azen

Icy Manipulator and Royal Assassin have some very good synergy. If you want to make this combo more prominent in your deck, consider increasing the numbers of both cards (although I'm sure that Diabolic Tutor fetches them easily).

Hm, the replacements for Cabal Trainee and Blood Pet are tough. Since they have fairly low mana costs, I'm guessing that you want creatures of similar costs. Why don't you try the two-cost "Knights" cycle? Your top choices should be Stromgald Crusader, Black Knight, Order of the Ebon Hand, and Knight of Stromgald. I think you'll find them very playable.

Keep up the good work! I really hope these suggestions help.

Meh, my finger slipped and I hit the "Enter" button without wanting to. But you get the point. Running Proclamation combo will probably increase your deck's consistency. Hope these suggestions help!

Azen

Hi Xarcon,

Although gaining life is usually shrugged off by advanced players as a "stall tactic," your deck is an exception. This is almost solely because you run four Martyr of Sands - which is, as many people will agree, perhaps the most powerful life gaining engine in Magic. I would suggest remodifying your deck to suit this engine. One of the most powerful Martyr combos is using it in conjunction with Proclamation of Rebirth. The rest of your deck should be either fetch (Ranger of Eos), spot removal (Recumbent Bliss, Condemn), or win condition (Divinity of Pride,

Thanks for the comment, upchuck. Rebuff the Wicked was exactly what I was looking for! After a lot of playtesting, I hated having to fight through random creature removal like Doom Blade and Terror. That prompted me to pitch a handful of Mana Tithes into the deck - but Tithe is almost strictly worse than Rebuff the Wicked for my purposes. Thanks again. :D

Heh, I would really agree with you. I was really happy when Wizards printed Condemn, since Swords to Plowshares was just a bit too expensive to fit in my budget! Thanks for the comments, upchuck.

Haha, the new name is absolutely epic. Thumbs up.

Your deck looks really well built. On the other hand, some of your card choices seem a bit odd. Although spells like Mighty Emergence & Paleoloth can be useful in certain situations, there are better options. Focus on keeping your five-power creatures at four or less mana in total; Mycoid Shepherd, Rumbling Slum, and Cliffrunner Behemoth are prime examples of this.

Most of your mana accelerants are creatures, but I would recommend running spells like Fertile Ground, Trace of Abundance, Rampant Growth, etc. This is primarily because you can play Pyroclasm effects without hurting yourself. A well-timed Firesprout can be all you need for your Thoctars and Behemoths to launch a game-ending attack.

Otherwise, this Naya build looks excellent. Hope these suggestions help!

Azen

I may be wrong, but I thought that Highlander decks ran only one-of's (with the exception of lands).

Hey alexlind,

I can help you out with your deck. It looks like you're playing some build of Mono Black Control, right? How large is your budget? There are some pretty powerful spells that will benefit your deck, I'm sure.

Your first priority is to build a powerful disruption / removal base to remove your opponents' options early in the game. You usually do this using discard spells. Hymn to Tourach, Hypnotic Specter (as you already have), and Persecute are good options. You may even run Mind Twist (although Twist is so powerful that your playgroup probably won't like you anymore if you play it, heh). You want to combine these spells with solid removal like Doom Blade and your Terrors.

Constructing the creature base of a good Mono Black Control deck isn't easy if you're building on a budget. Spells like Blood Pet and Cabal Trainee are fairly subpar and can be replaced with better choices, though. You should consider beaters like Tombstalker & Korlash, Heir to Blackblade. If you really decide to emphasize Discard in your deck, then Nyxathid will be a top choice.

This deck looks great so far! There are a few tweaks that can be made, but you have a very solid idea of what Mono Black Control looks like. Thumbs up.

Hope this helps,

Azen

Wow, Cinder Pyromancer looks really interesting. The only thing that worries me is its mana cost, though. I'm generally reluctant on running too many three-cost spells. Then again, I could substitute Flamebreak with four copies of Pyromancer. That might work. Thanks!

There are significant differences between casting a ten-damage Blaze and dealing ten damage using this deck. You can usually rack up to ten damage by turn two using Lightning Bolt effects, which cost only three mana in total - as opposed to Blaze's eleven mana.

Hi WilliamP,

This deck looks really good! Like Peppers suggested in the comment above, you'll want more win conditions. The strongest options include spells like Meloku the Clouded Mirror & Morphling. Some decks even run Spire Golem because it comes into play in the late game as a free beater with flying.

Your deck boasts some of the best countermagic and bounce spells, like Echoing Truth and Counterspell - but the other slots are filled in with slightly subpar choices. Cancel is considerably worse than Mana Leak, for example. Also, since you're playing Mono Blue Control, you can play very strong card advantage spells. You'll want Fact or Fiction, Brainstorm, and Impulse. Board sweepers and control magic are also helpful (like Powder Keg / Treachery). But these are just my suggestions.

Hope this helps,

Azen

This deck is hilarious. There is so much irony in running Feldon's Cane and Path to Exile when your deck has four Recalls, Walks, & Drains (each of which are ridiculously broken / expensive). Have you played with this deck recently?

Oh, so now I see. You threw this together with a random collection - that makes much more sense.

Oh, I see. But are you sure that Evil Presence negates all other attributes of the enchanted land? It may just become a Swamp in addition to its other land types. I'm really not sure about this ruling - I'm just wondering whether it works or not.

Well, the deck IS listed under "Casual Play," which probably doesn't use rules as strict as those of the Vintage format. Then again, I wouldn't be pleased if someone in my playgroup ran four Demonic Tutors - so you do have a point...

This may be an irrelevant suggestion, but one of my favorite Elder Dragon Stompy combos was using Mana Acceleration to play an early Zirlian of the Claw. Zirlian would fetch Dragon Tyrant or the original Nicol Bolas and quickly wreck opponents.

You can find the original thread here: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=141568

You need to tell whoever constructed this deck to improve his/her deckbuilding skills, wolfxvicious. Not only are there a bunch of irrelevant one-of's, but the few four-of's & three-of's are all very subpar spells. Cards like Eager Cadet and Glory Seeker are terrible when compared to Savannah Lions or Elite Vanguard. Additionally, since you're playing Bant colors, why don't you try something based on Bant's "Exalted" mechanic? Jhessian Infiltrator / Knotvine Paladin / Akrasan Squire, combined with solid removal and control spells, generally lay the foundation for successful Bant decks. I think your deck's consistency will greatly increase if you take these suggestions into consideration.

Azen

This looks really interesting and powerful, Nemavon - I would have never thought a Kavu tribal deck. I'm just wondering why you don't run more spells that give your creatures tribal pump (with the exception of Kavu Monarch). Although it's probably overplayed, Coat of Arms is a nice choice. I would also run more mana ramp spells like Fertile Ground. Otherwise, the deck looks great. Thumbs up.

Azen

No problem! Thank YOU, nukifyed, for the friendly comment. I hope this deck works out well for you!

No problem! I'm glad that I could help. That's what MTG Vault is for in the first place, right?

In case you haven't figured out the Urborg combo, here's how it works:

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth transforms all lands into Swamp hybrids. Because Zombie Master allows each of your Zombie creatures to gain Swampwalk, your Zombies all become unblockable beaters. In other words, you won't need to worry about destroying your opponent's creatures via removal spells like Pestilence. You'll just be able to attack past them.

This is a particularly easy combo to splash. Just replace three Swamps with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (you don't want four, because the Tomb is a legendary land. Running three copies is just the right number.) I used this combat trick to win a lot of my games when I played Zombie Tribal, so I think it'll work out for you!

Azen

Hi Lord_Overall,

I've constructed a Hulk Flash deck that was very similar to this. My biggest suggestion is to run the Reveillark combo over your Disciple combo. Regardless, how consistently does this deck win on the first turn? Does your deck may fizz due to having off-color mana combinations? If the combo fizzes often, I would replace some of the acceleration with more tutors and filter (namely Merchant Scroll, Brainstorm, and Ponder). I originally used spells like the Spirit Guides and Lotus Petals, but my deck fizzed out too frequently. These are just my suggestions, though.

Hope this helps,

Azen