samstyx

I would consider turning this into an EDH deck. its got a lot of 1's and already 85 cards, so only 15 more til the 100 cards needed. just pick a blue legend, or one with blue in it, to keep using blue with it.

i like this deck for casual play and possibly somehow converting the theme to an EDH deck where you would be able to cast everything easier over the game. what im actually debating on is the white in this deck. seems like you would have went with green as the other color to mana ramp and get the phoenix's out faster. i like the angels you choose, but this deck i fear, is going to struggle with mana. You might want to consider an EDH deck, im making an angel one right now, and you could use razia as your commander, and it would allow you to play almost everything in this deck. just some thoughts, im just concerned mostly with the mana, but i love tribal or themed decks, so i support this phoenix idea haha.

maybe proxy a few and try which one works best for your style of play and your playgroup?

well if you ran the sanguine bond something like corrupt as a "big" spell, or even something cheaper like the exsanguinate i run if you play a lot of group battles in casual, both help you gain life and deal massive amounts at your opponents. another card which recently went out of standard last year is Tendrils of Corruption, a cheaper version of corrupt in a sense, but still could work with sanguine bond with deadly effect i think. if you want to draw more card you could run sign in bloods to help speed your draws up, and you wouldnt have to worry about losing the 2 life from them, because your gaining life. just some thoughts.

I checked it out. looked pretty solid, i left a few comments

I like this deck for non-standard play, but i think you should drop your mana % down to around 30. maybe run 18 overall. i think i would drop the bad moon out for Sanguine Bond, especially since your running the 3 feast of bloods plus the nighthawks, you shouldnt have a hard time using its effect. Im not as much of a fan of bloodghast in this style of deck as you are, i think i would opt for a few extra spells. looks solid overall though

At 7 mana i prefer something else, even a corrupt for 6 mana could help me more by late game than kalitas in every experience ive had in using him. thanks for the tips though!

yeah, painful quandary could be pretty solid at slowing someone down. however by turn 5 it may be more beneficial to just drop in drana or the malakir bloodwitch. not sure what i would take out if i wanted to put painful quandary or bloodcheifs ascension though.

yeah, i think i use him once, his mana cost is just too much to be of any use imo. by turn 7 if you're screwed, chances are kalitas isn't going to help, and while his ability helps creature hate, i had doom blade, go for the throat, even feast of blood for that.

Vampire nocturnus is a GREAT card, but unfortunately he's no longer in standard play. Malakir Bloodwitch usually works well for me, but i agree that her and drana cost more, however, they are still cheaper to play compared with Anowan and Kalitas, and Malakir Bloodwitch works well for casual play when its a large group of people. I wish Vampire Nocturnus was standard though!

Hey, thanks for the tips. I actually had Anowan and Kalitas in here at one point, both never saw much playtime. They are both great cards, but since they never saw much play i went with drana and malakir bloodwitch, both of which are able to get out much earlier as well. Been looking at blade of the bloodchief for awhile, but man, so expensive right now. haha. if sanguine bond was standard i would def roll with it here. i could actually see bloodchief ascension working in here, but when i had blood tribute in it didn't help me much late game. i found exsanguinate to work best for me. thanks for the comments!

sideboard the cosi's trickers. drop jace's ingenuity, and maybe splash some white in here for journey to nowhere and sejiri merfolk. i would say pull the unified wills out, or at least drop the number down. i like merfolk decks overall, and trying to run them in standard is fun right now, but i think if you make a couple tweaks i mentioned it might help this one out a little bit.

Surprised to not see merfolk sovereign in this deck. but its a pretty good non-standard merfolk build. im running a standard merfolk U/W one with a leveler subtheme in it, if you have the time, would you mind checking it out here: http://mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=138601

i'm surprised you dont have Jwari Shapeshifter in this deck, especially since your running blue allies. i like the idea of using venser in this deck as well, like the person above me stated, maybe dropping some of the life gaining stuff in this deck for the shapeshifter or something. i think its a great 2 drop for a blue ally deck.

Hey, i am also running a Merfolk tribal deck. Mine is a blue/white standard one though, and with that a reliance upon the leveler merfolk. I like how you are going for the islandwalking, but I think a splash of white in here might be great considering you get the journey to nowhere, or the white merfolks from the morningtide and lorwyn if you're going the nonstandard way. either way, i like the deck, let me know what you think of mine here: http://mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=138601

I thought about making a red/black vampire deck, but opted for a straight black one for awhile, before now finally settling on a blue/black one. once mirrodin besieged comes out the new card "go for the throat" will be able to fully target black creatures, kinda leaving some worry for straight black creature heavy decks. overall i like your deck, but i dont like the running of just 1 disfigure, maybe switch some stuff around for a couple sign in bloods. check out my vampire deck and let me know what you think of it if you get the time.

I like this deck and it's theme. I think that i might switch out a couple of the dragons and double up on a few to increase your chances of running them, but its solid overall. I think I would look for more Flameblast and Two-headed dragon, and maybe add Shivan dragon the imperial hellkite. I could see possibly dropping cultivate to 3 and harrow to 3, but both either way they are solid mana ramp. i like dragonmaster outcast, but can't help but wonder if maybe having 2 ascesticism's would be of more use to protect the dragons since outcasts cost so much $ right now. overall good deck.

Hey your deck is solid, but I agree with the person above, get rid of the Cloud Crusader. I actually have a Knight deck that's all standard as well, but has a second win condition through the Kor Spiritdancer and Auras. Let me know what you think of it. You may be able to get a couple of ideas from it.

I think you should pull out the Kalastria Highborn for the Captivating Vampires. Maybe pull the bloodchief ascension out as well since it will be too slow for this deck. Maybe add 2 malakir bloodwitchs if you have any. I would probably put in a couple Vampire Hexmages as well. i'd say pull both terrors, with all the artifacts floating around since mirrodin, you might wanna stick with the doom blades, feast of blood, etc. I actually just recently made a vampire deck myself after a couple tries with making one. check it out and let me know what you think.