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Figured I'd bump for a bit of feedback on the deck.  It's by no means final, and I had to drop some cards that I really liked to keep it at 60 cards, but I'd like to think it's more or less where I want it.  The current build is Black/Blue with a splash of red.  I thought about running it without red, but I considered Cerebral Vortex to be an important card to keep in the deck, so yeah, red stayed.  I also know there's some glaring weaknesses, but I'm not particularly worried about them in the casual group I play in...at least not at the moment.  Just thought I'd post it to see what people think.

True, but the counters and such would be cards I'd want to keep in my hand.  I could always use Murder or Lightning Bolt or something to deal with attackers, there's tons of options really, so I'd want to keep my hand stocked just in case.

A couple suggestions:

i) This deck would be brutalized by artifact destruction.  Although in my experience it's rare, this is the kind of deck that would spawn hate decks.  As such, you may want to consider adding a Darksteel Forge or two to the mix (even if it's just to the sideboard).  It's mana-intensive, but would render any destroy effect useless (specifically Shatterstorm).

ii) Since you're running various Bringers anyway, why not add the Bringer of the Black Dawn?  It basically allows you to choose the card you draw, at the cost of two life...there's something to be said about a permanent Vampiric Tutor   Barring that, a few Worldly Tutors would be a great addition to help get those bringers out when you need them.  Enlightened Tutor wouldn't be bad either, but it can't search for the Bringers, and the cards it CAN search for are all cards that you have full playsets of anyway...plus it costs a ton more than the Worldly Tutor.

Aside from that, it's hard to say how well it'll perform without playtesting it.  The first suggestion is somewhat situational (although having even one indestructible Lodestone Myr in play would be pretty sweet), but the second should make the deck slightly more consistent, especially if you add both the black Bringer and a set of Tutors.  But regardless, you should try it out first, see how it does, and go from there.  Since it's just for casual play anyway, you could even ask your group if they'd be okay with you using proxies to test the deck out before you buy/trade for the cards you still need.

I don't like the Swans of Bryn Argoll in this deck.  Unless you plan to do enough damage to it to mill your opponent, you're doing nothing but give your opponent card advantage, which is never a good idea.  Opal Guardian or Silver Knight may be better choices, and both have the added benefit of improving the deck's mana curve.  Otherwise, it seems like a solid build, although testing would be the only real way to know for sure.

Also, make sure you don't want the card for one of your own decks.  It may net you a bunch of good stuff in trade, but if you need it for a deck, you'll kick yourself for letting it go.

I've seen option 2 work elsewhere, but 2 minutes is too long.  1 minute seems to be the standard from what I've seen.  Option 1 is also a great idea.  Using both will probably get rid of the majority of the spam issues...spambots won't make it past the second option, and any human spammers will just move on if they have to wait a minute between posts.

I just looked at your black deck, and although I don't have any specific ideas, I would like to give a bit of general advice.  First, you need to cut out a few cards and put some multiples of the ones that work best together.  For example, Phylactery Lich is an awesome card, but if you read it you discover that you need artifacts.  Since I see no artifacts in the deck, it's an expendable card, and can be cut to add one of the cards that fits what you're trying to do with the deck.  Now, looking at the cards, it looks like you're trying for life gain and discard, so that would be your theme.  Don't try and do 500 different things with a deck.  Pick one or two and roll with it.  Anything that doesn't fit with your theme needs to have a reason to be in the deck, and if that reason isn't commonplace, it belongs in the sideboard.  For example, Murder doesn't fit the discard theme directly, but it can be used to get rid of your opponent's creatures and will feed Blood Artist, which DOES play into the theme.  Also, although it may never come into play, you can use it on your own creatures.  I can't think of anything in Standard that you would target it with, but something like Graveborn Muse can outlive it's usefulness, and it would be a great way to get rid of it.  Now, I'm gonna delve into Legacy for a situational card (since I'm really not familiar with Standard) and say Circle of Protection: Red for an example.  It's great...so long as you're playing against a red deck.  That's the kind of spell that shouldn't be in a main deck (unless you're running red and need to protect yourself from your own cards), but would see play in a sideboard.  And finally, you need to look at your mana curve.  Since you're not running any kind of mana acceleration, anything with over a 5 mana casting cost is probably not going to see substantial play time, as it would require at LEAST 7 turns (assuming you draw enough lands that fast) to get into play.

All that said, don't break the bank to get cards...what I do is build the deck I would like to build, and go buy/trade for the cards I don't have afterward.  So just because you don't have four copies of Sign in Blood doesn't mean you can't put them in your deck.  I will typically build a deck on here, then fish out the cards I have, and add what I don't have to my wish list.  From there, I'll print the list out when I go to one of the local game shops, and know what I need when I trade on here.  I will also prioritize my want list - that is, "I need X cards for deck A, Y cards for deck B, and Z cards for deck C."  If I'm a couple cards away from finishing deck A, I will try and get those cards first, and go in order of completion percentage, so that I can fully build deck A in as short a time frame as possible.  Also, take cards that you don't play that are reasonably sought after and put them in a binder, and take it with you when you go to buy cards.  You never know who might have a card you need that they'd trade for something you may not be wanting to use...just be sure you know what the cards are worth so you don't shoot yourself in the foot

I know I haven't been contributing much here, mainly because I don't know much about what's available in Standard, but I do know that where you sacrifice nontoken creatures, Reassembling Skeleton is a must...even if it does cycle out in the next rotation.  Maybe something else will come in the next block that fills the void, but yeah, it needs to be there as long as possible.  I'd say 4 of them...can always cut back the numbers if needed later

BG with Blood Artist and a sacrifice theme...sounds like we need to add Exquisite Blood to double up the life gained...I'd say x2 since it's more of a "just for fun" addition.

No, unfortunately it's an average of all editions.  This is something people have been mentioning for a while, not sure if there's an easy way to incorporate it though.