Well, I seem to be getting favor from posting my thoughts on the cards instead of just dumping them in and not posting comment on the others... so I'll try the same thing with the posts:
Originally posted by Ephraim
It's never pleasant to be the bearer of bad news. However, I have to to break it to you that this deck is not Type I viable.
Well... In the T1 tourneys I've played with this deck as the main event, I've found that it does outstandingly well against whatever competition was out there; and even when it was going through its first generation of blossoming out and figuring out how to kill (
The one I'm working on now is build 4 of this deck) and still it used to keep a solid 4th turn kill unless people played creature disruption or some other type of strategy... You can talk to
Mr. Pestilence about the deck, but its been a year and he's a bit sketchy. Heck, I'm even using idea's from the deck as well as his playing style he played against me to bolster my decks.
For starters, this deck bears a striking resemblance to the traditional deck, Suicide Black. It was a deck designed to beat creatureless control by disrupting the opponent quickly and laying down a cheap, powerful creature that could quickly finish the opponent off. Creatures favoured for this deck were Hypnotic Specter, Nantuko Shade, and Phyrexian Negator. However, in the current era, creatureless control no longer exists. In addition to cards like Goblin Welder, many control decks also pack Fire & Ice, the bane of many Suicide Black decks.
I might just try throwing in a Hypnotic specter for the disruption it throws in... Its a 2/2 flyer for 3 mana anyways, so I might as well give it a go. As for things like Nantuko Shade, I find myself not gaining sufficient amounts of mana to even make the card worthwile in a deck such as mine without disabling other idea's and kinks I may want to throw in during my second main phase.
To begin, your deck has less disruption than a traditional Sui Black build. Where it has Sinkhole, Duress, and Hymn to Tourach, you're packing Oubliette, Terror, and Diabolic Edict. If the traditional tools are insufficient to disrupt control decks, your tools are going to be even worse. Trying to deal with 4-colour control's Exalted Angel with a Diabolic Edict is doomed to failure. By that point, 4-colour control will certainly have plenty of counter magic to back up its threat. By abandoning one of the first principles of Suicide Black, you've made the deck even worse.
Sorry to break it to ya, but I don't really have much at my disposal to work from. I don't even have one Suppress... Never was playing T1 or anything during that time... Heck, I think that was during the time of my hiatus from Magic... >.>;;
Your deck also relies on suboptimal win conditions. Phyrexian Negator and Nantuko Shade have enormous capacity to deal damage quickly. Small shadow creatures are slow clocks that will not give your opponent cause for concern. Further, Fire & Ice will handle your threats as readily as they'll deal with Negator and Shade. Additionally, Swords to Plowshares is even stronger against smaller creatures and they make the race even easier for Exalted Angel to win.
What is the #1 way to end game someone? Dmg. What is the #1 way to dish out dmg? Creatures. I'm just trying to use an antiquated method in which to deliver my package of dmg sufficiently and securely with minimal instability.
Any deck that wishes to lay down any disruption whatsoever typically must pack a complement of Strip Mine and Wastelands. Your deck has none, further weakening it, even compared to the weak traditional Suicide build.
I don't face control all that often. I find that a 1 for 1 tradeoff for mana in a deck doesn't really help me out all that much. Basically what I'm trying to say here is that I don't want to be stuck in a situation where my opponent has 2 untapped Islands while i have a swamp, a strip mine, a Dauthi Horror, and the twisted decision of either postponing my creature being put out to destroy both one of mine and one of my opponents lands, leaving me to pray to all thats unholy that my opponent doesn't draw another island, or to just go ahead and play the creature and let it be countered.
Hmm... Note: Might try straight land destruction via strip mine + Crucible of Worlds
Sinister Strength & Parallax Dementia are simply suboptimal options. You are trying to make up for the fact that you're creatures are smaller than those traditionally found in this deck, but all you're really doing is filling slots with sub-par cards and generating card disadvantage.
Thats harsh. For the low low price of 3 mana I can have a 5/2 shadow creature out on turn 1 even with the help of a dark ritual... Heck, if I wanted I could make it instead a 6/2 shadow on turn 3-4.
The key here is what you have already stated earlier:
"Small shadow creatures are slow clocks that will not give your opponent cause for concern."
Okay... a 2/1 shadow for 2 mana isn't too frightening... A 4/2 shadow for 3 mana is plausable... But howabout a 2/1 that'll become an 8/7 that is unblockable? Nah, my opponent will just laugh his pants off and go goofy that I'm playing shadow... but what happens when he looses to my shadow? Interesting idea...
Drain Life & Consume Spirit are decent, I suppose. At least they serve double-duty as creature kill and win condition. I'm not sure why you're running any Drain Life, though. It's strictly inferiour to Consume Spirit.
The deck used to run straight Drain Life, but I'm a bit paranoid that someone will try to Lobotomize me... or sicker yet, Quash to squash my finisher/creature killer.
Finally, if all that your deck can achieve is a turn 4 win, then you can abandon any hope of beating any mainstream combo deck, for which the critical turn is three, without disruption or four, with disruption (which will push back your turn 4 goldfish). Particularly without important disruption tools like Null Rod and Hymn to Tourach, you really seem to have abandoned any matchup against a combo deck.
Thats nice... But I've played in T1 before and haven't seen many which would actually do a turn 3 kill unless they had a lucky draw or something else. Personally, I can't really think of any that'll do it right off hand, but it seems like a good idea. 20 dmg in 3 turns... Hmm... Super Sligh or something else that's kinda harsh.
Oh... that reminds me that I've gotta find a way to keep sligh at bey... Hmm, I'll meditate on that.
