I just built this Shaman deck (on paper) and I have a couple of questions before I go ahead and purchase all of these cards.
1.) Are there any major flaws that you can see? I'm not concerned with winning all the time or having the "best" shaman deck. I just wanted a really cool deck with a variety of Shamans and one that I can enjoy playing that will be a great deck, but may not be the "best."
2.) This is kind of my first time building a deck that's more than one color. Usually, I build mono colored decks and that's easy - 36 cards, 24 lands. When I build two color decks, I try to make the cards even and split up the number of lands. Now, that I'm using three colors, I'm not really sure how many of each lands to include in my deck. I broke it down and for this deck I have:
GREEN = 14 cards
RED = 8 cards
BLACK = 13 cards
Any ideas on what lands and how many of each I should buy? I'm open to non-basic land ideas as well.
Well, the deck is really lacking removal. no matter how fast you come out of the gates, good spot removal won't come amiss. And you'll need it even more if the game goes longer. You're in black, one of the best colors for spot removal, so choose something good and cheap, like Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Dismember, Murder, etc. The list goes on and on.
Dark Ritual is a fine tempo boost, but it comes at the cost of a card disadvantage, you're spending a card to get ahead in the tempo race. Nothing wrong there per se. But this line of thought really needs the cards to back it up. You can pretty much only play black spells with this, and while you do have a fair number of those, you have even more spells that aren't playable with that 2 extra mana for a turn. I'm aware, that it also lets you get Griselbrand out, but frankly, that demon sticks out as the most inappropriate for this deck. It stands alone as a single copy at the very top of your mana curve, while the rest of the deck tops out at 5 CMC. It's also the only demon in the entire deck, so the value of Blood Speaker goes way down. Griselbrand is a strong card, yes, but your deck is so focused on the early game, that you have pretty much lost by the time you can bring him out. Or won already. Those two slots are better used for cards that increase your chances at winning early.
Sol Ring is also a card that a deck focused on the early game cannot really make use of. You need colored mana for the deck and hardly any mana acceleration of this kind. You're in green, if you want to get mana accel, use spells to grab some lands from your library (which can also fix your colors), several of your creatures can benefit from that. Unlike a mana rock, no matter how efficient it is.
2) Lands
Cutting the high end of the deck, and the cards to get there not only opens more slots for the early game, it also lessens the need for land, so you can get away with fewer. For starters I'd try with 23 lands.
You want your lands to enter the field untapped, and provide the colors you need. That's a tall order. I'd definitely try Ancient Ziggurat for budget reasons, but if you can afford them City of Brass, Cavern of Souls and Mana Confluence are probably the way to go. You can also (a big budget provided) go for the fetchland + shockland combo, for example Wooded Foothills can grab an Overgrown Tomb, a Stomping Ground, or a Blood Crypt, whatever you need for the cards in your hand. Grabbing appropriate basics is also possible, of course. Plus, those fetches feed the Deathrite Shaman. Gemstone Mine might be a more affordable option, but it doesn't fit well if you try to reach a lot of mana for expensive spells.
You could go for the BRG triland (Savage Lands) which gives you access to all the colors you need, but entering the field tapped is a serious drawback for your deck.
As for the composition of lands, a larger amount of colorfixing (multilands and duals) will go a long way. But even a small amount will help a lot already. For the basics, I'd leans a bit more towards green and black, since you have more color intensive spells in those colors, and your green cards provide additional color fixing.
I just built this Shaman deck (on paper) and I have a couple of questions before I go ahead and purchase all of these cards.
1.) Are there any major flaws that you can see? I'm not concerned with winning all the time or having the "best" shaman deck. I just wanted a really cool deck with a variety of Shamans and one that I can enjoy playing that will be a great deck, but may not be the "best."
2.) This is kind of my first time building a deck that's more than one color. Usually, I build mono colored decks and that's easy - 36 cards, 24 lands. When I build two color decks, I try to make the cards even and split up the number of lands. Now, that I'm using three colors, I'm not really sure how many of each lands to include in my deck. I broke it down and for this deck I have:
GREEN = 14 cards
RED = 8 cards
BLACK = 13 cards
Any ideas on what lands and how many of each I should buy? I'm open to non-basic land ideas as well.
Thanks a lot!
1x Deathrite Shaman
1x Dragonmaster Outcast
1x Deathgreeter
1x Essence Warden
1x Flamekin Harbinger
1x Gorilla Shaman
1x Llanowar Augur
2x Skinshifter
2x Wolf-skull Shaman
2x Blood Seeker
2x Beastcaller Savant
2x Burning-tree Emissary
2x Emberwilde Augur
1x Elvish Visionary
2x Rage Forger
2x Ambuscade Shaman
2x Vampire Nighthawk
1x Blisterstick Shaman
1x Master of the Wild Hunt
1x Ashling, The Extinguisher
1x Blood Speaker
1x Vulturous Aven
1x Griselbrand
1x Sage of Ancient Lore
2x Dark Ritual
Enchantments
1x Exploration
Artifacts
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
LANDS
0x ???
Well, the deck is really lacking removal. no matter how fast you come out of the gates, good spot removal won't come amiss. And you'll need it even more if the game goes longer. You're in black, one of the best colors for spot removal, so choose something good and cheap, like Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Dismember, Murder, etc. The list goes on and on.
Dark Ritual is a fine tempo boost, but it comes at the cost of a card disadvantage, you're spending a card to get ahead in the tempo race. Nothing wrong there per se. But this line of thought really needs the cards to back it up. You can pretty much only play black spells with this, and while you do have a fair number of those, you have even more spells that aren't playable with that 2 extra mana for a turn. I'm aware, that it also lets you get Griselbrand out, but frankly, that demon sticks out as the most inappropriate for this deck. It stands alone as a single copy at the very top of your mana curve, while the rest of the deck tops out at 5 CMC. It's also the only demon in the entire deck, so the value of Blood Speaker goes way down. Griselbrand is a strong card, yes, but your deck is so focused on the early game, that you have pretty much lost by the time you can bring him out. Or won already. Those two slots are better used for cards that increase your chances at winning early.
Sol Ring is also a card that a deck focused on the early game cannot really make use of. You need colored mana for the deck and hardly any mana acceleration of this kind. You're in green, if you want to get mana accel, use spells to grab some lands from your library (which can also fix your colors), several of your creatures can benefit from that. Unlike a mana rock, no matter how efficient it is.
2) Lands
Cutting the high end of the deck, and the cards to get there not only opens more slots for the early game, it also lessens the need for land, so you can get away with fewer. For starters I'd try with 23 lands.
You want your lands to enter the field untapped, and provide the colors you need. That's a tall order. I'd definitely try Ancient Ziggurat for budget reasons, but if you can afford them City of Brass, Cavern of Souls and Mana Confluence are probably the way to go. You can also (a big budget provided) go for the fetchland + shockland combo, for example Wooded Foothills can grab an Overgrown Tomb, a Stomping Ground, or a Blood Crypt, whatever you need for the cards in your hand. Grabbing appropriate basics is also possible, of course. Plus, those fetches feed the Deathrite Shaman. Gemstone Mine might be a more affordable option, but it doesn't fit well if you try to reach a lot of mana for expensive spells.
You could go for the BRG triland (Savage Lands) which gives you access to all the colors you need, but entering the field tapped is a serious drawback for your deck.
As for the composition of lands, a larger amount of colorfixing (multilands and duals) will go a long way. But even a small amount will help a lot already. For the basics, I'd leans a bit more towards green and black, since you have more color intensive spells in those colors, and your green cards provide additional color fixing.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Also running so many 1ofs breeds inconsistency