very often a dead card because random creature decks are all too common and decks that have a heavy reliance on spells are rare (in my metagame, anyway, I don't know about yours). Keep Duress in the sideboard.