I have played similar lists without having power and found that 2 snap, 1 clique is a great split. Sol ring is bad generally. Running 4 wasteland, 1 strip is a must and I run 3 factory 1 faerie conclave for manlands. I agree with the use of moat if you can get/borrow one. Balance has always been bad for me...like every time I cast it. I run a maindeck fragmentize and a disenchant. Spell snare is better than 2 mindbreak trap. Shops is a tough matchup and I would run a stony silence and a maindeck energy flux as a hoser. 3 swords is a must. Overall I think you’ve got the right game plan just a few small tweaks. Test against shops and oath a lot as they can be really tough matchups and require tight play to navigate. Hope this helps. Just my opinion and you can take it with a grain of salt

http://morphling.de/search.php?type=1&app=10&sorting=DESC&search=john+knight&sent=1

the 8.01 and the one below tho are my 2 lists I ran and t8 with, mind you, highly outdated, but the premist remains the same. Hope they give insight sir. Any questions feel free to PM me, I prolly got over 1000 hours in testing these lists on cockatrice.

Thanks for all of the help and for breaking down your explanations for me. I have very little experience in the format and try to read as much as I can and look over deck lists and watch matches. The help is very much appreciated! I was thinking of balance as a reset button like the supreme verdict in case things get out of hand and I need to "pull the chute" so to speak. I know that sometimes having that backup can really help and having it at a lower mana cost against a shops deck seems appealing as opposed to the 4 mana spell which gets expensive with spheres in play. I'll go back to the drawing board a bit with it and try to play test some. Thanks again for all the insights! This format is so fascinating and complex from a construction point of view.

@mediumsteve I also assume it was talking about oath. Afaik aegis would shut therapy , and the peek component of probe.

Other than than it affects hurkyl's, gifts, discard, direct damage and also ancestral, in case opponent wants to empty your library 😉