Topic: Newbie deck; green with a hint of blue

Hi all, just hoping for a little feedback on this - it's nothing special and my card choice is pretty limited, but I don't think it's too bad. Any advice would be greatly welcomed ^__^

http://deckbox.org/sets/309759

Re: Newbie deck; green with a hint of blue

I guess the first question is, what is the main purpose of the deck?  Casual play?  FNMs?  Based on the format, I'm guessing casual, at which point you can actually save a fair amount as the games aren't meant to be as competitive.

Three main thoughts:

First, what is the proposed win-condition?  Stated otherwise, how do you normally expect to win with this deck?  I'm seeing Champion of Lambholt as an option but that's only one card (not likely to be played consistently) AND what do you do if it gets killed?

Second, any mana fixing would be ideal - you can pull this off in casual play with some Simic Guildgates - as then you won't find yourself stuck with one color and not the other.

Third, I'm seeing too many one-offs in the deck.  To make a deck better, and I know card availability is key, it's best to have 3-4 of your power cards and 2-3 of utility cards, with 1 offs being cards that make life better but aren't necessary by any means for the deck to function.

Looking at your inventory, why not go with more illusions?  You have a Lord of the Unreal to provide them with hexproof.  Phantasmal Dragon is a pain to deal with when the Lord is in play.  In theory you could pick up a couple more Lords for only a few dollars to help shore up the blue creatures.  Keep in mind, though, that you cannot cast pump spells on your own illusions or you will kill them.

On the green side, you could aim for mana fixing, mana ramping, or a wealth of other options.  For the Champion, why not put together some green token creation or something like that?  Alternately, why not invest in a few more Protean Hydras?  They'll likely be pretty small to start off but can then get pretty large if you keep putting counters on them via Bond Beetles and whatnot, especially if you toss in Prey Upon or Ulvenwald Tracker and have them fight the opponent's smaller creatures (resulting in a LOT more counters)

I'm obviously just tossing out ideas at this point, but I hope you can see what I'm hitting at in the first three thoughts.  I think you could have something really fun to play with if you were to invest another $5-10.  Just identify combos that you think would be fun and run with them.  Remember that playtesting is the best, and only, way to find out if your deck will work or not for sure.

Good luck!