Also, please tell me what you think of my Selesnya deck when you get a chance. http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=402347
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Have you considered Undying creatures? They also get +1/+1 counters. Creatures like Young Wolf or Strangleroot Geist would be great here, they strengthen your early game and provide resistance to board wipes(which would destroy you right now). Also, lots of vampires get +1/+1counters, Stromkirk Noble would be a great early play. Falkenrath Exterminator could also be pretty powerful. Curse of Stalked Prey would be brutal with Corpsejack Menace and Hellhole Flailer. You also need more resistance to board wipes. Right now you would lose to any control deck, because you have nothing that survives a creature wipe, and no way to refill your hand or quickly load the board back up. If you add undying creatures(as mentioned above) it would help. You could also add Garruk, Primal Hunter(He could draw you rediculous amounts of cards, make creatures, and survive wipes). Garruk Relentless might also be good, he gives you deathtouch blockers and can search up the Menace(or help you get two of them). A great card I think you overlooked is Predator Ooze, it's indestructible and Menace makes it get huge fast. Fix your lands, you have too many m13 duals that will often enter the battlefield tapped. Adding Shocklands will fix the problem, and help you pay for mana-specific cards like Flailer and Predator, and Lotleth Troll.
Well this started out pretty budget when I first started building it a few weeks ago, but as I've improved it that's changed. It's still much cheaper than all the Jund, R/W/U control, and Rites decks that are the other competitive decks now. Won FNM with it this week(though there weren't as many as we normally have due to Thanksgiving). Beat Jund(person who beat me in finals last week), RWU control, an Epic Experiment combo, BWG Rites, straight B/W Rites, and Bant control.
I would reduce the amount of black. Drop the swamps for Overgrown Tombs, and drop thrill-kill assassin. Replace assassin with predator ooze. The ooze is amazing for this deck, with Menace it it gets +2/+2 every time it attacks, and after a turn or two it will kill anything that blocks it, making it even bigger. Most importantly, it's indestructible. It will survive board wipes, then keep attacking and getting even bigger, allowing you to pressure control decks at a point where they are trying to take over the game. Anytime you play Ooze early against control(otherwise your worst matchup), it will make it hard for them to win. Also consider 2/3 copies of Rancor, it can make creatures even bigger, and returns to your hand(avoiding the typical 2-for-1 disadvantage of auras) I do like the deck though, anything capable of playing an 18/18 trampler on turn 6 with no ramp and no pump is cool.
The two decks are mostly the same, but mine is more balanced, with 1 less pilgrim and land, and Thalia in side, but Garruk, Dryad Militants, Sigarda and an extra charm. They're all cards that are good in any matchup, but give me a good chance against decks that otherwise might be hard. Militants is 2-power 1-drop that wrecks Rites and hurts control decks that use flashback for card advantage. Garruk destroys control that doesn't draw an answer to him quickly. Sigarda gives me a way to beat Jund(that has tons of targeted removal, but usually no board sweepers). Also, I think your sideboard REALLY needs some work.
Sorry here was the Rakdos Aggro http://www.mgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=401140 and here is my successful tournament deck http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=402347
Honestly, I would put all 4 dreadbores mainboard, but I figured that if you had played the deck and had 4 duress, then I would defer to your judgement(havent played it) and leave 2 in. As for Conscripts, I still feel that 5 mana is a lot for a deck with 22 lands, and the permanent vs creature difference isnt much. Traitorous Instinct gives the stolen creature +2/+0, which helps make up for the lack of the 3/3 haste, but also makes it more likely for the opponent to block their own creature
Feel free to pick and choose from these ideas, please reply with what you disagree with(and why). Here's the Rakdos Aggro deck I'm working on, tell me what you think!
Put together, my suggestions are Main Deck: -3 swamp -1 mountain -2 Zealous Conscripts -2 Duress +4 Blood Crypt +2 Traitorous Instinct +2 Dreadbore and Sideboard: -4 Murder -3 Markov Blademaster +2 Dreadbore +2 Duress +3 Skirsdag High Priest
Ok, your list looks good, but I have three main suggestions. Feel free to agree with some and disagree with others, though I would really appreciate it if you would reply telling me what you think. 1) I see why you have the Zealous Conscripts, but since you are really looking for the creature steal, not the 3/3, I would replace it with the cheaper alternatives of either Traitorous Instinct(for a similar amount of damage, but more likely that they have to block their own creature). Or Traitorous Blood, which is even cheaper and also gives the stolen creature trample. 2) Replace Murder(sideboard) with Dreadbore. Dreadbore is cheaper(66%of cost) and can take out planeswalkers, which will really help you against decks that want to drop a walker then follow it up with a board sweeper. 3) Add in Blood Crypt. You really need it to increase the chance of a turn-1 Noble(right now you only have 4 mountains as ways to do so). They will also be helpful if you do switch Murder to Dreadbore.You are playing 4 nighthawks(if it comes to racing) and nothing that causes you to lose life, so the 2 life cost shouldn't matter. 4) Duress is really weak against creature-based decks. I would move at least two of them to the sideboard and replace them with Murder(or preferably Dreadbore, if you make that change) 5) I don't think Markov Blademaster is a good sideboard card. It does fit well with your deck, but bringing it in after sideboarding doesn't help your matchup against any specific deck. I would take them out and replace them with Skirsdag High Priests. Priest is good against midrange creature decks that want to play a Huntmaster and/or Thragtusk(often with resto angel), which would then take over the game. The Priest will allow you to get a big flyer into the air that can kill resto angel or huntmaster and trade with thragtusk, as well as being able to win on it's own.
Except she's not that good. Restoration angel is good in a deck with lots of ETB creatures. Soulbound is an ETB, but its not usually very great to just re-bond. I hate when people look at a deck and say "oh this is a _______ type of deck(spell-based or creature-based) in ______ color, you should add_________ card. Restoration Angel is a great card in some decks(usually with thragtusk), but to put her in here I would need to take something else of a similar cost out. What would you suggest switching out to put resto angel in?
So close, came in second. Lost final match 1-2 to a Jund midrange/ramp deck. I had bad draws first game(After first mulligan I drew 5 card with no land, had to keep a hand of 4 with 3 lands), and won the second. Third game he went first, played farseek on his 2nd turn and dropped Olivia on his 3rd(dropped land on each). His fourth turn was a dreadbore on my Loxodon Smiter and Olivia killing my Avacyn's Pilgrim(plus flying in for 4). His fifth turn was a Rakdos's Return that discarded me down to a single Sigarda, and when I missed drawing the land I needed to cast her for a chance to get back in, he showed me the Huntsmaster in his hand and I conceded. The Jund matchup is normally pretty good, but I lost first game to a really unlucky bad draw, and the last to the best possible Jund play against me(No creature-based deck can hold up to a 3rd turn Olivia on the play, with a turn 5 Rakdos' Return all but clearing out your hand). The other reason I like this deck is that aside from the lands(shocklands aren't cheap), this deck isn't too hard or expensive to get together. In comparison, the Jund deck that beat me would probly cost as much as $500 to build from scratch.
Please leave a pertinent comment or dont make one, not just "hey come comment on this unrelated deck" I dont mind people leaving deck links in their comments, as long as the comment actually makes sense and is helpful, Or if the deck linked is a similar idea, like if you had, say, a U/W deck that also used stalker+instants+pike with St. Traft, because then the link is helpful, or at least has a purpose. But when you say check this out, heres my high cmc creature-based modern ramp deck off a different color that you're going to post without a comment on my deck, which is a standard deck based on cheap, evasive creatures+runechanters pike supported by tempo-oriented spells(about as far apart as you can be), and post for no apparent purpose, it p!$$e$me off. People like you who leave their links to bad decks everywhere, then brag when your deck makes front page because so many people commented on how much they dislike it, are what this and sites like it.
Ally deck is a reasonable build with lots of synergy, but you have nothing to stop combo decks, burn, or control. Had you used that build when it was standard legal it might have been fine, but you just dont have the tools to stop most of the powerful decks in the modern format(If you do make the Jace switch to make it legal). In legacy you will get destroyed by everything decent. Even in modern it is still too weak, Jund is loaded with removal, you cant do anything to control decks, you cant disrupt combos, and burn/aggro will shoot down your allies as they come in and kill you before you get anything going.
This is a decent allies build(much better than your RAGE deck or your counterhell) but you need to make it either extended or modern legal, you will never win against a decent legacy deck with this.
I built this particular deck out of mostly cards I already had, and am working on getting the rest(pretty cheap aside from lands, i already own all the core set duals, and am working on getting all the shocklands without paying $500 for them, they'll help me get into modern and will be a staple in every Sandard deck til they rotate out). I get bored of decks pretty easily, I like to make new decks out of my existing collection to play with friends(or betweem FNM matches). While this isn't a deck I would play at FNM, its fun, interesting, and pretty cheap. Here is my real FNM deck http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=402347 and my competitive decks that i play on Cockatrice and with proxies but am WAY too poor to build Jund http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=401365 Unburial Rites http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=401421
I agree that R/B is a bit of a better color set overall, and I actually did make a R/B version of this deck before, heres the link http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=400295. Please tell me what you think about that version.
Playing this tonight at FNM, lets see how it goes!
Looks alright, I would drop Intrepid Hero for Selesnya charms, the charm does same thing and is more versatile. Heres my G/W aggro http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=402347 and my Humans deck(which works a lot like this one, but with a lot more offense a little less counters(no hero or fiend hunter, though i do have the charms) http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=402161
Dryad is a pretty underrated card, even when it's ability is irrelevant, it's still a 2-power 1-drop. Also, as mentioned above, this is slightly tuned for my local meta, in which unburial rites is the most played deck, and there's lots of snapcaster-based control and tempo decks. Militant is great in this matchup, reasonable in others, and is one of the main cards I sideboard out for Judge's Familar(tempo, control, anthing that I need a flyer for) and Ulvenwald Tracker(other aggro and particularly Jund, works with Silverheart to kill just about anything)
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