malignantmatt

So where is the mill? You need mind sculpt and tome scour. and sands of delirium.

have out the corpsejack, get the sage with some counters on it, make a huge hydra partially to corpsejack, then bioshift the sages counters on the hydra, corpsejack again. That would be one big freakin hydra!!!!!

forget deathtouch and go for trample. or keep deathtouch and add the 'must be blocked' ability.

yeah, man I would have a serious beat down going by then. I didn't want to be the first one to say it.

this gets good when you can get out pandemonium or warstorm surge. what do you do in the meantime, pray for smoke?

duel lands. A must have, no doubt. plenty to choose from. This tactic is risky but in the right hands this can be brutal. you need to have a poker face.

or you could wait till you had about 4 mana on the 4th turn in play with a creature on the field ready to go. artful dodge, groundswell, might and giant growth. 4+4+3=11 on a 1/1, that's 12. You would most likely already have another creature by then too. You have taken the opponent down to 8 life. It can be done. I run similar decks. The secret to winning is deception, sacrifice blocker at least once and patience. All you really need is one creature then let the boosts do their job. You do have to play that carefully though.

You are correct about rancor. such a sweet enchantment.

cool. watch out because mills can throw off your ability to get lands. good thing you only need about 3 lands to do most of the things in this deck. another thing that can be tough to fight is control, detain, return to your hand, fogs and prevent all damage spells. Since you are in modern watch out for some guys using ensnaring bridge. so keep artifact destruction in the side board. shattering blow is good, and shatter, etc.
other than that this deck type sends out a lot of damage quickly. you will have fun with it.

that should run pretty fast and start dealing serious damage pretty quick. have you had any trouble playing this against control decks or mill decks?

All I have to say is: Hell Yes!!!! I love the wombat.

for this you should be using creatures with the scavenge ability or you need to get scavenging ooze pumped. If you have the scavenge creatures they do the best in the graveyard so look for self mill abilities, drown in filth or grisly salvage work best.
that can get creatures in the grave for scavenging or pumping the ooze. the ooze can exile opponents creatures so stick with thoughsieze and distress (2 black). (not to be confused with duress).
one of the key cards in golgari is the lothleth troll. I have run a golgari deck that didn't use the troll but it really does help. he can discard a creature and get a counter then you can exile and give a counter to the ooze. I usually run disentomb and discard again and the scavenge to really pump up the troll, but I don't run the ooze. I should.
For scavenge creatures there is a bunch of them, just do a search here for it and you will find them I think most are still standard. Also check out the dredge ability to see if that could help. It won't be in standard but its really cool. I would cut down on the killing spells you have. they are all good but you actually have more than you may need. Abrupt decay is really good as well as putrefy and hero's downfall. instead get some self mill and scavengers. Also treasured find is helpful.

that was good block. I ran blue with lots of ninjas and flyers and student of the elements that made everyone flying. I stopped playing after that set. Didn't pick the game back up for a few years.

this will make my rouges much more... interesting. frogtosser, stinkdrinker and morsel theft for sure. Now, put that with a deathcult rouge.

first i have seen of prowl. I an idea of using rouges now I want to do it.

well i never use planeswalkers.
for blue i use ice cages, inactions, etc. unblockables and the ciphers and land denials, draw engines and scry. rarely do i use a mono blue but i have had some luck with it. blue with green or black is very complimentary especially for my style. deny opponents resources (bouncing, countering, cages), attack with cheap killers and either buff/cipher or evolve. never had luck with white in any mixture except with black (even then not so much). With white i have one or two good decks, it is one of those colors I have to run mono-ed.
One of the guys I play regularly has the elocuters and battlefield denial (no attacking at all) and counters direct damage and elocuters for the win. i hate that deck but its really cool.
I lack patience.

well land should be 1/3 or 33.3% almost always. 4 to 8 one drops, 4-8 two drops, 4-6 three drops, and 3-6 above that. unless mana ramps are considered. mana ramps to be truly considered a 'ramp' must have a 1:1 ratio, one cost for one mana. 0:1 are monetarily expensive and usually banned. or 1:3 that usually involve another cost like sacking or waiting a turn, etc. are to be considered more than or equal to a 1:1 ratio. I usually put them at = to. enough of mana ramps.
The only exception to that is this game is a base 4 math system, as opposed to the way we tell time base 60 or the measurement system not practiced in USA, base 10. Base 4, 4 cards of the same name except basic lands. So work with spells first and multiply by .333 and you get the lands you need. Spells should get to about 40 cards. good start, experince can be your teacher after a while. 45 cards is good depending on mana costs and ramp factors.

Mana ramps can reduce the number of lands by a for 2:1 ratio for every mana ramp card lose a land and add a spell. only do this 4 to 8 times. I would actually stop at maximum of 6. You get land screwed sometimes, but 8 with a draw engine, scry or search. Those can be important. Fore every one of those, (draw, search, scry) you can use the same ration 1:2 for every one of those add something else. again stop at about 6. 4-8 is where you want to be.

If you have done this wrong less than 33.3% is land and and almost half you deck is spent not killing your opponent. A good reanimator deck can do this or a biovisionary deck for that matter, and win. enough on that for now.

when calculating spells, lets look at damage, no matter who/what does it. the old rule of MTG should be remembered. 1 for 3. one mana 3 life or 3 damage or 3 mana, etc (based of the 5 colors) if you notice the guilds blend the still base themselves of this in the form 2 for 6 (most time). This is the 'cost vs. effect' ratio. you want to spend around that on the effect. so your low casting cost must adhere to this principle. your 2 and 3 drops are usually you cumulative effect damage multipliers. thy should keep this in mind but they can waver a little in favor of brutality. 4 or more casting costs are your finishing move. they are like the fluff or icing on a cake or the fatality in Mortal Kombat. pretty to look at, but not crucial. The large drops are no less important as they will demoralize an opponent that know of its existence and is relatively sure of its frequency. Fear of seeing it and freaking out when they see it. Let's talk on frequency., first.

Play sets are very important but, when are they not. Simic's evolution (G/B) decks and Golgari's (G/B), lotleth trolls and scavenge are so sick but there is too much stuff that works too well. I abandon the base 4 mathematic system. in favor of a base 3 system. all other rules apply. this increases frequency of occurrence(F). if everything is base 4 frequency in a 60 card deck is at least once per game, (7 in the open and about 5 turns before death). so (F)is about every 9-12 cards. base 3 puts you at 6-15(F) cards but this can have deadly pitfalls. your spells better work together really well you will either get all of them or none of them. There better be some complimentary action/reaction, cause/effect harmony happening. That is why Simic and Golgari and to a lesser extent Dimir works so well. Dimir tends to be evil in its own right and the effects are just so similar it can't help but work together. White, blue and red need consistency for their effects to work properly as with the the guilds not mentioned.

Ockams's razor principle (and the name of one of my decks): all things being equal the simplest answer is usually the correct one. Simple plan of attack use only spells that move you in that direction.
Thoughts on the art of war: keep moving, always be doing something, if you aren't doing something (blue control) make them think you can't do anything (lie to them about one more mana and they are screwed, wait for attack and counter/control), if your enemy counters/controls make him spend his spells on lesser things and keep an eye on his land. demoralize your opponent and strip them of resources. If you are going to attack forget defenses, if you wish to defend don't worry about attacking. If your opponent NOT HIS DECK uses a specific strategy find ways to weaken him. People tend to go with what works for them, just like in real fights. If you wish to counter and confuse, destroy his deck. If an enemy uses the battlefield, deny him that. Take out his land or make it impossible to attack you. For non tournament play, you are playing the player, not his deck. Know thy enemy.

Side board are important, I'm sure you knew this. Think of it as alternates for your theory. Don't think of it as bench warmers. Never use the side board as a way to switch hitters on a differing opponent. Think of it as 'this might work but this does the same thing' not sure which is better, as some like to do use one of each to make your base 4, or 2 of each and 2 pairs each (base 4). Play a few hands usually 4 to 6 each against varying attacks and deck styles. The sideboard is also there if you are waiting to purchase the cards that you need the think of it as substitutes until the good players arrive.
My personal thoughts on the side board, if you truly need it, your deck sucks. A good running attack or well devised plan will never need to be alternated. Once complete there should be no deviation. Side boards are for the construction phase only. That is just me speaking there.

So short answer, math is always involved as well as history and military history and theory as well as a little bit of psychology. Get an idea, put it together and like my music teachers told me, practice, practice, practice.

Painful quandary is a good choice. i forgot about that one. your idea of having different specters is still a sound theory. i have done it. if you find it runs better that way then keep on with it. i just look at the mana costs and structure more mathematically but sometimes that doesn't work either so you go with what works and what feels right.

lose the chimeric mass and get 4 arsonists. and maybe add guttersnipe. The arsonists should do it though. not much to say about it. it looks like you have the idea down.

Circle of flame!!!!! It may not seem like much but rakdos and boros and token creatures had a tough time getting through that. it's cheap too.

Once you get 3 lands you spit out most of your land destruction. I had a friend throw one of these up against me, boros and rakdos ran him over. they run fast and cheap. There was something it needed but now I can't remember what it was. I'll get back to you.

That makes sense.