dknight27

Nothing says good value like a lord card that's got a body of its own that nets you card advantage

I gotcha.

I see a little bit of anti-synergy going on here. This deck desperately wants to have three lands to cast its rats, and desperately wants to build up rats (as on their own they're just three-drop 2/2's), but you're running lots of spells that make both those goals harder.

Up front, rats are only good when they swarm. One rat is just a 2/2, two rats are just two 3/3's, three rats are just three 4/4's. You can get the same thing by running green fatties that are 4/4's all the time. Plus, you're only running thirteen rats, so your chances of fielding more than two at a time are actually pretty slim. On top of that, you've got land/removal problems.

Innocent Blood and Smallpox lose you a creature. Smallpox loses you a land. You'd theoretically play both before you cast a rat, which is good synergy, but once you've got a rat/rats, topdecking one is a problem, so if you don't have one off the bat, you're running seven cards in the maindeck that you don't want to draw once you field a rat, which is the entire plan this deck wants. So, at that point, you've probably got enough lands, so you've got seventeen-ish lands and seven removal you don't want to topdeck, so you've got almost exactly a 50/50 chance of drawing a card every turn you don't want.

On top of that, when you do play Smallpox turn 2, you lose a land and thus can't drop a rat the next turn, so you're slowing yourself down and letting opponent have a chance to catch back up. Smallpox is a really cool card and combos perfectly with Hatchery, but you've sort of got to build the whole deck around it to make it work and I don't think that's going to happen very consistently. Typically, Smallpox pairs with stuff like [[Life from the Loam]], [[Wasteland]], Urza's Saga, a bunch of cheap cheat artifacts, and a high land count so you take advantage of denying opponent resources while eeking out the win slowly in the grind.

This build is sort of trying for both without committing to either, which makes neither work very well. A turn 1 rat in exchange for a Dark Ritual goes -1 against any spot removal, makes your Smallpoxes and Innocent Blood's a bad investment, and only swings for 2 damage until turn 3, at which point you get a 3/3. You also can't rely on Swarmyard to cheese your way around this, as sacrificing isn't destroying, so you can't regenerate them.

So, in general I'd sort of advise picking which theme you want to run and focusing on that more. You could build a rat swarm deck on the cheap, especially with how strong cards like [[Karumonix, the Rat King]].

Just some thoughts, not trying to diss the build.

Gotcha.

Well, I've got some good news, cause this type of build has quite a few extremely powerful cards you can get on the cheap. Check out [[Monastery Swiftspear]], [[Slickshot Show-Off]], Stormchaser's Talent, Dragon's Rage Channeler.

You'll also want to take a look at the balance of creature vs noncreature cards, cause right now you've got more creatures than you have anything else, and all your creatures want you to cast noncreature spells, so your balance is off. Right now, only less than a third of your deck trips your prowess triggers, which means the deck isn't doing what its supposed to be doing. You basically want to load up on cantrip cards (cards that replace themselves) so you can constantly be hitting your prowess trigger and reloading your hand. Stuff like Mishra's Bauble, [[Ponder]], and [[Preordain]] do essentially everything you want in this build, so I'd advise cutting the critters down to about 15 copies and loading up on cantrips so make them work well. [[Gitaxian Probe]] is everything this deck wants in a nutshell, but it's going for like 4 bucks a pop, and that might be outside the budget. Ponder is also a little expensive, but can be substituted for [[Serum Visions]].

Just some thoughts.

Are you going for budget casual here?

I did have some good fun with it. Basically none of my combos were competitive. Most were three card wincons with no accompanying synergy, but it was a fun challenge to continuously try to think up new ways to pop off. All of that sprang from my discovery of what magic really was the first time I saw [[Dragonstorm]] work a million years ago. I dedicated my 1000th deck on here to it. Good times, if embarrassing to look back on and think 'my god, I thought it was a good idea to rely on a deck that did three-card combos with nothing else going on'.

Then there was the old [[_____]] and R&D's Secret Lair combo that I played around with ad nauseum. Great times really.

I used to make TERRIBLE combo decks. I don't like to think about it

Running six-drops?! In this meta?! Noobsauce...

Are you going for budget casual here?

We're still waiting on a whole bunch of cards too

Good ol Mill Agro, I love to see it.

There are a couple newer cards that would fit nicely in here. Check out [[Merfolk Secretkeeper // Venture Deeper]], [[Cruel Somnophage // Can't Wake Up]], [[Thought Scour]], [[Fractured Sanity]], and [[Visions of Beyond]].

I'd recommend cutting Mind Grind (too expensive), Paranoid Delusions (too conditional), Startled Awake (too expensive), Whispering Madness (too conditional), and Vision Charm (too low impact) and sub in some of the above.

Just some thoughts.

Maybe a little [[Blood Fountain]] in there somewhere? Cheap, artifact fodder, recurs your big bads?

Duh, Duh, Duh. Da, Na...Na, Na, Na.

The more I look at Phelia, the more I think it's just stupid good. I also think it sort of breaks the color chart, as white isn't really supposed to have TOO many flash control critters (and they've already got good ones). But oh well, nothing we can really do about it.

I can see the argument for more Rizz than Bean. I'm not quite sure how it will shake out either.

Makes sense to me. I'm too chicken to run low land counts anyway.

The more I think about it, the more I enjoy some of the fringe benefits of Anarch, as it turns your mana dorks into 2/1 clocks and gives you the delightful sequence, when paired with a dork, of a turn 3 four-drop that's gunna smash and crash for the W. But that's just me, I can see the argument against it as well.

As for other draw options, [[Elder Gargaroth]] refills whenever it hits, and it's gunna hit more often than not, so that might qualify. Same with [[Keeper of Fables]], [[Ripjaw Raptor]]. [[Surrak, Elusive Hunter]] gives you great coverage protection. [[Urabrask, Heretic Praetor]] is a cantrip beater with haste.

Running the full set of Fable is reliable draw, especially with your dorks which fields the Fable turn 2 and gives you the draw option turn 3, which is delightful, so that might mitigate the necessity of running more draw a little bit.

This playpattern is a bit outside my wheelhouse, so take it with a grain of salt.

Seems like [[Domri, Anarch of Bolas]] would be the better Domri here, since it ramps and protects from counters while still being able to use the fight mechanic if necessary.

Might be a couple more cards that would help the build, particularly mana accel to get those wascally wabbits down quickly as well as stuff that helps Zinnia like [[Lightning Greaves]]

Nineteen lands seems pretty slight with all the two-drops, activated abilities, and the fact that nine of them come in tapped. Maybe the cantripping mitigates that, but it would scare me.

I love a good Lantern Control, maybe the most interesting deck from my perspective. Only thing that really jumps out at me that might be a problem in here is the double blue in Narset, since your lands are gunna have trouble covering the spread so you'll have to rely on the 0-drop artifacts to get it done. Obviously if you can shut down draw you're in business here, but perhaps running [[Orcish Bowmasters]] would be an alternative to punish the draw for cheaper/better coverage/better color spread? Just an initial thought, love the build.

The 1-drop cycle lands are my favorite little cheat in all of magic. Goodbye mulligans, hello economic deck thinning and free synergy.