Puschkin

Hunted Phantasm looks very good! Have to trade for him, though, thx!

The other 3 don't really work and make me think you didn't read the description :)

I don't share your opinion on Rest of the Weary at all. It's pure lifegain that doesn't server any other purpose and even with landfall, 8 life aren't THAT great.

Pride Guardian, however, looks like he belongs in this.

Congregate, yeah, this card is so ridiculous we actually have a house rule about it: Only your own creatures and those of ONE target opponent count! You couldn't have known that of course, so good catch.

Voracious Wurm doesn't work with neither Sunbond nor Wall of Reverence - these two are what this deck is built around.

I like Personal Incarnation but to be honest, you can get better things for that mana these days - for example Deathless Angel. He can make himself or any other creature indestructible, which is superior to Incarnation's ability and is 5/7 flying instead of 6/6 walking.
But, of course, Personal Incarnation earns mad style points :)
Okay, I'll toss in a single one. And when I play it, I'll pretend that it's ME, hehe.

Serra Ascendant: You are right of course, but I don't own this card and it's 10+ dollars. I don't feel like trading for it for a deck that is 20 dollars total that far, especially since it would just be a filler card of sorts. But yes, it is a logical step to add those! Will include him in the sideboard (=cards I consider adding), maybe I will be able to pick some up.

Felidar Sovereign:
That guy has already a job application here:
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/continous-meditation/
(another lifegain deck, maybe check that out, too)

Thanks for the input, man.

But ... Conversion and Gloom are enchantments!? I need sorceries and instants ...
... but okay, so, I could cast something like Jovial Evil and if there is a poor guy running a white weenie deck, he will get hit at least 2 times ... the idea is not bad!

Spellskite will be considered if I'll have more creatures - right now it looks like it isn't needed.

No. Actually the opposite is true: You can attack your flanks. Maybe don't call them "flanks" - Pentagram plays like any other game, the only difference is the win condition. The guys left and right of you are still your opponents by any definition, you can attack them, you can Duress them etc.

EDIT:
Lol, Duress is actually a card I might add :)

As I said, it's not actually you this rant was about, I just misused you to make a point :P

Please read the descriptions before posting :)

Erm ... you know what? No.

This is what I posted some weeks ago:

"I am doing an experiment and try to redeem my commenting credits I earned so far:

I published 4 of my decks under construction. They are still in brainstorming or development phase, usually I only publish finished decks. Maybe they'll get more views and most importantly suggestions and criticism because now there is more room for improvements. The decks in question are:

http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/dont-mind-the-hive/
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/life-is-life/
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/biting-shamans/
http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/oath-of-thieves/

Come on now, this is THE chance to be creative and to return favours (also, for some of you a welcome change from this budget deck madness :P )! If this goes well, I will release more of my decks in development. Moreover, everybody is welcome to make their own versions of these decks or deck ideas, I don't even ask to give me credit, all I want is to fight the stagnation in creativity that plagues this site and Magic in general.
Posted 24 July 2014 at 15:39"

And you know what? With the exception of Jessie, nobody replied, including you (although you promised to). The description of this thread says that I am willing to help out first and if you liked the suggestions I made, please return the favour and help me out in turn - just once in a while. Yet I am basically still talking to myself in my decks, no matter what I do. I tried simple decks, complicated decks, I tried finished decks, I now tried decks in development with open slots. It is plain obvious by now that the problem is NOT that my decks are too advanced, too complicated or whatever, the sad truth is that most people in this site are fast to take, take, take but rarely is somebody willing to give.

I am talking in general, you probably just honestly forgot about it, what I just wrote is something I planned to do anyway, so, sorry that it hit you.

"Oh damn I have 9 2/2 vigilance, 3 2/2 vigilance fliers, and a 13/13 flier with trample on the 4th 5th turn. I own this deck and that scenario happens a ton"
Yeah? Against an opponent that does nothing I suppose?

As I see it, if you don't draw Rise the Alarm/Gather the Townsfolk, you will have a very slow start, since most of your spells have convoke and are quite expensive if you don't have much to tap. You'll face the same problem if your opponent kills the first tokens you generate - something that opponents tend to do. Heck, if you don't draw Rise the Alarm, you will have to cast Fist of the Ironwood on an opponents creature, otherwise you'll do nothing turn one AND two and your first creature will be a 1/1 Crusader ...

I STRONGLY recommend to add Chatter of the Squirrel. That gives you something productive to do on turn one, a target for your Fist of Ironwood in turn two and a basis for convoke-related stuff!
Also, I would replace 2 Seraph of the Masses and both Guardians with 4 Geist-Honored Monk! He can help to built and more importantly REbuild your token army. Because, if something goes wrong, both the Seraph and Guardian will sit in your hand, uncastable.

I commented on the Ill-Omen. Energy Storm is nice, yes, but more of a sideboard option. After all, you are destroying opponent's lands so that he won't be able to cast much.

Who goes to stores anymore? I buy/trade my cards online. I am pretty sure something like https://www.magickartenmarkt.eu/ exists in the states, too.

Browbeat would be my suggestion to replace Compulsive Research but it's slightly above one dollar ... so, if you don't even run Electrolyze because of budget restraints ...

Oh, nobody forces me to comment your decks, that's okay :)

Prophetic Bolt has been reprinted two times. Once in Commander (2011) and once in the Izzet vs Golgari duel deck (2012). That's not exactly old. And you can get them for less than 50 cents.

Think - if nobody would ever build more expensive decks, why are those cards so expensive in the first place? Also, a lot of players play with proxied cards or use clients like Cockatrice to play online. And, many players are actually smart enough to recognize good strategies, combos and deck structures and are able to work around certain expensive ones when on a budget. Finally, this is a trading card game. You can actually buy and sell stuff. The good thing about buying more expensive cards like fetch lands is that you can be sure to get your money back if you sell them. Which means, you can actually assemble a 200 dollar deck and when you got sick of it, you sell that stuff and buy the cards you need for the next 200 dollar deck. So, for an one-time investment of 200 dollar you will have an unlimited amount of 200 dollar decks, just not at the same time. And if you need money in a pinch, well ...
So, the problem is much smaller than you think. But I understand that that's your schtick and it's fine. It's just so difficult to reply to - you know, I see a deck, cards that I would add pop up in my head but then I have to check the price on every single card before I can make a suggestion ...

Don't be so sensitive. "rad" means "great".

But aside from that, "budget" doesn't automatically translate "bad cards". Or, more precisely, budget decks can still have many good cards. Only a select few cards are actually expensive and many of them are because of rarity and availability. The majority of cards is available for considerably less than a dollar and among them there are tons of very good cards.

Sometimes I think the reason you do budget decks is so you can use "this is budget, it doesn't have to work well" as a shield against any criticism. Just sometimes.

yes, it's the expansion. A set that wasn't planned to be legal in normal play and a card that never got reprinted.

Pyroclasm kills off your own key creatures (Guttersnipe and Electromancer) so I don't think that's a good idea.

No Electrolyze?

Char isn't exactly good. Psionic Blast is because it's blue, but red has better choices, even on budget, Barbed Lightning for example. or Fiery Temper - it would combo with Compulsive Research.

I agree that Negate is a good counterspell for a deck like this (because you can deal with creatures quite well) but that Essence Backlash is a huge gamble. I don't see that working outside multiplayer 8and this doesn't look like a multiplayer deck). For just one mana more you can get Prophetic Bolt.

I put your giant's head straight :)

If you have them, you could add Isochron Scepter and put that Flicker on a stick.
I am not convinced of Raze. As the deck is you don't have anything that generates card advantage and Raze is card disadvantage. Also, you delay your own gameplan with that one. Maybe something like Orcish Settlers instead? You could also run some mana acceleration instead. A mana artifact on turn 2 means you can destroy lands with Settler or Riders on turn 3. Which is crucial, otherwise your opponent will get rolling.

Brand of Ill-Omen would be nice if it wasn't an aura ... you actually have to cast it on a creature. Which means you have to allow one of opponent's creatures to live. This might prove difficult for you since you don't have walls or something like this.

Card drawing is easy, just add a great wall that nobody has ever heard of: Wall of Mulch.

As much as I like Dissolve, you should probably not run a counterspell that costs 2 blue.

Please read how populate works - you can only copy TOKEN creatures! And only YOUR tokens ... so, if you don't have any other cards to produce a token you can start with, populate will do nothing!

So, either remove Growing Ranks and replace Rootborn Defence and Sundering Growth or add token generetors. I was going to suggest Luminarch Ascension anyway. Still, Growing Ranks has to go, I think.

I am not sure if Norn's Annex actually protects your team partner in 2HG games.

Wall of Reverence would do well with Cradle of Vitality.

I am not sure about Clarion Ultimatum - it doesn't do much in this deck, right? Your opponents will probably say "that was the least scary Ultimatum I have ever been sitting on the receiveing end of" ;) Removing it would give you room to a actually add those Hurricanes you are speaking of. Also consider Spidersilk Armor to remedey that little problem you have with flyers.

I'd rather have Wall of Blossoms than Cathedral Membrane.

Gavony Township seems like a must-have for a deck like this!

Parallax Wave: When you flicker it, fading counters are reset but the permanents it exiled also come back.

Varchild's Warriders: No, not worth the trouble. Warriders main trick is to give the opponent creatures that he doesn't want to have for purposes like Dingus Staff.