kmk888

I don't know about that. R/G Monstrous and Selesnya Aggro are both still played decks. And besides which, R/G just got a huge power boost from Xenagos

I don't think Savage Surge is good enough, especially with the prevalence of other untap effects you have. I also think you need a couple counterspells, I would replace savage surge with 2x Syncopate or Spell Rupture

Vorel cannot be used on planeswalkers, and a 24/24 just seems like overkill when the other option is a 12/12 and neither has trample.

Don't get me wrong, I like PW Xenagos, it's just that Domri is literally the best card in the deck and I think there should be 4 copies. If you like, taking 3 Lightning Strikes out would make room for Domri. It's just that to run Domri you have to have a critical number of creature spells, and so you really have to rationalize any noncreature spell. But yeah what I would do is run 4 Domri, 2 PW Xenagos, 1 Lightning Strike, 3 Mizzium Mortars. That should make you hit Domri's +1 about half the time (more with Temple of Abandon) and still give you a nice mix of powerful noncreatures

oooh I like the Silverblade Paladin. Of course, the other Paladin is better, but I love the possibility of giving that Demon or Smiter double strike.

My only suggestion is to drop lightning strike and PW Xenagos for the other 3 Domris and maybe more Scavenging Ooze

It doesn't enter the battlefield. Same kind of ruling as the gods not entering the battlefield. And holy shit what is going on with your punctuation

I know full well the power level of Sphinx's Revelation, I just don't think you actually need it. With Ephara drawing you cards constantly and all your creatures being powerhouses, I see no reason to run revelation. But to each their own. The deck is very good already, I'm mostly just nitpicking

Also if you don't put Odunos River Trawler in this deck I'll cry

Actually we were talking about trying to fight against mass removal, but your support for Lavinia of the Tenth is appreciated, and you're right that Lavinia functions 90% of the time to lock down everything for a turn. The only exception might be against R/G Monsters or something.

It seems like you've made a decent bestow theme deck, but haven't yet turned added all the things you could add to make it standard competitive for the sake of keeping it on theme. The other commenters are right, Hero of Iroas is definitely a 4 of and you would do well to put in the Detention Spheres too. I would also put in some Auramancers. This is my version of W/U competitive, if you're interested:

http://www.mtgvault.com/kmk888/decks/auramancer-standard/

I like this deck a lot. Very nice work with Ephara and every card a powerhouse too. But I have one complaint, and it really bothers me: Your mana is all over the damn place. You want to play Brimaz, Advent of the Wurm, and Sphinx's Revelation? That just seems greedy! Like this deck is so high on power that I regret having to say it, but if I were you I would try to reduce the number of mana symbols. Blue is by far the lightest splash which draws my attention towards a card that most people would be loathe to elminate from their deck: Sphinx's Revelation. But I actually think it distracts from this deck, and I really really think it should go. In it's place I would put another Ephara and maybe two Rootborn Defences. The thing is that this deck is most like a G/W midrange deck, and that deck didn't really need much of a push to be Tier 1. It seems to me the draw power of Ephara and the ridiculousness of Brimaz take care of that beautifully. So the other blue cards are more of just add-ons that complicate mana to me.

I dunno what to do about the mass removal. I've actually recently been turning to Swan Song as a 1 cmc counter. It's not ideal, but it could be sideboard I guess.

Bloodghast is significantly better than Nether Traitor in most decks. And it's a vampire...

Feast of Blood is an excellent fit for any vampire tribal. Blood artist would be excellent as well

I also don't think Elixir of Immortality pulls its own weight. It's lifegain in a deck that doesn't need it, and a reshuffle in a deck that shouldn't get there.

No that's not the problem. The problem is that when you run both infect and normal damage, you've effectively divided your win cons and made it so you can't pursue either as efficiently. Imagine they're at 1 life and you have a Crusader. Or they have 9 poison counters and you have a Demon. See what I mean?

It would be decent in anything but competitive play. It would have some trouble when it started getting big leagues (you have to fight tarmogoyfs and cryptic commands).

None of this is to say that I don't respect the deck. I just build decks with a format in mind, and I want to feel like I built something competitive

yeah i really don't think his focus on blue contributed much to the deck. This is a better deck, imo. That priest is looking sweet. I feel your pain on the win conditions, it feels a little vulnerable, and with not too much late game. But the Brave the Elements helps the vulnerability, and Heliod out of the sideboard might give you a late game. Ajani could be another win con I guess. As if you didn't have enough 3 drops.

The only other thing I have to say about the deck off hand is that Lavinia of the Tenth sideboarded would utterly wreck red decks. She *might* even be good enough to maindeck one or two copies.

But my main problem is the weakness to cards like drown in sorrow, anger of the gods, gaze of granite, and whelming wave

This is a great deck. However, you should probably cite Gavin Verhey. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/rc/284

Not to deny your contributions, as it looks better now than it was before. Although I think not maindecking D-sphere could be a mistake in a Standard with this many gods. But they're in the sideboard.

This is what it turned into: http://www.mtgvault.com/kmk888/decks/auramancer-standard/

I like the deck a lot, although as I was building, it diverged from your deck quite a bit.

I think the major problem with the deck you have is that you have plenty of soft removal but your creatures are really your wincons, and since you have so few they get removed very very rapidly. To counter this, you need creatures that have some sort of protection. Or you have to have more draw power to reach more wincons. Or you can make every creature literally so powerful that if unanswered it means the game is over very quickly. The two creatures that fit the bill in this standard in my mind are Obzedat and Blood Baron. However, this is not to say that you should replace the creatures you already have. Instead I would replace some of your less powerful offensive enchantments like Scourgemark and Dark Favour. These are very effective unanswered, but lead to getting two for oned if the opponent has removal. You could alternatively try Whip of Erebos, to reuse your creatures.

Also I suspect that Merciless Eviction is very bad in this shell.

Unfortunately, although you are playing cards that are brutally effective in Standard competitive, you are also playing cards that are not available there. This relegates you to the Modern format, where cards like Desecration Demon don't really cut it. This means you are in the awkward position of having a good deck, but also one that is not quite good enough for Modern... However, this could be converted to play in Standard competitive while keeping the core of the deck pretty similar (Also if you only play for fun, feel free to ignore this comment entirely).

In order to convert this to Standard competitive, I would just keep the Thoughtseizes, Smiters, Demons, and Shamans the same, and then add some more midrangey things and standard removal. I would max out Abrupt Decay and Deathrite Shaman and then think about Hero's Downfall, Obzedat, and maybe Scavenging Ooze.

If you want to keep it in modern I would agree with the above comment about your Crusaders; infect doesn't make any kind of sense in this deck.

I'm going to disagree, but for one reason, and he hasn't put it in yet. Whelming Wave, from the spoilers. Looks great and I love it.

But yeah besides that burn and kill spells would do juuust fine.