Hi guy,

Can you guys take a look over this deck and give me some suggestions. I would like to get it standard (since some cards have been rotated. What would you guys suggest.

It's my first deck and I've just pooled a whole ton of stuff together.

Thanks

http://deckbox.org/sets/415452

You may as well drop the red cards and replace them with any sort of generic white or black cards. With only five red cards in the deck it's basically dead weight on your mana base, and it forces you to have a lot of shock lands. The only card I'd really miss is Wear // Tear, as Boros Reckoner can stay and even use his ability in a pure WB deck.

Special lands are nice, but in this deck how do they really help? I say drop the red, keep the Orzhov Guildgates, and replace everything else with basic lands. Especially considering your Planeswalker's major redeeming attribute (beyond a fast-recharge meatshield) is a board reset that will wipe all lands. His abilities alone justify keeping your mana base simple: you want to be able to trip major abilities like that without necessarily killing yourself, and a bunch of shock lands that are iffy to deploy in a pinch with a reduced hand? That will probably do it.

I'd say replace the cards you remove like this with artifacts, but that's just me.

I haven't played that much MTG, either--I just built my first deck a few days ago--but on the whole, I'd say this is a fair deck. Nothing special, and the card selection doesn't showcase the concept like it could, but you can fix those problems later.

The better question is what you're planning to do with said deck. Are you trying to be competitive at FNM or are you just having some standard-legal only fun with friends?

The way I see it, the deck has far too many 1-of's to be consistent at all. If you're going for extort, then go all in on it. You NEED 4x Crypt Ghast in an extort deck. Why not Desecration Demons? They don't have extort, but at four mana, a 6/6 flyer is hard to argue with. I would suggest more Basilica Screechers and another Archangel of Thune. Ideally your curve should top off with Obzedat and Archangel of Thune at five. Think for a minute, you're wanting to extort the opponent, meaning that you've artificially increased the casting cost of all your creatures.

Drop the red, it doesn't do you any good here. Boros Reckoner is going to be hard to cast, given the WWW casting cost. Sure he's a great stop-gap against aggro, but your strategy should be to build extorters on the field with the end goal of finishing the job with pumped flyers via Archangel of Thune.

I would propose the following build:

25 Creatures
3x Thrull Parasite
4x Basilica Screecher
3x Blood Scrivener
3x Kingpin's Pet
4x Desecration Demon
4x Crypt Ghast
2x Archangel of Thune
2x Obzedat, Ghost Council

6 Instants
1x Ultimate Price
2x Orzhov Charm
3x Doom Blade

7 Enchantments
2x Pacifism
2x Gift of Orzhova
3x Blind Obedience

24 Land
4x Godless Shrine
4x Orzhov Guildgate
10x Swamp
6x Plains

Now obviously this would change rather considerably with what we're seeing in Theros, but for the time being, this would be more likely to play competitively.

Anywhom, take what you can from all that and hopefully it will help.

Mainly for fun which is why I'm currently not too fussed in its current Extended format form however having a few changes readily available to make it standard playable would be nice.

But I wouldn't mind entering the odd FNM. I'm under no illusion that I'll be place, but winning the odd game (not even a match) would be all I'd be after in that regard.

I should mention that I have a few rules I'm trying to abide by. I'm not buying singles, so what you see in my inventory (though it is fairly large I think) is what you get. I would trade (probably with my LGS but I have to find out what the deal is trading commons and uncommons for anything of value). All I buy is pretty much a fat pack when they get released and try to run with what I get.

Back to the deck.. It did have a bit more red, but I opened a few boosters that had a few cards that would help me make it more consistent so out they went. There's still the splash in there for the Boros Charm and the Wear//Tear.

Below is my game plan of sorts:

* Dutiful Thrulls out early as blockers so I can set up my extorters.
* The sole Angelic wall is to block flyers (noted that being a 1 and only, the odds of my drawing it are slim to damn near nil)
* Vampire Nighthawk, Boros Reckoner and Knight of Obligation to clog up the board mid game while I guess I sit and play cards and extort away
* Obzedat Ghost Council can put my opponent on a clock, same with Stab Wound and One Thousand Lashes
* Archangel of Thune to make bodies bigger while I extort (if I get lucky and draw it, yeah I know I'm relying on luck here)
* Pacifism and Oblivion Ring as removal of sorts (considering Murder but the casting cost makes me think sideboard).
* I figure that I'd only play Boros Charm and Wear//Tear mid to late game so I should have a gate available as a source of red mana by then. The gates I hope don't stop me playing stuff early to set my shields up
* My 1 Treasury Thrull is my sole out post board wipe (and probably not a very good one). If a board wipe comes along and takes it with it, I might as well scoop then and there. I opened a second one, and that goes into sideboard (or possibly for one of the red splashes). I'm kinda hesitant to got main with it cos it takes the curve back higher.

Thanks for your help guys.

PS. Sorry I wasn't clearer the first time around. I kinda got my post out in a rush

I liked your suggestions TyWooOneTime. I have been transforming my black/white vampire deck into an extort/discard deck. I'm concerned it's not balanced enough and that I don't have enough discard options early in the game to reduce my opponents options. Any suggestions to make it better?

http://deckbox.org/sets/469308

My sideboard isn't really complete. I dumped a few things in there when weeding out things from the deck. This deck is mainly for fun, but would also like it to be competetive at FNM.

taporsnap17 - check it out and see if anything in there might help your deck as well.

DarylD wrote:I liked your suggestions TyWooOneTime. I have been transforming my black/white vampire deck into an extort/discard deck. I'm concerned it's not balanced enough and that I don't have enough discard options early in the game to reduce my opponents options. Any suggestions to make it better?

http://deckbox.org/sets/469308

My sideboard isn't really complete. I dumped a few things in there when weeding out things from the deck. This deck is mainly for fun, but would also like it to be competetive at FNM.

taporsnap17 - check it out and see if anything in there might help your deck as well.

Most of the pieces are there. You have several pieces that you could easily swap out. Syndic of Tithes is great in sealed play, but constructed, it's just a 2/2 and that's not going to do you much - especially in a situation where your opponent would be dropping Burning-Tree Emissary and other stuff. You'll end up using it for blocking more than anything else. Either drop them AND the Basilica Guards or drop them and swap them for more guards (although I'd suggest dropping all of them). You can use those spaces to toss in another Crypt Ghast and Desecration Demon (this guy is a BEAST, offering repeated removal/defense).

I'd suggest swapping Ultimate Price with Doom Blade - it will take out more opposing creatures, hands down. Lose the confessor and Treasury Thrull for another Blood Baron and/or Obzedats. I would ultimately try to keep the curve down as much as possible - unless you want to toss in a BIG one-off for grins (i.e. Lord of the Void). The latter option has a lot higher odds of failing to go off, sticking you with an uncastable creature in hand... but when it does work... all the more amusement.

Duress is a SB card. Purge the Profane is just bad... you can get the same effect off of Mind Rot for one cheaper (you don't get the life... but given that the whole deck is extorting, you're going to be gaining it all the time anyway). To some degree, you might not mind Devour Flesh too much either - rather than 4x Celestial Flare. Sure, they gain some life, but you'll get rid of their creature AND you will get to extort more.

Again, extort isn't a really competitive strategy just yet, but it might get a little better with Theros - Erebos would make some noise in said deck... Devour Flesh with no drawback... extort and then pay to draw cards.