With NP coming out, you might want to consider sideboarding some Dispatchs for some protection to compliment your Lightning Bolts for times of need. With all the artifacts, you should be able to establish metalcraft rather quickly. Aside from that, everything seems to be in working order. However, I personally would up the land count to 20 for consistencies sake. I'm sure 18 works with the build as everything has a 3 CC or lower, but perhaps Sacred Foundry would help your cause as it can be searched with Fetch and work towards both colors when in a bind. Hope this helps. I welcome any comments or criticism that you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks in advance!
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I'm really beginning to like Hex Parasite, A LOT! It's going to really bring an interesting spin to decks and hurt planeswalker centered builds. The only suggestion that I have for this is Mental Misstep. You've done a great job addressing and balancing your strat. You might find Misstep to be an incredibly valuable addition to your sideboard to address opposing Parasites and late game Dispatchs played against your Baneslayer and Titan. Hope this helps. I welcome any comments or criticism that you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks in advance!
For the search lands, just phase out 2 of each appropriate color and replace them with 4 of the matched set. And I think he's suggesting Lightning Bolt in place of Blightning; 3 and 2 cards is nice, but 3 for 1 is better, imo. Otherwise, consider adding in Dragonspeaker Shaman. You have the title commenting that you want it standard, but you have multiple cards that are not standard legal. Therefore, if you're willing to leave it non-standard, the Shaman will help you shell out some dragons sooner rather than later to help level off your mana curve. For future reference, the following card sets are permitted in Standard tournaments: Zendikar Worldwake Rise of the Eldrazi Magic 2011 Scars of Mirrodin Mirrodin Besieged New Phyrexia (effective May 13, 2011) Magic 2012 (effective July 15, 2011) I've got a few news decks posted that you and Demon might not have seen in a bit. Take a gander when you get a chance. Thanks!
With the release of NP, Blighted Agent will have to find a place in this deck. Having a 1/1 unblockable infecter will be incredibly troubling. Beyond that, keep in mind that infect is going to be incredibly viable come the release and will therefore severely question the playability of Vatmother in any build. With Necropede, Ichorclaw Myr, Plague Myr, Blight Stinger, and Blighted Agent, you should be able to maintain the infect creature base you need to start swinging turn 3. It will just come down to how you can increase their overall power to deal larger amounts of counters. Also, keep in mind that your mana curve is pretty high. With infect, you'll find the best success maintaining cards with a converted mana cost of 3 or lower. Anything higher would be best placed in the sideboard for longer games, or removed completely. You need/want to swing fast and hard. Hope this helps. I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
Actually, you could consider swapping the Crusader and Dragon to your sideboard for support for longer games, and implement the Groundswells and perhaps some removal to help clear the road for your infecters.
I left a response for you, I hope my suggestions help you out.
The drawback to larger creatures is their casting cost. There is a time and a place for them, but you typically want to avoid infecters that cost more than 3 CC in the main deck. 5 CC infecters can find a home in a sideboard as they are situationally great against some decks and playstyles, but in the grand scheme of things, you want infect to win fast and staring at a 4+ CC card in an opening hand doesn't allow for that.
You might want to consider adding some removal to ensure that your Extirpates can remove potential threats without having to wait too long. Otherwise, Hex Parasite will be an excellent add here to help you address Planeswalkers when they hit the board. Once in the graveyard, your Extirpate, again, will be able to wreck havoc on the meta-backbone of most decks you come across. Hope this helps. I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
Glistener Elf will be a mandatory green infect cards with the release of NP. I would easily replace Plague Myr with it. Beyond that, you have the basics to make this consistent and lethal. My only suggestion would be to phase some of the creatures out to supplement the remaining ones with pump. Before that, weening the deck down to 60 cards is essential as it will help increase your card consistency and deck reliability. You could drop 2 Cystbearers, chop either Plague Stinger or Blight Mamba, definitely remove Skithiryx to make a clean cut. Skit costs too much to be mainboarded in a deck that attempts to go off by turn 3 (turn 2 with Glistener). To add the pump, you could shave your land count down to 23 and possible remove the Vatmother. There will be a lot of infect decks in Standard soon so adding poison counters to yourself will not be a good thing. These changes will allow for the addition of cards like Giant Growth, Groundswell, Prey's Vengeance, and Mutagenic Growth to help your turn 2 or three infecter swing in for 6+ poison counters in one turn; often being able to hit for 9+ to throw your opponent back on their heals instantaneously. Hope this helps. I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
This looks good, but I think you might yield better results focusing more on pump than draw. Ideally, you should be able to implement a play set of either Ichorclaw Myr or Necropede to increase the likelihood that you'll be dropping an infecter on turn 2. That way, on turn three, you can swing him for 9+ with Giant Growth, Groundswell, and/or one other pump for the win. I understand the reasoning for your draw mechanics here, but adding them potentially decreases your likelihood of swinging for lethal counters as soon as possible. Just a thought, hope it helps. I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
I posted a comment on your first black build. You should be able to take those comments and apply it to this build as well. Most of my comments had to do with balancing your mana curve to try to make spells cost not more than 3. This will ensure speed and consistency so that you're not staring at dead cards in the early game. And, as you saw, a lot of games won't allow you to accel past turn 4. Hope this helps. I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
You're just really all spread out here. You really need to try to get your mana curve down to 3 CC or better. There are a number of vampire decks that don't implement a single card over 3 CC and the speed. Definitely get the Nighthawk count to 4, and bump your Go For the Throat count to 4, also. Doom Blade could be sideboarded so that you can swap the Throats and Blades back and forth as needed considering both can be situational (you want to run 4 of each if that is an idea you choose to keep). Sign in Blood is a great add here, you could consider adding 2 more to round out some card draw, replacing two of your higher casting cost spells. But what you really need to try to obtain, and they are a little pricey, are Bloodghasts. They constantly give your opponent something they need to address, hit the board turn 2, and are generally annoying. Hope this helps. I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
Dragonspeaker Shaman, Ruby Medallion, and/or Urza's Incubator is a must here. While dragons are a blast to play, they are incredibly vulnerable to speed. Implementing these three options (at least one (the shaman as a playset) supported by another (ideally 2 Ruby Medallions)) should help you start churning out 6+ CC dragons by turn 4, earlier with other forms of acceleration like Seething Song and/or Pyretic/Desperate Ritual. Hope this helps. I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
Yeah, this looks pretty good. The only thing that you need to watch out for is Dispatch once it goes live from NP. Most decks will try to find ways to implement it as it will quickly become arguably the best removal in standard. Otherwise, I can't see you really 'getting to' Elspeth most games. The speed of the knights themselves should be accomplishing what you need them to do pretty early on. Nice build! Hope this helps. I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
Your mana curve is all over here. To maintain your goal, consider inexpensive (mana cost wise) alternatives that will mill your opponent's library down quickly. Cards like Brain Freeze and Glimpse the Unthinkable would be excellent choices, and would compliment Tome Scour quite well. Also, similarly to the Nemesis (kind of) is Raven Guild Mage. While the Guild Mage is considerably cheaper to play, you can disguise him in the form of Morph until he's unblocked. The downside to the Mage is that he must deal damage to mill/exile 10, but he can hit the board considerably faster than the Nemesis. With the new set coming out, don't forget Surgical Extraction. Extraction is going to be ridiculous in the next few months. Hope this helps. I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
The only thing I'm concerned with is the lack of acceleration to get your Dominion into play sooner. Perhaps in addition to the Overgrown Battlement you could consider Wall or Roots and/or Vine Trellis. Both will offer you a little more acceleration, but still bind you to green. If you're interested in breaking the wall theme, Urborg Elf would give you an alternate blue source Hope this helps. I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
Not really much to say here. The only thing that's missing is Groundswell, it's far more useful than Vampire's Bite, imo. The likelihood of a turn 2/3 land drop is high, so you might as well take advantage of the extra pump for no extra cost. Hope this helps. I welcome any comments and criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
Actually got to play test this today.... WOW! Even with only three searches, I was able to gather the necessary resources to keep things under control to hit the board with Exsanguinates that turned the table. Death Match and Lethal Vapors are a blast, pitting players against one another ('which creature am I killing' (via Death Match) and 'which one of us is giving up a turn' (via Vapors). Lots of fun! Finished game one at 93 health, game two at 74; Exsanguinating for the killing blow in both games (one player was dedicated life gain). There were never more than 2 creatures on the board, and I always had an answer for something. This played remarkably well!
It's all about creativity. But trust me, the look on the face is priceless. The only downside is that it puts a tremendous bullseye on you and your Coatings after one pop. I've learned how to make myself a target and love having to be addressed early, makes for a fun challenge. Glad you like it.
Assuming you're not worried about maintaining Standard...Splinter with Liquimetal Coating = buh by all of their basic lands. It's remarkable how much fun the two work with one another. Hell, the combination makes for a headache on multiple levels. But with that aside...why Slice in Twain and not another Naturalize? The added cost to draw a card here really isn't worth it. Opening hand, it's not doing much for you, so I think you'd be better off just either balancing the Shatter count, or upping the Nats to 4 as they're going to accomplish the same thing at half the cost. Beyond that, everything seems to be in order, as long as you are comfortable with your curve. You could thin it out if needs be. Hope this helps. I welcome any comments or criticism you can offer on any of the decks I have posted on the site (just click on my name to see the deck list). Thanks!
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