Rustedbucket

I've always loved looking at other Necropotence decks! Here are a couple of thoughts.

Realistically speaking, Venser's Journal is just ok. For 4 less mana you could play Ivory Tower for the life gain. For the hand size, Spellbook (0 CC), Library of Leng (1 CC), or Reliquary Tower (a land) will all net you the infinite hand size. While this strat relies on having more than one card, you have Necropotence out which will net you enough draw to get both elements onto the table at half (or less) the cost.

In the land department, Marsh Flats is crucial here as it will help you get the color you need at the time of draw (all while filtering your deck a little), and Scrublands (of course) if you have them. You could also consider Caves of Koilos (I know a lot of people aren't a fan of the pain lands but I think they're great). But most importantly, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth would help considerably.

For some added life gain, there's always Drain Life and Consume Spirit. But if you want to stay the B/W path, Death Touch will do the same thing.

Vindicate for some removal if you need it.

If you'd like to see another take on Necropotence, take a look at my creature-less build. It's my personal favorite.

Iona is a great addition. I suggested Reya Dawnbringer on your forum post. She works amazingly well after a Buried Alive (should you decide to go that route).

Also, look to Exhume and Akroma, Angel of Wrath. I prefer A, AoW for the haste and Prot: Black. With Terror/Doom Blade/Go For the Throat so popular now-a-days, it's nice to have that little added protection.

If you get a chance, I'd appreciate any insight you could offer on any of the decks I've got posted here. Thanks!

Vampire Hexmage or Hex Parasite could/should find a home here for planeswalker control. Otherwise, this looks pretty decent. The CC on Life's Final might be a little too large to swallow early on in the game. Perhaps Black Sun might do the job for when you really need some help.

Hope this helps. If you get a minute, I'd appreciate it if you could take a look at one of my builds.

Looks good. Seems to have the speed that you'd need to really get this running. Consider putting Doom Blade into a sideboard so that you can alternate between it and Throat depending on your opponent's strat.

Sign in Blood could be beneficial at times to get some cards into your hand. Hex Parasite could also be situationally better than the Hexmage as it's immune to Go For the Throat. Seeing as so many people are gravitating to Throat atm, the Parasite may become a viable sideboard option to the Hexmage.

Hope these suggestions help.

If you get a chance, I welcome any comments or criticism you can offer any of the decks I have posted here. Thanks!

I see where you're going here, but I see too much self-discard. While this won't hurt you via the Megrim or Caress, it will hurt ensuring that you have threats in your hand to continue the damage to your opponent. With that said, you might want to consider going the mono-black route as it will cater to your desires much better.

Look towards cards like Duress, Hymn of Tourach, or Thoughtseize; Inquisition of Kozliek and Blackmail are also solid choices. Ideally, you want to have a a number of turn 1 threats so that you can disrupt their hand/strategy as soon as possible.

I like the addition of Damnation here, if you have a few more, I'd strongly suggest running at least three in the event you need to stall; Diabolic Edict/Chainer's Edict or Doom Blade/Go For the Throat are all viable options for removal in place of Terminate.

In terms of a creature base, look towards old classics like Hypnotic Specter to get you in for quick damage and discard. For protection, Will-o-the-Wisps might serve useful. Nyathid is a great play here, of course, I'd run at least 2 of those and compliment them with Demonic Tutor.

Liliana Vess would be a great replacement for Chandra, too, if you would like to maintain the presence of a planeswalker (her third loyalty ability could mean a lot of good things for you, and she'll give you a free discard every turn).

I hope these suggestions don't steer away from what you'd ultimately like to do with this build. You have the foundations for some solid things to happen.

If you get the chance, I welcome any comments or suggestions you could offer any of the decks I have posted here. Thanks!

Ok, I wanted to go a little deeper than that previous post, so let me combine everything....

First off, I love LD. Playing it in Standard can be difficult, however, considering the high cost of all LD based spells. To get around this, consider Liquimetal Coating to turn anything into an artifact so that faster spells can become more beneficial. I know I suggested Smash to Smithereens earlier, but that's not Standard, so ignore it, but Shatter becomes amazing when used in conjunction with the Coating. At instant speed, the two become any permanent removal (this includes Planeswalkers (planeswalkers are permanents, so unless somehow the planeswalker has shroud or some other ability which prevents it from being the target of an activated ability, Liquimetal/Shatter means their doom)).

To compensate for the lack of speed, however, you will need to find a way to protect yourself from certain doom. Cards like Lightning Bolt and Flame Slash become crucial for your survival. Remember, though, that you would want to implement burn as control/protection, not as kill condition/damage dealer. Pyroclasm (as you have already implemented) works here, too, but the instant speed of Bolt might be more beneficial at times. Flame Slash is an amazing card, even though it's a sorcery. Running both of those will help keep your curve low and your survivability high.

In regards to land, I'd strongly suggest adding in some fetch. 24 lands is quite a bit for a mono-red build; I understand why you have so many, but with a little tweaking, you could theoretically be able to roll with 5 on the board. With that said, I LOVE the Chalice here as it will help with the higher cost spells, but you can probably drop to 18 mountains and 4 fetchs (to make 22 total) to free up two additional slots for some extra protection.

Hope these suggestions help. Sorry for the quick response earlier that included a non-Standard idea.

If you get the chance, I welcome any comments or criticism you can offer to any of the decks I have posted here. Thanks!

The biggest drawback I see here is acceleration, well, that and Purity. I'd strongly consider trying to find a way to implement artifact tappers (whether they be in the form of Myrs (for color), Sol Ring (for colorless accel), or Talismans (pain tappers; for color/coloress) to help supplement the cost(s) of the 4+ CC cards in the build.

That said, Purity works great here, but her WWW cost is incredibly steep. Platinum Angel might work better for you here even though it is 1 CC higher than Purity. Not being mana specific will ensure that it hits the board (in many cases) sooner than Purity might. Otherwise, Arid Mesa seems like a must here to help you get the W when you need it.

Otherwise, for better, and much cheaper protection, look to Runed Halo. It might not do exactly what you want it to do, but it can help in a pinch.

Hope these suggestions help.

If you get a chance, I welcome any comments or criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted here. Thanks!

If you're looking to shave this down a bit, consider dropping either Doom Blade or Go For the Throat and sideboarding the one you drop. In many scenarios, you can usually get away with one or the other, and if you know what your opponent is playing ahead of time, just rock the one that works best to start.

Otherwise, I'm not sure you really 'need' Sheoldred here. I think you'd be best dropping her entirely, for the most part. She's incredibly expensive and running 4 Cabal Coffers really doesn't make her all that much 'cheaper'/easier to play. Cabal Coffers is an amazing card, don't get me wrong, but in an opening hand, it's a dead land. Ideally, you'd want a swamp in almost any situation (unless you're running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and/or Drain Life/Consume Spirit/Exsanguinate). What I'm getting at is this, you could probably do without the Coffers, too.

With those three removals (Blade/Throat, Sheoldred, Coffers), you're down to 58 cards. Looking elsewhere, Dread is great, but as a 'onsie' becomes questionable. Drop him to go to 57, and consider upping your Obliterator count to 2 (or 3 to make an even 60). Grave Titan works here, as well, but if you take to the other suggestions, he becomes the only larger than 4 CC card in the deck and might become out of place on it's own. Your call.

Not sure if any of these suggestions are where you 'want' to go with the deck, but they might make for some beneficial changes as it would be thinner (down to 60) and lighter (curve of 4 or less).

Hope these suggestions help.

If you get a chance, I welcome any comments or criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted here. Thanks!

Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth will help you shell out ridiculous amounts of B early on in the game. Save the Coffers as your "Howl from Beyond" and you're money. Works GREAT with Esanguinate, too.

But, considering this looks Standard...nevermind. Got a little ahead of myself when I saw Nantuko Shade, didn't realize they reprinted it.

The ability is a triggered one, not an activated ability. It reads 'WHENEVER' a source deals damage to you, you may pay 1. This means that the option to pay 1 only arises each time a source dealing damage to you -- which means it's 1 trigger of Circle of Affliction per instance of damage.

Considering Pestilence deals 1 damage X times (where X is equal to the number of B you pay), you would have to trigger the Circle X times to gain/prevent X damage from Pestilence.

This is why Runed Halo would be better for you in that you would never take damage from Pestilence, nor would you have the opportunity to gain life. It would just ignore the effect of Pestilence while your opponent gets rocked by it.

This is technically Vintage legal though it wouldn't stand a chance in an actual Vintage format (removing the Demonic Tutor would make it Legacy legal). It's purely casual, as most of my decks are. I just happen to follow the Vintage Banned/Restricted list with everything I build.

This can be potentially deadly to you. Keep in mind that the way Circle of Affliction works is similar to that of the Circle of Protections. It states:

Whenever a source of the chosen color deals damage to you, you may pay {1}.

Since Pestilence deals one damage for every B spent, you would have to pay {1} for every B spent to activate the Circle. Pestilence doesn't deal X damage one time, it deals 1 damage X times. Therefore, the Circles are not a reliable way to protect yourself from the Pestilence.

What you need is Runed Halo, a white enchantment, in place of the Circle to make things far more manageable for you.

Hope this helps.

When you get a chance, I'd appreciate it if you could offer any advice or suggestions to any of the decks I have posted here. Any help is great!

This actually looks pretty solid. I like the use of the Whispering One here and you implemented the right amount as there's no need to overload yourself with multiple copies. I would however bring the Leaden Myr count to 4 to ensure maximum acceleration from them. They will also serve as graet early blockers, though losing them isn't ideal.

Nice job!

Any suggestions you can offer the decks I have posted on the site would be much appreciated. I always welcome constructive advice/criticism.

The main reason I'm not running Black Sun is because I don't have any. However, even if I did, it's inclusion would be situational. I have considered adding Mutilate, but through play testing in my area, the combination of Innocent Blood and Barter has been adequate. Still, Black Sun does give me something to strongly consider should the player/deck base change in my area.

Thanks.

There really isn't anything more that you need for turn 1. Glistener is the added benefit to G infect. In the average game, I mulligan until I have a turn 2 infecter in my opening hand and I follow this rule down to 5 cards. With Glistener in place of what used to be Cystbearer, the odds of me obtaining a 1 or 2 CC infecter is increased and therefore only better my chances of a quicker victory because of this change/addition.

Regardless, my goal is a turn 3 swing for lethal poison counters which happens quite often.

You're missing some great cards that would make this so much more reliable.

Brain Freeze will trigger it's Storm effect most turns to hit 9+ cards and Glimpse the Unthinkable is a sure fire way to guarantee 10 cards disappear turn 2. You have to be careful with Traumatize, imo. It's great, don't get me wrong, it just costs too much. Considering how much milling you can do with Glimpse, Tome, and Freeze stacking with Erasure and Jace Beleren, you could consider implementing more draw mechanics to ensure consistency and deck reliability.

Hope this helps.

If you have time, I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer to any of the decks I have posted here on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks in advance!

If you can keep your equipment costs and creature costs low, anything should work. You want to be able to start dropping threats as soon as turn 2 and swing turn 3 with equipment ready and rolling. For defense, look to Accorder's Shield (CC = 0) to turn a creature into a wall, Wall of Omen (as it will give you a free card), and Dispatch once NP goes live (with all of the artifacts, you should have no problem making it the best removal in standard).

Beyond that you should see some success with the build to get things rolling to be able to identify any other major flaws.

Hope these suggestions help!

If you get a chance, I welcome any comments or criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted here on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!

Scry is a MAY not a HAVE. This is pulled right from Wizard's site:

502.36a Scry is a static ability that functions while a spell or ability is resolving. "Scry X" means "Look at the top X cards of your library. Put any number of them on the bottom of your library in any order and the rest on top of your library in any order."

If a spell has scry 2, you look at the top two cards of your library and then decide where you want to put them. You can put both cards on either the top or bottom of your library in any order, or you can put one card on the top and one on the bottom.

This should clear up your concern with Preordain. Scry is amazing as it lets you run through your deck. Because if both suck, you put them both at the bottom and you're 2 cards deeper.

You're right with Fireball, though, I completely forgot about it's utility. The downside to it's utility is it's cost to get it to roll. Often it ends up being too much to do (for example, 6 mana to deal 2 damage to two targets). Considering how expensive it ends up being, it might be something to avoid just for the sake of having the recurrence from Red Sun.

Fling is out of place here as it will deal damage and not poison counters to your opponent. If it worked the other way, WOW that would be insane.

The rest is where it needs to be. Ezuri, while a great card, is out of place here, though. Ideally you're looking for the game to be over before you can get 5 mana to use his ability. A Glistener with a Groundswell and Assault Strobe on turn 2 is a game winner, as is Necropede/Myr on turn 3. Phase him out for Flame Slash to clear the path when it needs to be.

Hope these suggestions help!

If you get a chance, I welcome any comments or criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted here on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!

I'm not sure if I like Dispense Justice here, ideally, whether your opponent attacks you or not is kind of irrelevent. If they attack, that means they have no blockers, which means you get in for lethal poison counters. Therefore, consider swapping the Justices out for Giant Growth or Groundswell to give more 'umph' on turn 2 and 3 for the win.

Hope these suggestions help!

If you get a chance, I welcome any comments or criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted here on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!