Deck help for my first Tourny

Welcome back to MTG!

I personally feel as though the deathfed deck you have is probably the strongest of the three right now.  Splinterfright was a strong deck in block for a little while and it will take the least amount of effort to complete the deck.

However, I don't know if any of them are going to get you overly far at a tournament.  If you are just going for the experience then it really doesn't matter.  If you're looking to place well then I think you should drop a few hundred dollars (or leverage the awesome trading power of Deckbox.org) to beef up your mono green deck as it is a very viable strategy right now.

I'd love to give more, and better, advice on how to prepare for your next tournament but I don't want to waste your time or mine.  So, if you let me in on what your goal is for the upcoming tournament I will either help you make a great deck or the greatest deck you can make from your current cards (or a small budget).  Deal?

Assuming a 4-round Swiss configuration at the tournament  you'll be attending, the tuned-up Dethfed deck I have in mind will probably get you anywhere from an 0-4 to 2-2 record (0 to 2 match wins) depending on your match-ups.  You'll probably lose hard to fast aggro decks (pre-sideboard) and heavy control decks but compete at a decent level against mid-range strategies except for, maybe, grixis control (ewww). 

Like I said, though, it will take the least amount of effort (and money) to bring the Deathfed pre-con up to speed.

Here's a link to the build I recommend: http://deckbox.org/sets/165966

Some of the lands are negotiable but the body of the deck should be played pretty much exactly as is.  I only added one card to the sideboard (4x Gnaw to the Bone) as it is crucial in your match-ups against aggro-heavy decks like RDW.  The other 11 cards in your sideboard are up to you.

Advice on playing the deck is as follows:

Don't be afraid to trade your guys for theirs during combat.  When your guys die they feed your deck whereas your opponents creatures don't do anything when they die.  This means that your guys trade better than theirs all day and you need to use it to your advantage.  Also, don't be afraid to play a Boneyard Wurm on turn 2 just so that it dies.  Sometimes that's the only way to set up a turn 3 Splinterfright.

Those are good suggestions, Hellnikko.  From you list I have only tried to work in Bonehoard and I ultimately ended up taking it out.  It worked very well when I had the mana to both cast and equip in a single turn but more often than not the 6 mana just got to be too expensive.  Perhaps Wreath of Geists would be a better alternative since it's super cheap and accomplishes the "surprise" factor I was going for.  Also, it ended up getting pitched to Mulch and Forbidden Alchemy most of the time which made it useless; not that the wreath solves that issue but it hurts less pitching a 1 CMC enchantment IMO.

Parallel Lives I would probably pass on.  Kessig Cagebreakers is a beast when it gets to swing and is usually enough to win the game or at least put you in a position to win the following turn.  He's the jewel of the deck for sure and the reason I recommend running 4 of them.

Grim Flowering I haven't tried but I've given thought to it.  My gut reaction is that the deck doesn't need it, it draws fairly well as is and ideally you want to be winning by turn 6, not drawing a bunch of cards and passing the turn because you're out of mana.  I did consider making room for 3 or 4 Thought Scours to accomplish a similar effect though.

Do my experiences and assumptions match what you've seen with your version of the deck, Hellnikko?  it's always nice to get a second opinion

Glad to hear we aren't too far from each other on how the deck operates.  I hear you on mulch, I was very hesitant to run it initially but after playing with it for several games I couldn't imagine this deck without it.  It makes sure you hit all your land drops and fills the graveyard with stuff. 

Because of mulch in this deck it makes it important to keep the rest of the cards limited to creatures and spells with flashback so that very little goes to waste.  It also makes the deck a little odd to play.  You have to keep in mind that just because you are mulching away good cards doesn't mean you are wasting them, they are still of use just not in the same way they would be when you cast them.

That's probably an obvious statement but it was one of the hardest things for me to get used to when I first started playing this build.

I am glad you're going to give this build am try.  Between myself and two friends it's been play tested about 75 times against various decks online and IRL and is certainly a decent strategy.  It's not tier 1 but it can still do ok. 

The dual lands aren't all that necessary, the birds can get you pretty far.  I'd recommend just running forests and islands combined with a 2x evolving wild and 2x swamp setup and add in the duals for islands if/when you get them.  It should play fairly well without the special lands.

I wish you lots of luck!

I knew what you meant but thank you for clarifying.