gabriel_404 wrote:Crypt Ghast makes each swamp give 2 Black mana instead of one... that would be a great addition for you because you have a lot of cards that are expensive mana-wise and you have a lot of basic swamps. I would add him.
Also I saw you have two Pontiffs of Blight. That guy is a great blocker and gives extort to EVERY guy you have. Combo that with all the mana from Crypt Ghast and you will hurt the opponent bad. The downside is he is also 6 mana, which is a lot. The best two cards in that guild (Obzedat and Blood Baron) both cost 5....
you currently have 7 cards at 5+ mana, no 1-drop creatures, 12 total 2-drops and 14 3-drops. I would try to smooth that out by replacing some 2 and 3 drops with 1 or 4 mana cards. Especially since you'll probably be playing against Boros and Gruul decks that are very fast, you might not ever have time to play those high-cost cards if you have a handful of them and no cheap creatures or kills. The cards that stand out to me as least efficient in there are Assassin's Strike, Treasury Thrull and Vizkopa Confessor. If they're working for you then by all means keep them, but that was my experience. Teysa is expensive but so awesome.......
Last, when you tweaked the cards you changed the mix of Black and White mana costs... you are 60.6% black and 39.4% white, so I would take out 1-2 Plains and add the same # of Swamps. 24 total lands is good for Orzhov midrange.
As always FNMs are all different, but I think there are some general remarks to be made about your deck.
Adding one drops just for the sake of having them for the mana curve isn't going to help. This really isn't an aggro deck, and won't beat a real aggro deck. The WB creatures you're running don't have the speed and Power to do the same damage the other aggro decks can. So this deck probably needs to be played as more of a midrange deck. I'd suggest adding in some more removal. Merciless eviction, despite being expensive, can help against some decks since it exiles creatures. You're looking to extort them out in this budget version of orzhov so, you want to control the board and game as much as possible. You're not going to be killing anyone in less than 10 turns most likely.
Creatures with 2/2 or less are going to get you very little advantage on the board, if any, as far as blocking or attacking, I'd actually remove all the cheaper creatures. Except high priest he can be effective removal. Crypt ghast is good if you're on the extort plan, though subject to removal, which can be a problem after a 4 mana investment. Basilica guards can block a lot of aggro, but won't kill that many with only one power. If you could get a vault of the archangel or two it might make those lower power creatures trade a little better. Even pontiff would be able to kill then.
Cards to consider removing.
Assassin strike - too expensive for removal, and it's a sorcery.
Shadow slice - you probably wont' be killing people very often by attacking. You'll be on the defensive a lot.
Sinister Possession - cheap, but not real removal, people will probably just attack you anyway.
Executioners swing - you want to remove them before they can deal damage hopefully
one thousand lashes - it's good-ish removal with a decent 2ndary ability, but it's expensive at 4.
Conffessor - yeah he's extort, but you don't need to be paying life for that, there's better cards that do that.
Tithe Drinker - extort and liflink is okay, but she won't trade well. overall just to weak for constructed.
Basillica Screacher - same as tithe drinker
Cards to consider adding.
Devour Flesh - cheap easy to cast removal. You shouldn't be worried if your opponents gain a little life you'll be stealing it back.
Tragic Slip - cheap and has great potential to be substantial removal. Great against nayablitz
Orhov Charm - direct removal for anything.
Oblivian ring - really better than one thousand lashes as it completely removest hem from the board.
Desecration demon - he helps control the board, he doesn't cost a lot of $$ and he's a real threat.
Debt to the Deathless - great with crypt ghast, i'd only run one maybe 2, but could finish a game that your creatures can't
Dead Weight - similar to tragic slip, but can be used on larger creatures to make them more manageable.
Gift of orzhov is a really good enchant, but it does create the opportunity for you to be 2 for 1'd with removal. Though it is a good card for budget builds. King Pen's Pet is okay, for 2/2, extort flying *shrug* You're options are limited for budget creatures on color. he's pretty solid considering.
You'll notice the only rare I mentioned was desecration demon that I didn't see in your inventory. Obviously if you had the $$ there are much better BW builds. Black white zombies is a formidable WB deck, and adding green, red or blue would open up a lot more options, but you need the lands, and those do cost a lot comparatively. On theside you'll want cards like durres, sever the blood line if possible, sin collector helps against control and reanimiator.