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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Vampire Jokes
November 27, 2006

Hi there
 
I'm busy working on a black/ white deck. The idea behind the deck is to stifle my opponents strategy by removing key cards from his library (and gaining life in the process, and protecting myself through creature removal and mass creature removal. I like the bat/ vampire theme - they work well with the momentary blinks (Mangara also works well with the blinks). I have one angel of despair that is meant to come out using the dread return. She's just too beautiful to disregard, and the blinks help out with her as well.
I'd like your opinion of this deck as it works pretty well, but sometimes mana can be a problem. It's a bit heavy, standing at 63 cards,  and has a lot of cards that need commitment from either black or white mana. Any idea as to how I can make this deck a Standard tournament killer?
 
Deck List
Creatures
4 Blind hunters
2 Agents of mask
2 Mangara of Corondor
2 Belfry Spirit
2 Skeletal vampires
1 Angel of Despair
1 Soul collector
Artifacts
2 Orhzov signets
2 Jesters Cap
Enchantments
4 Pillary of the sleepless
Instants
3 Mortify
4 Momentary blink
3 Hide/seek
Sorcery's
3 Wrath of God
3 Diabolic Tutors
1 Dread Return
24 lands including two time spiral storage lands (one white/blue and one black /blue) - an even number of white and black lands

Okay there.  Looks like quite a powerful deck, as you're really getting a lot of use out of comes into play abilities here.  Just a few small issues.  For one, all your creatures take a lot of mana to play, as you admit.  that's really going to slow you down.  And for another, you've put a lot of faith into the idea of removing cards from your oponent's library.  I don't think that's really going to help you, except maybe as a life gain spell in the case of Seek.  Even then, life gain just isn't useful enough to devote a whole card to it and nothing else.  Finally, Momentary Blink probably isn't the card you want to be using here when there's better options open to you.  That'll be my first change-- out comes Monetary Blink, and in goes Flickerform.
 
Flickerform's only real downside against Momentary Blink is that it's easier to make fizzle by destroying the creature in response, or anytime you don't have 2WW open to Flicker the creature out of harm's way.  But in exchange, you get a reusable effect.  This will put even more pressure on your mana base, however, so it's crucial that your mana curve come down as much as possible.  Agent of Masks is the first victim-- a good card, but it doesn't really support the theme of CIP effects and Bats, so out it goes.  In its place try Soul Warden, a great companion piece to any Flicker strategy and a very very affordable card.  I did say already that the selective library lobotomizing plan isn't working for you, so Jester's Cap can come out for the third and fourth Orzhov Signet.  And the three Hide & Seek?  Well, they can become three more Dread Return-- though honestly Zombify worls better here than Dread Return-- the buyback isn't all that great, and Zombify costs 3B while the Return costs 2BB, a significant difference in a two-color deck.  Come to think of it, Debtors' Knell would probably work at least as well as either of them-- unless your opponents typically have enchantment removal handy.  But I'm guessing they don't if you're running 4 Pillory of the Sleepless.  Actually, that reminds me-- Three Dreams would be quite useful to you now that you've got Flickerforms and Pillories to search for.  Not too many copies, though, since you already have Diabolic Tutor.
 
Anyway, your mana curve still needs to come down a little more.  I have my doubts about Soul Collector-- it doesn't have a CIP effect, and even though it's a Vampire, it doesn't interact with Bats in any way.  I kind of want to suggest Sengir Nosferatu in its place, since every time the Nosferatu does its presto-chango, the Soul Warden sees a creature come into play.  Teysa, Orzhov Scion would be a nice addition as well, since you'll be sacrificing Bats from here to kingdom come.  And then there's Enderk Sahr, who dumps a swarm of Thrulls into play.  You don't actually have a way to sacrifice them, but 1/1 tokens are always nice, and Sahr has the easiest mana cost.  But then, you're probably just better off devoting that slot to a third Soul Warden.
 
Now then, for your lands.  We dumped Momentary Blink, so your storage lands are obsoleted.  What this deck really needs is a way to ensure that it gets access to WWBB by turn four, what with all those cards like Diabolic Tutor, Wrath of God, Mangara of Corondor, etc.  We replaced Dread return with Zombify, but it's still going to be tricky.  So how do you do it?  With dual lands.  I know they're really expensive, but if you can afford Angel of Despair, then you can afford a few Caves of Koilos or Godless Shrine.  Even Orzhov Basilica would be a boon in this case, so do what you have to do.
 
Hopefully that should do it.  The prospect of flickering Angels of Despair, Blind Hunters, and Belfry Spirits over and over again is bound to win games.  Good luck!
 
~BMoor
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