geezer48

Your Deck seems a little bit out of sync with itself. You are loading up the graveyard but have no spells to bring the creatures back, only their inherent abilities. Why not play Animate Dead, Stitch Together, or Reanimate. I do not think you need the Shriekhorns. Putid Imp is a better way to put the right creature in the graveyard, or Ostersize yourself.. You could also play Leyline of the Void and Living Death for a onesided rebirth win.

Red Land Destruction - dear to my heart. I think you can make this deck much better than it is at present. Volcanic Strength should be in the sideboard, and lose Scorch the Fields (2) and the others sideboard and lose Guise of Fire. Increase your Lightning Bolts and Red SunZeniths for more board control. Add Pyroclasm and Flamebreak again for board control. Increase your land count by 2 and add Valakut if you have one, or red cycle lands. Consider playing Crack the Earth, Raze and Pillage as cheaper land destruction spells. Tangle Wire is an excellent artifact for this type of deck. Chrome Mox or Simian Spirit Guide would help you destroy a land on turn two. Zu-zu the Punisher serves as another Ankh if you have him. and Dingus Egg is another option. Other cards you may want to consider are Conquer, Meekstone, Rain of Salt, Wild Swing, Boil and Flashfires(sideboard), Avalanche Riders , and Lacolith Rig -played on an opponents creature. Land destruction needs to be able to destroy lands on turns 2,3 4 , and 5 to be truly effective. Take some early damage to destroy a land and possibly play Elixir of Immortality to get the life back and recycle your spells. Good Luck....

If your opponent is not playing heavy red/black , a great card for this deck is Balthor the Defiled. In conjunction with Crypt Rats you can clear the board and then bring all your creatures back a turn later for 7 mana. Rat decks have many ways to go -White /Black Crypt Rats -Lashknife Barrier, heavy discard with Rack, Dark Ritual and Nezumi Grave Robber, or rat build up and Balthor or Patriarch Bidding to bring them back. Check out my standard Pack Rat deck. Ravenous Rats is probably the best rat to use in any build.

Looks better to me. How has it been doing? You can add Bitterheart Witch to pull an extra Curse to make that card more effective. Mindshrieker should also be in the deck. Trepanation Blade was always too slow but looks good on paper - underwhelming card.

For a first deck this is pretty good. You have a decent mana curve, adequate lands (possibly 1 -2 more would be better) and some removal and protection spells. The main fault of the deck is that it lacks focus -what are you trying to accomplish, by that I mean how do you plan to win. You seem to have small aggro creatures and lifelink and extort creatures. Have a single goal in ind. Play your deck numerous times and see what works for you and then switch creatures to some multiples of the better ones. Are you playing what you have available? More Vampire Nighthawks would help, and move Sin Collector to sideboard. Add more elimination spells like Doom Blade, Murder, Victim of the Night, and Go for the Throat. Consider stall spells like Safe Passage, Holy Day, Wall of Omens. Shock Dual Lands would also help your deck if you can afford them. Have fun playing your deck and learn from victories as well as mistakes, you seem to be off to a good start.

Your deck is based upon an excellent premise of lifegain/ power creatures to win, but it has problems. Your land count is too low and your mana curve is top heavy. You play 20 lands - six of which come in tapped. If you get six land s out the deck is great but you may be dead way before that point. You do not see much land destruction in modern format but it does exist. Boomerang on one of your lands sets you back , propaganda effects like Ghostly Prison wreck your attack, and removal will kill your game unless Emeria is active. You need less bombs in the deck and more early defensive and removal spells. Good cards to think about would be Ghostly Prison, Windborn Muse, Oblivion Ring, Journey to Nowhere, and Wall of Omens. Disenchant should be in your sideboard. Play at lease 3-4 more lands and cut 1 or 2 Emeria. Think how you would handle Burn or Red Deck wins decks that kill by turn five, or Discard decks that will strip your hand and then Extirpate your graveyard. You Play Emeria but none of your creatures have come into play benefits so you are not maximizing its benefits. The deck has a solid base but needs early defense to get to its stable mid-game and win position. Good Luck.

Nice idea, how has it worked out for you? I seem to think you need dual or mana correcting lands - Glimmervoid - to make this deck work. Need at least 6 more lands in your 60 card deck. Bludgeon Brawl should be reduced to 3 as multiple copies in hand will hurt your deck. Also seems like this deck can be disrupted quite easily, but still an intersting idea.

thanks for your comments . I was playing an Orzhov/Zombie deck with Obzedat, Doomed Traveler and Blood Artist which was playing at a 50% win ratio over 3 FNMs. Decided to try the blue. Your opnions echo my own but I think I have enough creatures. I need board clearing to beat the fast Jund and Naya decks that I am always seeing, so Supreme Verdict may be added.

A few cards can really help your deck - Reteather, Elephant Grass, Echantress's Presence, Argothian Enchantress, and Sterling Grove for some protection and tutoring.. Also helpful - Wild Growth, Oblivion Ring, Auratog, Sprit Loop, and Great Auramancy. Your main problem seems to be board clearing effects so maybe Serpent Skin might also be useful. Eternal Witness is also a nice card ro have around to get back a key creature or enchantment. I like your use of Patterns of rebirth, nice move.

I like what you are trying to do with the Maze but I believe your deck is too slow. Does it have color mana problems? i have a Maze deck that wins 60/40 in casual but I have yet to take it to FNM or a serious tournament. . Deck is Gr/Bl/Wh . I use mana defenders and board clearing to keep the opponent in check until I can win with Maze or Door to Nothingness. The Door to Nothingness Kill is faster to pull off. The key cards which you are not playing are Unexpected results - extra gates and back to your hand for the next turn, Axebane Guardian - color I need to cast key spells and Open the Door around turn 7, Gatekeeper Vine - more Gates, and Cloudshift - more gates save a blocker. Hover Barrier and Fog Bank combine with Hold the Gates to provide big back end creatures to stall with forever . Play your deck a few times and see if it is effective or try my stall deck ideas. You can sideboard in Crackling Perimeter (4) if your opponent is not playing lifegain as an alternate kill. - I see you probably considered that option already.

I think you need to add more artifact removal and the Moon effects to screw with your opponent since you are relying on straight creature damage. When I play Edh there are a lot of board sweepers so creature base decks need ways to recover quickly or avoid being swept. In red you can steal there creatures and sacrifice them - Act of Treason/Ashnod's Altar, or x-spell them Fireball, Devil's Play and lock out lifegain - Sulfuric Vortex.

Nice EDH deck. How has it been performing for you? Cards you may want to try out - Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, Door of Destinies, Coat of Arms, Adaptive Automation , and Stranglehold. Moon effects may slow down your opponents to the point you can overwhelm them since you don't have tutoring and card advantage engines. Trash for Treasure and Granulate might also be helpful on a lesser scale. How are you breaking Apocalypse in this deck? Mana Flare may hurt you more than help you, since you do not have a lot of x spells in this deck

I think 2 Elves - Lanawar or Arbor might get you started quicker. Thirteen Eldradazi is a lot. Worldly tutor or Green Sun Zenith to pull your Mana wall. Nice deck idea

Pretty solid Ally deck. Don't you usually win by beatdown before milling takes over? I think you need more milling aspects to win that way. Add Mimic Vat to keep the allies coming. Mindshrieker and Hedron Crab would improve the mill aspect of the deck and protect against flying damage. Increasing Confusion could be a mill finisher. I played a Mill deck when allies were in Standard using the Allies to hold the line , backed by the Crab and about a dozen milling spells and enchantments.

Deck seems to be lacking a great target for Mirrorweave. You are relying on Cranial Plating to make your creatures bigger, or you will outnumber your opponent on the board. Why not play an unblockable creature to weave. Also Howling Mine doesn't really give you anything extra in this deck. Thoughcast should be better and won't help your opponent. Concentrate on the Affinity aspect of this deck without tricks and it will do better in my opinion.

Thanks for your comments, and I just checked out your deck. Follow me - I have over 100 decks constructed or on paper and will post some of them when I get some time.

Nice Deck, is it Standard or Modern, or just Casual? Dissapation Fields makes it Modern. I like Coat of arms in this deck since you have a tribal creature base and bouncing your opponent's creatures to break the symmetry of the card. Imagecrafter could be used to make your non-illusion creatures hexproof if Lord of the Unreal is on the battlefield. Hidden Strings could be very helpful if you get it on an unblockable creature. Vedalkan Shackles is always handy in a blue beck. If I was changing any cards I would cut the Azure Mage to two.

If this deck is Modern you cannot play Argothian - needs to be a Mesa or Verduran Enchantress. Birds of Paradise helps to mana correct. You could add Auratog as a finisher / card draw - eat Rancor over and over. Also Indestructability is too expensive, more umbras would be just as effective and a speedier clock. Nice deck and good luck. Reteather is a card for your sideboard, and make sure you carry your own artifact and enchantment removal.

Glad I could Help... Win a few games To really make someone pay for their discards you need uncommons and rares. Make a few versions of the deck by proxy to try them out.

Thanks - will test it out sometime. I have been working on a Maze deck playing two types - one passive using walls and board clearing effects, and another using a more agressive approach with creature attacks and Crackling Perimeter. The passive deck pull off Door to Nothingness more often than a Maze win and is still too slow when playing tier one Standard decks.