Would this deck benefit from some sort of blue creature token generator or a supply of cheap blue creatures to try to take advantage of Architect's tap for 2 colorless for artifacts.
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This seems like a good build on Merfolk. Have you thought about adding Merrow Reejerey or Coralhelm Commander, as they are both capable of giving the +1/+1 bonus to other merfolk as well?
Shard Convergence would be good, since you get to search for every type of land but a forest, but it's a 4 drop. Cultivate or Kodama's Reach let you search for two lands and put one into play and the other in your hand. Joiner Adept let's each land you control tap for any color of mana. Rampant Growth would probably be good as well for early color searchers.
I don't really know what type of decks you play against, but Sword of Body and Mind is a pretty good SB card when facing lots of Green and Blue decks. With Elves and Jace decks being popular right now, it could be useful to have a few of those. That said, I don't really know what type of decks you typically play against.
Yeah, in some original versions of the deck it acted as kind of a fixer, but I think it's progressed to the point to where it's not really necessary anymore. Thanks for the comment.
Also, if you have time, I wouldn't mind some of your thoughts on a deck I've been working on as well: http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=134065
I like Eldrazi Monument, but by the time you are putting it in play (in other words, have tokens to sacrifice) aren't you already winning typically? It may have it's place in this deck, but I'd look at how often your opponent's out-aggro you before giving it a place in the deck.
I personally like Explore more than I do Harrow, particularly with Oracle of Mul Daya, since it can help you get land drops more consistently by letting you draw the non-lands on top of your deck. I'd switch the counts on them (so 4xExplore and 2xHarrow), but it's more a personal preference, as I'm not sure it would be any better or worse. I like the deck though.
Sun Titan might be good for Jace recursion. Tectonic Edge, Spreading Seas and Leyline of Sanctity should bolster the Valakut/Eldrazi ramp plans.
Sphinx of Lost Truths is a good idea, and something I hadn't thought of as yet. More fliers in this deck wouldn't be a bad idea either, so it might help me kill two birds with one stone.
Unfortunately, I still lack the new Jace, but Divination would be an improvement I think. Particularly turns 5-7 this deck has a real problem with top-decking, and Divination could at least improve that I would think.
I have something similar to this that I play for fun. I include Khalni Heart Expeditions, Rampant Growth and Explore in it as well for mana acceleration. I've had many games where I've had 9 mana by turn 5, which makes fully kicked Rite of Replications in a game an attainable feat, so I've included that as well, since 6 Roil Elementals plus 1 land play is usually game over unless they Day of Judgement/Wrath of God/Planar Cleanse you.
I like the deck, my only worry with it is the lack of blue mana (only 4 in the deck from the Necropolis) with a creature requiring 2 blue mana to be put into play. I don't know if Phantom warrior would be the right card here, maybe Aether Figment (only 1 blue mana required with a possible 3/3 unblockable for 5 if you pay the kicker) even though it's comparatively inefficient, would be better suited.
Pyroclasm/Infest/Marsh Casualties are a good idea, personally I'm more partial to the black ones, as they can get you past indestructible while Pyroclasm can't. Added Black Knight for some White creature removal protection, and also the Nighthawk, although I don't really know why other than he's very, very good. I really appreciate the ideas and input. I'm debating putting Lich Lord of Unx in my sideboard, as it's direct damage/milling combo without tapping (and creature generation with tapping) makes it hard to beat for some direct damage, despite it's damage/expense ratio when you don't have a plethora of zombies in play. Any other thoughts or ideas?
I initially wanted Deny Reality to temporarily remove any annoying enchantments/artifacts that couldn't be removed by means of Terminate. In the end it makes them recast those the next turn, which only hurts their speed, while the cascade ability benefits my speed. I see your point and have updated the deck accordingly. I plan on toying around with each of the variations of this deck I've come up with to see which works best in a play setting. I have a friend who runs an Extended Sliver Deck and another who runs a Jund deck and a speed/aggro Goblin deck, so I'll be primarily testing against those. Are there any other good decks to test it against? All comments are appreciated, as this will be my first Standard legal Tournament Quality deck.
You're missing a few standard legal zombies in this. Try Lich Lord of Unx, Death Baron, Grixis Grimblade and Vedalken Ghoul. All are 3 mana or less and have some neat abilities (hello all zombies gain deathstrike!). Karathi Remnant is a 0/1 Bird Skeleton with cascade for 4 mana which could be useful as well.
I will comment that while I see Deny Reality as the weakest of the cascade cards, you are still paying 5 mana to return a card to someone's hand and play a card that costs 4 mana or less for free, which makes it something more than good, but less that stellar. I'll take that exchange to improve deck speed slightly.
Thanks for both comments. I was thinking of putting in Thraximundar as an end-game type card, but mana costs in such short games worries me, since in order to do Thraximundar in most tournaments, you'd need a mana a turn or something like that. Unscythe I'd thought of as well, and was thinking about a few of those to make sure I had it out every game. The Vampire Nighthawks are pretty awesome, I just stuck with the Zombie/Skeleton theme. Thanks for both comments.