Rainbow

From your words, it sounds like you are trying to make a competitive deck on a budget. So I'll try to analyze this as I would any other competitive T2 deck.
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Suggestions:

Lands:

Anchient Ziggurat could work. It hurts your 8 spells a bit, but they only cost 2. And you can get an AZ for under $1; SSG is $1.25, but they are always the most expensive. Also they way to go if you ever get 4 Birds of Paradise and 2-4 Nobel Hierarch.

Creatures:
You should run a 4th MA because MA is important. Also, I think you should run some lifelink guys like Rhox War Monk ($0.99 - though you should prob own 2 or 3 of these puppies). And Mycoid Shepard ($0.59). Or board wiping spells. 1 drop accelerators can work if you go more traditional with less 5+ mana guys. BSA if you ever get the money. But then... you'd never play this deck, I think. Spearbreaker Behemoth (5GG 5/5 indestructible, makes other fatties indestructible) may be good as a supplememnt for MSA and the other fatties, to help them survive... I dunno...

Sorceries/Spells: If you don't end up running birds and Hierarch and lifegaining 3 and drops, then you will need Day of Judgement. I know it's expensive...

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Analysis:

If you don't get a turn 4 Maelstrom Angel, or your angel is removed... against good decks, you lose most of the time. The reason Maelstrom Angel is also really weak to removal.. is by Turn 4-5, when everyone else's decks are starting to peak, you haven't really started. And at that Point, MA is your biggest/only real threat. If you ran more/better 3 and 4 drops, and accelerators, that would change.

You can try, but without Turn 1 acceleration into a turn 2 3-drop like RWM, KotR, or WT, and turn 3 BBE or something else good for 4, and... without BSA... these 5 color creature decks... kinda suck.

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Matchup Predictions:


The advantage of this deck is that it is Janky. Nobody has seen it before, so they might play against it wrongly and end up helping you win. Like they might wait if you had some big Dudes

Spreading Seas: Um... auto-loss if they have any good win conditions. This goes for good Artifact-Open the Vaults decks, to good Grixis once they board.

So far, Jund will use its Maelstrom Pulses on the MA, and game 2 they will side in Deathmark also. And possibly also Malakir Bloodwitch.

W/Wx: Oblivion Ring/Path will hit her as well, and yes Path Accelerates you, but I still would rather have the Angel then a land.

A single Jace in UW/Grixis Control can make problems for you. As would Wrath/Deathmark and BSA/Nighthawk accordingly.

Vampires running Mind Sludge will almost get a free pass at you. They essentially get to fill up the board, then empty your hand, then win. And you have no way to defeat them. Especially because 2-3 Malakir Bloodwitches will be in their Main.

Boss Naya will try to race you game 1, and might fail, but then game 2 and 3, you lose badly to Sparkmage + Basilisk Collar.

Boros and RDW will probably beat you quickly, but you have some decent chances against them. Because your dudes are huge. But if they maindeck or sideboard Earthquake, they should be able to finish you off.

Even janky allies will smash you in the face.

And Polymorph Decks running Iona, Progenitus, or soon... Emrakul, will completely obliterate you.

You have decent chances against Bant control decks, but BSA against you is pretty much gg.

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Maybe you can hone this an get it to the point where, when the Eldrazi cycle in, you can stick them into your deck. But as of now... I am leery.

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I'm going to try to help you face the facts that this deck is not as good/reliable as you seem to claim it is.
If you always had a turn 4 (or even 5) MSA and they had the normal probabilities of creatures/removal/landscrew... this deck would be pretty good.

I don't mean to be evil, but when you say, "Typically this deck sees a Turn 4 Maelstrom Angel." You are flat out lying to yourself. It is not that good. The words "typical" or "reliable" suggest to me, >50% chances.

You may have ~50% chance of MA by turn 7 or 8 but definitely not by turn 4. If you are hitting >50%, then congratulations! You have mastered the art of non-random, probably unintentional, cheaty-pants shuffling. Or you have amazing luck. More likely is you only remember the good times, and you probably haven't been playing against only Top Tier Decks.

You would need to hit all of your land drops and get 1/8 cards by turn 3 with the right/untapped lands, and 1/3 by turn 4. The chances of hitting an accelerator turn 2, and again turn 3 is really low, especially considering all your tap lands.

If you had 4 MSA in the deck, your chances of getting a Turn 4 MSA in hand would be 53%. You have 3, so it is less. Your chances of drawing 4 lands by turn 4 is 63% (excluding deck thinning from Rampant Growth, so maybe we can call it 68%).
Your chance of drawing a Rampant Growth or Trace by turn 3 is 74%.

Even pretending all of your lands come into play untapped (which 15/24 don't)... the probability that you have the cards you need when you need them to get a t4 MSA is 25% (using 4 in your deck, with 3 its prob < 20%). And that's without taking into account the times that you could have tapped for acceleration but needed to cast one of your other creatures so you don't lose against decks that hit you for say 16+ damage over those 4 turns.

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Final Analysis:

The deck runs only 24 lands (and some acceleration, yes) but if you can't stick a maelstrom angel, or if they drop a Baneslayer or Vampire Nighthawk, or use removal at all... your deck has about 9 other creatures to help you survive while they beat you.

BASICALLY: You have ZERO reliable board presence until turn 4-5. And by then, your shenanigans won't be enough to swing the game back in your favor. If you really want to use the fatties, use more 3 drops and life gain or stall or Board Sweepers. Your biggest issue is not winning... it's surviving to the point where you win. You could change that completely if you ran better early threats like BBE, Wooly Thoctar, KotR, BSA, Rhox War Monk, and Mycoid Shephard. And maybe even Bloodbraid Elf and Captured Sunlight to help you find acceleration or other fatties.

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Sorry for the long post, any spelling/grammer/clarity errors. Also, sorry for the direct, critical analysis of your deck. I'm just trying to help :P

I hope you don't take offense to anything I said, and I hope this analysis helps you as you further develop your deck.

Also, here's an example of a deck that is similar to yours, but more reliable early-game (especially read the comments, because the original deck is somewhat lacking): http://www.magic-league.com/phpBB/post-135158.html


Good Luck! :D

Before making cuts, decide which route you want to go. more 3-4 drops for survival, or mass removal.

Seer's Sundial will almost assuredly come out for other stuff.


Once Rise of the Eldrazi comes in you will probably use Eldrazi, too, especially Emrakul if you go to the prelease. 15/15 flier who is hard to kill, with tons of amazing abilities that you can cast off of Maelstrom Angels attack. It also gives you an extra turn when you cast it.

Also, you will Probably use the following Draw Spell, if it is not too expensive:

Momentous Fall 2GG

Instant Rare
As an additional cost to cast Momentous Fall, sacrifice a creature.
You draw cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power, then you gain life equal to the its toughness.
(It wasn't long until the elves had developed a use for every part of the Eldrazi.)

It is best used when someone targets one of your creatures to blow it up, and instead you get a ton of cards and life.


Example with a new card:


Pelakka Wurm 4ggg

Creature - Wurm Uncommon
Trample
When Pelakka Wurm enters the battlefield, you gain 7 life.
When Pelakka Wurm is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, draw a card.
7/7

Use the instant to save this guy from annihilation, and in total, you draw 8 cards and gain 14 life.

Though he is more for a different kind of deck. Maybe if you became one extreme or the other... super-control with few creatures and lots of tech/life gain/board wiping. Or if you became really aggressive with a high threat density so that you are alive by the time you cast this, and by then, they've used up their removal.



Link to RoE Spoiler: http://www.gatheringmagic.com/rise-of-the-eldrazi-spoilers-0249/

avatarofmight has deleted this comment.

Ok, so I had a big long comment typed out, and when I hit add comment I lost it, cause for some reason this site logs me off after a couple minutes of "Inactivity"... If anyone knows how to change that I would appreciate some help with that...

Ok so this is for loki3, and avatarofmight's comments. First off, every "come into play tapped" land I have in the deck produces green, 8 of them produce red, and 8 produce white. Those aren't counting the Rupture Spire or the Exotic Orchard (which typically can produce 2-3 differant colors). Green, Red and White are my most important colors to have the first 2 turns, cause I can cast Rampant Growth or Trace of Abundance. So here is a turn-by-turn of a typical game. And remember that typical doesn't mean every single game, just means that it happens like this probably 75% of the time. About the comment about bad shuffling, or cheating: I only play MTGO, so I have no control over the randomness of the cards...

I will aways muligan if I don't have anything to play. I have no problem muliganning down to 5. If I haven't gotten anything going down to 5 I'll just play it anyways and hope for the best...

Turn 1- Play a tapped land: Doesn't matter which one

Turn 2- Play an untapped land: because of 4 Growths and 4 Traces, I usually have at least one in my starting hand, and this is when it gets played.

Turn 3- Play a tapped land: This is usually a dead turn, besides the land. If I have Ruptur Spire then this is usually when it gets played. If I'm lucky enough to have Mayael in my hand then she will get played. I don't mind playing her so soon, because she will usually lure in removal. If she doesn't get removed then great, her ability comes in handy if she stays. I just don't mind her getting removed over something a little more important.

Turn 4- This is obviously my most important turn. I actually have a couple of options here. I can either play MA, or Madrush Cyclops. I have 3 MA's and 2 Cyclops, so with 5 possible plays this turn I usually either start with one or draw into one by this time. MA is obviously my best choice here, but the Cyclops is a good drop here to. It is one I play to either lure in another removal, or if it stays than thats that much better for me. I also have 4 KoNA's that can get played here, but I would prefer to save him for later. It all kind of depends on the deck I'm playing against also. If I know its a deck full of removal than I will usually cast something here to make them burn more of their removal.

Turn 5- This is where things get interesting. I have lots of options for this turn. I should be able to produce 6 mana here, maybe 7 depending on my turn 3. If my MA stayed out then things will get too heavy from here for my opponent. I've seen games where I hard cast KoNA then swing with 10/10 angel and throw out another fatty. If my MA isn't out then I have enough mana to hard cast all but 6 of my creatures, so from here even with out MA I usually don't have a problem casting problem after problem for them.

When I built this deck, I wasn't building it to be extremely competitive, but I do always strive to make my decks better. I know this description of the deck seems a little out there, but it really does work out close to this sinario most of the time. I have had a problem with it being 1 turn too slow when playing against well built Tier 1 decks, but in casual it has done well. I appreciate the suggestions, and don't take offence to any of it at all. Because of the suggestions, I'm going to take out the Sundials and throw in 2 Woolly Thoctars, and 2 RWMs. Whichever one works out the best I'll probably use 4 of. I'm thinking the RWM's will probably be my best bet. That will give me an earlier solution to faster decks, and give me something to play on my turn 3 that is usually a land-go turn. I think that might be just the card I need to help this deck last long enough to get going. I will also get a 4th MA to put in just to ensure more consistancy.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

if you added cards like birds of paradise, explore, burgeoning, and bloom tender. I think this deck would be alot better. There not all that expensive either.