SavajCabbaj

Glad you like it :) I've been working on this deck for a while, and Puresteel Paladin was the answer that finished it up and brought everything together :)

I actually was considering Mortarpod, but decided upon Pariah's Shield instead. The initial consideration was that Mortarpod / Argentum Armor can destroy a Stoneforge Mystic, and then Sword of Light and Shadow / Sun Titan could bring her back and get more equipment. But, having a Pariah's Shield was more important.

To thewuest: I haven't had any trouble getting equipments. 16.6% of the deck is equipment, so I have a fair chance of drawing something even without Stoneforge. 25% of the deck is removal, which typically means that if I don't draw something equipment related, I'll have removal in hand. It can be hit or miss some of the time, especially against fast aggro, but it's also beaten my Bloody Fast Black deck.. which is saying something!

Glad you like it :)

Hmm. Fix'd :P

He can also be used to return Spellskite to the battlefield after having redirected a spell or ability that would destroy it.

By fetch land I meant a fast fetch, such as Misty Rainforest and Marsh Flats.

And I know what you mean about running one-of's, I used to be the same. I like consistency, and I cannot consistently expect to draw a single Sun Titan over something else. However, with Preordain and Into the Roil, and later Consecrated Sphinx.. I don't think it'd be too much of an issue.

Lawkeeper would make a good addition, IMO, in place of Exarch. After rereading the abilities, Venser returns a permanent to the battlefield at the beginning of your next EoT step. Almost immediately after is your opponent's untap step, with no significant need for a tapped permanent in between. Frost Titan still works, as it causes the permanent not to untap during the next untap step, but Exarch does not confer that ability.

Exarch is only really useful to tap out the opponent when you first cast it. Otherwise the only use provided with Venser is to untap one of your lands or creatures to have available during your opponent's turn. It's a tough call though, because of your mana curve that one extra land might be very useful. I'd say more often than not, though, Lawkeeper would be better.

I don't think it'd hurt to include a single Sun Titan in the side board. It'll be useful against other control match ups (counter or removal) to retrieve lost Exarches and O-Rings. Would be nice with fetch lands, too, but you're not running any..

Dismember is currently (arguably) the most potent form of removal available to black (in standard). I can't imagine any competent MBC that doesn't run at least a pair.

It's all about tempo (or disrupting it). In slothosaurus's example, if Oblivion Ring is the only answer to Steel Overseer currently in your hand, it would disrupt your opponent's tempo (building creatures of P/T beyond mana efficiency for whichever turn they may be on); however, you may not wish to use your Oblivion Ring on Steel Overseer because you know there will be a bigger threat approaching in another few turns. The ability to exile and retarget as it enters the battlefield is critical in that regard -- as with the above example, 2-3 turns of no Steel Overseer is enough to disrupt your opponent's tempo, perhaps giving you time to destroy his otherwise cheap/weak artifacts (Memnite) in combat. The damage is already done, now you can refocus your Oblivion ring to another threat.

Other examples would be exiling a non-land mana source, delaying a ramp deck from getting it's big beater into play, and then retargetting that big beater once it is in play. At that point they have enough mana to cast big beaters, so locking down a mana source is no longer necessary. Once again you're disrupting their tempo.

Yeah. There's a lot I want to change with this. Honestly, the original list of cards was something near 300 cards long. It was a hell of a task narrowing it down to 99.

Torpor Orb. With Gambit, you're still more likely to draw it, but ETB effects are less rare than the need to draw cards.

It's a Jeep. There's only actually one of them, but for the duration of this deal I will maintain double vision. Geddit while you can! And gibba gibba gibba.. I wants some a/b/u cards.. If only I was born a few years earlier I could put myself through college via hobby alone >.> Infernal parents...

Also, you have a deal.

My original comment was going to be "I hate you. And this deck. In an endearing sort of way." I hereby amend my first comment to be such, minus the endearing part.

Either aggro or MBC will rock with Smallpox. No need to tutor, because MBC is already in full abuse.

Can I have your Tabernacle please? I'll give you my car.

Oh! I meant to say.. I see you're playing Gamble. Absolutely love that card! I don't see it played very often anymore..

And there is one other enchantment you might want to look out for, being released with M12.

Warstorm Surge {5}{R}
Enchantment
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, it deals damage equal to its power to target creature or player.

There's a few cards like War's Toll that really work well with Kazuul, that you should look into.

Grand Melee & Total War are almost must-have's, you should really look into them for this deck (luckily, they're both pretty cheap if you can purchase online)

War Cadence is pretty nifty as well, especially when you start getting one or more of these enchantments in play, they each combo off of each other in different ways. War Cadence can help get around some of the tricky stipulations these enchantments place.

And then two other ones that are just fun to play are Invasion Plans and Raging River. The latter is a bit expensive, but a lot of fun to play.

All in all, you don't need any of these, but they each give you more options in the ways you can take advantage of your commander's ability.

Also, there are a few EDH "staples" that, while a bit expensive, will be worth keeping an eye out for. Maybe not to drop a bunch of cash on them, just keep an eye out for any for trade and such, and know what they're worth. Lightning Greaves, Sol Ring, Sensei's Divining Top, and a card of two that can remove cards from an opponent's graveyard. You have two "cheap" replacements in your deck, Whispersilk Cloak for Lightning Greaves and Crystal Ball for Sensei'd Divining Top, so that's good. M12 is also bringing us Swiftfoot Boots as an uncommon (Costs 2, Equip 1, grants Hexproof and Haste).

You should still run a graveyard removal card, though. I suggest either Junktroller & Madblind Mountain (removes graveyard based effects and allows you to reintroduce spent spells into your card pool) or Tornod's Crypt. I'd actually suggest both ;)

Finally, you need just a little bit of card draw. I'm a big fan of Temple Bell, Howling Mine, and Font of Mythos, but some players don't like giving opponents cards. It doesn't bother me any, so long as I have answers for whatever problems they might try to give me.

Cheers, deck is looking great, hope my comment helps and you enjoy EDH =]

I was thinking Malfegor + Jin-Gitaxias could be pretty powerful, but otherwise I didn't build that deck for that very reason. Kokusho / Bogardan bombs work better with Dragonstorm, and the only real reason to run dragon reanimator is because Scion of the Ur-Dragon seems perfect for it. It'd be more of a combo beater deck than anything, which could have its applications in casual games... but that's an expensive deck for casual!

Also, I'm thinking I could go without Personal Tutor and run Iona instead. Just seems like that lifelink could be critical to winning against some decks. It doesn't fit with an optimal opening hand, with Entomb + Reanimate, but if you don't get a reanimation until third or fourth turn, most decks I play against would already have me <10 life.

Also was looking at a few other creatures that fit with the sacrifice mechanic and It That Betrays, but will have to post more on that later. Gotta pack, I'm going to the airport in the morning for a mighty fine vacation ^_^

Ah, damn! Wish your comments made it through, I enjoy receiving detailed and insightful feedback :3 Still, thanks for the time you spent replying :)

I was going to include Iona and Painters Servant, I have both cards but they don't see much play in the builds I typically run. Reanimator would be perfect for them. But, I have a hard time breaking myself of the sacrifice theme in black, and it was hard enough not to run Bloodghast and Crucible of Worlds, just seems to fit so perfectly in a deck geared towards, well, reanimation. But it really doesn't... In the end I managed to fit it together while still running some of my favorite black: Braids, Nether Traitor, Grave Pact, and thanks to seeing your deck, It That Betrays too. Ultimately, I just didn't have room, unless you think she should replace Victory's Herald... but then I really love that lifelink. Or maybe Elesh Norn? Iona is certainly an answer to a lot of problems.

And you're right :3 This is a surprisingly difficult archetype to build, where my first impression was that it should be easy.

Two other ideas I had were a dragon reanimator with Scion, Teneb, and Bladewing Risen (plus others), and the other was with Stonehewer Giant and one of each mythic sword. (what is that cycle being called anyways?) Haven't seen any decks online involving either theme yet, so thought they might be fun original ideas.

I am leaving this comment only so I can take a better look in the morning via deck comment history, when I am less tired and more awake ;) Cursory glance says, this looks interesting.

Apparently I was mistaken about reanimate, so please disregard that comment. I still like the idea of a life linker though.