Mercedes

THIS. This is the deck I want to run. OMG.

XD I was just saying how I wanted to run a R/B deck but couldn't think of a decent build and here it is! I love the speed of it and how nicely all of the cards work together. This looks ridiculously fun to play and could be truly frightening.

WANT TO PLAY IT NOW.

Please read Serra's Sanctum again. "Rules: {T}: Add {W} to your mana pool for each __enchantment__ you control."

I'd comment further, but I'm afraid I'm really confused about what you're trying to do. Is it aggro-mill-defensive-ramp? O.o Heh?

Seconding the Timely Reinforcements, that card can be a BOMB. Autumn's Veil might be good against control. A Mentor of the Meek or two main deck would probably help keep you consistent. Also, you'll want Torpor Orbs and a Witchbane Orb or two in the sideboard to help deal with burn, mill and Titans. And, lastly -- Acidic Slime wants to be your friend. :D

Several reasons. Watch out, I'm wordy. ;)

For one, cost. Turn 3 needs to be reserved for dropping Tempered Steel, Etched Champion with Metalcraft active, one of the Swords or O-Ring for control. Turns 1 & 2 need to be filled with early build up, especially to keep up with other low-cost decks (G/W humans, Puresteel, RDW). Golem Foundry isn't terrible, it's true, and it could potentially net me a 3/3 creature darn fast. BUT, if I can't play an artifact every turn, it could also be dead on the field.

Also, look at it like this: play Shrine turn 2, play Tempered Steel turn 3, turn 4 I can potentially have 3 3/3's in play. At one point during the tournament, I popped a Shrine with 6 counters on it and 2 Tempered Steel in play. Putting 6 5/5's into play for 3 mana is sooooo nice and shows how this can really shine in long games.

Finally, consistency. I get a counter on the Shrine on all of my upkeeps, whether I play a spell or not. The Foundry is reliant on my playing a spell, where as casting a white spell for the Shrine is just a bonus. And every counter on the Shrine is a creature where as the Foundry takes three counters to produce a single creature.

That was probably more information than you expected or wanted, but I prefer being thorough to giving a throw-away answer. ^.^;;

Hey, if you got it, that works!

... And suddenly I have an urge to get 5 other people and play a game in Emperor format...

*rereads the top* Oh, wait, you did mean this for 2HG. You realize that you can only play 4 TOTAL of each card between the two of you, right? ^.^;;

I kind of wish you two could play these as 2HG. That would be hysterical. XD BUT you'd have to cut all the quantities in half and that would negate half the fun.

Your Squirrel Army will overwhelm all. XD +1 for a deck that looks awesomely amusing to play.

+1 for the name alone. XD

I'm sure you know, but making sure anyway -- You know Purity in no way inverts the life you lose from Necropotence, right? Of course, you should have enough lifegain that life doesn't matter, but, yeah...

Also, don't forget about Godless Shrine and, now, Isolated Chapel.

I wish I had some more extensive advice, but there are tons of options for B/W lifegain and, frankly, Necropotence boggles me. I'm a fan of Suture Priest, but I think she might be too slow for this.

Inkmoth Well = Inkmoth Nexus. Hurr nurr nurr. XP

The Mox's wouldn't replace creatures, they replace land. 20 land is really all you need with this deck, your curve is low and it still runs crazy fast. Because they're legendary, just trade 2 Plains for two Mox Opal and there you go. :) Mox Opal is strong in a Metalcraft-needy deck because it's an artifact that your opponent is rarely, if ever going to target. If you don't have at least two other artifacts on the board that are more threatening than that, then the Opal is dead anyway. As for the Retreats, really... if you have them, they can't hurt. Same goes for Inkmoth Well, that's a beast with a Tempered Steel or two out, though it shouldn't hurt you if you can't or don't want to add them. Having them can sometimes allow you to temporarily gain Metalcraft, though, if you don't have 3 artifacts on the field.

I've been play-testing a TS deck most of the week, so it's pretty fresh in my head. LOL I'm a little surprised you aren't running Etched Champions, but I suppose you traded them in for the Blasts or Curses? This is an interesting take, a little originality is always a welcome sight. :D

Sheoldred, but not even one Phantasmal Image? I thought Flare decks always ran the Sun Titan/Image combo? Otherwise, looks like it will do nasty nasty things. I hate it already.

Been looking at other Tempered Steel decks to try and get an idea what my mirror-matches might be like. Even if you're running a slightly different build here, this has sick tempo. And, honestly, Glint Hawks are nice, but paying the [w] for the idol if, for some strange reason you can't trigger it otherwise, is NOTHING. You're right, it's survivability is far better than having a non-artifact creature in the deck.

It seems like everyone's building exile loops lately. :/

That being said, though, I think this is my favorite build so far. You have MULTIPLE ways of creating a loop. Not only that, those ways give you the ability to control the board even without the loop activating and THAT is what makes this deck strong than others I've seen.

Nice work. :)

Having played against a LOT of SFlare decks in the past couple of weeks, I have to ask: Why AREN'T you running any Leaks main deck? Where the decks combos take a few turns to set up, you're looking at some rather obvious early game vulnerability without them. Not to mention bringing them back later with Snapcaster for an unpleasant surprise.

Otherwise, looks pretty standard. I hate the deck profusely at this point, so be happy to know I'd hate this version, too. *grumbles about stupid Phantasmal Image/Sun Titan eternal loops*

Sleeved up proxied versions of the 4 top deck types we're likely to see at States so that we could do some last minute cramming. And after my first two games, getting trounced (again) by Solar Flare I had to finally give in to the reality of the situation: Taps, in any variation of the above, will not be competitive in Standard at this time. There's always a chance that something my come in the next two Innistrad expansions that will make it viable again, but as it stands right now, every major winning build just runs right over me.

For now, I'm setting this aside. I'll come back to it, either when something more board-effective comes in furture sets or, possibly, for Modern/Extended. Losing Sleep and Narcolepsy really hurt this deck and it doesn't look recoverable. :/

So... Temper Steel at States for me!

Your curve scares me to pieces, but I'm starting to think I've just played too many aggro decks. Any deck that starts on turn three makes me twitch. LOL

Other than that, though, this looks like tons of fun. I'd suggest running 4 Venser, though, your deck really depends on him being in play to function smoothly.

This isn't control. This is a U/W somewhat-aggro deck that wants to pretend it's control. Trust me, I know, it's what I usually run with. ;)

If you ACTUALLY want more control in the deck, you'll want at least 4 Leaks and 4 O-Rings; you can take out the Midnight Hauntings for those. Also, Dismember really out to be main deck, at least two, and Gideon could stand to be there, too. I never quite get why people put planeswalkers in their sideboards and not in the main deck at all. I mean, what situations/decks are you holding him back for? O.o

Geist of Saint Traft is an AWESOME card... but, unfortunately, he dies really easily if blocked. Just something to think about. I guess it depends on how often and consistently you can get a Sword on him within a turn or so. *shrug*

Hope this helped a bit!

I don't like how this deck doesn't really start until turn three. If you don't draw a Lawkeeper and/or Leaks right off the bat, half the decks out there would be chewing on your face before anything can hit the ground.

That being said, I can see this being decent once it actually gets going. If the Solemns come out consistently, that would fix the land issue even without Ponder/Think Twice. You're right, this version could use a little more control and, frankly, I can tell that you'd much rather have a Venser control deck than a Gideon tap down. :)

Not going to do a whole report for Friday, but I'm adjusting the build above after this to reflect what I played.

Final: 3-2-0, bumped down to 10th due to tie-breakers. Not that I would have made it past round one of the finals, but yeah. My wins were against two black decks (I am definitely seeing a pattern here), which were unrefined piles of zombies with very few tricks, and a G/U attempt at graveyard tricks that was low on creatures and functioned rather poorly. :/ I almost felt bad for beating one guy; it was his first tournament and he obviously hadn't been playing too long.

My other two games were Solar Flare and White-splash-Green Humans. >.> 2-0 them, both matches. The best could do was stall them, unfortunately. Torpor Orb helps a good deal in the same way Stony Silence helped against Bant Pod: Stops a few of their main sequence of spells, but doesn't cut them off completely. W/g outruns me, Torpor Orb only neuters Blade Splicer and Champion of the Parish. Solar Flare has too many ways around everything I throw at them, not to mention getting crreatures faster and in larger quantities.

My confidence in the deck as a States-worthy build is shaky. It might be better if I had more time to play test and adjust, but with only a day or more a week so far and only a week until States.... yeah. >.<

I'm not comfortable with Neurok Invisimancer. :/ Yeah, it's unblockable, but unless you have Mindshrieker out, it's ability is going to fall flat. Maybe run Trespassing Souleater instead? Just a thought