Discussion Forum

forums must be pretty dead....moving on.

I can't look at it. You change the name of the deck. This is a rule I keep in mind. Say your deck is mostly 3 mana. Well you want it so you get 3 manna with in fhe first 3 turns almost all the time. Without knowing your deck. I would say add more many.
it's funny to see these blue and black decks that use draw cards to substitute as mana. Don't fall into this pit fall. If you're going to play a daeck with draw cards you will need control and lots of it. Draw is fine but keep in mind you are still using mana and wont be able to counter stuff as well. This standard set has a lot one mana counter spells or two mana in blue. If playing blue I would have these cards in sideboard because if you are using 3 mana to draw cards and you are only using 20 land the odds of you getting more than 4 land during a game is going to be slim to none. You are playing black so that means you're most likely paying two mana to draw so you need at least three lands.
:) the only reason I know your deck has to have draw is because you're playing few lands. I see this a lot. Even top pros fall into this little pitfall. About 35% of my games, maybe more, are won because the guy was looking for the right land, didnt have enough land, or wasted a turn on drawing cards. If the other guy gots stuff out that you can't deal with or having dealed with guess what that drawing of cards is pretty much useless. So instead of drawing cards put in answers.
Using a deck with draw is fine but if you do you will have to put in a lot of control cards at the expense of creatures. And example of a deck with draw is a deck I just made called Happy Birthday Morther Fucker. It uses draw and as a result it has to load up on control. Back in the day draw cards were much more effective, however now, not so much. The reason is because cards have gotten so much more powerful.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Yeah I changed the name without thinking about the link I posted here. Here it is, no more name changes, I promise haha. I know exactly what you are saying about winning aginst people that are 'mana screwed' as they call it or looking for that one card to make everything flow into action. My deck isn't about drawing specific cards, but I do have it ramping. You are right, consistent mana is key. So far, out of all of the games I've played testing it, mana has not been an issue. By turn 3 I'm always at 3 lands with the a chance of having Crypt Ghast in my hand to speed up with ramp. I don't rely on the ramping, it's just there to speed me along. http://www.mtgvault.com/nikodeemus/decks/blackout/

I like the hero's down fall. A lot of the other cards cost a lot. Just as I thought you have draw. I also like Ring of Xathrid. There with this deck you will clearly need to get to the late game. And yeah you have a creature that helps with mana but lets be honest that's getting knocked out within the next turn. If you were playing me you got your 3 land on turn three that's fine but I can say for the next 2 or 3 turns you dont have lands and any thing that would help for 3 mana would be enough and would get taken care of. And well your not drawing land odds are I am drawing land, meaning stronger late game. Which I wouldn't think it would last that long. Play the deck againast a friend and the weakness will become very clear.

Too slow for my taste and the mana is definately an issue

Thanks for the input, was hoping for a little more advice, but that's ok. I've changed it up some and removed a lot of the one-of's (still running some one-of creatures) and aimed it more toward removal.

You could run great cards such as phyrexian obliterator or fatal push. Other suggestions are things like tragic slip or dead weight.