@13NoVa Missteps always where a big problem since its printing, i am not sure how this could actually get an even bigger problem for rituals based decks, since MM is already a 4 of in most blue decks and even a lot of non blue decks like pitch dredge.
It is surely one of the greatest reasons why ritual based storm is struggling, but its not making the deck unplayable. Draw 7s are not as powerful as they where, i agree. They only feel safe when you have a defense grid on the board. I will cut Wheel from the deck along with the red mana support, and see how that goes.
@Fisken While i was brewing with PO Storm as soon as the card was revealed and i adore the strategy, i would like to test this is a deck that uses Bargain as the engine instead of PO. If i would want to play Paradoxical, i would add Mox Opals to the deck, and at this point you could just go all out and play blue based PO Storm without rituals, since i think it is the better option anyway for now (depending on how much null rods are around in the meta).
On the topic of Duress: 4 of them are just enough, i would play 6-8 if i could. Even with the dampening of their power since MM was printed, they are still probably the best tool to protect your plans from multiple counterspells. Thoughtseize is awesome, and i played 3 of them together with 4 duress after probe was restricted, replacing Cabal therapies. You are correct in that they excel against creature based disruption prevalent in hatebears and eldrazi, however the life loss might be a very real cost if the aim of the deck is to win by drawing a critical mass of cards via bargain.
I prefer the method of running discard based disruption opposed to running missteps myself just to defend against opposing missteps. A higher blue count might allow to run FoW and Misstep based disruption, but i feel more comfortable with a high count of discard.
4 Cabal Rituals is a lot, i agree, i never ran more than 2 as well, i actually only ran 1 until i started using Dark Petition, where producting a initial high count of mana is relevant. When upping the amount of mana that needs to be produced from 5 to 6 (and not getting anything of it back, at least initially) think additional mana sources are required. I think 3 might be a more conservative count for now.
Tink/Bot is one of the most unsafe and all in win cons currently playable, which has the potential to even backfire a lot. I would expect white to go down in the meta and with it Swords, but Dack Fayden will probably be as prevelant as ever. Also runnign Tinker solely for Bot is just bad, when i played tinker i ran the package with Memory Jar with Bot just beeing a secondary option. Without Memory Jar (and i am currently not planning to play that card, as you said yourself, that draw 7s are not as good as they where in the past) Tinker and Bot are not cards i would like to give 2 slots in the deck. I ran just 1 Tendrils for about 3 years now, and it proved to be great, however that was in a deck with more tutoring and less reliance on actually drawing the card. A second Tendrils might be necessary not only for reliably finding it, but also to maybe cast a mini tendrils to set up a big turn with a bunch of life to draw cards with.
I added Preordains after the restriction of Probe, and i agree, they are not incredible. While they are sometimes really helpful to find what you need, it doesn't feel good to cast one turn 1 in a deck like this. I kind of want to cut them, but i am not sure what to bring in instead.
@Serracollector Unmask is a great replacement for thoughtseize, and much better than collective brutality (i never liked that card in vintage anyway) I am not sure about Contagion, i may test one one in the sideboard, but against shops decks i will handle the revokers with hurkyl's and against hatebears (at least the white ones) i usually used massacre in the past. Still might be worth a try.
For now i will stay with 3 Bargains, but i am not opposed to cutting 1 for another tutor. In reality all of this is just theory crafting as i wasn't able to test the deck yet.
Thanks for the initial feedback, i have made following changes as a result of it:
Cut: 1 Badlands, 1 Cabal Ritual, 1 Collective Brutality, 1 Wheel of Fortune.
Add: 1 Underground Sea, 2 Unmask, 1 Tendrils of Agony.
I also added a Sideboard.