Salient

I think this deck needs Gatekeeper of Malakir, but I can't envision where I'd put him.

Too many one-ofs and two-ofs, I think. But you've got my attention (in a good way) -- somebody needs to crack Open the Vaults wide open, and this might be the trick, more or less. I was thinking the real crack of OTV would be OTV + Totem armors, but who knows...

I look forward to seeing how this deck develops. Message me whenever it's updated :-)

If a 6/6 indestructible creature can't kill my opponent over several turns of lockdown while they have no creatures in play, then I *deserve* to lose the match. I'm relying on Gideon Jura's third ability, my shroud critters (so that my opponents' removal cards are dead cards), and lots and lots of creature removal.

My own thoughts -- my deck needs some card advantage, badly. I might try Mnemonic Wall, See Beyond, and maaaaaybe a single Shared Discovery.

This deck is particularly weak to All Is Dust, and to Polymorph. For additional counter, perhaps I could run Unified Will, but what I really want is a recursion engine. Mnemonic Wall is tremendous for that.

Oops! Like Lepellier said, this deck design seems incomplete. Please revise the deck and message us (or at least me) when the correct design is posted, as I'm curious to see how this deck beats Jund... Jund strikes me as too fast for a deck which needs to resolve Polymorph with a creature in play; between Jund's hand disruption and its fast damage, I don't see why it can't just blow away your early creatures and swing through for the win... at least, say, in half the matchups.

I might sleeve up the revised version of this deck and playtest it, once you post it.

Awesome, there we go! I was expecting to see some Kor Skyfisher action, bouncing creatures back to one's hand for replay to trigger Vengevine, and some Ranger of Eos shenanigans.

I would run more creature-removal spells, in exchange for Rampant Growth & Terramorphic -- two more Oust and four Path to Exile, probably.

Maybe it's better to run two more Oblivion Rings instead of more Oust, though. I'm trying to think of what non-creature non-land permanents would be threatening me on the board in the current Standard lineup. I guess that Lightsaber deck's equipment, though I'd rather just axe their creatures and let their equipment sit unused...

And hey, don't forget to link to this deck in my Vengevine competition thread!

Why is this the right way? I'd love to hear your insight. Can this compete in Standard, do you think?

This deck is so horrible. :-)

This deck could really use a Jace, the Mind Sculptor or two... and there's probably no point in having four Traumatize, it wrecks your mana curve. Maybe substitute two Jace for two of those Traumatizes...

(It's even funnier with Heartmender and Kitchen Finks...)

Enchanted Evening + Fracturing Gust is still the most hilarious two-card combo ever produced in the history of Magic: the Gathering. Not tournament-speed efficient, of course, but very very very very funny.

It's a fun card, but not broken -- it didn't change tournaments or anything. :-)

(Maybe Garfield was thinking -- oh man just wait until the people who love this card see that card Maelstrom Pulse we've been working on...)

Well, ok, same with Gorgon Flail -- but the Collar is cheaper and gains you life, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Valakut is not legendary -- I suggest you run two more of them instead of the Fangtails, which are too costly for their Tim effect.

Collar + Tim effect = "Tap. Destroy target creature." I highly recommend the swap you're considering!

A single Trinisphere surprises me, especially given that you have 13 spells under casting cost three. Trinisphere is generally the kind of card you either don't run or run four of, because you want to draw it ASAP.

Maybe swap out the Wanderer's Twigs for three more Trinisphere, and swap out the Braidwood Sextant, Dragon's Claw and Tower of Champions for some Simian Spirit Guides. (A single Claw isn't reliable enough life gain to be worth deck space, Tower is a late-game win-more card, and the Spirit Guide would put the opponent off-balance by introducing a burst of unexpected mana acceleration).

Also, why not drop a Mountain or two for Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle?

I'd strongly recommend Hindering Light to protect your ally permanents from destruction.

Hey, this is a pretty cool first attempt!

I don't think it will be tournament-caliber, though. Don't worry about that, as it takes years of careful practice to build a tournament-winning deck, keeping up with tournaments, and noticing what strategies are employed by the decks that continually win the majority of games.

The "combo" here is very complicated and an opponent could step in to break it at many steps. One very complicated trick to learn is how to maximize synergy between your cards: that means making sure that any three cards from your deck somehow work together in a productive way.

Notice your mana curve is mostly 3-cost and 4-cost spells. In a tournament, you wouldn't be able to play very many things until turn 3, and you'd be in a bad position by then: the opponent would use those first two turns preparing to disrupt you, and developing (putting helpful permanents into play).

Some lower-casting-cost creatures are going to be essential, especially with Vengevine -- you need to play two creatures from your hand in the same turn in order to trigger its return-to-play ability.

Best of luck, keep tinkering with decks! One good idea is to borrow a tournament-winning deck from the Internet, learn how it works, and then think about how you could change 4 cards in it to make it better or more fun. That's a lot easier than starting from scratch!

Cascade from the BBE doesn't help because Vengevine specifies the creatures must both be played from your hand.

What I don't get, yet, is how Vengevine is going to survive a Path to Exile - heavy tournament environment. I mean, a 4/3 dies to Lightning Bolt; Jund won't have a hard time killing Vengevine a couple times, long before Eruption is playable...

Instead of Jackal Pup, why not run Goblin Guide? The Ankh would deal them 2 damage for accepting their basic land from the Goblin Guide.

This doesn't really help take advantage of Vengevine, which says you have to play the creatures from your hand. Sparking a critter into play with Splinter Twin or Rakka Mar will not help trigger Vengevine's return ability.

Adding green would only make you more susceptible to Spreading Seas, though.