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BMoor's Magic The
Gathering
Deck Garage
You're welcome, Dan. It's always a pleasure to help newcomers to the game get a feel for the nuances of deck construction and the principles of Magic theory. That might sound complicated, but just stick with me-- nobody's ever accused me of being too complicated to understand.
Okay, let's start by looking at your creature selection. You've got 4 Savannah Lions and 4 Isamaru, which means that you seem to want to be the beatdown deck-
 - the one that comes down early with big creatures and attacks away hard. Not a bad strategy at all, so I'll tune up this deck with the aim of enhancing it. Mourning Thrull and Suntail Hawk are good choices, since flying creatures are more likely to deal damage than ones with no evasion ability. The same goes for Dauthi Slayer, which has shadow. You can also get good results with any number of the 2/2's for WW or BB that exist out there-- Hand of Honor, Hand of Cruelty, Knight of the Holy Nimbus, Leonin Skyhunter, et cetera. The one problem is that all those cards cost WW or BB to cast instead of 1W or 1B. That's why they can be so powerful, because they're harder to cast in a multicolor deck like yours. That, my friend, is the power of lands like Godless Shrine. It's also the power of Mourning Thrull-- the Thrull doesn't care if you spend white or black mana to pay for it, so in a black/white deck it's practically a colorless card. I recommend running a full four Mourning Thrull, as well as another hybrid-mana creature that is also a 2/2 for two mana, Orzhov Guildmage.
As for what to take out, well, any creature I haven't mentioned by name yet can go. Granted, Grimclaw Bats is a flyer too, but B and pay one life for +1/+1 isn't nearly as good as free extra life points whenever you attack. I wouldn't fault you for leaving Angel of Despair in, since she's exceptionally powerful, but everything else should come out. False Prophet? Too unpredictable. Plague Beetle? If your opponent has no Swamps, it's nothing but a 1/1. Rag Dealer? What good is that ability? If you want to foul up people's graveyards, try Withered Wretch.
Next, your noncreature spells. You're sort of sporadic here-- a lot of single copies. As I say often single copies aren't good. If a card isn't good enough to play mroe than one of, it's not good enough to play at all. If you only have one copy, you'll never draw it. Maybe once in four or five games you'll draw it, and then will you need it at that point? Maybe, maybe not. Those aren't good odds. You need to stack the odds in your favor, and you can do that by including four copies of the cards you need most.
You've already done that to an extent-- 4 Mortify and 4 Disenchant. Smart moves there. Two Zombify is nothing to complain about either. But the rest? Well, there's good and there's bad. I'll go over each in detail.
Fist is the case of Shattered Dreams versus Persecute.
 In case the winner here isn't obvious, I'll break it down. Each card forces your opponent to discard a certain type of card. With the Dreams, it's an artifact. With Persecute, it's a card of the color of your choice. Now, a lot of people don't play with artifacts. Or if they do, they only use two or three. So there's a good chance Shattered Dreams won't get anything. However, nearly every deck uses a good number of colored cards. And better yet, you are choosing the color. By this point, you've seen what color your opponent's deck is, and so there's a good chance you'll get him or her to discard two or three cards. That's the other point--Persecute can make a player discard more than one card. Shattered Dreams can only get one card, best case scenario. So take out Shattered Dreams, and add another Persecute. Three or four would be even better. Also take a look at Castigate, Mind Rot, and Distress if it's discarding you're looking for.
Next is Loxodon Warhammer versus Kusari-Gama. In thsi case, both are actually fairly good. But Kusari-Gama fails in that it needs a lot of maan to work properly, and it needs the creature it's on to be blocked. Nobody will ever block a creature wearing a Kusari-Gama if they can help it, or they will block it with a creature that's bound to kill the attacker, so in practice Kusari-Gama doesn't work out. Loxodon Warhammer works much better-- simply play, equip, and swing. You're bound to gain plenty of life and deal plenty of damage, with no extra mana invested. Kusari-Gama here should become another Warhammer. Other pieces of equipment worth looking at are Bonesplitter, Vulshok Morningstar, Specter's Shroud, or Skullclamp.
Next is Serra's Blessing versus Peace of Mind. These two don't really do the same thing, except that they're both 1W enchantments. Peace of Mind is a neat way to keep yourself alive, but it doesn't do anything until you discard a card to it. Traditionally, Peace of Mind has been used chiefly in decks that want to discard cards, for a variety of reasons. You do have Zombify and Angel of Despair, so there's an argument there. But Serra's Blessing is much more elegant: it just sits in play and gives all your creatures vigilance. Over a few turns, Serra's Blessing will probably net you more life points simply becasue your attackers can now block and your opponent will not be able to attack you back and get through your blockers. Peace of Mind out, Serra's Blessing in.
That only leaves Grave Pact and Sunscour.
 Sunscour can be very useful if you find your opponent often getting the creature advantage against you, as it resets the board and allows you to start over. Grave Pact is always nice, since it's basically betting that your creatures are going to die (a safe bet), but it needs three black mana. That's a lot to ask, so I'd suggest dropping the Grave Pact. if you really expect the bodies to hit the floor, try Debtors' Knell. It's seven mana, but it's another hybrid, and it brings creatures back for you. Better yet, it can steal your opponent's dead creatures.
Finally, your lands. Remember, this deck's spells are really demanding about having the right color of mana. So lands that only tap for colorless, like Darksteel Citadel, have no place here. Drop them in exchange for Caves of Koilos, Orzhov Basilica, or basic Plains/Swamps. Isamaru and the Savannah Lions want you to have white mana early, so you may need slightly more white mana sources than black. Only practice and playtesting will tell what the best balance is.
Well, that's all I can do. I've been at this for hours it seems, and my head is starting to hurt, but it's all done and a finer deck fix I doubt I've done in many a day. Good luck Dan, and may Magic smile upon you for as long as you choose to play!
~BMoor
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