http://deckbox.org/sets/267939

I came across this site yesterday and quickly made a deck (primadox) once my cards were uploaded.

It is based around the detain mechanic, as well as using the Roaring Primadox to make sure that those enter the battlefield triggers come into effect as much as possible.

With the mana dorks being used to hold the line and allow the bigger cards to come in faster, as well as the acidic slime being used as removal along with Oblivion Ring for bigger stuff the opponent throws. Once Geist-Honored Monk and Angel of Serenity come into play then the battle should more or less be won.

The question is basically what am I actually missing with the deck, and therefore what to sideboard to make the deck more versatile and give more options therefore.

Please help

I believe your general premise is sound, but (imo) Roaring Primadox is not the way to go. When you return a creature to your hand, you need to spend mana to bring them back in. You should see if you can get your hands on some Restoration Angels or Sudden Disappearance. They let you flicker your creatures rather than return them to your hand.

You are right in that Roaring Primadox is perhaps a little weak. However, without dropping about $100 into the game (hard to do on a student budget) it is going to be difficult to get the Restoration Angel or the Sudden Disappearance into my deck.

Also, in the case of Sudden Disappearance, it is a 6 mana card for a one off effect. Whilst it would indeed mean that all the triggers would indeed fire at the same time, it is a very expensive card for a similar effect to the Roaring Primadox, especially when you consider it can only be used in my turn rather than as a response to another player's actions.

Restoration Angel is another card that is very very good. But again for me the idea is to be able to make whatever triggers I have fire repeatedly. If I can use the Azorius Arrester or Azorius Justicar to detain the larger creatures, then the rest of the game each turn becomes more and more simple. Keep in mind also that using cards such as Acidic Slime, it is possible to create a situation where the opponent is mana screwed thanks to my removal of their lands, therefore making that another method to theoretically create a win.

I have also looked at the heavy reliance that the deck has on the Primadox to function, and believe that using Ajani, Caller of the Pride, I can shore up that reliance and hopefully make it so that the lynchpin is harder to kill. All that needs to now happen is for me to work out a way to get more loyalty counters onto Ajani, Caller of the Pride, if such a thing were possible.

In other words, using creatures such as thragtusk to create creature tokens and give me life in such a way to draw the game out long enough that a small army of tokens from both the Thragtusk and Geist-Honored Monk will be able to chip away at the life total of the person, and also at the same time act as a defensive screen for larger creatures.

It might not be the strongest deck in the world thanks to its heavy reliance on using the Roaring Primadox for its effects, but I believe it will be a fun one to play, and thus all that is currently stopping me from playing it is the lack of a side board.

I hear you regarding the budget concerns. You already included four Cloudshift, so you are on the right track there. Any way to add effects that copy a target spell (e.g., Cloudshift)? I know there are some options in red (e.g., Dual Casting, Reverberate), but am not sure if you're interested in splashing another color.

Whilst I am not against the idea of splashing a third colour, I alas do not personally own cards that would give me a decent synergy with the rest of the idea for this deck, so that would most likely have to be a longer term plan. I do however appreciate the idea, and will keep a note of it.

-The budget-friendly and perhaps better option for flickering things a lot is Conjurer's Closet (it runs about 50 cents). It might cost one more to play than Roaring Primadox but it's seldom that you'll see a player running artifact hate in their mainboard, meaning it would be completely safe for game one of almost every match, beyond that, you really only have to worry about the hate they'd side in, which, to be honest, would mean you're only worrying about 2-4 cards out of 60 to stop your flickering.

The real benefits to the Closet over Primadox come in two forms: first, it's an optional effect as it is worded that you "may" flicker a target - note that the Primadox is a must effect, meaning you might end up being forced to return a creature to your hand when you don't want to (or in some cases, returning the primadox itself to your hand because they take out your other creatures); second, the closet will return the creature to play without costing you a single mana on the back-end, giving you greater flexibility than the primadox.

Trust me when I say that Primadox is quite misleading and isn't all that good. I had thought he was a bigtime beast myself when M13 first came out, but to be honest, people know how he works and how to work around him. 9 out of 10 times, they'll use their removal on your other creatures just so that you have to keep casting the primadox - making it nearly impossible to really get the deck moving as that's handicapping yourself four mana per turn for a 4/4 that will never get to attack. That said, if the ETB triggers are really what your deck is all about, then I would keep the Primadoxes in the deck, BUT, definitely go pick up some Conjurer's Closets to help.