My 2nd competition deck... I need feedbacks plz

1) 1st off, A foil Baneslayer Angel can fetch you a near 80 to 100 USD and that's a quite a nice fund pool to get those valuable cards that you need. It's A SIGN!!!!

2)Let me break each card for you, GWR is a Naya deck that promotes mainly red's burn damage, white's cheap effective removals and fliers/lifelinks and green's beefies and mana fixers:

4x Fiery Hellhound (A 1RR cost for 2/2 that requires a life link + Whispersilk cloak equipment is a big investment and would slow down your match up. - Swap the Whispersilk Cloak for 1WG: Behemoth Sledge for +2/+2 trample and lifelink and Fiery hellhound can be improved with Woolly Thotar's 5/4 body; it's a Naya's star)

4x Soul's Fire (Soul's Fire x 4 is too many in any deck and very often you need to spend 3 mana (2R) to burn a player/creature but your creature on the battlefield's power is only a common 2/3. That's a bit weak for a 3 cost burn spell. If you're using this spell for creature removals, especially targeting those big creatures that kicked your arse last week; get 4 path to exile and get the job done fast and cheap. If you're using 3 cost burn spells to hit a player, i rather you stick to 4 x Banefire to make it "can't be counter" and prevented too.)

4x Lightning Bolt [keep this!!! most effective and cheap burn]

3x Fire ball [I think you're shifting to all burn direct to player or attempt to wipe out the board's creatures with this spell. You sure slot in more beefie creatures like Uril, the Miststalker for having the ability to not be targeted by other players. 5/5 for 2WGR is a saver any day; don't go for creature removal overkill. There would be time where you run out of spells to burn and no creatures with enough toughness/power to handle the battlefield)

2x Bogardan Hellkite [late game finisher and should be used for it's Flash during a player's "Beginning of other player's Endturn" dont put too many cards that require you to pump mana to increase it's power too often; you would end up losing chance to cast important spells when needed to.]

2x Fire Breathing

1x Magma Phoenix (A annoying card that keeps coming back, if you like this card put 2 copies at least to play with instead; if not slot in cheap beefies like Spellbreaker Behomoth - 1RRG for 5/5 and can't be countered)

1x Maniacal Rage [enchancements to be replaced with Equipments like Behemoth Sledge or Whispersilk cloak instead; as creature dies but equipments stays in play for re-use purpose)

1x Chandra Nalaar [Since you have 4 bolts, 4 Banefire and 4 path to exile; Chandra's role is just to kill last few threats and enforce your victory; although my favourite is still Goldmane's giving all your creatures +1/+1 and viligence in 1 turn and also let you gain 2 life)

3x Lifelink [don't need this anymore with Behemoth Sledge; slot in some Borderpost to fix your mana curve and also i notice you don't have much 2 cost WG or RW or RG creatures. Alara Reborn have cheap and effective 2 cost Gold cards. Go there and choose)

3x Soul's Grace [Same logic as Soul's Fire, not easy to cast and as effective for it's cost, slot this for Haste/cheap 2 cost Gold creatures from Alara block]

2x Serra Angel [If given the chance, i would slot 2 Baneslayers for Serra Angels. But there are still as effective since 4th Edition days]

2x Angel's Mercy [2WW to gain 7 life is not as effective as its cost speaks for itself; if you're looking for life gain victories but lacking on defensive to strenghten your life points.. you would still lose. Slot in the life gains for beefies or another flier?]

1x Righteousness [2-3 copies gives defense a better scare to the board]

1x Wall of Faith [Nope, give other better cards this slot]

1x Sigiled Paladin [Out of place; since this card belongs in an exalted bant deck and not Naya, slot for 2 cost Alara reborn Blade creatures or haste creatures]

1x White Knight ( Probably will change this one for another Sigiled Paladin )[Out of place; since this card belongs in an exalted bant deck and not Naya, slot for 2 cost Alara reborn Blade creatures or haste creatures - WW cost is hard to cast in a 3 colored deck]

1x Battlegrace Angel [Out of place; since this card belongs in an exalted bant deck and not Naya, slot for 2 cost Alara reborn Blade creatures or haste creatures]

3x Whispersilk Cloak [my personal favourite, KEEPER]

Lands

5 x Plains

5 x Mountains

6 x Forest

3 x Terramorphic Expanse

4 x Jungle Shrine

Give your deck a 23 land base with a mix of all required basic lands at least. One more point to add, given your playing environment is a Competitive environment; it's best to keep combos as simple as possible (1+1 card combo, or Single card power finisher - Banefire or Baneslayer Angel) and also find similar synegies within different cards [E.g. Low cost Naya creatures with Higher Power and toughness, Naya Blade* Spellbreaker Behemoth* Woolly Thotar supported with Behemoth Sledge is just deadly] form a focused theme within a deck. If you're playing to win this round, consider my suggestion as a competitive start ya? A deck requires a balance, no a 100% creature deck, 70% burn/removal and only little creature deck or attempt to wrap too many mutually exclusive cards/themes together. The winning "conditions" would be all over the place and the deck just can't seem to focus together to win under your planning.

You locked in your key finishers within your deck but you have to ensure your finishers dont get finished the moment they come into the battlefield; hence you're gonna plan around to have enough creatures to do the basic attacking and defensive and also to be wasted on by other players on their own creature removal. Then, BANG mid-stage baneslayer equipped with Whispersilk cloak. You KNOW you win the game! you might wanna throw in Dauntless Escort to prevent Warth effectives to cleanse the board ya?

One thing i think i know about your deck forming strategy - You know how well a single card can do for your deck, but you have problems making your deck to fit in with that useful card. Hence, i hope you can take into consideration the suggestion cards i made for you and test play abit too before FNM this week.

I've only restarted playing 3-4 weeks ago so basicly I only bought m10 boosters so far ( for it's many 10+$ cards )

( I take off the rare card and put the rest in a pile I dont even really check until later )

I needed to get some good value cards for my collection to start back...

I'm now at 63 cards worth 10+$ that I can re-invest. ( from boosters / trading )

I'm building these decks to do something with those tons of commons/uncommons I'm gathering.

Thinking I should prolly start buying from other collections if I'm turning into a tournament player ...

95% of my knowledge is from m10 only ... my next goal is going to be Zendikar

Think I'll be building 1 deck per week and give myself the goal to make it better for each friday.

Thanks for your suggestions !

Being an old school player I kinda like m10 too much for it s old school classics... I'll study other collections a bit during the week to know what I'm playing against and the strategies I haven't been exposed to for now.

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PS : Was thinking about selling that Baneslayer + 3-4 other rare cards in my collection to finance a box of Zendikar

this should get me 36 other goodies to play with without investing too much ;)

You're talking about re-investing? Zendikar's fetch lands, Lotus Cobra, Planeswalkers and its basic land are gonna make your booster box worth the investments. The thing about FNM, it's almost as competitive as tournament at times; kinda hard to enjoy a simple deck with fun ideas.

M10 cards have it's good points of friendly produce mana lands, Baneslayers and Great Stable Stag. You have a good pool of M10 cards and Zendikar is much needed. Choose a theme n form around it :)

jimmymare's breakdown up there is pretty spot on. The elephant in the room that I see with the deck is that you're running Fireball. I agree that this should definitely be switched out for Banefire. I also agree that Behemoth Sledge belongs in this deck. It's a much more reliable and much easier to pull off than going with Lifelink and Whispersilk.

Actually Jimmy pretty well covered it. He's also right about playing at FNM's. The town I'm in is only 14,000 people but you'll see every top deck at some point. In Extended you'll see Hypergenisis, Ravager Affinity, in standard you saw 5cc, RDW, Elf Combo, Time Sieve, Kiths, Warp World, etc. If you're going to play at FNM's and try to be competitive you'll have to really focus on your theme. What wins at the kitchen table usually won't hold up in your average meta.

I'm currently writing down your suggestions and I'm hitting the store right after this msg to get what you suggested.

though I think I have to explain how I've been using this deck 'on the kitchen table' ;)

The funny thing about Fiery Hellhound is that no one really fears or sees what's coming when I put it into play

Fiery hellhound boosts it's power when I tap mountains ... so basicly every turn I have a Soul's fire in hand ( that costs 2R and that deals dmg equal to my creature's power ) I've been boosting Fiery Hellhound's power to deal massive dmg to creatures/players before I actualy attack with it ( being unblockable).

The way I've been using Fiery Hellhound was actualy pretty cool for friendly matches as I've been either dealing dmg OR healing myself trough it's power boosting ability mixed with the Soul's Grace.

So basicly the strategy I've been using there is to pump one little guy's power each turn to re-invest it's power to either dmg dealing or healing myself... then I attack with it

( If I have 5 mountains + 2 plains on play for exemple ... I tap 4 mountains to pump Fiery Hellhound's power to 6/2, tap my remaining lands for a Soul's fire dealing 6 dmg, then attack with a 6 unblockable creature right after )

This way I can actualy deal some pretty sick dmg starting from the 4th-5th turn.

Though I have to say that I've been checking Alara Reborn's stuff as you suggested and made a very nice wishlist to go get this week.

( For THIS deck AND to improve last week's discarting strategy with the black/blue one )

Also fell in love with Behemoth Sledge :P

( Will prolly use it pretty soon with a protean hydra theme deck if possible )

Alright that's it ... I'm hitting the store now ;)

Ok, the store I went to didn't have much Alara Reborn ( none of the stuff you suggested ) but I still managed to have some usefull changes made.

( And I also bought some nice cards to work on a black/blue discard deck ! )

here's what this week's deck looks like for now :

RED :

4x Fiery Hellhound

4x Soul's Fire

4x Lightning Bolt

3x Fireball

2x Firebreathing

2x Bogardan Hellkite

1x Maniacal Rage

1x Magma Phoenix

1x Chandra Nalaar

WHITE :

3x Soul's Grace

3x Lifelink

2x Angel's Mercy

2x Serra Angel

1x Righteousness

ARTEFACT :

3x Whispersilk cloak

GOLD :

3x Stun Sniper

Lands :

4x Unstable Frontier

6x Plains

10x Mountains

1x Jungle Shrine

Can't wait to test play this deck later today ;)

Unfortunatly, I didn't find anything usefull to switch the deck from 2 color to a 3 color ...

Although I'm still kinda impressed about how the Stun Sniper and Unstable Frontier enhance the gameplay for now ...

Perhaps I could possibly get 3x Jungle shrine ( for green mana ) and get the Behemoth Sledge ( And change the Serra Angels for Baneslayer Angels )

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PS : been testing it tonight with a good regular tournament player ... this deck is INSANE !

here's tomorow's ''to get'' list :

3x Shivan Dragon

3x Behemoth Sledge

2x Baneslayer Angel

2x Ajami Goldmane

2x Spellbreaker Behemoth

3x Jungle Shrine

2-3x Sigil of distinction

*** maybe another magma phoenix too ***

* Also found something that might be more usefull for this deck than the stun snipers when I played tonight ... it s a common gold creature ( RW ) 2/2 haste/vigilance ... anyone knows it's name ? I couldn't remember it ...

First let me say don't mess with Shivan Dragons. No matter what you could do with them there's always going to be something better. They're just very underpowered. I can't suggest a replacement because I'm not sure just what it is you're wanting them for. Let me know and I'll try to offer a little help on it.

Also I'm pretty sure the 2/2 you're wanting to know about is Ceredon Yearling. A pretty nice 2 drop.

basicly I would use the shivan dragons the same way I use Fiery Hellhound

tap mountains to boost it's power, then cast Soul's fire, then attack with it ...

( exemple : with 5 mountains 2 plains )

I would tap 4 mountains to get +4/+0 and make it 9/5

Cast Soul's fire for 9 dmg / OR / Soul's Grace to gain 9 life

then Attack for 9 dmg ( flying ) ( Maybe also equip behemoth Sledge / Whispersilk cloak )

As I said, I really liked the small combo I have in this deck with fiery hellhound that boosts it's attack power, then cast a sorcery using the creature's new attack power ... just before attacking.

also the fact that it's a creature with power 5(or greater) can come in handy with 'Spellbreaker Behemoth'

How about Flameblast Dragon? It'll be your dream come true. It's a Shivan Dragon with a built in Soul's Fire!

If you go with it you're still getting a 5/5 for the same mana cost but you're going to be able to get your combo like you're going for every swing. And the card is less than a buck each so you can grab a set for next to nothing. I think that would work out much better with what you're going for. Good luck!