Mind vs. Might inspired me to try designing some duel decks themed around each color fighting its two enemies, based on my speculation that Mind vs. Might will be blue versus RG. It's only fitting to start with white and its two enemies, black and red. A key concept to understand with this duel deck series is that each color and pair has motives and methods. The motives explain why the colors fight, but the methods explain how. And when choosing themes and names for Duel Decks, the how is the most important part; "Greater Good vs. Personal Indulgence" might be a hilariously lengthy name, but it's not particularly snappy nor is it indicative of the deck's respective strategies.
With white and BR, the base conflict is one of community vs. individuality. White wants what's best for everybody, while black and red are more concerned about their own well being. White uses rules and laws as a tool to help the community, but in so doing tends to restrict the rights and luxuries of individuals. Red doesn't like rules, and black doesn't like being held to other people's rules. Black and red often commit crimes of violent and destructive natures, leaving white to control the damage and clean up the mess.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Up front it looks like Law has a pretty gripping advantage over Crime, and while I can kind of see where you are coming from with chaos and Arson, I'm not really getting much feeling of crime from the red side o things. I would make them hard Black vs. White (actually UB is the best representative of Crime altogether, but you specified enemy colors), and include a good amount of the upcoming Aetherborn crime bosses from the new set.
Up front it looks like Law has a pretty gripping advantage over Crime, and while I can kind of see where you are coming from with chaos and Arson, I'm not really getting much feeling of crime from the red side o things. I would make them hard Black vs. White (actually UB is the best representative of Crime altogether, but you specified enemy colors), and include a good amount of the upcoming Aetherborn crime bosses from the new set.
Mostly the Law deck could use more artifacts for the red vandals to destroy.
I considered cards like Gonti, but I felt it would be weird if they were stealing law-based enchantments and enforcement personnel, plus the deck isn't really dedicated to the whole "steal stuff from their library" theme.
Instead of engineered explosives, how about Tyramet the Murder King?
I included Explosives so the Crime deck would have something to get rid of Law's enchantments. Though it should be possible for the Crime deck to use some discard as well.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Okay, have time to get more specific now. Beyond not really seeing the benefit of red here for your theme, let's talk balance and fun factor.
Law has 8 lock down and tap effects, the majority of which are repeatable and, in low-powered low-removal decks like these, very hard to breaththrough. This is further exacerbated by crimes inability to interact wit many of these, as the strongest effects like this either can't be answered by B/R (Martial Law) or have bodies that your burn removal generally can't touch (Hixus, Prison Warden and Sentinel of the Eternal Watch). Sentinel, in particular, with both its vigilance and tapdown is going to be really hard to beat, and is only answered by Murder really at the moment. Prison Term is also basically unassailable.
There isn't all that much fun value in just locking someone out, both ways, so I would consider some degree of revision, or more effects that require the law player to pay for them, and/or giving crime some more actual answers.
Crime is hard, basically no question, the weaker of these decks. It has too many small bodies that are going to have a hard time getting through the better defensive bodies and prison effects. Its burn effects are minimal and not very good, Engineered Explosives is pretty awful in a two color deck, and basically all of the equipment/artifacts are pretty bad, even if on flavor. Five-Alarm Fire is functionally useless given how hard a time the deck, as built, will have even getting in. Defiant Ogre is awful, Ogre Arsonist has a bad body for his cost for an unfun effect (which is not great agaisnt a mono-colored deck anyway).
Before I give any recommendations though, I'd need to know more about where you want to take the deck from here, assuming you can see where I'm coming from.
Mostly the Law deck could use more artifacts for the red vandals to destroy.
I considered cards like Gonti, but I felt it would be weird if they were stealing law-based enchantments and enforcement personnel, plus the deck isn't really dedicated to the whole "steal stuff from their library" theme.
I disagree, one of the most interesting crimes that can be committed is to corrupt the law. Batman wouldn't be nearly as interesting without all the corrupt law enforcement in Gotham.
The decks are built around flavor. The Law deck has law enforcers,
you have good points about balancing the decks against one another. It goes without saying that the Law deck wants to be control-focused while the Crime deck wants more aggro and burn. I'm worried that Krenko takes over the game when he hits the field, though I suppose Law's tapdown and Auras keep him in check.
I'm open to more removal and discard options for Crime; Duress seems like a good choice, and Torture can help beat even the biggest Law creatures.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
The decks are built around flavor. The Law deck has law enforcers,
you have good points about balancing the decks against one another. It goes without saying that the Law deck wants to be control-focused while the Crime deck wants more aggro and burn. I'm worried that Krenko takes over the game when he hits the field, though I suppose Law's tapdown and Auras keep him in check.
I'm open to more removal and discard options for Crime; Duress seems like a good choice, and Torture can help beat even the biggest Law creatures.
Cool, switching out Arrest is a good start. I think your concept for Law is already more or less good, minus some tweaks here and there. You'd need to actually playtest these things to get a feel for them, but Crime needs some improvements.
I can go into more options later, but off the top of my head:
All of these go more in the direction to help Crime, some are real flavor wins too. I honestly think you should ditch the goblin sub theme in favor of stronger creatures in general for Crime (I.E. Krenko out, Gonti In would be my thing) if you don't want to start leaning too much on removal.
Cool, switching out Arrest is a good start. I think your concept for Law is already more or less good, minus some tweaks here and there. You'd need to actually playtest these things to get a feel for them, but Crime needs some improvements.
I can go into more options later, but off the top of my head:
All of these go more in the direction to help Crime, some are real flavor wins too. I honestly think you should ditch the goblin sub theme in favor of stronger creatures in general for Crime (I.E. Krenko out, Gonti In would be my thing) if you don't want to start leaning too much on removal.
The Goblin sub theme really isn't that pronounced; there just happens to be a lot of Goblins that fit the flavor of a crime deck. Again, Gonti's about the only card in the deck that would support library stealing.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
The Goblin sub theme really isn't that pronounced; there just happens to be a lot of Goblins that fit the flavor of a crime deck. Again, Gonti's about the only card in the deck that would support library stealing.
The whole point is to pit white against its enemy colors, black and red. Adding in green or blue defeats the purpose.
There are certainly a lot of goblins that fit the flavor of an Arson deck, which is the crime most represented at the moment (though we are adding in a healthy amount of murder too, so good fun!). I'm feeling one more removal spell would be good to fully balance things out, though now I may be tipping things slightly too in crimes favor in that regard. But if so, Unlicensed Disintegration works with your artifact subtheme and Nekrataal or similar etb assassin card gives you another body to help with cards that need it, and further tips you towards more heinous crimes.
I like Grenzo, Havoc Raiser for this deck too, but you've already expressed disdain for thievery effects (there is some degree of irony in disliking theivery with crime, but I digress), as I don't disagree that Krenko, Mob Boss might be able to too easily run away with things by his lonesome. By similar route, I still believe Five-Alarm Fire is a near waste of the rare slot, and Larceny is another named crime that's a flavorful option, if more mana hungry.
As for the outside of color notations, they were mostly that, notes. I like to approach things from a flavor perspective, which is the hardest issue I have atm, as white is chock full of flavorful law cards, but B/R doesn't have enough cards that appreciatively give off a non-arson feeling, which I've always found to be a bit of a dull crime to begin with. From a design perspective you're doing fine for White vs. Enemy Colors, but the thought is to try and point the deck more flavorfully towards its namesake. It's just a damn shame that the cards named literally for crimes arn't in colors.
Edit: Oh, if rioting is the direction we are running, Rakdos, Lord of Riots is another interesting face card, though it looks like you're going for a rare face instead of mythics.
I've been looking for the proper Mythic rare face cards. Hixus, while flavorful, doesn't really feel splashy enough to qualify as the face of the Law deck. Since I have some unleash in there, Exava could be the Crime face, but a Rogue would be most ideal. Having Grenzo and Gonti in the same deck would at least provide more theft options, and you have a point about Crime corrupting Law.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
I've been looking for the proper Mythic rare face cards. Hixus, while flavorful, doesn't really feel splashy enough to qualify as the face of the Law deck. Since I have some unleash in there, Exava could be the Crime face, but a Rogue would be most ideal. Having Grenzo and Gonti in the same deck would at least provide more theft options, and you have a point about Crime corrupting Law.
Exava is interesting, but also doens't feel all that much more splashy than Hixus does, sadly. She also threads the line between "crime" and "cultist," which is one you may or may not want to avoid stradling. Sanctified vs. Heretics is a deck all its own, though probably in the same colors.
For aesthetics sake I would consider trying to keep your number of legendary creatures even in each deck. As a commander player, I am quite pleased to see three legendary thieves and hooligans in crime, so I think its time to turn attention back on law. Unfortunately no other lawkeeper springs immediately to mind, except for perhaps the original Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, who does a nice job of making the crime deck work to commit Murder.
I would be careful with how much discard you put in, but Corpse Traders is definitely a flavorful add. I don't see any benefit to mill atm, so I wouldn' worry about the informer just yet. As far as mythics go, you shouldn't have too much trouble in white to find something suitable (can check myself when I have more time). If we were Wizards, I'd probably put up Master of Cruelties for crime, change the art to be more of a demonic master of crime sitting behind a desk, and give it fresh flavor text. But we arn't so it may be a flavor stretch.
You know, you've got an interesting point about White vs. BR having a battle of religion. That reminds me of when Blessed vs. Cursed was announced, how I personally thought it would be neat if Cursed was BR to play up the infernal counterpart to Blessed clearly being white and holy. It makes a lot of sense that white would be the heavenly light to BR's fire and brimstone inferno. Maybe it's time I tried a new approach to W vs. BR. I'll create a separate topic for that theme so this topic can remain dedicated to Law vs. Crime.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
I particularly like Gaze of Justice/Hand of Justice, not just for flavor reasons, but because the mechanic also symbolizes the "community" aspect, teaming up for a common good.
You could also consider taxing effects like Thalia, Ghostly Prison, and so on, since taxes go hand in hand with laws and community.
I understand the importance of the theme here, but that shouldn't outweigh having some degree of consistency with the gameplay. You should run multiples of most of the cards in each deck, not just one of each card.
Duel Decks usually include a lot of single copies, save for some commons and uncommons.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
With white and BR, the base conflict is one of community vs. individuality. White wants what's best for everybody, while black and red are more concerned about their own well being. White uses rules and laws as a tool to help the community, but in so doing tends to restrict the rights and luxuries of individuals. Red doesn't like rules, and black doesn't like being held to other people's rules. Black and red often commit crimes of violent and destructive natures, leaving white to control the damage and clean up the mess.
Decklists are WIP. Input and suggestions welcome.
1 Akroan Jailer
1 Azorius Arrester
1 Court Street Denizen
1 Fairgrounds Warden
1 Aerial Responder
1 Loxodon Gatekeeper (R)
1 Hixus, Prison Warden (R)
1 Sentinel of the Eternal Watch
1 Captain of the Watch (R)
1 Accorder's Shield
1 Riot Gear
Enchantments
1 Murder Investigation
1 Arrest
1 Rule of Law
1 First Response
1 Martial Law (R)
2 Raise the Alarm
1 Riot Control
Land
2 Secluded Steppe
20 Plains
2 Night Market Lookout
2 Goblin Arsonist
1 Thrill-Kill Assassin
1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser (R)
1 Hooded Assassin
1 Slate Street Ruffian
1 Manic Vandal
1 Rummaging Goblin
1 Spireside Infiltrator
1 Torch Slinger
1 Ogre Arsonist
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury (R)
1 Krenko, Mob Boss (R)
1 Ogre Slumlord (R)
1 Defiant Ogre
1 Vial of Poison
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Rogue's Gloves
1 Throwing Knife
1 Vial of Dragonfire
Enchantments
1 Torture
1 Five-Alarm Fire (R)
Instants
1 Skullcrack
1 Murder
1 Grisly Spectacle
1 Wrecking Ball
2 Duress
1 Hijack
1 Vandalize
Land
4 Cinder Barrens
2 Rogue's Passage
9 Swamp
9 Mountain
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury is a pretty cool opposing face card to Hixus.
Mostly the Law deck could use more artifacts for the red vandals to destroy.
I considered cards like Gonti, but I felt it would be weird if they were stealing law-based enchantments and enforcement personnel, plus the deck isn't really dedicated to the whole "steal stuff from their library" theme.
I included Explosives so the Crime deck would have something to get rid of Law's enchantments. Though it should be possible for the Crime deck to use some discard as well.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
I have a Duel Deck: Baron Sengir vs Autmn Willow kicking around, maybe i should post that.
In Progress
GBIshkanah, Grafwidow ~ BWGRTymna the Weaver & Tana, the Bloodsower ~ UGRashmi, Eternities Crafter ~ RGAtarka, World Render
Okay, have time to get more specific now. Beyond not really seeing the benefit of red here for your theme, let's talk balance and fun factor.
Law has 8 lock down and tap effects, the majority of which are repeatable and, in low-powered low-removal decks like these, very hard to breaththrough. This is further exacerbated by crimes inability to interact wit many of these, as the strongest effects like this either can't be answered by B/R (Martial Law) or have bodies that your burn removal generally can't touch (Hixus, Prison Warden and Sentinel of the Eternal Watch). Sentinel, in particular, with both its vigilance and tapdown is going to be really hard to beat, and is only answered by Murder really at the moment. Prison Term is also basically unassailable.
There isn't all that much fun value in just locking someone out, both ways, so I would consider some degree of revision, or more effects that require the law player to pay for them, and/or giving crime some more actual answers.
Crime is hard, basically no question, the weaker of these decks. It has too many small bodies that are going to have a hard time getting through the better defensive bodies and prison effects. Its burn effects are minimal and not very good, Engineered Explosives is pretty awful in a two color deck, and basically all of the equipment/artifacts are pretty bad, even if on flavor. Five-Alarm Fire is functionally useless given how hard a time the deck, as built, will have even getting in. Defiant Ogre is awful, Ogre Arsonist has a bad body for his cost for an unfun effect (which is not great agaisnt a mono-colored deck anyway).
Before I give any recommendations though, I'd need to know more about where you want to take the deck from here, assuming you can see where I'm coming from.
Edit:
I disagree, one of the most interesting crimes that can be committed is to corrupt the law. Batman wouldn't be nearly as interesting without all the corrupt law enforcement in Gotham.
you have good points about balancing the decks against one another. It goes without saying that the Law deck wants to be control-focused while the Crime deck wants more aggro and burn. I'm worried that Krenko takes over the game when he hits the field, though I suppose Law's tapdown and Auras keep him in check.
I could swap Prison Term out for Arrest.
I'm open to more removal and discard options for Crime; Duress seems like a good choice, and Torture can help beat even the biggest Law creatures.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Cool, switching out Arrest is a good start. I think your concept for Law is already more or less good, minus some tweaks here and there. You'd need to actually playtest these things to get a feel for them, but Crime needs some improvements.
I can go into more options later, but off the top of my head:
Auger Spree
Riot Spikes
Unlicensed Disintegration
Morgue Burst
Murderous Redcap
Pain Magnification
Tyrannize
Wrecking Ball
Larceny
All of these go more in the direction to help Crime, some are real flavor wins too. I honestly think you should ditch the goblin sub theme in favor of stronger creatures in general for Crime (I.E. Krenko out, Gonti In would be my thing) if you don't want to start leaning too much on removal.
There are also reasons to consider Jund or Grixis as well:
Breaking // Entering
Armed // Dangerous
Assault // Battery
Hit // Run
Are all crimes and all split cards outside of your defined colors.
The Goblin sub theme really isn't that pronounced; there just happens to be a lot of Goblins that fit the flavor of a crime deck. Again, Gonti's about the only card in the deck that would support library stealing.
Murderous Redcap and Wrecking Ball are good choices, I'll add those in.
The whole point is to pit white against its enemy colors, black and red. Adding in green or blue defeats the purpose.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
There are certainly a lot of goblins that fit the flavor of an Arson deck, which is the crime most represented at the moment (though we are adding in a healthy amount of murder too, so good fun!). I'm feeling one more removal spell would be good to fully balance things out, though now I may be tipping things slightly too in crimes favor in that regard. But if so, Unlicensed Disintegration works with your artifact subtheme and Nekrataal or similar etb assassin card gives you another body to help with cards that need it, and further tips you towards more heinous crimes.
I like Grenzo, Havoc Raiser for this deck too, but you've already expressed disdain for thievery effects (there is some degree of irony in disliking theivery with crime, but I digress), as I don't disagree that Krenko, Mob Boss might be able to too easily run away with things by his lonesome. By similar route, I still believe Five-Alarm Fire is a near waste of the rare slot, and Larceny is another named crime that's a flavorful option, if more mana hungry.
As for the outside of color notations, they were mostly that, notes. I like to approach things from a flavor perspective, which is the hardest issue I have atm, as white is chock full of flavorful law cards, but B/R doesn't have enough cards that appreciatively give off a non-arson feeling, which I've always found to be a bit of a dull crime to begin with. From a design perspective you're doing fine for White vs. Enemy Colors, but the thought is to try and point the deck more flavorfully towards its namesake. It's just a damn shame that the cards named literally for crimes arn't in colors.
Edit: Oh, if rioting is the direction we are running, Rakdos, Lord of Riots is another interesting face card, though it looks like you're going for a rare face instead of mythics.
I'm considering adding a sac subtheme to the Crime deck, using cards like Corpse Traders and Undercity Informer.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Exava is interesting, but also doens't feel all that much more splashy than Hixus does, sadly. She also threads the line between "crime" and "cultist," which is one you may or may not want to avoid stradling. Sanctified vs. Heretics is a deck all its own, though probably in the same colors.
For aesthetics sake I would consider trying to keep your number of legendary creatures even in each deck. As a commander player, I am quite pleased to see three legendary thieves and hooligans in crime, so I think its time to turn attention back on law. Unfortunately no other lawkeeper springs immediately to mind, except for perhaps the original Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, who does a nice job of making the crime deck work to commit Murder.
I would be careful with how much discard you put in, but Corpse Traders is definitely a flavorful add. I don't see any benefit to mill atm, so I wouldn' worry about the informer just yet. As far as mythics go, you shouldn't have too much trouble in white to find something suitable (can check myself when I have more time). If we were Wizards, I'd probably put up Master of Cruelties for crime, change the art to be more of a demonic master of crime sitting behind a desk, and give it fresh flavor text. But we arn't so it may be a flavor stretch.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
I particularly like Gaze of Justice/Hand of Justice, not just for flavor reasons, but because the mechanic also symbolizes the "community" aspect, teaming up for a common good.
You could also consider taxing effects like Thalia, Ghostly Prison, and so on, since taxes go hand in hand with laws and community.
For the Crime deck, here are some ideas:
I'm guessing Anarchy would be OP, even though it fits so well flavor-wise. Maybe just use Anarchist, whose ability may be useful.
I do like that the Defender of Law/Defender of Chaos cycle fits perfectly with your deck theme.
Also, consider Absolute Law, Disciple of Law, Dunerider Outlaw, Gideon's Lawkeeper, Kami of Ancient Law, Kruin Outlaw, Lawbringer, Lawless Broker, Mask of Law and Grace, and Voice of Law.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.