Hey, that MY style!
Rare binders are the basis of all my decks (set aside my Stampy varients and oddball beatdown stuff)!
I have to agree with Mike, though. Mana is a serious problem. Looking at the original deck, we have
31 total mana sources (6 can be used only once)
31 green mana sources (6 can be used only once)
11 red mana sources (3 can be used only once, 3 only sometimes produce red, 2 turn all mana sources into possible red mana)
9 black mana sources (3 can be used only once, 3 only sometimes produce black)
9 blue mana sources (3 can be used only once, 3 only sometimes produce blue)
11 white mana sources (3 can be used only once, 3 only sometimes produce white, 2 turn all mana sources into possible white mana)
And we also find the deck has
18 green mana symbols in the casting cost
8 red mana symbols in the casting costs
6 black mana symbols in the casting costs
12 blue mana symbols in the casting costs
8 white mana symbols in the casting costs
Do those ratios look kinda funky to anyone else? 18:31, 11:8, 9:6, 9:12, 11:8? I try to keep those stable when I build many-color decks. But needless to say, it's really hard to do, 'cause I can't really take into account temporary mana sources or alternate sources, etc... (If anyone would write an equation for the right mana mix in this kind of deck, I WANT IT.
) I'd play with the basic land mix some, pulling forests in favor of whatever else makes those ratios closer to equal. (And don't go and give me 'Well, any number to 0 are equal ratios, so I'll just take out all the spells, and we have it!' Someone tried that already.
)
Now, I'm gonna call something creative here... This deck can go one of two ways. It can go in the direction it's currently heading via Mike, with large creatures and mana sources, and a kill with Pyros. Or it can go more towards my speciality; really horribly ineffective combo. I'm gonna try and make it go combo for the purposes of this post, just cause I'm a SoB and I need something to do now that I'm awake at 4 in the morning (does jet lag not suck?).
Ok, first things first. What's the combo? Pyromancy/Bloom/Bargain. Ok. How do we get the combo into play? Well, we could cast all that. Nope, that's not happening. We could try and get the Bloom/Bargain engine out, and they cast Pyromancy. Ok, that sounds good.
Once we get Bloom/Bargain out, how do we get the red mana? Well, we need mana acceleration anyways, Skyshroud Elf. (You'll note I'm still playing by your decklist. I'll get more creative here in a minute...
) Alright.
Next question, how do we get Bloom/Bargain out? Both are enchantments, Academy Rector. Now we need a way to sack it, Phyrexian Tower or High Market? Chances are we're only gonna get one Rector, so we'll still need to cast the other one of Bloom/Bargain. So we'll say Tower, since that gives us the mana we need. Casting the other is a problem, how 'bout Dark Rituals to help the high mana requirement?
Hmm... Bargain relies on life. How do we get life? We have access to constant G, B, W, and R mana. Could go Stream of Life, but discarding that wouldn't do much via Pyro, not to mention you have to discard a lot of cards to Bloom to make it worthwhile. Could go Drain Life, but then the deck is broken. Unacceptable.
(Yes, this is how I build combo decks. I'm just typing out my thought process.) Gerrard's Wisdom. Perfect. Gain 2 life for each card you just drew, draw twice as many cards. Only requires two cards to be discarded to cast. High casting cost to run the kill. Perfect indeed.
Now, consistancy. We don't have any. Luck of the draw is not a Good Thing(tm), at least not to me. Therefore, Tutors. I'd say Vampiric, but that's too hard to get. Rhystic? Not as good, but it should work. 4 of those.
Ok, that's 30 spells, and 4 lands. I'm gonna say 24 land to 36 spells for this deck, which leaves 6 slots for spells. More mana acceleration and search cards are the obvious things to get. How 'bout 4 BoPs, and 2 Vampirics? Man, I'm making this thing _expensive_! Sorry 'bout that... I'm just playing 'round.
20 land. We need white mana, green mana, and black mana. The red is only the Pyros, and we can get that out once the combo is running with an Elf. So, once again, in the interests of making this is frigging EXPENSIVE deck, I'm gonna call 4 Cities. Ok, that's over with. 4 Brushland, since we need Green and White. Ok, that leaves 12 slots for basic land. Let's say, for now, forests and swamps. 6 of each.
4 Bargain
4 Bloom
2 Pyros (Only two 'cause we'll be playing 'em later)
4 Gerrard's Wisdom
4 Skyshroud Elf
4 Dark Ritual
4 BoP
4 Academy Rector
4 Rhystic Tutor
2 Vampiric Tutor
4 Phyrexian Tower
4 City of Brass
4 Brushland
6 Forests
6 Swamps
Bang! We have a deck. A bad one, and an expensive one, but a deck nonetheless.
It's obviously just an off-the-top-of-the-head thing, not meant to be played seriously. But that's my interpretation of this deck gone combo (aka gone bad).
Needless to say, it changed a lot. I don't think we're talking about anything even close to the same deck any more. Oh, well. Sorry 'bout that. That's what you get for catching my wandering attention at 4 AM PST.
"What the hell? Now I can't even say I'm waking up with the sun?"
