Your mana curve could really use some serious work. Also, I think you have far too much red mana sources for not a whole lot of red spells. Even the red spells you have are almost all single red mana, so you really do not need 12 red sources (unless you are going to add in a lot of red cards, and even then, more Swamps is better). Sadly, there are not any good 1 or 2 drop Vampires in standard other then Stromkirk Noble (hence why Vampires has not made a huge impact on the scene). However, you could always use Vexing Devil, Fume Spitter, or Diregraf Ghoul as well. Even though they are not Zombies, they do a nice job of establishing early board presence, blocking your opponent's creatures, and getting in some early blows. Another good 2 drop is Porcelain Legionnaire. Any of those creatures would be great additions. Blood Artist is a great card that gives you something to do on Turn 2 (something your deck really does not have right now) and it also becomes an attacker later in the game. With Vampire lords to buff him up, that small 0/1 can easily become a 3/3 First Strike, I figure. Plus the fact that you come out of top in every early game trading of creatures, he is a great pick-up for this deck. Mutilate is not that good of a card in this deck. While it does serve a purpose as late game board control, killing off your opponent's creatures and leaving your big, beefy creatures alive, it should not be a 4 of a kind card in this deck. Because half of your lands are not Swamps, it is not a certain board killer. Liliana of the Dark Realms is not as good as Liliana of the Veil here because you do not need the infinite mana she produces and you are not playing mono-black. LotDR is actually not that good to begin with, but if you want to use her it really needs to be a mono-black deck that has some sort of outlet for her ultimate to be used. Liliana of the Veil is pretty much good in any deck that can play her. Vampire Nocturnus is a great card, but you always are going to run into a certain problem with him: he is not always consistent. Lands on top of your deck make your entire army super weak and cost you the game. Solution: Gitaxian Probe. Gitaxian Probe is a mana-less cycler that also gives you some information about your opponent's hand. This way, if there is a land on top of your deck, you pick it up for 2 life and hopefully you get a black card on top of your library. If not, you are one card closer to not having a land on top. This also makes your deck essentially a 56 card deck, allowing you to get the better cards that you need faster. Victim of the Night is a bad card, especially in Standard, and Tragic Slip is better. It costs less, can kill a lot of important cards in Standard without Morbid (like Delver, Champion, Snapcaster) and can kill just about anything with Morbid. Tragic Slip is where it's at, check it out. Brimstone Volley: super good. It's an all around good card that at it's worst is burn target player for 3 mana. It gives you more to do with your red mana, when you cast it with Morbid it's 5 damage to anything, and frankly it's another something to do while you are still getting the mana to play all your Vampires. This card is better than Murder in 90% of situations, so keep a Murder in your Sideboard and put these in your actual deck (also I think that Sever the Bloodline is better than Murder in a non-mono black deck). So with all that said, here's what I would change: Take out: 2x Mutilate 4x Victim of Night 4x Murder 2x Liliana of the Dark Realms 1x Vampire Nocturnus 1x Bloodline Keeper 1 more of either Bloodline Keeper or Vampire Nocturnus. I would take out the Vampire Nocturnus, but Bloodline Keeper could also be taken out if you think that would be better. You already have so many Vampire Lords, and frankly the three drop one is going to be one of your biggest assets. They are also really expensive and can weigh your hand down when you do not have enough lands. 5 expensive Vampire Lords plus Olivia should be more then enough to top out your curve. Add in: 2x Vexing Devil 2x Diregraf Ghoul 3x Tragic Slip 2x Brimstone Volley 2x Blood Artist 2x Liliana of the Veil 4x Gitaxian Probe Land changes: Remove 2 Mountains 22 Lands should really be enough. This deck is kind of aggressive, and also the less lands the less likely you are to hitting lands with your Vampire Nocturnus. It also frees up more space for other, better cards. Also, even if you do not hit a Mountain on Turn 1, you can still play a Stromkirk Noble on turn 2 or 3 because there is not much else for you to do. If you can add in Blackcleave Cliffs instead of 4 Mountains, this deck would be even better, but since they are a bit of an investment and they are fading out of Standard pretty soon I don't know if it's a wise investment. If you have them, use them, otherwise just stick with 6 Mountains. I hope that I could be helpful. Take a look at one of my decks if you get a chance but other than that good luck! ^^
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Oh shit, haha. I'm stupid. Oh well I don't ever really play Modern anyways. Thanks for taking a look even though this deck is apparently illegal. Anything you would like me to take a look at?
Hi! It's awesome that you made a Zombie Pod deck, I hadn't checked this site in a while, but seeing more players play Zombies is always a good thing. Here's a few suggestions I have, and at the bottom I'll just list the complete changes I would make: Hex Parasite is generally more of a Sideboard card to bring in against players using Planeswalkers, generally Garruk or Tamiyo in the Standard format. However, because you are less committed to Black then most Zombie Pod decks and have more Green/Red splashed in, having a card you can play regardless of your first land is a great card to have. However, I still think that you should play more Diregraf Ghouls just because they are great early game and later they serve as either blockers or just as food for the Pod. Even if you cannot play it 100% of the time, the difference between a 2/2 and a 1/1 (because sometimes your Hex Parasite will not be doing much of anything other than attacking/blocking) is huge in the current standard format. Also they allow Gravecrawler to come back, whereas Hex Parasite does not. Keep some in your main for their versatility, but take one or two out for Diregraf Ghouls. Plus you already have Conscripts for Planeswalkers so 4 Hex Parasites seems a bit much. Huntmaster of the Fells is really expensive money wise, but running one as a singleton in this deck would actually be really cool. I am not entirely sure how often you would be able to play it without the Pod, but I think that if it's only a single copy, it would be a great addition to the deck. Also, it gains you life which can become essential later in the game with all the life you are paying to the Pod. I never considered it because I don't own one/have the money for one and my Pod deck was more mono-Black. Disciple of Bolas is a new card in M13 and while I am not entirely sure if it would work or not, playing one as a singleton could provide you with ridiculous card advantage/help gain you life. If you have Geralf's Messenger out, and you sacrifice it to Pod to search up Disciple of Bolas and then sac Geralf's Messenger to the Disciple's effect, you effectively gain 2 life, make your opponent lose 2 life, and draw 4 cards. That's a ridiculously good play, even if it does lose you your Geralf's Messenger. With those last two suggestions, that adds two more 4 drops, and if you want to have those, I would add in another good 5 drop just so you have something to transition out of after fetching one of those. Sadly, both Conscripts and Ooze are a bit situational (though I suppose getting Ooze to destroy a land and then next turn making a Massacre Wurm always works), adding in another 5 drop would still be a nice addition. I'm not entirely sure what to add, but here are some ideas: Invader Parasite: good against Ramp decks, adds more disruption/can quickly end games if you are on the play and you manage to get him out on Turn 5-6. I might say put him into the Sideboard just in case you get up against a Primeval Titan ramp deck or you are on the play and want to disrupt your opponent's board. I personally use Morkrut Banshee as a 5 CMC creature because it acts as removal, but I don't think it is the best. Thragtusk is a new card from M13 that is a 5 drop, only costs 1 green so you could actually hard cast it, and it is ridiculously good. I think that Thagtusk would be a perfect addition because it has an effect when it enters the battlefield gaining you 5 life and when it dies (whether your opponent removes it or you sac it for the Wurm), you get a 3/3 Beast which could in theory be turned into a 1 drop. With that said, here is my final thoughts about what you should add/remove (I also have a Sideboard that you could add, because Sideboards are great to have! :D): Add: +1 Forest +2 Diregraf Ghoul +1 Huntmaster of the Fells +1 Disciple of Bolas +1 Thragtusk Remove: -2 Hex Parasite -1 Black Sun Zenith -2 Go for the Throat -1 Swamp (I'm not really sure about this, but since you would be adding in Thragtusk and Huntmaster having an extra Green source to cast those from would be nice. Taking out a Swamp for a Forest could be good, but it's something you would have to test). Sideboard: 1x Invader Parasite (against Ramp/on the play to disrupt) 3x Manic Vandal (against decks that contain more artifacts than just a Sword or two. Keep one in the main board to fight all the Swords). 2x Tormod's Crypt (great card against reanimator/other graveyard based decks that doesn't stop your deck like Grafdigger's Cage does). 1x Ratchet Bomb (against Delver decks) 3x Gut Shot (just a great card to get rid of Llanowar Elves/Delvers but also is great to have in match-ups against Champions of the Parish or other great 1 toughness creatures in the set) 2x Go for the Throat (removal is always good) 1x Black Sun Zenith (good against WU Delver decks and tokens. Taking out Geist of Saint Traft and the Spirits from Lingering Souls is always a good thing to do) 2x Gloom Surgeon (as much as I hate this card, it's a decent two drop and it is an incredible blocker. It sucks because it eats your library, but against aggro decks this card is so important. Having a blocker no matter what that can also turn into a Geralf's Messenger is so important because you are giving up a lot of your life to feed your Pod) Hope this is helpful, quick gotta play as much with Zombie Pod as you can before it shifts out of Standard!
No that's not the way Protection works. Protection from X means that it cannot be targeted, blocked, dealt damage to, equipped, or enchanted by X. Heartless Summoning does not enchant, equip, target, block, or deal damage to the Etched Champion, so therefore both of its effects are applied regardless of Protection. It's the same reason why Etched Champion does not protect against Tempered Steel.
I don't think you have the proper number of creatures/appropriate mana curve to dedicate four cards in your deck to AEther Vial. I think 2 or 3 AEther Vials would do a better job; you still would be able to flash in your Wizards but you can get better/more Wizards instead of having a bunch of AEther Vials. If you want to keep 4 AEther Vials, I think you have to add more low CMC creatures (possibly splash for Black so you can add the best Wizard of them all, Dark Confidant).
That's an interesting idea. It would certainly give the deck an easier way to win. Plus, it would be an extra +1/+1 counter on my Pridemates each turn. I'll try it out and think about it. I'm not sure what I would take out in order to place it into the deck. Thank you!
I know the card you're talking about, and I think that it is a really cool card, but it's CMC is a bit too high and generally by the point that I'm above 30 life I've already won. I suppose that having one of those could in theory be helpful in a mirror match-up for this deck, but I've never actually played in a mirror-match-up. I feel like that would be a terrible dragged out game and that card could actually be a great finisher. I've never actually played the mirror of this so I don't know if it would work, but that is an interesting idea, thanks! :D
Dark Confidant would be a great thing to add in. He would be the perfect two drop before you start dropping all your Dauthi which slowly tick away at your opponent's life total. He's just one of the absolute best card drawing engines so long as you have the right mana curve to run him with. Cards with both AEther Vial and Dark Confidant can never be bad.
The Scars Block and Magic 2012 is still legal until October 5th, so I'm not entirely sure why you're already counting those cards out this early. It doesn't make sense to prepare for a format that doesn't even exist yet. However, you could possibly remove Birds and Leak and replace them with Innistrad block cards and simply convert this into a deck for Block Constructed. However, if you really want to play Standard with this then I would not limit yourself to a pool of cards that no one else is going to be limiting themselves to. If you want your deck to maybe be able to function in Standard, feel free to listen. These recommendations are not going to fulfill your prerequisite of not being Scars block or Magic 2012, so if that's really a big deal for you then ignore this post. You still have three and a half months before those cards are not usable any more, and by then the metagame will have completely changed with Magic 2013. If that's really a big deal for you, then cut Leak and Birds and find replacements to make this deck block constructed. Already, you're playing a deck that is not going to be able to stand up against a well constructed Delver deck. You want Ratchet Bomb in your sideboard, even if it's only two or three copies. Ratchet Bomb allows you to kill Geist Angels, flipped Delvers, and any Lingering Soul tokens just by tapping. Ponder is easily one of the best cards in the format. For all we know, it might be banned in the near future (to try to nerf the strength of Delver decks), but it's cheap, effective, and at the current moment Standard legal. If you play Blue, play Ponder. As far as removing things, Forbidden Alchemy is just bad. Mulch is far better. You're hardly ever going to be casting Forbidden Alchemy for it's Flashback (costs too much plus only Birds for Black mana) and Mulch does a better job for this deck. I might also remove a Ghost Quarter in favor of another Forest. Being able to drop a turn 1 creature is a great thing to be able to do, and frankly Ghost Quarter isn't that good when your opponent has basic lands in his deck (obviously in Legacy and even some Modern match-ups, it's a bit better because of the lack of basic lands, but here all it's really going to do is set you far behind). Hold on to one Ghost Quarter because it can be a great thing to destroy a Wolf Run or a Inkmoth Nexus (maybe even add another one to your Sideboard), but more Forests would be great to have. If you changed this deck to be Block Constructed, I would remove Ghost Quarter entirely because Wolf Run isn't as good and you don't have to worry about Inkmoth. At the end of the day, these sorts of decks (with Splinterfright and the like) are not horribly good. The fact that you're hindering your deck even more by putting a pointless restraint on certain cards (crucial cards, I might add) is going to make this deck, quite simply put, bad. I've seen decks like these occasionally do well, but you can't just exclude cards from the format if you want to be good.
I'm not really sure because you have cards in your Sideboard that make more sense in your Main Deck and cards in your Main Deck that probably shouldn't be in either. That being said, if you want to keep it all the same other than that maybe removing 2x Pillar of Flames, 1x Bonfire, and 1x Fiend Hunter. That being said, Fiend Hunter is such a good card that you should just replace the Cathars or one of the bad cards in your main deck with Fiend Hunters and take Hunters completely out of your Sideboard. That's what I would do, anyways. Hope that helped.
Timely Reinforcement is just a better card than Thatcher Revolt, but whatever. Stromkirk Noble and Vexing Devil are both the current best aggressive 1 drops in Red, and if you want to be aggressive, they both belong in this deck. You could maybe Sideboard the Nobles just for the mirror match-up against other Humans. Vexing Devil is just so good that he should be in every Red Aggro deck. As far as your Sideboard goes, I would recommend 3x Manic Vandal because otherwise you're going to get decimated by Sword of War and Peace, Grafdigger's Cage just because it shuts down some decks super hard, and Dismember because 1 mana Instant speed removal is never a bad thing.
People like you are a cancer. Stop promoting your own decks without adding anything constructive to the deck you're commenting on.
Also if you want more 2 drops Porcelain Legionnaire is one of the best aggressive 2 drops in Standard.
First off, I want to say KEEP PLAYING ZOMBIES!!! AHHH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH AND SEEING OTHER PLAYERS PLAY THEM IN STANDARD MAKES ME SO HAPPY! :D Now then, on to how I would help fix your deck if you want to beat Delver decks, ramp decks, and other nasty sorts of things: I want ot preface all my suggestions with a thought: in the current standard metagame, there are three different types of Zombie decks: the first to originate was BU Aggro-Control, similar to the deck you have here. The next to come around was BR Aggro and it primarily was built around using the card Falkenrath Aristocrat. The third type to surface (and my personal favorite to play) was the Zombie Pod deck. Each deck is good for different reasons; BR Aggro is the fastest and in theory can kill your opponent as early as turn 4. Zombie Pod has the most options while you're building your deck and while it's slower than the standard BR Aggro, it becomes a lot more reliable beyond turns 7 or 8. BU Aggro-Control (what you have) is a good deck. It's what most Zombie players played originally, and it is effective. What BU offers over the other two options is Control elements. You can't play cards like Mana Leak, Phantasmal Image, or Ponder. Yes you also get access to cards like Havengul Lich, Grimgrin, and Diregraf Ghoul, but for the most part those cards are not nearly as important. Generally, when it comes to the current Standard game for Zombies, Phantasmal Image is better than Phyrexian Metamorph if you have blue mana sources. If you're playing BR Zombies, then Metamorph is obviously better because you don't need the blue mana, but in BU Phantasmal Image is better just because it's cheaper. If you have Blue mana sources, play Phantasmal Image. Ghostform is also a pretty worthless card. While it's a fun way to emphasize the Soulbond mechanic in the set, there are a lot better 2 drops. The absolute best would have to be Mana Leak. Zombies decks don't have any good turn 2 plays generally (other than playing another Diregraf Ghoul or a Gravecrawler) so you can keep that two mana open and counter whatever your opponent plays. Mana Leak is extremely important against Delver decks because it gives you a way to handle Geist of Saint Traft. Once Geist is out, he's almost certainly going to be swinging at you for 6 and if they have a Restoration Angel that number can go up to 10 before you ever even get a chance to block him. Throwing in about 2 Ponders would be a nice thing to add. You don't want an entire play set just because it's going to be very rare that you will cast it on turn 1. Generally it's a nice to to cast following a turn 1 beater. As far as removal goes, I would take out Go for the Throat and replace it with Tragic Slip. For one, Tragic Slip is cheaper, as long as you have the Morbid going it's more reliable, and it can target artifact creatures. Frankly, a lot of the scariest creatures in Standard are turn 1 drops: Delver, Birds, Pilgrim, Noble, even Gravecrawler in the mirror match-up. What do all those creatures have in common? 1 Toughness. All of them are easy to remove turn 1 with just a Tragic Slip, leaving your two mana open on turn 2. Putting 2 Mortarpods into your main deck would also be a good addition. Your mana curve could really use some work. First off Havengul Lich, Mikaeus, and Grimgrin are all extremely expensive to cast, so you want to be careful of having too many of them in your deck. It's ok if you want to go that route, but you really need to add in more control elements. Adding in a Dissipate might be a nice touch just to give you some more late game counter spells. Regarding the curve, I would remove two Cemetery Reapers and replace them with Fume Spitter. Fume Spitter is not the best, but having more 1 drops is really important. Other than Ghoul and Crawler, Fume Spitter is the best 1 drop, and having nine or ten 1 drops is nice because it statistically ensures you will have a creature on turn 1. Having a playset of Tragic Slips is also nice because it gives you 4 more spells to cast on turn 1 to destroy whatever creature your opponent plays. Right now, there are no good two CMC Zombies. However, Blood Artist might as well be the best 2 drop Zombie in Standard. Especially when you have cards like Geralf's Messenger, Gravecrawler, Grimgrin, Mortarpod, and so on, Blood Artist quickly ticks away at your opponent's life total. Putting in two copies of Blood Artist over Havengul Lich would be a great addition. The final thing you need is a sideboard, here's what I would recommend: 2x Ratchet Bomb - to deal with tokens. 3x Flashfreeze - against Ramp decks there is nothing better than getting to counter Titans/Rampant Growth/Green Sun Zenith. 2x Mortarpod - again, you want to have two or so of these in your main deck, but having 2 more to bring in against decks like Boros Humans can be a nice thing to have. 1x Corrosive Gale - Again another great card to deal with Lingering Souls and later it can help cover you against fliers, something you have no protection against. 2x Hex Parasite - great at killing Planeswalkers. Garruk Relentless can spell disaster for you, but with Hex Parasite suddenly he just dies and you have a giant artifact Insect attacking. 3x Surgical Extraction - Innistrad has a decent amount of cards that interact with the Graveyard, so having a couple of these is nice to get rid of cards that interact with the Graveyard. 1x Sword of War and Peace - the ultimate Aggro Equipment. This costs a ridiculous amount of money, so if it's not possible for you to get, there are other cards you can have in it's place. 1x Black Sun Zenith - Extremely important in the Delver match-up as you can take out a Delver and more importantly their Geist for just 4 mana. It also interacts nicely with Gravecrawler and Blood Artist, and it works incredibly well with Geralf's Messenger. Obviously it's mass removal so it's nice with Crawler and Blood Artist, but with Messenger, if he already has the +1/+1 counter, the -1/-1 counters will remove that and he'll be able to activate Undying the next time he dies. Having a Geralf's Messenger that dies twice and causes your opponent to lose at the very least 6 life is always good. If you can't afford Sword of War and Peace, just get a second copy of this. Hope I was helpful, and good luck with your Zombies. Take a look at one of my decks if you get the chance. My Zombie Pod deck I recently made is pretty good I think.
I can respect that you're trying to do a deck where all the creatures have Exalted, but why is Rhox War Monk not in this deck? He's one of the most important creatures to come out of that set. Other than maybe Noble Hierarch, Qasali Pridemage, Wild Nacatl, and Knight of the Reliquary, he's easily the best creature from the entire block. Basically, if you have the colors to play him, there's really no reason to not play Rhox War Monk, and if you're playing a deck that is supposed to be Bant themed, then he 100% belongs in it.
Metamorph is another card that I don't own. I probably should just because they're splash-able in any color, they're one of the best 3-drops, and they also work well in this sort of deck as a 4CMC creature. One of the best parts about the Zombie Pod deck is that singleton cards are completely playable. In fact, generally speaking you only want one or two copies of a creature. I personally really like Skinrender just because it offers some removal whenever you have a Geralf's Messenger out. While Metamorph is good, if you copy a Geralf's Messenger with a Metamorph, it no longer has 4CMC. So while Metamorph is good, you're going to want another 4CMC creature for your Pod deck so that you can continue growing into better creatures. As far as Gloom Surgeon goes, I really don't think that Standard for Black/Red has a very good pool of two drops. Perilous Myr is one of my favorites to Pod in to, but really you just don't have a very good selection. Maybe with Return to Ravnica, we'll get Dark Confidant back into standard :D Thanks for taking a look and good luck at making your Pod deck. It's really fun to play and is a great investment (it's also a bit cheaper than the decks that need four copies of Geist, Snapcaster, and all the Miracle cards). Cavern of Souls and Phyrexian Metamorphs are definitely good additions to this deck if you can get your hands on them.
Timely Reinforcements is a way better card than Thatcher Revolt. There are plenty of things that you could do differently, but having 2x Timely Reinforcements in your Main deck and one or two more in the sideboard for matches against highly aggressive decks would be very good.
I feel like decks like this are just more effective with GU instead of GB. Blighted Agent is just a lot better than Flensermite or Plague Stinger. There are also a ton of Artifact creatures with Infect that are just as good if not better than those. I'm not really sure what you gain from playing Black instead of Blue. Undying Evil isn't really that good for a deck that you want to win quickly with. Abundant Growth really isn't worth it if you're trying to win early, especially since your mana base shouldn't be that hard to fix. I would either add more infecting creatures or add in more spells to activate Wild Defiance. Blessings of Nature isn't good for this deck either. In theory, if you draw it and Miracle it, then it works out great. However, you have no way to manipulate the top of your deck, if it's in your starting hand it's practically a worthless card, and even when you miracle it it doesn't activate Wild Defiance. If you want your deck to be consistent, this is not a good card to have at all. There was a Daily MTG about a deck like this; I think that Black is just so weak in the current Standard metagame and Blue is so much better, especially because they have Blighted Agent. That card really helps pull this deck together. Plus, having a couple of Mana Leaks or something is never a bad thing in a deck.
I understand why Misthollow Griffin is in this deck, but I just don't think it is all that good of a card. It's a really cool card, but it's a rather boring card in actual play, and since most cards will be going to your graveyard I don't think it's really the right card here. You can definitely justify a copy or two to work with Skaab or Lavamancer, but having four is just too much in my opinion. If the price-tag isn't a problem for you, Snapcaster Mage would be the best card you could possibly add to this deck. However, if that's a bit out of reach, another card that would be a great addition is the other great blue two-drop: Merfolk Looter. Looter is easily one of the best creatures blue ever had printed. In a deck like this, it gives you card advantage since discarding isn't a big deal. Then, if it gets discarded by Tibalt on accident, you can easily just use it as food for your Skaab. 4 Chandra's Phoenix is a bit much I think. That's another card you could take out a single copy of to fit in more two-drops like Merfolk Looter or Snapcaster. I don't think Pillar of Flame is all the good here. I think it's more of a sideboard card if you had a Sideboard, but Shock or Gut Shot are just better. The Instant speed makes the card better. Yes there are a lot of cards that interact with the graveyard, but in a deck where you're drawing cards both on your turn and--if you add Looter--on your opponent's turn, Instant speed is a huge advantage. Gut Shot is also just one of the best burn spells in Standard because it's free and in Standard can take out so many important cards: Champion of the Parish, Delver of Secrets, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Birds of Paradise, and so on. They all die to Gut Shot. Past in Flames would be a great addition. All those cards you have like Incinerate or Arc Trail (without Flashback that is) suddenly can be played again, adding to the functionality of the deck. This might sound odd, but if you want this to actually be a "Control" deck, adding in two or three copies of Feeling of Dread would be a great card to have. You don't even need the White mana, just always discard it with Looting abilities and you'll always be able to cast it. The other staple-Standard-control card that would be a great card to add is Mana Leak. If you have Snapcaster it's fantastic, but even without it, late game if it's in your graveyard and you're trying to use Past in Flames you can counter their counter spells targeting your big spells (if that makes any sense, haha). So as for a TL;DR, I would say you should add this: 2-4x Merfolk Looter (depending on whether or not you can get a hold of Snapcaster Mage) 4x Snapcaster Mage 2x Feeling of Dread 3x Mana Leak 3x Gut Shot 1x Shock 1x Past in Flames Take out: 2x Misthollow Griffin - cool card, but is pretty useless as a four-drop. It really becomes important later in the game, and by that point having four copies is a bit overkill. 1x Chandra's Phoenix - again, great card. Four copies is a bit much I think, especially when you could have a card like Looter or Snapcaster. 2x Pillar of Flame - it's just not that great. It certainly has sideboard material, but in this deck there's really nothing about it that makes it better than Shock or Gut Shot. 1x Blasphemous Act - fantastic card, but when you're drawing a bunch of cards like in this deck, you don't need three. Two should be enough to make due. Again if you had a sideboard, I would say throwing one or two of these in there would be a great choice. 3-4x Desperate Ravings - This card can be great, but it's not half as good as Desperate Ravings. There are far better plays you can have on turn two. The last thing you want is to discard your Tibalt or an Incinerate. If you add Mana Leak then it's best to keep your lands untapped on turn two to see what your opponent does the next turn. If you add Feeling of Dread, you can tap their creatures after discarding it with Looting on turn one. 1-2x Incinerate - again, this is a great card, but there are better things you can be doing on turn two. Definitely keep a copy or two, but since it doesn't interact with your graveyard whatsoever, it isn't as important to this deck. Something along those lines would make this deck a lot better. Overall though, I absolutely love decks centered around Tibalt. Take a look at one of my decks if you get the chance, thanks.
Your deck doesn't have enough lands. I know you have things like Birds and Elk, but in the current standard format, there is a lot of removal for creatures and ways to shut down ramp like that (Dismember, Go for the Throat, Doom Blade, Deathmark, Mana Leak, Mental Misstep, Feeling of Dread, Huntmaster of the Fells, Galvanic Blast, Gut Shot, Garruk Relentless) but there is very little ways to destroy/shut down lands. That's not to say that those ramp cards to not belong in this deck, and the Elk is actually a really great choice. However, I would either trade the Elk for Viridian Emissary (less weak to removal because you still get your land, costs less, even though it can be harder to actually get the effect to happen) or trade 2 Llanowar Elves for an Island and a Forest or just two Forests. Personally I think that getting 2 more lands is better than swapping for Viridian Emissary, but either of these would make the deck better against removal and therefore more reliable.
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